Experiences in Thailand on Our Mission

After the Flooding, Huge Humanitarian Effort

After the Flooding, Huge Humanitarian Effort
In Front of The New Chapel in Bangkok

In the Chapel putting Relief Bags together

In the Chapel putting Relief Bags together

Sunday, March 30, 2008

March 29, 2008

Time has gone by too fast these past two weeks. Sister Seangsuwan had a tooth extraction. Before the dentist started to do work on her, Sister Seangsuwan told her about being missionary and how we are serving the Lord. She shared with her how we teach people to love and respect one another. She asked Sister Seangsuwan what she did in America before she was a missionary and how was worked with troubled youth at the Clearfield Job Corps center, and told her how it was to help out those students to learn social skill and help them be more employable. She also asked sister Seangsuwan what she could do to raise a stubborn active young child. The dentist was impressed and enjoyed talking to her. The surgery went well and the dentist did not charge for her services.

For proselyting, we are teaching one family, a mother and her two children. We hope she will be ready to be baptized in a couple months. We are also teaching a student that we met at the Technical college. His name is Fieat. We are almost completed with the discussions. He has told us that he will be ready to be baptized in about three weeks. Another lady we are teaching is Ung-su-ma-lin. She was introduced to us by a member of the branch. She started reading the Book of Mormon and has listened to the first lesson. She has a desire to learn more and we are excited to teach her. It is always easier when they already have member friends to fellowship them. Her story is very interesting. She told us that she had a feeling to go to Church with her friend the evening we met her. She said was inspired to with us and hear more about the Church. It is a wonderful work of the Lord and we both enjoy and love the service.

Elder and Sister Seangsuwan
Thailand

Sunday, March 16, 2008

March 16, 2008

These past two weeks have been very busy with the work of the Lord. We met 10 new families that we have been able to talk to about the Plan of Salvation. We love meeting them and asking them at their front gate if we can come and talk to them about their family. Especially to see if we can help their children learn good principles. Sister Seangsuwan and I have a desire to also help their children to succeed in their educational goals. We use the “7 Must to succeed.” Such as: as you must have a specific goal. You must have a specific time to achieve your goal. They let us in and we find a way to link to the "Preach My Gospel" lessons. This has been very effective and we continue to love the work. For the less active members, we have been teaching 5 families (8 children). Many of them are close to the point to be baptized. The people in Udonthani are very nice and friendly to talk to. It is hard for them to first understand some of the things we are teaching them. Because they come from a non-Christian background, we often speak like Ammon in the Book of Mormon when he is teaching King Lamoni to help them understand the teachings of Christ. As always we have to try our best to help them to understand. So far, in the month of March, the weather has been getting warmer and warmer. We have been walking a lot on the street to the next which has given us some good exercise each day. My sugar level has been getting better. We went to see doctor at Udonthani Hospital, and we were informed that we are healthy. The last two weeks, I was given assignment to train our leaders in our district to work on 2008 goals. We discussed ways we can progress in their missionary work. There were 15 priesthood leaders from 5 branch at the training and we all came out of the meeting ready to work hard.

Sister Seangsuwan and I love you and hope that your lives are being blessed. Continue to pray for us and we will do the same for you.

Slideshow

Monday, March 10, 2008

Visiting less active members is wonderful!

These past two weeks, we have been so busy! Our mission president asked us to help the two branches and to bring more members to attend sacrament meeting and to also bring less active members to come back to church. We love visiting the less active member families. We do that each day. They live far a way from one another, so it is hard for them to visit each other. However we did and we are trying to get them more involved. With the travel, we have had some car issues. Our car has had a heating problem. In Thailand all cars must have water added in the engines often. This should be fixed this Monday.

We also went to mission zone conference. It is every 6 weeks. We learn from our mission president how we can all be better missionaries. It takes about one hour to travel to Khonkean from Udonthani. We will have our Senior Missionary conference in Chang Mai in May.

Our proselyting each day starts from 11 am to 8 pm. Each morning we use that time to visit inactive members and after 4 pm, we start looking for new families to teach. We approach them by talking about their teenager's plan for their future. For the most part, they tend to open doors for us as we show them we want to help them with their children. We focus on topics like how to avoid alcohol, stop smoking, and so forth. This then leads us to teaching the Plan of Salvation and making next appointment. We need to always be aware of our less active brothers and sisters around us. If we don't, we can lose them easily. We have seen how the world can help others forget the importance of the gospel as they look to others for guidance. This is how they get lost again. We should always keep our hearts open to those around us and reach out. A little each day helps them come back.

It has been great these past two weeks for meeting new family to teach.

We also do a lot of community services for members and nonmembers. We help other member move into new apartment and clean their yards. We see the work progressing and we love it! Please feel free to write to us. We would love to hear from you! We love you and we love this work!

Thailand Mission Photos

Preston and Tanner Saying Hello to Grandma and Grandpa


It was a great time at Ching Mai that all Seniors there, and would like to post their names as follows; Elder and Sister Oldham, Elder and Sister Cook, Elder and Sister Facer, Elder and Sister Gonzales, Elder and Sister Greenwood, Elder and Sister Hatch, Elder and Sister Jones, Elder and Sister Laing, Elder and Sister McPhie, Elder and Sister Sitivong, Elder and Sister Snow, Elder and Sister Wasson, Elder and Sister Jones, Elder and Sister Meakley

January 27, 2008 to Present

We have been assigned to work in the Udonthani District. We have been given assignments to teach new and less active members by using book "Preach my Gospel." We work with less active members and we take part in humanitarian service. We have also been teaching teens on drug and alcohol prevention and keeping the law of chastity and the word of wisdom.

Sister Seangsuwan and I have also been asked to help with the training of the church leaders in this area. We have been in Udon since Jan 27. and do not know how long we will be in this district, it is up to the Mission President. We love the people here and love working with the other missionaries.

We have contacted about 44 families which 7 families are being taught the discussions. Our Mission President asked me to preside and train the leaders in Udon district on March 8. He and his wife are very happy to have us working with the people in this area. We are really happy and enjoy our assignment. For the most part the Thai people in this area open the doors and let us in to teach there family members. They are humble and happy to see Senior Missionaries come to their homes.

Our testimony has grown due to our assignment of teaching the truth of the gospel of the Lord to His children. Our most memorable moment so far is when we introduced ourselves to them that we are from Utah and come to serve the Lord in Thailand, eventhough, we miss our children and grandkids. Serving and leaving family is such a small sacrifice for such a great purpose. It helps us understand more of the great work that we are doing. We work each day and love to serve. Sister Seangsuwan loves to study scripture more and more and is doing her best to learn how to teach the gospel. She still loves to talk alot and share her testimony. We should teach only 30 minutes, but she still goes on and on and the converstation ends up over one and half hour each family.

I told her not to worry about the family at home. When we work hard we know that the Lord will take care of them. So far, we love to serve the Lord in Thailand as well as eat the Thai food. Wednesday is our Preparation day. Sister Seangsuwan does alot of window shopping but does not buy anything. She just likes to look around and I love to follow her. In the evenings, we return back to Church to help young missionaries teaching ESL and we also are able to meet new people to teach. In class, the last 10 minutes, I was introduced as Guest Speaker to teach something that I have learn in the US and answer their questions.

We have had a great experience on our mission and love all of you! Thank you so much for your support! More comments and pictures to come.