Just before the baptism while we were taking pictures our recent convert Sister Tipa, who got baptized two weeks earlier, asked to take a picture with Brother Win. She is an older woman and is so cute and just loves the church so much! She was just beaming with joy because of him. She was so excited for his baptism I can't even describe her excitement. She was asked to say the closing prayer at the baptism and when she went up to say the prayer she introduced herself first. It was so cute! This lady is the best.
Last night we had a meeting with Bishop Stevenson in Asoke. A good part of the missionaries in Bangkok were there and he spoke on success and how to keep "pressing forward" to higher levels whenever we are successful. He also spoke on commitments and the power of giving a commitment. President Senior spoke on "the medium is the message" and how the first and sometimes the most powerful statement of the message of the restored gospel of Christ is the missionary. How the missionary walks, carries himself, speaks, and smiles. He said to "leave them in exquisite wonder" after you walk away. He spoke of the missionaries in one area out in the Isaan and how the whole town knows the missionaries as the "clean sins guys".
Interesting stories for this week!
1. A guy came into the church for an appointment. He wanted to get baptized that day. We told him he's have to wait until the next sunday. He said no. We didn't really know how to respond. He went off about how I had told him we would baptize him that day in only twenty minutes. I told him I did not tell him that. He got frustrated. We asked him again if he wanted to get baptized. He said yes. We said that the fastest he can get baptized is next Sunday. He said no. This cycle happened a couple more times while we tried to teach him commandments but he refused everything. I looked him in the eyes, he stood up, and we walked him to the door. The member that was helping us told us that he was probably drunk.
2. We found a guy from Scotland, we gave him everything. Somethings he even noticed were correct, but then he'd shake it off and reject again. Judgement seat is gonna be way awkward for that guy.
3. We found another guy. Elder Winsor asked this white old man where he was from, to which he angrily responded along the lines of, "why does it matter? Thailand I guess. Why? Are you from the government?" "No, I'm a missionary" Elder Winsor invited this white guy to be baptized, he turned around and started freakin' out at Elder Winsor. Elder Winsor just bore his testimony, "I know this is the only way we can be saved, by being baptized." This is the part where I noticed what was going on. I heard this guy yelling in English so I turned around to see Elder Winsor holding out his baptism card and telling this guy he needs to be baptized while this guy is literally spitting with anger. He was spraying spit as he yelled, "That's an opinion!" over and over again. I turned around and he looked at me and yelled it one more time at me. I couldn't control myself. I started laughing out loud. This ticked him off even more as he started to yell, "that's an opinion!" again! Oh my.... I started laughing harder and he just felt awkward cause he realized how stupid he looked in front of this supermarket with tons of people watching. He forced out a couple laughs but stopped pretty quickly and didn't know what to do. He yelled at us, "Go back to Salt Lake with all of your racist, homophobic friends!" I started laughing even harder - almost hard enough to start crying - and said, "Okay - have a nice day". To which he responded, "YOU have a nice day!" as he turned around and hobbled away. Wow. I am almost crying of laughter again as I'm writing this story! This guy was out of control.
4. I ate my first sandwich in four months. It was subway. It had mustard on it. I was happy.
It is impossible to count how many people I invite to get baptized everyday. I need some kind of counter that I can hold in one hand and my baptism card in the other. If I were to guess how many people everyday - it's probably between 200 and 300.
Well, I'm out of stuff to say for this week.
Elder Osborn
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