Sorry we haven't posted in awhile! After Tina left for her mission, we didn't know who would run the blog. Here is a quick recap of how Joe has been doing since New Years!
Happy New Years everyone!!! What's not the best way to start the year but to waste 5 mintues of your free time reading my email!!! JK! Not a waste! Good for the Soul! Chicken Soup!
Friday (Dec 25)
After skyping with my family, we proceeded to go to the church to wait for some members to E. and S. Lyons house for Christmas!!!! Your traditional American Christmas here in Thailand! When, we reached their house, we helped them prepare the Christmas Dinner. I helped make the Sweet Potatoes and the Salad. Awesomesause. We an awesome dinner, with funeral potatoes, dinner rolls, etc. After that, we built a Nativity scene together out of clay. With each figure, we wrote a little message about them. I build the star that appeared over the town of Bethlehem. This is what I wrote about it...
"I am the star which appeared over the small town of Bethlehem. I am the star which was spoken in your scriptures of old. I am the star which was sung about in your Christmas carols of new. I am the star which led the Wise Men to the baby in swaddling clothes. I am the star which appeared in a day with no night in the land of Nephi. I am the star, but not just any normal star. For normal stars often shine light for the objects that surrounds them. But, I am the star which shines light to all, the revealing light, the revealing truth, the truth to all that...to put it simply... He is born.
A lot of people liked it, or the white people and the 1 Khon Thai that understood English. After that, we opened presents!! I got socks, a tie, and a new rechargeable tail light for my bike! Awesome! Love Khon Kaen! Then, we went home, super stuffed.
Saturday
Saturday was our branch's Christmas Party. In the morning, E. Williams and I went to Pratuu Nam to get the gifts for the Christmas Party. E. Williams bought a sweater and I bought a small bag. After that, we went to the church to prepare things for the Christmas Party. The children got to make a bunch of cookies btw. Really good. For the Christmas Party, we had a mini-Christmas Devo. After that, we had our Christmas Dinner. Then, we exchanged presents. I got an awesome T-Shirt while E. Williams got towels. It was a really fun Christmas activities. A lot of people showed up for it, members, RCs, LAs, and Investigators alike.
Sunday
We had a chance to teach our investigator, B. Oak (12 years old), the Restoration. He was really confused on why is mom kept sending him to church while the rest of the family was Buddhist. But, he said that he'll definitely choose to follow Christ. After that, we visited S. Nit, S. Phim, and S. Praew with B. Arm, S. Joy, and S. Luugnam. S. Nit was sick that day, so we decided to go visit her and share a message with her and to provide our help.
Monday
E. Williams felt very sick, so we stayed in all day. I basically just set up lessons, cleaned up the house, and studied some Thai.
Tuesday
For District Meeting, we talked about how help with fellow-shipping with the members. Then, we visited B. Alongon again. We talked about expectations with him and then talked about having faith. After that, we taught some English.
Wednesday
We had this awkwardly free time after lunch and didn't know what to do, so we decided to follow the Spirit...translating to cleaning our house. And it was a good thing too because as we were taking out the trash, we found a electricity bill that was due that day. The Spirit works in such mysterious ways, and for even more mysterious purposes. After that, we visited S. Noy and read Alma 36 which talks about true conversion and what that feels like. She had quit a certain medicine and felt really gitterly and was hard for to concentrate, but she completely understood the message. Also, S. Windy, our member helper, share an awesome message from Moroni 7 which talked about charity. I believe that really helped S. Noy feel some peace in her rather frantic life. After that, we went Post-Christmas Caroling with the Lyons at Fairy Plaza. It felt kinda awkward because it was after Christmas and was a little hard to share a message about Christmas when it was already over. But we got free ice cream at the end.
Thursday
Didn't really do much. Weekly Planned, made some spaghetti, and then cleaned up the house because we must be home by 6:00 to avoid New Years madness. So yeah.
That's all for this week! See ya next week! Shout out to my sister, Kat. It was her b-day on Christmas!! Woot!
Stuff to look forward to:
Two elders will be moving here to Khon Kaen, E. Chio and E. Daily.
An awesome member's b-day is coming up.
Gonna visit a Buddhist Temple.
Gonna buy some more fabric.
Yeah!
Happy New Years everyone!!! What's not the best way to start the year but to waste 5 mintues of your free time reading my email!!! JK! Not a waste! Good for the Soul! Chicken Soup!
Friday (Dec 25)
After skyping with my family, we proceeded to go to the church to wait for some members to E. and S. Lyons house for Christmas!!!! Your traditional American Christmas here in Thailand! When, we reached their house, we helped them prepare the Christmas Dinner. I helped make the Sweet Potatoes and the Salad. Awesomesause. We an awesome dinner, with funeral potatoes, dinner rolls, etc. After that, we built a Nativity scene together out of clay. With each figure, we wrote a little message about them. I build the star that appeared over the town of Bethlehem. This is what I wrote about it...
"I am the star which appeared over the small town of Bethlehem. I am the star which was spoken in your scriptures of old. I am the star which was sung about in your Christmas carols of new. I am the star which led the Wise Men to the baby in swaddling clothes. I am the star which appeared in a day with no night in the land of Nephi. I am the star, but not just any normal star. For normal stars often shine light for the objects that surrounds them. But, I am the star which shines light to all, the revealing light, the revealing truth, the truth to all that...to put it simply... He is born.
A lot of people liked it, or the white people and the 1 Khon Thai that understood English. After that, we opened presents!! I got socks, a tie, and a new rechargeable tail light for my bike! Awesome! Love Khon Kaen! Then, we went home, super stuffed.
Saturday
Saturday was our branch's Christmas Party. In the morning, E. Williams and I went to Pratuu Nam to get the gifts for the Christmas Party. E. Williams bought a sweater and I bought a small bag. After that, we went to the church to prepare things for the Christmas Party. The children got to make a bunch of cookies btw. Really good. For the Christmas Party, we had a mini-Christmas Devo. After that, we had our Christmas Dinner. Then, we exchanged presents. I got an awesome T-Shirt while E. Williams got towels. It was a really fun Christmas activities. A lot of people showed up for it, members, RCs, LAs, and Investigators alike.
Sunday
We had a chance to teach our investigator, B. Oak (12 years old), the Restoration. He was really confused on why is mom kept sending him to church while the rest of the family was Buddhist. But, he said that he'll definitely choose to follow Christ. After that, we visited S. Nit, S. Phim, and S. Praew with B. Arm, S. Joy, and S. Luugnam. S. Nit was sick that day, so we decided to go visit her and share a message with her and to provide our help.
Monday
E. Williams felt very sick, so we stayed in all day. I basically just set up lessons, cleaned up the house, and studied some Thai.
Tuesday
For District Meeting, we talked about how help with fellow-shipping with the members. Then, we visited B. Alongon again. We talked about expectations with him and then talked about having faith. After that, we taught some English.
Wednesday
We had this awkwardly free time after lunch and didn't know what to do, so we decided to follow the Spirit...translating to cleaning our house. And it was a good thing too because as we were taking out the trash, we found a electricity bill that was due that day. The Spirit works in such mysterious ways, and for even more mysterious purposes. After that, we visited S. Noy and read Alma 36 which talks about true conversion and what that feels like. She had quit a certain medicine and felt really gitterly and was hard for to concentrate, but she completely understood the message. Also, S. Windy, our member helper, share an awesome message from Moroni 7 which talked about charity. I believe that really helped S. Noy feel some peace in her rather frantic life. After that, we went Post-Christmas Caroling with the Lyons at Fairy Plaza. It felt kinda awkward because it was after Christmas and was a little hard to share a message about Christmas when it was already over. But we got free ice cream at the end.
Thursday
Didn't really do much. Weekly Planned, made some spaghetti, and then cleaned up the house because we must be home by 6:00 to avoid New Years madness. So yeah.
That's all for this week! See ya next week! Shout out to my sister, Kat. It was her b-day on Christmas!! Woot!
Stuff to look forward to:
Two elders will be moving here to Khon Kaen, E. Chio and E. Daily.
An awesome member's b-day is coming up.
Gonna visit a Buddhist Temple.
Gonna buy some more fabric.
Yeah!