Perfect Place for Me

"My testimony has grown a lot! Mostly in the will of the Lord and following what he wants for me. I learned to rely on the Lord for pretty much everything. I can tell that he is slowly changing me into the man that he wants me to become. I don't know yet what that is but I can tell he is doing it. The mission is so much better than I could ever have imagined and it is the perfect place for me. My testimony is being built every day."

"This week was not too eventful. I'm still in Rangsit with the same companion, Elder Bassett. It is still way fun. We have a new DL. His name is Elder Jensen. He is a cool guy. He served in Korat before here and Elder Bannakorn went to Korat. It is nice because I can ask him about all the members and my RCs and how they are doing."

"This was the week in Rangsit that we knew would happen some day. There was no baptism. It was sad at first, but then all of us missionaries knew there wasn't going to be a baptism. All of our investigators were just not going to make date. It is ok as long as we keep helping them become ready. However, we were nervous about what the members would think. We went to church that Sunday expecting something negative. Actually, the members were a little relieved because they were glad to have a break for once. It was funny."

"Elder Bassett and I were able to go to transfers this week.  It was fun to go and not worry about what was going to happen. We were able to see a lot of people and where they were going. I think I'll be ok in Rangsit for another transfer. However, I've been here forever it seems. Everyone asked me if I was leaving and where I was at? They were surprised to know that I was still in the same area. President Senior was very impressed by my and Elder Bassett's work in Rangsit and that's probably why he's keeping me here another transfer. I'll just have to get all my people baptized. We have an investigator whose name is Smith and he came to church and has a baptism date in two weeks. He is really golden and I really want to baptize him. He follows up with me more than I do with him, so that is way cool."

"We may go to Burger King today and then to Ayuttuya next Monday with Elder Boonmee. I love you all!"

Elder Jacob Smith

Excited about Contacting

"Today or tomorrow we find out who is leaving or staying for transfers. Frankly, I have no idea what is going to happen this time."

"We have a Cambodian investigator who is an asylum seeker. He is so faithful. Nothing is harder than teaching the Plan of Salvation to a guy that doesn't speak English or only knows as much Thai as a new missionary out of the MTC.  He told us that he loves this plan of salvation thing. He said that in this life we are not beautiful, but after the resurrection we are beautiful! We called President Senior to ask if we could baptize this investigator. He told us that he needs to wait because we don't have permission to baptize an asylum seeker. It was sad to tell him that. I was the one who had to tell him. However, he is still faithful and comes to church and still pays his tithing. He is amazing! President Senior sent a request to the Area Presidency. He can maybe be baptized next year when the ASEAN thing goes through where there are no borders in Southeast Asia. We need to keep him coming to church and be baptized."

"We had Zone training this week. They did a training on studying. Elder Bassett and I thought that our companionship studies weren't very effective. However, we find out that they are exactly what they need to be. We were told to talk to our companion and get to know them. There are only three things that we need to do and then the rest is up to us. We need to pray and sing, read from the white handbook and talk about our studies. After that, whatever is fine. President Senior even said we could have snack time if we wanted. haha  I really thing the Zone leaders like to come to Rangsit because we are so fun and are always just 100 percent for whatever they say. We are suppose to get baptisms this month as a district and no longer as companionships, so it will require a lot of team work."

"I was also able to see Elder Boonmee. He is doing really well I think. He can speak the language like a boss! He came down to do a switch off with the Zone leaders and did a training in our area. We were able to talk for a long time. I didn't get a picture with him because my camera is being weird and I fear it will break soon. He says that I have gotten real skinny and that my big belly is gone. haha"

"We were able to get a baptism. We got a referral from the Elders in Don Muang. They said that this person learned everything and had already passed her interview. It was easier for her to come to Rangsit to be baptized because they just found out that she is closer to us. It counts as a baptism for Rangsit and she is a new member. She is great and a really prepared person. We will try to help her make some friends here. She also has some family members that are willing to learn, so that will be great!"

"We found a new place to contact at an airport. We found a lot of people there that were interested. I found one guy whose name is Smith. He is a Khon Thai and very interested. We found him in front of a buddist temple. haha   He didn't come to church this week but he called us. Hopefully he will be baptized. We also had three of our RCs go contacting with us. Sister Boo, Pakkad and Jane. They asked us where we were going and we said contacting. They got super excite and invited themselves to go. They were able to get one number for us. It is really awesome. It made me happy to see RCs excited about contacting. It think they had a great time."

Elder Jacob Smith

Following Moses

"We are doing what we basically do every week. We just contact and teach the gospel. We have some investigators that we were able to baptize last week. That was a miracle in itself. Two new investigators are Noja and Jancome. They are not Thai. Noja is from Burma and Jancome is from Cambodia. That makes the lessons interesting for sure. I think that my mission call should have said something like, "You have been called to teach in the Thai language, or any other language necessary to baptize." haha  These two are golden though, so I think we will be good. Jancome has a brother that lives in Washington."

"We had a guy who passed his interview to be baptized this week. He id older and way awesome. He says he is ready to have a better life. He said that if a kid like me, who is young, good looking, could get the ladies, and is on a mission and happy to keep the commandments, then so could he. haha  However he didn't show up to church on Sunday. He had a fight with his girlfriend, turned off his phone and didn't have a car to bring him to church. It made me frustrated because we could of got a taxi to pick him up. We had to move his baptism another week. This is the second time in a row that he has done this. Oh well, we'll just have to see how it goes. Everything I had planned for the baptism fell through. The Ward was not happy with me. I did everything I was suppose to do. I called early to let them know we were having a baptism, I called and confirmed the speakers, and I picked the baptizers. Sunday came around and one of the speakers had spoken last week so we had to find another person to do it, the other speaker never showed up so we needed another last minute speaker again and then our investigator never showed up. Everyone acted like it was my fault and were all stressed out. I'll have to gain their trust back a little. Sometimes I feel like the prophet after Moses. The members loved the last Elders and I just follow them in second place. It's sad but alright. Lucky my RCs like me so haha.  Next week we are expecting two baptisms and will reach our transfer goal. We are rocking it here. Still a baptism every week in Rangsit, so that is awesome!"

"Happy Birthday Grandma! I love you so much! Thank you for always being so loving. I miss you a lot for sure. I want to eat all of your Thanksgiving food because it sounds so good right now."

Elder Jacob Smith

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!