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

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 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

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

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 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

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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.