01/27/2014

I honestly don't know what to say. I think I'll make a list this week!

My list of things that happened this week:

1. We baptized Brother O. He's a boss. He's the author who knows about my blog! So Brother O! If you're reading this you're the best! haha

2. That investigator who came to church for the first time last week. After we tried to set up an appointment and she said she didn't want any of "this" and only wanted to learn English. We told her that "this" will continue after death, but English will simply pass. We just counted her as gone. Yesterday we found her in sacrament meeting. She came back by herself! She stayed for the baptism and after asked us to teach her how to pray. She has a date for next Sunday. :)

3. I found this other dude in front of seven. He reminds me so much of Jack... He talks the same way, smiles the same way, everything. He's a boss and I'm not letting this guy get taken away from me too. We had our first lesson with him 4 hours after we met him. We taught the word of wisdom, law of chastity, sabbath day, book of mormon, and prayer in the first lesson and he's getting baptized on the 9th. :)

4. I ran into another white guy! This one has read way to much antimormon material.... Pretty much his entire family is LDS but he is just way caught up on some stupid things in the history of the church.(I can tell you more about him if you want... but until next week refer to Elder wilko's email if you want to learn more!) He told us that we get rejected so much here because everyone knows who we are and that our church is a "fraud". Bahaha sorry bro, 95% rejection is true, but it isn't because everyone here thinks we're a fraud, it's because we just walk around and ask people to get baptized. So basically this guy was a way fascinating character. His grandchildren have all served missions and he is simply the confused soul of the family.

5. I didn't find any pirates. เสียใจ

6. I sat in the hall for way too long this week while elder wilko interviewed people.

7. Some random dude pulled me over at a red light on his motorcycle. He went on about how we wants to wash his sins away and has 50 friends he's going to bring to church the next day. We met with him, he wasn't drunk, and the next day when we called him he was drunk! I called him yesterday morning to remind him about church. He said he wasn't feeling well. "Why?" "I got in an accident last night and I'm in the hospital." My friends. Keep the work of wisdom. Drinking is stupid.

8. Last night I talked to this guy. Here is our conversation. (this starts with me) 

"hey." 

"hey." 

"can you speak thai?" 

"yes, I can speak thai. I am thai." 

I notice he has a cross hanging from his pierced ear. "Are you christian?" 

"no." 

"really? What's that?" 

"OOOOH... I like Jesus" 

"Really? I like Jesus too!" I pull off my tag and show it to him,  "I am a representative of Christ. Why do you like Jesus?" 

"cause He taught us to be good." 

"do you know what baptism is?" 

"No" 

I pull out a picture of christ getting baptized. "this is baptism, have you ever been baptized?"

"OOH! I know what that is."

"Christ taught us that we can be wash our sins away, and baptism is an ordinance that lets us wash our sins away."

"I'm interested. Can I have your number?"

"we will have a baptism on the 9th of february. Will you get baptized on that day?"

"yes."

We exchange numbers and I set up an appointment.

"I will help you prepare to be baptized. Do you have any questions?"

"I don't think so..."

"I'll see you on tuesday"

9. We found a bunch of toy army men at seven and bought them. Now we have wars all over our house in the evening. 

10. We also have nerf guns. We have combined both and made an ultra battle game.

11. Elder Hunsaker likes to surprise me. So sometimes I'll walk into the room and he is standing there and just shoots me in the face with the nerf gun. You can just imagine what happens with four 18-21 year olds in one house and nerf guns.

12. One time he extra surprised me. In the morning he told me he would put cheese on my face that day. That evening he shot me in the face while we were planning. He had put easecheeze on the end of the nerf gun... hahaha So he did get cheese on my face that day.

13. A couple nights ago we found a rat in our house. At 10:25. The next 30 minutes was spent trying to catch this thing. Elder Hunsaker was terrified and so Elder Wilko and I were the men that caught it. At one point the rat was on the dresser and we thought it was behind it. So Elder Wilko started shaking the dresser and next thing we know it was flying through the air towards him and bounced off his shoulder. 

Well... I'm out of stories for today!

Elder Osborn

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 I kind of already explained this... haha


 Yes.

 This is Brother O!

 Baptism yesterday!

I don't really know how to explain this picture, but I like it.

01/20/2014

Today is January 20, 2557

haha I still love living in the future.

This month the mission has baptized 102 people. The total goal for next week is another 110. I'd say that these numbers alone are a miracle. Just remember that Thailand has the highest percentage of Buddhist people in the world. 

I have some follow up stories for the "cool stories" I shared last week.

Our goal on paper for baptisms yesterday was 3. We had more than that preparing. Friday night. 2 of our investigators had passed their interviews and the third was going to interview the next day. 

Saturday morning we got a call. The girl who had passed her interview the night before and had picked out her baptismal gown in her excitement said she wasn't ready. Her parents had gotten to her. Not as bad as Jack, they had only encouraged her to wait before she made a big decision in life. We set an appointment to meet with her before church yesterday so we could watch the "Lord, I believe" talk by Elder Holland. She never came and we still haven't gotten a hold of her--  We took her name off of the baptismal program.

The awesome investigator who we helped him quit smoking passed his interview on saturday. He never came to church yesterday and we can't contact him either.

We took his name off of the baptismal program 10 minutes before it started, hoping until the last minute that he would come.

Another investigator who we have been working with for a while now and two of his friends have been baptized walked up to me during church after the second hour and said he doesn't think he has any faith. He said that it would be better if he stopped meeting with us. We told him he hasn't been reading and praying and that is why he has no faith. We gave him Alma 32 then watched him leave.

We had a miracle Sunday morning. A random girl who we invited to church came! After church before she left I tried to set up an appointment with her. She said she doesn't want any of "this" and she only wants to learn English on Tuesday. I told her English will pass with death but all of "this" is the only thing she'll take with her. She still said no.

What happened? What went wrong? On Friday night the number of baptisms on sunday was supposed to be 11. Only 8 got baptized that afternoon. (the other Elder's lost another to parents too, they moved to a different city for the weekend so she couldn't get baptized)

Nothing hurts more than watching others fall. Whether they fall because they just lost the spirit, put things of the world before the Kingdom of Heaven, they just don't believe, their parents get in the way, or they just disappear -- I even know Elders who have lost investigators to death just before they got baptized. No matter how they fall, it hurts. But it doesn't hurt too bad. If I wasn't seeing miracles everyday I would have lost hope already. I know I'm not the only one in this mission who is losing investigators like this. I'm sure every mission sees this happen all too frequently.

I know that this isn't the end of the world. My mission will continue, I will baptize others. No matter how many I lose I will bring some to the fold. The rest of the mission will do the same. How can I get down on myself if I had another baptism yesterday? How can I get down on myself when my goal for next week is still two? I watched 8 people get baptized yesterday! Now that is a miracle if one existed. We had just as many baptisms yesterday in our zone as we had all of last month! It's hard to compare the feelings of losing someone and the feelings of bringing someone to God. But It's the same thing as what happened with Brother Jack a few weeks ago, I come out stronger, I come out with experience, knowing how to deal with these kind of things and having the wisdom to help avoid them in the future too. I felt like I got kicked down to the ground yesterday, but I've just learned to stand up again and run faster. Not let previous stumbles get in my way, whether they were my mistakes or the agency of others. 

Okay... well there went my dramatic attempt to be artistic and spiritual side of me.

Now for some other stuff!

A couple days ago this french muslim dude ran up to elder wilko and i in the mall and started telling us about how he loves that he and us are so religious and spiritual while the rest of the world is throwing it away. He was way ecstatic about everything and he had a little twitch under his right nostril and under his left eye. He told us all about all of the different thai dialects and advised us to learn some basic thai so we could testify to the people more effectively. We just played stupid as usual and just pretended we didn't speak thai.

About ten minutes later I spotted a pirate at the same mall. I am not even kidding!!! This guy was a literal pirate!! Just pull up a picture of Jack Sparrow and that's him. Plus his arm was in a sling. We were waiting for him to say that his name was barbossa and that he was shipwrecked at the central mall. His name turned out to be gary. Gary the pirate. :)  He was from oregon. He lives in Chaing mai and loves to ride his motercycle - which is how he broke his arm. He teaches english in a Wat in Chaing Mai to the monks there. He told us about how he pulled out his computer and projector and showed them a video of the mount st helens eruption and how they thought that was pretty cool. He then proceeded to tell us that he taught them about bigfoot too. Bigfoot. He told us he turned 50 and had no career, no family, nothing. So he moved to chaingmai and started over.

We met a pirate, who rides motercycles, and teaches monks about volcanoes and bigfoot.

Okay... I'm out of time... See ya next week!

Elder Osborn

 P-day meat buffet. Cook it yourself. This would be SO illegal in america.

 This also is a very common thing. I got used to it and didn't even think this would be way weird in the US. Driving food. Everywhere!!

Look at these studs that got baptized yesterday!!

 My good friend B ball opening his call! Australia!!!

 Udon's birthday celebration with flying people! PS: they set a world record, you can look it up.

Look at the gang!! These guys are the future priesthood of Udon.

Brother นน got baptized yesterday!!

01/12/2014

I love Thailand. Cause I live more than 500 years ahead of everybody else! haha

So, sadly, nobody in our companionship has been baptized this month yet, but we do have 5+ really solid daters set up for the 19th.

I have some cool stories!!!!

We have an investigator and met with him and watched finding faith in Christ. We spoke of miracles and healing. We made a plan for him to quit smoking because he hasn't been able to. Two days later we met with him again, he told us that he went from 15 cigarettes a day down to two, and was going to not smoke at all that day. He is preparing to be baptized on the 19th. We also asked him how he's doing with talking to his boss about the Sabbath day. He didn't tell us anything more than, "it shouldn't be a problem anymore". What?! So impressed!

Elder Wilko contacted a girl a few days ago and we met her on Friday. We asked her why she wanted to meet with us. This was basically her reply: "I've made mistakes in life and if there really is a way to wash all of those away I want to do it." We gave her a date for 9 days later and taught her the Word of wisdom, sabbath day, prayer, book of mormon, and the law of chastity on the spot. She has no problems with any of them. Yesterday we called her to remind her to come to church. She said she was sick. We told her that if she came to church today she could get baptized on the 19th, and if she didn't she'd have to wait for the 26th. She came.

A few days ago I met a really nice man. He is an author. And he has already found my blog.... So he may or may not read this.... hahahaha.

He came for his first lesson with us and came with an old translation of the Book of Mormon. He had watched "God's Army" about 6 years ago and was curious about the missionaries. He came to english class and got a Book of Mormon and nothing came of it until I ran into him this week. He came to church and we have another appointment with him. We asked him how much of the book of mormon he plans to read in a day, he answered that he can read a 300 page book in 3 hours. I expect him to finish within a week.

Last night I found a woman who spoke amazing english. The sisters used to visit her family years ago when she was 18. She said she can't remember much but she had a good feeling with the missionaries. I asked her if she wanted to continue learning. She said there's many beliefs and many answers for everybody. I said "No. There's not. Do you believe in God?" "yes." "If I believed that I created the world, but God actually created the world, is it possible that I created the world and God did too?" "no" "exactly! There is ONE answer for EVERYTHING for EVERYBODY. It isn't hard."

She refused to come to the church or meet with me. She said she prays to God every morning and that He has answered her prayers before. I gave her my number and said, "Tomorrow morning will you pray to God and ask, ' Should I meet with Elder Osborn?' If He tells you no, promise me that you will not call me. But, if He tells you yes, promise me you will follow that answer and call me." I'm praying I'll get a phone call from her sometime soon or she'll stop by the church. I told her that she doesn't have to believe or listen to any of the voices of all the religions fighting for her, she doesn't need to listen to me either. I told her to put it into God's hands and He will tell her what she needs to do.

The work is beautiful. It is true that a mission brings the greatest happiness. I've never felt so tired, so inadequate, so useless, so stupid, so slow, so weak. But I feel powerful. I can walk up to anybody I want to and know that I have more authority "than the kings of the earth". I have the authority to call them to repentance and guide them towards salvation and exaltation. I have never felt so supported. 

"And he commandeth all men that they must repent, and be baptized in his name, having perfect faith in the Hold One of Israel, or they cannot be saved in the kingdom of God. And if they will not repent and believe in his name, and be baptized in his name, and endure to the end, they must be damned; for the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has spoken it." 

"Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Hold Ghost. Yea, and now behold, the Lord doth give me exceedingly great joy in the fruit of my labors; For because of the word which he has imparted unto me, behold, many have been born of God, and have tasted as I have tasted, and have seen eye to eye as I have seen; therefore they do know of these things of which I have spoken, as I do know; and the knowledge which I have is of God. I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; ya, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me. And I know that he will raise me up at the last day, to dwell with him in glory."

Elder Osborn

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We have these things called balanced key indicators. If you get balanced. It basically means you're a good missionary. If you get super balanced... well I'll leave that up for interpretation. 

These charts show all of the indicators to show how our companionship is doing in general, from lessons, investigators, to baptisms. We have been 10 weeks balanced now. We keep pushing our goals even higher every week.

 Christmas Party!

Merry Christmas!!!

Lunch at the district president's house!!!

 Goodbye brother เก่ง!!


 Rice fields!!!!! Actually these are potatoes...

Remember when I said that brother sam looked like a burglar when we went to the fields..... yup. you can see it for yourself!!! hahaha

01/14/2014

This week has been way dece, or should I say pineapple. Because the slang word for dece, or decent in thai, is "pineapple". I'd say that's pretty cool! 555

This week was rough... We had a baptism set up. My good friend Brother Jack. The kid I ran into who thought I was a cop the first time. He was supposed to get baptized yesterday. He went home to sagonakon for a couple days for new years. Next thing we know we can't get a hold of him for a couple days after he was supposed to get back. We had no idea what happened. He just disappeared. We found out on saturday night from one of his friends who is a member, that his parents forbade him from learning with us. The most prepared investigator I've ever seen. Gone in an instant. 

You could say I'm not happy about that. Well to be honest I'm ticked. But it isn't something that's going to slow me down. I decided that I am going to get back at Satan by baptizing and bringing even more souls unto Christ. So that same day I called 101 people to repent and be baptized. I got seven people to say yes and set up appointments with them. I don't even know how many Elder Wilko contacted (we split up and contact by ourselves, we can call more people to repentance that way). I feel like I work now with an even greater haste and speak to others with more power and force. I'm not scared to walk up to somebody and say this exactly (translated). "God sentme here to tell you to repent and be baptized. Will you be baptized on the 19th of January?" If they say no, I walk away.

Our whole mission contacts this way. I did it before too. But now I really care about it, because I lost Brother Jack. In the past three days I've personally invited at least 200 people to be baptized. There are 160 of us. The work is exploding because we all are doing what Christ said in 3 Nephi 11,

"And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and become as a little child, and be baptized in my name, or ye can in nowise receive these things. (repeats it for the third time)... Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine... And whoso shall declare more or less than this, and establish it for my doctrine, the same cometh of evil, and is not built upon my rock; but he buildeth upon a sandy foundation, and the gates of hell stand open to receive such when the floods come and the winds beat upon them. Therefore, go forth unto this people, and declare the words which I have spoken, unto the ends of the earth."

We literally are inviting "all men everywhere" to be baptized.

Miracles this week: (warning, there are too many for me to write or remember all of them)

Sister quan sacrificed to come to church. She's getting baptized on sunday.

Brother Jack, (the older, not the one we lost) we lost him a few weeks ago. He met with us this week and is progressing to get baptized on the 19th.

Brother puu changed his phone number so we couldn't get ahold of him. He came to church on his own.

A man named sak came to church today, he hadn't come in 10 years, it was his birthday so he thought to rethink his life so he came back to church. We're teaching him now.

Brother ta, after several weeks of no contact came back to church and is going to change his work schedule and quit coffee before next sunday so he can get baptized on the 19th or the 12th.

A family I contacted the day we lost brother jack came to church yesterday and had a great time. They have two young daughters. When I contacted them I asked them to be baptized, they said yes and came to church the next day.

I love the work. It's sad to lose investigators, but we all know that we can replenish all of them within a day or two. The work here is beautiful. Yesterday there was at least 28 baptisms in Thailand. There may have been more because that isn't including one zone's numbers.

I love you all. I love the work more than anything. 

Elder Osborn

เอ็ลเดอร์ ออสบอร์น

 Brother sam, or แซม being the angel and messing up his lines during dress rehearsal. hahahahaha


 Exploring on christmas. :) "lost in the wilderness"


 Look at the big duck all decorated for christmas!! :)

Elder Wilko and I went to a way nice( but still super cheap ) restaurant with our good buddy the district president.

 This is our favorite restaurant. :)


Hey look what I did again on Family search!!! 

 Elder Wilko and Elder osborn, Jedi/defenders of love/pharisee hahahaha


 More Christmas pics. I love this one!

12/29/2013

Happy Christmas Elder! And an early New Year!

Why do I say that? Because we have to be back at our house right after english class tomorrow, which ends at 8. So we will either pretend it's new year at 8, or at 6:30 in the morning when we wake up! hahaha. 

Thailand is the best. Speaking of thailand being the best. The work continues to explode. I pray for miracles over 15 times a day. So does the rest of the mission. The members and the missionaries fast for miracles and more people being led into the church.

And we are seeing the results. Elder Wilko and I, this morning, made a list of all of our investigators that have baptismal dates for next month. Guess how many? 16 names. We are doing the work in such a way that the only people we find and teach are those who want to get baptized. And the only ones we continue to teach are those willing to keep the commandments. It's simple. But if everything goes through, Elder Wilko and I will have 16 baptisms in January. hahah But that doesn't happen. Usually it's about 25 percent of anything here that goes through. So we expect to have 3 or 4. But what's even cooler, is we can pick up a new investigator and have them a date off the contact and have them prepared for baptism in less than a week. Most of these 16 people we've met this week. And this week has been the worst week yet for contacting. Thai people go crazy for new years and it basically lasts three weeks and everyone goes home. So half of the shops are closed for the next week.

So now onto the funny weird stuff that happened...

For the christmas program, they had all the missionaries stand in front of the thai members. We're usually about a foot taller than them. hahaha

For the christmas program, we looked like Jedi. Way sick. I looked like a pharisee though.

Brother tong prayed to the virgin mary on sunday...... oh dear.

Elder wilko fell asleep during a combined meeting/continued sacrament meeting for the fifth sunday. the teacher called on him and asked him to come up. Elder Wilko explained the story of paul perfectly. It's amazing how the only two people who actually know what is going on in the meetings are the two who are sitting in the back half asleep, half studying.

bahaha I thought of a really funny story, then realized it actually wouldn't be funny just reading it.... 

... hmmmmm I can't think of much else to say. weeks are blending together...

I should probably start writing down awesome things that happen right as they happen.

I also apologize for having no pictures this week. I have tons but I left my adapter at the house...

Well I'm off!

Love you!

Elder Osborn