Happy Thai Mothers Day!

Hey Family,

Well today is officially Mothers Day in Thailand. So thanks for being the best mom ever! I love you! Besides that there are questions on transfers meeting. Well I am being transfered on Thursday. But I won't know the area until then! So next week. I will be somewhere else! Fun stuff. Lets see. And this past week. Noi didn't get baptized. His Grandmother passed away 4 days ago and the funeral was on Sunday. So he couldn't stay for his confirmation. So we moved it back to this week. We have 4 people scheduled for baptism in our district next week! So ya pretty cool. I am super sad to be moving. But hey isn't that how things work out. It is all good I know that everything will work out with these people. I have been working really hard to prepare Elder Pyne to lead the area when I leave. He has grown so much in the past few weeks. He is so much more confident and he speaks so much more in lessons now. It has been great to see how much he has grown so far. It has been great serving with him.

So ya it was a great week for the work. We found some really great investigators. Dawn is an 18 year old kid who just turned 18 last week. And he has learned with the Elders before. The only problem was is his parents wouldn't let him get baptized. So when we asked him why he wanted to learn again. Is he said, because I love Jesus and I want to be baptized. And I looked at Elder Pyne and we both just knew this guy was golden. He came with a friend Jai Jai. She is 18 as well. Just friends. But she is interested in Christianity as well. So I am stoked for Dawn. He is ready. So I am sad, because I know he will be baptized so quick. We didn't call him or anything. He just shows up to church in his Sunday Dress clothes. And we thought he was a visiting member. haha! But really awesome. God really blessed our area this week. So we went out to Jerry's and A's house this past week! They are awesome. We met with A's dad as well. And 80 year old Thai Guy. You are thinking stubborn right?! Well nope! He is legit! We talked with him and shared the Plan of Salvation. And he was like I believe it already. I was like awesome. And everything I talked about he already believed. Way funny. But ya he isn't golden. But I think he will accept the Gospel in the next life. He is a super nice and kind guy. Just old and thinks that all religion is good. But he is one of the first buddhists to believe he will live with his family again for eternity. So I liked him. His wife died 40 years ago of Cancer has 6 kids. Really great Guy. Kai is awesome. I love that guy. I will be saying bye to them tomorrow. We are going out to teach them so it will be great. A is reading and yesterday at Church she started crying reading the Book of Mormon. She doesn't like when families have hardships and trials and she was sad when Laman and Lemuel disobeyed there father. It was cool. Thai people respect there parents and grandparent really well. At the mothers day activity. They had a part where they have the children bow down and wai the parents or grandparents. It is cool I will show pictures.

As I said Noi isn't getting baptized but he is doing so great! I really love that guy to death. I hope that things are great for him. My comp will be here and things will all be good. I know that God prepared him for the Gospel and I know that he will be baptized next week. Sometimes things don't go as planned. But I know there is a reason for everything and all missionaries doing the Lord's work are on the same team and it really doesn't matter who gets the point for baptism. Because in the end it is all the Lord's work. And he blessed us with great new investigators so it is all good. I got to go see Nirandawn this past week. He is doing great. I really love that guy! I even got a picture with him! He is a sweet man!

This week I was talking to a Buddhist monk that is a leader at his temple. I was super interested in what Buddhists believe. We were coming home from A's and had an hour to talk. Buddhism itself is a really good religion. But I got so confused. There are so many sects and so many different leaders of different temples. And they all kinda teach different things. Like Kai A's dad believes he will live with his family. I talked about all the buddhists sects. How there leadership works and it felt so unorganized. He was talking about they can't build anything until people pay donations to build new temples and all I thought was I could see so many distorted truths in the religion. But it was an interesting experience. I am just so thankful that we know there is one religion that is correct. There are so many confusing things in the world and I am so glad to have the Book of Mormon and the knowledge I have. I truly am thankful for being raised in the church.

I hope that things are going great this week! I loved the e-mails. And I since it is Mother's Day I just want to thank Mom for all she has done for me! The missionaries sang a Thai Mother's Day song. It is one of the best songs ever. It talks about the bond between a mother and her children. Us missionaries got to sing it at the activity. It made a few mothers cry. They truly are the most loving people here. And I want to let you know mom and dad that I love you. I feel like I love my family so much more being out here in Thailand. It is crazy because the Thai people love there family so much. And how great is it that we can teach them the plan of salvation. I love my mission so much. I wouldn't trade one moment of it. I treasure every second of it. I hope that you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Landon SImonsen