Thailand!!

Hello All!:)

How are you guys doing??? It's good to hear from you! It's crazy!!! I'm in Thailand!!! I still really can't believe it myself, but I'm loving it here even though it's a huge change from America. I'll try uploading some pictures from my first week. I am currently serving in the Pakkret area in central Bangkok. It's so loud and dirty and big here, but I love it. The streets are the craziest parts too! People with motorcycles zig zag in and out of cars and there's not much rule to the way they drive but it all works really well. My flights over here were great! We went from SLC to LAX to Hong Kong to Thailand. I'll share a couple of amazing stories from those plane rides in a little bit. We landed in Bangkok around 12 pmand met the mission president. What a great man he is! And his wife is an absolute sweetheart. We signed documents and got our blood taken and got to roam around in the streets for alittle bit. For the night they put us up in this big hotel because we had transfer meetings the next day. 

DUring transfer meetings I was assigned a new companion. His name is Elder Jeff Watts from Illinois and he's been out about a year in country. He's a really cool guy. He knows the language so well! He's taught me alot of stuff so far and it's really overwhelming, but I love it here. Sometimes I get frustrated with not knowing the language very well but I know God is on my side and will help me. That's another thing, Heavenly Father is pretty much the only familiar thing I have here in Thailand. I see a billion new faces everyday and alot of Buddha statues and stuff, but I'm so glad I can turn to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ anytime for help and they'll hear me out and comfort me, It's amazing. 

We went to church yesterday and I met so many amazing members! It's my absolute favorite part of Thailand. The members are so friendly and loving. They love me even though I can't really speak to them and they try their english out on me as well. And everyone is so touchy feely here. It's definitely a culture shock, but I've learned it's a way to show friendship and so I'm embracing it haha. I'll give you an example. I was sitting in priesthood meeting and all of the sudden I felt two large hands on my shoulders. This older cute grandpa started giving me a shoulder, neck and head massage and it felt really good! and after he came up and gave me a big hug and said welcome to Thailand. The members are awesome here. They are so giving and we had three investigators who showed up to church, one was which we had never seen before. They all embraced them with open arms. It was amazing! This investigator had earings and he was male, he didn't have church clothes, and his hair was wacky, but everyone loved him the same and showed that he cared for him, and now he wants to meet with us every Wednesdays and Friday. That;s what Jesus would do. He doesn't care what people wear or how they look like, He loves them all the same. It brings such peace and joy to my heart to see this happen. We also had a baptism in our ward yesterday. It's awesome because after church the members go into the gym and have huge meals with everyone. and then after that we had this baptism of this young Thai woman. She was alittle nervous, but the Sisters in our ward helped her feel better and they sang a beautiful song fro mthe Children's Song Book which brought the Spirit so strongly. This Thai woman brought another friend (investigator) and after the baptism this friend told the sister she too wants to feel the same as Sister Mai (The person that was baptised). The work is going so great here! We have an older man in our ward who is recently baptized and was very sad for some reason, and when asked why he was sad, he said that he was sad because he wished he knew about the gospel sooner in his life. He's about 76 years old. When I heard this it broke my heart. This man really truely understand the gospel and how it blesses us,. I wish I could live like that. I take the gospel for granted so much, but here was a Thai man who was truely sad that hadn't had the gospel sooner in his life. I wish you guys could be here and see these sweet sweet people.

We also have a Brother who's name is Brother North who goes with us everywhere and helps teach lessons to investigators. I love him to death! He's 23 and has been a member for about 13 years now. He went to a lesson with us for some investigators and the lesson went great! And afterwards we went to eat some dinner on the street. Now this is where it gets interesting because I didn't know what I was going to eat until it was placed in front of me. I soon got my food and to my absolute suprise I saw 6 chicken feet floating on top of my soup! haha needless to say it was quite the experience. I tried one, but you really can't eat chicken feet very well. It's really interesting here, it;s not uncommon to see big raw chickens just sitting on stands or dead fish rotting on the sidewalks. It's kinda crazy but it's really cool. It's also not that uncommon to see shirtless men walking around or doors wide open when people are changing or anything like that. haha We stopped to eat at  the mall they have here and we went to talk to this lady to get some food and after, my companion said, "Elder... That wasn't a lady.." I looked closer at it's face and found that it was a man dressed in women's clothing! I here that's kinda commonplace here.

It has been quite the experience here haha. But I did want to share a quick story about God's mercy and love for all of us. Before I left to Thailand, in the MTC, I prayed that I could have an opportunity to share the gospel with someone who was in need of it badly and that had been prepared by God. And then as I was thinking I felt like I needed to study for someone who had recently lost a loved one, particularly a death of a small child. I didn't really know why, but I followed that thought and prepared for it. So I got on the plane from LAX to Hong Kong which is a 13 hour flight. The man that we sat next to was a mean and gruff looking man. I didn't know how I was going to be able to bring up the gospel. But then before we took off, the flight attendant came and switched him spots with a smaller Vietnamese man. We got talking and this man was Christian but believed Christians were all the same. We later continued to talk for about 6 or 7 hours of the plane ride and we shared the story about Joseph Smith and you could just see the light that entered him and he soon realized the truthfulness of the gospel. We asked him what he believed in and he would say things that were exactly what we believed, he just didn't know it. We taught him about families and that they can be together forever because he has a wife and kids. He accepted it. We gave him a book of mormon and he started reading it and told us that he just couldn't stop reading it! He also told us that we were different from most people. He could see a glow to us that he wanted, but to his sadness he felt he could never be like that and have that glow. We told him that Jesus Christ wants ALL men to come unto him and be clean and feel his love. His demenour changed drastically as he soon came to know Jesus Christ more fully. But here comes the best part of all. He soon opened up and told us about his 9 month old daughter that had died recently because her body rejected food and soon died. He said he didn't understand why that happened and asked us if we had any knowledge for us. Tears soon flooded my eyes because I knew then that what I studied in the MTC was exactly for this man! I shared in Moroni 8 about how little children are perfect in Christ and that he doesn't have to worry. He soon started to cry as well and told us that he couldn't even really eat meat when she died because he felt like he was eating her body and that it brought such anger and sickness to him, but this knowledge freed him from all sorrow and pain. The gospel of Jesus Christ is so beautiful. At the end of the flight he told us that he promised he would read the book of mormon and go find a Mormon church. He gave us his card and asked if he could buy all 22 of us lunch, but we didn't have time. He said he never shared anything like that to anybody, even his family. I know this man will benefit greatly from the gospel. I love this church more than anything. It is personal and individual. Jesus Christ atoned for us so that we didn't have to go through life alone. It was so beautiful.

I wish I could tell you more about my week but there's just not enough time. I love you all! Please continue to pray for our success! 

With so much love,

Elder Tanner