Monday: Started the day off by doing some studies then taking a nap. Then we went out for breakfast and went to the church to call our families. After that we went to lunch, then went to check out this cool temple. When we were walking around, we saw a monk sweeping a walkway, so we asked if we could help, and he gave us his brooms and we went to work. Once we finished we talked about the church with him and gave him a book of mormon. We said hi to all the other monks before leaving. The monks are really respected in Thailand, and what's cool is they really respect us. They treat us like other monks, and are super nice. When we were heading out a lady came up to us and thanked us for helping to sweep the walkway. We talked about the church with her and free english class and gave her a card and a book of mormon too. 2 book of mormons during pday! After that we went home and took a nap before sports night, then did some online appointments.
Tuesday: We did our studies, got lunch, then biked super far to another town were we taught some lessons and had to drop a few investigators which was sad. We then biked all the way home. It was like a 12 mile round trip and 107 so it was pretty rough. We then taught english class. We had a super full class at the beginning, but a group of 8 kids took off as soon as we started teaching, so it ended up being a small class of only 6 or 7 people.
Wednesday: We did some finding with a senior missionary couple that were visiting our area. It was super nice talking to more than one person in english, and because they had a car we were able to go to some pretty far away areas and meet with inactive members and pepple we found. It was super fun.
Thursday: We had a ton of lessons all over our area so we were biking like crazy. Elder Sanchez's bike broke again so we had to get that fixed, and i decided to pony up the cash and buy the tool that fixed it so we didn't have to waist so much time walking our bukes to the shop. That meant i had pretty low funds for the last couple days but it was worth not having to waist so much time on bike repairs. Then we did some unsuccessful english class advertising at a fair. We gave out a couple of cards but not a ton. We wanted to finish the day with a few more lessons so we biked a bunch more, and ended up having dinner at 9:40 right before bed.
Friday: we taught some lessons, then did some more finding with the senior missionary couple. After that we had english class. We only had five kids show up, and one of them brought their dog. The dog was patiently waiting outside for the kid to finish, so i decided to move class outside. We brought the whiteboard outside and did class in the church yard. It was a little hot but being outside got the kids a lot more engaged, and then the dog didn't have to be alone. We played with the dog and learned about times of day and how to read clocks. It was super fun. Then we taught some lessons before finishing for the day.
Saturday: Saturday was super busy. We had to teach online english class, then did our studies, then did a ton of lessons. The day was super bisy so it went by super fast.
Sunday: It was my first fast sunday in Thailand and i qas a little worried about not being able to drink water while biking super far in the crazy heat. Luckily i found out the mission president doesn't want biking missionaries to fast water, so it was just a food fast. At church i bore my short, poorly pronounced testimony of the gospel in thai. All the old ladies gave me thumbs up though so that was nice haha. After church the ladies brought in a ton of food for ward lunch. I was super confused cause it was fast sunday. Turns out thai people fast saturday dinner and sunday breakfast. That way they can sleep for most of the fast. Seem a like a little bit luke cheating but oh well haha. They offer us food but we told them we were fasting so they packaged up some food and a town of brownies to have for dinner after we broke our fast. We went ho.e and did our studies. After that i had to teach my first full lesson in thai. My trainer made me do the whole thing, which was a little scary but i got it done haha. I taught the third lesson, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the guy i taught speaks pretty good english, bit my trainer explained to him that i was practicing and asked him not to speak any english with me haha. After that we did some finding in this really cool village on the bank of a lake. We talked with some fisherman on there fishing rigg for awhile which was cool, and they let us pull the nets up a couple times.
Craziest Experience: Thursday night we were at a members house in the middle of farmland. We had one more lesson to go to, and so i looked on google maps and found a shortcut through the jungle. I convinced my comp to let us take it. The trail was super loose dirt, and a very thin trail with lots of bumps. While we were biki through the jungle, my bike lights died and his got super dim because of low battery. All of a suddea pack of 8 rabid dogs started chasing us. These dogs were so rabid and mangie, they looked like zombies. We sped up and were going as fast as we could trying to get away but thes e ju gle dogs were fast. I started kicking my legs behind me while biking trying to knock them out. Luckily we popped out of the jungle onto a main road where other people were, and they yelled at the dogs with us and the dogs ran back into the jungle. Fighting off a pack of dogs, in the dark jungle, it was wild.
Spiritual Thought: As missionaries we have been commanded that “Every man shall hear the fulness of the gospel in his own tongue, and in his own language, through those who are ordained unto this power” (Doctrine and Covenants 90:11). To help us teach people in their own language, we are able to receive the gift of tongues and the gift of interpretation of tongues. Gods work will not be interrupted so he can give missionaries the words that need to be said even if the missionaries don't know those words. I know that as far as i have come in the language (which is not very far haha) is all from divine help. After my TBI i don't learn as fast as i used to, and to make as much progress as i have is nothing short of a miracle. When i went in to that lesson i had to teach, i barely knew the words i had to say, yet i qas able to teach the whole lesson, and understan the responses to the questions i asked. If you asked me to recite that lesson again i wouldn't be able to do it. I recieved gods help so that that person could be taught divine truths. I am grateful for a loving god that wants each person to learn in their own language, so that they can have a personalized experience with the gospel. I am also grateful for a loving god that speaks through my mouth in a language I do not know. I felt so much love for the person that i was teaching, and somehow that is only a fraction of the love Heavenly father feels for each one of us. Mind-blowing.
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