this is a picture of a Buddhist temple with Mary and Christ in the place of Buddha. and you wonder why every Thai person says "every religion is the same...they all teach to be good". This is what every single dog in Thailand thinks about us.
love ya
Tyrel

stretches of faith

Yes it's true my companion is Black.. or his name is Elder Black from Idaho. It's really crazy being with someone who's been in the mission longer than a month or two, I realized it's been over 6 months I’ve spent training and I loved it so much. It really was a time that I had to focus on being "perfect" in every aspect of missionary work so that the missionaries I trained could see the right way to do it all. It’s changed how I work and it's helped me be a better missionary.

This last week I went on exchanges with Elder Leyva. Right before we taught English at the church we had an appointment with a lady named Lalita who has been learning with the missionaries for a couple of weeks now. We started out by talking about the restoration and about getting answers from prayers. We asked her if she felt like she had gotten an answer which she said no. We asked about how she felt when she prayed and read in the Book of Mormon. I had a very strong impression come to me telling me that she needed to pray right now and get an answer. While the member was talking I whispered to Elder Leyva and he agreed. We taught about the feelings we will feel when God answers our prayers and then told her we were going to pray together right now and we wanted her to pray to know if the Book of Mormon was the word of God and at the end we were doing to just sit there for about 10 seconds and pay attention to our feelings. At this point the spirit was confirming that we were doing the right thing. We knelt down with everyone and she began to pray she said "God I want to be baptized and I want to follow this gospel, please help me find a way to do this and then she ended the prayer in the name of Christ. We all sat there and the spirit filled the room I knew Elder Leyva and I felt it. I asked Lalita how she felt and she said "i don't feel anything" I asked the members and they said they all felt it and had goose bumps everywhere. At this point my mind was going a million miles a minute because I knew we had just tried our faith and she didn't get an answer. I didn't know what to do next then Elder Leyva said "She didn't ask a question". I’ll admit doubt began to creep in, I knew I felt the spirit, I knew the members felt it but for some reason she didn't. I was very doubtful to pray again but I asked her to pray again and ask "Is the Book of Mormon true?” We prayed again and she asked; we all sat there in the silence and I noticed that Lalita was breathing really fast and that the spirit was there even stronger than before. I asked her “how do you feel?” she said “My heart is beating so fast and I feel great.” She then proceeded to feel the member’s hearts to see if they were beating as fast as hers which they were. We promised her that it was the spirit and that God was speaking with her. It was one of the biggest stretches of faith I’ve ever had. Praying to get answers with investigators takes a lot of faith and mine grew so much more. God knows us; he wants to help us, if we allow him into our lives he will let us know he's there.

Tell Brielle congrats on making the dance team!

I love you all,
Tyrel

Ps. there are senior couples here and they don't speak Thai. Grandma and Grandpa would love it as well!

There is nothing as constant as change

The scripture in Jacob comes to my mind as I think back over this last year "the time passed by as if it were a dream", it's a Bitter-Sweet feeling that I've been getting a lot the last little bit, it's just like you said, Mom, this year a lot of things will happen. I was recently listening to a talk from President Monson and in the talk he shared the quote "There is nothing as constant as change". I guess as part of life changes happen every day, sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad, it's all part of the trial process our Father in Heaven has given us in this life to help us to grow. President Monson urges us to "find joy in the journey NOW". The feelings I’m having and the feeling everyone has felt in life is that time is short, it won't slow down and it's up to us to seize the opportunities God has given to us in life and to make if it the best we can. It's something I’m really beginning to feel at this point of my mission because I’ve gone through a long building process where the Lord has been working with me and now I’m the best I’ve ever been and I pray every day that I can fulfill everything God wants me to with the time I have.



Speaking of changes... I got a call from President Smith informing me that I now have another area to watch over and it's my companionship that will be working there. I’m now covering two areas... yeah let’s just say I didn't sleep last night because of how stressed I was. This area is the smallest in the mission as far as members and I’m now in charge of it. This last Sunday I went there for church to get to know the members and to kinda figure out everything, I can honestly say it was one of the most spiritual sacrament meeting I’ve ever been in, me and my companion in a room with 12 other members sharing our testimonies. As I was sitting there listening to the members share experiences the spirit came to me and I started to think about the role of the spirit in the conversion process before and after baptism. There I was feeling the feeling that I pray every day my investigators will feel while they read and pray. This is the feeling I pray members will feel as they continue living their life according to the gospel and I felt like I needed to help everyone in the room understand what they were feeling. I got up and shared a simple testimony and then asked everyone to notice their feelings, I waited for a minute and then told them it's God giving personal revelation to each of them that the things being spoken are true.

Thanks for the pictures!

I love you all so much

Tyrel

Happy New Year

December 27, 2010
I think I can honestly say that this was one of the greatest Christmas's I’ve ever had! I loved talking to you all and to Weston as well. I can tell a lot of you have changed a lot..for the good of course even though I didn't think it possible to be greater!

I'm so excited for Travis he's in for the greatest two years of his life I seriously am so excited for him. The greatest people in the world, the funnest language, even though there are days you want to rip your hair out because of this oh so lovely language. Thailand isn't as out-there as everyone thinks, you don't need converters or anything like that. It’s true that you can get clothes here for incredibly cheap but it's very hard to find time to do all of that and if you’re not in Bangkok it's way hard to find them. There isn't any deodorant here, anyone who wants to wear it better bring a two year supply. There is so much I could tell you but I don't know what questions they have. If you have any more questions I’d love to help.

I love the scripture in Mosiah 2:41 which talks about how the gospel helps physically and spiritually. I can't even begin to tell about all the experiences I’ve had seeing people’s lives change so much after the gospel becomes a part of their lives. All aspects of their life improve: work, family issues, happiness. You also have the people who for some reason or another decide they don't want it and they stop praying, they stop reading their Scriptures and going to church and all the blessings they once had begin to leave them and they find themselves unhappy, they all of the sudden have too much work and they don't get time with the family... it's clear as day to me and for some reason a lot of them don't see it. We have a family that we just stopped teaching because they thought the gospel isn't something they could live right now. During the time we taught them he said their family never was so happy and close to each other, the fathers work was going great and they had a lot of time together as a family. They never stopped smiling and then a while ago something happened within their extended family which caused them to question the things that God personally told them were true through prayer. Their prayers stopped, they don't read anymore. I asked him to come to the baptism two days ago and he showed up and I began talking to him about life. he said he had lots of problems with his family, all of the sudden he had so much work to do that he wasn't with his family, he was stressed (not inspired of God) and worried. The most noticeable of everything was he didn't smile. Agency is such an amazing thing but sometimes I want to force people to stop shooting themselves in the foot. In 1 Nephi 31:last verse it says this is the "only way" the :only name whereby man can be saved" it's not just talking about after this life, God is willing to save our lives in this life too, but it's up to us to allow him to.

I love this gospel so much it truly has changes me and so many of those around me. I’ve become to feel more like Nephi when he says "God is my Rock and my Salvation...I will trust in him forever...for he will not lead me astray"
I love you all
Tyrel
Ps. that picture is of the Friendship Bridge connecting Thailand with Lao

MERRY CHRISTMAS

December 20, 2010
Hello and Merry Christmas to you all

I can't even believe the Christmas spirit here with all the snow, homemade caramel and all other delicious snacks everywhere. Everyone walks around bundled up in their coats and gloves... ha ha! Ok it's not quite like that as a matter of fact there is no such thing as Santa here and Christmas isn't even celebrated here but that's okay because all I want is to talk to you all on the phone!!!!!! As far as the number you need to call it's 01166815575719. Call me 6:00pm Christmas night (my time).

Life really is so good right now. We live in a four elder house with the greatest missionaries ever (Elder Hanni, Me, Potter, Leyva). It’s outrageous how much fun it is. We’ve also seen a lot of progression in the district; almost every companionship will have a baptism this month, which is great. I had a cool experience while interviewing a kid named Max. Interviewing always scared me because I didn't want to pass someone who wasn't ready and then have them fall away from the church, I remember the first time I interviewed, I could hardly sleep or eat anything, but I’ve done it a bit now and it's not so stressful for me. Anyway back to Max; I interviewed him a week ago and I didn't feel like he was ready yet. I saw him again this week for another interview. He came in to the room and we knelt down to pray and the spirit instantly told me "he's ready", usually it takes a few minutes of hearing their testimony and stuff but this time I knew even before the interview that he was going to pass. We read from the scriptures for a while and shared our testimonies. It really was a great experience. I wish there were some way to capture experiences like this in a device so that I could play it over and over throughout my life.

Sorry this is short, todays a bit crazy, I love you all
Tyrel
Ps. I haven't gotten the package yet, they keep them at the office until transfers meeting so I’ll get it around January 6th ish