From Karsten Hinckley
Teaching in Thailand
This week was really good! I was buying some chicken on a
stick and some sticky rice when a guy on his motorcycle drove up to me and
asked if we taught English. I said heck yeah we do and I pointed down the
street to our church. I didn’t have a English card to give him so I gave if a
baptismal card. We ended up seeing this guy at English and so I asked if he
would come to church on Sunday and he said yeah. He speaks really good English
for a Thai person. So I was able to have a good conversation with him. Anyways
he came to church with his friend and I asked if we could teach them after the
baptism that we had the day and he said yes. So he and his friend were able to
see a baptism. So when we got to the teaching part, we taught about the Gospel
of Christ, Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity. We showed him a picture of the
God head and he said that is God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost. Elder Gage and I
looked at each other and were pretty amazed! Then when we taught about the two
commandments he was mouthing what is forbidden while we were saying it all. So
Elder Gage and I were like, “Okay, where did you learn this?” He said the
internet. We asked where, and hee said Mormon.org. I was very impressed that he
did that. It was revelation to give him a baptism card. He is way good! I hope
we can teach him and his friend some more. His name is AAron and his friend is
Fang.
The Next Week…
This week was a really good week…We were able to teach
our new investigator AAron. He is a miracle I never saw coming! We taught
him the restoration and when he heard what the prophet Joseph Smith about what
happened when he prayed, AAron said that he got chills! Ha that was really cool!
AAron is way good! He is praying and reading the scriptures! He is a really
good guy. He is about 21 and can speak English. He is planning on going to New
York in a year for school... We are also teaching his friend, Fang. So pray for
him, because AAron and Fang have been best friends for a long time and I would
like to see the both of them get baptized and share these experiences
together.
Other than that we taught our newly baptized sister, sister
Peem. She is way good. She said that ever since she has gotten baptized her and
her family have gotten along so much better. She also told us that since that
happened her husband has started to drink less and that is great! She just has
this glow about her! You can tell that the gospel has blessed her life. It is
way cool to see. We also taught another newly baptized sister, sister Boo. She
tells me every time I see her that I am getting better at speaking Thai. I
guess I will take her word for it. We taught the Restoration and she is so
good! She has questions about what she reads in the book of Mormon so that is
great! We try and answer her questions the best we can.
… I am thankful for the season of giving. [For Thanksgiving]
we all gathered at our church - which I have never said is a rented building,
if that makes a difference. Anyways, members from the ward all brought
something to eat. Before we ate we all had an opportunity to share our
testimonies with one another. After that was over we got to eat. You will never
guess what I ate for my Thanksgiving dinner! Can you guess? Well I will tell
you that I had my first chicken claw! Ha!
One of the members said that I had to eat it so I did. It was pretty good,
considering it tasted like chicken. When we were done we helped clean up and
then we were about to leave when a member gave me half a chicken to take home
and eat. I said thank you and went on our way. Well, on our way across the
bridge…I saw a homeless man just laying on the bridge. I looked at what I had,
I thought about how much I have been given and about Jesus Christ. I gave this
man the half chicken that I had received. Now I had asked this man to go to
church before and he said no, but that is not the point. I still thought about
how grateful I am to have food and give thanks to all that I have. I thought to
myself, I will do what Jesus Christ would do. I felt happy for what I had done.
This season is for giving not receiving.
