Saturday, January 11, 2014

Asoke 1.11.14

Hello Family!

This week I felt an outpouring of the Spirit.  I know this work is God's and it is true.  His work will continue on.  Always.

No I have not yet cut a new suit.  We have had a couple crazy weeks.

Big news...We got 2 more assistants.  E. Campbell and E. Saunders are now going to be helping E. Harris and I as we train and manage the mission.  This is going to be an adventure.  I think they will move in with us too.  Oh Baby!  I'm pumped.  We've never had 4 assistants before, so it will be new territory for all of us.  This is an inflection point for the mission.  We either keep going up after these past 2 big months or we slide back into the rut we just escaped.  This mission has changed a lot in the 2 years I've been here.  It has grown.  The faith of the mission has increased exponentially.  I feel like mine has grown with it.  What an exciting time to be in Thailand.  I love being a missionary and doing the Lord's work.

So last Sunday 2 people that E. Harris and I taught entered the doorway onto the path of Salvation.  Aka B. James and S. View were baptized.  Yes!  Our district had 8 baptisms total!  Amazing.

2 more of our investigators have passed their baptismal interviews as well.  One, Pla, is going to be baptized tomorrow.  The other one, Pu, will be baptized next Sunday.  The story of how we met them is pretty bizarre.  We were walking to the church and saw these two girls staring and pointing at a bush.  So we approached them and asked what they were doing.  They were looking at caterpillars.  Uh...alright.  We invited them to come and check out the church and the baptismal font.  They agreed and we gave them a quick tour and introduced them to the members that were there.  3 weeks later they are prepared to be baptized.  We are being blessed.  The Lord is blessing Thailand, He is preparing the hearts of the people to receive His word.

Monday.  President held a Family Home Evening.  He invited us and the zone leaders some of our investigators.  We had a brief lesson about baptism and played a game where you had an animal written on a card on your back and had to ask questions until you guessed it right.  It was way fun.  We also had some cake and ice cream because it was E. Campbell's birthday.  FHE is an inspired program.  Even when you have it with people that are not related it invites the Spirit and promotes love.

Humorous Story of the Week: Thursday.  E. Harris and I are teaching this investigator at the church.  On exchanges with members, E. Harris had given her a date to be baptized this Sunday.  So in this lesson we were reviewing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  At one point in the lesson I asked why she wanted to be baptized.  No answer.  We sat in silence for a moment, so I asked again.  She gave a half-hearted reply, "Because I have faith in the Lord."  Well she certainly didn't say it like she did.  So after reviewing the principles of repentance, E. Harris asked what she thought about getting baptized this Sunday.  She paused.  Then said, "If I get baptized it will only because you gave me candy."  Nuts.  Thats what we call เกรงใจ.  Ridiculous.  Nutshell: She is not getting baptized on Sunday.

To answer your question, Dad, Thailand's moral code is bad news bears.  I've had multiple taxi rides in which the driver tells us he has a wife out in the country and a girlfriend in the city.  So we spend the rest of the ride calling him to repentance.  But Thai people frequently live together before marriage and rarely get married according to the law.  You meet people who have 3 siblings all with different moms.  It is sad stuff.  The correlation between happy familys and the law of chastity is clear in Thailand.  So many families are broken or barely limping along as a result of a poor moral code.  Commandments help not hurt.

Well I know God lives.  He loves us.

Much Love!

Elder M. Riley Creer
The Only


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