Hello Everyone,
Monday was zone conference and it was not expected to take very long. We had a training that was supposed to last about two or three hours in the morning where we would teach about how to teach a good first lesson and how to keep our investigators in the loop. It ended up taking until about two or three o'clock. When it was over we cleaned up, did some quick studies and headed over to Bro Munn's house. He is doing okay. We mostly just talked to his wife because he didn't come out to talk to us because he was asleep, sad day. Then we went to see our other investigators, JohnWong and Gail and they are doing way good. They're the family that we've been teaching.
They're just so good. The wife has really opened up, she's way comfortable talking to us now, which is really cool. We finished the night inviting at a mall.
In the morning on Tuesday we went and visited an alcoholic investigator. Then we tried to go and see another potential investigator but never got around to seeing them. Sad day, they weren't available. We had some free lunch and then we went and saw an investigator at her shop. We also visited with David who is doing way good. It was on this day that we studied at a mall. We were in Starbucks studying and this family walks by and they're all, "Oh it's the elders. How are you guys doing?" And we kind of just sat there in that Starbucks shop thinking, "oh no, I hope they don't think we're getting coffee or anything here." Haha. But it was way fun and they were nice. Then we met briefly with another investigator right before English class. He's still planning on staying in Chiang Mai, but he may not. Hopefully he doesn't go away to a different province. Then we had English class, which was fun as usual. After English class, we studied and then did some inviting.
Wednesday was p-day which was fun. We didn't really do much in the morning. We got up and ran and we did some emailing in the computer shop. Then we met up with some other elders. Elder Morgan, Elder Ferrence and I all went to a zip line course and did some high ropes stuff and it was really fun. After that we visited one of our investigators named Bankbang. We need to help him because it's hard to meet with him.:) After that we visited with an RC, she's just awesome as usual. We did some inviting and also some planning and all of that good stuff in the nighttime.
Thursday we woke up and it was kind of a shock to reality because Monday we kind of had it easy in the morning and early afternoon because it was zone conference. We worked that evening and then Tuesday was a normal day, but then Wednesday was p-day. So it was kind of a rough up and down few days and then we had to face reality. Thursday we got up and went to work again. We tried to visit an investigator in the morning, but he didn't show up. After that we visited some other investigators and the sister of one of our recent converts, Bro. Pon (the kid) and she's pretty good. Then we visited with our alcoholic investigator, but he wasn't really talking to us and so we talked to this other guy who raises chickens to fight and that was the way fun. Then we went home, did some personal study and some weekly planning. After that we watched the restoration movie with an investigator of ours, did some contacting and some finding, and then we met with JohnWong and Gail again. They accepted baptismal dates for the end of next month, so that's really cool! Really Fun. Then we came back hoping to call an RC and his wife, but they did not pick up, sad day.
On Friday we had a switch off, so I was with Elder Jensen who is our district leader in the south side of Chiang Mai. In the morning we went to this investigator's little place where he does herbal steamery bath things and he's Catholic. He just does not get the Book of Mormon at all. Then we planned to go to see this other potential investigator, but he called and said he'd be at work and we couldn't visit him. So we invited in that area anyway and just happened to find where he works. We saw him at work, talked to him and he told us he wasn't interested so we're not going to visit him anymore. We went and visited with some RCs and their daughter and did not get to visit their referral, but we did visit them. So that was good. Then we had some great lunch at a member's place. We came back, did our studies and went to see our dude, David, who's pretty good. He had a question about baptism and it was kind of hard to explain because of the language barrier that we have, but it was okay. We tried to stalk an investigator down at his work and that didn't work because we didn't find him. We tried to visit Bankban again, but that didn't work either. We had some dinner at a way good restaurant and then we switched back off so that Elder Jensen could get to his correlation meeting. That night Elder Ferrence and I went and taught an investigator of ours who's a white husband of an RC and did some inviting.
Saturday we woke up to some way dirty air. It was really bad. We got up at 5:30 to go running and decided that it wasn't a good idea to go running so we did some pull ups and stuff. Then we came back and we planned our day, our elders quorum lesson for tomorrow and our English class. We went to our English class and guess what? No one showed up. Sad Day. The air was really bad though. This kind of started the rest of the day where we just ran around town looking for people to meet with because we didn't really have very many appointments set up for that day. We literally ran around everywhere and missed like six people, went inviting at a mall, came back to an investigator's shop, found out that she was actually at the mall where we were inviting. We came back and did our studies and we had correlation meeting. Then we had a crazy lesson where the husband got offended because we wouldn't talk to him as much as we had talked to the wife and he sent us out, which kind of was our fault I guess?
Before we knew it, we woke up and it was Sunday again. In the morning we got planned for the day and went to church. Very few people came to church today because the air is bad. No investigators came. After church we got some lunch and tried to get some investigators to come to a later session of church, but no one was free to go. We invited for the next couple of hours at a mall and then grabbed some dinner with another ward. We did some studies, visited with another member and missed an appointment with another dude we tried to go see. We tried to visit another potential investigator who confirmed our appointment about three times. And then when it came for the appointment to happen, he was nowhere to be found. That was fun. Then we tried to help this American lady find a key that she had lost and didn't find it. And then we came home after doing some inviting. We did some studies and yeah, it was kind of a tough week I guess. We only found one new investigator this whole week.
My spiritual thought for this week comes from a talk that I read from President Monson called, "Preparation Brings Blessings." It was given in April 2010 general conference. At the end it talks about an elder who had not received a letter from his parents up to that point in his mission (9 months). He sent a letter home each week. This elder was looking for a miracle. Pres. Monson promised him if he would write and tell them what he is doing, how much he loves them and bear his testimony to them, they would write him. Later Pres. Monson saw this elder again and his promise had been fulfilled. This is what I liked, in the end he says this young missionary asked, “Brother Monson, does Heavenly Father always answer prayers and fulfill Apostles’ promises?” Pres. Monson replied, “When one has faith as you have demonstrated, our Heavenly Father hears such prayers and answers in His own way.” Then he closes his talk and he says, "Clean hands, a pure heart, and a willing mind had touched heaven." And this is the thing I want to emphasize, "Clean hands, a pure heart, and a willing mind had touched heaven. A blessing, heaven-sent, had answered the fervent prayer of a righteous missionary’s humble heart." As I have been a missionary it has been very clear to me the biggest way the church has influenced and grown stronger is when it falls on the individual, the righteous choices of each individual person. And if we can breed a culture of righteous obedience, we can call down miracles from heaven that we would not be able to get any other way. I know that's true. And I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are in the details of our lives and in the details of this work.
That's it for now, over and out,
Elder L.
Monday was zone conference and it was not expected to take very long. We had a training that was supposed to last about two or three hours in the morning where we would teach about how to teach a good first lesson and how to keep our investigators in the loop. It ended up taking until about two or three o'clock. When it was over we cleaned up, did some quick studies and headed over to Bro Munn's house. He is doing okay. We mostly just talked to his wife because he didn't come out to talk to us because he was asleep, sad day. Then we went to see our other investigators, JohnWong and Gail and they are doing way good. They're the family that we've been teaching.
They're just so good. The wife has really opened up, she's way comfortable talking to us now, which is really cool. We finished the night inviting at a mall.
In the morning on Tuesday we went and visited an alcoholic investigator. Then we tried to go and see another potential investigator but never got around to seeing them. Sad day, they weren't available. We had some free lunch and then we went and saw an investigator at her shop. We also visited with David who is doing way good. It was on this day that we studied at a mall. We were in Starbucks studying and this family walks by and they're all, "Oh it's the elders. How are you guys doing?" And we kind of just sat there in that Starbucks shop thinking, "oh no, I hope they don't think we're getting coffee or anything here." Haha. But it was way fun and they were nice. Then we met briefly with another investigator right before English class. He's still planning on staying in Chiang Mai, but he may not. Hopefully he doesn't go away to a different province. Then we had English class, which was fun as usual. After English class, we studied and then did some inviting.
Wednesday was p-day which was fun. We didn't really do much in the morning. We got up and ran and we did some emailing in the computer shop. Then we met up with some other elders. Elder Morgan, Elder Ferrence and I all went to a zip line course and did some high ropes stuff and it was really fun. After that we visited one of our investigators named Bankbang. We need to help him because it's hard to meet with him.:) After that we visited with an RC, she's just awesome as usual. We did some inviting and also some planning and all of that good stuff in the nighttime.
Thursday we woke up and it was kind of a shock to reality because Monday we kind of had it easy in the morning and early afternoon because it was zone conference. We worked that evening and then Tuesday was a normal day, but then Wednesday was p-day. So it was kind of a rough up and down few days and then we had to face reality. Thursday we got up and went to work again. We tried to visit an investigator in the morning, but he didn't show up. After that we visited some other investigators and the sister of one of our recent converts, Bro. Pon (the kid) and she's pretty good. Then we visited with our alcoholic investigator, but he wasn't really talking to us and so we talked to this other guy who raises chickens to fight and that was the way fun. Then we went home, did some personal study and some weekly planning. After that we watched the restoration movie with an investigator of ours, did some contacting and some finding, and then we met with JohnWong and Gail again. They accepted baptismal dates for the end of next month, so that's really cool! Really Fun. Then we came back hoping to call an RC and his wife, but they did not pick up, sad day.
On Friday we had a switch off, so I was with Elder Jensen who is our district leader in the south side of Chiang Mai. In the morning we went to this investigator's little place where he does herbal steamery bath things and he's Catholic. He just does not get the Book of Mormon at all. Then we planned to go to see this other potential investigator, but he called and said he'd be at work and we couldn't visit him. So we invited in that area anyway and just happened to find where he works. We saw him at work, talked to him and he told us he wasn't interested so we're not going to visit him anymore. We went and visited with some RCs and their daughter and did not get to visit their referral, but we did visit them. So that was good. Then we had some great lunch at a member's place. We came back, did our studies and went to see our dude, David, who's pretty good. He had a question about baptism and it was kind of hard to explain because of the language barrier that we have, but it was okay. We tried to stalk an investigator down at his work and that didn't work because we didn't find him. We tried to visit Bankban again, but that didn't work either. We had some dinner at a way good restaurant and then we switched back off so that Elder Jensen could get to his correlation meeting. That night Elder Ferrence and I went and taught an investigator of ours who's a white husband of an RC and did some inviting.
Saturday we woke up to some way dirty air. It was really bad. We got up at 5:30 to go running and decided that it wasn't a good idea to go running so we did some pull ups and stuff. Then we came back and we planned our day, our elders quorum lesson for tomorrow and our English class. We went to our English class and guess what? No one showed up. Sad Day. The air was really bad though. This kind of started the rest of the day where we just ran around town looking for people to meet with because we didn't really have very many appointments set up for that day. We literally ran around everywhere and missed like six people, went inviting at a mall, came back to an investigator's shop, found out that she was actually at the mall where we were inviting. We came back and did our studies and we had correlation meeting. Then we had a crazy lesson where the husband got offended because we wouldn't talk to him as much as we had talked to the wife and he sent us out, which kind of was our fault I guess?
Before we knew it, we woke up and it was Sunday again. In the morning we got planned for the day and went to church. Very few people came to church today because the air is bad. No investigators came. After church we got some lunch and tried to get some investigators to come to a later session of church, but no one was free to go. We invited for the next couple of hours at a mall and then grabbed some dinner with another ward. We did some studies, visited with another member and missed an appointment with another dude we tried to go see. We tried to visit another potential investigator who confirmed our appointment about three times. And then when it came for the appointment to happen, he was nowhere to be found. That was fun. Then we tried to help this American lady find a key that she had lost and didn't find it. And then we came home after doing some inviting. We did some studies and yeah, it was kind of a tough week I guess. We only found one new investigator this whole week.
My spiritual thought for this week comes from a talk that I read from President Monson called, "Preparation Brings Blessings." It was given in April 2010 general conference. At the end it talks about an elder who had not received a letter from his parents up to that point in his mission (9 months). He sent a letter home each week. This elder was looking for a miracle. Pres. Monson promised him if he would write and tell them what he is doing, how much he loves them and bear his testimony to them, they would write him. Later Pres. Monson saw this elder again and his promise had been fulfilled. This is what I liked, in the end he says this young missionary asked, “Brother Monson, does Heavenly Father always answer prayers and fulfill Apostles’ promises?” Pres. Monson replied, “When one has faith as you have demonstrated, our Heavenly Father hears such prayers and answers in His own way.” Then he closes his talk and he says, "Clean hands, a pure heart, and a willing mind had touched heaven." And this is the thing I want to emphasize, "Clean hands, a pure heart, and a willing mind had touched heaven. A blessing, heaven-sent, had answered the fervent prayer of a righteous missionary’s humble heart." As I have been a missionary it has been very clear to me the biggest way the church has influenced and grown stronger is when it falls on the individual, the righteous choices of each individual person. And if we can breed a culture of righteous obedience, we can call down miracles from heaven that we would not be able to get any other way. I know that's true. And I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are in the details of our lives and in the details of this work.
That's it for now, over and out,
Elder L.
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