Week #82

(The picture is of what used to be a rice field)


Dear Everyone,

So this was another week full of service. I do not know where to start really. All the days lately I have not been able to keep apart at all. We seem to wake up, do service, come home and eat and sleep. It is actually a lot of fun, so don't worry. Umm. Since I emailed on Tuesday night, I will start with Wednesday. Actually I really don't remember at that we did this week. I mean, I don't remember what was done on each day of the week. We cleaned a couple of more houses, helped people move stuff back to the original places, did some scraping of walls to prep for painting, did some actual painting, etc. It has been pretty tiring and napping during the day has been becoming a lot more attractive (no I have not napped at all). Sunday turned out to be okay. We watched the Asia Area Stake Conference, again. This will actually be Elder Hanni's 4th time watching it. Here in Ayutaya, they have not seen General Conference yet even. That will be happeing this Saturday and Sunday. That will be fun to watch again in Thai. Umm, I really do not have a lot to report I am sorry. The flood waters are going down, but as far as I know, Rangsit is still flooded, but getting better. We also got invited to go to a Thanksgiving dinner in Bangkok on this Friday. I hope that it still all goes through.

I guess I can also introduce my new companion. He is Elder Chamberlain from Boise, Idaho. I am his follow-up trainer. He is starting transfers 3 and even though we have not done any teaching together, he is a very driven missionary and a good example to me. The other 2 Elders here are Elder Hanni and Elder Raven. They are both pretty awesome and having 4 Elders in a house again is way fun.

I am sorry, but that is all I have for this week. I love you all so much!!

Elder Ackerman

Week #81

Dear Everyone,

So this was a pretty crazy week. I do not even know where to start. All of the days rushed into to one, so I am not going to separate the days apart.

So from last Monday, we traveled to Ayuttaya. We did a lot of shopping for stuff since the Elders have not been at the house for about a month. We bought a lot of clean drinking water as well since the city water in unreliable. So we went put from Tuesday to Saturday doing service everyday. We have cleaned around 5 houses. They were really dirty. The whole city was practically underwater. It was like a modern day Atlantis, but not quite. On Sunday morning we traveled to Bangkok to attend church. On Monday we had a Zone Conference with Elder Gong of the Area Presidency in attendance. That was really cool. It was an excellent meeting. We had our P-day on Tuesday. I am writing this email at 8 pm and I am very tired. Lots of traveling and very little sleep. I am doing well. Thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts.

Love,
Elder Ackerman

Week #80

Dear Everyone,

So this was a pretty fun week. A lot of exciting things happening.

Monday: So we had a pretty good P-Day. We relaxed did the usual napping and such. We went out to Nong Jig for the evening and taught a few lessons. Our investigators out there are doing alright, but still need some work for sure. It was an overall good evening.

Tuesday: We had a good proselyting day, well I guess we did. We had a lot planned to do through out the day and it all fell through. We had a couple investigators that we wanted to go visit and none of them were at home. That was alright. We taught a lesson before English started. That turned out well. The English class was fun and we had a good turn out. Our lesson that we wanted to teach in the evening fell through, so we just went and had dinner.

Wednesday: We had another pretty okay day. District Meeting was a lot of fun. It went well and I got a couple complements from the missionaries that I am over. Lots of finding time during the day, but not a lot of finding people to teach. We talked to several people, but it is sometimes hard to get into there house and teach a lesson. We went out to Nong Jig again and taught a couple of lessons.

Thursday: We had a good couple hours of weekly planning to get on the same page. We taught a couple of lessons. We went and visited a recent-convert family. Actually it was the family that I baptised. They are struggling a little bit with going to church, but we are working on it with them. I love that family so much and want to see them really preparing to go to the temple. We had a really effective Coordination meeting with the branch as well.

Friday: Friday evening was the only teaching that we did for the day. Visited another 3 recent converts out at Nong Jig as well. They are doing well. I also got a call from the Assistants that I would be moving from RoiEt Sunday night. Elder Todd had to go down to renew his visa and I was moving. It was a little shock because it was so soon and not very well prepared on my part for it.

Saturday: We spent the afternoon packing and cleaning up the house. Took about 3 hours to take care of. We had also planned for the day to go with Brother Suteb and his wife to go to Suwanapum to teach some referrals and a current investigator family. It was about an hour away by car. We did teach a couple of lessons and got some new investigators as well. It was good and we got dinner as well with our family down there.

Sunday: Had the normal church block. Had 5 investigators come to church. That was a success. We taught a lesson afterwards and then went to the house to eat some lunch. We went and contacted a referral from a member and that turned out okay as well. We spent sometime finding, taught that recent convert family again and told them I was getting on a bus at 930 pm. They were kind of bummed, but they will do just fine. We then went back home and had dinner made by our member neighbours. That was so good! Then went to the bus station with Brother Suteb and his wife and went down to Bangkok.

I am now going to be serving in Rangsit, but at the moment it is flooded, so I do not know where I am going/ what I will be doing. Something maybe about going to Loburi and doing some service. I don't know. Well I love you all!!

Elder Ackerman

Week #79

Dear All,

This was a pretty fun week. I think that the longer it goes on, the more tired I become. This week really showed through a little.

Monday: It started off as a pretty good week. We had a party as a District and made some cake together. It was really really good and very rich. We chilled the rest of the day and then took the trip out to Nong Jig. We taught a couple of sweet lessons.

Tuesday: Turned out to be an alright day. We started it off with teaching a guy off of the invite. Got to sit and teach him for about 10 minutes. He did accept a return appointment which was nice. We taught another investigator, Bubpaa, before going over to English class. The appointments that we had set up for after English fell through so we went and got some good food for dinner. I had some Jaeger Schnitzel mit Spaetzle. It was fantastic.

Wednesday: The day went really well. I think I forgot to mention, but Mahasarakam got 2 more Elders from Bangkok to help. So I now look over 8 missionaries. That is fun. We had a good district meeting on the Book of Mormon. Our appointments all went through in the evening, but we had to set a couple to the side, due to no progression and not keeping commitments. Other than that, a good day.

Thursday: We had a good long planning session for the day. We did teach a lesson in the evening and that was it for the day. We taught Alma 32 to Bubpaa. It turned out really well and fit well with her concern.

Friday: A couple of our appointments fell through in the morning. I was able to interview one of the Sisters investigators for baptism and he passed. He could not really read until he started in the Book of Mormon and he cold turkeyed it for smoking and alcohol in 2 days. Pretty sweet. We taught a couple of lessons in the evening that went well.

Saturday: We spent from 9am to 4pm doing a service project in Nong Jig. It consisted of painting a wall and a building. It was a great project and lots of fun. We did not have any success finding wise and teaching.

Sunday: Turned out to be a great day and the Sisters investigator Sing was baptised. Sing translates to lion. Pretty cool name I would have to say. We had a few investigators at church. We were blessed in the afternoon by being able to teach a couple lessons and get 4 new investigators as well. The Lord gives us so much. We just need to realize it and thank Him so we can get more.

I love you all!

Elder Ack