Tuesday, September 24, 2013

English Class Last Night

Tuesday nights the missionaries teach an English class. This picture was taken last night. Thank you Kunnikar!

ขอบคุณ ขอนแก่น Thank you Kohn Kaen!

ขอบคุณสำหรับความเมตตาและน้ำใจที่มีให้กับเอ็ลเดอร์พรอกเตอร์และครอบครัวของดิฉันนะคะ ขอบคุณที่ช่วยให้เขาและพวกเราได้รู้จักกับขอนแก่นและสมาชิกที่นั่นมากขึ้น ขอบคุณสำหรับทุกๆ ข้อความและรุปภาพทุกรูป พวกคุณจะเป็นส่วนหนึ่งในจิตใจของดิฉันตลอดไปค่ะ
Thank you for your kindness to Elder Proctor and his family. Thank you for helping him and us get to know Kohn Kaen and its ward members better. Thank you for your kind words and pictures. You are part of my heart forever! 
 

Unexpected Transfer....... ลาก่อน Kohn Kaen

We received some unexpected news from Thailand today. Elder Proctor has been transferred. It all happened from one day to another. I received a rather sweet message from one of my friends there via Facebook. She said:' I got a message from Elder Proctor that he'll move to other ward ward today. Don't have time to see him and say thank you and good-bye because because I am working the night shift.:-( But I just want you to know that he's a good, lovely, funny and awesome missionary." Mayura

We of course won't hear from Aaron until Monday, until then we have to be patient and wait to hear where he is serving now. Regular transfers are not until Mid- October, so it came as a surprise to the people of Kohn Kaen as well as us. As a mom, I have been extremely blessed by the members of his ward in Kohn Kaen. I feel like I have met some amazing people thanks to him that have enriched my life so very much.

SO, with some sadness we say good-bye to the people of Kohn Kaen and we know that the day will come when we will meet them in person!


Here is the mail that he sent this week.......
 This was a kinda disheartining week, because we had planned to have a baptisim this past Saturday, well it did not happen.... Elder Susi had a moment of revelation a prompting, I had felt this thought cross my mind before..... but, he called the guy up one day before his interview and asked him if he had more women on the side..... and the guy kinda did a hearty laugh and said that he has three wives!!! ( the funny bone in my head wants to tell him....did you tell the guy we are not that kind of church anymore...)Uhmm so yeah we kinda had a little freakout and called the zone leaders and told them to not come to Khon Kaen to interview him. yeah... After that we received a call from the Branch President asking why he was not getting baptized.... yeah it was tough to tell him that. Then after that we kinda went to bed super bummed out and we woke up to a whole week of rain. Today is the first day that I have seen the sun! 
It was a tough week but just through being diligent we have been able to get three new investigators with all three having a date! I challenge you to be nice mother HOHO! I love you super much! It was a tough week, If anyone i know in the states falls away i will come to their house and bring them back to church! So last week you asked if any missionaries are in Phuket only the APs go there once a transfer because we actually have a unit there with investigators there! A unit is where the area has 6 Melchizedek priesthood holders. So maybe we will send missionaries there some time! 
We are in need of prayers for new stakes we are so close!!(More stakes means a better chance for a temple)The work still moves on. We are hopefully getting two more elders here soon! !  Elder Susi is a way fun companion. He has a lot of wisdom for me to learn from! He keeps me on my toes!!  Sounds like Thailand right now.(Todd mentioned all the rain we have been having) It rains all day long it is a nuisance!! Satan wants us to stay in the house and not work, it's crazy!! But we go out on the pouring rain looking for the peolpe with a broken smile, and ask  them if we can stay a while and they say ... we will learn!! 

Friday, September 20, 2013

Family Home Evening in Thailand



Playing a game- impersonating animals- Aaron is a turtle, his companion a snake....
The pictures were sent to me via Facebook by on of the members in Kohn Kaen. The Elders were over at her house for Family Home Evening. What a fun Friday surprise!

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Going Forward in Faith!

Well this week has come and gone, it is way crazy how much the weeks fly by!My week has been hectic! just trying to get back up on our feet and bring people unto Christ! We have struggled a lot the past week but you know what through trails we are polished and refined and become a better person in the long run ENGLISH HARD! I am still giving you all the Stink eye!! (about our trip....) But whatever!! I hope you have a wonderful time in the land of the Swiss!  
Thank you for fasting for us it really means a lot!! I myself am doing great!! The work though is tough. There are aprox. 380+ members in Khon kaen, and we are only getting about 12%  of those people! We have a lot of work to do here! Yeah we are focused on reactivation because baptisms are great, but what is the point of putting fresh blood into the body if a limb is missing?First fix the damaged limb all the while putting fresh new blood in ! That is what we are focused on. I guess it is to bring people back to Christ, but all the while bring people unto Christ and the waters of baptism!   

Don't worry I will pray, but you my dear mother must act in faith! (well my anxieties and such,,,,,,)I love you so much!!! I recommend you visit Hamburg Opi!  I pray for you always. Don't do anything I wouldn't do!! (which means no street clothes, only Sunday best for the time you are there!! ;D) My testimony has grown by watching people in the branch start believing in us more!

 Dad when I get back we will hunt for that kinda of car to rebuild it and make it awesome! Oh come on! Old cars breaking down, that is the best part. It gives the car spirit and quirk! I have actually finished training early(missionary training). So yeah I am ready to train people!!! It's awesome!!~ haha Elcamino taxi would have been a sight to see! It would probably suck to be in it though!!   I usually eat the fish that looks like it has been burned and then covered  with salt. It's ok just salty and weird eating a fish with your hands!! ) Make sure to make the neighbors go wow!!! (Halloween lights on the house...) I love you so much and you are super awesome I love ya!
Elder Proctor


Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Elder Gong, Asia Area President


Elder Gong, the Asia Area President, was in Thailand for District Conference and wanted to share this picture of your missionary and companion. Elder Proctor is a wonderful missionary and Sister Senior and I love working with him. Thank you for sharing your son with us.

President and Sister Senior

Operation DinoThunder.....


 
So the past week I have ridden through a flood! The water was pouring over my feet while I was riding my bike!! It was way crazy! The Man with no body does not want us to find this LA! (They have been looking for a less active member for awhile). We do English class every Tuesday without fail; unless no one shows then we kinda are at a loss! It's ok I guess people in Thailand expect you to give them the answers! Any suggestions to get the class more pumped up and excited?

Our Investigators are good they just do not care to meet with us when we set up appointments and whatever, but they want to meet when we are not open. It's way tough to deal with! We at the moment have two daters who are going strong at the moment!  Right now we have a plan to bring less active members back and it is called "Operation DinoThunder" (For those that don't know it s a Power Rangers thing!) Ahww yeah! Mom "script" is the the easy part. It is thinking in Thai that is the Hard part! (I had told him that I had learned how to count to 10 in Thai and had also told him that I would never be able to read the script)Yes, we use military time!

Not much happened this week. except it rained on us almost the whole week. (My Thai Facebook friends had complained about the excessive rain as well.) We were looking for less active members  the whole time. Finally, then we gave  a way great lesson to a less active member and he will be coming back!  Of course Raquel would wear the Tie! That is tooo good!!! Sweet! (Raquel wore the tie that boys have been wearing at her farewell. She did it in such a fashionable manner. I loved it).
Yeehaw! They sell Doritos,  Cheetos... the works here! The Doritos I was eating were Extra Barbecue chips.They were spicy and delicious!!! (This was in response to our asking him if he was eating Doritos in the pictures we posted last week....) Ohh that's way nice of them!! Tell the youth that this church runs on service.  Just think if you were in a bad position, wouldn't you want some help?(The youth are doing serve projects this week)
Working with Elder Susi pushes me out of my comfort zone because we do door to door instead just off the street like I am used to! But all is well! We do that every day except Mondays so we can relax a little longer! Craziest food I have eaten lately.... that would be hard to put in perspective, but at the moment it would have to be Chicken Feet. It was way doughy, I thought I was eating a piece of soaked chicken in a biscuit! I like to drink soy milk! The milk here is so good! The milk I like to drink is banana milk it is so delicious! It tastes like  a creamy popsicle

Don't let the small problems of the world drag you down! In the words of Batman and Alfred Insert your name if you wish! "Bruce why do we fall? To learn how to pick ourselves up!" That is how has been the whole week helping people learn to pick themselves up! I will work as hard as I can this week!!!! 

In his very first email home from Thailand, Aaron mentioned that there were small geckos that screeched loudly- in fact the screech reminded him of the raptors in Jurassic Park.
He finally send a picture of the ferocious beast....

Monday, September 2, 2013

ความกตัญญู Gratitude

Today I am thankful for wonderful members in Thailand who are blessing our missionary and us. Thanks to them I have pictures of our missionary. I also am thankful for e-mails that allow Elder Proctor to get mail in a quick manner. Speaking of which, I am also grateful for family and friends who stepped up to the plate and wrote Elder Proctor this week! Thank you! I also have gratitude for knowing that he had a much better week and that he once again sounds great. He has been on his mission for 4 months now-which equals 1/6 of his mission. As I pointed this out to him, he told me that it was going by way too fast- thanks to a quick email that was sent while he was writing us. So here it is....

Dear mother, I have noticed a explosion of E mails in my mail box hmmmmmmI wonder..... It was a very fruitful week but it was a hard week.Nonetheless, we got a lot of work done .I will give a rundown of the past week.......
 
Mon. It was a stressful P-day. We gave a blessing to someone's mom as I mentioned last week. Then we went home and just relaxed.  Then we were called by one of our investigators and he took us to eat Cay Food which is Vegan food it was gross! but i mustered my Iron Stomach and ate it as fast as i possibly could! Then we went and had a spiritual moment of ultimate proportion with a recent convert. It was way awesome.
Tues. We had a way spiritual District meeting and then we hit a wall....  Nothing happened. We prayed like every fifteen minutes for guidance, but zip. It was just a test of faith and diligence!
Wed.went and found where one of our investigators lives and taught her an AWESOME LESSON. Then to reward ourselves we went and ate at Swensons, a amazing ice cream place.
Thurs. The APs came and we went on a switch off and I learned how to become more bold in my inviting
Fri.  We had another switch off with two elders for for five hours. In those five hours we go two numbers,  taught 3 others lessons and then had an appointment with a less active member, who is now going to come to church.
Sat. Traveling to the district conference
Sun. District conference! The conference we had was way awesome!! We had 24 Melchizedek priesthood brethern ordained.  It was way sweet!!! Elder Wuu and Elder Gong were there. They are pretty sure we will have a stake soon!! It is way exciting!
A little side note here..... There are several districts in Thailand, but only one stake. The hope of the members is to eventually get a temple. In order for that to happen more members need to be active- so a temple can have people serving in it. At the moment they belong to the Hong Kong Temple district. The only way to get there is via plane. This is often near to impossible for the members. They were first promised a temple by Pres. Hinckley when he visited in 2000. This year Elder Andersen, one of the apostles, reiterated Pres. Hinckley's promise. One of the missionaries felt that it was not an if but a when they would have a temple. Wouldn't that be great!

Thailand has many different dialects and stuff! where I live is called the Issan (which means south) Yeah it is like I live in the deep south  of America! :-) 
So basically this week was pretty good! It's a tough thing..... that is why it is called a Mission...

He seems so much happier this week. His companion said in his letter home that both he and Aaron were taught by the other missionaries and that it was very helpful. I think they are both great kids with a zest for life and a love for the people. 

It seems that many of the people of their ward drove down to the conference together. I am assuming that the missionaries stayed with other Elder in the city of the conference. And it looks like Aaron found Doritos.... I had to laugh at the reaction of one of the members about Doritos....kinda reminded me of my reaction to rootbeer..... 





Conference and Doritos.......