AIT #1: November 13, 2002
I've decided to start posting my weekly Adventures in Thailand mission entries here, one each day (there are 87 of them). Expect some mission-related fiction and artwork here soon too. :)
Well, I made it safely to Thailand. We left on Monday at 4:30 p.m. and arrived at the airport around 6:00. The airline agent who checked my bags was actually from Thailand, so I got to talk with him in Thai, which was really neat. We flew to LAX, had a three-hour layover, then flew to Taiwan. That flight was long -- fourteen hours or so. Maybe longer; I lost track after a while. Luckily I was able to sleep for five or six hours of it. It was weird seeing everything in Mandarin/Cantonese. After a two-hour layover there in Taipei (it was about 6:00 a.m. there), we got on the plane to Thailand. All during this time we (the fourteen of us -- Elder Lo flew home to Fresno Monday morning at 4:00 a.m. since he had to get surgery on his wrist, but he'll be joining us in Thailand in a few months) talked with lots of people. At LAX I talked with a Cambodian man, and on the bus I talked with two Thai ladies (from Bangkok and Chiang Mai). At the Taipei airport I talked with a Thai man (from Thonburi) for about 45 minutes. Elder Applegate was able to teach a first discussion to a Thai young man, which was really neat. It was very fun to be able to speak Thai and have people actually understand us. :)
We arrived in Thailand around 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday. President Slater and his wife found us and we piled into a few vans. They drove us to the mission home (in Pakkret), where we had a few meetings and interviews and such. The next morning we all drove to the Pakkret church (10 minutes away), where all the missionaries who were being transferred were waiting. We went inside the church and there found our new companions. Mine is Elder Aaron Nelson, from Calgary, Alberta (Canada). Most of my district ended up in Bangkok, but Sister Kravetz was sent to Ubon, Elder Bloom to Ayuthaya, and Elder Pitzer to somewhere 8-10 hours away. I didn't get to talk with many of them. Elder Walker and Sister Grimmius are in Bangnaa, which is apparently in a nearby zone. We said goodbye to each other (which was harder than I thought it would be), then left. Elder Nelson and I got my luggage and summoned a taxi. Halfway to Bangkapi (my area), the taxi broke down, so we had to switch to another one.
When we got to the house, I unpacked some of my stuff and got settled. I was rather surprised to find that Elder Rock (from my district) was there with us. He and Elder Stevenson and Elder Nelson and I are in the same house, same zone. There are eight of us in the zone -- us four, Elder Christiansen (zone leader), Elder Suttiphong, Sister Jones, and Sister Aemon. Sister Aemon is new here as well (but she's been a missionary for almost a year now). At 10:00 or so we four went to the bank, exchanged our U.S. money for Thai baht ($420 = around 17,000 baht), then went to the next-door bike shop. Elder Nelson had to get his chain fixed, which ended up taking about eight hours, so we walked around and did invites. My bike was 14,000 baht, whatever that turns out to be in U.S. dollars (43 baht to a dollar now).
Ack, I'm running out of time, so I'd better hurry. The day we arrived was quite nice and not hot at all, but it's been getting hotter each day. Yesterday (Tuesday) our power was out (an elder who lived here three months ago didn't pay the electric bill) and so our fans didn't work, which meant we were sweating a lot. Luckily we got our power back by the time we came home at 9:30.
Each day we wake up by 6:30 (I wake up at 5:45), get ready, do house study (we study the gospel together), do companionship study, have personal Book of Mormon study, and then language study. Then we eat breakfast and head out by 9:30. About half our time each day is spent doing invitations, which is kind of like tracting, except we can't knock on doors (we ride around looking for people who are outside). We usually ask them if we can share a two-minute message with them, about families (temples), the Book of Mormon, or Joseph Smith. Then we ask if we can come back later and spend about 30 minutes talking with them about our beliefs. So far we've taught 10 or so first discussions. We eat lunch out, go to appointments, etc., until 9:30 when we return to our house. We have to be in bed by 10:30.
The language is coming along really well. I understand a lot of what's going on, far more than I thought I would. In fact, now I can understand more than I can say, which is opposite what it was in the MTC. I'm learning a lot. I can also read well enough to be able to ask the Thais to write words down for me.
There are 90 or so people in our ward. I've met a lot of them so far, and I've met a lot of our investigators as well. At first I felt kind of out of place, but after three or four days I felt at home, knowing I have friends here. It made a big difference. We teach English every Tuesday and Friday at the church, and on Fridays we go to a nearby school and teach English to a class of kids there. It's a lot of fun.
Thailand is awesome. I love it here. The food is delicious. So far I haven't eaten anything terribly weird. Elder Nelson has been here for 10 months and Elder Stevenson for 14 or so. These next two years will pass by quite quickly. Working hard is very important, especially since it's so hot. The showers aren't too odd -- we use a spray hose kind of thing. The water's hot and it works quite well. For the bathroom facilities, we have a spray hose instead of toilet paper. It felt very weird the first time, but now it's natural.
Bangkapi is in the northeast part of Bangkok, almost the outskirts. But there's plenty of city. We ride our bikes everywhere, most of the time on the road in the midst of the traffic. The first time I rode was that first night and it was quite traumatic. :) But since then I've gotten used to weaving around cars, dodging buses, facing head-on into traffic, etc.
On Monday we had our first rainstorm. The power went out at the house of the investigator we were teaching, but it came back on again just before the rain started coming down. Perhaps I should say Rain, with a capital R -- our next appointment wasn't very far away, but by the time we got there, we were soaked. We kind of dried off by the time we left their house (around 9:20), but the rain started up again and we were thoroughly wet by the time we got home. Riding in hard rain is interesting. Some of the roads were semi-flooded, too, so my feet got rather wet. It was a lot of fun. :) The only problem was that some of the water got in my eyes, which slid my contacts around and from time to time my vision in one eye became entirely blurred. But the Lord is protecting us.
Today we went to downtown Bangkok. A lady at McDonald's saw that we teach religion and wanted to buy us food (her two sons are interested in learning religion and so they buy religion teachers food whenever they see them). We got her address and will send the missionaries to meet with them. (She's not in our area.) It was very nice of her.
Well, I've run out of time (we can only be on the Internet for an hour). Hopefully this is detailed enough. It was kind of weird typing at first, since I haven't really been at a computer since mid-August. But now I can type fairly quickly again. Everything is way cheap here -- a shopper's paradise. For example, the Lord of the Rings video CD is $5. Cassette tapes are $2-$3. Books are $3-$5.
Thailand is wonderful and I know this is where I'm supposed to be. God lives and this is his church. Take care. :)
Well, I made it safely to Thailand. We left on Monday at 4:30 p.m. and arrived at the airport around 6:00. The airline agent who checked my bags was actually from Thailand, so I got to talk with him in Thai, which was really neat. We flew to LAX, had a three-hour layover, then flew to Taiwan. That flight was long -- fourteen hours or so. Maybe longer; I lost track after a while. Luckily I was able to sleep for five or six hours of it. It was weird seeing everything in Mandarin/Cantonese. After a two-hour layover there in Taipei (it was about 6:00 a.m. there), we got on the plane to Thailand. All during this time we (the fourteen of us -- Elder Lo flew home to Fresno Monday morning at 4:00 a.m. since he had to get surgery on his wrist, but he'll be joining us in Thailand in a few months) talked with lots of people. At LAX I talked with a Cambodian man, and on the bus I talked with two Thai ladies (from Bangkok and Chiang Mai). At the Taipei airport I talked with a Thai man (from Thonburi) for about 45 minutes. Elder Applegate was able to teach a first discussion to a Thai young man, which was really neat. It was very fun to be able to speak Thai and have people actually understand us. :)
We arrived in Thailand around 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday. President Slater and his wife found us and we piled into a few vans. They drove us to the mission home (in Pakkret), where we had a few meetings and interviews and such. The next morning we all drove to the Pakkret church (10 minutes away), where all the missionaries who were being transferred were waiting. We went inside the church and there found our new companions. Mine is Elder Aaron Nelson, from Calgary, Alberta (Canada). Most of my district ended up in Bangkok, but Sister Kravetz was sent to Ubon, Elder Bloom to Ayuthaya, and Elder Pitzer to somewhere 8-10 hours away. I didn't get to talk with many of them. Elder Walker and Sister Grimmius are in Bangnaa, which is apparently in a nearby zone. We said goodbye to each other (which was harder than I thought it would be), then left. Elder Nelson and I got my luggage and summoned a taxi. Halfway to Bangkapi (my area), the taxi broke down, so we had to switch to another one.
When we got to the house, I unpacked some of my stuff and got settled. I was rather surprised to find that Elder Rock (from my district) was there with us. He and Elder Stevenson and Elder Nelson and I are in the same house, same zone. There are eight of us in the zone -- us four, Elder Christiansen (zone leader), Elder Suttiphong, Sister Jones, and Sister Aemon. Sister Aemon is new here as well (but she's been a missionary for almost a year now). At 10:00 or so we four went to the bank, exchanged our U.S. money for Thai baht ($420 = around 17,000 baht), then went to the next-door bike shop. Elder Nelson had to get his chain fixed, which ended up taking about eight hours, so we walked around and did invites. My bike was 14,000 baht, whatever that turns out to be in U.S. dollars (43 baht to a dollar now).
Ack, I'm running out of time, so I'd better hurry. The day we arrived was quite nice and not hot at all, but it's been getting hotter each day. Yesterday (Tuesday) our power was out (an elder who lived here three months ago didn't pay the electric bill) and so our fans didn't work, which meant we were sweating a lot. Luckily we got our power back by the time we came home at 9:30.
Each day we wake up by 6:30 (I wake up at 5:45), get ready, do house study (we study the gospel together), do companionship study, have personal Book of Mormon study, and then language study. Then we eat breakfast and head out by 9:30. About half our time each day is spent doing invitations, which is kind of like tracting, except we can't knock on doors (we ride around looking for people who are outside). We usually ask them if we can share a two-minute message with them, about families (temples), the Book of Mormon, or Joseph Smith. Then we ask if we can come back later and spend about 30 minutes talking with them about our beliefs. So far we've taught 10 or so first discussions. We eat lunch out, go to appointments, etc., until 9:30 when we return to our house. We have to be in bed by 10:30.
The language is coming along really well. I understand a lot of what's going on, far more than I thought I would. In fact, now I can understand more than I can say, which is opposite what it was in the MTC. I'm learning a lot. I can also read well enough to be able to ask the Thais to write words down for me.
There are 90 or so people in our ward. I've met a lot of them so far, and I've met a lot of our investigators as well. At first I felt kind of out of place, but after three or four days I felt at home, knowing I have friends here. It made a big difference. We teach English every Tuesday and Friday at the church, and on Fridays we go to a nearby school and teach English to a class of kids there. It's a lot of fun.
Thailand is awesome. I love it here. The food is delicious. So far I haven't eaten anything terribly weird. Elder Nelson has been here for 10 months and Elder Stevenson for 14 or so. These next two years will pass by quite quickly. Working hard is very important, especially since it's so hot. The showers aren't too odd -- we use a spray hose kind of thing. The water's hot and it works quite well. For the bathroom facilities, we have a spray hose instead of toilet paper. It felt very weird the first time, but now it's natural.
Bangkapi is in the northeast part of Bangkok, almost the outskirts. But there's plenty of city. We ride our bikes everywhere, most of the time on the road in the midst of the traffic. The first time I rode was that first night and it was quite traumatic. :) But since then I've gotten used to weaving around cars, dodging buses, facing head-on into traffic, etc.
On Monday we had our first rainstorm. The power went out at the house of the investigator we were teaching, but it came back on again just before the rain started coming down. Perhaps I should say Rain, with a capital R -- our next appointment wasn't very far away, but by the time we got there, we were soaked. We kind of dried off by the time we left their house (around 9:20), but the rain started up again and we were thoroughly wet by the time we got home. Riding in hard rain is interesting. Some of the roads were semi-flooded, too, so my feet got rather wet. It was a lot of fun. :) The only problem was that some of the water got in my eyes, which slid my contacts around and from time to time my vision in one eye became entirely blurred. But the Lord is protecting us.
Today we went to downtown Bangkok. A lady at McDonald's saw that we teach religion and wanted to buy us food (her two sons are interested in learning religion and so they buy religion teachers food whenever they see them). We got her address and will send the missionaries to meet with them. (She's not in our area.) It was very nice of her.
Well, I've run out of time (we can only be on the Internet for an hour). Hopefully this is detailed enough. It was kind of weird typing at first, since I haven't really been at a computer since mid-August. But now I can type fairly quickly again. Everything is way cheap here -- a shopper's paradise. For example, the Lord of the Rings video CD is $5. Cassette tapes are $2-$3. Books are $3-$5.
Thailand is wonderful and I know this is where I'm supposed to be. God lives and this is his church. Take care. :)
posted by Ben at 9:00 PM
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