Bangna Letter--September 15, 2014

Well hello family. How is everyone doing? I really like the pictures of the 13 siblings plus spouses. (Dad and his siblings had a sibling-and-spouse reunion this past weekend.) It's great timing that you had the reunion around Grandma's birthday. What an amazing birthday gift for her. Yesterday we talked to our RCs about eternal families. It's sooo cool that we get to be a family forever. Such a huge blessing.

This week has been good. 

B. Earth was baptized yesterday. That in and of itself was a miracle. He did a lot of soul searching beforehand. But after he was baptized, he told me he felt so clean. He said that ever since he was a kid, he was scared of punishment. He never knew about forgiveness. He used to think that if he had already made a mistake in life, he was going to hell, and that there was no way to be clean again. If that was the case, he reasoned it was better to be bad all the way and do whatever he wanted because he was going to hell anyway. Then he learned about the Gospel, about Christ, about the Atonement, about God's love. He learned about repentance and forgiveness. He has never felt so clean before. He's like a little brother...or son. He's 17 so...little brother. :) He is sooo good. 

Mom, to answer your question about Julie's friend Yok—we met once but after that I haven't been able to get a hold of her. She wasn't answering the phone or talking to me on Facebook. So... yeah. She lives about an hour away from the church so that might have something to do with it. She has had some amazing experiences in the past though so I definitely know that in the future she will accept it. The question isn't "if?" but "when?". 

We are working a lot more with members now. Before, us missionaries were doing a lot on our own—the majority of our converts came from our own efforts. Recently we have received some training that said it shouldn't be that way—we need to work more with members to find people to teach. We must be balanced in all things. It's going well. 

Delsa, so when I go back to college, can Rachel teach me Chinese? haha :) But seriously. I think learning Thai has made me want to learn a lot of langages—French, Chinese, Russian (?), etc. 

I feel like I had things to talk about but I forgot. Oops. 

Transfers are this Thursday. We find out today or tomorrow if we are moving or staying. I have been here for 5 months so everyone thinks I am moving. I, frankly, am doing my best not to guess because I'm sure God will not tell me. There is literally no reason to guess because 1, I highly doubt God will tell me because I don't need to know, and 2, I can't reason what the answer is because sometimes God likes doing things that most people would think isn't reasonable. haha :)

One of our RCs is leaving for Japan tonight. It will be really really really weird not seeing him all the time like usual. 

um....

yeah...

what else?

Delsa asked what I'm studying about. This past week I've been studying a lot of B. Earth's questions. Today I studied two of Elder Holland's talks: The First Great Commandment (Oct 2012) and the one from this past conference (April 2014) about discipleship. I would really suggest reading these talks. They are REALLY good. :)

Also, carving fruit? nope. I eat a lot of fruit but no carving. Just eating. :)

Yeah. I got nothing else really. Um...

We are having a lot of fun. Sister Uttamakul and I are having a lot of fun together. Lots of craziness. 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!! =D