Well it has been a very eventful three days here in Chiang Rai. Many animal discoveries... including this random white guy's house with a giant dimorphodon in his front yard. Gotta love Thailand!
Dinosaurs are real here in Thailand
Oh... also last P-day, I rode an elephant. Through a river :) SUPER DUPER
Elephant stampedes boat
The Work:
We are still alive here in Chiang Rai, so that is a start. Our investigators are coming to church, everything is good to go for Sister Bean's baptism, things are looking up. I have learned that as a missionary, there are certain controllable factors to missionary work. You can control your attitude, your obedience, your worthiness, and your dedication. You cannot control others' decisions, your companion's decisions, the will of God (obviously), and the number of investigator appointments you teach in a week. This is sometimes frustrating to missionaries (me) because they feel like they are doing all they can to bring people to church, grow the branch, help them do their home teaching... etc, etc. But sometimes I need to understand that those are not factors we can control. That is why the gospel of Jesus Christ is amazing and that is where the Atonement and Christ fit their way into the DRIVE of how each person works. We are trying to build the kingdom the best we can in our part of the vineyard. I have an AWESOME companion who is a great district leader. He is killing it at leading us missionaries in the right path and trying to help the branch with every ounce of energy he has got. Elder Howard is a very special missionary. I love him :)
Elephants are magnificent creatures :)
Culture:
1. Because we live next to the border of both Laos and Myanmar, last week we got checked at the border in our car for fugitives. That was cool :) Not scary - just have never had that happen to me before.
2. They don't think it is possible for white people to eat Thai food because it is too spicy. When we order food off of the street (curry, noodles, namdok, somdam) whatever it is.... they just look at us and go "really?"
So tired while contacting yesterday, I fell asleep WHILE EATING
Funnies:
1. In elders quorum, I was leading the music last Sunday to the song: "Beautiful Zion, Built Above." By the end of the song, the elders quorum sounded like a bunch of monotone monks chanting. Good thing they picked a popular song hahahhahaha *face palm.* At the end of the song they said, "Thanks Elder Smith-Driggs... better luck next time. Don't worry, leading music comes with time." Hahahahahahahahaha.
2.Walked into a pizza store the other day to order pizza and a song came on (like a modern song)... and I didn't recognize it. There were mixed feelings of joy and sadness. Only Eliza will understand. Sorry sweetie, I won't know any of your songs when I get back ;(
3. While teaching an investigator:
Brother: "I love Assassins Creed (video game)."
Me: "I just like to stick with Mario."
Brother: "Wow..... you're old."
Spiritual thought:
This week I had a marvelous opportunity to read President Uchtdorf's talk entitled: "It Works Wonderfully!" from this last general conference. (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/10/it-works-wonderfully?lang=eng.) My thought today comes from this talk, as I believe it gives sound wisdom to our discipleship. He talks about many programs that are good for the Church, many Relief Society activities that help our faith, wonderful programs like scouting, etc... but he asks this simple question to each of us to help us assess our spiritual vital signs: "Are we making our discipleship too complicated?" I think that is very wise wisdom. Sometimes we focus on the most trivial things to 'build our faith.' Sometimes we want to be these spiritual giants, and we feel like in order to do that we must find the most complex, extreme answer to make our brains explode with spiritual enlightenment.
Brothers and Sisters, that is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is much more simple than that. There are 5 things we must do to stay grounded in the faith:
1. Faith
2. Repentance
3. Baptism
4. Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost
5. Enduring to the end
It is beautifully simple, and it works beautifully.
I love you all. Have an amazing week. Keep it simple :) I pray for you always. Love you guys.
Elder Sameet-Dee
Boat ride up to the elephants
Love always,
Elder Smith-Driggs
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