Elder Cheney's Suit and Thai Adventure: Storm, Mountain and Service

This week went by really fast. We had a lot to do. On Tuesday night we had a crazy storm and all the power was out everywhere. It was really bad, as we were trying to bike home and it was just super strong wind and rain. Then when we got in for the night we did not have the normal luxury of air conditioning because of the power being out. We ended up doing our planning time and preparing for bed by the light of some candles we found in our house. Sadly the candles only made the house hotter it was very unpleasant.

The next day we got a phone call to go serve a member that had been affected by the storm. We biked to the church and Elder Barlow, the senior missionary, gave us a ride in the car to the member’s house. The problem was that the area was so destroyed it took us 2 hours to find a route the car could make it through to get to their house. They had a lot of trees down at their house that we helped them to clear out.

Then the next day we went up to the mountain to visit one of the less active members. It was so rural it was crazy. We ended up teaching a blind guy up there as well. he was really interesting. Then, after we taught that member, she just took us around to all sorts of other people all over the village. That was cool. She took us to about 5 other houses to teach.

Then, this Sunday I baptized my first person. It was one of the Sister’s investigators. That was a great experience. It was very last minute and unexpected but she asked for me to baptize her and I was glad to serve. It was awesome hearing her testimony of the restored gospel after her baptism and her feelings when she was baptized. It made me feel really good that I could be an instrument in the hands of God to bring that happiness to her.

Then, today we got to go to the highest mountain in Thailand. We got up at 2:15 in the morning so we could see the sunrise from the top. We got to the top and it was so foggy we couldn't see the sunrise at all. Then, I had a cool thought as I was standing at the summit, which was, I am now the highest person in Thailand. (One of the perks of being the tallest person in the group).