Week 22 (viewer discretion advised... bleck!!)

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We had another great week here in the TBM. This week we had district council and it was also transfers, so we have another chair photo. We did lots of teaching and finding this week. We gave a date to the older lady ทองสุข. And to this other girl named เปา. This month for February is Finding February. We have started with a goal for every companionship in the zone each day which is 16 people a day. Yesterday we got 30 new investigators as a zone! Elder Freeze and I have contributed each day :) Yesterday we met with, taught, and got contact info for 5 people! Yesterday for church... I was the pianist... I played,  Sweet Hour of Prayer, I Stand All Amazed from the simplified version, and the right hand of I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go. There isn't anybody who can play the piano here. So if we don't do it we all sing acapella. 

Last Saturday was the groundbreaking for the Bangkok temple!!!!!!!!! It was so awesome. All the churches broadcast it. We were in charge of it so that was kind of stressful but it worked. We had 2 investigators come. Sister ทองสุข and another lady. She and the other lady talked after. Both if them have been Christian for many years and the other older lady is pretty devote at this other church. But ทองสุข was telling her how this js the true church of Christ and has his authority. And she called us that day saying how much she wanted to be baptized. So that was awesome.

Love you all so much!

Elder Shill

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I think he made this video just for me.... 🙈🙉🙊

🙈

Week 21

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Kalasin is such a cool place!  We spend most of our time here in the small city of Kalasin, but our area is huge and has tons of rice farmers. Our area borders with Laos. Our apartment/house is huge. It has two floors. It is probably twice as big as our apartment in Bangkok and there are only 2 of us. This past week has been so fun. We spend a lot of time on our bikes. There aren't taxis and sawng taos like in Bangkok. There are more thook thooks though, which is kind of like a small three wheeled motorcycle. We have some people we are teaching. The first is named ทองสุข. She is this older lady that wants to get baptized and we helped her give her siblings as referrals. We have this younger girl named Katie. She lived in Idaho for 10 months with members and we just gave her a baptismal date. She still has to get permission from her family so we are crossing our fingers. Then there is this family we are teaching. They are so awesome! The mom is really busy so it is hard to meet with them but they are doing great. We are also teaching the dad of a member., but he only speaks Issan, so its hard to teach. Most people know how to speak normal thai here but people also speak Issan. Issan has a lot of thai words but the pronunciation is really weird. This week I went on exchanges with the DL who is in another area. We take a bus or van to get to their area. His name is Elder Guanzon and he is way awesome! He is this small Filipino elder but he is so good at teaching. We found a new investigator that day. This Sunday was the farewell of the two sisters going on their missions. One in Thailand and one in Australia.  We sang a musical number in sacrament meeting and there was another meeting after the first two ours that was like the farewell part. They both went to the pulpit and bore their testimonies and then did like a Q and A with the members. Then they had all the RMs and us give our testimonies/talk about being missionaries and what the missionary experience is like. This week we also did service for a member cutting down her trees and picking fruit. That was fun. I got some blisters on my hand and it made me feel like I had been rock climbing. The members here are so awesome! I love them already. The food is awesome! Thailand is awesome! Being a missionary is awesome! 

I love you all! 

Elder Shill

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Oh I totally forgot! แป๊ะ got baptized!!!!!!! My area book planner app never switched to Kalasin so I could read how the lessons were going and what the schedule was in Srinakhalin. Then I on Sunday I got a bunch of pictures of the baptism!!! It was so awesome to see someone we found get baptized! Elder Thorn the missionary who switched me because of health problems got to baptize him and it was his first baptism. 

Week 20 Pictures and Videos :)

Week 20 - 1st Transfer to Kalasin

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Holy cow! The life in the TBM is full of surprises! Last P-day was way fun, we went to a crocodile farm. There were thousands of crocodiles from babies to 13 foot monsters. Then we watched this show of these two people doing stuff with the crocodiles like sticking there heads/hands in their mouth and throwing the money that the crowd had thrown in into the crocodiles mouth and getting it out. At one time the guy put the money in his mouth, belly slid towards the crocodile's mouth and when his head was inside the croc he dropped the money and swerved out of its mouth. I also got to feed and pet tigers and elephants. There was some other animals and a live dinosaur. Then on Thursday we had to go renew our visas. We woke up at 3am, got there at 5 and were out by 10:30. It was all the 2nd and 11th transfer missionaries so it was fun seeing everyone. Even the 4 Lao elders came. That week I got to do switch offs again with Elder Butnon (boot known) who is one of the best missionaries ever. I learned so much from him about missionary work, finding, teaching, and working with investigators.

On Saturday, we didn't have a ton planned because the previous day was the switch offs. Well we went out to go inviting and I still had the sim card in my phone and I get a call around 8:45am and I answer in Thai and after talking for 2 seconds I realize it is President Hammond. So then we start speaking in English. He told me there "is a bit of a medical emergency and I need your help". At this point I am extremely confused but let him know we were willing to help. Then he says "Elder Shill, we are going to take you up to Korat, you are going to serve in the Issan." My mouth dropped. At first I was so excited because I heard how awesome the Issan is. Then I was way sad because of all the people I'd be leaving. I was told I'd either leave that night or the next morning, so we decided to go back to the apartment so I could put in a wash. Then we decided to stay and do studies in the morning and I just packed. After I finished packing around noon we got a call from the AP's asking if I was packed and told us to go meet President Hammond. So the 4 of us Elders grabbed a taxi and drove to a school. Jared Hammond, presidents youngest child, was in a tennis tournament. So Sister Hammond, 2 of her daughters, Jared, and President were there. I said goodbye to my companions and they left. Then I was companions with President. Jared won his match and made it to semi-finals so he played again so me and President went to buy Subway for everyone. And that was wonderful. :) He lost that match and we all got in the car with me squished in the back and drove 3.5 hours to Korat. It was so fun. It was like a family road trip. They had a musical number they were practicing for church the next day and I practiced with them which was so fun. I slept the night with the Korat elders which was way fun. I was surprised they had a whole house to themselves. We went to church the next day. The previous Sunday, the Korat elders had 5 baptisms, so I got to be a part of the confirmation of all of them -  which was a really special experience. President gave some words and then his family came up and sang their musical number which was awesome and the whole ward sang with them on the last verse. Then  after church we ate a really good lunch. I finally had Masaman! It was so good! :) and there were brownies. Then the elders from Kalasin came and I met my new companion, Elder Freeze. He is so funny. Then we headed north on a bus to KhonKhen. We stayed the night there because there was a meeting the next day about english and some other things President taught about. Then we took another bus east to Kalasin. 

I love it here! The food is so good, the people are so nice, and the air is better. Our first day we taught this family with these two members who are about to be missionaries. For all you in Farmington, one of them is someone Elder Bruse taught. At that time I was wearing one of the ties his family sent me and they were so excited that I knew McKay.

 Anyways. I love it here, I love being a missionary. I love you all! Stay safe. 

Elder Shill

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Collin singing "I Am a Child of God" to their cab driver

Fun pictures

Week 19

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Another great week in the TBM. Most of this week was pretty normal. Sister ทอง was sick so we couldn't meet with her. This week we had interviews with President. Those are always fun. He really is so kind and wise. This week we gave a baptismal date to the boyfriend of Sister นัด, brother แบ๊ะ. He is so awesome!!! He helped us teach two lessons. The restoration with the lady and two sons from the 7th day Adventist. Then on Sunday we saw him before church while we were inviting and he had on a white shirt which was awesome. He didn't have a tie so we went back to the apartment and I gave him the tie I got at the Christmas party. Then all the members were asking why we had 3 missionaries. We let him wear a name tag and he really liked that. He was free the whole day so we taught him about the priesthood and then he did personal and comp study with us at the church. While we were studying, this lady and her baby walked up to the church and looked in. We happened to be studying on the couches instead of a class room so we saw her. We opened the door and the first thing she said was "How do I enter Christianity" We were like uh... We brought her into the church and taught about faith, repentance and the restoration with แบ๊ะ.   He helped so much!! And then he was so excited he taught the 10 commandments, Word of Wisdon, and law of Chastity. This lady is awesome and already has so much faith.  It was so amazing, we have an appointment with her this evening. Then in comp study I was trained on how to give the baptismal interview. We went through all the questions with แบ๊ะ and it was so amazing to hear his testimony. The last question talks about if we are willing to live the gospel our whole life. He expressed his desire to stay faithful and raise his children in the gospel. I couldn't have been happier. Both him and Sister นัด will be baptized within the next few weeks, แบะ hopefully this Sunday. We are working with other people and are finding new people. Its hard to keep people. 

Thailand is so amazing, everything here is different. Literally everything. But we see God in the work, this is His work. I love my God and love serving His children. Love you all!

Elder Shill

Yesterday I studied about the people of king Limhi. They were in bondage and had heavy burdens and had tried a couple of times to free themselves. Then Ammon shows up and king Limhi says "notwithstanding our many strugglings, which have been in vain; yet I trust there remaineth an effectual struggle to be made." Then his words on how to make this struggle effectual: "lift up your heads, and rejoice, and put your trust in God" then Ammon speaks to the people and recites the last words of King Benjamin, which are prophetic. King Benjamin teaches that "there is no other head whereby ye can be made free. There is no other name given whereby salvation cometh; therefore, I would that ye should take upon you the name of Christ, all you that have entered into the covenant with God that ye should be obedient unto the end of your lives." And that we if we are steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works we will receive salvation and eternal life. And these are the things that were taught to the people to qualify them to make their struggle effectual. 1. Rejoice 2. Trust God 3. Take upon us the name of Christ 4. Be steadfast 5. abide in good works

I really liked that and I think it can be applied to all of our endeavors or struggles. 

Week 18

Holy cow, the past two weeks have been full of so much! Two P-days ago all the missionaries came to our church and we all played basketball. Which I am still trash at but its all good. Then we all went and ate food together. On Wednesday I woke up, went into the other room to grab something and came back and the APs were just chilling in there with breakfast like they had been there for a while but it was like 6:32am. I ended up doing a P90x ab workout with Elder Jorgensen which was a bad idea because we biked the next day which made me walk kind of funny for a couple of days because my hip flexors were SO sore! Which was kind of funny. Anyways, I figured the APs came to do companion exchanges with Elder Butnon and his comp because he is the DL but then they switched off with us. I went inviting with Elder Ignasio for a couple hours which was awesome. I learned a ton. He used to serve in our area and found a lady (sister จีต) who got baptized and is our favorite member because she helps us teach all the time. We found this guy named Earth, and have now taught him a couple times. We have high hopes about him. That Saturday was probably the funniest experience I have had yet, we had a couple hours in the morning to go inviting. So we went up to this new neighborhood because we had heard it had some Christians We started inviting and some people were asking us if we were from the church here and asked us why we weren't at church. So they led us to the church and we walked in. We started talking and said we were from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We started singing hymns together and before we knew it we realized we had started their first hour of church. This pastor lady got up and spoke a bit, then the lady that was leading the songs gave a talk, and then the pastor asked people to come share their testimony about Chirst. Well.. I was sitting on the front row and have a testimony of Jesus Christ, so I raised my hand and she invited me up. I started to just bear my testimony about Christ and that's all I had intended to do, but the pastor lady asked me to introduce myself, so I did, then she was like "no, what sect are you from" and I was stumped because we aren't a sect, we are the restored church of Christ. I asked her if I had 4 minutes to explain, she said yes, so then I gave the entire Restoration lesson. And I gave them a Book of Mormon. I also said how grateful I was for them and the kindness they had shown for us and that I felt their sincere desire to follow Christ. Oh, and my companion has been translating the whole time for these two white people. At this point I still kind of thought they were just some local Christians that met to sing hymns and bare testimonies. Well I later realized they were Seventh-day Adventists and that I had shared the restoration in their first hour of church. 😂 They were all super nice and asked us to come again next week. That night was the Christmas party and we had 6 investigators there which was awesome!! Then Sunday we sang in sacrament, Monday was a Bangkok missionary training and party, we did some games that the zone leaders and APs made, ate really well, got new ties and Book of Mormon phone cases with our names on them, watched Prince of Egypt, did skits and songs, ate ice cream, and President Hammond addressed us and gave the best talk I've ever heard! So that was the best P-day ever. Christmas was a normal day. We did some service, invited, and taught English.

We got a call from ดวงคำ's (the old man) son. His sister had visited and pretty much forbade her dad from going to church and she is the one that financially supports him. So we met with him and he told us he just felt to old and his health wasn't getting better and he told us we dont' need to come back. He is really old and going to church is hard, we are trying to see if we can get him to go one more time and get baptized and confirmed on the same day, and then have the ward bring him the sacrament. He still has a ton of faith.  This week we also met with Sister ทอง and taught with Sister จีต. She was recently baptized and had a hard time feeling ready to so we thought that would be perfect. Because ทอง has been taught everything and has been ready for baptism, but said she wasn't ready. Well, we found out she doesn't want to be baptized yet because her mother died about a month ago and in Buddhism you are supposed to do some stuff for 100 days after they die that she still wants to do. So we came back with Sister จีต and taught about temples. It seemed to click with her but we still need to follow up. 

Last Saturday we went to the Seventh-day Adventist church again for a different hour. We participated in their scripture class and a different pastor lady came that we think that is higher up and taught a lesson too. Then we ate a vegetarian Thai lunch together that was really good. And we stayed for a bit and just talked with them. There was this one lady who this was her first time going and she followed us on our way out. She told us she was planning on coming to English class with her sons. And then we invited her to our church. She came that Sunday, way late because something that happened, but she came and made friends with the members and we gave her 3 Book of Mormons. She said she wanted to come to our church regularly so that was awesome. 

Also I can't quite remember when this happened but we taught a lesson with one of the friends of a recent return missionary who came back to visit Thailand and some members. We gave her a commitment to pray about Joseph Smith and asked if she got an answer if she would be baptized.. Well that night she called us and we set a baptismal date!! Its so fun to hear about our investigators spiritual experiences!

Well, I love you all so much, And I love Thailand!! The mission is awesome, God loves his children. 

ps  make sure you can give the restoration in 4 minutes ;)

Week 17 CHRISTMAS