Hello Querida
Familia! :)
Sam, way to go
on your buck! That's way awesome! And SNOW! I keep forgetting there's actually
snow back home! It does not feel like winter at all here! Yesterday in church
they sang Christmas songs (!) and I thought that it was pretty strange because
I thought we were so far away from Christmas. But then I remembered that we are
already well into November! haha Crazy!
I'm so sad for
all those people killed in the Philippines and their families. That is just
awful.
We haven't felt any effects from the typhoon out here in the Esan, or anywhere
else as far as I know.
So, yes, I am
the pianist. There are two youth that can play about as well as I do. So we
switch off. It'll be good, maybe I'll get better at the hymns! Also, yesterday
at church we gave a "special" musical number. E Chelson was asked to
play his violin, but he must have chickened out (or didn't practice enough
haha) because he roped us all into singing "Redeemer of Israel"
instead. It was not very good, but it was fun!
Also, Dad,
thank you for the latest letter! Always so exciting! Elder Chambers told me I'm
worse than the elder on Best 2 Years that is always getting mail. haha
You
asked about the food here and it's pretty good. To be honest, I like American
Thai food that I’ve had better. Sad. I think I just haven't really found
good places here, and a lot of the food is Esan, which is not what I think of
when I picture Thai food. But I really like Som Tam and there are some really
good noodle places, too! I have had durian in all its forms! It definitely
smells bad, but when you eat it fresh it's okay. It is not, however, very appetizing when they make
it into a paste to eat with a spoon.
Last Monday was
way fun! Sister Ud rented a song tow and took us to see a few places around
Mahasarakham (out in the bonogs). Sister Wiganda (her daughter who just returned
from her mission), Sister ChuanPhid, and the Elders came also. First they took
us out to this really pretty river and mini wat. Then we went to the
fish sanctuary! (we went there on accident a couple of weeks ago but didn't
look around too much because we were contacting) It was really fun. There's a
little mini zoo there with rabbits, guinea pigs, cows, birds, and MONKEYS! The
monkeys are pretty aggressive. I was trying to get a picture of one of
them and it reached its hand through the bars and smeared banana all over my
camera. Gross! It was fun to spend some time with the members. We had a
little picnic, too. It was such a relaxing, fun day.
Also, one reason
things may have been extra slow this week is because there was a huge annual
market (gniw) that pretty much the entire city goes to. Waaaaay fun! We went
and shopped around a bit on Monday, and then returned a few times during the
week to eat food and jaag eggesons.
Also, Sister Nok went and got me a ring
with my Thai name engraved on it. So sweet of her! I don't remember if I’ve
ever written about this, but Sister Mullen's Thai name is Tadsanee, and Sister
Nok's real name is Tadsanaa. So, Sister Nok (a couple transfers ago) gave me
the name Tadsaneeya! (ทัศนิยา). Fun! She got us
each a ring with our names, and got one for Sister Crockett that said CTR
in Thai (ลสด).
Okay, so it's
been a long time since I’ve really talked about Sister Bu. But we stopped by
this week and had a great lesson on faith and prayer. I really felt the spirit
in the lesson and I think she did, too. We shared Alma 37:37 (which always
makes me think of Gma Lynn) and she was really touched by it. She even
highlighted it!!!
Tuesday English
class was pretty fun! We ended up taking about 8 new college students who are
about to graduate in accounting and help them prepare for job interviews!
Also, warning
to anyone traveling to Thailand: lettuce is a sure way to get sick. Learned
that lesson the hard way one too many times this week. haha
Oh! This was
way fun! On Thursday we went to harvest rice! We went to the same member's rice
field that we went to a few months ago. When we helped the first time back in
August we were just plucking the rice out to replant it. But this time we
actually got to harvest it. The Elders, Sister Nok, and I went out to the rice
field to help. We each got a sickle and went to work cutting down the rice and
putting it into piles! It was fun, but also a little dangerous. Both Elder Chambers
and Sister Crockett sliced their pinkies pretty good on the sickle, so Sister Nok
had to go buy alcohol and bandaids. They're fine. Besides that, it was really
fun!
This week we
also had some nice lessons with B. She's been taught everything, but is
still waiting to get baptized because she wants to finish her Buddhist
ceremonies for her husband. However, I don't know if she feels good about doing
that or not. We taught about prayer and faith, with her also. And Sister
Crockett pointed out that the best possible thing that she could be doing for
her husband would be to get baptized, then help him by doing his work for him.
We also finally
met with her daughter, P! She's 16 years old and is a radio host. We
found her at her work and she is adorable! We only talked for about 15 minutes
with her, but I already love her to death! I am really hoping we'll be able to teach her. Her mom wants her to be baptized, so that will help a
lot if they can support each other! So happy!
So, the dog
laser- doesn't work super well with dogs, but little lizards love to follow it.
We had a lot of fun with it one day while we were waiting for an investigator
to show up to a lesson! haha It's provided a lot of entertainment!
Yesterday we
had some really good contacting! We extended 6 baptismal commitments (none of
which were actually accepted) and got one new investigator. It's so fun! I am
actually starting to like contacting more and it's becoming a lot more fun! I
feel more confident about it and I LOVE sharing this gospel!
So, those are
the main events of the week! Just so you know, I FINALLY found a good souvenir
place! Christmas shopping, here we come!
I love you all
so much! Thank you so much for your love and support and encouragement! I hope
you all have a wonderful amazing week! Picture time!
Love,
Liz :)
