Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:19:45 +0700
Subject: Week 7


Hey Todd family!

How are you doing this week? This weekwas a pretty good one for me here in ร้อย เอ็ด.
We had leadership training on Tuesday here. President and Sister Smith and the assistants were up here for that. Since I'm not a leader or a trainer I went out on an exchange with Elder Clark and Elder Revelli. They were both in the group ahead of me at the MTC. It was really fun to be able to go out and to work with them. It's fun because we're all pretty close to the same time in the field, and we all worked really well together. We tried to let each other have equal shares in inviting, and teaching.
But it was kind of hard working in a threesome. It's scary enough for people to have two big white people at their door. But then if there are three, it can be hard for them to let us in. This last week we had a hard time finding new people to teach. People don't like letting us in or talking to us. But we try, and will keep giving them the chance to hear the restored gospel.

On Wednesday, I went up to Mahasarakham on an exchange. It was good! I was with Elder Christensen. He was good. We talked to a lot of people, and taught this one lesson that turned out kinda weird. We got to the area that we were inviting, and right as we locked the bikes up to the pole, this old man came up to us and asked us to come to his house. We looked at each other thinking, "This is kinda sketchy."
The nice thing is that were in Thailand and we can communicate out loud to each other without offending anyone. But we thought, "we'll just go and see." Besides, neither of us had a bad feeling about going with him. So we got to his house, and we taught him a little. It was hard because he kept saying everything in his life was Buddhist, and it would always be. Then he tried to get us to go into his house. When he did, I just had a bad feeling and Elder Christensen and I got out of there. Its just a testimony to me that our Father in Heaven cares about us.

This week on our goals for the key indicators in the missionary planner, (you can see them in Preach My Gospel chapter 8,) we were really close on a lot of them, and exceeded some of them which was wonderful!

One of our investigators whom we have been trying to commit to a baptismal date to for a while, finally told us the real reason she hadn't accepted. I had been praying about it, and really trying to figure out what the problem was. I kept feeling like it was something about family. So, we were teaching her about the Atonement, and how we can become cleansed from sin. We committed her to repent. But she said she didn't feel like she could because she was still lying to her family. We don't know what about, but at least we got to the bottom of the problem. Now we just need to figure out how to help her be honest with her family. We taught the 10 commandments last night, so hopefully she will honor her father and mother.

Dave told me last week that the Atonement is the center of everything that we do. I have really been thinking about that this week. I've been trying to study and understand it more. As I see people throughout the day I try and think, "how can the Atonement help them?"
I believe the answer is trying to see people the way that the Savior sees them. I believe that if we can see everyone that way, as a precious soul, we will be able to have true charity for all men.

Well, I hope all is well with you! Thank you for your prayers. They are felt. They help. You're in my prayers. Be safe, be smart. Work hard. Show the Lord your love for Him by keeping His commandments.

Love
Elder Todd