Jackie and Elder Barlow

So I guess I have 2 weeks to write about because I missed last week. So, the first week was pretty good. We found this person across the street from our investigators house, so we talked to him. His name is Jackie, and he said he had met with the missionaries about 50 years ago. He even told us their names but we just kind of brushed it off because we didn't know them. He moved away and lost contact with the church. He asked if he could get a Book of Mormon because he had lost his. So we go back to talk to him and drop off the Book of Mormon, then he starts telling us all about how he met with the missionaries, a lot, 42 years ago. So we start teaching a lesson to him about the gospel of Jesus Christ and he didn't really remember that much which, wasn't that big of a surprise. Then we move on to baptism and he tells us he got baptized already by the elders in Chiang Mai 42 years ago. We were really surprised that this guy was baptized already because we thought he was just a former investigator. We let him know that he is already a member of the church. He came to church on Sunday which was really good and then we met with him later in the week to make sure he would keep coming to church and everything. Later, during this week, we had some senior missionaries come in, Elder and Sister Barlow. Elder Barlow was a missionary in Thailand a while ago and he told us about how he served in Chiang Mai. So then we go to Church yesterday and Jackie is there again and we are talking to him after Sacrament Meeting and he is talking about when he went to church 42 years ago and he had been taught by Elders Barlow and Wall. Then we pause for a second and then run and grab Elder Barlow from across the room, and they have a cool reunion. It is crazy how unlikely that is to happen, especially when you consider how small the church was 42 years ago.

 

My companion, Elder Parish said, “Wow! What a testimony of how God is aware of His children and wants us all to return to Him. I feel so fortunate to have played a part in God's plan of bringing a lost sheep back into the fold.”

So Ostrich Riding was really fun. It was kind of interesting because the ostriches aren't really tamed to ride they just grab the ostriches neck and pull it down and the put a bag over its head, then the ostrich won’t move anywhere because it can't see. They then put a step stool up to the ostrich and you just climb on. It is weird you just grab the wings and that is how you hold on. It felt like you were about to rip the wings out but I think they know what they are doing. Then the workers chase the ostrich around with a metal pole to make it run. There is also no set time limit you have on the ostrich it is just till you fall off. I was on for about 15 minutes which is pretty good. The ostrich’s knees bend the other way it is really odd. So sometimes when the ostrich would run it would just start clawing my leg with its foot.

Later in the day, last P day, we went up to this all white Buddhist temple. It was cool. That temple is really well known because it is the only all white one. Most of the other ones are really colorful.

This week we have had a little more success. We got to meet with a family and they have a Baptism date for the beginning of April. They also came to church yesterday which is very good. We are in an area call Sun Sai which is about a 40 minute bike ride and probably a 20 minute car ride to the main part of Chiang Mai. So it is pretty hard to get people to come to church when they have to travel a ways to get there. They are actually the first investigators to come to church that live out in Sun Sai.

Not that much else happened this week

-- Elder Cheney

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