An Exercise of Faith (72 km worth)

Area: Roi-Et
Companion: Elder Yuen
August 26, 2013

Hey Hey Hey

Crazy awesome week! We had a baptism on Saturday! Sis Praw got baptized she so awesome! so prepared and hungry for the gospel! She’s a peach! We also went on a 72 km bike ride to go teach this way cool granny lady that is the mom of a member who only speaks Essan and actually lives only 15km away (round trip 30) but we took several wrong turns! haha Needless to say after being out of Bangkok for the past 3 transfers I now have legs of steel! We did the first 30 kms in an hour yeah that’s right 30km/h on a bike we were flying! there are kilometer posts along the side of the road and I was timing some of the kms I did the 26th km in 79s it was way fun but we were so tired and I could not feel my backside I defs could have biked further but I couldn’t have sat on that seat for another second! (Mum's note, when reading his companions blog we get the rest of the story... this journey was a bit of an exercise of faith, the lesson which they went to share, the women had said she no longer wished to receive the lessons and they went out to see her anyway, she was not expecting them. When they arrived and shared their message she wanted them to come again. Truly an exercise of faith.)

So my zone does not include the Redds that would have been way cool! The numbers on the zone: there are five branches Galasin, Khon Khaen, Korat, Mahasarakham, and Roi-Et with 5 districts and 11 companionships and 8 of those companionships are training! 

This week the Asia area presidency is coming to Roi-et for the district conference! it’s going to be awesome we also have a training from president and the AP's on Friday in Khon Khaen and we are doing switch-offs with the AP's the day before. It’s going to be a crazy busy week.

So I left my suit jacket in Chiang Rai at the church I forgot to grab it the day before and then we almost missed our bus and so I have been wearing that new suit that I got cut in Bangkok its way saweet! Did you know that elders can now wear khakis instead of dress slacks? Pres Senior announced it to the zone leaders but basically said he would kill us if he caught anyone wearing khakis. The other change in the dress code is that we can now wear those slip on dress shoes that look like slippers you know the ones that don’t have a back, ha crazy days! 

Yes mum you should tottally add the members here on facebook they are so awesome I love them they are soo funny! and so solid especially the branch president and his wife they have a kid at BYU Provo and he is a music teacher that can play every instrument especially all the weird cool Thai ones and she is such a mom and has got the greatest sense of humour and is smiling and laughing all the time! 

Dad - I have never been back to Warin and probably never will as a missionary Right now there is no one serving there it’s still closed but Pong and Jan are still doing great and their daughter is going to be a missionary soon!

So Elder Yuen and I got some great revelation this morning that was a total perspective changer. We realized that we need to teach Thai people like we teach children and assume that they know nothing that we are talking about cause they rarely do. I need to teach them like I taught the CTR 4 class just super simple and enthusiastically and joyfully and using small words and short sentences. And just teach it super simple and explain everything like it’s the first time cause it is they have no idea who God is or who Jesus Christ is or what scriptures are and so I have to explain it like I am teaching Samantha and Andrew and Ollie

Love you guys!

Elder Cahoon