A few school students were hanging out at the park that we use for our weekly sports night activity so we invited them to play with us. Ended up playing this Thai game that is a combination of soccer and volleyball. No using your hands, only your feet, 3 hits per side, just get it over the net and stay within the lines. Definitely a game to bring back to America!
I feel like I say this almost ever week. There is never enough time in the day to everything we need to do. It has been such an amazing experience. Seriously every single week. Day. Hour. Minute.
This week in review...
Service
Last week we had spent a fair amount of time going out and giving simple service. This week, we begin to reap the rewards. Less active families have opened their doors and now welcome us to come back. And even BETTER. They're starting to come back to church. These are members that, for many of them, haven't been to church for longer than a year. Just gotta work hard and do as much as you can in that time. Working with the hope that things will get better. Because they always always always do.
Investigators
The timing for so many of these things. The timing for here in Buriram. It just feels like everything has been prepared so well. You truly only get as much as you put in. Put in your full effort, you get the full rewards. This also extends way past our investigators. Putting our full effort into everyone that we talk and teach. Buriram is seeing miracles every single day. We have one investigator who is currently in police training school. He travels every weekend to come back to Buriram from Korat. He's only free on weekends and to make it a bit harder, he is not allowed to use his phone during the week. Often times communicating with him can be a bit difficult. But his faith is there. We had recently reviewed with him the requirements for baptism. Literally everything he said just proved to show how much his personal relationship with God has grown. So very grateful to be helping these people. We as missionaries are just guides, pointing to the things that we personally have grown to know is true.
Don't trust us. Trust God. If God is our loving Heavenly Father, and if we are His children, He will only want what's best for us. So if we trust in God literally every little thing. Will be taken care of. He knows what you need better than we know ourselves. Trust.
BAPTISM! Weeeehaaaaa
So this is the same sister that I had spoken about last week. We had barely introduced anything about baptism to her, but one night we just get a call and she tells us that we need to meet tomorrow. We meet, she walks in, its on everyone's minds. Baptism. She came in and she knew that it was a necessary step that she needed to take to do more and to become better. No she did not just trust us as missionaries. Rather she placed her trust in God. And expressed the slightest amount of faith. And through scripture study and prayer, she received her own answer, a personal witness, that these things are true. She has the belief that will continue to grow into a firm faith. Yup. I've got a huge smile on the inside, these things truly do make me happpyyy
Just a few closing thoughts.
Think and ponder about the word "grace." Grace is not a simple reset button, it takes a whole lot more. Ponder on that. Ponder on the word, you'll find some interesting things. I promise you.
Also I'll be emailing on Saturday (in Thailand) P-day got switched.
Cheee pono
Aloha,
Elder แอลลิส
Forward Ever. Stopping Never.
