I have absolutely no idea what I want to write about...
It's not that this week was boring, it's just that it is all just the same stuff. We go contacting, and we find people, and we teach those people. Sometimes people who have big concerns but don't tell us stop picking up the phone. Sometimes people tell us their concerns, and they become really solid investigators. Mostly our best investigators just don't have time for the Lord, so they get dropped. Then some of our investigators go to the hospital. Some of them to a different city. Some love coming to the church so much that they just hang out at the church in the evenings. It becomes like their second home. They just feel good when they're at the church. Then when we have to close down the church, they'll go contacting with us.
Then we have investigators who have seen lights coming down from heaven. Then we have others who say that any spiritual experience is just our minds creating it.
We have an investigator that just compares everything we teach him with a teaching in Buddhism, and then explains that our teachings are basically the same as his.
We have another investigator who compares everything to science and modern philosophy. Responding to tithing with, "Why does religion always have to be about money?"
As you can tell, our mission is very fascinating. Never a boring moment. But the problem is that we get used to all of these crazy experiences. So they just become normal things.
I'll just share with you some of the normal things that happened this week.
Sister Mat was baptized on Saturday evening. Just as Elder Tanner lifted his arm to say the baptismal prayer, the power went off in the entire area. It was pitch black. I thought that the members would say, "Let's wait until the power comes back on to have the baptism." Nope! Several members pulled out their cell phones and shone their lights on the baptismal font. The baptism proceeded as normal and she was baptized in cell phone light. Then someone left the door open so the entire chapel was pitch black and filled with mosquitoes. So a member held her cell phone up to the hymn book for light as I tried to play the hymns in the dark, while mosquitoes were biting me. So I found a great rhythm of playing the hymn and slapping , -- how firm a foundation ye saints of the lord - slap - ..... and will still give thee aid - slap slap.
We went to a school. We were inviting all of the students to go to church when out of nowhere a few teachers showed up. They asked us to go teach some of the students in study hall about Jesus Christ. We got two new investigators from it.
Then they invited us to come back and teach again. So we did.
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH IS GRAPHIC.
One of the members told us about their experience in searching for the truth and all of the different religions she studied before she found the Mormons. She told me about this one where the master drank a whole bunch of alcohol and then took a sword and cut his tongue. Then put the mixture of blood and alcohol into a goblet and had everyone drink it. She didn't drink it. Then the master had everybody put on random different Thai outfits and just do what ever they wanted to release their inner self. She never went back there. But then she found our church and is home safe and sound.
If you would like to hear other random stories like this, feel free to email me and ask about them! I have tons! Yeah Thailand!!!!
Yesterday, we taught a bunch of our investigators after church. When we went to leave and go contacting, three of our investigators went contacting with us! They did great! We left to go pick up some stuff for dinner from our house. And when we met up again, they gave us a piece of paper and said that they found two more people since we left! Yeah. Pretty solid investigators going contacting for us. :)
We were about to go down an escalator when they decided to turn it off, so we walked down it. When I complained that we had to WALK down the escalator, Elder Baldwin said, "Just be happy we're going down and not up."
Speaking of escalators, we were going down a different escalator when out of nowhere we see this american guy going up the escalator in the opposite direction. We said hello and waved. When he saw us he did the last thing I expected him to do. Because usually white people grumble at us or ignore us. But this guy turned around and started running down the escalator. The escalator that was going up. He was running down it. THUD THUD THUD -- We reached the bottom just as he did, but he leaped down the last 4 steps to land with a bone-crunching thud at the bottom. We just stood there confused as he caught his breath. He greeted us very friendly and told us that he was married to a member of our church. We had a great conversation and parted ways.
I've been sick for almost a week now. So when I talk I sound like batman. And my voice is really quiet so some people can't hear me as I talk to them.
On Saturday we went and played soccer with a bunch of kids - some of them weren't wearing shoes. Then it started to pour, they asked us if we were going to leave. We said ไม่เป็นไร, or never mind, or it's nothing. So we
kept playing. Of eight of us, three were Christian, two were Buddhist, and three were Muslim. It was an awesome game.
kept playing. Of eight of us, three were Christian, two were Buddhist, and three were Muslim. It was an awesome game.
Love, Elder Osborn
We taught English about our families. So I drew this picture!
This is us at the school teaching people. And we wore sombreros.
This is our soccer crew!
No comments:
Post a Comment