Happy Thai New Year!!!
April 12th, 2018
10 months, 3rd week
Thailand, Bangkok, Surin Branch
samuel.montague
I would like to start this email with a PLOT TWIST. Family, you may not've realized this (but are probably now checking), but I have added a few addresses to this email. Friends, you are now realizing this because you are getting my weekly email for the first time in forever. You've all asked to be out on it before, and I responded that I put it up on my blog (still do it please family), but I've also been told that none of you can receive it many times. So after the latest query, I have changed my ways.
What an interesting few days it's been. Only 4(?) days since my last pday. My first district meeting I conducted. A day full of what I see as miracles. So much pondering.
So tragically, there's not really much to do in Surin. There's the elephant, which we've already done and is way far out of the way. I feel like being out here is akin to being in El Paso, or somewhere else that small and remote in the desert. We went to a board game cafe last p day, and that was pretty fun. Mostly though we'll just spend it at members' houses. Or on our phones talking to family.
Today however, is สงกรานต์ (Songkran)- The Thai New Year celebration, that is most known for it also being the water festival. As of now, we aren't really sure where we are going to go or what we are going to be doing, but we know it's going to get exciting. We are going to get wet.
Because this holiday is such a big deal, it is of course a 3-day ordeal. People go harder the later in the day and into the night that it gets. As such, missionaries have a 6:30 p.m. curfew for these three days.
Tuesday was actually so much fun. For district meeting, we traveled to Buriram. I stated earlier, I gave my first district meeting. It went longer than I expected, but I still think it was very inspired and very beneficial to at least me. We also had English class that day, which was so much fun.
This is the first transfer that I am not English leader in a while (I was English leader for my past 3 transfers, or 4.5 months), and the 2 transfers before that were mostly structured similar to how I did it. Well, as District leader I cannot be English leader, nor do I want to. So I asked somebody else. And they do it differently than me. I was a little nervous for how that was going to turn out, and it was very different when he presented our plan. But he gave enough for us to go off of, and we had a blast.
For English we focused on commands. We mostly did it through the activity of having the students tell me what to do, as I made them food. We gave them some vocab, some grammar, and our practice run before throwing them in. Through commands they had to make ramen noodles with an egg, however they preferred. Some of them fried some of the things, some of them boiled, some of them put extra things in, but what was most fun was seeing them give an incomplete command that caused me to throw the entire egg in instead of cracking it. The Lord also provided us with a miracle; three new people came to English. They came on their own and they stayed and learned a little bit afterwards. On top of that, a member brought somebody else. So that was a blessed day.
.... which helps prepare us for Wednesday. Oh Wednesday. I call it my day of miracles, because the Lord helped sort through the wheats and tares.
We spend a lot of the day contacting our current investigators and some less active members and some recent converts and then other members. At this time, we were dropped by many of our investigators that had a baptismal date. Most sad, was บ. พร (B. Porn, but pronounced like pawn shop"). We've been working with him for quite a while, and he was so close. He said he had the desire, he really wanted to know, he just wasn't doing what he needed to do to know. Before General Conference weekend in Thailand, we visited him and told him how he could 100 % get an answer. We promised him he would get it if he did what we had told him to (pray for an answer, read the scriptures that night, then go to church on Sunday [the next day] to receive the answer). We had extended similar challenges before and we're getting a little frustrated that he wasn't actually doing it to learn for himself. When he didn't go to church last Sunday, we were getting ready to let him ponder more on his own. But in our phone call with him, he said that he made a choice, and he decided to choose Buddhism. This is especially sad, because we know he believes that this is the true path. He's choosing Buddhism purely because it is easier and less effort.
Another round of drops we had was with this less active returned missionary named ซ. ฝน (S. Fon). She called us a few weeks ago, wanting us to baptize her 9 year old daughter. We've gone and visited her way far out at her house, and taught both of her daughters, her husband, and some of her nieces. She hasn't been doing this thing she's supposed to. She hasn't been helping her children read, or pray. And it's inconvenient to come to church. So she decided it would be better if she just taught her family at home. We called her out a little bit, thing that she's had 9 years to do this and her children don't even understand prayer. But she was in system, so we bought our testimony and finished.
Back to the wheat and tears. The following Scripture is a little strong, but it explains it a little bit more:
"Therefore, I must gather together my people, according to the parable of the wheat and the tares, that the wheat may be secured in the garners to possess eternal life, and be crowned with celestial glory, when I shall come in the kingdom of my Father to reward every man according as his work shall be;
While the tares shall be bound in bundles, and their bands made strong, that they may be burned with unquenchable fire. (D&C 101:65-66)"
Sometimes people just aren't ready yet. From the scriptures we learn:
"...nevertheless there was a space granted unto man in which he might repent; therefore this life became a probationary state; a time to prepare to meet God; a time to prepare for that endless state which has been spoken of by us, which is after the resurrection of the dead."
So I'm definitely saddened when people reject the gospel, because it means they're rejecting their best chance at the most eternal happiness. BUT that scriptures only limitation is that time is up when we are resurrected. Sometimes people need a few goes around for it to finally stick. We can do that in this life. Sometimes people need more chances, and because God is a merciful god, we have that as well. I testify that " the Plan of Salvation is not a level playing field. It's favors you. It favors not only your success but the success of each and every one of God's children. Everything has been organized to maximize your opportunity to succeed. ("The Fourth Missionary", Lawrence E. Corbridge)"
God wants to help us. And he will when we ask. I leave this my testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
-a typical bike ride waiting for the snake to cross.
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