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
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Hey Mom,
Yesterday, I got the CDs you sent. I still haven't had the chance to listen to them because I don't have a CD player but hopefully I’ll find a member that has a laptop that I can use to put it on my iPod. I'm way excited to listen to the CDs though! Thank you so much for sending those to me!
So you asked me if I like the fruit here in Thailand. Well yes I do! There is a lot of fruit here that they don't have in America. Soooo much! Like Jackfruit, that’s way good, rose apples, Sakia, there is a lot! The pineapple here is really good too. Also Guavas are amazing. I like it all.
For the service project last week we worked on building a Cemetery that President Dodge is funding. At least I think he is funding it. It’s the only Cemetery in Thailand. Usually when somebody dies, they just cremate the body, they don't bury them. So we worked on putting up a fence around the cemetery and that took pretty much the whole time. That was all we had time to do.
I love you Mom, Thanks for the email! I still haven't gotten the shirts. I should be getting those in 2 weeks when we have Moves Meeting.
Steve
Yesterday, I got the CDs you sent. I still haven't had the chance to listen to them because I don't have a CD player but hopefully I’ll find a member that has a laptop that I can use to put it on my iPod. I'm way excited to listen to the CDs though! Thank you so much for sending those to me!
So you asked me if I like the fruit here in Thailand. Well yes I do! There is a lot of fruit here that they don't have in America. Soooo much! Like Jackfruit, that’s way good, rose apples, Sakia, there is a lot! The pineapple here is really good too. Also Guavas are amazing. I like it all.
For the service project last week we worked on building a Cemetery that President Dodge is funding. At least I think he is funding it. It’s the only Cemetery in Thailand. Usually when somebody dies, they just cremate the body, they don't bury them. So we worked on putting up a fence around the cemetery and that took pretty much the whole time. That was all we had time to do.
I love you Mom, Thanks for the email! I still haven't gotten the shirts. I should be getting those in 2 weeks when we have Moves Meeting.
Steve
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Hey,
So the other day the Zone Leaders come down to Khonkaen for switch offs and to interview 2 of our investigators for baptism and both Big and Gan passed their baptismal interviews so everything is up and running for two more baptisms this Sunday! We're way excited for them, and are so grateful to the Lord for his help also. Having four baptisms within one month is something very rare in Thailand and we know it couldn't have happened without His help. Also as we were on switch offs, Elder Spencer and I went and invited at a park near our house and as we were walking around we passed by this huge Buddhist temple and decided to stop by and see how it was and we had a run down with some Burmese Buddhist Monks. It was the battle of the religions! we didn't make any swift movements because we were out numbered and we were on there turf. So we decided to make friends with them instead! We said hi to them and then 2 of them came and stood right next to us as the other ones started taking pictures. I thought, wait a second! We are getting taken advantage of! They don't even talk to us but just come and start taking pictures of us...I felt like a tourist attraction! So we started talking to them and they were way suprised that we could speak Thai! They said they don't see white people a lot so they wanted to take pictures of us, so we said ok, but we want pictures too. Its not ever day you see a monk. Actually in Thailand you do...but I still wanted pictures! So we talked to a little and then parted ways. They were very nice people! I want one of their robs, they look way sweet and comfortable! Ha ha
So other news this week is zone conference. Usually, we have zone conference the first week of moves, but ths moves is different as we are doing a massive service project in Yasothon, so the date had to be moved to week three. Also, this is President Dodge's last zone conference as he and Sister Dodge are going home in three weeks so there is a lot of anticipation as to what this conference will be about. We leave tonight for Mahasarakham (a city about an hour away) where we will stay the night, then travel to Yasothon in the morning, give service, then go back to Roi Et where we'll have the actually meeting, spend the night again in Mahasarakham, then return to Khonkaen on Friday morning. It's going to be sweet.
So that's about it for the week. It was a good week and hopefully the rest of the week will be good as well! I love you guys!
Elder Olsen
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Hey everyone!
So last Thursday we went down to Bangkok for Moves Meeting and I went down because I had to renew my visa and that was a headache. Well not really, we just wasted time in a Taxi trying to drive around all of Bangkok trying to find the visa renewal place. We jumped in a taxi and told him were to go and he said he knew where it was but actually had no idea. So we drove around for about 2 hours trying to find it and we wasted good quality Bangkok time because after we renewed our visa we wanted to go to a market and buy 30 cent ties but because it took so long to find the place we didn't have enough time to go buy them and be back at the train station in time. So we missed out on it. It was ok though, only 6 more weeks until we get to go again...ha-ha. So when we were down in Bangkok, President Dodge asked everyone in the mission to fast last Sunday to try and up the ante of number of Baptisms around the mission for the next 6 weeks. We are getting a new mission President in a month and President Dodge doesn’t want us to get distracted. He wants us to still focus hard on getting baptisms so he called for a fast. So to start our fast, Saturday night we went to T-Bones Steak House. It’s an all you can eat Steak House Buffet and it only cost 109 Baht which is equal to 3 dollars! It would have been a sin for us not to have gone! So we got there and ate 2 plates of meat and potatoes, 1 plate of fruit and then a big bowl of ice cream. It was an excellent way to start a fast because after we were done, we didn't want to eat for another week we were so full! So we got home and started our fast and had no problem with the feeling of starvation then next day, it was great! Easiest fast I've ever had. So we had fasted that within the next 6 weeks we would be able to baptize 2 new people and as I was closing my fast on Sunday night, the phone rang in the middle of my prayer. I waited until I was done praying and then I called the person back and it was one of our investigators named Big. He has been an investigator ever sense I’ve been in Khon Kaen and he really wants to get baptized but can’t get off work on Sundays. We have had a lot of lessons with him to try and motivate him to talk to his boss about his situation but he just kept telling us he can’t do it and it won’t help. So we were about to give up and kind of let him go because he wasn't progressing but Sunday night when he called us changed all of that. He said that he had talked to his boss and he told us he wants to be baptized in 2 weeks because he can now come to church every Sunday! It was a complete answer to our prays and showed that God was responding to our fast. There was 1 of the baptisms. Then on Monday we went and taught Gan, the daughter of Gaw, one of our recent converts. She didn't get baptized with her mom because she felt she wasn't ready. So we have been working with her to help her feel ready and she has not wanted to accept a date but on Monday night we taught her about the Plan of Salvation and talked about Baptism and she said she was finally ready to be baptized. So we set a date to be baptized the same day as Big. There was number 2! It’s amazing how much power fasting and prayer has. Christ definitely leads this work and I have seen numerous times when you rely on the Lord, you WILL see miracles. This work is so wonderful and Christ is at the helm. I'm so grateful to be able to be a part of it! It has definitely changed my life! Well I got to go; I love you guys and want to thank you for all your amazing support! Steve
So last Thursday we went down to Bangkok for Moves Meeting and I went down because I had to renew my visa and that was a headache. Well not really, we just wasted time in a Taxi trying to drive around all of Bangkok trying to find the visa renewal place. We jumped in a taxi and told him were to go and he said he knew where it was but actually had no idea. So we drove around for about 2 hours trying to find it and we wasted good quality Bangkok time because after we renewed our visa we wanted to go to a market and buy 30 cent ties but because it took so long to find the place we didn't have enough time to go buy them and be back at the train station in time. So we missed out on it. It was ok though, only 6 more weeks until we get to go again...ha-ha. So when we were down in Bangkok, President Dodge asked everyone in the mission to fast last Sunday to try and up the ante of number of Baptisms around the mission for the next 6 weeks. We are getting a new mission President in a month and President Dodge doesn’t want us to get distracted. He wants us to still focus hard on getting baptisms so he called for a fast. So to start our fast, Saturday night we went to T-Bones Steak House. It’s an all you can eat Steak House Buffet and it only cost 109 Baht which is equal to 3 dollars! It would have been a sin for us not to have gone! So we got there and ate 2 plates of meat and potatoes, 1 plate of fruit and then a big bowl of ice cream. It was an excellent way to start a fast because after we were done, we didn't want to eat for another week we were so full! So we got home and started our fast and had no problem with the feeling of starvation then next day, it was great! Easiest fast I've ever had. So we had fasted that within the next 6 weeks we would be able to baptize 2 new people and as I was closing my fast on Sunday night, the phone rang in the middle of my prayer. I waited until I was done praying and then I called the person back and it was one of our investigators named Big. He has been an investigator ever sense I’ve been in Khon Kaen and he really wants to get baptized but can’t get off work on Sundays. We have had a lot of lessons with him to try and motivate him to talk to his boss about his situation but he just kept telling us he can’t do it and it won’t help. So we were about to give up and kind of let him go because he wasn't progressing but Sunday night when he called us changed all of that. He said that he had talked to his boss and he told us he wants to be baptized in 2 weeks because he can now come to church every Sunday! It was a complete answer to our prays and showed that God was responding to our fast. There was 1 of the baptisms. Then on Monday we went and taught Gan, the daughter of Gaw, one of our recent converts. She didn't get baptized with her mom because she felt she wasn't ready. So we have been working with her to help her feel ready and she has not wanted to accept a date but on Monday night we taught her about the Plan of Salvation and talked about Baptism and she said she was finally ready to be baptized. So we set a date to be baptized the same day as Big. There was number 2! It’s amazing how much power fasting and prayer has. Christ definitely leads this work and I have seen numerous times when you rely on the Lord, you WILL see miracles. This work is so wonderful and Christ is at the helm. I'm so grateful to be able to be a part of it! It has definitely changed my life! Well I got to go; I love you guys and want to thank you for all your amazing support! Steve
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Hey everyone!
So Sunday we had an amazing baptism of a husband and wife here in Khon Kaen. Their names are A and Oo, easy to say right?! Ha-ha, they also have a son named Bank but he is 3 so he wasn't able to be baptized. They are the sweetest people! I was way happy to see them baptized and so was the Branch because the Khon Kaen Branch only has 2 families and everyone else is single. There are no strong foundations here so to see a strong family come in will help a lot! Their baptisms were really good, too. We had 2 members that helped us teach them and baptize them and Elder Young and I sang a musical number. We sang an arrangement to Nearer My God to Thee and it sounded pretty good. Not saying that I had anything to do with how it sounded because I didn't, Elder Young is an amazing singer and he made the song what is was. Luckily I have a companion that can sing really well!
So a little about the people we baptized...Oo works at the Post Office and is an amazing artist! A works with her parents at a restaurant and watches after their son Bank. Bank is a little boy that loves to run around and cause havoc! Luckily he a cute enough that nobody minds. But this family is great! They call me there second Dad. They say that parents are people that give you advice and teach you to be a good person and all that stuff. So because I taught them about the Gospel, they call me there second Dad! Ha-ha, I thought it was a little weird because they are like 10 years older than me but at the same time it was a pretty cool compliment! I have a feeling they will be great members!
So today Elder Young and I went and played with monkeys! It is the last week of the Transfer period and neither of us is moving so we decided to go do something fun. We hopped on a bus and went to the Monkey village! It was way fun. There were monkeys everywhere! They were pretty vicious as well! I almost got bit a couple times trying to feed them. Monkeys really do like Bananas! They can smell them when you have them and they will swing from every branch and every tree to get to you! When you pull out the bananas, you better start giving them out or your life could be in danger. You don't mess with monkeys when it comes to bananas! It was a lot of fun! We got some great pictures from it. I made a bargain with one of the monkeys to trade one of his bananas for a Book of Mormon...he accepted and we are going back to teach him next week! Ha-ha, Thailand is great! How many places can you go on your mission and play with monkeys, ride elephants, visit ancient Buddhist temples, or see some of the world’s most amazing waterfalls! I definitely lucked out by getting to come here.
Well I’ve got to go, I love you all and hope to hear from you all soon!
Steve
So Sunday we had an amazing baptism of a husband and wife here in Khon Kaen. Their names are A and Oo, easy to say right?! Ha-ha, they also have a son named Bank but he is 3 so he wasn't able to be baptized. They are the sweetest people! I was way happy to see them baptized and so was the Branch because the Khon Kaen Branch only has 2 families and everyone else is single. There are no strong foundations here so to see a strong family come in will help a lot! Their baptisms were really good, too. We had 2 members that helped us teach them and baptize them and Elder Young and I sang a musical number. We sang an arrangement to Nearer My God to Thee and it sounded pretty good. Not saying that I had anything to do with how it sounded because I didn't, Elder Young is an amazing singer and he made the song what is was. Luckily I have a companion that can sing really well!
So a little about the people we baptized...Oo works at the Post Office and is an amazing artist! A works with her parents at a restaurant and watches after their son Bank. Bank is a little boy that loves to run around and cause havoc! Luckily he a cute enough that nobody minds. But this family is great! They call me there second Dad. They say that parents are people that give you advice and teach you to be a good person and all that stuff. So because I taught them about the Gospel, they call me there second Dad! Ha-ha, I thought it was a little weird because they are like 10 years older than me but at the same time it was a pretty cool compliment! I have a feeling they will be great members!
So today Elder Young and I went and played with monkeys! It is the last week of the Transfer period and neither of us is moving so we decided to go do something fun. We hopped on a bus and went to the Monkey village! It was way fun. There were monkeys everywhere! They were pretty vicious as well! I almost got bit a couple times trying to feed them. Monkeys really do like Bananas! They can smell them when you have them and they will swing from every branch and every tree to get to you! When you pull out the bananas, you better start giving them out or your life could be in danger. You don't mess with monkeys when it comes to bananas! It was a lot of fun! We got some great pictures from it. I made a bargain with one of the monkeys to trade one of his bananas for a Book of Mormon...he accepted and we are going back to teach him next week! Ha-ha, Thailand is great! How many places can you go on your mission and play with monkeys, ride elephants, visit ancient Buddhist temples, or see some of the world’s most amazing waterfalls! I definitely lucked out by getting to come here.
Well I’ve got to go, I love you all and hope to hear from you all soon!
Steve
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
So the other day we had an awesome opportunity to do service at a members vineyard. We had called a couple members to go with us out to help this older member harvest rice. So we woke up early to go and help him and when we got there, he told us that there wasn't anymore rice to gather, he had done in all already. When I found out I was sad because I had never done it before and apparently harvesting rice is something that you have to do as a missionary! So I asked him if there was any left that I could do just so I could have the experience and he said yeah there is a little. So he took me and got me suited up for the job! First he brought out a pair of boots so I could go trudging in the mud but there was a problem. He is a Thai person, which means he has small feet and I have big feet...and so I looked at it and thought well, I got to try. So I squeezed me feet inside and you know I got them in but it was very tight and a little uncomfortable. But it was the only pair he had and I was determined to harvest some rice! So I dealt with it. Then he brought me out a hat, some gloves and a scythe to cut the rice. So now I was ready to go! So he took me to the field and showed me the rice he wanted me to cut and there were only 2 little bundles for me to gather...I felt jipped! But I went down and did it anyways and it took me all of 30 seconds to finish but that was enough because by this time my feet were dying! So I hurried and put down the rice, jumped out of the mud, ran back to my shoes and took off the boots. I didn't do it for very long but now I can say I have harvested rice! It was really fun! All the members that came were laughing and making fun of me while I was doing this because I had no idea what I was doing. They were mean to me...ha-ha but it was funny! But it was really fun helping him out in his vineyard.
But yeah that was the highlight of our week! But I got to go, I love you guys! Talk to you all later!
Steve
But yeah that was the highlight of our week! But I got to go, I love you guys! Talk to you all later!
Steve
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