Elder Siebert's wheel broke off of his bike. After I laughed my guts out, we carried it to a bike place to get it fixed.
Some cool Buddhist statues.
Little school kids like playing Yu Gi Oh at the park after school. It's fun to watch them get into it.
These type of statues are everywhere.
They are cool.
A picture of our desk when we are playing Monopoly Deal. It is very clean today.
Three super hero Pikachus.
This meat was actually lungs. Pig lungs.
I thought this was a really cool way to cut watermelon.
I got to cut down a big tree. It was way fun.
I got 2 blisters.
One of our neighbors dogs had a ton of puppies, so we pet them when ever we have a hard day.
Look closely and you will see little lizards. We call these Jing Jokes. They are everywhere.
Riding back to the house at night.
Letter Update:
For the past while, I have been waking up at 6 O’clock instead of 6:30. I have a lot to do in the morning, and when I wake up at 6:30, I have to rush and run around so I can get everything ready and shower and make food all before 8:00. It was very tiring and I didn't really like it. I decided to wake up 30 minutes early, so now, I can calm down and go a little slower getting ready. Then, I still have about 20 minutes to eat food, listen to hymns, and read in the scriptures before I start the day. I feel a lot more calm and I feel the spirit a lot stronger when I leave the house in the morning. This just gives me a good start to the day which carries on to help the rest of the day as well.
One morning last week, Elder Siebert and I were getting ready just as normal, and the phone rang. The person calling basically said this: "Hello. My name is Gas. I was an investigator learning with the missionaries a few years ago. I would like to learn with you again." That is not a normal tendency. This was definitely a miracle that this guy would open up his heart and be willing to learn again. We met with him that exact same day and he was a super great guy! He was prepared by God to learn again.
We visited Gas again on Saturday. (The same guy as above) Right when we met, he said, "Alright Elders, I have thought about it over the last few days and I think I will get baptized tomorrow." Haha it took us by surprise because that is the first time one of my investigators has asked me to be baptized before I had ever brought it up with him at all. Anyway, we told him that we were very grateful for his faith and willingness, but there is still a lot we have to teach him before he was ready. For instance, when he walked into the room, he smelled like smoke, so we decided it would help him to teach The Word of Wisdom. It turns out that Gas has problems with four out of the five parts (coffee, tea, smoking, and drinking alcohol.) We are going to do our very best to help him quit all of those and I know that he can do it because his faith is so strong and we have made a plan to call him every single morning to see how he is doing with quitting all of these things.
We had a kind of fun English class this week. We were teaching about food. We taught them how to explain the food they are making, and just some usual conversation they can use in food related topics. Then, WE MADE FOOD! It wasn't anything special. Just some sandwiches. Very simple, but it was a great excuse to eat food in English class.
Last Wednesday, we had an appointment to teach Pon. We went to his house where he usually works, and we found that he was working there with his wife who we normally don't get to see. It was awesome because we got to teach both of them together, and we love teaching families because families make up the structure of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We taught about temples and how through God's love, we can live with our families forever after this life. They were both loving what we taught, and willing to let us return to teach again, but right when we were about to leave, Pon's wife stopped us and said "I have been Buddhist since I was born, and I will never change. My heart will always be 100 percent to Buddha." That was kind of a set back when we heard that because she was so happy to learn a few minutes before that. Hopefully as we keep teaching hershe will soften her heart and be willing to learn again.
Last week we started teaching my youngest investigator I have ever taught. He is an 8 year old named Ding. His mom is a member who hasn't come to church in a while, but we met with her and she has rekindled her fire to come to church! Also, she said her son just recently turned 8 years old and she wants him to be baptized! It is so much fun teaching him because we try to make everything simple and we use lots of comparisons to help him understand.
Elder Siebert and I go through so much water in the house. ( We have to buy bottled water.)It is only halfway through the transfer and we have already used twice as much water as we did with me and Elder Harding in a full transfer.
On Thursday, Elder Siebert and I visited another member who hasn't been to church in a while. His name is (it is pronounced Chang, but it means elephant). He has been a member for many years now and I have heard he used to be a very strong member too, but a while back he just got lazy and stopped going to church. Now, he believes in Buddhism again, and has gotten back into smoking and drinking. It is sad how he doesn't have faith in God anymore, but it is because he stopped strengthening his personal testimony. One of my favorite comparisons is with a river. Happiness with God is at the head of the river, and heartache and Satan is downstream. We have to choose which direction we will swim. It can sometimes be hard to swim upstream, but it is worth every sacrifice. Also if we are lazy, indecisive, and choose nothing, ultimately we will flow down the river, where we will not find eternal happiness. We have to swim upstream and use all of our strength to move in the right direction and God will bless us so much that we will not have room to receive it. If you find yourself moving in the wrong direction, it is never too late to start climbing back up the river, and the best time to start is right now. We asked brother Chang if he could make it to church on Sunday and He said he would try.
This week I got to switch off with Elder Sudekum. He is one of my best friends out here in Thailand. It was totally fun because he used to serve in Surin (where I am now) about a year ago, so we got to go visit all of his friends who were members or investigators. It was super fun, and I hope I can come visit some of my areas when I am older in the mission.
This last week on Friday night, a major announcement came out on the church website. Usually missionaries can call their family 2 times a year on Christmas and Mothers Day. Those who are good at math (like me) can do the calculations that over a two year span, that equals calling home 4 times. Not a ton, but at least we get too. BUT. This new announcement allowed missionaries to call our families every single P-day, which we have about once a week. So... That increases our possible calling home opportunities to about 100 times in two years. I can not do it that many times because I have already been a missionary for a little bit, but it is still going to be so fun calling home!
Church attendance for the Surin Branch has been kind of weird lately. Two weeks ago, we had 45, the next week we had 30, and then this week it jumped back up to 42. Hopefully it can steady out at those higher numbers and continue to rise. That's the goal.
On Sunday, Elder Siebert, my companion, got called as the first counselor in the Surin Branch. There isn't really anyone who is able to be the counselor, so they called Elder Siebert. That will be interesting to see what happens with this.
After church, Elder Siebert and I were riding our bikes to an investigator and Elder Siebert’s bike broke down. Literally the bar that goes through the wheel to hold it on the bike just snapped in half. Haha. It was funny, but it wasted like 2 hours of our day walking to a bike shop to fix it and we missed our appointments. We might be able to go visit that family of the bike repair man though so I know that God was still looking out for us. It was an interesting experience all around.
At the end of Sunday, we went to eat dinner at one of our investigators houses. Her name is Eeh (That's just how I think you would spell it in English.) Anyways, we have been teaching her family lately, (her and her two children.) and they have been progressing pretty well with learning. Today, we brought two members from the church who were adults and also siblings. They helped us to teach her and did a great job, and at the end of the lesson, Eeh and her two children all accepted a date to get baptized on in March. I am so excited for them!
This week was great, and it all just keeps getting better and better every week! I hope everyone has a good week as well because this truly is a wonderful world!
-Elder Barron
