Transferred to Rangsit!

"I moved! I'm in Rangsit, Bangkok. Almost the entire town is underneath a huge freeway and it is way ghetto. The apartment is above a sewer drain and the downstairs smells so bad, but the upstairs is ok. It is so so hot here. I walk to the church just around the corner and I am about to die of HEAT! They say that I will grow to love it here, but I think I will miss the Essain."

"I have a Khon Thai companion! His name is Elder Bannakorn. He is a total stud. He is from Chang Mai and is so good and obedient. It is a little hard for me to teach with him because the investigators only talk to him because they don't think that I can speak Thai. haha  It happens all the time. He teaches so well and is fun to be with. He is also a great cook and always is cooking for me. We get along great. I live with two other Elders, Elder Coehler and Elder Lodwick. They are really good at contacting. It is inspiring! Elder Coehler is the DL and from Washington. He is a great guy and really wants to make the district tight. Elder Lodwick is a greenie finishing up his training and from Tennessee. He is a really big guy and loves to talk. We talk all the time. He says he wants to be a Book of Mormon missionary and not a Preach My Gospel missionary. He can back up everything we do on the mission with a scripture from the Book of Mormon. He is so crazy! He is touchy too. My butt has been grabbed at least a dozen times in the last couple days. haha  He is a wrestler, so I can see why he is like that. hahahaha There are Sisters here too. One Sister is from California and is Indian. She is a vegetarian. The other Sister is Sister Pavadee. She served with me in Korat, so it is funny to serve with her again. She says that she doesn't want me here, but I know that she really does. haha"

"It was a really crazy week. I found out that I was the only one leaving Korat and had like three days to pack. Then we got a call from President Senior saying that he wanted Elder Quinn to train and we had to be at the transfer meeting on Wednesday morning. This happened Tuesday afternoon, so I had less than a day to pack. We had to get tickets and everything, so we were going crazy. I just shoved everything into my suitcases and left. I missed a couple things, like my camera charger, but Elder Quinn will keep it safe for me if it is important. At transfers, I was able to talk to Elder Calderon who is also training, so that is way cool. We stayed the night at the Asoke Zone Leaders' house and played Apples to Apples. I love that game! Then I found Matt at transfers. He was getting a new companion. I can't remember the name. He is doing really well. I was assigned my companion and was out of there and back in Bangkok faster than I could say Rangsit. We had a lesson that day and I was able to meet with a lot of our investigators really fast. The pool here is awesome! We have maybe 7 daters and one was just baptized last Sunday. At church we had 33 investigators show up! That is the most I have ever seen. We contact like crazy people, but it works. haha  We contact everywhere we go. On the way to the internet place today, I got two names who said that they would go to church this Sunday."

"Well, I'm excited to work here. I'll have more to tell you next week. I love you all!"

Elder Jacob Smith     

Happy Easter!

"This week was really fun! We went to a member's house on Monday to do some service and to play in a little Songkran. It was funny to see that no matter where in the world you are, the youth are all the same. The Young Men will just stand around watching others work until the Young Women come around. haha  It makes me laugh. Then again, I was just standing there telling them what rocks to pick up. hahahaha"

"We had the opportunity to go play Songkran in the city. We got into the back of a pick-up truck with some members and drove through the city. It was so much fun. We got soaked! Some people use really cold water. When the sister who was driving the truck would hear us scream and jump, she would stop and just watch us suffer with the freezing water! haha  There were some scary moments too, like a random guy jumped in our truck and made me stand up to take a picture with him. Then he tried to kiss me! Ahhhhhhh! I pushed him away before he could do anything, but it was creepy though. Otherwise, we had so much fun. People were drunk and doing crazy things. Old men were dancing in the middle of the street and splashing people with water. I want to keep celebrating Songkran when I get home, so watch out!! haha"

Korat Songkran

Elder Boonmee at Songkran in Sakon Nakon

"Tuesday we had to stay home or at church all day. We just had a bunch of meetings and longer studies, because no one was going to come and meet with us during Songkran. Not even members want to leave their houses, so not much happened that day."

"Wednesday was nice to get back to normal again. We went contacting for most of the day and then had a couple lessons. It was recovery day from three days of celebrating, so not too much happened, but we found some pretty good contacts."

Youth Mission Camp

"Thursday we were able to teach a kid named Doo. He is super cool. We met him at church from a member. He came into the room and sarcastically said that he wanted to be cleansed from sin. At first we thought he was kind of a punk just making fun of what we do, but as time went on he was actually reading and studying the scriptures. He would join in on our lessons and understood a lot of what we were teaching. He eventually told us that he is Christian and said that he talked to God and that made him believe in Jesus Christ. We asked him if he would pray about being baptized and he said he would. He went to a mission camp with the Young Men and Young Women and came back saying that he was ready to be baptized. I taught him everything from the Plan of Salvation, Gospel of Christ, and all the commandments in one lesson. Teaching all those lessons so fast was crazy, but I made sure that he understood the importance of the lessons. We will review them again before his baptism interview. He is way cool and calls me teacher Smith. I like that. haha  It's kind of a way to show respect, so it is cool. He is going to be baptized next Sunday. What a miracle!"

"Friday we had so many people cancel their appointments. We taught maybe 5 lessons over the phone. It was good to get a hold of all the RCs and LAs."

"Saturday, we met a lady that at first we thought was a member, but then found out that she just knew who the missionaries were. She started to tell us about the Roman Catholic church and how we are similar. She was really nice and will maybe come visit our church."

"Sunday, we had one investigator show up to church. He is 15 years old and was going to be baptized, but needed to get special permission from President Senior. He also needed to meet with the branch president. He got that interview and the branch president really likes him. We are hoping that he gets baptized next Sunday. He is way awesome and also went to the missionary camp with the youth. He even shared his testimony in Sacrament meeting in front of everyone. It was a way good sign that he is ready."

"The pictures that the members post are mine from my camera. They take my camera on Sunday and then don't give it back to me. haha  I don't know if I am going to be transferred yet, but I'll learn really soon. Well, I love all of you. I can't wait until Mother's Day! I want to talk to you in Thai. It is a lot better, I think! haha"

Elder Jacob Smith

Happy Songkran!

This was a fun picture week. The members in Korat are so kind to share their wonderful pictures with us. They all follow the email post this week.

"This will be a really short email because we are going to go play Songkran and have to meet at a member's house soon. The weather here is still hot. I have one of the biggest farmer's tan! haha  Sometimes I really do look Khon Thai."

"I loved conference! There were so many talks that were so great! All the apostles were straight to the point. I was more happy to see conference than I was to play Songkran. In the Young Women's little music video, they showed eight countries and Thailand was one of them!"

"This week has been awesome! We have 13 investigators! It is a really big miracle. I may not be able to see all of them get baptized, but I'll know that I helped. Last Saturday, we were watching conference and two ladies that we had invited to come to the session, actually came. We talked to them afterwards and told them about the church and the restoration. They stayed and watched the next session and they told us that although it wasn't scripture, they felt that it was the words of God. It was so cool! They feel that God brought them to see us and that he had provided a way for them to come. They are really golden. One lady has 20 members in her family that are Christian and live together. The other lady is from another church and is high up in their leadership. That would really be a miracle if we could baptize a whole congregation! For now, we will focus on the two ladies. haha"

"We also have 4 Filipino investigators, so we have been doing a lot of teaching in English. It's actually much harder to teach that way. haha  It's been great! A lot of success! Contacting was hard because everyone says that they are playing Songkran. It is hard to get them to come to church. There are a lot of things that we are trying to do to help out the members and leadership in Korat. Nothing can stop the work of the Lord, so no worries."

"There's not much to say other than we have to stay at the church all day tomorrow because of the dangers of Songkran, so I don't know what we will do. Hopefully, it won't be too boring. We are working hard and I love you all so much!

Elder Jacob Smith

 

Under Construction

Jake's best friend, Brian, received his mission call this week to the Texas Lubbock Mission. He will enter the MTC on July 11th (just one day short of Jake's year mark). Brian will be serving in the same mission where his Bishop served; who is also Jake's dad. We love it!

"We get to watch Conference on Sunday, so I still have a whole week before seeing it. I know that there was a man called to serve as the first Thai Area Seventy. His name is Wisit Kanakam, who was the first Stake President in Thailand. It is very cool for all the members here because that puts us even closer to getting a temple in Thailand! I am really looking forward to watching Conference, even more than I am the water festival, which is coming up next Monday. I may not have a long email next week either. I listen to Conference talks every morning. I really have big joy in listening to them. I still really love Elder Holland. He is such a powerful speaker and very straight to the point. No wonder he is in charge of the Asian Mission which is the most straight and to the point mission in the world! haha"

"I heard Brian got called to the same mission as dad in TEXAS! That is so cool!! I am so happy for him. He literally leaves a year after me. This means I won't see him for three years and that stinks, but it is for the better. All the other mission calls are way cool too!"

"They are expanding the church building here. Every morning we have to go open the gate for the workers to come in and take apart the church. It's ironic that we have been called to build the Kingdom of God when we open the doors, but now it's so people can come in to destroy the church. haha Funny, I know! The other day we went to the church to make some steps out of the rubble, because some people came and destroyed the front of the church, making it impossible to get in. We made a nice walkway and a place to park for the members. There are some cool pictures of us doing that, but it might look like we are destroying the church. haha"

"We did a lot of visiting members this week. The Zone Leaders came down and trained us on inviting. I have switched around my contacting style and promising blessings with baptism and it is working really well. We were also told that we need to smile more and find joy in the work, which I have been able to do. I have seen blessings from it. We have been constantly contacting. From visiting the members, we were able to get a lot of referrals, so we'll see how that goes."

"I went to go to this referral's house to visit their family and it was super far away on our bikes. On our way back, I ran over a toothpick and it destroyed my bike tire. We had to walk all the way home! It was so hot and we were dying of heat, but we didn't complain. We talked about how sometimes things like this happen as Heavenly Father's way of putting us in the way to find people. On the walk home, we met a Catholic man that was very interested and we were able to meet with all the LAs. They even came to church on Sunday. Never blame the Lord for anything that you are experiencing, because we know nothing and he knows everything. I'm sure some amazing things are about to happen! I love you all so much!"

Elder Jacob Smith

Walking on Water

"This week has been crazy and I don't know how we were able to have the success that we did. On P-day we just went to the Tesco and bought some food and then went home to watch Mormon Messages. We had family home evening that night at a Filipino member's house. It was kind of funny because when we got to the house, they didn't have any keys to get in. While they were searching for them, I took a pair of scissors and broke into the house. They were all so surprized! haha  It is something I learned from Elder Sanguensak. The lesson we taught that night was on Love. It was really good and the family loves us so much. They are always so grateful to see us."

"On Tuesday we learned that Sister Gii was still interested, but she had a personal problem to work out first. We also learned that our only hope for a baptism this week couldn't meet with us all week. We were super sad but continued on. When Wednesday came, we literally had nothing to do until the end of the day. We spent the whole morning calling people and got nothing. That night we had Book of Mormon class where Brother Pone and his wife, Sister Taa, came. They are now super solid members. They read every day and had all these questions. In just a week, they read from 1st Nephi to Mosiah! Thursday we got a call that Sister Muller was really sick and we had to take care of her and give her a blessing. That night we were in charge of the youth activity. Friday we went to visit the members because we needed to start helping them get more involved in missionary work. The member referrals are the ones that usually get baptized. We traveled to the Jahhaa. It is pretty far out but we were able to meet with 4 families. The last family we visited took us out to eat t-bone steaks! It was awesome! They are way cool and forced us to order it. All in all, we got 2 referrals and 1 LA to teach from that day, so that was good."

"We were able to teach our investigator, Sister Ness, and tried to get her to accept to be baptized. She still hadn't told her family and couldn't commit. Then on Saturday, she called us and said that she told her family and that she would be baptized! We were so excited and set up the interview right away and she passed! It was super awesome and her 9 year old daughter got interviewed too on Sunday and was baptized with her! This meant we reached our March Madness and made our goal of 3 baptisms this month! Both the sisters and us reached the district goal of 6 baptisms. It was a super amazing miracle!"

"I learned a great lesson this week. I relate it to the story of Peter walking on water. We set a goal to get 3 baptisms as a companionship. We then see immediate success like Brother Pone getting married and baptized. It gave us so much confidence and we were walking on water. Then we went through the month and our investigators started to disappear and fail to meet their dates. I started to see the storm, wind and waves and I started to fear. Then I began to doubt and accept that we might not meet our goal. Then we got two baptisms on the very last day! Christ stretched forth his hand and caught us and asked, "Wherefore did thou doubt?" I realize that I should have been more trusting and faithful that Christ was going to help us and that all things are possible with God. I will never give up hope from now on!"

Elder Jacob Smith