ສະບາຍດີ, it's been a while. 4/23/18

Songkran (Thai New Year water festival)

Hey everybody!!! It's me! And I am alive! Yay!

I hope you all have had a pleasant two weeks without hearing from me. I like to give you these long pauses to keep you on your toes. 

Over the past weeks some things have happened! Such as: Insane Thai New Year water festival (Songkran), zone conference, THE PROPHET AND ELDER HOLLAND COMING TO THAILAND, and a lot of good referrals!

So yeah, let's see what I remember...

Friday two weeks ago, we got to go out and celebrate Songkran! It's an annual about 4ish day water festival. We went out to this place called Siam Square. It was insane. There were thousands of people with buckets, water guns, and just an insane amount of water. We were thoroughly soaked. I would highly recommend this festival. It was extremely fun.

Zone conference was also a really good experience! We talked a lot about extending commitments and how the process of developing faith is different for everybody.

We also had the amazing experience of having our living prophet, Russell M. Nelson, and an apostle, Jeffrey R. Holland, come and visit Thailand! We got to see members and missionaries from all over Thailand and Laos there! It was an amazing event. Elder Holland spoke a lot about how we never really realize history or miracles when we are in the middle of either. He talked about how the church's growth in Thailand is both historical and miraculous. He also talked about the wonderful day that Jesus showed himself to his people in the Americas. President Nelson talked a lot about Thailand's progress in the gospel as well as the preparation for a temple. It got everybody here really excited for it! I know that he is a prophet of God and is divinely inspired to lead the church.

I hope that all of you have amazing weeks! I love and miss you all! Keep being amazing people! 

<3

Elder Ridd 

Elder Ridd and Elder Julander
President Nelson's global ministry tour to Thailand! 

President Nelson's visit to Bangkok

Members from Thonburi that I saw including G, T, and Brother A!

Conference Was Cool - 4/9/18

Here's Elder Julander and me Tim Tam Slamming. You take these Tim Tam things which are chocolate cookies, bite off the ends, and drink milk through them, then eat them. They're totally healthy. Trust me.  

Post Priesthood session BB gun activity haha

Elder Hatch and me

Yours truly

Hi Everyone!  

This week was pretty good! Not too much has happened. We visited F and his friend K. They are both way cool. K was pretty interested too, so we gave him a Book of Mormon. 

Most of the past week - since last time I emailed - has been watching General Conference. It was so good! It was so amazing to be able to listen to our Prophet speak so much. Every time President Nelson spoke, he was amazing. He is a such a good speaker. Some of my highlights: I loved Elder Bednar's talk about meekness. It was way good. He always has such good examples from the scriptures. (Click here to read his talk). Another of my favorite talks was from Elder Uchtdorf. He is one of my favorite speakers now I think. I want to share a little bit from his talk: 

"Those who find a way to truly behold the Man find the doorway to life’s greatest joys and the balm to life’s most demanding despairs.

    So, when you are encompassed by sorrows and grief, behold the Man.

    When you feel lost or forgotten, behold the Man.

    When you are despairing, deserted, doubting, damaged, or defeated, behold the Man.

    He will comfort you.

    He will heal you and give meaning to your journey. He will pour out His Spirit and fill your heart with exceeding joy.

    He gives “power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.”

    When we truly behold the Man, we learn of Him and seek to align our lives with Him. We repent and strive to refine our natures and daily grow a little closer to Him. We trust Him. We show our love for Him by keeping His commandments and by living up to our sacred covenants.

    In other words, we become His disciples."

I love his focus on the Savior. It was such a good reminder of how focused on Him we must be, especially when we are in hard times. We need to "behold" the Savior in our everyday lives more often.  (To listen/watch/read Elder Uchtdorf’s entire talk, click here).

I'm grateful for the opportunity we had to hear from our wonderful leaders! They are so full of wisdom. 

The next few Pdays will be a little weird. We will be having a Pday this Friday so that the missionaries can participate in Songkran, the annual water festival, so I may not be writing much on that day, haha. Then the Monday directly following will be zone conference. I may not send a big email for about 2ish weeks haha. Feel free to write me so I can get back to you! 

I love and miss you guys!!! 

Elder Ridd <3

Totally Predictable Transfers 555 - 4/4/18

Eating at a buffet

Spring in Bangkok - lol

 Random path with nice people who don't completely ignore us

Hello everybody!

It’s Elder Ridd! Your favorite person in Thailand. I hope that you've all had adequately สนุก​ weeks.

Let's seeeee, what happened this week...On Monday we ended up not getting our suits because we got a call saying that they weren't done yet, so hopefully they will be when we go to try and pick them up today. We mostly stayed at the church on Monday and played piano and stuff. Then we went and ate at a หมูกระทะ, a kind of buffet, with some members.

Sunday was Easter! That was pretty cool. It was kinda weird because a lot of Thai people, including those in the church, don't really know what Easter is or why it's important. So we were able to meet with a lot of people and talk about the Atonement quite a bit. We didn't watch General Conference this week, so I'll talk about that more next week after we watch it. 

A miracle we had this week was something that happened yesterday, actually. We had about 30 minutes before an appointment, so Elder Julander and I went out and walked down a few nearby streets. We saw a man just sitting at the park and we both felt prompted to talk with him. We kinda introduced ourselves and bore testimony about God's love for all of us. When asked if we could sit and continue talking with him, he said yes, which kind of surprised both of us, haha. The man's name was F and he was interested in how our church can help him and his family have more happiness in life. So we taught him a little more and also taught him how to pray. He was super down with everything and was excited to try and pray in his personal time. He seems like a really sincere and promising guy. So yeah, that was really cool. 

For transfers, not too much went down. Elder Julander and I are staying, Elder Pastores is staying, and Sister Tukuafu is staying and training a new person. Elder Decker and Sister Phiengsamai are both moving to Khon Kaen. So we will get Elder Hatch, who I've met like once, and some very new person. It should be interesting. Elder Decker's actually going to be companions with Elder Xaiyavong, which is pretty neat.

Well, I hope you all have great weeks! I love and miss you all!!! Keep being amazing, and cherish all of those words that the disciples of Christ spoke this past weekend!!

Love, 

Elder Ridd

P.S. 555=hahaha because Thai

Thai construction work