July 11th, 2016

       Elder Pongbundit is a champion. The day we met he almost made me cry. I met him in the mission office as I was the only trainer because he had come out 3 weeks into the transfer. A few things I quickly learned about him is his English is very weak, he loves to smile, and he has a rock solid testimony. On the drive from the mission office in Crawley to Stains where we were going to meet President Goobler I got to chat with him for the first time and in his very broken English he told me that he is a convert. He was baptized when he was 18 and this came through him meeting missionaries that were teaching English. His parents were very much against him coming on a mission and wouldn't let him go for 4 years. He went to university and worked in Thailand until in his 3rd year of uni his sister needed money so he gave her all the money he had. This prevented him from going to school. He said his parents saw that he was very sad because now he couldn't do anything for himself so they let him go on a mission. He is a miracle. He then bore his testimony on the atonement and although his English was bad he testified with such a moving power. He said he used to be very bad but now he is good because of Jesus Christ.
        He is the most humble person I know. He came to the MTC and the president had to buy him shoes and a bag because he didn't have any. He always says thank you anytime I do anything even when I correct his grammar or tell him, "it's your turn to talk". It's really funny when I cook for him. He makes me feel like a pro chef haha. He is also like a sponge and tries to absorb everything and he actually does pretty well. It takes us about 10 times as long to teach/learn something because if we want to explain a thought we end up playing charades and looking in dictionaries and pointing a lot haha but it's honesty funny and we both laugh.
       I have been non stop teaching English which has made me totally aware of how bad I am at English, but the Lord knows all things and has been helping me so much. I feel like I have been learning more than he has. I have been so humbled by Elder Pongbundit especially when he prays. His prayers are SO sincere. He is overwhelmed to be in England with an American companion who doesn't know the area and doesn't know how to teach very well, but he still trusts in God so much. I love him!
      The week has been a lot of exploring the city of Plymouth. It's pretty difficult opening a new area because you have no clue how to get anywhere and what buses go where, but it's an adventure! We have been playing a game called mystery bus where we get on a totally random bus and just ride till we feel like getting off then we work around the area and catch the bus back. It's definitely a fun way to learn the area and we have met some weirdos. People in Plymouth are a lot meaner then in Salisbury. Some guppy tried bashing us on the bus and then we were knocking and these two atheist guys went at us as well. I talked to them for like 10 minutes and they were getting bothered and then Elder Pongbundit said in his broken English "sorry, we are not perfect, but we love you and know God is real." Hahah that shut them up real quick! And I don't even think he knew what we were saying!
       A super random story that may be dumb to you, but means a lot to me that happened this week is when we moved into this flat the shower in our room was broken and didn't get warm so I got all the tools in the flat (two screwdrivers) and tried to fix it. I made it a bit better but didn't totally fix it because I needed a wrench. That night I prayed that the shower would be fixed so we could take warm showers. The next morning I turn the shower on not expecting a whole lot (weak faith) and I sat waiting for the water to get warm just feeling it with my hand. After about 2 minutes of waiting I just accepted the fact that it would be cold so I just got under the cold water and once I got under it started to warm up then get hot! It was a miracle and reminded me of the story of the children of Israel carrying the arc of the covenant with them and having the promise that they would be on dry ground and when they got to the river they just expected the water to stop, but it wasn't until they took the first step and got their feet wet that the water stopped and they were able to cross on dry ground. The Lord always answers our prayers, even when we pray to have a warm shower haha and even when our faith isn't where we with it was.
       Not a whole lot other than that. The area of Plymouth is really beautiful. Another cool thing is we're in a 4 man flat and there are 6 missionaries in our ward so we literally see other missionaries in a daily basis which is so new to me. 
       A cool miracle we saw was the first day we were here was when we were about to walk into the chapel to do iPad training. I heard a basketball bouncing so I ran over to the fence to see what was going on. There were 6 kids playing at a park so we ran around and I walked up to them and said, "I'm American and I love basketball. Can we play with you?" (It's not very often you see people playing basketball. Actually it was the first time on my mission) so we played for like an hour and talked to them for a while after. We then asked if they do this often and they invited us back to play Saturday. We went and took the the ZLs (well they took us in their car) and played. When we showed up there was 8 kids, but by the time we left there was around 20. It was SO MUCH FUN! And I got to know most of them by name and they called all of us Elder and referred to us as missionaries. They were all such good kids. I asked them if they ever play indoor and they said no it cost money. I told them they could play for free at our church. They all got really excited to play indoor. So pretty much we got twenty 15-17 year old kids to come to church to play basketball! If that's not missionary work I don't know what is hahah

Went shopping at the Asian market and got some mochi!

The first meal I made my comp was eggs spam and rice haha