Happy Holidays!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.