Hey Mom, I just found out I have no time this week to email,
so I will first thank you and tell you that our stake conference was great too;
we jumped on a big tour bus and headed to Ubon with our incredible branch.
We heard some great things, but perhaps the
most memorable part was in the new member's meeting.
Our branch President got up and announced all those
that were baptized and that all recent converts were to shake President and Sister
Senior’s hand and then it hit me - that the Lord let me have a personal
influence on each of the investigators who stood up and grasped the hand of my
mission President since the first week I was here is Sisaket.
As I
watched Sis Dan and her two kids: Ball and Prae (who I actually baptized),
Sister Patty, Sister Nat, Somsak and his two daughters Ribbin and Biw (whom
we're going to rush off to the zoo with right now), and then the most
interesting investigator of all time: Sister Roamsap, all shake his hand, it
was a personal manifestation to the promise that I would have great joy in
bringing many souls to Christ. I felt like the most blessed missionary in this
world in this area. It was almost a certificate of success that the Lord gave
to me that day that He loves, blesses his missionaries, and will always do so
if we try to be obedient.
[A note from his Mom to preface this next
paragraph: Just before Joseph went into the MTC, he found a little, chubby Hop toad
outside our front steps. We brought him
in and made a “home” for him in a terrarium and Anna named him “Toady Romo”. Joseph even carried a photo of Toady in his
wallet in the mission field. Toady
finally passed away last night and Anna wrote Joseph to tell him about the sad
news. She was heart-broken because she
was really hoping he would hang in there until Joseph returned.]
Something else worth mentioning is that last night, I really
missed Anna a lot - more than usual. When
I read about Toady my heart really dropped. But
when I put two and two together and realized that we missed each other at the
same time at the same moment, tears also swelled like your temple experience
realizing that as Aunt Fe "prophesied" that we had a special bond. I believed it, but now I FEEL that that is
true. Anna - I love you so much and
can't wait to sing with you again soon. Love
you more that I can tell.
Joj
