Week 47: A Volcano and the Holy Ghost

This P-day, we're going up tho the Elephant Village in Surin. So this may be a bit short.

We watched General Conference this week. It was very good, and I got some great guidance. I was impressed that

Sister Pan is doing pretty well. She loves learning and recognizes how these things will help her come closer to God. I mentioned how she wanted to go inviting with us, and wants everybody to know about Christ. This past week, she introduced us to two of her friends. Neither ended up being very interested, but it made me think of Lehi's vision and how his first instinct was to share this fruit with others so that they could taste of the same joy.

Ding Doi is doing pretty good. She has learned pretty much all of the lessons we have to teach, and has a date for the 25th.

We met with a new investigator this week, and he brought a friend. There are a lot of important things that need to happen in a first lesson, and there is a section Preach My Gospel called "How to Begin Teaching," which helps establish a foundation of understanding and expectations. There are several good thoughts to express before going into the lesson. In addition to those, I've started explaining about the Godhead, particularly about the Holy Ghost. I like to tell people that we can give them knowledge and information, but the most important thing is the feelings that they have, because that's how they'll know beyond just belief that these things are true. So we began with the Gospel of Christ (the concepts of faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end are totally foreign to most people here). It was a really great lesson, and both of them understood and were engaged in the lesson. As we neared the end of the lesson, they said that they felt really good about the things we were teaching. We jumped on that, and pointed out why they were feeling good. The spirit rushed into the room, and I could feel the power of my words as I testified. It was very fulfilling to see things click as they recognized the Holy Ghost and their faith grew just a bit as they saw our words fulfilled. O, then, is not this real?

We had a member help us teach, and it turns out that they knew each other from before. She informed us that he is gay, so I expect that will be a challenge. I

Thank you all for your support and love!
Elder Parish

1&2: We went toured this place, Khao Kradong (เขากระโตง. The romanization is awful). It's an inactive volcano. We got rained out, so I don't have as many pictures as I'd like. But you can Google it if you want to.








4. Haha, "up way."

 5. Visiting an LA with some members.