Week 55: Golf

Well, since last week Brother Noi and his wife moved back to Korat to work, and we won't be seeing them again. Hopefully they'll remember the things that they've learned and felt and make it at some future date.

We followed up with Brother Golf daily, and he made some awesome progress; from ten cigarettes a day to two. Then he slowly stopped answering our calls and then didn't show up for our appointment on Saturday. He butt-dialed us though, and it was clear he was out drinking with friends. Ah, that was disappointing. I'm not sure if we'll be able to keep helping him, but I'm hopeful. We were able to find 4 other new investigators this week as well, which was awesome.

Some success this week though, was with the LA Brother Golf. He's a 21-year old young man who's been a member for 5 years or so. He's got depression and schizophrenia, and went LA a while back after reading some anti-mormon literature. He said that a lot of elders have tried to help him, but nothing has worked and he's still sad and doesn't have faith. We sat and talked with him, and found out that he's never actually read the Book of Mormon all the way through. Then we read Alma 32 with him, about the process of faith in our lives. The pattern that it describes is exactly what happened with him: When he was active and "nurturing the seed" he was happier and saw God's influence in his life. Then, when he stopped reading and praying and going to church, his faith died and he stopped seeing those blessings. Funny how that works. At the end of the lesson, he smiled and said "I think that the person who wrote this was really smart." Yeah he was. As we taught and testified, the spirit was way strong and I know he felt it. He committed to start reading and praying and going to church again. We promised him that if he did, he would see results and there was power in the statement beyond our words. It was awesome. It's just true.

Another insight from the Thai Book of Mormon: Thailand is the world's largest exporter of rice, and the whole country is just covered in rice fields. Rice is harvested similar to wheat; the top half of the stalks (with the grain) are cut off and collected, and the bottom half of the stalk is left in the fields. To clear the field in preparation to plant again, the field of dry stalks is burned. So, the scripture "the wicked shall be burned as stubble" translates to "the wicked shall be burned as rice," which I thought was interesting. I'd understood the meaning before, but this kind of helps make it more applicable to experience.

Outside of the city center are smaller villages. Many of them have problems getting clean water, and so the church is heading a project to help filter and pump water. We got to go up and be a part of the process. I didn't take many pictures though; hopefully I'll be able to get some from others in the future.

That's all I've got time for this week!
Elder Parish

1. The water source.

 2. Our team of specialists. The front car are some villagers, who are having their first experience eating peanut butter.

3. Another water project elsewhere that the government is heading. One like this is about 3 times over budget though.

 4. Water will be pumped to homes like these (this is the house of a member).

My first time eating a Passion fruit. Inside are a whole bunch of little seed packets that you pull out and eat. It was good.

1. Some guy driving around selling honey from his motorcycle, with the honeycomb strapped on behind him.

2. Tamarind season. Another kind of fruit; somewhat similar in taste to a prune or a date. To eat, break the outer shell and take a bite and eat the flesh around a hard black seed.