Dec 23, 2009
Dear Family,
Merry Christmas!
Our awesome and crazy neighbor, Dennis, cooks food and gives it to the missionaries. He is full of crazy stories, yet the more I get to know him the more I call see how he knows what he is talking about. He has helped a lot of missionaries prepare for their future jobs. He has a lot of connections too. Well, we made friends with him really fast and every once and a while will drop bye and say hi to him. He has always given nicknames to the missionaries. I know other missionaries who have served in Korat before. There's Jew boy, Magic Man, Red, Wimpy the hamburger man, Sister Arizona, and others. But for some reason he has not given me a nickname. He calls me Elder Lilly. Then one time one of the sisters asked him why he didn't give me a nickname and he said it was because I am so old. I don't know what that means but he respects us and is very nice to us. We were talking about clothes a couple weeks ago and he found out that I am a big fan of vests. Just recently he gave me his own "lucky" blue vest and a couple of his own Ties. He's sweet.
Right now I am in SapanSung. Tomorrow I will meet my new Companion.
I feel good. Recently I have been working on simply befriending people and being sincere with them. Most people aren't open hearted at first. They are friendly, and nice, but not openhearted. It's amazing to be able to talk to someone and befriend them. They start to talk about things that they care about and things that are on their mind. Almost everything they say can be brought to a gospel principle. But there is a balance between boldness and overbearance. The Thai people usually don't have a Christian background. Most of them look for good things and accept good things. And they can easily recognise that we are good people. But they might not understand how practical and applicable the Gospel is. Simply testifying straight out usually doesn't enter their hearts. I think there needs to be a desire to seek after the Gospel first. Ammon sought to serve king Lamoni first, then later the king opened his heart. So, hopefully I can become better and better at being more like Ammon.
Another thing to work on is using the scriptures more. I use them in every lesson, but, I can still improve. Sometime missionaries get discouraged about using the Scriptures in Thai because it uses a higher form of the language and it's hard for people to understand. But that is only a minor challenge. The Book of Mormon is our greatest tool in conversion. I believe that a large part of my own conversion came from reading the Book of Mormon. There is a lot of Power in the words of the ancient and modern prophets. And anyone who prays and is open hearted seems to get something from reading them.
Well,
I love you guys.
The best time to call me according to my schedule would be your Christmas morning or your Christmas evening. If you plan on calling during your Christmas eve evening then just know that I have an appointment to teach at a school at 8:00 am my time. Okay?
Love,
Elder Lilly
Merry Christmas!
Our awesome and crazy neighbor, Dennis, cooks food and gives it to the missionaries. He is full of crazy stories, yet the more I get to know him the more I call see how he knows what he is talking about. He has helped a lot of missionaries prepare for their future jobs. He has a lot of connections too. Well, we made friends with him really fast and every once and a while will drop bye and say hi to him. He has always given nicknames to the missionaries. I know other missionaries who have served in Korat before. There's Jew boy, Magic Man, Red, Wimpy the hamburger man, Sister Arizona, and others. But for some reason he has not given me a nickname. He calls me Elder Lilly. Then one time one of the sisters asked him why he didn't give me a nickname and he said it was because I am so old. I don't know what that means but he respects us and is very nice to us. We were talking about clothes a couple weeks ago and he found out that I am a big fan of vests. Just recently he gave me his own "lucky" blue vest and a couple of his own Ties. He's sweet.
Right now I am in SapanSung. Tomorrow I will meet my new Companion.
I feel good. Recently I have been working on simply befriending people and being sincere with them. Most people aren't open hearted at first. They are friendly, and nice, but not openhearted. It's amazing to be able to talk to someone and befriend them. They start to talk about things that they care about and things that are on their mind. Almost everything they say can be brought to a gospel principle. But there is a balance between boldness and overbearance. The Thai people usually don't have a Christian background. Most of them look for good things and accept good things. And they can easily recognise that we are good people. But they might not understand how practical and applicable the Gospel is. Simply testifying straight out usually doesn't enter their hearts. I think there needs to be a desire to seek after the Gospel first. Ammon sought to serve king Lamoni first, then later the king opened his heart. So, hopefully I can become better and better at being more like Ammon.
Another thing to work on is using the scriptures more. I use them in every lesson, but, I can still improve. Sometime missionaries get discouraged about using the Scriptures in Thai because it uses a higher form of the language and it's hard for people to understand. But that is only a minor challenge. The Book of Mormon is our greatest tool in conversion. I believe that a large part of my own conversion came from reading the Book of Mormon. There is a lot of Power in the words of the ancient and modern prophets. And anyone who prays and is open hearted seems to get something from reading them.
Well,
I love you guys.
The best time to call me according to my schedule would be your Christmas morning or your Christmas evening. If you plan on calling during your Christmas eve evening then just know that I have an appointment to teach at a school at 8:00 am my time. Okay?
Love,
Elder Lilly
Dec 17, 2009
Big Change
So,
I got the pictures. Very nice. Also, I just got a pretty sweet looking package from Crystal. Thanks so much! It would probably be easier and cheaper to send money in the mail for me to buy a camera, but that's all up to you guys. Getting packages is always fun.
Yesterday was moves day. Moves was a week early in order to allow the fourteen Elders to go home for Christmas. There are three new missionaries coming in this next Thursday. And I am called to train one of them. Also, he is a native Thailander. In mission life/language I am a dad. But now this leaves a good week without my companion. Therefore am I switching off with Elder Jolley for a week who is also training but in Bangkok. We are going to be in Korat till Monday. Then we will go to his area in Supansung. Finally we will go to Pakkret in order to meet our new companions. But the catch for me is that my companion will not have gone to the MTC to train yet. Therefore he will be trained by the Assistants to President Smith and I will take a part in helping him from ground zero. We will be back in Korat for Christmas on the twenty fifth.
As soon as this next group of missionaries goes home all of the remaining missionaries will have been under the direction of President Smith longer than President Dodge. And there are a lot of changes being made. Starting on the 28 of Dec. our preparation day will be on Mondays. This means that you will need to change the day that you write e-mails to me! There are several several more changes but they will not take effect until that day as well.
Also, the number of missionaries in the country is going to go down from 140 to 94 in the next few move periods. That alone changes a lot. I am excited to take on the challenge and to be an even more obedient missionary.
One more thing. Because I am training, Elder Milton moved to Sesagate. If I count Elder Correa who was and Elder Jolley who will be companions with me for 1 week then the new Elder coming in will have been my twelfth companion.
One more thing. A killer wale can swim up to thirty miles an hour... that's fast.
I need to go work more because today is not preparation day, but I love you all very much. And I am excited to talk to y'all soon.
Love,
Elder Lilly
I got the pictures. Very nice. Also, I just got a pretty sweet looking package from Crystal. Thanks so much! It would probably be easier and cheaper to send money in the mail for me to buy a camera, but that's all up to you guys. Getting packages is always fun.
Yesterday was moves day. Moves was a week early in order to allow the fourteen Elders to go home for Christmas. There are three new missionaries coming in this next Thursday. And I am called to train one of them. Also, he is a native Thailander. In mission life/language I am a dad. But now this leaves a good week without my companion. Therefore am I switching off with Elder Jolley for a week who is also training but in Bangkok. We are going to be in Korat till Monday. Then we will go to his area in Supansung. Finally we will go to Pakkret in order to meet our new companions. But the catch for me is that my companion will not have gone to the MTC to train yet. Therefore he will be trained by the Assistants to President Smith and I will take a part in helping him from ground zero. We will be back in Korat for Christmas on the twenty fifth.
As soon as this next group of missionaries goes home all of the remaining missionaries will have been under the direction of President Smith longer than President Dodge. And there are a lot of changes being made. Starting on the 28 of Dec. our preparation day will be on Mondays. This means that you will need to change the day that you write e-mails to me! There are several several more changes but they will not take effect until that day as well.
Also, the number of missionaries in the country is going to go down from 140 to 94 in the next few move periods. That alone changes a lot. I am excited to take on the challenge and to be an even more obedient missionary.
One more thing. Because I am training, Elder Milton moved to Sesagate. If I count Elder Correa who was and Elder Jolley who will be companions with me for 1 week then the new Elder coming in will have been my twelfth companion.
One more thing. A killer wale can swim up to thirty miles an hour... that's fast.
I need to go work more because today is not preparation day, but I love you all very much. And I am excited to talk to y'all soon.
Love,
Elder Lilly
Dec 9, 2009
Christmas in Korat (that could be a movie)
Dear Family,
Thanks for the short update on how things are going with our family. Some of the news is exciting and some sad. But truly the Lord is looking out for us. I didn't think about it before but I wrote down a seven step pattern of success that I have found in my mission (coming from me and no official source) that I would like to share with our family.
1. Envision
2. Pray
3. Study
4. Sacrifice
5. Endure
6. Show gratitude
7. Increase Mightily
Each of these steps are deep and applicable to every situation I have found myself in. Often times I find myself doing every step at the same time. I will try to explain and expound simply on each of them as they apply to missionary work.
Envision. Vision is the first step. It is the eye of faith. We need to work out our vision with God and ask for His inspiration. Our vision could be distant or near at hand but we need to be able to envision what sort of changes we want to see in our lives or in the lives of others so that we can apply our faith to making the vision become reality. My vision for Korat included an increase in happiness of each of the members, excitement in spreading the Gospel, and an increase in church attendance, etc.
Pray. Pray mightily. Don't give up after a week or two. Pray several times per day. Praying can be a spiritual experience. How do you want Heavenly father to feel? We can't accomplish our goals without God's help. The prayer of faith is how we invite the Spirit to be with us.
Study. Eat the scriptures up. Our preparedness and intensity makes it powerful. We can find personal direction and revelation from studying the scriptures. Scripture study is another way that we can find the spirit and God's will for us.
Sacrifice. Sacrifice your sins, your time, your pride, obedience, hard work, and anything else it takes. Sacrifice is a principal of power. Sacrificing is how we show our faith.
Endure. Endure through the trial of our faith. There's definitely going to be a trial of our faith. Sometimes it takes time before we get what we want. Sometimes we go on in the dark and it doesn't seem like things are going according to our plan. We must pass through the trial. That means we need to be willing to give up everything and accept God's will. After we prove that we are willing, usually God gives us according to our desires. But not always. Sometimes we can't see the effects of our sacrifice but we can be assured that God will take it and use it for good. God will prompt us and let us know that we are on the right path. That's how we know that we still need to endure.
Show Gratitude. Even if we worked really hard, really the one who really did everything and gave us the strength we needed wasn't us. It was God. Gratitude is important. It is a sin to not be grateful. God blesses us with more when we are grateful. Gratitude goes a long way.
Increase Mightily. This is my favorite step. Increase your faith. Increase your commitment, sacrifice, humility, love, strength.... God want's us to learn from our experiences. So take every trial as an opportunity to grow. And make it mighty!
Yesterday I interviewed 3 more investigators. 2 of them passed and the other will be ready before this coming Sunday. Em and Sally's 2 kids Eve and Oy will be getting baptized this Sunday. God has blessed us a ton.
When would be the best time/day for you to call for Christmas? I suppose it doesn't really have to be Christmas.
I love you all so much.
Love,
Elder Lilly
p.s. I didn't get the Thanksgiving pictures. Also I wasn't the one behind the camera for Christmas, I've been grabbing other peoples cameras and using their pictures. I would like a really nice digital camera that I can go crazy with and take a lot of sweet pictures with for Christmas. That would be the greatest.
Thanks for the short update on how things are going with our family. Some of the news is exciting and some sad. But truly the Lord is looking out for us. I didn't think about it before but I wrote down a seven step pattern of success that I have found in my mission (coming from me and no official source) that I would like to share with our family.
1. Envision
2. Pray
3. Study
4. Sacrifice
5. Endure
6. Show gratitude
7. Increase Mightily
Each of these steps are deep and applicable to every situation I have found myself in. Often times I find myself doing every step at the same time. I will try to explain and expound simply on each of them as they apply to missionary work.
Envision. Vision is the first step. It is the eye of faith. We need to work out our vision with God and ask for His inspiration. Our vision could be distant or near at hand but we need to be able to envision what sort of changes we want to see in our lives or in the lives of others so that we can apply our faith to making the vision become reality. My vision for Korat included an increase in happiness of each of the members, excitement in spreading the Gospel, and an increase in church attendance, etc.
Pray. Pray mightily. Don't give up after a week or two. Pray several times per day. Praying can be a spiritual experience. How do you want Heavenly father to feel? We can't accomplish our goals without God's help. The prayer of faith is how we invite the Spirit to be with us.
Study. Eat the scriptures up. Our preparedness and intensity makes it powerful. We can find personal direction and revelation from studying the scriptures. Scripture study is another way that we can find the spirit and God's will for us.
Sacrifice. Sacrifice your sins, your time, your pride, obedience, hard work, and anything else it takes. Sacrifice is a principal of power. Sacrificing is how we show our faith.
Endure. Endure through the trial of our faith. There's definitely going to be a trial of our faith. Sometimes it takes time before we get what we want. Sometimes we go on in the dark and it doesn't seem like things are going according to our plan. We must pass through the trial. That means we need to be willing to give up everything and accept God's will. After we prove that we are willing, usually God gives us according to our desires. But not always. Sometimes we can't see the effects of our sacrifice but we can be assured that God will take it and use it for good. God will prompt us and let us know that we are on the right path. That's how we know that we still need to endure.
Show Gratitude. Even if we worked really hard, really the one who really did everything and gave us the strength we needed wasn't us. It was God. Gratitude is important. It is a sin to not be grateful. God blesses us with more when we are grateful. Gratitude goes a long way.
Increase Mightily. This is my favorite step. Increase your faith. Increase your commitment, sacrifice, humility, love, strength.... God want's us to learn from our experiences. So take every trial as an opportunity to grow. And make it mighty!
Yesterday I interviewed 3 more investigators. 2 of them passed and the other will be ready before this coming Sunday. Em and Sally's 2 kids Eve and Oy will be getting baptized this Sunday. God has blessed us a ton.
When would be the best time/day for you to call for Christmas? I suppose it doesn't really have to be Christmas.
I love you all so much.
Love,
Elder Lilly
p.s. I didn't get the Thanksgiving pictures. Also I wasn't the one behind the camera for Christmas, I've been grabbing other peoples cameras and using their pictures. I would like a really nice digital camera that I can go crazy with and take a lot of sweet pictures with for Christmas. That would be the greatest.
Dec 2, 2009
Diesel Time
Dear family,
How was thanksgiving? For thanksgiving we went to a Farang restaurant that we reserved. They pulled out a very very European styled dish that started with smoked salmon and continued on to turkey, gravy, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. It was delicious. It was only missing Mom's rolls, jam, pie, the rest of our family, and seconds.
But I would like to express how awesome Thailand is. But I can't because it's so awesome. Elder Prat made an interesting observation when he visited us. He said that us missionaries are now sealed to Thailand. He instructed us to love the people, the place, the culture, the language.... And I am sure that he could make the same observation and give the same advice to all missionaries around the globe for their own specific missions. I am glad that mine is Thailand. There is something special about it to me personally. A mission is the greatest thing.
In another three days The Kingdom of Thailand will be celebrating father's day, the King's Birthday.
So, I am curious. I have been left in the dark for a long time. How are our cousins?
A few weeks ago I had the special opportunity to interview one of the Sister's investigators for Baptism. I read through the list of questions and asked questions to get an idea of the strength of her testimony and the sincerity of her repentance. She has a strong testimony. I felt the spirit as she testified. But then as I came to a certain question I knew instantly that there was a problem with this one. I got a sort of sad, even sickly feeling as I read it. So I asked the question and then pressed a little further to understand what the problem was and sure enough there was a problem. After finishing the rest of the questions I came back to that one and we discussed what she needed to do in order to prepare herself further. That experience was a strong witness to me about God's love for his children. He needs us to be clean, 100%. Sometimes we might have a doubt or a question that we avoid facing because we don't want to. But it's the best feeling to be able to face our fears and come out conqueror clean. When Jesus traveled through the crowd it was Virtue that came out of him and healed the woman because of her faith. Then the Savior came back to her and told her that she was clean. Virtue has power. We can be confident in any situation if we have virtue.
I love you all. Always.
-Elder Lilly
How was thanksgiving? For thanksgiving we went to a Farang restaurant that we reserved. They pulled out a very very European styled dish that started with smoked salmon and continued on to turkey, gravy, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. It was delicious. It was only missing Mom's rolls, jam, pie, the rest of our family, and seconds.
But I would like to express how awesome Thailand is. But I can't because it's so awesome. Elder Prat made an interesting observation when he visited us. He said that us missionaries are now sealed to Thailand. He instructed us to love the people, the place, the culture, the language.... And I am sure that he could make the same observation and give the same advice to all missionaries around the globe for their own specific missions. I am glad that mine is Thailand. There is something special about it to me personally. A mission is the greatest thing.
In another three days The Kingdom of Thailand will be celebrating father's day, the King's Birthday.
So, I am curious. I have been left in the dark for a long time. How are our cousins?
A few weeks ago I had the special opportunity to interview one of the Sister's investigators for Baptism. I read through the list of questions and asked questions to get an idea of the strength of her testimony and the sincerity of her repentance. She has a strong testimony. I felt the spirit as she testified. But then as I came to a certain question I knew instantly that there was a problem with this one. I got a sort of sad, even sickly feeling as I read it. So I asked the question and then pressed a little further to understand what the problem was and sure enough there was a problem. After finishing the rest of the questions I came back to that one and we discussed what she needed to do in order to prepare herself further. That experience was a strong witness to me about God's love for his children. He needs us to be clean, 100%. Sometimes we might have a doubt or a question that we avoid facing because we don't want to. But it's the best feeling to be able to face our fears and come out conqueror clean. When Jesus traveled through the crowd it was Virtue that came out of him and healed the woman because of her faith. Then the Savior came back to her and told her that she was clean. Virtue has power. We can be confident in any situation if we have virtue.
I love you all. Always.
-Elder Lilly
Nov 25, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving!
Dear Family,
I love serving the Lord. I feel like my eternal perspective has changed. Everyday is full of miracles. Every day at the end of the day I feel grateful that I had the opportunity to learn and enjoy that day. There really is no more satisfying work than this.
I love teaching too. And I love the scriptures. Everyday my companion and I just eat the scriptures up in our personal study and then have enlightening conversations about what we learned afterward.
Quoting Sister Larson: "Does it get any better than this?"
Yesterday we had the opportunity to learn from Elder Pratt from the Quorum of the Seventy and one of the overseers of the Asian sector. I was pleased to find out that we were doing most of his advice in our District already. One thing that he stressed was the importance of having a KNEELING prayer with our investigators as well as with our companions before we leave the house, and every morning and night. We hadn't really had kneeling prayers with our investigators. Usually we would be sitting down criss-cross applesauce on the floor or sitting on a chair. Right after we got back from the conference (which is three hours away from our house) we had a kneeling prayer with one of the recent convert members. He said that it was his first time having a kneeling prayer. Somehow kneeling down automatically opens our hearts or humbles us a bit. It was a good experience. I can't wait to have kneeling prayers with all of our investigators.
So, Happy birthday SPENCER!!!!!!!
and Happy thanksgiving. I really wanted to give you something for your Christmas-thanksgiving-new years-birthday celebration. Unfortunately sending things takes a lot of time. So until then just know that in the spirit of the times I'm thinking of you and celebrating for you on this side of the world.
...And I'm always praying for you.
Love you all,
Elder Lilly
I love serving the Lord. I feel like my eternal perspective has changed. Everyday is full of miracles. Every day at the end of the day I feel grateful that I had the opportunity to learn and enjoy that day. There really is no more satisfying work than this.
I love teaching too. And I love the scriptures. Everyday my companion and I just eat the scriptures up in our personal study and then have enlightening conversations about what we learned afterward.
Quoting Sister Larson: "Does it get any better than this?"
Yesterday we had the opportunity to learn from Elder Pratt from the Quorum of the Seventy and one of the overseers of the Asian sector. I was pleased to find out that we were doing most of his advice in our District already. One thing that he stressed was the importance of having a KNEELING prayer with our investigators as well as with our companions before we leave the house, and every morning and night. We hadn't really had kneeling prayers with our investigators. Usually we would be sitting down criss-cross applesauce on the floor or sitting on a chair. Right after we got back from the conference (which is three hours away from our house) we had a kneeling prayer with one of the recent convert members. He said that it was his first time having a kneeling prayer. Somehow kneeling down automatically opens our hearts or humbles us a bit. It was a good experience. I can't wait to have kneeling prayers with all of our investigators.
So, Happy birthday SPENCER!!!!!!!
and Happy thanksgiving. I really wanted to give you something for your Christmas-thanksgiving-new years-birthday celebration. Unfortunately sending things takes a lot of time. So until then just know that in the spirit of the times I'm thinking of you and celebrating for you on this side of the world.
...And I'm always praying for you.
Love you all,
Elder Lilly
Nov 18, 2009
klap Trap
Dear Family,
Yes, the pictures failed to send, and it may be a little while before I can get them back again, but rest assured that they will come.
It's weird to think that another moves has passed away and that this is the first time that I am e-mailing with my new companion. It feels like we've been companions for a long time already. I suppose a week is a long time? Well, my new companions name is Elder Milton. He was in the group after me in the MTC so I kinda already did know him. We are doing great. We are excited to work. And we share a joy in serving.
Elder Milton is from Virginia. He is the youngest of five.
Yesterday we had another service project in the rice fields. This time we bundled up rice and carried the bundles together into a huge pile. Afterward we ate grilled chicken, sticky rice, papaya salad, pork jerky, and mandarin oranges. We sat together on a deck by the water Thai style while enjoying the cool weather and the great feast. And, whose field was it? It was Elder Manop's Dad's field. Elder Manop came home to Korad. Once we were mission companions in Ayutthaya and now I got to serve him in Korad. It's fun calling him brother Manop instead of Elder. Heh heh
One thing I am glad of about having Sisters in our District, other than their openheartedness and great service is that they help me to a certain degree with socializing with females again. Ayutthaya, as I mentioned before, is full of females. Sometimes we have to be cautious and even avoid some people a little bit because they are particularly flirty. I haven't had any problem understanding Thai people for a long time, even super drunk Thais who don't speak clearly I can understand. But there was this one girl in Ayutthaya who was a new member and still didn't understand the boundaries; who was so difficult for me to understand. It must have been a blessing of some sort because she eventually backed down. I'm sure I was a little awkward around the Sisters when I first came to Korad. Now that that's over, hopefully I can remember for when I get back home. :p
Well, we continue to work as hard as we can. We see miracles every day. We see the tender mercies of the Lord every day. Just today we had the unexpected opportunity to go lift some large and heavy sheets of tin for one of the elderly men in our Branch (half way around the world and I'm still the mover). We didn't have very much time and I had only been to the man's house once. The first time I went my companion got lost looking for the house. But, today as we headed out I said a prayer and asked for help to get there in our time schedule. We headed out traveling for about 20 minutes on bike and basically went straight there. We were able to help him in less than thirty minutes and get back in time for our appointment.
I love you all very much. I'm doing great, and the work is going well.
It's a beautiful season.
Love,
Elder Lilly
Yes, the pictures failed to send, and it may be a little while before I can get them back again, but rest assured that they will come.
It's weird to think that another moves has passed away and that this is the first time that I am e-mailing with my new companion. It feels like we've been companions for a long time already. I suppose a week is a long time? Well, my new companions name is Elder Milton. He was in the group after me in the MTC so I kinda already did know him. We are doing great. We are excited to work. And we share a joy in serving.
Elder Milton is from Virginia. He is the youngest of five.
Yesterday we had another service project in the rice fields. This time we bundled up rice and carried the bundles together into a huge pile. Afterward we ate grilled chicken, sticky rice, papaya salad, pork jerky, and mandarin oranges. We sat together on a deck by the water Thai style while enjoying the cool weather and the great feast. And, whose field was it? It was Elder Manop's Dad's field. Elder Manop came home to Korad. Once we were mission companions in Ayutthaya and now I got to serve him in Korad. It's fun calling him brother Manop instead of Elder. Heh heh
One thing I am glad of about having Sisters in our District, other than their openheartedness and great service is that they help me to a certain degree with socializing with females again. Ayutthaya, as I mentioned before, is full of females. Sometimes we have to be cautious and even avoid some people a little bit because they are particularly flirty. I haven't had any problem understanding Thai people for a long time, even super drunk Thais who don't speak clearly I can understand. But there was this one girl in Ayutthaya who was a new member and still didn't understand the boundaries; who was so difficult for me to understand. It must have been a blessing of some sort because she eventually backed down. I'm sure I was a little awkward around the Sisters when I first came to Korad. Now that that's over, hopefully I can remember for when I get back home. :p
Well, we continue to work as hard as we can. We see miracles every day. We see the tender mercies of the Lord every day. Just today we had the unexpected opportunity to go lift some large and heavy sheets of tin for one of the elderly men in our Branch (half way around the world and I'm still the mover). We didn't have very much time and I had only been to the man's house once. The first time I went my companion got lost looking for the house. But, today as we headed out I said a prayer and asked for help to get there in our time schedule. We headed out traveling for about 20 minutes on bike and basically went straight there. We were able to help him in less than thirty minutes and get back in time for our appointment.
I love you all very much. I'm doing great, and the work is going well.
It's a beautiful season.
Love,
Elder Lilly
Nov 11, 2009
Giaw Khaaw Sanug Mak
Dear Family,
And so another moves has passed away like as it were a dream. And very unexpectedly Elder Blaustein is moving. That's happened to me quite a bit. I can't seem to hold on to a missionary companion for more than a single move. It's been an awesome experience working with Elder Blaustein.In order to show our faith in God for the last week and a half we have spoke nothing but Thai together. I feel like I have grown in Faith in Jesus Christ and Love for my Savior and the Thai people to a greater extent in the period of time that I have had to work with him.
Several things have happened in the past week. We have found some new investigators who we can work with who could possibly get Baptized in the next move. We gave M's wife as a referral to the sisters after he got baptized and now the Sisters are giving us Penapa's children as referrals for us as she prepares to get baptized within the next two weeks. I will probably have the joy of interviewing her this Saturday or Sunday. Her preparation for baptism has been a great trial for the Sisters. They have shown so much faith on her behalf. Aside from the district meeting that we had on faith I also let the Sisters Borrow that very same CD by Gene R. Cook that Aaron gave me. They seemed to like it even more than I did. They listened to it over and over again as they were struggling to help their investigators progress-- and especially Penapa. Thanks again Aaron!
We had the opportunity to Giaw Khaaw this week. That is to say... we harvested rice. The field is President Gosong's field. The people in the pictures include My district: Sister Bradfield (taller), Sister Larson, Elder Blaustein, and I, President Gosong, his's wife Meow, his Dad, and his' son Noah.
And so another moves has passed away like as it were a dream. And very unexpectedly Elder Blaustein is moving. That's happened to me quite a bit. I can't seem to hold on to a missionary companion for more than a single move. It's been an awesome experience working with Elder Blaustein.In order to show our faith in God for the last week and a half we have spoke nothing but Thai together. I feel like I have grown in Faith in Jesus Christ and Love for my Savior and the Thai people to a greater extent in the period of time that I have had to work with him.
Several things have happened in the past week. We have found some new investigators who we can work with who could possibly get Baptized in the next move. We gave M's wife as a referral to the sisters after he got baptized and now the Sisters are giving us Penapa's children as referrals for us as she prepares to get baptized within the next two weeks. I will probably have the joy of interviewing her this Saturday or Sunday. Her preparation for baptism has been a great trial for the Sisters. They have shown so much faith on her behalf. Aside from the district meeting that we had on faith I also let the Sisters Borrow that very same CD by Gene R. Cook that Aaron gave me. They seemed to like it even more than I did. They listened to it over and over again as they were struggling to help their investigators progress-- and especially Penapa. Thanks again Aaron!
We had the opportunity to Giaw Khaaw this week. That is to say... we harvested rice. The field is President Gosong's field. The people in the pictures include My district: Sister Bradfield (taller), Sister Larson, Elder Blaustein, and I, President Gosong, his's wife Meow, his Dad, and his' son Noah.
Nov 4, 2009
Happy Halloween, hello overcast.
Happy Birthday to Camille and Aaron. And soon to be Kate the great.
How are you all doing these days? It's barely November but our ward is already planning our super Christmas activity, and they have been for quite some time. Some new good news is that our branch just called eight new branch missionaries. Now that the fire of service and the Spirit are being spread throughout the branch we will get to focus our energies and make new sacrifices in order to help others to come unto Christ.
So I have a story. But first I must mention about our crazy next door neighbor named Dennis. He is indescribably himself, and very quotable. He is better than quoting a movie. Dennis is about 70 years old. He doesn't have teeth but remarkably he doesn't need them. He chews everything from hamburgers to steak with the bones of his gum. He has the craziest stories about fighting in wars, helping the king, and the queen, and Korat, and everyone, as well as stories about karate, being a doctor, being a guitar star trainer, building trains, and being a Templar Knight. It is also notable to say that he has pictures and other evidence to back up all of his stories. He's been working with "The Mormons" for over seven years. Mostly all he does other than smoke is related to one service project or another. He has a great heart. He just needs to completely forsake his rowdy days and come unto Christ. He gives everyone nicknames (except for me, I still don't have one). Also, he buys us tons of expensive farang food (foreigner food) for us to eat for free. He wants to take Elder Blaustein and I to go shopping for a nice suit. After all he used to be the best dressed in Thailand. Actually he still is. "They call me Old Handsome."
I'm pretty much out of time because we just got back from visiting a snake farm and watching the Snake show, but I wanted to describe a little bit of the fiasco that we had with looking for a new house. A member showed us a nice little house that she felt would work for the sisters. I, having no previous knowledge about houses or prices or contracts, desired to look at other locations so that I could at least have something to compare this house to. With some options I could make sure that I was choosing the best location. Also, Elder Petersen gave us a budget of 8,000 Baht per month for rent, and the house was only 6,000. I figured that maybe there was somewhere that was better and more fit to the sisters needs. So we went around and looked at several other houses and compared all of them. Another location looked good and the lady was willing to put the house for rent instead of sell it, so we considered that house. But it still didn't look that great to me. Another place close by was big but way old. It smelled funny when we entered. Then another option came up. This house was very new and very nice looking house. It had everything we needed. It seemed like an answer to our prayers. I talked to the landlord about the contract and pricing and asked her to put in another air conditioning system and a few other things. After figuring our the contract and rewriting it several times the landlord decided that she would like to live there and have us rent another house that was just about the same design and was just barely built. We looked at it, but I felt like her house was the better option so we asked if we could continue on with her house instead. She agreed. She was going to go to Bangkok that weekend which meant that she could buy the furnishings but naturally she needed to sign the contract first. We went to print out the contract but we ended up wasting time at one internet shop which wouldn't bring up the contract because of an illegal version of Microsoft Office. There were other stores but none of them had a printer. The last store had a printer, but it was full. We waited a bit for someone to leave and when we finally entered the store and tried to print out the contract, the printer was slow. Because that all took so long we had to change the appointment. The weekend past and we were ready to sign the contract again. However, by this time the Sisters who are the ones who are actually moving expressed that they didn't feel good about the house because of the location. The house was a little far from the church, and we heard that that area had a lower elevation than the surrounding area and thus it floods every year during rainy season. By this time we have only three more days left before the end of the month when we have to move. I had already scheduled an appointment to sign the contract with the landlord and was about to leave when the Sisters called and said that they met with a member and found another location. All along I am trying my best to follow my feelings and find the best option for the sister. For some reason as soon as they called about this new house I felt like I needed to cancel with this Landlord that we had been working a deal with for the past two weeks. So we biked over and canceled with that Landlord (she was a way nice lady too) and went to look at the new house that the sisters found with the member. We go to look at the house and lo and behold, it's the very same house that we first looked at but with a different member. Up to this time I had done well to avoid the stress from the situation and had worked things out well, but now I could feel the weight of stress increase on my shoulders. We continue on to talk to the landlord to work out a deal with her. The landlord had talked to the member whose name was Nui. Nui worked out a nice deal and the rich landlord agreed to giving us all of the furnishings that we wanted for an increase of rent from the origional 6,000 per month to 7,000. But Nui didn't do very well at correlating with me, and so when I went to go talk to the Landlord I found the most shamelessly greedy and unpleasant person I have ever met before in my life. She put on a big show. She was "stressed and "tired" from work and had very little time to work with us because she was "busy." She expressed how we were asking for too much from her and she wanted us to lower the amount of furnishings. She felt that the contract was unagreeable because of a little tax deal that she wouldn't understand because she didn't care to listen to me. She tried to push the need we had to move by telling us that she might not even put the house for rent anymore, but she'll leave it as a visitors house for when her friends come to stay. She was clearly playing the game to save money. I did my best to work with her and successfully worked out a temporary change to the contract, but did not do any signing. Then I talked to Sister Nui who's phone was off that morning and she explained to me that the Landlord was nice to her because she did something big for her in the past, and that actually 7,000 Baht is a lot for a house. Even though my budget was 8,000 she explained that her house is 3 stories and she is only paying 3,000 for it. She also explained that she had been looking to find another house all morning. Long story short, she found one. The landlord was very rich, very comfortable, and very open-hearted to accepting whatever our needs were. And the brand new house ended up being only 5500 per month and close to the church. The only downside is that it's a pretty small house. But the sisters love it, and after a little more convincing and work, she signed the contract. I feel like I learned a lot from the entire experience, and I am sure that the Lord needed me to learn a lesson from it to prepare me for the future. Last Saturday we moved the Sisters into their new house and we moved into the Sister's old house, and cleaned both places. The Lord continues to bless us and answer our prayers for more faith. I am just glad to get back to 100% missionary work again. It's the best.
I love you all. Keep reading the scriptures and following the spirit.
Love,
Elder Lilly
P.S. Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat.
Dennis is going to take is suit shopping. What is your opinion on me getting a suit?
How are you all doing these days? It's barely November but our ward is already planning our super Christmas activity, and they have been for quite some time. Some new good news is that our branch just called eight new branch missionaries. Now that the fire of service and the Spirit are being spread throughout the branch we will get to focus our energies and make new sacrifices in order to help others to come unto Christ.
So I have a story. But first I must mention about our crazy next door neighbor named Dennis. He is indescribably himself, and very quotable. He is better than quoting a movie. Dennis is about 70 years old. He doesn't have teeth but remarkably he doesn't need them. He chews everything from hamburgers to steak with the bones of his gum. He has the craziest stories about fighting in wars, helping the king, and the queen, and Korat, and everyone, as well as stories about karate, being a doctor, being a guitar star trainer, building trains, and being a Templar Knight. It is also notable to say that he has pictures and other evidence to back up all of his stories. He's been working with "The Mormons" for over seven years. Mostly all he does other than smoke is related to one service project or another. He has a great heart. He just needs to completely forsake his rowdy days and come unto Christ. He gives everyone nicknames (except for me, I still don't have one). Also, he buys us tons of expensive farang food (foreigner food) for us to eat for free. He wants to take Elder Blaustein and I to go shopping for a nice suit. After all he used to be the best dressed in Thailand. Actually he still is. "They call me Old Handsome."
I'm pretty much out of time because we just got back from visiting a snake farm and watching the Snake show, but I wanted to describe a little bit of the fiasco that we had with looking for a new house. A member showed us a nice little house that she felt would work for the sisters. I, having no previous knowledge about houses or prices or contracts, desired to look at other locations so that I could at least have something to compare this house to. With some options I could make sure that I was choosing the best location. Also, Elder Petersen gave us a budget of 8,000 Baht per month for rent, and the house was only 6,000. I figured that maybe there was somewhere that was better and more fit to the sisters needs. So we went around and looked at several other houses and compared all of them. Another location looked good and the lady was willing to put the house for rent instead of sell it, so we considered that house. But it still didn't look that great to me. Another place close by was big but way old. It smelled funny when we entered. Then another option came up. This house was very new and very nice looking house. It had everything we needed. It seemed like an answer to our prayers. I talked to the landlord about the contract and pricing and asked her to put in another air conditioning system and a few other things. After figuring our the contract and rewriting it several times the landlord decided that she would like to live there and have us rent another house that was just about the same design and was just barely built. We looked at it, but I felt like her house was the better option so we asked if we could continue on with her house instead. She agreed. She was going to go to Bangkok that weekend which meant that she could buy the furnishings but naturally she needed to sign the contract first. We went to print out the contract but we ended up wasting time at one internet shop which wouldn't bring up the contract because of an illegal version of Microsoft Office. There were other stores but none of them had a printer. The last store had a printer, but it was full. We waited a bit for someone to leave and when we finally entered the store and tried to print out the contract, the printer was slow. Because that all took so long we had to change the appointment. The weekend past and we were ready to sign the contract again. However, by this time the Sisters who are the ones who are actually moving expressed that they didn't feel good about the house because of the location. The house was a little far from the church, and we heard that that area had a lower elevation than the surrounding area and thus it floods every year during rainy season. By this time we have only three more days left before the end of the month when we have to move. I had already scheduled an appointment to sign the contract with the landlord and was about to leave when the Sisters called and said that they met with a member and found another location. All along I am trying my best to follow my feelings and find the best option for the sister. For some reason as soon as they called about this new house I felt like I needed to cancel with this Landlord that we had been working a deal with for the past two weeks. So we biked over and canceled with that Landlord (she was a way nice lady too) and went to look at the new house that the sisters found with the member. We go to look at the house and lo and behold, it's the very same house that we first looked at but with a different member. Up to this time I had done well to avoid the stress from the situation and had worked things out well, but now I could feel the weight of stress increase on my shoulders. We continue on to talk to the landlord to work out a deal with her. The landlord had talked to the member whose name was Nui. Nui worked out a nice deal and the rich landlord agreed to giving us all of the furnishings that we wanted for an increase of rent from the origional 6,000 per month to 7,000. But Nui didn't do very well at correlating with me, and so when I went to go talk to the Landlord I found the most shamelessly greedy and unpleasant person I have ever met before in my life. She put on a big show. She was "stressed and "tired" from work and had very little time to work with us because she was "busy." She expressed how we were asking for too much from her and she wanted us to lower the amount of furnishings. She felt that the contract was unagreeable because of a little tax deal that she wouldn't understand because she didn't care to listen to me. She tried to push the need we had to move by telling us that she might not even put the house for rent anymore, but she'll leave it as a visitors house for when her friends come to stay. She was clearly playing the game to save money. I did my best to work with her and successfully worked out a temporary change to the contract, but did not do any signing. Then I talked to Sister Nui who's phone was off that morning and she explained to me that the Landlord was nice to her because she did something big for her in the past, and that actually 7,000 Baht is a lot for a house. Even though my budget was 8,000 she explained that her house is 3 stories and she is only paying 3,000 for it. She also explained that she had been looking to find another house all morning. Long story short, she found one. The landlord was very rich, very comfortable, and very open-hearted to accepting whatever our needs were. And the brand new house ended up being only 5500 per month and close to the church. The only downside is that it's a pretty small house. But the sisters love it, and after a little more convincing and work, she signed the contract. I feel like I learned a lot from the entire experience, and I am sure that the Lord needed me to learn a lesson from it to prepare me for the future. Last Saturday we moved the Sisters into their new house and we moved into the Sister's old house, and cleaned both places. The Lord continues to bless us and answer our prayers for more faith. I am just glad to get back to 100% missionary work again. It's the best.
I love you all. Keep reading the scriptures and following the spirit.
Love,
Elder Lilly
P.S. Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat.
Dennis is going to take is suit shopping. What is your opinion on me getting a suit?
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