I'm over white people

February 25th, 2019
1 year, 9 months
Thailand, Isan, Udornthani Ward 

samuel.montague@myldsmail.net

 I hit my 100 day mark (days before I return home) this past week. Tragic. 

I interviewed the girlfriend of this old white guy member for baptism. It was a great experience of sharing testimony and teaching gospel truths except for 2 moments. Her boyfriend interrupted our interview to let me know I was taking too long and that I should ONLY be asking the questions and not teaching or talking about anything else. Afterwards, in letting him know why she was needing to postpone the baptism, he repeated everything he said before with the source that "he knows how these things go. He has done this before." 😐 It took every ounce of patience I had to respond politely and not explain how inappropriate he was being. 

We had a stimulating zone conference focusing primarily on working with the members! I had the fun privilege of translating the entire meeting into Thai. It was a weird experience of not even needing to think about it (as it was a missionary event of missionary trainings, I have all of my missionary vocab down so it was easy). I've really come a long way in my language. 

My interview with President Hammond was all about our English program. It is a way we are able to provide a great service to these people, which also helps introduce many people to the church! We've already improved a lot of stuff with how we are running the program,  but President is having me help with some more upcoming changes that is drawing on a lot of skills I've developed! I'll write more next week as they play out. 


I'm grateful for how much I've changed on my mission, for the things I've learned, and the better perspective on life that I've acquired. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Time makes me uncomfortable

Image
May 20th, 2019 11 days remaining Thailand, Isan, Udornthani Ward  samuel.montague@myldsmail.net This week has been spectacular! I don't know why or for what reason, but the Lord has decided to bless us with a few miraculous days. We have been given more than plenty of food in times of need, people have stopped  us  and asked us about religion and English class (which is growing so fast!).  Some of the people we teach that we have been working with have opened up their hearts and are committed to change and life is just amazing! It still hasn't gone through my soul that I will be leaving Thailand next week. It causes anxiety in the moments I think about it, but I have found myself so much- discovered who I am and what makes me happy- that it is hard to think of myself not being here. Maybe I said this all last week, but it is also scary to leave a role I am now comfortable in. This upcoming week is going to be uber crazy. It is my last full week, so I a...
Read more

Poo talk (*SFW*)

Image
May 6th, 2019 26 days remaining Thailand, Isan, Udornthani Ward  samuel.montague@myldsmail.net what a week this has been First off, we had zone conference. President came up  a little bit early and he  loves  going and teaching with us. He was a little more specific in who he wanted to visit this time, but it can sometimes be a little difficult to plan With Pres Hammond when President Hammond comes, because the schedule always gets wonky. There are always surprise meetings and phone calls and he takes a hot second when meeting with people. But he truly is a great example in teaching and it is a privilege to learn so close to him. Zone conference was pretty good. Last transfer's was a downpour of doctrine, this time was a more typical instructional set of trainings. Included is a list of gathered quotes. I was entertained. I gave my testimony, it being my final zone conference. :( sad as realizing my time here is coming to an end. We had a ...
Read more

อาจารย์ คิ้ว

Image
November 19th, 2018 1 year, 5 months, 4th week Thailand, Bangkok, Thonburi Ward samuel.montague @myldsmail.net (I would love to hear from you) During District Council this past week, one of the sisters made a profound statement. In discussing zone conference from the previous Saturday, Sister Christensen said that we can't truthfully love missionary work without loving all of the aspects of missionary work. One of the least desirable parts of being a missionary is going out and inviting or tracking for large periods of time. To us, it is highly ineffective, it is physically draining, emotionally trying, we face much rejection and we often do hours of it at a single time. How fortunate that we were able to try out loving the part for a 5 hour block on Wednesday 555. With a   determination to love it, I went out to make that chuck of time a fun and positive chunk of time. We made up a list of almost 50 different goals of things to say or do to start a conversation. We made i...
Read more