Elder Santeco: Thailand Week 89: Khon Kaen (ขอนแก่น)

A lot happened.

Halloween night was a blast! It was the first branch activity that I had here in Khon Kaen. At the end of the night, everyone left the church with a smile on their faces. I was not able to carve out a watermelon, but it was great to see people's determination to design it. :)

We were able to visit Brother Chay and Youri (ชัย/ยูริ) and their kids at their house this past week. They also happen to be the winners for the watermelon carving. They are a really cute family. I got a video of the parents singing a song for us, but it'll take a very long time to upload... so I'll hold off on that. They really opened up to the missionaries and in return, they were inviting their friends over for the lesson. It was great. We got to meet Sister แบ๋ม, a close friend of Sister Youri. She listened in to the lesson was more than happy to learn more. :) I love families.

This past Friday was the last night for Loy Kratong, a Thailand tradition. I was able to attend it last year in Lopburi with the members, but I've missed it this year. But that's okay. It was an amazing night. We missionaries thought that there wouldn't be anyone coming to sports night, so we decided to plan to clean up the church instead. But a lot of the members and investigators actually came to the church for Sports night. Elder Nielson was pretty firm on cleaning the church first, so that's what we did. We shared a spiritual thought, then went to work. I decided to made it game to do it within 10 minutes, and it worked out great. Afterwards we played games/sports the rest of the night. It was fun. :)

Saturday. We decided to visit a former investigator, Sister Yok (หยก). She's great. She shared her experiences with the missionaries and enjoyed it. She's been reading and praying and believes that Heavenly Father loves her. We invited her to trust in the Lord and pray to know how she can make it to church on Sunday. She was more than happy to do it. Afterwards, we decided to do something new for Elder Nielson... doing studies at a park. We decided to bike to a nearby park. Early in the morning, there was hardly anyone there. But we did see a few. We talked with them. We met Brother Naam (น้ำ). Spiritual lesson. He comes to the park quite often in the morning. He opened up and told us that he felt that there is a God, but isn't that sure yet. We introduced him to prayer and was really willing to pray. We have an appointment with him this Saturday. After having this miracle. We biked around looking for somewhere to sit down for studies. We found a spot and just as we were about to park our bikes, Elder Nielson requested to use the bathroom. This is where the other miracle happened. We biked to the park's bathroom and Elder Nielson walked inside. I sat down outside and started talking to a man named Poo (ภู). After talking for a bit, he shared that he has actually been invited by the missionaries many times when he was in Sakon Nakhon, but wasn't free at that time. Now that he's in Khon Kaen, he's free! He made it really straightforward that he had his religion and that all religion was good. As the conversation went on and Elder Nielson joined in on the discussion, he wanted to know. He wanted to know if our message was true. He wanted to know how to pray. We explained and then invited him to pray in his own time. He said he would. (And he did!) Then out of nowhere... Elder Nielson invited him to church! In my mind, I was panicking a bit... but then Brother Poo said, "Sorry, I'll be in Udon." MIRACLE! We told him that we have a District Conference this week and that it's actually tonight. He then asked, where? I explained it... since it was my last area. Then MIRACLE! I remembered that I had one inviting card in my shirt's pocket... and it happened to be the Udon's card with a map to the church. MIRACLE. He said, "I'll be there." And he did. He came on time. He also came on Sunday. And Monday for a short lesson(He returned to Khon Kaen at the same time as us... พอดี) and he came to English class yesterday. On monday, He shared several spiritual experiences. He said he feels like he's changing, and everyone else around him is also noticing it. And best of all, he's reading and praying. :) He has a date for December 3rd.

Hearing from Elder and Sister Evans, President and Sister Johnson was amazing. Along with all the other speakers too, people preparing on their missions and President Tiger. I had a lot of impressions as I listened to them. It was great.

Another miracle. Elder Evans committed us to focus on teach to find. And when we returned to Sister หยก's place the following day... she gave us 6 new referrals. We taught one of them, Brother Grung (กรุง) whom is an awesome new investigator. He was hesitant at first, but really opened up and wants to meet again. He also gave us an additional referral. It's been great. Elder Nielson is so diligent. He's very good at making lists and making sure it happens. He talks about the list all the time. Literally all the time. I sometimes feel like it's too much and overbearing. But it's great. I'm learning so much from him. The Lord is making things happen as we work diligently.

Life is good. I love the missionary life.

I LOVE YOU ALL!

- Elder Santeco ☀🌮

That was a very long message. :) There's actually more that happened... I should write it in my journal. :)

Some of the people that came for sports night. :)