WEEK 22 - DECEMBER 3, 2017 - SURIN

Hello family and friends!

Short week so not too much to report on. Still seeing miracles and loving being a missionary!

Last week I talked a little about Sister Thengmo (which means watermelon) We got to talk to her after English and set up an appointment and she is AWESOME! She has met with us everyday since and came to church and understand everything and is keeping all of her commitments. It's been so great teaching her. The Book of Mormon in Thai is really hard for people to understand but she tells us that when she doesn't understand she prays and she understands after that! It's so cool to see people that apply the gospel and then see how it positively affects their life.

Sister Supanni is progressing pretty well too. She cleared up her work schedule so she could come to church on Sunday and I think she enjoyed it. She always brings little sticky notes and marks her Book of Mormon whenever we read with her or she hears a scripture. It's so awesome! If she can gain a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon then she will for sure stay converted to the gospel.

This week I read an awesome talk given by a mission president called "The Fourth Missionary." If you're preparing to serve a mission I highly recommend that talk! I felt the Spirit so strong while reading it. It talks about how there are 4 types of missionaries. Types 1 and 2 are disobedient and don't gain anything from their missions. 3 and 4 are obedient but 3 doesn't turn himself/herself completely over to the Lord and therefore doesn't gain much from their mission and their mission doesn't change them. The 4th missionary completely turns his/her will to God and thereby is changed and has the spirit and benefits immensely from their mission. All it takes is turning our will to God and getting out of the way. I learned I need to turn my will completely over to God and let Him work through me.

Yesterday after church we went to visit and investigator named brother Lo. He lives really far away so we buckled in for a long ride. When we got to his house he called us and said "Actually I'm not home but you can come teach me in my rice field" so we did. His rice field was another far ways away but it was such a cool ride that we didn't mind too much. We taught him right in the middle of his field which was way awesome and he really loves the Book of Mormon which is great. The ride back was fun. We were both struggling because we had been fasting all day but it was really fun! Something I'll remember for sure. 

This morning before leaving we were listening to a talk by Elder Bednar. He talked about consistency and how when we consistently do the right things every day, even if they seem small, they will eventually amount to a strong testimony. That was a tender mercy for me because I have been wondering if my efforts are enough and that helped assure me that they are. Even if we don't have immediate success we can have faith that the small things we are doing will bless us in large ways later on.

I fell off my bike this week. Only the second time that's happened so that's pretty good. The first time I was bringing eggs home and they all broke so that was kind of disappointing, but my peanut butter survived so all is well!

Elder Wilcox and I are trying to #LighttheWorld and it has been awesome to see what a big effect we can have just by doing little things to help others! If we all would do one little act of service every day, think of how much brighter the world would be! 

Thanks for your love and support! I love being a missionary!! 

Love you all so much! 

-Elder Borg

WEEK 21 - NOVEMBER 28, 2017 - SURIN

Hello!

Transfers happened this week and Elder Wilcox and I am staying in Surin for one more transfer! We're both way excited! The people here are so amazing. We're excited to keep developing Surin!

Cool spiritual experience from this week happened a few days ago. I was trying to seek some personal revelation on how to feel the spirit more and know the Savior more. I opened to a random place in my scriptures and it was turned to the Sacramental prayers. I though "yeah I need to make the Sacrament more important" but then we had to run off and do something else do I didn't get much of a chance to think about it more. A few days later we were visiting an LA at his house and we were all sharing our favorite scripture in the Book of Mormon and the member we were with shared the Sacramental prayers as his favorite verses. Then it truly hit me that I need to make the Sacrament the most important part of my week. It's time where I can just sit and think about the Savior so this transfer my goal is to make the Sacrament  the most important thing of my week.

Soon after we found out that we weren't transferring the members all got excited and were hugging us then they quickly resumed calling me a baby. I don't get it. I get called a baby so much here. This week we were talking to the sister who had the old Book of Mormon, and she was being kind of stand-offish even after we had a way cool lesson with her the day before. Right in the middle of the conversation she turns to me and, in English, says "you baby" I asked "I'm sorry what was that" (in Thai) And in English again she says "You baby" and then keeps going on the normal conversation. What in the world? I didn't even do anything. Oh well.

Funny Thai name from this week: แตงโม which means Watermelon.

We had Thanksgiving with some members of our little branch here and it was so fun! We had the whole thing! Mashed potatoes, turkey (it was actually chicken because turkey is expensive) salad, jello, pudding, and rolls. We helped the branch president cook the turkey and one of the members broke the stove in the church so that was fun. Elder Wilcox and I were in charge of the jello and in my honest opinion it was the best jello I've ever seen ;) We ate all together and watched a movie about the Salt Lake temple and then we taught an investigator right after. Pretty awesome day!

Lately a lot of our investigators have just been disappearing or don't want to meet with us anymore. It's sad to see these people that seem so ready to receive the Gospel and then they just walk away. We're trying to figure out how we can help them stay more converted and I think I found an answer in the scriptures from Helaman 15:7-8. It's talking about the converted Lamanites and how they never fell away.  

"7 And behold, ye do know of yourselves, for ye have witnessed it, that as many of them as are brought to the knowledge of the truth, and to know of the wicked and abominable traditions of their fathers, and are led to believe the holy scriptures, yea, the prophecies of the holy prophets, which are written, which leadeth them to faith on the Lord, and unto repentance, which faith and repentance bringeth a change of heart unto them—

8 Therefore, as many as have come to this, ye know of yourselves are firm and steadfast in the faith, and in the thing wherewith they have been made free." It says they have to see their ways are wrong and they need to have a testimony of the Scriptures. The scriptures are the way we help people become converted! So we will try to help our investigators get a stronger testimony of the Book of Mormon so they stay converted.

We'll probably just skype from the internet cafe where we usually e-mail! I'm way excited too! Will you be at Grandma's house when I call??

English class is a blast. We pick a topic and go over vocabulary like clothes or weather or hobbies. Then we practice pronunciation and grammar and we usually play lots of games and give out lots of candy. We like giving tongue twisters too and have them say them really fast!

Health is good. No problems!

Lately I've just been doing push-ups and sit-ups but this transfer Elder Wilcox and I are making a workout schedule to help us workout even more.

I am almost done with 2 Nephi in my Thai Book of Mormon reading. I try to read a chapter every day. Tons of Elders say that's what helped them learn the language the most so I'm working on that a lot.

I love you all so much! Thanks for all your support and prayers! 

This church is true!

-Elder Borg

A letter to "The Brothers"

Hey brothers!

Just wanted to write a quick e-mail and say how much I love you guys! At dinner a few days ago Elder Wilcox and I were talking about our families and what we would do together and something hit me and it hit me hard. It hit me that you three are my absolute best friends! I miss spending time with all you! You're all so awesome and have such great talents and abilities. I'm so excited for you three to serve missions as well. It makes me so grateful for the plan of salvation that makes it possible for all of us to live together forever! I love you three. Don't ever forget that your best friends are at Gray Gables! (And Thailand) Psalms 133:1

Borg boys unite!

-Elder Mr. Mustache Beefstick Coon Y'all

WEEK 20 - NOVEMBER 22, 2017 - SURIN

Hello all!

We moved p-day back so we could celebrate it Thanksgiving with our branch! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I'm grateful for all of you and love you all so much! I haven't written in a while so I have a lot of stuff to write about! 

-Miracles! So we had 2 golden investigators who just randomly disappeared one day. They both had a baptismal date and they both missed it. One night we where home and I decided to call them. I wasn't too hopeful though because we had called north of 20 times and they had't answered. On one of the last rings the sister answered! I was so surprised that I kinda froze for a second! But we got to talk to her and got a follow-up appointment (which she didn't come to) but it was still really cool.Then I figured my luck was running high might as well call the other investigator and he answered too! His dad had passed away a few days before so we shared a scripture with him and told him about the Plan of Salvation. Hopefully we will get to teach him soon!

-Miracle #2 We were out inviting in a neighborhood and we decided to pray because a member had told us to pray so we did. As soon as we finished praying I noticed a lady watching us so we went over to talk to her. She was very nice and we told her who we were. She told us she had a book about Jesus and went inside to get it. When she came back out she had a really old copy of the Book of Mormon! She had all the old pamphlets and everything! It was so cool.She said we could come visit her again so hopefully she is ready to get baptized this time!

-Scripture from this week that I liked is from Helaman 5:6. Helaman is talking to his sons about their names. He teaches his sons to remember their fathers and their good works and try to represent them well. It is awesome to be representing my family with my nametag every day. I think of the missionaries who have gone before me and their great example. I also think of the Savior and how I have taken His name upon me and I wear it on my chest every day. I am striving to remember the Savior and His works and try to emulate that in the ways I serve. I want people to recognize me as a representative of the Savior and want to learn more how they can feel of His love!

-There's a member here who is studying English and wants to be a missionary so we practice English with him a lot and this week I taught him "What's cooking good looking?" "Square up" and that gum is actually called "Floogle" in America! He's awesome and helps us teach so many people!

-The past few weeks has been the elephant festival in Surin. Surin is the Elephant central in Thailand and tons of tourists come in to watch it! (One member told us a million people come which was not true but it was a lot of people) On our p-day last week we went walking around the big elephant market and actually found a new investigator! Brother Low who knows a ton about Christianity so it's been cool to have Gospel discussions with him. Everyone was pointing at us but we get that a lot anyway.They seriously love white people here. A few days later a member invited us to go to the elephant parade with her. They set up this huge long table of fruit and you can feed the elephants for free! We did that but we could hardly move because all these students were asking us questions for their English homework. We passed out a ton of English cards. After that we had to go to an appointment but we were stuck right in the middle of the parade. We got on our bikes and rode right through the parade, smiling and waving to people! It was way fun! We were right next to the elephants too!

-At our usual lunch place the guy making our food was wearing a Utah Jazz shirt!!! It was crazy. I should've taken a picture but I forgot. Still way cool. He said his friend had given it to him from America.

-The Larson's are Senior couple missionaries who used to serve in Surin. They helped organize a free eye clinic in Surin and we got to help with that. A bunch of eye doctors came over from Arizona and they were all members. It was crazy to see white members in Surin! They gave us all their 7-11 stamps which then paid for my study snacks for the next few days. Tender mercies! ;) It was really neat helping at the eye clinic and helping people be able to see. They were giving out thousands of free glasses and setting up free surgeries for people who needed them. It was amazing to give people their glasses and after they could see they were so grateful! It was awesome!

-My favorite thing to eat is Kaupaht with Kayjiiow (It's hard to spell those in English) It's fried rice with an egg omelette on top and it's wonderful. I'll really eat anything though. I've had frog, pig skin, chicken feet, and pig liver! Also they don't take bones out of their meat and they all eat the bones so I've eaten lots of bones too.

-My favorite drink is either chocolate milk or the fruit smoothies we buy! 

-I'm for sure closest to Brother Tom. He always tells me how he will cry when I leave, then he calls me fat and eats my food. (He's the one I taught that gum is called "Floogle") 

-Funny Thai name from the week: Bam Bam

-Elder Wilcox has been sick most of this week so I've had to take the lead in some of our lessons and they actually went pretty good. The gift of tongues is real. Everyone is always so amazed when we say we've been learning Thai for less than a year! We always say it's through God then they usually accept an invitation to come to English class!

Love you all so much! Have a very Happy Thanksgiving! Eat some mashed potatoes for me! ;) I'm so grateful for all of you and your love and prayers!

-Elder บอร์ก

Thanksgiving feast with Surin members, with Elder Ignacio and Elder Rawle, with a  cat at the church, the number of chairs we are sitting on represents the number of transfers we have left, elephant festival, more with the Surin members and the elders from Buriram

WEEK 19 - NOVEMBER 12, 2017 - SURIN

Hey there!

This week we went on switch offs and I was in Buriram while the other Elders went to Surin. I swapped bikes for the day with Elder Rawle. The story gets real fuzzy after that. Somehow my bike ended up with not one but two flat tires. Elder Wilcox and I had no idea where to go to fix my bike and luckily our neighbor owned an extra bike which he graciously let me borrow. This bike was made for a 12 year old. IT was half as big as my bike and one of the pedals would fall off every few minutes so that was an adventure for this week. Our landlord was way nice and took my broken bike to be fixed! So all is well now with my bike. I also got to wear Elder Rawle's bike helmet which is shown below! Hahaha

This week I've seen the tender mercies from the Lord a lot. Every day when I write in my journal I find something from the day where I saw the Lord blessing me with a tender mercy. At the beginning it was really hard to find something but the more I look for things the easier it becomes. The Savior is in all the small things of our lives. We just need to look for Him! One awesome tender mercy was from yesterday. Usually the members feed everyone after church but yesterday there was no food. It had been a long day and not all of our investigators came to church so we were a little bummed. Right after that we had a less active member call us and ask if she could bring us food and then right after that the Branch President told us to come over for food with his family. It was such a simple and almost childish problem but God saw our small problem and blessed us with more than enough food. It was an awesome experience!

I broke down and tried this mini KitKat which was 15 Baht. It looked so good and I'm a sucker for snack food so I had to do it. After 2 tiny bites was it worth it? Unfortunately no, no it was not. One thing about Thailand is the portions are made for Thai-sized people and Elder Wilcox and I are for sure not "Thai-sized!" We are always looking for food and places that serve big portions! 

Scripture I liked from this week is from Alma 10:5 and it relates to tender mercies. This is when Alma and Amulek are preaching to the people in Ammonihah.

5 Nevertheless, after all this, I never have known much of the ways of the Lord, and his mysteries and marvelous power. I said I never had known much of these things; but behold, I mistake, for I have seen much of his mysteries and his marvelous power; yea, even in the preservation of the lives of this people.

Sometimes we think God is so far away from us. Sometimes we think we are all by ourselves in this journey through life like Amulek thought. But we are all mistaken in that moment. All it takes is to slow down sometimes and think of how God had blessed us. It might be as simple as having a bed to sleep in or as simple as the Branch President inviting you over for lunch but He is always there!

Fun Thai names from this week: Fresh, Bossy

Transfers are November 30th.

Yes, I have to iron every day! It's good though I'm getting really good at doing it really fast ;)

Yes, we are still teaching Wiw and a few other new members! We teach them all the lessons again to make sure they understand everything.

Thank you all for all you do! Love you all so much!! Missionary work is amazing! Always look for ways to help spread the gospel and I promise you will find ways and will be given words to speak!

-Elder Borg

WEEK 18 - NOVEMBER 8, 2017 - SURIN

Hey everyone!

Crazy week this week! We had Zone Conference in Udorn which is about an 8 hour drive away from here so we were on the bus a lot these past few days! Lots of success with the work too! We have 7 "daters" (people with a baptismal date) and we are very excited for all of them!

-Zone Conference was a blast! We left right after church on Sunday and we got there around 10 that night. The next day we played football (yes that is right, American football). It was such a blast! No injuries too which was a miracle. Then we had training from Elder Evans who is in the Seventy. It was so great! He talked about how we need to talk with people and not at people! When we talk with people it shows we care about them and we are teaching like the Savior more. The Savior would take time to teach people one by one so we need to be better at doing that too! We ate lunch together and had more training after that. Then we got strait on another bus to come back home. We were with the Buriram Elders and when we got to Khonkhen we discovered there were no more buses that night so we were stuck. We found a hotel close by and we also found a new investigator for the Khonkhen Elders so that was awesome. Then we woke up at 4 in the morning to catch the bus back to Surin. Crazy few days but worth it to be with a General Authority and the other missionaries!

-You're probably wondering about the dead body. Well there is a less active member who works at the hospital so we went to visit him. Turns out he works in the morgue. We got to the morgue and he says "Elders, you are just in time to help me out." Then he wheeled in an old man who had just passed away a few hours ago. We were in charge of changing his clothes for the funeral. It was so nuts. Afterwards we were able to teach the less active member and he came to church on Sunday! Softening hearts through service I guess!

-We were out finding another LA family and they let us come in and talk to them. They were super nice and gave us a bunch of fruit to take home but while we were visiting they gave us some grapefruit. Elder Wilcox was fasting so I took on the grapefruit khon diaw (just me) I took one bite and almost gagged. It was the worst thing I've ever eaten. It must've gone bad or something. All eyes were focused on me eating this disgusting grapefruit. I put on my best face and endured the rest of it. Enduring to the end has never been so painful ;) Unfortunately this family didn't come to church but were able to share a message with them. Hopefully they will come back soon!

-A cool miracle from this week happened a few days ago. We were going to grab some dinner before some more appointments. We were going to our usual place which is right next to the church but for some reason Elder Wilcox went about 20 feet past the place before I told him that we missed it. We stopped there and parked. As we were walking over we saw a group of high school aged kids and invited them to English class. One kid said, "I'm interested in English but I really just want to become a Christian. How do I do that?" Funny you should ask! We taught him and we will teach him again hopefully soon! His mom isn't big on him changing religions so hopefully her heart will soften. If Elder Wilcox hadn't missed the turn we would have never found him. That was a very cool miracle!

-One scripture I enjoyed from this week was  from Alma 32:27. We have used this scripture a lot with our investigators lately. When they don't think they are ready to keep commitments or come to church we share this: 

27 But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.

All any of us needs is a desire to believe and God will help that desire grow within us. The thing we need to do is to do what He has asked us even if we don't fully understand or even if we don't fully believe everything. As we learn in Ether we don't increase our faith until after our trials. I encourage you all to follow the Lord in every way even if you don't always understand and your faith will grow!

-Fun Thai name from the week: Golf (about 20 times)

Miss you all a bunch! I love getting e-mails so thank you! Sorry if I haven't responded. I will try to respond soon. Love you all!

-Elder Borg 

Pictures:

Happy Halloween from the Surin/Buriram district. We found some fake mustaches and wore them in our district meeting to celebrate. Aslo Elder Wilcox and I found some halloween decorations in our house so we made a "spooky wall"

There was a lantern thing at a pond by our house so went there for a while and that was fun but as you can see there are none of the lanterns still lit so that was a little disappointing

Pictures with some cool monks we talked to

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WEEK 17 - OCTOBER 29, 2017 - SURIN

Hello!

Another awesome week! Thailand never gets less crazy but it always seems to get better! I am loving being a missionary and can't wait to keep strengthening my testimony. Things from this week:

-I read a talk from Elder Oaks about missionary work and he talked about how serving a mission is one of the most joyous things we can do. Very cool to be involved with a work like this that is so joyous and so amazing!

-PACKAGE! Sorry I didn't thank you for it last week but it was the greatest thing ever. Yep, ever. It's been so awesome to eat cereal for breakfast and to have snacks at home. Thank you so much! I loved it! I loved telling Elder Wilcox about how Daren loves mac and cheese and how mom loves Skittles so he was a good sport and listened the whole time.

-Here is something crazy from the week: I got locked in my own bathroom. Yep, you heard right. One morning after my shower it just wouldn't open so elder Wilcox and the Elders from Buriram worked on it for a while and when that didn't work there was no other option but to have the Incredible Hulk (Elder Wilcox) kick the door down. The video displays the dire situation better. 

-I love serving with Elder Wilcox! He is a stud and we get along very well. He loves football and country music and The Office and is a way good teacher! I'm learning lots from him.

-We were at a park playing basketball with some potential investigators who invited us to play. I saw two little boys playing on the side of the court and went over to talk to them. They were so cute and quickly explained how they weren't Thai but Phillipino so they spoke English! They were really talkative and so dang cute. The little brother was kind of hiding behind the big brother and the big brother said "This is my little brother. He's really shy but he is pretty crazy" I instantly flashed back to about 12 years ago where a younger Elder Borg was saying the exact same thing about a younger Curtis Borg. I thought of what a blessing brothers are and how honored I am to have the 3 best ones! #sameteam

-We found some sisters who we taught for the first time on Saturday. The lesson went way good and they were accepting everything we taught so we went for it and gave them both dates to be baptized and they accepted! Then we went back yesterday and they had read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet we gave them and had prayed so they are keeping their commitments which is great!

-Love hearing about CCHS football! They're all such studs! State championship or bust. #chargertillidie

-We're entering the "cold season" in Thailand. It feels about the same to me but it's becoming dire for some of the Thai people. Everyone wears jackets and is freezing, but I'm still sweating buckets.

-The language is still coming along. Still hard but I"m feeling slow progress! I love reading it and am trying to finish 1 Nephi this week!

-I told about the Sister in our branch who's testimony is struggling and she feels down a few weeks ago. We visited her again this week and she came to church and had been reading her scriptures and there was such a clear difference it was unbelieveable. The gospel really does make people happier and influences lives for the better!

-It was Elder Wilcox's birthday on Wednesday and he got a present from one of the members of our ward. We had a good laugh about it, I'll let the picture do all the talking. It totally screams Elder Wilcox. Hahaha

Love you all so much! Thanks for all your prayers! I love being a missionary so much! Church is true!

-Elder Borg

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WEEK 16 - OCTOBER 25,2017 - SURIN

Sawadii!!

I got a new companion this week, Elder Wilcox, and he is way cool! We've seen so many miracles already! He's from Farmington and played football at Davis. He's really good at the guitar and piano and was quickly made the branch pianist, since we don't have anyone else who can play more than 2 songs! He also works really hard and I'm sure I will learn a ton from him. 

Highlights of the week:

-We found an older lady named Jiiup and her two kids while we were inviting in a neighborhood. They seem very humble and they are very nice. We tried teaching her about the Restoration but she said she understood nothing, so we taught the Godhead super simply. At one point she started to cry and told us about how she had wanted to switch religions for so long but she didn't know where. We came back and visited her the next day and taught about Jesus and the Atonement more. She started to cry again and told us how her husband passed away and how she felt responsible and has never had the guilt leave her so we taught about God's love and repentance and how she can feel clean again.  I think we are making some good progress! She doesn't understand a lot so we have to teach really slowly. She is very humble though, and I think she has been prepared.

-After teaching Jiiup we went inviting in another neighborhood and as we were heading home Elder Wilcox spotted a guy sitting on his bike and decided to go talk to him. I didn't even see him, but I'm sure glad Elder Wilcox did. We went up to him and talked and he said he knew who we were. He told us how his dad is the Branch President in another city but he was going to school in Surin. He told us he had been inactive for several years. He did not seem very interested but we got his phone number and hopefully he will soften up. I could just picture his mom and dad praying fervently that he would find his way back. He told us he still has "that green book” (hymn book) so I think there is a very good chance he'll come back! Way cool miracle.

-Lately we have been instructed to emphasize family history more in our activities. With the Temple coming we need to help prepare the people to be ready. Last night we made a big sign and went inviting at a park to try to find people interested in family history work. Total people interested in family history work that night: 0. However, we found 2 less active recent converts who we had been trying to find, which was so awesome! We also found an investigator who we had taught before and seemed way interested back then, but she gave us the wrong number on accident so she had disappeared for a while. When we do what we are commanded to do we receive blessings! Sometimes we get blessed in ways we weren't expecting! 

-Funny thing from this week. There was an elderly sister in our ward who was feeling a little sick in Sacrament meeting. She came for the Sacrament and then starting packing up her things as the speakers started their talks. She then started a very loud conversation with the sister behind her. As she was leaving she said a loud "Sawadii kaa" to everyone in the meeting , all this while the speakers are speaking, and then exits. Everyone else just acted like that was normal and just said goodbye. It was so funny.

Stats from this week: 

Mosquito bites: 1,374

Coconuts eaten with drunk guys: 1

Toenails lost: 1

U of U footballs found in the house: 1

U of U footballs thrown away: 0 (for now) ;)

-English class is a blast. We get a large range of students, from 7 year olds to 50 year olds, and nobody can say the "V" sound. Hahaha. I love it. We practice that a lot, but it's just funny to listen to that. These people are the best.

"Say vanilla"

“Wanilla"

            With Elder Flyglare being transferred, our district is Elder Ignacio (stayed in Buriram) and   Elder Rawle transferred   in. I don't know Elder Rawle yet but I'm sure   he's awesome!

Another way I saw the Lord's hand in my life was by Him helping us to be able to navigate Surin this week. Since Elder Wilcox transferred in I've been the one to lea​​d the way in going to places and I still don't know feel like I know Surin too well, but we were definitely guided and protected this week as we traveled.

This week I enjoyed reading from 2 Nephi chapter 26. It's awesome about the love of God and how He does everything for the benefit of the world! His love is amazing! 

I love you all! Have a great week!

          -Elder Borg

Oh we rode elephants today too, so that was awesome! 

         

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WEEK 15 - OCTOBER 17, 2017 - SURIN

Swadi kap!

Sorry I didn't e-mail on Monday! It was transfers this week so we have P-day on Wednesday! Unfortunately, Elder Chandler is being transferred to Bangkok. He was such a great trainer and I am so grateful for him! He is becoming a Zone Leader though, which is so awesome! He totally deserves it and will do such a great job.

This week we saw a way cool miracle. We had an appointment fall through so we were getting ready to go to our backup plan but then Elder Chandler said he felt like we should visit a member who lives close by where we were. So we headed over there. She fed us bananas and water and then we prayed and she just broke down crying. She said she has been struggling so much with her testimony and she feels like God has abandoned her. After we helped calm her down and shared a message of the love of God for each one of us she could not be more grateful. We have all been in that spot at one time or another and the awesome thing is we always come out stronger and with a deeper love for the Savior. He does not give us trials and expect us to handle them on our own. He is always there watching over us. It was amazing to see the revelation Elder Chandler received and how willing he was to act on it. He is going to be an amazing Zone Leader and I am very thankful for the opportunity I had to serve with him. 

Fun Thai name from the week: Binky

A member took us to lunch to eat steaks in a mall in Surin. They were so good but Elder Chandler and I were still hungry afterwards. So after some ice cream we studied in the mall which reminded me of dad and how he would always study at Harmon's. As we were leaving the mall I heard a familiar voice in a song. I wandered closer to the music and my initial thought was confirmed. Playing in a mall in the middle of nowhere in Thailand was none other than James Taylor. "Runnin' to Me" I think was the name of the song. A very fun reminder of home and my mom's love for James Taylor. Little tender mercies are the best.

Since I told you about our investigators last week I'll talk about the members this week:

Tom- Way good member, 20 years old, wants to be a missionary, studying English and loves to speak English with us to practice, way funny, said I look like dad, calls me fat but whatever ;)

Joy-Way good too, putting in mission papers, loves Harry Potter, wants to date Curtis

Tonam- Way funny, about 14, loves Chinese, calls me a baby cause I wouldn't eat a pepper he gave me

Tua-Branch President, served mission in Utah, loves card games and speaking English, loves talking about Utah

Liiew-Way energetic, can play 3 songs on the piano so he is the branch pianist

Wiw- Recently baptized, loves Justin Bieber, also calls me fat

(I don't know why everyone calls me fat. It just started one day now they all do it?) 

We have about 40 members in our branch. I absolutely love the members. They are all so nice and they love the Elders so much! They all feel like family a little! I'm very glad I'm not transferring yet.

Some fun moments from this week were we got chased by a few dogs. Elder Chandler was about ready to kick one but they backed off so that was good. I also saw a guy wearing a Yankees hat which said "Los Angeles" on the front and had an NBA logo on the side and a Flyers logo on the back. Supporting all his teams at once, I guess!

We also got to visit some less active members with a senior couple that used to serve in Surin but got transferred. They took us to lunch after and we ate food that felt like I was taking a bite out of the center of the sun. Everyone was laughing at me because I was sweating and crying but free food is free food so I ate all of it. 

I miss you all, but I am absolutely loving the work out here. I feel so awesome and I love talking to people. This Church is true and it is such an honor to be a part of the hastening of the work. 

Love you all!

-Elder Borg

WEEK 14 - OCTOBER 7, 2017 - SURIN

Another great week! We had Zone Conference and General Conference this week and ate lots of falang (white people) food! Highlights of the week:

- General conference was amazing! We really are led by the power of God on earth today. Every little concern I had was answered. We got to watch it in English too so that was great! There were 4 of us watching it in a little room. Me, Elder Chandler, the Branch President and an RC of Elder Chandler who brought us tons of treats so that was awesome. We would stand and sing at all the songs and sustained all the church leaders too. It was a really neat experience. Don't worry, I still had my skittles! During priesthood 2 members joined us and watched it on their phones in Thai. At one point i looked around the small, dark room and thought there was no where else i would rather be watching conference. cheesy but true! Also, someone prayed to bless the missionaries and I felt a crazy sense of pride and responsibility. All my life I've always prayed for the missionaries but this was the first time I had heard someone pray for me as a missionary and I felt the love of God in that moment. God really does care about His missionaries.

-We got to ride elephants for p-day! It was so crazy but so fun. Our elephant's name was wanjan which means Monday and she was pregnant. Elephants are pregnant for 2 years so Wanjan will be pregnant for as long as I'm in Thailand! Wanjan kept sneezing/spitting on us so we got lots of chewed up grass and leaves all over us. All the other elephants got in the water but since Wanjan was pregnant she just loaded up her trunk and doused us with water. It was so fun! We went with a lot of other missionaries from our district which was way fun too!

- It rained a lot this week and one fact about the Thai people: they HATE the rain. The streets are empty when it rains. Not a soul will talk to you if it's raining. It was starting to drizzle while we were inviting and one guy said he couldn't talk to me because it was raining. Personally, I love the rain and was so excited when it started to rain but Elder Chandler hates it. We must have been a funny sight to the Thai people as we biked along. The Thai people have something called grangjai which is a social obligation. grangjai includes not strait up saying they aren't interested so we get some pretty funny excuses like "It's raining so I can't talk" or "I never have free time" or "I am buddhist so I can't talk"

-We went to Zone Conference this week and it was awesome! I loved getting to meet the other Elders and meet with President Johnson! We stayed in a hotel because it was a 3 hour drive away from us and it only had one bed and it was Elder Chandler's birthday so yours truly was sleeping on the floor! It actually wasn't too bad and I can sleep essentially anywhere. I learned a lot from the conference, especially about having a good attitude. When we have a good attitude we can accomplish anything!

-We visited an LA whose name is Yang. He is crazy and drunk half the time. He was going off on some rant about Joseph Smith and then all of the sudden he pointed to me and said if you pray you will learn how to speak Thai! It was weird but also cool that he realizes the power of God and sometimes I forget I have the literal creator of the universe on my side waiting to help me.

-Our investigators have kind of been struggling. Earth has disappeared and Gon told us he doesn't want to learn from us anymore which was pretty devastating. We're gonna work to get them back but we've been spending a lot of time trying to find new investigators and reactivate LA's. A lot of people don't want to listen and won't even look at us but there are a select few out there who are ready to receive our message!

-We literally have no primary in our branch. We have a primary president for some reason but there are no kids under the age of 12 so I don't get to play with little kids that much but we hang out with the othger younger members a lot.

-Wiw and Mook are doing good! They've both been confirmed and Mook came to conference but Wiw was out of town. They're both 18 and learning at the schools here.

I hope evryone is doing well! Thank you for all the e-mails and updates on how you are doing! I love you all and I know this is the Lord's work! 

Shall we not go forth in so great a cause?

-Elder Borg

P.S. - Also funny story from this week: We found a girl studying and taught her and she seemed way interested! She accepted everything and accepted a return visit. She read through one of the pamphlets and then said (in Thai of course) Ok I just have one question for you guys. Elder Chandler and I geared up and braced for the question. Her question was "Will you sing the American National Anthem for me?" Elder Chandler and I just sat there for a while then said "Sure! why not?!" So we proudly, but not very gracefully, sang the National Anthem. All the years of listening to it before football games helped me with the words but nothing could've helped my voice. We have a return appointment for her this week so we're hoping that she listened more to what we taught rather than what we sang! Hahaha! 

Pictures:

I think I found the only German Book of Mormon in all of Thailand

Starbeam-our favorite place to eat American food

Here's where we watched conference

With some members

On a split with Elder Flygare

Riding elephants

Sunday dinner this week-pasta with toast

Zone conference​