11/25/12

Hey Mom and Dad,

This last week was really fun as well.  Thanksgiving was really nice.  As you saw in the pictures it was rely really really really really good!  i forgot what it felt like to actualyl eat food other than rice.  It was just so good!  The brothers name is Jeff.  He is a really nice man who actually is a lawyer that used to work for pepsi.  His whole family was very nice and it was kind of weird to talk to a whole bunch of people who knew so much about what was going on at home.  Jeff was actually at the same game that Adam went to in Notradame ( bad spelling i know).  After that dinner we went to an activity at the church where the members ate regular chicken and I told the history of thanksgiving.  That was relaly fun because they were all really shocked about the whole thing.  I also just told them the very elementary stuff.  People here really love to celebrate american holidays.  It really is fun but usually they just dont understand the actual meaning of the day.

We have met some really great people this last week.  We met a person whose name means pearl in Thai.  She is really great and really prepared by the Lord.  She said that she would love to be baptized when she feels like this thing is true.  It was very cool to hear that from her.  She is really smart too.  We are going to be meeting her again today so we will see how that goes.  other than that we went on exchanges with the Assistants to the President and that was relaly fun becasue i was with Elder Kampanat.  I know him pretty well because I was in the office when he was made Assistant.  He is so Christlike and i just feel so good when i am around him.  He also used to serve in this area before and all of the members love him so  much.  

It sounds like thanksgiving was pretty quiet this year.  The football game sounds like that was pretty fun though.  I would love to play football here but I have only actually found 1 football and that was while i was in Bangkok so i dont think that i will find one out here.  This city is pretty big but not big enough for a football hahaha but i have learned to love soccer and other sports.  I did learn that they might have a racketball place here so i might have to go and check that one out.  I will be out of practice but it will be so fun to get back on the court again.  

About School i know that onje day my mission will have to end so i have just accepted it and i know that i will have a life other than a missionary but i will work hard until the very last day.  This date is not 100% sure but i know that the transfers will be on April 25.  That would be the transfer that i would be sent home.  So we would usually leave that night and get back that same morning.  I want to go to BYU but i dont know if my credits would be transfered over.  If not i would like to finishe my twwo year degree at UVU and then transfer over.  But if you could find that out for me that would be really great.  

I love you so much Mom and Dad and Dad that sounds like a really good start for the duck season.  I love you so mucha nd i will keep working harder and harder.  thank you for your prayers.   I feel them help me everyday.  

Elder Revelli

11/18/12

Hey Mom and Dad,

This week was a pretty slow week for the area.  We were not here for three days of the week.  I did not know that the Zone leaders had this much stuff to do but the other Elder in the area are rock stars.  They found 20 new int\vestigators in the week.  That was more than the zone got combind.  These tow Elders are just amazing missionaries and they jsut work so hard and have so much faith.  I lvoe this area.  So the city is actually very large.  I has a hurge mall here and it is really clean here in this city.  Sometimes i feel like i am in America.  It veels kind of odd sometimes and the street layout is just like it is in America whee things are put out into blocks.  There air here is so good!!@!!!!! i have been running almost every morning and it feels so good to just breath oxygen again.  

the area is in the east part of thailand.  It is pretty large but it is just really nice weather right now because it is the cold season.  It is geting down to about 32 everyday and soon it will hit a cold spike.  Honestly i dont know it very well right now but i am getting to know it.  Not much else to say other than it is another college town.  most of the people at church are all college students that are single that we are all trying to get them married to our investigators.  We have one girl here that we just matched up with a new investigator and they hit it off pretty well hahaha.  

We just had a zone training meeting this last saturday where the Asia Area President was there.  It was very amazing and it was all just about the Book of Mormon.  I made a goal to never let a day go without reading at least 1 verse in the BofM everyday.  Soemtimes it doesnt have the answer to my questions everytime but it just calms me down and it helps me think more clearly.  I know that it is not just another book.  but it is just like Joseph Smith said,  It is the most correct book of any book on the earth and that a man would grow closer to God by abiding by its precepts.  

That is crazy that all of them are going on their missions now.  They waited long enough and now the age was moved i amd sure that they loved that.  I almost for got about those people. I am sure that if i saw a pictuere i would remember but honestly my life is justfilled with missionary work everyday i have kind of forgotten what life used to be like.  I just feel like i have been a missionary my whole life and that everything that we do just seems so normal even though it is amazing all of the time.  I just love this work so much and i just love serving the Lord.

I love you so much.  but the thing that i got most of this last week was the guidence ffrom the spirit.  We were seeking so much for the spirit aand we got it.  It was so amazing to just know what to do and where to go to follow what the Lord wanted us to do.  We need to make the first step bu thte lord will be there wiht us just like in the Ether 1  He was there waiting for them but they had to go and meet him first.  

I lvoe you so much and please keep praying for me.  I love you and i really cant think of anything other than deoderant.  

Elder Revelli

11/11/12

Dear Mom and Dad and the rest of the Family and everyone else who reads this email,

This last week was very very busy and way fun.  I had a feeling that i was moving but we never know for sure until we actually get the call from the Zone Leaders.  We were actually trying to talk to a family that we had contaacted a while ago and then the zls called and so i had to answer and i am the only one of my district that actually moved out so that was kind of weird.  i was kind of sad to leave Ayutthaya because of all of the blessings and the miracles that the Lord blessed us with there and the work that needed to be done.  I am so happy to have served there.  I love the members and investigators there so much and i will miss them so much!  I love them all but i am excited for this next adventure here in the east.  My new area is called Khon Gaen.  It is actually still a pretty big city.  it has a Central Mall so that makes it pretty big compared to my last area.  I love it here so far.  The Branch is really fun to be around and the leaders are really good here too.  The District President is about to move so there will be some leadership changes and that will make swork exciting but it will be very fun.  Elder Jensen is from Ogden Utah.  He comes from a pretty big family.  He is the last one in his family and before he was a missionary he was actually in the army.  He is really nice and i served around him before but just have never really served with him so it is fun so far and we have not really had any probelms at all.  We are actually \very similar in a lot of different ways.  He is really fun to be around and just a very spiritual person.  

He is helping me a lot because i have no idea what i am doing as a Zone leader.  i just barely understood what it was like to be a district leader and then when i got comfortable with theat the Lord decided to change it up.  The new area is about that far away but on the way ehre we actually took a train so  it was about 9 ish.  It was a sleeper train to that was kind of nice.    but i was super scared that we were going to miss our stop so i kept waking up.  It was really fun getting to the area on friday. We would have gotten there thursday night be we had Zone leader council right after the transfers meeting and that was about 6 hours long.  It was really fun to see even more of the little things that we have to do to keep the mission running.  I am doing really great but you all sound really busy right now.  Dad make sure you save some stuff for me to do when i get back remember you will have another set of hands eventually.  Mom i really do not know how you find out all of these things so fast!  We just talked about it with the other Elders in our house and it really creeps us out how fast the MMN  actually works.  We are pretty sure hat you get better informaiton than we actually do in the field.  Tell Lex that i said Happy Birthday and that she is awesome.  I lvoe you so much.  Tahnk you so much for your prayers.  I really feel like they help me in every partt of the work.  I love you so much and have a good week.

Elder Revelli

11/4/12

Hello Mom and Dad and everyone on the home front.  

This last week was another great week here.  Another person was baptized and that makes a whole family complete.  The son that was just baptized has a really funny story.  When we were teaching the parents and the other kids,  he would never talk to us.  He would walk in and bow and then walk into his room and shut the door.  (ok its not really a bow but i cant think of the english word to describe it) He would do that everytime.  He would ever ever want to talk to us until one day that we had family home evening and he sat in and we taught the plan of salvation with him there and he really did like it.  He said that it made him feel good when we taught them.  After that he wanted to be baptized.  He was baptized after his brothers and sisters but then i was talking to their mom and she said that she had a dream that she was walking up a mountain alone and that the first time she had this dream she couldnt make it up the mountain.  After that it wasnt until after her son was baptized that she had a dream that they were walking up that same mountain together and they all made it to the top of the mountain together.  They said that they never found the tree of life but when they got to the top they just felt cool air and could see everythng around them.  They all wanted to stay their and that is when she woke up.  It was very very interesting and i really was touched by that story.  I lvoe this family so much!  I am so excited for you to meet them when you come here but you need to start practice sitting on the floor with legs crossed because in about everyhouse that we go to. there is no couch or chairs.  So start practicing hahaha

That was really the highlight of this week.  I still dont know if i am going to move or not but i have a feeling that i might.  I wont know until wednesday but i will  miss this place so much.  I lvoe the memebers here and i will miss them so much.  I lvoe the people that we are teaching but the coolest thing that i have learned about in this transfer is the parable of the sower has really come to life for me.  I have seen those people who we met falling by the way side, those that were put on the rock and grew fast but fell away fast, i have met people who were choked my the thorns, but the best one that i have seen is those that were put in fertile ground and the plant grew until it was a tree.  I think that if we start applying the parables into our own lives they really do become real.  

I love this work.  This is the best work that i have ever done.  Better than acting, shooting, hiking, horse riding, scoutning or any of that stuff.  I love these people and the culture so much.  I am very excited for you all to take part in this.  I love you and i hope and pray that you have a great week.  

Elder Revelli

10/28/12

Hey Mom and Dad,

Im again sorry for the emial last week.  It was very sort but a lot has happened in the past week ut i will send you pictures and we all know that pictures are worth 1000 words so i dont have to email as long right?  hahaha just kidding.  This last week we have 3 people e baptized and even the est part was that their father was the one who baptized them.  His first child had to go under 3 times before it was good and the others were ok.  The first person was crying ecause she didnt want to share her testimony with everyone and she was crying before during and after because she was really scared to share it.  She finally got up and just said that she loved God and that she knew that God loved her.  I felt the spirit so strong when she said it i started to tear up but then i made sure that i did not startt to cry.  

Before that we watched the vidoes of the family history project that we did last week and it is weird watching myself speak thai.  I dont think that i sound very good but i guess it is like when i watched my self act.  I never did think taht i  was a very good actor.  After that we did go and see cool waterfalls last monday and i will send you some pictures and this week we worked with a lot of less active and recent converts.  We are doing as much as we can to make sure that they stay into activity.  One of the less actives that we are working with who hadnt een to church for almost 3 years has come back and he has plans to srtay!  He is so awesome and you can see the difference in him.  You can tell tht he feels like he really does belong.  That is about all that i have for this week.  I love you all and thank you Mom and Dad and the family for the prayers.  

How are the missionary lessons going with Lex?  What did her 
Mom think?  Tell lex to keep going and tell her i am praying for her.  Tell Spenc that i said hi.  I love you all so much and thank you for all that you ahve done for me.  Have a rally great week and i will be praying for you.

Elder Revelli

10/14/12

Hey Mom and Dad,  

This last week was pretty fun.  I was in another area for about 2 days on exchanges and that was way fun.  I got to know some more members in the area and i had my first baptismal interview.  The person was so prepared and just really awesome!  She had a very strong testimony and she was very excited aabout the temple.  She talked about her father and you could tell that she loved him very much and she was crying everytime that she talked about him she would just cry and she was so excited when she knew that she could help him be saved.  She was just very humble and you could tell that she had a lot of faith in Christ.  

I loved conferenc ethis week.  I really needed it really badly.  on satuday we had no one show up to the church to watch it so we went to an internet cafe and downloaded it on my hard drive and we went back to the church and watched it in english.  I really liked Elder Uchtdorfs talk the most about not looking forward to the finish but really enjoying the moments while we have them.  I really really learned a lot form this last conference but when we watched it in thai it was not very good.  The translators were not very good and they just didnt speak very good thai.  Im not saying that i am good or would do much better but it just was not as good.  There was an investigator that understood the english better than they understood the thai version.  It was still really good but it just wasnt as good and i tlaked to other misisonaries and they agreed so i felt better that i thought that too.  

That sounds like you ahad a good break.  Ciara told me about he thai coke shirt.  I actually bought one while i was here.  When i see it i will teach you all how to read what it says on the shirt.  Not too much happened this week.  I just feeling much better after watching conference.  I learned a lot of things that i needed to work on and a lot of other things that i felt like Heavenly Father was giving me a pat on the back for.  I definatiely feel like i will be a better person after watching and listenting to the words of the prophets.  

That is about all that really happened this week.  It was a fun and very spiritual week.  I love you so much and I hope that you have a really good week.

Elder Revelli

10/8/12

This week at conference sounds crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  This is a sign that more work needs to e done!  There is so much work to do here.  This last week  Elder pearson and i were jsut really tired because of everythign that we have een doing.  We have been working realyl hard trying to find new people to teach.  we have been really focusing on less actives now.  right niow in the branch we have about 125 memers and 45 come to church every week.  That is actually pretty good compared to a lot of the oter branches all over thailand.  There are some with over 600 members but only 90ish come to church every week.  The mission has really shifted its focus on rescue efforts.  We have been finding those who have just lost their way.  

We actually had a really ool expericne on saturday.  We were inviting and we just felt like we needed to go and visit some members.  We went to go and visit the firt one and they were not home and then we remember this other less active that hadnt een to church for 5 years.  We went to his house and he was home from work so we sat down with him.  He is a really good person and had no real reason to stop going to church.  We taught him and invited him to church and he said he would go and the next day he was at church in his shirt and tie and y the time that church was over he was just beaming with light on his face.  The members welcomed him back like there was nothing wrong and you could tell that he was very glad to e back.  He will have a goal to get the Melkisedek preisthood soon and then he will be off to the temple.  Before we left his house we asked him if he knew anyone else that we could go and visit.  He gave us a name and directions.  We got a little lost becasue it was after dark and we did not know the area very well so we called the member and she gave us directions and we finally found her house.  We made an appointment for the next day and then we went ack and she was really sick and asked for a blessing.  She said that the night that we call her she had just prayed and asked Heavenly Father to hlep make her life better.  She said that she will be back at church this next sunday for general conference.  

This work feel so good.  I am very very tired lately but it is very worth all of the work that we put into it.  I will be watching conferece this week but thank you for telling me all of the good news before i got to watch it hahahahahahahahahahha.  That is really cool that i will know so many people.  I love you so much Mom and Dad and everyone else who reads this email.  I hope that you have a really good week and talk to you next week.

Elder Revelli