Hey Family,
How was the trip to the cabin? Was there a decent amount of snow up there? Elder Hales and I were talking about snowmobiles and he's beaten my 112 mph record on the viper. He said he got up to 126 on a 2013 Polaris Dragon...that's insane.
This Wednesday we have our first mission leadership council! I'm excited to go and get to be apart of it! I've been to one where I had to help translate (President Senior talked about light particles...it was silent on the mic for a few seconds) and have heard all about them because I was around the office for so long.
Today I read John chapter 8 and I had to stop half way through and read it all over again. There's so much doctrine in it! You could read that chapter 100 times and I might have to before I understand it. I really like the part where Christ is telling the Pharisees about how Abraham saw his day, and he was glad. Nothing he did was ever not questioned, and no questions could deter his teachings and his holy sonship. We are members of the true church, we can have that same kind of confidence!
So this week was our first full week working with the zone here in Bangkok West. We decided to set a goal to have all companionships in the zone achieve balanced key indicators. That's 2 investigators at sacrament meeting, 2 new investigators, and 10 combined recent convert/less active member lessons and lessons taught to investigators with a member present. We knew that if we set our sights on these goals it would set all the companionships up for further success. In the end we had 9/12 companionships with balanced key indicators! It was a huge success! Even those who fell short saw miracles and had great success. It helped us set up a sure foundation.
This last Sunday we also had a baptism!! A girl came to English class once with her mom 8 years ago when she was about 12. Now she's about 20 and she had faith in Christ. She was doing good things with her life but she faced opposition and she said that it was like she fell into darkness. She needed some help so she turned outwards. Some of her Christian friends invited her to another church. She liked it there but her heart was pulling her back to this church she went into once 8 years ago. She came in and started learning with the missionaries. In her testimony after her baptisms she said that after she started praying and doing other things to follow Christ her problems seemed smaller. A light had been lit in the darkness. As we helped her prepare for baptism she said she had some concerns about how her family life would be being the only Christian or if she could keep such a commitment.
The thing that made her sure was the sure foundation of faith she had developed. She didn't let go of the feelings in her heart that brought her here in the first place. She didn't let the doubt or concerns overgrow the light that she had found. She is an example to me of holding fast. I know that she will grow in the Gospel and that this foundation will continue to strengthen even further.
In Thailand we had a pretty solid foundation in the church. Almost 2000 baptisms last year have helped the church grow and prepare for a temple. Now that we have this foundation we have to keep growing! That next step is families and to use the foundation that is here already to build up! We're going to focus on getting in homes to teach and other things like that! I know the Lord is preparing the hearts of the saints and their friends and families to receive the gospel and then the temple ordinances! It's a great time to be here in the Lord's work!
Love Elder Keller
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| Behind the church in Bangkok |
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