FINAL WEEK IN THAILAND

Well, this is my final week as a missionary in Thailand! The time I've spent in Thailand has been the best experience I could've ever imagined. I feel so grateful to my Father in Heaven for my time in Thailand. This country that used to be so foreign now feels so much like home. I'm going to miss biking through the Thai neighborhoods, occasionally fleeing from angry dogs. I'll miss eating really good Thai food with the occasional spicy dish that takes some extra effort to get down. I'll miss the friendship and brotherhood created between my companions and me as we worked our hardest. I'll miss long bus rides, zone conferences, English classes, and 7/11. I'll miss being with the Thai members every Sunday at church. I'll miss writing these e-mails and funny Thai names. I think the thing I'll miss the most is being a full time representative of the Savior, Jesus Christ, and getting to wear His name on my chest every day. My time is Thailand has for sure changed me and has been the best two years for my life. I love the teachings of Jesus Christ and have come to love the scriptures. I've developed a relationship with my Heavenly Father and with Jesus Christ and I will be forever grateful for my time in Thailand and for the many blessings that have come.

Elder Xiong is doing great! I've been so impressed by his determination and his ability to smile no matter the circumstances. I've learned a lot this transfer from him.

Our investigators are doing well! I feel so blessed to be able to teach some of these people and help them come unto Christ. This week our bishop gave us a letter to deliver to a less active member who is a professor at a university here. We dropped off the letter for her but didn't get to see her. As we headed out we bumped into a man named Woody who recognized us as missionaries, told us he was Christian, and then asked where our church was. We told him and he said, "Oh, I've always wanted to go to that church!" We made an appointment for him and were able to teach him at the church. After teaching the restoration he told us he felt like God lead him to this church and he's excited to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He stuck around after our lesson for scripture class and was sharing his thoughts left and right! It was so cool! He's been prepared by God to come to this church.

Fun highlights from this week:

- Ate McDonald's in honor of the 4th of July

- Lots and lots of rain

- We got a call one morning from the sisters in our district asking us to come help them and then they started getting choked up. So we hurried outside and they were right outside our front yard looking at the ground. As we approached, we saw the cause of their sadness: a dead cat lying in the road. We've seen this poor cat around our neighborhood for a long
time now and the animal just looked worse and worse every day. Finally, its time came and it passed away in front of our house. We carefully moved the cat into a black trash bag and then buried it next to our house. Second animal burial this transfer!

- As we were biking one day a man who we've talked to in the past called us over. He shook our hands several times and very genuinely thanked us for being such good of friends to him. Then he gave us a big hug. He was a very kind man who gave some much appreciated hugs.

- Thai name of the week: Where

Love you all lots! Thank you all for all your prayers and love throughout my whole mission. I know this church is true! 

Shall we not go on in so great a cause!

- เอ็ลเดอร์ บอร์ก

Pics

Man who hugged us

Lunch with Brother Bill from Australia

Where and May with some kind parting gifts

Eating dinner with Marvin

WEEK 103 - JUNE 30, 2019 - KORAT

This week was full of awesome experiences and miracles! I love Korat and all the great people here!

At zone conference Elder Xiong and I were impressed on how many people talked about praying to find families. This week we really incorporated that into our daily personal and companionship prayers. We tried talking to families and talking to people about their families all week but nobody was really interested. Church came and none of the people we invited came. We were a little disappointed but not discouraged. After church ended a car pulled into the church parking lot and a small family got out who we had invited at 7/11 a few days earlier. We didn't expect them to come at all, and we honestly didn't remember them at first but they showed up! The family had a mom and a dad and 3 young boys, ages 11, 3 and 2. They asked to learn more about Jesus Christ. As we taught them and showed them the church the members of our ward played with their two young kids. They had many questions about whether God is real or not and how they can come to learn for themselves. I felt their true desire to find something that they were missing in their life. As we were showing them the church they met our bishop and it turned out that our bishop and the dad of the family are old motorcycle buddies so that was pretty cool! They are committed to pray and find out of God is real for themselves. They were also really excited to keep learning at the church. What a cool miracle! They said they've always wondered about Christianity and how they can help their family to be happier. I know that Heavenly Father is always preparing people to listen to the gospel and He hears and answers the prayers of those who follow Him.

I've been reading the Book of Mormon and marking all the references to Jesus Christ. It's been a great exercise and I feel like I've come closer to the Savior as I've done it. One thing I've really noticed is how often the scriptures talk about Christ's love and mercy towards us. A few verses that have stood out to me that show this are in Alma. In Alma 32:22 it says "and I would that ye should remember, that God is merciful unto all who believe on his name; therefore he desireth, in the first place, that ye should believe, yea, even on his word." And in Alma 27:16-17 it says "God is powerful to the fulfilling of all his words. For he will fulfil all his promises which he shall make unto you, for he has fulfilled his promises which he has made unto our fathers." I'm so grateful to have a loving Father in Heaven who sent His son, Jesus Christ, to atone for my mistakes and weaknesses. I'm grateful for the scriptures which have taught me about the Savior and how I can follow Him. One thing the people we teach almost always feel is love from Heavenly Father. I know He loves us and He loves the Thai people so much!

Other highlights:

- built a Lala bike (see picture below)

- broke the Lala bike 20 seconds after building it

- fixed the Lala bike

- found a dead squirrel in front of our house and buried it

- helped eat almost a full pig at a less-active member's house for lunch then about 8 pounds of pork for dinner at an investigator's house. It was a lot of pork.

- last week for p-day the members in our ward took us to visit a "waterfall" and it turned out to be about a 2 foot tall rapid!

- after the rapids, the members' car broke down so we had to hike up a mountain to get some help

I love being a missionary and I love serving the Thai people! God is real and this is His church! 

The "waterfall"

WEEK 102 - JUNE 24, 2019 - KORAT

* No letter last week

This week was super fun! We went up to Udon for our zone conference. Udon is about a six-hour bus ride away so we spent some good time riding on the bus this week. It was great getting to learn from President and our zone leaders at zone conference! We talked a lot about how to work better with the ward council as well as how to use the Book of Mormon better in our teaching. At zone conference, I gave my final testimony to our zone. It was really neat to be able to reflect on the experiences I've had and the things I've learned while serving in Thailand. It was difficult to put into words the experiences I've had on my mission. I felt nothing but gratitude for the chance to serve in Thailand as well as for the knowledge I've gained about Jesus Christ and His gospel. It was a special meeting.

This week while biking after an appointment we passed by a lady collecting trash. We kept going not thinking much of it but I felt like we should go back and talk to her. She was a very nice lady who looked very tired. We asked if we could teach her more about how to be happy through Jesus Christ and she declined. We kept trying to talk to her about her family though and eventually she opened up to us and said that her husband just passed away. Through tears, she explained to us how much she missed him and how she felt tired and discouraged. We testified of the Plan of Salvation and a way to be with our loved ones again to which she responded that she would like to learn more about how it was possible to be with her family again. I know God is leading us to people He has prepared for the gospel. We went to teach her a few days later and could not find her house. With the help of a few friendly neighbors, we were able to find her house and teach her about eternal families. She was very happy as we taught her and was really excited to pray to see if what we taught about eternal families is true.

This week while reading in Alma I read about King Lamoni. He had a big change of heart after listening to Ammon teach. After this experience, Ammon tells King Lamoni that he needs to go rescue his brothers in prison. King Lamoni agrees to go with Ammon to help and then asks "Who told thee that thy brethren were in prison?" To which Ammon responds "No one hath told me, save it be God; and he said unto me—Go and deliver thy brethren, for they are in prison in the land of Middoni." When King Lamoni heard this "he caused that his servants should make ready his horses and his chariots." I love King Lamoni's example of faith. He doesn't question revelation that has come to God's chosen servants. He just follows with courageous faith. I hope I can be more like him in that way.

Hope you all have an awesome week! Onward, ever onward!

WEEK 100 - JUNE 10, 2019 - KORAT

This week was great! We are having a blast here in Korat teaching and helping others come to Christ! 

This week we found two cool families to teach. Last Monday we headed to go fix Elder Xiong's bike because his bike pedals fell off and as we walked over this lady was trying really hard to seel us some fried bananas. We politely declined but she kept calling out to us to come buy some. Elder Xiong then told me we should be more persistent in inviting like the fried banana lady was. After we fixed Elder Xiong's bike we headed out to go find a less active member's house and we went down the wrong street. We recognized it was wrong and turned around and saw a man in front of his house. We went and said hello and introduced who we were but the man said he wasn't interested. I thought back to Elder Xiong and how we need to be more persistent so I tried again and asked if anyone in his house would be interested. He said his wife might be interested and we could come back in a couple days. We came back on the appointed day and the man was pretty surprised we actually showed up. He reluctantly let us in but then his wife came out to talk and she was super interested. She went to a Christian school when she was growing up and said she had prayed before and believes in God. Her daughter was there too and also believes. We taught the whole family about Heavenly Father and the mom and daughter seemed very interested while the dad was a bit behind. It was still a great miracle about being persistent and following up. 

The other family was a referral from a less active member. The member took us to their house and then just drove away on his motorcycle. We were kind of expecting him to introduce us but that wasn't an option anymore. We rang the doorbell and an elderly couple came out and quickly invited us in. They were very nice and liked taking with us. Their daughter then came out with her son and we taught all of them about Heavenly Father. The daughter is already Christian and has learned a little about our church already. The older man kept going off on weird rants on world peace or other random things but they all loved learning and were excited to pray. We followed up with the daughter a few days later and she said she felt so peaceful while she prayed and she got a blessing she asked for from God. They're also really excited to learn more! 

Other fun highlights:

- A member fed us dinner which included the dessert which consisted of a bowl of sweet and condensed milk, tapioca balls, and a boiled egg. It was not very good but Elder Xiong threw it down like a champ. However, on the bike ride home, he tells me we need to hurry home. Once home he ran inside and threw it all up. The boiled egg did not sit well and had its revenge.

- Helped fix a less active lady's lights at her house and she bought us some chocolate

- teaching, preaching, and working!

WEEKS 98 & 99 - JUNE 3, 2019 - KORAT

I'm so sorry for not writing last week! We've been super busy with helping President figure out transfers. This week, I got transferred out of Asoke and have the awesome opportunity to be training a new missionary. I'm going to miss it there a lot! The members were so great and I loved serving with Elder Davis this last transfer. We had a lot of fun together! President decided that I should move out to Korat and train Elder Xiong. I'm so excited!  He's from North Carolina and he's great! We're going to have an awesome transfer! 

Our mission was blessed to have President Ballard come and visit our mission as well as Elder Gay, Elder Homer, and Bishop Davies. They came and help several special meetings including a special missionary meeting with all the missionaries throughout the whole mission! We pulled everyone in for the meeting and it was so cool having the entire mission there together! The Holy Ghost was for sure there with us in that meeting. We received wonderful counsel from each of the general authorities and heard the great announcement that the temple will be completed within the next 30 months!!!! It was so exciting! After the meeting, we got to go to the temple site and just ponder individually on our purpose in being in Thailand and what we can do better. It was a really neat experience to be a part of.

President Ballard taught us that we need to work more with members especially the returning members and their families. Elder Davis and I decided to try it out right away. After the special stake conference on Sunday, we set out to find a less-active family with one of the members of our ward. We showed up at their house and they welcomed us in. We taught this family the Restoration and the Spirit was there. The dad used to be a member of the bishopric and he gave a wonderful prayer that left him in tears. It was such a cool experience to be a part of.

Thursday morning we had the trainers meeting and then we met our new missionaries! It was such an exciting meeting! I was so happy when I found out I'd be with Elder Xiong!  After the meeting, we hopped on a bus to travel the 4 hours east to Korat.

One miracle we saw this week came right when we got here. Friday morning we woke up and decided to just go finding even before we bought a bike or anything. Elder Xiong was totally guided by the Spirit as we walked. He felt like we should go down one street then on that street we met a man with tons of tattoos who was smoking outside his house. We said hello and he responded by saying "Hey! I want to be a disciple of Christ. Can you come teach me about Him?" It was like a movie! We sat down on some old tires and taught him right there. He loved it and invited us back the next day. After teaching him about Heavenly Father he asked us about how he can be clean form his sins. We taught him about baptism then he asked if he could do that tomorrow. We told him there were a few things we needed to teach him first but we set a date with him there and he's super excited! Such an incredible tender mercy from Heavenly Father right on our first day!

Other highlights:

- met our ward clerk and he looks just like Tom Hanks (picture below)

- got a picture with my whole MTC group for the first time since the MTC!

- bought a succulent plant for decorating our house

- lots of teaching and helping others!

WEEK 97 - MAY 19, 2019 - ASOKE

This week was great! The longer I'm here the more I realize there's not enough time to do everything we need to do! Time is flying by so fast! This week we found some cool new people to teach and saw lots of cool tender mercies from Heavenly Father as we went throughout our week.

We met 2 cool 17-year-old kids named M and Smart. They are massive! They are both about 6'3" 220 pounds. It's really impressive because nobody in Thailand is that big! They are both super humble and willing to learn. Elder Davis invited them to learn and they both said they weren't interested. Then, a few minutes later they walked by over and said nevermind, we actually really want to learn about Jesus Christ! It was super cool! They came to English class and loved it. Then we taught them a really spiritual lesson about Jesus Christ where they felt really good and excitedly accepted a baptismal date! We're excited for them!

This week I got to do a switch off in Don Mueang with Elder Aek! It was super fund to go back and see him and all the people we were teaching especially because 2 of them passed their baptismal interviews that day! It was so exciting especially Sister Nong. We taught her for a while while I was in Don Mueang. It was so great to see how much her testimony has grown and how excited to be baptized she was! She is the kindest little lady and was just beaming the whole time we talked to her! Going to Don Mueang helped me remember we don't always see how much good we do. We worked really hard there but I didn't see as many baptisms as I would've liked. However, most of the people we were teaching are still learning or they've been baptized already! I know God has His own timing and He will eventually help us see the good we've done.

Other fun things:

- A little guy named Bird came up to us and asked if he could go to church with us. We said "yes" and he said he'd be there. When we're walked into church on Sunday there here was waiting with a big smile. He came up to us and gave us a big hug. He enjoyed church and enjoyed learning about Heavenly Father for the first time. He's excited to come back as well! He really enjoys doing finger guns so that's pretty funny!

- Did some English advertising at the local subway station and tripled the size of our Saturday class! Also had some Americans take pictures of us because "nobody will believe the Mormons come to Thailand to teach English for free." 

- Bought some sweet jerseys on the side of the road (see pictures)

- Helped paint a wall for an investigator and Elder Aek tried to spell out "Jesus" in paint but he spelled it wrong.

-Took our mission President's son out to teach with us one evening. It was great having him with us and being able to show him a little about missionary work. He's so mature and knowledgeable in the gospel!

This week I read a great talk by By Elder S. Mark Palmer called "Then Jesus Beholding Him Loved Him." It's all about how to have more love for others. Elder Palmer advised that we spend time in beholding others. When we behold others as the Savior did, we are able to see them how they really are and see how much they are loved by Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I've seen great blessings come from that already. As I've tried to look at others as Jesus sees them then I have a greater love for them. Also, as I've tried to "behold the Man" and think about the Savior more I've had more love for Him as well.

Love you all! Have a great week! Onward, ever onward!

WEEK 96 - MAY 14, 2019 - ASOKE

This week was amazing! So many blessings and miracles being poured out in Thailand right now! It's such an honor to be a part of this great work! This week our Brother Boom was baptized!! It was such a great day! He had been practicing with the ward choir for a few weeks so he got up and sang a special musical number before Sacrament meeting with the ward choir. Everyone in the ward loves him! The baptismal service was great and Brother Boom gave such a great testimony. He told his story of his conversion. He has always enjoyed Christianity ever since he was little because his grandpa was Christian and would take him to church sometimes. As he grew up he started going through some difficult things in his life which made him decide he needed to find peace in his life. He decided to start searching Christianity again. He found a Roman Catholic church which made him feel good but he still didn't feel right. Then he started attending a protestant church but still didn't feel like it was quite the right place. He began praying with a real desire to find God's true church. One day he prayed specifically hard to find the right church and that night while coming home from work he ran into two white guys dressed in neckties and nametags. As soon as we told him we were Christian missionaries his face lit up and he wanted to learn more. He told the congregation that when he met us he knew it was an answer from God. He was just beaming the whole day. It was such a special thing to be a part of!

A few weeks ago we met a man who was sorta crazy and yelled at us for a while about Donald Trump. He wasn't mad at us but just strongly voicing his opinion on the government in America. Well, we ran into him again this week and he once again voiced his onion on American government. He called us into his friend's haircut salon. We sat quietly and listened until he left and then we got to talk to his friend at the hair cut place. His friend's name is Peter and he is Christian already. He started asking questions about what we believe and how we are different from other Christian churches. We taught the restoration and it was a super powerful lesson. He seemed pretty open-hearted and wanted to read the Book of Mormon! Cool miracle!

Other cool things:

- Peter, man from above story, insisted on taking a picture of my shoes and captioned the picture "working for God" so that was pretty sweet

- Saw a man riding a bike with his handicapped son. His son was unable to bike so the dad bought two bikes and but a few bars between them and screwed them together so the dad could bike and the son could go for a ride. Love good fathers like this out there!

- Elder Davis dropped a cake on the floor which brought many a tear to the missionaries and members anticipating eating it.

While studying this week I read a lot about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I felt very humbled by the small problems I have in my life compared to all that the Savior has done for me. As I was thinking I had a thought come into my head that said: "So what are you doing to thank the Savior, to truly thank Him?" It was sort of a wake-up call to me that I need to be showing how much I appreciate Him more than I have been doing. As I've come to understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ on my mission I've recognized the great importance to share these things with others as well as to thank the Savior through the way I live. I recognized I needed to redouble my efforts to love others and serve them. I'm grateful for the Savior and the Holy Ghost who is always guiding us and helping us learn what we need to.

WEEK 95 - MAY 6, 2019 - ASOKE

We had a busy week of traveling and lots of cool miracles going on too! The weather is still super hot but we feel the Lord supporting us in all we do! This week we traveled out to Udorn for zone conference. We took a 10 hour night bus which helped me relive my trips out to Surin and Phuket. At the zone conference, we talked a lot about miracles and finding new people to teach. It was great hearing everyone's stories and seeing how the Lord is blessing our mission. As we headed back to Bangkok we were getting ready to jump on an airplane and a man approached us at the airport. He didn't introduce himself or anything he just asked: "What do I need to do to become Christian?" We excitedly told him about our church and Jesus Christ and he excitedly gave us his contact information. We had to hurry and get on our flight but we're excited to see if he progresses in Udorn. Such a cool miracle.

Sunday night as we were traveling out to an appointment the person we were going to teach called and canceled the appointment so we started to head back towards our house not really knowing what we should do. As we came down an escalator we were hit by an incredible aroma coming from a pizza cafe nearby. We decided to follow our noses and went to look at the pizza. We stopped and looked at the pizza for a second and then we heard someone call out "Hey Elders!" We turned around and met a sister named Sunny. She hasn't been to church in several years but was happy to see us. She told us she was on her way to go visit another member and invited us to go with her. We followed her into a mall and met another sister named Bow. After talking to them for a while they told us they felt the Holy Ghost for the first time in 2 years and they expressed interest in coming back to church. It was such a special miracle that we got to witness and be a part of.

Brother Boom is progressing so well. I'm so impressed with his faith and willingness to follow Christ. We reviewed the baptismal questions with him and his answers were so impressive to me especially his answer about Jesus Christ. Whenever he has issues or trials he just thinks of Christ and how much Christ suffered for us. I'm grateful for his example and excited for him to be baptized!

WEEK 94 - APRIL 29, 2019 - ASOKE

We've been blessed by meeting lots of really cool new people this week! We've also been very blessed because President Ballard is coming to our mission next month! Super exciting!!! In the last Mission President's seminar President Ballard encouraged all missionaries to try to talk to 10 people every day so we've been working our best to do that and we've seen some great success.

One new person we found this week is Brother Chatiya. He is the doorman for our apartment building. One day he stopped us and asked what Christian sect we are. We told him none of them but we're the true church Christ organized while He was here. He seemed pretty surprised by that answer and he asked us to teach him more! We met him later that day at our building and taught him about the Restoration of the gospel. He loved it so much! We were able to meet with him yesterday as well. He asked if our church had some sort of special bath thing where you go down in the water and come back up. We said yes and told him it's called baptism. Then he said "Yeah I want to do that. Can I do it here?" It was so cool! He's been super prepared. 

We committed a lot of cool people to come to church Sunday but almost all of them canceled over the space of just a couple of hours. We were pretty bummed but trusted in God that it would all work out. A few of the people we're teaching ended up coming including one lady who we've been teaching for a while! We were so excited because she's been learning for a long time and the only thing holding her back is that she hasn't been able to come to church but Sunday morning a member called her and offered to go pick her up for church! She accepted and brought a friend too. They both loved church and we got to teach them afterwards. It was one of the most spiritual lessons I've been in. We had two members helping us teach and they just took over and taught so well! The people being taught were asking super good questions and showed a real desire to follow Christ. It was so cool! We're excited to keep teaching them. 

Other weekly highlights:

- had MLC and learned a lot from President and Sister Hammond about how to teach about Jesus Christ.

- ate Taco Bell for the first time in Thailand. It was incredible to say the least.

- met Thailand's second best swimmer and he's only 16 and he's 6'3"!

- Thai name of the week: Billion

This week as I studied about the Savior I found a great scripture that I've thought about a lot. It's 1 Peter 1:7-8 which says "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:" We all have trials but trials are more precious than gold. We may not realize how precious these trials are until the Savior comes but when He does come they'll be found with praise and honor. I've come to know on my mission that believing in Christ brings unspeakable joy and happiness. His path is the only path to be truly happy. I've seen it in the people we teach and in myself. As I accept and follow the Savior more I have more happiness, no matter what is going on around me. I'm so grateful to be one of His representatives!