Hello Family and Beloved Friends,
Last week of the transfer! It's actually gone by slower than my last two. NEVER a bad thing as I realize that the time FLIES BY in hind sight. Please send G-Gma Schlappi [I think he meant Gr-Gr Palmer??] my love and happy birthday! Congrats on Milkshake madness!!! I kinda had a feeling one of you would win! I'll totally take that offer to have one when I get home (maybe I'll share some secrets about the shakes they make HERE! (ie: great choice on the coconut milk mom - if that was the secret, delete this comment! But they put that in EVERYTHING here and it's SO GOOD! Speaking of so good, I ate your flamin hot Cheetoes that I was saving. But ants ATE through the bag! I didn't care at first - I just kept eating until I eventually realized what I was doing. Then I ate some more and threw it away ;) Gross, huh?) Wheel of judgment - Mom, could you explain what that is when you post this for everyone? Anna, that's brilliant. I love you so much and I can definitely incorporate that in my life too! [As per Joseph's request...an explanation of The Wheel of Judgement: Mike and I had a talk with Anna during Family Home Evening recently about some people at her school that were mean and why they acted that way. She was "venting" some of her frustrations and telling us of the different situations that happened to her. We explained that we don't always know the reasons why people act the way they do, but most people are good people, and they wouldn't be mean on purpose. So, a few days later right before going to bed, Anna said to me: "Mom, can we make a 'Wheel of Judgement'?" I asked her what that was and she said, "It's something for me to use when someone is mean to me and I can't think of a reason why they are acting that way." She said, "If we make up scenarios (like they got in a fight with their parents, or they didn't get any sleep that night, or they don't have a very good self-image of themselves, etc.), then I can just put their name on the wheel and spin it to one of these scenarios and it will help me to understand where they might be coming from. Even if its not true, I can be more understanding." I hope that made sense!]
One thing to clarify: I'm actually not senior companion - just for a day, but [if] the weather predicts I'll just move downstairs and really be senior comp with Elder Terry next week. I can't believe the transfers already over! Another thing is about Muslims - which is getting pretty heated, I guess. To that I answer - pray for our saints in the Middle east. They're there and they need it more than here. We've got a mosque kinda by our Branch President's house and got an announcement from our leaders, but Thai people are peaceful and we've had no problems whatsoever.
I want to share some of my president's letter to illustrate our service to sister cat. That day I also drank Coke from a plastic bag for the first time too! ;)
"Dear President,
Thanks for your encouragement, as always. I'm sure the Lord is helping us in our finding as we had taught 4 new investigators obtained this week from that method, saw 2 at church, and 2 more are coming to FHE [Family Home Evening] tonight with us. This week on a switch-off this last week Elder Chamberlain and I actually tried out another technique that my Grandpa Holker's friend did in England: He would stand at a street corner and play hymns on his violin as his companion would stand on a box and just preach and talk to people. SO... I started playing hymns on my viola while Elder Chamberlain preached the word to the people at the market. He was a bit nervous to preach and didn't feel super ready, but we went for it anyway. Please let me know (as you've served in Japan) if it's more of a western thing than an Asian thing to stop and listen to sermons and music on the side of the street, because not many people stopped. He wasn't very confident in his preparation, so it could've been that. But fact is, we went for it, learned, and keep progressing forward in the work here in Sisaket. It was fun, and worth the try! That's pretty much the highlight of the week besides giving service. "Laying concrete" (gosh is there a verb for that?) isn't the easiest, but is was good for Sister Cat. She kept calling it a miracle because we came and I stumbled upon and learned the word for "construction site" that very day. Haha, well it was pretty cool."
So that's it! I hope you're helping someone else this week went well. I encourage you to pray for Charity whenever anything bad, negative, ugly, or anything else comes in your path or in your mind this week. Something I've been trying to do this week and it's been a cool experience! Let me know!
With love, Elder Gibbons
Last week of the transfer! It's actually gone by slower than my last two. NEVER a bad thing as I realize that the time FLIES BY in hind sight. Please send G-Gma Schlappi [I think he meant Gr-Gr Palmer??] my love and happy birthday! Congrats on Milkshake madness!!! I kinda had a feeling one of you would win! I'll totally take that offer to have one when I get home (maybe I'll share some secrets about the shakes they make HERE! (ie: great choice on the coconut milk mom - if that was the secret, delete this comment! But they put that in EVERYTHING here and it's SO GOOD! Speaking of so good, I ate your flamin hot Cheetoes that I was saving. But ants ATE through the bag! I didn't care at first - I just kept eating until I eventually realized what I was doing. Then I ate some more and threw it away ;) Gross, huh?) Wheel of judgment - Mom, could you explain what that is when you post this for everyone? Anna, that's brilliant. I love you so much and I can definitely incorporate that in my life too! [As per Joseph's request...an explanation of The Wheel of Judgement: Mike and I had a talk with Anna during Family Home Evening recently about some people at her school that were mean and why they acted that way. She was "venting" some of her frustrations and telling us of the different situations that happened to her. We explained that we don't always know the reasons why people act the way they do, but most people are good people, and they wouldn't be mean on purpose. So, a few days later right before going to bed, Anna said to me: "Mom, can we make a 'Wheel of Judgement'?" I asked her what that was and she said, "It's something for me to use when someone is mean to me and I can't think of a reason why they are acting that way." She said, "If we make up scenarios (like they got in a fight with their parents, or they didn't get any sleep that night, or they don't have a very good self-image of themselves, etc.), then I can just put their name on the wheel and spin it to one of these scenarios and it will help me to understand where they might be coming from. Even if its not true, I can be more understanding." I hope that made sense!]
One thing to clarify: I'm actually not senior companion - just for a day, but [if] the weather predicts I'll just move downstairs and really be senior comp with Elder Terry next week. I can't believe the transfers already over! Another thing is about Muslims - which is getting pretty heated, I guess. To that I answer - pray for our saints in the Middle east. They're there and they need it more than here. We've got a mosque kinda by our Branch President's house and got an announcement from our leaders, but Thai people are peaceful and we've had no problems whatsoever.
I want to share some of my president's letter to illustrate our service to sister cat. That day I also drank Coke from a plastic bag for the first time too! ;)
"Dear President,
Thanks for your encouragement, as always. I'm sure the Lord is helping us in our finding as we had taught 4 new investigators obtained this week from that method, saw 2 at church, and 2 more are coming to FHE [Family Home Evening] tonight with us. This week on a switch-off this last week Elder Chamberlain and I actually tried out another technique that my Grandpa Holker's friend did in England: He would stand at a street corner and play hymns on his violin as his companion would stand on a box and just preach and talk to people. SO... I started playing hymns on my viola while Elder Chamberlain preached the word to the people at the market. He was a bit nervous to preach and didn't feel super ready, but we went for it anyway. Please let me know (as you've served in Japan) if it's more of a western thing than an Asian thing to stop and listen to sermons and music on the side of the street, because not many people stopped. He wasn't very confident in his preparation, so it could've been that. But fact is, we went for it, learned, and keep progressing forward in the work here in Sisaket. It was fun, and worth the try! That's pretty much the highlight of the week besides giving service. "Laying concrete" (gosh is there a verb for that?) isn't the easiest, but is was good for Sister Cat. She kept calling it a miracle because we came and I stumbled upon and learned the word for "construction site" that very day. Haha, well it was pretty cool."
So that's it! I hope you're helping someone else this week went well. I encourage you to pray for Charity whenever anything bad, negative, ugly, or anything else comes in your path or in your mind this week. Something I've been trying to do this week and it's been a cool experience! Let me know!
With love, Elder Gibbons
