1/18/10 Great Week for Finding

Hey I"m getting fat!Actually,I have gained a little weight lately, after some
advice you guys gave over Christmas. Glad you liked the pictures I sent.
The Temple is Wat Aruun, which is on the bank of the Chao Praya
river that runs through the middle of Bangkok. Actually, this temple is not too
far from the church. Oh, concering the other picture, there is terrible phone
reception in our apartment, except over in the corner by the fridge, but even there
sometimes we lose connection. (In this picture he is standing against the fridge holding his companion's crutch up like an antenna while talking on the phone. :O) )


This last week has been incredible! We had switchoffs with the zone leaders here
in Thonburi last Tuesday. I switched off with my dear old MTC companion, Elder Young, and we had a blast. The day started off with our district meeting that we
have every week, This time the zone leaders sat in on it. I gave a lesson
about "Planned Teaching Activities, and Unplanned Finding Opportunities".
For example, suppose you have an appointment to go to, and when you get to the house
or place you are meeting the investigator, he isn't there. In the process
of getting there, you invited several people. Or, the person
you originally intended to meet wasn't where he said he was going to be, and the
Lord had other plans for you to go to that destination that you didn't realize at
the time. A great application of this is the story of Ammon and Lamoni when
they met Lamoni's father (read Alma 20 and you will understand better). Alma 20 has some really good applications to this lesson. The meaning
behind this lesson is taking every opportunity to talk to people, even on the way
to our various appointments. Anyway, we got really pumped up after the lesson, and
we went out and talked to a lot of people, and got a lot of potentials. Not
just on Tuesday, the rest of the week as well.

This past week has been really stellar! We had some really sweet lessons. We have three new investigators and several referrals. This last week's work has given us a lot to do this week. We have potentials and regulars scheduled everyday this next week, wow! So, we have a lot to do, but Elder Parkinson and I are really excited. It's gonna be a full week of weeding out who's ready and who's not. Anyway, the ball is starting to roll here. We are really going to work on getting members to help us teach. After a great experience with a member's help last week, we
really want to have members present. And, also we're going to work on committing
investigators to come to church. Man! This is all I want to think about right now! We have a ton of potentials right now!


Well, it was really fun to switch off with Elder Young.
He's a fantastic missionary! We really had a lot of fun, a lot to talk about, and
a lot to do. So last week was really good, and it's set the foundation for
tomorrow, and the rest of the week. I wish I could put some of the experiences into
this letter, but I am running out of time here. I will put them in my next
letter, which will be to Paige, coming really soon.

Great things are happening in Thailand! This last Saturday, church leaders held
a special conference in Asoke to reveal to members the updated Thai translation
of the Book of Mormon. We didn't get to go to it, but I heard it was pretty
packed, People here have been waiting for this now for a while, and it is finished
being re-translated. It is now in the process of being mass printed, and should be
available at the end of this year. So, that's pretty cool! The lady who
translated it the first time thirty years ago is still alive, but getting very
old. I heard some amazing stories about her experiences translating the book, and actually there is a book written about her which I want to find after the mission called "Translating Scripture". I'd better get off. Thanks for all of your prayers and support.

Man, I just can't put into words how awesome this experience has been! Take care guys. Love, Elder Schulte