Another good week in the Land of Smiles! Plenty of trials and difficulties but many more blessings and great experiences! I love Thailand and the people here so much so it's so hard when they Don't want to listen or when they listen but Don't do the things you ask them to do. It makes me think of the Savior and how He must feel when we sin and Don't follow Him.
This Saturday me and my companion, two of our investigators, and their friend, who is a recent convert, fasted to help our investigator's parents open their hearts to allow their kids to be baptized. We started our fast together and then broke it Sunday evening and then they called their parents. Unfortunately the answer from both sets of parents was that they did not want to allow their kids to be baptized. It was really hard to see this happen but we trust Heavenly Father has a better plan for them in the future. Thailand is very very strongly Buddhist so when people want to change religion it's almost like changing your entire culture of life. It's hard for lots of people to get to that point but ultimately It has to be their faith in Jesus Christ that carries them to make that change.
This week we had the great opportunity to give several members of our branch priesthood blessings because they were feeling sick. We gave one to a very strong member who has been a member for 20+ years and never received a priesthood blessing. As soon as the blessing was over he reached up and with tears in his eyes, gave us both big hugs and thanked us several times. My companion said it best when he commented that that is exactly what the Savior would be doing if He were here. It was a really good experience!
We also found a large German man who invited us back to talk more so we did that! He and his wife were so nice and really enjoyed talking to us. They liked asking about America and the German man really liked beer. After a while he asked what some commandments we had in our church and we told him no drinking beer and he wasn't too down with that but he was still super nice and said he would read the Book of Mormon. Then he had to go inside to grab something and when he came back out he had a genius idea. He told us basically this "Ok here's the plan guys. When you get home you buy a plane ticket to Germany and we'll have a big German barbecue together and then we can have a beer together." After we smiled and started to talk he responded with "Hold up! In Germany there is alcohol-free beer that you can drink! It's delicious too!" Hahaha! It was so funny how much he wanted us to drink with him! He just wanted to drink beer and we just wanted him to read the Book of Mormon!
One thing that stood out to me came when we visited a recent convert and her family. She's been to lots of different churches and one thing She's noticed at some churches is some are really welcoming and warm, like Christ would have them be, and at some people just keep to themselves and Don't talk to anyone. It made me think, "Am I going to church just to go to church?" It also made me think of a quote from Bishop Causse from last conference, "My dear brothers and sisters, are we active in the gospel, or are we merely busy in the Church?" I believe as we all try to turn our will over to God a little more and try to make our will in line with His we will notice that we are becoming more active in the gospel!
Love you all! Thanks for all your prayers! Being a missionary is the best!
No comments:
Post a Comment