Riley Pictures 8.27.12

The activity


National Geographic shot of the week



Brother Rak, one of our investigators. He has great hair.

#heritage #ODGforlife

Chiang Mai 8.27.12

Dear Family,

Being senior companion isn't too bad. There have been times when I wasn't sure what to do but I listened for the Spirit and was able to figure it out. The Lord truly does help us out when we rely on Him. I still am lost in Chiangmai but am slowly figuring out where stuff is.

The Sisters had a baptism last night. Woohoo. 6 of our investigators were able to go and watch, so that was pretty sweet. One of them is a sister that should be getting baptized on the 8th of September, she is stellar.

Quick Story from Last Sunday: E. Wilamas and I are talking to some members in the hall after church when the other branch's Elders Quorum president comes over and asks me to translate in their priesthood meeting. I'm awful at translating...but I say yes anyway. So I go in there and start translating for the white guy (monitors nuclear treaties, has 5 degrees, super cool). It's basic stuff at first, "We'll open with a song on page... and Brother ____ will say the opening prayer." We make it through the announcements and stuff and I'm thinking all is well. Then the president hands the time over to the teacher...and the white guy stands up and says, "Ready to teach?" Ohhh Nuts. I thought I was just going to be translating/making up some other guy's lesson! So we go up there and start teaching. Luckily it was on sharing the gospel with friends and not something with ridiculous vocabulary like the parable of the 10 Virgins. I would have died. But with some help from the priesthood brethren and from above we were able to get through the lesson.

Saturday our branch had a dinner/fireside at the Branch President's house. It was potluck. He requested we make spaghetti. We did. It was #tastybusiness. People loved it. Yep. And you all thought I could only make toast (as if spaghetti is that much harder)

So I don't know if I told you about the walk-ins we had last week or not but they are supreme. Well one of them is at least. Her name is Warii. She and her friend just showed up to church last week. Well we taught them and got a return appointment. At the return appointment, Warii came and brought her Buddhist friend. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and made another appointment. The next time Warii brought her Buddhist friend and another Christian friend. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they all accepted baptismal dates. Then they all came to church yesterday...in the rain. In Thailand when it rains people don't go outside. They think if their head gets wet they will get sick. So the fact they came even in the rain is pretty amazing. Yep.

So this other guy in the internet place is freaking out. I think he may be having a seizure...seriously. He keeps twitching violently. He doesn't seem phased by it though, he just keeps on playing his game...#toomuchdedication. No one seems to be concerned about it either...maybe game overdoses are a common occurrence in Thailand.

Much Love

Elder M. Riley Creer
The Only

#Hashtags:
That awkward moment when you try and use a new word and you find out it isn't a word...#nuts
Sometimes when I iron my shirt I pretend I'm waxing my skis #makesironinglessboring

Riley Pictures 8.20.12

Birthday present to myself #BKKswagger


The District

Birthday business

Chiang Mai 8.20.12

DEAR FAMILY THAT I LOVE,

I got big news. I moved...to Chiangmai. #holleratyourboy. Chiangmai is in the northwest of Thailand at the foot of one of the only mountains in the country (may have just made that up). It is called 'heaven' by the missionaries. It rocks. My companion is E. Wilamas and he is Thai. Also he is on transfers 3 (i'm on 4 now) so that means I am senior companion which is #lowkey scary. Luckily he speaks thai and teaches like a boss so no worries.

On the real though, we argued last night and this morning (he is an international law student...so arguing is a hobby for him). It was bad news (that fact that it was in Thai made it extra bad news). But don't worry, we realized that all this arguing just wasn't going to work. So we talked it out, man to man, elder to elder and realized that we both need to learn something from the other. We realized that we were put together for a reason. It was a good experience that I wish I didn't have to have. I wish I was humble enough to see these types of things up front.

So in a nutshell, Chiangmai rocks. There is at least one mountain. Score. It isn't near as hot as the rest of Thailand (or maybe the hot season is finally over...not sure). Double score. And they have zoos...with tigers...that you can pet...true story. Definitely going to hit that place up. But they recently split the branch here, so the work is sort of exploding.

Other news: I became english leader here. Apparently the ZL's heard I did good stuff in Khonkaen with the english program so they made me the english leader here hoping I would do the same. The only problem is I don't remember doing anything special in Khonkaen...so pray for me.

My birthday: It was great. We all went to Swensen's for ice cream (thanks mom and dad). I bought a sick hat (see pics) and bought a shirt that I later found out was too small for my broad muscular shoulders. But the Khonkaen members bought me a mini cake and some delicious donuts. It was a pretty sweet day full of rejoicing and laughter.

Spiritual Stuff: When I found out I was going to be senior companion with a khonthai (thai person) I was freaking out. I can't speak Thai. I still don't know what I'm doing. Chiangmai is a bigger branch than Khonkaen, I won't know what to do. All these things were racing through my mind. So I did what I learned in primary and from mom and poppa smurf: I prayed. I prayed a lot. And I read in the scriptures. I was comforted by 2 Nephi 32:5. If I listen to the Holy Ghost, it will show me what I need to do. I realized that this is an opportunity to grow and develop. It will still be hard, but I know that through faith and the Spirit everything will work out. Even though I don't understand everything that is going on the lessons, I will know what to say if I listen to the spirit. Yesterday, I saw We were teaching this lady that has been learning for a while with the Elders Quorum president and his wife. She was telling us about her old husband and why she couldn't get baptized yet. I understood about 60% of what she was saying but had a thought to share Moroni 7:33. I did. Boom. She started crying and the spirit flooded the room.

Life is good. I love you all and yes I got the packages. Thanks.

Elder M. Riley Creer

The Only

#Hashtags:

Twenty Years Old #ohboy #whathappenedtomychildhood

Chiangmai has a tiger kingdom...#LEGGO

Riley Pictures 8.13.12

Just riding along and BAM this baby popped out of nowhere.

So we went back last P-day. ----- Whoa...

The great wizard...E. Sillypants ----- A really big statue

This is Thailand. Magnum bars outside of Seven. Yes. ----- The Khonkaen branch...some of em.
(That random white family is an RM's family that came to visit)

English Class

For English we made them help a friend navigate a maze (the lesson was on directions).

Too funny.

Khon Kaen 8.13.12

Hello Family!

This week was pretty sweet. 2 of our investigators committed to be baptized in September. Sweet! One of em is this 18 year old girl named Mint (#realtalk) that is supreme. She's come to church 3 times already and is friends with B. Boom and S. Sour (her name literally means sour...). The other is named คำรณ (sounds sort of like Cameron). He is in his fifties and really wants to become christian. He says he's been Buddhist all his life and hasn't seen any help from it so he wants to try Christianity. He is super funny and way good at English. So yeah...that's what's up in Khonkaen. We had another investigator with a baptismal date but we haven't been able to get a hold of her for 3 weeks so...yeah we'll pray for her.

#yikesmoment: This morning we were riding to the internet place, all four of us, when disaster struck. Not really. But it was bad. E. Siriphan and E. Olive are always messing with each other on their bikes, slapping each other, pushing off each other, putting the other's kickstand down, all this crazy business. It is hilarious watching them and sort of miraculous that they don't collide and eat it. Well this morning it finally happened. E. Siriphan pushed off E. Heslop and so E. Heslop caught up to him and tried to pull him back by grabbing his back rack...well they collided...and ate it. It was nuts. E. Olive and I were watching them laughing and then two seconds later there is a heap of bodies and bicycles in the middle of the street. So after we extracted them from the rubble we headed back to the house and bandaged up E. Heslop's scrapes (ruined both shirt and pants). That was the drama of the morning.

E. Heslop and I were studying for one of our investigating families that doesn't keep any commitments. We were trying to figure out why it was so hard for this family to read and pray. We created this sweet analogy with the help of Preach My Gospel. PMG uses Lehi's dream to help us understand our purpose. We are to be guides along the path to the tree of life. We are to help people find the rod and take those first few steps on the path. When the people we teach keep commitments they move closer to the tree, the fountain of happiness. The closer they get to the tree the more happiness they have in their life. When they don't keep them they don't move forward but actually move backwards. Lehi forgot to mention it but actually the path is a downwards escalator. We have to keep moving foward always. When we stop we slide backwards and lose progress. Yep. This paragraph is sort of messy but I'm running out of time. Oh well. #Nutshell: Spiritual progression is like walking up a downwards escalator, you must keep moving forward to make it to the top.

Well this email is way short. Sorry. But I still love you!

Much Love.

Elder M. Riley Creer

The Only

#hashtags:

E. Heslop sees a video of Sister Elaine Dalton talking to a group of girls and says, "Hey, the news lady!" #Classic

Pics of Riley's favorite Thai Snack...

The โรติ (RooDee). So tasty. If I develop diabetes later in life this snack is probably to blame.

They do this sweet flip thing with the dough (Thailand's version of the pizza dough throw) ----- Bananas and egg. YUM

Enough oil and butter for a small village

Milo powder (chocolate milk stuff) ----- The good stuff.

Fold it. Cut it. Box it. Then throw some more sugar on that bad boy.

Khon Kaen 8.6.12

Hello Family.

#Lowkey jealous of the Yellowstone trip. But no worries Thailand is still treating me well.

This week I discovered something great. It is called Sweetened Condensed Non-Dairy Creamer. Thai people throw it on stuff all the time and boy is it good. Last night we made french toast for Sunday Dinner. We were almost out of syrup. Crisis. Nope not anymore: Sweetened Condensed Non-Dairy Creamer. It saved the day. Throw that mess on your french toast and it tastes like magic. An even better combo is the SCNC with some syrup. Now you're talkin. But Thai people put it on snacks all the time. They load it on âõÕ's, it is some #tastybusiness.

Yesterday we had a family come to church out of the blue. It was sweet. On the real, we sort of gave up on them. We haven't been able to meet for a while and they weren't really going anywhere but then they just came to church! SCORE. It was a grandma, her daughter, and her 2 grandsons. The grandsons are nuts. Whenever we are at their house trying to teach, they are running around playing Dino Beatdown. They are obsessed with dinosaurs, it is kind of extreme. Well sure enough they started playing Dino Beatdown in Sacrament meeting. The youngest one was sort of roaming the chapel the entire meeting and every now and again the older one would growl/screech/roar (mix of all three) and take a swipe at his bro. It was pretty hilarious. Luckily they didn't get as crazy at church as they do at home...that would have been a mess.

So the scripture thought for this week is found in Alma 14:13. This is when Alma and Amulek are preaching to the people of Ammonihah. This verse is when Alma and Amulek are watching the saints being burned alive. Amulek thinks they should try and stop the madness but Alma says the Spirit is constraining him. Then Amulek says perhaps they'll burn us too. Alma responds, "Be it according to the will of the Lord." What a champ. He might be burned to death and he basically says well if the Lord wills that we die then we die. His submissiveness to the will of the Lord is awe-inspiring. I studied Faith quite a bit this morning. Faith is so crucial. Without it we can't receive a remission of our sins (BD: Faith). I learned that it is an abiding Trust in the will of the Lord, that His will is what's best for us. I especially like Helaman 5:9-12, if we have faith we can last through the storms that beat against us. Ridiculous Metaphor: Faith is like a spiritual back brace (allusion to past events). If we build our faith it will act as a support through rough times, helping us to stand tall when the adversary is trying to break us down. Something else that hit me this morning is how we must have patience in developing our faith. In Alma 32, Alma compares faith to a seed that eventually grows into a fruit-bearing tree. Sometimes we expect our faith to sprout up bear fruit over night or in a week, but last time I checked trees take decades to grow. The same is with our faith, we won't be a spiritual redwood in a couple days but over time with diligence and patience and with help from the Lord we can become stronger than we ever thought.

Well that is enough metaphors for the month. Life is still great. The church is still true. I still love my family.

Peace.
Elder M. Riley Creer

The Only

#Hashtags:

Finish teaching a family and ask any questions. All they can ask is why one of you speaks way clearly and one of you doesn't...#ThatHurtsTheTeam

Got a shirt with a giant mustache on it...yes #missionaryswag

package requests: triscuits, chocolate, a pet turtle