There's a restaurant by the church that has good meals for good prices (though you can get 1-2 dollar meals just about anywhere). My companion and I eat pretty much the same 3 or 4 meals there, even though they have many items on the menu. So I decided to shake things up a bit. I picked something called yahm nam at random, which neither I nor my companion had ever heard of. It's a well-established restaurant with 3 full walls, so I figured it was safe enough. The lady looked at me kind of funny and then consented.
My companion ordered and then we went and sat down on the plastic chairs in the room. His meal came first, and after a few minutes we were thinking that my meal must be pretty extravagant to be taking this much longer. Then it arrived. It was a bowl of purple-ish food with interesting shapes served over rice. It was cold and tasted sour. We determined that some of it was some kind of meat which hadn't been cooked but was fermented to preserve it. That was mixed with onions and either tentacles or a kind of really weird noodle. As we ate, my companion began to get more and more concerned with my health, and predicted that I would be heaving my guts within the next 24 hours. After the meal, we talked with a member who said the meat was pork. I ended up being fine, but I've yet to decide if I'll be trying something like that again.
Last week, we decided to start acting on the direction of the mission president and visit member's homes. We first visited Sister Ploy, a 21 year-old recent convert whose family is Christian already. She directed us to her house (that's essential, because it's impossible to find Thai addresses without the help of a resident of the home) and invited us in. The idea is that we teach the member and their family in their home. We sat down on the floor to teach, but none of the family wanted to come have a lesson. Her older brother pulled her out of the lesson and had a talk with her outside of the room. We began to realize that we really weren't welcome. In fact, very unwelcome. After the lesson, we left.
Sister Ploy called us the next day and wanted to meet with us as soon as we could. She sounded stressed, and we agreed to meet in an hour or so. When we sat down to talk, she told us about how he family is Protestant and very against the LDS church (apparently, they have sermons on how evil the LDS church is). She was reprimanded and told that she couldn't bring missionaries or members to their home anymore, or read the Book of Mormon because it's sin and God won't bless them. Her family has been attacking her for her beliefs, and she wanted to talk. We read 2 Nephi 29, which talks about how there needs to be more than one bible, and a few other scriptures. I kind of sat back and let the more experienced missionaries do their thing (we were teaching with the sister missionaries because we can't be alone with a single sister) until the end of the lesson. We were starting to close, and I decided to share Alma 5:45-46, where Alma talks about his own conversion, and how he knows these things are true through the spirit. I had her read it because I'm still not good enough at reading script. As soon as I started testifying about these verses, I felt this wave of pressure inside that pushed tears to my eyes and made it hard to speak. As I spoke, I was embarrassed that I was choking on my words and trying to adequately convey a point in Thai, but it didn't matter. I told her that it didn't matter if people told her she was wrong or that the Book of Mormon is false, because she knows it's true the same as I do and the same as Alma did. I looked at her through tears in my own eyes and saw tears in hers. The truth of my words struck me deep, and I could see that the spirit had touched her too. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I had to be an instrument in God's hands and touch another person.
I read in 4 Nephi recently, where the people live as God directs and have success. I see people all the time trying to find happiness in life. Often, people don't know where to look and turn to things that promise the joy they seek but often return the opposite. This is it. This gospel is good, and teaches everyone the way to be happy. Rarely do we see undeniable evidence of God's influence in our lives. Events can often be attributed to chance or happenstance, but miracles are wrought by faith. As we try the word and see the blessings and joy that comes from the gospel, our faith grows. We don't have to have a perfect knowledge to see the blessings or act on the teachings. That comes after the trial of our faith.
Life is hard. But this gospel holds the answers and gives us the abilities we need to overcome anything.
Thanks all, for your love and support.
Elder Parish
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