Thai'd Up for 18 Months: CRAZY Water Fight! Week #47

Hello everyone! An interesting week here in Thailand. Ha ha national water fight... makes being a missionary a little difficult. I am happy to announce I made it through all of the week long holiday with only getting one hand wet! (Other than the p-day we spent playing with everyone).

During this lovely holiday, no one is in town. Everybody leaves town and goes somewhere else. So the work was... well a little more slow going than usual.

For last p-day we all went to, well I am not really sure where it is exactly. I think maybe in Asoke? We went to this square to play with the water. It was way fun! The closest I have gotten to swimming in a long time. It was also fun because members and missionaries from all over Bangkok were there too. It almost felt like a church activity. Ha ha. I was able to see some of my friends from my greenie area in Bang Khen. So fun! As the week went by, I learned it was not so fun. Ha ha there was nobody to contact, nobody to teach... So we went to visit the house of our RC. Well that may have been one of the scariest moments of my life. We didn't know where it was because we had never been there before so we took a taxi (thank goodness). We turned off the main road in Bang Khae to head towards his house. There is a small river that runs down the side of that road... When there is water during a water fight holiday, well that is where the action happens. Sooo many crazy people doing many crazy things! They surrounded the taxi and tried to open the doors and get the "farrang" girls out. (For those of you who don't know, farrang is what they call foreigners here). So I literally tried ducking down and hiding to help the taxi make it through the crowd of people surrounding the car to get the farrang girls out to play in the water with them. It took a little longer than expected to finally make it to the RCs house. By some miracle, when it was time to leave his house, his son and his wife were leaving too. They were able to drive us back out of the neighborhood safely. It was quite the experience though.

Then Thursday was transfer day! I now have what we call here a luug! (Luug means child). She is so great! Her name is Sister Beckstrand. She is from Texas. When all of the new greenies were up in front introducing themselves, I pointed and said I want that one! And well, I got her! Ha ha. But really she is so great. She is already pretty good at the language and she is so friendly and talks to everyone! This is going to be the easiest training experience ever!

Sister Belnap, my last companion, is also training! She only had one transfer outside of being a greenie. She is honestly the best missionary I know though. Her greenie is so lucky to have Sister Belnap as a trainer. They are going to kill it out there in Ubon!

Now for the highlight of the week. It was one of the best days of the mission! There is this farrang man who is an RM from here 40 years ago. He lives here with his Thai wife and they go to the international branch in Asoke. We were invited to their house this week to plan this English thing we are doing and to eat lunch. They had cheese! They fed us some Vietnamese food which was delicious and then asked if we wanted cheese! They not only let us eat a bunch of their cheese at their house, but they gave us a big brick to take home! Cheese is really expensive here in Thailand (at least for a missionary budget) and we never get to eat it. And the greatness of the meal didn't stop there. The adorable Thai wife starts cutting mangos and starts explaining that they have 3 mango trees. She said while cutting mango after mango, "I don't know how to deal with this problem." I wish I had that kind of problem! Ha ha

This week I was able to have a reconfirmation that Heavenly Father answers our prayers. Saturday night the Elders called and asked us to open the church for them because they don't have keys. They needed to get their food for Sunday. So we walked over and the door would not unlock. All of us tried time and time again. So we thought maybe if we tried a different door. After no success I decided that if we prayed, the door would unlock. So as my district leader walked back to the main door to continue trying to unlock it, I prayed. I then walked over and asked for the key. First try with no resistance, the door opens.

3 Nephi 13 it reads:

7 Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 8 For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.

I know that if we pray, if we ask, it will be opened. Heavenly Father does hear and answer all of our prayers.

I love you all and hope you had a great week!

-Sister Nethercott