"I finally got my first convert baptism this week on Sunday! It was so awesome!! Her name is Sister Wasana and she is so cool. I was able to see and teach her from the very beginning and then watch her be baptized. I was not able to baptize her because the Bishop here says that he has to choose who baptizes. I could feel the spirit so strong and it was awesome to see her go into the water and come out clean and smiling. It was an amazing experience. I can't wait to bring more people unto Christ and into the fold again."
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| Sister Wasana's baptism day |
"We walked a ton this week just contacting. My feet hurt from all the walking. haha We walked from 5 to 8 in one direction just contacting who we could. Once we went down this sketchy alley and Elder Calderon was saying that it looked just like the Esan. Well I said that this is the city and so we left pretty quick. haha We got a couple contacts, but nothing too promising."
"We also got lost this week due to my awesome Greenie direction skills. haha We were going to the office and stopped by a Mall to call Elder Jones for directions from there. He told me to get on the MRT and go one stop over. Well, I didn't know what the MRT was, but I knew it was a train. We get on the skytrain and went so far away! We were so lost and I asked some Thai people where the MRT was. They said it was an underground train. I basically did a face palm and we headed back to the Mall where we started, so that we could finally get on the MRT and get to the office. The cool thing though is when we were heading back, a Thai lady came up to us and asked if we were from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We said yes and she told us that she went on vacation to Chang Rai and met the missionaries there. She is really interested in the church, but doesn't know where to find it in Asoke. We took her name and number and will give it to the Asoke Elders. Sometimes the Lord works in mysterious ways. Maybe the whole getting lost was actually a go and find. We eventually got to the office and didn't even get a new phone. I guess the one they were going to give us was worse than the one we had already."
"We've had some really cool investigators. There was a family that went to family night who we just met contacting about three days before. They traveled about 50 kilos to get there from where they were on vacation. They came to family night before they went home. They are pretty awesome, but it's hard to get them to come to anything else. They work all day everyday like everyone else in Thailand. We will keep working with them. We also have another family where we know the kids and Aunt. We are trying to find where their mom works, so that we can teach them. We also have many referrals that are pretty solid, but everyone is new and we have not taught them yet."
"We met some skater kids. We go and see them every once in awhile to see if they will go to church, English class or family night. They always say that they work or would rather skate. They are cool though and love the fact that we are "falungs" and can speak Thai. I don't know if they like me that much because I'm not a skater, but Elder Calderon is, so luckily we have that in common."
"The language is going really well. I still struggle and there are a lot of things that the Thai people say that I don't know, but I am starting to get the jist of what they are saying. The language is so hard and I love that I can even speak the little bit that I do. Hopefully by the time I skype you, I'll be able to have a lot more words and be able to talk to Grandma. haha I'm looking forward to that!"
"The other missionaries are cool. Elder Yuen is a great guy and reminds me of Dallon. Elder Hartman is cool too and it's fun talking to him because he knows everything from back home. We do language study together so that we can help eachother out. Elder Calderon and I teach well together. I am eating good here. I think that I've been more hungry because Elder Calderon is smaller than Elder Johnson, so I'm not eating as much as I use to. haha"
"Well, that's about it this week. We aren't doing anything fun today, but maybe next week. I love you so much and miss you all to death!
Elder Jacob Smith
