March 11, 2013

Dear Family and Friends, can you believe that it's transfers week already? And that I've now been out over a year? Mom, when you said that Carli's pictures would bring back some good memories from a year ago...blew my mind. Crazy! Anyway, transfers meeting is this Thursday, and I'm excited to see what's going to happen. Elder Oakeson is definitely out of here since he's been here for almost 6 months already. I'm kind of thinking that I'm gone, too. There's just been some drama in the ward, and I wouldn't be surprised if Pres. Senior yanked us and put in Sisters or something. We'll see what happens. I wouldn't mind staying here, but I actually wouldn't mind going back to the Isan (can't believe I'm saying that) or going up north somewhere. That's some of the prettiest country. But I'll go (or stay) wherever the Lord wants me to be. This week FLEW! You're right Mom, time just isn't the same anymore. Me and Elder Oak stayed busy, and we're making a lot of good progress here in Thonburi. Our 4 investigators are all doing great. I'll go through them all. We met with Fuse once this week on Friday. It was the first time that we have ever met with her on a day other than Sunday (hallelujah!). We finished up teaching the Plan of Salvation, along with repentance. It was what you would call a "good lesson," but it's hard teaching a quiet 15-year-old girl. Neither me nor Elder Oak know how to relate. We usually would take another young woman to teach with us in a situation like this, but there's just not really any who are willing. But because Soda is getting so close to baptism AND wants to be a future missionary, we're probably going to start asking her to come along. We threw the idea out to her yesterday after church (we wanted to teach Fuse, but she had to leave) and she was down for it. Good idea? I think it'll really help. Soda herself is doing awesome! We were actually really contemplating on moving her baptism up to the 17th, because she's ready, but decided to wait and make 100% sure she's good to go. I think she is though.  We met with her twice this week. On Wednesday she brought her little brother, NamKeng (which translates to ice. Ha, Soda and ice). He was really shy and quiet, but said he's interested, so he'll definitely be taught in the future. We met with her again on Friday. She was really stressed with school and some other stuff, and I felt impressed to give her a blessing. The Spirit was completely directing every word that came out of my mouth. It was an awesome experience. Boss, as you might guess, is still a boss. But even more so now (if that's possible). We met with him on Thursday and Saturday. Thursday, we followed up about how keeping the WofW was coming. Come to find out that he is a smoker...and smoked A LOT. We were a little worried, but he told us that he had cut it down from 20 to 5 cigarettes a day since the Saturday before. Oh yeah! And he committed to be totally clean by Sunday. When we met with him on Saturday, he still had the same commitment. He was also in Alma in his 2nd read through in the Book of Mormon, and had finished reading the Gospel Principles book. It's so easy to teach him, because he already knows everything! He'll be a future Bishop or Branch President. Dukadan is doing good as well. Met her on Wednesday and Saturday. She's been asking a lot of questions on the difference between the Book of Mormon and Bible, and also the difference between our church and other Christian sects, so we cleared those up for her. She's been wanting to share the 10 commandments with a French-speaking friend, so I ordered a French Book of Mormon for her. We introduced the WofW to her as well, and her problem is coffee. She's committed and is going at it cold turkey style. She had to leave church after Sacrament meeting yesterday because she had a terrible headache, but she didn't drink any coffee, so I'll take that any day. We still haven't felt prompted to give her a date yet, but it should be coming soon. Ah, the worst part about the possibility of leaving Thonburi is having to leave all of these awesome investigators. But as long as they get baptized in the future and come unto Christ, I don't care who teaches them. 

The rest of the week was pretty solid. On Thursday (my year mark) we went out to eat at a Japanese restaurant, but were quite disappointed. Not a huge fan of half cooked pork and chicken with blood oozing out haha. We did some more house-hunting on Friday morning. We went back to the Lumphini, the one we've been focusing on. At first the guy there wanted to make the church pay under the table to avoid taxes, but we weren't taking that. So we had a guy talk to him and kind of "scare" him since it's illegal. So he agreed to talk to the owner this past week, but never called us back. When we walked in there on Friday, he looked like he needed an adult diaper, with a death grip on his laptop. For some "mysterious" reason he hadn't been able to contact the owner. We were done, so we left and checked out another place that's WAY nice. We're hoping for that one. Oh Mom, a lady in the ward bought some silk for me and Elder Oak (she made sure to let us know how expensive it was). I don't know what to do with it, so I'll give it to you. For some reason, people are ALWAYS giving the Elders stuff, whether it's food or whatever. Weird. We've tried to tell them to stop, but nobody listens. Funny story of the week: after church each Sunday, the members eat lunch together, and we eat with them. Sometimes the food isn't...wonderful. Anyway, yesterday they dished us up plates long before we were able to eat. One of the side dishes was kind of an egg omelette thing, and it was cold. I could not stomach it, so I decided to get rid of it. Me and Elder Oak took our plates outside, and when nobody was looking, I threw the egg over the fence. It's a tall fence so I couldn't really see where it was going to land, but I knew there were some garbage cans on the other side, so that's what I was going for. Well, I threw it pretty hard on accident, and I'm pretty sure I hit someone's window. We bolted inside, and I was sweating the entire time, expecting some angry tie person to walk in the church holding some fried egg. But don't worry, nothing happened.

Love you all!

Well, gotta go! The Church is True!

Love, Elder Sharp

เอ็ลเดอร์ชาร์ป

Matt. 22:36-37

March 4, 2013

Hey Family and Friends! How's it going? It's going pretty good here in Thonburi. Yes, I had a "banner week" last week, and no this week wasn't totally the same, but it was still a really good week. Can't expect that many MAJOR miracles from the Lord every week, he expects us to do at least some of the work, right haha? Anyway, like I said, solid week. Monday night we were invited to the bishop's house for dinner. His wife really knows how to cook, and made us tacos. Legit tacos. Reminded me of the steak fajitas that we used to have at home a bunch. So good! I miss some good Mexican food, but this gave me my fix. Tuesday was a good one, and English class was SO much better than last week. I had a smaller amount of people in my class than usual, but that's better anyway. I started off by teaching them some grammar and vocabulary from the instruction book, but then switched it up a little. I've been begging the students to tell me what THEY want to learn, and one guy finally did. He asked how to say "Can I go get a drink?" and some similar phrases, and it just kept on going. Other people kept asking stuff, and they were really interested. I had made a kind of back-up plan, if we ran out of stuff to do, to teach them how to order from a fast-food restaurant (specifically KFC and McDonald's since those restaurants are huge here), and since the sentences were rolling in that direction,  I rolled with it. It was way more useful that the things we usually do, and they liked it a lot better. I'll probably stick with stuff like that. Wednesday was a really slow day. Tuesday night, our A/C officially broke, so we were DYING. We spent 3 nights with no A/C. The 3 most uncomfortable nights of my mission (even worse than the first night in the MTC). Luckily they were able to fix it Friday morning, so we're good now. Gosh I hate our apartment though. Wednesday afternoon we called our landlord to figure out what to do about the A/C and she said that our office had called and given a 30-day-moving notice. We had no clue about that, so we called the office to confirm, and yep, we have to move by the end of March. Probably a good thing, but please pray that we can find a house! We had a lot of errand-style stuff to do on Wednesday, so we were only able to teach one lesson to Soda, but it was solid. Thursday was a good day as well, but there was some very...unfortunate news that I'll share in a minute. We had District meeting and discussed some of the things that we learned in the fireside with the members of the Seventy (p.s. it was David, not Richard, F. Evans). One of the promises we received was that we would be able to baptize with more quality and more quantity if we apply the things we learn. What a great promise! It truly is amazing to see the changes that are happening with this mission and in all of the missions in Asia (and I'm sure all over the world). The Lord truly is hastening his work. Thursday afternoon and night, we were able to teach Run and Boss. Friday was our "less-active" day. We had to really good lessons with less-active members. One was with a lady named Atom. She hasn't been to church for about a year, and says she feels really bad about it. We committed her to go to church this Sunday, but unfortunately she didn't show up. We'll keep in contact with her though and keep encouraging her. We just gotta get the ward involved as well. The other lesson was with Sis. Mon (I told you about her already right?). She's awesome, and has come back and is a strong member now. We felt like we should talk about tithing, and it turned out great. The Spirit was very strong. Saturday we ate lunch and started our fast. Fasting is a great blessing that I really took for granted back home. It has a lot more meaning out here. We taught 3 lessons that day to Jiab, Boss, and Soda, which were all really good. Kind of an awkward moment in the lesson with Jiab though. First I just gotta say that she is a great member and really respects and honors Deity. Anyway, we covered the Restoration that day as part of her recent-convert lesson. Something that I do a lot to explain the Great Apostasy and show why there are so many Christian sects is take two pass-along cards that have the picture of Christ standing on the steps when he visits the Americas. I say "When Christ and his Apostles died, the Priesthood was lost" and I tear out the figure of Christ from one of the pass-along cards. Then I explain how there were disagreements between men, and tear up with rest of the card into several pieces to show why there are so many sects. And then I bring out the whole, new card when I talk about the Restoration through Joseph Smith. Anyway, as I was ripping the first one, Jiab all of a sudden busts into uncontrollable tears. At first I thought she was crying because people had disagreed so much and split off, but that wasn't the case. She was crying because I was ripping the card up. I had no clue what to say. The member there, Bro. Joe, came to my rescue and explained that it's not disrespectful, it's just a teaching tool. Gotta be careful who I do that with in the future. Sunday was good. 3 investigators at church, and yes I did get to bear my testimony. I shared about temples. I cannot wait for the day that they have a temple in Thailand. Taught Fuse after the meetings. 

The investigators are doing great. We met with Soda twice this week. The first lesson we taught the Law of Chastity and then focused on missionary work. She's been showing a lot of interest in being a missionary, and we're all for encouraging her. We challenged her to give a Book of Mormon to her little brother, and she did. The second lesson we finished up her pre-baptism lessons by teaching tithing and fasting, and then talked about switching her date. She took it a little differently than expected, and was really nervous, saying she thinks it's too fast. We helped her see that she's ready, and had her go home and pray about it. Sunday, she told us she is ready to go on the 24th of March! We met with Boss twice this week, and yes, he's still a BOSS! He's going through the Book of Mormon a lot "slower" the 2nd time (and he's already in Mosiah or something). Over the two lessons we covered the Restoration and Modern day prophets, along with the WofW. He is 100% willing to follow, and we gave him a date for the 24th as well! Dukadan wasn't able to meet this week because she went back to her parents house because her mom was in the hospital (she's doing good now). We did have some good phone follow ups though and she's strong as ever. Fuse's lesson was alright. Covered half of the PofS along with WofW. We switched her date to the 24th as well, but we'll definitely have to meet more than once a week if she's going to make it. Please pray for us and her! So, the unfortunate news from Thursday had to do with Run. We had a great lesson with her that day, covering the Restoration and prophets, but then she told us that she actually is going to Singapore. She left Friday and won't be back for probably 2 or 3 months. We were so bummed! I guess she just didn't get that the complications with going the first time were a literal sign from God. God isn't going to give two miracles where two miracles aren't needed. She had her chance. Please pray that she'll eventually find her way back to the church. 

Can you believe that I've been out a year this coming Thursday?! And my Twin is gone! I'm glad that it was a good setting-apart, I'll bet the Spirit was really strong. The advice I gave was for Carli, but everyone can apply it. Every time you pray, thank Heavenly Father for the Gift of His Son and the Atonement. Leatherby's...feels like that was just yesterday. And although I was pretty nervous then, I would just like to remind everyone that I got all of my meal and ice-cream down haha. 

Well gotta go. The Church is True!

Love, Elder Sharp

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