365 Bowls of Oatmeal

.... have been eaten in my time as a missionary. One of the greatest memories of my father is that every morning I would wake up at 5:30 a.m. for early morning Jazz Band at my school. I would come down the stairs after taking a shower, and my father was always waiting for me with either "Cream of Wheat" or oatmeal. Every morning we would drink it in the car on the way driving to school.... with only our knees. No hands hahahahahahaaha I love you Dad, happy Father's Day! 

That's 1 year as a missionary people.. all thanks to this

"Yeah Elder, we got time...I have a whole year left!"

The Work: 

This week we had a great activity at the church. We called it "Come unto Christ" and focused on the new members of the ward. We told the bishop we wanted to sing a musical number with guitar... and the next thing we know, he has a whole stage and band hired out for the night in front of the church hahahaha. Guitar, piano, bongos, saxophone, chimes - the whole shabang. 

Getting set up for the gig

Hahahahahahah we were a little nervous to play, but we played one song with the bishop.. and then a Less Active member came up and asked if he could play a song. We said, "Of course brother!"He then, this old man, busts out an electric guitar and starts to play, "Born To Be Wild" along with an intense guitar screaming solo.... in front of the church..... EVERYONE FLIPPED OUT - IT WAS LIKE A ROCK CONCERT. Hahahahahaha we had a great time! I don't know if we got any pictures, but here is a voice recording from the gig :)  [Mom Comment: I cannot figure out how to post the voice recording on the blog, so I will post a video I received from a member of the impromptu concert on Elder Smith-Driggs's Facebook account.]

Classic พ่อจันท์

The Culture: 

- We do not really have an approved translation of the Bible here.

- Because of the belief in reincarnation, all animals on the street are fed daily by kind-hearted Buddhist people.... including ants. 

See that Mom - bleach!

The Funnies:

- We were visiting a member (Sister จิบ), and she has a special needs son. He is very violent. They had some kittens in the yard, and during the lesson her son grabbed one of the kittens and squeezed it as hard as he could... and a line of diarrhea poop shot out at me and hit the chair beside me.. spraying it with kitten poop hahahahahahahahahahaahahah. We all just laughed. It was a great addition to the lesson. 

The cat just pooped on the chair... what?

- We went to visit an investigator this week with Brother ปอ, and we went to get some KFC before the lesson. We ordered for Brother ปอ and told him to pretend he was Filipino (Thai people and Filipino people look similar)...so he had to speak all English. It was way funny. He kept saying things like, "Yes.. yeah... oops sorry!" Hahahaha I love Brother ปอ. 

Spiritual thought: 

This woman is mute.. but she comes to church every week 

because she understands the importance of the sacrament. Amazing!

In “Preach My Gospel” it tells us that "Faith in Christ leads to action." President Johnson has told us that sometimes the formula for faith is Faith = Belief + Actions + Confidence. I personally love the addition of confidence. Now I don't think I would be wrong in saying that most people reading this blog want to build their faith. I would like to share something I think about every day - THE INCHES WE NEED ARE EVERYWHERE AROUND US. The ways to build our faith in Jesus Christ are at our fingertips...and we know exactly what we need to give up, exactly where we need to grow. The little things are all in our reach. Our goal however, whether that be having perfect faith or being like Jesus Christ...is so far away when we look at it from our standpoint, it is impossible to achieve. But as we look around us...the inches we need to take...or the steps rather that we need to reach our goal...are relatively easy changes that we can make. Spending more time with the family, spending that extra 30 minutes to home teach once a month, spending a Saturday night giving a blessing rather than watching the game. We know what we need to do. It is my prayer that we can start making little changes...start recognizing the "inches" or "steps" or whatever you want to call them...and make the change. 

I love you all so much! Dad, you are my hero, and I love you to pieces. Happy Father's Day! 

-- 

Love the Lord and Laugh, 

เอ็ลเดอร์ สมีธ-ดริกส์

Elder Smith-Driggs