December 18, 2016

Elder Jesse Bundy gets a new companion, enjoys a full schedule of teaching new investigators and has fun at the ward Christmas party.

"Hello everyone!  I am LOVING my mission......I have a new companion.  His name is Elder Smith.  He is from Alpine, Utah, a blast to be around, is super obedient and I love working with him!  He has been out about a year and five months.  I asked him if he had seen my great-great-great Grandpa Edmund Nelson's statue in Alpine?  He said that Edmund was also his 3rd great grandpa!?!  Small world.....It is possible we are related.....hahaha.  Anyway, we are going to tear it up!  We already have investigators coming out the wazoo......and I am SO excited!"

"This week has been crazy.  Elder Rogers went home on Wednesdayish and I got hooked up with Elder Smith.  Since that first day, we have been super busy!  We have SO many new investigators!  It's just been AWESOME!  On Sunday, Brother Jay received the Holy Ghost and Bank and Jay brought a bunch of their friends to church.  On Saturday, the ward had a Christmas party.....there were quite a few people there as the Relief Society President brought some great friends and Bank and Jay brought their whole school basically....hahaha!  There was DELICIOUS food and great introductions to the Savior.  The presentation was a little weird though?!?...lolol.  With nobody being a member of the church for very long, the Christmas story got a little distorted....oops.  Nothing we can't correct through our teaching, and we WILL correct it.....But all in all, it was a great party."

"Elder Smith and I found some very interested investigators on the side of the road....just hangin around....hahaha."

"The other day, we met Brother Bank's parents.  Turns out, they are muslim and he was raised with 2 moms.....(his Dad has 2 wives).  Wow...that was a shocker!  I've known him for a while now and been meeting with him weekly for a while and he never mentioned it...I'm just beginning to understand the sacrifice it must have been for him to not only read the Book of Mormon but then to meet with us weekly, pray and gain a testimony and then follow through and get baptized!  He is a really special guy....."

"These next couple of pictures are some of the sights around Pattaya City.  For a place that has so many evil things happening in it, it has some really great people and the beach isn't so bad either..."

"This is a restaurant we ate in last week.  The food was really great....I thought you'd enjoy the picture on the wall that was the focal point when you walk in..."

"I love talking with these street vendors!  They are eager to listen to what I have to say and always let me try out whatever they are selling....hahaha.  These past couple of days I have been congested and have had a sore throat.  Being sick really stinks, but I think I'm getting over it.  I have also been exercising faithfully.  I think that that is helping me get over it as much as anything else." 

The beach in Pattaya City....

"This incredible sound system was in the bed of some guy's truck!"

"WOW!  I am exactly 90 days away from being released!  I just can't believe how fast the time has flown by.....I think I'll do P90X to finish out the mission in my workouts....haha.  Don't worry Mom!  I've been taking my daily vitamin.  I'm feeling a ton better, just a little more tired than usual.  I think I'm past the worst of it and on the mend."

"The missionary work is going extremely well.  I'm getting excited for what's to come.  I think Smith and I are going to really kill it this next couple of weeks.  Transfers are in 2 weeks from now.  AND ...next week is Christmas!  We'll get to Skype!  Remember, that will be at 7 p.m. Missouri time on Sunday night.  Awesome!  That's the plan then.  Well, I need to get going.  I love you guys.  Thanks for all that you do!  I am seriously SO thankful for this opportunity I am having on the mission!  See you next week!"

Elder Jesse A. Bundy

December 11, 2016

Brother Bank baptizes his best friend, Brother Jay!!

"YESTERDAY WAS THE BEST DAY EVER!  Brother Bank baptized Brother Jay!  I can't describe the peace and excitement in finally seeing Brother Jay get baptized!  The spirit was so strong.....these two guys are so incredible.  Their testimonies are solid.....they are going to be great leaders someday."

"It has been another great week of teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Bangkok Thailand!  I got a real lesson on last minute catering...hahaha.  This past Wednesday, we had catering all planned out for the training conference.  But when we went for interviews with President Johnson on Tuesday, the people we had set everything up with called and cancelled on us!  I had a brief panicky moment as I began calling all over Bangkok to find a place that could feed 40 people with one days notice.....After several hours, I eventually found a premium sandwich shop that was able to pull things together for me.....they did a really good job, everything worked out and I learned to always have a back-up plan."

"We had an early Christmas party at Zone Conference.  We had a white elephant gift exchange and watched the movie, 'What a Wonderful Life.'  It was pretty fun.....Can you believe I'm gonna be 20 years old soon!  I'm so old!......hahaha.  I also went on switch-offs with a brand new greenie, Elder Miyagi.  He is a professional model/actor.  He is in a bunch of church videos.....hahaha.  He is also in the church's new Christmas initiative, 'Light the World.'  We had a hard time doing any work because everyone on the street wanted to take a picture with him....hahaha.  It was a lot of fun..."    

 "Elder Rogers gets on a plane Friday.  That means that I will probably get my new companion on Thursday.   Rogers and about 3 other Elders are going home about 2 weeks early for Christmas.  Apparently, missionaries can either shorten or extend their missions by two weeks if they let their mission president know a year before.  HEY......We get to skype for Christmas next week!  I can't wait to see and talk to everyone!"  

 "This morning, I read Mormon, Chapter 9 in the Book of Mormon. All I can say is, miracles never stop baby!!!  I've been studying a lot in the Bible in the book of Matthew leading up to the Christmas season.  I've been pairing it with Jesus the Christ.  I LOVE IT!  Everyday, I am finding gems in the scriptures......like in Moroni, Chapter 6 that talks about baptism.  At our leadership training conference, we talked about having righteous desires....mainly, to love God.  I also had a great interview with my Mission President...."

"Finding has just been a little slow because of the official mourning period after the recent state funeral.  We have not been allowed to invite at the big malls, markets or big gatherings.  That was just lifted about 5 days ago.....we still have to be careful and overly respectful about the situation over here.  But.....it's good to get back to work."

"Today is Elder Hunt's birthday, so we are going to go downtown and some other missionaries and do something.  It sounds like it should be pretty fun....man, I really miss you guys, but I'm also really sad about my mission ending...I'm just staying focused, trying to work hard and not think about it."

"Well Mom, my time is up....don't worry about the packages.  I'm sure I'll get them soon.  I am really missing you guys.  Tell everyone I love them.  Talk to ya next week."

Elder Jesse A. Bundy  

December 5, 2016

Elder Jesse Bundy experiences miracles and attends a great Zone Training meeting while teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Thailand

"Hello everyone!  Everyday, my mission just gets better and better....and dang!  It's almost over!!  We had our Zone Training meeting this past week and it was awesome.....we talked about staying focused and working hard.  Elder Rogers and I didn't have time to do the trainings individually with everyone in our zone like usual, so we made a 'training video.'  I am finishing it up today so we can get it out to our missionaries."

"Sunday, we experienced a huge miracle!  We have been working with a couple of investigators who we thought would never accept the gospel let alone come to church.  But......they ended up coming to church on Sunday and we had an amazing experience.......First, I want to tell you about Tommy.  He is an older gentleman that is extremely set in his ways, has a great sense of humor and is our Ward Mission Leader's good friend.  We have tried everything to answer his questions and help him feel the spirit and get him to read the Book of Mormon to no avail.  Every time we've invited him to an activity or to Church, he always tells us that it is the 'rainy season' and he can't go - even though he owns a car."

"This past week, we called him because it is considered the cold season now.  We set up an appointment to give him a lesson.  I taught him while on a switch-off with another Elder.  Immediately, I knew something was different.  I knew that the Holy Ghost had been working on him!  By being persistent and remembering him in our prayers everyday, I know the Lord blessed us....the Spirit was SO strong as we discussed the gospel and he finally accepted the challenge to read the Book of Mormon and come to church!  So Sunday, he actually came to church.....We taught him afterward and he wants to get baptized on Christmas day!!" 

"Our next miracle is a man by the name of Rangsaan.  This guy is extremely smart and wealthy.  I have talked about him a little bit before.  He is the one that graduated from BYU and is the CEO of a very large company over here.  Anyway, we have been teaching him consistently once a week for a while now.  Even with his very tight and busy schedule, he has always taken the time to meet with us.  I know he enjoys meeting with us to learn more about the scriptures and the Savior.  He has told us that he knows the Gospel is true, but has several obstacles he needs to overcome.....time, culture and his wife's lack of understanding of the gospel.  He finally committed to come to church because it was going to be Elder Rogers 2nd to the last Sunday before he goes home and he really wanted to see him come to church before he leaves.  Sunday came and he CAME!  He is very well known here, so the Stake President, Bishop and everyone really welcomed him!  It was incredible!

"Then, of course Brother Bank and Brother Jay were there.  Sadly, Brother Jay's baptism has been postponed until next week......they are doing just AWESOME!  Did I tell you that Brother Bank is going to be able to baptize Brother Jay?  I just LOVE the everyday miracles I am getting to experience while finding and teaching....."

"Elder Rogers and I had a real adventure last Friday.  We caught a taxi to a new investigator's house to teach them the first discussion. (Another miracle!)  Anyway.....we were eating lunch afterward and I noticed that Elder Rogers had a funny look on his face?  He said, "Do you want to see what I have?"  I said, "yeah....."  He pulled out a passport of some random white guy he had found between the seats in the taxi!  All I thought was that we needed to help the poor guy out that lost his passport!"  

"We immediately called the mission home and spoke to the Elder that handles passports for our mission.  We all agreed that we needed to take the passport to the airport and see if we could locate this guy!  As we were about to leave the restaurant, Elder Rogers said, "Elder Bundy, I found something else...."  I just thought what in the world else could he have found with a passport? Then he pulled out an envelope with stacks of $100 dollar bills inside!!!  There were 15 of them!"

"I was really concerned for the poor guy who had lost the passport and the money!  We went immediately to the airport and began looking for this guy.  We knew what he looked like and we had his name from his passport.....we even had him paged several times.  After a little over an hour of looking, searching flights and paging him, we were pretty discouraged because he never showed up or answered any of the pages.  So we decided to take everything to the tourism police inside the airport."

"While we were locating the tourism police, a CRAZY Russian guy passed out on the floor right in front of us!  As we started to pass by him, he grabbed my leg and started screaming, "Oh God, save me...Jesus please save me!"  He was securely attached to my right leg!  I became slightly alarmed and a bit afraid that he might bite me......I didn't want to be rude, but I had to remove myself from his grasp...hahaha!  There was no reasoning with him and I don't speak russian.....  We finally located the police and turned over the passport and the envelope full of money to them in hopes they could locate the guy, or get it to the embassy for us.....I'm not gonna lie, as we left it with them I kept thinking, "they are just going to keep it!"  But, at least we did everything we could do to get it to the rightful owner."

"After we turned in the passport and money, one of the policeman let me ride his cycle.  Here is my impression of 'The Mall Cop,' hahaha....."

"Later, we are going to go to the trampoline place and have some fun.  We'll also get all of our chores done, laundry, shopping, etc.  All that fun stuff we don't have time for during the week."

 "How do I look?  Nope, I really haven't changed much......I still enjoy my unique 'style!'"

"Well Mom.....I am way out of time!  Just know that my testimony grows more and more each and every day!  I love teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to these people!  I really enjoy working with the missionaries.....I am so thankful for this opportunity."

"I have to go......talk to you again next week.  I love you guys!"

Elder Jesse A. Bundy

November 27, 2016

Elder Jesse Bundy and Elder Rogers get help sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is reunited with friends at a three stake Stake Conference creating the brand new Bangkok West Stake and prepares to host a missionary training.  

"Hello!  This week has just flown by!  So much to do and so little time left to do it in.  So the other day, Elder Rogers and I were inviting at a market.  We met these three amazing boys.   They helped us stop people so Rogers and I could tell them about Jesus Christ.  Every time we were successful, we all did a little dance together!  We had a really good time...."

Elder Jesse Bundy, Elder Rogers with their new friends posing after doing a victory dance.

"Yesterday, we attended a three stake - Stake Conference.  They took three stakes and created the Bangkok West Stake!  The Church is really growing here.  It is so exciting to see how Heavenly Father works as he prepares a place and its people for the blessings of the temple.  It was INCREDIBLE to see people from all over Thailand.....especially from areas I served in last year.  It was an amazing, spiritually uplifting conference...."

Elder Jesse Bundy,  Elder Earl and Elder Holland.

"It was so fun to catch up with my son, Elder Earl (missionaries call the Elders they train, their son), with his new trainee, Elder Holland, (which would be Jesse's grandson in the mission).  And no, he is no relation to the Apostle, Jeffrey R. Holland.  I think he gets that question all the time, poor guy.  These other pictures are of me with some of the other Elders here in Ladgrabang.  They are a great group of hard working missionaries.." 

Elder Jesse Bundy with his current companion, Elder Rogers

"The work here is going really well.  We would have had a baptism yesterday, but it wasn't a normal Sunday because of Stake Conference.  So Brother Jay will get baptized next week instead...."

"This next picture was taken at the Stake President's house.  It was sooooooo cool!  He taught Brother Jay and Brother Bank about the Priesthood and told them that they will be great leaders here in the future!  It was an amazing experience and the spirit was so strong."

Elder Rogers, the Stake President and Brother Jay and Brother Bank

"Brother Bank is one of our recent converts, and it is incredible to watch him continue to learn and grow in the gospel!  In fact, next week, he is going to baptize Brother Jay!  I can't wait......"

"These next couple of pictures are of Elder Rogers and I teaching at the Church......"

"So, I was reading about the Prophet Joseph Smith the other day.  Did you know that he was submitted to be inducted into the Wrestling Hall of Fame?  He was never put in, but he was considered.  Apparently, he was incarcerated with some champion wrestler and beat him!  They say he never lost a wrestling match....pretty cool."

"Our Zone is doing well......we have set some really high goals that have been hard to reach, but we are steady and everyone is working really hard......"

"Well, I have to run......I'm doing really well.  I am LOVING my mission!  It just seems to get better and better every day.  Of course I've had my ups and downs, but I am really loving all of it...."

Elder Jesse A. Bundy

November 21, 2016

Brother Bank gets baptized!  

Elder Jesse Bundy goes to a lantern festival and finds a Burger King this week as he teaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ to people in Thailand

Elder Rogers, Elder Jesse Bundy and Brother Bank

"Brother Bank got baptized!  It was an AWESOME baptism and just a great Sunday all the way around.  To make things even better, Jay is scheduled to be baptized next week...I am SO grateful to be a missionary!  It just gets better and better...."  

"The next several pictures show the building of a 'Missionary-Investigator Tower of Strength'.....hahahaha.....We just really enjoyed the day......I am so excited about Brother Bank and what a solid member he will be to his Ward and Bishop here in Bangkok!"

Elder Jesse Bundy, Elder Rogers and Brother Bank...the

 'Missionary-Member Tower of Strength,' haha

"Things were high speed, filled with hard work and lots of fun this week!  We were blessed to teach some really great lessons with Brother Bank in preparing him for his baptism.  We also began teaching some really special people.  One of them is a man by the name of Tony Chan.  He is so interesting and is really soaking up our discussions.  He was so kind and treated us to a steak dinner while we taught him the other day!"

"Then there is a Brother Rangsan.  He is well to do and extremely intelligent.  He is reading the scriptures like a book of history facts.....it's awesome and I LOVE talking to him!  After our lesson on the atonement, he really opened up.  He is also a BYU graduate!  It's a small world....."

"As far as the entire zone goes, we are doing so much better, but we still have a ways to go to meet our goals.  Slowly but surely, with more hard work, continued faith and a lot of prayer, we'll get there."

 "We found a BURGER KING!! It was sooooo good.......and Mom, don't look at this huge bowl of ice cream...hahaha!"

"I held onto the Burger King crown.....later I crowned Brother Geea the King of all Ward Mission Leaders....lolol!  But really, he is an awesome Ward Mission Leader."

 "This poster hangs in Brother Jump's school, the one we go teach in.  Translated it says, 'Good children have manners, dress cleanly and always speak sweetly.'  That's my motto!"

"While we were out street contacting, we came across this guy sleeping on a bench.  I tried to talk to him, but he was too tired."

"He had a guitar lying there......so, you know me?  He allowed me to play it for him.....hahaha."

"Last Monday, Thailand celebrated what they call the 'Lantern Festival.'  We were invited by Brother Bird to go with him and his family.  He is the one who got baptized last week..." 

"There were so many people there!  We released these lanterns into the river with candles on them and made wishes.  It was a really beautiful sight....Here is a picture of the one I made and released."

Brother Bank, one of his kids, Elder Rogers and Elder Jesse Bundy at the Lantern Festival.

"It was so incredibly packed with people!  We really had a great time and enjoyed spending time with Brother Bank and his family."

"Today, we are going to the mall to pick up some supplies and look around.  I also need to get some more pants cut and made.  I know, I rip my pants often over here....hahaha."

"Well, I don't have much time left.  I really miss you guys!  I love you and I'll talk to you next week."

Elder Jesse A. Bundy