Super short and to the point ..... November 23

It was a fun week. There was lots of walking and talking, as missionaries do. It was quite fun! I love walking and talking with those that are Thai. 

 

Well, super funny moment in church... the opening prayer was the Lord's prayer. It was really funny. As he starts, I am sitting there and as he starts it sounds somewhat similar to what I had read in the scriptures.... and well he said," Lord forgive us as we forgive our debtors"... and then it all clicked and I was taken aback.

You are telling me this year has sailed by. Before I even know it, I will be in a plane.... aghh.
Time flies here! It's super fun!

I love my comp. He is a awesome! It's a very fun time serving with him. I love this work. It's the Lord's work and it is to bring them back to the fold.

 

Adventures of the week..... well, we had a wild pig the size of a cow appear by the church. The beast was massive! Well lets see what happened that was super exciting hmm...... well I ate blood-filled food... I also found out that I  cannot eat squid. It makes me super sick,,,,,,
 

This week was a week of going out and hunting down those that are lost already and finding those that are ready.We went and invited as hard as we could. We were striving to achieve a goal of having 100 at church well we fell short 35 people. Ouch!

 

I have slowly come to the conclusion why I am here in Attuyaha. There are a few families here that I have known since Kumpahwapi. I am here to bring them back. I am also here to help out this white  man and his wife come back.  They are a fantastic family. He was a soldier and told us that God has sparred him to be here to help the work in Thailand. He was blown up once, was shot 5 times through many wars and he was bayoneted. 

 

I am here in Thailand only for a short time now. I have so little time now its not even funny. I am not looking forward to coming home and facing the real world and all its darkness. I am so close to finishing. Christmas is almost here. This month is almost over. It's scary. I don't want to see the evilness in this world. I have started to realize  that I need to focus more on bringing those back that have strayed from the path. It's not good to leave the fold.If you leave you may never come back, unless you have help from the Lord and help from members.

I love this work. I know it to be true.

Elder Khanakam's visit- a true inspiration November 16

HELLO!

Hahah yeah I was going to mention it(just the minor detail that he had a camera crew follow him and his companion, Elder Howard around while they were talking to people on the streets of Bangkok.... )but I forgot sorry! It was quite fun. I really liked it to be honest .... I felt famous lolz ....that's why I am in Ayutthaya  to be a secret ninja! Hahah

People serving missions its the best! It makes life so super duper!! AAHHAHAHAHAH I am so glad Spencer is going on a mission. Miracles happen when you believe and have the faith to do it!

It was a way good week- well actually a very tough one- but ended very well. This past Sunday Elder Khanakam, who is a very good friend of mine ,(he is the Thai seventy) came and surprised our branch with a visit. I got to teach with him WOOAH! It was super fun. I had flashbacks to when I was a "greenie" with him in Khonkaen, He has a power around him. He is an awesome man. We spent the whole day talking with him and him teaching us. Oh so much fun, feeling the spirit and YEAHH!!!! 

Sister Khanakam, his wife, had me share what it feels like to see someone change.

We were sitting in a branch counsel when she asked me to do that and I shared it with the members. The spirit was so strong there. It was an amazing experience. I felt the spirit literally burning n me like a fire  oh so cool! Elder Khanakam told the ward council that he wants us to be a ward by December 30.

The miracle of the week..... so 2 weeks ago our cellphone was destroyed by water while an investigator was calling it. We still have no clue how it happened.  Anyhow, the phone did not save her number and last week she did not come to English class. We had no way of contacting her. So on Wednesday Elder Beebe is like,  "Hey lets walk to the church to teach a Recent Convert", and I'm like...OK.. We get to to the church teach the recent convert. We finish teaching her at about 8:50 pm, so we close up the church and walk back. It's about 9:10pm when all of the sudden we hear someone shouting," ELDER ELDER!!!" We turn around and see this investigator pulling up in her car. She then asked if she could give us a ride and we told her no. But we were so excited to see her because we hadn't seen her in like 2 weeks. We got her phone number and sprinted home WOOAH!  MIRACLE! I LOVE THE GOSPEL!

Aaron on Thai TV. He can be seen throughout the show.

Going up the mountian holding on to the iron rod...... November 9

Well my new area is a freaking funtastic. I love it! It's super fun. It is super fun to go and explore it. The members are super willing and they love us. Sorry that this email came so late. I went on   freaking crazy hiking today. It was awesome! We climbed up to the top of a mountain. It was a super cool similitude of life. There was a iron rod in the middle of the path and in the beginning I didn't rely on it. But as the going got harder I would rely on it more and more until i was using it to heave myself up the mountain side as sweat was pouring down my whole body! As we came closer to the top we could see the gate to the wat and oh man it was a very happy time! We relied on the rod even more. As we all know the rod is the word of God (1. Ne 11:25).  In the begining you rely on yourself and as you go along in life you rely more and more on that word and core beliefs that push you on and on...That is my little soap box about the adventure 5555!

  

 (I am following a Facebook page called Unseen Thailand. I had just shared a picture of a special Buddha- unbeknowst to me- Aaron visited that very Buddha during that time....)

My new comp is just like me.... spunky crazy and super willing to go to work and bring those back into the Kingdom of God.The world is a very small place and it well has some fun things happen in it.

So this past Saturday I was basically swimming in a swamp, pushing lily pads out all day long it was nasty- mind you Iam in a boat yeah! We live in a 100 percent Buddhist place. It's very pretty and there are many wonderful things here. I ride my bike daily and there are 4 of us here. We have Elder Gandun and Elder Heiner, two people I really like a lot! We also have good food everywhere. It is super yummy! 

Transferred to Ayutthaya November 2

I have been transferred. I  am no longer in Bangkhae. I am in Ayuttya the the old capital of Thailand. It is super Buddhist probably about 250 Christians, yeah its gonna be great!

 

So this past week revolved around transfers. After I moved here, I went and helped  built a bridge in someone's backyard, got in a boat in the the pond that we built a bridge in and pulled out weeds while in a boat! Super fun! So yeah it was good! I went to church yesterday. We had like 48 people but the spirit was so strong in the room. I  felt like I was with a big family. It was super cool!  

 

Then we made the mistake last night of telling each other ghost stories and wooha bad idea when you are in a super funky spiritual area.  something was awry last night and none of us could sleep, so we sat and read Scripture's 555! We learned our lesson not to ever talk about ghost before bed because they are real and are out there WOOOH!

 

So this past Halloween was "meh" again nothing happened at all...  I just read wore a orange tie that was it!

This past transfer all of my sisters (MTC district) finished and I received the "death papers" (information for goal setting and getting ready to come home....) and I  am sad so I  have not read them yet! hahah I need to do it asap, but I don't want to because that means I will be a "dead" missionary super soon! AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH

 

I want to be a Mission President because of him. I will ask him how it is done! (This was in reference to commenting on how fun President Senior looked in one of the transfer meetings)

My comp had no idea that he was transferring so I had to wait 6 hours for him to get down to Bangkok and then we got in a car and drove 3 hour.  His name is Elder Beebe, he has been on his mission for 6 months There are ancient ruins everywhere her in Ayutthaya. There are wads(Buddhist temples) on  every corner. It's like ward buildings in  Utah- one on every corner.  Except Buddhist style! WOO! That was the week not much really happened.

 

 

A quick reminder October 27

When your missionary struggles-you struggle. I have always been so impressed with Aaron's positive attitude. There really only has been on email without any positive thoughts in it. Considering the fact that he has been on his mission for 18 months now, that is quite an achievement. The loss of the memory card was rough, October in itself was one of the harder parts of his mission for me. He worked so hard without any success. But then he sent this to us and I have to be honest, I bawled like a baby. To have such faith. What a blessing he is to his family.

"The Lord always is there through thick and thin. I love this gospel. It is the best news the world has to hear. Trials come our way to make us come closer to God to make us like him.
There is a quote I wrote inside my planner. It says "The key to know God is to struggle". I testify of the truthfulness of that quote. I struggle daily and I see how I have come to know God even more. I love these people and I see the flaws in myself that I can improve. I see how this world God created, is to help us become like him. To struggle is the only way to grow and fulfill our potential. Trials are the way to become perfect."

The Lord's hand is always there... October 27

Well today is Monday the 20th you will receive this the 19th..... we are time traveling. I am "calling" from the future you are from the past isn't it odd???!!!

I saw the preview for that movie on the churches website. It looks so cool!!!! i want to watch it so bad..  it's not even funny!  9 we went and saw the movie "Meet the Mormons" this past week)

Well, well, well... This week was so tough again... just another week in paradise we have been giving it our all and well- it's tough having no investigators!  BRIAN is soo freaking tall. OH sounds way fun. It just sounds like you kids had some way fun time together I am happy! (we went to San Francisco for 5 days in October)

Mum just remember that if you study your scriptures, pray, keep the Word of Wisdom, you will be able to receive blessings out the wazoo! 

Well it was  a very tough week of walking out of Bangkok and back into Bangkok. Yes that is  right. I  walked out of Bangkok into the city called "Genesis".  Nakhon Brathom is its name in Thai! 

Besides that we just were talking to everyone who had a face. They were very hard hearted. Heck, yesterday I almost got my face punched.... wooho! 

So what happened was that I invited this man who had just done crazy eyes to his wife. I invited him to learn more about the gospel. He got way upset and started yelling at me," No no no no!" and then I said in Thai you don't need to have bad manners about it. HE FLIPPED OUT! Staggered to his feet and started to come to me cussing. Then his wife intervened. She looked at me and said in English, "Sir sorry " then "switched to Thai to tell me that they had just been fighting. I looked at her and said that I was sorry and that I will pray for her. She stared crying and said,"God bless you."  Some days I hate being just a mere mortal man. It was a pretty tough week.

I have been enjoying training. It is quite a blast. To be honest, it helps me feel like I'm giving back to the Lord by training a new missionary and helping him be prepared for whatever comes his way. I feel like Elder Susi. I say a name of a missionary and Elder Howard has a blank look in his eyes. All my friends are "dead" (have finished their missions) and the sisters from my MTC district finish in like 2 weeks. It is so crazy! 

The work on our side appears to have hit a brick wall, but our district  itself is getting more and more baptisms. It's awesome! While we may not have success, we can still rejoice in the success of others.

The branch itself is still growing. Step by step... they are all so willing it's awesome.

The Lord's hand is always there. Guiding me and making sure I don't do dumb things a lot. He pushes me just enough to change and become someone better daily. It's awesome! 

The one where the memory card with all the pictures of his mission was lost...... October 19

(I am 6 weeks behind when it comes to updating Aaron's blog. I won't lie- October was a tough month for our missionary. He loved training Elder Howard and being a District leader. He really struggled with the fact that they could not find any new investigators.---And then he lost his memory card-it contained all the pictures of his mission. I won't leave you with a cliffhanger.... he never did find his memory card. We are all quite sad about it.)

Well this week was a very hard week, to be honest. It started out with me losing my memory card with all my pics from my mission. So I know it is silly to ask but will you pray that I can find that because it is very important. I need to print out some pics for A. I hope it will bring him back. (As sad as it has been that he has lost his memory card, I was really touched by the fact that his main concern was that he had hoped to print out some pics to help someone remember the good times they had had and to hopefully remind him of the importance of the gospel.)

Well it was a very hard week again. We had what appeared to have zero  success again. We had no one come to appointments again but oh well. We must do it all again this week and bring those that the Lord has prepared back to the fold.

Well, it rained pretty hard this past week. It was enough to cause the road by our house to flood with ankle deep water that was coming from the Khlong (sewer system).  Wohoo walking through that was quite fun! 

 When I think of this week, I feel it was so tiring. I am quite ready for a break !

General Conference... woot ....was super fun, but we still have not watched all of it. We still need to get to watch the Sunday morning session.

So I wrote questions down for conference and wow they were all answered. It was super cool to see! I knew the lord was watching over us and teaching us how to be better missionaries and just better people.

I  want to challenge the whole family to exercises because that is a commandment of God. Just go on a walk together as a family before dinner instead of just watching TV. Give it a shot!

Challenges they are never ending. It seems I always seem to be be challenged daily and I am a little worn out.  But I must press on and fight. J have become battle weary as the man of Antipus in the scriptures. But I know that the Lord is sending us reinforcements whether they be angels or new missionaries or even a seventy coming and lifting our spirits. We are in a great and glorious war that started in Heaven and is still continuing here on this earth. This war.... well we will win it because that's what we do as LDS members we bring the fight to the forfront 

I have met people that look at me and hate me for the name-tag that I wear. I kill them with kindness and then they feel silly for being so angry at me.

I love this work mom. It is the best job ever! It's tough, but we can do it!

Go forward in faith even if your shoes break.... Ocotber 11

This past week we were going hard all day and seriously I felt like we were doing everything we could do and well it was tough. I felt like I was back in Khonkaen again with Elder Susi.  No easy moments, always struggling to rise to the challenge because we are here to bring those who are ready to the gospel. You must find the light. You must have faith to rise up and become a true disciple of the Lord. Yeah that's how I feel right now.

"How glorious are the feet of those that proclaim the gospel... If you could see my shoes right now.... and you will see them... don't worry you will see them in 6 months or so... Oh yeah missionary life is the life of continuous growth and change. The world is so close to falling apart, it's not even funny. This world is so dark but the Lord is increasing the amount of light he is pouring out right now.

It took 30 min to get there ( His district went and visited a col wat-temple)It was away cool! It's pretty nice and I ran into a member from Japan there and talked to him about the gospel and asked him why he was here. He was studying , so yeah! 

Well our district goes hard all day every day. You're right I need to step back and see how far we have come. Because it is awesome to see how far we have come. I have seen myself change as well. Yeah 

that's life Jim!

I love the gospel. I know it to be the most true thing ever. I know with every fiber of my soul that iI cannot reject this glad message. It is to good. It is delicious and has changed my life for the better.

Oh yeah this past week Elder Howard baptized the sisters' investigator. He has been here for 2 weeks and he speaks Thai super well.  I think he is a champion!

Visiting a Wat (Temple) October 4th