06/30/2014

OOOOH. I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you that last week was transfers meeting!

So. I left Srinakarin in good hands, with baptisms set up for the next few weeks and traveled into the heart of Thailand. To a small city called Pitsanulok! My new companion is Eler Jeng. He is Taiwanese and came into country last transfer. So I'll be finishing his training. He's a solid missionary and his Thai is very impressive for only being here two months.

The only problem is that when I got here I found that we only have progressing investigators! And a lot of 'em. And 4 recent converts. It seems that this area hasn't been pumping out the baptisms like the rest of the country has. So I have a few goals, turn all of these progressing investigators into investigators with a baptismal date and find new miracle investigators who can get baptized in two weeks.  Yeah, I'm planning on changing this area so it can start pumping out baptisms.

This is a pretty small place compared to Bangkok. WAY SMALL!!! Just 75,000 people in the middle of the country. We're also about 6 hours away from the rest of our zone and six hours from Bangkok. So yes, middle of nowhere. There are 4 Elders here, and the district leader is in the group just older than me. Weird! I'm getting old in the mission!

The church is not an actual church here. It is a rented building. I'll take a picture next time!

Also, at transfers everyone went home. Elder Wilko, Hunsaker, and Lucas all went home! It broke my heart when President Senior told them, "Well done, thou good and faithful servants". We also have a really big change in the way we work. This one came from high up the chain. All over the world, every convert must be taught lesson 5, laws and ordinances, BEFORE they are baptized now! I think they're changing this so that all the recent converts can understand what they are supposed to do and what is expected of them after they are baptized. It definitely makes our teaching more interesting, because I've never taught those lessons to an investigator before, only after baptism. So now we have to plan that into their baptismal preparation.

This area is a really cool area, the recent converts are really active and play a great role in the missionary work. We'll be working on getting other members involved too.

Elder Osborn

There was this weird convention/show with these weird things everywhere. the first one says "We understand eachother" But it has more meaning than that that I cannot explain in english.

 Elder Sukhan inviting a smoking dude to quit and get baptized.

An alligator I drew before English class. Beautiful right!?

Friends before I moved. Some recent converts and an investigator.