AIT #23: April 30, 2003

Last week Elder Bevell and Elder Segsan went down to Bangkok for moves and ZLTM. Elder Segsan moved to Thonburi and is the new zone leader there, companions with Elder Lo. Elder Jorgensen (who used to be the office) moved here and is the district leader, and Elder Blodgett (who I replaced here) moved to the office to replace Elder Jorgensen. "It's a small world after all..." :) Elder Rock moved up to Lampang to replace Elder Dressen, so we're back in the same zone again. And Elder Houston moved to Chiang Rai. I'm not sure who else moved, but I'll try to find out.

Elder Bevell and Elder Segsan left on Wednesday night in order to get to moves on time, so Elder Burin and I were on switchoffs. Thursday morning Elder Bevell called and told us that ZLTM (zone leader training meeting) was moved to Friday, since they were showing some missionary satellite transmission down in Asoke. Thus, he and Elder Jorgensen didn't come back to Saturday at 3 a.m. Elder Jorgensen and Elder Burin moved back into their old house then, so we're back to a two-man house. Friday was a little crazy since we both had lots of appointments and most of his were quite far away, but it all worked out. Sister B (Brother A's girlfriend) was baptized on Sunday. We're seeing Root tomorrow to make sure everything's in order for his baptism.

Sunday afternoon it was really hot and we decided to go to Brother Adoon and Sister Wachariporn's house to get some water (since we couldn't buy any). To get to their house you have to enter a gate and walk past a few other houses, the first of which has four or five dogs. Usually the dogs don't present any problem, but this time they started barking as soon as we parked our bikes, and as we walked in, three of them scrambled towards me and the most vicious of the three chomped my leg. Luckily it only got a little bit; two holes in my sock and three scratches with a very tiny amount of blood. We checked with the owner and made sure the dog had been vaccinated, so I don't have to get rabies shots. (Hallelujah! :))

For the past two weeks or so I've been sleeptalking/sleepwalking virtually every night. I'm not sure why, but it seems to have gone away these past few days. At least I think so; it's kind of hard to tell since Elder Bevell sleeps through it. The only way I knew was that it scared Elder Segsan and Elder Burin almost every night (Thais are petrified of sleeptalkers) and they mentioned it last week. Occasionally I remember sleepwalking, and usually the scenario is that I'm in a room and my companion has disappeared and I have to go find him. :) After meandering about the bedroom for a few minutes, I realize that I'm still in my bedroom and that Elder Bevell is still in his bed and that I'm dreaming.

Yesterday we had a branch activity. Elder Burin gave a good lesson on Christ, and then we split into three groups and put together little plays on Moses, Joseph in Egypt, and Nephi and the brass plates. I was Moses and got to part the Red Sea. :) The members here are soooooo awesome. Brother A is a new branch missionary, joining the ranks of Tom, Por, and Kaew (who are very good and help us out immensely). I want to stay here in P-lok for the rest of my mission. :)

Elder Bevell and I speak to each other in Thai more than half the time, which has helped a lot these past six weeks. I think in Thai all the time now, and when I try to write in my journal, my mind produces Thai instead of English. :) I never realized how fun it is to be fluent in another language.

One thing I don't think I've mentioned yet is that those who ride motorcycles (and there are a lot of them) range from eight-year-old kids to eighty-year-old grandmas. It was kind of weird at first, but now it's normal. America seems so foreign now. It's bizarre -- farangs seem too white and misshapen now. :)

Here's a scripture I like, found in Helaman 3:35: "Nevertheless they [the people of Nephi] did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God." Our cry should be, "Here's my heart, Lord; take and seal it for thy courts above." ("Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing") He requires a broken heart and a contrite spirit. The thing is, in giving our hearts to the Lord, He gives us so much more in return. It's not really a sacrifice at all. Examine your lives and see where you can more fully give your heart to the Lord. Stay strong in the faith and cling to the iron rod by reading the Book of Mormon every day, praying several times a day, and doing the other things that will bring you close to God (paying tithing, going to church, attending the temple, holding FHE and family prayer/scripture study, etc.).

AIT #22: April 23, 2003

Here's the update on moves: only Elder Segsan is moving. We thought Elder Bevell would move (he's been here for six months), but we're both staying. Elder Segsan is moving somewhere in Bangkok. I'm veeeeeeeeeeeery glad I'm not moving. :) P-lok is the best area in the mission, hands down.

The work's going fairly well. Sak was going to get baptized last Saturday, but on Sunday he wrote us a note saying that he's not ready and isn't going to study with us further. That hurt. We're not going to give up on him, though. Root's getting baptized on May 4th. We're pretty sure that will go through; we've already talked with him about any obstacles that may get in the way, and everything's clear. Nobody else is close to baptism, though, since hardly anyone has been coming to church lately. Don and his girlfriend came on Sunday but didn't come inside because they thought they weren't dressed appropriately enough.

Songkran ended completely by Tuesday night -- there wasn't anything at all on Wednesday. Life is back to normal. :) Elder Segsan took the Thai hymnbook and children's songbook to a copy place and shrunk them down to pocket size, like the pocket-size English hymnbook. Very handy. There are a lot more naampan places here than there were in Bangkapi, I've noticed, and most of them are pretty good.

Half my shirts are 65% polyester/35% cotton, the other half 60% cotton/40% polyester. The 65/35 are nice and easy to iron, but the 60/40 feel kind of heavier and are hard to iron. If I were to do this all over again, I would buy most of my clothes here in Thailand, since they're a lot cheaper here, and they're made for this kind of weather.

Hmm, I don't really have a lot to say today. Everything's going well. I've been a little sick since last Tuesday, but nothing major (stuffy nose and a slight cough). We finished making our outlines a few weeks ago (the fifth and sixth discussions are exactly the same as in the discussions, but the others are modified). Thais really love to look at pictures (I usually show members and investigators my family pictures as part of getting acquainted).

The 2000 stripling warriors in the Book of Mormon "did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them..." (Alma 57:21) 100% obedience is possible, and it's what the Lord expects of us. We don't obey the Lord because we're slaves at the grindstone, but we should obey Him because we love Him, because He first loved us. One other thing: Harold B. Lee said that the commandment that is most important for us in any given moment is the one we're having the most trouble keeping right then.

Okay, out of time. Keep up the good work, stay strong in the faith, read your scriptures and pray every day so that you may be anchored to Christ and will never fall prey to the adversary.

AIT #21: April 16, 2003 (Songkran)

It has been a craaaaazy week. :) Everything was normal till Saturday afternoon. Around noon, kids started hanging around on the side of the road with water guns and little buckets, giggling as they squirted us. There were a few scattered groups of teenagers as well, but still Songkran hadn't really started. On Sunday we held church as usual, and surprisingly quite a few members showed up. We'd forgotten to fill the baptismal font, so after sacrament meeting ended, Elder Segsan and I began hauling water from our house to the baptismal font (using the trash can). Luckily we got it filled in time, with help from some of the other members and missionaries. After church was over, Brother A was baptized. His mom and brother are members (his brother is a missionary in Nong Khae right now), and he's quite golden. His girlfriend's getting baptized soon as well.

After the baptismal service, we ate lunch. Towards the end, one of the members crept up behind me and poured a cup of cooooold water down my back. Songkran thus began. :) Another member, Sister Gao, went around patting powder on people's cheeks and saying, "Sawatdee bee mai" ("Happy New Year"). Songkran is the Thai new year, by the way. :) Within two minutes everyone was outside throwing water at each other, and before long the baptismal font (which is outside the church) was almost empty.

We then went with a bunch of the members to Sister Mootagaan's house, which is on one of the more busy roads (at least for Songkran). For the next three days, that's pretty much where we stayed, other than coming home to sleep and study. During Songkran, people ride around and get wet. Lots of people carry water in pickups and "saad naam" other people, while others stand on the side of the road and throw water from there. They're also fond of mixing powder with water, often with various colors mixed in, and wiping the resulting goop on one's face. It's crazy. :) We wore our sandals the whole time. Oh, the police disabled the traffic lights, making it a free-for-all (so traffic wouldn't be impeded). The streets were full of people and trucks, far more jam-packed than I've ever seen anywhere.

We'd thought we'd be able to do missionary work during the three days, but everyone was out playing and no one was interested in our message, and all our investigators had gone to different provinces. On Monday Elder Bevell and Elder Burin walked around to take pictures, and Elder Segsan and I went to fax Brother A's baptismal record to the mission office. We rode our bikes to a copy place, and goodness I've never been on such a dangerous bike ride. :) Tons of people smeared the goop all over us, which is kind of fun at first but when it gets in your eyes, it's rather dangerous. My contacts clouded over from time to time and often itched, but nothing serious happened. (Incidentally, my left contact is now tinted red from all the red goop that people put on my face.) Being farangs, Elder Bevell and I were often prime and obvious targets.

There weren't many transvestites except on Sunday, but they didn't really present a problem. Some drunk guy kissed me on the cheek, though (I tried to resist but there were four other guys crowding around me and I was on my bike). Yesterday Elder Bevell and I walked around to take more pictures. On our way back, some girl tried to kiss me on the lips and was almost successful, but luckily I jerked my head back in time. Songkran fever makes people very crazy. I wore the exact same outfit Saturday through Tuesday, since the colored stuff doesn't wash out if you don't clean it out immediately, and oftentimes we didn't notice the stains until it was too late. And you're wet all day long.

So, Songkran is finally over and life is back to normal. We took tons of pictures and I don't think I could ever forget Songkran. P-lok is probably one of the biggest Songkran places, other than Chiang Mai. These last three days have helped us and the members build better relationships of trust. It was a lot of fun, too. I haven't been in a water fight since I was a little kid (and probably won't be in one of this size again for a long, long time). Hmm, is there anything else that I'm forgetting?

Thai people don't look like foreigners anymore, but farangs do. It's weird. :) I even forget that I have white skin at times (serious :)). When I first got my call to Thailand I must admit that I was a little taken back -- Thailand isn't a prominent nation nor is Thai a very popular language -- but I'm sooooo glad I'm here. Thailand is home.

Sak should be getting baptized on Saturday (we hadn't had any contact with him for the last week or two since he was in Chiang Mai, but we ran into him yesterday on the street), and Root should be getting baptized next week. We have several other good investigators as well. I love being a missionary! :) It's hard at times, especially when people fall away, and occasionally it feels like all our work is worth nothing. Retention is hard. But the gospel is still true and there are still those who will cling to Christ no matter how hard the tempest hits them, and those people make missionary work worth everything in the world. :) Onward, Christian soldiers, onward!

Yes, I'm weird

I've been feeling kind of overwhelmed lately because I've been sitting in the shadow of a large paper for my writing class which is due on Thursday. Procrastination is the bane of my existence. :) Anyway, it's gotten close enough that I realized I'd better start writing it. Before I actually began, it felt like it would take forever to write and would be dreadfully boring. And I thought it would be hard to fill the requisite 6-8 pages. To my surprise (and it seems like this happens every single time I write a paper), it went very well once I started writing. I'm halfway done and will be able to finish it with ease tomorrow. I hate to admit it, but I'm actually having fun writing it. :)

In other news, I've switched my default web browser from Firefox to Camino (1.0b1). It's much faster and more lightweight and I really like it.

In reading Miles Harvey's book The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime this morning, I realized that I want to specialize in manuscript preservation and rare books and that sort of thing. I'm going to take the bookbinding class next semester. Mmm. :)

AIT #20: April 9, 2003

It's definitely getting hotter. :) Since I arrived in Thailand during the cool season, I'd completely forgotten just how hot Thailand can get. In a few days we'll be able to cool off a little, though -- Songkran starts on Sunday. Songkran is the huge water fight that goes on for several days. In fact, everyone says people will start playing on Saturday or even Friday. Everyone rides around and throws water at everyone else. I think we, being farangs, will be extremely obvious targets. :) It's a tad bit dangerous (bucketfuls of water could easily knock one off one's bike), and the transvestites apparently like to try to pinch and kiss the missionaries, so pray for us. :) Today at breakfast Elder Bevell dumped a cup of water on a teenager at the raan (restaurant) we ate at. It'll be so much fun. :) We can't go out and play with everyone, but even in the course of our work I think we'll have plenty of opportunities to enjoy Songkran.

A lot of people have been mentioning the SARS virus (though they call it "flu/cold disease"), saying people die within seven days or so. I don't know much about it, though. All the news we get is secondhand from the people on the street. Lately not many people have said anything about the war, so I guess it's getting better. When we ask people where they're from, a lot of them grin and say, "Iraq," then start laughing.

So, General Conference was last week, I hear. Outside of Bangkok, we don't get to see or hear it or anything (we have to wait for the Ensign/Liahona). Oh well, time passes fast enough that the Ensign will be here before we know it. I ate rambutan for the first time last week -- it's pretty good. I also got a harmonica, but I haven't had much time to practice. I've been in-country five months now -- weird. :) Elder Segsan and Elder Burin moved into our house last night. There's construction on the road that their house is on, and they won't have water for another month or two. Our house was originally a four-man house, so there's plenty of space. It'll be a lot of fun.

On Saturday we went out with Love (a 23-year-old guy that got baptized a year ago and brought his parents into the Church) to teach. Our appointments phidded us, though, so we did some inviting. Love kept asking us to go teach his older brother Root, and finally we gave in and he drove us over to their house (they live far away, near Lotus). We taught Root a second discussion and committed him to baptism for April 27. He's sooooo golden! His whole family is LDS already (his dad's in the branch presidency, his mom is incredibly nice and feeds us every time we go over) and so he'll have a good support system. We've been back to see him two or three times since then, and I'm amazed at how ready he his. He's wanted to be Christian for a long, long time. For the last while he's been in Bangkok, but two weeks before I got here, he moved back (for good). The Spirit was there very strongly when we taught him about repentance and baptism. Golden investigators are the best! :)

In these troubled times, the only real source of peace is the Savior. "O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm." (2 Nephi 4:34) Man is fallible; God is infallible. "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not." (D&C 6:36) If we place our hearts in the Lord's hands, all will be well, even if all is not well by the world's standards. Time is swiftly rolling to a close, the last notes of the final act are vibrating in the air, and the second hand is on the verge of midnight. "Do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end." (Alma 34:33) If there is anything not right in your lives, fix it now, for it will soon be too late. Don't wait till tomorrow -- we live in a time in which there may not be any tomorrow. Trust in the Lord, follow him with all your heart, might, mind, and strength, and then you'll have no need to fear, no matter what happens. The world may collapse around us, but if we stand firm on the rock of our salvation, we will emerge victorious. Take care! :-)

AIT #19: April 2, 2003

Yesterday a horde of elephants stampeded down our road and crashed over our neighbor's car. Oops, April Fool's Day was yesterday, sorry. :) Is it really already April? Time still keeps accelerating -- this moves is already halfway over (three more weeks). The next moves period will only be five weeks, by the way.

Life is great here and it's really hot at times but not unbearable. Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven. :) We started teaching English at the hotel last Friday, and it's a lot of fun. The hotel provides the textbook (though I don't really like teaching from textbooks -- boring) and we teach their employees how to graciously and cordially look after their customers. :) Teaching English wasn't very fun when I first started, back in Bangkapi in my first few weeks in Thailand, but now it's exceedingly fun. (I suppose being able to understand the students' questions does help. :)) One other thing that's very fun is being a farang (foreigner). Everyone stares at us and all the little kids holler out, "Farang! Farang!" Some elders don't like that, but I relish it. It's also a good ice-breaker so that we can share the gospel with people that might not have talked with us had we been Thai. Elder Bevell and I are the only farangs in the branch here, which I suppose is kind of weird, but I don't feel isolated or anything -- Thais feel like family to me. I'm quite serious when I say I don't want to leave Thailand. I think I'll come back and teach English here for a semester or something.

On Thursday Elder Bevell and Elder Burin went to Lampang for switchoffs, and yesterday they went up again to do a baptismal interview. That meant Elder Segsan and I stayed here in P-lok, spending half the day in my area and half the day in his. I learned a few days ago that grunting (which is a rather coarse word for it, but I can't think of any other that fits the bill -- this kind of grunting isn't animalish, but rather like "errrrr" or "mmmm", used to mean yes or no), while being something that Thais do all the time, isn't the most proper way to speak. People may use colloquial language, slang, etc., but we're representatives of Jesus Christ and His Church and so we have to be more dignified and distinguished.

When I return to the States, I want to spend five or six hours a day reading the scriptures. We only get half an hour to an hour each day, which is good but not nearly enough. And I want to read the scriptures in other languages -- reading the Book of Mormon and Bible in Thai is very, very fun. Oh, today I'm going to get a harmonica and start learning how to play. Elder Segsan showed me his and since I can't afford to buy a piano, this is the next best thing. :) We had our regular Monday family home evening at Sister Gittiya's house this week, as usual. Her three boys were baptized a few months ago and we visit them every week. This time, we watched "Called to Serve" in Thai. It was wonderful to see the MTC again, and it really boosted my morale.

"Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not." (D&C 6:36) Do our lives center on the Savior? Does every thought, every word, every action of ours follow the Savior's pattern? It may seem difficult, but the more we strive to look unto the Lord as the Israelites looked upon the brazen serpent (2 Nephi 25:20), the more we become like the Lord. Following the Lord won't be something we do so much as something we are, and then it will be easy.

I was reading 3 Nephi 11 the other day and for the first time realized why the Lord says "the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one" (verse 27). After He says that, He commands that there be no contention or disputations amongst us, showing us the example of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost -- they don't fight and bicker amongst themselves. They are of one heart and one mind (Moses 7:18), with "hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another." "If ye are not one ye are not mine" (D&C 38:27). How is this unity accomplished? Through charity, the "more excellent way." I don't have my Bible with me, but in 1 John (I think) John writes that if we don't love our brother, we don't love God, for God is love (or something along those lines). The core of the gospel is love. Love is power. Love is what makes life worth living. The most important kind of love is that within a family, and that is where unity is most important. "Above all things, clothe yourself with the bond of charity, as with a mantle, which is the bond of perfectness and peace." (D&C 88:125) If we have not charity we aren't yet true followers of Christ. "Pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love." (Moroni 7:48)

Well, I'm about out of time. Stay strong in the faith and seek charity with all your heart, might, mind, and strength. Christ lives and loves each of you. Take care. :)

AIT #18: March 26, 2003

Sawutdee krup once more, hailing from here in Phitsanulok, the hottest part of Thailand. :) It's not too bad, actually -- heat doesn't bother me nearly as much as I thought it would. The work goes on because it must, regardless of heat, rain, etc. (Rather like the postal service.)

This week's big event was the district/zone conference trip up to Chiang Mai. We left Sunday morning at 1:15 for the train station. The train didn't show up till 2:30, though, and was further delayed, so we didn't arrive in Chiang Mai till 10:30. The district conference had started at 10:00, which was unfortunate, but mai pen rai -- there wasn't anything we could do about it. It was really neat to see mountains again as we passed through Lampang on our way up. Very pretty. After the district conference ended, everyone went to the church for lunch (the conference was held in a hotel conference room). That's the nice thing about Thailand -- everyone eats lunch together after church. President Slater interviewed us and then my district (Elder Segsan, Elder Burin, Elder Bevell, and I) walked around Chiang Mai, proselyting and taking pictures. It was a lot of fun.

Monday morning I had my first cold shower in Thailand. (The water heater in the four-man Chiang Mai house was broken.) We had our zone conference, which was mainly on teaching by the Spirit. The mission is now implementing Elder Ballard's recommendations (which he presented in the MTC over the past few months, starting when I was there). We're all writing our own outlines now, so that we'll be able to be more flexible when presenting the gospel. It's good and we had a really awesome discussion yesterday with a young couple, using an outline we wrote up yesterday. President Slater talked about the Restoration and how it's core to our church. I love the Restoration! It's so wonderful to know that God still lives, still loves us, and hasn't forgotten His children. The heavens are not closed. We arrived back in P-lok at 11:45 Monday night. So we're all recovering from the lack of sleep, but it shouldn't be too bad. As we were riding a tuk-tuk out to the bus station (side note: tuk-tuks are soooooo much fun to ride! Especially when they zip around other cars :)), Elder Bevell saw a Hebrew sign on the side of the road, so we stopped and ran to the place to see if anyone there spoke Hebrew. (He studied Hebrew for a year or two at BYU.) There was a 20-year-old guy named Yosi inside, whom we chatted with for a few minutes. I want to study Hebrew. :) But it'll have to wait till I return, since I promised to serve the Lord with all my heart, mind, might, and strength, and He didn't call me to speak Hebrew.

Last Wednesday, Elder Bevell and I spent four hours at Big C (Big C and Lotus are the two huge Walmarts here), making up a pamphlet on families to hand out to people. We teach English at the church every Tuesday and Thursday, and starting on Friday we'll teach at the Amarin Lagoon Hotel every Monday and Friday as well. Last Thursday I started teaching piano to one of the members here. Teaching piano is a lot harder for me than teaching the gospel or teaching English. But difficulty is not impossibility.

There are lots more motorcycles here than there were in Bangkapi, but lots less traffic. It's very nice. Did I mention that in my last letter? I can't remember; sorry if I repeat myself. People seem to be much friendlier here; at least, they say hi and smile a lot more. There are pickup trucks that drive around with huge speakers in the back, blasting advertising commercials and music. It's weird in a very funny way. I've hardly seen any snakes or spiders or anything, though -- so far the most I've seen is cockroaches in our bathroom. Oh, we did find a dead rat lying in our driveway yesterday morning. Hopefully I'll eventually have some good animal stories to tell.

Lately I've been thinking about what our goal is as missionaries. Baptisms are important, surely, but more important than that is conversion. To see even just one soul find Christ, really find Him, to see the light turn on in their eyes as they begin to love Christ more than anything else, as they yearn to read the scriptures and pray and partake of the sacrament, as they strive with all their soul to keep God's commandments and be faithful, as they cleave to the gospel -- this is where the real joy in missionary service is born. I can't describe how good it feels to meet people who are truly converted to Christ. It's the finest feeling in the world.

I've got a few scriptures I'd like to share. First, D&C 108:7 -- "Therefore, strengthen your brethren in all your conversation, in all your prayers, in all your exhortations, and in all your doings." Are we doing that? We're at war, spiritually, in an intense battle between good and evil. There isn't any time for tearing down; destruction is a technique of the devil. The way to win this war is by building up, by creating bonds of love that nothing can destroy. Criticism and contention sow spiritual plagues among us, and the only remedy is found in the Living Waters. Christ showed us the example; will we follow it? Helaman 5:12 -- "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." Christ is that foundation and this is His Church. I know that only through Christ can we quench the fiery darts of the adversary and find true rest unto our souls. "If ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?" (Alma 5:26) If you can't, do whatever it takes to feel it again, to set your life aright and come unto Christ. The sacrifice is worth it.

That's all. Thanks for all the support. Stay strong in the faith and remember, "every member a missionary!" Member-missionary work is soooo important. No time left. Adios.

Tick-tock, tick-tock

The weekend has come soon. Watched Madagascar last night. Gotta love the penguins. :) My roommates are at the BYU football game right now, and I suspect the guys upstairs are watching it too, judging by the "Hoorah!"s every ten minutes. I had a ticket (all-sports pass, actually) but really didn't feel like going today. I've been doing homework instead. Perhaps not quite as fun, but the good feeling I get when I know I'm caught up is worth it.

In a similar vein, yesterday morning I bought some 4x6" index cards and have started planning out my day, hour-by-hour. It really does work (at least for me). Now I no longer waste time, but instead I do the things that matter, and boy does it feel good.

My roommates and I are starting an online business in the near future, but mum's the word till it goes live. One of us is doing the financial stuff, one is doing the graphic design, one is doing the programming, and I'm doing the writing. It's a perfect team.

Here's a very interesting New York Times article a friend sent me: Many Women at Elite Colleges Set Career Path to Motherhood.

AIT #17: March 19, 2003

Sorry there wasn't an e-mail last week; I wrote the letter but the instant before I sent it, the Internet died. So, last week on Tuesday Elder Serrao called the office and found that I'd be moving outside of Bangkok. He was released as zone leader because the Bangkapi and Srinakarin zones merged. I got up early (4:00) on Wednesday and Thursday to pack and get ready. From now on I don't think I'll unpack everything, since it takes too much time to pack it all up again. Arrived at the Pakkret church at 6:45 a.m. on Thursday and found that I'd be moving to Phitsanulok. My companion is Elder Bevell, the zone leader. Phitsanulok is in the Lampang zone and is in the center of Thailand, though it's considered to be part of the north. It's also the hottest part of Thailand (and surprise, surprise, next month is the hottest month of the year :)). Elder Wong replaced me in Bangkapi, Elder Romashko replaced Elder Stevenson, and Elder Quach replaced Elder Christiansen. Elder Applegate moved down from Chiang Mai to Saphaan Mai (in Bangkhen), Elder Bloom and Elder Nelson both moved to Roi-Et, Elder McEwen moved to Chiang Rai, and Elder Pitzer moved to Ayutthaya. Since Elder Bevell had ZLTM, I went out with the other ZL companions (Elder Pitzer, Elder Walker, Elder McLelland) and with Elder McEwen (who was on the same train as I, so he had to stick around all day anyway). We went to Dairy Queen (first time since I entered the MTC) and then went out proselyting for a few hours. Lots of fun. After ZLTM ended, Elder Bevell and I took my bags to the train station and made it a couple of minutes before the train left. We were on the train with Elder Stevens, Elder Soun (both of whom were headed to Chiang Mai), Elder Miller, and Elder McEwen (Chiang Rai). The ride was about five hours long and was pretty neat. We arrived in Phitsanulok late Thursday night. Unfortunately, my helmet disappeared on the train somewhere; the Chiang Mai elders said they'd look for it when they got off in Chiang Mai (at 5:45 a.m. Friday) conference. Oh, Elder Neves was released as AP and Elder Hansen took his place. Our new mission president will be President Scott Hansen (according to the Church News last week), as of July 1 or so.

I'm really excited to be in Phitsanulok, and I moved here at just the right time, because we have district conference (kind of like stake conference) up in Chiang Mai on Sunday, and then we have zone conference there on Monday, so I'll get to stay in Chiang Mai for a couple of days. And I'll probably get to go to Lampang too, when we go on switchoffs. There are eight elders in my zone: me and Elder Bevell, Elder Segsan and Elder Burin (Phitsanulok West), Elder Sessions and Elder Dressen (Lampang), and Elder Vue and Elder Garrison (Lampang South, I think). The branch here is a lot smaller than the Bangkapi ward, but the members are sooooo awesome. I already love Phitsanulok and don't want to leave. :)

We had correlation on Saturday. In Bangkapi there were usually 10-15 people there, but here it was just us four Phitsanulok elders, Tom (our 19-year-old branch mission leader, who is an incredible guy), and Sister A (who's getting ready to go on a mission). I'm the branch pianist. Last night I taught English and then we had Family Home Evening, which was sooooo much fun. I wish they'd had FHEs in Bangkapi... About 20 people showed up, mostly the youth (who are really strong here). The really nice thing is that the church is across the street from our house. :) Very, very convenient. Ours is a 2-man house but is fairly big, since it used to be a four-man. We have to use bottled water since the tap water is dirty.

My bike didn't arrive till Monday morning, so I had to ride a member's bike, which turned out to be rather small and didn't have any brakes. It was a lot of fun, though. On Friday we went to the phone company to pay the bill, but I thought it was the post office, so I gave the lady my mail to send. She looked at me funny and said, "Um, this isn't the post office."

I learned a few things in Bangkapi that have helped me get up to speed here: learning people's names really quickly, reading the area book (which has pictures of all the members in our area), becoming friends with the members, etc. I loooooove Phitsanulok! :) It's getting really hot here (yesterday was a furnace), but it's fun. Songkran is coming up in a few weeks, which'll be neat.

Well, that's about it for now. There's a new 20-baht bill that came out a few weeks ago. Oh, back in Bangkapi last week, we found a ripped-up Book of Mormon on the stairs of the flats. We don't know who or what did it (it could have been a dog), but that was kind of sad. Opposition in all things. I know this Church is true and that no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Joseph Smith was indeed a prophet of God, and the Church of Jesus Christ is once again on the earth in all its glory. Take care! :-)

AIT #16: March 5, 2003

I don't have much time this week (virtually no time, in fact), so I'll just write a quick update on what's going on. This moves period has gone by soooooo fast. The term at the Wat Bangtoey school ended last week, which is really sad because I miss those kids a ton. That's the thing I'll probably miss most about Thailand -- the kids. Sister Tu (Bunying's wife) was baptized this past Sunday, along with two others. We're having baptisms every week now -- the work is really taking off here. :) Everything's going well, and today I realized just how much I've matured since I left. A mission is a terrific way to grow, since you can focus 100% on becoming like the Savior, without any other distractions getting in the way. On Monday we decided to not take our bikes for the rest of moves, so we've been walking everywhere. Beyond that, Elder Serrao decided to leave his bag at our home and take only a Book of Mormon and some pamphlets. Walking and going lightweight means reworking the way we do some things, but it's awesome and I feel more like the early missionaries of this dispensation (Samuel H. Smith, etc.). And it's a lot easier to talk with people if we're on foot. We think there's a rat in our house, since three bags of bread have been eaten into. Lots of people are talking about the war and ask us to go back home and tell President Bush to stop it. :) Yesterday we ran into a guy who's a member but has been inactive for a long time (he was baptized six years ago). Oh, A&W (root beer) came out in Thailand two or three weeks ago. The other elders in my house have started an A&W stash on the table and in the fridge. Sorry this letter isn't as long as usual, but we don't have much time. The gospel is true! Take care. :-)

AIT #15: February 26, 2003

This moves period is going by sooooo quickly. Only two weeks left. Yesterday we had our zone conference/mission tour. Elder Lee Ray Bateman (I think he's in the Asia Area presidency) was the visiting General Authority. I love zone conferences because the Spirit inspires me how to improve myself, areas I should focus on, etc. Elder Christiansen, Elder Frischknecht, Elder Serrao, and I sang "I Need Thee Every Hour" in Thai for one of the musical numbers. (Side note: I love to sing, but singing in public always makes me horribly self-conscious and is an experience I still dread, but one must do what one must do.) Elder Bateman spoke on obedience, member referrals, and lots of other things. His mission president was Thomas S. Monson of the First Presidency. :) Before the meeting started, he had us each come up one by one to shake his hand and introduce ourselves. He spoke for four or five hours (split into two sections by a lunch break). I wish we had a zone conference every week. :)

Well, I'm pretty much the unofficial ward pianist now. I love it (I play at all the baptisms, activities, and sacrament meetings), but hopefully they'll find a ward member who can play and give them a calling. Sister Tu (Brother Bunying's wife) will probably be getting baptized this Sunday. (I say "probably" because she's not 100% sure yet.) If she's not ready then we won't baptize her, of course. People must know that this church is true and that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God before they can really join themselves to it. It's no use to join the Church of Jesus Christ if you don't really believe in it.

I got another flat tire on Thursday (a wooden stick went about one inch deep into my inner tube while I was riding home), but we got it changed the next morning. Friday we went to see Sister Nat with Brother Chayaphrug, and he taught her a 7th discussion. The 7th discussion is something they set up here in Thailand to introduce new members to institute and seminary.

There was a special zone leader meeting on Saturday. Elder Houston went with Elder Serrao so that our area wouldn't be neglected. (Elder Stevenson and I worked in his area for the first couple of hours and then in mine for the rest of the time.) Elder Serrao told us that Elder Cutler (Elder Applegate's companion) went to a Coca-Cola factory in Chiang Mai and asked them if the Coke has caffeine in it. About five workers there told him that it's illegal to put caffeine in soda pop in Thailand. Interesting... :)

The other night I was talking with our Pakistani rotee man (rotees are those fat-filled treats I mentioned several weeks ago), and he taught me how to say hi in Urdu. Maybe I could learn enough Urdu from him to teach him the discussions... (Just kidding. ;)) I do want to pick up bits and pieces of other languages from the people here, though -- Chinese, Lao, etc.

We hear the Thai national anthem here a lot more often than one hears the U.S. anthem in the States. Everyone has a real name and most people have a nickname like Moo (pig), Noi (little), or Tu (fat), which is what people call them. When they give callings in church or refer to people over the pulpit, they use people's real names ("chue jing", though the romanization doesn't nearly do it justice) instead of their nicknames ("chue len"). It's hard to know who on earth they're talking about, because I don't know people's real names.

Today we were going to go to Ayutthaya, but the train didn't leave till noon, so we decided to go to Central instead (a mall in Bangkhen). I got a flipchart and I'll start putting mine together soon. (I won't actually need it till I go senior, which won't happen for at least four or five more months, but it'll be nice to have it done in advance.)

The work's going fairly well. Nad won't be able to get baptized for at least a month because he still hasn't gone to church yet. We've got a few other families and individuals who seem like good candidates for baptism. The point of all this isn't to just add membership to the Church, of course -- if that were all we cared about, goodness, we could just give people money for joining. The thing that matters is exaltation -- eternal life with God and with our families. And because Gethsemane and Calvary weren't easy for the Savior, exaltation isn't easy for us.

I'm running out of time. I love Thailand and the Thai people and the work. Take care and have a great day! :-)

A bad beginning

The sickness remains. I went to my early morning classes and then decided I really needed to get some rest, so I came home and slept for a while, woke up and read some books, then went back to sleep for another long while. I seem to get sick every few months and it usually is the same kind of sickness (cough/sore throat), and it usually lasts a week. And tomorrow will be one week now, so hopefully the magic still works this time. :) The weird thing is that usually I completely lose my voice, too. But instead I have a nice bass, great for singing in the shower. :)

I read an interesting pamphlet by Peter Briscoe entitled Reading the Map of Knowledge: The Art of Being a Librarian. He talks about being well-read: "In general, half of the knowledge of any given subject is contained in one or two dozen groundbreaking or synthesizing works. The other half is contained in thousands of books and articles.... The trick of being 'well read' is to read the great books in a variety of subjects..." (p. 11) He also says that "the most important thing a librarian does is help people find good books to read," with which I wholly agree.

I also read The Bad Beginning, the first Lemony Snicket book in A Series of Unfortunate Events. Snicket's style grew very old very quickly and I had to force myself to finish it (thankfully it was only 162 small pages long). Not my thing.

I've been rewriting "Too Late." Apparently I never really revised the stories I wrote before my mission, because this seems to be a first-time experience. :) In some ways I can tell that the story is getting better, but in others I have no idea if it is or if it's actually getting worse. Whichever way the shadow falls, it's a fun work. Hair-pulling in a way, but fun. I'm only just beginning to sense the limitless opportunities and possibilities of fiction.

AIT #14: February 19, 2003

This week there wasn't a whole lot to write about, so I suspect this letter won't be as long as usual. Last Friday I went on switchoffs with Elder Houston (the greenie), in my area. In the evening we went to visit a family that we met last week. They handed us a drink that looked like diluted beer. It didn't smell like beer, but it didn't smell like water either. I didn't know if it was some kind of fruit drink, so I asked the lady what it was. She said, "Chaa," which is tea. We told them we couldn't drink it and they gave us water instead.

Oh, I switched from my briefcase to a fanny pack last Wednesday. It's much more convenient and I don't think I'll ever go back. The weather changed last week and I caught a little cold. Luckily it's going away. The first counselor in the stake presidency came to speak to our ward on Sunday. He said they're building a new chapel next to the current one, making it a lot bigger. The old building will be a seminary/institute building. That's really neat -- I wish I'd be here when it's completed. But it'll take a year at least and I seriously doubt I'll still be here more than even another month or two.

There's a mission tour on Tuesday; Elder Ray Bateman (of the Seventy, I guess) is visiting. More on that next week. This Saturday we're having an activity for all the people on our 24-month list. Whenever we baptize someone, they go onto our 24-month list (people who've been members for less than two years), and we see them each week to see how they're doing and make sure everything's okay. My Havana Joe shoes are holding up just fine so far. A lot of missionaries here have gone a year or so with one pair of shoes, so I don't think there'll be any problem. And if my shoes do die before their time, I can get a new pair for 500 baht or so ($12).

Brother Super is selling his bakery today, so he told us we could go eat whatever we want from it. :) I found out today that my new Thai-Thai dictionary has a list of ratchasab (royal words), which is the first of its kind I've ever seen. It's extensive, too, which is really nice. I passed off Reading & Writing on Sunday, so now I only have Lists left (the 1000-word list and the SYL list) -- then I'll be certified. Bunying was confirmed a member of the Church on Sunday, and Chaad was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood. We've had a baptism every week for the last three or four weeks or so (in the zone, that is).

Well, sorry this one's short; hopefully next week I'll be able to make up for it. The gospel is true! Often in this world it's hard to find things that really are true, things that don't fall apart when looked at closely. Friends may betray, false advertising may lure and ensnare, but the true and living God will never let us down. This is His Church.

AIT #13: February 12, 2003

I'd forgotten that Thailand can be humid, but on Monday the stickiness returned, and it's probably here to stay for quite a few months. It's getting hotter, too. So much for the week-long cool season. :) On Wednesday last week we went bowling at the Mall Bangkapi. I doubled my score from the first game to the third one (57 to 102). Needless to say, I'm a much better missionary than bowler. :) As we were walking through the mall on our way out, we passed a furniture store that had tables inside a display case. Imagine our surprise when we spotted a Book of Mormon (in English) sitting on one of the tables with another book. We took pictures and everything -- something like that doesn't happen every day, you know. :)

On Thursday we had a Family Home Evening with Dang and Roong, a less-active family we've been visiting for several months. They came to church on Sunday, for the first time in a while. That made me rather happy. :) Friday morning we learned that Elder Gould went home (no one knows why), so Elder Christiansen's new companion is Elder Frischknecht, who moved here from Pakkret (Nonthaburi). He's been out for seven months or so (same MTC group as Sister Jones and Elder Suttiphong), and I did switchoffs with him on Saturday all day. We taught a man named Nad a second discussion and committed him to baptism for March 2nd. He's good and is already sharing the gospel with his friends. :) Oh, I found out that zone leaders don't do switchoffs with all the companionships, just the district leaders. (In our zone there's no difference, but lots of zones are larger than this.)

We taught English at the Wat Bangtoey school again on Monday, though we changed it to Tuesdays so we wouldn't have to rush there from DDM (District Development Meeting, every Monday from 10:30 to 12:00). Since Valentine's Day is this week, the teacher had given all the students little valentine stickers, and when we entered the classroom, the kids clustered around us and peppered us with the stickers, sticking them everywhere (mostly our shirts and ties). I wish I'd had my camera. :) I love those kids sooooo much! Last night we rode into a small side street we'd never been to before, and when we reached the end, a little girl called out "Elders!" from the doorway of her house. Turns out the family there used to have the elders over all the time, but it's been a while and they've fallen through the cracks. There were lots of little kids at that house. Ah, I love kids! It'll be hard to say goodbye to all the children here when I have to move. The kids at English call us "Teacher," which is incredibly cute. "Teacher, teacher!" That's something I'll always remember about Thailand.

Monday night we visited Wirood, an old investigator. Several months ago he asked about some "Chescorado," something having to do with Christ in the Americas, but we never knew what he was talking about. Finally, it clicked: "Chescorado" was Quetzalcoatl (Native American legend) with a Thai pronunciation. :) Trying to understand Thais speak other languages, especially English, is fun.

Yesterday I found out that the fruit vendors also sell coconut milk in little bags for 5 baht apiece. That's my new addiction. ;) I've been reading Thai for about a week now. At first it strained my eyes and my brain, but now I'm fine and it's a lot of fun. This morning I started working on writing it, too (i.e. spelling and composition), and that's even more fun. My shirts are already turning off-white. I'm getting old. ;) The number for 911 here is 191. VCD (video CD) is huge here.

My bike tire went flat five times in a row about two weeks ago. Finally I got the inner tube replaced, and thankfully it's been fine since then. Soccer is really big here, the two big names being Michael Owen and David Beckham (both on the Liverpool team, I think). We've made friends with the guards at the head of our neighborhood. They're both really nice. Most neighborhoods have guards, which is neat. Thais hardly ever use chopsticks, except when eating Chinese food.

About two weeks ago I started noticing all the crushed rats, snakes, and toads on the roads. I don't know why they'd escaped my attention before -- I guess I didn't recognize what they really were. Oh, two Saturdays ago we came out of some apartments and saw smoke billowing up nearby. Turns out there was a fire in a field pretty close by, so we went over to take a look at it. Taught a first discussion to a guy who was sitting there watching it. I think they got the fire under control without any problems.

Well, everything's going well and the work is speeding ahead. Bunying was baptized this past Sunday and Chaad is getting the priesthood on Sunday. We taught 11 first discussions last week. Yesterday was a hard day, though -- 41 invitations (usually we do around 15) and not a single discussion. The only investigator that didn't cancel on us ended up giving us back our Book of Mormon and saying he wasn't interested anymore. That's too bad, especially because we thought he was really good.

I'm out of time. Thanks for all the support. Take care and have a great day! :-)

On a roll...

Tonight as I was working on "Too Late," I tried listening to some John Williams as I worked, but I found that the rhythm of the music got in the way of the rhythm of the words. It makes sense, really, since prose and especially poetry are music in a way. I do listen to music whenever I do art, though.

For the record, I'm still sick. It's wretched. I'm stable enough that I can go to school (which I did today), but my head feels awful and it's hard to focus. Maybe tomorrow it will disappear like a bad dream. Or maybe it'll get worse and I'll get to see what a hospital is like on the inside. Just kidding. Hmm, that's not very funny, is it.

Anyway, I signed up for a credit card today with my bank. If I didn't have to build credit (for the cell phone, and eventually everything else), I wouldn't. I'm against buying things on credit, so I'm just going to use it as a debit card and make sure I absolutely do not spend money that I don't have. I'm very good at spending money, by the way. Too good. Time to learn how to save.

An epiphany

Lately I've been thinking a lot (and I mean a lot) about my major(s) and future career. To and fro I've gone, considering well over a dozen different majors (this is one of the curses that comes with being interested in so many things, but I'm still of the opinion that the blessings make it worth it :)). Heck, I'll even list them for you, in rough chronological order: Classical Studies, Family History (Genealogy), History, Linguistics, English Language, Graphic Design, Political Science, International Studies, Music, Media Arts, American Studies, Mathematics, Information Systems, Information Technology, Computer Science, Geography, and Bioinformatics. And of course I've considered well over a dozen careers to follow those majors. All this time, I've felt like I have a mission in life, something to accomplish, and that's what I have to seek out. You can call me crazy (I do :)), but that sense of something greater than myself is what drives me. A passion for following one's dream, you could call it. And so while I realize that any of the above majors are great, and I could undoubtedly get a good career in most of them, I hadn't yet found The One (or at least recognized it for what it was).

So, having spent much time in confusion and back-and-forthedness, I decided yesterday to ask God. I'd done so before, of course, but never really seriously -- just as an aside. Yesterday I sought him out and got my answer. I know there are people who don't believe in answers from God or even in God himself, but I also know that God did answer my prayer. Oh, are you waiting to find out what the answer was? Maybe I'll just leave that until next time. :) Just kidding. I'd been thinking about doing both English Language and Computer Science, which would have me graduating in 2009 or so, but I realized that I just need to do English Language. Why? Because I'm going to get a Masters of Library Science (MLS) degree and become a librarian. That's all I know so far, but it's the perfect job for me and will be a nice complement to my on-the-side writing.

On a related but somewhat tangential note, I visited our library's publication lab today. It's a small area of the library with shelves containing all of the Writer's Markets you can think of, plus a lot of other helpful information on getting published, including submission guidelines, contest info, and much more. I think one of the best parts, though, is the lab assistants who can look through your work (writing, art, and perhaps music too but I'm not sure) and help you find good markets to get it published in. And no, I'm not of the "Don't end a sentence with a preposition" persuasion. :)

AIT #12: February 5, 2003

Sorry I wasn't able to write last week -- the e-mail servers were down. On Tuesday we got the fateful call of who was moving: Elder Nelson (outside of Bangkok), Elder Suttiphong (outside of Bangkok), and Elder Rock (in Bangkok). Wednesday we went to the immigration office to renew the visas for Elder Rock, Elder Nelson, and me. Most of my MTC district was there. I never thought I'd get to see all of them so often, but I guess that's what happens when you're in Bangkok. :)

Thursday we went up to moves at the Pakkret chapel at 6:30 a.m. Elder Nelson moved to Udorn and has a Thai companion, Elder Praseard. Elder Suttiphong moved to Khon Kaen and is companions with Elder Romashko. Elder Rock moved to Din Daeng and is companions with Elder Holman (I think). A few other people in my district moved, too -- Elder Applegate (to Chiang Mai), Sister Craner (to Chiang Mai as well), Elder Orrock (to Bangnaa), and Elder Lo (to Thonburi South). My new companion is Elder Serrao, who moved here from Ayutthaya. He's the new zone leader, which meant we had to stay at moves for ZLTM (zone leader training meeting). All the zone leaders' companions stayed at the church while the zone leaders went to President Slater's house for the meeting. Lots of my MTC friends (Elder Applegate, Elder McLelland, Elder Walker, Elder Hamblin) were ZL companions also and so we stuck around for quite a few hours together. Elder Walker and I went out proselyting for a couple of hours, walking around Muang Thong Thani (the area around the office). We didn't know the area at all, so it was interesting. :) Near the end of the two hours, we walked down a khlong path to talk with a man we saw. As we walked up to him, his dogs scrambled up to us and a rather large one opened its salivating jaws, latching onto my ankle. Luckily it let go immediately and miraculously didn't pierce through anything. So I can finally say I've been bitten by a dog. ;)

So, when we got back to Bangkapi later that afternoon, we dropped all of Elder Serrao's stuff off and went out proselyting. Elder Stevenson and Elder Christiansen are both trainers (for their final six weeks in Thailand), training Elder Houston (from Phoenix, Arizona) and Elder Gould (from Morristown, New Jersey), respectively. It's fun seeing greenies and thinking back to what it was like when I first got here, three months ago. Time sure flies by. Oh, Elder Serrao trained Elder Bloom (from my MTC district) in Ayutthaya. Small world. :)

On Friday we decided to walk instead of riding our bikes. Took the bus down to our first appointment and then walked all afternoon. I'd forgotten that blisters exist. :) It was a lot of fun, though. We talked with one old man who was making a fish net. Very neat. It only costs 30 or 40 baht for the supplies to make one. Hmm, next preparation day I'm not doing much... Just kidding -- it usually takes months to make a net. I'm thinking I may buy a goldfish, though. Oh, Friday morning we had to take Elder Nelson's bike to the Raw Saw Paw, a shipping company that transfers missionaries' bikes from province to province.

Saturday we had DLTM at the church. I took the two greenies out to find people to teach. I found out that we ride an average of 30-35 km a day, not 10-15. (I finally figured out how to work my speedometer. :)) We went to the office yesterday for interviews with President Slater. Oh, it's now a requirement to study the gospel for an extra half-hour each day, usually during our breaks. I was very, very excited about that -- I wanted to do it anyway, but now that it's mandatory, I don't have to make excuses anymore. ;) I finished Basic 2 last Monday and Basic 3 this morning, so I can finally study reading and writing. Very excited about that.

Did I mention that Bunying was smoking 60 cigarettes a day before he quit? I think that's a lot. :) He and his wife quit drinking coffee last week as well. He's getting baptized on Sunday, and Tu will probably be baptized not long after. We still don't know what's happening with the Korat thing. He finished reading the whole Book of Mormon last week.

There was a drug bust and shootout in one of the neighborhoods we work in, apparently last week. Someone was killed, according to the guard who tried to get us to leave. (We were talking with an old man in that neighborhood the other night and the guard rode up on a bike, then stopped next to us. He told us what had happened and recommended that we leave.) We did leave, of course. The other day I was riding along and a little girl who was playing in the street jumped out in front of me. Angels must have helped me brake, since I wasn't expecting it at all, and miraculously my bike stopped mere millimeters before her. It would have been awful had I hit her.

For those who are wondering, we can write e-mail once a week to our families, on Wednesdays. We can only use the Internet for an hour a week, which is why we often say we're pressed for time. At the immigration office a man walked up to us and asked if they would be playing President Bush's announcement there. We had no idea what he was talking about, since we don't watch TV or read the newspapers. Sounds like World War III is brewing. Apparently there was a skirmish in Cambodia, involving someone blowing up the Thai embassy, but people have been saying it's all settled down.

Out of time. It's getting hotter here. The work is going really well and we're working quite hard. I love Thailand and missionary work and this gospel. :) Take care and have a great day! :-)

AIT #11: January 22, 2003

This week has been an exciting one. On Thursday night I went on switchoffs with Elder Rock to go see some investigators of theirs while Elder Nelson and Elder Stevenson stayed at the church for correlation. On the way to the first appointment, Elder Rock hit a rock, which made his foot slip into his front tire. The tire stopped and the bike cartwheeled, taking Elder Rock under it. It was spectacular. :) He was totally fine and only got scraped up a little bit. It broke the mirror off his bike, though.

Last night Elder Nelson and I left the church from teaching English and headed out to teach Bunying's wife the rest of the second discussion. We were a little short on time, so we rode rather quickly (read: blazingly fast) to get there on time. Halfway there, Elder Nelson hit a speed bump and flew into the air. Usually this isn't a problem, but this time his tire landed at an awkward angle and his bike slid to the ground, casting him off into the asphalt. He ended up with skin scraped off his face, a really sore jaw, and blood dripping down his chin. We were near the entrance to a guarded neighborhood, luckily, and the guards were able to help us. We called the bishop and he sent one of his workers to drive us home. All is well and Elder Nelson should be fine. It could have been a lot worse, so we're very glad. I suppose riding bikes here in Bangkok is frighteningly dangerous if you really think about it (people walk out in front of us all the time, motorcycles dodge to the side next to us, buses almost collide with us, etc.). Now that all the mothers are panicking, I guess I'd better relay some more soothing news. :)

We taught Bunying's wife a first and part of the second discussion earlier this week. She actually wasn't home last night, so we wouldn't have been able to teach her anyway. Both she and Bunying have a lot of faith and want to get baptized. We still don't know if they'll have to move to Korat or not. Bunying had multiple sclerosis several years ago and it ate away at his motor control in his face, but it went into recession. It's still hard for him to speak, but he's getting better.

I went on full-day switchoffs with Elder Suttiphong on Friday. (The zone leader goes on switchoffs with each companionship twice a moves period, and his companion goes with the junior of the companionship, which in this case is me.) It was a lot of fun, as usual. Lots of invitations and lots of rejections. :) Elder Christiansen and Elder Stevenson jope (complete their missions) this coming moves, March 13. "Moves" means both the actual moves day (which is January 30th) and a moves period (the six-week period between moves days), by the way.

A lot of people say I look like an Indian (Hindu), and when I was with Elder Suttiphong on Friday, two Hindu men walked up to us while we were stopped for a moment. One came rather close to me and said, "Ah, you have a happy face. March will be a good month. Give me your hand and I will read your future." I smiled and asked him where he lived, to change the topic (it's a good technique :)). I learned some more Thai customs from Elder Suttiphong while eating lunch at the school where we taught English: first, you always leave the serving spoons upside down, not right-side up. Second, when you're done eating, leave the fork and spoon together on the plate, not one on each side.

It's the cool season right now, so I haven't been very sweaty lately. The hot season is coming up quickly, though (another month or two), and then we'll be plunged into the rainy season. In a way I'd rather not have a rainy season, but then again it can be a lot of fun if you just let yourself accept the fact that you'll be soaking wet. I think everyone would be happy if the hot season disappeared, though. :) Oh, we have to put anything with sugar in it inside the refrigerator, lest ants nest within. I learned that lesson on Saturday when I left some cereal outside (even though the bag wasn't opened yet). The next morning ants had utterly infested it, hundreds of them. I considered trying to exterminate the lot of them, but it would take too much time, so I had to throw the bag away. 151 baht down the drain. (sigh) :)

The hem of one pair of my pants came undone a few weeks ago, so we dropped it off at a seamstress's the other day (who incidentally used to be the maid for the missionaries here) and got it fixed for 10 baht. The mosquitoes haven't been attacking me so harshly in the past few weeks, which is a relief. Oh, last week I learned that there are mailmen that deliver the mail to the house, but if you're not home when they come, they leave a notice that says you have to go to the post office to pick it up.

My new favorite snack is dried banana chips. I think I'm addicted. They're cheap, too -- 50 baht per kilogram. My bike tire went flat on Monday and I had to get it patched. Luckily there's a bike shop nearby. The smells here aren't too bad usually, though in some places the stench is disheartening. Out in the less-developed areas there are lots of chickens wandering around, and I hear that in the Isan (eastern Thailand) there are chickens everywhere.

Well, my time has run out again. Missionary work is awesome. I'm glad it's not too hot right now. :) Next week we'll know who's moving and who's staying, so until then, keep the faith.

Dreams and Wishes

This cold doesn't seem to want to go away. But I shouldn't complain -- it could be worse. In spite of the headache and runny nose and cough, I went up to the library today to get some books. Found a really interesting one by Susan Cooper called Dreams and Wishes. It's a bunch of essays on writing for children, and although I've only read the first three chapters, it's already one of my favorite books. I also got Greenwitch (book three in The Dark Is Rising series) and the first two Lemony Snicket books.

I finished the first draft of a short story last night, "Too Late," which I'll be sending to a few publishers (for my Writing for Publication class). Allow me to ramble for a few moments. Part of me wants very much to be a writer, an artist, a musician. The creative arts have long pulled on me -- every time I see a good piece of art, hear good music, or read a good book, I feel driven, compelled, spurred on to make art, music, and literature. Is this normal? I feel almost like the creative arts are my calling in some obscure way, like it's something I should and must do. As if there were a masterpiece inside me waiting to get out. And then I look at my future and wonder what I should do for a career. It's hard to support a family on an artist's or a writer's paycheck. And so I feel pressured to get a "real" degree (like Computer Science) and a "real" job. Of course there's a great deal of sense in that, which is why I think I'll most likely end up with a "normal" day job and attend to all my creative outlets on the side. But would I be happy that way? Only time will tell.

Watched a little bit of a History Channel show on sewers today with my roommate. Fascinating, really -- did you know that there are over 1,300 miles of sewers in Paris? If you stretched them out, one in front of the other, they'd reach all the way to Istanbul. There were some interesting inventions created to help clean the sewers out and keep it flowing in the right direction.

AIT #10: January 15, 2003

I suspect that these letters will get shorter as I've already written about most of the little things unique to Thailand (like driving on the left side of the road). But I'll try to come up with interesting things to write about. :) So, I've been here in Thailand about as long as I was in the MTC (10 weeks). Life out here goes by a lot faster than it did in the MTC. Two more weeks till moves -- Elder Nelson will probably move and I'll get a new senior companion, but there's a myriad of other possibilities.

Chaad was baptized this past Sunday by Elder Nelson, and Bishop Wisut confirmed Nat a member of the Church and bestowed the gift of the Holy Ghost upon her. (Chaad will be confirmed this Sunday.) Have I mentioned Bunying at all? I don't think so. He's a 60-year-old man that we met while doing invites a few weeks ago. We've taught him up to the fourth discussion so far. He used to smoke two packs of cigarettes a day, but when we challenged him to quit, he accepted. He'd tried to quit about two years ago, unsuccessfully. But this time he made it -- he quit cold turkey and hasn't gone back. We gave him some pineapple-flavored vitamin C tablets to help him when he felt like he needed to smoke. He said the first few days he really, really, really wanted to smoke, but now he's fine. His wife is extremely grateful and decided to start hearing the discussions (we taught her a first a few days ago). They both came to church on Sunday, and his wife said she wants to come every single week. That kind of statement makes missionaries very happy. :) They *might* have to move to Korat, though, for her work; we'll find out today if they do or not. They'll be baptized in a few weeks if all goes well.

We're teaching at the Wat Bangtoey school again, on Mondays instead of Fridays. It's a lot of fun. Yesterday we saw a dog with a fake eye, kind of like a bluish marble but it looked too soft to be glass. Rather disturbing, especially because the dog kept barking at us in a fiendish manner, but you get used to ignoring dogs -- it's the only way to stay sane here. I've heard that there are roughly a million dogs in Bangkok. That's a lot.

It's 19 baht to send a letter to America or Canada, 17 to Europe or Africa, and 14 to Asia. I think it's even cheaper within Thailand, but I forgot to ask. I finished memorizing the 4th discussion a couple of days ago and I'm going to try to finish all of the 5th today (we're staying home for the rest of the day, so I'll have lots of time). Kid's Day was last week and there weren't many people home.

There are pickup trucks that sell fruit and drive around everywhere, usually with a loudspeaker set up and the driver calling out his wares. There are also motorcycle taxis (I don't know what they're really called) -- scattered throughout the town one will find groups of motorcycle drivers who take passengers around the city for a set rate (starting at 7 baht, I think). I talked with one of the drivers the other day and it sounds like all you have to do is buy a vest and a motorcycle to do it. There may be more organization to it than that, but I'm not sure. We see them every day, all over.

Babies often don't have anything on but a shirt (and baby powder to keep them cool -- lots of kids have baby powder sprinkled on their faces and necks, and even some adults). It's tradition that whoever eats the last piece on a plate will have a pretty girlfriend (or handsome boyfriend as the case may be). Yesterday Elder Nelson's tire got a hole in it, so we got it patched for 30 baht (though usually it's only 10 baht).

At the MTC we used a romanization scheme called "Phaasaa Elder" ("phaasaa" is Thai for "language"), very similar to the Mary Haas scheme. It's so ingrained in me that I may write Thai names/words in phaasaa elder and it makes perfect sense to me but may be quite unreadable to everyone else. :) Oh, we just got a notice in the mail about getting leather-bound copies of the Thai scriptures. It's 700 baht for a BoM/D&C combination (500 baht per book if you do it separately) and 700 for the Bible. Usually the Bible is 120-160 baht (depending on the size -- there's small, medium, and large), the Book of Mormon is free, and I have no idea how much the D&C is. Now I just need to learn how to read Thai fluently... :) (I can read, but I'm slow and have to look up the tones most of the time.)

Well, I'm out of time. Hopefully I'll be able to come up with something to write about next week. ;) Missionary work is hard but that's where the blessings come from -- without trials and opposition, you can't get to the real treasure, happiness and joy. It often hurts -- nobody likes tribulation -- but the Lord is there for us and once we get through it we'll see how much we've learned. C.S. Lewis said, "Pain is a brutal teacher, but how we learn -- oh, how we learn!" Christ lives and this is His church. Take care and have a great day! :-)

Another entry

Still sick. I did go to work for a few hours this morning to finish a brochure that we had to get printed out before Tuesday, but I knew I wouldn't be able to last through class, so I swung by the bookstore and bought a Wacom Graphire3 4x5" graphics tablet and returned home, which is where I've been all day. I'm going stir-crazy. :)

Anyway, the tablet's really cool. (My old Graphire tablet was somewhat demolished by my younger brothers while I was in Thailand.) I spent some time dabbling with Painter Essentials -- quite impressive. There will be artwork appearing on this blog in the very near future.

I finished the first draft of my story "Too Late" tonight. When I completed it (I started last night), I looked at the last story I'd written and discovered I wrote it over four years ago. Wow. No more long gaps like that.

AIT #9: January 8, 2003

We had our first baptism on Sunday. Sister Nat, the 16-year-old girl we've been teaching for about a month, was baptized after church this past Sunday and it was awesome. :) And Brother Chaad is getting baptized this coming Sunday. The work is going very well. :)

Yesterday I went to my first zone conference. We're lucky since it's held at our church, which is about two minutes away from our house. Three zones attended: Bangkapi, Bangnaa, and Srinakarin (24 missionaries). It was long -- 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. -- but it was good and I absolutely loved it. President Slater's message on the worth of souls was awesome, and all the other counsel really inspired me. It was nice to see some of my old MTC friends, too. (Six of us came -- Elder Applegate, Elder Walker, Elder Lo, Elder Rock, Sister Grimmius, and me.)

There are tons of women here in the ward. Hardly any men, or so it seems. We always try to find men if we can since there are so few of them. I wonder why so many women join the Church here... Next moves is on January 30 or so. We're pretty sure a lot of people in our zone will move (possibly up to four of us), but it's hard to say who will go and who will stay.

Oh, anywhere outside of Bangkok is called "upcountry," even the south. We saw a pink dog the other day, and a green one a while ago. Their owners said they gave them medicine and it made them turn out that way. Weird. :) I've seen dogs with humongous tennis-ball sized tumors on their noses, one dog with some kind of virus eating away at its face so the innards were showing, and lots of other unsavory sights. There's a legend of sorts that dogs will bark at anyone who's eaten dog meat. Considering the number of dogs that bark at Elder Nelson, I think there's some truth to it. :)

Some vendors sell what missionaries call a "sterile barrel" -- it's an ice cream hogi, basically. They put sticky rice in a sandwich and pile on some ice cream. It's actually quite good. Rumor has it that the name came about because they supposedly make you sterile. Hmm... :) It's only 3.5 baht for a bus fare (on the red buses, that is -- blue buses are 5, and I think the orange ones are 8 or so). Very cheap.

Lots of people hold hands here, girls with girls, occasionally guys with guys, etc. There are government employees that sweep the streets and sidewalks, all over the place. At least they're trying to keep it clean, even if they are unsuccessful for the most part. :) We have ants all over the place at home in the kitchen. Sometimes they go away, but if we leave anything out, ants will be in it before long. There are often small lizards on the walls, too, but they don't stay out if there are humans around.

If you leave envelopes out, they'll seal themselves (the humidity), so you have to tuck the outside part inside so that the glue won't melt and seal. When you put cups on the ground or on a table or anything, the condensation will gather and make a small puddle, every single time. So you get used to wiping up the water. What little Thai music I've heard (at Lotus and restaurants and around town) sounds awfully similar. Most of it is suspiciously like American pop. Too bad the authentic Thai music is disappearing...

Oh, every time we enter a house, the person will offer us water. Sometimes food as well, but that's rare. A few people will go buy us a Pepsi when we come to visit, even though they're extremely poor and don't have the money for it. They're very nice and generous. We have enough muu baans (neighborhoods) in our area that we can wait six to seven weeks between covering a muu baan. That way we cycle through them all and give them adequate coverage.

We have a bug zapper that's pretty cool and works well for electrocuting the cockroaches and mosquitoes. There are screens on all the windows, and if we kept the door closed more often we probably wouldn't have so many mosquitoes in the house. (It's normal to leave your front door open if you're home, so we usually do that.) Oh, only elders can enter our house, nobody else (male or female). We speak English in our house and I've heard that basically all the missionaries do likewise, unless they have Thai companions. So I doubt I'll lose my English here. :) There are very few traffic lights here. Driving here would be a nightmare. :)

I'm still not very good at eating spicy food -- when I eat it, I start sweating all over and it's rather painful. :) With the heat while eating and the spiiiiiiicy aftertaste when you're done, there's hardly a moment's respite. Water helps, though. I suspect that the trick to eating spicy is accepting that it's going to be hot, and making that the reason for eating -- kind of like getting a high. ;)

The bread here is sold in half-sized loaves. Lotus has two of those for 25 baht, which I guess is a pretty good deal. Lots of houses have ceiling fans that rotate around. Ingenious idea. Fans do a really good job of keeping one cool. In fact, I prefer fans to air conditioning.

Well, I've run out of things to talk about. :) Everything's going well and I'm better from that sickness I mentioned last week, although I picked up a cough to replace it. We should have normal weeks from now on, without anything out of the ordinary. Hopefully that doesn't mean these letters will become more boring. :) Today I got a haircut and we're about to go to the post office to pick up our mail. Oh, at Lotus I got a stamp made with my address on it (for 170 baht), which'll make it easy for writing letters. Also got a Thai alphabet chart that'll help when I start reading. I'm memorizing the discussions for Basic 2 right now (4th discussion) and hope to be done within a couple weeks. I love reading the dictionary, but I have to wait till I pass off the other stuff. Focus, Elder, focus. :)

I know this work is true and that it's the way to real happiness in this life. Christ lives and this is His church.

A series of (un)fortunate events

Yesterday I woke up with a mild sore throat. I made it through the day okay, but this morning it was worse and was accompanied by a fluish feeling, so I decided to bail and spent most of the day at home. It's been good for getting caught up on homework, though. With any luck I'll miraculously recover by tomorrow morning and be able to go on with life as usual. I watched Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events so that I wouldn't be doing homework all day long. It was definitely a different kind of story, whimsical and yet interesting in its own right. Sunny was hilarious. I prefer more realistic fantasy (if that makes any sense :)), something that almost could happen, but if you watch the movie accepting that it's whimsical and not meant to make much sense, then it's okay. I'll have to read the books sometime to see what they're like. (And I hear an LDS artist did the illustrations, too.)

So, I've been reading Jason Epstein's Book Business: Publishing Past Present and Future. Have I mentioned that I love reading about books and writing and reading and all that? I do. I'm also reading a book called Rotten Rejections, about writer's rejection slips. And today I couldn't resist a trip to the bookstore and ended up with The Designer's Lexicon (which was on sale and is a great reference for graphic designers), Rosemary Edmonds's translation of War and Peace, and two Susan Cooper books (The Boggart and King of Shadows) which were only $3 each.

Speaking of books, the other day I discovered BookCrossing.com. I haven't actually participated yet, but it looks like a great idea and I plan to do so as soon as I can.

I used InDesign (CS2) for the first time today. After a couple of weeks of using Quark at school, wow, I love InDesign. The difference is incredible. I'm sure part of it is because I'm used to Adobe's keyboard shortcuts, but there's more to it than that. Quark's good to know, though.

AIT #8: January 3, 2003

The reason this is a few days late is that I've been sick since Tuesday morning. Nothing terribly bad, but enough to keep me down all day Thursday. Mainly just a headache, slight fever, wooziness, and weakness. Tuesday I went out proselyting as usual (thinking it would go away). Wednesday we went to Dream World (more on that later) all day and it didn't go away. :) When we got back from Dream World I wrote a few letters and then decided it would be best to go straight to bed. Slept most of Thursday morning and early afternoon and then lay on the couch the rest of the day, singing hymns to myself to keep my thoughts off the sickness.

Anyway, on to better thoughts. :) Our ward Christmas party, "Journey to Bethlehem," was on the 21st. They asked us to participate in the play, so we were shepherds and sang a few numbers. People really seemed to like it. A good number of our investigators showed up, too. On Christmas Eve a bunch of ward members went out caroling and they asked us to go with them, so we spent the evening going around town crammed into the back of Brother Super's car. :) It was a lot of fun. We went to the Bates's for Christmas meal. They brought a friend of theirs, Terence Omoruyi. He's from Nigeria and is trying to find a job here. I talked with him a lot -- he was baptized November 10th, and he's in Huai Khwang (Elder Orrock's area). His conversion story is really neat.

I didn't go to the World Scout Jamboree on Sunday; instead, Elder Rock and I stayed here and Elder Nelson and Elder Stevenson went to the jamboree. They left around 11:00 on Sunday morning and got back just in time. During the last hour of church, one of the ward leaders announced that the son of Brother S. had died that morning (he was around 40 years old and had been sick for a while). Because Brother S. was the only one in his family who's a member, they held a fangsuad (Buddhist funeral of sorts) that evening at Wat Bangtoey. It was about two hours long and consisted mainly of monks chanting prayers in Pali. I'd hoped I would have at least some chance of understanding a word here and there, but it flew completely over my head. :) A lot of ward members showed up.

Oh, not too long ago my bike light fell off while I was crossing the road. Before I could go back and get it, a bus flew by and immortalized it. Last week I passed off Basic 1. :) I also stopped using the discussion book when teaching the first discussion. On Saturday Elder Nelson got hit by a taxi. Nothing too major, just the back wheel, and the car was hardly moving, so it faded quickly into memory.

There's a new worldwide missionary e-mail policy -- all missionaries now have to use the Church's e-mail service. It's mainly for safety and filtering (don't have to worry about nasty messages getting through).

This week has been really slow because everyone's been gone for New Year's. We've had hardly any appointments (four all week). On New Year's Eve we stopped by at Sister M.'s house for half an hour or so for some food, and then went to Super's for the rest of the evening. At Super's we switched-off with Elder Christiansen and Elder Suttiphong. Poor Elder Suttiphong had to stay home with me all day yesterday. Good sport.

One thing that's kind of odd here is that cleaning ladies come into the men's bathrooms all the time, and they don't think there's anything weird about that. :) There are termites eating our house apart, but we're probably not moving houses till April. The house we're in right now is 11,000 baht a month, which is a bit on the expensive side (8,000 is reasonable). Thailand's definitely dirtier than America, but that's just the way it is. You get used to it. A lot of people smoke and drink, a lot. Lots of kids, too. There are street vendors on bikes that ride around all day selling food, and there are lots of people who have stores in their living rooms or in the front part of their room (if in an apartment). Because Thais use first names, it's hard to know who's married to who, who's the children of who, and all that. I still get surprised from time to time.

Lots of people want to learn English here. I didn't expect there to be so many English words in Thai (called thapsap), but they're so prevalent that if you don't know the word for something in Thai, you can try pronouncing the English word with a Thai accent and you've a good chance of being correct. :) I think the rainy season is over. It hasn't rained hard for several weeks now. Good. :) It seems that construction work is eternal here, always going on and on and on, all over the place.

Oh, the other day a coin fell on the ground and I was about to step on it to stop it from rolling away, but luckily Elder Nelson stopped me in time. I'd forgotten about that: since all the money has the king's picture on it, it's really bad to step on any coins or bills. A few days ago I ran into Suchat Chaichana, the man who spoke in our ward not too long ago. He told me that the new translation of the Thai Book of Mormon should be done in two years. The first pass is already complete, but they want it to be the best possible translation.

We had interviews again last week. I found that I'll be returning home July 30, 2004. That means that in a few weeks I'll only have a year and a half left. Whoa. That makes me feel old. :) Most stores will sell you drinks in bags (same with smoothies), which was weird at first, but I've gotten used to it. I'm running out of time so I'm sorry I'm changing the topic so much. I've seen a handful of people fishing out of khlongs; I guess if it suits them, so be it. It's normal here to talk about zits -- Thais will often go up to missionaries and say, "Why do you have so many zits?" It's not taboo at all. :) We do indeed have to bend over when crossing between people who are talking to each other, especially if they're older, but it seems like rules like that are gradually fading away and being replaced by American culture. The traffic lights (all two or three of them in our area :)) are sooooo long -- four or five minutes, and I'm not exaggerating at all. It's crazy. The traffic gets backed up really bad.

Well, I'd like to write more, but I'll have to save it for next week. I'm hoping I'll get better soon. Take care and have a great day! :-)

Pencil sharpening

I've been thinking a lot lately about the process of writing, especially my own process. Here are some of the conclusions I've made. First, I'm the kind of person that has to have a regular writing time each day if I'm to get anything of value written. Mornings are preferable but I haven't been able to work that into my schedule this semester yet, so it remains as an elusive goal.

Second, when it comes to writing stories, I do much better if I sketch out the plot beforehand (at least the general idea of the story). Recently I've tried just starting from scratch, writing the scene as I go without any idea of what's going to happen, and it hasn't worked too well for me.

Third, I'm a dialogue person. Whenever I write scenes, they almost inevitably turn into pure dialogue back and forth, and I have to force myself to add anything extra. Perhaps I should try writing for the stage. :) At any rate, I'm going to be working on narrative description and character development and the other things I'm not so good at.

Fourth, I've realized how important constant reading is to the writer's proper nutrition. Over the past year I haven't been reading as much as I used to, and I find that I feel like I don't really know how to write a novel or a short story, because I haven't read much of either genre lately.

Enough of that. This week I'm going to try auditing my time and making a daily hour-by-hour plan each morning, to see if it helps me make better use of my time. I'm already behind on my homework. ~sigh~ :)

AIT #7: December 24, 2002

Sorry, but this letter will be extremely short, as I only have about five minutes. :) Everything's going well on this rather hot Christmas day. No snow in sight yet. ;) It honestly doesn't feel like Christmas at all. Thais think that Christmas is the American New Year, not about Christ at all. We can't even find any Christmas cards, just New Year cards. We're going to the Bates' home in a minute for Christmas dinner. This Sunday we're helping out at the World Scout Jamboree down near the ocean, which will be fun. Sister Jones moved to Thonburi last Thursday and Sister West moved in. She's from Cardston (Canada) and was in the MTC district before me. We had our ward Christmas activity last Saturday and it was a great success. More details will follow in the next letter (or the next, if I don't have much time next week). We got two new baptismal commitments this week, one from Bunying (a 60-year-old man), and the other(s) from a family that we're meeting tonight to plan out their baptism. All is well and the time is still flying by. I'm about out of time. If any of you want back issues (parts 1-6), e-mail my family. They should be coming up on my website soon, too. The work is really picking up here and our teaching pool is huge. Nat will probably get baptized on the 5th, but there's a possibility it may happen this Sunday. (Hopefully not, since we won't be there for it.) Chaad will get baptized January 12th. Have I mentioned that there are a zillion 7-Elevens here? Just in our area alone there have to be more than 20. It's crazy. :) Well, it's time to go. Merry Christmas to everyone. In this bustling season of gifts and garlands, remember the baby in a manger who saved the world from the chains of sin, and try to share some of His love with someone else. Take care and have a great Christmas! :-)

AIT #6: December 17, 2002

This moves period ends tomorrow, which means I've been in-country for six weeks already. Where did the time go? I think I'll be saying that every week for the next two years. :) Well, only Sister Jones is moving; everyone else in the zone is here for at least six more weeks. I probably won't leave Bangkapi for another three or four months. We don't know yet where Sister Jones is going, other than that she'll be in Bangkok (because she needs to bring her bike with her; if she didn't need to, she'd be going outside of Bangkok). Yesterday afternoon we sat anxiously awaiting the phone call from Elder Christiansen, letting us know who would be moving. We had to wait about 45 minutes, the suspense building up each second. Just kidding, but it was fun.

This week has gone by incredibly fast. I can't even remember what happened. :) Oh, we're probably not going to be teaching at Wat Bangtoey anymore, since they changed their schedule and it doesn't fit ours. On Sunday we had a special visitor, Suchat Chaichana (the bishop of the Asoke ward). He wrote an article in the July 2002 Ensign on his conversion to the church, was instrumental in translating the hymnbook, and has been working on the new translation of the Book of Mormon into Thai. We also had a farang visit, Joseph Mills from Louisiana. He was a missionary about 10 years ago in Fresno, California, Lao-speaking. In fact, he taught Brother Chanthaphuang the gospel (Brother Chanthaphuang is the night supervisor at the MTC for Southeast Asian languages). Small world. :)

What else? We're not sure if Nat will be baptized this Sunday. Hopefully it'll work out. Last night we got another baptismal commitment, from a man named Ek, his wife Noi, and his mother Juab. We don't have a date yet, though. We're going back on Monday to plan it out. They're a really good family and it's been awesome teaching them. There's another good family, Warayu and his wife and kids, but we can't continue teaching them till January 11th or so (they felt it was too fast and wanted to take a breather). It's wonderful to teach families. Nothing better. :)

Well, we're going to be moving our house in about a month. The one we have is old and decrepit and it's hard to keep clean, so Elder Stevenson and Elder Rock found a really good one that's much closer to the church. More on that in the weeks to come. We found a new neighborhood the other day, just as the sun was setting. We were doing invites out in a part of our area that we'd never been in before, and through the trees we saw a hidden neighborhood, almost like an Atlantis rising out of the ground. We finally found the entrance and were confronted by a spirit house containing a rather freaky statue of an elephant-headed man with a black snake wound around its chest. Luckily it wasn't too dark yet. ;) It was a great deal of fun -- at times it feels like our area is small and confined and that we've already talked with everyone here. But that won't ever actually happen -- there are around 250,000 people in our area (mine and Elder Nelson's). Lots of people.

Now that I think about it, there really isn't much crime at all here. The only thing I've heard of is that Brother Chayaprik's bike was stolen yesterday. We always lock our bikes up, but here you hardly have to worry about it. I hear it's even safer in the Isan. Haven't seen any accidents yet either. Elder Nelson almost fell into a khlong the other day, though. We were carrying our bikes through a hole in a wall to get onto the khlong path (it was a shortcut), and he started sliding towards the khlong. His helmet fell in and his feet got a little wet, but other than that he survived. :) A man offered to help us wash his helmet off so he could use it again. It's a miracle neither of us has fallen off the khlong path yet. Angels really do protect us.

A lot of people think we're students, because the college students wear white shirts and black pants too. The nearby university is Ramkhamhaeng University, but that's in Elder Christiansen's and Elder Suttiphong's area, so we've never gone there. A lot of people ask us if Thai girls are pretty and if we'd like to be their sons-in-law. Goodness, if I wanted to, I could have over a dozen wives already. ;) Some questions that people ask here would sound really weird in America -- for example, "How many people live in your house?" That's perfectly normal here. Out of the 400 or 500 people we've talked with so far, only one has said, "I can't tell you; that's not safe." Other common questions are "Where are you going?" and "Have you eaten yet?". Lots of kids cry out "Falang!" when they see us. It's a great deal of fun, but they often want to shake our hands. Kids' hands are dirty, especially the left one (which they use to wipe -- enough said). We're able to drink the water people offer us, since they usually get it out of bottles. Haven't gotten sick yet, at least. :) The only real bugs I've seen so far are cockroaches and mosquitoes. No huge spiders or snakes or anything yet. I'm disappointed. ;)

We get 2200 baht every two weeks for MSF (Missionary Support Fund), which covers food, personal hygiene, and travel. It's far more than enough if you're not a butterfingers with money. One week I only spent 200 baht on food -- I was so proud of myself! :) Usually it comes out to about 500 baht a week, though. It's fun to try to cut expenses. I haven't been cooking a whole lot because there really isn't much time, sadly. That's life, though.

Well, the work is going well and I'm very glad to be here. It's hard, definitely, harder than I ever imagined. I've grown soooo much. The scriptures have become a lifeline, as have hymns. Christmas is coming up next week, so I'll be able to call home. The cheapest phone cards here are for 14 baht a minute.

In the future, letters probably won't be as long as the first one was, unless I have a lot of time. I wish I had more time, but our calling as missionaries is to preach the gospel, so that takes precedence. :) When I return home in two years, though, I'll write a book and put it up for free on my website. Thanks for all the support! This church is true and the gospel is the best thing in the world. I love being a missionary! :)

AIT #5: December 11, 2002

I've been here in Thailand for almost a full moves now. The next batch of missionaries arrives next week. All is well here. We had our Christmas "thiaw" yesterday ("thiaw" is a Thai word for things like vacations, parties, etc.). Since there are so many missionaries in the mission, it was split up over three days -- Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. One- third of the mission went yesterday with us. It was a lot of fun to see other missionaries, eat a delicious Christmas meal, exchange gifts, and listen to President Slater speak. We watched "Monsters, Inc.", too. I rather liked it. President Slater spoke on light as a symbol of Christmas. He made a point about how light unifies -- Christ unifies things, but Satan separates things (body and soul, us and God, families, etc.). I'd never thought about that before...

Oh, last week we did our Journey to Bethlehem presentation at the Asoke church. It went really well. When we got there Saturday afternoon, one of the farangs asked us if anyone in our group knew how to sing. I ended up being enlisted as an angel in the angel room, singing "Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains." Had to learn the bass line in a jiffy. It was really fun, though, and it was neat to see all the people come through. Hopefully they felt the spirit of Christmas as they went through all the various rooms (shepherds, the three kings of the Orient, King Herod, the innkeeper, and Mary and Joseph).

Nat (the 16-year-old girl) wants to wait till the 22nd to be baptized. We're still not sure who will perform the actual ordinance; we wanted Brother Best to, but he'll be gone. It may end up being me. We're teaching a lot of investigators, including some really good families. No new baptismal commitments yet, however.

There is a goal for the Asia area (mission-wise) for each companionship to teach 20 discussions a week (10 firsts and 10 others). So far we're at about 10 a week, if we're lucky. A long way to go. :) There's a mission language certification program, which consists of memorizing the discussions, memorizing word lists, reading and writing, and being able to teach clearly and effectively. Most people take two months to get certified.

On Thursday I went on switch-offs with Elder Suttiphong. He taught me how to cook rice in the rice cooker (it's very easy) and make a sweet n' sour dish. I love cooking! I make rice for breakfast and dinner every day now. A few days ago I bought cooking supplies (vegetable oil, fish sauce, chili powder, onions, garlic, etc.) and am having a blast. We visited Brother Super at his bakery the other day to go teaching with him. Someday I'll have to learn how to cook Thai desserts and cookies and stuff.

Tuesday night we visited Pepe and Milinda, a less-active couple that was baptized about two years ago. Milinda's doing much better and wants to come back to church now. It was awesome seeing how she realizes that not going to church has made their lives darker (that's what she said). The light of the gospel is real.

I ate dog meat on Tuesday as well, for the first time. It's not too bad, actually. But for health reasons, I probably will try to avoid it in the future. :) Haven't eaten anything else too weird yet. Yet. :) Got my first Thailand haircut as well, for 50 baht (a little over a dollar). Now that I've been here almost a full moves (6 weeks), riding my bike in traffic is a ton of fun. If I ever leave Bangkok, I'll miss it. I think virtually all the missionaries here ride bikes, but there may be a few areas where it's too congested.

I haven't seen any crime or heard of any, surprisingly. In fact, I think I've almost forgotten that crime exists. :) I'm sure it's there, of course, but I haven't seen it yet. Lots of Thais know a little bit of English (at least "Hello"), and quite a few like practicing it on us. I've been using a briefcase for the past three or four weeks (as opposed to a backpack) and will probably continue to do so, since it keeps papers flat and is large enough to hold everything I need to bring with me. The taxis don't have seat belts in the back, just up front. Haven't seen any taxi accidents yet, though. (It's a miracle, considering how some of the drivers drive. :)) There are soooooo many motorcycles here. All over the place, everywhere you go, motorcycles and yet more motorcycles.

Well, I've pretty much adjusted to life here in Thailand. Prices in baht seem normal now; it would be weird to go back to using dollars. I love it here and love the work. It's wonderfully good to see the gospel of Christ change people's lives, especially families. I love families! :) We talked with an awesome investigator today, Nan, who had already read most of Gospel Principles by the time Elder Nelson met her a few months ago. Her husband isn't interested, though, so the sisters will probably have to teach her. She's golden -- we haven't been able to contact her for at least a month and a half, and yet she's still reading diligently from the Book of Mormon, the Bible, and Gospel Principles each day. I wish there were more like her. :) Anyway, I'm about out of time. Thanks for all of the support, everyone, especially the prayers. Prayer is real. This church is real. God is real. Take care and have a great day! :-)