Todd and Tolman-Companions at last!

Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2013 11:47

What a week! Things here are fantastic as ever!
So, BIG NEWS!! I'm not sure if you knew, but the countries of Laos and Myanmar are in our mission. Well, this last week, the Lord's hand was stretched forth. Here is what I can say about Laos: 
"By invitation, the Thailand Bangkok Mission received approval to have four young service volunteers to labor in Vientiane, Laos.  These service volunteers will work with Deseret International Charities under the direction of the Senior Couples who are located in Vientiane, and will be involved in a variety of humanitarian and educational service opportunities, including clean water projects, hygiene, neo-natal education and English language instruction.  The young volunteers will also support the Branch activities of the Laotian Saints in Vientiane, Laos.  The Church is not yet officially recognized in Laos and this recent activity is for the purpose of providing additional educational and humanitarian service."

Pretty amazing if you ask me. 
Well, I also got transferred. I'm now serving in Ubon! It's way out in the Easaan. And my new companion is.... Elder Tolman!!! We finally get to be companions! Things are great! It's a whitewash.  Neither of us have ever served here, but luckily Elder Tolman served in nearby Yasothorn, so he kind of knows the area. It's just the two of us here. There were a lot of changes in areas last transfers, so some of the companionships got moved out because we're short on man power. We're waiting to get that increase in missionary complement. 
It was sad to leave Pakkret and all those members and investigators, but we feel that there will be great adventures here for us. Lek and Tiger passed their interviews for baptism. I'm sad I won't get to see there baptisms, but it's comforting to know that they'll happen! 
So, We haven't really had a whole lot of time to work here yet. Thursday we had transfers, then Friday we had zone leader council in Bangkok, then we got on a train on Friday night and came up here! It was nuts. We were in the dead center of Bangkok, and we were trying to get a taxi to take us and all of our bags to the train station. It was rush hour, traffic was worse than usual, and no one would take us. We were kind of panicking and we weren't sure whether or not we'd make our train. But guess what we did! We prayed. We felt the impression to call the Assistants, Elder Benjamin and Elder Heap. So we did. They had just finished a teaching appointment and were close. They came and picked us up in their van. Then they got us to the train station on time! It was amazing. What was anticipated to take well over an hour took us not even 30 minutes in rush hour traffic. We just kept hitting green lights. I know that it was because the Lord made things possible. We were so grateful.
We made it up here on Saturday morning. We got our stuff all into the house and we started trying to figure out things here. It's been a little bit of a challenge just because everything is so new to us, but it's so much fun.
Elder Tolman is as great as ever. The branch here is big. The district president told us that they've had almost 150 at church! That's a ton! So I'm really excited to be here. We've got some investigators too. I don't know them very well, but they were at church yesterday and they have baptismal dates. One is Sister Boom. She seems good and really humble. And the other is Brother Ton. I'll give you more info about them as things move forward.
One thing that I want to share with you is from 2 Nephi 21:2-5. It talks about Jesus Christ, and how He was blessed with the ability to judge because the Spirit gave it to Him. It's something that Elder Tolman and I will be focusing on here; how to follow the Spirit more. This coming week I encourage you all to study from chapter 4 of Preach My Gospel, and try and give a greater role to the Holy Ghost in everything you do. We are promised that if we use the Holy Ghost for our guide, we shall not be deceived. 
I love you all! Be safe and strong and healthy! -- ้ด้วยความรัก
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