The Book of Mormon is true

August 25, 2010
Well, what a week you have been having with engagements, pictures, meeting your future son in laws parents. I only wonder the stress you are all having back home!
So what's going on with Brielle and that hair school stuff? Is she still planning on going to collage this year or will that be next year? Right now where is everybody going to school, will it still be at home or will it all be at other places? How’s the economy back home, and the lawn business stuff????

This week has been the most stressful of my mission because of lots of things but one of the most stressful things for me right now is because of one of our investigators. A while ago we started teaching a girl named Jesse who is about 25 and is dating a return missionary, she’s known about the church for a long time and wants to be baptized so that they can get married in the temple. We met with her the first time and I felt really weird, I thought it was just because we were teaching a girl and that's always awkward. She looked kinda funny but I couldn't put my finger on it. We taught her for a while and preparing her to be baptized. The other day something hit me right before we taught her..."she" is a man. This is something very very common in Thailand. Men will go through surgery and change themselves, and I’m really good at picking them out, mainly because I’ve had trouble with them my whole mission. We went into the lesson and I started looking for the signs: hands, adams apple, jaw... anyway we know it's for sure that it's a man. The really hard part is that she genuinely wants to be baptized and to go through the temple but as a transvestite you are not allowed to go through the temple. I’m really not knowing how to address this but this week end we'll be teaching the law of chastity and it's all going to come out. I’m trying to think of how to deal with the situation in order to address the issue but also to help her know that Her Father in Heaven still wants her to be baptized and loves her very much. Please pray for me, the balance between boldness and love will be really hard in the next lesson.
This week there was a special training for the leaders of the mission on a newish program for missionaries on how to teach more effectively. Yesterday was the first day and President Smith took us on a tour of the scriptures and showed us how we as missionaries must really adapt to meet needs and using the Book of Mormon more effectively in teaching and so many other topics. It really was eye opening to me and makes me so excited to begin teaching again after the training. This last little bit my testimony about the Book of Mormon has grown so much, it's something I really am willing to put all my trust into, I know this book changes lives. I’m in a country where society has been corrupted by the "wicked traditions of their fathers" and the Book of Mormon shakes the foundations of beliefs they have stood on for thousands of years, and opens the door allowing them to walk out into the light. This work is the greatest thing anyone could ever do as a 19 year old boy. It not only changes the individuals around you but it changes you and by the end you understand life in fullness and can begin to see the eternal prospective of just what existence is all about!

I love you all
Tyrel