I’ve spoken to some of you but in case you hadn’t heard…
I received a call yesterday afternoon from President Carter of the Toulouse, France Mission (Morgan’s Mission President), informing us that Morgan was involved in an incident on the way to a Zone Conference in Bordeaux (Bordeaux is approximately 70 miles west of Périgueux where he is currently serving). Morgan, along with three other missionaries were traveling by bus to the conference and a man who was also traveling on the bus took a disliking to the group and presumably Elder Wimmer in particular. The man exited the bus in advance of the group and as Elder Wimmer left the bus, the man attacked him with a knife. The altercation lasted only a few seconds but resulted in the knife leaving a cut across Morgan’s forehead. The man ran off and was not seen again. Morgan received some stitches to the forehead but is in otherwise good spirits. He attended the Zone Conference and is now back in Périgueux.
President Carter was very complimentary of Elder Wimmer stating, “I wish every missionary was an Elder Wimmer”—good to hear. He mentioned that the group of missionaries did not provoke the man in anyway and was not of French origin (possibly from Algeria or Morocco). He joked about Elder Wimmer’s brushing-off the incident while mentioning the act had really upset some of the missionaries attending the conference. President Carter described the event by stating “he was an evil man trying to destroy the work of the Lord by taking one of my best missionaries.”
There are several question and details that I wish I knew from questions I wish I would have asked. We’re just glad he’s ok. Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers on his behalf and we look forward to hearing more about the incident from his e-mail on Monday morning.
Kendall
10.24.2010
morgan 10.18.10
Hello Everybody,
Sit down and grab the popcorn because the story of last week is about to begin. Okay so it all started off with the stupid strike. If anybody knows France they know that there is a strike about every week. So this strike was for retirement. Because this strike invoved everybody there were no trains to get to Bordeaux. We had to take a bus at 11 when our conf. started at 10:30. So we finally got to Bordeaux and we were all a little bit lost. I have only been there once and the person who was been to the chapel 4 times (Darryl) told me he doesnt remember how to get there. So we finally got the bus around 2 to head to the chapel. On this bus I wasnt too sure where to get off so I was standing up looking at the map. When I finally knew where I was going I looked towards the back of the bus for people to contact. It was me and 3 other missionaries on the bus. Then that is when this guys right next to me starts asking me in some weird accent but still speaking French "hey what are you looking at" I told him "not you, I was looking in the back of the bus". He then got up and started getting in my face and telling me he is going to kill me. He had been drinking. This dude wasnt big at all I probably could have dropped him with one round house kick to the face!! But he then started talking to one of the newer missionaries who hadnt been there for very long who didnt understand a word of what was going on. We told him we couldnt understand him because his accent was too weird. It sounded like he was from Portugal or something he just definately wasnt French. But then he kept getting up out of his seat and getting all up in my face. I think he might have thought I was looking at his girl or something because he was sitting right next to his girl. But when he would do that I would kinda just ignore it. And I guess while I was ignoring it we was showing us his knives. I guess he had 2. He kept telling me, "hey get out of the bus right here." And I told him I am not stupid and am not going to do that. Then came our stop. I pushed our button and clearly he saw me push it. He had kinda calmed down by then. He got out of the bus first and I followed. As I was about to get out he turned around and hit me in the head. I was shocked for a little bit but I was wondering why he hit me so weird (I later found out it was because he had a knife in his hand). Everyone looked at me shocked. I had no idea what they were looking at. Then I felt the blood start going down my face. I looked down at the ground and there was quite a bit of blood already. I had quite a big cut right above my right eye brow. While all this was happenening the guy and his girl ran off. Everybody on the bus though was very nice. Some dude gave me some tissues to stop the blood. The driver called the cops and the ambulance. Some girl who say and heard the whole thing stayed there as "a witness" (we all know its because she was already in love) haha. The cops showed up with the ambulance they all asked me a bunch of questions. The assistants of president came running. I went to the hospital with one of the assistants. he is so cool. everyone else went back to the conf. In the ambulance we talked to the guy in there about the gospel. He was kinda interested but never got his number. dang! I got to the E.R. they wrapped something around my head, I waited in the waiting room for a while then i went back to the E.R. and they gave me 4 stitches right above my brow. They gave me some stuff to spray on it and told me to get them taken out in a week. Then me and Elder Miller contacted back to the church. I got my pack of B.O.M's and was on my way back home.
On the way back home I was thinking to myself, "sweet I came to Bordeaux to get stabbed in the face with a knife and now i am going home. cool" But then I thought a little harder. This whole exerience wasnt for nothing. This exerience has showed me that God is there. Yeah, bad stuff happens, but is that Gods fault? Does that change the fact that God is there and that this church is true? NO!!! It doesnt change that! It shows us how much God loves us and how much he wants to help us when we turn to him in situations like that. That knife got less than one inch away from my eye. I know that God was there watching over me and protecting me. Thank you all so much for all your concern. But now know, I am fine. It just happened because I needed that experience to strengthen my testimony. God is there and he loves each one of us and is wanting to help us. Its just up to us to turn to him. Mom, I am fine. Just a little sexier with my scar. I do have a pretty bad black eye right now but all is well here. I love you all!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASH!!!!
Elder Wimmer
Sit down and grab the popcorn because the story of last week is about to begin. Okay so it all started off with the stupid strike. If anybody knows France they know that there is a strike about every week. So this strike was for retirement. Because this strike invoved everybody there were no trains to get to Bordeaux. We had to take a bus at 11 when our conf. started at 10:30. So we finally got to Bordeaux and we were all a little bit lost. I have only been there once and the person who was been to the chapel 4 times (Darryl) told me he doesnt remember how to get there. So we finally got the bus around 2 to head to the chapel. On this bus I wasnt too sure where to get off so I was standing up looking at the map. When I finally knew where I was going I looked towards the back of the bus for people to contact. It was me and 3 other missionaries on the bus. Then that is when this guys right next to me starts asking me in some weird accent but still speaking French "hey what are you looking at" I told him "not you, I was looking in the back of the bus". He then got up and started getting in my face and telling me he is going to kill me. He had been drinking. This dude wasnt big at all I probably could have dropped him with one round house kick to the face!! But he then started talking to one of the newer missionaries who hadnt been there for very long who didnt understand a word of what was going on. We told him we couldnt understand him because his accent was too weird. It sounded like he was from Portugal or something he just definately wasnt French. But then he kept getting up out of his seat and getting all up in my face. I think he might have thought I was looking at his girl or something because he was sitting right next to his girl. But when he would do that I would kinda just ignore it. And I guess while I was ignoring it we was showing us his knives. I guess he had 2. He kept telling me, "hey get out of the bus right here." And I told him I am not stupid and am not going to do that. Then came our stop. I pushed our button and clearly he saw me push it. He had kinda calmed down by then. He got out of the bus first and I followed. As I was about to get out he turned around and hit me in the head. I was shocked for a little bit but I was wondering why he hit me so weird (I later found out it was because he had a knife in his hand). Everyone looked at me shocked. I had no idea what they were looking at. Then I felt the blood start going down my face. I looked down at the ground and there was quite a bit of blood already. I had quite a big cut right above my right eye brow. While all this was happenening the guy and his girl ran off. Everybody on the bus though was very nice. Some dude gave me some tissues to stop the blood. The driver called the cops and the ambulance. Some girl who say and heard the whole thing stayed there as "a witness" (we all know its because she was already in love) haha. The cops showed up with the ambulance they all asked me a bunch of questions. The assistants of president came running. I went to the hospital with one of the assistants. he is so cool. everyone else went back to the conf. In the ambulance we talked to the guy in there about the gospel. He was kinda interested but never got his number. dang! I got to the E.R. they wrapped something around my head, I waited in the waiting room for a while then i went back to the E.R. and they gave me 4 stitches right above my brow. They gave me some stuff to spray on it and told me to get them taken out in a week. Then me and Elder Miller contacted back to the church. I got my pack of B.O.M's and was on my way back home.
On the way back home I was thinking to myself, "sweet I came to Bordeaux to get stabbed in the face with a knife and now i am going home. cool" But then I thought a little harder. This whole exerience wasnt for nothing. This exerience has showed me that God is there. Yeah, bad stuff happens, but is that Gods fault? Does that change the fact that God is there and that this church is true? NO!!! It doesnt change that! It shows us how much God loves us and how much he wants to help us when we turn to him in situations like that. That knife got less than one inch away from my eye. I know that God was there watching over me and protecting me. Thank you all so much for all your concern. But now know, I am fine. It just happened because I needed that experience to strengthen my testimony. God is there and he loves each one of us and is wanting to help us. Its just up to us to turn to him. Mom, I am fine. Just a little sexier with my scar. I do have a pretty bad black eye right now but all is well here. I love you all!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASH!!!!
Elder Wimmer
taryn 10.18.10
Hey~
We had a great week this past week. Pong and Noi got confirmed, got a calling, and pong got the priesthood on Sunday. We had a family home evening at a member's house with them and some others in the branch. The lesson was all about the temple and pong had so many questions and also great answers. I am so excited for a year from now when they get to be sealed together forever. They are amazing, i love them!
Yesterday we had an incredible day. Writing about it will only help describe a tiny part of the incredible-ness of it .We went with Tum and her family to her house a few hours away in the mountains to their hill tribe village. Incredible people live like that. A small village with wooden houses in the jungle mountains- it was a very bumpy ride getting there. Beautiful. When we got there a few of the little kids took us on a walk through the village and a little hike through the jungle. We came across leaves the size of us and butterflies bigger than i ever knew existed! We walked back through the village and they made us some of their tribal food made with things that they had gathered around the house. The whole day i was just in awe that i was actually where i was. It was amazing. I attatched a few pics, im excited to show you the rest and tell you more about it when i get back.
We had some incredible spirit-filled lessons last week. Some of the most spritual that ive ever sat in. It is amazing how if we will just do our small part, the Lord with do His and well see miracles. We should be having 3 people interview with president on Sunday and hopefully with be baptized soon after that! (maybe the sunday that you are here mom and dad!)
I cant believe that the end is so close, that next week is my last email. I try not to think too much about it, but when I do my feelings are so mixed. I am so excited to see you all, ive been looking forward to this day for the past year and a half. Ive never looked forward to anything more in my life. But, at the same time i cant believe its almost over. It doesnt feel like its been that long. I feel like i just got here and im still a greenie. I cant imagine normal life, not having these wonderful thai people at my side all the time. Not being in this wonderful country. Not being a full-time servant for the Lord. I love being a missionary.
Ive got to do some other things like look at classes because i have to register soon, sorry the short email. i promise a final good one next week! Stay safe. CTR always
i love you so much
love, sister young
We had a great week this past week. Pong and Noi got confirmed, got a calling, and pong got the priesthood on Sunday. We had a family home evening at a member's house with them and some others in the branch. The lesson was all about the temple and pong had so many questions and also great answers. I am so excited for a year from now when they get to be sealed together forever. They are amazing, i love them!
Yesterday we had an incredible day. Writing about it will only help describe a tiny part of the incredible-ness of it .We went with Tum and her family to her house a few hours away in the mountains to their hill tribe village. Incredible people live like that. A small village with wooden houses in the jungle mountains- it was a very bumpy ride getting there. Beautiful. When we got there a few of the little kids took us on a walk through the village and a little hike through the jungle. We came across leaves the size of us and butterflies bigger than i ever knew existed! We walked back through the village and they made us some of their tribal food made with things that they had gathered around the house. The whole day i was just in awe that i was actually where i was. It was amazing. I attatched a few pics, im excited to show you the rest and tell you more about it when i get back.
We had some incredible spirit-filled lessons last week. Some of the most spritual that ive ever sat in. It is amazing how if we will just do our small part, the Lord with do His and well see miracles. We should be having 3 people interview with president on Sunday and hopefully with be baptized soon after that! (maybe the sunday that you are here mom and dad!)
I cant believe that the end is so close, that next week is my last email. I try not to think too much about it, but when I do my feelings are so mixed. I am so excited to see you all, ive been looking forward to this day for the past year and a half. Ive never looked forward to anything more in my life. But, at the same time i cant believe its almost over. It doesnt feel like its been that long. I feel like i just got here and im still a greenie. I cant imagine normal life, not having these wonderful thai people at my side all the time. Not being in this wonderful country. Not being a full-time servant for the Lord. I love being a missionary.
Ive got to do some other things like look at classes because i have to register soon, sorry the short email. i promise a final good one next week! Stay safe. CTR always
i love you so much
love, sister young
jordan 10.18.10
willing to suffer shame for his name! Morgan is my hero! oh man i cant beleive that! what the heck! it reminded my of Paul in the bible, i was studying a little about him and how you can see christ in his image or something and how he had scars from all the persecution he recieved. turn the other cheeck baby. i hope everything is ok. fill me in on all the details. im going to keep my eyes out. it reminds me of when i was in amsterdam and a crazy radacalist came walking into the church and told us that we had to worship alla. morg your the man. i will fight to the death in this war. nothing will stop the work from progressing. we have the lord on our side. its harder to live for this work than to die for it. we need to do our best to be strong.
well this week was a good one. we are teaching ananda still and she is still doing good. the young adults are really helping her. thats the trick is to get the members to do as much work as they can to help them, its just hard working with stubborn dutch people. i sure hope the ward does there part on taking these new members in. Tim is doing amazing, he comes finding with us and teaching all the time. he is soaking up doctrine like crazy! he reads so much. he got the aaronic priesthood on sunday. he wants to go on a mission really bad! its amazing to see the difference in these new members after they recieve the holy ghost.
Poupina said she walked outside the church after she recieved the holy ghost and the world looked different. she saw things from a totally different perspective. wordly things were not as important. what was amazing was when they both poupina and tim said they could both see the difference between good and evil so much easier.
we moved Anandas baptism to the 6th of nov i hope she can stay strong! pray for her! well i aint got much more news. i had an interview with the mission pres and he said that me and elder crittenden will probably stay another one together. that will be 4 transfers together. thats a quarter of our mission. then one of us will have to stay a 5th transfer! thats too long. well we will see what happens.
well i love you all. Kim thank you so much for the package! it was right on time! and mom thank you too! Maggie loved her scriptures! i think we might have to do the same thing with tim.
ok see ya next week! e robert.
well this week was a good one. we are teaching ananda still and she is still doing good. the young adults are really helping her. thats the trick is to get the members to do as much work as they can to help them, its just hard working with stubborn dutch people. i sure hope the ward does there part on taking these new members in. Tim is doing amazing, he comes finding with us and teaching all the time. he is soaking up doctrine like crazy! he reads so much. he got the aaronic priesthood on sunday. he wants to go on a mission really bad! its amazing to see the difference in these new members after they recieve the holy ghost.
Poupina said she walked outside the church after she recieved the holy ghost and the world looked different. she saw things from a totally different perspective. wordly things were not as important. what was amazing was when they both poupina and tim said they could both see the difference between good and evil so much easier.
we moved Anandas baptism to the 6th of nov i hope she can stay strong! pray for her! well i aint got much more news. i had an interview with the mission pres and he said that me and elder crittenden will probably stay another one together. that will be 4 transfers together. thats a quarter of our mission. then one of us will have to stay a 5th transfer! thats too long. well we will see what happens.
well i love you all. Kim thank you so much for the package! it was right on time! and mom thank you too! Maggie loved her scriptures! i think we might have to do the same thing with tim.
ok see ya next week! e robert.
jordan 10.11.10
ok well this was the craziest week of my mission. so im going to start of with our investigator named tim. (and also poupinas baptism was on sat keep that in mind). tim is a regular at our family night and our institute on thurs. we have been teaching him for a few weeks now. he knows a lot about the gospel. and has read the standard works. he was just having a few issues with the preisthood. we helped him out with that. we got to know him so well he started to come on joint teach with us to other investigators and everything. so on thursday there was a greenie (a new missionary) sleeping at our house and i was going on exchanges with him the next day. so me and tim decided to play a little game. ha ha i am due for a little prank. so i told tim to be waiting by the mcdonalds at around 12 because we would be riding our bikes by there. i told tim to just speak in dutch and act like a golden investigator. and i also gave tim the greenies first name. Matius. and i said to say you saw him in a dream ar something. so the next day me and this poor greenie who has been in the land for 7 days were riding to an appointment and happend to go by the mcdonalds around 12 oclock. i said to the greenie. oh man i have a feeling we have to stop here the spirit is saying something. but we dont have much time. meanwhile tim is sitting outside on the mcdonalds table reading o book. i told the greenie who do you see we could talk to? and then i said what about this guy right here reading a book? go talk to him. he was to scared and said no. but i said go do it anyway. so he went over and started to talk to him in his best dutch. he said in dutch"how are you. we talk to people about jesus christ, do you believe in jesus christ?" tim said yeah. then we sat down and started to talk. the greenie was talking and asking him questions but couldnt really speak well and then he would turn to me and i would say anything. i made him say everything. so tim eventually kinda sais well if you cant speak dutch this has no point because i cant really speak english(he speaks perfect english) and tim also says well i can try to speak some english. then the greenie goes off telling him about some weird comparison that was totally confusing. meanwhile i am trying to not laugh and looking the other way with the biggest smile on my face. i dont know how tim didnt crack. then tim says. "wait i had adream last night and someone came to me and talked to me about god and his name was matius or something. and the greenie sais what! thats my name and pulls out his card and shows him his name. "we were ment to be here god lives god lives we were ment to talk to you today. and tim says"well what do i have to do?" greenie"well you have to take the lessons and come to church and then you can get baptized" he was so excited he couldnt hold it in. we set a baptismal date right on the spot when it was all done the greenie gets up and gives him the biggest hug. oh man it was so funny . so we left and he was speachless he didnt know what to say. he said he was about to cry. oh man i felt bad for a sec. he was on cloud nine all day. so later that day we met up with poupina for her baptismal interview. and tim calls and the greenie answers it . and poupina knowing who tim is heard the voice of tim on the phone and says isnt that tim? ha ha but the greenie didnt hear it. finally tim tells him it was just a joke. we were all on the groung dying. he was like man you got me good! it was so funny. so that night the greenie went home and i was with my normal comp. and we called tim to joke about it and talk about it. we had a good time . then right before we hung up the phone i read him the fellowship of the unashamed. and after that he said "i want to get baptized, i know its true, can i get baptized tomorrow with poupina'?" i thought he was joking. but he was serious. so i said to him let me call the bishop and the mission pres an ill call you back. i called them both and they were so happy. the said baptize him. so we told him he could and he said ok lets do this. the next day we met up with him to eat lunch. he said"last night after i told you i wanted to get baptized i was for sure about it. but then i went and sat in me bed and the spirit came over me and my skin started to glow and i felt the spirit in every fiber of my being." that just goes to show that you dont recieve your witness until after the trial of your faith. he told us "i found out what was holding me back from getting baptized, i was afraid to step into the dark and take a step, and it was also pride." since that day he has totally changed, especially the way he looks. he is so much happier and has a glow about him. he asked me to baptize him.
so that night was the day of the baptism. we were going to have a double baptism. it was around 6 oclock and we were waiting for poupina to show up. the baptism was at 7. we got a call from maggie and she said"yeah i just talked to poupina and she was crying and says she is not ready and now she wont pick up her phone." so we said well we cant do anything about it. we will just have to pray for her. we told maggie she still had to come because she was giving a talk. so at this time we were feeling pretty crappy. but still happy for tim. my comp and i were sick to our stomachs. 5 min later here comes poupina and maggie walking through the door laughing! they said ha ha we got you!!! the greenie was there and he was laughing so hard. they got us soo good.
so that night the service went well. elder crittenden baptized poupina and i baptized tim. it was so awesome! we also had like 6 investigators there watching. alina and her kids and her friend came, ananda came, melissa. it was a great night. i told ananda one of our investigators that she was next. then on sunday morning early we get a text message from ananda she said"you were right i am going to be the next one baptized i have been praying, reading, and crying all night long and i got an answer, a calmth came over me and i know its true. can i call you today?" so now we have a baptismal date with ananda and she will be getting baptized in 4 weeks!!. so on sunday we went to church and it was a super special day. i gave the holy ghost to poupina and my comp gave the holy ghost to tim. the bishop was so happy he was talking about tim and how he could be the next bishop. we talked with tim and he said he is going to go on a mission, he said im doing it for sure, all i gotta do is wait a year and pack my bags.
we had a great sunday. we talked to melissa(one of our investigators) and she said she knows she is going to get baptized, she just is waiting for a confirmation. we had an amazing lesson with her on friday. man ive been so spiritually tired and physically. but its been good. there is so much more to tell. alena cant wait for her next lesson. well thats about all i got thanks so much for everything love ya talk to ya next week
so that night was the day of the baptism. we were going to have a double baptism. it was around 6 oclock and we were waiting for poupina to show up. the baptism was at 7. we got a call from maggie and she said"yeah i just talked to poupina and she was crying and says she is not ready and now she wont pick up her phone." so we said well we cant do anything about it. we will just have to pray for her. we told maggie she still had to come because she was giving a talk. so at this time we were feeling pretty crappy. but still happy for tim. my comp and i were sick to our stomachs. 5 min later here comes poupina and maggie walking through the door laughing! they said ha ha we got you!!! the greenie was there and he was laughing so hard. they got us soo good.
so that night the service went well. elder crittenden baptized poupina and i baptized tim. it was so awesome! we also had like 6 investigators there watching. alina and her kids and her friend came, ananda came, melissa. it was a great night. i told ananda one of our investigators that she was next. then on sunday morning early we get a text message from ananda she said"you were right i am going to be the next one baptized i have been praying, reading, and crying all night long and i got an answer, a calmth came over me and i know its true. can i call you today?" so now we have a baptismal date with ananda and she will be getting baptized in 4 weeks!!. so on sunday we went to church and it was a super special day. i gave the holy ghost to poupina and my comp gave the holy ghost to tim. the bishop was so happy he was talking about tim and how he could be the next bishop. we talked with tim and he said he is going to go on a mission, he said im doing it for sure, all i gotta do is wait a year and pack my bags.
we had a great sunday. we talked to melissa(one of our investigators) and she said she knows she is going to get baptized, she just is waiting for a confirmation. we had an amazing lesson with her on friday. man ive been so spiritually tired and physically. but its been good. there is so much more to tell. alena cant wait for her next lesson. well thats about all i got thanks so much for everything love ya talk to ya next week
taryn 10.11.10
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE GREATEST DAD IN THE WORLD!!!! i know the number says that you are getting older, but really, i think that you are going backwards- younger and younger. look at your leadville time:) I hope that your day is amazing. you've been the perfect dad for me. thank you for your great example and for everything you have done and are. also happy birthday to steve, sky, grandma, and others! (im sorry, my memory isnt good!) i miss you and cant wait to see you!
We had an awesome baptism yesterday! It was a little stressful because it was between conference sessions, but what an amazing spirit that conference brought to it. i wish i could have captured ma nois face as she came out of the water, pa pong standing on the side waiting for her, and us trying to peer around the corner of the font to see it waiting with towels, and her face just shined. the biggest, happiest smile. i love moments like that. another moment that makes every single hard trial in the mission field and also before the mission worth it. all just for even that one second. after the baptism she said, "so now i can tell everyone im a mormon! i can share the gospel and tell them that i am part of it." what a great example for me, for all the times that people asked if i was mormon, or snickered when i told them im from utah. we need to be proud! we have the truth! yes, we live life a little differently, but it is the way to true and eternally lasting life. life in the church is actually much easier. all the commandments and standards just protect us from sorrow later on. What an awesome day to be baptized, the day of getting filled up with words of God. Conference was amazing! i loved it. It made me thing back to a year and a half ago when i was sitting on the couch in the front room watching a session with the family and talking about how i would be in Thailand the next session. i remember wondering where i would be, what it would look like, if i would understand anything.. ill tell you, that first one i didnt understand much! its crazy to me now that i couldnt understand it. i try to listen with foreign ears but it just doesnt work, it sounds too familiar now.
chair (the girl that changed her work and lives far so that she can go to church) interview last night and passed with flying colors. she is an obedient, faith-filled, and Christ-like person. she has been one of the goldens! i love her. she just has to interview specially with president, hopefully that can be soon. (she was forced to have an abortion by her ex-husband who was cruel and abusive.) ive learned so much from these people. i know that i am supposed to be teaching them, but i take away so much from knowing them. Tum and nok will also interview when he comes! i hope that he can come soon so that i can see them get baptized before i go..
We had an amazing lesson with Tum on wednesday. we first had to talk to her about the 4th baptismal question and find out the details which is never fun. we then talked about repentance and the atonement and watched "to this end was i born" it was amazing. the spirit was so strong, she was crying through the last 10 minutes. she said the closing prayer as we were all kneeling down and she cried heavily through it. after we gave her a hug and talked about her feelings. she said how she wants to share this with everyone. she wants everyone to know and to feel it too. that is what a testimony of the atonement does- makes you want to share it with everyone! how lucky am i that i get to go around and share this incredibly happy and glorious message with everyone!
i love you so much. stay safe. stay happy
love, sister young
We had an awesome baptism yesterday! It was a little stressful because it was between conference sessions, but what an amazing spirit that conference brought to it. i wish i could have captured ma nois face as she came out of the water, pa pong standing on the side waiting for her, and us trying to peer around the corner of the font to see it waiting with towels, and her face just shined. the biggest, happiest smile. i love moments like that. another moment that makes every single hard trial in the mission field and also before the mission worth it. all just for even that one second. after the baptism she said, "so now i can tell everyone im a mormon! i can share the gospel and tell them that i am part of it." what a great example for me, for all the times that people asked if i was mormon, or snickered when i told them im from utah. we need to be proud! we have the truth! yes, we live life a little differently, but it is the way to true and eternally lasting life. life in the church is actually much easier. all the commandments and standards just protect us from sorrow later on. What an awesome day to be baptized, the day of getting filled up with words of God. Conference was amazing! i loved it. It made me thing back to a year and a half ago when i was sitting on the couch in the front room watching a session with the family and talking about how i would be in Thailand the next session. i remember wondering where i would be, what it would look like, if i would understand anything.. ill tell you, that first one i didnt understand much! its crazy to me now that i couldnt understand it. i try to listen with foreign ears but it just doesnt work, it sounds too familiar now.
chair (the girl that changed her work and lives far so that she can go to church) interview last night and passed with flying colors. she is an obedient, faith-filled, and Christ-like person. she has been one of the goldens! i love her. she just has to interview specially with president, hopefully that can be soon. (she was forced to have an abortion by her ex-husband who was cruel and abusive.) ive learned so much from these people. i know that i am supposed to be teaching them, but i take away so much from knowing them. Tum and nok will also interview when he comes! i hope that he can come soon so that i can see them get baptized before i go..
We had an amazing lesson with Tum on wednesday. we first had to talk to her about the 4th baptismal question and find out the details which is never fun. we then talked about repentance and the atonement and watched "to this end was i born" it was amazing. the spirit was so strong, she was crying through the last 10 minutes. she said the closing prayer as we were all kneeling down and she cried heavily through it. after we gave her a hug and talked about her feelings. she said how she wants to share this with everyone. she wants everyone to know and to feel it too. that is what a testimony of the atonement does- makes you want to share it with everyone! how lucky am i that i get to go around and share this incredibly happy and glorious message with everyone!
i love you so much. stay safe. stay happy
love, sister young
morgan 10.11.10
Wow! okay so this week was a little crazy. We called it "the week of opposition". Not many lessons taught, not many people found. It was hard but we need to just forget it and move on. Akouna Matata! Thats what me and Elder Baret would always say ALL the time. So another way we had some serious opposition was with our investigator named Arturo. He was supposed to be being baptized this weekend. I thought all was well until he couldnt come to our rendez-vous monday, or tuesday or wednesday. I then had to go to Toulouse thursday for a leadership meeting. We FINALLY had a rdv friday, but he was not at all the same. He was just asking questions that we have already gone over, he wasnt okay with the fact that we will be judged. Just very little things. But finally we went to go talk to him about faith. We told him we are not there to convince him that we are right and he is wrong, but we are there to "invite" him to pray. Simply to be humble enough to pray, and to ask God if it is true or not. The spirit was very strong there and I hope he will just do the experience.
What the heck Brigham?? when did you learn how to sing?? he must've got that from me... haha. That is so cool Brig! Congrats! To all those who havent gone on a mission yet listen up!! Learn all you can before the mission!! Do every little thing your mom or dad ask you to do. You have no idea how much those little things will help you on your mission. Every skill I have ever had, every job I had to do and everything I have ever learned I have used on my mission. From trimming those stupid bushes in my back yard to helping people with their English. I have helped people move rocks and I have helped clean peoples room. I have taught people how to shoot a basketball and I have helped people move. I can promise you that everything you are asked to do or that you just do because you know it is the right thing, you will use it on your mission. So Chandler, Nick, Cole, Wyatt, Brigham, Hayden, Cade, Tyler, Sage, Jake, Cooper, Asher and all you other young men, "Whatever you do, do it well" because you will use all of it on your mission. I am even using a little bit of my babysitting skills this transfer. haha.
I love you all! thanks so much for all you do. This whole thing about what was said about General Conf. makes me think of one scripture in specific, it was when Nephi was speaking to his brothers and says "the wicked take the truth to be hard".
Elder Wimmer
What the heck Brigham?? when did you learn how to sing?? he must've got that from me... haha. That is so cool Brig! Congrats! To all those who havent gone on a mission yet listen up!! Learn all you can before the mission!! Do every little thing your mom or dad ask you to do. You have no idea how much those little things will help you on your mission. Every skill I have ever had, every job I had to do and everything I have ever learned I have used on my mission. From trimming those stupid bushes in my back yard to helping people with their English. I have helped people move rocks and I have helped clean peoples room. I have taught people how to shoot a basketball and I have helped people move. I can promise you that everything you are asked to do or that you just do because you know it is the right thing, you will use it on your mission. So Chandler, Nick, Cole, Wyatt, Brigham, Hayden, Cade, Tyler, Sage, Jake, Cooper, Asher and all you other young men, "Whatever you do, do it well" because you will use all of it on your mission. I am even using a little bit of my babysitting skills this transfer. haha.
I love you all! thanks so much for all you do. This whole thing about what was said about General Conf. makes me think of one scripture in specific, it was when Nephi was speaking to his brothers and says "the wicked take the truth to be hard".
Elder Wimmer
taryn 10.4.10
Hey Ya'll!
Wonderful week. I cant believe its October. Ma Noi and Pa Pong are getting baptized this week! They have overcome a lot and are ready. lots of faith. We are excited because he is the older brother of a member here. they have learned a few times before, but never intersted. This time, the time was right and they opened their hearts, ma noi first, and through time pa pong has a solid testimony as well. this past week we were going over the baptismal questions and they had a question about tithing, if you pay on lottery tickets. i told her that the prophet suggests we dont gamble. She said "thats why!" "i won a little money in the lottery for the first time in my life last week and i cant find the ticket anywhere, the first time ive ever lost them as well!" "im not even mad anymore!" she is so cute, i love her. At the interview in thursday, she and pong kept thanking us, saying it had to be us to open thier hears to this wonderful message. upon leaving they were all fired up to go to the temple next year. they said hopefully they can gather enough money to go to salt lake (you have to be pretty rich to go to america) if not, they will go to hong kong. thats what it is all about, helping others come unto christ, and recieve the ordinances of salvation!
another investigator that will be getting interviewed this week (shell have to get interviewed again by president) her name is chair. the most humble and sweet person ever. she is from the tribe thai yai. she has sacrificed a lot to learn with us. she couldnt get sundays off, soshe quite (she lived at her work), moved in with her sister who lives 40 minutes away and drives a rickety old scooter early morning, works all day, and comes home after dark-driving on a dangerous road- so that she can get sundays off and go to church. she has so much faith. i have seen a big change in her from the first time we met with her. she was timid, unsure of herself, and never smiled, now she is a smile machine! her countenance just radiates! it is amazing to be able to watch these miracles occur.
wednesday we had one of the missionary days where they stuff you so full you feel like your going to pop. my favorite dishes fed to us was one at an akha hill tribe family's house- fresh coconut milk with pumpkin slices in it. then we went to a burmese familys house and they fed us some burmese noodles. it was so good, but by the time i was done i felt like it was stuffed up to my throat- i felt like i was in my greenie area again!
something neat that happened last monday: president called me and said that the asia presidency called him and said they were reviewing my medical record from the beginning of my mission and asked that i write about my experiences here, about the beginning, what helped me, and the blessings- to give to others that are struggling. it feels good to know that pressing through the hard times not only blessed me and the thai people, but other missionaries too that are struggling.
i have a motto for this last moves, a quote from elder holland from the MTC "work so hard, that if needs be, you will need an ambulence to pick you up at the airport when you get home." get the ambulence ready! :P
ok time to go. i love you! stay safe and happy.
love, sister young
Wonderful week. I cant believe its October. Ma Noi and Pa Pong are getting baptized this week! They have overcome a lot and are ready. lots of faith. We are excited because he is the older brother of a member here. they have learned a few times before, but never intersted. This time, the time was right and they opened their hearts, ma noi first, and through time pa pong has a solid testimony as well. this past week we were going over the baptismal questions and they had a question about tithing, if you pay on lottery tickets. i told her that the prophet suggests we dont gamble. She said "thats why!" "i won a little money in the lottery for the first time in my life last week and i cant find the ticket anywhere, the first time ive ever lost them as well!" "im not even mad anymore!" she is so cute, i love her. At the interview in thursday, she and pong kept thanking us, saying it had to be us to open thier hears to this wonderful message. upon leaving they were all fired up to go to the temple next year. they said hopefully they can gather enough money to go to salt lake (you have to be pretty rich to go to america) if not, they will go to hong kong. thats what it is all about, helping others come unto christ, and recieve the ordinances of salvation!
another investigator that will be getting interviewed this week (shell have to get interviewed again by president) her name is chair. the most humble and sweet person ever. she is from the tribe thai yai. she has sacrificed a lot to learn with us. she couldnt get sundays off, soshe quite (she lived at her work), moved in with her sister who lives 40 minutes away and drives a rickety old scooter early morning, works all day, and comes home after dark-driving on a dangerous road- so that she can get sundays off and go to church. she has so much faith. i have seen a big change in her from the first time we met with her. she was timid, unsure of herself, and never smiled, now she is a smile machine! her countenance just radiates! it is amazing to be able to watch these miracles occur.
wednesday we had one of the missionary days where they stuff you so full you feel like your going to pop. my favorite dishes fed to us was one at an akha hill tribe family's house- fresh coconut milk with pumpkin slices in it. then we went to a burmese familys house and they fed us some burmese noodles. it was so good, but by the time i was done i felt like it was stuffed up to my throat- i felt like i was in my greenie area again!
something neat that happened last monday: president called me and said that the asia presidency called him and said they were reviewing my medical record from the beginning of my mission and asked that i write about my experiences here, about the beginning, what helped me, and the blessings- to give to others that are struggling. it feels good to know that pressing through the hard times not only blessed me and the thai people, but other missionaries too that are struggling.
i have a motto for this last moves, a quote from elder holland from the MTC "work so hard, that if needs be, you will need an ambulence to pick you up at the airport when you get home." get the ambulence ready! :P
ok time to go. i love you! stay safe and happy.
love, sister young
morgan 1.4.10
Hello,
Alright so my first week of training was good. It was different. But Good. It was so funny the first time I saw my comp was at lunch at the church of Toulouse. Pres. Carter tells me who I am going to be with and I turned around and there infront of me was the EXACT same Elder from the best 2 years. Glasses, hair parted, everything. haha. Me and Elder Baret joked about that too. so funny! Really though my comp is cool. He is from Mesa Arizona and his name is Elder Heywood. Training is hard but it is fun. Honestly, I didnt realize how closely best 2 years was with the experience. I love it!
Wow! Conf. was increadible! I think I am going to have to agree with Jord about his favorite. I loved the story about Alice and Wonderland and the path that we take in life doesnt matter if we dont know where we want to go. Pres. Uchtdorf's was also increadible. The one about pride. Maybe that was in priesthood. So cool! Mom, I need that Ensign right when it comes out. Oh by the way mom I got my package. Chewy sprees. haha Genral Conf. classic!! Thanks so much. I got my camera also. Thanks so much Mom and Dad! I love you!! Wow, did anyone else feel a little guilty when Pres. Monson was talking about gratitiude? So I just want to say to everybody who has helped me either money wise, with letters, with emails, with prayers, or with packages or even just by your support. Thankyou. I love you all.
So this week started out rough. We didnt have and still dont have many people to teach. But one day we were on exchange with the zone leaders and me and Elder Law ( a zone leader) were contacting like crazy. We talked to an older woman who was just going into her house and we contacted her she said "are you Jehovah's Witness'?" I said "No, are you?" she replied "No, come inside and talk" We talked to her for 2 1/2 hours. about the restoration, word of wisdom, baptism, prophets, everything. She came to conf. and I think really liked it. She is just very catholic and hard for her to realize that Catholic priests dont have the authority to baptize.
Well I love you all! Can you please all pray for Arturo and Junior. they are both supposed to be baptized this month. Arturo next week but has trouble with cigarettes. Thanks!
Elder Wimmer
Alright so my first week of training was good. It was different. But Good. It was so funny the first time I saw my comp was at lunch at the church of Toulouse. Pres. Carter tells me who I am going to be with and I turned around and there infront of me was the EXACT same Elder from the best 2 years. Glasses, hair parted, everything. haha. Me and Elder Baret joked about that too. so funny! Really though my comp is cool. He is from Mesa Arizona and his name is Elder Heywood. Training is hard but it is fun. Honestly, I didnt realize how closely best 2 years was with the experience. I love it!
Wow! Conf. was increadible! I think I am going to have to agree with Jord about his favorite. I loved the story about Alice and Wonderland and the path that we take in life doesnt matter if we dont know where we want to go. Pres. Uchtdorf's was also increadible. The one about pride. Maybe that was in priesthood. So cool! Mom, I need that Ensign right when it comes out. Oh by the way mom I got my package. Chewy sprees. haha Genral Conf. classic!! Thanks so much. I got my camera also. Thanks so much Mom and Dad! I love you!! Wow, did anyone else feel a little guilty when Pres. Monson was talking about gratitiude? So I just want to say to everybody who has helped me either money wise, with letters, with emails, with prayers, or with packages or even just by your support. Thankyou. I love you all.
So this week started out rough. We didnt have and still dont have many people to teach. But one day we were on exchange with the zone leaders and me and Elder Law ( a zone leader) were contacting like crazy. We talked to an older woman who was just going into her house and we contacted her she said "are you Jehovah's Witness'?" I said "No, are you?" she replied "No, come inside and talk" We talked to her for 2 1/2 hours. about the restoration, word of wisdom, baptism, prophets, everything. She came to conf. and I think really liked it. She is just very catholic and hard for her to realize that Catholic priests dont have the authority to baptize.
Well I love you all! Can you please all pray for Arturo and Junior. they are both supposed to be baptized this month. Arturo next week but has trouble with cigarettes. Thanks!
Elder Wimmer
jordan 10.4.10
ok well i will first start off with the bad news. ok you know the muslim girl that i told you about that maggie took in because she had no place to stay? well she stayed with maggie for a few days and we actually played tennis and shared a little of the gospel with her. well she left maggie last week sat. maggie told her not to leave. but she went. (this girl was running away from her father who was trying to kill her because she lost her virginity) maggie got news that she jumped in front of a train and killed herself. maggie took it hard she has already gone through so much. she is doing really good now though. we taught her about how true conversion come through going through many hard trials.
well conference was good! it is always long for missionaries because we have to watch it in the church. we watched for 6 hours yesterday.
poupina is doing good. last night we had a talk with the bishop with her. the bishop is kinda wierd sometimes. the bishop asked who she wanted to baptize her and she said elder robert. then he asked my comp if he has baptized anyone and he said no, the the bishop said i think it is good if elder crittenden baptizes her. it was kinda weird. it was hard for me to accept at first. i didnt say anything but in my mind i was like WHAT! well it will be good for my comp and a lesson to learn for me. i will be giving her the holy ghost. we are all on the same team.
tonight we are making pizas. for family night. "a member wanted to bring some cheap pizzas" so we are going to buy some good desert to make. then we are playing volleyball we need to find some more investigators here we always need more!
õh man im getting old my hair is thinning. mom can you send me some ib prophen?
maggie is doing good she is giving a talk at poupinas baptism! and we asked her to give a 10 min lesson tonight. well see how she does!
Alena is doing good too she is soo awesome in our last appointment at the end she said i want to say something and she pulled a paper out she said im not a good talker so i wrote it down. she said im so greatfull that i met you guys and i see myself starting to change and i want to thank you so much. except it was in like a poem form. it was nice of her. she needs your prayers and prayers in the temple her name is Alina Pietrus. she also has three kids. she is planning on coming to poupinas baptism. the night she read that i was in heaven a highlight on my mission. well g2g
ps my favorite quote of yesterday was, if you dont have a goal or destination then it doesnt matter which path you take. so what kind of goals do you have? are we striving to become gods? also i learned that we are accountable to God. and in everything we do in life we are accountable to him. so we should always keep that in mind. the strongest relationship we should have is between us and God.
i got to go later skater!
well conference was good! it is always long for missionaries because we have to watch it in the church. we watched for 6 hours yesterday.
poupina is doing good. last night we had a talk with the bishop with her. the bishop is kinda wierd sometimes. the bishop asked who she wanted to baptize her and she said elder robert. then he asked my comp if he has baptized anyone and he said no, the the bishop said i think it is good if elder crittenden baptizes her. it was kinda weird. it was hard for me to accept at first. i didnt say anything but in my mind i was like WHAT! well it will be good for my comp and a lesson to learn for me. i will be giving her the holy ghost. we are all on the same team.
tonight we are making pizas. for family night. "a member wanted to bring some cheap pizzas" so we are going to buy some good desert to make. then we are playing volleyball we need to find some more investigators here we always need more!
õh man im getting old my hair is thinning. mom can you send me some ib prophen?
maggie is doing good she is giving a talk at poupinas baptism! and we asked her to give a 10 min lesson tonight. well see how she does!
Alena is doing good too she is soo awesome in our last appointment at the end she said i want to say something and she pulled a paper out she said im not a good talker so i wrote it down. she said im so greatfull that i met you guys and i see myself starting to change and i want to thank you so much. except it was in like a poem form. it was nice of her. she needs your prayers and prayers in the temple her name is Alina Pietrus. she also has three kids. she is planning on coming to poupinas baptism. the night she read that i was in heaven a highlight on my mission. well g2g
ps my favorite quote of yesterday was, if you dont have a goal or destination then it doesnt matter which path you take. so what kind of goals do you have? are we striving to become gods? also i learned that we are accountable to God. and in everything we do in life we are accountable to him. so we should always keep that in mind. the strongest relationship we should have is between us and God.
i got to go later skater!
9.27.2010
morgan 9.27.10
Hello,
Oh wow where do I start? Well I will start with Albertino. Okay, so Albertino is the friend of J-lo. He came to his baptism and that is how we started teaching him. He is a very different kid. Super shy and a little weird but he is humble and ready. He was baptized by J-lo last saturday. Its increadible how the Lord is blessing us in Périgueux. Me and Elder Baret got along so well together.
That brings us to the next subject. Elder Baret is getting transfered. Well now he is transfered. I am in Toulouse waiting for my new comp to arrive from the MTC. Yes, I am training. I am super excited but at the same time super nervous! Along with my new call as trainer I have also been called as District Leader. I am so nervous to train. It was hard saying goodbye to Elder Baret. One of the hardest things I've had to do on my mission. We did some serious work together and he made me realize that the mission can be fun. It should be fun! Oh well, I gotta teach that same principle at my new greenie or "blue" as we say here in France. Since I am here in Toulouse I can finally get my camera. YAY!! Ugh... transfer days are so stressful.
So my schedule here in Toulouse is that I chill here like it was a normal pday. At 6 I have no clue what me and the other 16 trainers are going to do. Tonight I dont know where I am sleeping. Tomorrow I will surely meet my new comp sometime during the day and for the rest of the day I am not too sure. I am not sure if I am coming home tomorrow or wednesday. So yeah, I am kinda just going with the flow.
Sounds like the mountains are beautiful and colorful. So cool! I miss that! Sounds like Jord and TY are dominating the missionary work. Crazy that TY comes home soon! So weird! The mission is so crazy. Each time life start getting easy the Lord switches something up and EVERYTHING changes! But each and everytime it makes us grow. Its crazy because before I know it I will be in the same position as TY getting ready to go home. But for now, I have a mission to do. I have people to teach, new people to meet. Thanks for all that you guys do. I love you all!
Elder Wimmer
Oh wow where do I start? Well I will start with Albertino. Okay, so Albertino is the friend of J-lo. He came to his baptism and that is how we started teaching him. He is a very different kid. Super shy and a little weird but he is humble and ready. He was baptized by J-lo last saturday. Its increadible how the Lord is blessing us in Périgueux. Me and Elder Baret got along so well together.
That brings us to the next subject. Elder Baret is getting transfered. Well now he is transfered. I am in Toulouse waiting for my new comp to arrive from the MTC. Yes, I am training. I am super excited but at the same time super nervous! Along with my new call as trainer I have also been called as District Leader. I am so nervous to train. It was hard saying goodbye to Elder Baret. One of the hardest things I've had to do on my mission. We did some serious work together and he made me realize that the mission can be fun. It should be fun! Oh well, I gotta teach that same principle at my new greenie or "blue" as we say here in France. Since I am here in Toulouse I can finally get my camera. YAY!! Ugh... transfer days are so stressful.
So my schedule here in Toulouse is that I chill here like it was a normal pday. At 6 I have no clue what me and the other 16 trainers are going to do. Tonight I dont know where I am sleeping. Tomorrow I will surely meet my new comp sometime during the day and for the rest of the day I am not too sure. I am not sure if I am coming home tomorrow or wednesday. So yeah, I am kinda just going with the flow.
Sounds like the mountains are beautiful and colorful. So cool! I miss that! Sounds like Jord and TY are dominating the missionary work. Crazy that TY comes home soon! So weird! The mission is so crazy. Each time life start getting easy the Lord switches something up and EVERYTHING changes! But each and everytime it makes us grow. Its crazy because before I know it I will be in the same position as TY getting ready to go home. But for now, I have a mission to do. I have people to teach, new people to meet. Thanks for all that you guys do. I love you all!
Elder Wimmer
jordan 9.27.10
ok well this week was a ok week. it was kindof stress full.
maggie lost her house this week due to friends that are not so much friends any more. but she found a new one and moves in on sat. she has lost pretty much everything its really sad but she just keeps on pushin through. she is as tough as nails. i sent a letter home mom to tell you all about it.
well today is transfers and me and my comp are staying together for our third here. poupina is doing good we meet with her today. have i said anything about alena yet?? she is one of my favorite investigators i have found. we found her on the door and she is a mother of three. she is rad. she is always so happy and laughing. she is going to come to general conf. i have a good feeling about her. we have an appointment on friday with her.
this week we had zone conf in utrecht a gen auth spoke to us elder sterri. it was pretty cool.
we have been out of money for about 2 and half weeks. our money is supposed to be coming in but it has been taking forever. when is t.y. coming home? weird. i cant believe you get to hang out with harry! he is the biggest stud. tell him hi for me! tell him i say "beware of pride boy" and "i will pop you" he will know what im talking about.
well thanks for all the juicy emails fam. it makes my week.
later skater e robert
maggie lost her house this week due to friends that are not so much friends any more. but she found a new one and moves in on sat. she has lost pretty much everything its really sad but she just keeps on pushin through. she is as tough as nails. i sent a letter home mom to tell you all about it.
well today is transfers and me and my comp are staying together for our third here. poupina is doing good we meet with her today. have i said anything about alena yet?? she is one of my favorite investigators i have found. we found her on the door and she is a mother of three. she is rad. she is always so happy and laughing. she is going to come to general conf. i have a good feeling about her. we have an appointment on friday with her.
this week we had zone conf in utrecht a gen auth spoke to us elder sterri. it was pretty cool.
we have been out of money for about 2 and half weeks. our money is supposed to be coming in but it has been taking forever. when is t.y. coming home? weird. i cant believe you get to hang out with harry! he is the biggest stud. tell him hi for me! tell him i say "beware of pride boy" and "i will pop you" he will know what im talking about.
well thanks for all the juicy emails fam. it makes my week.
later skater e robert
taryn 9.27.10
Hi!
well, I cant believe that september is over. crazy.
the area is still doing so well, we're trying to place Heavenly Father at the head of everything we do. it can be hard sometimes, we as humans rely so much on ourselves. i think if we could remember to turn to Chrst and our loving Heavenly Father more, life would be so much better. the spirit would be incorperated into our lives. its a constant, lifelong struggle. haha maybe by the end ill have it figured out.
As we were leaving the church the other night there was an elephant on the lawn! our church has a big nice grassy area and trees, the 2 men decided to let their elephant have a break from the city on our lawn. only in thailand. im gonna miss this place.
We have a baptismal interview scheduled this week with pong and noi, a couple in their 50s weve been teaching for a few months now. missionary work in thailand is amazing, but much slower that most of the world. its such a different thing, it takes awhile. hopefully in the next couple of months they will be having a ton of baptisms! pong and noi will hopefully be getting baptized next week, the 10th:) they are awesome, they have started to sell things on different days so that they can go to church. they both drank a lot of coffee and 2 weeks ago we taught them the word of wisdom (we gave her a box of hot chocolate, her friend from taiwan gave her some and she loved it-hard to find here..). they both stopped that day, had horrible headaches the last time we saw them, but then by thursday it was gone, ma noi says because Heavenly Father helped them. These people are full of faith.
khaawfaang, the girl that is waiting a few months to get baptized because her aunt has to work a few things out first, has so much faith. she is 9 years old. her primary teacher told me that she told her she was at the zoo the other day and a little boy got lost. she prayed and then she was the one that found him.
saturday we taught another family, naam and dechaa. at the beginning of the lesson they were hesitant to go to church- they sell on the side of the street all day every day. at the end of the lesson naam, the mom said "if we work 6 days and give 1 to the Lord we will be blessed." the spirit works miracles. then she, her husband and 2 daughters showed up to church in their cute karian hill tribe dresses. during relief society as people were sharing stories, she started bawling so loudly. when she finally got control of herself she stood up and shared how much having us go over has helped their family and how they are going to give up sundays working. she loved church. missionary work is wonderful, getting to take a small part in these miracles wrought by the Lord everyday.
i read a talk last week, it fit perfectly with you dad. you mentioned how you took your 10 yr boards last week. the talk was from e cook about his brother who has taken the boards 6xs, (hes old) and how every 10 years the questions are the same, but the answers are different. it helped me realize how much the world changes, and how we have to constantly learn, study, and prepare ourselves our whole life. never finish learning, never finish growing.
I love you so much. stay safe. CTR and stay happy!
love, sister young
well, I cant believe that september is over. crazy.
the area is still doing so well, we're trying to place Heavenly Father at the head of everything we do. it can be hard sometimes, we as humans rely so much on ourselves. i think if we could remember to turn to Chrst and our loving Heavenly Father more, life would be so much better. the spirit would be incorperated into our lives. its a constant, lifelong struggle. haha maybe by the end ill have it figured out.
As we were leaving the church the other night there was an elephant on the lawn! our church has a big nice grassy area and trees, the 2 men decided to let their elephant have a break from the city on our lawn. only in thailand. im gonna miss this place.
We have a baptismal interview scheduled this week with pong and noi, a couple in their 50s weve been teaching for a few months now. missionary work in thailand is amazing, but much slower that most of the world. its such a different thing, it takes awhile. hopefully in the next couple of months they will be having a ton of baptisms! pong and noi will hopefully be getting baptized next week, the 10th:) they are awesome, they have started to sell things on different days so that they can go to church. they both drank a lot of coffee and 2 weeks ago we taught them the word of wisdom (we gave her a box of hot chocolate, her friend from taiwan gave her some and she loved it-hard to find here..). they both stopped that day, had horrible headaches the last time we saw them, but then by thursday it was gone, ma noi says because Heavenly Father helped them. These people are full of faith.
khaawfaang, the girl that is waiting a few months to get baptized because her aunt has to work a few things out first, has so much faith. she is 9 years old. her primary teacher told me that she told her she was at the zoo the other day and a little boy got lost. she prayed and then she was the one that found him.
saturday we taught another family, naam and dechaa. at the beginning of the lesson they were hesitant to go to church- they sell on the side of the street all day every day. at the end of the lesson naam, the mom said "if we work 6 days and give 1 to the Lord we will be blessed." the spirit works miracles. then she, her husband and 2 daughters showed up to church in their cute karian hill tribe dresses. during relief society as people were sharing stories, she started bawling so loudly. when she finally got control of herself she stood up and shared how much having us go over has helped their family and how they are going to give up sundays working. she loved church. missionary work is wonderful, getting to take a small part in these miracles wrought by the Lord everyday.
i read a talk last week, it fit perfectly with you dad. you mentioned how you took your 10 yr boards last week. the talk was from e cook about his brother who has taken the boards 6xs, (hes old) and how every 10 years the questions are the same, but the answers are different. it helped me realize how much the world changes, and how we have to constantly learn, study, and prepare ourselves our whole life. never finish learning, never finish growing.
I love you so much. stay safe. CTR and stay happy!
love, sister young
9.20.2010
jordan 9.20.10
ok this week was a good one, poupina is dominating she will be baptized. she is rad.
so monday was another success we had a lot of people and a lot of fun. tonight we are making pankakes for family night. its nice because maggie and poupina are helping us so much we are teaching poupina 5 times a week. she is soaking it up.
on thursday before the other young adult activity we were giving a lesson to melissa. we had a member there to help us. 5 min into the lesson we hear a knock on the door it was another investigator named tim who we are now teaching so he sits down and we explained a little bit of what we had talked about. 2 min later another knock on the door. its another investigator, her name is ananda she is now a new investigator, so she sits down. i was like oh man, 2 min later another knock on the door it was poupina and maggie they sat down. so there i was teaching 4 different investigators with 2 members it was so awesome because you had maggie testifying about how awesome it is to be baptized and poupina talking about how much she has changed already. the spirit was so strong. there were also a lot of investigators that night.
so on sunday we rode all the way down to zwolle for stake conference. poupina came and maggie it was really good the area president was there and our mission pres along with another gen authority. i guess the day before they had a meeting about the work and one of our members from the ward was there and he said the area authority got word about how good groningen was doing and how they had 10 members and 10 investigators at there jovo centrum and he talked about it. The hauge is supposed to be the model ward here and they only had 3 investigators. after the stake conf on sunday the mission pres came up and i thought he was going to tell me to cut my hair or something, but he sais yeah everybody keeps telling me how great the work is going in groningen. then we talked to another member yesterday and he said that he has never seen the work go so good the whole time hes lived there. Taryn still makes me look like a little girl with her 18 investigators in church! how is that possible. i want to be companions with her for a few days i think it would be so fun. then i could see how she dominates.
well i hope all is good thanks for the letters mom and everybody thanks for the emails. have a great week
love you all. blijf sterk! e robert
so monday was another success we had a lot of people and a lot of fun. tonight we are making pankakes for family night. its nice because maggie and poupina are helping us so much we are teaching poupina 5 times a week. she is soaking it up.
on thursday before the other young adult activity we were giving a lesson to melissa. we had a member there to help us. 5 min into the lesson we hear a knock on the door it was another investigator named tim who we are now teaching so he sits down and we explained a little bit of what we had talked about. 2 min later another knock on the door. its another investigator, her name is ananda she is now a new investigator, so she sits down. i was like oh man, 2 min later another knock on the door it was poupina and maggie they sat down. so there i was teaching 4 different investigators with 2 members it was so awesome because you had maggie testifying about how awesome it is to be baptized and poupina talking about how much she has changed already. the spirit was so strong. there were also a lot of investigators that night.
so on sunday we rode all the way down to zwolle for stake conference. poupina came and maggie it was really good the area president was there and our mission pres along with another gen authority. i guess the day before they had a meeting about the work and one of our members from the ward was there and he said the area authority got word about how good groningen was doing and how they had 10 members and 10 investigators at there jovo centrum and he talked about it. The hauge is supposed to be the model ward here and they only had 3 investigators. after the stake conf on sunday the mission pres came up and i thought he was going to tell me to cut my hair or something, but he sais yeah everybody keeps telling me how great the work is going in groningen. then we talked to another member yesterday and he said that he has never seen the work go so good the whole time hes lived there. Taryn still makes me look like a little girl with her 18 investigators in church! how is that possible. i want to be companions with her for a few days i think it would be so fun. then i could see how she dominates.
well i hope all is good thanks for the letters mom and everybody thanks for the emails. have a great week
love you all. blijf sterk! e robert
morgan 9.20.10
Hello Everybody,
Well geeze, sounds like Brighams football team is doing some serious work! how is Orem High doing? probably not as well? Sounds like Sages team was doing work too. What is Sadie doing? and Tay what are you up to? and Ash and Sandy? Well I guess the Federer of the family (Chris) did work in the Robert Open the other day. haha Chris I laughed so hard at your email! So Cole is doing work in football I heard. What about the Wimmer side though... Nick. what is up with Nick? Well keep me updated!
So this week we invited this 17 year old kid from Congo to be baptized Oct. 9. He said yes. So that makes 2 baptism dates that we have been blessed to see for Oct. 9. I hope they go through. it is Junior (kid from congo) and Arturo (18 year old from Salvador). We did have another one with someone named Albertino (the friend of J lo) but we moved his to this weekend. I hope it goes through! Albertino is pretty strange. He doesnt talk much but is really nice. He is willing to respect all the commandments and he has a good knowledge of the gospel. Its just he forgets really easily. He definately isnt a J lo, but he is ready.
We are continuing to do our Sunday night Film and our Saturday Sport. The Films that we have watched are The Testaments, The Other Side of Heaven and lastnight we watched The Prince of Egypt. That is about all the films we are aloud to watch apart from all the films of the church. Mom, do you think you can try and see if Joseph Smith the prophet of the restoration is available to buy yet. There are 2 Restoration films one that is like 30 min, I have that one. And one that is like 1hr and a half, thats the one I want. If you know of any other films made by the church give me some ideas. I already have like 10. but some are a little too cheesy to show in public. haha like 70's style. We get quite a bit of people to come to those. Less actives, Investigators, members and recent converts. We are going to try and put together a FHE here.
Transfers is next week. I think I will stay. But dont be expecting an email on monday because if I am not changing villes I am most likely training. We have 17 new missionnaries coming in!! That is alot for here!! Our mission decreased from like 140 to 62 and now we are going to rise back up. We have a lot of new villes opening up.
Thanks for all you do Mom and Dad! Dad get better soon! and Mom I got the package with shoes. thanks so much I really like them!! Oh yeah, and lastnight i made your caramel popcorn, they all loved it!!
Elder Wimmer
Well geeze, sounds like Brighams football team is doing some serious work! how is Orem High doing? probably not as well? Sounds like Sages team was doing work too. What is Sadie doing? and Tay what are you up to? and Ash and Sandy? Well I guess the Federer of the family (Chris) did work in the Robert Open the other day. haha Chris I laughed so hard at your email! So Cole is doing work in football I heard. What about the Wimmer side though... Nick. what is up with Nick? Well keep me updated!
So this week we invited this 17 year old kid from Congo to be baptized Oct. 9. He said yes. So that makes 2 baptism dates that we have been blessed to see for Oct. 9. I hope they go through. it is Junior (kid from congo) and Arturo (18 year old from Salvador). We did have another one with someone named Albertino (the friend of J lo) but we moved his to this weekend. I hope it goes through! Albertino is pretty strange. He doesnt talk much but is really nice. He is willing to respect all the commandments and he has a good knowledge of the gospel. Its just he forgets really easily. He definately isnt a J lo, but he is ready.
We are continuing to do our Sunday night Film and our Saturday Sport. The Films that we have watched are The Testaments, The Other Side of Heaven and lastnight we watched The Prince of Egypt. That is about all the films we are aloud to watch apart from all the films of the church. Mom, do you think you can try and see if Joseph Smith the prophet of the restoration is available to buy yet. There are 2 Restoration films one that is like 30 min, I have that one. And one that is like 1hr and a half, thats the one I want. If you know of any other films made by the church give me some ideas. I already have like 10. but some are a little too cheesy to show in public. haha like 70's style. We get quite a bit of people to come to those. Less actives, Investigators, members and recent converts. We are going to try and put together a FHE here.
Transfers is next week. I think I will stay. But dont be expecting an email on monday because if I am not changing villes I am most likely training. We have 17 new missionnaries coming in!! That is alot for here!! Our mission decreased from like 140 to 62 and now we are going to rise back up. We have a lot of new villes opening up.
Thanks for all you do Mom and Dad! Dad get better soon! and Mom I got the package with shoes. thanks so much I really like them!! Oh yeah, and lastnight i made your caramel popcorn, they all loved it!!
Elder Wimmer
taryn 9.20.10
Hey! Great week again, busy as usual.
Monday we went with a few of our investigators to a big farwell family home evening for an awesome member that is going on a mission. next month we are having 13 Thai missionaries come in!! the record for Thailand. Seeing him and his excitement made me a little jealous that he is just starting out. The end is coming so fast.
On wednesday we taught 8 lessons, almost nine but we didnt have an opening and closing prayer with her so it doesn't count. My new record! We were so tired mentally, physically, and spiritually be the end of the night. Missionary work is so much fun, but stressful and exhausting as well!
We have to sort through our investigators this week and see who is the very most ready for the message because we dont have the time right now to teach those that arent quite ready. Its hard to drop people, but i like to think about it as putting them on the shelf and they will be picked up again in the future when they are ready. I love them, all of them. Im sad, Im not going to be able to see many of them baptized. We were hoping for a lot of them to make that special covenant in the next few weeks, but it looks like they arent quite ready, and a lot of them have to get special interviews because of question 4. Its so sad how Satan has taken the world to a level that evil things are just the norm in the world. how grateful i am that we have the knowledge and direction and help from Heavenly Father to be lifted out of the world!
Thursday we drove in a songtaw and hour our to serve a member that the branch assigned us to. We got there, the middle of nowhere, surrounded by tons of tropical trees and rice. To serve them we helped them prepare the treats that they sell every morning at the market. We chopped open coconuts off the tree, drained the milk out, and then shaved the insides into little strips, and then sugar and fried them in a big pan over a fire in the backyard. Another one of those moments that makes me realize just where I am, what a special opportunity it is, and how much i love it here.
Saturday Elder Perkins of the 70- our area President came and spoke to our zone- haha all 10 of us that are up in the north..It was soooo good. So inpirational, made me want to be such a better missionary and person. Also, it made me want to really get to know the scriptures, i wonder if i can ever get to his level? President Smith said to him in front of everyone, "i wish i could clone this companionship. Sister Youngs parents dont know, but im not going to let her go home." I love him. It feels good to know that we are doing our best and helping President Smith along with the thai people.
Well, an investigator just called and asked if we could see her in 20 minutes because she cant later- got to go.. i love you all and miss you.stay safe, CTR, and be happy!
love sister young
ps the other day i had an "ive been in thailand too long" experience. first, 1/2 way through eating my food i found a huge caterpillar cooked in it, i just pulled it out and kept eating. then we went to the church and a HUGE spider was on the wall and i just pulled off my shoe and tried to smash it. I didnt realize how unusual this was for me until later that night when i really thought about it!
Monday we went with a few of our investigators to a big farwell family home evening for an awesome member that is going on a mission. next month we are having 13 Thai missionaries come in!! the record for Thailand. Seeing him and his excitement made me a little jealous that he is just starting out. The end is coming so fast.
On wednesday we taught 8 lessons, almost nine but we didnt have an opening and closing prayer with her so it doesn't count. My new record! We were so tired mentally, physically, and spiritually be the end of the night. Missionary work is so much fun, but stressful and exhausting as well!
We have to sort through our investigators this week and see who is the very most ready for the message because we dont have the time right now to teach those that arent quite ready. Its hard to drop people, but i like to think about it as putting them on the shelf and they will be picked up again in the future when they are ready. I love them, all of them. Im sad, Im not going to be able to see many of them baptized. We were hoping for a lot of them to make that special covenant in the next few weeks, but it looks like they arent quite ready, and a lot of them have to get special interviews because of question 4. Its so sad how Satan has taken the world to a level that evil things are just the norm in the world. how grateful i am that we have the knowledge and direction and help from Heavenly Father to be lifted out of the world!
Thursday we drove in a songtaw and hour our to serve a member that the branch assigned us to. We got there, the middle of nowhere, surrounded by tons of tropical trees and rice. To serve them we helped them prepare the treats that they sell every morning at the market. We chopped open coconuts off the tree, drained the milk out, and then shaved the insides into little strips, and then sugar and fried them in a big pan over a fire in the backyard. Another one of those moments that makes me realize just where I am, what a special opportunity it is, and how much i love it here.
Saturday Elder Perkins of the 70- our area President came and spoke to our zone- haha all 10 of us that are up in the north..It was soooo good. So inpirational, made me want to be such a better missionary and person. Also, it made me want to really get to know the scriptures, i wonder if i can ever get to his level? President Smith said to him in front of everyone, "i wish i could clone this companionship. Sister Youngs parents dont know, but im not going to let her go home." I love him. It feels good to know that we are doing our best and helping President Smith along with the thai people.
Well, an investigator just called and asked if we could see her in 20 minutes because she cant later- got to go.. i love you all and miss you.stay safe, CTR, and be happy!
love sister young
ps the other day i had an "ive been in thailand too long" experience. first, 1/2 way through eating my food i found a huge caterpillar cooked in it, i just pulled it out and kept eating. then we went to the church and a HUGE spider was on the wall and i just pulled off my shoe and tried to smash it. I didnt realize how unusual this was for me until later that night when i really thought about it!
9.14.2010
taryn 9.13.10
Well, Im not sure what is going on, but Heavenly Father is blessing us so much. We are keeping a flow of new investigators coming in, but also still have many of our old ones. We are racing from appointment to appointment, when we get home we are both so tired mentally, physically, and spiritually.
ha, Saturday night we were having issues trying to speak english while planning. We had 18 investigators at church yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Church started off with only a couple, which is the norm for the mission, the average companionship has about 1-2 investigators at church each week. but then right as the meeting started they just kept coming in. It was fun, but hectic as well trying to help them all sit by members or getting members to sit by them, while trying to be quite as the meeting was going. Luckily on saturday the spirit whispered to me so awesome. i dont know how or why Heavenly Father is blessing us so much, but He truly is pouring them out. We are finally getting investigators that are close to baptism, it takes quite awhile here because they have no background in any of this. Ive never had investigators that have had problems with question number four, but so far 3 of the 4 who we were hoping to be baptized by the end of the month have or have had issues with the question, the one on any serious crimes, homosexual relationships, or abortion. Im not exactly sure what to do for them, i asked president today in my email/letter what to do, im sure he will have good advice, he always does. He is an amazing president, i am so lucky to be able to serve with him and learn from him. he has done so much for me.
our investigator Gang called me last week almost in tears, she had just got in a little arguement with her mom about going to church. her mom says she needs her and A's help instead of going to church. (gang is 17 and read the bom in a month, A is a 12 year old cousin who comes into town on the weekends- she just finished the bom- a month and a half...) we prayed and prayed and prayed and studied a prayed some more, and then moved some appts around and went out there. it worked out perfectly that her mom didnt have any customers and we were able to talk with her. then on saturday we went and served them to help them prepare for the sunday sales- they sell food outside a protestant church for when the services get over- sounds alittle funny right?? cant go to church because have to sell stuff outside another church on sunday? anyway, we worked it out so that they can at least go to sacrament meeting for now.
well, sorry, another short letter. i had the intent of writing more today but had a surpise mom and grandma that were emailing and are more fun to talk to back and forth with than writing an email.. :) i love you all so much. thank you for all that you do for me. i am so lucky. Life is so good. i love this gospel. it is 100% true.
love,
sister young
ha, Saturday night we were having issues trying to speak english while planning. We had 18 investigators at church yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Church started off with only a couple, which is the norm for the mission, the average companionship has about 1-2 investigators at church each week. but then right as the meeting started they just kept coming in. It was fun, but hectic as well trying to help them all sit by members or getting members to sit by them, while trying to be quite as the meeting was going. Luckily on saturday the spirit whispered to me so awesome. i dont know how or why Heavenly Father is blessing us so much, but He truly is pouring them out. We are finally getting investigators that are close to baptism, it takes quite awhile here because they have no background in any of this. Ive never had investigators that have had problems with question number four, but so far 3 of the 4 who we were hoping to be baptized by the end of the month have or have had issues with the question, the one on any serious crimes, homosexual relationships, or abortion. Im not exactly sure what to do for them, i asked president today in my email/letter what to do, im sure he will have good advice, he always does. He is an amazing president, i am so lucky to be able to serve with him and learn from him. he has done so much for me.
our investigator Gang called me last week almost in tears, she had just got in a little arguement with her mom about going to church. her mom says she needs her and A's help instead of going to church. (gang is 17 and read the bom in a month, A is a 12 year old cousin who comes into town on the weekends- she just finished the bom- a month and a half...) we prayed and prayed and prayed and studied a prayed some more, and then moved some appts around and went out there. it worked out perfectly that her mom didnt have any customers and we were able to talk with her. then on saturday we went and served them to help them prepare for the sunday sales- they sell food outside a protestant church for when the services get over- sounds alittle funny right?? cant go to church because have to sell stuff outside another church on sunday? anyway, we worked it out so that they can at least go to sacrament meeting for now.
well, sorry, another short letter. i had the intent of writing more today but had a surpise mom and grandma that were emailing and are more fun to talk to back and forth with than writing an email.. :) i love you all so much. thank you for all that you do for me. i am so lucky. Life is so good. i love this gospel. it is 100% true.
love,
sister young
jordan 9.13.10
ok well this week was good. we got to go to brussels and listen to elder ballard talk. it was awesome to hear him talk. he talked about teaching. he said teach teach teach! if we dont have an appointment he said to call a member and go teach them. we are to master teachers. man i have a long way to go. i went home that night with a good feeling.
well we have a bunch of new investigators this week. and the young adult centrum is dominating more than it ever has. on thursday we had at least 20 young adults and half were non members. sorry about that one! and monday for family home evening was a sucsess! tonight we are making pizzas, home made and playing volleyball.
ok so we were at maggies and one of her friends came over. her name is poupina. she is from cameroon but has lived here for 6 yrs. she is in 2 months 18. and she is amazing. plus she looks like beyonce. she is really prepared plus we connected really good. she wants to be baptized so we set up a baptismal date for her on the 9th of october. she came to church yesterday and said she now wants to come every week. we meet with her 3 times a week . tonight she is coming to family home evening. she is coming an hour early so we can teach her. pray for her that she will make her baptismal date!
we also met with a dutch lady we met knocking doors a month ago. she is really enthusiastic and happy. she has 3 kids. we taught her then the doorbell rang and she sais oh i hope you dont mind i invited a friend to come listen too. ha ha ilove it when that happens. so we are meeting with them on thur. again. the guy that came in when we told him we were mormon. he said all ive heard is bad things about the mormons, we cleared that up and now he is really interested. if you say mormon it has a bad connotation out here.
maggie is doing really good. same with yulie. well thats all i can remember about this week. chandler! whats going on? how you doin?
oh yeah this week we walked past a skate park and i happened to know the kid skating and i happened to have my skate shoes in my back pack. before i knew it i had 7 kids watching and wanting to talk to me( i still had my church clothes on) then some old dutch couple that would never listen to us in a million years came up to me and started to talk to me asked me all about what im doing here and about the church. it was a great contacting tool.we couldnt get a person to talk to us all day. then all the sudden we had people coming up to us. it was fun.
cameron! whats going down son? talk to me. grandpa chris candy paint drippin off the frame son! dad! i hear you are pumping iron! so am i. i think i am in the best shape of my life. im getting pretty ripped. i love to work out because its the only time i get to use my ding dang body.
well mom thank you for being the amazing person you are. you keep me going!
love elder robert
well we have a bunch of new investigators this week. and the young adult centrum is dominating more than it ever has. on thursday we had at least 20 young adults and half were non members. sorry about that one! and monday for family home evening was a sucsess! tonight we are making pizzas, home made and playing volleyball.
ok so we were at maggies and one of her friends came over. her name is poupina. she is from cameroon but has lived here for 6 yrs. she is in 2 months 18. and she is amazing. plus she looks like beyonce. she is really prepared plus we connected really good. she wants to be baptized so we set up a baptismal date for her on the 9th of october. she came to church yesterday and said she now wants to come every week. we meet with her 3 times a week . tonight she is coming to family home evening. she is coming an hour early so we can teach her. pray for her that she will make her baptismal date!
we also met with a dutch lady we met knocking doors a month ago. she is really enthusiastic and happy. she has 3 kids. we taught her then the doorbell rang and she sais oh i hope you dont mind i invited a friend to come listen too. ha ha ilove it when that happens. so we are meeting with them on thur. again. the guy that came in when we told him we were mormon. he said all ive heard is bad things about the mormons, we cleared that up and now he is really interested. if you say mormon it has a bad connotation out here.
maggie is doing really good. same with yulie. well thats all i can remember about this week. chandler! whats going on? how you doin?
oh yeah this week we walked past a skate park and i happened to know the kid skating and i happened to have my skate shoes in my back pack. before i knew it i had 7 kids watching and wanting to talk to me( i still had my church clothes on) then some old dutch couple that would never listen to us in a million years came up to me and started to talk to me asked me all about what im doing here and about the church. it was a great contacting tool.we couldnt get a person to talk to us all day. then all the sudden we had people coming up to us. it was fun.
cameron! whats going down son? talk to me. grandpa chris candy paint drippin off the frame son! dad! i hear you are pumping iron! so am i. i think i am in the best shape of my life. im getting pretty ripped. i love to work out because its the only time i get to use my ding dang body.
well mom thank you for being the amazing person you are. you keep me going!
love elder robert
morgan 9.13.10
Hello Everybody!
Okay so this week was a good week. The girl that we set the baptismal date for the 25th of sept. isnt going to work because she still hasnt came to church so we are going to have to move it back. But we found 2 new people who want to get baptized Oct.9. One is named Albertino, he is 20 and super shy. He is the neighbor of J lo and we met him at j lo's baptism. The other is a contact we had a few weeks ago, his name is Arturo, he is mexican or something of the sort. He is also super nice but has some weird beliefs.
So we are continuing to do our activities. They are really working here. Last night we watched the other side of heaven and we had 2 recent converts there, 3 less actives (2 of which are reactivated if they come to church one more time and have a church calling), and 3 investigators. It is so cool to see everyone just have fun together. The bad thing is, is that we dont have very many more movies in french we are allowed to watch. If you have any ideas please let me know.
So last week we spent 2 hours of p day cleaning the apt. It is so nice looking now. It still can use some work though. We have been playing quite a bit of basketball lately. I taught Elder Baret how to play whiteball. Its not as fun when we arent at the Youngs. Speaking of the Youngs, T.Y. is coming home so soon! That is crazy!! But anyways, we have a soccer game this saturday against Brive (the branch not too far from here). I am so excited! we just have to find an investigator to come and we can go. We are probably gunna bring Arturo.
Right now we do not have that many people to teach. We are working on finding people. When we were contacting I contacted this black woman with her daughter. They kinda flipped the contact around and started contacting me. They were talking to me about some crazy religion. I thought they were Jehovah's Witness' by the way they were contantly reciting scriptures and all that. They want us to come over to talk to them and their family (the dad is a pastor). So they took down our name and number and we took down thiers and we will see what happens from there. haha.
So every freaking night I wake up to the buzzing of a freakin mosquito in my ear. SO ANNOYING! Elder Baret said the same thing happens with him. so every morning we wake up and there are 20 mosquitos inside and we go crazy killing them all.
Well sorry, boring week nothing else really good to write. So is Cole playing football? he better be! what about Cade? is he on Brigs team again? Keep me updated on all the sports and stuff your kids are doing! Thanks for all you guys do! I love you all!
Elder Wimmer
Okay so this week was a good week. The girl that we set the baptismal date for the 25th of sept. isnt going to work because she still hasnt came to church so we are going to have to move it back. But we found 2 new people who want to get baptized Oct.9. One is named Albertino, he is 20 and super shy. He is the neighbor of J lo and we met him at j lo's baptism. The other is a contact we had a few weeks ago, his name is Arturo, he is mexican or something of the sort. He is also super nice but has some weird beliefs.
So we are continuing to do our activities. They are really working here. Last night we watched the other side of heaven and we had 2 recent converts there, 3 less actives (2 of which are reactivated if they come to church one more time and have a church calling), and 3 investigators. It is so cool to see everyone just have fun together. The bad thing is, is that we dont have very many more movies in french we are allowed to watch. If you have any ideas please let me know.
So last week we spent 2 hours of p day cleaning the apt. It is so nice looking now. It still can use some work though. We have been playing quite a bit of basketball lately. I taught Elder Baret how to play whiteball. Its not as fun when we arent at the Youngs. Speaking of the Youngs, T.Y. is coming home so soon! That is crazy!! But anyways, we have a soccer game this saturday against Brive (the branch not too far from here). I am so excited! we just have to find an investigator to come and we can go. We are probably gunna bring Arturo.
Right now we do not have that many people to teach. We are working on finding people. When we were contacting I contacted this black woman with her daughter. They kinda flipped the contact around and started contacting me. They were talking to me about some crazy religion. I thought they were Jehovah's Witness' by the way they were contantly reciting scriptures and all that. They want us to come over to talk to them and their family (the dad is a pastor). So they took down our name and number and we took down thiers and we will see what happens from there. haha.
So every freaking night I wake up to the buzzing of a freakin mosquito in my ear. SO ANNOYING! Elder Baret said the same thing happens with him. so every morning we wake up and there are 20 mosquitos inside and we go crazy killing them all.
Well sorry, boring week nothing else really good to write. So is Cole playing football? he better be! what about Cade? is he on Brigs team again? Keep me updated on all the sports and stuff your kids are doing! Thanks for all you guys do! I love you all!
Elder Wimmer
9.06.2010
jordan 9.6.10
ok well Maggies baptism went amazing. she is so awesome. she did her best to tell everyone to come to her baptism. she asked her mother and her mother is totally against the baptism. she told her if she gets baptised she will never speak to her again. she got baptised anyway because she knows its true. it was so cool being able to baptize someone. it felt really good. it felt like the most success ive had yet. ive never seen anybody so happy, she was glowing. the ward did better than i thought they would on welcoming her into the ward. this is really a person that had changed her heart, and is putting her whole heart into it. on sunday she recieved the holy ghost and was crying. the spirit was strong. then after that people were bearing there testimonies. and i was sitting next to Maggie and Yulie the other girl we baptized a month ago. maggie told me the night before that she felt like she had to bare her testimony. but when we were sitting down she was so nervous she was shaking. she kept saying next month next month. but she got up the guts anyway and same with yulie. they both went up together. that was one of my favorite moments of my mission so far. hearing them both bare testimony for the first time. maggie started to cry and she said how greatfull she is. and also that she hopes her mom will one day accept the gospel and be sittting next to her in the church. oh man i was on cloud nine.
well tonight is the first family home evening and im in charge of it, i invited everybody i could. maggie is coming its going to be fun. we set 2 more baptismal dates its nothing compared to taryns 12. i felt like a little girl after i heard that. these people out here dont want to listen. its hard, but we fasted this week that the peoples hearts will be softened.
so. mom things that are wearing out. uuuhhhmm every sock i own has at least 2 holes in them. i cant believe you saw jann. crazy i hope she is doing good. tell nathalie hi for me thats cool she has been hangin out with the family. tell her she needs to write me.
school started today. soooooo many students. we are targeting the international student housing! genious. all the foriegn students come in and are humbled dont know there way around and are looking for friends. its perfect we just invite them to the young adult centrum. chinees students are really nice and humble. well i aint got much more time so till next week!
love you all cant wait to hear from you.
well tonight is the first family home evening and im in charge of it, i invited everybody i could. maggie is coming its going to be fun. we set 2 more baptismal dates its nothing compared to taryns 12. i felt like a little girl after i heard that. these people out here dont want to listen. its hard, but we fasted this week that the peoples hearts will be softened.
so. mom things that are wearing out. uuuhhhmm every sock i own has at least 2 holes in them. i cant believe you saw jann. crazy i hope she is doing good. tell nathalie hi for me thats cool she has been hangin out with the family. tell her she needs to write me.
school started today. soooooo many students. we are targeting the international student housing! genious. all the foriegn students come in and are humbled dont know there way around and are looking for friends. its perfect we just invite them to the young adult centrum. chinees students are really nice and humble. well i aint got much more time so till next week!
love you all cant wait to hear from you.
about maggie.......
Maggie Chisha is 23 years old. She was born a three days trip from the city in Zambia. She calls it the bush bush. She grew up there until she was 16. Living off of the land and walking 4 hours each day to fetch her very needed water carrying it back on her head. She had never seen so much as a light bulb let alone an airplane, car, house, anything having to do with modern technology, white people, exc... She lived in a mud hut cooking for herself everyday, making fire by hand. In her culture women dont go to school, therefore she never learned to read or write. She was happy. Her mother lived in the city and never had contact with her family, she worked at the hospital. While working at the hospital she met a Dutch man and fell in love. She then moved to the Netherlands. Wanting better for her family she went back to the bush bush to get her family. Maggies little brother and little sister were taken first, they tried to take maggie but her father didnt want her to go. They had to come back another time and forcilbly take Maggie. She was taken to the airport in the city. Having never seen anything like it before she was very scared. While getting on the plane she was startled by the engine and ended up running all the way to the electric fence to meet a new shocking feeling. They had to tranqualize her to get her on the plane. Maggie came into the Netherlands in the freezing cold winter. Everything was new and different, white people everywhere. New things such as lighters, televisions, computers, and houses. She had a hard time adjusting. The first duck she saw she grabbed it broke its neck and took it home to her mother to eat. Her mother then having to explain to her that thats not how we do things here. The years go by and she started to get used to the european lifestyle. Clothing, nightlife, busyness, and bills. One day while in the Center of Groningen two sister missionaries overheard her talking about God. Maggie not knowing these missionaries still gave them her information. The sisters tried contacting her later with not much success. Then the sisters were transfered. They gave her information to us the elders and we gave it a try. Finnally getting contact with her we made an appointment. At the appointment we gave her a book of Mormon, and unfortunately she explained to us that her Father had passed away one week before. The next appointment she was excited about learning more and told us she could not put the book down. Then the next appointment she was even more excited and said that she feels herself changing, she didnt want to do the things she did before, she said she never felt alone anymore. Having already set a baptismal date she was well on her way. She explained that she feels like she is becoming the Maggie she used to be and wants to be. Moving in closer to her baptism she recieved many trials, friends falling away and even turning against her because of the changes she was making. Even down to her own mother telling her that if she were to be baptized she would never speak to her again. But Maggie already having a testimony of Christ and the Book Of Mormon there was no turning back. She was Baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Sep 4. and confirmed the next day. After her confirmation she courageously got up to give her testimony of the things she knows are true, and continued in tears wishing one day her Mother would be sitting next to her with the same testimony of the Book of Mormon. I being a missionary have never felt so much joy then to see someone turn their life to Christ and recieve so much happiness. Im so greatfull for this Gospel and the eternal happiness it brings. The Book of Mormon is true and has the power to bring souls, no matter where you come from or who you are, unto Christ.
taryn 9.6.10
Hey family!
Sister Naegle and i are lucky enough to still be here in Chaing Mai. Were loving it. I love this area, and i love my companion. Im supposed to be training her, but i have learned so much from her as well. Im on my last transfer now, i cant believe it. Time is flying. Im not sure what to write in this email because i feel like i just barely wrote you. sorry you didnt get my email last week, ill try to send it again.
Most of our investigators are doing awesome! tum and khaawfaang will hopefully be interviewed for baptism next week, and maybe a few others, were not sure yet. A few of our investigators are getting scared and some are waivering. we also got some good families last week! we found them both after appointments cancelled. we made a rule for ourselves that when an appt cancels, we have to invite the closest person nearby. we have found some good sucess! sometimes Heavenly Father sends us somewhere for other purposes than we think. both families are very similar, they are both from the hill tribe karian and they are both protestant! we have been teaching quite a few christians lately, its hard the first few lessons, i never know what to say with them, im so used to teaching those that know nothing about Christ, God, or prayer. The families are awesome though and hopefully they can progress and be eternal families some day.We have felt the Hand of the Lord in everything lately. I know that none of this sucess is because of me or because of my companion. Heavenly Father is preparing everything before us, all we have to do is to work hard and do our best and reap in the harvest.
Im sorry, ive been horrible at writing lately, everything just blends together and im not sure what to write about. I want you to know that i know this is the Lords work. 100%. I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ and i am grateful that i get to be one small instrument in this enormous work. I hope that i can be an instrument in His hands for the rest of my life. I am so deeply grateful to Joseph Smith, for all that he sacrificed to bring forth the Book of Mormon. I love that book. So much. I am excited that i have the opportunity to study it every single day for the rest of my life. It holds the power of God between its pages and all you have to do is open it and read with and open heart and that power will come flowing into you. I am also grateful for the temple. oh how i miss it! seeing members dream of being able to get to go someday, and also not being able to go for over a year has made me appreciate it that much more. before my mission i really took it for granted. i cant wait to go back and enter the house of the Lord often, serving others and also getting filled with knowledge and peace. I am grateful that i have such an incredible family, the best ever, and because of the temple and your good decisions we get to live together forever!!! I love missionary work. I love this gospel. I love Thailand. I love these people. I love the Lord. I love you! I am the luckiest person in the world, i get to serve here and also have such an awesome family at home. please stay safe, ill see you soon!
love,
sister young
Sister Naegle and i are lucky enough to still be here in Chaing Mai. Were loving it. I love this area, and i love my companion. Im supposed to be training her, but i have learned so much from her as well. Im on my last transfer now, i cant believe it. Time is flying. Im not sure what to write in this email because i feel like i just barely wrote you. sorry you didnt get my email last week, ill try to send it again.
Most of our investigators are doing awesome! tum and khaawfaang will hopefully be interviewed for baptism next week, and maybe a few others, were not sure yet. A few of our investigators are getting scared and some are waivering. we also got some good families last week! we found them both after appointments cancelled. we made a rule for ourselves that when an appt cancels, we have to invite the closest person nearby. we have found some good sucess! sometimes Heavenly Father sends us somewhere for other purposes than we think. both families are very similar, they are both from the hill tribe karian and they are both protestant! we have been teaching quite a few christians lately, its hard the first few lessons, i never know what to say with them, im so used to teaching those that know nothing about Christ, God, or prayer. The families are awesome though and hopefully they can progress and be eternal families some day.We have felt the Hand of the Lord in everything lately. I know that none of this sucess is because of me or because of my companion. Heavenly Father is preparing everything before us, all we have to do is to work hard and do our best and reap in the harvest.
Im sorry, ive been horrible at writing lately, everything just blends together and im not sure what to write about. I want you to know that i know this is the Lords work. 100%. I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ and i am grateful that i get to be one small instrument in this enormous work. I hope that i can be an instrument in His hands for the rest of my life. I am so deeply grateful to Joseph Smith, for all that he sacrificed to bring forth the Book of Mormon. I love that book. So much. I am excited that i have the opportunity to study it every single day for the rest of my life. It holds the power of God between its pages and all you have to do is open it and read with and open heart and that power will come flowing into you. I am also grateful for the temple. oh how i miss it! seeing members dream of being able to get to go someday, and also not being able to go for over a year has made me appreciate it that much more. before my mission i really took it for granted. i cant wait to go back and enter the house of the Lord often, serving others and also getting filled with knowledge and peace. I am grateful that i have such an incredible family, the best ever, and because of the temple and your good decisions we get to live together forever!!! I love missionary work. I love this gospel. I love Thailand. I love these people. I love the Lord. I love you! I am the luckiest person in the world, i get to serve here and also have such an awesome family at home. please stay safe, ill see you soon!
love,
sister young
morgan 9.6.10
Hello everybody,
Well, yes. The Baptism of J-Lo did go through. It was really good. Although Friday night we had a little scare, we called the brach pres. to ask if he can be a witness. He told us actually he cant go because he got invited to a dinner. Yeah. So we got scared because there has to be someone from the brach presidency there. But the counselor saved us. Yes, the pres. here is a little special. The day of the confirmation he was welcoming Jonathan and he didnt know his name. haha it was bad. Oh well. But the baptism was really good. He is incredible. He is saying he is going to serve a mission now.
So this week we decided we are going to reactivate all the young less actives. so we made some activities such as Saturday sport, sunday night film and we are trying to find more. We had 10 people at the sport and 8 at the movie. it was so cool. There are so many less actives just simply because no one cares. it is so sad. but yeah guess who got the game winning 3 point shot?? yeah, MJ is back baby.
So still no camera. But thats alright. Yes, the baptism stll is on for the 25th. For now. She still hasnt came to church so we might have to move it back. Me and elder baret are still getting along great. We both love sports and just feed eachother compliments all day. it is so funny. I am teaching him english. He can speak it really well now. Our apt. is pretty nasty I am going to clean it this week.
I heard the best talk ever today! it is by Elder Holland. it is called "Safety for the Soul." WOW!! I recommend you all to go on youtube and listen to it. He is so intense! I love him. It is increadible how many people have sacrificed their lives for the book of mormon. How many people have attacked it and tried to disprove it. and it is still here. This cant just be any old book. I know that the book of mormon is the most correct book on earth. It is the most pure testimony of jesus christ. If this book wasnt true why would it recieve so much oposition. and on the other side the thousands of life who have changed their lives for the better. Joseph Smith died for this book. If this book wasnt real and if this church wasnt true wouldnt you think that when he was persecuted and brought to death he would deny it? I know that The Book of Mormon is true. and if you dont know that it is true. Read it. Pray about it. It will change your life.
I Love you all! thanks for all you do.
Elder Wimmer
Well, yes. The Baptism of J-Lo did go through. It was really good. Although Friday night we had a little scare, we called the brach pres. to ask if he can be a witness. He told us actually he cant go because he got invited to a dinner. Yeah. So we got scared because there has to be someone from the brach presidency there. But the counselor saved us. Yes, the pres. here is a little special. The day of the confirmation he was welcoming Jonathan and he didnt know his name. haha it was bad. Oh well. But the baptism was really good. He is incredible. He is saying he is going to serve a mission now.
So this week we decided we are going to reactivate all the young less actives. so we made some activities such as Saturday sport, sunday night film and we are trying to find more. We had 10 people at the sport and 8 at the movie. it was so cool. There are so many less actives just simply because no one cares. it is so sad. but yeah guess who got the game winning 3 point shot?? yeah, MJ is back baby.
So still no camera. But thats alright. Yes, the baptism stll is on for the 25th. For now. She still hasnt came to church so we might have to move it back. Me and elder baret are still getting along great. We both love sports and just feed eachother compliments all day. it is so funny. I am teaching him english. He can speak it really well now. Our apt. is pretty nasty I am going to clean it this week.
I heard the best talk ever today! it is by Elder Holland. it is called "Safety for the Soul." WOW!! I recommend you all to go on youtube and listen to it. He is so intense! I love him. It is increadible how many people have sacrificed their lives for the book of mormon. How many people have attacked it and tried to disprove it. and it is still here. This cant just be any old book. I know that the book of mormon is the most correct book on earth. It is the most pure testimony of jesus christ. If this book wasnt true why would it recieve so much oposition. and on the other side the thousands of life who have changed their lives for the better. Joseph Smith died for this book. If this book wasnt real and if this church wasnt true wouldnt you think that when he was persecuted and brought to death he would deny it? I know that The Book of Mormon is true. and if you dont know that it is true. Read it. Pray about it. It will change your life.
I Love you all! thanks for all you do.
Elder Wimmer
8.31.2010
jordan 8.30.10
ok hello well this week was another busy week we had meetings about the young adult centrums. in my city we have one of i think 5 young adult outreach centers. it mainly includes activities for the young adults. we have one monday and thursday. my comp and i are completely in charge of the one on mon. we have to organize everything and i love it. we are going to have fun and we will get alot of people coming. it is mainly to bring in young people to the church. we were "hand chosen" our pres said to do this. we are also told to focus on young people and bring them into the church and use the centrum to bring them in. it is handy because they can come to the church and dont have to go to "church" they come to play sports or something else.
well maggie is doing good still. she is ready and excited for saturday.
today for pday we climbed to the top of Martini tower. it is a huge tower in the center of the city. it was facinating. 500 yrs old or so. mom sam nyman wants you to add him on my email list. ahhhh i aint got much time we are going to go teach this dutch girl who has had alot of contact with the church and has friends in the church but this is her first lesson tonight! we are going to set a baptismal date with her. also shayne and mike i met your next door neighbors sister the guy who just moved in across from you. her boyfriend is from here and was in church yesterday. he is really cool. they are going to come to maggies baptism on sat! and hopefully we will start teaching him. i have to call him to get an appointment. small world.
mom that was so nice of cate to send all that stuff with nathalie. did she find a car? well g2g homies. thanks for the letters and prayers. next week i have to go down to brussels for a mission conference.
have a great day! e robert
well maggie is doing good still. she is ready and excited for saturday.
today for pday we climbed to the top of Martini tower. it is a huge tower in the center of the city. it was facinating. 500 yrs old or so. mom sam nyman wants you to add him on my email list. ahhhh i aint got much time we are going to go teach this dutch girl who has had alot of contact with the church and has friends in the church but this is her first lesson tonight! we are going to set a baptismal date with her. also shayne and mike i met your next door neighbors sister the guy who just moved in across from you. her boyfriend is from here and was in church yesterday. he is really cool. they are going to come to maggies baptism on sat! and hopefully we will start teaching him. i have to call him to get an appointment. small world.
mom that was so nice of cate to send all that stuff with nathalie. did she find a car? well g2g homies. thanks for the letters and prayers. next week i have to go down to brussels for a mission conference.
have a great day! e robert
morgan 8.30.10
Hello everybody,
Well my camera is still not found. Bummer. I will have to ask Elder Magnan and Elder Mayer to send me some of thier photos. Okay, so this week was a week of miracles. Really. So maybe I told this story already, maybe not. Last Sunday we were walking to a lesson when we saw a woman standing on her balchony. We didnt think anything of it. So we kept walking for probably 200 meters and I told Elder Baret we have to go back and talk to her. So we flipped a U and went to talk to her. She told us to come talk to her tomorrow. The first 2 lessons we had with her werent that great. Just yesterday we called her to find out if we can come and she was super sad. So we went to go help her out, we watched the restoration dvd. We left her in tears and with a baptismal date for the 25th of september. It is amazing what Joseph Smith did, if someone really watches that dvd with an open heart there is no way you cant gain a testimony.
J-lo is still good for this saturday. I am so excited to see Elder Baret baptize him! His story is so cool! So I told you that in our mission we give away Book of Mormons like crazy now. well, J-lo was walking in a park and found a BOM that someone had thrown on the gound. He grabbed it, read a little and called us up. Ever since he has had a very strong testimony that this is true. He was someone ready that found us. The cool thing about that, is that one month ago the branch of Périgueux did a fast for 40 days. Each day one family would have a fast. and they fasted specifically so that the people who are ready can find us. This is the 2nd baptism we have had here because of that.
So me and Elder Baret are still getting along very well, he is still my favorite comp. so far. We do run in the mornings, every monday wednesday friday. I am really liking Périgueux. The members here are okay. I am so excited for the baptism on saturday!
Mom, no i dont have the package quite yet. probably in 2 weeks at the zone conf. Thanks so much for all your help everybody. Mom, Do you want to send me a camera or do you want me to buy one here? if you want me to buy one here email me next week. I am going to look for one today just in case. But I wont buy one until next week so email me and till me if you want me to buy one or send me one. Keep praying that itll turn up! I love you so so much!! thanks for everything!!
elder wimmer
Well my camera is still not found. Bummer. I will have to ask Elder Magnan and Elder Mayer to send me some of thier photos. Okay, so this week was a week of miracles. Really. So maybe I told this story already, maybe not. Last Sunday we were walking to a lesson when we saw a woman standing on her balchony. We didnt think anything of it. So we kept walking for probably 200 meters and I told Elder Baret we have to go back and talk to her. So we flipped a U and went to talk to her. She told us to come talk to her tomorrow. The first 2 lessons we had with her werent that great. Just yesterday we called her to find out if we can come and she was super sad. So we went to go help her out, we watched the restoration dvd. We left her in tears and with a baptismal date for the 25th of september. It is amazing what Joseph Smith did, if someone really watches that dvd with an open heart there is no way you cant gain a testimony.
J-lo is still good for this saturday. I am so excited to see Elder Baret baptize him! His story is so cool! So I told you that in our mission we give away Book of Mormons like crazy now. well, J-lo was walking in a park and found a BOM that someone had thrown on the gound. He grabbed it, read a little and called us up. Ever since he has had a very strong testimony that this is true. He was someone ready that found us. The cool thing about that, is that one month ago the branch of Périgueux did a fast for 40 days. Each day one family would have a fast. and they fasted specifically so that the people who are ready can find us. This is the 2nd baptism we have had here because of that.
So me and Elder Baret are still getting along very well, he is still my favorite comp. so far. We do run in the mornings, every monday wednesday friday. I am really liking Périgueux. The members here are okay. I am so excited for the baptism on saturday!
Mom, no i dont have the package quite yet. probably in 2 weeks at the zone conf. Thanks so much for all your help everybody. Mom, Do you want to send me a camera or do you want me to buy one here? if you want me to buy one here email me next week. I am going to look for one today just in case. But I wont buy one until next week so email me and till me if you want me to buy one or send me one. Keep praying that itll turn up! I love you so so much!! thanks for everything!!
elder wimmer
jordan 8.23.10
ok well an interesting week. it is only me and e crittenden now the other one went home on wed. it was weird for the first day but now its fine. i just have to do a lot more work and baby sit my comp some of the time.
so we have run into some opposisition this week. we were finding and we ran into a psyco who just started to yell at us. and get away and dont come back. its hard because you know you can help him but he has his agency.
we have been working even harder now that its two of us. we had some awesome appointments with maggie this week. we got to know her backgroung. she is 23 yrs old she was born in Zambia in the middle of nowhere, a 3 day travel from the nearest city. she grew up living in a mud hut no electricity no fridge no nothing. she would walk for 2 hours each day to fetch water that she would carry on her head and two buckets in her hands. she had never seen an airplane, her mom moved to the netherlands with a dutch man she met and left her behind. her dad would leave her by herself and she had to take care of her younger brothers and sisters who were babies for months at a time. so she would strap one of the babies to her back when she would get water. not to menchon that she lived completely off of the land. sugar cane sweet potatoes all kinds of fruit, bugs, rats bunnies, you name it. she would make evrything by hand from the earth. she didnt have shoes. ect...
when she was 16 yrs old she was brought to the netherlands to live with her mother. when she got on the plane to come here, she was waiting for the plane to take off. right when she heard the plane start she got scared and ran off the plane. they had to tranqualize her to get her on the plane. she was just thrown into modern day civilazation. she was amazed. she showed me her photo album when she first arrived in the netherlands. there was pictures of the first time she was on a computer or saw a computer or a tv. she said it was really weird that you just go to the store and buy things. she said why dont the just grow it or hunt it? she saw a duck while she was playing with her freinds and grabbed it and broke its neck and took it to her mother. her mom had to explain thats not how we do things here. when she went to the zoo for the first time she couldnt figure out why the animals were in cages. she started to take animals out of their cage and let them free. she said "i couldnt understand anybody because i didnt speak the language. now she has learned dutch and english. she started to get adapted to the normal city life giong out shopping, to parties, but she never did bad things.but she said she wasnt happy.
before we knew her we found her in the area book for the first time and decided to call her and get an appointment. she had met the missionaries on the street but nobody followed up on her. so we got an appointment and gave her a book of mormon. the next visit she siad she couldnt put the book down. our second visit she said im starting to change, i just dont like to do the things i did before. the next visit she brought friends. and she said she loves the book so much. she agreed to live all the laws. and loves to meet with us. she now meets with us almost everyday. she is the most prepared person ive ever seen. a few days ago we gave her a liahona and we came back the next day and she had read the whole thing. she ponted out points that she had never thought about before such as modesty and missionary work. she told us she now understands that she needs to share it with all of her friends and her family, at church on sunday she told me she had met a lady at the bus stop that was having a hard time. she told her that she had found something that had helped her. and she made an appointment to go visti her the next day. she took a book of mormon to give to her. it is only now that i realize the power of the book of mormon and what it can do to peoples lives, no matter where you come from. she said she now feels happy. she asked me on sunday if i would baptize her. so i will be baptizing her on the 4th of sept, pray for her.
well my time is up got to go. mom thanks for the bom study guide it is perfect. love e robert
so we have run into some opposisition this week. we were finding and we ran into a psyco who just started to yell at us. and get away and dont come back. its hard because you know you can help him but he has his agency.
we have been working even harder now that its two of us. we had some awesome appointments with maggie this week. we got to know her backgroung. she is 23 yrs old she was born in Zambia in the middle of nowhere, a 3 day travel from the nearest city. she grew up living in a mud hut no electricity no fridge no nothing. she would walk for 2 hours each day to fetch water that she would carry on her head and two buckets in her hands. she had never seen an airplane, her mom moved to the netherlands with a dutch man she met and left her behind. her dad would leave her by herself and she had to take care of her younger brothers and sisters who were babies for months at a time. so she would strap one of the babies to her back when she would get water. not to menchon that she lived completely off of the land. sugar cane sweet potatoes all kinds of fruit, bugs, rats bunnies, you name it. she would make evrything by hand from the earth. she didnt have shoes. ect...
when she was 16 yrs old she was brought to the netherlands to live with her mother. when she got on the plane to come here, she was waiting for the plane to take off. right when she heard the plane start she got scared and ran off the plane. they had to tranqualize her to get her on the plane. she was just thrown into modern day civilazation. she was amazed. she showed me her photo album when she first arrived in the netherlands. there was pictures of the first time she was on a computer or saw a computer or a tv. she said it was really weird that you just go to the store and buy things. she said why dont the just grow it or hunt it? she saw a duck while she was playing with her freinds and grabbed it and broke its neck and took it to her mother. her mom had to explain thats not how we do things here. when she went to the zoo for the first time she couldnt figure out why the animals were in cages. she started to take animals out of their cage and let them free. she said "i couldnt understand anybody because i didnt speak the language. now she has learned dutch and english. she started to get adapted to the normal city life giong out shopping, to parties, but she never did bad things.but she said she wasnt happy.
before we knew her we found her in the area book for the first time and decided to call her and get an appointment. she had met the missionaries on the street but nobody followed up on her. so we got an appointment and gave her a book of mormon. the next visit she siad she couldnt put the book down. our second visit she said im starting to change, i just dont like to do the things i did before. the next visit she brought friends. and she said she loves the book so much. she agreed to live all the laws. and loves to meet with us. she now meets with us almost everyday. she is the most prepared person ive ever seen. a few days ago we gave her a liahona and we came back the next day and she had read the whole thing. she ponted out points that she had never thought about before such as modesty and missionary work. she told us she now understands that she needs to share it with all of her friends and her family, at church on sunday she told me she had met a lady at the bus stop that was having a hard time. she told her that she had found something that had helped her. and she made an appointment to go visti her the next day. she took a book of mormon to give to her. it is only now that i realize the power of the book of mormon and what it can do to peoples lives, no matter where you come from. she said she now feels happy. she asked me on sunday if i would baptize her. so i will be baptizing her on the 4th of sept, pray for her.
well my time is up got to go. mom thanks for the bom study guide it is perfect. love e robert
taryn 8.25.10
Hey family! Im sorry for not writing until now, the past week has been crazy!
Im in bankok right now, but my cute greenie is still up in Chiang Mai! Oh man what an adventure! Saturday the elders called us and told me i had to come down here on monday for a new training thing that they are starting to do- the church is changing a lot of things in the way missions work. I about passed out because there is no way we could leave our area for almost a week. We arranged it so that a thai member is living at our house being her companion this week! she is so brave, im proud of her. there is no way i could have done that as a greenie! i drove down in a big van with 8 elders. the first half was amazing. so beautiful. driving through the jungley mountians of northern thailand, every once in a while passing a tiny rice farming village. huge jungle trees, green everywhere. i saw a HUGE snake on the side of the road that had been smashed. biggest snake ive ever seen. scary! hah then we hit a dog. the driver stopped, looked at his car, and then kept going, didnt say a word.
then the second half of the drive was horrible! i felt so bad. i got really sick half way down on the 13 hour drive and was throwing up in the nasty nasty thailand bus stop squatter toilets for like 30 min as the elders had to wait outside. we got in the van and i held in my throwup until we stopped to pick up more elders, threw up in their house, and then held it in until we got to the hotel in bangkok. longest 5 hours of my life! yesterday was awesome though, i felt like i was in the mtc again. we had a spiritually packed day, 8-8 at night. way motivating, it makes you just want to get out there and preach the good work and work even harder. it was fun because almost all my elders from the mtc, and sister oniel and larson were there cuz it was a leadership training meeting, only way sisters go is if they are training.
tonight after pday i get to switch off in saphaansung!!!!! my greenie area! i am so excited! then tomorrow were back to training and then leaving thurs night or fri, im not sure.
we have 12 investigators planning on getting baptized. so awesome! im sad though, i wont be here for some of them. the area is rocking, we are teaching machines. we had 29 lessons last week! because all the talking with people in apts, talking with as many as we can in between apts, and the fact that i have to do most of the talking, my voice is getting shot. every night my voice is so scratchy and hurts. any ideas what i can do? im getting to the point that there is so so much to write that i dont know what to write, and also im coming home soon so i can just tell you about it then!
we have 2 cute cousins we are teaching, age 12 and 17. the 12 year old rides a bus 45 minutes into chiang mai every saturday to sleep at her cousins so she can go to church.they have been learning only a little over a month and are both storming through the bom, the 12 year old 1/2 way through alma, and the 17 year old just finished it! she has the most incredible questions. we are trying to get the rest of the family to learn, but they just arent intersted "dont have time" which is everyones excuse here. The book of mormon is so powerful, thats something that i have been realizing more and more through my mission, and even more yesterday through training. if we can just get people to read that book, there is no way that they can deny it unless they really try to deny the holy ghost!
im sorry i dont have much time today to write, things are crazy this week. i promise a good email soon! i love this gospel. it is the only way that we can have true happiness, live with heavenly father again, and live with our families for all of eternity! i love the book of mormon. love it. i also love these people. so much. i dont know how im ever going to leave them. i love you all! be safe, take care, choose the right, read the bom every day!
love,
sister young
Im in bankok right now, but my cute greenie is still up in Chiang Mai! Oh man what an adventure! Saturday the elders called us and told me i had to come down here on monday for a new training thing that they are starting to do- the church is changing a lot of things in the way missions work. I about passed out because there is no way we could leave our area for almost a week. We arranged it so that a thai member is living at our house being her companion this week! she is so brave, im proud of her. there is no way i could have done that as a greenie! i drove down in a big van with 8 elders. the first half was amazing. so beautiful. driving through the jungley mountians of northern thailand, every once in a while passing a tiny rice farming village. huge jungle trees, green everywhere. i saw a HUGE snake on the side of the road that had been smashed. biggest snake ive ever seen. scary! hah then we hit a dog. the driver stopped, looked at his car, and then kept going, didnt say a word.
then the second half of the drive was horrible! i felt so bad. i got really sick half way down on the 13 hour drive and was throwing up in the nasty nasty thailand bus stop squatter toilets for like 30 min as the elders had to wait outside. we got in the van and i held in my throwup until we stopped to pick up more elders, threw up in their house, and then held it in until we got to the hotel in bangkok. longest 5 hours of my life! yesterday was awesome though, i felt like i was in the mtc again. we had a spiritually packed day, 8-8 at night. way motivating, it makes you just want to get out there and preach the good work and work even harder. it was fun because almost all my elders from the mtc, and sister oniel and larson were there cuz it was a leadership training meeting, only way sisters go is if they are training.
tonight after pday i get to switch off in saphaansung!!!!! my greenie area! i am so excited! then tomorrow were back to training and then leaving thurs night or fri, im not sure.
we have 12 investigators planning on getting baptized. so awesome! im sad though, i wont be here for some of them. the area is rocking, we are teaching machines. we had 29 lessons last week! because all the talking with people in apts, talking with as many as we can in between apts, and the fact that i have to do most of the talking, my voice is getting shot. every night my voice is so scratchy and hurts. any ideas what i can do? im getting to the point that there is so so much to write that i dont know what to write, and also im coming home soon so i can just tell you about it then!
we have 2 cute cousins we are teaching, age 12 and 17. the 12 year old rides a bus 45 minutes into chiang mai every saturday to sleep at her cousins so she can go to church.they have been learning only a little over a month and are both storming through the bom, the 12 year old 1/2 way through alma, and the 17 year old just finished it! she has the most incredible questions. we are trying to get the rest of the family to learn, but they just arent intersted "dont have time" which is everyones excuse here. The book of mormon is so powerful, thats something that i have been realizing more and more through my mission, and even more yesterday through training. if we can just get people to read that book, there is no way that they can deny it unless they really try to deny the holy ghost!
im sorry i dont have much time today to write, things are crazy this week. i promise a good email soon! i love this gospel. it is the only way that we can have true happiness, live with heavenly father again, and live with our families for all of eternity! i love the book of mormon. love it. i also love these people. so much. i dont know how im ever going to leave them. i love you all! be safe, take care, choose the right, read the bom every day!
love,
sister young
morgan 8.23.10
Hello everybody,
Well fist off I want to thank all of you who sent me an e mail. It really does mean a lot. I love getting e mails. This week was really good, until I lost my camera. Yeah, I lost it Friday. I have no idea where it is. I don't know if I left it on a train, or someone stole it, or maybe it is hiding somewhere in the apartment. I have no idea. I am so sad! I had ALL my photos of Carcassonne on this camera. I have tried everything. I have asked members, I called the train station, I have been praying A LOT!! I don't know what else to do. I am so bummed. Mom and Dad, what should I do? ugh, This is when I would love to be able to call you guys. I really am so sad I lost my camera it is like all I can think about right now.
But anyways, Elder Baret is a stud! By far my favorite comp so far. He is athletic (very rare for France) and we have the exact same personality. He hasn't been out in the mission very long this is his 3rd transfer. We both are really wanting to start working out hard and get back into good shape. So yes, we are running. We went today for the first time and he told me after the run that he never wants to go again. Hopefully he is kidding.
Okay so our investigators... we don't have a lot. But we have one who is incredible. He contacted the missionaries like one week before I got here and now he has a date for Sept. 4. He was even talking to us Saturday about maybe going on a mission. He is 21 years old. His name is Jonathan Lopez (we call him J-Lo). He knows this church is true and he is super cool. That is about all of the "real" investigators we have. All the rest are just people who have been taught for years.
Here in Périgueux the branch is a little special. I didnt know what Elder Baret was talking about until I came on Sunday. Wow. During priesthood they were talking about consecrating oil. He then asks some person "Do you even know how to consecrate oil?" he said "yes I do" and so the bishop told him to give us an example. The first mistake this dude did wrong the Pres. was all over him. So the Pres thought he was all cool and he was going to show everybody how its done and it was so far off!! There are already many more stories about him. It reminds me of Nimes (my first ville). This branch is by far the smallest i have served in. There was like 20 or maybe 25 at church yesterday.
This city is really Frenchy. Like the image I had in my head of a French city is Périgueux. There is one giant cathedral and thats about it. Nothing too special about Périgueux. But I like it. I have a couple friends in the district so I am excited about that.
Thanks again everyone who has helped me thus far on my mission. It really means so much to me! I couldn't have gotten here without you. Thanks Mom and Dad for all that you do and have done for me. I love you all.
Elder Wimmer
Well fist off I want to thank all of you who sent me an e mail. It really does mean a lot. I love getting e mails. This week was really good, until I lost my camera. Yeah, I lost it Friday. I have no idea where it is. I don't know if I left it on a train, or someone stole it, or maybe it is hiding somewhere in the apartment. I have no idea. I am so sad! I had ALL my photos of Carcassonne on this camera. I have tried everything. I have asked members, I called the train station, I have been praying A LOT!! I don't know what else to do. I am so bummed. Mom and Dad, what should I do? ugh, This is when I would love to be able to call you guys. I really am so sad I lost my camera it is like all I can think about right now.
But anyways, Elder Baret is a stud! By far my favorite comp so far. He is athletic (very rare for France) and we have the exact same personality. He hasn't been out in the mission very long this is his 3rd transfer. We both are really wanting to start working out hard and get back into good shape. So yes, we are running. We went today for the first time and he told me after the run that he never wants to go again. Hopefully he is kidding.
Okay so our investigators... we don't have a lot. But we have one who is incredible. He contacted the missionaries like one week before I got here and now he has a date for Sept. 4. He was even talking to us Saturday about maybe going on a mission. He is 21 years old. His name is Jonathan Lopez (we call him J-Lo). He knows this church is true and he is super cool. That is about all of the "real" investigators we have. All the rest are just people who have been taught for years.
Here in Périgueux the branch is a little special. I didnt know what Elder Baret was talking about until I came on Sunday. Wow. During priesthood they were talking about consecrating oil. He then asks some person "Do you even know how to consecrate oil?" he said "yes I do" and so the bishop told him to give us an example. The first mistake this dude did wrong the Pres. was all over him. So the Pres thought he was all cool and he was going to show everybody how its done and it was so far off!! There are already many more stories about him. It reminds me of Nimes (my first ville). This branch is by far the smallest i have served in. There was like 20 or maybe 25 at church yesterday.
This city is really Frenchy. Like the image I had in my head of a French city is Périgueux. There is one giant cathedral and thats about it. Nothing too special about Périgueux. But I like it. I have a couple friends in the district so I am excited about that.
Thanks again everyone who has helped me thus far on my mission. It really means so much to me! I couldn't have gotten here without you. Thanks Mom and Dad for all that you do and have done for me. I love you all.
Elder Wimmer
morgan 8.16.10
Hello everybody,
WOW, Chris and Lisel are having a kid!! haha that is so cool! Congrats! Also congrats to Mike on the Leadville! well you will never guess where I am. Maybe just because you have never heard of it before. haha.
Okay so I got transfered to Périgueux. I dont know what to think of it quite yet because all day today I was out in the country side eating with a less active member with 2 birds that talk. It was super fun!
So my comps name is Elder Baret (yes my 3rd french comp in a row.) He is originaly from New Calidonia so he is Polynesian. He is really cool! So far my favorite comp so far but we will see, its been one day. He is fairly new in the mission he only has done 2 transfers. I am really going to miss Carcassonne but I am super excited for the work here in Périgueux. It is just a branch but it is the same size as Carca. The area is really beautiful here also.
Hey TY, you can send me some of your investigators that you cant handle and we can try to communicate with them... haha. Really, I am not sure how many investigators we have here. It sounds like we have next to none. Or at least none that are going anywhere. There is a lot of work to be done here. I am super excited about it though! Well I am sorry it is short but there isnt much to say I just got here. Thanks to all for everything you do!
elder wimmer
WOW, Chris and Lisel are having a kid!! haha that is so cool! Congrats! Also congrats to Mike on the Leadville! well you will never guess where I am. Maybe just because you have never heard of it before. haha.
Okay so I got transfered to Périgueux. I dont know what to think of it quite yet because all day today I was out in the country side eating with a less active member with 2 birds that talk. It was super fun!
So my comps name is Elder Baret (yes my 3rd french comp in a row.) He is originaly from New Calidonia so he is Polynesian. He is really cool! So far my favorite comp so far but we will see, its been one day. He is fairly new in the mission he only has done 2 transfers. I am really going to miss Carcassonne but I am super excited for the work here in Périgueux. It is just a branch but it is the same size as Carca. The area is really beautiful here also.
Hey TY, you can send me some of your investigators that you cant handle and we can try to communicate with them... haha. Really, I am not sure how many investigators we have here. It sounds like we have next to none. Or at least none that are going anywhere. There is a lot of work to be done here. I am super excited about it though! Well I am sorry it is short but there isnt much to say I just got here. Thanks to all for everything you do!
elder wimmer
jordan 8.16.10
the first robert is going to arive! Christian and lisel! congrats! i cant believe it! lisel try and not have birth for 5 more months after the due date! i cant belive it!. that little guy is waiting with heavenly father right now to come down and get a body. same with a ton more! thats going to be amazing.
well i just went out to eat with jeff howell and his dad it was crazy! he is a stud. he has changed a ton already. not a bad thing. it was great to get to talk with him it was weird walking down the street with him and he didnt have a name tag! well i still have my time to serve the Lord and get to know him better. i am staying in Groningen with my comp e crittenden, e rayfield is going home. its going to be rough for a while. we will have a ton of fun though!. this week was great. we taught a ton of first lessons to a lot of posotive people. first off maggie is doing great she is still on track for baptism, we taught a lesson at her house and she invited this black dude, i asked him his religious backgroung and he said yes im religious, im a prophet. i was like, here we go! ha ha . we introduced the book of mormon to him and read a chapter. his mind was blown, he felt the spirit so strong. we just talked about the basic principals of the gospel, faith repentance baptism holy ghost endure. he couldnt say anything. the world has corrupted the simple truths of the easiest things we can do. maggie was like a member in that appointment helping us teach, it was great.
we also taught a dutch lady who has had a lot of people die in her fam so wwe taught the plan, we was amazed and it made so much sense and felt good to her. i cant wait to teach her again, mom put Maggie's name in for me and yulie onrust, im still having bike problems, its really frustrating!
family have fun in leadville. geez go on all these vacations with out me why dont ya ha ha. there are so many students here its amazing. ok well dad find a good car for nathalie she is awesome. ok love you all so much! e robert till next week! mom thanks for sending stuff with elder howell i havnt checked it yet but thanks!.........nine dots
well i just went out to eat with jeff howell and his dad it was crazy! he is a stud. he has changed a ton already. not a bad thing. it was great to get to talk with him it was weird walking down the street with him and he didnt have a name tag! well i still have my time to serve the Lord and get to know him better. i am staying in Groningen with my comp e crittenden, e rayfield is going home. its going to be rough for a while. we will have a ton of fun though!. this week was great. we taught a ton of first lessons to a lot of posotive people. first off maggie is doing great she is still on track for baptism, we taught a lesson at her house and she invited this black dude, i asked him his religious backgroung and he said yes im religious, im a prophet. i was like, here we go! ha ha . we introduced the book of mormon to him and read a chapter. his mind was blown, he felt the spirit so strong. we just talked about the basic principals of the gospel, faith repentance baptism holy ghost endure. he couldnt say anything. the world has corrupted the simple truths of the easiest things we can do. maggie was like a member in that appointment helping us teach, it was great.
we also taught a dutch lady who has had a lot of people die in her fam so wwe taught the plan, we was amazed and it made so much sense and felt good to her. i cant wait to teach her again, mom put Maggie's name in for me and yulie onrust, im still having bike problems, its really frustrating!
family have fun in leadville. geez go on all these vacations with out me why dont ya ha ha. there are so many students here its amazing. ok well dad find a good car for nathalie she is awesome. ok love you all so much! e robert till next week! mom thanks for sending stuff with elder howell i havnt checked it yet but thanks!.........nine dots
taryn 8.16.10
CONGRATS CHRIS, LISEL AND DAD!!! what an exciting week! We had a pretty good week here as well It started with a call from President Smith on Monday night. It is always a nerve wracking thing to see his name on the screen. He called to thank us for our hard work and to say how impressed with us he was. He was happy with all the people that we had at church, and also commented on how we were one of only 2 companionships in the mission that reached at least 20 lessons that week. That was something very rare for him to do, i appreciated it a lot! It isnt about the praise at all, but it is good to hear from someone like that, that he is proud of us. I know 100% that it is not me or my companion. Heavenly Father is blessing us SO MUCH!
We had a lot of rain this past week, a few times during the day, and almost every night we had huge thunderstorms with thunder that sounds like bombs. so loud! one night the power was out, that was a hot night with our one in-room AC not working, and also the water works on electricity so no showering either.. i love the rain so much, but Thai people + rain= no good. lots of cancelling appts or not showing up. the week was still very busy, full of lessons, and trying to find time to study!
We are teaching a family from a far away hill tribe that has come to live here, three sisters and their families that all live in one tiny wooden shack. we havent gotten to the husbands yet, but the three sisters are doing well. bo is christian already, but hasnt been able to attend church because she just had a baby last week! my poor companion isnt used to seeing women with their shirts off breast feeding in front of you, old ladies naked, or men walking around in their towel or boxers. she will soon. the other two sisters have never studied christianity before, tum is really progressing, she has come to church with her 9 year old niece (who is from another sibling that doesnt live there) several times. tum cant read, but is way involved in the lessons. the cute little girl (khawfang) asked us for her own copy of the book of mormon to take to primary. i feel bad, for the past two weeks the whole mission has been out of BoMs! we will hopefully get some this week, it has been crazy with the new translation of it coming out soon. it is hard because the Book of Mormon is the keystone and its hard to convert people without it!
We finished reading the Book of Mormon today, we started last monday. it was actually much easier than i thought! what an incredible book. every time i read it i gain more faith in Christ and a stronger tesimony of the power that the Book of Mormon contains. Reading it fast like we did this week was neat because the storyline came much more to life and proved to me even more that like President Monson's dad said, there is no way that a man could write it unless through the power of God. i love the book of mormon. i am grateful that i have the blessing of reading it every single day for the rest of my life! it adds so much power into our lives, and every time we read it we get new insights from heavenly father.
we taught the cutest lady yesterday who is from the Lahu tribe, her thai is pretty choppy. we saw her cleaning the little park on the side of the street, her job.. i passed her and kept having the thought to go back. ha, we went around the one way streets around the block and invited her. we followed her to her her house yesterday, a little dirt pathway off a small street that opened into a whole neighborhood of Lahu people living on the side of the river. we crossed over scary wooden skinny bridges (that i would never cross except that we we following a motorcycle that could do it) and along a tiny dirt path as everyone was staring at us-i think were the first white people to ever go there. we taught under her wooden house with two other very old ladies that dont speak thai. i would speak to her in thai, which she isnt the greatest at, and then she would translate into lahu for them. such a cool language! it was one of the moments of my mission that i will never forget, sitting on the side of a jungle river under a house on stilts teaching three of Heavenly Fathers children. missions are the greatest.
i hit my year mark in country last week. i cant believe it. we went out for ice cream and my cute companion pulled out a candle to stick in the top of it for my "first birthday" in thailand. i wish we had hours to write to you, but i guess all the other stories will just have to wait a few more months! i love you and miss you SO much! you are amazing. all of you. thank you for your support and love.
until next week,
sister young
We had a lot of rain this past week, a few times during the day, and almost every night we had huge thunderstorms with thunder that sounds like bombs. so loud! one night the power was out, that was a hot night with our one in-room AC not working, and also the water works on electricity so no showering either.. i love the rain so much, but Thai people + rain= no good. lots of cancelling appts or not showing up. the week was still very busy, full of lessons, and trying to find time to study!
We are teaching a family from a far away hill tribe that has come to live here, three sisters and their families that all live in one tiny wooden shack. we havent gotten to the husbands yet, but the three sisters are doing well. bo is christian already, but hasnt been able to attend church because she just had a baby last week! my poor companion isnt used to seeing women with their shirts off breast feeding in front of you, old ladies naked, or men walking around in their towel or boxers. she will soon. the other two sisters have never studied christianity before, tum is really progressing, she has come to church with her 9 year old niece (who is from another sibling that doesnt live there) several times. tum cant read, but is way involved in the lessons. the cute little girl (khawfang) asked us for her own copy of the book of mormon to take to primary. i feel bad, for the past two weeks the whole mission has been out of BoMs! we will hopefully get some this week, it has been crazy with the new translation of it coming out soon. it is hard because the Book of Mormon is the keystone and its hard to convert people without it!
We finished reading the Book of Mormon today, we started last monday. it was actually much easier than i thought! what an incredible book. every time i read it i gain more faith in Christ and a stronger tesimony of the power that the Book of Mormon contains. Reading it fast like we did this week was neat because the storyline came much more to life and proved to me even more that like President Monson's dad said, there is no way that a man could write it unless through the power of God. i love the book of mormon. i am grateful that i have the blessing of reading it every single day for the rest of my life! it adds so much power into our lives, and every time we read it we get new insights from heavenly father.
we taught the cutest lady yesterday who is from the Lahu tribe, her thai is pretty choppy. we saw her cleaning the little park on the side of the street, her job.. i passed her and kept having the thought to go back. ha, we went around the one way streets around the block and invited her. we followed her to her her house yesterday, a little dirt pathway off a small street that opened into a whole neighborhood of Lahu people living on the side of the river. we crossed over scary wooden skinny bridges (that i would never cross except that we we following a motorcycle that could do it) and along a tiny dirt path as everyone was staring at us-i think were the first white people to ever go there. we taught under her wooden house with two other very old ladies that dont speak thai. i would speak to her in thai, which she isnt the greatest at, and then she would translate into lahu for them. such a cool language! it was one of the moments of my mission that i will never forget, sitting on the side of a jungle river under a house on stilts teaching three of Heavenly Fathers children. missions are the greatest.
i hit my year mark in country last week. i cant believe it. we went out for ice cream and my cute companion pulled out a candle to stick in the top of it for my "first birthday" in thailand. i wish we had hours to write to you, but i guess all the other stories will just have to wait a few more months! i love you and miss you SO much! you are amazing. all of you. thank you for your support and love.
until next week,
sister young
8.09.2010
taryn 8.9.10
Oh man what a week!
we still havent had time to long plan, which is supposed to be done on thursdays. we have been teaching, biking, and teaching again. Heavenly Father is blessing us SO MUCH! I usually try to talk to everyone that i can, but it has gotten to the point that i dont know if i can handle any more potentials and more people to worry about, we are having a hard time keeping track of and calling the ones that we already have. i dont know why heavely father is blessing us so much and is trusting us with so many of his children. weve had to study at the church a few days last week because we had appts in the morning and didnt have time to go home and study. we had 8 people at church yesterday, it was insane! my comp cant do much so it was really stressful trying to get members to friendship them and getting them herded from place to place. im getting so tired! it is hard because i do most of the teaching and calling and just about everything, im trying to help her do more. i need to be better at that. i think im doing too much for her and not giving her enough room to grow. she is an incredibly hard worker and determined to succeed in this work, i couldnt ask to train a better person. we are good friends, a lot alike. im sad she wont be home for a long time! speaking of home, mom you asked about my homecoming, probaby the later date, give me some time to think and relax a little. i cant believe it is coming to that! we had zone conference and interviews last week, my last ones! they just changed it to quarterly conferences. ill be home for the next one. my interview was about how i was going home soon and how to keep up the hard work until the end and leave a legacy behind. he said then from that time on, you can expect that everyone that follows behind you will do the same thing. i hope so. i and so so many others want strong wards, not weak branches, and a temple here! with all the changes that president smith is making, the work has really picked up. what a day it will be when these amazing members here get a temple. we are so lucky to live by many temples. i miss them. i cant wait to enter into the Lords house again.
its been raining a lot lately, its been nice, but ive been freezing! we saw a byu student and his dad eating in a "restaurant" and they were saying how hot they were. funny thing is i was perfect, if not on the colder side that morning. my body has become thai.
we have some awesome investigators that are showing good potential. we have dropped a few (sometimes a very awkward experience) but are gaining more of those that have hopefully been prepared by the hand of the Lord. last week after dropping an investigator i had the best feeling that Heavenly Father would be watching over her and her time would come in the future.
wednesday was a fun day, we ended up getting 10 new investigators! we were all over the place, my favorite was at night when we went over to giants house. he is such a cute old man. we taught him outside his tiny wooden shack that is filled- inside and out- with stuff. right as it was ending a huge storm rolled in. he gave us ponchos so that we wouldnt get sick (they believe that if your head gets wet from rain you will get sick. when it starts raining, most people fun for cover, wear ponchos, or at least have a plastic bag on their head. its really funny... ) we got the giggles so bad as he was making us put these huge ponchos on and then tying the little string around our faces so tight that we could hardly see. i love thai people. absolutely love them. then we rode home in the downpour. hardly able to see, roads all flooded. so fun.
a few of our investigators are really making headway, they have such incredible questions and comments. one of those is kham, the one from burma. last week she told us about the feeling that she had as they were passing the sacrament, an intense feeling of grattitude and also pain in her heart for what Christ had to suffer for us. I would love to set a baptismal date with her, but im waiting for her to ask because were not sure what to do. she will go back to burma soon to an area without the church. lots of prayers and patience to see what the Lords plan is.
we teach a recent convert nong mai every week. such a cute girl. she is so sweet, a little slow, but one of my favorite people in the world. she is 19, lives in a tiny one room appt by herself, doesnt have much family and they dont do anything for her. she works hard all day everyday and gets pretty much nothing from it. we met her at the church last week, anytime we meet there she asks me to play the piano for her. she loves it, she thinks its amazing. i taught her the beginning of jingle bells (one of her favorite songs) and then we had to go. the next day we were studying at the church and all the sudden i heard jingle bells coming through the wall, over and over. she was in there practicing. it made me smile so big. i am so so so excited to see the family, but it is going to be hard leaving these people.
times up. back to reading:) my companion and i started today, were trying to read the bom in 1 week, well see how it goes! we started it this morning after running (yes, i finally have a companion who will run with me!!!!) stepping over dead birds, snakes, and frogs..
i love you so much! i miss you! cant wait to see you
love, sister young
we still havent had time to long plan, which is supposed to be done on thursdays. we have been teaching, biking, and teaching again. Heavenly Father is blessing us SO MUCH! I usually try to talk to everyone that i can, but it has gotten to the point that i dont know if i can handle any more potentials and more people to worry about, we are having a hard time keeping track of and calling the ones that we already have. i dont know why heavely father is blessing us so much and is trusting us with so many of his children. weve had to study at the church a few days last week because we had appts in the morning and didnt have time to go home and study. we had 8 people at church yesterday, it was insane! my comp cant do much so it was really stressful trying to get members to friendship them and getting them herded from place to place. im getting so tired! it is hard because i do most of the teaching and calling and just about everything, im trying to help her do more. i need to be better at that. i think im doing too much for her and not giving her enough room to grow. she is an incredibly hard worker and determined to succeed in this work, i couldnt ask to train a better person. we are good friends, a lot alike. im sad she wont be home for a long time! speaking of home, mom you asked about my homecoming, probaby the later date, give me some time to think and relax a little. i cant believe it is coming to that! we had zone conference and interviews last week, my last ones! they just changed it to quarterly conferences. ill be home for the next one. my interview was about how i was going home soon and how to keep up the hard work until the end and leave a legacy behind. he said then from that time on, you can expect that everyone that follows behind you will do the same thing. i hope so. i and so so many others want strong wards, not weak branches, and a temple here! with all the changes that president smith is making, the work has really picked up. what a day it will be when these amazing members here get a temple. we are so lucky to live by many temples. i miss them. i cant wait to enter into the Lords house again.
its been raining a lot lately, its been nice, but ive been freezing! we saw a byu student and his dad eating in a "restaurant" and they were saying how hot they were. funny thing is i was perfect, if not on the colder side that morning. my body has become thai.
we have some awesome investigators that are showing good potential. we have dropped a few (sometimes a very awkward experience) but are gaining more of those that have hopefully been prepared by the hand of the Lord. last week after dropping an investigator i had the best feeling that Heavenly Father would be watching over her and her time would come in the future.
wednesday was a fun day, we ended up getting 10 new investigators! we were all over the place, my favorite was at night when we went over to giants house. he is such a cute old man. we taught him outside his tiny wooden shack that is filled- inside and out- with stuff. right as it was ending a huge storm rolled in. he gave us ponchos so that we wouldnt get sick (they believe that if your head gets wet from rain you will get sick. when it starts raining, most people fun for cover, wear ponchos, or at least have a plastic bag on their head. its really funny... ) we got the giggles so bad as he was making us put these huge ponchos on and then tying the little string around our faces so tight that we could hardly see. i love thai people. absolutely love them. then we rode home in the downpour. hardly able to see, roads all flooded. so fun.
a few of our investigators are really making headway, they have such incredible questions and comments. one of those is kham, the one from burma. last week she told us about the feeling that she had as they were passing the sacrament, an intense feeling of grattitude and also pain in her heart for what Christ had to suffer for us. I would love to set a baptismal date with her, but im waiting for her to ask because were not sure what to do. she will go back to burma soon to an area without the church. lots of prayers and patience to see what the Lords plan is.
we teach a recent convert nong mai every week. such a cute girl. she is so sweet, a little slow, but one of my favorite people in the world. she is 19, lives in a tiny one room appt by herself, doesnt have much family and they dont do anything for her. she works hard all day everyday and gets pretty much nothing from it. we met her at the church last week, anytime we meet there she asks me to play the piano for her. she loves it, she thinks its amazing. i taught her the beginning of jingle bells (one of her favorite songs) and then we had to go. the next day we were studying at the church and all the sudden i heard jingle bells coming through the wall, over and over. she was in there practicing. it made me smile so big. i am so so so excited to see the family, but it is going to be hard leaving these people.
times up. back to reading:) my companion and i started today, were trying to read the bom in 1 week, well see how it goes! we started it this morning after running (yes, i finally have a companion who will run with me!!!!) stepping over dead birds, snakes, and frogs..
i love you so much! i miss you! cant wait to see you
love, sister young
morgan 8.9.10
Wow, this week was a week of a lot of miracles!! Mostly with the family of Vanessa. So I believe I told you last week that we went to the Bishops house and he bore his testimony and the spirit was SO strong. Well after wards we gave everybody the invitation to pray as the bishop did and find out for themselves if it is true or not. Well, that night Vanessa did. She went into her kitchen and prayed. She prayed and prayed and even turned to the scriptures. She told us it was as she was praying when she felt an indescribable feeling come over her. She said she felt so good she didnt want to stop. I dont know how long she prayed but I am guessing by the story a couple hours. But now she knows without a doubt that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God and The Book of Mormom is living proof of that . But, if that wasnt cool enough. Her fiancé Benoit (who after hearing the first lesson he simply said " I dont believe any of that") told her he believes in God now. He can see the difference that the gospel has already changed their lives. He told Vanessa that we are a "good church" and now he listens to the lessons and asks questions about it! I am so happy for them! They are getting married Nov. 20 and a week later she is getting baptized. We are hoping he is going to baptize her but we will see. haha. We just gotta keep praying for them. Oh mom, the blog for Vanessa is: *************** She makes some super cool stuff. She made me a scripture case yesterday, it is so cool!
Well as I said last week, transfers is this week. I think I am going to take off somewhere new. I kinda want to stay one more here but I will go where the Lord wants me to go.
As for our investigators with a date, Charles-Henri is still good. He is stopping with cigarettes and alcohol this week. It is still on for the 28th for him.
Jessy is lost, cant find her. We have another his name is Christian he is a super old investigator, he has been taught for the past 5 years but was just too prideful to be baptized. He has had some humbling experiences so now he is less prideful. Still not very humble though. His date is Sept. 11. YIKES!! haha.
This week we went to eat with our old ward mission leader and his family alot. He is so cool! He is Tahitian so he makes really good food too. It was so funny, so him and Elder Magnan raced. Elder Magnan got KILLED!! haha it was so funny! but then he said "Okay Elder Wimmer your turn". I beat him in a 100 meter dash by at least 10 sec. his little sister inlaw was making so much fun of him. So he took a rest and says "okay one more". haha I beat him even more the second time. It was so funny. They are so nice though. we got a call today before emails and they said "come down we have something for you." so we did and their whole car was filled with food. they said "take it!" haha I felt so bad but they made us. we have SO much food!! Its a good thing though because we have an extra companionship coming for the end of this week. I am so excited!! we are going to get so much work done!!
well thanks so much for all you do! I love you all!! Have fun in Leadville!! It sounds like a blast!!E. Wimmer
Well as I said last week, transfers is this week. I think I am going to take off somewhere new. I kinda want to stay one more here but I will go where the Lord wants me to go.
As for our investigators with a date, Charles-Henri is still good. He is stopping with cigarettes and alcohol this week. It is still on for the 28th for him.
Jessy is lost, cant find her. We have another his name is Christian he is a super old investigator, he has been taught for the past 5 years but was just too prideful to be baptized. He has had some humbling experiences so now he is less prideful. Still not very humble though. His date is Sept. 11. YIKES!! haha.
This week we went to eat with our old ward mission leader and his family alot. He is so cool! He is Tahitian so he makes really good food too. It was so funny, so him and Elder Magnan raced. Elder Magnan got KILLED!! haha it was so funny! but then he said "Okay Elder Wimmer your turn". I beat him in a 100 meter dash by at least 10 sec. his little sister inlaw was making so much fun of him. So he took a rest and says "okay one more". haha I beat him even more the second time. It was so funny. They are so nice though. we got a call today before emails and they said "come down we have something for you." so we did and their whole car was filled with food. they said "take it!" haha I felt so bad but they made us. we have SO much food!! Its a good thing though because we have an extra companionship coming for the end of this week. I am so excited!! we are going to get so much work done!!
well thanks so much for all you do! I love you all!! Have fun in Leadville!! It sounds like a blast!!E. Wimmer
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