Fwd: วันสงกรานต์ (Songkran) and Easter

Begin forwarded message:

From: Colby John Decker <colby.decker@myldsmail.net>
Subject: วันสงกรานต์ (Songkran) and Easter
Date: April 16, 2017 at 10:13:50 PM PDT
To: Robin Decker <Robinlynnd@gmail.com>

Hello Everybody! This past couple of weeks have been really good. I went on a switch off with Elder Feller who is from St. George Utah. He's a really cool dude. Than last last Sunday, I went on a switch off with the Zone Leaders in Ubon. It's a 3 1/2 hour train ride there and we had to stand for all of it because it was packed with people traveling home for Songkran. I switched off with Elder Wannasri who's a Thai from Udorn. He's hilarious. It was really good having to speak Thai more. I also learned a lot about how to be a better missionary from him. One of the members here got her mission call to Thailand. 

So, this last week was Songkran which is the Thai New Year. It's for 3 days and it's pretty much a big water fight and a time when you go home and spend time with your family. It's a water fight because it's the hottest time of the year and also religiously it's like washing away all the bad stuff for people. It's like a Buddhist thing. People wear Hawaiian shirts or floral shirts kind of like the kind Grandpa wears. I had to grab one to fit in. I'm not quite sure what Songkran is supposed to symbolize but a lot of people take it as a time to party hard and do a lot of worldy stuff. Proselyting is really hard because everyone is either throwing water at you or they're drunk haha. So we did a lot of inviting off of English. On the second day we got to play and we went to the Stadium and there was fire trucks with hoses and some foam stuff and stuff like that related to water. It was really fun. Really Interesting too. People go around in trucks and have like buckets of water in the trunk and have wars with the people on the streets. It's really fun. For us it was nice because it was really hot and the water was cold. They liked to target me because I'm a white foreigner. They didn't really go after my half Asian companion. 

In Thailand, the Thai people don't celebrate Easter and most of them don't know what it is. It's really interesting living in the complete opposite culture than what I was born and raised in. But we went and gave sacrament to the old people that can't go to church and visited one of our investigators, Sister Ann. She can't come to church because her mother is sick and she has to take care of her. Her mother is a member so we bring her sacrament every week. She's like 84 or something so it's hard for her to get to church but also hard because Sister Ann wants to go to church but can't because she has to take care of her mom. It's a complicated situation. 

Since we just had the chance to watch General Conference last week, I wanted to talk about one of the talks. It was by Elder Ronald A. Rasban called "Let the Holy Spirit Guide". I noticed that a lot of the talks were about the Plan of Salvation and The Godhead. I really liked this talk especially the part where he talked about acting on the first prompting the Holy Ghost gives you. He says "We must be confident in our first promptings. Sometimes we rationalize; we wonder if we are feeling a spiritual impression or if it is just our own thoughts. When we begin to second-guess, even third-guess, our feelings—and we all have—we are dismissing the Spirit; we are questioning divine counsel. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that if you will listen to the first promptings, you will get it right nine times out of ten." 

If it is good it comes from God. If it not it comes from someone else. If the spirit is telling us to do something good, and we don't do it, we will receive less promptings of the spirit. But if we start to follow these promptings the first time, and keep on following them, eventually we become on the Lord's errand. 

I sometimes think is this the Holy Ghost talking or just own thoughts. On my mission, especially recently, I've been trying to follow every impression I receive right when I receive it so I don't miss out on the blessings that come from it. Sometimes it doesn't really lead to anything but it shows God that you are willing to follow these promptings. It was one of my favorite talks in conference and I'd recommend you all to read it. Easter is a special time to remember the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ lives and leads his church today through a living prophet called by God. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is a miraculous thing and shows the love that Jesus Christ has for us all. I want to close with my testimony that I know Jesus Christ lives, and that he loves each and every one of us more than we can imagine. If we have faith in him we can do all things. I love you all and miss everybody! Until next time...

Elder Decker
เอ็ลเดอร์ เดคเคอร์
Thailand Bangkok Mission