Dog Gone

July 12, 2010
Sounds like a fun week, and as usual...busy! It sounds like it was a great experience for everyone; I hope I’ll be able to see it when I get home.
Colton is home! Man can you go up and smack him in the chest and tell him Hi for me!
The baptism this week went great! We had lots of people who came to see it. It so happened that after the font was filled there was a leak through a small pipe that we didn't know about. After listening to all the talks we all went over to the baptismal font opened the door and the water was gone. Everyone looked at me and I just smiled right back. To make a small story short we used buckets and in 10 minutes it was all back in order and Ton was baptized. After that he bore his testimony in front of everyone. He talked about how he found this church on his own through the internet; he talked about his conversion story and about how his life had been changed through this gospel. It was one of the most powerful testimonies I’ve ever heard. He already wants a calling and to help bring others into the church. This next week we have another baptism as well. His name is Golf; he's 19 years old and wants to convert the world to the gospel. He just got interviewed and is way excited. People come here and visit our ward and everyone thinks he's a member. I’ll send you pictures next week.

So this week we went on switch offs with the zone leaders which was awesome. We were out inviting down in some small streets when we turned down into this very small neighborhood. Okay I need to add something really quick. I’ve never seen more dogs on the streets in my life then here in Thailand. It doesn't matter where you look there are DOGS EVERYWHERE!!! Ok back to the story... I was with a Thai elder and we were talking about stuff when I saw a hole in a gate and I heard a bark. This is something I hear all day long and it's nothing unusual but for some reason all of the sudden I knew we needed to leave. The thought came into my head and a split second later I was walking backwards pushing my companion when a dog came flying out of the hole towards me. I have a small handbag I carry so I pulled it off my shoulder and brought it down on the head of the dog right as it lunged for me. This only made it madder. The Elder I was with didn't have anything so I jumped in front of him when five more dogs came out. I didn't know what I was going to do. The dogs here work like wolves sometimes to kill other dogs and stuff, so as you can imagine I was a bit on the scared side. So me and my handbag were fighting off these dogs for a while, while we were trying to back out of that neighborhood. Finally they gave up and left after they took my dictionary from my bag but we both escaped without a scratch. I couldn't believe it. If we would have kept walking we would have been stuck in that neighborhood up against a wall and probably wouldn't have been able to get out. It’s so great that God watches over his missionaries.

It's also the rainy season again here in Thailand and this last week we were just about to leave the house when it started to rain really hard. We just sighed and walked out into it. After a few minutes the streets were all flooded. We didn't have an appointment to we went inviting. While we were riding out bikes as our feet dipped in and out of the water passing people with water to their knees. But even in the midst of that all we were able to meet some people and get some return appointments. It’s such a wild experience inviting while it's flooding, but man is it ever fun.
Well I’d better go. I love you all
Tyrel
Ps. I’ll send pictures next week