Testify of Christ

Man crazy week! It went so fast! First off congrats to Cam and Serena 1 whole year! Wow! Sophia 5 weeks old! Things are flying by! Nancy and Randy Sweet! Texas Road House sounds delicious! And that is a pretty sweet garden at Lauren's house!

K so on with the week! This week was way great! Right now we have two daters! One is from english! His name is Boo. As in Hey BooBoo Where is the pickanic basket. Ya he is cool! So doing great. Has a date for the 30th. Then Brame.  We are also teaching a guy named Som. He is actually a guy raised up at a buddhist temple. An orphan. He is way cool. He is way interested! We also have an FHE with President Som Chay's family on Saturday. We are going to teach his older brother's family. 

  

Anyway this past week we had Zone Conference. Everyone got to get interviewed by Pres. Senior. Way awesome. The Conference was on Diligence, Desire, and Duty. So as you can imagine way good. I actually got to speak at Zone Conference on Diligence. So I guess I must have done something right or he thinks I need more diligence. Haha! It was way good. I was talking to president Senior because well I don't know if you noticed but our baptisms here in Chiang Mai are flowing away like water. It isn't sad. It is just the truth. So we talked about helping the ward and I was like we have only seen two baptisms in the last 2 quarters and we are trying really hard to get more. And he told me that I was called here to help the branch and help LA's return. And to stregthen the RC's to stay strong. It was really interesting. But if you have noticed we have been helping LA's a lot.  We are helping so many people come back. It is weird cuz at times I feel like I could be doing more. But when I look back. I see how when I got to this branch we had an average of 35 people attending sacrament. We just barely had 79 people in sacrament this past week. Trust me it isn't me doing the work. It is the Lord preparing these people to come back. We now officilly have enough priesthood in our branch to be qualified for a ward. When I got here we had about 8 priesthood coming. We have about 18 or 19 Melcheldick priesthood (missionaries and everyone) so things have turned a lot and we know that the Lord called us here not only to find and baptize but to strengthen people. It is funny because the question everyone asks you when you get home is how many people did you baptize. Not how many people did you help come back into the fold of Christ. Don't take this like we don't want baptisms because we want them! And we had the best zone conference ever! In fact. On Friday. We had a whole day dedicated to contacting and prosleyting! Where we talked to every person we saw and bore testimony to them. It was so great! Always bear testimony of the living Christ. So great! I loved it! It made me have a different out look on talking to people. Let them know your message and why you are hear. We aren't English teachers. But we teach about Christ and Salvation through his name. So it was the best day ever. We bore testimony to 39 people. So it was way good. Loved it! We went to the Univesity here and bore testimony. We figured that is the most receptive group to our message. So it was great!

Then on Saturday we got to go and visit Alex Bedino he is a stud! He is from Italy his wife is Thai but studied college in Italy and they met there. He has a way cool conversion story! And they are preparing to go through the temple next week. And guess who was their temple prep teachers. Yep you got it. The missionaries! haha! We read from the pamphlets and books and helped them both understand the message. He even cooked us authentic Italian food! Way good! So it was exciting. They are also having a baby soon. So it was so fun to talk about the sealing in the temple and how happy they were to be with their baby for eternity. He is the strongest member. I admire him a lot. In a lot of ways he reminds me of Cam but with an Italian accent. Plus they both teach us Italian. So way cool. Sister Dye his wife actually spoke in church with me and Sister Orchard yesterday.  Way good! That family is great I will send a pick of them!

Yesterday we had church and it was great. I also had to translate the lesson into Thai because Alex was teaching about the temples! They are going to the Tokyo temple and he really loved studying and teaching about the temple. He just barely passed his year mark as a member and he gave his first lesson in Thai! Way fun.

Well family that is about it for the week! Nothing to much. English was great this past week and we are finding lots of investigators. The District found a total of 22 new investigators last week! Way good! I have a great hard working district so I might reward them with something we call Tim Tam slams! That is the cookies and milk thing. They are a great hard working District and as always a priviledge to serve with them!

Well Thanks for the great tips on being an influence it is so true! I need to be better everyday and be an example. The church in Thailand needs great examples and they look up to us as being strong and faithful members. I don't want to disappoint them. This past week we went to a wedding for a couple members and I learned their story about how both of their families disowned them for joining the church and then doing a christian wedding. Honestly they look up to us. But they are the ones who show so much faith who I admire and I love to see their faith in Christ is greater than their fear of men. Always be a testament of Christ in your actions. Stand out, be different, let those people know you are a Mormon and you are proud of it! I am so happy to be here and serve in Chiang Mai. I love the people here in this branch and area! They are the best!

Love you all.

Elder Landon Simonsen

P.S. We have about 150-160 missionaries right now. Fun fact. There are 18 coming in next transfer. Followed by two groups of 20 plus people! so way good! We will see a growth of missionaries here! I love you and have a great week!