Week 96: Jeans, The Lottery, and Marbles

This week...

This week we had Zone Conference as well as a meeting for missionaries that will be going home in the near future thrown into the mix of general missionary activities. This was my last Zone Conference, so that was a bit weird. The other meeting was inspired by President Johnson seeing a lot of missionaries get into trouble upon going home, so it was about making plans and goals for the future. It was way good.

This week we got a few new investigators. A couple were people that Elder Brown initially contacted, which is awesome.

One of them was a young girl named Yeen (the word "jeans" with a Thai accent. Thai names are funny). She's actually Christian already, and wants to be a missionary. That's actually why she approached Elder Brown initially. When we met her in the first appointment, she'd recently made a mistake that she was feeling really bad about. So in that lesson we shared some scriptures about the atonement that she previously didn't have access to because they were in the Book of Mormon. She was touched as we talked about our opportunity to repent and be cleansed through Christ clarified through another book of scripture, and I could see an almost visible burden being relieved. It makes me think about the invitation from the Savior to come and partake of His salvation-- everyone can do it, it's there and active. But so many choose to not partake, and miss out on that peace and comfort that is free to all.

We introduced the story of the Restoration and saw holes get filled and understanding completed. It was neat. The more I learn of the Gospel and of the Restoration, the more I feel like it can't be anything but true.

We got a letter from president today:

President Johnson

Dear Missionaries,

All trips to Lopburi to see the monkeys are now prohibited. Please honor this restriction. We have had 7 missionaries get bit by monkeys in the last 2 months. Once bit, missionaries must go through a series of 5 rabies shots. This is very expensive and is also disruptive to the work.

I love missionaries that don't have rabies,

President Johnson

Haha, Thailand Bangkok Mission.

We saw something funny this week: a cluster of people surrounding a "sacred" tree rubbing baby powder onto the trunk. Some investigation and I got the story: people want to win the lottery. The odds of that happening aren't high, so they enlist the help of a spirit living in a local shrine. They'll bring an offering of red Fanta or a pretty dress or something and leave it at the shrine. Then they'll take baby powder and rub it on the tree until they see patterns that resemble numbers to tell them what lottery ticket to buy. So that's interesting

Alright, that's all I've got this week. Thanks for all your support!
Elder Parish

1. How to win the lottery.

2. For some reason, hot dogs are portrayed as high-class dining here and I think it's funny.

3. Elder Brown playing marbles with some kids.