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​