May 10th, 2017

   This week we got transfers info.... and I'm still with Elder Aguiar in Burgess Hill!! See that I will only have one transfer after this one it's more likely then not that me and Elder Aguiar are going to be together until the day that I die! This is definitely a major prayer answered as I know he is going to help me finish strong. He is such a good friend and so easy to work with. He is so eager to go out and work so it is always easy and fun when we are out and about in the Lord's errand. Sad new though. Elder Pongbundit is getting moved... the area he is in is getting closed so he is going to another zone. He was only here for one short transfer but I am so glad I got to be with him.

   Alright, where to begin... this week has been full of a ton of fun stuff! Last Thursday we got to run a Young Men's activity, and we ran a mission prep activity to help them get ready for when they go on missions!  It was quite funny. We made them iron our shirts (we had to re-iron them..) and eat strange foods and answer doctrinal questions and stuff. At the end we had a Q&A session where we were able to tell funny stories and bear testimony about why we are on missions.

   Elder Aguiar used to own a little land scaling business before his mission and this old couple in the ward found out and they had us redo their whole garden. It was pretty funny because they treated Elder Aguiar like a pro and he kept telling them he didn't know too much. They bought £100 worth of plants for him to plant. I had no clue what they were talking about but it was good to learn how to plant things. I've learned a ton of random things on my mission.

   More on a spiritual note, this week I have LOVED how much God prepares us for the things he wants us to learn!! Elder Aguiar and I have been working so hard the last few weeks, but we've been feeling like things haven't been clicking. We had a couple really cool experiences over a few days, and then one day as we sat and talked about it, we recognized that even though we were working hard, there was more we could do to be working smart! We have been praying about it and working on it a ton, and now we feel like our efforts are more effective and we are using our time in a better way. It's amazing how much God wants to teach us and wants us to learn. Sometimes it just takes stopping for a sec to re-evaluate where you are at and where you want to be. It can be so helpful to take some time to get on your knees and ask God how He sees you and your efforts. You will find more satisfaction and feelings of accomplishment, it will help us see how far we have come but also see what we can do to change and improve.

   The area is doing really well! Our progressing investigators are slowing down a bit though. One lady, Susannah, just doesn't seem to get a spiritual answer, but we are working with her on helping her let go of some fixed ideas she has. We've pushed her baptismal date back several times just because she's not ready yet. Chris and Freya seem to still be reading and studying but this week they've been dodging us a bit!! So that's always rough. That usually means they've found some anti or something, and it breaks our heart but I know they've felt something different about our message so we are working with them. Our little Indian family is reading the Book of Mormon in Hindi :) we are going to better gauge their interest later this week and we will see if we can get them to church! We are also working with Alex, who's parents are split and mom is a Less Active. Him and his mom are amazing people!! And he wants to be baptized!! The issue is getting Dads permission... we keep working with them. and then finally this less active just had a baby with Ryan, who is starting to have lots of spiritual experiences. We are working on getting them married so he can be baptized and they can get sealed!

2x comps and current comp all in the same zone  

This is Elder Pongbundit's life... haha 

April 14th, 2017

April 5th, 2017

I am so blessed!!!!

     So first I'll tell ya about how the work went this week. We saw miracle after miracle. We brought Susannah to a member's house to watch conference. She really seemed to like it and the Spirit of the members home helped so much. They are also amazing member missionaries because they invited her to the Sunday session and pretty much did everything on their own without us asking. It's so nice when you can put your complete trust in the members. She loved the Sunday session as well and we taught her Monday and talked more about it and she is still on the search but she is really enjoying her journey and is striving to do what's right. I had a cool insight while explaining to her how she will get her answer. I said that we all want to get to the top of the mountain (our answer). We know that there is a mountain there because we have a map (scriptures), a compass (Holy Ghost), and we have friends who have been to the top and tell us how great it is (members), and we have guides to help us (missionaries). The only problem is the pathway to the top is clouded by a super thick fog. We can barely see 5 feet ahead let alone the top of the mountain so we have to walk in faith hoping that the mountain is there and that the map and compass actually work. As we walk, the pathway is fairly easy but as we continue it starts to get steep and difficult to climb. This can be an evidence that we are on the right path because we are going up. Even though we know we are on the mountain now we still have to use the map and compass to keep walking in the right direction until the perfect day where we break he fog line and we reach the top and see clearly the thing we were searching for. In the end, taking the trip taught us just as much as what is at the top of the mountain. I love how much the Spirit teaches me as I try to teach.
      Another crazy miracle we had was with a guy named Christian. Now we had met Christian a while ago through his roommate. They are both Romanian so there is a bit of a language barrier and when we met Christian he said he was a member. He explained that his mom and sister were baptized and he went to church with them in Romania. He has long since gone inactive and now he wants to come back so we shared the restoration with them and it was a powerful teach. Christian was stoked to come to conference and an awesome member named Charlie was able to give him a ride and we tagged along. On the way my companion asked when he was baptized and he said 3 or 4 months. We were confused and through clarification using pictures we found that he had never actually been baptized and he wasn't a member. It was so crazy! He loved conference.
     There are so many cool miracles that happened to us this week and those are just a few but I would say the best thing that happened to me this week has been Elder Aguiar. So I found out last Monday that Elder Dey was leaving to be an office elder and I was going to get a new guy I had never met but heard great things about. On Friday we had a Zone Leader training at President Gubler's house and Elder Aguiar and I met for the first time. He has only been out for 7 months and he was on the island of Guernsey for the whole time which is a branch of 8 active members haha so Friday we became companions because Dey had to go in the office early and learn the ropes. Elder Aguiar and I became best friends shortly after. We have been together for less than 6 days and I have never been so happy on my mission. We have been working so hard, seeing so many cool miracles, laughing loads, and doing God's work. He is my best friend and I'm so stoked to be with him. I'm not exactly sure why we got so close so quick but it makes being a missionary so much fun when you are with your best friend. On Monday, 3 days into our companionship, we went to lunch with my favourite member in the area and we both walked away with headaches from laughing so hard and then went on to teach a really powerful lesson. Everyday has flown by and in the 6 days we have been together we have already forgotten to eat dinner twice because we have been working so hard. One of our random stories is we were driving home for really quick dinner and because we had an appointment at 6 and we saw to kids playing basketball (a very rare sight in this country) and I joking said to Aguiar, "wanna play basket ball?" And he said, "you won't pull over." So I did and we played with them for 20 minutes in our white shirts and ties and then got their phone numbers to play again and share a message. Then we walked away laughing just thinking what the heck just happened. We are having so much fun!!!!

March 29th, 2017

     Well it's been a good one. This is the last week of the transfer and it has been pretty crazy. We had MLC yesterday and a few exchanges that were great! My favourite was with a newish Elder named McMullin who is from Utah and is serving in Brighton as a Chinese Elder. It was great because Brighton is always super fun and he was just so willing to work hard and learn so we pounded. I've found I learn a ton with people who want to learn because then we both learn together. The missionary work in our area has been a little slow because we spend so much time with other missionaries but we were able to teach Susannah and she is progressing well! Very excited for general conference and hoping to get her to that!

     On Thursday and Friday there were some tough things that Dey and I had to help out with. I can't give too much detail but essentially there was a missionary who got too close to an investigator and we had to do an E-move. It was hard to see someone get moved like that but it was actually really good to be able to help the missionary out. Also the investigator had a baptismal date for Saturday and we were really worried that if this missionary got moved with no notice then they wouldn't get baptized. I was the one conducting the baptismal interview and before we started, Dey and I sat down and talked to the investigator about why the missionary had to be moved. The investigator didn't seem bothered by it at all which was a surprise to us but we proceeded to do the interview. I asked all the questions and the investigator gave perfect answers so I made sure to have them expound on the answer a bit and they did. I was feeling surprised but good about the interview and when I asked the last question which is something along the lines of, "are you willing to make a promise with God that you will follow Him?", the investigator said, "you know the answer." I said, "yea you are definitely ready." The investigator then proceeded to tell me how on Thursday they had a bad feeling and couldn't figure out what it was. They then sat and pondered and realized it was because they had been getting close with this missionary and they were stopping a missionary from doing their job. The investigator prayed and asked God for forgiveness and felt peace afterwards then had a strong impression to ask a member to baptize them. Now you must know that a week before this, the investigator said that if the missionary that they were close to didn't baptize them then they wouldn't get baptized at all. So the investigator asked the member to baptize them and when we came to do the interview they weren't surprised at all the that the missionary had left. The investigator really knew how the Holy Ghost spoke to them and knew how to receive answers from God. This experience taught me a lot of cool lessons and also was an amazing miracle. I love how the Lord works in our life and is perfectly aware of all of us.

March 22nd, 2017

The week was a blast! The missionary work is cruising, the zone is going strong, and me and Elder Dey are doing great. Some highlights of the missionary work this week are Susannah, who we taught at a member's home again. The member's shared their conversion stories with her and the Spirit was so powerful. She is very open and she said she doesn't  know if God is there yet but she really wants to know! We also randomly ended up going to a part-member's family who we are now teaching. The wife is less-active and the husband is not a member. We went over for like 30 minutes and shared a little spiritual thought then they invited us over for dinner and we taught the restoration and they are both going to come to church on Sunday! There were some downs this week like with Leon who we haven't been able to get in contact with and other things but all in all the week was great and we have seen so many cool miracles. I definitely understand why the Lord asks us to record the miracles we see and record His hand in our life, especially on a mission. I see so many amazing miracles on a daily basis that if I didn't write them down I would so easily forget them and they would become common place. That's one way we can drift away from the Lord is when we think He hasn't been there for us but really we just can't remember that He was there because we didn't take the time to look back and record. A cool miracle we saw last night was we were walking back from a lesson and we had to get going to have dinner and be on time for everything. As we were walking I looked back and saw two scruffy men in their 30's sitting on a bench drinking. I had a good feeling to talk to them so I immediately turned and walked. Elder Dey, who was slightly ahead of me looked back and saw I had walked off towards these guys and quickly followed. I went up to them and said, "I see you are enjoying your evening but I have a quick question for you. What brings you peace?" One of them looked at the ground and with a strong Romanian accent said, "nothing." The other didn't speak much English but we proceeded to talk to them about peace and happiness. After talking for awhile the one who spoke English agreed to meet with us later this week. As we walked away feeling like we were floating as we always do after we get a new investigator I thought about how cool it is how the Holy Ghost will guide us in all things. He will even ask us to do scary things like talk to two men drinking on a bench who would normally probably shout bad things at us but God knew they needed us to speak to them and he guided us to one of his lost children looking for peace.

The missionaries in the zone are doing fantastic. I had exchange with Elder Hulleman who is an office Elder from the Netherlands and we bonded really well and had good experiences. I love being able to get so close with so many missionaries.

Elder Dey and I have never been better and we have both become quite close and work really well together. I feel like the mission is just life as I know it. So many things that used to be foreign are now so natural and I can't really imagine how things are going to be when I get home. I'm loving it here.

March 15th, 2017

This week absolutely flew by! Highlights of the week were a great exchange with Elder Chapman, an Australian mate, who is one of the best guys I know. He is so humble and such a good worker. We had appointment after appointment that day so we didn't have a lot of finding time but the time we did have we found a new investigator. She's a mum with two kids and we had a great conversation and she was excited to learn more. Later that night we got a text from her saying she talked to her mom about it and the mom told her not to get involved with the mormons. I was pretty crushed about it. I don't really understand why things like that happen but I do know that the Lord's hand is in all things.

        The next pretty big things that happened this week was we had a massive 5 zone conference. Over half the mission gathered to hear the words of our mission president. It was great to see all my old friends, especially Elder Pongbundit, but the best part was some of the great insights I received. 

• The greatest gift is the Holy Ghost. It is essential to receiving eternal life. It acts on our physical body and makes use better.
• God knows and will always give us small promptings. Heed them and see miracles. Live worthy to hear the promptings.
• We can descend thoughts by the Spirit.
• The Spirit will fill us with love.
• We need to ask God for the gifts to teach so the we can be the messenger for the Holy Ghost.
• Don't rely on your talents. Rely on the Holy Ghost

We need to recognize the importance of the Holy Ghost. Of all the gifts He gives us, he promises us the Holy Ghost if we will follow Him. It is the greatest gift He can give us.

5 things we do to get the Spirit

1. Speak with God regularly 
2. Feasting daily in the scripture 
3. Striving for obedience 
4. See and record miracles
5. Daily selfless service 

As we get more spiritually mature, the Spirit will tell us what to do less and less. Trust in your own decision and just live good and go with it. 

Basically the biggest things I learned was about the Holy Ghost and how important it is to have His constant companionship.

We were also able to do a zone break out day which was great. We played with legos and did some very fun role plays. I love the people in my zone. 

Today was also a fun day. We did service as a zone at the temple. It was great to work on the temple grounds but I think the best part was being able to see Mike Turvey. He cleans carpets for the temple and we happened to be doing service at the same time so we crossed paths. Such a great day and week.

As far as people we are teaching. We have Leon who is progressing. He came to church this week and it went really well. He is adjusting to the ward really well. His date is for the 22nd of April. Susana is on date for the 8th of April and she is progressing really well too! We taught her 3 times this week, one of them being at a member's house. The husband is on the stake presidency and is a beast. The teach went super well and she is really searching for her answer. She is a vet nurse and loves nature. She has no real belief in God but she has a desire to. It is such a pleasure to teach her because she is such a happy and curious person. I love this gospel.

Oh I forgot to show you this big chair hahahahahahaha it's little things in life that make me smile. Well I guess this is a pretty big thing hahaha sorry that's was a dad joke...

Talked to a random guy in a truck

March 8th, 2017

     The week has been great!! We had another zone interview day which went so well. We did three classes again and I took over the class about teaching the role of the Holy Ghost. We just did loads of practice role-plays which was so fun to critique. The missionaries in the zone are all really good teachers. Even the new missionaries did really well. Another fun part about that day was I got to cook for the zone. I made chili with pasta and rolls. It was pretty random but tasted good and was the fastest thing I could cook for 26 people.

     Monday we went on exchange with the Worthing Elders. I went with Elder Vieira. He is from Brazil and was baptized 1.5 years before his mission. One of the best ways to describe him is he is like a Brazilian version of Elder Pongbundit. Such a humble and kind man who is filled with faith. A cool miracle we had while on exchange was visiting a man named Leon who is one of our baptismal dates. He has recently been going through an extremely hard time. His wife died a few years ago and he got addicted to alcohol shortly after. He has recently been on a good streak of not drinking but his girlfriend broke up with him and he slipped back in last week. We went by Monday and he was super super sick. He was in a ton of pain and throwing up. While teaching Leon about the atoning power of Christ, Elder Vieira put his hand on Leon's shoulder and told him he loves him and knows Christ can help. He then told a story about how his brother back in Brazil was addicted to alcohol but over came it through Christ. It was such a powerful moment. I then asked if he knew what a blessing for the sick was and he said no so I explained and asked if he wanted one and he said yes. We gave him a blessing and the Spirit was so so strong. As soon as we finished I asked him how he felt and he said this may sound weird but all of the pain is gone. It was such a powerful moment and we testified that he could overcome and change through Christ. I learned a lot this week and was filled with so much love for the people around me.

     Sunday we had a multinational broadcast from Elder Ballard. My favourite talk was by Elder Dyches of the 70 on developing spiritual resistance. It's the ability to rebound after failure or trial. Resilient people see failure as a form of helpful feedback. To gain spiritual resilience we need to have our lives focused on Christ and rely on the Holy Ghost as our companion. Hope gives us resilience and the spiritually resilient are always obedient. Because we are obedient we receive the Holy Ghost and can heed the promptings we receive or the feelings we get. They seek to find the meaning of difficult situations. I loved it and am so grateful for the things I've learned this week.

my zone and chili