"I don't have much time today and already talked to you on Christmas, so I will just tell you the highlights of the last week!"
"Yes, I have a Thai companion! It is going to be such an exciting transfer. I am going to get so good at the language because I will have to use it all the time. Elder Sanguansak is awesome and very funny. He is a little trunkie but that's ok because I am not and I'm here to work. He will just have to work with me. haha He is Esan, so he speaks Lao as well. I hope I will be able to learn it so I can communicate with Grandma when I return home. It's hard, but also very worth the challenge and I am up to the task. God is only trying to improve me and I've already learned so much being in this companionship. We have good conversations about family and things that have happened on our missions so far. It is way cool!"
"Korat is very fun. It is nice actually having a church building to teach people at. The area is so huge! We have so many investigators that we can't teach because they live too far away. There is a branch in Korat and the members are very nice and inviting. We get a lot of referrals from the members. It seems like everything done here is much slower. President Senior said that it's time that we start doing things different than how it use to be. I'm going to change the way things were done. We are going to get Korat moving a lot faster for sure. I have plans to get many baptisms here and many more coming to church."
"I have already seen a lot of miracles here. This morning we had a lady come to our house. She said that she was having problems and that one day last week, we said hello to her as we biked pass and she knew that we were people of God and could help her. That's right! It's very cool! Even the language has been a miracle. I still struggle a little but I have been able to communicate a lot lately and understand a lot too. I asked the Lord in my prayers that if he would give me the gift of tongues, I would make sure to do his work the best I could and I'm pretty positive he answered my prayer. He is doing it his way and because of that, I have to make sure I give my all for Korat. I just hope I will be able to get it all done in my time here."
"On Christmas, after talking to you, we had to go to the mall and sing Christmas songs for all to hear. It was fun. Then we taught a lesson to an investigator who is planning to be baptized this Sunday. Her name is Sister Jeep and she is way solid."
"English class has been awesome because they now have English people teaching them and I made it fun. I don't think it was really fun before. I have plans with the ward mission leader to get about 50 more people going to English. The ward mission leader is way awesome! He is so willing to change things. We had a meeting with the entire ward council and we talked about the ward baptism goal and everyone said 24 because the sisters will get one and the elders will get one. I was all haha... no! We will get two a month! Everyone was all surprised and then got super pumped. The ward mission leader leans over to me and says, "It's possible and I know how to do it." He is way cool. He wants to make a class where the RCs go to during church to learn all the lessons over again because that is what the Preach My Gospel says new converts need. It is going to be way cool in Korat! I can just feel it!"
Elder Jacob Smith
