Personal best friends with a general Authority แปลว่าอะไร?
June 10th, 2018
1 YEAR, 2 weeks
Thailand, Bangkok, Minburi Ward
samuel.montague
"And again, by way of commandment to the church concerning the manner of baptism—All those who humble themselves before God, and desire to be baptized, and come forth with broken hearts and contrite spirits, and witness before the church that they have truly repented of all their sins, and are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end, and truly manifest by their works that they have received of the Spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins, shall be received by baptism into his church." - D.C. 20:37
I am so happy and excited to announce that we have several investigators nearing those qualifications for baptism, as outlined in the verse above. We have two particularly, บ. แซม & บ. มัว, that look to be on track to be baptized by their goal, this upcoming Sunday. We have a few other people that might be baptized on that date, or they might be baptized in the coming weeks. We set a pretty ambitious baptismal goal for this transfer together, but I really believe we might be able to achieve it. It'll be cutting it close, but I think we can do it.
This week I had the awesome opportunity to play with some little baby kittens, and to play with some puppies. Most of the time there are animals everywhere, but they're mostly really gross, and old. So it's always a treat to come upon innocent young little animals that are loving and wanting to play.
This week it has also been raining away ton. Something that I noticed as it was raining a few days ago, is that it comes out of nowhere, and it goes so hard and Furious and there's just so much wind and rain. I thought it might be a tornado a few times. I think it's very interesting, that it rains in this pattern. But yeah, it's raining season! And it is living up to its name. Thankfully, I have been in shelter every time it starts pouring, so I haven't had to be drenched yet this season. It's happened to me two or three times previously on my mission.
This week is also been a week of Miracles! It seems like I go back and forth between not having enough time to meet with our investigators in our people, and then having too much free time left over and trying to fill that time. At our last Zone conference, the assistance to the president introduced a weekly planning calendar. I've kind of used similar methods before, but I'm very excited to use this one. And the weekly planning session, we can pencil in appointments that we want to have at times that we think are most likely. This takes off a lot more stress, because I have them planned out, and I just need to confirm an actually set the appointment. But now I'm not having to live with an entire week of blank schedule. It has reduced my stress.
Other Miracles include all the new and potential investigators we've gotten. I'm not a big fan of going out and inviting, just because it is not the most effective thing. I prefer to invite as we're going to lessons or around lesson times, instead of scheduling Off 2 or 3 hour blocks to go through a neighborhood and try and find people it tends to be more effective. As I have done that, we have found some pretty solid and interesting people that I'm excited to teach. I've also been applying something from another Zone conference where I envisioned them with the angle. I envisioned them dressed and ready and happy at taking their baptismal photo. And this is helped me have patience and share love when they might not seem the best at first.
But, this week we have gotten the most investigators or potential investigators through activities. We have just had a lot of new people showing up to activities, and me and my companion have been hopping on that. We have picked up former investigators that decided to come back to activities, we've picked up referrals from other investigators that decided to bring their friend and their friends family. And we've also found a few families through our activities. It has just been a very exciting time of meeting new people, and I'm so excited to share my love with them too.
This weekend has also been stake conference for the Bangkok stake. We have had the fortune of Hosting president David F Evans, the president of the Asia area presidency. Accompanying him, we're president and sister Johnson, and another General Authority from Indonesia. I'm not even going to attempt to type his name. We had a Saturday evening session at our church, and then we went to a very nice Conference Center at a hotel for the Sunday General Session. The Saturday evening one touched my heart, because both president Evans and sister Johnson talks about how little time the Johnsons have left. They leave at the end of this month. And they were talking about how much they would miss everybody, and the love that they have felt and shared with everybody, and just how amazing they've done(President Evans has served as a Mission President in Japan about 30 years ago, so he was relating ehat they are going through). And it just made me realize that however excited I might be to go back home and see my family, to continue learning, too be a normal person of society, that I am going to terribly miss being a missionary. I have recently posted on Facebook about how much I have grown and changed, and that is true. I feel so much love as best as I can understand in my young 20 years of life for the Thai people. I know I have another year with him, which I'm so excited for. But I also know that that year is going to pass by quicker than I think. That all too soon I will be leaving them, to return once in a Zenith. And that made me a little sad. My heart hurt a little bit. Also hurt to know that the Johnsons are leaving.
Aside from that, here are some fun stories from the week :
- my hair is a bit long, and I knew I was going to see at least one General Authority, so I got a haircut. Except we very conveniently have like three hair clippers in our apartment, and it was late at night. So I gave myself my first haircut ever. It actually turned out pretty decently, and I had one of the other missionaries do my Edge on the back of my neck. It looks pretty nice, up until I decided to try and give myself a fade. I don't know what I was thinking, because the lighting was terrible, I was tired, I had one mirror I was working with and it was covered and dilapidated and I couldn't really see clearly with it. But I decided to try and give myself a fade. I did it, and then I showered and went to bed. I woke up in the morning and I checked out my handiwork, and there was a line in my hair. I was mortified. So I just evened it all out and always made little bit better.
- on Saturday our district had interviews with President Johnson, as he was coming to our church. While we were waiting, we were studying and one of the rooms. Well I am sitting in a chair, casually leaning against the wall, and for some strange reason I found two 1 Baht coins on the ground, and I decided to put them on my face underneath my eye, because they stuck there and I don't know I'd like the feeling of having money on my face I guess. Well I'm casually reading and studying off of my phone, leaning against the wall on two legs, and the stake president comes in. I sit upright, correctly, in my chair, and I greet the stake president. And then I see President Evans. He is pretty high up there. And I stood up very quickly, I brush the money of my face, and I was a little embarrassed. I went over and I shook his hands. He did not notice it? I don't know, but he didn't say anything.
- speaking of President Evans, I did communicate with him like three separate times over the course of this weekend, and we had some pretty good physical contact via our hands. So I guess you could say things are going pretty good. Guess you could say we were like best friends or something. This is my second time seeing him in Thailand, as he came through in my third transfer. He's so funny, when he came through for us he roasted all of us as missionaries, and now in state conference he was roasting the members a little bit and it was just way too funny in the nicest way. He wasn't mean and nobody's feelings were hurt, but everybody was definitely laughing.
- so we went by to an investigator that I haven't met in my time here, but my companion still wanted to go teach. We got to his house right as he got to his house. He was like, oh sorry can't meet right now. I'm a little busy maybe another day. And then he gave us a giant mango. As if to try and bribe us to go away. It kind of worked, but we came back another day. I love Thai people and how เกรงใจ they will get.
That's about all I have from Thailand this week. If any of y'all ever decide to go vacation Thailand, make sure to hit me up. I just felt like I should throw that out there.
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