Fwd: White Christmas and Green No more

Begin forwarded message:

From: Colby John Decker <colby.decker@myldsmail.net>
Date: January 1, 2017 at 9:49:12 PM PST
To: Robin Decker <Robinlynnd@gmail.com>
Subject: White Christmas and Green No more

Hello everyone. These past two weeks have been so fun. Christmas was a blast. It was such a White Christmas. We had three baptisms, two of the people were our investigators (Brother Tea and Brother Baw Bia) and ate at so many peoples houses. So much rice. It was cool getting to talk to all of you guys through the skype thing. We had transfers this last week and I'm not a greenie anymore which is weird because it feels like I still don't know anything. My new companion is Elder Hansen he is my phii or has been here a transfer longer than me. He's really cool. He has two black siblings. We didn't get any pictures together but I will this week hopefully. His last area was the Esan so he says some Esan words and people are so confused most the time cause he's white and speaking Esan. I'm in Rangsit for another transfer so I'm leading the area which is weird too. Bangkok is hard to get around. It'll be fun. In church all the missionaries had to give a talk and people actually said my Thai doesn't suck so I'm slowly progressing. 

Water Monitor Lizard is a swear word here, so weird. Some animal names are really offensive so you have to be careful. 

Everyone in Rangsit was gone because it's the holidays and schools out for awhile, so no one is on the campuses and are all out of the city visiting their families. Really hard getting appointments cause everyone says they aren't free. So we did a lot of contacting. Our goal is to get this ward to split because they're really close. We want Temple workers for the Temple that is being built here (I think) and they need more Stakes. The Lao elders are back in Thailand for some time until they can get a church in Lao again. I can't really remember what has happened these past two weeks. We're working hard and it's still really hot in cold season. I've talked to many drunk people including our taxi drivers. New Years is a big thing here in Thailand and they like eat with their families and party. It's a big holiday usually there is fireworks but not this year. We had curfews. Thailand is so much fun จริงๆ. The language is hard and it's frustrating at times, but the Thai people are so cool. It's so different from America. I ate squid and some other stuff I don't even know what it was. They don't really like Desserts here which is sad. For P-Day we went to play soccer with a bunch of missionaries. It was really cool except it was hard to find. Last P-Day we went to MBK which we went to before just a place you can get fake name brand stuff. I'm starting to enjoy contacting more. Here, it's a thing where you ask people who are smoking if they want to quit and if they say yes you ask for their cigarette and throw it on the ground. You can step on it for dramatic effect. Than you get their number and set up an appointment. It's a really good because pretty much everyone in Thailand has had Word of Wisdom problem so we have a lot of help and people know it's not good for their health. Through Faith in Jesus Christ you can stop smoking. One of the members here used to smoke 100 cigarettes a day but stopped because miracles do happen if you have enough faith.

These past couple weeks I have been studying about prayer because it's one of the most important things in conversion. It's a way to converse with your Father in Heaven and a lot of people in Thailand have never prayed before in their lives. God wants to answer your prayers but if you aren't willing to put the work and effort into it, it's not sincere. I've been trying to make my prayers more meaningful and not repetitious. You can receive revelation, help, and blessings from prayer but a lot of people don't make the time for it. In True to the Faith it says if you don't feel like praying, pray until you do feel like praying. You can't learn spiritual truths if you don't pray. God does answer prayers, It might not be on our time but He will answer it in his time and in a way you might not expect. When we sacrifice our time for God, He gives so much more back. I've seen it on my mission. I've learned this crazy hard language. I've seen the change in my life for the better. I'm happier because I'm not thinking about myself. This next year I want to keep changing and keep serving God and bringing others this Gospel I've had my whole life. I've learned so much from my mission already and I'm not even at six months yet. I have never been good at making goals but if you want change and growth you need to make goals so I challenge all of you to make goals for this year. Work towards that goal and have a constant reminder of it and be accountable for that goal. What's the point of a goal if there's no accountability. I love you all and คิดถึง everyone!! Happy New Years! สุขสันต์วันปีใหม่ !!!!!!! 

   

Elder Decker

เอ็ลเดอร์ เดคเคอร์

Thailand Bangkok Mission