New Home Back in the Isan! NAKHON RATCHASIMA

Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2012 11:50:08 +0700
From: bryan.todd@myldsmail.net

สวัสดี! 

Hey!  Well, this last week was transfers, and I got transferred.  I've moved to โคราชหรือนครราชสีมา. also nicknamed, Korat.  The real name is Nakhon Ratchasima. It's a way sweet city! It's big. 

It was funny.  We went down to transfer meeting and President had the transfers on a slide show presentation. So Korat comes up, and I see myself come up on the screen. Then my new companion comes up. Its a Thai elder--Elder Schad! He was up here though on exchanges, so I didn't get to see him until the evening. But, I'm really enjoying getting to speak all Thai. It's great fun! i also got to see Elder Gardner! He is In Saphan Mai with Elder Doria from the MTC! They'll do a great job there. Elder Doria is way solid, really diligent, and he taught me all about that in the MTC. 

This last week has kind of been a crazy one. I was way sad to leave Chiang Rai.  I was sorry to leave those great investigators there.  But the Lord called me here and I know that I'm supposed to be here helping this branch. 

I wanted to share with you, an experience about a lesson in Chiang Rai. So there is a DVD called,  "Finding Faith in Christ."  Well, we were going to watch it with Form. But I forgot the DVD. So the branch president said, "Here I'll download it off of LDS.org, but you'll have to translate it into Thai from English."  So I did. That was fun. 

I'm sure that a lot of it wasn't quite up to par, but after we watched it,  From really seemed to understand more about the Savior. The next day we taught him again. It was the last lesson I taught in Chiang Rai. It was just all about the Atonement. I shared Docctrine and Covenants 19:15-18 with him. It hit him powerfully, I don't know who can't be moved by those words, and he is ready from baptism. So cool, so special. 

Then after a 12 hour bus ride to Bangkok we got there at about 4 in the morning and waited for 5 hours until transfer meeting. It was fun to see everyone there. But like I said, after transfers Elder Schad wasn't there. I had to wait until our Zone's bus went up. So, I was copmanions with Elder Tolman and his new companion Elder Slaughter for a day. That was so much fun.  Elder Tolman and I still want to be real companions. One day. 

When I got here I found out that I had to interview two investigators for baptism. That was an interesting experience. It really is a special thing for them to share that they have repented and changed their lives. It's amazing to hear them share their testimonies with me about various points of the gospel. The other way cool thing is that the Spirit confirmed to me beforehand that they would both pass, and as I interviewed them, I had it confirmed again and again. This work is great.  Tell anyone on the verge of going on a mission to go.

I love you all,

Elder Todd