Week 39 - Surin, Thailand (November 23, 2014)

Thanksgiving not alot of update from Elder Matt Boonmee. Lots of his email were about his personal requests for the upcoming Christmas, dress pants and etc.. So, below is all we got.

"Tell everyone I say hello! 
This week was a whole lot of hard work. We have been inviting more than 4 hours and teaching as hard and as faith filled as possible. We are trying to meet our goals as much as possible. Once it came down to the last few days we weren't going to be able to meet our goals. But the Lord prepares ways. When the last day, Sunday, came around we had a ton of new investigators and past people come to church. It was amazing to see. We will be able to meet our goal for the month, but we need to our best, and keep our faith strong to meet this goal. The Lords provides ways. Other than that, that was pretty much it.

One thing also, You need to stop talking to the members here. It is like we are having constant contact and President Senior asks that we don't do that. Also the reason why I don't write very long is because I don't know what to talk about. You guys send letters that are really short so I don't know what to say, so my letters are the same length as your letters. 
Well that's all! 
Elder Boonmee"

Week 38 - Surin, Thailand (November 16, 2014)

This past week was insane! There was a lot of things that happened. This was the large elephant round up. So there were elephants everywhere, constantly. I even rode my bike by one and was able to give it a good spank. We got to see the big show as well. All awesome stuff.

We did a lot of Less Active work as well. Sister and Elder Peterson came to help us do that work. We got a huge group and all split up to find some Less Active members. Then the Saturday, Sister and President Senior came for the Elephant show. Then ended up staying and helped us with a whole lot of work. This week was hard, and there really hasn't been too many new investigators. We had two investigators come on Sunday, so we barely made it by. But all in all, it has been fun here in Surin.

Love you all

Elder Boonmee

Week 37 - Surin, Thailand (November 9, 2014)

So last week, not too much happened. The biggest thing that happened was ลอยกะทง!! It was way cool to see! If you have seen "Tangled" There is a part where they all send up lanterns, that was what it was like! We got to send up a few of our own lanterns. In the belief of Buddhism, this is actually a form of getting rid of sins. BUT we did as missionaries always do, and we invited about baptism! We tried to explain the importance of Baptism and much more.

Here is the studies that Elder Beebe and I have had in his own words. I can't type that long.

Tell everyone I love them!






"The title of this email speaks for itself. I'd like to share some notes and understanding I received from Heavenly Father in some of mystudies this past week. (These are just my feelings, thoughts, and
notes I've recorded and you can take, change, add to what you want.)

In my email that discussed the Plan of Salvation and the Good Samaritan can also be used with these studies. Mainly because the Plan of Salvation is expressed and taught all throughout the Book of Mormon and Bible. For example, the story of the family of Lehi leaving Jerusalem to go to the Promised Land, Moses and the Children of Israel, The Brother of Jared, and like mentioned before, Good Samaritan. I want to just talk about my studies on the story of Lehi leaving his Land of Inheritance in Jerusalem. I feel as though the Spirit has led

these studies as my understanding has been built upon and it is my testimony that God has created these beautiful stories in the scriptures for the world.

As we read in the scriptures we see that the Lord speaks and teaches through parables. A parable by definition in the Merriam Webster dictionary is; a short story that teaches a moral or spiritual lesson; especially: one of the stories told by Jesus Christ and recorded in the Bible. It says that it is both a moral and SPIRITUAL lesson. As we read in the scriptures we see that  it talks about how the Lamanites felt they were robbed when the Nephites took the plates from them into the Wilderness. Why would they feel robbed? Sure they are made of Gold and Brass compounds but why other than that would they be of worth? As we see in the scriptures, people and nations dwindle because they are illiterate. The plates of Nephi are the teachings for ALL people. To help them become literate. While people aren't literate they dwindle and eventually lose all talents. We read about this in the Book of Mormon as well as in other historical books. (There is a ton more on this that I haven't written down). The scriptures both have spiritual and moral benefits. In the Bible we read about how Noah built the Ark in Genesis, right? Well he had to get those instructions from somewhere. As we read about that story it explains the exact measurements he needed to make the Ark. Same thing as the Brother of Jared, when he goes and builds submarines for his family and those following him. SUBMARINES. How do we know that it is a submarine that was built? Because the Lord commands him to create VESSELS that are tight. (Ether 2 discusses this story.) When the Brother of Jared goes
to build them he sees that there will be no light in them, so the Lord says to build a window in the ships. The word window is symbolic in this scripture, but how? As we read about the word window in the Bible, Genesis 6:16 it talks about a WINDOW. As we check the footnote about the word  INDOW it explains where the Brother of Jared got his idea to bring the stones

to the Lord in the mountain to make the submarines lit while under the water. These ships the Lord teaches these faithful followers are as Nephi states in 1 Nephi 17:8, " And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto me, saying: Thou shalt construct a ship, after the manner which I shall show thee,that I may carry thy people across these waters." No other man has ever created this before, so it obviously had to have come from the Lord to work the way it did. The scriptures have both moral and spiritual meaning to all people. So they are of the most worth in these times to keep nations from falling apart, to keep them all literate and smart! The Lord knows that without these plates, His word would be gone very quickly. Back in the time of the scriptures, the way stories and info was passed down was through oral means. The word of God would have been lost and messed up so fast. So, he teaches through interesting
meaningful, symbolic stories. Most humans learn through visual aids and creating images in their minds. As dad makes up those Bobby stories at night, I'm sure we all remember those stories better than math problems because we created those stories in our heads. It's the same with the scriptures, the Lord couldn't rely on men to relate 1000's of verses day by day to people while they weren't literate. I think it's pretty fair to say that we are all pretty literate and are able to read and write fine, but we can only memorize up to 10- 20 verses word for word. Teaching by stories and interesting parables is the most simple, yet complex way the Lord teaches us all through the Prophets. He is a brilliant author.

So, now onto the the story of Lehi. This is a brilliant story about how a family in Jerusalem leaves the city to go into the Wilderness to keep their lives and eventually lands in the Promised Land. (I've
capitalized the word Wilderness and Promised Land for reasons which I have reasons for.) So we see this great story about Lehi and his family traveling in the wilderness and overcoming trials and death and all these things. It's a great story because it talks about the Plan of Salvation and Jerusalem, and the Promised Land, and the Wilderness. So, as I stated the Good Samaritan story talks about Jerusalem and Jericho, Jerusalem being symbolic of Heaven and Jericho being the World. In this story it can be used in the same way. Jerusalem is the Holy City, Holy Land, and or Heaven.

The Wilderness has many meanings, it could be our lives now, the path of repentance, or trials in our
lives, etc. We all have tons of times in our lives when we feel as though we are in a Wilderness, so you can relate that to your own life. At this time in our lives, we have had many wars happen and that
are happening now over the Promised Land or Holy Land, which many people feel as though is Jerusalem and the area around it. I don't feel as though the Lord would tell us where the Promised Land or Holy Land is and the exact boundaries and would want people to war over it. I feel like the Promised Land is the happiness, joy, enlightened understanding we get from the processes of repentance, it is not a specific area on this earth or a certain land. It is symbolic of where we first started in the Plan of Salvation and where we will end up in our highest state of exaltation along with the happiness and joy through the Power of the Atonement.

I talked about the Wilderness in the past few paragraphs which is symbolic in and of itself. Now, the Lord will not EVER forget or apostate from us. If so, he would cease to be God. The people ALWAYS
will apostate from Him (if that makes sense. We will forget, throw away the teachings etc.) But in Isaiah, we read that ,"His hand is stretched out still." This is the promise of the Atonement, that no
matter what the Lord will pay for all sins of the world. "His hand is stretched out still." While in the Wilderness, we are currently lost and searching for the Promised Land. In the Story of Moses and the
Children of Israel, they travel through the Desert. What Desert could that have been in Egypt? Sahara maybe? They saw blessings and miracles such as water pouring from rocks and manna being fed to them daily. In the story of Nephi and Lehi, why don't they have this happen? Why don't they have rocks full of water and manna walking around daily for them? Because their Wilderness was different from that of the Children of Israel. Nehpi and Lehi and their family were in a Wilderness where there was water, so consequently, there will be animals. Moses didn't need a bow and arrow and a Liahona, but Nephi and Lehi did. They traveled through different Wildernesses to get to the Promised Land by passing through a body of water or multiple times in the case of Moses and the Children of Israel. Nephi and Lehi needed different tools to get through their wilderness because they were in different parts of the world. There were animals to hunt and etc. In Moses' case there weren't. In our Wildernesses, we will need different tools to get through and to fight through to get to the waters to cross into the Promised Land we so much desire.

We may not need to have bows and
arrows or a liahona. But one thing that all these great stories fell on in the end was the basics of Faith and keeping the commandments. The Lord will prepare ways for his covenant people to make it to the Promised Land that the Lord promised with those people. He will NEVER not let covenant people into the Promised Land, if they do their part. The Lord's word must ALWAYS come to pass. If it doesn't He will cease to be God.

Onto the Water that we must cross to get to our Promised Land. In these stories, we see that they all had to cross great waters to get to the Promised Land. Throughout these stories, we see that the Lord
doesn't say where it is or what it is or how long it'll take, He just says that he will take us to the Promised Land.

We must have faith to cross the Waters in our lives. To take that leap of faith to follow our Lord in the Wilderness and to finally cross that finish line, the Great Waters, into the Promised Land or blessings. As the faith of the family of Nehpi lacks the Liahona doesn't work, the Lord will NOT help them. But, as Nephi's faith strengthens, the Lord forgives and works with Nephi to bring his family into peace and the Promised Land. Also, I've heard tons of people say, including myself, that Nephi and his family founded the Americas. But, that is absolutely false!! How could
there be wars and wars within just a few years of being in the Promised Land if it was just Nephis family, Zorams family, and Ishmaels family (including sons and daughters of the wives of Laman,
Lemuel, Nephi, Ishamel, etc.) There had to be others in America before them to have all these wars. (I'll talk about this in another email. Because all clues are in the Book of Mormon, you just gotta look
closer. :) )

As we cross into the Promised Land, we gain that peace and love from our Heavenly Father that He promised us at the beginning of our journey. I'm convinced that the Lord didn't intend for Jerusalem to be the Holy Land or to make it known unto us. It isn't THAT easy. We must go through our own wildernesses in our lives to reach the many "Promised Lands" we will meet in this life. We may have many Wildernesses that take a few days, years or lifetimes to get through. But, we must rely on the Gospel of Christ, that is FAITH, REPENTANCE, BAPTISM (or taking the Sacrament each week), living worthily for the GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST, and we must ALWAYS ENDURE TO THE END."

Week 36 - Surin, Thailand (November 2, 2014)

Well this week was full of stuff.

Last Monday we went to Wad Phanom Rung up in Buriram. That was fun, we also saw some stuff there that looked like temple things...

Tuesday we found out nobody was moving from our district! We were pretty happy that we get to all stay for another transfer!

Then on Thursday of transfers the Zone leaders called us and told us, "Hey can you do us a favor? Elder Beebe pack up. You're moving." So the transfer meeting was about an hour after that phone call. So we packed up and headed out to Bangkok. We didn't make in on time so my new companion,

Elder Ngaosuwan, and Elder Reid went back and Elder Tanner and I swapped companions and stayed in Bangkok so Elder Tanner could do his Visa work. I learned that Jacob is a Zone leader in Pakret!

Then we finally got back at about 2 am and went straight to sleep. The next day I finally got to talk to my companion. He is from Bangkapi. He is a pretty fun guy. This past Sunday we had Sister ไวน์ (Wine) baptized! She is awesome! She has actually been an investigator since I came into the country. But the missionaries that taught her, just lost contact. Elder Beebe and I got in contact and she was golden! She had been praying all that time and still was reading the scriptures.

She has a step father that is Islamic and a mother that is Buddhist. It will be quite the household for her. But she is awesome. She told us that she was so stressed before the missionaries met her. She almost was going to commit suicide, but perfectly, the Sister missionaries invited her. She will be an amazing member for the branch.

This week we had 53 people at church, we are trying for a goal of 60. Two weeks ago we had 41 people at church, so the members are doing some great work.

Anyways, that's all I have!
Elder Boonmee

Week 35 - Surin, Thailand (October 26, 2014)

Dear Family,

Once again I wont be able to expound on my personal studies of the Book of Mormon, because I am headed to Buriram pretty soon. It would be cool if I could see some photos from that conference because we don't see anything about that anymore.

...

Well this week was very eventful. On Tuesday our Thai family came to see me. It was little odd because I don't remember any of them. They all remembered me, but I didn't. To me, it was the first time seeing everyone. They also came back another time on Saturday, but not all of them. Just the two aunts and their family.

Elder Beebe and I brought up the Plan of Salvation. We taught them a bunch of things. It was all new things for them so I'm sure they felt odd a little bit. But I told them to pray and other things as well. I'm really hoping that they try it. It would awesome to see them be baptized. The thing is, is that they live in Korat. So it was a 4-5 hour drive to come here.

Then on Sunday we had a baptism. Sister พิมพ์ has been a long going investigator. She has been waiting about 3 months to be baptized because her dad wouldn't give her permission. This whole transfer we have been trying hard with her, and finally she got permission.

A little back story of her is that the missionaries didn't contact her. She walked straight into the church. She said that she just felt that Buddhism wasn't right, so she just decided to go to a Christian church. She asked a friend that had seen our church or something. But when she was looking for the church, she just parked her scooter and was thinking about where the church was. Turns out she was right in front of the church. So as time went on, and she was awesome. She should have been baptized a long time ago.

The Lord was helping her with everything. For sure. In the end, her Dad even came to support her for the Baptism. It was awesome to have a small part in conversion.

I love you all and tell everyone that also!
Elder Boonmee

Week 34 - Surin, Thailand (October 21, 2014)

So last Monday we went to Elephant city. It was awesome!! I can't believe the elephants are so huge.

While there, we got to see the little show that they had, but the best part wasn't in the actual elephant place. We walked out a little bit further out of that area, and just found a person and asked him if we could ride his elephants, and he said yes! So we got to ride four elephants, I got my own. As we rode around we just kept seeing more and more elephants. I also rode the elephant into a little lake as well. It was amazing, we just rode them bare back.

Then on Tuesday we went to Buriram for district meeting. That was just pretty normal.

For Wednesday we taught a couple of lessons. We called a past investigator and turned out she was awesome! She is so ready, the only thing is that her dad is Muslim and doesn't want her to be Christian. So we will wait for that.

Thursday was a normal day. We went to teach lessons and inviting.

Friday we went on switch offs with the Buriram Elders, I was with Elder Burke who is in my group, he was just in the other district, so we are pretty good friends. Later in the night we just prepared for this huge meeting in khon kaen.

สองแถว

Saturday we rode a สองแถว
for the whole 4 hours. It was awful. Then once we got there, we had the opportunity to see all of the three different districts. SUCH AS SAKON NAKHON!!! I got to see everyone again. It was so awesome to see them! I missed Sakon Nakhon. So it was awesome to catch up and talk to them again.

Then on Sunday we had the main meeting which was the biggest change there. We found out that they are making Khon kaen and Ubon become one district. It will help us get closer to stakes, then to a temple. After that we got to eat and once again I talked to Sakon Nakhon and got a photo with them all.

My people from Sakon Nakohrn

Then the missionaries went to the Khon Kaen Church and we had a special devotional with Elder Gong, and we also had special permission to partake of the Sacrament for this event. Before we had the sacrament, Elder Gong gave a wonderful talk about the atonement. The Spirit was so strong. He explained how we can always remember the savior. Elder Gong quoted this talk, "This do in remembrance of me". We should always have a spiritual experience whenever we partake of the sacrament. Then on Monday we had zone training. Elder Gong instructed us on what needed to be done before we could get to having a temple. It was a great week here.

Hope you weren't too worried that I didn't email yesterday. Tell everyone I love them!
Elder Boonmee

Week 33 - Surin, Thailand (October 12, 2014)

Lilly and Daysie had a Roadrunner Fundraiser at their school this week. Took the morning off from the office to go watch them. Daysie's run was at 9:15 am in the morning. She did 13 laps and Lilly had hers at 11 am where she ran 15 laps. Needless to say, I owe each them some money this week.

Grandma Capps was visiting from Idaho and was able to see Lilly run but missed Daysie in the morning. It was hilarious when Daysie came walking out of school and saw Great Grandma at Lilly's run. She was so upset great-grandma wasn't at her run (Daysie has this walk where she lowers her shoulders, slump her back, and walks when she's upset. That's what she did when she saw great-grandma, from 50 yards away, as she stomped her feet). Great-Grandma asked "what's the matter honey?" That's when Daysie said, with a really upset voice, "you didn't come to mine but you came to Lilly!"

Little background, grandma didn't know about Lilly and Daysie's run, until I told her about Lilly. That's when she said to pick her up from aunt Melody so she can come to watch the run.  Then, in the evening, Daysie really let Wan, my wife, know how disappointed she was. She said, "grandma , you didn't come to my run" Wan responded by saying "Aww, I'm sorry, I had to work". Guess what Daysie said? She said, "well, grandpa worked, but he came". Here are some videos of Daysie and Lilly I sent to Elder Matt Boonmee. The following is Elder Matt Boonmee email response to us.

"...Holy cow, they are soooooo grown up! Tell them DON"T FORGET ME!!...Conference was awesome. This is my second conference out on the mission. I remember the last one like yesterday, I can't believe that I'm already almost at my year mark! I have only 2 more months until I'm there.

We went to the church for conference. Then we went into a different room for it in English.
Scripture studies has been great for me. I have learned so much. I also learned a little bit of the historical background of the sons of Mosiah. I will expound a little more in a later email. But I've been studying about temples as well. Going to the temple regularly is sooooo important. ...great reading in the "Preparing to enter the temple" And it goes really deep into all that kind of stuff.

I've also been reading in Jesus the Christ. It talks about almost every single thing that happened in Jesus' life, before, during, and after. It is a great one as well.

In the Book of Mormon, I've read it all before, but now I'm in the war chapters. Ever since I've studied about the background of it, the fact that at that point the Nephites are now in a democracy just barely changing from the monarchy, but that is for another email to talk about. But just a little taste, is that The Sons of Mosiah are Princes. I'll talk about that more.

Today we are going to Moo Baan Chaang (The Elephant Village) to go see elephants, so I hope the lack of photos this week will be made up by next weeks photos.

Anyways, I have to go, the bus is leaving soon!
Love Elder Boonmee"

Daysie's run

Lilly's run

Week 32 - Surin, Thailand

For English please see below.

อาทิตย์นี้ไม่มีอะไรมากนัก ผมส่งรูปมาฝากสองรูป รูปกลุ่ม เป็นดิสตริคท์ของผม

วันจันทร์ เราได้รับอบรมเกี่ยวกับการเป็นผูสอนศาสนา

วันอังคารเราก็ไปอบรมดิสตริคท์ที่บุรีรัมย์ รูปแรกเป็นรูปที่เราถ่ายจากบุรีรัมย์ ที่ยืนอยู่เป็นน้องใหม่ ที่นั่งอยู่เป็นรุ่นพี่

วันพุธ เรามีการท้าทายนิดหน่อย คือมีชายคนหนึ่งที่ชอบมาลุ้นกับพวกเรา แต่ไม่ต้องเป็นห่วงครับ เขาแค่อยากทดลองความรู้ของพวกเรา

วันพฤหัสบดี ก็อบรม zone มีหลายอย่างทีกำลังเปลี่ยนแปลง

วันศุกร์ ก็ติดต่อและเชิญชวนผู้สนใจ พอดีตอนเย็นก็เป็นวันกิจกรรม ก็เลยมีการเล่นเกมนิดหน่อย ไม่ทราบว่าเป็นเพราะอะไร วันนี้รู้สึกว่าทุกคนดีกับเรามาก อาจเป็นเพราะว่าเราไม่ได้แต่งตัวก็ได้ 555 เพราะเราเล่นกีฬา

วันเสาร์ก็เช่นเดียวกัน ติดต่อและเชิญชวน แต่วันนี้แปลกนิดหนึ่ง ขณะที่เรากำลังเดินทางไปติดต่อและเชิญชวน ตอนระหว่างทางมีหญิงชรากำลังถกเถียงกันอยู่ เราได้รับดลใจให้หยุด (จะบอกว่าหญิงชราโบกให้หยุดก็ได้ 555)  อย่างไรก็ตาม เราได้หยุดและคุยกับยายจนได้ทราบว่าท่านเคยเป็นสมาชิกเก่าแต่ไม่ค่อยได้มาโบสถ์ ในขณะเดียวกัน เรายังได้คุยกับหนุ่มอีกคน ซึ่งก็เคยเป็นสมาชิกเก่าที่ไม่ค่อยได้มาโบสถ์เช่นกัน แต่หนุ่มคนนี้เขาบอกว่าเขาอยากจะกลับมาโบสถ์อีก เชื่อไหมครับ เขาก็มาโบสถ์จริงๆ ผมและเพื่อนดีใมากครับที่ไดเห็นพระหัตถ์ของพระเจ้าในงารของพระองค์

วันอาทิตย์ ก็ไปโบสถ์

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's been couple weeks since his transfer from Bangkhen to Surin province. So far, Elder Matt Boonmee is doing well and getting used to being a senior companion. He still feels inadequate in his new role, but is taking it in stride. He loves his companion and his district. Due to the new mission rule, we weren't able to get much update from him. The mission is discouraging chat style emails so the following is what we have to share with you.

"Last Monday we received new training about how we should be doing missionary work. It was a great thing to watch. 

Tuesday we went to Buriram for district meeting. We just talked about the training and also got this photo. (Top row from left to right: Elder Beebe, Elder Burke, Elder Reid "Junior Companions) (Bottom Row from left to right: Me, Elder Martin, Elder Tanner "Senior Companions") Our district is called Suriram.

Then on Wednesday we went to return a package to an Independent Baptist at his church. We found that he loved Bible bashing. That seemed to be his only goal. He keeps saying he just wants to talk as friends but he was just a little much and this wasn't our mission anyway. We tried to be polite and didn't fight back. We thanked him and left. He is a smart guy, but he is only getting our material to find something to challenge us with. So we continued with the work we were called to do.

Thursday we just went out and also got training from the Zone leaders. It was a big change here. There is a lot of difference in the work here. 

Friday we had inviting, as always, but then we had sports night near the end. For some reason everyone was so friendly when we walked by, but it was because we weren't in our missionary apparel...

...Saturday we just had a lot of teaching and inviting. However, prior to the inviting and teaching, we were riding by the Park when we stopped because we had this spiritual prompting, or in other words, we saw some people (elderly) arguing. And a lady started waving us down, turned out she was a less-active member, We got to talking with her a little and hope to continue again at a later time. The biggest surprise was, as we were talking with this elderly woman, we saw another less-active member, so we talked to him as well. He said he would come to church, and he did! He also gave us a lot of referrals. 

It's such a joy to know that God places things in our way so that we may be able to contact his children. If it needed to be an argument to get our attention, so be it. haha 

Then Sunday. It was a good old Sunday as always. We haven't seen General Conference quite yet, it will be next week.

Just me

Anyways that is all I can think of. Also some other news, President Senior has stopped Facebook proselyting for a while. Also he asks that when we email, we don't get into a "chatroom" style email. As in I email, and we just reply back and forth. 

Love you all and I hope you have a good week!

Elder Boonmee "

Week 31 - Surin, Thailand

วันนี้น้องลิลลี่เขาบ่นคิดถึงอาแม็ท ผมเลยบอกเขาว่า งั้นเรามาถ่ายรูปให้อาแม็ทซิ ที่เหลือก็เป็นอีเมลจาก เอ็ลเดอร์แม็ท บุญมี
----------------------------------
We came home from church today and Lilly told us how much she misses her uncle, Elder Matt Boonmee. To help her, we asked if she wanted to take some pictures to send to her uncle (since Sunday is Elder Matt Boonmee's P-Day).

"We took couple pictures of her and sent them to Elder Matt Boonmee.  In addition, we also updated him about our ward and about the opportunity we had, to substitute in CTR 3-7, Daysie's primary class, as teachers. The lesson was on "Paying Tithing". We told him about the games and activities we had in class with the children. Below is Elder Matt Boonmee email to us.

Keep sending photos, I want to just see them as they are (referring to the picture of his niece, Lilly). 

Yeah I just got an email from him (Elder Drew Jex, who returned home to Provo, Utah after he trained elder Matt Boonmee), I haven't read it yet but I'm excited.
...
The area we are in is a branch. The members are a little funny and loving,

but we will work hard to try to make this a more functioning branch. It's been a little hard on the work, this pass week,  because we have to do a lot of moving and getting things out of the Sisters old apartment. But we received some new instruction on our missionary work. President Senior sent a video that was talking about our mission. It really helped me become a more faith filled missionary. Sometimes, you feel that the work is a routine and redundant, like a check list we go through from day to day, but really,  it's how much faith you have in the Lord. All things are possible with the Lord. I am constantly reminded that this is not our work. This isn't some vacation, but this is the work of salvation. Helping our Brothers and Sisters come back unto Christ.

That is all I've got for today. I don't have much else. Tell everyone I love them!

Also that black mask thing is a liquid latex thing. Elder Beebe and I did it. It was pretty funny."

New investigator brought us donuts

Being goofy

Yeah! its me

Us being weird

Another goofy picture of us

Week 30 - Surin, Thailand

See below for English----

ถึงแล้วครับสุรินทร์ เพื่อนคนใหม่ของผมชื่อเอ็ลเดอร์ บีบี เขามาจาก Pennsylvania เขาเป็นน้องใหม่ของผมเพราะผมผึ้งได้รับแต่งตั้งให้เป็นรุ่นพี่ ผมรู้สึกว่าผมยังไม่พร้อมเลยแต่ผมดีใจ

ที่สุรินทร์ยังเป็นสาขาเล็กๆ แต่ละอาทิตย์ จะมีผู้มาประชุมกับเราประมาณ 40-50 คน อาทิตย์นี้มีมา 41 คน
สมาชิกแต่ละคนน่ารักและตลกดี ผมรู้สึกว่าสมาชิกอาจน้อยใจนิดหนึ่งเพราะก่อนหน้านี้เขาเคยมีซิสเตอร์ เดี๋ยวนี้เรามีเอ็ลเดอร์ 4 คน แต่ไม่มีซิสเตอร์

รูปถ่ายที่ผมส่งมาเป็นวัวที่วิ่งเกือบชนผมขณะที่กำลังจะถ่ายรูป อิกรูปเป็นรูปของบ้าน, โบสถ์, และรูปสุดท้ายเป็นชายหนุ่มขายของที่ผมเจอ

อิกอย่างที่ผมเกือบลืมบอก ที่ประชุม ผมเจอ ชิสเตอร์ Grover เขาบอกว่าเขาเป็นลูกสาวของเพื่อนของคุณพ่อที่เคยเป็นผู้สอนที่ประเทศไทย เวลาเราน้อยเลยไม่ได้คุยกันมากเท่าไหร่ เพื่อนผมอิกคนหนึ่ง ชื่อ Paxton ก็ผึ้งจะมาถึง คุณพ่อจำเขาได้ไหมครับ เขาเคยไว้ปมยาวตอนที่เขามางาน farewell ของผม
--------------------
As the mentioned during our mid-week update, elder Matt Boonmee arrived in Surin safe and already hard at work.  During the transfer week, Elder Matt Boonmee had a chance get with his cousin, Elder Jacob Smith, who was also transferred from Rangsit (Bangkok) to Phitsanulok (northern Thailand). Elder Matt Boonmee also had a chance to meet with Sister Grover, just arrived in Thailand, a daughter of a friend who served in Thailand with me.

Here's the first couple pictures from Surin. He's already been chased by a bull cow while attempting to take this picture.

Hurry! take the picture. It's charging me!!!

In Surin, they have a large house, two rooms with air conditioning, the rest of the house only has fans. The missionaries are white-washing in Surin. Previously, there were two sister and the elders serving in Surin. The sisters are no longer in Surin. Needless to say, some members were little disappointed when all they saw were elders this Sunday.

Below is Elder Matt Boonmee's email to us:

"SO! Here we are. I am now in Surin. I'm back out in the Isan. I have a new companion and his name Elder Gabe Beebe,. He is from Pennsylvania and he's pretty cool. We like the same music so that is a good sign. 

Also, another thing that happened this transfer, is that I am now Senior companion. It was a little scary to know, but I think we've got a good grip on everything. Here in Surin, all four of the Elders are white washed in. Needless to say, we have no idea where anything is. 

When we got here, we found out we had an actual house.

New shoes from Thailand. Yes, I know they don't match.

The house is quite large! It's way too big for just Elders. But we only have two rooms where there is air so we pretty much sweat out everything. 

Then, we saw our church (Look in the Photos) It is a little tiny church. Weekly, we get about 30-50 people. This last Sunday there was 41 people. 

Elder Paxton, my friend from home.

Also, the members are a little nutty but very awesome. They are a hilarious group of people. Also, in that photo with the bull. It was ready to charge me, I just got a photo in time. 

Also Elder Paxton, my friend from home, finally got here! He came to my farewell a long time ago. He used to have really long hair, but now he is out on that mission life. 

I also met a native american looking Khon

First Thai Native American Indian

Thai I love you all!! Tell everyone I miss them! 

Love 
Elder Boonmee"