So I'm a little confused as to what I should call these things...
Anyway, I still have limited time, so I'm going to just recount a few things about being Zone Leader, speaking Thai, and reading the Book of Mormon (BoM). But first, I would like to address many thanks for your support, but mostly your prayers. The power of prayer is real, and I've experienced. I've also experienced why church is so important. We learn as Puusonsaansanaa (missionaries) about several fundamental things we emphasize in our teaching; one of them is "Revelation through Church Attendance." At first, I thought church was a nice thing that we do to show our love for Heavenly Father. WRONG. (His letter quit right here, then I got another one...)Dumb keyboard... Or dumb missionary - I'll put that one up for debate...
Anyway, what I found is that church attendance is completely essential to the salvation of our souls by way of not only showing God we love him (D&C 59:9-12), but it provides the only way we can be "remembered and nourished." Imagine getting a brand new cell phone (Anna will like this) and using it for phone calls, games, addresses, texting, google, GPS, or anything else you use it to bless your life. But you can only use it once because you refuse to charge it. This is the same principle of church attendance. This is not only God's day of rest, but it is our spiritual and well as physical day that we exercise faith in His grace and keep His commandments by renewing our sacred covenants through the magnificent blessing of the Sacrament. Often in Thai culture, people think that if you do enough good things, it will 'outweigh' the bad. A Buddhist monk once explained to our teacher that Buddhism is like a scale based on points: say hitting your little sister is like -50 points. If you feed the hungry, that's +100 pts. Say fornication is -150 pts. If you release a dove over the river in the morning - whoa there, buddy! - that's probably a solid +200, so you're good for a while. But the missionaries explain that just doing good isn't enough - we need the atoning blood of Christ to take full swing in our lives in order to take effect (affect? Max, check me on that one...). It's like putting scarlet dye into a large vase of water, the missionaries explain. No matter how much pure, clean water we pour into our lives, only dumpling out all the old sin will be enough of us to allow God's grace "to be sufficient for us" (Eth 12:27 - you're welcome, Dad).Well, my time's almost up, so I apologize for not addressing those other things. I will somehow... But yeah, see Moroni 6:4-6 and Mosiah 18 for more. I challenge you all to also have a question next Sunday. Take it to church and prove God if He won't help you.
(I guess he didn't have enough time to sign off!! Love ya Joe!!)
