Friday, August 28, 2009
Aug 28, 2009
Hey!
I'm really getting excited about our area right now because its starting to pick up! We have had to go through a lot of bad investigators to finally find some good ones. But the ones we have I feel good about. Yesterday we taught 2 new investigators that are way determined to learn about our church. The first one we taught, his name is Big. He was a referral for the Zone Leaders and they invited him on the Book of Mormon and actually gave him one. Today when we asked him if he had been reading he said yeah, all the way up till 2 Nephi 26! I thought that was amazing! He has only had the book for a couple days! We started asking him about himself and he said he has a lot of siblings but only 1 is still alive. The rest of them, including his Dad, died from HIV and he has just been completely devastated from it. He misses them a lot! With finding this out, we changed our lesson plan from the Restoration to the Plan of Salvation and told him that he was going to be able to see his family again. When we told him this, he smiled and you could see in his eyes that he was thinking: What?! Really?! We taught him how the Plan of Salvation works and what he needed to do to be able to see his family again. We taught about baptism and how it's an ordinance that we have to do to be able to be cleansed from sin and live with our families forever. We asked him if it would be something that he wanted to do and he said yeah! So we set a date with him to be baptized in a little over a month! This guy is amazing and it shows that he has definitely been prepared. Later on in the evening we taught another new investigator named เดือน, which means month, and we taught him a quick Restoration lesson and gave him a Book of Mormon and it went well! In the end we asked if he would pray for us and he said of coarse! and he gave an amazing pray. Afterward he said he felt really good and peaceful which is always a good sign. When we asked to see him again he said he had a lot of stuff he had to do and he was going to be pretty busy. I thought, dang...there is goes...but then he said, so because I'm going to be kind of busy, could we only meet like twice a week? I was very thrown off! We said of coarse! That would be perfect!
Yesterday was an amazing day! It was definitely an answer to our prays that we have been holding on to for the past month or so. I have been waiting for these 2 guys to come along and God has now sent them to us! Things are starting to turn around here in Bangna and I am so grateful for that!! It's been hard but it's been good. I love you guys and I hope all is going well.
Steve
P.S. Here are some pictures. The one of us as pirates was an activity we had for English Class. We had a treasure hunt to find true Happiness. Then the other picture is just of me walking down the streets of Bangna.
I'm really getting excited about our area right now because its starting to pick up! We have had to go through a lot of bad investigators to finally find some good ones. But the ones we have I feel good about. Yesterday we taught 2 new investigators that are way determined to learn about our church. The first one we taught, his name is Big. He was a referral for the Zone Leaders and they invited him on the Book of Mormon and actually gave him one. Today when we asked him if he had been reading he said yeah, all the way up till 2 Nephi 26! I thought that was amazing! He has only had the book for a couple days! We started asking him about himself and he said he has a lot of siblings but only 1 is still alive. The rest of them, including his Dad, died from HIV and he has just been completely devastated from it. He misses them a lot! With finding this out, we changed our lesson plan from the Restoration to the Plan of Salvation and told him that he was going to be able to see his family again. When we told him this, he smiled and you could see in his eyes that he was thinking: What?! Really?! We taught him how the Plan of Salvation works and what he needed to do to be able to see his family again. We taught about baptism and how it's an ordinance that we have to do to be able to be cleansed from sin and live with our families forever. We asked him if it would be something that he wanted to do and he said yeah! So we set a date with him to be baptized in a little over a month! This guy is amazing and it shows that he has definitely been prepared. Later on in the evening we taught another new investigator named เดือน, which means month, and we taught him a quick Restoration lesson and gave him a Book of Mormon and it went well! In the end we asked if he would pray for us and he said of coarse! and he gave an amazing pray. Afterward he said he felt really good and peaceful which is always a good sign. When we asked to see him again he said he had a lot of stuff he had to do and he was going to be pretty busy. I thought, dang...there is goes...but then he said, so because I'm going to be kind of busy, could we only meet like twice a week? I was very thrown off! We said of coarse! That would be perfect!
Yesterday was an amazing day! It was definitely an answer to our prays that we have been holding on to for the past month or so. I have been waiting for these 2 guys to come along and God has now sent them to us! Things are starting to turn around here in Bangna and I am so grateful for that!! It's been hard but it's been good. I love you guys and I hope all is going well.
Steve
P.S. Here are some pictures. The one of us as pirates was an activity we had for English Class. We had a treasure hunt to find true Happiness. Then the other picture is just of me walking down the streets of Bangna.
Friday, August 21, 2009
ELders Olsen and McCoy
Yesterday, at 7:30, we had a Family Home Evening with Sister ต๋อย (Doy) and Brother ต้อม (Dawm) and their two daughters, ลูกหมี and พิน. Plus, they brought their neighbor, จ๋ม (Joom), who isn't a member, and her two kids. It was really fun-Elder Olsen and I prepared the lesson. Before we got into the activity, we explained the Godhead along with prayer to help Joom understand why we said an opening prayer and who it is we worship. Once the activity got started, it was out of control. Haha, just kidding, but it was really fun. We bought three sleeves of double stuffed Oreos and three packs of little square wafers and a jar of peanut butter. We split into 3 groups, one group had just wafers and Oreos, the next group had wafers, Oreos and a spoonful of peanut butter, and the next group got to use as much peanut butter as they wanted with their wafers and Oreos. With these ingredients, each group built houses. Once the groups were done, we read Helaman 5:12 and asked, "How do we build our foundation upon Christ?" The three specific answers we were looking for this activity were: 1. Pray 2. Read the Book of Mormon 3. Go to Church. We compared the three trays with houses on them to the lives of three different people. All 3 people pray every day but one day, as they are taking a test, their friend who didn't study asks to copy their paper. At this point, we shook all three trays just a little bit-nothing happened. Prayer helped all three overcome this temptation to cheat.
Only the people that have peanut butter on their house read every day. One day, their friends ask them to go drinking and party with them. We shake all three trays, this time a little harder, and the first house falls to pieces. He didn't read every day so he fell into temptation.
Only the home that got to use as much peanut butter as they wanted goes to church every week. The other home goes about once a month-but that's still good, right? One Sunday morning, their friend calls around 8 a.m. (right before church) and asks if he wants to go to the beach. We shake the remaining two trays and the one that used a spoonful of peanut butter falls apart.
Thus we see from this analogy-if we want to have a SOLID foundation (lots and lots of peanut butter) we must pray every day, study in the Book of Mormon regularly, and go to church every week. We committed Joom to give prayer a try and to start reading in the Book of Mormon.
Elder Spencer McCoy
Only the people that have peanut butter on their house read every day. One day, their friends ask them to go drinking and party with them. We shake all three trays, this time a little harder, and the first house falls to pieces. He didn't read every day so he fell into temptation.
Only the home that got to use as much peanut butter as they wanted goes to church every week. The other home goes about once a month-but that's still good, right? One Sunday morning, their friend calls around 8 a.m. (right before church) and asks if he wants to go to the beach. We shake the remaining two trays and the one that used a spoonful of peanut butter falls apart.
Thus we see from this analogy-if we want to have a SOLID foundation (lots and lots of peanut butter) we must pray every day, study in the Book of Mormon regularly, and go to church every week. We committed Joom to give prayer a try and to start reading in the Book of Mormon.
Elder Spencer McCoy
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Aug18, 2009
Hey,
We had moves meeting last Thursday and I found out my last companion got sent home along with another Elder. It's sad to see Elders ruining their missions and being sent home because they were breaking rules. That would be the worst thing ever to be sent home off of your mission early because you were breaking rules. It would be way embarrassing! Now, unfortunately I'm still having to do damage control in the Ward and in the area. President Smith, our Mission President, said I'll probably be here in Bangna for a while to fix all that happened. Whenever something like this happens to an area it always takes a while to fix it and we are kind of feeling that right now. Hopefully it picks up. The good news is that I'm still with Elder McCoy!
To answer Whitney's question from a couple weeks ago, if we have an American companion that can speak English, do we speak English or Thai? For the most part, we speak English together. Its a lot easier and more natural. We do 2 days out of the week that we have to speak Thai though, Sundays and Tuesdays. Other than that, we usually speak English to each other. If we are with Thai people, we will speak Thai just so they don't think we are talking about them.
Well I love you all and I'm always thinking about you! Talk to you next week!
Steve
We had moves meeting last Thursday and I found out my last companion got sent home along with another Elder. It's sad to see Elders ruining their missions and being sent home because they were breaking rules. That would be the worst thing ever to be sent home off of your mission early because you were breaking rules. It would be way embarrassing! Now, unfortunately I'm still having to do damage control in the Ward and in the area. President Smith, our Mission President, said I'll probably be here in Bangna for a while to fix all that happened. Whenever something like this happens to an area it always takes a while to fix it and we are kind of feeling that right now. Hopefully it picks up. The good news is that I'm still with Elder McCoy!
To answer Whitney's question from a couple weeks ago, if we have an American companion that can speak English, do we speak English or Thai? For the most part, we speak English together. Its a lot easier and more natural. We do 2 days out of the week that we have to speak Thai though, Sundays and Tuesdays. Other than that, we usually speak English to each other. If we are with Thai people, we will speak Thai just so they don't think we are talking about them.
Well I love you all and I'm always thinking about you! Talk to you next week!
Steve
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Hey!
Our area has picked up a bit this week. We were able to find 7 new investigators through our efforts. One of which was a little like the story last week! Sunday came a long again and we were sitting at church waiting for it to start and a 20 year old kid came in wearing a blue t-shirt. I thought to myself...he can't be a member, he looks confused. Maybe he is a friend of the sister's investigator. Of coarse I had to go talk to him to make sure and to my great pleasure and surprised, he wasn't! His name is Day and he had just moved down to Bangkok from up north about a month ago and he is Christian. When he saw our church on the street, he decided to come and see how it was. So we sat with him through church and talked to him a little bit about our church and at the end of church he said he has a lot of questions and wants to talk about them. With those great pleading words, we made an appointment to see him another day and Elder McCoy and I jumped for joy! The Sisters were way jealous. They teased us saying we don't even have to go out and work, all we have to do is sit at the church and people will come to us! Ha ha if only that was true...So right now our investigator pool is picking back up. We still got a lot of crazies but hopefully we can sieve them out. I love you guys and I hope to hear from some of you soon!
Steve
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Hey!
We have been really struggling to find investigators here in Bangna. Building an area from nothing isn't very easy! Any investigators we find from inviting aren't quality investigators. They're flaky, not very interested and a lot of the times they are crazy. So everyone one new that we have been finding, doesn't last very long. But I feel like we have been diligently working hard and trying to find people to teach and I feel we have been blessed for it. On Sunday after church as we were about to leave, a security guard from an apartment complex came riding in on his bike and told us he wanted to know about our church! I thought, great! lets sit down and talk. But he said he had no time that day and he would be back on Monday to talk to us again. With saying only those few words he turned his bike around and started peddling off. I hurried and tried to get his name and information before he left but he just said he would be back tomorrow and talk. Without getting any information from this man, we just stood there no better off then 5 minutes before he came. We had no name, no number, and no appointment to meet him again. I was very confused with this guy and in the end, Elder McCoy and I just agreed that he was crazy...so we just shrugged it off and forgot about it going on with our day. Then Monday came around and we had District Meeting at the church with the Sisters and once that was done, Elder McCoy and I sat and contemplated on what we wanted to do for the next 5 hours because we were completely free! We had planned to invite but we were getting a little tired of it. So we decided to go drop our stuff off at home and then do some more thinking. On the way home, as we were biking, I saw a sign making shop and instantly pulled over! We had been planning on making a sign to advertise our English Class and stick it on the church to try and get more English students so I had the thought, lets do that right now. We already had to pattern, we just needed to print it. So we went into the shop and ordered the sign but we weren't sure of the dimensions of the sign so we borrowed the guys measuring tape and headed back to the church to get the measurements. While we were measuring the wall and talking about how big we wanted to sign, a man came riding up to us on his bike and said, "I'm back, now how do I sign up to be a member at your church?" I was a little thrown off guard and I thought, who is this guy? After talking to him for a little bit I realized it was that security guard from they day before! He really did come back! I thought, if we weren't here right now we would have missed him and who knows if we would have been able to find him again! So we made an appointment to meet him again after talking to him for a little while and we got his name and number. His name is Sampaw and he seems really solid! We were able to meet with him again yesterday and we told him how he could sign up to be a member, by being baptized! and he said ok, so we set a date with him to be baptized and he said he would come to church on Sunday as well! It has been an answer to our prayers and it has been another witness to me that Christ is really leading this work. He lead us to that sign shop so we would go back to the church and meet this guy. Its been amazing and I'm he is there next to us because we would be know where if he wasn't here!
Well I love you guys! I hope all is going good at home! I love you!
Steve
We have been really struggling to find investigators here in Bangna. Building an area from nothing isn't very easy! Any investigators we find from inviting aren't quality investigators. They're flaky, not very interested and a lot of the times they are crazy. So everyone one new that we have been finding, doesn't last very long. But I feel like we have been diligently working hard and trying to find people to teach and I feel we have been blessed for it. On Sunday after church as we were about to leave, a security guard from an apartment complex came riding in on his bike and told us he wanted to know about our church! I thought, great! lets sit down and talk. But he said he had no time that day and he would be back on Monday to talk to us again. With saying only those few words he turned his bike around and started peddling off. I hurried and tried to get his name and information before he left but he just said he would be back tomorrow and talk. Without getting any information from this man, we just stood there no better off then 5 minutes before he came. We had no name, no number, and no appointment to meet him again. I was very confused with this guy and in the end, Elder McCoy and I just agreed that he was crazy...so we just shrugged it off and forgot about it going on with our day. Then Monday came around and we had District Meeting at the church with the Sisters and once that was done, Elder McCoy and I sat and contemplated on what we wanted to do for the next 5 hours because we were completely free! We had planned to invite but we were getting a little tired of it. So we decided to go drop our stuff off at home and then do some more thinking. On the way home, as we were biking, I saw a sign making shop and instantly pulled over! We had been planning on making a sign to advertise our English Class and stick it on the church to try and get more English students so I had the thought, lets do that right now. We already had to pattern, we just needed to print it. So we went into the shop and ordered the sign but we weren't sure of the dimensions of the sign so we borrowed the guys measuring tape and headed back to the church to get the measurements. While we were measuring the wall and talking about how big we wanted to sign, a man came riding up to us on his bike and said, "I'm back, now how do I sign up to be a member at your church?" I was a little thrown off guard and I thought, who is this guy? After talking to him for a little bit I realized it was that security guard from they day before! He really did come back! I thought, if we weren't here right now we would have missed him and who knows if we would have been able to find him again! So we made an appointment to meet him again after talking to him for a little while and we got his name and number. His name is Sampaw and he seems really solid! We were able to meet with him again yesterday and we told him how he could sign up to be a member, by being baptized! and he said ok, so we set a date with him to be baptized and he said he would come to church on Sunday as well! It has been an answer to our prayers and it has been another witness to me that Christ is really leading this work. He lead us to that sign shop so we would go back to the church and meet this guy. Its been amazing and I'm he is there next to us because we would be know where if he wasn't here!
Well I love you guys! I hope all is going good at home! I love you!
Steve
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