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Fun First Days....

With Elder Gage his new companion

Hello Bangkok.....Bangkapi Ward.......Brokenhearted for Kumpawapi April 27

Thanks to some special friends we found out that Elder Proctor really would be transferred this time around. His District President(similar to Stake President) sent this sweet text...
"As you know he will move from Kumpawapi, after serve there for a long time. All member in Kumpawapi will miss him, include District President hahahaha. I was once who met him when he was a new missionary in Khonkaen. He's a good missionary and love people that he serve thank you for your good example." How sweet! Elder Proctor served in Kumpawapi for 8 months. He really got to know the area well. He loved the people there and in the end there was heartache. After about a year of having missionaries in Kumpawapi the missionaries were pulled out. Elder Aaron found out about this during the transfer meeting. It caused him some heartache. We first found out about this from our friend Kenny. We also got this message from his now former District President,"Yes he loves that branch so much, missionary there told me that he was crying when he know that they will close missionary in that area."

So here is his update........

So, this past week was a whirlwind truly! The Kumphwapi area is closed until further notice. I don't know when it will open again for missionaries.. The reason being is, we do not have enough missionaries to serve there anymore. We dropped from 175 missionaries to 145. We are down a few.... (The mission office always puts together a slide show with transfers....this is how the missionaries find out where they are going and who they serve with......and this is what happened...)

It as upsetting, President Senior didn't show anything about Khumps and I shouted, "hey what about Khumps?" He said, "well come and riot about it, because I can't do anything about it"- (now this is exactly how Aaron write it...he could not figure out how to say it in English and that was the closest he could come up with...). Then the elder, who opened that area,  was like...." so we opened it up for nothing..." I then shouted again,"Hey you listen here, he did not open it for nothing!" Afterwards,  I went up and kinda cried while talking with President Senior. He was telling me all of the stuff that was going on and he was like.... "If you weren't up here doing what you are doing right now, I would be super worried and wonder what happened".  Elder Proctor then shared a private email he received from President Senior in which he was commended for his love for the people of Thailand- sweet enough to make a mom weep).
So, the elders in  Udorn come down to Khumps every like 3 days and take care of the people there

Yeah I  am smack dab in the city of Bangkok. I went from the heart of the country to the heart of the city. We are in a 4 elder house. We call ourselves the "Last Minute Eagles" because we got our eagles  the last second possible! I'm In place called Bangkapbi its the biggest and easiest ward in Thailand  I have been a missionary for a year! Yeah, rain its super great.... so yesterday it was the hottest day of the year -it was way hot! My comps name is Elder Gage he is from Springville, Utah and he is younger then me in the mission. He has been on his mission for 8 months. Quiet fun! Its' a blast! I am the senior comp, it's way weird!All in all there are six elders and two sisters in the ward. (Funny side note...one of the sisters and one of the elders were in his MTC district....the elder being his companion...Aaron has not been around that many missionaries at once- since leaving the MTC.)

Everything truly is just luxury really! I mean sure, we have rats running above us all night and centipedes in the drain hole which are super dangerous! We are going to leave that house soon!

You will here of my crazy adventures..... don't worry.... don't tell mom but I kinda live in the ghetto. We are moving out so we don't get killed by the centipedes, if they bite you you may die. (Yep, I get why he did not want me to hear that...after months of monkeys, snakes......wild boar.... now centipedes....)

So our bishop is a rock star! Really he is. He is way boss at singing and first day there we were singing a sweet rendition of "Where there is Love".

We are having a baptism this week. It's awesome! Her name is Sister......!

One of our recent converts is a former  soldier who is missing his arm and eye, He is a boss who was just confirmed. He has such a testimony- it's awesome!

(One more comment from his loving mom....according to Sister Stevenson, who served in Bangkapi for awhile, there have been 30 baptisms in the ward this year. Lucky for me, I had a bunch of pics of Aaron posted on Facebook from one of the members there....)
 

Aaron one year on mission- a video put together by Todd

Waterfights and Explosions..... April 20

Well this week was very fun! We started with the water fight. It was a toooon of fun! We were soaked the whole time. We were just spraying everything that moved. We filled an ice-cooler thing full of ice and water and just splashed the people that were around us. Needless to say they hated us when they got blasted with a ton of ice water. Then I would fill my water gun with the ice cold water and sprayed them with it. They did not like that at all.........It was a away crazy time so there was a road that we walked down we had buckets and this road was filled with cars and there were garbage cans filled with water. We would be walking down the street and just with our buckets take water out of the garbage cans and splash them, usually with ice water. Then people in the trucks would splash us with water as well. It was way fun! Then people had powder and they would come and put it on your face. It was awesome! After that it was just rainy everyday, which is weird, but it kept us safe from getting splashed with water, and then we would just get wet from the rain... but whatever.....

 

Then two days ago, we were at home and an EXPLOSION rocked our house. We ran out of the house after seeing a fireball erupt.... we saw..... that the transformer had blown up and fire was burning out of the the electric pole...  After awhile it burned itself out. It was a great night.... 40 degrees Celsius(104 Fahrenheit) in the house..... We were super hot. We were in a "perma" sweat. We woke and the power was still out. So, I took a shower in the baptismal font, yep in the font..... lol!

 

Things are going good! I am possibly leaving so we shall see......

This world is full of evil. There are 10 year olds sitting next to me yelling at each other and shooting each other. They waste their lives here, it's so sad. I am very blessed at this time, for I know through the atonement of Christ I can become like Father in Heaven.

I try every day, if i make one person smile -it's a good day. Time has flown by its very crazy! (This is in regards of his one year mark on May, 1st).I feel like I just got here yesterday!

Happy Thai New Year! Songkran!

Well this week has come and gone. It was a very interesting week. The whole time we were inviting and trying to get appointments for the next day. The only problem is, it's Thailand's New Year so everyone is like, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH its Songkran we are not available". So the whole week we were inviting people from Bangkok and the south-  Phuket and what not. Basically no one was interested..... but fear not..... this coming week will be even better. We will be getting people back! 

 

Yesterday was quite fun because Songkran had started and so everyone was throwing water on us as we were biking by and trying to get us to stop, so they could wipe icy hot stuff on our face. Needless to say, we did not stop! We had a group of girls form a wall to stop us .....we played a game of chicken. Elder  Jensen and me on bikes with them forming a wall............ we won!

They scattered liking bowling pins.  It was way funny to see. I was not going to stop and have 15 year "olds" grabbing my face. It's not what I had in mind! 

I am glad you all are having fun out in the big land of Utah! Well keep ....... in your prayers so she can get baptized and married.So some bitter news ...... did not get confirmed so she must be rebaptized. It kinda stinks- that has happened twice, but  you know what everyone has agency and they can choose to receive the Holy Ghost or not. I  know that God has a plan and that he is in control of all things and that this was meant to teach us something. I am so grateful for the Gospel Of Jesus Christ in my life!

 

A Grand Adventure April 7

I am doing fantastic so today we went out and adventured a way cool wat thing.(Wat is a Thai word for Temple or I think place of worship.) I will send loads of pics, so today my mail will be short. We spent the whole day today hiking and exploring new areas.  It was super fun. The District President took us out on an adventure. It was quite fun!

Yes, I know Elder Khanakam(The first Area Seventy from Thailand) I served around him in Khon Kaen. It's kinda way awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ITS HUGE!!!!!!

 

Well this week was another trial week, where we just hit the pavement running and go hard core. So Sister.... has to be baptized again because she did not get confirmed that was hard cookie to bite. It sucks. 

 

I have a way boss water gun its AWESOME!!!!(For the upcoming Thai New Year Songkran. It is a 3 day water festival that includes water gun fights. )Yeah! its going to be way great!  Spiritual highs of the week were the amount of praying I have done and the Lord humbled me a lot this week. It was well needed.

Today, I was busy scaling a mountain. ;P.

 

Happy Birthday! Look who's 20!!!!!

Holidays are always a bit more emotional since Aaron has left for his mission. Most of the time we are busy and time goes by really fast. The holidays are different. It is a time for family. He is missed very much during those occasions. Elder Proctor's birthday was no different. Once we realized that our package would not make it to him on time, we were a bit disheartened. Add Kenny into the picture. A native Thai who has met Elder Aaron and now lives in Anaheim, was scheduled to return for a vacation back in Thailand during the time of said birthday. He offered to take presents over with him. Not only did he do that, but he helped Aaron celebratee in fun ways. This included an outing to an ice skating rink, an ice-cream cake, and a compilation of birthday wishes, which he then printed up and put in a frame. To make this mom even happier he took tons of pictures and sent them to me. I am posting just a small fraction of them. Mr. Kenny is such a blessing to us!

 

A Falang who speaks Essan- must be a ghost....... March 30

It was a very tough week. We spent the whole time just talking to people who did not seem interested in what we had to say at all. It was tough, but I thought what would Christ do- and it helped me press on!! No baptisms..... but this week we will have baptisms!! It's going to be awesome! 

IT  IS SO FETCHING HOT!! 

Ice skating last week was super fun! Well I did not get the memo to wear regular clothes... (This is in reference to the fact that he was wearing missionary garb while ice skating...)Yeah,  I fell. It hurt a little. I slid and looked like a boss!! I opened everything up already!(Our friend Kenny delivered the presents to him and went ice skating and got him an ice cream cake. Because packages only get delivered on transfers, we knew that Aaron may not get any presents and then Kenny stepped up to the plate and truly helped us out).... because I like eating CEREAL!!  (We sent cereal with Kenny. It is really expensive in Thailand. Yeah it was way fun to hang out with him and just do fun stuff. It was a way awesome P day!

Well lets see fun story........

I was inviting and we decided to talk to this dude in the back of a truck. He looked at us and was like a crazy old man saying that we didn't know what we were talking about. I spoke Essan with him and he flipped out and probably thought I was a ghost because that's what happens here if you are white. They think you are a ghost!! (and of course the fact that the white kid spoke a Thai dialect with him)

 Our investigator is having a money problem and she is struggling to make ends meet. We told her with faith anything is possible. We passed her by yesterday and she said she had payed off some of her debts. She is now working to pay off her debts and get married so she can get baptized this weekend. I mean that's exciting right?

Don't take a temple for granted.  We are fighting so hard to get one here. We have to push hard and Satan pushes hard. It's very hard to get one here but we will do it!!

PIANO GUYS ARE  AWESOME!! Any hymns they play I can listen to now! 

Sorry this month my emails will most likely be shorter because in 2 weeks a WATER FESTIVAL IS COMING AND WE CAN GO PLAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!