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!