BANGKOK, Thailand — While the Bangkok Thailand Temple may be new to this Southeast Asia nation with its dedication on Sunday, Oct. 22, the roots of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints run deep — more than a half-century — and span four generations in many families.
From the first Church meeting held in 1968 to a 1978 courtship proposal statement of “I am a Latter-day Saint,” Latter-day Saints enjoy a fruitful past. And from a pair of young-adult converts preparing to be among the first couples sealed in the new Bangkok temple to parents of fourth-generation member children, Latter-day Saints look to a promising future.
And prompting the looking back and forward is the historic, present-day event — Sunday’s dedication of the Bangkok Thailand Temple by Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Here are several brief historical anecdotes, recollections and anticipations from Thai Latter-day Saints.
‘I am a Latter-day Saint’
After a year of exchanging letters and photos interspersed with gospel messages in trying to create an acquaintance and possible courtship, Somchit Choysrakoo got dressed in his best clothes and first introduced himself personally to his future wife in 1978, who lived in a small village 10 hours outside of Bangkok. The first words out of his mouth were “I am a Latter-day Saint.”
Kesorn and Somchit Choysrakoo smile at each other as they describe how they met as they talk at the home of their son, Apichat Choysrakoo, in Bangkok, Thailand, on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
And now, 45 years later, Kesorn Choysrakoo recalls how strange that sounded coming from someone from the predominantly Buddhist country.
“She had no idea what that meant,” Somchit Choysrakoo said. “It meant that I am a Christian.”
Choysrakoo was a taxi driver who, in the spring of 1976, had picked up two foreigners on the streets of Bangkok, Thailand. He soon learned the pair were American full-time missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — and he almost as quickly learned of the gospel and later that year accepted the invitation to be baptized.
In fact, his baptism came on Christmas Day, and he went straight from the meetinghouse font and on to portray a wise man in the branch’s reenactment of the Savior’s birth that was being held. He was the oldest of eight siblings, with family to covert to the faith later — including his father, making it two Latter-day Saint generations of Choysrakoos.
The year after his baptism, Somchit Choysrako started a long-distance acquaintance with a young woman — Kesorn Sang-gnam — living in Sisaket, 10 hours away to the northeast. His uncle, who lived nearby, suggested the two get to know each other.
For the first year, the two got acquainted through letters. “He taught her the gospel through their love letters,” explained their son, Apichat Choysrakoo.
A year later, Somchit Choysrako put on his Sunday best and traveled to Sisaket, giving Sang-gnam a New Testament and a Book of Mormon, bookmarked to Alma 34. She recalled praying, feeling comfortable and receiving help with family challenges she was facing.
The two were married in Sisaket in November 1980, moving to Bangkok a week later, with Kesorn Choysrakoo baptized on Dec. 20, 1980.
Ten years later, the Choysrakoos and their two children were among the some 200 comprising the first group of Thai members to travel to the Manila Philippines Temple to perform temple ordinances for the first time.
Apichat Choysrakoo was 6 years old when his family was sealed in the Manila temple “My sister left me alone in the changing room, and I was crying,” he recalled of his only memory of that trip.
Kesorn Choysrakoo smiles as she describes how she and her husband, Somchit Choysrakoo, met as they talk at the home of their son, Apichat Choysrakoo, in Bangkok, Thailand, on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
For his parents, it was meaningful. “I knew that it was a very important time in our life, and we had desired it for a long time,” said Somchit Choysrakoo.
Added Kesorn Choysrakoo: “We had been taught in lessons all the time about the temple, but we thought we would never have the chance to go — it was too much money. But we had the determination.”
He quit his job that required occasional work on Sundays, adding the financial compensation from his departure to their savings and then helping his wife sell food and start a family business.
The sacrifices paled in comparison to the blessings and benefits. “What is important is the commitment we make to keep the covenants and how we live our lives after we leave the temple,” said Kerson Choysrakoo, who will join her husband as temple workers in the new temple once temple worship and ordinances begin the week following the dedication. “I will serve the rest of my life in the temple — as long as I am able.”
The 1968 start of missionary work
Larry White stood on the temple grounds the day before the Bangkok Thailand Temple was to be dedicated, positioned in the courtyard between a temple entrance and a Christus statue. Later, he was introduced to Elder Rasband and other Church leaders who had gathered for group photographs.
White was one of the six missionaries to serve in Bangkok in 1968, sent by the Southern Far East Mission president with their rudimentary Chinese language learning to start sharing the gospel in Thailand and in the Thai language. They were the first in more than 110 years, with President Brigham Young sending a missionary in 1854 to Siam, as it was known then; the missionary stayed just four months because of the language barrier before returning home.
Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, left, greets Larry White of Salt Lake City, outside the Bangkok Thailand Temple on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023. White was one of the six missionaries who arrived in 1968 to start missionary work.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
“I remember that in 1968, we were not too far from here,” he recalled, having traveled with his wife, Janice White, from their Salt Lake City home to be in Bangkok for the dedication. “For our first meeting on March 17, 1968, 13 people were present — one of the two members at the time in the country.”
They had no Church scriptures or literature in Thai — not even a recognized name for the Church in the language, White added. “But within a very short time, miraculously we found and talked to the woman who became the principal translator of the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price — her home was 300 to 400 yards from where the mission president had found a place for use to stay and live.”
The promise of a temple
Tiparat Kitsawat, 76, joined the Church in 1977 when there was one branch and one meetinghouse in Bangkok. He was staying in the home of his employer, who had a son studying in the United States and looked for opportunities to have contact with Americans in Bangkok. The employer invited the missionaries to come into their home — he and his family didn’t join the Church, but Kitsawat did.
Tiparat Kitsawat poses for photos just outside the Thailand Bangkok on Friday, Oct. 20, 2023.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
In the more than four decades since, he has served in numerous branch, district, ward and stake callings — some several times, such as branch president and counselor to the mission president. He was also called as the country’s first stake president when the Bangkok Thailand Stake was organized in June 1996 by Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
While he served as stake president, President Gordon B. Hinckley came to Thailand and promised the members that the country would sometime be home to a house of the Lord. “But I did not know how long it would take,” Kitsawat said.
Once the Manila Philippines Temple was dedicated in 1984 and began operations, mission presidents began helping groups of members travel there to perform temple ordinances, including endowments and sealings. Kitsawat helped convert his father, “and I took my father to be sealed to him,” he said.
After its dedication in 1996, the Hong Kong China Temple became an additional option as couples and families started traveling for their own temple ordinances, such as the Kitsawats taking their two daughters for their own sealings in the Hong Kong temple. As a stake president, Tiparat Kitsawat was able to go to the Hong Kong temple every year he served because of area leadership trainings with apostles held annually in that city.
Tiparat Kitsawat looks up at the Bangkok Thailand Temple as he poses for photos outside the temple on Friday, Oct. 20, 2023.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
He possesses a journal-like book of his church service and the lists of names of those being taught about the gospel over the past decades who never joined the Church as well as Latter-day Saints who were converted at one time but since slipped back into inactivity. Kitsawat sees the benefits of a temple being in Bangkok.
“In Thailand, it is sometimes hard to keep the faith,” he said. “Now we have a special instrument — the temple will make the difference.”
The fourth generation
The tearful 6-year-old in the Manila temple is now first counselor in the Bangkok Thailand Stake presidency. President Apichat Choysrakoo and his wife, Suphalak, have two children — Tisha, a 7-year-old daughter and Kirin, a 4-year-old son — who are the fourth generation of Choysrakoo Latter-day Saints.
Three generations of the Choysrakoo family — Apichat, Kesorn, Somchit, Tisha, Kirin and Suphalak — pose for a photo at the home of Apichat and Suphalak Choysrakoo in Bangkok, Thailand, on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Apichat Choysrakoo knew Suphalak Chomphabai — her maiden name — as youth attending Church in Bangkok. She traveled each Sunday — her only day off of the week — from Pattaya, a trip of three to four hours each way. He served a mission in Thailand and then went to BYU–Hawaii, while she subsequently moved to Bangkok. Some five years after first meeting, they were married in October 2012 in the Hong Kong temple.
President Choysrakoo sees the Bangkok temple dedication on two levels, first and most obvious being the formal dedicating of the house of the Lord as a structure to Him where sacred ordinances are performed and covenants made. But there has been a dedication given by local Latter-day Saints in not only constructing and preparing the sacred edifice but also to prepare themselves.
Apichat Choysrakoo helps his children Kirin and Tisha find games to play while at home in Bangkok, Thailand, on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
“I’ve seen people’s lifestyles change,” he said, adding how the temple becomes a symbol of commitment to covenants and striving to keep oneself clean and pure.
Suphalak Chomphabai is mindful of the blessings and opportunities for her children and family in having a temple so close in Bangkok. “It is good to have a temple nearby so they can see it often rather than having to go overseas to the temple,” she said, noting the cost savings as well as to see firsthand the temple and to prepare to enter as a youth rather than just talking about the temple in a classroom discussion.
Kirin Choysrakoo smiles up at his mother, Suphalak Choysrakoo, while at home in Bangkok, Thailand, on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
“I hope when they grow up, they can go to a temple by themselves or with their youth group or ward or even use the temple as a way to do missionary work by bringing their nonmember friends to visit the temple grounds.”
The start of another Latter-day Saint family
Chutima “Dangkwa” and Keeradid “Bank” Mankong will be one of the first couples to be married in the Bangkok Thailand Temple, with their date set for Tuesday, Oct. 31.
Chutima “Dangkwa” Janjarus and Keeradid “Bank” Mankong pause for a photo with the Bangkok Thailand Temple as a backdrop in August 2023.
Provided by Chutima Janjarus
Janjarus, age 29, is a pre-kindergarten teacher of 3- and 4-year-olds. A convert to the Church in October 2014 and only member in her family, she served in the Utah Salt Lake City Temple Square Mission from 2018 to 2019. She lives in Maha Sarakham, a drive of nearly seven hours northeast of Thailand.
Mankong, 35, lives in Ubon Ratchathani — more than eight hours east of Bangkok — with his 98-year-old grandmother and 59-year-old father. Like his fiancée, he is a college graduate, and met the missionaries on the basketball court 10 years, being baptized at age 25.
Chutima “Dangkwa” Janjarus is joined by her father, mother and younger sister at the Bangkok Thailand Temple during the temple’s 2023 public open house.
Provided by Chutima Janjarus
The two met as staff members working at last year’s Ubon Thailand Stake young single adult camp. Serving at the camp was a new experience for Mankong, who opted to care for his grandmother and father rather than serve a mission in his late 20s. “I have never felt free to serve like that,” he said, adding that Janjarus was a supportive, hard-working colleague. “So, I decided to ask her for a date after we finished the camp.”
The distance of their hometowns requires traveling to the temple — but the engaged couple did that and more for a special YSA event at the start of the temple’s open house in late August.
Young single adults from across Thailand gather for a photo with Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Sister Susan Gong, following a tour of the Bangkok Thailand Temple on Aug. 26, 2023.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
With just two weeks’ notice, they were asked to put together a choir to sing at the YSA temple tour and devotional with Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. “It was quite a challenge for us, but everything went well,” Janjarus said.
How do the two feel as they prepare for their Oct. 31 sealing?
“We waited a long time — I mean, a year since we started dating was a long time for me to marry him,” Janjarus said. “I am so excited to be marrying my best friend — and that’s not just for this life.”
Mankong added: “I am so grateful to have Dangkwa with me in this challenging world. … This makes everything more easy. I want to be with her for eternity.”
Chutima “Dangkwa” Janjarus, lower left, visits Keeradid “Bank” Mankong Bank, upper right, and his family at Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand.
Provided by Chutima Janjarus
