Hello Everyone!
This week was a wild week. Let's just get right into it. Monday we got up and were a bit lazy in the morning. We got over to the track eventually and decided it was too smokey go running. Instead we went to the computer shop and emailed. Then we came home, got some lunch, checked out a waterfall. The would have been a lot cooler except it was really dry and so there wasn't really much water. After that we came home. Elder Ferrence had a lot of emails to catch up on. That evening we went to this lady's place(she's a previous investigator that worked with some other elders) hoping could get some soup. We thought we'd be able to talk to her and it turns out she doesn't sell in the evening, which was a big bummer cause it's a long way to go out there. Then we headed over to this family that we've been teaching that I've talked a little bit about for awhile. They weren't there, but the members that had previously helped us teach them were. That was really cool because this particular member that we've brought us to help teach, she really goes forward about this ministering stuff. She's really good. So we found her there and her friend and they had actually come just to visit them. Neither of us knew the other was coming, we kind of just showed up at about the same time. It turned out that the member had been talking to the neighbors and apparently the neighbors are like, well they moved, they're gone and their phone number doesn't work anymore. So we have no way of contacting them.
We just kind of prayed that they would show up to church this week and they never did. We're going to go back again tonight because we might have someone that has a phone number for them, so more details later perhaps, but for now a way sad. They're just kind of gone. After that we were inviting and we talked to some cool people. We found this way nice couple who are Christian and when they found that we are Christian teachers they about wet their pants, they were so excited. It was way funny. And then we met with some investigators from the third branch's teaching pool and because they actually live in our area they're going to send them to us.
On Tuesday we tried to go visit an RC in the morning, but she wasn't there. We headed over to our district meeting. After our district meeting was over we went and ate lunch at that lady's place from the night previous and it was really good. We didn't really talk about religion with her right then because there was a lot of people there and she seemed very busy so we figured we would come back sometime later and to talk to her. She's really cool. After that we tried to visit another PI who wasn't there. We visited with an RC who recently got back from Korea. She's doing pretty good, and then we visited another investigator. She is too afraid to pray and it's kind of getting frustrating, but it's all good. And then we tried to visit another investigator, but he wasn't there. We ended up getting some dinner and inviting around his house. Then it was time for English class and no one came. Sad day. Then we switched off, and I went to the other elders' area. We got back to their house and realized that neither of us had a sim card, shoot!
So Wednesday morning (our switch off day), we ran all the way down to our area switch, get a Sim card from them and then headed out to go find this guy that sells plastics parts. We invited all along the way, found some nice people. No one was really interested, but we talked to a lot of nice people. We found the man that sells plastic parts. He's very nice, very busy and didn't want to make a lot of time for us. After that we visited an RC who is doing way good, he's going to serve a mission soon. And then we went to this shop and a member paid for us and I had three bowls of soup, really big bowls and it was really good. :) After that we had our study time, taught an investigator who's really cool, got some dinner and did some finding. We talked to this lady, that's been an investigator for a long, long time. She had a lot of questions. So we taught her and invited some more. We talked to this other guy named Jadan Jada and it was really fun. He's cool, but we didn't have too much time to talk him.
Thursday was one of those days in between such offs that was kind of really crazy. We set out to go pay our water bill in the morning, got that paid. Then we came to a college where we would invite and we where we found some way cool dudes. Then we did some studies and as we were studying at that college, this security guard walked up to us and he's Christian as well. So he was interested and then we went and got some lunch at a member's house, came back and taught some of those guys who we had met that morning at their lunch break, came home, studied, did some weekly planning and tried to stake out an investigator at his work (he wasn't there). We did some language study and more inviting. Later we met with two of our investigators who've been kind of struggling and we ended up dropping both of them, which was sad. After that we had dinner with the branch president and he brought a young man that's going to serve a mission here soon and we brought an investigator and it was way fun. The five of us we ate at what's called a Moobatat, which literally means, like pork pan. So in Thailand there's these places where they just sell a buffet of meat and you can get a bunch of meat and cook it yourself and eat it. It's really good. There's also ice cream and drinks and stuff and it's really fun. It was really good.
Then we got on a bus and we headed over to Bangkok. Fantastic. We had a switch off in Bangkok with the assistants, which was really fun because both of the assistants are in our group that came to Thailand together. I was with Elder McWhorter. In the morning we did some studies and then visited this older investigator lady who's really funny. She's read to about Helaman in the book of Mormon but isn't quite sure if she wants to be baptized yet. After that we did some inviting, got lunch, did language study, had a Skype appointment with this lady from Japan who's actually a Thai person, but lives in Japan and did some more studies. After that we talked to a lot of different people in this neighborhood and got some return appointments. Then we had a return appointment with a recent convert to the church who is kind of struggling, but he's doing all right. Then we went to this workout complex and tried to find an investigator from awhile ago but couldn't find him. We talked to some other people that might be be interested and it was a good day. We switched back and the day was over sooner than we'd like. We got some Taco Bell on the way home. We got on a bus (second night in a row) for another 10 hours and tried to sleep on the way home. Fantastic.
We got into Chiang Mai about eight in the morning. We got home, showered and went over to the church for English class. English class was pretty normal; it's fun. After that we went and ate lunch at this restaurant that possibly would have the sister of a member in Asoke. She didn't say much though and we didn't say much either, so we're not quite sure if it's the right place, but we're going to go back. Then we went to a mall and contacted some people there, had a couple of appointments as well. Most of that day it was kind of trying to get people to church. It was a crazy day because we hadn't really gotten a good night's sleep in a couple of days and it was kind of just nuts all over. One way or another we got some studies in, we had a couple teaching appointments and we invited a lot of people; lots of contacting that day.
Sunday rolled around and we went to church in the morning. We did some finding afterwards for quite a long time at a college waiting for this guy to show up. But he never did show up. Then we went home, got some food, did some studies and then we worked our way over to this new investigator we possibly could have. We had some finding time after that. That was really good. We went all over and couldn't find these two guys that we were looking for. They're also homeless, so we're not sure quite what we'll do next with them, but we're going to keep working with them.
It was a crazy week. We lost a lot of our daters. On a switch off when I was not in our area one of our daters just said, I'm done with this. I don't want to do it anymore. So it's been an interesting week. We found some interesting new investigators and I have some new people to work with, but we'll see how this week goes. It'll be fun.
A spiritual thought for this week... This week I read a talk from a general conference a couple years ago in October of 2014. It's called "Approaching the Throne of God with Confidence." Here is a quote that I liked, "On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your spiritual confidence before God? Do you have a personal witness that your current offering as a Latter-day Saint is sufficient to inherit eternal life? Can you say within yourself that Heavenly Father is pleased with you? What thoughts come to mind if you had a personal interview with your Savior one minute from now? Would sins, regrets, and shortcomings dominate your self-image, or would you simply experience joyful anticipation? Would you meet or avoid His gaze? Would you linger by the door or confidently walk up to Him? 3. Embrace voluntary, wholehearted obedience as part of your life. Acknowledge that you cannot love God without also loving His commandments. The Savior’s standard is clear and simple: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Selective obedience brings selective blessings, and choosing something bad over something worse is still choosing wrong. You can’t watch a bad movie and expect to feel virtuous because you did not watch a very bad one. Faithful observance of some commandments doesn’t justify neglecting others. Abraham Lincoln rightly said, “When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad,” "
I like number three where it talks about embracing voluntary, wholehearted obedience as part of your life. I especially like the quote from President Abraham Lincoln that says, "When I do good, I feel good, when I do bad, I feel bad." This is one of my favorite quotes. I'm not the best at exemplifying this, but one of my favorite quotes from general Conference is, selective obedience brings selective blessings and choosing something bad over choosing something worse is still choosing wrong. Selective obedience brings selective blessings. I like that. It's something I can work on. I think as a missionary, it's really important to be obedient.
Like really important! In a talk about the first great commandment Elder Holland was talking about Jesus talking to Peter and he says, he might remind us that the truest sign of love is always loyalty. I know that's true.
That's it for this week over and out, Elder Ellsworth.
This week was a wild week. Let's just get right into it. Monday we got up and were a bit lazy in the morning. We got over to the track eventually and decided it was too smokey go running. Instead we went to the computer shop and emailed. Then we came home, got some lunch, checked out a waterfall. The would have been a lot cooler except it was really dry and so there wasn't really much water. After that we came home. Elder Ferrence had a lot of emails to catch up on. That evening we went to this lady's place(she's a previous investigator that worked with some other elders) hoping could get some soup. We thought we'd be able to talk to her and it turns out she doesn't sell in the evening, which was a big bummer cause it's a long way to go out there. Then we headed over to this family that we've been teaching that I've talked a little bit about for awhile. They weren't there, but the members that had previously helped us teach them were. That was really cool because this particular member that we've brought us to help teach, she really goes forward about this ministering stuff. She's really good. So we found her there and her friend and they had actually come just to visit them. Neither of us knew the other was coming, we kind of just showed up at about the same time. It turned out that the member had been talking to the neighbors and apparently the neighbors are like, well they moved, they're gone and their phone number doesn't work anymore. So we have no way of contacting them.
We just kind of prayed that they would show up to church this week and they never did. We're going to go back again tonight because we might have someone that has a phone number for them, so more details later perhaps, but for now a way sad. They're just kind of gone. After that we were inviting and we talked to some cool people. We found this way nice couple who are Christian and when they found that we are Christian teachers they about wet their pants, they were so excited. It was way funny. And then we met with some investigators from the third branch's teaching pool and because they actually live in our area they're going to send them to us.
On Tuesday we tried to go visit an RC in the morning, but she wasn't there. We headed over to our district meeting. After our district meeting was over we went and ate lunch at that lady's place from the night previous and it was really good. We didn't really talk about religion with her right then because there was a lot of people there and she seemed very busy so we figured we would come back sometime later and to talk to her. She's really cool. After that we tried to visit another PI who wasn't there. We visited with an RC who recently got back from Korea. She's doing pretty good, and then we visited another investigator. She is too afraid to pray and it's kind of getting frustrating, but it's all good. And then we tried to visit another investigator, but he wasn't there. We ended up getting some dinner and inviting around his house. Then it was time for English class and no one came. Sad day. Then we switched off, and I went to the other elders' area. We got back to their house and realized that neither of us had a sim card, shoot!
So Wednesday morning (our switch off day), we ran all the way down to our area switch, get a Sim card from them and then headed out to go find this guy that sells plastics parts. We invited all along the way, found some nice people. No one was really interested, but we talked to a lot of nice people. We found the man that sells plastic parts. He's very nice, very busy and didn't want to make a lot of time for us. After that we visited an RC who is doing way good, he's going to serve a mission soon. And then we went to this shop and a member paid for us and I had three bowls of soup, really big bowls and it was really good. :) After that we had our study time, taught an investigator who's really cool, got some dinner and did some finding. We talked to this lady, that's been an investigator for a long, long time. She had a lot of questions. So we taught her and invited some more. We talked to this other guy named Jadan Jada and it was really fun. He's cool, but we didn't have too much time to talk him.
Thursday was one of those days in between such offs that was kind of really crazy. We set out to go pay our water bill in the morning, got that paid. Then we came to a college where we would invite and we where we found some way cool dudes. Then we did some studies and as we were studying at that college, this security guard walked up to us and he's Christian as well. So he was interested and then we went and got some lunch at a member's house, came back and taught some of those guys who we had met that morning at their lunch break, came home, studied, did some weekly planning and tried to stake out an investigator at his work (he wasn't there). We did some language study and more inviting. Later we met with two of our investigators who've been kind of struggling and we ended up dropping both of them, which was sad. After that we had dinner with the branch president and he brought a young man that's going to serve a mission here soon and we brought an investigator and it was way fun. The five of us we ate at what's called a Moobatat, which literally means, like pork pan. So in Thailand there's these places where they just sell a buffet of meat and you can get a bunch of meat and cook it yourself and eat it. It's really good. There's also ice cream and drinks and stuff and it's really fun. It was really good.
Then we got on a bus and we headed over to Bangkok. Fantastic. We had a switch off in Bangkok with the assistants, which was really fun because both of the assistants are in our group that came to Thailand together. I was with Elder McWhorter. In the morning we did some studies and then visited this older investigator lady who's really funny. She's read to about Helaman in the book of Mormon but isn't quite sure if she wants to be baptized yet. After that we did some inviting, got lunch, did language study, had a Skype appointment with this lady from Japan who's actually a Thai person, but lives in Japan and did some more studies. After that we talked to a lot of different people in this neighborhood and got some return appointments. Then we had a return appointment with a recent convert to the church who is kind of struggling, but he's doing all right. Then we went to this workout complex and tried to find an investigator from awhile ago but couldn't find him. We talked to some other people that might be be interested and it was a good day. We switched back and the day was over sooner than we'd like. We got some Taco Bell on the way home. We got on a bus (second night in a row) for another 10 hours and tried to sleep on the way home. Fantastic.
We got into Chiang Mai about eight in the morning. We got home, showered and went over to the church for English class. English class was pretty normal; it's fun. After that we went and ate lunch at this restaurant that possibly would have the sister of a member in Asoke. She didn't say much though and we didn't say much either, so we're not quite sure if it's the right place, but we're going to go back. Then we went to a mall and contacted some people there, had a couple of appointments as well. Most of that day it was kind of trying to get people to church. It was a crazy day because we hadn't really gotten a good night's sleep in a couple of days and it was kind of just nuts all over. One way or another we got some studies in, we had a couple teaching appointments and we invited a lot of people; lots of contacting that day.
Sunday rolled around and we went to church in the morning. We did some finding afterwards for quite a long time at a college waiting for this guy to show up. But he never did show up. Then we went home, got some food, did some studies and then we worked our way over to this new investigator we possibly could have. We had some finding time after that. That was really good. We went all over and couldn't find these two guys that we were looking for. They're also homeless, so we're not sure quite what we'll do next with them, but we're going to keep working with them.
It was a crazy week. We lost a lot of our daters. On a switch off when I was not in our area one of our daters just said, I'm done with this. I don't want to do it anymore. So it's been an interesting week. We found some interesting new investigators and I have some new people to work with, but we'll see how this week goes. It'll be fun.
A spiritual thought for this week... This week I read a talk from a general conference a couple years ago in October of 2014. It's called "Approaching the Throne of God with Confidence." Here is a quote that I liked, "On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your spiritual confidence before God? Do you have a personal witness that your current offering as a Latter-day Saint is sufficient to inherit eternal life? Can you say within yourself that Heavenly Father is pleased with you? What thoughts come to mind if you had a personal interview with your Savior one minute from now? Would sins, regrets, and shortcomings dominate your self-image, or would you simply experience joyful anticipation? Would you meet or avoid His gaze? Would you linger by the door or confidently walk up to Him? 3. Embrace voluntary, wholehearted obedience as part of your life. Acknowledge that you cannot love God without also loving His commandments. The Savior’s standard is clear and simple: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Selective obedience brings selective blessings, and choosing something bad over something worse is still choosing wrong. You can’t watch a bad movie and expect to feel virtuous because you did not watch a very bad one. Faithful observance of some commandments doesn’t justify neglecting others. Abraham Lincoln rightly said, “When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad,” "
I like number three where it talks about embracing voluntary, wholehearted obedience as part of your life. I especially like the quote from President Abraham Lincoln that says, "When I do good, I feel good, when I do bad, I feel bad." This is one of my favorite quotes. I'm not the best at exemplifying this, but one of my favorite quotes from general Conference is, selective obedience brings selective blessings and choosing something bad over choosing something worse is still choosing wrong. Selective obedience brings selective blessings. I like that. It's something I can work on. I think as a missionary, it's really important to be obedient.
Like really important! In a talk about the first great commandment Elder Holland was talking about Jesus talking to Peter and he says, he might remind us that the truest sign of love is always loyalty. I know that's true.
That's it for this week over and out, Elder Ellsworth.
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