April 29, 2013

Hey Krobkrua! How is everyone? I am doing great here. This last week was a solid one, with a stupendous ending. The majority of the week was spent finding less-active members. It's hard. The records that have been kept here by other missionaries (especially when it's a Thai person writing in Thai) are atrocious. Huge chunks of crucial information are left out a lot of the time, so it's pretty much impossible to find a lot of the people on the list, unless someone in the ward knows the person personally (which isn't very common). The wards and branches here in Thailand are very...interesting. If you looked at a ward 10 years ago compared to now, it would almost be completely different, in terms of the members that attend regularly. Kind of sad. There's always the few old-time strong members who have been in the unit for an eternity and will never fall away. But for the most part, it's new faces. The members here (and everywhere) need to learn their responsibility of fellowshipping somebody into the ward, and then helping them to stay. I would say the second part is harder. A new convert recently baptized will usually have no problem being a strong member and coming to church every week for the first few months or so. But if the members don't care for the person, they will fall away every time. That's something I think we all can work on. Tuesday was the longest day. There are 13 less actives on the same street that the church is on, so we went out looking. We only have found 6. That street has the most messed up number system I've ever seen. Just gotta let the Holy Spirit guide. English class was alright. We got four new students, all women, and none were interested. Bummer. Wednesday, awesome! Sis. Dukadan was interviewed and passed! When she and Elder Buss came out of the interview room, they didn't have the baptismal record in their hands, and didn't seem any more happy or excited than usual, so I thought she didn't pass. I finally asked Elder Buss the reason, and he gave me a very confused look and said, "What are you talking about? Of course she passed!" I was stoked! I sprinted to catch up to her and congratulate her. She was super happy. Thursday and Friday were spent trying to find LA's, with minimal success. But we did get a referral from the Bishop's wife, so we went and found her. About 3 hours of travel, and only 5 minutes of talking, but it was worth it. She'll be golden! Saturday was good, but turned out to be WAY stressful. We went and helped a member scrape the old silicon from her "flood boat" (yes, floods in Thailand every year, if you didn't already know). Then we went and met with Dukadan to finish up preparations for the baptism. She was so ready! We were planning on cleaning and filling the font after that...but that's when we realized we hadn't emptied it from Sis. Soda's baptism. Yeah...that was a while ago. So drained it, and by the time that was done we had to go to the bishop's house. He has a ton of good stuff planned for the ward, and we're going to take a big part in it. Pray for us! One of the best parts of that visit was his wife's peach and mango cobbler. So good. Sunday morning we had to get up early and be to the church by 7 so we could clean/fill the font and make the programs. But we got it done, had a great 3 hours of church, and a great service. I'm really glad she is finally baptized. She told her parents, but I'm not totally sure how they feel about it. The important thing is that she did it. God will take care of her and her family. Today was a Zone sports day, great to exercise a bit, but I'm going to be sore. Oh, and on May 17-19, an Apostle will be here! So stoked. Not sure who yet, but the Thonburi Elders will definitely be to the meetinghouse at like 6 in the morning, I can tell you that. The other investigators (Fuse and NamKeng) weren't able to be taught this week, but we're hoping for next week. We need some new ones as well. 

Well gotta go. The Church is True!

Love, Elder Sharp