Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Kameron's twentieth email!!! :) April 22nd 2012 for the US and April 23rd 2012 for Thailand!

132 days in the mission field!
Dear Everyone:

Brother Kwaan and Sister A were baptized yeserday! I baptized them both. The prayer wasn't hard it was the names because those aren't their real names. Their real names are Tawatchai Buathong and Paphada Chalermgundacha. Obviously that's english spelling not thai so it's impossible to spell right and sound out right. But it was a great experience and super spiritual. I will send pictures next week. It was such a spiritually uplifting experience for everyone involved. Including our 4 baptismal daters who were in attendance. I absolutely love missionary work. It's amazing!

Man it is hot in Thailand goodness! Haha. I didn't realize how hot it was I just know it's HOT! Anyways, our house has AC and some members houses have it. But most building have generally. If not their are fans blowing and that generally helps. It's weird I swear the fans work here better. Might just be because I'm soo hot the fan is a blessing I don't know. Haven't seen the robot building and things are generally pretty exciting. Buddhist temples are interesting and there are a lot of them. It's hard to explain the houses. All i know is that our house is too big for the two of us... Too much to clean.
So our investigators are all doing sooo well It's great! Just wish we had more investigators. And the members are church are doing well. We had 65 ish people at the branch this week which is pretty solid amount of people :) Had lots of people be able to stay to support the baptisms as well! It's sooo fun to be here in Thailand. The Language is also coming along very well too! It is flying by though. Sooo crazy!!!

This week I feel I should express my gratitude for the Book of Mormon. I've learned since I've come out just how important the Book of Mormon is in conversion. If you can get your investigators to read the Book of Mormon 10 minutes a day it's almost an automatic conversion. If they read they will pray and go to church. We obviously commit them to go to church as well and pray as well. But the Book of Mormon has such great power in converting investigators and members! If you read the Book of Mormon 10 minutes a day at least you should never go astray the Book of Mormon is just soo powerful. All of our investigators that have been baptized and that are pushing for a date are reading the Book of Mormon everyday! The book of mormon truly is the key to conversion and the key to the gathering of isreal as well. I encourage everyone and their families to read the book of mormon at least 10 minutes a day if not more and I know that everyone will have good experiences!

Well I better get going. I know the the Lord is helping all missionaries across the globe and that he is definitely helping my companion and I. I'm ready for this week to begin to start serving more people here in Thailand. I hope everyone stays safe and has a great week! I love you all!
Love

เอ็ลเดฮร์ เฝเดริโค
Elder Federico

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Kameron's nineteenth email!! :) April 15th 2012 for the US and April 16th 2012 for Thailand!

125 days in the mission field!

Dear Everyone:
Thailand is really fun, and our investigators are just super awesome.
It's amazing to see the changes they are making in their lives. This
past week was the water festival called (Songkran) and the whole
country has a water fight for about 3 days, April 12-15. It's crazy
crazy! We got to play on friday because we changed Pday to friday and
had a 6:00 PM curfew because of the craziness of Thai people. Anyways,
it was fun. People drive by in trucks and just fling water at cars and
bicyclists and motorcylcists and stuff. Insane. Of course we
missionaries cannot ride in the back of trucks like that for our
safety. But was got to fling water at people walking by or motorcycles
and such from the side of the road. Lotsa fun. Feels weird because in
America people would be angry but in thailand everyone just laughs. It
was a fun day, but super crazy because of how much they enjoy it and
how much water is just flying everywhere. Luckily I only got wet on
friday when I wanted to. I made it saturday and sunday without getting
wet but some missionaries weren't so lucky haha.

Well, all of our investigators are doing great. Brother Kwan Passed
his baptism interview and will be baptized on the 22nd, he wants me to
baptize him; so my first baptism will be in Thai.. hmm. Sister A has
her interview on Wednesday the 18th, I'm sure she will pass, and if
she does she will be baptized the 22nd as well. James is doing really
well, he has a date for the 6th, he's just struggling to understand
the Book of Mormon but we are reading it with him and he is doing
well, he is 15 years old but lives in a strong member's house. Sister
Benz is doing fantastic. She is scheduled for the 20th of may. At
first we just taught her, but her mother is opening up and hopefully
her two younger sisters will open up as well. Sister Benz wanted to
change her life and this sunday she came up to us and thanked us
because she truly is happy and loves church and the gospel and
appreciates us helping her to change her life. She loves reading in
the Book Of Mormon, especially with us as we choose a favorite verse
each chapter. She is doing fantastic. Absolutely golden investigator.
Our other dater did not make it to church, Brother Awn is 10 years old
and his older sister(12) is a member as well as his mom but they are
less-active. So we are trying to activate his mother and sister and
get him baptized. His mom wants him to be baptized and grow up in this
church but she is struggling herself so It's a rough situation,
relying on the spirit a lot with them. All-in-all Elder Benjamin and I
are having success here in Samut Prakaan, we are just trying to find
more investigators; but I'm sure they will come. I'm excited for the
baptism this Sunday! :) It'll be really awesome. It's amazing to see
the changes in our investigators each time we visit. Our other
investigators that aren't daters have struggles but they are getting
better each visit.

This past transfer we had to close a few areas in the mission but next
transfer should be able to open them up and a couple more. No
missionaries in the other countries yet and definitely no missionaries
in the penninsula of Thailand because of how crazy it is down there. I
am not sick of rice yet, you always have some sort of sauce of meat
with it and it's always yummy. At the fast-food chains here they don't
have everything america has but some of the more popular stuff as well
as a thai dish usually too. As for the poisonous animals, I honestly
do not know. I have not had to worry about that yet. Mosquitoes are
annoying but that's it. I have not seen a cobra but I have seen a
komodo dragon. Transfers went really well my trainer and I are still
together but that is not a surprise. He could leave next transfers but
I don't know.

Thailand is becoming very normal. I've almost been in Thailand for 7
weeks and have been on my mission for 4 months already. It is flying
by. I'm doing very well, although it's very hot here. I encourage
everyone to check the weather out here because I honestly do not know
what it is, Just know that it is HOT! I encourage everyone to have
family prayer and family scripture study every day. Give the Lord 30
minutes a day to study/pray as a family and you will be blessed. 3
Nephi 18:21 talks about praying as a family. Just do it and the Lord
will bless you. Well that;s all I have to say. I hope everyone enjoys
themselves and stays safe. I love you all.
Love
Elder Federico

Kameron's eighteenth email!! :) April 8th 2012 in the US and April 9th 2012 in Thailand!

118 days in the mission field!

Dear Everyone:

Samut Prakaan, Bangkok, Thailand is doing well. My companion and I are enjoying ourselves but that's just because we are teaching sooo much! It's fun to see people's faith help them triumph challenges. Like Brother Kwaan has had problems with smoking, alcohol, coffee, tea, and basically everything haha. But he has triumphed through all of that because of his faith and not has his interview for baptism this week. I'm super excited; he's grown sooo much in the last month. Sister A also has her interview this week but she doesn't have too many things to triumph; just a lack of support from her family but she's really strong and faithful already. This week is transfer meeting! Insane how quick the time flies and such. I cannot believe it has already been six weeks! General conference was interesting but good. I watched it in Thai so didn't learn everything but Liahona next month will help so yeah. I did get to read the last session (Sun Afternoon) in English while watching in Thai so that was good. All our of investigators that came all had a good experience and learned something that they enjoyed so that's good. Oh and the car bombs from what I understand were down in the penninsula way way way far away from any missionaries, we aren't allowed to serve down there as you can see why. Although i think our area is the furthest south for Samut Prakaan so maybe the closest to that.. But still like 10+ hours car ride maybe even more. I don't know the specifics I just know it isn't anywhere near missionaries.

Thailand is still amazing and is kinda normal now haha. We take our shoes off to enter every house, but not stores and churches and such. And we sit on the ground a lot when teaching but sometimes people have chairs. The thing I've enjoyed the most other then the pizza company which has good pizza, oh and all the desserts here that are good. Is either Som Tam which is really spicy but really good; surprisingly no meat and mostly veggies and stuff but yeah; that with sticky rice is yummy. Then Khaw Mu Tod Gratiam which is fried pork with rice with garlic sauce stuff mixed in... really yummy.  I haven't had anything that I absolutely despise but that's because I avoid the sea food and such but I attempt to try everything. Sometimes I'm still reluctant to try things but that's just if they really look like insanely gross and if my companion doesn't like it it generally isn't good.

This week is Somgran or The Water Festival from the 11th or 12th of April till the 16th ish. It's just a huge water fight all across Thailand, next week I'll tell of my experience. So because of that we get to email today(monday) but it isn't pday, pday will be friday and we get to play in the water festival; get a water gun and have some fun haha. I'm excited to have some fun. It'll be fun I'm sure. I'll let you know that experience next week. But as for spiritual experiences, they are in great abundance. Generally, it's just to see the growth of our investigators that touches me a lot It has been sooo fun to help them come closer to christ while helping myself do the same.

Sounds like everyone is staying busy and moving on with life, that's good. I hope all goes well with the births of children and the trip to alaska for Katie and all trips I hope everyone has fun and returns home in safety. I know that the Lord will bless those that keep his commandments and pray for his help. Just keep chugging along, it might be hard to read the BOM everyday, but do it :) I promise it'll make your lives better and will help you solve the problems in your life. It truly is a special book and can solve anything as long as we believe that it can and we pray to God to help us understand and solve our problems. I love you all.

Love
Elder Federico

Kameron's seventeenth email!! :) April 1st 2012 for US and April 2nd 2012 for Thailand!

111 days in the mission field!

Things are going well here in Thailand, still hot as I'll get out! Anyways, Last week it his\t about 38 degrees celsius or 100.4 farenheit with 100% humidity. Luckily it rained that night so that cooled it down for a short time... like till the next day haha. I'm in week 5/6 in transfer 1/16 here so that's insane! SOOO quick! I've really enjoyed my time here in Thailand and things are becoming more normal here. Like I feel like Thailand is home now.

Last week was a great week! We had zone specialized training on finding new investigators and that's just what me and my companion need. We don't have many investigators (7) but they are all fantastic. But we do have a goal to find more people this week and we are working very hard. Had 20 lessons with investigators with members present and 3 other lessons with investigators so it was a full week. Just not much success finding new investigators.

Last week we got to switch companions and I went to the district leader's area with him. We had success in his area. I saw a lady having trouble with groceries so I said, "Let's go help her with those." We ended up getting into their house and teaching a very spiritual lessons for 40 minutes and they committed to another lesson and I think they are doing pretty well but I am not sure because they are not in my area. But It was a good experience. Not much else to say about last week. It sounds like everyone is staying busy as ever. I am definitely enjoying myself here and I feel like April will be a very good month!

Time is flying by out here already almost 4 months into the mission and a month into thailand! Super fast. I hope everyone is doing well. Everything is going well in Thailand.

I haven't seen general conference yet so I cannot say much about that. They use dvd's the second week because of time differences and lack of sattelite but I get to see it this week I'm excited. Although it'll be in Thai so we will see how that goes! Well I love you all and I hope everything is going Well.

Love
Elder Federico