Week 65:

This week we were able to find some new investigators. It's still a little early to predict where they'll go, but we've laid a foundation. It's been a little frustrating with our current pool of investigators; it seems like they all went on vacation or had accidents and were not able to meet this past week. That's concerning, because long duration without a visit is usually a death sentence for investigators (I guess there's a lesson in that; when the seed of our faith is neglected, it wilts and can even die).

Friday was a bit of a special day. Some students from Weber State University came to Thailand for some projects, and through a member who is a professor there, set up some time to go to North Chiang Mai university. The zone leaders asked us to go with them, and It was really interesting being with a bunch of white college students for a day. I learned a couple interesting things:

I appear to have developed an accent. A couple different people asked about it, and they were all surprised to find out that I'm from Utah, because I don't sound like it. Ha, that's was funny to learn. I guess focusing on making the correct Thai sounds the past year or so has carried over into how I pronounce English words.

Speaking with Thai university kids who have been learning English for years has given me an increased appreciation for the remarkable speed that missionaries learn foreign languages. It feels pretty natural while on the inside, but from another perspective it is quite miraculous.

One of the students served a mission in Russia, and talked a bit about his experiences. He baptized 5 people on his mission, but a family of three asked to have their records removed shortly thereafter. He had it way rough, but he still loved it and misses it. That was good for me to hear, because sometimes I get frustrated with the pace of missionary work, but he provided a helpful new point of view.

We had a zone training on serving out of love. That's something I can work on. There are principles I want to apply that (hopefully) I'll be able to report on in the future.

Elder Parish

1. Elder Cheney had Somdtam for the first time! (2 peppers).

2. Us at the university.

At the royal garden in Chiang Mai.

Oh, Thai to English romanization...