Second Christmas in Thailand

Hello every body

Well, this last week, Elder Jensen and I had companionship exchanges with the zone leaders. I was with Elder Phanom (ผนม). I was way excited to work with him. I met Elder Phanom in the very beginning of my mission when I was in Lopburi for my first two transfers. I remember telling him that I hoped we could have one day that we could be companions together. I had almost forgot about that when as we were getting ready to switch back Elder Phanom asked "So is your dream fulfilled?" I laughed and told him yes.

We switched off for two days and because he had served in Ubon for 6 months, he knew some different neighborhoods to go inviting. So he took me around one day to find new people to teach.

This week we may not be having any baptisms. Well at least the ones that I talked about last week. (อว้น) and (วัลย์) or fat and one won't be getting baptized this week because they had to run off to do some family things so we haven't had enough time to get them ready but, they will get baptized next month.

However there is someone that might still get baptized this week. Her name is jitrii or (จิตรี). I think I wrote about her the last week or two. She has been really exciting to teach. Let me explain the story. So about three weeks ago we ran into her in front of her house and invited her about Heavenly Father. Well she had been studying a new religion/ cult I'm not really sure what it is. That a guy in Bangkok started where he claimed to know about a spiritual father. So she was interested to know what our thoughts were on Heavenly Father. She asked questions like, What does he look like? or Do you have a picture of him?' So we sat there and taught her about the restoration and showed her one of the photos of the restoration. we didn't have a lot of time to talk at that meeting because we didn't have a member with the priesthood with us so we couldn't teach but we did set up another appointment with her. The next day we returned to go back and teach. We taught more about the restoration, and in the end we asked her to pray about it. Well she said no. Normally that would be where we stop teaching and find someone else to teach but, Elder Jensen and I both felt something about her. So we asked if we could come back another day to talk, she agreed. We went back again and tried to teach about the restoration again and she still refused to pray at the end of the restoration. One thing we realized when we taught her after the second time is that we had been taking young adult members to help us teach. She is about 67 years old so in the end according to Thai culture the young adults are still children and she wouldn't even listen to them. Well that night we asked if we could meet her at the church next time. This time however we took the first councilor in the branch presidency with us to teach. That night we gave her a tour of the church and told about each of the different rooms. This is where she began to change with the Spirit. At the end of that lesson we committed her to come to church. she said she would come. This was 2 Sundays ago. she came and she began to open her heart. The next Monday we saw her with two members, a husband and a wife. We learned at that time that jitrii was a retired nurse. The sister that we brought was a nurse as well. That helped a lot. However that night everyone shared their testimony about prayer. One thing I have learned as a missionary is that nothing is more powerful then 4 people in the room sharing simple testimony. Well after everyone shared, I asked a question that I don't think I have ever asked anyone. It was, "What do you feel right now?" she said good. Then I asked have you ever felt like this before. she thought for a minute then said that she had felt the same the first time that she walked to church when we gave her a tour of the church. Then she had felt it again when she went to church. Next she said that she felt this almost every time that the elders had come. Then Elder Jensen and I both testified that that feeling was the Holy Ghost. And then everything clicked. She understood. So we committed her to pray and she said that she would try.

Well the next day as Elder Jensen and I were studying we received a phone call from jitrii. She said that she had received her answer and asked if we could come over that night. We said that we would be happy to. During that morning Elder Jensen and I prayed to figure out when we should give her a baptismal date. After praying we received an answer that surprised both of us. That was that she was to be baptized on Christmas day. That night we asked her if she would be baptized and she said yes. So every night following, we have seen her and taught everything that she needs to know to be able to pass the interview to be baptized. It's amazing what the Spirit can do to people. For example we taught her the Word of Wisdom and she said that she had been very, very, very addicted to coffee. but she said that she would stop drinking for the last couple of days. She has had a really bad headache because of the addiction. Every concern that she has had she has solved herself and put her trust in the Lord. So far as we know she is going to get baptized on this Saturday.

OK i have to run

I love you all Merry Christmas.

Elder Brandon John Holt

Signposts

Hello Family

Well I'm going to make this a little short because I need to send a good letter to President Smith. However let me tell you of our week.

I'll start on Wednesday. This last Wednesday, we had to travel to Si sa gade the providence next door to Ubon for a meeting with our zone and the assistants to the president. They thought a lot on how to truly work through faith as a missionary. One thing I definitely learned is that our faith is definitely shown through our Thoughts, Words and Actions. For example if we are truly committed to our purpose as a missionary, we will be able to enter any house and teach a lesson.

Let me tell you some of the miracles that happened this last week to illustrate. Remember jitrii (จิตรี) She is the lady that we found because we talked about Heavenly Father and she was interested in that. Well, for the last week she told us most determinedly that she would not want to learn anymore because she told us that she could not follow the things that we asked her to do. Mainly to go to church and pray. Well on Friday, we asked her if we could we could meet her at the church to teach because it might be a little better of an environment to learn. Well really she said that she was feeling bad that we had to come from the church to see her at her house, so we conveniently offered her to meet her at the church and she accepted. So at church we gave her a tour of the church and used very faith filled words for example " when you come to church you will see that the members will be the ones behind the pulpit teaching the rest of the members." or " In the third hour of church you will come to this room where you will be with other women called Relief Society" Instead of " if you come" Well our faith was rewarded because at the end of the tour she said that she would come to church on Sunday. And she did. She is going to be a great member in the future.

Another miracle is that we found a lot more new investigators than we have ever found in this area. The whole district was power boosted with the spirit and faith.

We also gave two investigators that have been learning since April baptismal dates for the 23rd of December. Their names are fat and one. I'm really excited for them. I'll try to remember to write more about them next week.

So in Thailand, more specifically in the east part of Thailand, there are these yellow signs posted on the power poles. They say things like Jesus is the redeemer of the world, or Repent of your sins, or have you written your name in heaven yet? What's interesting is, in my stay in the Issan is that I still can't figure who places these signs and apparently no one else knows because they either ask us if we put them up or they say they don't know either. I used to think that they were annoying and that no one really pays attention to them but as I have been here in Ubon, many of our investigators have mention the signs at one time or another for one reason that they decided to learn with us. To this day I'm not sure who put them up but if I figure it out I'm going to thank them for opening peoples hearts to the gospel.

OK I love you

Elder Brandon John Holt

Teaching new investigators

Hey family

Well today its a nice 80 degrees outside and everyone is dressed up in jackets and coats. I'm doing great.

This week has been a lot of work. We spent a lot of time finding new investigators. I don't know why but many of the investigators that we have taught in the past aren't keeping the appointments that they originally set up with us and it seems to be hard to meet with us again. So with the free time we have more time to find new investigators.

For example this last week we found through our efforts 14 new investigators. I think everyone we taught are in families. That's what I have found out the biggest key to the gospel is. Is teaching families. Because that is what the gospel is.

One of the new families that we found is a family of women. We were going into an area that we once had several investigators in several months ago so we were hoping to find maybe one of the former investigators and see if they were ready to learn further with us. At the same time we were going to visit a investigator and try to invite them to church to see if they would go. As we were walking buy some houses there was a tent with some childrens clothes hanging up. I saw a lady with her baby sitting down and smiling at us as we walked by. Normally I try to avoid all contact with women here that smile at us because usually they are thinking differently when I talk to them ( I'll let you figure that out)but, for some reason I went against all reason and turned around and walked into the tent to talk to the lady. After a few minutes of talking, I figured out that her name was boo(ปู) or crab in Thai and that she lived there with her step mother and step sister. She had recently divorced and moved out to Ubon to be with family. Her step mother was named bui (ปุ้ย) and her step sister named yoke (หยก). We told them that we wanted to share a message about family with them but, we needed a member of the opposite sex to be with us. They agreed and on the following day we returned to talk about the gospel and how it helps the family. They were really excited to learn. We are going to try to see them again tomorrow after we teach English with them. I'm excited to teach them.

We found another person that I am really excited to teach today. Her name is jitri(จิตรี) She is a elderly lady who loves to take care of cats. Lots of cats. Lately when we have gone tracting to find new investigators we stay in areas with in 1 or 2 kilos from the church. That way many of those we teach really don't have any excuse to not go to church because of travel. Anyways every now and then, in walking in an area that we go often we find a street that we haven't ever taken a step on. So it was with Jitri street. We hadn't walked out very far until we saw her in her house, which is a old townhouse that doesn't have a front wall. She uses tarps to block it off. We called her and she looked up and asked in broken English, "You are missionaries right". We said yes and talked a little about what we had to share. She asked, "Are you guys Christian?", this time in Thai. And I said that we were Mormon. That threw her off. She then asked, "I have never heard of Mormon. What is your God". I answered Heavenly Father. She then asked ya well what does Heavenly Father look like, I then began to explain that he looks like you and me or we look like him because he created us in his image. He has a perfect body like us. This seemed to intrigue her because she invited us in. Needless to say we didn't go in because we needed to have to have a member of the opposite sex with us. But she had a lot of questions and began to ask. It turns out that she had been reading a book about a guy that has a religious theory about how everyone has a spiritual father. She showed us the book and showed us a 12 sided star on the back she said that this is what the book says
Heavenly Father looks like. Then she asks do you have a picture of what Heavenly Father looks like? Thankfully I had a passaolng that talks about the first vision. I pulled that out and showed it to her and pointed out in the pitcure that see here is a picture of what he looks like and his Son Jesus Christ as well. She was even more intrigued. So we asked if we could come back to see her again with a guy memeber with us. The next day was just as cool. We are going to go back tonight to see her again.

Well I'm really short on time today

I love you all

Elder Brandon John Holt

Hey family

I'm doing super-duper this week. How's everyone at home? Well I don't remember if I told you that this last week was a transfers week or not but that's alright, because I wasn't planning on moving anyways. I did however get the package that was sent and will be putting up the decorations in our house if we have time. we should.....maybe. Anyhow.

This week went by really fast. In our district only 2 out of four companionships stayed behind to work. That makes this the 3rd transfer meeting that I missed through out my entire mission. It's strange not going down because you're not informed about a lot of things. Its all kind of up to the Zone leaders or what you hear from the gossip in the mission to get informed.

This week many of our investigators were either out of town or were unable to meet with us. So we had a lot of time to go find new investigators through the wonderful technique of tracting or inviting as I have sometimes called it. Its great to spend the time out in the sun day after day talking to people who really could care less. But I also love it because it's the best time to really understand Thai people and culture. For example I learned that right now in Thailand there is a huge craze about Hula hoops. I have been noticing more and more women and a few men hula hooping. Last night I figured out why. The heath department has set a goal for all of Thailand here to have more then 70% of Thai women with waist sizes under 30 inches. They decided that hula hoops were the way to do it. Maybe I should get on this. I seem to have trouble working out in the mornings. For the last week I have been working on my leg strength by walking. From my bed into the next room to the sofa. I think I am starting to see great results. Anyways

In the last week we had a few miracles in our finding. For example. There was a night when we were out in a neighborhood that Elder Jensen and I have been walking through at least once a day to find new people. This particular time we were with a member named Ice. Remember him, he was one of the 3 brothers that got baptized when I first got here. He is an amazing missionary. Anyways we were walking and Brother Ice saw a man behind his gate and hailed him. We went over and talked to him for a few minutes. Then asked if we could share a message about eternal families with him. He said he had to ask his wife first and walked inside for a few minutes. After a few minutes he came back out, and said if we could come back later because his wife wasn't feeling very well. That's a normal excuse not to listen to us so I figured he wasn't interested. But we asked if we could exchange phone numbers anyway. After that we walked away down the street. at the end of the street I got a phone call and to our surprise it was the man that we had just invited. He asked if we could come back and talk for a few minutes.

Some what still surprised we decided to turn back and see what he had to say. As we got there we were greeted by him and his wife at the gate. They both welcomed us in. As we sat down and started talking we learned that the wife had been a former investigator about 5 years ago and almost was baptized. The man talked to us a lot about family and how he liked how we talked about Eternal families. He said that kind of has a ring to it. Anyways I asked him why they didn't let us in at first. They said because at first the wife thought we were some kind of insurance salesman. Now that I think about it It's true, and its the best kind. 555

We haven't had a chance to get back to them yet but we will try in the future.

This week I sent some pictures home. the first few are of our thanksgiving party that Elder Jensen and I had. We had 2 there. Then there are some of the baptism that we had over the weekend. Remember the lady we baptized a few weeks ago. Well her children were baptized this week. It was a crazy week trying to get them ready for it.
Then I also sent some of our ลอยกระทง (laykrathong) adventure last Sunday.


Ok I have run out of time today sorry

I love you all

Elder Brandon John Holt

Loykrathong

Hello Family

Happy ลอยกระทง. Remember last year when about this time, I was in Lop Buri still. That seems forever ago. Yesterday was Loykrathong day here in Thailand. We had a few minutes just before we went back home last night to go float the plant boats that a member made for us. It was fun to take part in the Thai culture for a few minutes. I understand a little bit more about it this year then I did last year. Loykrathong is a festival in order to worship the spirit of the water, which brings life to all the earth and plant and rice and so forth. It also sweeps away all the bad stuff in the earth as well. So in order to give thanks to the water spirit they make small islands to float on the rivers and lakes of the cities. So last night we went to a reservoir nearby and placed the boat in the water. There were so many people. The only way that I can explain it is by comparing it to the 4th of July. But I still don't think that could come that close.
Anyways. This last week was a busy week but I feel like we got more done. On Tuesday I exchanged companions with Elder ตัอม or Tom in Warin the area across the river from us. We went and taught 3 new families, one being a part-member family with a less active member in it. Those guys are doing great over there. The best missionary is a native one working to bring his people unto Christ. And Elder Tom and Intavong or intawong prove that.

The rest of the week Elder Jensen and I worked in our area together to help our investigators. This was a week where we looked at many of our investigators that have not been progressing or we have been unable to meet with and decided how much time that we have to devote to them. Many of them we have decided to stop teaching because they have either no time or lack the commitment to progress. So until they are ready in the future we will, as President Smith says, "place them on the shelf" where we can see them but not teach them until they are ready to progress. AKA Formal investigator part in our area book. And with the cleaning up of the area book we have been doing the last few weeks the Elder in the future can find them again. A clean area book is very important, I'm sure Nate or Jed know how it feels when you get to a new area with missionaries that haven't been taking good care of the records.
Anyways we found a cool new investigator yesterday. We were tracting or inviting in a neighborhood that we have been to quite a lot the past week. As we were walking, we saw a man walk out of his house to take the garbage out. We talked to him and come to find out that we had invited him to come to English class a couple of days earlier. I hate when I talk to people that I have talked to before and don't recognize them. That happens a lot to me. And because I am one of the few white guys that can speak Thai, my age in this part of Thailand everyone remembers me. 5555. Anyways after I finally realized who he was, we started talking to him about Christianity. He asked a lot about a being missionary and the mission life. For example he couldn't believe that on Sundays we live and work from 8 in the morning to 8 at night without pay of one baht. We kept talking to him and he said he would like to learn a little about what we had to teach.

His name was เบิล (bun) or gun in Englih. He lived with his wife. We sat down and asked if his wife would be interested in learning too. He said that he was a little scared to ask because they had been a fight in the morning and on non-talking terms for the day. (what a great time the meet the missionaries) Anyways we asked him to try and he did but she wasn't willing to even say more then a word to him so she didn't come, but she did at least sit down in front of her computer in the same room. Anyways as we started talking he asked what is a great way to calm down after a fight like this. I looked at him and said well we have this thing called prayer. That works really well. so from that we started teaching him. It turned out that he was really interested in learning more. We have our next appointment with him tomorrow.

Well my time is short again. I need to learn how to type faster.

I love you all

Elder Brandon John Holt

Miracles from listening to the Spirit

Hey family


I'm doing great this week. I finally got a whole week in my area. By the looks of it, it will probably be the only whole week that Elder Jensen and I will have together as well. This week I have companion exchanges with Elder Fowls and Elder Perry, our zone leaders. Then at the end of the week is Zone Conference. Its funny I was thinking this morning about when there were days that I had nothing to do before I was a missionary, and now I hardily have time enough to write a letter on our preparation days. I think I like it better this way. I always have something to do.

Well over the past week we met some amazing people and had some miracles happen. I'll start with Pa Brayad, the man you wrote about in the email today. A few days ago we had an appointment to teach him. Well he is a 63 year old man. He lives with his daughter and son's girlfriend right now. Anyways we have been trying to teach his daughter but she has been in Bangkok for the past few weeks so we haven't been able to teach her. This last time she was there. As we sat down she had got up to study, she is taking tests and trying to get a job in general management. I had a thought that went through my mind that if she did not sit down at this time with us now she probably won't ever sit down to learn with us. So I did the only thing that I could do which was to shout into the next room and try to start to have a conversation with her until she came and sat down with us. It worked. After that Elder Jensen and I had an incredible lesson with both Pa Brayad and his daughter named Fone or Rain. We committed them to be baptized when they know that the gospel is true and they both agreed.

Next was one of our new investigators that we taught last Saturday. We have been trying for the last 2 weeks to talk to them. They are a husband and wife named Ahkome and Jambii. They work with some of their family as clothes washers and they pick up side jobs on the side to make money as well. As we finally got a few minutes to sit down with them, one thing that really stood out to me is a thing that Jambiii said when we asked her why she sat down with us. She said that for the past few years that she has been looking for two things and she doesn't know why. One is that she has been looking for something that she doesn't have. She said she doesn't know what that thing is but she thinks we might have it for her. Next she said she has had a feeling that she needs to change her name and that she thinks that we might be able to do that. ( in Thailand its really easy to change your name. A lot of people do it here) I told her that I might not be able to help her change her name but I know that I have something that she is looking for if she is willing to listen to me. I'm way excited to go back and teach her and her husband this week.

Last is a thing that happened last night. Elder Jensen and I had been out tracking and had decided to change areas because we were getting bored of the place that we were in. As we were going along we ran into Ice, one of the 3 brothers that was baptized a few weeks ago. We had a quick talk with him then he went on his way. As we were talking to him a man stopped close by to smoke a cigarette. After talking to Ice the man looked as though he wanted to talk to us but couldn't bring himself to do it. So to help, I went to him and started to talk to him. I'm not sure why but I started talking to him about smoking and how if he was willing to stop we had a way to help him stop for good. ( Word of wisdom invites are always shocking to me) Anyways we started to talk and then he started talking about the Book of Mormon and Nephi. That was a little shocking. So I asked if he had learned with the Elders before. He said yes but he had only learned a little then stopped. He said that he had only read the first chapter of the Book of Mormon. For only reading a little he knew it really well. I asked him if we could meet him at his house to talk to him more. He said he was going to a friend's house and because it was closer we could go there. I thought about it and figured it was OK. So we went to his friend's house and taught him and his friend a lesson and got their information, to go back another day. Afterwords Elder Jensen and I thought about it. If we had not decided to change areas that we were inviting in that place at that time we would have never ran into that man.

There are some of the miracles that we saw.

OK time is short today


I love you all


Elder Brandon John Holt

Hello family


I'm doing great here. Well Its been a busy week with a meeting in a different providence of Roy Et. or 101 in numbers. Elder Tom and I left on Wednesday and we were in the meeting from about noon until noon on Friday, with breaks at night to sleep of course. We both went because we were trainers. This is the training meeting for the new program called the specialized training program, original name huh, but anyways we have to go to training meetings about every 2 months until the program enters the MTC in May.

It's way sweet if nothing really new, everything we learned is found in Preach My Gospel. Its just now more tuned to help us teach with the Spirit better. One of the things we are working on is asking inspired questions that help our investigators realize the things that we are teaching and how it is true.

We got back on Friday, and Elder Jensen and I went to work. One of these weeks we will get a chance to work together for a full week. It might be this week....maybe.

But after that on Saturday and Sunday was district conference for all the branches in the Ubon district. So on Saturday night we had quite a lot of people at our church. President Smith found me that night as we were taking a break and asked if we could stay behind to translate for Elder and Sister Watkins, the senior missionaries that are in charge of family history. Not many members came for the Saturday night session because of the distance they have to travel.

But for Sunday it was even crazier. We had everybody come. Including the missionaries. We were able to get several of our investigators to church that day as well. One of the investigators that we have been working with lately is named Brayad.(ประหยัด) He is a 62 year old man that we invited out in front of his house. The first time we taught him he told us that no matter what he would stay Buddhist as the rest of his family. The first week after we had contacted him he went to church and has been going every week for the last three weeks. He is one of our best investigators he tries to understand everything we teach him and after going to church he always has questions to ask. That's my favorite type of investigator one who asks questions to understand better. It beats teaching a quiet one any day.

Well think about the paragraph about coming and picking me up. I think it would be a great idea. I finish in the middle of June. I don't have my exact release date yet but I will in the next few weeks. The only problem is that if you pick me up I still have to be a missionary until I get released fully by President Hunter. I also think there is a rule on not going to visit your areas. So thinking about it, it may be better to wait until I get home then have a date within 6 months of getting home to go back. Because I think I want to show you all those that I taught and met. As well as do a few things that I couldn't do as a missionary. We still have some time to think about it.

I'm still wondering about this strange Mercedes that I keep hearing about. Its been in three crashes already. I think everybody is trying to take it out.lol If this is the trouble of having a nice car, I don't ever want to get one.

With the photos of the sunflowers, that was a photo that was left over since I was in Lop Buri. I thought she (Grandma June, Mom) would like it. Today we went to a tiger zoo. I took some pictures but didn't bring anything to put them on the computer. next week.


Well that's all I've got for this week.

Love you

Elder Brandon John Holt