03/10/2014

This week we had no baptisms... But we found many people who want to be baptized. We did some contacting with some of the young women recent converts who are working on their personal progress. They killed it! Not only did they help us contact, they brought their non-member friend. And she helped invite too! In an hour and a half of contacting we had 26 numbers and 14 appointments set up.

We did a lot of contacting, sometimes with amazing success, sometimes with nobody interested. But yesterday God taught us a lesson. We had an unusually slow week, few lessons, few new investigators, and hardly nothing coming from our contacting. In our whole district only two solid new investigators were found. (these investigators are awesome! But for the sake of making this story sound more epic I'll talk about them afterwards. :)  )

So God taught us that He can do His own work. During Sunday school yesterday two families walked into the church. Both gave the same reason for coming. They both were just walking past the church and "felt" like they should go to church today. The other Elders taught the first family the restoration and they all have baptismal dates for the 23rd. Right when the lesson finished, the second family walked into the church. They received the same lesson and they have dates for the 23rd also. One family has a 7-year-old son and the other an 11-year-old son. 

Then, we found out that one of the men sitting in sacrament meeting wasn't actually a member and had been coming by himself for three weeks. He also accepted a date for the 23rd. 

God knows how to do his own work. We - no matter how good we are - have no idea what we're doing. God leads people to Him. We go out and try to find them. No matter how hard I work all week long, I can never get someone to walk into the church. Only the Spirit can do that. We all learned yesterday that our job is simple: work hard. Work smart. And let God do the rest. He'll bless us with miracles when we work for them and have faith.

Speaking of the other two super solid investigators. They are both awesome! I found one talking to everyone. Elder Winsor found the other while we were in a songtao. Still talking to everyone. This is how our mission works. We talk to everybody we see! Everyone!

They both have a very strong desire to be baptized and we've had some powerful lessons with them. Some of the most strong spiritual lessons I've ever had. One of them always takes notes on what we say. Especially with the commandments.

Oh, and we figured out why President Senior told Elder Winsor and I not to "get too comfortable". I'll explain next week, but basically I'm moving.

I should take more pictures of this area. It's a way cool area.

Elder Osborn

เอ็ลเดอร์ ออสบอร์น

AHHHHHH!!!!!! I almost forgot about the coolest miracle ever!!!!

I got a phone call a couple nights ago from my trainer and my current zone leader, Elder Wilko, giving me an update of Udon. :)

Remember Brother Jack? there were two of them. The one that I lost to his parents, and the one who just disappeared before his baptism. The one who passed his interview one saturday in Udon, but we never heard from him again, was found. The Elders in Udon ran into him and he passed his interview again this week and was baptized yesterday! I almost died when I heard this. He was special to me. One evening I just saw a guy running with his headphones in. I stopped him, invited him, and watched him overcome everything to prepare to be baptized. He was so solid I was excited to teach with him even before he was supposed to be baptized! Then the day of his baptism he just never showed up. We never knew what happened to Jack.  

Now I know that he found his way back. :)

Ah man... I'm gettin' teary eyed just writing this....

03/03/2014

This week we baptized Brother Win. He is awesome! Such a happy man. After his baptism one of the members asked him if he felt excited. He said no. We were really confused until he told us that he just felt peaceful. That made my day. The joy and peace that the Gospel brings to people is visible. You can see it in their eyes, their actions, their words. 

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

เอ็ลเดอร์ ออสบอร์น

02/24/2014

This week was transfers. And a very special transfers at that. President Senior got permission from someone, I don't know, but if I remember correctly it was Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and opened the country of Myanmar/Burma to first companionship of missionaries!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Now the Thailand Bankok Mission can actually serve in all three countries that are in it's boundaries. Laos, Thailand, AND Myanmar!!! The Lord's work is truly hastening and spreading to all corners of the Earth. It isn't that often that a new country is opened to the missionaries! Why? Because we're almost everywhere! 

The only thing, the companionship in Myanmar isn't a proselyting companionship, just the same as Laos. They are there to strengthen the members in the country and serve and open the path for proselyting missionaries in the future. Way cool and exciting.

In the same transfers meeting I left my first area. That was hard, because I loved Udon with all my heart and we were about to get 3 baptisms on Sunday. In the meeting I was assigned to be companions with Elder Winsor! This kid is a boss. He is only 4 months ahead of me in the mission, but he is a boss. We are serving in the area of Srinakarin. (I actually don't know how to spell it... :/  )

In the East Bangkok Zone, whose new zone leader is Elder Wilko!! Only a few months ago this area was only sisters. Now it is only 4 Elders. Plus it is in the only Stake in Thailand so we have a ward!!!! The other two Elders in the house/area are Elder Lucas and Elder Pyne. We're already having a blast! 

Finally got moved to the Tabe. (The Thai word for Bangkok is Grungtaeb, spelled something like that, I can't spell thai words in English, but "The Taeb is the slang word we use for Bangkok. And I think it's easier to read if I spell it Tabe)

Haha, just remembered. When they announced that Elder Winsor and Elder Osborn were together and we went to give each other a hug, President Senior warned us something like this... "Don't get too comfortable." What?! What is that supposed to mean? President Senior would do that to me.

The members found out I played the piano..... and the secret is already out! So I had to play the piano for ward conference and the baptism. During the baptism I switched the setting to organ for the closing hymn, but I had accidentally bumped the volume pedal, so when I played the first chord to "Let the Holy Spirit Guide" the organ blasted everyone's ears out! hahahaha woops.

Oh. Speaking of baptism. Elder Winsor had set up the area for two baptisms yesterday! See what I mean by he's a boss? Sister Cartoon and Sister Mamijang got baptized! They're sisters (well of course they're sisters, we call everyone sister, but they are sister sisters, as in they are siblings. haha) and they are so awesome. 

Yesterday one of our recent converts brought a friend to church. He seemed to be way confused and had to leave before we could teach him. When we taught her a lesson and asked about what her friend thought about church, we were pretty worried because she said he was confused and didn't really know anyone or anything. We were scared that he'd be afraid to come back to church. 

Just barely just before we left the house to come here we got a call from Sister Na, the recent convert. She told us that her friend Go had a great experience at church and really loved a video he watched in the investigator sunday school class about the atonement. She told us he wants to learn more today at seven. !!!! When Elder Winsor hung up the phone and told us what happened I literally jumped for joy and fist pumped the air. We're meeting them today and he can get baptized this Sunday! So so so happy. 

We pray for miracles everyday, and you just have to be patient and trust that they will come. Then they do. They always come. 

Elder Osborn

Baptism! I love this ward. Everyone is so great.

02/17/2014

Question: What happens when you put four 18 to 21-year-olds in the same house?

Answer: Baptisms

This week seemed so slow.... Maybe it was because all of our investigators are out of town. Thai people love their families. So they travel back home at least once a week. For 2 or more days every time. Sometimes I feel like they are at home with their families more than they are in their current city working or going to school. So yes. Two different investigators went to Bangkok this week. And two went home for the weekend. So... We only had one investigator at church. That was rough. Balanced streak. Over. This guy's name is Tap. He is a boss!!! He goes to school over at the college right next to the church. He is learning to be an english teacher so his english is amazing!! One evening I am sitting in my chair in the hallway while Elder Wilko is interviewing for baptism again and the Sisters ask me if we have an investigator supposed to be there. We always have appointments at the church so I asked his name and looked through my book for his name. Don't have it. I said it was probably the other Elders. A couple minutes later they come back and say he wasn't theirs either. Who is this guy? Elder Hunsaker sits in the chair for a minute while I go investigate. I walk into the room and this guy says in perfect english, "It was you!" Okay, I guess he's our investigator. haha.

Split: I'm teaching with Elder Cahoon and this guy says that he's always seen us over at the college but has just avoided us. He told us he felt bad after ignoring me again yesterday so he came to the church.

Fast forward. This guy is at the church 30 minutes early for sacrament meeting. He stays for the baptism, and we teach him a lesson after too. He loved it! We're meeting with him again at six today. He was at the church for 6 hours!! What a champ! 

Haha I feel like we didn't get enough new investigators this week.... We got nine. But we always want to get more. If we can get 10 a week we will baptize people every week. That is cool.

The past three days they have had a huge music festival at the lake. So we went contacting there! Everyone was moving quickly and it was definitely not quiet, so we went with the simple contact, "Do you want to wash your sins away?" This is the easiest phrase to use to invite someone to be baptized because in thai it only uses 5 sylabbles. Way fast! I'm pretty sure I invited over 200 people to be baptized yesterday.

On friday we went up to Nong Khai to sing for a wheelchair donation ceremony. They always love to make huge deals out of everything. The Church donated 40 wheelchairs up there and so 40 disabled people made their way to this building where we were to donate these wheelchairs. They never showed up! The truck with the wheelchairs left bangkok yesterday but never made it to Nong Khai. So all of the speeches went along this line, "We are so grateful you all came today. We know you expect to ride your brand new wheelchair home today, but we apologize because you don't have one to ride home. We'll get them to you when they get here."

It was so sad that 40 disabled people came expecting to get a new wheelchair but went home without one. Oh the irony.

We went up to a famous statue garden in Nong Khai last p-day too! Way cool! Everything was massive and really interesting.

I found an inactive member yesterday. He was telling me how he wasn't ready to go to church. Then he told me how we wasn't going to be ready until he went to church. Not to be rude, but that is stupid. So I told him it was. He said I spoke too boldly and too straight to the point, then he started correcting my thai by telling me I didn't use the correct words, but he couldn't actually give me an example of my bad Thai. He asked me how long I've been in the mission. I said it didn't matter. He asked if I was a greenie. I said it didn't matter. He asked me how old I am. I said 18 as I looked him in the eyes. He looked away and said, trying to one me up, that he is in his 40s and has been a member for over 20 years. I told him to look me in the eyes and I said, " But you still don't understand. Do you remember the gospel of Christ? Faith, Repentance, Baptism, the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end.? Do you remember?" I told him that right now he is failing to endure to the end. I told him that if he doesn't endure to the end, he does not have the Holy Ghost, his baptism meant nothing, his repentance wasn't real, and his faith does not exist. He was silent. I told him I wasn't impressed. I told him his family - who are all great members - are disappointed and sad because of him. I told him he had no excuses to not go to church. He agreed. I told him to repent. He said he wasn't clean enough to go back to church but that he would repent at home. I told him he would never be clean until he went to church. 

I can't express my feelings about less active members. I just know that in the last day it's going to be very uncomfortable for them.

I know by this that unless a man shall endure to the end, in following the example of the Son of the living God, he CANNOT be saved.

I speak boldly because nothing else works. 

In more positive words there was much rejoicing because of 3 more souls coming unto Christ yesterday through following their Lord and Savior into the water. (wow, that was a really dramatic sentence! haha) Sister May decided that she wanted me to baptize her on Friday. But she was worried because I was sick. (i wasn't sick...) And since I would have felt really bad if I had faked and said I wasn't feeling well I ended up baptizing this girl. The other Elders just let it go because they thought it was hilarious. those punks...

I started a video journal because I can say things much faster than I can write them, plus there is a lot more emotion in it that I can't write effectively.

Transfers are this week, so I don't know if I'll leave this area or not. I've been here for 4 months so it's pretty likely I'll leave. But whatever happens I'll leave tons of daters for the next Elder.

Elder Wilko is still a boss. :)

Elder Osborn

Way cool statues!

 And they are huge!

 And some have very interesting details... Why does this giant statue have to be stepping on a baby one!?

"Hey you frog!!! Spit that out or I'll cut you!"

 These guys didn't want to get baptized, but they wanted to take a picture.

BAPTISM!!!

02/10/2014

It is still February...

And hotter than last week. 

Not too much to say for this week. We have an investigator who just doesn't like to believe, but he loves the feeling he gets when he comes to the church. So we watched the "Lord, I Believe" talk with him. Afterwards, almost with tears in my eyes I asked him how he felt as he watched Elder Holland's talk. He said that he felt like he just had to try really hard to understand... Oh dear. That wasn't what I was getting at! We cleared it up and he said that he wanted to know the rest of the commandments before he will believe. What a strange request? Elder Wilko and I looked at each other with that look of "he asked for it" and decided through some form of telepathy that we would give him every single commandment right then and there. We said okay. He then told us he only had 7 minutes before he had to go.... Fine. We gave him the Law of Chastity. 

He went to Bangkok today so we're gonna give him the rest of the commandments over phone lessons until he gets back.

We got seven new investigators this week. The numbers here are 10 to 1 baptism. and three numbers for an appointment to an actual first lesson. So if we just do the math, we need to get 90 return appointments from our contacting in a month to be able to get our goal for 3 baptisms a month. I love math. Than we usually have to invite about 20+ people to be baptized to get a return appointment. So we need to invite at least 60 people a day to be baptized. We definitely invite over 60 people a day to be baptized. :)

The biggest excuse for not getting baptized we get right now is, "I'm Buddhist." We explain that everybody can get baptized and it usually takes them by surprise. Most of them think only Christian people can get baptized. When we tell them that every Christian person has been baptized before it is almost shocking to them. It is a special mission when I don't really know what to say when somebody says they've been baptized already. I usually just ask them if they have a prophet and apostles and they say no and I tell them we have them and they are also shocked. Then I invite them to be baptized in our church.

We have these two investigators. A young couple. They're way great and their baptismal date is this Sunday.

What a fun week!

Random things!

1. We found 10 Muslim missionaries!

2. Thai people can not say "squirrel" or "owl".

3. Still no pirates... :(

4. ahhhh. I'm out.

Elder Osborn

Still balanced!

This is what lunch looks like. Coconut soup and phone calls.

On monday we went to an ultra buffet! I felt like I was going to explode!

02/03/2014

And now it is February...

And Super HOT!!! Cold spell is gone and Thailand is moving into the hot season. They don't even call it anything likesummer. It literally translates to "the season that is hot". 

I start with that because I don't really have a ton to say this week. The days are starting to blend together and run faster now that I've caught on to things. We invite hundreds of people to be baptized everyday and we teach lots of first lessons. We teach lots of second lessons too.

I spent a lot of time sitting in the hallway while Elder Wilko interviewed all of these people who are getting baptized. And sometimes I'll teach first lessons while I'm in the hall. The best one this week was this kid I contacted the night before. 

Here's what happened:

We were standing if front of seven and I saw this guy trying to start his motorcycle. It wasn't starting. I stared at him. It continued to not start. He kick started it once, twice, three times, a fourth time, he just kept going and this motorcycle wouldn't start! I thought, "If I go talk to this guy and he gets baptized, that is going to be the coolest thing that has ever happened." So I ran up to the guy and asked him if he wanted to get baptized. He said yes. 

Fast forward 20 hours.

I'm sitting in the hall and here comes this guy for our appointment. Usually we teach prayer, then introduce the Book of Mormon, then teach them the Word of Wisdom. I grabbed brother sam as I needed a companion to teach this lesson. I asked him why he wants to be baptized. 

"Because I want to ล้างบาป. (wash my sins away)"

I explained. "To get baptized to have to keep the commandments, I can't teach all of them today but today I'll teach three." I taught the word of wisdom first. haha then the book of mormon, then prayer. It was really cool. He just absorbed everything up. So I taught him the Sabbath day too. Still no problems. He told me he was Hindu and had made a covenant with a God... he was worried that if he got baptized he would be breaking his covenant. But he really wants to get baptized. Then he was scared to pray because he thought it was breaking his covenant too. We explained that prayer is not an ordinance or a ceremony or anything, just prayer. We don't think his covenant will be a problem. Once he realizes that God is real we won't have to worry about it anymore.

I really like running up to people who are smoking and ask them why they smoke. They usually say they're stressed or addicted. I tell them they should stop. They say they can. I doubt them, and tell them to throw away the cigarette they are currently smoking. They do. I tell them to not smoke again. They agree. I make them promise. They promise. Then I invite them to be baptized.

As for today that is all!

Elder Osborn

เอ็ลเดอร์ ออสบอร์น

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

เอ็ลเดอร์ ออสฃอร์น

 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.