And I Think To Myself....

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 

The Records of Thailand Continue

 Notice the basket on my bike. 

I talk about that in my letter.

 This guy is our Zone Leader.

 Traveling to a lesson.

 This is a random guy that we invited to learn about Christ. He loves America (notice the jacket.)

 One of the main parks here in Surin. We like to invite people here because it is a popular place in the evening for people to go.

 This is where we buy groceries.

 At Zone Conference! Fun seeing friends!

 Here we are practicing our phone skills. Lol!

Eating dinner with our investigators.

 A cute dog at the park.

 We are teaching this kid how to work out at the park. He wants to get stronger.

 I made myself breakfast.

 Working with one of the new greenie missionaries. His name is Elder Body and he is from Thailand. We got to be good friends.

Random street that we invited on.

My Letter:

Last P-day was really fun. It was just a very chill day where we didn't have anything special planned, so we had time to just rest from the last week of working. It is nice to have one of those days every once in a while. I was exploring around the house because there is just a ton of random stuff that has accumulated over the years from all the missionaries that have lived here and left stuff. I ended up finding a basket that I think was used for motorcycles, but I bought a rope and tied it right on to my bike! It is now super useful when we have to carry things around to peoples houses or shoes when we are going to do service or for groceries! It was a good investment!

At the end of P-day we went to the basketball courts and I got to play some against the guys that were there. They kept forcing each other to play me one on one to see if anyone could beat me. Nobody did. :) They are completely freaked out when I dunk it on them Haha. It was so fun.

Lately, Elder Siebert and I have been doing some service for the Branch President Arm. We just go over to his house, and we carry a ton of buckets of dirt from their front yard to their backyard. Then, at the end, his Mom will give us some delicious free food. Totally worth it. We also have also been giving President Arm personal English lessons because he is about to take a test that will prove whether he gets a job or not, so we are helping him out. President does a lot to help us in our missionary work, so it is always fun to repay him in any way that we can.

I went on a switch off with another missionary, Elder Dollery this week. Elder Dollery is one of the hardest working missionaries I think I know. He literally talks to every single person that he possibly can. He will just talk to people non stop unless I remind him that we have one more meeting with someone that we are already late for. Sometimes he even forgets to eat food because he is working so hard. I don't think I can work so hard that I miss my minimum four meals a day =), but he is definitely a good example for me of how to be a good missionary. While I was with Elder Dollery, we met with a man that is ready to get baptized! We asked him some questions about how he believes God helps him in life, and how being baptized will help him in the rest of his life. It is so much fun to see people realize the goal of this life and how to follow the path of righteousness.

We have had some challenges teaching Nuey lately. We have taught her just about everything that there is to learn to become baptized and she says she feels God helping her in life. She also believes the Book of Mormon is true, but she continues to have questions about whether after she is baptized if she will be able to be Christian for the rest of her life. Hopefully she can have faith and realize that she doesn't have to worry about these things as much. If she has faith in God everything will turn out good in the end. 

There is a sister in the branch named Sister Goong. We met with her and asked her about her conversion story to believing in Christianity. When we heard her tell her story of how she got baptized, it surprised me how similar it was to Sister Nuey's current experiences, so hopefully we can get them both working together. 

This week we had Zone Conference, so we rode a 3 hour bus to Roy-et. I love our Mission President, President Hammond. He has the spirit of God with him so strongly. Every time I get to talk with him I feel rejuvenated. Our mission has been focusing a lot of finding new people lately. As a zone we are trying to find at least one new person a day through inviting per companionship. 

Another woman we visited is named Koko. She is a mother of a little boy, and when we visited her we talked about the temple. We talked to her about how close it will be and how easy it will be to go. Then we showed her a video about the blessings we receive from temples and how it can help us in life. The spirit was so strong in that time. She said she was going to try to come to church often and she wants her son (who just happens to be 8 years old) to me baptized. Totally awesome. Miracles are pouring down from heaven. 

This week at church we had a random drop in our number of people attending church, so I had to help do some parts of sacrament meeting. I was the chorister, blessed the sacrament, and gave a talk haha. Hopefully more people will come so we can delegate these responsibilities to more members in the branch. 

Today is the 250th day I have been out on my mission. And last night officially marks the first time I, Boston Barron, have ever filled out an entire journal. Truly miracles are happening every single day. I can probably count the amount of pages I have written in a journal before my mission on my fingers, but I haven't missed a day yet. (woop woop) #thehungrydontstop #IamachildofGod

I hope everyone has a great week! 

-Elder Boston Barron

Happy Chinese New Year!

 I got to help cook at President Arms house.

 Doing paperwork, paying bills.

 We had a family night at one of the members houses. An awesome group of people were there and we had a great time!

 This is Brother Larson, one of the nicest people I have ever met. He went to Thailand on his mission long ago.

 When we went to the Cambodian Border.

 Brother Suk and after he got his new tablet from Brother Larson. Fun day!

 Bus ride we took to Buriram.

 Me getting a haircut.

 Shoes galore.

 Surin views.

 We got to do service at President Arms house 

(our Branch President) We carried dirt.

 Me trying to be muscley like Elder Siebert.=)

 We found this massive scorpion while 

digging in the dirt. We killed it.

 One of the cool night markets.

 Food food and more food.

 A little cafe that I ate food at.

 Some freaking HUGE cockroaches.

 The market.

Some Cambodian money that I got.

Letter Update:

Wow this last week has been very eventful and amazing! Last Monday, we had dinner over at one of the members houses. It was so much fun because a ton of the members came and it was a really good way to strengthen the friendship between all of the members in Surin. I was having fun joking around with the old ladies there. They were all telling me that I was too tall. They told me I need to stop growing or I never would get a girlfriend! I asked “why is that?” and they replied with, "It hurts our necks just to look at you, and it would hurt even more if someone had to kiss you." so I replied with, "That is why someday I will need to find a tall girlfriend!" They looked like they were in pain they were laughing so hard at me. 

This last week for District meeting, we went to Buriram. (Surin and Buriram are in the same district and we have to ride an hour long bus to get to district meeting. Every week we switch which place we have our meeting at so we don't have to ride the bus every week.) Elder Siebert and I rode the hour long bus ride and walked about 20 minutes to the church building in Buriram. We didn't see where the Buriram Elders were, so we called them. It turns out that they were headed to to Surin on a bus! It was kind of funny, but also annoying at the confusion.

One thing about Elder Siebert. He loves being super healthy, so every morning, he makes his own breakfast. Once a week, he buys all the ingredients that he needs and every day he eats a ton of chicken. I thought it would be cool to know how to make what he makes and so last week when he bought the food for himself, I bought myself the same stuff, and I am learning how to make meals and stuff. It is fun! And it gives me an opportunity to eat more food which is always good.

Lately we have been teaching a new person named You-tana). We found him for the first time just riding bikes down little streets and talking to people outside their homes. (Nobody has front doors, so we just have to do that.) The second time we wanted to meet with him, we told him we would meet outside his house on a certain day at a certain time. We waited outside his house for about 15 minutes at that time, but he wasn't there. It is kind of sad when people skip our appointments that they make with us, but we decided to wait 5 more minutes. We said a prayer together that he would show up and right when we were about to leave, he drove up in is car and apologized for being late! I was so happy. He is a very intelligent man and when we told him that following the commandments of God could change his life for the better, he we so ready to listen. He is a man that loves his family, so I really like that about him.

This last Thursday consisted of a lot of service. We started out in the morning by going our to our Branch Presidents house and we cut up branches and pulled out trash and we did a lot of clean up. Then we hauled a ton of dirt from his front yard to the back yard. Because he didn't have a wheelbarrow, we used buckets. It was super fun! We found a few cool wildlife too! (a few spiders, two venomous scorpions, a million ants, and more!!!) 

There is one kid in in our branch who is nineteen years old and he doesn't come to church super often, so we wanted to make friends with him and help him come back to church. His name is Leew. He always tells us how much he wants a girlfriend and since Elder Siebert is a body builder, Leew asked if he could help him work out, so we worked out with him. It was a great way to be good friends with him and just do some service. 

At the end of Thursday, (this is my favorite story) we were riding to one of the night markets to go inviting, and we were about to ride across a big intersection to get to the market, but I saw this man who was in a food cart. (these are carts where they have bags of food or snack that hang off everywhere and usually it is like a bicycle also so they can ride it around) This man was leaning down and using his hand to turn the wheel to cross the intersection. I thought he had a flat tire or something, but it turns out, this guy can't use the bicycle pedals because he had no legs. He only had a lever that he moved back and forth to spin the wheels, but he could use the lever until he got himself going by turning the wheel with his hands. It is hard to explain, but it was very hard for this guy to get around. He wasn't going to make it across the intersection in time because he was moving so slowly, so we pushed him and his cart across the intersection to help him out. At first I thought he was just headed to sell at the night market, but he was actually going home. I offered that we could just push him all the way home because we could ride our bikes on either side of the cart and hold on to his cart with a hand. The man kept saying no because his house was too far, but that just made it a better reason why we should help him, so we kept pushing him along. We probably rode our bikes pushing him for about 30 minutes down dirt roads and pot holes and the whole time I was just wondering how this guy possible got this far away from his home on his own. It would have at least taken 2 hours for him to go on his own. While we were going down the roads, there was a giant pack of dogs that ran up to us and were barking and nipping at our legs, so I kept pushing him and Elder Siebert fought off the dogs with a stick. It was an adventure! Lol! When we got him to his home he told us that he makes that same ride every day all by himself so he can go sell things from his cart. This guy amazes me. It was so fun to help him that night.

We got to visit a member named Mah-noon). He used to work with dead bodies. He would dress the dead bodies for funerals, and he would let the missionaries come help him sometimes, but when I came here to Surin, he changed his job and now he just works with blood. I was a little sad that I would never be able to dress a dead body, but I guess it is okay.

Lately, Elder Siebert and I have been teaching a girl named Sooin. She has been learning with the missionaries for a long time now and some people were starting to tell us that she is an engineer, or someone who will never stop learning and also never get baptized. We refused to let it stay just like that, so we had a good talk with her and gave her a baptismal date to help her work towards the goal. I also think she is intrigued by the temple being built here in Thailand. We taught about families and the blessings she can receive in the temple. She is a great person. 

This last week as Elder Siebert and I were headed home we decided to take a detour by the basketball court and see if anyone was there. There were people there when we got there so we split up to talk to different people, and I met a guy who was playing basketball. Apparently he had been taught by the missionaries six years ago, but he wasn't super up to learning again, so I told him we can play one on one and if I win we get to meet with him again one time, and he agreed! I won 16-2. Hopefully we can spark his interest to learning again.

Today on P-day, it was Chinese New Year! They didn't really celebrate at all here, except for some Chinese lanterns and cute Chinese baby pictures on some of the local stores. I don't know if the baby pictures are part of the Chinese New Year, but they are still pretty cute. 

This was a great week! On to the next!  I hope everyone else has a great week too!

-Elder Barron