12/16/2013

Hahahahahahahahaahahah. This morning we woke up to a huge rain storm. It isn't even rainy season! This never happens. But it was awesome. 

Speaking of weather, I heard that I-15 is closed between st george and Las Vegas!! That's crazy! Today, it's probably 65 degrees because of this freak rain and as we were biking to this internet cafe everyone we saw was wearing winter coats and just bundled up. The guy who owns this place is sitting in his chair with a towel over him for extra warmth too. hahaha I love thai people.

Yesterday I had my fourth baptism! Brother Focus! He's a champ. Way smart.

Sorry. I ranted. I wrote a whole bunch of stuff but decided that I don't want to bug everyone with my frustrations. So I erased it.  :)

In other words! with our new vests and my light on my bike, we look like cops. It's way cool.

So last monday at our favorite contacting spot I rode up to a guy and said hello. He thought I was a cop and was scared for a bit. Who knew that a week later he would be hanging out with all the members all day at church? He loved church, is getting along so well with the members, and is loving the lessons. It's possible he'll get baptized next week, but probably after christmas.

Sometimes I forget to look back at these little blessings and miracles. Because you can't see them in the moment, but when you look back you can see the Lord's hand in everything. Even halfway through my contact with this kid, I almost said goodbye cause he lives way far away where the church isn't there. I don't know why, but I asked him where he lives a second time. He said Udon. If I hadn't asked him where he lives twice so he would answer where he lives now, this boy would still be a normal 20 year old walking the streets in thailand. I'm really excited to be able to look back in years and see the effects of that simple question. And this is only one of the stories and experiences that I've seen myself. These things are constantly happening. And it's likely that most of the stories like this that I played a role in, I will never know about them. But not only am I laying seeds for a future servant, but I can see the promise right now, "the field is white ALREADY to harvest."

 4 baptisms in a transfer. This kind of work used to be unheard of in thailand. We are setting records everywhere over here in Thailand. 

The goal for november. 1 baptism per companion.

result: 110 baptisms in a month.

Goal for december: 1 baptism and a less active rescue for every companionship.

Result: We don't know yet, but we can see it happening.

Goal for January: 2 baptisms per companionship

Result: I don't know yet! But Elder Wilko and I are set up for over 5 baptisms in january.

I love thailand! The work is awesome! Transfers is this week! We'll see what happens!

Elder Osborn

เอ็ลเดอร์ ออสบอร์น

 Brother Fucus's baptism. I love this pic!

This is our porch/yard haha.

This is our map of Udorn and our Christmas decorations hahahaha

Our house!

12/09/2013

Sometimes it is really weird to think that on the mission you only have just over 100 p-days. When I think of that I think, "Oh monkeys! My mission's already almost over! NOOOOO!!!!" 

You may be thinking that I'm exaggerating a little, but I'm not. 5555555.

So yesterday I had my third baptism. ซ. กระแต, a friend of a recent convert. She is a little ball of energy. But in our branch we had four baptisms. I personally baptized one of our investigator's Grandmother. This was the first time I ever baptized anybody! The hard part is, you have to use people's real names, and in Thai, people's names are LOOOOONG. I baptized sister จัน, but I had to say, janjiiraa chugawat, (plus tones). I'm amazed I remembered her name! She's a champ. She came from the hope church, and is bringing us referrals like crazy. She holds little family home evenings where over 10 of her hope church friends come over and she teaches them about the gospel! We're set up to baptize her grandson next week. He's way funny. He's the kid wearing the minion shirt in the picture. Oh! And brother แซม baptized the three others! I'm so proud of him! One week he gets baptized, next confirmed, next gets the priesthood, and next baptizes three people! And he helps the missionaries teach and invite almost every day! 

Okay I'm going to tell a story.

Some of you may think that Elders Quorum is crazy in Utah.... :)  It's way hilarious in Thailand.

Yesterday, Elder Wilko and I were sitting there explaining what was going on to a new investigator while the teacher was teaching.

The people I name as "peanut gallery" were the men sitting behind us making comments about everything the whole time. "elder" just means any guy who's in the room.

This all happened in Thai, so I apologize if my translation is a little bit blunt, but that's still just Thai. Here we go!!

   Act I

   Scene I

   Setting: Elder's quorum, Udonthani, Thailand.

Teacher: There are three types of members in this church....

Peanut Gallery 1: Homosexuals.

Elder Wilko and Elder Osborn: laughing too hard to hear the other two types of members

Scene II

Teacher: What is the first great commandment in the law?

Elder 1: Love God with all your heart.

Peanut Gallery 2: ENDURE!!!

Elder 2: Love your fr--- gets cut off

Peanut Gallery 2: ENDURE TO THE END! ENDURE! ENDURE!

Peanut Gallery 1: starts singing some random irrelevant pop song

Peanut Gallery 2: ENDURE!!

 - Close curtains -

Scene III

Teacher: How long were the children of Israel in the wilderness?

Elders 1, 2, and 4: 40 yea--- cut off again

Teacher: Answering his own question and cutting off the elders with his answer --- 400 YEARS.

 - Close curtains - 

  - จบ -

I hope you enjoyed that story. We were crying of laughter the entire time. :)

This is Elder Wilko's narration of what happened at church yesterday. If you combine both of our stories you get the whole picture of our usual sunday. haha.

"Let me tell you how Sundays in Thailand work.... Well all the cattle gather together in the barn at around 1 pm (on a good day) for sacrament meeting then because the primary program gets done 25 minutes early they open the fence and all the cattle go runnin every which way. Some stay in the barn/go to class , some go outside to graze in the pasture/eat some grub, some high tail it out of dodge to take their second removed cousins grandson to school. Well around 2:20pm farmer Wilko and farmer Osborn wonder where oh where have the cattle all gone and then for the next hour and a half we play woody's round up and make sure all the animals get safely back to the barn."

This picture is of a security guard taking a nap on the job in the middle of one of the bigger streets in Udon. Similar to if he set up his watch out stand in the turning lane on University and University in Provo and just decides to take a nap. We like this guy.

So you know those three wheeled vehicles I've sent a few pictures of us on? We found a way pimped out one the other night. Usually they have a little underglow or a light on it somewhere, to attract people's attention, but this one just went all out. The picture doesn't even do it justice.This thing was flashing and changing colors and it's brightness and glory defy all description. It hurt to look at this thing! Not only was it bright, it had huge speakers in the back and was blasting isaan music.

Oh! Also, Brother tong, (our recent convert who is way excited about everything), after church we found him eating some carrot cake, he told us over and over, "This cake is from God!! It is truly delicious!"

Sister กระแต and brother แซม yesterday. :)

Okay. I think I'm done for today. :)

See ya next week!

Elder Osborn

เอ็ลเดอร์ ออสบอร์น

In a seperate email:

Hey dad! Sorry I didn't really send you a good email last week! You deserved one, but guess what!? one of the biggest holidays in thailand is father's day. :) 

That was on Thursday. So I took a picture with this father's day sign right outside of the church. You're the best dad in the world! I love you so much. Thanks for being such a good example to me and raising me well. Thank you for everything. 

I love you!

12/02/2013

Good morning!

Bahaha. It's morning here! Sometimes I forget I'm on the other side of the world and that it is always opposite.

I have also heard it's snowing... haha That's rough. Cause it's hot here. And I love it! The last few days have actually been pretty chilly. I think it got down to 70... haha.

Speaking of weather. The sun here is so pretty. I'm going to attach some pictures of a sunset over our favorite contacting place a couple days ago. And the duck is still there. :)

Okay. This letter is going to be all over the place and I'll apologize ahead of time. 

The Thai language is so cool! When ever I look at a sign, or read something in Thai, I forget that I can read these scribbles. Right now I read about a chapter every day in the Book of Mormon in Thai every day. (I actually started doing that just 3 days ago, but it's awesome.) I'll send a pic of the book of mormon cause it looks so cool! Not only is the written language super sweet, the spoken language is awesome too! Sometimes, I'll finish a lesson and think, "What if someone in my family was here for this lesson? What would they think? They wouldn't understand any of it! I can!" I don't mean to put anyone down but sometimes it just freaks me out that I can understand, speak, read, and kind of write Thai. Thai is just super cool and I am always so pumped every day to speak it and get better at it and learn more.

We had mission tour this Wednesday. It was fantastic! It was all about the Book of Mormon and how to use it with investigators and recent converts. This book is so powerful! Honestly, I have seen miracles born from a simple decision to read the book of mormon and pray. These two things are so easy and take so little time to do, but have eternal consequences. You can feel their effects immediately. I can testify of this from my own life and I've seen it work in too many people's lives to deny it. If anyone is struggling with anything. Just read the book of mormon, apply it to your life, and pray sincerely. This is the greatest piece of advice I could every give anybody.

Sorry I didn't tell more stories today. I can't really think of any specifically. But here's one!

A few day's ago I talked to this guy who was feeding fish. I told him all about how Christ opened the door to heaven but it is up to us do walk through it. Through baptism. He is christian already and he thought that because christ was baptized and paid for our sins we were good. He didn't seem super interested but definitely saw the need for him to get baptized. Two days later I ran into him again! We talked a bit and I invited him to church. I called him on Sunday morning, and before I could even say who I was he told me enthusiasticly, "I am coming to church at one o'clock FOR SURE!!"  Okay.  He came 40 minutes early, is friends with sister พร, and he's working on the Word of Wisdom. :) We teach the commandments first and it works so well. He took notes! The last person to take notes was Brother แสม. (He got the priesthood yesterday by the way) We're going to meet with him on wednesday. :) Way cool. He is the fourth person who I have gotten to meet with us at the church by myself. Elder Wilko is really good at letting me do stuff and this new contacting helps me so much too. Way neat. His name is ต๊ะ. 

I love you all!

Elder Osborn.

Oh, and I'll be reading Alma 30 tomorrow if you're still with me. :)

 Thanksgiving!

Beautiful sunset a couple days ago. That is our favorite contacting place, nong prajak. The duck is still there and that's a wat in the background.