I Love Chiang Mai

May 10, 2010

Dearest Family,

I don't have much to say this week when it comes to writing, since I already talked to you but I thought I might as well drop you a short note. It's crazy how fast this year is going already. It seems like I just barely got to Thailand but this moves I will hit my year mark as a missionary. It seems so unreal to think how quickly time has passed! We need to make sure we take advantage of every moment.

We're still working to find new investigators. I feel like we worked really hard this week and saw a lot of great things even if there were some pretty sad disappointments. We expected at least 5 investigators at Church but only got our one solid, daughter of a member actually out to Church. I know that as we really put our faith on the line and just keep working as hard as we can, we'll see some great miracles. Of course, sometimes they take time. But I have no doubt that miracles can happen.

I translated for all of sacrament meeting this week. One speaker read the entire proclamation on the family in sacrament meeting in Thai. I didn't have a copy ready in English so that was a bit tricky. The new Elders and Sister gave their testimonies. Basically Church here in Chiang Mai is simply fantastic. The members are awesome and so many are so strong. I feel so grateful that I have seen this branch. The translator for the Liahona/ the Church lives here. Her name is Sister Ju. She actually knows Elder Shill since he was a greenie up here. She's way good at English. From what I can tell, she has been a member since a very young age too. The multi-generationalism of this branch is pretty amazing. I love to see how these people really work so hard to make the Church work here in Thailand. There's a lot of sacrifice involved being in the Chiang Mai district since everything's so spread apart but they all do it with a smile on their face. I just love that.

Elder Jensen is great. It's so fun to be with someone who's your same age (ish) in the mission. It's been really fun to understand Thai together and work together so far. He's a very dilligent, hard working, and dedicated Elder, that's for sure. I feel so blessed to be serving with him. It's going to be a great 2 (hopefully) moves here in Chiang Mai. We are seeing miracles slowly.

Missionary work isn't easy but it's worth it. The connections we form with people, the children of God, are invaluable and simply touching. Sure we will have the hard days, but the sweet moments make it so worth it and build our faith. I love doing this. Like I said this is the best decision I made - to come to Thailand. It's hard to see the difference we make a lot of times. In fact, I think as humans, we often wonder about the difference we make, but I have come to realize that God sees our efforts and doesn't forget them.

Anyway, I simply can't describe how much I love it here. This next week will be zone conference. Keep us in your prayers that we can find great investigators who are really dedicated to learning and that we will know what we should do. I love you all so much and am so grateful for all of you.

Love you all lots,

Elder Jacob Newman