This is the conversion story of Kanokphol Young Limpanasriphong. English is his third language, so it’s pretty impressive that he was able to write this out. It has not been edited to keep it in the original wording he used, just to make it more authentic. The images used were also taken by Young himself. We hope it inspires you as much as it inspired us.
image via whatsoeverisgood.com
If you would ask me what can change people, I would tell you a story of my own to answer that question. I am from Thailand and I grew up in Mainland China. I am a super happy kid. My family isn’t big, just my parents and one younger brother, and we were Buddhist. Both of my parents are wonderful people, they raised me in love and good manner. Everyday my parents would ask me to study the Buddhist scripture, at the age of 6 I would pray daily, and sit down in the worship room at night to read the scriptures. One day I was about to pray at night just as usual, and a thought occurred to me—why do I have to recite the same prayer every time, why can’t I say whatever is deep down in my heart? So that night, I tried something different, in my heart I said to the higher being of my thanks, gratitude, and blessings that I wish could be granted unto my family. I felt peaceful.
Years gone by, I continued to be a good Buddhist. I was very blessed by this religion, my family would go travel and worship in different Buddhist temples. I’ve written articles that were published in the Buddhist Magazine in China, and visited hundreds of temples at the age of 14. I enjoyed learning from some of the most well-known monks in China, Thailand and Taiwan. At one point I thought about becoming a monk to go serve others.
When I was about 16, I had the opportunity to join an exchange student organization called “Face the World”. The program will assign students from Thailand to live in an American family for a year. Before I came to the States, I had the opportunity to choose where do I want to go in the US, I happily decided on California, New York and Texas. couple weeks later I sadly found out that I got assigned to Utah. I quickly grabbed my laptop and found out that there were only two things in this place so called “Wu Ta”, mountains, and Mormons. I thought my life was doomed.
But for some reason I decided to…
Read the full story on Whatsoever is Good.
