Hello to the other side of the world!
Wow, what a great time to be in Thailand. It was a fantastic week here in Sisaket.
Monday: Just another P-Day on this side of Thailand. Went to a store to get a suit cut. I have a feeling it is going to turn out well. We went out to do some teaching but our appointments all fell through. We did find someone to teach, but he was not that interested. It was a pretty quiet night on the proselyting side of things.
Tuesday: Not much better of a day for teaching. We got a couple lessons done in the morning, but they were only return appointments. No one new to teach. One of the appointments was with a 23 year old guy. Too bad he was done with school and moving back out of the city to be with family. Ugh. It seems like stuff like that happens all the time. Oh well. English was a fun experience. The power went out from a rain storm and thankfully the church building had 2 emergency lights in the hallway. That was cool. So we taught English to 10 or so students under a dim light. It was fun. Then when the class was over the power some back on for good. Go figure.
Wednesday: So to make up for the beginning of the week in lack of lessons, the Lord must have decided to fill in the rest of the days. The rest of the week averaged 5 lessons a day. It was a busy week going around and teaching. We did have time to find some new people as well. One guy we are teaching is trying to stop smoking, so that will be fun to help him get through. He really does want to stop.
Thursday: A little slower of a day because of our weekly planning that has to get done. We found a sweet new guy that told us he doesn't know where to go in life and is kind of lost. He just finished schooling, looking for a job, and not sure what the purpose of life is. Good thing we stopped by and taught him a lesson about the Gospel of Christ. That was a cool lesson.
Friday: Oh boy. 7 lessons. That was a fun day. We found two new guys to start teaching. One of them has a family and he wants more happiness to be in his family. The rest were with investigators that have been learning for a while. We have a couple who are close to baptism. We are teaching a guy waiting for approval from the First Presidency and he told us about a dream that he had before meeting the Elders. He had a dream about Christ and when the Elders handed him a pass along card with a picture of Christ and he recognized Him as the man from his dream. That was way cool.
Saturday: Taught a few more lessons. More like 5 lessons. We found a guy who doesn't really care about this life and doesn't care if there is a next life. He pretty much has no hope. We really hope that we can help him to have that hope and faith in the next life.
Sunday: A pretty crazy day. We taught 3 lessons after church and we got a new kid who wants to be baptized. He is 13 years old and wants to be baptized. It was quite amazing sitting down with him. We only got 2 new persons to teach, and the other one is the step-sister of the guy we taught on Thursday. It was a good lesson. Gave him a Book of Mormon to start reading. He also wants to go to church on Sundays. Also our 87 year old woman is getting baptised. I think it is a record for the mission...
Well that is all for this week!
Love,
Elder Ackerman
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Week #45
Hey everyone,
Well so this has been a pretty good week. I will get right into it.
Monday: A pretty normal day for the 4 of us here in Sisaket. It is really fun being with 4 Elders in a house. We were able to teach a couple lessons before the night was over.
Tuesday: It was a pretty normal day. We changed around the schedule for the summer months when it is really hot. We now study in the middle of the day when it is the hottest. It was good. We got a few lessons but no one was interested in learning more. It gets hard sometime trying to help people see the truth and maybe they feel something about what we are talking about it, but are too scared to act on the feelings. So we taught several people, but nothing from it. We also had a good English class and got a couple people who want to start learning the gospel.
Wednesday: It was a better day. We taught 4 lessons and we also got some new investigators as well. It turned out well. Elder Siriphan and I have been spending a lot of time trying to teach and find more families and individuals to share the gospel with. Most of the time it is slow work, but I am constantly surprised at how fast the day goes by. We now also have an 87 year old woman who is learning with us. She speaks only Isan, a dialect of Thai, so that is a problem. Her daughter is a member, so she helps translate for us. It is very interesting teaching.
Thursday: Another good day. We have started getting more involved in less-active teaching. It has been turning out good. It just increases my testimony that Preach My Gospel was written by apostles of the Lord. If we do it the Lords way, we will always succeed. We taught 4 more lessons. 2 of them were with some less active members. It is very sad to see how destructive Satan can be to families. They just get pulled about and shredded to pieces.
Friday: We taught some more lessons. We just did not get anyone new to begin teaching. We have a few people who are progressing nicely and moving towards baptism. It is great. I love being able to see the change in peoples lives. This work is so important.
Saturday: This was a fun day. One of the lessons we taught consisted of me entertaining a very disprutive drunk man while Elder Siriphan taught the investigator. It was a first lesson with the man and thankfully he let us back for another visit. It was fun, although I was not able to participate in the lesson. It was an interesting experience. We started teaching a members older brother who learned with the missionaries before. He is pretty cool. He is my age and he has been doing well, reading the scriptures and such.
Sunday: It was a good day. We had 3 investigators at church. Sisaket has been doing really well. We taught another few lessons. The guy from Saturday night we taught again. I swear that guy lives around only crazy and drunk people. Oh well. It turned out to be a good lesson. HE told us that when he was in school he always felt better learning about Christianity compared to Buddhism and Islam. That was cool to hear. For dinner Elder Cotrell made some meatloaf and mashed potatoes. That was really good.
That is all for this week folks!
Love,
Elder Ackerman
Well so this has been a pretty good week. I will get right into it.
Monday: A pretty normal day for the 4 of us here in Sisaket. It is really fun being with 4 Elders in a house. We were able to teach a couple lessons before the night was over.
Tuesday: It was a pretty normal day. We changed around the schedule for the summer months when it is really hot. We now study in the middle of the day when it is the hottest. It was good. We got a few lessons but no one was interested in learning more. It gets hard sometime trying to help people see the truth and maybe they feel something about what we are talking about it, but are too scared to act on the feelings. So we taught several people, but nothing from it. We also had a good English class and got a couple people who want to start learning the gospel.
Wednesday: It was a better day. We taught 4 lessons and we also got some new investigators as well. It turned out well. Elder Siriphan and I have been spending a lot of time trying to teach and find more families and individuals to share the gospel with. Most of the time it is slow work, but I am constantly surprised at how fast the day goes by. We now also have an 87 year old woman who is learning with us. She speaks only Isan, a dialect of Thai, so that is a problem. Her daughter is a member, so she helps translate for us. It is very interesting teaching.
Thursday: Another good day. We have started getting more involved in less-active teaching. It has been turning out good. It just increases my testimony that Preach My Gospel was written by apostles of the Lord. If we do it the Lords way, we will always succeed. We taught 4 more lessons. 2 of them were with some less active members. It is very sad to see how destructive Satan can be to families. They just get pulled about and shredded to pieces.
Friday: We taught some more lessons. We just did not get anyone new to begin teaching. We have a few people who are progressing nicely and moving towards baptism. It is great. I love being able to see the change in peoples lives. This work is so important.
Saturday: This was a fun day. One of the lessons we taught consisted of me entertaining a very disprutive drunk man while Elder Siriphan taught the investigator. It was a first lesson with the man and thankfully he let us back for another visit. It was fun, although I was not able to participate in the lesson. It was an interesting experience. We started teaching a members older brother who learned with the missionaries before. He is pretty cool. He is my age and he has been doing well, reading the scriptures and such.
Sunday: It was a good day. We had 3 investigators at church. Sisaket has been doing really well. We taught another few lessons. The guy from Saturday night we taught again. I swear that guy lives around only crazy and drunk people. Oh well. It turned out to be a good lesson. HE told us that when he was in school he always felt better learning about Christianity compared to Buddhism and Islam. That was cool to hear. For dinner Elder Cotrell made some meatloaf and mashed potatoes. That was really good.
That is all for this week folks!
Love,
Elder Ackerman
Friday, March 4, 2011
Week #44
Dear Everyone,
So I am doing pretty awesome. Sisaket has been treating me nicely as well as a baptism. So here is the week!
Monday: Pretty good Monday. We went to a members house for a Family Home Evening and they asked me to share a lesson/spiritual thought. I chose to speak on the Atonement. If you are ever called to speak on what ever you want. I suggest the Atonement. There is so much surrounding it. We also got another lesson in as well for the night.
Tuesday: We had a pretty good day. We had our weekly district meeting given by Elder Brix. It has been a while since I have had a District Meeting in Thai. Actually since my first and second transfers in Saphan Sung. Wow, time flies huh? We got 4 total lessons in. I have to say the Lord has been really blessing us. We taught the English class. Well I taught and Elder Siriphan was a participant. Here they have it split into 2 classes. I am teaching the Advanced class like I was in Saphan Sung. It has been fun. One of our investigators is the older sister of a missionary serving in Thailand right now. That is really cool. She is waiting to get baptised when her younger sister (the missionary) returns. I was also in the same district as Sister Urisa (the missionary) when I was in Saphan Sung.
Wednesday: It was a really good day. We taught 5 lessons. I have never on my mission taught more lessons than about 14-16 in one week. This last week we got 25 lessons. It has been really good. The Lord is just pouring out His Spirit on Thailand. And in not too long a temple should be announced. That is President Smith's goal before he finishes his mission. I am so excited to be a part of creating the way for a temple to be built in Thailand!
Thursday: Another day of lessons. We had our usual long planning for the next week and then we went out and taught. We got another few lessons. We found one family who the wife had met the missionaries 9 years ago in Surin. She never learned with them, but knew who we were. She was very quick to invite us in and sit down with the family. Unfortunately, they are content with there life right now and don't want to change. It was still cool to be called over. Taught another woman who we could tell was not very happy with life. It is strange how people won't or choose not to accept something that will change there life. For the good of course.
Friday: Another day of a few lessons. We found some new people. Taught one guy who knew that all of this was true, but was afraid of his friends getting after him for changing his life for the better. He wants to continue drinking and being with his friends. It was just too sad. Taught some of our regular investigators.
Saturday: Ahh. A baptism. Sister Deang was baptised. She was baptised by a return missionary from Thailand who served in Salt Lake City South Mission (they got 250 baptism in one month before, it is also the highest baptising mission in the world). He is also the branch mission leader, which is really good. It was an excellent service and Sister Deang was very cheerful and happy. She introduced us to one of her friends as well. This friend was actually the one who told her to investigate the church. We are in the process of getting him to investigate and meet with us, but he is one of those 2nd Nephi 28: 7-9 people.
Sunday: Well, this branch has 70 to 80 attending regularly. It is quite a good branch and there are a lot of people who are very good with fulfilling their callings. We taught a few lessons, but they also did not turn out to much. It's okay. We have the next week.
Well that is all for this week. I love you all!
Elder Ackerman
So I am doing pretty awesome. Sisaket has been treating me nicely as well as a baptism. So here is the week!
Monday: Pretty good Monday. We went to a members house for a Family Home Evening and they asked me to share a lesson/spiritual thought. I chose to speak on the Atonement. If you are ever called to speak on what ever you want. I suggest the Atonement. There is so much surrounding it. We also got another lesson in as well for the night.
Tuesday: We had a pretty good day. We had our weekly district meeting given by Elder Brix. It has been a while since I have had a District Meeting in Thai. Actually since my first and second transfers in Saphan Sung. Wow, time flies huh? We got 4 total lessons in. I have to say the Lord has been really blessing us. We taught the English class. Well I taught and Elder Siriphan was a participant. Here they have it split into 2 classes. I am teaching the Advanced class like I was in Saphan Sung. It has been fun. One of our investigators is the older sister of a missionary serving in Thailand right now. That is really cool. She is waiting to get baptised when her younger sister (the missionary) returns. I was also in the same district as Sister Urisa (the missionary) when I was in Saphan Sung.
Wednesday: It was a really good day. We taught 5 lessons. I have never on my mission taught more lessons than about 14-16 in one week. This last week we got 25 lessons. It has been really good. The Lord is just pouring out His Spirit on Thailand. And in not too long a temple should be announced. That is President Smith's goal before he finishes his mission. I am so excited to be a part of creating the way for a temple to be built in Thailand!
Thursday: Another day of lessons. We had our usual long planning for the next week and then we went out and taught. We got another few lessons. We found one family who the wife had met the missionaries 9 years ago in Surin. She never learned with them, but knew who we were. She was very quick to invite us in and sit down with the family. Unfortunately, they are content with there life right now and don't want to change. It was still cool to be called over. Taught another woman who we could tell was not very happy with life. It is strange how people won't or choose not to accept something that will change there life. For the good of course.
Friday: Another day of a few lessons. We found some new people. Taught one guy who knew that all of this was true, but was afraid of his friends getting after him for changing his life for the better. He wants to continue drinking and being with his friends. It was just too sad. Taught some of our regular investigators.
Saturday: Ahh. A baptism. Sister Deang was baptised. She was baptised by a return missionary from Thailand who served in Salt Lake City South Mission (they got 250 baptism in one month before, it is also the highest baptising mission in the world). He is also the branch mission leader, which is really good. It was an excellent service and Sister Deang was very cheerful and happy. She introduced us to one of her friends as well. This friend was actually the one who told her to investigate the church. We are in the process of getting him to investigate and meet with us, but he is one of those 2nd Nephi 28: 7-9 people.
Sunday: Well, this branch has 70 to 80 attending regularly. It is quite a good branch and there are a lot of people who are very good with fulfilling their callings. We taught a few lessons, but they also did not turn out to much. It's okay. We have the next week.
Well that is all for this week. I love you all!
Elder Ackerman
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