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

9/30/12

Hey Mom and Dad and family.  

This last week was crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We had transfers and you might be getting another letter from president senior.  I hve been called as a district leader!  It is way fun because the our zls are way awesome.  one is in my group and the other is another person that i knew in the MTC.  It is really fun to serve with them.  This last week was really good.  We had another person be baptized.  His name is Nat.  He is way awesome.  He had a lot of problems right before he was going to be baptized but he and the Lord worked through them and was able to be baptized just yesterday.  I will send a pic of the baptism.  He was so scared because of the amount of people that were there but after he came out of the water he was a changed person.  He was willing to help us all of the time yesterday and he wants to help us teach and serve everyone.  

This last week was a very busy week and we are all very tired.  A couple of members were sick so they asked us to help them with their calling and we felt like we just wanted to serve them so we did.  It was a very special week and i really did understand more about how important all of the callings in the church are.  If we didnt have them the church could not run the Lords way but everyone is needed to build up His kingdom on the earth,  He created us all so why wouldnt He give us all somethign to do for His Kingdom?  

Transfers was really good.  Elder Mondragon, Grover and a couple of other Elders that i really loved are now home.  I miss them all and now i feel like i dont know hardly anyone in the mission anymore.  i only have 4 comps that are actually still here in thailand.  It feels like i am getting old in the mission but most of the time i just dont feel any different.  

Today i wanted to share a little bit from my personal study.  I decided to study about what Zion was.  I have started but i have not finished.  It takled about it in D/C about being pure in heart so that all leads to desires.  It was really really cool because i thought of it like this because i also read in 1kings 8:1 when solomon is getting all of israel together and the thing that brought them together was the temple and the ark of the Covenant.  So i thought about it and the Temple and all of our covenants bring us closer to the Lord and because we have that one point it is making us all one just like Zion.  

That is all that i have for today.  I love you so much and i hope and pray that everyone will have a safe and fun week.

Elder Revelli

9/23/12

Hey Mom and Dad,

This week was a very fast and a vey good week.  Yesterday while Elder Pearson and i were plaanning last night we were both so tired.  We were having a hard time staying awake and i dont even remember falling asleep last night because it just happened hahha.  Dad that is way good for the grass and when it is all done you will hav to send me pictures of everything that is done.  Yards here are just not the same as they are in america.  Most of the yards here are just jungle so they dont really have real grass.  I have only seen real grass once ever in my mission so i kind of miss looking at american yards haha but i am not going to lie the jungle here is pretty cool

This last week went by so fast.  We wroked very hard and rarely stopped moving.  We were riding our bikes to a lot of idfferent places.  We had a very odd experience at one of our lessons.  It was a christian group that one of our investigators goes to and she invited us to go.  We asked for permission to go from our leaders and they said that we could if we were there to teach and testify.  It was really really weird.  They were singing weird songs and doing stuff that is not in the Bible or the Book of Mormon or anything that they would do in the bible.  It was very very interesting and after they did their little sacrament we taught about the Book of Mormon and the leader of the group said that he would read it and pray to know that if it is true.  We are going to go back this next week and see if he really did.  It was very odd and we could not feel the spirit until we opened up in the Book of Mormon.  The thai bible is good but it is not translated correctly.  There are a lot of things missing and a lot of things that are not translated correctly.  That whole meeting helped me know that the Church of Jesus Christ of latterday saints is the Lords Kingdom on the earth!  

Last night we met a really awesome person.  Last night we were just about to go home after an appointment fell through and we heard this voice say Elder and so we turned around and this little old thai man speaking english said where you go?  We told him in thai that we were about to go home ad he pointed out to way for us.  We said thank you and i felt like we needed to sit down witht he man and teach him.  He was christian and his job was to make statues for the temple that was right across form his house.  He siad that he does nto worship them but that he jsut makes them for other people.  It is athe only way to get money for him.  He is very interested and you can tell that he really does love Christ and that he wants to follow him all of his life.  He was so nice and just takled about loving others and when we gave him a picture of Christ he hugged it and thanked us so much.  We prayed for him at his "house" ( it was really a shack with no walls where he did his work.  )  and taught him a little bit about the restoration.  It was really really cool and next time we are going to give him a book of Mormon.  

That is aweosme that the missionaries are over that often.  Tell them that i say hi from accross the world and that i said Hurrah for Israel!!!!!!!! from thailand and they are awesome!!!!

I lvoe you so much Mom and Dad!  thank you for all that you have been doing for me. Just so you know i am now listening to a man singing thai songs next to me so it took me a long time to actually type this haha just a little window into what i am doing right now.

Thank you so much and i lvoe you all.  

Elder Revelli

9/16/12

Hey Mom and Dad,

This last week sounded pretty aweosme for all of you.  Ciara did tell me abou tthat and Dad that sounds like a pretty good day.  I started really laughing about  Shaylins husbands shot hahah i could jsut picture you and Keith and what you were thinking about when he did that hahahha.  That really surprised me that i have to deside what i want to hunt for next year.  Put me in for Deer once in a life time,  Also for Antelope and Elk.  I want Moose but i want to be ready for that when i get home so i want to practice some shooting because i will be rusty for sure.  '

Ciara looks way tall now!  I noticed in that picture that she is tall.  She might even be taller than me.  Thai people are going to be loving her and how she is so tall!  

Im sure that Bracken loved being with the missionaries.  I would love to do that when i get home too.  I want to really help them teach.  Just so that i could see how it is done again.  

Well this last week was really good!  We had a really good week this last week.  It has been raining everyday but the coolest thing about this week was the amount of referrals that we have been getting from members and investigators.  We have gotten over 4 people this week and 3 of them are families that are close by the recent converts.  It was just a really good week and this next week will be even better.  So we taught a really good lesson with a 17 year old sone of a recent convert and he is progressing raelly well and he brought his new girlfriend over that was 20.  It was really funny when he picked up the law of chastity pamphlet and started reading it while we were teaching his girlfriend.  You could tell that he was really looking at it and pondering what was in there.  The funny part is when we were just takling right before the lesson and he asked me if she was pretty and while she was looking i mouthed to him in Thai if that was j=his new girlfriend and he said yes and we jsut laughed.  I didnt answer the first question hahaha.  Anyway but i love that family so much and they are so special to me.  I keep liking every area mroe and mroe. We also had a really cool thing happen this ssudnay.  We were getting ready to go home and then i got a feeling that we neede to go and visit this old investigator that i had met once but never sat down with him,  When we got there he invited us in and we sat down and talked for a while and then we opened with a prayer.  We had an amazing time and he asked what he needed to do to be clean from sin.  We taught about baptism and Christ and that through baptism he will be clean.  The spirit was so strong and you never know what will happen when we follow those impressions from the spirit.  It could change someones life and help their salvation.  

I love you all so much and please do something fun this week.  I lvoe you so much

Elder Revelli

9/9/12

Hey Dad and Mom!

That is way aweosme that Kimbal got to go hunting that same deay hahahaha.  I think that is way funny.  It made me think about the night that i was set apart that i forgot and almost started watching tangled again.  You will have to tell me how everything went in 94.  I feel like i haventl been there forever.  I know that the last hunt that i did was in 99 but it was still very good.  I ill make sure that i will e safe this week.

This week was pretty good.  We had a rough start but it was a really good finish.  We have been doing realyl good and we met a really cool person just yesterday.  It really strengthened my testimony,.  She did not really have time or want to be preached to but we were jsut there to listen to her.  Her husband jsut died 4 days ago and he was still  being cremated.  It takes a couple of day i guess and the next day that she was going to collect the bones and take them to Japan.  She is thai and he was Japanese.  They are very very wealthy and you could tell that she was fighting back tears when she was talking to us.  We talked about eternal families but she was not willing to pray becasue she waid thtat her heart was not full right now and that she needed some time.  After that we just started talking about our families and just about life and she really cheered up after that.  We met her children who just finished being monks as part of the cerimony and they were both ereally really funny.  It was a very good family and by the time that we left she gave us water and a lot of this sweet bread stuff that was really good and she said that after she gets all of her affairs in order and then she said that she would like to talk to us more.  By the time that we left she was laughing and that just made me so happy.  It also really humbled me because it made me realize that sometimes that is all that they need.  They jsut need a a friends and  a warm smile.  They jsut need to be lifted up by the light of Christ and they will eventually listen in the future.  

It was a very good experience and i really felt the spirit very strong.  We are finding a lot of people now and it has been very awesome!  The Lord is really preparing a lot of people here and thailand is really starting to explode.  I love what president Senior said.  "It is Asia's turn" talking about other missions all over the world have great success.  We have noticed the great success and the blessings of the Lord are really being wrought upon the land.  Thank you for everything that you are doing for me.  If you could just send deoderant and razor blades.  Usually those are the only things that i need.  I lvoe you so much Mom and Dad.  I love the rest of the family and i hope you have a really good week!.  

Elder Revelli

9/2/12

Hey Mom and Dad,

ok so that place is call the Elephant village but not a lot of people know about this one.  It is actually a farm where they train the e;e[hants.  That are way awesome and you get to feed them and if the boss is not there you get a chance to ride them but the bosswas there so we didnt get to ride them.  The members will take us there when we come back to that place and they will take us for free.  I never thought that i would every be doing something like this when i first submited my papers to be a missionary.  MY kid was a lot more excited because it was the first time that he had ever seen an elephant.  I feel like when i go back i want to take one with me.  Just a small baby one and let it grow up.  Do you think that the horses would get a long with it?  hahahahahahahahahahaha.  The odd thing is that i am actually older than all of those elephants in that picture.  

This last week another family was baptized and they are so awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Their kids will be baptized very soon!!  The work is going forward very fast all over thailand right now.  We are almost at a 100 baptisms a month mission wide and we are about the have 3 stakes and after that it wont be very long until we have a temple.  We are so close to getting a church building in this area!  We just need 15 more people at church and the church will then buy land for a church and once we have 80 people at chruch we will have a building.  I love this place so much and even though i had a cold for most of the week we worked very hard.  I figured that i could just lay at home and be miserable or just get to work and rally help other people and that was a much better option.  I love it so much more than just sitting down.  

My comp is doing really good now.  He is getting better and better at the language.  I love this work so much but a lot of people say that i will be a district leader after this transfer but i really have no idea about that.  My prophesy is to be a district leader for 1 transfer then become a zone leader in a place  up north called Chiang Mai and end my mission with Elder Richardson or Elder Stott.  That is our dream but the Lord might have something different in store for us.  

Yes Dad most of the area is like that.  I love this place so much!  It is so beautiful and the sunsets and sun rises are the most beautiful that i have ever seen.  I love this place so much and i cant wait for you all to see what i have been doing for the last two years.  The people you will meet are so specialto me and you will find out why.  

Dad That is a really good and i just started laughing really hard when you said that star wars quote. hahaha I love it so much but my comp does not like to watch star wars haha so that was what i needed hahaha.  Well I wanted to share one thing that i read in the scriptures in the van to the sports day.  I was reading in Alma 60:24 and this is one thing that you both have taught me since i was a little kid.  I have not been the bestat following there but thank you for teaching me.  It is talking about Moronis epistle to Pahoran.  And Moroni says "... begin to be up and doing..."  I just really loved that when i read it and that is the motto for this transfer.

I love you so much and have a good week.