"Monday we had a chance to go to Asoke and speak with President Senior. He told us that the mission is like a roller coaster and that the funnest part is the way down and told us to enjoy the way down. He also said that the reason for "Bovember" was not that every companionship got a baptism, but that every companionship felt loved. The mission would be unified by everyone checking up on eachother to see how they were doing and it really did work. The entire mission is praying that we will be able to get a baptism in November. President Senior said that the baptism is just the bonus. He said to not worry about it, but not to stop trying to get a baptism. After, we had family home evening and it was fun. We just hit eachother with bang and it was everywhere. I didn't get any pictures because my card is full. We had an investigator show up too. We didn't get a chance to teach him though."
"Tuesday we went to meet with the Bishop and then went back to Lat Phrao to have a district meeting. Elder Yuen is a fantastic district leader and he really knows how to bring the spirit to his lessons and meetings. We are lucky to have a missionary like him in Lat Phrao. At English class, we acted out the play Johnny Lingo and it was so funny. Everyone was laughing and having a great time. We even did makeup because one of the members is a makeup artist. I was Mr. Harris. Afterwards, we taught our investigator. He is going through a hard time and is super depressed. We just talked to him for an hour and told him that the gospel was going to help him. We bore powerful testimony."
"Wednesday we finished our studies and decided to go to a stadium to contact. What we didn't know was that this was where the Red Shirts gather. They are the people against the King and they all wear red shirts. We were biking by and, at first, I thought it was like a football game or something. When we got to the middle of the place, we realized that it was a Red Shirt riot and they are violent people. The scary part is that the other party is the Yellow Shirts and Elder Calderon looks at me and says, "Dude, you are wearing a yellow bike hat!" AAAHHHHH! I was freaking out! I looked around and everyone was looking at me really angry. We booked it out of there as quick as we could. haha That was quite scary. Later, we went to teach the ward missionaries about how the change in finding was happening and we did a little activity where the missionaries were the regular people and they had to come and try to get us to accept the gospel. It was fun to see them come up with different ideas on how to share the gospel. It worked really well and they all enjoyed it. They now understand that what we are doing is very important and they will help us even more."
"Thursday was Brother Graph's birthday. Instead of partying, he spent the day helping Elder Calderon and I teach from 12 - 9. That was amazing! He is a great member. We taught this girl who works for Brother Israel as a maid. She said that when she cleans, she would read the Book of Mormon and that it always made her feel good, so she wanted to learn from us. She is super solid and hopefully she will be able to be baptized. We then went and to do a finding activity where we wrote "Do you believe you can be cleansed from sin?" on it. We had people vote and then would introduce Baptism and it worked pretty well. We got about 5 people who were interested. One was named Boss and he really is the Boss! haha At the end of the day, we had a lesson with Brother Oat. I told him that he needed to stop smoking. There were about 7 other people there who shared words of encouragement with him. I then gave him a picture called "Lost and Found" and told him that we would all leave the room so he could be alone. I asked him to pray to God and write down his covenant with him. When I left, I fell to my knees and prayed to Heavenly Father for Brother Oat. I felt the spirit so strongly. When Brother Oat let us back in, I took his card that he had written his covenant on, and told him that he did not make this covenant alone. I had everyone there sign it too and that we would always be there with him. We are his family and he can count on all of us. He has stayed true to his covenant and has an interview on Wednesday! YESSSS!!"
"Friday we went contacting and then to eat with Brother Graph. We taught Sister Yuy (the maid), and Sister Lek and then headed to sports day. There we taught Sister Wasana and played some fun games."
"Saturday we taught Brother Boss, Sister Yuy and Sister Mone. Afterwards we went to the ATM and that was where the machine shredded my card. It froze up and never gave my card back. We had a Book of Mormon class which was super good, but right in the middle of the lesson, my chair broke and I fell. Everyone was laughing and I will never hear the end of fat jokes. haha We taught another lesson with Brother Oat about the plan of mercy and told him that even if he messes up, he can always ask for forgiveness."
"Sunday was quite the day. We had no one show up for church. Everyone was gone and it was really frustrating. We headed to Lat Phrao and went around for an hour and a half just looking for people to go to church with us. I had to translate for Brother Isreal and it was really hard and I'm hoping that what I said was close to what he said. haha We had a meeting with him afterwards and he said that my language is getting a lot better. We went contacting at the mall and then to the skate park where Elder Calderon showed off some of his moves."
"It's been a good and stressful week, but it was full of blessings for sure. We have plans for 3 baptisms in December. I love and miss you all so much!"
Elder Jacob Smith
