in Buriram. This week flew by! It was a pretty crazy one. I can't
believe that it's almost Thanksgiving already. It feels like we just
barely had it at our house. That's good that you're doing it there
again, make sure you do eat some for me! Nope, we definitely won't be
celebrating it with anyone here. Who knows though, maybe we'll go to a
farang restaurant and get ourselves a turkey dinner. If I was in
Bangkok I probably would be celebrating it with someone from the
International Branch. Oh well. Like I said, this week was a crazy one.
A ton of stuff happened. Tuesday, we were able to go out one last time
with Elder Peterson and visit a member who has her own business. Elder
Peterson owns a few businesses, and the main reason that he and his
wife came to Thailand was to give financial advice and what not.
Apparently he's a pretty successful guy. He invented the quarter-turn
vending machines (the red and yellow ones) which were obviously pretty
successful, and had a couple of other successful businesses. He's from
Rexburg. Tuesday night, we had our first English class of the
transfer. Jeopardy a week ago was really fun, a few of them had heard
about it before. The class this week was pretty normal, just the
regular members came, nobody new. We really want to get the English
program up and running this transfer. Wednesday, we tried to visit
some members and less-actives, but nobody seemed to be home. So we
decided to go and visit Golf's mom. She was the one who had driven me
and Elder Segura to the mountain and temple. She'd never learned with
the Elders before, so we went and asked her what she thought about
setting a time to be taught. She agreed and said her and her other son
would sit down with us on Saturday. At 4:00, we got on a bus, headed
to Ubon for Mission Tour. The other Elders and the Petersons joined us
in Surin, and we got into Ubon around 8. We got something to eat and
then went and stayed at a hotel with the AP's. It was a good time. For
some reason, we all went off telling each other riddles. Weird, but
fun. The next morning, we went and got noodles for breakfast and
walked to the church. All the other Elders in the Zone started showing
up a little while after us. I agree Dad, seeing all your buddies is
definitely the best part about Zone conferences and other meetings.
The meeting was great! We had Pres. and Sis. Senior, and Elder and
Sis. Watson from the Asia Area Presidency. Elder Watson is a member of
the Second Quorum of the Seventy. They gave some great instruction on
the Book of Mormon and how to use it. They also encouraged us to pray
once again to know if the Book is true. I'm glad they did that,
because I finished reading it again last night, and I definitely
received an answer. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and
contains the fulness of Christ's Gospel. It is the best tool that
Heavenly Father has given us to bring others unto Christ. I encourage
everyone to read it everyday and pray to know if it's true, even if
you've already received an answer. Everyone can use a re-building of
testimony sometimes. Anyway, back to the Mission Tour meeting.
Somehow, I got roped into playing "Praise to the Man" for the Sisaket
District's musical number. I was pretty nervous, but it went alright.
And all the missionaries had to give a 2-minute talk on a prophet. I
was assigned Amulek, super easy. We got to choose whether to do it in
Thai or English, and I was feeling up to it, so I chose Thai. I really
feel like my language skills are coming along. I've definitely been
blessed. And I'm sticking to my theory, reading in the Thai Book of
Mormon is what's boosted my ability. After the meeting, the Suriram
Elders (Surin and Buriram) all got back on a bus, we got permission to
stay in Surin, because the next was the...Elephant Festival!! Surin is
the elephant capital of Thailand (maybe even of the world), and every
November they have a festival celebrating them. Friday was the first
day, so we got down to the town circle at 8 and watched some dancing
and other entertainment they had. The Petersons were there too, so it
was good to talk to them. At 9, the Elephants came. Friday was the
"Elephant Buffet." They had long tables full of food lining the
streets. You could grab a pinapple or some bananas and walk right up
to an elephant and feed it. There were literally over a hundred
elephants. It was sketchy sometimes, because you'd look around and be
surrounded on all sides by about 6 elephants at a time. So cool! I
even got to ride one for 5 bucks! Mom, you would have been in heaven.
I'll attach pics next week because I forgot it at the house this week.
Sorry!. After that, we went back to Buriram. That night, we were
finally able to meet with Egg (don't worry Rhett, Jack, and Kate, he's
still not broken). He's doing alright. I don't know how fast he'll
progress. He said "I'm not accepting any religion, but I won't reject
it either." He's an artist, so E. Christensen is thinking about having
him paint a picture of Christ to see if that will lead anywhere. We'll
see what happens. Saturday was a really good day. Long-planning in the
morning, and then we were able to go and see Golf's mom. Her other
son, Coco, wouldn't come and sit down with us, so we just taught her.
She's pretty Buddhist, but she seemed sincerely interested in Christ
and forgiveness. We challenged her to pray about baptism, and I think
it'll help to have her son Golf there to remind her. We hope to see
her again tomorrow. After that, we went and saw Mai. We taught her
about baptism and gave her a date for the 22nd of December, so
hopefully that happens. I'm just nervous that Sis. Ooy is pushing a
little too hard, and Mai isn't truly doing it for herself. We
definitely need to figure out what's going on before we go through
with anything. To end the night, we went and saw a little old guy
named Pa Lek. He hasn't been able to come to church for a while
because of his health, but he gave one of the most sincere prayers
I've ever heard. I know he loves Jesus Christ. Sunday was solid. The
Branch Pres. finally got Sis. Ooy a calling. I really hope this branch
can get strengthened. Me and Elder Christensen made a checklist of
things that need to get done last night, so we're going to hit it
hard.
I'm really enjoying this transfer so far. Elder Christensen is
awesome. He's chill, kind of like me, but a super hard worker as well.
He's on transfers 12, so he's been around for a while and knows how to
get things rolling in a tough branch. I'm definitely learning a lot.
He's from Boise, loves motocross and sports. Pretty dang similar to
our family. We get along really well, and I can't see us having many
problems if any at all.
Sounds like things at home are going great. Getting ready for the
holidays. Is it still pretty snowy there? It's been rainy the past
couple of days, but today it's back to hot.
Well, that's all for this week! I love you all! The Church is True!
Love, Elder Sharp
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