12/18/11

 

Hey Momma!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I think that this will throw you off a little today but today they are turning off the power to our apartment so we needed to get out of there early today but we will come back and read emails later today after we play soccer.

Not much happened this week.  We just were doing more missionary work but my testimony has grown a lot in the past couple of days.  Things are really awesome right now.  Being comps with Elder Olive has been really awesome! He has had a lot of really cool experiences in his life that he shared with me and it was really cool.  Honestly there is not much going on but I will tell you a couple of things that I have listened to and have read that have probably changed my life.  But a few things that are going on and that have happened right now.

Elder Appleyard had to go home this last week.  He was having some really bad foot problems so he is going home and getting it taken care of and then he will be back in a couple of months.  It is a bummer that he had to go home.  I miss him already but he will be back in no time.  They just asked us to pray for him and his family so if you guys could pray for him that would be really good too.

I think that I told you about one of our investigators that was really awesome.  The one where we were starting to teach her daughters and everything.  It turns out that she is not in our area so we have to hand her over to the Elders in the area next to us call Bang Kapi.  It is gonna really be sad but really good too.  She is really ready to be baptized and so are her children.  They really have a desire to know if it is all true.  They all love Jesus Christ and they all have a desire to follow him but they will just have to be baptized in another area and I really dont have a problem with it.  They are a really good family and I really don't care where they are baptized as long as they are baptized and endure to the end I am just happy with that.  Its not like it is my baptism hahaha.  Sorry that is a joke with our district right now so sorry if you don't think that it is very funny.

I did just hear that we are going to be getting a missionary coming back into the mission.  He went hom about a year ago and he just came back today to take the place of Elder Appleyard in Bang Kapi.

Ok just a couple of things that i need to tell you about my facebook.  There is a member here who has been taking a lot of pictures of us and she requested me as a friend on facebook.  If you could accept her request that would be great and then you cna have a lot of pictures of me and some of the members.  There is one picture on there that is me eating a really gross Thai fruit called turien.  It is the worst thing that I have ever eaten in my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  They all said that it was going to be really good but it smells really bad and when I ate just a bite of it I wanted to vomit.  They took a picture right when I ate some and my face is really funny but it was really gross.  It really tasted like poop.  Other than that I haven't eaten anything else weird.

This last week I got to go on switch offs with the greenie.  He is way good!  He has a really good spirit and he is just willing to get out there and serve.  I learned a lot from him but that day was the weirdest day of my mission.  The lessons were not very good and we didn't get into a single house but we still had a lot of fun and talked a lot about really cool things in the gospel.  It is really cool to see how he is growing.  I haven't really seen the difference in me but seeing him and being around him really helps me see how much I grew.

Ok so yesterday was really awesome at church.  All of the talks were on forgiveness.  One of the members that spoke has had a lot of problems in his life and he has had to repent a lot for the things that he has done.  He gave a really awesome talk and then after church he was given the preisthood.  He is now getting ready to serve a mission.  After church we just had a really good corolation meeting where we finally got to sit down with our mission leader and ask him what he needs us to do and to ask him for help in the work.  Ever since the flood his life has been pretty crazy so he hasn't been able to meet with us at all but now things are all good.  The Branch President here is really awesome and so is his wife.  Their son is on a mission now in California and his son loves it there but they only have 3 people that they are teaching.  They let us read his emails all of the time and it is really fun to do that and hear about what a state side mission is like.  I am pretty sure that those are some of the hardest missions in the World.  Everyone knows the church and just put up walls.  I have noticed it here.  When ever we meet a foreigner they always know who we are and what we do.  Now Thai people are starting to know who we are. haha

Well I want to tell you about my experience that I had yesterday while we listened to some talks.  A talk that really helped me was one from John Bytheway.  His talk was all about building people up and becoming a builder and not a reckor.  It was a really good talk!  It was just about building up the Lords kingdom by building up the people in it.  Just never saying bad things about other people and jsut always looking for the positives in others and just being like Christ.

Another talk was about the Book of Mormon that I heard.  The guy proved that everything in the Book of Mormon was true.  That some of the early settlers of New York found a lot of lime substance on the surface of the ground at Cumorah which only comes from thousands of bones that used to be on the surface.  They also found millions of arrowheads and tons of stone tools around the hills and surrounding areas.  The French found trenches where they found the bones of thousand of Men women and children were burried.  They found forts and other things there and more stuff that points to an advanced civilisation that was there a very long time ago.  Then he talked about the translation process and everything was just way cool and it really opened up my eyes.  At the end of his talk he said that all of that stuff did not matter.  But the only way that we wil ever know that the Book of Mormon is true is to read and pray about it.  That is the only way that we all will ever know of the truth of the Book of Mormon and after that we will know who Christ is and that He is our savoir.  Joseph Smith is a prophet and that this Church is the only true church on the whole earth. It was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love you all so much and thank you Mom and Dad and Ciara and Cassie, Matt,  Adam, Steph, Rachel, Maija, Micah, and even little Savannah.  I want you all to have a Merry Christmas and one thing that Sister Smith said is to keep in mind the really meaning of Christ-mas.  I love you all so much and thank you for everything that you have done for me.

Mom I will be skyping you guys about 6:00 pm your time on your Christmas.  It is going to be a the 26th at 8:00am here in Thailand.  I love you Momma and Dad.

Elder Bryce

MERRY CHRISTMAS