In the Lord's Service - Thailand Bangkok Mission 2010-2012

January 2012

2012-02-10T00:57:00.001+09:00

This is more of an update from December 2011 and January 2012. Sorry its been a while. From the flood, to the humanitarian projects and other missionary work, we have been very busy. There has been so many good things happening though and I wanted to spend a few moments to share them with you all. For almost a month, we spent many hours daily at the airport putting supplies together and making sure they were shipped to all the areas in need. The Church did a great work here and was a big part in ensuring the needs were taken care of all people here. We were presented with recognition from the Thai government for the effort the Church made. It was very good publicity for the work of the Lord. During these times, it seems that the service the Lord asks us to do is magnified and we love knowing that people see the good things happening. It was a hard time to deal with and many families were displaced. Things are almost back to normal, but we know that we have a lot of good things to do to teach the gospel and be examples to them.

We have been conducting many missionary firesides in different branches in Thailand. This last month, we went to Phisanulok Branch to visit the members there for our Church meetings. After church, we took a quick lunch and helped with a Missionary Fireside. We talked about missionary work and how the members could refer people to the full-time missionaries in their area. The Phisanulok Branch is in the Chiang Mai District, in northern Thailand. We have had great response and the missionaries have been busy. The members have learned that they cannot be shy and not be afraid of sharing the gospel. It has made them happy and something good that they talk about continually to each other. We believe that this effort with strengthen themselves and the branch in a lot of ways. We do the same things each time and help members to refer their friends to the full time missionaries. We also have been working to follow up with the new members and visit less active members to bring them back to church.

Of course, we have been busy helping the missionaries in our area teach with their families. We love being a part of those discussions and being an example of a Thai couple understanding the Gospel.

We went to Ubon District Conference with our Mission President and I also help new brothers who have been ordained as new Elders to learn how to bless the sick and afflicted. We made sure that each have consecrated oil in their home for their family. It always been great to travel to another districts out of Bangkok.

We took four Senior Couples missionaries to visit our relative for the new year . We all enoyed dinner and they learned how Thai people celebrate New year’s. We also taught them how to make Somtum, as we know as Papaya Salad. We will make sure that you all know how to make it too when we get back.

By the end of the year, Sister Seangsuwan have been very busy following up with all branches, district to collect the Thailand Church History from each branch to send them to Hong Kong, and Utah to get the work done for them. By doing this, we have also been able to ensure all of our work for the next generation could get done and that the Thailand Church History is being used.

It seems like Sister Seangsuwan and I continue to receive additional callings. We have been very busy, because they also do not release us from our other callings. They must know we love to work hard. Each year, the leaders in Thailand received the training from the Asia Area Presidency. My assignment was to make sure that all district presidencies from Ubon, Chiang Mai, Khonkean, Udon are able to get the air tickets and hotels finalized. I didn’t realize how hard it is to be a travel agent and make sure things were done perfectly, but we got it done. That is one assignment I have as the Executive Secretary to the Mission Presidency.

As member of the Bangkok North District High Council, my assignment was to speak at Bangken Branch. The topic was "Being Prepared during a Flood.” We definitely had experience to talk about that.

We have also been assigned to work with another couple and do some work with the Thai government office. We visited the former Thailand Prime Minister, on January 16th and the Newspaper Agency in Bangkok. We gave them a presentation on the donations the Church made for blankets and mosquito nets to the rural areas.

And finally, they recently called me to be the Director of the Thailand Media Committee. There, we will be getting more in front of media and ensuring that people can hear more of what the Gospel can do in their lives. We will work very hard in getting the Liahona to member and nonmember homes.

We hope that all is well for you in Utah and that you know we love you all. We love the work of the Lord and plan on doing this for as long as we can!!

Love,

Elder and Sister Seangsuwan

October 31, 2011

2011-10-01T22:20:00.001+09:00

The Open House for the new meeting house was great. During the VIP Session there were 139 people that attended the presentation. In the afternoon there were over 1000 participants there. It was a wonderful day! Many members and nonmembers from the community and from far away came to see the new church building. Some of the people that attended were the Deputy Director General of the Social Development and Welfare Services, the Vice Governor of Nonthaburi, Khun Suchanee Seangsuwan, the head of the PR of the Social Development and Dr Somyot Seangsuwan and almost 20 of friends showed up. We had many business leaders, goverment officials, Lion Club and Rotary Club members who were very impressed learning about the Church’s FHE program, young men/women program, primary and Relief Society programs.

On proselyting, we are currently working with the Elders whom are teaching five investigators. Just last Sunday, Sister Nitaya Paracheap, 43 years old was baptized. We continue to work with the young missionaries to teach the gospel and we love it. We love how they utilize us. In some weeks we get to participate in their DL meetings and share with them examples that helped us in the Gospel.

We have also been going out in the evening to look for families to teach the gospel. They’re many people waiting for us. During the Open House, there was a couple that came to us. One was a business man, 57 years old and his wife. They came and talked to us and seemed very interested in learning more. We have been trying to set a date to meet him to start the missionary lessons. He said he would bring his family to listen to us and Elders. He enjoyed the program at booths on that day and was intrigued. The Spirit was there to testify that what we were sharing was something that they should listen to.

Elder Seangsuwan responsible for ensuring the meetings with the Mission Presidency happen each month. I have been making the agenda and reports for the meeting to keep track of what everybody should be doing. He has also been called to be a member of the high council and has been assigned to oversee the missionary work in the Bangkok North district. We are now planning to run the training programs to ward/branch mission leaders to work as a team with the full-time missionaries and get more involved. It will be on November 19 and we have a lot of work to do. We are also coordinating the presentations at the Services Center to ensure that the leaders understand what things need to be done for the community and people. The leaders and members of the Church should know what the function is of the Services Center.

Another task that we have been given that has kept us busy is typing many letters in Thai for the Mission President to send out to the leaders. He is instructing them how to make reports, how to do the Branch history for the Church and how to run the budget the correct way. “Rescue One By One” is another project that we have to follow up with. Each District and Branch planned an event and we now need to follow up how much they have done.

We recently heard some very exciting news! Many members would like to have an LDS Temple in Thailand. They know that only wanting is not enough. They must work and take action and work hard, as well as be full tithe payers. We have also been instructed to fellowship and work hard to keep our members active in the Church. They have given the members a plan to work towards and we are all very excited.

We love to serve the Lord in our Native country. We are very excited for General Conference and to hear the inspiring words and revelations from or Prophet. We love our family and ward family back home!

Love you all,
Elder and Sister Seangsuwan

August 30, 2011

2011-10-01T22:19:00.000+09:00

We have been busy as usual! The latest project has been the new Ward Building that was built just around the corner from where we live. It is on Cheangwathana Road, Pakkret, Nonthaburi. We have been working on getting as many people there to the open house and dedication. President asked us to also contact the Minister of the Social Development and Human Security to come to the open house and to be at the Wheelchairs Donation Presentation. We finally had the opportunity to visit the General Director of the Social and Welfare Service. We also invited him to come to the Open House on September 10.

Many people in the community ask us about the building and what we do there. Of course, we invite them to come and check it out. It has been a good opportunity for the members of the 8 units in the district to go around the communities and business building passing along invitation and information cards to the public about the Church.

Some very exciting news and accomplishments from the Ayuthaya branch the past few weeks have been that three brothers were able to receive the Melchizedeck Priesthood at our last district conference. It has been a great branch for us to attend and serve the members there. There are now about 45 to 50 members that attend each week. We love seeing the branch grow and we have been working hard to find and reactivate less active members. Ayuthaya was the first district Elder Seangsuwan served when he was a young missionary over 30 years ago.

We have been working with a few families in getting them reactivated. One family Brother Panja, his wife and two daughters will be going to Hong Kong Temple this October. We also have been going out with the Elders to teach a family in the Prakkret area. We will try and write more, but would love to hear from you all. If you can’t come visit us, then please email us at utahismystate2010@gmail.com

Love,

Elder and Sister Seangsuwan

June 26, 2011

2011-06-27T13:16:00.000+09:00

Sorry it has been so long since we have had an update. We have been incredibly busy with coordinating events, service projects and humanitarian efforts as well as proselyting, member fellowshipping and, of course, office work. It is all in a days work and we love the work of the Lord.

We went to the Thailand Youth Leadership Conference on May 5 - 7. There were over 240 youth there attenting and the Area Seventy came and talked to them. The majority of the youth have a desire to serve a full time mission in the future. The Spirit was strong throughout the conference. We were introduced to Thai youth as the very first Thai couple to ever be married in and LDS Temple and also the first Thai couple to serve the Senior mission in Thailand. Sister Seangsuwan and I love this opportunity and having experience with conversion ourselves as well as the Thai language and background, we have been able to assist in the work.

A while back we had told you we were in charge of organizing the even where the BYU Ballroom company were asked to come to Thailand and dance for various groups. It was a big undertaking, but well worth it. They performed in Thailand at five different locations: 3 in Bangkok, 1 in Chiang Mai and another one in Khonkhen. About 1000 total members attended and more 8000 none members. We think that it was a success.

As far as humanitarian efforts, we have been able to get involved with a Social Development organization of the Thailand government designed to help combat battered women. My niece Suchanee Seangsuwan has been working as the Manager of the Department of Public Relationship under the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security. She also attended the BYU Ballroom events twice and loved it. We introduced her to our Humanitarian Project Director and PA area Director for the mission. Mrs Suchanee Seangsuwan has been very helpful to us in the way of Public Relationship and has also given us recognition allowing us to get involved more in the community and get the Church more recognized. In a recent humanitarian even that we were able to be a part of, she introduced us to some government programs that aid in donating wheelchairs to the needy people. In this even, we were able to teach more about the Plan of Salvation and talk about families and the Eternal perspective. There we were able to receive rewards and recognition for helping the Thai people.

I have been invited to talk on radio regarding my family with two cultures and how to keep the Thai culture intact. It was pre-recorded and will air soon. During the recording, I spoke about how we have Family Home Evening and use this to strengthen our family relationship as well as draw closer to God. I also spoke on our youth of the Church and how each one can become good example to their friends and family members.

Another opportunity we have is to be translators to General Authorities that come to Thailand to visit. We have been assigned to be in Ubon District Conference on June 25-26 with the Area Seventy to help him to train and translate his talk there. We have been assigned to call the members of the church who were baptized in the first 10 years in Thailand. Those who were baptized in 1970 to 1980 will be asked to talk about the former mission president, Brother Goodman. ABYU Professor will be coming to Thailand to interview them. I have about 25 members for him to interview and I think it will be a great article.

We were able to have visits with Armstrong and Rachel in Bangkok for five days and we had a great time juggling the differnet visit sites and family visits. They were able to see many different things in Thailand and our family here took very good care of them. We did our best as a tour guide.

Attached are a few pictures of the Humanitarian event and the Wheelchair donation ceremony with the Minister of the Social Development and Human Security. It was a very good opportunity for us to get involved for the Church. We were able to share our Plan of Salvation board with people that came to our booth.

We hope all is well and that everyone is safe and happy. We love the Gospel and love to teach the people of Thailand!

Have a wonderful 4th of July and write to us soon! We would love to hear from you.

Love

Elder and Sister Seangsuwan
Utahismystate2010@gmail.com

March 2011 Update

2011-03-07T01:53:00.002+09:00

Happy Birthday to Sister Seangsuwan on February 27th and Happy Birthday to Osmond today March 7th!!!

Time continues to go by very fast. We are already in March and there is still a lot of work to do. Last month was a great and exciting month for Sister Seangsuwan and me. We were able to see the Gospel touch many people’s lives and help them progress towards baptism.

We completed the Missionary Fireside and training for two wards and one branch now with a few more to do still. They are the Srinakarin and Bangkapi wards and the Rangsit Branch. The firesides went very well. It was the goal of the mission to help build more support for members in those units to be better member missionaries and learn how to reach out to friends and neighbors, as well as provide more support to other members. We will continue to do conduct these firesides in Bangkok Stake.

At the Rangsit branch, I was excited to meet up with Brother Banja and his family. I first met Banja when he was 17 in Ayuthaya where I served my first mission in 1974. Reed Haslam and I taught him the missionary discussions and he was baptized there in Ayuthaya. 36 years ago. Bro.Banja is now an officer in the Thai Royel Airforce.

I also met Brother Chaiporn who we met and taught him in Udonthani in 2008. He said after we moved to Buriran, he got baptized and now is strong member of the Rangsit Branch.

Another assignment we have is to be work closely with the Asia Area Audit Training Department. In this assignment we traveled to three districts in Northeast part of Thailand: Udonthani, Khonkhen and Ubonrathani Districts. As translator, I help the district and branch leaders to understand how to handle the money of the Lord.

We enjoyed working in Bangkok with our Mission President. We keep busy during the day and work with young missionaries in the evening teaching families with them. We love being able to help other Thai people that it is possible to be happy in the Gospel and that they too can understand the Plan of Salvation. So far, the missionaries have 7 people to be baptized this month and next.

These are two pictures for you: the baptism of Sister in Ayuthaya and Brother Banja's family.

We Love You All!

Elder and Sister Seangsuwan

February 2, 2011

Sister Seangsuwan and I continue to stay busy teaching with the missionaries, working with all the wards and branches and assisting in the mission office. We have an Area Leadership Training on Feb 5 and we have been assigned to make sure that all district presidents and their counselors arrive in Bangkok safely and have a place to stay. They are coming in from Chiang Mai, Khonkhen, Udornthani.

We have also been assigned to run the missionary firesides in Authaya, Bangkapi and Srinakarin branches. This is to help and motivate members to refer people to the full-time missionaries. We know that this is a big responsibility and that our experience and history in learning and sharing the gospel is important to share with them. We are grateful for our conversion and for the persistence that our members have in sharing the gospel. So far, they have enjoyed the firesides and many members have asked questions in how they can bring souls to Christ.

As far as proselyting, we have been going out with the missionaries in Bangkok almost every week. We are helping them teach one family and the wife has already accepted an invitation to be baptized by the end of February. We are so excited. She is wonderful and will help her family progress.

The other day we had a dinner with one of our relatives, Somyot Seangsuwan and his family. We introduced them to other senior missionary couples and also invited them to one of our family home evening sessions. He enjoyed it very much. Keatisak Seangsuwan and his wife in Bangna asked to have missionaries visit them at their home and are now being visited twice a week. We have also been visiting and teaching four families in Ayuthaya with the missionaries there. There is one sister that we have been teaching there as well and she has asked me to baptize her on the 5th of February.

Sister Seangsuwan has been coordinating with all branches and ward advisors in Thailand to submit their annual history to Hong Kong and to make sure that everyone does it on time. It is the first year that the Thailand Mission has increased in Branches and they will all write their history to be sent to Church Headquarters in Salt Lake.

The Church is doing well in Thailand and we are working as hard as we can to do more. We are determined to make sure we do everything we can every second to help the Church progress and it has been fun and exciting each day. We are grateful for your support and would love to hear from you. We hope that all is well in Bountiful, Utah and we hope that more members are looking for ways to serve. We know that we have truly been blessed.

Love Sister and Elder Seangsuwan

2010-12-31T03:08:00.002+09:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

We have been busy, we have to be and we love it! Our Mission President asked us to have a Missionary Fireside with the members in the Bangkok Stake. We have the opportunity to work with each Mission Ward Leader and the full time missionaries assigned to that area and talk to them about our experiences. Last Sunday, we went to the Srinakkarin Ward. There are many wards and branches for us to visit. Our goal is to motivate members to refer more people to be taught by the missionaries. We feel that because of our conversion and our Thai background, this could really help them overcome any fears that they may have. We love sharing with them our experiences of being members and spiritual messages about our purpose here on Earth. That seems to always captivate the member’s as their previous religion was usually Buddhism. We also want them to get excited about serving as missionaries themselves here in Thailand.

Elder Seangsuwan has also been very busy as the Mission President's Clerk/Executive Secretary. There are many assignments that we have to follow and things that just need to get done each week. Getting to know the Mission Presidency has been wonderful. President Nurak and President Chote are our Mission President's counselors. They are both great men have a strong conviction and desire to serve the people of Thailand. It excites us that we are able to work with them and help the five other District Presidents in each area.

As far as proselyting goes, we try and do this as much as we can as this is our favorite thing to do. We have a meeting with the missionaries on Tuesday where we get to work and go out with them to teach a few families and another investigator. We try and go out each evening and walk around tracting in the evening and meet people to teach. There is a couple who came to work with Uncle Somyot (Mani’s cousin) and we think that we will have the opportunity to take them to church someday.

We still have the assignment of visiting the Ayutthaya Branch. It is about an hour drive from Bangkok. We attend church meetings there and continue to visit less active families. This is where we left off from our first mission. President Smith asked if we could visit this branch twice a week and we love to do so. Last two week, the branch president's son and daughter in law were baptized. This was such a spiritual experience and I know they will be strong members and work hard to serve the Church. It makes us happy when we see each member do their best in serving each other here and helping them give each other support. We know in Thailand it can be hard to be a member of the Church, but with the support of each other, we are happy and it shows!

Elder Seasngsuwan was also given a new assignment as High Coucilman for Pakkret District last week. This assignment will require him to be a speaker in five branches. President Chaimongkol is the district president. He was the one who had stayed with us in Bountiful, Utah when he came to visit Utah with is wife. He says hi and hopes that you come to visit soon with the family.

This is such a wonderful time of the year. Not only do we think more of the Savior, His Birth and His Sacrifice, but we also come closer together to remember the true meaning of Christmas and have good times together. We hope that you have all had such a wonderful Christmas! We were able to have a Christmas dinner. We had a great American dinner at our mission home. It was a good change since we get to eat Thai food all day long! We are really trying to walk more and ensure we keep the weight down. But what can you do?

We miss all of you and love all of you. We love our Ward back home very much! We thank all those who donate eyeglasses for people in Thailand as this has made a bigger impact in peoples’ lives than we had initially thought. We will look for more things we can have you do back home to help and maybe have Anna or Osmond bring them or ship them here. They love to have them and want to thank all that had donated and helped out!

Spiritual thought we would love to leave with you is in Alma 29:9.

9 I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.

Love,

Elder and Sister Seangsuwan

Second Go Around...

2010-11-24T02:00:00.008+09:00

We arrived to Thailand safely and are ready to do the Lord’s work. The first thing we were able to do was show the people in the mission office all the eyeglasses that had been donated by our Ward/Stake and friends back home. They were thrilled that the members had been so kind in doing that for the Thai people. Later, I brought many of them to the members of the first branch we visited and asked if anyone needed any. I couldn’t believe how many people were in need for eyeglasses! They were so grateful and said that many people in the Branch did not have enough money to get a pair or replace their broken glasses and that this was indeed a blessing for them. They were shocked to know how many glasses had been donated. I told them how wonderful the members were in helping me with this little project and I knew they were touched by the Spirit and the love they felt. We have many more to bring to the other Branches we will be visiting on assignment and I know that they will all be put to good use!

I will explain more in detail later, but Elder Seangsuwan was called to serve as the mission clerk and executive secretary to the Mission President. We were also asked to help coordinate the ballroom dance group that will be coming from Provo in April. There is also a Branch that we had served in during our first mission in Ayutthaya that needed a lot of help and we were asked to attend there for the first few Sundays and help them out. It is about an hour drive away from Bangkok. A few things are needed there to help out and train on and we are glad we are able to do it.

I have also completed training to be the coordinator for the Distribution Center for the mission. We will help the members order books, the Ensign, their Garments and other needs they may have. We will make sure they get everything they need. Elder Seangsuwan and I will also be traveling to each Branch in the mission and train all the leaders on how to start their family history. We need to reach out to every zone and make sure that all current records are accurate by January 15.

A lot to do!! Though we have been called to serve in various capacities, we are still able to proselyte and teach the gospel. We will be going out with the Assistants many times and visit members and other missionaries as well as help teach and share our experience.

Even though we were serving less than two years ago, there is still so much to learn. The learning process is always fun, but we want to keep busy. We have been made aware of small problems that need to be resolved in each of the Branches from managing budgets for the distribution center, understanding the gospel, learning the Church software and church history and helping members stay active.

Today we made an appointment with an investigator. We will be visiting them later with the Assistants. We hope to teach their family more. We had met them before we returned home from our last mission. The last two weeks, we have also been helping other missionaries in other areas.

We know that it always helps them to see another Thai couple in the Gospel and we enjoy sharing with them our experience and the happiness that we have in our lives knowing and living the Truth.

Last night, we visited a Stake President at his home. We talked about solidifying the English classes for the Thai people and how the missionaries can help teach them at Church. This has been a very effective tool for potential investigators to come to the Church, see who we are, what we are doing and also see how we operate.

We want to tell the members in the Ward hello and thank you so much for your love and support!

We will keep you updated as much as possible and tell you about the wonderful experiences we are having with serving the Lord and sharing the Gospel. I would like to get a few email addresses, but if anyone has time, we would love to hear from you all. Our email address is utahismystate2010@gmail.com.

Osmond will also be keeping a blog of pictures and any other updates we give him. We love you all and we are so grateful for the service you provided for us and for helping with the eye glasses. The Spirit is strong here and we are excited to once again serve the Thai people. We hope you all have Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

Love,

Elder and Sister Seangsuwan

2009-07-13T08:08:00.002+09:00

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

The past few weeks we have been working with less active families and talking to as many relatives as possible. It has been good and we will pray for the best. Our first couple's mission will be coming to an end soon. We hope to continue to serve as when we go home. We are coming home July 15, 2009 arriving in the Salt Lake International Airport at 9:15 PM. We will be speaking in two weeks. Stay posted for directions to the church!

We love you and we will see you soon!

Love,

Elder and Sister Seangsuwan

June 16, 2009

2009-06-19T13:32:00.002+09:00

Dear Families and Friends!

Time has definitely gone fast for us! We have not had internet access for over 3 months now! Sorry for the delay in updating our blog, but rest assured, we have been working hard and have many great spiritual experiences. We were in Buriram for 7 months and we loved it every minute of it. We have now been transferred to our last area, Bangkok, where we can now talk to may friends and relatives about the gospel as well.

But before we get into that, we would like to share a few experiences and blessings we received while serving in the Buriram Branch. During our time there, Sister Seangsuwan and I had the opportunity to teach many people. We were able to see three people walk into the waters of baptism and become members of the Church.

One of the new members was Brother Pituput. He was a 22 years old young man and loved to read the Bible. He had been reading since he was 16 years old. We met him in the streets one day when we were handing out pamphlets and inviting people to come learn English during our service on Wednesdays. He also had a girlfriend name Sister Pranom.

Sister Pranom was 19 years old. She came up to Sister Seangsuwan and asked her about the gospel. After a few messages about our Savior and the Plan of Salvation, she asked us she and her boyfriend could come to church. We advised her where the meetings took place and also made an appointment to visit with them the following week. After our first visit, they were interested in hearing more about the Plan of Salvation and other lessons that we had. After teaching them for 3 months and bringing them to Church, they asked if they could be baptized. After much praying and assistance from the Branch Members, Brother Pituput and Sister Pranom were baptized on March 22, 2009. It was such a wonderful blessing for us and a great feeling.

Another great experience we had was actually on our Preparation Day. Sister Seangsuwaan and I needed to go to the hair salon to get a haircut. After we did that, we decided to walk around towards the shops to look around. Sister Seangsuwan loves to shop! As we were walking out of the hair salon, we noticed a nice lady and her little son walking in to get a haircut as well. He was so cute! We smiled at them and walked out to look at the store nearby. As we left, we walked out again and saw the same person and her son. This time, she smiled at us both and said to us, “May the Lord bless you both.” Sister Seangsuwan stopped and looked at me in amazement. She must be Christian we thought. As we continued on, Sister Seangsuwan said to me that she had a very strong feeling that we need to go back and talk to her. We looked back, but didn’t see her. We went back and asked a person in the hair salon if they had seen a lady. They said they had and told us that she lived just around the corner. He asked why and we started to talk to him about the Gospel. After we noticed he had no interest in hearing more, we decided to go and find her. We went to her home and she wasn’t there. I told Sister Seangsuwan that we would come back another day, but she insisted that we stay and look for her. As we went back around the corner, we noticed her son standing in front of a nother shop. We went over to him and looked for his mom. Sister Seangsuwan had a strong feeling that the this lady may have been someone the Lord had prepared to hear the Gospel and she wasn’t’ going to give up. We found her and asked her if we could share a message with her and her family. She agreed and invited us over to her home.

When we arrived at her place, we found out that she had been a Protestant for over 10 years. We asked her if she had ever seen two young missionaries in white shirts and ties, and she said that she had. We told her that we were like them and that we taught others about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Her name was Sister Siri-aksorn. She had two children, 4 and 2 years old. Her husband has been teacher at the Technical College for many years. We talked to her more about the gospel and about families in the Plan of Salvation. As we bore testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel and the importance of living prophets, she gained more interest. We told her that we had a living Prophet today that leads and guides us. She asked many questions about that. We also bore testimony of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and what role the Holy Ghost plays in our lives. A lot of what we taught her was new to her even though she had been a Protestant for 10 years. We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and highlighted some scriptures to read and asked if we could come back. She said okay and we made an appointment for the next day. We were able to visit and teach her and her family twice a week. She seem so exited and so faithful to search and study the scriptures on her own. We learned soon that she loved to read from the Book of Mormon. After several months of teaching her and her family, she agreed to be baptized. She had received a witness and gained a testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel. She was truly prepared for us to teach her. On May 24, 2009 Sister Siri-aksorn was baptized. We moved to Bangkok on May 26.

We have been given permission to visit all the wards and branches in Bangkok and Nonthaburi. Our plans is to visit people, friends and family to teach them the gospel before we go home on July 15th. Wherever those family and friends would be, our goal would be to would bring them to Church and ask the young missionaries to follow up with them when we have to go home. We have been visiting four families so far, and also our own families here in Bangkok. We hope and pray that we can bring our own families to the truthfulness of the Gospel.

Bangkok is the city of traffic. It can take us a few hours to visit one family and all day to work with them. But we know how important it is to have them to listen to the Plan of Salvation. We have also been able to gather up more information for our family history work. Our goals are to visit 10 families in the last 45 days.

Brothers and Sisters, we love this work so much and have had such a great time sharing the Gospel and being an instrument in the Lord’s hands. We have see miracles and received so many blessings. Our testimonies have grown as well as our desire to continue serving.
It is so wonderful to serve our mission in Thailand where we know the language and culture well. We will see you soon. If we have time, we will try and post one last message and tell you of the great things the Lord is doing here in Thailand.

Love you all!

Elder and Sister Seangsuwan
Thailand Bangkok Mission

Happy New Year Brothers and Sisters!

2009-02-15T00:40:00.002+09:00

It is the New Year now, 2009 and our goals are the same with the whole church:

To Teach the Gospel to the World

Strengthen the Membership of the Church wherever they may be

To Move Forward the Work of Salvation for the Dead

We have nine people we are currently teaching the plan of salvation. Our golden contacts are: Brother Tick, 27 years old, and his girlfriend, sister Orm. She is about 25 years old. We met her first at the market and asked her to come to church with us. She came and brought brother Tick with her. We have been teaching this couple for three weeks now and have been inviting them to attend Sunday meetings with us. So far, they have accepted our invitations. Brother Tick has set his date to be baptized on the first of March and sister Orm would be after him a couple weeks thereafter.

We also met sister Nong, 32 years old. When we met her, we found out that she has been seeking for the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ for a year and has gone to meetings with other Christian churches. Since we have been able to teach her about the Plan of Salvation, she felt it would be good for her to join us each Sunday and come to Church with us. She came last Sunday and she told us that she loved it. She also asked us what she needed to do to become a member of the Church. We will continue to teach her the missionary's lessons. Her plan is to be baptized in the middle of March.

We also have visited three less active member families. One of them is Brother Pai, whom is a returned missionary, and his non-member wife. We will continue to visit him and we will teach his wife. Brother Jeap is a member and his wife is not as well. Sister Seangsuwan and I have been visiting these families twice a month and will teach his wife as well as brother Bob. He asked us to help him remember.

We are in Buriram right now and it is quite a distance away from another branches that we visit. We have to travel 4 hours for the Leadership meeting. We also take 5 hours trip to Khonkan for our Missionary Zone Meetings. It seems to us that we have to take more trips to the conference for members and as well as missionary meetings. We have learned a lot about being great missionary. Our testimonies have been strengthened. Sister Seangsuwan tells me each day how much she loves the people and the service. We love this work and will continue to love it. We have talked to our mission President that we would apply for another mission and return back to Thailand in the future. We will see how that goes.

Sister Seangsuwan has another calling as the Assistant to the Family History Center Director. She will be helping members for the whole district with their geneology. It is new experience for her. She has been trained from the two Senior Sister Missionaries for this special calling. She seems to love it.

We been praying to find new people who been looking for the truthfulness of the gospel and we have been blessed to have found several families so far. It is truly a blessing to actively take part in the missions of the Church and we encourage everyone to take part in these blessings.

Have a Happy New Year and we love you all!

Love,

Sister and Elder Seangsuwan

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-08T15:09:00.003+09:00

Time seems to pass by faster and faster. We have been in the Buriram Branch for over a month now. We have been very busy visiting all the member families from the branch. We are so blessed to have wonderful counselors. We have been doing very well in this branch. They have helped us with our transportation needs to members that live further away. Some members live far away, over 75 miles! Some drives take up to three hours to get there. They have helped us visit less active members and have also helped introduced us to new families whom they knew teach the gospel. Several less active member have returned back to church. We also spend time serving in the community and with the members. We have been helping two family members w/other missionaries and some other members clean their yards and cut down bananas from their trees. It was so fun! We love doing these type of service and activities.

At this time, we do not have a car, but we have enjoyed walking every day. Exercise is important to us.

Buriram is smaller than the Udon district, but we love working here just as much. We also travel to leadership training and meetings in other nearby cities and towns.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. Sister Seangsuwan prepared for our member families a feast to remember. They had never had an “American” Thanksgiving meal before or learn how to cook those types of foods before. Sister Seangsuwan showed them how to cook different recipes. She got all the recipes from her son, Osmond. Instead of Turkey, we had chicken. We made stuffing, some desserts and other easy to cook meals for Thanksgiving. It was quite interesting and amusing. The members said that American food was not spicy enough for them like Thai food. They asked for chili to add on the meal. You know we always need a little spice in our lives!

We love the members here and enjoy working in Buriram very much. We live a little distance away from church, about 2 miles. We love to walk there in the morning on Sunday and make sure to get there before church starts at 9 a.m. However, we do expect to get a car by the end of this month.

Sister Seangsuwan enjoys teaching class in the Relief Society meetings when asked and they love hearing her testimony.

We both love and enjoy teaching new families and bare our testimony to them. Its gets easier and easier and our testimonies grow stronger and stronger. Our goal here is to see more members come to church and that they may be able to have their own meeting house like in Udorn. Currently, all of the branches in this district have rent the spaces from offices for the church meetings.

In the month of November they have several festivals for the people in the town. They enjoy and celebrate their culture holidays.

During this time of year, it has been nice thinking of our families and friends. We hope all is well and that everyone is feeling peace and love.

In a Christmas Devotional, President Hinckely said,

“Christmas is more than trees and twinkling lights, more than toys and gifts and baubles of a hundred varieties. It is love. It is the love of the Son of God for all mankind. It reaches out beyond our power to comprehend. It is magnificent and beautiful.

It is peace. It is the peace which comforts, which sustains, which blesses all who accept it.

It is faith. It is faith in God and His Eternal Son. It is faith in His wondrous ways and message. It is faith in Him as our Redeemer and our Lord.”

May we always remember Him and share this message with all!

We love you all!

Happy Holidays,
Elder and Sister Seangsuwan

November 5, 2008

2008-11-07T15:57:00.001+09:00

Sorry we haven’t updated our blog until now. We have moved into an area where our internet isn’t readily available as our last area. Our mission President advised on 10/13 that our new assignment would be in Burirum which is in the Ubon District. I was called to be the Branch President where Sister Seangsuwan and I could help the members increase activity. The area is about an 8 hour trip by bus from out last area. The next Sunday we spoke in both of our branches. The members were surprised and did not want us to move away. We have been in Udon for 9 months and really enjoy working there with members. We became part of their families.

On that Sunday, two were baptized and one of them was sister Panwara Pongsri. She is 21 years old. We were privileged to teach and be a part of her baptism. She is a niece of our old friend who was a member in Thonburi. We have now been in Burirum since October 24. We were welcomed into the branch last Sunday. I was then called as the Burirum Branch Prsident. There are about 125 members but only 35-40 members came to Church on Sunday. We know that one of our main jobs is to visit the less active members an also searching for new investigators to teach. Burirum is smaller than Udon. There are 4 young missionaries. No sisters missionary and we are happy to be working with them. We will continue to enjoy the work of the Lord in the new area.

A little bit about home. Our second son was married while we are here in Thailand. Armstrong was blessed to take a beautiful daughter of God into the Hawaiian Temple and be sealed for all time and eternity. Though we missed such a wonderful and special occasion, we are blessed to know that they made the right decision. Arm's wedding in Hawaii temple was on October 11th and they later held a reception in Salt Lake City on the 25th. Our Anniversary was on October 28th but we spent time in Buriram working. We have yet to have a formal cerebration for us. We are so excited for them and cannot wait to see their beautiful family grow. We had many family and close member friends that supported them at their reception in our absence and we are grateful for them.

One other interesting story that I would like to share was during a street meeting that we held at the park in Udon the last week before moved. We met a good family who is Christian. The husband first came to listen to our message. He kept asking questions about our message. He told us that he had never heard of Joseph Smith and that his family could be together for eternity. We talked about our temple work and we talked about the Book of Mormon. He told us that he read the Bible often, but would be interested in getting a copy of the Book of Mormon. On the Wednesday before our transfer he came with his family to our church building where we could meet and give him a copy of the Book of Mormon. We invited him to meet with the other missionaries since we would be leaving the area and they agreed. We hope that they continue to learn and prepare themselves to feel of the Spirit and know of the truthfulness of our message and the Gospel. We will continue to pray for them.

Continue to keep us in your prayers. We hope all is well and that you are getting ready for the Holidays where families are together and people are happy! We will continue to work hard! We love you!

Elder and Sister Seangsuwan

September 2008

2008-09-21T13:22:00.000+09:00

Hi you all, Can you believe that nine months have passed by already? We are definitely keeping busy with the work of the Lord and we continue to enjoy it. It makes us feel great. Brother Fiet, his real name is Pichitnun Nimvilya, was baptized and confirmed two week ago. Sister Seangsuwan and I had the opportunity to teach and fellowship him. We have also seen six investigators come to church. We are planning for two of them to be baptized soon; Sister Jittra, a school teacher and Brother Wanchai, a local salesman. They have been waiting for our District Leader to interview them.

We also coordinated with Senior Sister Missionaries for Family History, and there were 15 members that have started their genealogy projects. The Temple ready names will be submitted to the Hong Kong Temple.

With our reactivating service, Brother U-Thai and his two sons have returned back to church, they have been very active since. In fact, Brother U-Thai was called to be Branch Mission Leader. There are five members have been called to be branch missionaries to work with full time missionaries and help fellowship the new members and other members. In the meantime, we continue to look for more families to teach.

This month, on 5th, we went to Zone Conference at Khon Khean, we were visited by Elder and Sister Watson, a member of Area Seventy Presidency from Hong Kong. It is always great to meet a General Authority of the Church. Their service inspires us to serve more.

We also use street meeting at the public park in Udon for our proselyting schedule. There are many people at the park to meet and talk about the Plan of Salvation.

We had a little car problems and had to fix our car this month. The gas prices here have been high as well, but not as bad as what we here in the United States. I hear things are getting better though. However, we continue to follow our monthly budget.

We enjoy receiving email from Senior Missionaries from other missions in other countries, those who were in the same group when we were at MTC, Provo. They all are working hard to serve the Lord. If you are reading this blog, we miss and love you!

We will continue to keep you updated. We hope that all is well and that you are excited for General Conference!

Love, Elder and Sister Seangsuwan

June and July 2008

2008-07-28T13:35:00.004+09:00

Update for the month of June and July – Sorry its taken so long! We had several meetings with our Mission President. He had asked us to focus a lot more on less active members and help return them back to Church. We visited Brother Sutep and his family with two boys. Brother Sutep and his wife are returned missionaries. We found out that Brother Sutep has also been a Branch President before. We are working with them to remember the blessings they received when they were active. We have also been visiting Brother Thanin and his family. He is 72 years old. After befriending them, they felt like returning back to church would help them to progress in the Lord' kingdom.

Our Branch attendance has increased from 50 to 65. There are more investigators attending meetings with us as well. The new Branch President has been working hard. He is a business man. He has his own shop near the community school, his wife is a nurse, and they love to serve. We also love to work with the members in our branch. Home teaching for 6 families is also our assignment.

We worked with 5 people in the branch that have been trying to visit the temple in Hong Kong. It is the closest Temple and not easy to for them like it is for us back home. They work hard to save money and prepare their trip to the Lord’s house. They have gone and been spiritually uplifted. They share their experiences with us. In the group were our Branch President, President Apiwat, 40 years old and his wife. Sister Rapeeporn and her mother, which was their first time attending, and Sister Jitra a returned missionary. That was her second time visiting the Temple. To think of the wonderful blessing we have in Utah and how we take it for granted is sometimes sad. May we work to serve the Lord more in His home.

Working in the Branch Presidency and proselyting daily keeps us very busy. One of the methods of proselyting we have seen success with has been holding street meetings in the public park. Many people come to the park with family to relax and have fun. While many of them play and rest, they tend to see our table with pictures and come ask us questions about the church. We do this twice a week and have met many people to teach.

We also try and work with the other missionaries in our district. We have a meeting with the young missionaries each week on Monday. In these past two months, we have been blessed to take part in two baptisms, with another one in a week.

On our Service days, we help the community and families around us in their farms. We have also been teaching English classes. We are assigned to teach ESL classes on Wednesday evenings from six to eight for basic or beginning classes for non-members. Many of then turn out to be our investigators. We love doing this service because it makes us feel like our English is actually good.

We will continue to enjoy the Lord's work in Udonthani.

Take care and continue to pray for our brothers and sisters. We love you all!

Elder and Sister Seangsuwan.

May 27, 2008

2008-06-06T00:54:00.001+09:00

Being a member of the Branch Presidency, Elder Seangsuwan spends more time at Church on Sundays to serve the Branch. In Udonthani, there are two branches. Udon One runs the meeting from 1:00 to 4:00 PM. However as Senior Missionaries, we have to be at Church from 8:45 AM. For the Udon Two Branch, too.

We do have investigators for both branches, so we have to be at church for both branch meetings. We also help the Udon Two branch with visiting 3 less active families and the Udon One with 5 families from as well.

The new Branch President has been doing very well in terms of running the Branch. Elder Seangsuwan only helps him around as needs. Doing missionary work and helping in the Branch keep us busy.

We went to Ching-Mai for a week for our Senior Missionary Conference. We have learned so much how to be an affective missionary. We also learned from two couples from Mynma and another two couples who are working in Laos. Those four couple could not use the Elder and Sister title in those two countries. They are banned to do the missionary work there and can only serve as Humanitarian services. There is a small branch with few members in Mynma. However, there are over hundred members in Laos.

Our plan for our investigators to be baptized in a couple weeks. Brother Fiat, 20 years old as well as Sister Un Su Maly. Sister Bun-Thita is also plans to be baptized.

Sister Somchit is about sixty-five years old and her nieces, Sister Benchamath is 15 are also planned to be baptized in a month. We enjoy serving the Lord in this calling.

Brother Fiat told us that his mother would like him to be a Buddhist monk for 3 months. He told his mother that he could not do that since he has faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. His mother then told him that he needs to be an active Christian and to please help his younger brother.

Today, 5/27/2008, we were teaching a young man named brother Kieng, also 20 years old. Culturally, a young man, 20 years old in Thailand, should be invited by their parents to have their sons be a monk for at least 30 days. After the plan of Salvation was given to him, he asked if he could still become a monk first due to his mother request. We told him that he would be the one to make that decision. He said he would let us know in a week.

The work is great!

From Elder and Sister SeangsuwanThailand Bangkok Mission

New Calling

2008-05-03T02:56:00.000+09:00

To be working closely with the branch in Udonthani, Elder Seangsuwan was called to serve to new branch presidency as the 2nd counselor.

Searching new families to teach the gospel, helping new and less active members are great. Keeping us busy in the Lord work is our blessing.

Sister Nonglak was baptized yesterday was wonderful.

From Elder and Sister Seangsuwan

Two Weeks in Bangkok

2008-05-03T02:53:00.000+09:00

We had to travel to Bangkok for our documentation to be updated this past month. Our IDs needed to be renewed to get our new Identification Cards for Thailand. I also obtained my Thai Driver License. When we were in Bangkok, we also invited Sister Missionaries to visit and to teach our relatives, Sister Seangsuwan's sister. We stayed in Bangkok for two weeks. While we were there we also met many other family's members. We were able to share with them our experiences of our mission. We visited my aunt who is 102 years old and my uncle is 96 years old. We asked them more for my family history information and so we can work on our genealogy and temple work. One other reason that our stay in Bangkok was prolonged was due to Thai Holidays from April 12 to 16 which caused the government offices to be closed. We got things done on April 17.

One of my nephews passed away in Bangkok on April, 11 and his wife and two children were told about the eternal family by Sister Seangsuwan. We referred this family to the young missionaries in Bangkok to continue to teach them the true gospel and the Plan of Salvation.

During two weeks in Bangkok, the young missionaries visited our investigators in Udonthani for us. We still plan for sister Un-Sumali to be baptized in a month.

On April 19, we returned back to our district. We continue to look for new family to teach every day. We have already found 7 people (3 families) and will continue to visit them. One family, which we met today, Vichai and Pitsamai, mentioned that they would like to see the Salt Lake Temple. They said they have heard about the Mormons for many years and that they were interested in learning more about the gospel. We gave them the Plan of Salvation pamphlet and scheduled an appointment to learn more.

This week, we have Missionary Zone Conference on April 24 in Khon-Kan, and Senior Missionary Conference in Chieng-Mai will be on May 19.

We also watched the General Conference from big screen in the chapel in Udon and sustained our new Prophet, President Monson. It was great to listen to their talks in Thai. I recognized the voices as I use to translate with them.

Yes, we enjoy the work of the Lord.

March 29, 2008

2008-03-30T00:01:00.001+09:00

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

March 16, 2008

2008-03-16T15:05:00.001+09:00

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

2008-03-16T13:04:00.001+09:00

Visiting less active members is wonderful!

2008-03-10T03:05:00.000+09:00

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!