Pictures 9.30.13

 The old house.

The new companion...E. Tzanis.  

We slammed real Australian Timtams (10x better). 

Sick business.

What've I got myself into?

 Tetris Titans, they calls us.  Holler at that alliteration.

The town flexed on the river.  The river got ticked.  
So it flooded that mess.

 The King Wall (not official name)

This wall has loads of pictures representing the King or stuff he has done for Thailand.  Way cool.

Ubon 9.30.13

Sup Family.

Big news...I got transferred.  I am now in Ubon.  It is right on the border of Laos and Cambodia.  All the members speak Isaan (aka I don't understand them that well).  But I'm pumped about the move.  My new companion is... The crazy Aussie.  E. Tzanis.  We will be together for only 3 weeks before he goes home.  He is so funny.  Also in the house is E. Schad (my old comp from Nongkynonks) and E. Jensen (my baby...aka I trained him).  We have been reminiscing the Nongkhai days...in other words we laugh a lot.

Sorry Poppa Smerf, I won't be able to give you all the details of the Mtn Tribe or other investigators.  But I do know that 4 of our investigators in Saphaan Sung were baptized yesterday: the family of 3 and this older woman named Gob (means frog).  I'll send you a pic of them when E. Campbell gets around to emailing me the pics.  With those 4 baptisms and another one from the Saphaan Sung sisters the Bangkok East zone made their baptismal goal!  I was pumped when I got the news!  It is the first time I've ever heard of a zone getting 100% of their goal.  On the other hand, the Ubon zone (my new zone) got 10% of their goal this month.  So we have plenty of room to grow!  Who knows maybe I'll even grow an inch or two as I serve the zone (keep my height in your prayers guys).

Snackin' on them Scorpions:  E. Tzanis went inviting at the walking market in Ubon.  While cruising the streets we saw a bug cart.  Sick.  E. Tzanis likes to eat weird stuff.  So naturally he takes a gander at the goods.  Scorpions.  They have scorpions.  He buys 3 and gets 4 as a bonus.  I record him as he eats the nasty little guy.  Then he tells me I need to eat one.  I immediately refuse but with some persuasion I finally ยอม to eat one (you know how I do under peer pressure (hence the broken back) Can I use hence like that?  Well I just did.  So kiss it.)  So I ate a scorpion.  It was crunchy.  It was grainy.  It was crap.  Later that night we convinced the other elders to eat the other two.  It took E. Jensen 15 minutes to eat it.  We were recording it on his camera and it took so long the batteries died!  After a quick switcharoo and another 4 minutes of waiting he ate it.  Super funny.  Then E. Schad ate his.  His was a goliath.  So massive.  Good laughs.  To end our planning I prayed that we wouldn't get sick from the scorpions.  God blessed us because the next day E. Schad told us he had 7 late night visits to the toilet.  7!  He was the only one that didn't pray to not die from the scorpions and he got crazy diarrhea.  Poor guy.

Tomorrow we have a meeting with the other zone leaders so we came down last night and spent P-Day in the Big Bankeezy.  We hit up the wax museum and Burger King.  Picture frenzy.  Good times.

To answer your questions pops: 

No, E. Holland's talk was the tongue of Angels one.  The Mtn tribe is working on getting married.  They tried once already but didn't have all the needed documents.  Mak and Marine's parents are fine with them getting baptized and actually are opening up to the idea of themselves getting baptized as well.  The youth are...like normal youth and don't open up immediately.    

I love you all!  Thanks for your emails.

Elder M. Riley Creer

The Only

Picture 9.23.13

E. Campbell and I postin at Sizzler.  He loves the salad bar there, we go almost every P-day.  I felt like a pic there epitomized our companionship.  We go and load up on all the stuff that the rest of Thailand doesn't have (as you can see his plate is loaded with cheese and bacon bits).  I'm positive the employees wince when they see us walk in.  They think, "Oh no...those two white guys who devestate the salad bar are back."  And we roll in leanin like a couple of cholos throwing out gang signs mixed with church invitations.  What's up.  (This paragraph is 87% factual)

Saphaan Sung 9.23.13

Hello Family.

The mtn tribe.  They should get baptized next month (well at least 2 of them).  They still need to get married according to Thai law.  But they are doing well.

S. Ben's sister and family came to church!  Oh baby.  They are doing well.  The parents have concerns about switching from buddhism but the daughters want to be baptized.  Last monday we had a pretty long lesson with them.  Mak and Marine (the daughters) told their parents they felt like buddhism doesn't count as a real religion.  The parents were a little shocked.  I was thinking, "Holler!"  They brought up how the monks don't follow any of the rules, how there are boxes to put your money in all over temples, how buddhism is basically a business now.  They brought up one monk who owns jets and is loaded from all the money people donated (he fled to America).  Nutshell: the kids are disillusioned by the commercialism but the parents are still clinging to tradition.  Nuts, that sentence was epic...look at me now.

The 13 year old:  The other elders are teaching him now.  He came to English class and asked if he could be baptized the following Sunday.  He definitely has desire.  I explained how he needs to learn with the elders first.  He came to church again and is making friends.

The 1% taxi man:  He never showed up to his appointment and never answered his phone.  I guess he fits in with the other 99%?  We'll pray we meet him again.

There is the update.

This week we had zone conference.  It was sweet.  We learned about conversion.  We also learned exactly how many more Melchizedek Priesthood holders and baptisms we need to get 4 stakes.  It was a great 7 hours.  Can you believe I had a 7 hour meeting and said it was great?  What the?!

Translation trainwreck: 29 White people came to church this Sunday.  Holy wasabi!  The problem: we only have 5 headsets for the translation equipment.  The solution: have a missionary stand next to the pulpit and translate everything.  E. Campbell and E. Barfuss elected me to be the translator.  Oh boy.  The 1st half of the meeting was a breeze; you know, just some announcements and callings.  The 2nd half was bad news bears.  They started with testimonies of a young man and a primary kid (both auxiliaries had big activities this past week).  The young man's testimony was ok.  Not too bumpy.  The little girl's testimony, however, was encoded in half-finished sentences and mumbles.  I sputtered along, had some rough patches, but made it through alive.  Then the first speaker was up.  I saw in her hand a conference issue of the Liahona.  My heart sank.  I was going to have to translate a conference talk...on the spot.  To make things worse it was Elder Holland.  He speaks like an essay.  2 sentences in and I died.  My brain refused to work.  ADRIAN.  B. Ice (who works for the translation department) came to my rescue and translated the rest of her talk.  We switched off translating for the next 2 speakers.  Oh how I love translating.  It stresses the beans out of me (totally just made that phrase up...feel free to use it).

I know that God lives.  I know He listens as we pray.  I know He has given us prophets to lead and guide us.  Thomas S. Monson is that prophet.

Much Love

Elder M. Riley Creer

The Only

Pictures 9.16.13

 Rain.  Everyday.  Crazy business.

 ready to roll.

Sister Ben's family.  They are hilarious and super nice (except when they said I look like Mr. Bean).  They also love to buy us food.  As Handsome Rob from the Italian Job would say...Perfect.

 How do you keep Thai children from rampaging through the halls after church?

Ipads.  Stellar Steve, just stellar.

Saphaan Sung 9.16.13

Hey family!

This week was awesome!  Prepared people were falling from the sky, landing right in our laps.  I was lowkey astonished.

Sunday.  Church.  This random cat rolls in.  He is a 13 year old boy.  He is a chubbster.  And he wants to be baptized.  His name is Khao (it means rice).  He read in the bible about the 2nd coming and wants to be baptized before Christ comes again.  We taught him really quickly after church then he took us to meet his family too.

Taxi time: When we ride in taxis we always invite the driver to learn about the gospel.  99% of the time they reject us (90% of the time they have picked up missionaries before and already know who we are).  Yesterday we met that 1%.  We hopped in his taxi.  The radio was bumping.  And it wasn't MOTAB.  So we asked him to turn it off.  He did then asked why.  We explained that as missionaries we didn't listen to music.  He paused for a second then asked us what Christianity was like.  Before we could really answer he told us his life was awful.  He drove his taxi all day and never got to spend time with his son.  He started as a buddhist, switched to Islam when he got married and switched back when he got divorced.  He had been thinking of going to a Christian church for a while now.  We invited him to church and set up an appointment to meet him.  I was stunned.

Comeback man:  We got a call from a man that wanted to meet us.  Yes.  We had met him last month at a park but he never showed to our return appointment.  We thought he wasn't interested.  Apparently he was.  So we met him last night.  Now he has a baptismal date for next month.  The Lord isn't letting anyone slip through.

This really is the Lord's work.  And He is working right along side us.

Mountain tribe update:  They are doing great.  We went to visit them multiple times this week.  One time while driving out there, it started to dump rain.  It was more than that.  Pouring times 2!  Double Dumping!  The road was covered with a few inches of water within minutes.  The taxi pulled up to their house, we took of our shoes and socks, rolled up our pants, and hopped out...into calf-high water!  We rushed inside.  After calming down I realized there were no other males there.  Oh nuts.  We had to brave the hurricane again to go get B. Bee from the house across the street.  It was hilarious, he saw the rain and decided to grab a plastic bag as he walked out to protect his noggin.  Classy man.

Super Lesson: We made an appointment with S. Ben's relatives.  The whole family was going to come.  Her sister, her brother-in-law, her two nieces and another chap who is related somehow.  We were pumped.  We get there and find out the other elders have an appointment with some of S. Ben's other relatives.  Well all the relatives went into the same room expecting to be taught together.  We thought it was best to just let it be than to awkwardly ask 2 of them to go to a different room with the other elders.  So we had a super lesson.  7 investigators.  4 members.  4 missionaries.  I was worried it was going to be the messiest thing ever and that nothing would be accomplished.  Well I was wrong.  The Spirit guided everyone as we taught the Restoration.  The members spoke in turns as if we had rehearsed it.  We, the 4 elders, were miraculously on the same page.  The Spirit flourished.  We are seeing them again tonight.

I"m stoked that Mom and Dad are learning about Family History.  It reminds me of a question...who was the first Creer to join the church?  Where did they join?  As for skis...save me one pair.  I don't really care which, the pair in the nicest condition I guess.  And Katie...happy birthday!  You are a champion of a sister.  Well...this week was sick.  So fast too.  I love you all loads and loads.

Elder M. Riley Creer

The Only

Pictures 9.9.13

 Hittin' up them canal monsters.

 Sick orange vest?  Swanky helmet? No shoes required?  

What a sick job.

 Uhh...Bangkok, we have a problem

 That is B. Brian.  He is from the marquesas.  

B. Pim's face says it all.

A suit advertisement for the family man. 

The absence of cheap suit places in my area resulted in me spending the birthday money on some watches.  I feel pretty Hi-so.

Saphaan Sung 9.9.13

Dear Family!

Life is grand.  Yesterday Saphaansung became a ward.  Yeah.  Big news.  Also we had 132 people at church.  Normally we get about 90.  17 of those people were our investigators.  The chapel was full.  They had to bring in extra chairs from classrooms to set up in the chapel.  It was a big day.

Thailand is really close to having multiple stakes.  The only thing we are lacking is full tithe paying Melchizedek priesthood holders.  So President Senior has asked us to share tithing with everyone.  All the time.  He wants us to be bold in promising blessings as we encourage members to continue paying tithing.  Usually we share 3 Nephi 24:10 and talk about the windows of heaven being opened and blessings cascading down on us.  Well we saw those blessings in our own work too (17 investies at church).

4 members of the mountain tribe attended all with baptismal dates for the end of the month.  The family of 3 that came last week came again.  3 Indian people who are studying at a nearby college (E. Campbell met them when we were advertising our English class there).  Su and two of her kids came as well.  In the end, we had a bunch of people at church.  It was sweet.  We were truly blessed with success this week.

The Birdwoman:  Tuesday.  English Class.  I was teaching a class with one member while E. Campbell was welcoming new people with another member.  As told to me by E. Campbell, halfway through the class they hear this screaming from the parking lot.  E. Campbell and the member go to investigate.  They find this woman calling God down from heaven.  E. Campbell asks if she is drunk.  She says no.  So he asks again.  She assures him she is sober.  So his next question, "do you want to be baptized?"  Within a few minutes he and his member companion are teaching her in an empty classroom.  She agrees to a baptismal date.  Her name is Nok, which means bird.  I was pretty amazed at the story when he told me after.  Wednesday we met the Nokster.  She was hilarious.  Her whole demeanor was like a bird.  She spoke with her eyes wide open and twitched her head as she spoke.  She told us she had seen God beckoning her to come to this church.  Yes.  So we taught her the restoration.  Every so often she would go on these crazy rants with her eyes bulging out of her skull looking off into space, then stop suddenly and ask what else did we have to teach.  It was nuts.  I was using all my energy to keep from laughing.  Turns out the next day she found some anti stuff online and doesn't want to meet us again.  She said if God guides her to us again then she will meet us. 

The gospel is true.  I know it.  Even when people I meet reject our message I still know that what I teach is the truth.  Christ atoned for our sins.  Because of His sacrifice we can repent and be baptized for remission of sins.  The priesthood authority to baptize was lost.  Christ restored it through Joseph Smith.  How do I know?  I asked God.  He answered me by the power of the Holy Ghost.  It is that simple.  I asked.  He answered.  What others say, yell, grunt at me doesn't change the fact that I received an answer from God about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration of the gospel.  These things are true.

Nutshell: This week rocked.  Our area blew up.  It's like God opened the windows of heaven and dropped a success bomb on us.  He sure does love us.

I love you all!

Elder M. Riley Creer

The Only

Katie...Phrae is probably the farthest province from where I am right now...sorry.  I saw some hammocks while I was in Chiangmai that were made by the mtn tribes but didn't buy it because I didn't want to lug it around for 1.5 years.

Pictures 9.2.13

 No I don't want to trade ties, bud.  This bad boy is mine.

Learning to make Roti.  Dream come true.  That thai man is admiring my skill.  Get on my level fanny pack man!

  I asked this man why he had so many pens and pencils.  He explained how two of them were way rare, gave me a "common" one, whipped out a business card, signed it, gave it to me, then asked to take my picture.  Yeah I love Thailand.

Holler. At. That. Vest.

Personal study is twice effective when I wear this mess.

The Mountain Tribe!

The Mountain Tribe's backyard.

Saphaan Sung 9.2.13

Hello Family that I love!

This week was fabulous.  We found a superb family.  We met some more mountain tribe people.  We also scored pink vests for free.  Yeah buddy.

Earlier this week we set up a table out front of a nearby college.  We passed out pass along cards to students as they walked by.  E. Campbell, E. Angkham, E. Barfuss and I all went.  It was way fun.   E. Angkham (he's from Laos) was yelling gospel truths in English.  It was hilarious.  We were pretty bold.  There was a taxi truck (mini-bus truck?) waiting at the red light full of people.  I jumped on the back step and asked them all if they knew who Jesus was as I passed out pass along cards.  They all stared at me.  Then the light turned green so I hopped off before it drove away.  Nutshell: for 2 hours we went hard in front of the college.  The most humorous part was when we encountered this angry black man.  He surprise attacked me from above.  I had just finished talking to someone and turned back to the table to see this pudgy black man demanding that I explain the word mammon.  I told him it means riches or worldly things or something like that.  He then told me to go home look up the word and come back tomorrow and we'll talk about it.  Thinking that he was confusing mammon with Mormon I explained that Mormon is a name of a person.  Then he exploded.  He started telling me that he believes in Christ, the Christ that atoned for the sins of the world, that was crucified on Calvary, that is the Son of God.  I was confused.  Did he think I didn't believe all those things?  So I ageed with him.  Then he told me we needed to have a Bible on our table so we could open it and prove what we taught.  I tried to show him how the pamphlets have scriptures in them but he wasn't listening so I agreed with him again.  I think he finally realized that we weren't there to debate the divinity of Christ and started asking me where I was from.  Soon after he left.  It was the most bizarre thing ever.  At first he was mega confrontational, but he was contending with me about truths that I believed in as well.  Then he flipped.  He started joking with me about Las Vegas.  Then he left.  Nutshell: He must have some strange ideas about what we believe.

Free Stuff:  This week E. Campbell and I went to visit the police station.  I had seen the motorcycle taxi men wearing these spiffy pink vests.  I wanted one.  So I asked some of them where I could buy one.  They answered that the police station was handing them out for free.  Oh baby.  I'm all over free stuff.  So a couple days later we went to the police station hoping to score some sweet threads.  Well they were out.  Bummed I told them about the free english program.  The head honcho was really interested and planned on taking his daughter.  Then he asks why we want the mototaxi vests.  Glimmer of Hope.  I tell him that I want to look fly when I drive my scooter back in America.  Then he goes to his desk and pulls out 2 vests from his secret stash!  Victory.  He then tells us to hide them in our bags because they told everyone they ran out days ago.

To help the branch get pumped on missionary work we planned a Dan Jones activity at the market next to the church.  We made some jumbo signs that invited everyone to come to church with us the following day.  We had about 10-15 members that came and helped us pass out cards and invite people to church.  It was sweet.  None of the people that we invited actually came but it helped the branch participate in missionary work.

Sunday, E. Campbell and I went to visit the mountain tribe people we are teaching.  Their 5 friends came and listened too.  It was wicked!  The problem was that most of them spoke Thai very poorly and couldn't understand the Burmese pamphlets that we got.  There are 2 of them that understand Thai and Burmese pretty well so we are just going to use them as translators for the rest of the tribe.  We tried to explain about God and Jesus and how they were different people (I think that part made it past the language barrier), and about baptism (maybe not so much was understood).  We were using pictures, pointing to objects, trying everything to get them to understand.  It was rough business but they are very happy people and fun to be around.  If only we could talk to them...

As we left their house we met another burmese family that was interested and two more mountain tribe kids that wanted to learn.  Nuts, we might as well open a branch out there in Burmese.

Weekly Study thoughts: Pride starts us on the road to inactivity.  We met a inactive man this week that was so prideful.  He was so proud of the things he had learned about religions and what he thought was truth.  Pride is not found in Heaven.  Reading the new Liahona and Helaman 11-12 helped me realize that Gratitude is how we fight pride off.  It is when we stop saying thanks to our Heavenly Father that we start forgetting him.  If we are continually grateful, then we are continually humble and humility leads to obedience which leads to salvation.  Step One: Say thanks.

Well I love you family...a lot.

elder m. riley creer

the only