So Lately we have been working with this less active member here in Udon and he is one tough cookie. His name is กล้า (Glaa) and he has a lot of concerns and reasons that he isn't coming to church. He has lost his testimony of Joseph Smith and doesn't feel like he himself truly is a son of God. With these 2 main concerns, he has a lot of other little ones inside of them. My companion and I have been working with him ever since I moved in and he is definitely the hardest less active member that I have worked with. The reason that we do it is because for some reason we still have hope and faith that he will come back. He has been a member his whole life, he's an RM, has a family that are all members but his wife and kids are less active as well, and he is a former CES Seminary teacher. He knows his stuff and had to have had an amazing testimony and Elder Brown and I see that and are trying to bring it back. The hard part is, is that he is very hard headed and he isn't afraid to say what's on his mind. His concerns are so in-depth that he is afraid to tell them to people because he is afraid that they will make other people's faith weaker. He told us when we went to visit him last Saturday that he has told me and my companion more of his concern that he has told anyone else before. He said he is willing to tell us because he thinks that even if he tells us his concerns, it won't shake our faith. He hasn't let too many missionaries meet with him in fear that they will fall away. He has put a lot of trust in us to be the ones that will be able to bring him back and so with that trust we have been going over to see him once a week to try and talk over his concerns and bring his testimony back. It has definitely been a hard journey but we finally saw results from our continuous efforts. Saturday we committed him to come to church with us on Sunday and he committed to come. We weren't to sure how strong he was on his word but we believed him and yesterday we saw a miracle. As we were standing outside of the church greeting people, we there saw Brother กล้า (Glaa) ride in on his motorcycle with his sin, wearing a tie and a white shirt. Elder Brown and I just looked at each other in awe as we saw him walking up to the doors of the church. He actually came! It bore witness to me that caring enough to stick with him and teach him even though he has hard concerns is exactly what he needed. Maybe it wasn't so much of his doctrinal questions that he had but more of having someone to care enough to come and try and help him. I honestly don't think we have helped him too much on answering his questions on why things are the way they are but more of showing him that we care for him and we want him to come back. Seeing him come to church yesterday was a miracle and a huge answer to our prayers.
Well I'm out of time for the week but I just want you all to know that I love you and pray for you all daily! Talk to you next week!
Hey,
I have a question for you all. Here in Thailand, they have shops that make sports jerseys for way cheap and my companion gave me the idea to get matching family jerseys. What do you think if I got some of those for us? Would that be something cool? They would look like soccer jerseys and we could put whatever we want on them. If you decide you want to do it, let me know of colors and sizes. For measuring purposes, I wear a size large on the jerseys. Well just let me know what you think. I think it could be a cool souvenir to bring back but it all depends on if you would all wear them.

Steve

We recieved Steve's arrival time: 1:23pm on Delta.

Hey Thanks everyone for the emails that you sent for my birthday! Getting emails and hearing from you all is better then getting presents! Last Wednesday for my birthday, everyone in our District went out to Sizzler for lunch and yes, they do have Sizzlers here, and they payed for me! I was way surprised that they did that! Then after English Class that night, they all surprised me with a cake! It was really cool because I had no idea about it. I was just cleaning up from the class when a member asked me to go take a picture for him outside. As I walked out, there were the Sisters walking up with a cake! When they saw me come out, everyone just started singing happy birthday! I was way surprised! Its was kind of fun because as a missionary, you don't really expect much for your birthday out here. But it was definitely a fun birthday.
Well right now I don't really have too much time to write a bunch because my companion and I have to head down to Bangkok tonight for a Zone Leader Council that we have tomorrow morning. We have to do a lot of traveling as Zone Leaders. Its pretty fun but sometimes we just want to have some time to work in our area. Well, I love you guys and I'll talk to you next week!

Steve

Hey,
Well sadly to say, this past week has been a very miserable week. We had our Moves Meeting down in Bangkok on Thursday and the way to get down there is to travel over night by train. all around its a 12 hour ride but you don't feel it because for the most part, your sleeping. Well...your trying to sleep but sleeping on a train isn't the easiest thing. You get about 5 hours of sleep total. For some reason, this time going down to Bangkok, I caught a cold on the train. I'm not exactly sure if it was from the train but that's what I'm blaming it on. Luckily while I was down in Bangkok, the effects of the cold hadn't come at full force yet so I didn't have to suffer through the day there. But when I got back to Udon, I sure felt it. I was completely drained from the lack of sleep and all the traveling we had done but I couldn't rest because right as we got back to Udon, we had to go to Sakonakhon to interview a couple of Elder's investigators for baptism. So we jumped right back on a bus for another 3 hour ride to Sakonakhon. I tried sleeping on the bus but I couldn't do it. Once in Sakonakhon, I was even more tired then before and my cold had fully taken over me. There was 2 investigators that needed to be interviewed for baptism and I made my companion do them both because I was just a mess. I couldn't speak very clearly and I was coughing all the time. There was no way we were going to make it back that night either so we slept at the Elders house that night. I woke up a lot in the middle of the night coughing and not being able to breath. It was rough and I hated not being in my own bed. In the morning, we woke up and headed out the door right away to come back to Udon. Once we were back in Udon, I tried to keep working but it just wasn't happening. I completely zonked out on my desk as Elder Brown and I were trying to plan for the day. My companion then told me to just stop trying to push it and just go get some rest. I then went to bed and didn't wake up until about 7 o'clock that night. I woke up still feeling terrible but it was good because I was able to get some rest. Right now I'm still not 100% but I'm doing a lot better. P-Day today was definitely needed. Hopefully I will start feeling better because tomorrow we have to go on switch-offs in Kumpawapi and I don't want to be miserable for that as well.
Well I hope everything is going good at home! I love you all and I will talk to you next week.

Steve