Hayden's Missionary Blog: Saving Souls and Planting Rice

Rice fields in Laos

Goodbye to Elder Hansen

Me with a chick

Hey guys, what's up? I hope you've all been doing well.

This week's been pretty packed. I feel like it's only been a few days since I last emailed, haha. There's been a lot of changes! Elder Hansen is now gone, and we now have a new mission president, President Hammond. This Tuesday there will be a zone “meet and greet” with him, but Elder Phasay and I can't go because we are stuck here in Laos for awhile, due to some visa stuff.

On Sunday, President Johnson came to church here in Laos. It was cool because he chose to come here for his very last Sunday as mission president. We got to be with him a lot of the day and ate dinner with him at the house of KP, a man who was one of the first Lao members. It was really fun!

This week had a bunch of English class ceremony stuff. We went to ceremonies to give certificates to all of the students who passed the course. That was neat.

Another highlight was that we were able to go help some members up north plant rice. It was wild. We went up there in a bunch of clothes we could get dirty in and then walked into some rice fields in knee-deep muddy water. It was a really good time, except literally all of us missionaries were absolutely terrible at it. We were working alongside some experienced Lao grandmas and they went harrrrd. They literally got three times as much as we did, and they were done in a quarter of the time. I've got some mad respect for those people who do that all day. It was rather hot.

Some other good experiences! We were able to teach Sister G's niece, KT, who we've been teaching for a while, and she asked if she could be baptized! She decided to get baptized on July 15th. We also have about 5 other people who have dates to be baptized in July, so that's really exciting. There are so many awesome people here.

Yesterday was a really fun day. We went north to find a lot of less active members. We eventually found them after a long trek of following another member’s kids through the jungle, to the rice fields that the less active members were working in. We were able to go out there and get to know them some more. They said they would go to the church this Sunday! A lot of people are coming this week because it will be the first week in the newly built church building! This building is honestly amazing and is fancier than most churches I have been to in America, haha.

This week I read a talk that I really enjoyed. It was "Patience–A Heavenly Virtue" by President Thomas S. Monson. One of my favorite quotes is as follows, "Today in our hurried and hectic lives, we could well go back to an earlier time for the lesson taught us regarding crossing dangerous streets. 'Stop, look, and listen' were the watchwords. Could we not apply them now? Stop from a reckless road to ruin. Look upward for heavenly help. Listen for His invitation: 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'"

We actually know that a lot of the bad habits and things that we do in life are bad before we do them. We are often too prideful, in denial, or anxious about changing to stop doing them. I really love President Monson's advice on the subject. We need to turn our hearts to God when we desire to change our habits and ourselves as people. He is the only way that we can have the strength and power to overcome the natural man. That's just a quick thing that I thought was neat from my studies.

Click here to read or listen to this fabulous and inspiring talk!

I hope you are all making the most of life! I miss and love all of you!

❤️

Elder Ridd