Monday, March 21, 2011

Brrr, it's cold inThailand!

Hello family
I'm doing great this week. How are all of you? This last week a storm from the north hit Bangkok and something amazing happen. The temperature dropped down to 60 degrees. It was wonderful. Although everyone who wasn't from Utah was freezing, I was really happy to be able to have some good cool weather in a while.
This week there isn't a lot to say. We had training meeting for the simplified curriculum of the MTC training that is going into the MTC in May. The focus of President Smith this time was, it sounds like the same thing that stake conference was on for you guys. The doctrine of Christ. It is amazing to me when you look at it how simple Heavenly Fathers Plan is for us, but at the same time how perfect it is as well. In the center of it is Jesus Christ's Atonement for us, On the outside there is Faith in Christ, Repentance of our sins, then Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, then Baptism by fire or Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, Last Enduring to the End, or Following every commandment that we promise to follow at the time we are baptized until we die. One of my favorite scriptures to read now is 3Nephi27:13-22. But in the end that's the purpose of missionaries: To " Invite others to come unto Christ by receiving His restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." Here is an interesting fact. That was the thing that took Quorum of the Twelve the longest time to come up with. A single phrase that would have our entire purpose in it. The next thing was the baptismal commitment that we use on page 40 in Preach My Gospel. Any ways every time I go to a training meeting I get a little sad because I won't get to see how the mission changes in the next year with the new program coming from the MTC.
As for Sister Mam and her 2 kids Mo and May. We decided to postpone the baptism for a week longer just so we could get any legal issues out of the way. Because May and Mo were given to Mam to look after when they were young, they are not her family by law and/or blood. So we have been trying to find out what kind of laws Thailand has for foster parents. It turns out that Mo and May's parents are still alive and around but neither of them are willing to take liability of them. So when they were young, Mo when she was 2 and May when she was 6 months, they were given to Mam to raise. And they have been there ever since. The Church also requires signatures for the legal guardian or parents of minors, so we have been talking to President Smith trying to figure out what to do. In the end we decided because Mam has had custody of Mo and May for so long and the parents don't want anything to do with them that it would be OK for Mam to sign the baptismal records for them. And they will be baptized this next Sunday. The other day Mam said something that I liked a lot. On the day she invited us to her house, she never thought that the things we taught would have been for her more then for May and Mo who she was intending to take us to teach, and "Make more obedient." She herself really has changed a lot. I was happy for her for being able to find the gospel.
I'll send photos next week
Hey before I forget. I got Sister Smith's Blog site where she now sends all of her pictures by email to her son who puts them on for her. She takes a lot from the training meetings and sticks them on. Smithhere@blogspot.com. You should be able to find some pictures of me and those in the zones and districts that I work in.
OK, I have to go
Love you all
Elder Brandon John Holt

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