Reed's Mission - Thonburi

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=110 BGCOLOR="#336666" TEXT="#080000"> <div> Mission Experiences of Reed B. Haslam - Thailand Bangkok Mission          </div> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" >  </FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>  </B></FONT><B> </B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >   </FONT><IMG SRC="04d44320.gif" border=0 width="68" height="50" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=190 BGCOLOR="#336666" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Reeds Mission Front Page"><U><B>Front Page</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="photo_album.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Reeds Mission Photo Album"><U><B>Photo Album</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="mission_companions.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Reeds Mission Companions"><U><B>Companions</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="mission_reunions.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Old Heads Mission Reunions"><U><B>Mission Reunions</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>===============</B></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="http://www.LDS-Thailand.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.LDS-Thailand.org"><U><B>LDS Church</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.LDS-Thailand.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.LDS-Thailand.org"><U><B> History in Thailand</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="http://www.translatingscripture.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.translatingscripture.com"><U><B>Reed's Book</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="http://www.theHaslams.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.theHaslams.com"><U><B>theHaslams.com</B></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=370 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Thonburi, Thailand</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Week #50 - May 19-25, 1974 - Thonburi, Thailand</B></div> <bR> <div> Sunday was district conference and the day Mani Seangsuwan started his mission. Later we were companions for 3 memorable months. At the priesthood session the American servicemen far outnumbered the Thai brethren; however 3 Thai brothers were approved to be ordained Elders (including Mani). After that the English-speaking sacrament meeting was held.  The American girls looked strange - I'd become used to Thai girls at this point. Later the Thai sacrament meeting was held. I recorded that there were about 40 Thai members and 20 missionaries in attendance. We had zone conference the next day at the chapel in Bangkok. Problem is that from Thonburi to the chapel in Bangkok is quite a distance especially during rush hour. We were supposed to be in a meeting at 8am, we arrived at 8:30 to find we were among the first to make it. I wrote that we had to hang onto one bus (kind of hanging outside the doorway) when in route. Elder Sessions and I were asked to make soundtracks in Thai for the few filmstrips that the mission uses. This was the special assignment that President Morris told me about when I was transferred to Thonburi. I noted that the big city was busy and dirty and that some of our best proselyting was done while riding the bus (which we did a lot). We held street meetings at the big traffic circle in Thonburi and were able to speak to lots of people. We also traveled a lot on the canals.  Bangkok and Thonburi are built around a bunch of canals. Some were filthy black while others were a more pleasant milk chocolate brown. I found that if you go back off any main street very far you'd find yourself in the jungle literally! We taught the 3 sisters and helped 4 other sisters with their paperwork to go to study in America. I noted that the best members seem to leave Thailand and never return, thus building local leadership is a real challenge!</div> <bR> <div> <B>Week #51 - May 26 - June 1, 1974 - Thonburi, Thailand</B></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="405" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 313 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="09583330.jpg" border=0 width="387" height="307" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="393"><div> Members of the Thonburi Branch</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> Sundays were much more enjoyable as we had MEMBERS to participate with us! We continued to teach the 3 Youdmongkol sisters and they continued to progress. Monday was the anniversary of my farewell address back home. John was kind enough to come from Kansas and gave me my first 20 Baht bill.  I wrote, "Today I can read what is written on that note (20 Baht is about $1). Brother Henry Smith who married Mom and me in the temple 6 years latter spoke at my farewell and said "you must learn to love those people before you will become effective". I pondered that question as I was approaching hump day. I felt that I loved the people but was frustrated by their never say "NO" nature. Rachel a girl I had dated some before I left was still writing me about 2/month and that was nice.</div> <bR> <div> We did run into a group of Protestants who wanted to hear our message. We met with the whole group twice.  In their view faith in Christ is enough for salvation.  They did not understand the priesthood though we tried to explain it to them. The group was quite large about 20 people that I think it included their minister. We spent 3 hours with them on 2 consecutive nights and again on the weekend when they brought their lawyer to question us.  He asked, "How could Joseph Smith pray if he had never prayed before"? Was this Moroni guy a streaker - why would God send his message with someone so immodestly dressed?  Some teenagers in the group had good questions to ask like "Is God a spirit? How did he appear to Joseph Smith?  They never got their chance as the lawyer guy dominated the discussion. We SOLD two copies of the Book of Mormon to them, one in Chinese and another in English. It was much easier in the BIG city to find people to talk to who actually could ask some decent questions and communicate with you on a much higher level. This was simply not as easy to do in the country (Chachoengsao).  On Saturday we held a street meeting at the "Big Field" next to the Emerald Buddha temple in Bangkok with several other missionaries.  LDS tourists from the United States stopped by to take our picture. I thought is was real cool to be in the shadow of Thailand's most special temple preaching the gospel to people who stopped by while shopping on a Saturday afternoon.</div> <div>  </div> <div> <B>Week #52 - June 2-8, 1974 - Thonburi, Thailand</B></div> <bR> <div> Testimony meeting in the branch on Sunday was excellent. Just about everyone stood and bore testimonies. We had one full family in the branch and a few other members. I still feel we did not work enough on leadership development among our members. For lunch I wrote, "I found a new Thai dish that I love "Guey Diaw Rad Naa". It's made of noodles and various vegetables rolled into one!  We gave the discussion on Tithing and chastity to one investigator and she admitted she'd had a problem with chastity and said "Oh Elder everyone all over the world is active sexually". We explained that this fact did not matter and she could be forgiven of her sins. She told us "I'll think about it!"  We also made a return to the protestant group and showed them the filmstrip about Christ in America.  Some of them snickered at times - they challenged every idea it seemed - they could not get past the idea that God is a spirit.  We left our testimonies and departed to their saying, "see the weak ministers of God who cannot endure!"  I was discouraged that we could not make any progress with this group. We decided it was not worth our time to return again. I received a letter from Steve Day who was returning home from his mission in Germany. He said he was worried about all the pressure to get married. His brother David Day also wrote. He said he was excited to receive his mission call. I also received news from sister that she was expecting another child (Debbie) and letters from Mom and Verna. </div> <bR> <div> The mission was growing as the first sisters begin to serve in 10 days - 2 health missionaries from the states with 2 Thai sisters. One of the Thai sisters was from the branch in Thonburi.  Also more missionaries continued to arrive than depart. I made the 4th trip out of country and it seemed to go pretty fast, but it sure is a hassle to do it every 10 weeks. I was told that Arisaa who I'd helped teach in Khon Kaen was getting ready for baptism and that was great! Looking up referrals in the big city was exceptionally difficult as it was so hard to find anyone with an address. The addressing scheme was some mystery to everyone Thais included. This ended the first 365 days of my mission.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>  </div> <div> <B>Week # 53 - June 9-15, 1974 - Thonburi, Thailand</B></div> <bR> <div> June 9 was hump day so I wrote an evaluation of the first 12 months.  I was happy with most things except the pain that Elder Koniuzy caused - he caused me to drop some investigators that in retrospect I felt we should not have dropped.  Chachoengsao was a tough town to preach the gospel in. I felt we did a good job of introducing ourselves to city leaders and letting them know we were in town. I felt I'd gotten a hold of the language now and that was demonstrated by my 15-minute talk in church on Sunday. While we always seemed busy in KhonKaen I knew that we needed to do more to develop investigators and Chachoengsao brought that opportunity as no one had ever preached there before. Now in the big city it seemed much easier to find people who were interested in our message to talk to. We have people on Sunday come to visit us all day long. One was a student leader of the revolution last October. He was a bright young man attending Thamasadt University.  He said he felt something was missing in his life.  My companion Elder Sessions got the transferred to Ayuthaya and Elder Koniuzy was also transferred to Chonburi; that surprised me but I was happy about it in a perverse sort of way.  Elder O'Brian came to be my new junior companion. Elder Sessions was for some reason not excited to go to Ayuthaya where we'd heard things were going great!</div> <bR> <div>  </div> <div> <B>Week # 54- June 17-23, 1974 - Thonburi, Thailand</B></div> <bR> <div> Sunday's are great in Thonburi because we actually had members who had assignments and helped out. We were also generally busy all day teaching discussions at our home. This Sunday was no different. During the week we spent some time helping the members prepare their lessons for Sunday.  On Monday I got a new companion, my 7th Elder O'Brien.  He was a wizard at electronics and had been sent to help move forward the work of producing a Thai soundtrack for some of the filmstrips.  We jumped right in and got things going. He was so talented at electronics that we made more progress in 4 days that I had in 5 weeks.  A zone conference was held with a regional representative visiting. The central zone had grown so much that it took 4 hours for testimonies.  We went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner; however the soup left lots to be desired as it contained small chicken heads! Later we went for Thai food to fill our stomachs. We continued to teach lots of people but not too many persisted beyond one lesson. The 3 sisters continued to progress and we also made a home teaching visit to the 4 other sisters who had been baptized earlier. One of them became a missionary this same week and only 2 of the 4 were inactive. The first sister missionaries in Thailand arrived in June 1974. To many of us this was a sure sign of the maturing of the mission on the edge of the world.</div> <bR> <div>  </div> <div> <B>Week #55 - June 24-29, 1974 - Thonburi, Thailand</B></div> <bR> <div> Church was excellent. Brother Kao did a good job with the priesthood lesson (I'd helped him prepare it). We had several investigators attend. In the afternoon we had appointments at our home for discussions but it rained so hard only one of them showed up. My journal records that it was so wet that toads were hopping all over the front yard. In the evening the members visited to help record their voices on our project to create soundtracks for the filmstrips. We had great member support on this evening as several members came to help produce the sound track.</div> <bR> <div> We spent more time on P-day doing the audio and a single sister who came to us with a problem. Her dad wants her to come home (up country) and marry a cop (by Thai standards wealthy) and take care of him in his old age. She was torn between Thai tradition of helping Dad and her desire to marry a LDS man.</div> <bR> <div> The three sisters came to us and said they'd studied and prayed and asked for testimonies and with help in their schoolwork. They said they now believe that there is a God because he has helped them with their schoolwork.</div> <bR> <div> My journal records that we took time this week to help many of our instigators with schoolwork - mostly in math. I wrote "is this what we should do?" then I concluded, "If we don't do it they won't understand that we do care for them as individuals and their needs". My companion Elder O'Brien and I both got sick for 2 days due to something we ate. </div> <bR> <div>  </div> <div> <B>Week # 56 - June 30 - July 6, 1974 - Thonburi, Thailand</B></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="308" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 450 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="09b1cbc0.jpg" border=0 width="284" height="444" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 57 WIDTH="296"><div> Elder Haslam in front of the other Elder's residence in Thonburi which was used as the Thonburi chapel.</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> On Sunday one of our investigators came to church for the second week in a row. He's a boy named Chiiwin who I'd first met in KhonKaen. He was now in Thonburi going to school. He asked good questions in Sunday school and then not realizing that Sacrament Meeting was any different he asked questions there too, until I went and explained to him that sacrament meeting was different. Chiiwin had a deformed ear and some people tended to shun him because of it.  Another investigator also came to church. The 3 sisters were progressing through concepts of discussion 2 and they gave the prayers at the discussion. Actually there was also a younger sister with them (she was not baptized with her older sisters). On P-day we went 50 miles up river (first by train) to Bangbain - site of the King's summer palace. From there we continued (by boat) on to Ayuthaya (which I did not know at the time would be my next assignment). We visited the Elder's home and then went to see the ancient ruins (Ayuthaya is Thailand's ancient capitol - like Kyoto in Japan - only in Ayuthaya most everything is in ruins</div> <bR> <div> We returned to visit a protestant gentleman who told us he was already saved. Said he got the authority when he accepted Jesus. After his wife got mad at us for not leaving we left our testimony and departed. My companion said "believers of every religion seem to get just what their religion says they'll get _ Buddhists a new life _ Protestants saved as angels to Gods etc. Hum interesting idea!</div> <bR> <div> We took our first filmstrip with sound track to President Morris who genuinely liked what we had done.  It debuted at Mutual in Thonburi later in the week. July 4th was a Buddhist holiday - everyone went to the temples in the evening to walk around them carrying candles (Wian Tian) and give food and gifts to the monks. We found out it was the day that every good Buddhist boy becomes a monk for 3 months.  I wrote "Their parents are proud of them just like LDS parents are when their sons go on missions".</div> <bR> <div> On Saturday night we went out tracting and got stranded. We rode the bus out from our place only to find that the busses quit running early because of some fights at the University in Bangkok across the river the prior 2 nights. It took us 1.5 hours to walk home. Whew! That was not FUN!</div> <bR> <div> It was also frustrating that we had to go to the main post office in Bangkok to process the 2 neckties through customs that Mom had sent me. These were the frustrations of the week.</div> <bR> <div>  </div> <div> <B>Week #57 - July 7-13, 1974 - Thonburi, Thailand</B></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="288" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 344 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="0990e520.jpg" border=0 width="270" height="338" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 ><NOBR><div> Brother Kao with his wife and daughter</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> Sunday was great as it was fast and testimony meeting. Brother Kao whose family had been members for about 1 year shared his testimony about how their lives had been blessed by the gospel.  As you probably can tell we used the block meeting schedule in Thailand even before it became the way of the church.  Brother Kao was in the Thonburi branch presidency. I wrote, "He closed the meeting a bit early - 3 hours of meetings in a row can be somewhat tiring". On Sunday's we continued to have plenty of investigators visit our home (the home of the other 4 Elders in Thonburi was where church was held).  On Tuesday July 9 I wrote "Tonight was a special night as Elder O'Brian and I became the first Elders to take the new Sister missionaries to dinner. These initial sister missionaries were Health Missionaries. We took them to a contact we had who was a Doctor for advice on "how they could get their program started". The native Thai sister in the companionship was great as she shared her testimony with this contact family. I wrote "she did a better job in one evening than all the Elders in the past many months had done!" The American sister on the other hand was interested in determining if we Elders had girls waiting at home.  Sister Morris must have given encouragement when she told them about the handsome Zone Leader she met in Hong Kong 18 years ago!</div> <bR> <div> I can see through my mission we always struggled with the question "how sincere is this investigator - are they interested in the gospel on just interested in spending time with Americans?  </div> <bR> <div> When President Morris met with the Thonburi Elders he said,"look for Zion and when you find them you'll know it, they'll study and be baptized", he almost said "don't friendship them into the church as they'll just fall away later". On Friday the 12th I wrote, "Today Elder David Day (my cousin) arrived in Japan - I wonder how he'd doing?"</div> <bR> <div> Our mission was growing rapidly in terms of the number of missionaries - 51 when I arrived and now about 110 with 4 sister missionaries.  Missionaries were sent back to Nakorn Sawan the city where the furor over the pictures of the Elders sitting on the Buddha's all began 2 years ago. More of my group was becoming senior companions in fact at this point I think the last of the 11 (the native Thai in our group had quit his mission about 2 months after arrival in Thailand) reached that state.</div> <div>  </div> <div> <B>Week #58 - July 14-20, 1974 - Thonburi, Thailand</B></div> <bR> <div> On Sunday I did not feel well until after we ate dinner at 3pm. The members at church asked, "Why are you so serious today"? Also on Sunday we went home teaching. First we taught Brother Kao and his family. He is an artist by trade and many of his paintings have ended up in the United States as many missionaries have taken some home with them.  Elder O'Brian and I then split up with two brothers in the branch. Brother Kao and I visited a fairly well to do family who had joined the church years earlier. His name was Manod. He told us he was no longer interested - no testimony - no humility - we had a short lesson and Brother Kao gave a prayer. The other family we hoped to visit was not home. </div> <bR> <div> On P-day we went 40 miles west to visit the city of Nakorn Patom, home of the world's largest Jaydee. Jaydee is the Thai word for what we might call a pagoda. These were huge Buddhist structures (in the shape of a Hershey's kiss) often used as tombs for the most wealthy and powerful of the time. I guess the tomb would be for their ashes as Thai are cremated by custom. These structures were also said to house relics of Lord Buddha. We had a group of Elders in this town (another new city opened to missionary work) There I met companion #2 (in country) Elder Merritt who was busy teaching the maid to cook pancakes.  Elder Merritt was the best cook in the mission among the Elders. He shared his experiences opening that city. Many were like the experiences I had opening Chachoengsao, such as procuring a nice sign for the church to place outside our home.</div> <bR> <div> On the return to Thonburi we stopped at a resort area known as the Rose Garden. The gardens were beautiful, and there was a golf course (one of the few in Thailand at this time) across the street as well as a large modern hotel.  In the garden area the Thai teenagers go to do things they can't do elsewhere - such as "make-out". Such behavior in public is shameful but for some reason here in the Rose Garden the kids get away with such behavior.  Remember in Thai society you are never supposed to show emotion - positive or negative in public</div> <bR> <div> We started to teach a small family but the progress was quite slow with them. We had been instructed to look form families and try to approach them by sharing the Family Home Evening program. We also continued to teach the three sisters who continued to progress towards baptism. On Saturday they insisted that we join with them to visit the National Museum of Thailand. The Zone Leaders visited and spent a full day working with us. That visit went pretty well.  We found a referral at night no less way out in the coconut groves; just finding the place even with instructions was a faith promoting experience. President Morris assigned us a new filmstrip to provide the words and music to "How we got the Book of Mormon".  Elder O'Brian who was just one group behind me was becoming anxious over not being a senior companion and we had some arguments together about how to do things. He disliked how I "rolled my R's" when speaking Thai. He said, "Regular Thais don't do that why do you"? Saturday morning's we spent across the river at the large park by the Royal Palace known as Sanam Luang doing street meetings with other Elders. All this while I was struggling with sore throats that seemed to keep coming back to haunt me. July 20, 1974 was the fifth anniversary of the 1st manned moon landing.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Week #59 - July 21 - 27, 1974 - Thonburi, Thailand</B></div> <bR> <div> This was a week that I struggled with self-confidence.  The lack of it had always been a problem of mine. Perhaps it was related to the depression I suffer from and which runs in the family being passed down from my paternal grand-mother.  On Sunday I was also bothered by a cold and sore throat. Summer colds are always the worst, and in Thailand there is no such thing as winter.</div> <bR> <div> I had to attend church because I was giving the Priesthood lesson in the branch. The lesson seemed to go well even with my lack of full preparation. The Youdmongkol sisters and Brother Cheewin came for Sunday school, but I was disappointed that Bramuan and his family did not come as I had hoped.  We always measured the success of any week in Thailand, by who came to church to add to our small or non-existent congregations.</div> <bR> <div> After Church the Sisters followed us home. One the way they remarked at how bad my posture was. Needless to day this did not help my self-confidence any. I wrote, "I felt like crying, but I was too sick to cry". Upon arriving at our home, Elder O'Brien played some guitar, after which they suggested they go since they were hungry. I did a dumb thing and pled for them to stay until we finished the 2nd discussion. They did stay, but the teaching was useless as their heart was not into it.</div> <bR> <div> On P-day I felt somewhat better. We stayed close to home and I wrote several letters including a special one to Dad for his upcoming birthday. Later we went to see the nearby Temple of the Dawn which is right on the river. At the site is a huge Phra-brang another symbol of Buddhism. Inside one of the buildings there was a huge statue of Buddha. They place however was very dirty with bats flying all around. I wrote, "Judging by some temples Buddhism is dying". I made a commitment this day to work on improving my self-esteem and self-co0nfidence.</div> <bR> <div> Three sisters in Thonburi were preparing to leave for education at three different schools in the United States. We spent some time telling them about American customs and life at Universities in America.</div> <bR> <div> This is the rainy season in Thailand. Several evenings it rained so hard we couldn't really go anywhere nor do anything. It does not rain to often however during the daylight hours.</div> <bR> <div> On Wednesday we visited an investigator at her work in Bangkok. Her good friend had just joined the church. She told us she hated the fact that the missionaries kept changing. She told us the prior Elders were much better at explaining the gospel to her [another strike for my self-confidence]. She told us she wanted to wait a year and then resume the discussions. I suggested that might not be a good idea and she said, "Ok, how many more discussions are there?" This all left me wondering about her motives.</div> <bR> <div> For MIA Elder O'Brien had asked the new sister missionaries (health missionaries) to come and speak. For some reason he asked me to conduct the meeting. Many people attended including the Youdmongkol sisters. I felt great about the evening. It was a real positive for the investigators and me.</div> <bR> <div> On Thursday I received this very strange letter from home.  Mom wrote that she and Maryann Day had had strange dreams about me. It seemed from the letter that Mom thought I would be coming home earl from my mission. I shared the letter with Elder O'Brien who said, "That just means that I am going to do something bad and that we will both be going home because of it. So you had better watch me close". The report of these dreams really unsettled me. The thing that bothers me the most was that it seemed that Mom was really worried about it. So guess what our next appointment was? Yup, it was with the man whose occupation is "fortune teller". In the evening we met a Thai who was a Jehovah's Witness on the bus. She invited us to go visit her congregation. It was interesting to see another Christian congregation who met in a home. The instruction was on how to go out and share their materials from door to door. They also talked about parts of the Bible. The funny thing was that everything they said was false, like "No one has ever seen God". We left before their meeting concluded.</div> <bR> <div> On Friday afternoon as I was taking a nap. Sister Jiraphaa (one of the Youdmongkol sisters) came over and spoke with Elder O'Brien. She told him they had investigated other Christian churches and had decided that ours was the right one. She asked, "When can we be baptized"?  I was so sorry I had missed that discussion.</div> <bR> <div> On Saturday we had a street meeting in Bangkok. While on that side of the river we went to the mission office to get a copy of the new "Man's Search for Happiness". This is the version we had worked on supplying Thai dialog to.</div> <bR> <div> On the way back we stopped to donate blood. Mine was rejected. They said it "was not salty enough", or so that is what I could make out from their comments. This added to my worries about my health.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Week #60 - July 28-August 3, 1974 - Thonburi, Thailand</B></div> <bR> <div> The 6 Elders in Thonburi had 26 investigators out to church on Sunday - so many we could not fit them all in the investigators class in Sunday school. The 4 sisters we were teaching for some reason went to a protestant church before coming to ours. They asked them about the Book of Mormon and were told not to believe it. They were confused, some how they thought that all Christian religions believe the Book of Mormon. We also began teaching a boy Songpon whom I met him at a street meeting on Friday. He seemed to be sincerely interested.</div> <bR> <div> On P-day we traveled back to Chachoengsao to make a visit. This time I saw Chachoengsao as the small agricultural community that it really is and that made me feel better about the 5 months of effort that I performed at that location.  We visited the famous Buddhist temple there and took pictures of the Thai dancers who dance outside the temple. My companion Elder O'Brien was not so impressed with this famous Thai temple. We returned to Bangkok and went to the only place in the country that serves hamburgers.  For 40 cents it's wasn't bad.  We visited one of the 4 sisters at her college.  She invited us to English class.  We spent the hour teaching the class. It went ok, but more importantly it showed sister Oraphin that we cared about her.</div> <bR> <div> A doctor treated me for a fungus infection and as Elder O'Brien went to Cambodia I went part way stopped in Chachoengsao and worked the day with the Elders in my old town. They had a new maid there now who was no were near as good at American food. I found that the Elders were teaching two of the girls who came to church our very first Sunday December 30, 1973.  They said that they now had time to study where they didn't have time before.</div> <bR> <div> At a street meeting I met a Thai young man who actually knew that there was our church and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Now the Church of Christ)!  Wow you don't find that every day.  He was a Buddhist and told me that he planned to live a good enough life to go to heaven no matter whose God was the true God and that was pretty much his position. We talked for an hour and a half but he left firm in his present convictions.</div> <div>  </div> <div> <B>Week #61 - August 3-10, 1974 - Thonburi, Thailand</B></div> <bR> <div> One of the sisters in Thonburi bore her testimony prior to leaving to study in America. We saw her off at the airport on P-day as she departed.  There were lots of people there to wish her well. Since missionaries had only been here 6 years I thought it was pretty good that we had members going to study at Church College of Hawaii (now BYU Hawaii). Later that day one of the 3 sisters asked me to read a letter to the Elder I had replaced on my last transfer. The letter said "I'm sorry you cannot stay in Thailand until I am baptized at the end of this month!" Wow where did she get that idea? She's only had 2 discussions so far. It was exciting to see she was already interested in baptism. The next day she came to ask when she could be baptized and we explained what was left to be accomplished before she could enter the waters of baptism. Ok so when can I be baptized? She persisted I told her that Elder O'Brian and I thought that October 5th was the proper date. She said "ok that's my birthday we will do it then!" The end of the week brought rumors and then confirmation that I'd be leaving Thonburi and the big city with real members that I had just become accustomed to for Ayuthaya.  This just as the sisters would be finishing school and have time to study the discussions. I was somewhat distraught that just as the big teaching opportunity came (and the remaining Elders didn't know the discussions) I was on my way back to the country. I was excited that I would be a companion with a native Thai Elder Mani. One of the sisters asked me to come back to Bangkok and baptize her. I told her that if President Morris allowed it I would do so.</div> <bR> <div> I'm surprised that I did not write about it in my journal but this was also the week that President Nixon resigned as President of the United States.  We learned of this event by seeing headlines in the newspapers along the side of the street one-day.  I also noted that it was very difficult to find addresses in the big city. One night we spent 3 hours looking up a contact from a street meeting. If it were not for inspiration from the Lord we could have never found the address, it was a miracle that we did find it in the end.</div> <div>  </div> <div> <B>Week #62 - August 11-17, 1974 - Thonburi & Ayuthaya, Thailand</B></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="473" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 348 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="097c2560.jpg" border=0 width="450" height="342" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 57 WIDTH="461"><div> Elder Haslam with the Youdmongkol Sisters in the front yard of our home in Thoinburi, Thailand. Left to right Oraphin, Gridsanaa, and  Jiraphaa</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> August 11th marked the start of my 2nd year in Thailand. I thought back to our arrival when no one showed up at the airport to meet us. Two people I'd taught one or more lessons had joined the church Awiroot in Bangkok and DogThead (Brother Ken's wife) in Udorn. I was not present for either baptism. I said goodbye to the congregation in Thonburi on Sunday.  Many were sad to see me leave and at that time I was sad to be leaving the big city that I liked because hey we had some members in the big city! August 12th is the Queen's birthday. We celebrated my 1-year in Thailand and Elder O'Brian's one year as a missionary. I still had a full week before my transfer to Ayuthaya.  We spent time at the office making 25 copies of that tapes we had produced for the film strips "Meet the Mormons" and "Man's search for Happiness" We had some good investigators in addition to the 3 Youdmongkol sisters. We had a boy Chanchay who was progressing well and we met his parents this week. He lives a long way south of where we lived and even further from the other Elder's home where church is held. Another young man who was studying was Somgphon. They were both making good progress and were sincere investigators.  We also met with Pramuan and his family. They were struggling to understand what we'd been teaching them. We reviewed the plan of salvation and they asked, "Is resurrection like reincarnation?" We'll ok this family is going to take a long time to prepare for baptism if they continue long enough. Next weekend was Central District conference for all Thai members in the Bangkok and the nearby cities like Chachoengsao, Chonburi and Ayuthaya.</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>