Worry about What God Thinks

After he joined the Church, Orayuth Buttho, a rickshaw driver in Ubon Ratchathani, began wearing a white shirt, a tie, and long pants to work. Other rickshaw drivers mocked him for his radical change in attire. He began questioning his membership and stopped attending Church meetings until two Saints counseled him. “You’re not going to be a rickshaw driver forever,” they said. “You don’t need to worry about what others are thinking. You need to worry about what God thinks.” He returned to Church meetings.

Wanting the best for his wife and children, Orayuth prayed about his work every day, and he always paid his tithing. After two years, he took on an additional job—selling squid and eggs from 6:00 p.m. to midnight. Within two years, he had enough money to buy land next to the branch president’s home. The next year, he made even more money and saved enough to begin building a house. He set a goal to complete it in five years and with the help of members and missionaries, almost did.

Still, Orayuth felt he needed a better life and that to obtain it he “needed to be more diligent.” He switched from selling squid and eggs to working a night job as a guard. That job led to his becoming a security guard at a bank, where his larger salary allowed him to stop driving rickshaws.

Being a bank guard was a twelve-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week job. Nevertheless, he found ways to get time off for Church meetings and activities. An elders quorum president three times, branch president three times, and district president twice, he wanted to be certain he played “a part in the progression of the members.” He also earned enough and made the time to go to the Manila Philippines Temple five times by 2003.

Orayuth had quit school after the ninth grade to become a Buddhist monk. After his children were grown, he seized an opportunity to finish twelfth grade and earn his high school degree. He had wanted to graduate from high school but could not earlier.

One day following all these changes, he happened to meet his rickshaw friends. He marveled, “I was driving my pickup truck—with my necktie and my nice shirt” and “[said] hi to my friends.” His friends asked, “Oh, what happened to you?” They thought Orayuth had become rich, but he knew the truth. He later testified, “It’s blessings that I received from obeying the commandments all these years and from following God’s will.”