District Conference in Khon Kaen

Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2012

Dear Family,
This week had an amazing ending. I am still on such a spiritual high from yesterday. 
Yesterday, we had district conference in Khon Kaen. The branches that attended were, Korat, Khon Kaen, Kalasin, Mahasarakham, and Roi Et! It was such an amazing blessing to be able to see all of the people from Roi Et again, now a year later. But what was even more special than seeing the members that helped us teach and gave us referrals, was to see the people that I had the privilege of teaching. Some that I saw get baptized are doing great and still going to church. 
The first people I saw there were Sister Kimlang, the grandmother in Roi Et, and her grandsons Net and Not. It was so great to see them there and to know that they are active and strong. They still go to church every week. It was just amazing to sit there and see them. Also, Jojo was there. He is now with the young mens. He is still happy and glad to be there at church. Then, there was Brother A. I moved from Roi Et right before he got baptized, but he was there. He was the man who had long hair, a nice big mustache, and rather unkempt appearance in the beginning. But what a blessing it was when he told me that he was being ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood. Then,  being able to see him stand and be sustained in front of everyone, it was so amazing. My heart just goes out to these people so much. I love each one of them. I even ended up giving the closing prayer in the conference. It just filled my soul with joy!
I also had the opportunity to translate for President and Sister Senior and the visiting authority, from Indonesia. I can't remember his last name but it was Elder Joseph San something or other. While I was translating I had to sit on the stand, and I just felt so blessed as I looked into faces of many familiar people. If I had that much joy in an earthly reunion, I can hardly imagine the joy we will all have when we return to the presence of our Heavenly Father. 
But that was just the great cap off for a great week. So here's the rundown on our investigators.
Biew is still way solid. She is looking forward to her baptism date. She's learned everything we have to teach, so we invited her to be baptized earlier, but she said that she wants to be baptized on the 22nd. She said she prayed about it and feels that it is right. So we can't really force her to move it, nor do we want to force her to do anything. That would be a ข้อบังคับ  I don't know how to translate that, uh, but it's like unrighteous dominion I guess. But she did have a question we often encounter. In Buddhist years right now it's the year 2555.  So people always say "How can your religion be true if it started 2012 years ago." So that's always a fun one to try and explain. But we know that our religion was even before the foundations for this world were. So it's all good. 
Then our other investigator with a commitment is Dtom. She's doing well! She found out about Jesus on the Internet and the Church here is close to where she lives.  So she just walked in one day. We didn't get to teach her a lot this last week, but she seems to be doing well. Most of the restoration has been taught. But she is looking good for her date in October. 
Then out last dater is Cherry. Well, she's doing better. She was actually being taught by the sisters, but she is in our area and we are teaching her now. She used to smoke 40 cigarettes a day! Now she's down to just 18. But she's got a great testimony. Her husband is a soldier so we go into the military base to teach her. They love seeing me, an American, riding my bike through the city, and especially on the base. At first her husband didn't like the missionaries, but now he smiles and is warming up to us! So that will be good! Hopefully we can help him come unto Christ. 
Then there is Bob.  We're not sure what to do about him. We tried to teach him about the Plan of Redemption, but when we tried to tell him about the Pre-mortal life, he insisted that we were all grown from paramecium and amoeba. We're going to see if he really wants to follow this message. He's putting the brakes on a little right now, but with God, all things are possible. 
And Jack Sparrow, well, he's good! He is determined to come to church now! We talked to hium about baptism, and it's something that he wants to do. But he is not sure exactly when. So we'll be working with him more this week.
This week I exchanged with our Zone Leader, Elder Siriphan. He is from Chiang Mai, but serving in Khon Kaen right now. We found some great people. There was this area that I've been wanting to go tract for a while now, but it's kind of far away. So we went there. He said, "Elder Todd, why did you bring me so far?"  And I answered, "It's where I felt to come."  So the first door, the man opens up and says,  "Elders! What do you want?" Turns out he was a former investigator! His name is Ped! We're going to teach him tonight which should be great! So, we're following the Spirit and finding great people! 
Thanks for everything, especially all of your prayers.
I love you.
Elder Todd