Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Hey!
So Moves Meeting was last Thursday and I have a new companion. He's Thai! His name is Elder Kongla. (He says hi by the way) He has been a missionary for 6 months now and is way good. I also have 2 new Sisters in my District who are also Thai. It makes me the only White guy in my District and I'm the only one that can speak English so that means I have to speak nothing but Thai for the next 6-12 weeks. This will sure give me the chance to get better at the language! Elder McCoy moved over to an area in Bangkok called Dindaeng and he is companions with an Elder that's in my group from the MTC! He was a little bummed that he didn't get out of Bangkok.
This Friday I will have hit my 1 year and 6 month mark as a missionary! I'm 3/4 the way done with this adventure! Its gone by pretty fast. Well I don't have to much this week because we have just had a lot of meeting the past week with Moves Meeting. But I love you guys and I thank you for all your support and everything you do! You guys are always in my prays!
Love,
Steve
So Moves Meeting was last Thursday and I have a new companion. He's Thai! His name is Elder Kongla. (He says hi by the way) He has been a missionary for 6 months now and is way good. I also have 2 new Sisters in my District who are also Thai. It makes me the only White guy in my District and I'm the only one that can speak English so that means I have to speak nothing but Thai for the next 6-12 weeks. This will sure give me the chance to get better at the language! Elder McCoy moved over to an area in Bangkok called Dindaeng and he is companions with an Elder that's in my group from the MTC! He was a little bummed that he didn't get out of Bangkok.
This Friday I will have hit my 1 year and 6 month mark as a missionary! I'm 3/4 the way done with this adventure! Its gone by pretty fast. Well I don't have to much this week because we have just had a lot of meeting the past week with Moves Meeting. But I love you guys and I thank you for all your support and everything you do! You guys are always in my prays!
Love,
Steve
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Hey guys,
So tomorrow is Moves Meeting and Elder McCoy is moving. Actually out of my whole district, I am the only one staying! They are whitewashing the Sisters area. It’s going to be weird to get an entirely new district! But it will be cool. It’s been a fun ride here with Elder McCoy. I'm glad we were able to be companions! I learned a lot from him.
So this past week we have been pretty busy! Last week on Wednesday we had to go to the mission office because there was an Elder that comes down from the north that had to have surgery on Saturday and we were chosen to be the ones that watched over him until that day. So all of last weekend we were at the hospital for consultations and appointments for the surgery. After that was over, we then had to help the Sisters in our area move houses. They live in a house that was a lot like the house I lived in, in my first area. So we helped them clean their new place and move everything over there! It’s been really busy and we haven't been able to get much work done and having Moves Meeting tomorrow makes it so even more work gets lost! But all is well. I love you guys and I hope to hear from some of you! Maybe...talk to you later!
Steve
So tomorrow is Moves Meeting and Elder McCoy is moving. Actually out of my whole district, I am the only one staying! They are whitewashing the Sisters area. It’s going to be weird to get an entirely new district! But it will be cool. It’s been a fun ride here with Elder McCoy. I'm glad we were able to be companions! I learned a lot from him.
So this past week we have been pretty busy! Last week on Wednesday we had to go to the mission office because there was an Elder that comes down from the north that had to have surgery on Saturday and we were chosen to be the ones that watched over him until that day. So all of last weekend we were at the hospital for consultations and appointments for the surgery. After that was over, we then had to help the Sisters in our area move houses. They live in a house that was a lot like the house I lived in, in my first area. So we helped them clean their new place and move everything over there! It’s been really busy and we haven't been able to get much work done and having Moves Meeting tomorrow makes it so even more work gets lost! But all is well. I love you guys and I hope to hear from some of you! Maybe...talk to you later!
Steve
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
September 23, 2009
Hey everyone,
today I had to go and renew my visa in downtown Bangkok and everyone from my MTC group had to go as well. It was the first time since we left the MTC that we were all back together and it might be the last time before we go home so we had to celebrate this special occasion by eating at the tallest building in Thailand: Baiyoke Tower. We got some pretty good pictures from it so that’s what those are. (There’s a picture of Elder McCoy and I with a tower made out of straws. It has nothing to do with what I'm talking about but it was cool because we had a competition at a Zone Meeting to see who could make the Highest, most durable tower out of straws and our District won! So that’s why I sent it...ha-ha) but it was fun to see each other today and it was weird to think how far we have come since our MTC days. It didn't seem like it was that long ago that we were sucking Jello shots off of our trays in the MTC cafeteria and throwing hacky sacks down the halls of our dorm at each other! Thinking back on those memories helped me realize how much fun we had at the MTC. I have nothing but good memories from it! Jason you don't know what you're talking about when you said the MTC was terrible! It was a blast for us!
Well I don't have too much for this week. It was just another average week. Our investigator Tig is doing awesome! He has read up till Helaman in the Book of Mormon now and is just waiting for us to finish teaching all the lessons so he can get baptized! He has been awesome to teach because he has just been ready for this!
Elder McCoy and I are doing well. We have Moves Meeting next Thursday and one of us might move so I'm not sure how much longer we will be together. If I move, I hope I get the chance to go back up country. This is my 3rd area in Bangkok and usually people aren't in Bangkok for this long. So hopefully I get to go up north if I move!
Well I love you guys! I hope all is well and thank you all for the emails you have been sending! I love it!
Steve
today I had to go and renew my visa in downtown Bangkok and everyone from my MTC group had to go as well. It was the first time since we left the MTC that we were all back together and it might be the last time before we go home so we had to celebrate this special occasion by eating at the tallest building in Thailand: Baiyoke Tower. We got some pretty good pictures from it so that’s what those are. (There’s a picture of Elder McCoy and I with a tower made out of straws. It has nothing to do with what I'm talking about but it was cool because we had a competition at a Zone Meeting to see who could make the Highest, most durable tower out of straws and our District won! So that’s why I sent it...ha-ha) but it was fun to see each other today and it was weird to think how far we have come since our MTC days. It didn't seem like it was that long ago that we were sucking Jello shots off of our trays in the MTC cafeteria and throwing hacky sacks down the halls of our dorm at each other! Thinking back on those memories helped me realize how much fun we had at the MTC. I have nothing but good memories from it! Jason you don't know what you're talking about when you said the MTC was terrible! It was a blast for us!
Well I don't have too much for this week. It was just another average week. Our investigator Tig is doing awesome! He has read up till Helaman in the Book of Mormon now and is just waiting for us to finish teaching all the lessons so he can get baptized! He has been awesome to teach because he has just been ready for this!
Elder McCoy and I are doing well. We have Moves Meeting next Thursday and one of us might move so I'm not sure how much longer we will be together. If I move, I hope I get the chance to go back up country. This is my 3rd area in Bangkok and usually people aren't in Bangkok for this long. So hopefully I get to go up north if I move!
Well I love you guys! I hope all is well and thank you all for the emails you have been sending! I love it!
Steve
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
September 16, 2009
Hey,
Thanks for the email Mom. Tell everyone that says my mission is going by slow that before they know it I will be home! I only have a little over 7 months left. But sometimes I feel the same. Sometimes I feel like my mission has been going by slow and I feel like I have been a missionary forever! But then when I look back on certain days of when I was a Greenie, it feels like it was just yesterday but it was really over a year ago! So I guess sometimes it depends. But its been good. I definitely don't regret any second of it!
Yeah that is sad to hear about Oreo having to be put down. I was wondering when I left if Oreo was still going to be around when I get back. I guess not. Its OK though, she was old! Well Mom, I love getting your emails and updates on stuff that's going on back at home. Though, Spencer gets a lot more updates on whats going on then I do. He tells me stuff that I have had no idea was going on! Like Margret updates him very well on things going on in the ward and just random stuff. That information is valuable for a missionary! Just to let you know...Well I love you Mom!
Steve
Thanks for the email Mom. Tell everyone that says my mission is going by slow that before they know it I will be home! I only have a little over 7 months left. But sometimes I feel the same. Sometimes I feel like my mission has been going by slow and I feel like I have been a missionary forever! But then when I look back on certain days of when I was a Greenie, it feels like it was just yesterday but it was really over a year ago! So I guess sometimes it depends. But its been good. I definitely don't regret any second of it!
Yeah that is sad to hear about Oreo having to be put down. I was wondering when I left if Oreo was still going to be around when I get back. I guess not. Its OK though, she was old! Well Mom, I love getting your emails and updates on stuff that's going on back at home. Though, Spencer gets a lot more updates on whats going on then I do. He tells me stuff that I have had no idea was going on! Like Margret updates him very well on things going on in the ward and just random stuff. That information is valuable for a missionary! Just to let you know...Well I love you Mom!
Steve
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
9-9-9
Hey Dad,
Oh my heck! I cant believe that BYU pulled the upset!! That is awesome! Ahhh! Why cant I be there for it! This is probably what kills me the most. I miss football...You have to do what you did last year by sending me the BYU news feed from the Games. Also if there is any ESPN stuff about it, you can send that as well. The news of the BYU game is the talk of the mission right now. Yesterday we went to the office for interviews with the Mission President and that's all everyone was talking about! We were all dying. So do they look good? Do you think they are finally good enough to go far this year? I know its probably early to say but still...what are your thoughts?
Steve
Oh my heck! I cant believe that BYU pulled the upset!! That is awesome! Ahhh! Why cant I be there for it! This is probably what kills me the most. I miss football...You have to do what you did last year by sending me the BYU news feed from the Games. Also if there is any ESPN stuff about it, you can send that as well. The news of the BYU game is the talk of the mission right now. Yesterday we went to the office for interviews with the Mission President and that's all everyone was talking about! We were all dying. So do they look good? Do you think they are finally good enough to go far this year? I know its probably early to say but still...what are your thoughts?
Steve
9-9-9
Hey!
We have a golden investigator right now. It’s the guy that I told you about, Big. I came to find out that his name isn't really Big...It's Tig. I have been saying it wrong! We took a member to help us teach him and she asked him what his name was and he said very clearly that his name was Tig. I felt kind of dumb when I found out it wasn’t Big...But anyways, the reason why he is so golden is because we have only been teaching him for 2 weeks and he has already read all the way till Alma chapter 5! He says he takes the Book of Mormon with him everywhere he goes and whenever he has free time, he opens it and reads it. It's amazing! I have never met anyone who was so determined to read! It makes teaching him way easy because the stuff we teach, he already kind of knows about it! The other day we taught him about repentance and how we can be forgiven of our sins and at first he was a little worried. He was excited about the idea of being able to be forgiven of the things that he has done but he is worried that he might sin again and on his own, he won’t have enough strength. So we shared Alma 26:12 with him and told him if he places his trust in God, he won’t have anything to worry about! So I asked him if he could do it and with a smile on his face he said, "Yeah, I can do it." We left the appointment and left the commitment to start repenting of his sins and to continue that pattern of repentance throughout all of his life. He was excited to start!
Yesterday, we had a dinner appointment at the Bishop's house and after it was over and we were walking home, we got a call from Tig. He said he had a concern that he wanted to talk about. I said ok, let’s talk! He said he sinned and he felt bad. He went on and told me what he did and what it was was he had lied to someone at work and felt guilty. So I asked him what he felt he should do and he said, "Well I prayed to God and told him I felt bad and I asked for forgiveness." I said, "ok good, what else do you think you should do?" "Well, I was thinking I need to go and apologized to the person and try and fix what I did." He said. I told him that was exactly right! He then thanked me for helping him and then hung up. I was way impressed with him! He had done something as little as a lie and felt terrible about it and knew he had to repent of it so he called us to make sure he was going to do it right. I couldn't stop smiling for the rest of the night! He has definitely been prepared to receive the Gospel and he was just waiting for us to walk up and talk to him. He came to church last Sunday and he said he felt really good when he came. He loved that everyone seemed to be best friends with each other and just a big family. He said he is excited to get to know everyone and be a part of it! These are the type of people that make every second of the hours we spend inviting and getting rejected worth it. These are the type of people that make any thoughts of wanting to be anywhere else disappears!
Well I got to go. I love you guys!
Steve
We have a golden investigator right now. It’s the guy that I told you about, Big. I came to find out that his name isn't really Big...It's Tig. I have been saying it wrong! We took a member to help us teach him and she asked him what his name was and he said very clearly that his name was Tig. I felt kind of dumb when I found out it wasn’t Big...But anyways, the reason why he is so golden is because we have only been teaching him for 2 weeks and he has already read all the way till Alma chapter 5! He says he takes the Book of Mormon with him everywhere he goes and whenever he has free time, he opens it and reads it. It's amazing! I have never met anyone who was so determined to read! It makes teaching him way easy because the stuff we teach, he already kind of knows about it! The other day we taught him about repentance and how we can be forgiven of our sins and at first he was a little worried. He was excited about the idea of being able to be forgiven of the things that he has done but he is worried that he might sin again and on his own, he won’t have enough strength. So we shared Alma 26:12 with him and told him if he places his trust in God, he won’t have anything to worry about! So I asked him if he could do it and with a smile on his face he said, "Yeah, I can do it." We left the appointment and left the commitment to start repenting of his sins and to continue that pattern of repentance throughout all of his life. He was excited to start!
Yesterday, we had a dinner appointment at the Bishop's house and after it was over and we were walking home, we got a call from Tig. He said he had a concern that he wanted to talk about. I said ok, let’s talk! He said he sinned and he felt bad. He went on and told me what he did and what it was was he had lied to someone at work and felt guilty. So I asked him what he felt he should do and he said, "Well I prayed to God and told him I felt bad and I asked for forgiveness." I said, "ok good, what else do you think you should do?" "Well, I was thinking I need to go and apologized to the person and try and fix what I did." He said. I told him that was exactly right! He then thanked me for helping him and then hung up. I was way impressed with him! He had done something as little as a lie and felt terrible about it and knew he had to repent of it so he called us to make sure he was going to do it right. I couldn't stop smiling for the rest of the night! He has definitely been prepared to receive the Gospel and he was just waiting for us to walk up and talk to him. He came to church last Sunday and he said he felt really good when he came. He loved that everyone seemed to be best friends with each other and just a big family. He said he is excited to get to know everyone and be a part of it! These are the type of people that make every second of the hours we spend inviting and getting rejected worth it. These are the type of people that make any thoughts of wanting to be anywhere else disappears!
Well I got to go. I love you guys!
Steve
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
September 1, 2009
Hey everyone!
Yesterday we went to a hospital to go and do some service and it was way fun! It was about 11 a.m. and during the day there is nothing to really do. Everyone is at work! So we decided to head over to the nearest hospital and do volunteer work. We got there and it was more like the employees were serving us then us serving them. They took us on a tour of the hospital and they showed us everything! We even got to go into room that I don't think normal people are allowed to go in. I learned something interesting when we went into the birth room, yeah...they took us there too, I felt weird...But apparently its bad luck to call a baby cute. If you think a baby is cute you have to say it’s ugly! We have a Thai missionary in our district and when we went to the birth room she stopped to look at some of the babies and she told the mother that her baby was so ugly! I thought whoa whoa! Well yeah it’s not the best looking kid but you don't have to let the mother know! Later I asked her why she said such harsh things! and she started laughing...She said if you say a baby is cute then it will curse them in the future and when they are older, they won’t be good looking. So you have to say they are ugly and by saying that, it's a compliment to the mother. I thought how bizarre that is! That doesn't make sense at all...But hey, its Thai culture. So continuing the tour of the hospital, they took us to the Surgery Room and showed us how things worked. Then they said that at 1 o'clock, there was going to be a surgery taking place and they asked if we wanted to watch it! I thought...can we do that?! Everyone was like yeah! Let’s do it! But I was a little unsure...I don't like watching surgeries...I remember when I was little; Mike and I would always find them on TV and watch them. I don't know why we did this because we both hated it and it grossed us out! Now I was put with the same situation where I was offered to watch again. I kept saying no but everyone else kept saying yes! I didn't want to look like a weenie so I had to give in and say ok. They got us all dressed up in these nurses’ closes and sent us in. The whole time I was thinking how stupid this was that we were watching! Why would anyone want to watch a surgery! Its torture to your eyes! What had happened was this kid ran into a tree somehow and broke his arm and they had to get in there and put it back into place. The X-ray looked pretty cool, the surgery didn’t though...I was holding my mouth the entire time thinking why am I watching! Turn away! But I couldn't...I was intrigued. They were shoving clamps, scissors and all sorts of tools in there. At one point they even took a power drill to his arm! I'm not sure what that was for. But I was cringing the entire time. I didn't like it! In the end I was pretty proud of myself for being able to watch the whole thing. I wouldn't choose to watch it again though. This experience helped me to realize that I could never be a Surgeon. I wouldn't be able to handle it.
Once the surgery was over, it was time to go home and we ended up not getting to do too much. We sent like 3 people up the Delivery Room and that was about it. It was fun though! Good experience.
Well I got to go now, I love you all!
Steve
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
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Elder Olsen:
Hey everyone,How are you all this week? For myself, I have had a very interesting week so far. On Monday we went to the Mission Office for interviews and unfortunately I have been sitting in the dark for the past 2 weeks. My new companion wasn't doing the best of things and was breaking some rules behind my back and somehow President Smith found out and let me know of what had been going on. We had to have an emergency transfer that day. We headed back home and my companion packed and we took him to a different area where I went to pick up my new compaion and brought him back and you will never guess who my new companion is?! ELDER MCCOY!! We went to the area where my companion was being dropped off and I was shocked to see who my new companion was!! What are the chances that 2 people from the same Ward would get the same mission call at the same time and then for those 2 people to be companions while out there!! I'm so excited to be his companion. Once we got put together President Smith interviewed us and told us what was up and has entrusted us to fix the problem that has just occured here in Bangna. Its going to be a blast working here with him! I still cant believe we are companions! I somehow knew one day we would be companions though. I guess that feeling was real! So that the big news for the week, I got to go but I love you all!
Steve
Elder McCoy:
Well, this is going to be quite a surprise, but no need to panic, run around screaming, or throwing any parties, okay?This past week (Monday), we received a phone call right after district meeting at the Ayutthaya house. The phone call happened to be from President Smith. He said there was an urgent situation and he needed my help to solve it. I asked, "How can I help solve the problem?" He said, "Pack your bags right now." Well, that was quite a shock. But, no questions asked, I packed my bags in 45 minutes and shortly after, none other than yours truly, Elder Olsen, was at our doorstep dropping off his companion and picking me up. I don't know the whole story, all I know is that I am now in Bangnaa, serving as companions with my next door neighbor! Who would have thought, in all the world, two people from the same ward get called to the same mission and end up being companions? My head is still spinning at the thought. The only thing I know is that there is no bar here in Bangnaa. So President Smith has entrusted us with the responsibility to raise the bar once again.
Elder Spencer McCoy
Hey everyone,How are you all this week? For myself, I have had a very interesting week so far. On Monday we went to the Mission Office for interviews and unfortunately I have been sitting in the dark for the past 2 weeks. My new companion wasn't doing the best of things and was breaking some rules behind my back and somehow President Smith found out and let me know of what had been going on. We had to have an emergency transfer that day. We headed back home and my companion packed and we took him to a different area where I went to pick up my new compaion and brought him back and you will never guess who my new companion is?! ELDER MCCOY!! We went to the area where my companion was being dropped off and I was shocked to see who my new companion was!! What are the chances that 2 people from the same Ward would get the same mission call at the same time and then for those 2 people to be companions while out there!! I'm so excited to be his companion. Once we got put together President Smith interviewed us and told us what was up and has entrusted us to fix the problem that has just occured here in Bangna. Its going to be a blast working here with him! I still cant believe we are companions! I somehow knew one day we would be companions though. I guess that feeling was real! So that the big news for the week, I got to go but I love you all!
Steve
Elder McCoy:
Well, this is going to be quite a surprise, but no need to panic, run around screaming, or throwing any parties, okay?This past week (Monday), we received a phone call right after district meeting at the Ayutthaya house. The phone call happened to be from President Smith. He said there was an urgent situation and he needed my help to solve it. I asked, "How can I help solve the problem?" He said, "Pack your bags right now." Well, that was quite a shock. But, no questions asked, I packed my bags in 45 minutes and shortly after, none other than yours truly, Elder Olsen, was at our doorstep dropping off his companion and picking me up. I don't know the whole story, all I know is that I am now in Bangnaa, serving as companions with my next door neighbor! Who would have thought, in all the world, two people from the same ward get called to the same mission and end up being companions? My head is still spinning at the thought. The only thing I know is that there is no bar here in Bangnaa. So President Smith has entrusted us with the responsibility to raise the bar once again.
Elder Spencer McCoy
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Hey everyone,
Last Friday I had an adventure and the adventure last until the end of the month. On Friday we went out inviting to try and find some investigators and we went down this little road and I had a run down with a species that hates missionaries more then anything else, Dogs... usually we will go down a street and every dog on the street will come running out to bark at us and run after us. This has become a usually thing and I don't think to much of it anymore when it happens but on Friday a dog crossed the line. There is a mutual understanding between us missionaries and dogs, we don't kick, they don't bite. But on Friday, our understanding was broken! I was just casually riding my bike and a dog come walking beside me and thought hey, I want some white meat! and it decided to take a taste and it bit me on the leg! I was so shocked that this happened that I jerked my leg away and when I did, my knee flew up and slammed against my handle bar and made my bike go all screwy almost sending me to the ground. Once I regained my composure I looked back to see the dog casually walking back to its house being fully satisfied with what it had just done. I was not to happy with that dog...I looked down to see the damage of my bit and my pants had a huge hole in them. I rolled up my pant leg to see the bit and I was bleeding out of the bit and around it was bruised over in the size of a baseball. There wasn't a ton of blood but it was enough that I didn't like it. I called Sister Smith and asked her what to do and she said needed to go to the hospital so we canceled all other appointments we had for the day and headed downtown to Bangkok General to have them check out my bite. Once we got down there they said yeah...your going to have to get rabbie shots. I was fine with that because I would rather not die and I hear there has never been a case where somebody had survived from getting rabbies. So gladly I took them. In that one day I got 5 shots but I'm still not done. Its a series of 5 shots so throughout the month I have to go back and get them all. Its been a blast! Tomorrow I go in for my third shot of the series. I'm not too upset because well every missionary needs to get bit at least once while on hims mission. Its part of the fun and the experience! But I'm doing good, I haven't been excessively drueling and I haven't grown a tail so I think the medicine is working. Well I love you all and I hope all is well at home. I love you guys!
Steve
Last Friday I had an adventure and the adventure last until the end of the month. On Friday we went out inviting to try and find some investigators and we went down this little road and I had a run down with a species that hates missionaries more then anything else, Dogs... usually we will go down a street and every dog on the street will come running out to bark at us and run after us. This has become a usually thing and I don't think to much of it anymore when it happens but on Friday a dog crossed the line. There is a mutual understanding between us missionaries and dogs, we don't kick, they don't bite. But on Friday, our understanding was broken! I was just casually riding my bike and a dog come walking beside me and thought hey, I want some white meat! and it decided to take a taste and it bit me on the leg! I was so shocked that this happened that I jerked my leg away and when I did, my knee flew up and slammed against my handle bar and made my bike go all screwy almost sending me to the ground. Once I regained my composure I looked back to see the dog casually walking back to its house being fully satisfied with what it had just done. I was not to happy with that dog...I looked down to see the damage of my bit and my pants had a huge hole in them. I rolled up my pant leg to see the bit and I was bleeding out of the bit and around it was bruised over in the size of a baseball. There wasn't a ton of blood but it was enough that I didn't like it. I called Sister Smith and asked her what to do and she said needed to go to the hospital so we canceled all other appointments we had for the day and headed downtown to Bangkok General to have them check out my bite. Once we got down there they said yeah...your going to have to get rabbie shots. I was fine with that because I would rather not die and I hear there has never been a case where somebody had survived from getting rabbies. So gladly I took them. In that one day I got 5 shots but I'm still not done. Its a series of 5 shots so throughout the month I have to go back and get them all. Its been a blast! Tomorrow I go in for my third shot of the series. I'm not too upset because well every missionary needs to get bit at least once while on hims mission. Its part of the fun and the experience! But I'm doing good, I haven't been excessively drueling and I haven't grown a tail so I think the medicine is working. Well I love you all and I hope all is well at home. I love you guys!
Steve
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Hey!
So Im in my new area now, I moved back to Bangkok ...:( I'm in a city called Bangna. Its right next to the downtown part of Bangkok . I was really hoping I wasnt going to come back to Bangkok but at the same time I had a feeling that I was coming back down. The North was so much better. I could actually breath! Haha but Bangkok is good, the work is a lot easier here because of all the people. But my new companions name is Elder Correa. He is a surfer from Florida and he has also lived in Hawaii . He is pretty sweet, we are having fun so far. Also his Dad is a retired NFL football player. His Dad played for Miami ! That was pretty cool to find out.
So I'm now living in a 5 stories, 4 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms house. We don't even use half of the house! There is only 2 people living in it and its pretty big! Unfortunatelly there is only 1 air conditioning in the whole house, we have to have fans everywhere. It makes it hard for studying because our papers are always flying around. haha, But its a good house. The area I'm in is a little dry and doesnt have to much going on so I'm going to have my work cut out for me here. It will be great though. I'm still the District Leader and in Bangna there are 2 sisters aswell so now Ill finally have more then 2 people at my District Meetings! But I'm excited to be here in Bangna, it has good potential to be a good area, we just have to get it going!
Well I got to go, I love you all!
Steve
So Im in my new area now, I moved back to Bangkok ...:( I'm in a city called Bangna. Its right next to the downtown part of Bangkok . I was really hoping I wasnt going to come back to Bangkok but at the same time I had a feeling that I was coming back down. The North was so much better. I could actually breath! Haha but Bangkok is good, the work is a lot easier here because of all the people. But my new companions name is Elder Correa. He is a surfer from Florida and he has also lived in Hawaii . He is pretty sweet, we are having fun so far. Also his Dad is a retired NFL football player. His Dad played for Miami ! That was pretty cool to find out.
So I'm now living in a 5 stories, 4 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms house. We don't even use half of the house! There is only 2 people living in it and its pretty big! Unfortunatelly there is only 1 air conditioning in the whole house, we have to have fans everywhere. It makes it hard for studying because our papers are always flying around. haha, But its a good house. The area I'm in is a little dry and doesnt have to much going on so I'm going to have my work cut out for me here. It will be great though. I'm still the District Leader and in Bangna there are 2 sisters aswell so now Ill finally have more then 2 people at my District Meetings! But I'm excited to be here in Bangna, it has good potential to be a good area, we just have to get it going!
Well I got to go, I love you all!
Steve
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Sorry I didn't get an email sent off last week. Myldsmail.net is the worst email user ever! It deleted my email that took about 30 minutes to write. So I was a little frustrated and didn't have time to write a new one. So Ill tell you about the picture in this email.
> The other week had 2 more of our investigators baptized. Their names are Gan and Big. Gan is the Girl and Big is the guy. It was a really good baptism. Big has been preparing for this day for the last 6 months. He has had a problem with work and not being able to go to church on Sunday because of it. But we finally got him to talk to his boss and get Sunday off and he has gone ever sense! We had trouble finding him someone to baptize him though because he didn't just want anyone to do it. It had to be someone who he thought was spiritually close to God. So he picked the District President to just so happened to be in our Branch. But unfortunately he was going to be out of town the week of his baptism. So he had to pick someone else but could make up his mind. He asked if we could do it but we told him we wanted a member to do it instead. It was a huge dramatic event picking someone! So we told him that the 1st counselor in the Mission Presidency is also in our Branch and he could do it and he said OK! I think he didn't want anyone that didn't have the position of President to baptize him. Luckily Gan didn't care who baptized her so we just said hey President Samad is baptizing Big, do you want him to baptize you to? She said sure, why not! So that all worked out and the baptisms went well up until Gan had to bear her testimony in front of everyone. Usually after a person gets baptized, they will go up and share their testimony or something quick and Gan was terrified out of her mind! Her testimony reminded me of when I was back in Primary and how little 7 or 8 year old would give a talk. When it was Gan's turn to go up, she stood up and stared straight at her Mom and waited for her to come up to the stand with her. Once up there, they both stood at the pulpit and Gaw, Gan's Mom, told her everything to say. I felt a little embarrassed because there was our 14 year old investigator sharing her testimony like a Primary kid. Haha it was kind of funny because she was SO scared when it wasn't even a big. But she got through it and it ending really good. Elder Young shared an amazing arrangement on the piano of If You Could Hie To Kolob and Praise to the Man. Everyone was mesmerized at how good it was! Its nice having him around ha ha.
Well I got to go. I love you all!
Steve
> The other week had 2 more of our investigators baptized. Their names are Gan and Big. Gan is the Girl and Big is the guy. It was a really good baptism. Big has been preparing for this day for the last 6 months. He has had a problem with work and not being able to go to church on Sunday because of it. But we finally got him to talk to his boss and get Sunday off and he has gone ever sense! We had trouble finding him someone to baptize him though because he didn't just want anyone to do it. It had to be someone who he thought was spiritually close to God. So he picked the District President to just so happened to be in our Branch. But unfortunately he was going to be out of town the week of his baptism. So he had to pick someone else but could make up his mind. He asked if we could do it but we told him we wanted a member to do it instead. It was a huge dramatic event picking someone! So we told him that the 1st counselor in the Mission Presidency is also in our Branch and he could do it and he said OK! I think he didn't want anyone that didn't have the position of President to baptize him. Luckily Gan didn't care who baptized her so we just said hey President Samad is baptizing Big, do you want him to baptize you to? She said sure, why not! So that all worked out and the baptisms went well up until Gan had to bear her testimony in front of everyone. Usually after a person gets baptized, they will go up and share their testimony or something quick and Gan was terrified out of her mind! Her testimony reminded me of when I was back in Primary and how little 7 or 8 year old would give a talk. When it was Gan's turn to go up, she stood up and stared straight at her Mom and waited for her to come up to the stand with her. Once up there, they both stood at the pulpit and Gaw, Gan's Mom, told her everything to say. I felt a little embarrassed because there was our 14 year old investigator sharing her testimony like a Primary kid. Haha it was kind of funny because she was SO scared when it wasn't even a big. But she got through it and it ending really good. Elder Young shared an amazing arrangement on the piano of If You Could Hie To Kolob and Praise to the Man. Everyone was mesmerized at how good it was! Its nice having him around ha ha.
Well I got to go. I love you all!
Steve
Friday, July 10, 2009
Hey,
Tomorrow we have Moves Meeting and yesterday we found out that I am moving out of KhonKaen. It feels like I just got here but Ive been here for 4 and a half months! Ive been here just as long as any of my other areas but this area seemed like it went by a lot faster. But it will be fun to move to a different area. Ill miss this place though. I saw a lot of miracles and had a blast here!
Yesterday we had an activity where we went up a hiking trail called "Elephant Colored Rock" and it was so much fun! We haven't really seen mountains in a long time so being able to go up there was amazing! Ill send some pictures from the activity.
Well Today I don't have to much time to write much because I have to go home and pack for tomorrow. Next week Ill let you know where my new area is and all that good stuff but at least I hope you guys like the pictures this week! I love you all and Thanks for all your support!
Steve
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