Elder Santeco: Thailand Week 61: Bangnaa

Woah. Where did the time go?

I've been here in Bangna for over 10 weeks! WOW!😱

The beauty of Thailand. There are MANY Thai people that wants to learn English! If they don't, well I'm pretty sure they still have to learn anyways. That being said, we missionaries constantly get calls from random people to help them with their projects. They would interview us! What's funny is that every group would always ask the same kind of questions. Which reminds me of when I used to work back at Polynesian Culture Center as a waiter. I always had 3 impenetrable questions; "Aloha! Where are you from?" "WOW!" "How long have you been in Hawaii?" "WOW!" "How much longer do you plan to stay here?" "WOW!"... Hahah.

Woah. That's cool. That just reminded me of the reason why we are required to do sincere and heartfelt prayers. A lot time we bump into people that has learned about Christianity. The first common obstacle that we often encounter is that people memorize their prayers. But with a little explanation of the Godhead,(Heaven Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost)... we usually have the investigators personally realize why it's better to say a simple and heartfelt prayer. I love prayers.

Met with many more lovely people this week! This past week we felt prompted that we need to do more inviting in neighborhoods. Ever since I have been here, we have been inviting mainly in Bearing (The road that we live on), but we are now journeying down another road, Udom Suk. :)

In Udom Suk, Elder Tun and I met an old man, พ่อลิน (Lin), who humbly welcomed us into his house. He accepted everything. He was willing to listen. He was willing to act. It was a miracle. It wasn't until right before we were leaving his place that he came up to me and said... "I saw you before". I was in shock, thinking that he somewhat saw me in a dream or something. Then he continued, "I saw you at a nearby Market". Haha. But what's crazy is that I've never been to the market that he mentioned. Miracles! We've met with him twice last week, and we would always have such spiritual lessons with him. He would constantly get goose bumps on his forearms and while he does, he would pause, look at his arms, then look at me. He has accepted a soft invitation to get baptized. Before we extend a date, we want prepare him to really experience the joy of knowing who God really is in his life.

Miracle investigator. His name is Brother Bas (บัส). He randomly called and asked, "Is this the Missionaries? Can I go to church? Where is the church?". We assured him that he could. And he came! I got the chance to learn more about his story. He has been invited by the missionaries 2 years ago. It wasn't until now that he felt prompted to go to church. So, he committed himself to do so. But then he got another prompting to call us before he went, so he did. He was impressed to learn that our church is currently under construction, and that if he didn't call us. He would have show up to an unfinished church building filled with workers. Haha. Miracles.

Along with that. A woman called us after our Sunday meetings asking, "Where is the church? I am coming right now!"... We then found out her spiritual experience. She has came across the missionaries three times in different places. It wasn't until the third time that she was convinced that what we had, was something that God wanted for her. God had prepared her to receive the gospel. The sister missionaries will be taking care of her. :)

Remember Sister Ma Lae? She and her kids are doing great! The elders has been working close with her this past week. In one of the appointments, one of the kids (whom loves to run around the place) randomly asked me, "เราจะขึ้นบนสวรรค์อย่างไร" (How are we going to go back to heaven?) Then ran away. Haha. He later came back and started talking about the Holy Ghost. He quickly referred to a lesson that I shared a couple weeks ago, comparing the Holy Ghost to a pair of glasses. I was shocked! I thought the kids weren't listening. But they were! Then immediately, Sister Ma Lae reviewed with him about these things. I have come to see the peace in Sister Ma Lae's life as she continues to pray, study, and apply the teachings in her life. :)

There's a bunch of other cool, amazing, fun things that happened. But I don't have a lot of time. Hahaha.

I know that we have a loving Heavenly Father. We once lived with Him before we came into this world. We are His children. He knows of our strengths, weakness, our everything. He knew that as we came into the world, we would need help. That help is His Beloved Son Jesus Christ. He is the Savior of the World. Through Him, we are able to successfully return to our Father in Heaven once again. Jesus Christ is the way to true happiness. He's everything to me. I'm nothing without Him. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU ALLL!!! 😍

- Elder Santeco ☀🌮

This Elder's name is the name of my street! :D :D :D