This week I will pass the halfway point of my mission! It is so amazing to think of the great experiences I've had this past year and all the more experiences I will have this upcoming year! It's hard to tell if this last year went fast or slow haha. I wouldn't trade my experiences of the last year for anything! My new companion, Elder Tusieseina, is such a cool guy! He is so funny and we already get along really well. He's really good at doing different voice impersonations and he also loves Star Wars and Les Miserables so this transfer will be awesome. More than that he is a great missionary with a great love for the Thai people.
Some big changes are happening in our mission. Every summer we get a huge wave of new missionaries so we also lose a bunch of missionaries each summer while the new ones are in the MTC. My last companion as well as my first trainer headed home. Our mission president also finished his three years and headed home and our new mission president arrived this week! His name is President Hammond and he came with his wife and 2 of his kids. They are so excited to be in Thailand and I was blown away by their excitement and energy! They had just gotten off the flight a few hours earlier and they were just beaming and so excited! I'm really looking forward to getting to know them better. We got to meet them in Bangkok on Saturday so that means we had to bus down to Phuket Thursday night and then fly back to Bangkok Saturday morning. That made for a lot of traveling this week!
While in Bangkok we grabbed some food before we went to the airport. We grabbed a taxi and started heading out when Elder Tu told me that he had left his phone at the food place. We asked the taxi driver to take us back and he did but as we were getting out he told us he would flip around and meet us on the other side of the road. That concerned me a little because there are literally thousands of yellow and green taxis throughout Bangkok and this was an extremely busy street with tons of traffic. We ran into the food place and grabbed the phone and ran back out to find the taxi but he was nowhere in sight. We started walking to try to find him as our anxiety increased. Our flight left pretty soon and the traffic was bad so we needed to get going soon. As we walked I felt a distinct impression to wait on a street corner for a second. Sure enough, after a few seconds our taxi pulled up after he had weaved through a few neighborhoods. If we had kept walking we would've missed him. That was a crazy tender mercy that showed that the Spirit is there to guide us in all things.
One thing I enjoyed from my studies this week came from the New Testament and from Jesus the Christ. To end the parable of the Royal Marriage Feast Jesus says "Many are called but few are chosen" I was a little confused about this. I wondered why are only some chosen and why are some people called but not chosen. After reading "Jesus the Christ" I found something that was pretty cool. In the parable they throw a man out of the feast because he was not wearing the proper attire. I thought that was a little harsh but the king had been outfitting all the guests with the proper clothing so the man without the clothing was a thief who snuck in a different way. We are able to relate this to our lives as follows: we are all called to the feast of happiness and everlasting life but if we are unwilling to take the proper steps to get there (like putting on the right clothing for the feast) then we will not be permitted to stay. The right steps involve making covenants with God and participating in proper ordinances and then, of course, enduring to the end. We also know that those without valiant testimonies of Christ will not be allowed to stay at the feast either. This parable gives me extra motivation to be strong in my testimony. It also shows that God calls out to all of us but if we won't do the things He has asked us to then we are not chosen. I am grateful to be able to call out to those who still do not know Christ and help them along the path to conversion so they will be able to enjoy the feast of eternal life.
Funny Thai name of the week: Egg
Other fun things that happened this week were teaching a guy on an airplane, seeing lots of my old companions, and lots of biking! I love being a missionary and I love Thailand! Love you all!
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