Week 14: One month in Thailand in the books

Week 14: 1 month in the books

ทุกคนที่ผมรักมากฯเลย. ผมอยู่ทั่วประเทศไทยเดือนหนึ่งแล้ว. ผมเรียนรู้มากจากประสบการณ์นี้ตัวอย่างเช่นคนไทยใจดีและการรับไช้เป็นสิ่งที่สำคัญ. มันให้ช่วยผู้คนรู้ศึกความรักของพระเจ้า. 

Wow time flies by because  this week I reached my one month mark in country. I've already experienced so many amazing things and can't believe I still have about 2 years of incredible experiences to come. 

So this week started off with a Zone Conference. Monday night we packed up and headed to Chiang Mai for our Zone Conference which is only 3 hours away, so it wasn't too bad at all. We got to stay at this sweet hotel with American and Thai breakfast. For Zone Conference we had Elder Homer, who is an Area Seventy in Asia. The meeting was so so good and we talked a lot about how we can become the most effective missionary. Something I really liked was that we need to talk with everyone because God puts them in our path at a specific time and place for us to open our mouths. It doesn't matter most times what we say if they have been prepared. Later that day we got to meet with this guy who is about to be in the supreme court here in Thailand. He’s been a judge for 33 years and knows one of my companion’s friends so he took us out to dinner. We ended up giving him a Book of Mormon, too, and he said he would read it. Then we got back to Chiang Rai late on Tuesday night. 

Chaing Mai

Robert - the Missionary

With the guy that is about to become a Supreme Court Judge in Thailand

Wednesday morning we visited sister เก๋ who we hadn't seen in so long since she had been out of town. She told us she didn't need to belong to any religion or church. She is the one who said she has magical powers and has the ability to heal people. Also she has been having visions and intense dreams. Well anyways she says she shouldn't join any church because God has given her this gift so she can be available to help all people in need. We shared a couple of scriptures with her explaining the importance of being a member of Christ’s church but we were respectful, too. I'm not sure what's gonna happen there but we shall see. The saddest thing happened on Wednesday though. This amazing guy we are teaching told us he was moving. This was เบิร์ด, who was the strongest of the people that we were teaching. He had problems with smoking but had a 10 week plan to get over his smoking addiction. He needs to go back to his moms home to take care of her, but there is no church there. We hope he returns back soon so he can feel the joy of being a part of this church. 

เติร์ด, the person we met last week that cried after we bore our testimony, accepted a baptismal date. She is so sick and has a lot of faith. I'm so grateful God put her in our path. 

We got to teach these two referrals from a recent convert. One was from Myanmar and speaks no Thai, so we taught in English - because he knows English. It was a little weird to be talking in English (not gonna lie). The other friend had been to church and had read a lot out of the Book of Mormon. He understood everything we taught so well and I think he will be baptized pretty soon. It's pretty amazing when these Thai people are able to understand and humble themselves and accept our simple but unique message about Christ. 

Lastly, waking up Saturday we walk out our door and there are bananas and snacks on our handlebars and a note. That was so nice!!!  It was from someone we taught once right when I got in country. She said that her daughter had moved to Japan and took the Book of Mormon we left her. Her daughter had apparently been reading it a lot and really enjoyed reading it. However, her mom wanted another copy of the Book of Mormon, so we rushed over there to give her one before going to the bus station to go back to Chiang Mai. We went to Chaing Mai again for a district area conference where I got to see everyone in my zone again and like all the members from Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai. There were so many people I was shocked! The church is so strong here.  All in all I got to talk with and hear people talking Thai non stop for like 10 hours on Saturday and Sunday. It was awesome!

This has been another great week and I appreciate all the support from all of you! You all are awesome and I miss you all. 

Love 

Elder Lowe 

เอ็ลเดอร์โลว์