Four Baptisms!

"I don't have much time today. We went to play basketball and it took longer than I wanted it to. I also have a lesson soon, so I'll send a better letter next week."

"We got 4 people baptized last Sunday! It was way awesome. I finally got to get in the water with my investigator! It was a way busy week too. We had lots of lessons and had many concerns to get over. There were a lot of little things to deal with where we had to just rely on the spirit. The people that were baptized was Sister Jane (who I baptized),  Sister Tip, Sister Pakkad, and Brother Oh. It was also the birthday of the little girl standing in front of me, so that was cool too. All their testimonies were boss! I actually invited Jane and it was awesome that I was able to baptize her."

"We went to see the monkeys in Lopburi and Elder Bassett had his badge stolen. haha  It was so funny! We played basketball today and I sweat so much now. I look nasty. We played at a University and I am nervous to come home. I don't want to go to school. Just let me be a missionary for the rest of my life. I love being a missionary and I love you all so much! I am happy about Derek going to the temple too!

 

Elder Jacob Smith

Too Good Looking!

"I am emailing from Lopburi. Elder Bassett and Elder Nelson wanted to see the monkeys."

"I would have to say that it was a good week. We have about 11 investigators right now. That is way too many and we need to start baptizing them for sure. It seems like the people that we can get to church are the ones that progress the best as well. They have to wait three weeks to get baptized and waiting is so hard because it seems like so long. We will have about 4 or 5 baptisms this week, so that will be an awesome picture! I will also be baptizing this Sunday, finally after a year on my mission, so that will be really cool too. We were able to get 4 RCs to church this past week. That is a good accomplishment. We had 110 people at church. We are growing a lot more and we had about 15 investigators there too. That is really good and more than we've had in awhile. I'm really excited for next week!"

"Not really much has happened. We were told by the ward council that we need to have a new activity for the RCs and members to get to know eachother. We decided to all chip in and buy a ping pong table. Ok, so I admit that it was kind of for us missionaries, but we gave it to the church, so we'd have some kind of sport there. We also bought a bunch of random games to play on Fridays at the activities. This Friday was a big hit. We had a ping pong tournament and Bannakorn killed everyone! haha"

"Oh yeah, so on Sunday at ward council the topic of flirting came up out of nowhere and everyone just looks at me! I spoke out and said, "Don't you dare look at me. I do not flirt!"  The members just gave me a look like, yepp sure. So I defended myself and said, "I don't!" Then they said that they knew I didn't but that I needed to be really careful because they have had many people ask about who the guy with the hair like mine and really good looking was. I just said that I was really sorry about that but I couldn't help it. Then they all started talking about how I was the best looking missionary they have had in a long time. haha  That's right I am! haha  It was a little embarrassing though. Well that's basically it for this week. I'll have great pictures for you next week!"

Elder Jacob Smith

Consecrated Missionaries

"This week we are kind of sad because we were not able to get a baptism from our companionship. Everyone canceled at the last minute and said that they were going out of town. They will get baptized for sure because they are golden investigators and have family and friends that want to hear as well. However, we did still have two baptisms this week. Rangsit has had a baptism every week since I've been here. That is so awesome!"

"We received training on working with the RCs and keeping them active. The ward goal is to have 37 baptisms in Rangsit. We have already gotten 38, so we passed it. We talked to the ward mission leader and changed the goal to 37 active strong members. We have about 20 so far that come to church every week. We are still expected to get 4 baptisms a companionship. We have been doing a lot of RC work. Rangsit is the example of the mission. When the Zone Leaders came and trained us, they were sharing suggestions from the mission president, but then would say that we were already doing them. haha  So we have some pressure on us to live up to, but nothing we can't handle. We really need to thank the members because without them there would be no success for sure. We have so many people that befriend our investigators and help them with everything. For example, we had a guy that wanted to come to church but said that he was sick and couldn't come. I talked to him and told him to come for just one hour. He didn't have a car or money, so I told him to take a taxi and that I would pay for it. Well, he came right when sacrament meeting ended, so he can't be baptized until the 20th at the earliest. We asked one of the members to help us teach and he was so awesome. He befriended our investigator to the point where he stayed longer than we could and then the member took him home. Thanks to this member, the man is going to be baptized!"

"The mission has also asked us to become consecrated missionaries. That is what I am trying to do. I am keeping my mind on the work at all times. Even on my birthday! I didn't even think about it, except President Senior called to wish me a happy one. I wanted to work hard for my birthday. If we keep our mind always on the work, the Lord will bless us ten fold!"

"We also had a wedding this week. The member is way close to the missionaries and even asked us to get some investigators to attend the wedding. haha  We handed out the Family: A Proclamation to the World to try to get some investigators, but no one was really interested. The wedding was great though. We had to wear orange and sing at the wedding. We were terrible, but everyone was impressed anyways. haha  The picture I'm sending is funny because it looks like the bride is really in love with me! haha  She is a great member and the guy she married gave me an impression. When I first met him, I saw something between the two and the other Elders said that she didn't even like him. Now they got married, so I was right!"

"We didn't get to go to Ayutaya this week, but we'll go another time. We were going to go play basketball with a member, but he had a car accident, so we had to go find and help him. Oh well, but it's alright.  Elder Bassett is a funny guy and we get along great. Contacting is fun with him because we just go walking and talk the entire time and then will stop and invite someone and then come back right to where we left off. haha  It's good because we don't think about how long we're contacting. Yesterday was hard because it was fast Sunday and Elder Bassett was about to die of thirst. haha  We just ran out of energy to talk. haha  Love you all!"

Elder Jacob Smith

Happy Birthday Elder Smith!