AIT #3: November 26, 2002
Lots to write this week and not a whole lot of time, so I'll try to keep things condensed. First, I'm in Bangkapi, a suburb-like part of Bangkok in the northeast. When I first got here I thought it was rather big-city, but after seeing downtown Bangkok, Bangkapi seems almost like Mayberry. :) Everyone drives on the left side of the road. It took a little while to get used to that, but it seems normal now. We live in a four-man house in the Amarin neighborhood. (Most of the people live in neighborhoods, each of which has a name.) There are big roads called thanon's, smaller side roads called soi's, and then each house has a house number (e.g. 12/249). Our town house isn't terribly large as far as American standards go, but it's more than large enough for four people. The Thai standard of living definitely isn't as high as the American -- a lot of people live in houses about 100 feet square, with two rooms. Our house has two floors, one with a living room area, a kitchen, a bathroom, and two studies, and the top floor with two bedrooms and a bathroom. We have a washer (old and clunky, but it does the job), and we hang our clothes out to dry. It usually takes only a few hours for the clothes to dry. There are stores of all kinds *everywhere*. Food, especially. Lots of street vendors, everywhere you go. There's a post office not too far away, a copy shop nearby, two big chain stores (Tesco-Lotus and Jusco), and lots more. We're in the Bangkapi Zone, which has three areas: Bangkapi East (ours), Bangkapi West (Elder Stevenson and Elder Rock), and Ramkhamhaeng, a.k.a. Happyland (Elder Christiansen and Elder Suttiphong). The sisters cover Bangkapi East and Bangkapi West.
We got two baptismal commitments last week: a 16-year-old girl named Nat that we met when finding families on the 16th, and a man named Chad. (I'm romanizing the names so they'll be pronounceable. :)) Nat committed to get baptized on Dec 22nd, and Chad on Jan 5th. The teenagers in the ward here (Bangkapi Ward) have been befriending Nat, which is really good. She understands a lot and pays really good attention. Her parents listened to the first discussion, and her stepmom seemed pretty interested, but they haven't paid attention since then. (When her parents aren't home, we have to bring another male with us, which usually ends up being Brother Best, a 17-year-old who was baptized about four months ago.)
When we find families (kind of like tracting, except we can't knock on doors), a lot of people say that they have no time. Tons of people say, "All religions teach us to be good," and say that they're Buddhist. There are a few Muslims, though not too many. Often we run into people who've met the missionaries before, and a lot still have copies of the Book of Mormon. We've been able to make return appointments with a few.
The families here are small, usually one or two children. I like to show them pictures of my family, since most of them have hardly ever seen families with 9 kids. We wai people all the time, though I still haven't figured out just when it's appropriate and when not. :) (I follow the example of Elder Nelson to be safe.) Waiing kids is kind of weird, but we do it sometimes to be funny. Most of the time we take off our shoes outside the house and sit on the floor inside. My legs have most definitely not gotten used to it yet. :) There are a few different leg positions that are polite, but all of them start to hurt after you've been sitting that way for an hour or so. Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven.
Each Tuesday and Thursday we teach English at the church, and on Fridays we teach at Wat Bangtoey, a nearby school. Last night Elder Rock and I switched-off and taught the kids, which was a lot of fun. Usually Elder Nelson and I teach the teenagers. Teaching at the school feels almost like walking into a 19th-century school in Asia -- I would love to come back and teach English at a school like this someday. There are tons of kids everywhere, and throughout the hour you can hear them singing old songs full of memories and history. They love shaking our hands (though we have to be careful, as most hands aren't very clean).
I'm out of time, so I'll have to add more next time. Thailand is awesome and I know the Lord is helping us.
We got two baptismal commitments last week: a 16-year-old girl named Nat that we met when finding families on the 16th, and a man named Chad. (I'm romanizing the names so they'll be pronounceable. :)) Nat committed to get baptized on Dec 22nd, and Chad on Jan 5th. The teenagers in the ward here (Bangkapi Ward) have been befriending Nat, which is really good. She understands a lot and pays really good attention. Her parents listened to the first discussion, and her stepmom seemed pretty interested, but they haven't paid attention since then. (When her parents aren't home, we have to bring another male with us, which usually ends up being Brother Best, a 17-year-old who was baptized about four months ago.)
When we find families (kind of like tracting, except we can't knock on doors), a lot of people say that they have no time. Tons of people say, "All religions teach us to be good," and say that they're Buddhist. There are a few Muslims, though not too many. Often we run into people who've met the missionaries before, and a lot still have copies of the Book of Mormon. We've been able to make return appointments with a few.
The families here are small, usually one or two children. I like to show them pictures of my family, since most of them have hardly ever seen families with 9 kids. We wai people all the time, though I still haven't figured out just when it's appropriate and when not. :) (I follow the example of Elder Nelson to be safe.) Waiing kids is kind of weird, but we do it sometimes to be funny. Most of the time we take off our shoes outside the house and sit on the floor inside. My legs have most definitely not gotten used to it yet. :) There are a few different leg positions that are polite, but all of them start to hurt after you've been sitting that way for an hour or so. Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven.
Each Tuesday and Thursday we teach English at the church, and on Fridays we teach at Wat Bangtoey, a nearby school. Last night Elder Rock and I switched-off and taught the kids, which was a lot of fun. Usually Elder Nelson and I teach the teenagers. Teaching at the school feels almost like walking into a 19th-century school in Asia -- I would love to come back and teach English at a school like this someday. There are tons of kids everywhere, and throughout the hour you can hear them singing old songs full of memories and history. They love shaking our hands (though we have to be careful, as most hands aren't very clean).
I'm out of time, so I'll have to add more next time. Thailand is awesome and I know the Lord is helping us.
posted by Ben at 11:29 AM
1 Comments:
Hey, I found your blog and figured since it was local, you might be
interested in This Divided State. It was the documentary we shot in
Orem/Provo when UVSC brought Michael Moore to speak. It's gotten an
amazing amount of national attention, and I thought you might like a
heads up.
www.thisdividedstate.com
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