[I will preface this by saying that his Thai must be getting better because he has been living with a Thai companion...thus his English is suffering a bit! Here is his letter, unedited:]
Hello Everyone!
So here I am - 3 days from my year mark here in MuangThai (Thailand). I'm excited of Anna to open in Saturday's Warrior and Dad to open in his great Celeb game!
And dad - THE ONE TIME I am not there Kurt Bestor and David Osmond are coming to play?! And you talk about roast? Dad that's not even fair. But to answer your question, I don't yet have sisters in my district so that might balance all that hurt out. Haha! People just tell me that having sisters in a district makes it harder. I don't believe them though. Remember how my MTC group was supposed to be the largest group in history? Well, it was, with a whopping 16 missionaries that took up more than two tables sometimes in the lunchroom. Now this next transfer on the 11th (my 1 year mark in the field exactly) there will be THIRTY-FIVE new missionaries coming in. 60% of the mission will be training or being trained. Trainers have already been called and I'm not one of them. That means that I'm among the 40% left to follow up with their growth. Sisters are also exploding into areas. We might get sisters, but who knows. What I DO know is that my last area in Bangkok is getting white-watched by Sisters! It's something I can talk about more when I'm home because it's an absolute miracle.
One other miracle: Remember the girl, Sister Khwan, we invited to church and I had to wade through the shin-deep water to get there? Well, let's just say she's getting baptized - in Laos! After we left, Elder Staten continued to teach her and she was doing great. Then one day, he asked her, "Hey aren't you Laotian?" Flabbergasted, she stammered, "Yes! Yea, I am! How did you know?" Without thinking about it, he said because my comp told him. But Elder Merkley was as shocked as much as I was. If he know, he would've told me. Nobody know but Elder Staten said it somehow. And he HAPPENED to have one of the only Lao copies of the Book of Mormon in the Mission, and gave it to her. She is progressing rapidly he says and met with a Laotian sister missionary in Bangkok....
And know she is going to serve a mission from Laos. Sister Vanna, who is finishing her mission this week, said Sister Khwan can live with her and she'll find her a job. She will be coming to moves meeting and probably heading back up there with her.
It makes me think of that gloomy, rainy morning where we almost didn't invite her to church because "no one comes when it's raining." Someone told me that in the house that morning and I shouted back at him: "WHERE is your FAITH?" Faith is a gift that we must beg for and then reap after long and often hard trials. I'm glad the Lord allowed me to have faith that day. It's NOTHING that I did but it's everything that God did to prepare his children. Faith is a hope in things not seen. I would like to add: Faith is a hope in things not seen AT FIRST. Because the Lord wouldn't let me give up on Sister Khwan THEN, I'm seeing the unimaginable results NOW.
But that's just in Bangkok - Last week the APs came here and did a three-way switch-off here and two senior couples came who live in my first area (Don Muang). We had too many miracles to count with 3 investigators that came to church, 2 walk-ins (which happens next to never) , and 14 people that haven't been to church in MONTHS. I got to see my investigator Sister Boo with her mother in law and her grandmother whom we're been working with. I got to see Ma Cham (her grandma in law) cradle Sister Boo's little girl, San-San. Families are coming back and finding peace. Our work has been shedding itself aboard in this land. I testify to everyone who has read my words that they are true. I testify that PRAYER CHANGES THINGS. If you're stuck in life, or if you know someone that is stuck in life, I encourage you to pray, then pray for them, then encourage THEM to pray. You will be helped as you do this I promise in the name of the Lord. He will not leave helpless any who uphold His work in any manner. Then what? Just open the book. Do you think you won't be guided by His hand of you put forth that much effort to do just that? Just pray and open that book that holds it all together. That's my challenge to you. I know that because I had been reading from that book that week of rain in Bangkok a woman will go forth from her country to change other's lives. Faith: hope in things not seen AT FIRST. Keep praying. Keep reading. Keep repenting daily - this is my prayer for you.
Sincerely,
Elder Gibbons
So here I am - 3 days from my year mark here in MuangThai (Thailand). I'm excited of Anna to open in Saturday's Warrior and Dad to open in his great Celeb game!
And dad - THE ONE TIME I am not there Kurt Bestor and David Osmond are coming to play?! And you talk about roast? Dad that's not even fair. But to answer your question, I don't yet have sisters in my district so that might balance all that hurt out. Haha! People just tell me that having sisters in a district makes it harder. I don't believe them though. Remember how my MTC group was supposed to be the largest group in history? Well, it was, with a whopping 16 missionaries that took up more than two tables sometimes in the lunchroom. Now this next transfer on the 11th (my 1 year mark in the field exactly) there will be THIRTY-FIVE new missionaries coming in. 60% of the mission will be training or being trained. Trainers have already been called and I'm not one of them. That means that I'm among the 40% left to follow up with their growth. Sisters are also exploding into areas. We might get sisters, but who knows. What I DO know is that my last area in Bangkok is getting white-watched by Sisters! It's something I can talk about more when I'm home because it's an absolute miracle.
One other miracle: Remember the girl, Sister Khwan, we invited to church and I had to wade through the shin-deep water to get there? Well, let's just say she's getting baptized - in Laos! After we left, Elder Staten continued to teach her and she was doing great. Then one day, he asked her, "Hey aren't you Laotian?" Flabbergasted, she stammered, "Yes! Yea, I am! How did you know?" Without thinking about it, he said because my comp told him. But Elder Merkley was as shocked as much as I was. If he know, he would've told me. Nobody know but Elder Staten said it somehow. And he HAPPENED to have one of the only Lao copies of the Book of Mormon in the Mission, and gave it to her. She is progressing rapidly he says and met with a Laotian sister missionary in Bangkok....
And know she is going to serve a mission from Laos. Sister Vanna, who is finishing her mission this week, said Sister Khwan can live with her and she'll find her a job. She will be coming to moves meeting and probably heading back up there with her.
It makes me think of that gloomy, rainy morning where we almost didn't invite her to church because "no one comes when it's raining." Someone told me that in the house that morning and I shouted back at him: "WHERE is your FAITH?" Faith is a gift that we must beg for and then reap after long and often hard trials. I'm glad the Lord allowed me to have faith that day. It's NOTHING that I did but it's everything that God did to prepare his children. Faith is a hope in things not seen. I would like to add: Faith is a hope in things not seen AT FIRST. Because the Lord wouldn't let me give up on Sister Khwan THEN, I'm seeing the unimaginable results NOW.
But that's just in Bangkok - Last week the APs came here and did a three-way switch-off here and two senior couples came who live in my first area (Don Muang). We had too many miracles to count with 3 investigators that came to church, 2 walk-ins (which happens next to never) , and 14 people that haven't been to church in MONTHS. I got to see my investigator Sister Boo with her mother in law and her grandmother whom we're been working with. I got to see Ma Cham (her grandma in law) cradle Sister Boo's little girl, San-San. Families are coming back and finding peace. Our work has been shedding itself aboard in this land. I testify to everyone who has read my words that they are true. I testify that PRAYER CHANGES THINGS. If you're stuck in life, or if you know someone that is stuck in life, I encourage you to pray, then pray for them, then encourage THEM to pray. You will be helped as you do this I promise in the name of the Lord. He will not leave helpless any who uphold His work in any manner. Then what? Just open the book. Do you think you won't be guided by His hand of you put forth that much effort to do just that? Just pray and open that book that holds it all together. That's my challenge to you. I know that because I had been reading from that book that week of rain in Bangkok a woman will go forth from her country to change other's lives. Faith: hope in things not seen AT FIRST. Keep praying. Keep reading. Keep repenting daily - this is my prayer for you.
Sincerely,
Elder Gibbons
