Sunday, February 19, 2017

2-19-17 Sakon Nakhon Thailand












Hey hey Dad!

Tell Sister Peluso to be careful! I don't have that long before I'm going to come back after all! At least until Kaleb gets back though!

So this week was a blur! Second week down, lots of appointments, not a ton of inviting, in all honesty. Having a trio here means we combined the two area books, so we have way too many investigators to allow for a lot of inviting time. The evidence is given by the fact that we had 7 investigators at church this last Sunday. That's a ton! We have a plan to get one more, who is the dad of 2 of our investigators, but we'll see about that as the transfer goes on!

I got to take over the advanced English Class on Tuesday. That was a lot of fun! The other two classes, the kids, and the basic class, have set programs to go by, and teach by, and basically have to teach from no foundation, while making it fun. I don't know if I could do that. What I do know, is that I can teach normal English, in the way that I learned it at school. It was a lot of fun basically reciting the concepts I learned from all 13 years of school, all the way until now. So that's pretty enjoyable! I have a loose structure, but these people have questions of their own, so I try to answer those as well. Lots of fun!

After that, we were teaching, and teaching, and teaching. Still working on Brother N, but he's getting better! Really trying to get him to stop smoking, and drinking coffee. We're making progress though! Young investigators are great. They're pretty polite, and they almost all have a baptismal date! One is happening next transfer, but one is going to happen on the 15th or so. We have 4 total, so we're working on the other two, and seeing if we can teach their Dad as well!

Understanding is great, and pretending to understand everything is also great! Because I'm pretty dark now, if a lot of folks think I am native now. It's a lot of fun just to interact with them in that way.

For the greatest part of it all: Food Poisoning. That was an experience. It was the most awful Night/Day cycle I've ever experienced in my life. I can guess where I got it from, so we might seldom go back there as often, if at all. Headaches, nausea, and about 30 bathroom trips. I'm thankful for that tylenol that you sent me, because I was taken out on Saturday. It was awful. But I made it through, and the other Elders got to make a lot of phone calls to a lot of people in our area books. So, it all worked out!

I told the Mission Nurse, because we have to get permission to stay indoors.

Life here looks comfortable, not the most clean nor very affluent, but comfortable anyway. People are happier with less, and people are happy to interact, do whatever. You don't take for granted the toilets for sure. Sakon Nakhon isn't very wealthy, but they often have what they need, and are happy in places that I think look sketchy sometimes, which is great to see. It's not shocking to see it, but it's fun, and enlightening, to see people here, like this.

I just need to make sure to give 100% of my heart! Doesn't mean seriousness all the time, but I feel it does mean not being indifferent, and really caring!

Always have to work hard! That's what I learned from Track, you have to go after what you want, with everything that you have. Only then will we have success. Same with learning Thai! Always trying, but always remembering that I have to keep my will submissive to what the Lord wants, for this is the Lord's Work, and we, as missionaries, are instruments, bound to preach the word as moved upon by the Holy Ghost, and what we know is right. Only then can we speak miracles, in Thai, or in any other language!

I try to keep a good attitude all the time! I really appreciate Prathaan Johnson though. He's so great, and I know he cares for all his missionaries, top, to bottom. I recently heard that Heavenly Father knows exactly which Mission President we need!

All right, not much for this week, but that's it! Love you a ton, and talk to you soon!

- Elder Collin Decker

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