June 13, 2017
Dear
Begetter,
This we really has flown
by! And I'm getting transferred! I'm going to the north, and I told mom about
it in my last email, so I let her give you the details! Anyway, it's crazy that
everyone is coming from and going off to their missions! It is especially great
to hear that Tyler is going on his for the right reasons, and even better that
Ryan and Hannah were willing to come and listen to his farewell talk! I felt
like that is something that can do them both good!
It's so great that Aunt
Teri was able to get married! I'm super happy for her and for Chris! Tell them
I want to visit them when I get back!
So I was serving in
Samutprakan (booty of Bangkok) but I just got last minute transferred to Chiang
Rye (up in the north) because an Elder up there broke his wrist and can no
longer ride his bike! So I'm going up to replace him! He might be up there to
go vacation, because it is full of a ton of pretty hikes!
I'll figure out how to
give you permission to view my photos, google drive is weird sometimes!
Freak I'm running low on
time, but it was great writing you. What questions I blanked on in this email,
I sent to Mom, Sorry I didn't write you more, I still have to pack like crazy!
I'll write you Monday!
Respectfully yours,
Elder Latimer
June 18, 2017
Dad!
It's Fathers day!
Thank you for your great
example! I can't wait to thank you in person in about a year! Oh and by the
way, I made a typo. I'm going to Chiang Mai (not Chiang Rye). But, I'm still in
the North, so I'll still be able to send some pretty dope photos! The people up
here are nice, well the Thai people (the white people are either really nice
or, you know, not really that nice) nice! They are more than willing to just
talk with us on the streets! This will be a great transfer for missionary
work. I can already tell!
I will in fact be on my
old bike! The breaks don't work, the seat falls off and the wheels are bare,
but it still gets me where I need to go! As for my comp, I wish that I could
say we were equal in proficency, but in reality, he's way skilled and I'm just
hoping that some of that will rub off on me haha.
I hope that your Father’s
day was great! Too bad I can't skype you on that day too! But at least I can
email you the night of! I'm excited to hear that Josh and Lettie’s wedding is coming
up on the rise! Be sure to send me some pictures after the ceremony is all set
and done! Oh and tell Jake not to get married ‘till I come back, so I don't
have to miss out on any of these other opportunities!
I think that I already
told mom, that A new micro Sd card would be nice. I was planning on getting an
inexpensive go pro so that I could take some high quality photos to send home
in the upcoming couple of weeks!
Aside from that I don't
have much to share! My comp and I are white washing in, so a lot of our
progress so far has been meeting with members and getting lost along the way,
but hopefully in a week or two, I'll have everything under raps!
June 25, 2017
Hey
Dad! I saw the pictures! It looks awesome! I'm glad they're both happy!
It sounds like it was an
awesome ceremony! Tell them I wish them the best, and tell Lettie that I give
my condolences for the loss of her pig, and it's so cool that you guys made a
dance floor for the occasion. Send me some more pictures! From what I've seen
the entire set up looks beautiful. I can't wait to see wait to see where Josh
and Lettie are when I get back! They sound really good for each other!
I may have met Brother
Murray but at the moment I'm not too sure who he is! I'll keep an eye out, but
since Elder Hanks is the DL we are usually scrambling around after church to
meet up with people!
Anyway, Chaing Mai is
different from most area's because of, well, WHITE PEOPLE! Most of them are
pretty okay, because they are just vacationing up here, but there are plenty of
rotten ones as well! I've already had an opportunity to talk (it was more like
getting yelled at) with Baptist preachers. So I'm going to have a lot of fun
with that (YAY BIBLE BASHING)! Other than that, since the ward I am in consists
of a decent amount to white people who don't speak Thai, my comp and I have to
translate (Elder Hanks has humbly taken most of that burden) but there are
times where I have to translate too, and those are always interesting
experiences. There are times when I am trying to speak the English translation,
that I end up missing something crucial, to which, I just make up something
that fits the context. So basically, I'm just preparing a bunch of impromptu
talks! I'll find some fun things to do to make it less awkward in the future.
Anyway, I still don't
have too many pics (we haven't gone to any cool p-days yet) but I have a few
I'm going to send over. And I'm getting a Go-Pro today! It's not one of the
higher quality ones it's, I think, a specter 5, but from what I've heard, it
still takes great videos! I'm going to make a small catalog of videos that I
can use to make a compilation video of my mission! An Elder who finished his
mission already made one, and it looks awesome!
I'll send those over in
a little bit!
Best of luck on the ride
home!
- Elder Latimer!
July 2, 2017
Hey
Dad!
Thanks for the early 4th
greetings! The lake sounds as good as ever! It seems like it'll be exciting to
have Josh and Lettie back up again after their honeymoon! I hope they had a lot
of fun, Mexico sounds like a great place, and from what I can see, Josh and
Lettie seem really good together!
Chiang Mai is pretty
dope! I almost got to see Brother Everton while I was up here. He was up at the
church while I was on switch offs in the ZL's house right next to the church,
but he left before I finished eating, so I didn't get to see him. It's all good
though because Chiang Mai is still pretty cool. We are still working on finding
some solid candidates for baptism, but it's a little hard at the moment, since
we whitewashed in, but we'll figure it out! We have like one or two people who
are potentially there, one of them is sister Nam, who has learned with the
sisters before she was given off to us. She seems way solid, we just have to
teach her all the lessons and then have her baptized and confirmed! She's way
cool though! The only problem is that the member we have pick her up from
church has flaked out a couple of times and given us some lame excuses (somehow
the fact that it was raining made it super inconvenient for her to pick our
investigator up, even though they live super close to each other, and she
drives a car with a roof). We'll figure something out though!
I'll check out that talk
by Holland! I'm sure it's gonna be great, he's one of my favorite speakers!
Well, I'm all out of
things to write about at the moment! I'll try and send some pictures of my
recent excursion to the mountains! But until next week wish you the best!
Warm regards
- Elder Latimer
July 9, 2017
Hey
Dad, Happy Birthday!
Your 50! Congrats on the
milestone what's it like being so close to จบiชีวิต (dying) or just จบชีวิต (death) if you want to
look it up on google translate! I'm sorry I wasn't there to see it, but I'm
sure it was a lot of fun! And your new guitar sounds sweet! I can't wait to see
how well you play it when I get back!
Mom told me all about
the reception, and it sounds wonderful! I can't wait to see the pictures! Is
Jake coming home for the summer, or is he staying up in Idaho?
I'm glad that You and
Mom found a way to implement me into Josh and Lettie’s home life!
The lake sounds as
fantastic as ever, and I'm glad that family was able to have a fun time up at
the lake! I didn't really have a change to celebrate an American Fourth of
July, but I did go out and eat Mexican food with my comp to celebrate the
occasion, we also had all of our students participate in an American culture
night during English class. I'll send you some videos!
Thank you for sending
me the link to that talk! Be sure to send me a copy of yours too! I can't wait
to see it!
Things are alright in
Chiang Mai at the moment. My comp's the DL, so we always have plenty to keep us
busy, but if work becomes too much of a grind, I just play a game called
"Maybe they're just friends". The way to play is simple, find a
really old white guy, with a really young Thai Girl, and say to yourself,
"Maybe they're just friends". There is no shortage of
"friends" in Chiang Mai, so I always have plenty to keep my morale
up.
Well I wish you and Mom the best!
Happy birthday again,
have fun being old!
Warm Regards
- Elder Latimer
July 18, 2017
Hey
Dad,
Things in Thailand are
great as always, yesterday we taught some monks, a guy who fights roosters, and
our recent convert’s baptism. Sorry I don't usually write home about
investigators. For my last area and this one we don't really have too many
serious investigators. It's not that we don't have people who meet with us and
set up a return appointment. The problem is that no one actually meets us on
those set days. In Thailand, they have a pretty common thing here which is
known as the feeling of "Grayn Jai". It's a bit hard to translate
into English but I believe that it could be widdled down to a feeling of guilt
or shame.
In Thailand, this
feeling is felt mostly when being asked to do something, such as accepting to
discuss religion with the missionaries. In the moment, they don't necessarily
want to decline, because it will make them feel bad, which leads them to learn
with us which is great, and in the moment, it will also lead them the set up a
return appointment, which is also great. Unfortunately, the amount of times we
have an investigator who actually does show up to a return appointment is
pretty small. There are few other major stumbling blocks in Thailand, but I
don't want this letter to be too negative, so I'll end this paragraph on a
positive note. We have one Investigator,
Sister G, Who seems pretty solid at the moment. She is the wife of one of our
RC's Brother Cheen, and she is very willing to learn. For the most part, she is
open to learn about all religions and so we just have to help her see why ours
is special. It helps to that her husband is already a member. He's been pretty
funny about the whole scenario too, and he told us "If she doesn't get
baptized, I'll just marry someone else". I couldn't tell if he was joking
our not, but still, classic Brother Cheen.
A day alone at the house
sounds pretty swell, I hope it was peaceful and all is well!
Your talk sounds
awesome, be sure to send it over if you get the chance. Also you have the
original transcript for the BoM? Is there anyway of sending a digital version
to me? Don't feel too bad if the youth didn't seem to pay attention, if I have
learned anything from serving in Thailand or from being a youth myself, it is
that we (or they) hardly listen.
Glad to hear all is well
on the home front, let's hope it stays that way!
Well, to counteract the
negativity in the first part of my letter, I feel like I should at least leave
off on something positive. The members here in Thailand are awesome. We
have some youth here, who are very willing to help us teach, or help us with
other things whether it be finding our way around the area, or even helping us
with language. We also have some members who are very helpful when it comes to
helping the missionaries with the work. We have one or two in our branch right
now who have helped us set up service projects, driven our investigators to
church, and have helped us teach. It just shows what a blessing people are who
have decided to continue serving the Lord after Baptism.
Well that's about all
for this week.
Wish you well
- Elder Latimer
P.S Please let me know
if there is a way to send over a digital copy of the BOM! it sounds really
interesting!
PSS: Oh yeah and I got hit by a car. Basically I was biking
past the exiting turn out of a mall, and a lady pulled out without looking.
After being hit, she rolled down her window to see what was up. I told her I
was alright and that everything was okay, which she took to mean that she was
free of all legal responsibility, so she drove off. Since then, my bike has
been totaled, the chain and gears are wrecked, the rim is bent beyond repair
but still works. I have some great videos which should illustrate how I have
been getting around recently. I may need to get some money for a new bike
though. haha. I'm all good though, I wasn't hit super hard, I just suffered a
few bruises. I guess there's a reason why stereotypes exist.
July 26, 2017
Hey
Dad, what's up!?!
Things haven't changed
too much in Chaing Mai, we had one person leave to go AP, but aside from that,
everything is the same. We have one investigator is probably going to be
baptized this week, Sister G, and she is pretty dope. She is the wife of
Brother Cheen, an RC of ours. She hasn't had her interview yet, but I see no
major snags that would keep her from getting baptized.
We have another
investigator who is pretty solid except for the fact that she hasn't really had
a discussion with the missionaries yet. She has, however, gone to church, our
English class, and sports night. We are still going to try and meet with her,
so we'll see where that goes!
Sorry for the short
letter, but I'm in a rush because my time is about to run out!
Wish you the best
- Elder Latimer
July 30, 2017
Sup
Dad! It's all good! We had emailed later than usual because we went to go site
see a mountain. We did a lot of cool stuff up there but by the time we came
down, p-day was almost over, and I didn't have a lot of emails. Don't worry,
I'll send you and mom some videos to make up for it. The reason I haven't been
sending a lot, is because the computer cafe here is pretty slow so it's hard to
send videos and stuff like that, but as for google drive, I think if you want
any of the stuff up there, you might want to download it and store it on the
mac, because I'm going to have to delete it soon! My google account is running
out of space!
My Investigator Sister G
got baptized yesterday, which is awesome! She seems pretty excited and is wayyy
solid. Her husband talked a little bit in our Sunday school class and he
said that he had been saving up money for six years so that him and his wife
could go to the Hong Kong temple and be sealed after she was baptized. I
thought that was super cool.
Glad to hear that
everything is going well in the home front. I hope that all goes well at your
various camp activities!
I haven't heard much
from Jake about Hailey, but I'm glad that they are still going strong. Tell him
if he gets married before I come home, I'll kill him. Also from what I've
heard, Lettie and Josh are doing fantastic. Lettie actually wrote me today, and
told me about a cool spiritual experience that she had last week. It seems that
everything is going well for them both.
I'm super excited to
approach my year mark. I still don't feel super experienced, but my comp has
told me some stuff that I can do better on, so I'm going to try and work more
on that this transfer to continue improving!
I'll be sure to remember
to write Josh on his birthday, and let me know if there is anything you want
from Thailand! A member going to America is bringing some Ties back for You,
Josh, Jake, and Tyler, as well as a skirt for mom, those should get to you in a
couple weeks! I have more too send, but I didn't want my stuff to take up too
much space in his luggage!
As always,
Wish you the best
- Elder Latimer
PS: Here are some
pictures from an activity that we had at our investigator Sister Rita's house.
We just came to say hi and bounce, but then we met that LA RM so we stayed for
a while. It was actually way dope because the white other white guy and him
served the same mission together, so they really hit if off! not to mention him
and his wife are also really good friends with our investigator. To be honest,
I'm not sure how interested she is in religion, I think she comes to church and
activities because she's been fellowshiped so hard. Also there was beer there,
but it's all good because no one had any.
