Week 10

Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:38:49 +0700
Subject: Week 10
From: bryan.todd@myldsmail.net


Dear Family

How are you all? It was great to get some emails from you and hear you're all alive and that the floods aren't affecting you. They aren't affecting me either. The Easaan (that's the eastern region of the country) is more elevated than Bangkok, the South, the north, and the central part. So we're good.

We've had some rainy days this past week, but nothing too bad. The biggest downside of the rain is that it deters people from coming to church, lessons, and English class. We have a couple that we are teaching and they live in the middle of their rice Field. There is only a dirt road out to it, and so when it rains, its very very difficult to get cars, motorcycles, or bikes out to it. So we can't tech them. Plus its like 15-17 Kilometers from the city. But its okay, becuase we always have a trial right before we recieve a blessing!

So nothing really happened with our investigators this week. We had lots of lessons cancel, and only a few at church. But were going to push through. We had a really good weekly planning session this week, and we feel good about this week. We both want to finish strong because it is the last full week of the transfer.

This week we had Zone Training up in Khon Kean. The Assistants were there, and the Zone Leaders, Elder McDonald and Elder Hardy, gave the training. It was really good. It was on the "How to Begin teaching" section in Preach My Gospel. Those 10 points are amazing.

President Packer had those points come to him in the night. He wrote them all down and gave them to the people to put them in Preach My Gospel. The people put them in, but in paragraph form. When President Packer saw that, he said, "No, no, it needs to be bullet points." Those points are so helpful in beginning teaching, and even in lessons that follow. I know that they are revelation from God, so that we can help His children come unto Him, and recieve the saving ordinances, the first being baptism. The training was really good.

After the training, I went on an exchange with Elder McDonald. He is from Pleasant Grove. We were talking and guess what? He goes to Pacific Beach every year, and he knows about TACO SURF! His granparents have a condo in the blue tower right on the beach that we can see from the G's.

Speaking of them, I got GranAnns letter that she had to resend. The original address looked fine. It was so great to hear from her! I hope all is well with her and Grandpa Bud.

Anyway, E. McDonald and I were going to do some service at Khon Kaen University with some of his investigators. On the way over, we were using some of the "how to begin teaching points" with the taxi driver and it was awesome. We helped cut up ginger roots for a cancer medicine.

E. McDonald is really good at Thai. We talked about it. He told me about his experience reading the Book of Mormon in Thai. He said he did, and literally the next day after finishing, his understanding improved so much. I believe it. The Book of Mormon can work miracles in investigators lives, so why not in the lives of missionaries? I did the math. If I read 10 pages a day in Thai, I will finish on December 31. So that's my goal.

We were teaching some of his investigators, and it was really fun. He gave me a lot of parts in the lessons and let me teach some of the laws, and doctrines. Its great! One of the members helping us said to me that I speak Thai well, but with english grammar. It's a problem. Right now I'm just translating in my head. But I think as I read the Book of Mormon and read correct Thai, then I will learn grammar better. It will help a lot along with studying it and practicing. It's like what Elder Holland said about not bringing my own tounge.

Well that's about it for this week. Hopefully we get more of our investigators progressing. I love you all. Choose the Right, read your scriptures every day and pray. I promise you will recieve help form the Lord in every aspect of you life.

Love,
Elder Todd