Week 21: Dearth and Sonkran

Unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot to report this week. There's been somewhat of a dearth in missionary work here in Bangkae (and allegedly throughout the mission as well), and the whole district is struggling.

The sisters have been teaching one investigator for about a transfer and a half now. He's way smart, which means he has a lot of concerns, but he's way solid. He's actually more faithful about coming to church, activities, and even paying tithing than some members, despite living an hour away (15 minutes away is too far for many Thai people). They've been working for a long time, and finally set a date two weeks from now. The funny thing is, he says he knows but is still hesitant to get baptized. At one point in their last lesson, the sister's sensed that he had a concern he wasn't sharing. They pressed him to talk about it, and he said "I don't want to because I know what's going to happen. You're going to tell me to pray about it and ask for an answer, so I'll pray and I'll get an answer." He knows it. He just has to let himself accept it.

Sonkran! Sonkran is a holiday in Thailand. I'm not sure what it's celebrating, but it's basically a three-day water fight all over Thailand. Today is the first, and we get to play, so I should have some fun pictures next week. I've heard it's going to be awesome. And also that proselyting the next few days will be kind of useless. Things get most crazy in the evening, so we'll have a temporary curfew of 6:30 PM until it's over.

Transfers this week. I'll be staying here for another 6 weeks, but with a new companion. I feel good about it.

General Conference was awesome, and I found lots of needed guidance. In the Sunday afternoon session, Neil L. Anderson spoke about a man in Thailand who got hit by a truck and was paralyzed. I know him, and have talked with him a few different times. That was cool.

Something I've begun to appreciate is that gospel knowledge comes line upon line, and to those who accept and search, more is given. So that's where I'm at, pressing forward and slowly growing.

Thanks for all of your support,

Elder Parish