February 25, 2013

First thing I have to say, is Good Luck Twin! I love you Car! You're going to be an awesome missionary, and the experience of serving a mission will be the greatest time of your life up to this point. I can promise you that! Hey Family and Friends! How's it going? This week flew by, and so much happened. It was amazing how many miracles that I saw this week. I'll try and remember them all. I'm probably just going to be all over the place as I write this, like last week. English class on Tuesday was not that great, probably one of the worst ones that I've been apart of here. We didn't have that many people, so we combined the basic and advanced classes. The students just were not participating and seemed bored most of the time, and me and Elder Oak are completely out of ideas for new things to teach and games to play. Any ideas for activities that will get the students speaking English? We need help! Wednesday was a pretty good one. The Zone leaders came over to Thonburi at 8:00 a.m., just in time for studies, so we switched-off and studied with them. I was with Elder Raven, my Pa (trainer). He hasn't changed a bit. We had District meeting at the church after that, and we did a role play. I was the investigator for the Sisters from Bang Khae, and they made me act like a girl. It was hilarious, and we could not stop laughing throughout the entire thing. Then me and Elder Raven took off and went to Asoke. DOWNtown Bangkok. The office Elders, AP's, International Elders, and Bangkok west zone leaders work in that area, and it's way sweet. The rest of the mission gets jipped when it comes to apartments. I realized when I got there that I would be with 3 of my former comps (Bartling, Raven, Segura) and Elder Hunsaker, from my district in Buriram. Pretty cool. We taught one of Elder Raven's investigators that night, Sis. MaiMii. We were planning on teaching the Plan of Salvation, but she talked basically the entire time, so we were only able to share a couple of scriptures about Lehi's Dream. Definitely a long lesson, but it's all good. Elder Oakeson and Elder Radmall came back to Asoke that night, so the apartment was pretty packed. We all went and played sports the next morning, which apparently the Asoke elders do every morning. Not going to lie, I'm pretty jealous. And I enjoyed soccer a lot more than I thought I would (even though I was one of the worst on the field). I'm stoked to play with my nephews when I get home. We headed home after that, and were able to meet with Run at the church. That's where the first (major) miracle of the week happened. We started off by watching Finding Faith in Christ, and talked a little bit about that and repentance and some other stuff. We were kind of all over the place, so it wasn't going that great. But then we asked her if she was still planning on going to Singapore this Sunday. She said that something had gone wrong with her documentation, and she wasn't able to go. She didn't know what had happened, but me and Elder Oak did. We explained to her that it was a blessing from our Heavenly Father. He didn't want her to go, and he provided a way. I know that to be true, 100%. Friday was just a lot of planning for the coming week, along with a lesson with Soda. We taught the Gospel of Christ, but she seemed really unfocused. But we asked some inspired questions and that really got her talking, and it turned out to be a great lesson. We haven't officially changed her date to March yet, but we're stilling planning on it. Probably this week. Saturday was one of the craziest, yet one of the best days of my mission so far. We had to get up at 5:30 that morning to make sure that we could be in Asoke by 8. We had meeting/devotional thing with all of the Elders and Sisters in Bangkok. All of my former comps were there, so it was really cool to talk to them. We had to speakers at the devotional, Elder Richard F. Evans, and Elder Gerit W. Gong, both members of the First Quorum of the Seventy. Elder Gong is in the Asia Area presidency, and Elder Evans is the head executive of the missionary department. It was an awesome meeting. Elder Evans took most of the time and talked about how the key to true conversion is repentance, because repenting is what allows us to have the companionship of the Holy Ghost. I learned a lot of great things, and me and Elder Oak are planning on applying them to our work. Once we got back to Thonburi, we had four lessons lined up. We first taught Sis. Jenny the 10 Commandments. Sis. Jiab (the girl who got baptized last week) helped out and will be a great friend for her. The second lesson, we taught Jiab herself about the ordinances of the temple. She really has a desire to go. I honestly cannot wait for the day when Thailand gets a temple. It will be one of the happiest days of my life. The 3rd lesson was with a guy named Boss, and he definitely is a boss. He's a referral from a member that came to the baptism and church last week. We gave him a Book of Mormon last Sunday, and he's finished it already! Less than a week! And he's already talking about baptism for himself. That was the second major miracle that I saw this week. The final lesson we had was with Dukadan. We taught her about the 10 commandments as well, and the lesson was awesome. She had some concerns with the "no-worshipping" (since she was Buddhist), and the Sabbath day with work (just like everyone else). But we spoke straight to her, the Spirit was very strong, and she just...got it. She came to the conclusion that she had to follow it, and so she is. She even left the church with us and headed to the store to buy some things so that she didn't have to buy them on Sunday! Awesome lesson. Sunday was great! We got an assignment from Pres. Senior yesterday to contact a white family that was on vacation here that he had met, and get them to church. So we did, and they got there. When sacrament meeting started, we had 4 investigators there. By the end of the meeting, even though some were a little late, we had 8 there! So awesome. Soda, Dukadan, Run, Boss and his wife, Jenny, and two ladies that had come to English class a couple of weeks ago named Ming and Bee. The Lord is doing work in Thonburi! We were able to meet with Ming and Bee afterwards as well. Ming was semi-interested, but Bee asked some great questions about prayer, so we taught her about it and challenged her to try it out that night. We should be meeting with them again tomorrow. That night, Dukadan called us and gave some great news. She has been scared to talk to her parents about her learning with the Elders and going to church, but when she talked to her dad last night, she just told him straight up, and he didn't get mad in the least. He just said that "all religions teach to be good." That was the 3rd major miracle this week, along with her lesson the night before. She said she is "excited to be baptized soon!" I'm so stoked for her! She also said that she had a day off today, and wanted to spend the day reading in the scriptures, so we gave her some chapters to read (Mosiah 4&5). We'll probably be giving her a date this week. Today is solid. Had another zone sports day this morning, bishop's house for tacos a little later, and then Dan's tonight. I'm loving Thonburi right now! 

So it's still freezing there, huh? Sorry! Yes, I am happy that I am missing the coldest winter in 40 years. The farewell sounds like it was a hit! Wish I could've been there.

Well, gotta go! The Church is True!

Love, 

เอ็ลเดอร์ชาร์ป

Elder Sharp

Rool has gone International

February 18, 2013

Dear Family and Friends, how are you all? I'm doing good here, other than the fact that it is like living in a furnace (we think our AC broke). Seriously, it's amazing how much we sweat out here. Soaking wet all day, but most of the time I don't even notice. Kinda gross but oh well. Anyway, this week was a pretty solid one. A few downers, but overall pretty successful. I'm doing this kind of late, because we were in Bang Khae all day helping the sisters there move houses (wish it was us), so it might be a little shorter. But I'll update you on all of the investigators. Right now, we only have two investigators with a baptismal date, Sis. Fuse and Sis. Soda. Fuse is set for the 10th of March, and Soda for the 20th of April. But we're thinking that we'll probably get permission to move Soda's date up to sometime in March. She's an awesome investigator, and is really willing to keep commitments and do what we ask. When we first started teaching her, she would read and pray and what not, but she wasn't getting a definite answer. This week we were able to meet with her a couple of times, and her faith is really growing. She's finally feeling like she's received answers to her prayers. We also got to meet her mom this week, which was awesome. We just made sure that she knew the kinds of things we were teaching Soda, and that in the end we expect her to be baptized and change from Buddhism to Christianity. She completely understood and is 100% fine with it. We invited her to learn along with her daughter, and she actually said that she's always thought about being a Christian since she was little, since her birthday is on December 24th haha. But for now she's decided that she's not quite ready. We planted seeds though, and I think missionaries will have success in the future. Elder Oakeson was able to teach Fuse this Sunday while I was in Ward Council. He said it was a great lesson, and that she even shared an experience where she told her friend to pray when she was going through a rough time. Her faith is also growing a lot as well, and she loves to read the Book of Mormon. She just has to get the permission slip signed by her dad. Pray for her! As for other investigators: We met with Sis. Run (girl from China) twice this week. The first lesson was just getting to know her and get a feel for how well she understands what she's been taught. She knows God is real, she just doesn't really have the faith that He will forgive her of sins. Plus, she is planning on going to Singapore to be a bartender this next week for 6 months, and we're trying to convince her out of it. Pray for her as well! We're going to meet with her tomorrow, so we'll see what happens. We were able to meet with Dukadan this last Saturday night, and that was also a great lesson. We finished teaching the Plan of Salvation from the spirit world on, using the Kingdoms to help her understand a simple truth. Good people go to the Terrestrial Kingdom. People who receive and follow the Truth go to the Celestial Kingdom. That's a problem that we encounter everyday out here. Every Thai person that I talk to says "Well everyone religion teaches to be good, so it's ok." But we know being good isn't enough. It's about truth. Yes, the truth teaches us to be good. But goodness without truth is empty, and won't get you back to Heavenly Father. Dukadan finally understood that! We also focused a lot on knowing the Book of Mormon is true, because it proves everything we teach. Even though she already keeps all of the reading assignments that we give her, she's made a new determination to read and pray everyday without us asking her to. She's also determined to tell her family that she is considering becoming Christian, because that's the biggest thing that is holding her back right now. Some other hightlights of the week: On Tuesday, we went to Asoke for Zone Specialty Training. Usually Pres. Senior isn't there for trainings, only Zone conferences, but he sat in on this one. At one point we were talking about helping the branches and wards out, and he makes a comment. He says "In some branches we have guys handling 5 callings. They're the ward clerk, ward mission leader, sunday school teacher, YM's president, and temple worker....oh wait, we don't have a temple do we." He said it in a way that was...sarcastic. Kind of an Elder Holland, "Ouch! That hurt really good" kind of a way. Bit of an awkward moment, but then he goes on and gives us some great instruction. He IS the best mission president. Saturday, we went back to Asoke so that E. Oak could go to leadership training. All of my former comps except for Elder Cox were there, so it was cool to see and talk to them. Saturday afternoon and Sunday were the highlights, obviously because of Sis. Jiab's baptism and confirmation. The reason you haven't heard much about her is because she just barely moved here a couple of weeks ago. She had already learned everything and was ready to go. The service went great, and she is super happy. She'll be an awesome member. A very bad thing almost happened on Sunday. I had to translate at the pulpit for a member of the high council who only speaks English. I was called up on the spot, so I was a little flustered, but the translating went alright. Near the end, I got really sick all of a sudden. I must have been locking my knees, because I almost passed out over the front of the stand. I just had to hurry and sit down before I fainted, and the bishop had to try and finish translating. The bad thing is that everyone thought that I just quit because I was embarrassed, so they were all coming up to me after the meeting and saying "It's ok Elder, you translated great! Don't feel bad!" Oh man, THAT was embarrassing. It was another one of those "melting into the floor" moments. Today, like I said, we were in Bang Khae helping the Sisters move. Who knew a washing machine could be so annoying. We spent six hours there trying to get it to work. But don't worry, we got it. Plus, they bought us pizza, so we were happy. Dan is doing great. Yeah, we aren't allowed to teach him, so we just talk about whatever. If you have any, please give me some conversation subjects. Me and Elder Oak are all out. Plus, please pray for the ward members here. There's some drama going on here that is not going good and needs fixing. Thanks!

Can you believe that I hit my hump day in about 17 days?! Now that's crazy. And my Twin leaves in 9!

I love you all! The Church is True! 

Love, Elder Sharp

P.S. Tell the ward thanks for the Birthday card!

February 10, 2013

Hey Family and Friends, how's it going? It's going great here in Thonburi! So many great things happened this past week, the Lord just keeps dumping miracles out on us (hopefully we can keep up with him haha). Where do I even start? Last Monday we were able to go and visit Dan again. I'm thinking that I wasn't as clear as I should've been on the situation with him. He's about 25 and mentally handicapped (had an accident playing sports when he was younger or something). He's the son of the (former?) Thai ambassador to the U.S., and we've been assigned to just go and talk to him in English every week. Just visit. We aren't allowed to teach him anything about the Gospel. Sorry to those who were confused! Anyway, on Tuesday we were able to meet with Boom again. She hadn't prayed or anything unfortunately. We talked to her about why it is important to pray, and committed her to try it this past week. We followed up with her and she said that she hadn't felt anything. We're meeting with her again tomorrow, so hopefully something changes, but she just doesn't seem to have much of a desire to learn right now. Maybe sometime in the future some other Elders will have the chance to help her. English class was solid. We didn't have a ton of people there that time, so we combined the two classes, which was actually a lot of fun. No new people, but we're hoping that that was just an off week, and that we'll get some new students (and investigators) tomorrow. Pray for us! Wednesday was good as well. Elder Oakeson taught his first District meeting, which went really well. The two sisters we have in our District (Sis. Campos and Sis. Wiganda) are really good missionaries, and will be easy sisters to deal with in our District. We won't be working with them that much since their area is about 45 minutes away. That night, we were able to meet with Soda and review the Restoration by watching the DVD (we've been using the DVD a lot lately, it's money). I think she definitely felt something, and is starting to build a good testimony. She's still uncertain about some things, but she's always willing to read, pray, and find out for herself, so what more could we ask for? For dinner that night, we went with a few members to another member's house and did the Muu Gratat thing that I used to do in Udon a bunch (the bbq thing?) We'll definitely have to do muu gratat when we come back here, mom and dad (and whoever else feels so inclined to join us, because it is awesome). We were going to meet with Neng, but he never showed up. We called him and he said he was going to be out of town until this week, so we're shooting for a meeting on Wednesday. Thursday was really good. For studies that morning, I had a question and felt prompted to do a patriarchal blessing activity that Sis. Senior had suggested to us (write down every blessing, caution, and thing that we need to do). I found the answer EXACTLY the way that I needed it. I've found several more answers to other questions the past few days as well in scriptures and other places. I have 100% faith that God hears our prayers. We just need to trust in him, ask, study, and we will receive. The rest of Thursday was spent planning and clearing out a bunch of old records that we had at the house. Pres. Senior emphasized record-keeping quite a bit at transfers meeting. Apparently there's about 26,000 members in Thailand, and we're missing the records for about 10,000 of them. So we're trying to do our part to help fix it. We were actually able to call a few less-active members that we found, and one of them committed to and came back to church on Sunday. For some people, all it takes is an invitation. Friday was a LONG day, but if everything works out I'll be really happy with it. We were finally able to go house-hunting again. For the first few hours, we found absolutely nothing. So we felt like we should go back and check out a big apartment building close to our current building. We found a room that would easily fit four (or maybe even 6) missionaries. We're going to call Elder Jones, the senior missionary over finances, about it today, so hopefully he goes for it. That night we were able to teach Soda again. We taught the first 1/2 of the Plan of Salvation, focusing on the Atonement and faith. Those are probably my two favorite subjects. It was a really great lesson, and she's starting to develop solid faith in Christ. Pray for her! We're also hoping to be able to meet her parents sometime soon and teach them, so pray for them as well! We followed up with Dukadan that night, and she's received an answer! She had a dream about baptism, so hopefully she really starts progressing. She couldn't come to church on Sunday because of work (lame), but should be able to meet this week. Pray for her! Saturday was tiring, but awesome. The Zone leaders came to Thonburi to interview Sis. Jiab. My Pa (trainer), Elder Raven is one of them, so it was a good time seeing and messing with him. She passed the first, but had to have a second interview with a member of the mission presidency. She did that one yesterday, passed, and will be baptized this Saturday! She really is a miracle. One of the most faithful investigators I've ever seen. Later that day we were able to meet with Jenny. She understands well, and is willing to keep our commitments. We gave her a baptismal date for March 10th, and I think she can make it. Pray for her! At the end of the night, we met with Sis. Donut, the recent convert that got baptized when I first got here. She hadn't been to church in a few weeks, because she's been sick, so we were able to give her a blessing. It's always a great privilege to be able to use the Priesthood. Sunday, she came to church, along with 3 investigators! Another solid week. A few LA's also came back, and we hadn't even talked to most of them, so that was a good sign. Another miracle happened as well on Sunday. A girl we had never seen walked into Sunday School and sat down. Elder Oakeson met with her after church while I was teaching another lesson and found out that she had gone to Relief Society the week before, but we hadn't gotten to talk to her because we had a meeting with the bishop last week. Her name is Run, and she recently moved back to Thailand from Hong Kong or somewhere close by in China. She had sought out the Elders there, and learned everything from them. She gave us a letter from the Elders and her teaching record. The rough thing is that she learned everything in English, so she probably didn't understand that much. But now she's here, she'll learn with us, and she'll get baptized! So sweet. I got to teach Sis. Fuse after church for the first time in about four weeks. We got permission to start teaching her again from the Zone leaders, she'll just have to get the paper signed before she gets baptized. She still reads and prays everyday, and is gaining a strong testimony! Hopefully she'll be baptized in early March. After that, we went to Bang Khae (sisters' area) so E. Oak could interview a guy for baptism (he passed), and then went home and did studies. Long week, but very successful. 

Love you!

P.S. Yeah, Jume got baptized a couple of weeks ago...didn't I say that?

February 3, 2013

Dear Family and Friends, what's up? How is it going in Utah? Still cold? It's a little cooler here...I guess...the rain started up again this last week. That is the part I am not excited for (especially if the floods come again sometime. Yuck!). This last week was Crazy busy, but we got a ton of good things done, and we are definitely being blessed by the Lord. I don't think I'll be able to go exactly day by day on this one, just because so much happened (and I left my planner back at the apartment), but I'll fill you in as much as I can. We got to go and visit Dan again last week (I have attached a picture). He's doing good, but we are quickly running out of things to teach and talk to him about...ideas? Tuesday was pretty much spent getting ready for English showcase. It's quite a task keeping a group of Thai people, who vary widely in their ability to speak English, entertained for an hour and a half, but we pulled it off!  We did the "How to make a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich" game again, which was a hit, and then played a game called "Do you love your neighbor?" It's hard to explain, but most of us have played a variation of it in Elementary school. Before that, we were able to teach Jume and prepare her a little more for her baptism. She is really going to be a great member, and I think will help the ward get a lot stronger, because a lot of the members have become great friends with her. Wednesday was a little crazy. We were doing comp study, and got the call about transfers from Elder Thomas. Well...they white-washed the Elders out of Bang Khae (the other area in our District), and kept both me and Elder Oakeson here in Thonburi. We were not expecting that. I thought I was getting a new companion for sure. But I'm actually quite relieved and happy about it. There's a lot going on here, and it would've been a major pain to have to catch a new guy up on everything. Plus, I really like Elder Oakeson. We met the Bang Khae Elders over there a little later for District meeting, and then slammed together for the last time. I'm pretty bummed that Elder Thomas isn't going to be my District leader anymore, but oh well, we had some good times. Since neither of us were moving, we didn't have to pack, so we were able to teach a couple of lessons that night. Sis. Soda was first...and that was just not a good lesson. She was really down because she had failed her German test at school, so she couldn't even concentrate. Plus, the member we used to help us teach was being really quiet and awkward as well, so that didn't help. I was glad to get out of that one. After that, we were able to meet with Neng, the guy from the Navy. That was a really good lesson. We had to take it slow because he didn't know anything about Christianity, but we explained God and prayer, and committed him to pray that night. We followed up with him the other day, and he says that he has been praying twice a day, so we're stoked! We're hoping to be able to see him again on Wednesday. Thursday was a very interesting day to say the least. Got up early so that we could (try to) make it to transfers meeting on time (Pres. Senior wanted every missionary there). Yeah that didn't happen. Of all the taxis in Bangkok that we could have chosen, we got in the worst one. The guy acted all friendly and interested in our message of Christ, so we were stoked and started testifying. Pretty soon though, he cuts in and starts telling us how we're wrong, that we can't have true happiness in life, yadayadayada. We tried to explain what we believed, he cut in again. This went on for quite sometime, then I realized that it was quickly turning into a "bible-bashing" session, so I suggested that we just don't discuss religion anymore since we wouldn't agree with each other. He consented (but had to be reminded occasionally for the rest of the trip). Then he tried to act all buddy-buddy, but me and E. Oakeson were just not having it. To top it all off, he was a "new driver," got us stuck in traffic because he didn't know where he was going, and it took us 2 and a half hours to get there. Definitely not my favorite experience on my mission so far. Anyway, we were the last ones to walk into the meeting, and arrived just as it started. There is a lot of crazy stuff going on here. We got 5 missionaries this transfer, are getting 6 next transfer, and then...32 new missionaries in April. Crazy! Well over half the mission will be trainers or trainees. Probably includes me, but we'll see. Every missionary older than my group in the mission has gone senior companion, so my group is next. They also changed the "heirarchy" of the mission. It usually went as follows: Greenie, junior comp, senior comp, trainer, district leader, zone leader, and AP (if applicable). But now missionaries will be leaders at earlier stages, and be released from leadership to train when they're close to finishing (typically). Pretty cool. Plus, zone leaders won't be companions with each other anymore, but will be paired with junior companions. Pres. Senior is really preparing this place the best he can to receive a temple, and it's way cool to be here at this time. Here is another thing that happened at transfers that Pres. Senior has allowed us to post:
“By invitation, the Thailand Bangkok Mission received approval to have four young service volunteers to labor in Vientiane, Laos.  These service volunteers will work with Deseret International Charities under the direction of the Senior Couples who are located in Vientiane, and will be involved in a variety of humanitarian and educational service opportunities, including clean water projects, hygiene, neo-natal education and English language instruction.  The young volunteers will also support the Branch activities of the Laotian Saints in Vientiane, Laos.  The Church is not yet officially recognized in Laos and this recent activity is for the purpose of providing additional educational and humanitarian service.”

That's all I can really say. After the meeting we went and ate Subway at the mall, and then went back to Thonburi. We were able to meet with a girl from English class named Boom. We basically did the same thing with her that we did with Neng. Good lesson. Friday, we were finally able to meet with Dukadan again. That was probably my favorite lesson of the week. We taught half of the PofS through the Atonement, and she was really into it and asked great questions. At the end, we challenged her to a baptismal date. It's amazing how strong commitments can bring out true concerns. She asked if being baptized meant changing religions, and obviously the answer is yes. She said she wasn't sure if she was ready to leave Buddhism since that was the tradition in her family, so we challenged her to pray about it. For a second there, I thought she was going to say she didn't want to continue learning, but luckily that's not the case. She has a lot of faith, she just has to get over the mountain. Saturday, we had 3 lessons with Jume, Soda, and a lady named Jenny. Soda's went a lot better than last time. We talked about ancient and modern day prophets, and she was asking a lot of great questions, so it's obvious that her interest and testimony are growing. With Jume we reviewed the Godhead. With Jenny, we taught the Restoration. She was found at another area's English class, but lives in our area, and wanted to know why Christianity has so many different sects. What better than the Message of the Restoration to find that answer?! Sunday was also an awesome day. We had 5 investigators at church! Trust me, that's a dang good amount. Jume, Soda, Dukadan (which is a good sign!), Fuse (who we now have permission to start teaching again!), and a lady named Jiab. She has an amazing story, and was definitely a huge blessing. The Elders from Saphan Sung had called on Saturday and said that this lady had moved to Thonburi a couple of days ago. So we called her and invited her to church, and she came. She's learned everything already, and will be interviewed for baptism on Saturday. YEAH! So awesome. She's been Buddhist, Muslim, and a variety of different types of Christian, but has finally found the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. Today, we're pretty much just chillin'. Oh and now instead of Elders in Bang Khae, there's Sisters, and Elder Oak is the new D.L. 

Love you all! The Church is True!

Love, Elder Sharp

January 27, 2013

Hello Family and Friends! How's it going? Sounds like it was a great
week over in Utah (except for the cold of course), and it's been a
great week here in Thonburi. Yes, of course the week has flown by once
again, and yeah Dad, I'm almost on my 12th month! Are you kidding me?
It feels like I was just barely ordering my ice cream at Leatherby's
before going into the MTC. I'll be on the downhill slope before I know
it. Maybe it needs to slow down a little bit...? So a bunch of stuff
happened this week, hopefully I'll be able to cover it all. I'm
feeling a lot better. My sore throat was gone by the end the day last
Monday, and the congestion was gone the next day. I was definitely
blessed, thanks for the prayers! Sounds like it's hitting a lot of you
pretty hard, so I'll be praying for all of you. It's just gone from
person to person over here, and they all think it's because the
weather went from hot to "cold" (a difference of probably 5 degrees or
less). At least I'm past it now. Monday night, we went and saw Dan,
and will again tonight. I'll take a picture with him so you can see
him. Tuesday, the highlight was English class. We got 3 new people who
are interested in learning about the Gospel! The downside...two of
them are two 17-year-old girls, and because they're not 18, they have
to get a permission slip signed. But their parents live way far away,
and they're only in Bangkok for school. We told them they could send
them, have the parents sign, and then give them to us. Hopefully that
happens. The other guy was a soldier from the Navy base close to the
church, and we have an appointment to meet with him this Wednesday, so
pray for him! The actual English class was pretty good, too.
Apparently a couple of people say I'm too serious when I teach, so I
tried to loosen it up and have more fun. I'm pretty sure it worked,
because it was definitely a lot of fun. Wednesday was an awesome day!
We had to go into Asoke (downtown Bangkok) for Zone specialty
training. On the way there though, I got super sick as we were riding
on the skytrain. I nearly threw up all over the place, but luckily the
train stopped soon enough to where I could run out and sit down. Close
call! The training was awesome. For the first little while, we had
some training on Thai culture and "anti-flirting" techniques. Man,
there is a lot of stuff that Elders, and Americans in general, do that
could be seen as flirting. We'll definitely have to watch ourselves
more. We then talked about setting solid goals, and being guided by
the Spirit in our teaching. Apparently, in one of Elder Bednar's
talks, he says that teaching the Gospel without the Spirit is
priestcraft. Pretty crazy, and that puts the importance of the Spirit
into an even greater perspective. At the end of the training, I was
able to get my package! Thanks so much! That was definitely an awesome
one. Ha I was actually telling Elder Oakeson about how much I loved
taffy cookies the other day, so it was perfect. And I'm devouring
those books! So much good stuff in them, I would recommend them to
anyone. One thing I really liked was from Lectures on Faith. Everyone
has faith, even God. God has to have faith in order to have power,
even if His faith is in Himself. Interesting thought. That night we
officially finished up Jume's teaching. She was so ready to be
baptized. Thursday was pretty good. We did switch-offs with the Bang
Khae elders at around 4. I stayed in Thonburi with Elder Jex. The
highlight of our day was teaching Sis. Soda. She's a 16-year-old girl
who has been going to English class for a long time, and right when we
said we could teach her if she got the slip signed, she jumped right
on it. We introduced prayer, and I think she'll progress very quickly.
Friday was just stressful. It seemed like there was almost nothing
super-productive that me and E. Jex could do during the day, but we
decided to pass out english fliers (for the first time in Thonburi),
have Coordination meeting, and do a couple of other things. I was
stressed, but we got through it. It's rough when you don't have a lot
of investigators, because we've been banned from going door-to-door,
asking members for referrals (that's a rough one, wouldn't you agree
Derek?), and a few other things. So we have to be creative in order to
fill some of the free time and still be doing the Lord's work. If you
have ideas, please let me know! It is very possible that I will be
going senior companion this next transfer, and I'm a bit nervous. Pray
for me! That night, Sis. Jume was interviewed for baptism and passed!
We (the Thonburi Elders) have been banned by our District leader from
teaching her the after-baptism lessons. He really wants the Ward to do
their part and take care of her. Hopefully they step it up. Saturday
was super stressful, because we had to make the baptismal program, and
NOBODY was answering their phones. After a lot of prayer, we finally
got all of the assignments filled (now that was a testimony of prayer
to me). That night, we were able to meet with Soda and Jume again, and
had great lessons with them. We challenged Soda to be baptized, and
she accepted! Because she's under-age, and her parents aren't members,
she'll have to go to church for 3 straight months before she can be
baptized. April 20th is her date. Pray for her! Sunday was great, and
went really smoothly. Apparently the piano player in the Ward moved
away, so now it's my spot again. I'm not complaining though. Our
bishop, Bishop Arun, gave a really powerful talk, telling the members
that if they don't take care of their church, it'll be taken away and
they'll have to go somewhere else for Sunday services. You could feel
the silence in the room. I say again, hopefully they step it up. The
baptismal service went great. She only had to be baptized once, which
was awesome (she was scared of having to do it multiple times), and
she bore a great testimony. She'll be a solid member if she gets taken
care of. Today, we went downtown to a market, and then ate at this
huge mall called Central World. That's one thing I gotta compliment
Thailand on, they have great malls. We weren't able to meet with Nung
or Dukadan this past week, because they were both sick, but hopefully
this week. Please pray that we'll find more investigators who stick
around long enough to hear the Good News! Transfers this week. I'm
almost 90% sure that I'll stay in Thonburi and get a new comp
(probably a junior one). I'll let you know what happens next week!
I've had a blast serving with Elder Oakeson and will miss him if he
moves. Oh, and we're still planning on moving sometime, we just have
to find sometime to look for new houses.
Well, gotta go. The Church is True!
Love, Elder Sharp
Pics:
Baptism
Some food that I eat pretty often. Delicious.
Birthday

January 20, 2013

Dear Family and Friends, what is up? How is everything going out in
the winter wonderland? I have a new nephew! Congratulations Britt,
Marianne, Rhett, Jack, and Kate! He looks super cute. Keep sending me
more pics! Everything is going pretty great here in Thonburi. I can't
believe how fast this week flew by, and transfers are next week! It
stills feels like I just barely got to Bangkok. Anyway, it was a
pretty solid week, got a lot of good things done. Monday, we got to go
and see Dan again. We got out a whiteboard, and had him write out some
words in English. His spelling skills are amazing. His favorite word
is Connecticut. Tuesday, I was in so much pain. The sports day last
Monday absolutely killed me. I haven't done that much physical
activity in around 9 months. It felt like the first day of football
try-outs, times 3, and it lasted for almost the entire week. But don't
worry, I'm good now. That day, we went and looked for houses. We went
to an area that we thought might have some potential, but after
scoping things out, we found nothing. So we made our way back to the
church and taught English Class later that night. It went pretty well,
but man it's hard to get the students involved sometimes. Any
suggestions? After all the classes were over, some of the members came
out with a pizza that had some candles stuck in it and sang happy
birthday. It was pretty funny, and the pizza was delicious. Wednesday
was...my birthday! Happy 20th Carli! Hope it was a great day for you.
It was a solid day for me. We had District Meeting and learned some
good stuff on the importance of extending commitments. Something that
I definitely need to work on. We then slammed as a District. White
chocolate Tim-Tams with banana milk is so good. I really hope they
have that stuff in America, because I will hit it up right when I get
home. Me and E. Oakeson hopped in a taxi, and went to the mall in
Thonburi. We were going to eat at Sizzler, but it wouldn't have been
worth it because of how full we already were, so we just got a pretzel
instead. We had planned to teach both Dukadan and Jume later that
night, but Dukadan called and cancelled. She had some work meeting. Me
and E. Oak were both very bummed, but we did get to meet with Jume. It
was a good lesson on the Plan of Salvation, cleared up some questions,
and got her even more excited about being baptized. She is right on
track for the 27th. Keep praying for her! Thursday was a long one, but
I was happy about it. We went to lunch, and then went home to do our
long-planning. But after looking at our house, we both decided that it
needed a good cleaning (again). We went to town! We actually
rearranged some furniture so that there would be more room, and it's a
lot better. I'm putting the hammer down on keeping it clean, too. No
more leaving junk all over the place. The bathroom is still...well
it's the bathroom, and I think I'll just endure and let it be until we
move out. After that, we hopped on a bus and rode for a bit, and then
got in a taxi and went looking for an address that the AP's gave us.
Apparently some guy that is living in America called them and said his
sister is really sick and living in our area, and he wanted us to go
and give her a blessing. It took a while to find the right house, but
we finally tracked her down. Her leg was super swollen, and the
doctors didn't really know what was wrong. Her name is Ploy, and she's
actually a twin, just like me! She's been a member for quite a while,
but hasn't been to church in ages (she didn't even know there was a
church as close as the Thonburi building). Hopefully starts coming
back! I got to administer the blessing, and it was an awesome
experience. The Spirit was very strong, and the words just came out
(even though it's pretty tough giving a blessing in Thai). She has a
lot of Faith, so I'm sure she'll be blessed. After that we went to an
RC's house, Bro. Banjud and gave a lesson to him. Friday was a
successful day as well. At around noon, we went and taught a guy named
Nung at the church. He's a guy that the Bangkok North Zone Leaders
found, and he lives in our area. We taught him the Restoration, and
it's apparent he has a lot of faith. So we decided to extend him the
baptismal date of Feb. 17th. Pray for him! That night, we were FINALLY
able to meet with Dukadan. We watched the Restoration DVD and talked a
lot about faith, and I really feel that she is more committed. Keep
praying for her! Saturday was kind of uneventful. We were able to
home-teach the Bishop, so that was good. That's what this ward (and
all of Thailand) needs. Solid home and visiting teaching. After the
lesson there, I started feeling a sore throat coming on, and by the
next morning, it had hit me full bore. Sunday was rough because I was
feeling so horrible, but I pushed through it. After church, I went to
Ward Council while E. Oak taught Sis. Fuse. He said it went well, we
just have to find out when she can get baptized now. We were then able
to have a quick lesson with Jume on the 10 commandments. She got them
all down, and is totally willing to follow them. Once we got home, I
went and crashed for a while, got up and planned, and then crashed
again. I'm feeling quite a bit better today, so I should be good to go
this week. All we have going on today is Dan's, so it should be a good
day.
So how is everything there? As I said, Graham looks awesome! It's
crazy that me and Carli are 20. No more teens in the family!
Well, gotta go. The Church is True! Keep praying for 1000 baptisms!
Love, Elder Sharp

January 13, 2013

Hey Family and Friends, how's it going? Sounds like it's absolutely
freezing there! It's pretty dang cold here too, like upper 90's...oh
wait...anyway, I'm not complaining about the weather haha. This week
FLEW by. A lot of good things happened that I'm really happy about.
Last Monday, we just chilled for the day. At night, we went to a guy
named Dan's. He's about 28 or so, and he's handicapped. Apparently,
when he was younger, he fell on his head showing off to his brothers
when they were playing some Thai sport. Pretty sad, but he's way
funny. His Dad was (or is?) the ambassador to the U.S., so he went to
a university in Boston, so he speaks great English. That's the only
language we use with him. His favorite thing to do is spell words in
English and do thumb wars (which he is nearly unbeatable at, because
the left side of his body does not work, so all of his right-side
appendages are way strong). Anyway, the reason we go over there every
Monday is because his dad met Pres. Hinckley, and Pres. Hinckley told
him that a pair of missionaries would be over to his house every week
to talk with Dan. Pretty awesome, we're on a special assignment from
the old prophet. I actually found a picture in the back corner of his
room of Pres. Hinckley shaking his dad's hand. Way sweet! Tuesday was
alright. Just did some planning and other stuff, and had English Class
at night. Both Jume and Dukadan were able to get off work and come, so
we were happy about that. Wednesday was a really good day. We went to
Bang Khae after studies for District Meeting. The Zone Leaders were
also there. Learned some good stuff on helping our branches/wards
becoming truly converted, which eventually leads to a temple in
Thailand. I cannot wait for the day that they announce that in General
Conference. We then came back to Thonburi and were able to meet with a
recent convert, Sis. Gay. Bro. Lek, another recent convert, helped us
teach her, so it was a double whammy. We focused on goals after
baptism, and told them that their main goal should be to go to the
temple. Sometimes it may seem impossible, but with the Lord everything
is possible. Elder Oakeson thinks they should get married, because
they both have kids but they're both single. That would be just too
weird for me. Later that night, we were able to meet with Jume. That
was one of the best lessons that I've had so far on my mission. We
decided to watch the Restoration DVD, and it was the perfect decision.
The Spirit was super strong the entire time, and she was way into the
story (and of course it ends with Joseph Smith Sr. getting baptized,
so that helped). At the end, we asked her how she felt. She started
crying and said that she had some of the exact same questions that
Joseph Smith asked, and she felt like she was finding the answers in
the Gospel. Yes! She is right on track for baptism on the 27th. It's
pretty crazy, Pres. Senior sent us a letter last week, and said that
we got 545 baptisms in 2012, 6 more than we got in 2011...and then he
said he wants 1000 baptisms in 2013. Whoa! But it seems so possible,
and is, because it's the Lord's work. If each Zone gets 12 baptisms a
month, then we pass 1000. We'll do it. Pray for us all! Thursday was a
little bit of a different day. We had to go downtown to the mission
offices, because Elder Oakeson had to get an ingrown toenail removed.
After he was done with that, we went and ate with the Branch Pres.
from Don Muang, one of the areas that Elder Oakeson served in in
Northern Bangkok. Really nice guy, and spoke great English. After
that, we ran back to the office and went to the Distribution Center. I
got a Thai Hymnbook, Thai Bible (We've kinda been told to use them
more, because we always say that we believe in it, but investigators
never see them), Teachings of Lorenzo Snow, and Teachings of Joseph
Smith. It was a steal! I talked to Elder Bartling for a minute since
he's an office elder, and then we all talked to Pres. and Sis. Senior
for a bit. They are a riot! He tells us stories about being aggressive
and playing hard, and then she comes back and says that we should play
nice and be nice and do everything nice. Hilarious! Pres. Senior also
gave us permission to do pretty much whatever we want to get people
interested, even selling Book of Mormons if needed. We'll try it out!
After that, we went and visited another Recent convert, Bro. Banjud.
He moved houses, but we finally found his street. After walking down
it, let's just say that I know where pretty much every shoe in the
world comes from. Friday was a long day of planning for next week and
getting the house cleaned up, because we were pretty sure that we were
going to be moving soon. But oh wait, Elder Jones, the senior
missionary who is in charge of finances, called today and said that
the house we found wouldn't work. Ahhh!!! We'll have to start our
search again. Later that night, we were able to teach Jume again
another good lesson beginning the Plan of Salvation. Saturday was a
fun day. In Thailand they have Mother's Day, Father's Day, and
Children's Day. Saturday was Children's day. The zone did a service
project together. Basically we went to the Bank of Thailand, which is
like the royal bank I think, and handed out toys to kids all day. Good
times. Children here are spoiled on Children's day! Sunday was great.
We had been fasting that we would get some investigators at church,
and the Lord definitely helped us. Sis. Jume showed up, as well as
Sis. Fuse. Unfortunately, Sis. Dukadan had work training, which was
also the reason she couldn't meet with us all week. We follow up with
her over the phone every night, but she just doesn't read in the Book
of Mormon. I know if she did, she'd have more of a desire to meet.
Pray for her! Jume had a great time at church, and we were able to
teach Fuse afterwards. She's a really shy girl, and doesn't talk that
much, but we can tell that she has a lot of Faith. That's what we
focused on in the lesson, which went well, and she accepted a soft
commitment to be baptized next month. Pray for her! Today was an
awesome day! We had Zone sports day. Dodgeball, football, food. It was
great! But I can tell that I'll definitely be sore tomorrow. Man, I'm
out of shape. Tonight we'll be going to Dan's again.
So that was my week. It basically sounds like most of everybody's week
at home was just cold. I love Thailand.
Well, gotta go! The Church is True!
Love, Elder Sharp
P.S. Pray for us to specifically find new investigators please, we
need some help with that.