Blessings In Disguise

Our church congregation threw a 

party for the new missionaries. 

This is our scripture study class.

This is also our scripture study class....playing NINJA!

This is our church building.

Some of the Sisters in our Ward.

Our District got lunch after bowling on preparation day. It was way fun.

 I was so happy to see my best buds from the MTC when we all had to renew our Visa's.

Cool beetle I found.

After my epic bowling victory.

My Letter this week:

Last Monday, (Every Monday is our Preparation day), I got to go bowling with my district. I have never been good at bowling at all. I have taken two girls on dates and they beat me both times. It has never been my sport, but this time, I don't know what happened. I got 4 strikes in a row and everyone was freaking out. (Including me) I ended up getting 165 which is like double the best I have ever gotten in bowling. It was really fun.

This transfer, there are now 4 Elders living in my house instead of just 2 like last transfer. It is so much more fun because we can wake up early for our exercise time and go play basketball at our church. I love working with these Elders because they are all very different, but effective in being missionaries.

Elder Killian and I have had to start from scratch searching for people to teach about the Gospel because we are an added companionship in the area. So we spend a lot of time doing what we call "finding". It is where we basically walk around neighborhoods, parks, mall, streets, and wherever trying to talk to everyone and invite them to learn about Jesus Christ and His gospel. Finding is probably the most infamous parts of being a missionary because it is very hard to talk to people who look busy and get them interested in learning about religion. It is also very hard because of the language barrier. There are sometimes I don't know what people are saying, so I just have to guess and keep talking. It is a leap of faith that God will help me speak the language and that the person who I talk to will have a softened heart and listen to our message. 

This week I had to travel to this government building and renew my Visa, so I could stay in Thailand, and I got to see all my friends from the MTC there. They are all so much fun and I had so much fun seeing them again. We also got to be with each other for like 5 hours because we were waiting in a ton of lines. They are all so funny and smart, when I'm with them, they make me want to be better.

The brand new Elder in our house that came straight from the training center is named Elder Thomas. He tried to fix one of our showers that wouldn't shoot out any hot water. He started taking apart all the electrical stuff and from the next room over I just heard him yell because he got shocked by this thing. He was just sticking this screwdriver into the electrical box trying to tighten things and he ended up getting shocked really hard 4 different times. I was just lying on my bed laughing my head off because he wouldn't stop sticking his screwdriver in there.

While I was sitting on a bus this week, I was trying to talk to someone and ask them some questions, but he wouldn't respond to me or even make eye contact. I was just having a one way conversation with him for a while, and he didn't respond, so I told him a joke in Thai. I said, "what has no beginning, no middle, and no end?" he didn't respond so I told him. "It's a donut." He didn't respond again so I just got off the bus. Haha...life of a missionary.

I get the question a lot about why would God let bad things happen to good people and that has always been a hard question to answer. One of my favorite quotes to answer this question is by George W. Cannon. He says, "That is why God tries all of us. It is not for His own knowledge for He knows all things beforehand. He knows all your lives and everything you will do. But He tries us for our own good that we may know ourselves; for it is most important that a man should know for himself." Tests that we have in life are blessings in disguise. After this life, our glory will be added upon as we fulfill goodness and faith in this life. I know this to be true and thank you all for reading my letters.

-Elder Barron 

Welcome Elder Killian!

 Elder Killian is a great guy. 

This will be a fun transfer. 

Sister Pimsawan is new to our district. I'm still taller with no shoes when she stands on a chair.

 These are the 4 guys that live in 

our apartment right now.

 This is our district.

 A dog we found while out inviting.

 A big tire

 I got to see one of my good friends Elder Lowe 

at the transfer meeting.

This is a bridge that goes over the road. 

They are everywhere.

Weekly Update:

This week was crazy. Every six weeks, we have transfers, where we have the opportunity to either change companions in our area, or go to a new area. It is basically one of the most exciting times for missionaries because we just wait for a call to come that will tell us where we are going or what we are doing for the next month and a half. So last week, Elder Steele and I got a call that Elder Steele was staying in his area and training a new missionary that just barely came into Thailand just like I did 6 weeks ago. So, I basically knew I wasn't going to be companions with Elder Steele for the next transfer. Then we got another call, that I was staying in Bangkapi, the same area that I was already in, but my new companion was going to be Elder Killian! It was a funny experience for the first time I met him. We were both at the mission office just doing busy things that we were supposed to do, and we just bumped into each other and said, "Oh hey!" and we kept walking doing what we were doing. Haha!

It was interesting being in my area with someone who had never been there before. I had to remember where everyone's house is and which bus's to take around Bangkok to get places. There was one time we were going to an investigators house and we were on a pretty long bus ride, so it was hard for me to pay attention to where we needed to get off the bus. I accidentally missed the bus stop we were supposed to get off at, so we got off at the next stop and walk about a mile to the investigators house. Luckily I had a feeling that would happen so we would have been about 30 minutes early, but we ended up using every minute of it walking. I guess that's a good lesson learned.

One thing that Elder Killian introduced to me that he liked was soy milk. For some reason I didn't like soy milk that much the first time I had it, but I actually really like it now. It is fairly cheap too so that is a good plus. 

Elder Killian and I were out teaching people we found about the gospel of Jesus Christ and we were walking through a neighborhood that was kind of hidden from the main road. I had gone down most of the streets around where we live, but I just had a random feeling to go down this small street. When we walked down it for a while, there turned out to be this really big neighborhood. I thought it was so cool how we just walked past it every day and we never knew it was there. While we were walking around, I saw some children playing badminton outside and I really wanted to go play. (Ever since I was young I dreamed of being on my mission and playing sports with random kids. It's kind of a weird dream I had, but I just wanted to really bad) Anyways, I asked them if I could play and they kind of freaked out and started laughing because this massive, white guy walks up and wants to play with these kids. Then one of them ran up to me and handed me a racket. We had tons of fun playing with them. After we played for a while we invited them all to come learn English with us at the church. I hope some of them decide to go.

It is interesting being with a new companion in an area that is new to him because I seem to get a lot of more opportunities to speak up and practice my language more. I am thankful that I get this opportunity because I know it will help me be better. It is pushing me.

There is a new Sister Missionary here in my area, Bangkapi. Her name is Sister Pimsawan. She is originally from Thailand and everyone makes fun of us because she is super short and I am super tall. She is literally like a little more 4 feet. WE had fun taking pics together. 

Lately, I have been doing my personal studies in the scriptures. I finished reading The Book of Mormon a while ago, so I have started studying in The Old Testament of The Bible. I love reading about the stories of both of these books because I know they are both true. I was very interested about the story of Noah and his ark. In this story, the earth is covered with sinful people and God chooses to have Noah build a boat and get all the righteous people upon the boat while God floods the entire earth to get rid of the evil people. When the Earth was flooded, everything was completely covered in water, even the tallest mountains. This represents the baptism of the Earth. The Earth had sin and evil upon it, just as every single person who has ever lived, except Jesus Christ. When we are baptized, we completely go under water to signify all of our sins being completely washed away, just as the Earth did, but when we are baptized, we still do sin. None of us are perfect. It is sad but true. Sin can continue to be in our lives. So after we are baptized, we are blessed with "baptism by fire." this is where someone who holds the priesthood, or power of God, places their hands on your head and gives you the Gift of the Holy Ghost. This gift helps us to choose the right and repent throughout our lives so throughout our lives, we can continue to become more perfect as God is. When Jesus Christ returns to the Earth, all it is said in the Bible, that all of the wicked of the world will be burned (As is speaks of throughout Isaiah 24). This symbolizes the "baptism by fire" which I just spoke of. As the Earth will eventually become perfect and sinless, we can do this personally as well through baptism.

Thanks everyone who reads my emails. I hope you have great weeks.

-Elder Barron

Transfer Time!

 This is our advanced class for English

 A creepy baby statue that I saw on the 

side of the road.

 These bush animals are 

everywhere around Bangkok.

 A guy we met while out contacting.

 On a bridge in Bangkapi.

 Our District eating together one 

more time before transfers.

 The food here is awesome

 A goodbye dinner with all of our best friends for Sister Harris because she is leaving.

 Elder Steele snapped this pic of me sleeping on the bus.

I thought this laundry detergent was funny because it looks like it says USA. But it is actually Thai and it says, "Breeze".

This is my new companion!

Elder Corban Killian and he is from Utah!

This weeks update:

Dang this week was a blast. 

Every week we teach an English class at our church to whoever wants to come. 

This is something that we like to promote throughout the day because teaching English is very fun and it is a way that we can get people familiar to our church and the friendly atmosphere that takes place at our church. Whenever I see younger kids walking by as we are traveling around Bangkok, I try to invite them to English class. The younger kids like learning English because for them, it is very important for a job in the future. This week, Elder Steele, Sister Harris, Sister Rogers, and I decided we should split the class into two classes. Now, we have an advanced class, and a beginners class. I think that was a great idea because now we can teach everyone to their own needs. 

Elder Steele and I were out walking the other day and we found this old guy who was working on some of his plants. We asked him if we could help him. He denied our help, but he was an extremely nice man. We asked if he was interested in learning about our religion, and he said yes. We chose a time to meet with him for the next day and when we got there, he was very nice to us. He fed us these tiny bananas and they are sooooo good. I have had them once before and it tastes like the same amount of flavor in a big banana just smashed into a smaller one. Anyways, we had a great talk with the man about religion. He was Buddhist (just like 99%) of Thailand, but it was interesting how we got to talk about all the things that made our religions similar. The only major difference is that we believe that God has restored his church for everyone on the earth and he is leading the church through modern revelation. We believe The Book of Mormon is only a PART of this modern day revelation. I learned a lot through talking with that man.

In one of our scripture reading classes, we read a story in The Book of Mormon about Ammon. Ammon was a prophet of the Lord and he went to go preach of God to a group of people named the Lamanites. Ammon went unto their King and told him that he would like to be his servant. The King was very surprised by his request and assigned Ammon to take care of his flocks of sheep who were being scattered and killed by robbers continuously. All of the other servants were too scared to do anything, but Ammon had faith in God and wish his sword SLICES ALL THEIR ARMS OFF! (This is my favorite story in The Book of Mormon) The king is so impressed by Ammon that he knew God was real and began an Era of righteousness throughout the Lamanites. Everyone loved reading about that story, so we played a game called ninja where you have to "cut everyone's arms off with your arms. I got some pictures of it down below. Haha!

There is this one guy named Shokoon who goes to our English class every week. He is most likely the best one at English who shows up. One day after English class, he expressed to us how grateful he was to us for teaching him English and he told us he wanted to be our Thai teachers! Now every Thursday, he gives us Thai lessons for free and it helps out sooo much. I love learning from him because he has lived in Thailand all his life. I know for sure that everything he teaches is correct. I am truly thankful for people like him!

This week, Elder Steele and I visited this family who are members of the gospel. They had a baby who was sitting in a high chair right next to me. This was one of the most cute, funny babies ever. Every time I looked at the baby, she would stare right into my eyes and not make a sound, but whenever I looked away the baby would cry. We started our scriptural thought with a prayer and in the middle the baby was crying so I opened one eye towards the baby and she immediately stopped. Her mom was laughing cause she knew I did that.

This week, my little brother was back at home and he was doing something that we do in the church called a "mini mission". To describe it briefly, it is basically a one day training experience when all of the youth in our church do a short 2-3 day mission. It is similar to what I am doing now. For his mission, he decided invite all of my friends that I have played basketball at my church twice a week since I was 12. I asked my Mission President if he would allow me to Skype call him and help my brother teach. He told me yes, so I basically got to be my brother's companion for about 45 minutes! It was so awesome!!!! I was proud of Sarger.

Last of all. The reason I am emailing late this week, is because this week we have transfers. Every 6 weeks we will have these transfers and I might move areas/companions or not. I never know until the day before an we get a call about what will be happening to us on transfer meetings. It is like New Years Eve to us cause we are waiting for a call that will tell us what we will be doing for the next 6 weeks. When I got the call, I found out that I will no longer be companions with Elder Steele. We will both be staying in Bangkapi, Bangkok, but we will both get new companions! Elder Steele is getting a new greenie (so he is getting another person who just barely came into Thailand like I used to be), and I am getting a new companion named Elder Corban Killian. I get to meet him tomorrow and I am so excited! I can't wait to meet him. 

I had an amazing week last week and I can't wait for the next one. I know that God is leading my ministries here and he is giving me blessings every day to be able to live here and speak Thai.

-Elder Barron