Rats, Random Buildings, and Really Cool People - 4/30/18

View of Bangkok from the tall building where we ate lunch

Random boat in the tall building - haha

Lunch in the tall building!
Elder Julander (left) and Elder Ridd

Hey everybody! I hope you're all doing awesome.

This week's been pretty solid. Let's seeeeee.... 

So on Monday, we went and met up with a recent convert of Elder Julander's in Rangsit, which is another Bangkok area. She took us out and we ate at a pretty cool buffet in like the 74th floor of some way tall building. It was cool. Then we went to the top and took some pictures of Bangkok. Then we went back to Bangkapi and explored some random abandoned buildings with the district.

The rest of the week was good! We have been trying to work with a lot of less active members and recent converts to try to get them excited about the temple and missionary work as well. We have a really awesome recent convert named Sister FN. She is wayyyyy talkative, and loves to share random scriptures with friends. She is really great with welcoming new people who come to church. Just a quick shoutout to her haha. 

We've also been doing a lot of digging through old records and calling people who have been too busy to meet with the missionaries in the past, and have set up a bunch of appointments for this upcoming week. I feel like we've been putting a lot of emphasis on trying to help the lost sheep come back lately. A lot of these people have learned most of the lessons, but didn't have time to come to church on Sunday, so we're trying to extend that loving hand to help them come back. 

I read a really good talk by Richard G. Scott this past week. It was called "Removing Barriers to Happiness" and was given in April 1998. In the talk, Elder Scott talks about how we shouldn't let culture, ethnicity, or national heritage stand in the way of our God and what we know to be true. I feel like this is a reeeeaally applicable talk for Thailand, because a lot of the culture here seems to go against the commandments of God. For example, a large number of people here go to temples and bow to statues and images simply because it's their culture. To read or listen to this talk, click here.

Another really interesting thing that I personally believe was created to possibly slow the work of God is part of Thai funerals. For a large majority of people, when they die they get burned with a lot of their belongings. This includes many paper documents and records of their life. This causes it to be extremely hard for Thai people to do family history work, because all of the information about their ancestors is lost, and then we are unable to do their ordinances. :(

Buddhism and Thai culture are deeply entrenched in each other here, so it's really hard to help people see the difference in them. It's all good though, because the people here are awesome! 

Today we are planning on going to the King's Palace, so that should be a pretty cool time!

I love and miss you all!! I hope you all have great weeks!

Stay frosty!

Oh yeah, our church has rats that we're trying to get rid of 555.

Love, 

Elder Ridd 

<3

Abandoned building