Utah weather has nothing on Thailand! lol

Hey family, friends, and fellow followers of my letters

This week has been slow but progress with the work has been made. What a strange way of starting my letter its too formal. Any who I'm doing great. Today for an activity Elder Merrill And I met up with Brother Keng from the Udorn Branch and went and visited the Floating markets. That was a blast I'll be sure to throw in some photos..... if I get time. Today we're under a time limit shorter then normal because we have been playing all day all over Thailand. The Floating markets are in a province where there's not an Elders area. The province of Rajaburii. My grammar is getting horrible. Please forgive me if I can't speak English properly for the first few weeks.

This last week we have been teaching a new couple named Did and M. We found them about 3 weeks ago but they haven't really been progressing until they went to the church this last week. M was the one that let us into their apartment when we knocked on their door. She had been introduced to Christianity when she was younger by her friend and had taken an interest to praying. She had been praying on her own before we came. The night that we knocked on her door she felt that it might have been a answer to one of the times that she prayed. Did has no background for Christianity but he is enjoying learning with us more then M is, or it seems. The problem is that Did is traveling to Japan for 3 months this Wednesday. So we are going to see if we can get the missionaries to find him over there. Whoever teaches him will have to know how to speak Thai. If possible they should be speaking Sakonakhorn because he is from there. That made us friends really fast. You don't meet a lat of people that are bold enough to eat dog and say they like it in Bangkok.

Today I went and got the final fittings for the suit that I'm getting cut. It will be finished next week I'll be sure to send pictures. If possible Mom I would like you to put some more money into my account just because its going to be more than my last suit. $150 should be good. I love you too.

Anyway the weather here in Thailand has been strange this hot season as in it has not really been hot at all. But it has been really rainy and when it rains it pours and when it pours in Bangkok it backs up the sewers and when the sewers are backed up it floods. Last week we were in a taxi going to find a investigator and turned onto a street that there was a river of water up to our car doors. It gave us the feeling of riding in a boat.

Today we are going to try and give Doom a baptismal date I'll tell you about it next week

Anyways that's my mind in a nutshell today.

I love you all

Brandon John Holt

Ending area is Pakkret

Hey family and friends

I have to say it was so much more fun talking to you by skype than by phone. I hope Connor gets to go to a mission that has permission to use skype as well so I can see it from the other side.

This week I'm doing great. We were a little trunky after our phone calls but that's normal. It didn't slow us down though. We still have a lot of work to do. This last week, a lot of things happened because of the transfers meeting. First I am still in Pakkret. This is my ending area. Next I have a new companion named Elder Merrill. He is awesome. Next Doom has had a major break through in her progression. Last I have a short time on the computer this week because we just got back from Bangkok and we have to go work tonight so this might be a short email. So if I don't talk about anything you want me to remind me next week.


With Doom I'm still not really sure what has been going on but suddenly she is becoming a lot more converted. She suddenly wants to come to church more and read and pray about baptism. This is a lot different than before, at first we literally had to twist her arm a lot to get her to pray once when we came to teach her. The real miracle happened yesterday at church. Last Saturday we were swinging by her house to see if she was going to church on Sunday. She said that she wanted to but didn't want to go behind her husband's back. Last time her husband was out of town and she lied to him and told him that she was going to work. This time she was going to talk to see if she would let her go with her daugthter. She also said that she wanted him to learn with us as well. (That was a huge change from the first lesson, she didn't want him to learn at all) Well she said that she was going to pray and ask Heavenly Father for help. This was from no advice from us, but we supported her all the way! The next day was way surprising to us when she, her daughter, and her husband all showed up to church. Its a miracle what can happen when the Spirit works with people. My goal is to help her get baptised before I go home. So Elder Merrill and I have a lot of work to do with that family.

Today I went in and got the fabric and fittings for my second suit. This one will be a little more expensive. It will cost 7300 baht. But it will be a lot better quality. I have laid a down payment of 2000 baht and so I will need 5300 baht or about 176 dollars to pay for the rest. Its worth it.

OK I'm going to take off.

I love you all

Elder Brandon John Holt

Hey, only a week until Mom's day

Hey สวัสดีครับ family

Hows life going? This week I'm still alive and kicking!!! Anyways this last was a lot of meetings. Well really there were only two, a fireside and a meeting, but it did seem like I was out of my area a lot this week.

Anyway, first off, last Wednesday we had the Church History meeting for the missionaries. What it was, was that two representatives from the Church History department, sorry I can't remember their names, and Elder Pratt. One of the members of the Seventies for the Asia South area, were touring all through Asia, because it has never been done before. The purpose was to gather information to write a history about the church. So as they went they also wanted to help the missionaries by giving them better understanding of church history and it was all uncut, for whatever that means. Well there were a lot of cool things asked, like what is the Church's take on the Mountain Meadow Massacre. The assistant to the church historian, who has written two books on it, said that he thinks its the worst thing that happened in church history, by far. That's why he did so much research on it. He added that in. He thinks the main cause of it was, members being inpatient and not following council. In the end it ended up being a mistake covering up a mistake covering up a mistake, until it lead to the massacre.

I personally asked about some anti-mormon material that I had received in my firty (first?,mom) area about the Book of Mormon. I asked about the how many changes the Book of Mormon had, why it was changed and what did the changes do to the Book of Mormon. My answer was that there were changes in printing the first addition for short, mostly grammar changes, but there is a book put out by BYU that has every change in it. He said he didn't recommend me to look it up unless I like looking at English stuff because it was boring for him to look at it. Maybe I'll look it up for fun

They followed talking about what we should do if we find anti-mormon, The historian just advised remember what they said and the answer will come up later. For example, he said that in the past those who were against the church tried to prove the Book of Mormon wrong based off the sword of Laban being built out of steel in the bronze era where there was no steal forging. Well after 10 years they found a sword in Jerusalem that was made at the same time period that was made out of steel. He said this happens all the time. I also learned a interesting fact. The church has the worlds largest archive of Anti-mormon material in the world. That's because of a commandment in D&C that they are to keep everything against them for a record.

After Elder Christensen and I took a trip to the hospital. Not about me or him really. But Elder Christensen had to get a check up from a trip about 3 months ago. We went to one of the worlds best hospitals, it felt more like a hotel really. We walked in to the bottom floors and there was a complete food court with McDonald's and Subway. I could get sick there and wouldn't mind. Anyways it gave me a thought that maybe if I decided to learn further then being a firefighter then maybe I will look for a internship here in Thailand. It would give me another reason to come back.

Last is we had a leadership training meeting that I had to go to. Its all about the Simplified curriculum that is supposed to start this month in the MTC. I'm kind of sad that I won't be here for the next year. Because I was here when we started learning all this stuff last June and after a year the mission has turned upside down from what it use to be. I can only imagine what the missionaries will do to it next year.
I'll see you next week on skype and maybe explain the snake pictures.555

Love you

Elder Brandon John Holt