AIT #4: December 4, 2002
Lots to write about and not much time again. Whenever we go "thiaw" (go to different areas to see stuff -- for example, today we went downtown to get ties and also stopped by the king's birthday party), there isn't much time for e-mails. In the future we probably won't be thiawing so much.
So, I left the MTC a month ago. It's gone by soooo fast. Last week we thiawed at Ayutthaya, which was really neat -- lots of ruins and old wats. We visited three wats there, Wat Yai, Wat Chai Watthanaram, and one other one. My second Sunday here the bishop asked me and the other new missionaries to bear our testimonies (in Thai, of course). Last week was stake conference at the Asoke chapel (the stake center). Ran into Elder Orrock, Elder McLelland, Elder Hamblin, and Elder Applegate there. It was good to see them again. On Friday we spent the morning at the office, since apparently we have to renew our visas every three months now (my trainer, Elder Nelson, had to get his renewed). On Saturday we had Thanksgiving dinner at the home of David and Sally Ann Bates. They served a mission here a few years ago. Today, like I said, we went downtown. I bought some ties for 35 baht apiece ($1). We also went to the king's birthday party for an hour or so. It was really neat to see him walk by. He's speaking right now, but we didn't have time to stick around and listen. Tonight we're rehearsing for "Journey to Bethlehem," a Christmas thing that the Church is putting on here. We're escorts. It'll be on Friday and Saturday, but we only come on Saturday.
Two Sundays ago I got to play the piano in Gospel Doctrine. That was quite fun -- I really miss it. Haven't touched a piano since, unfortunately. I haven't seen any geckoes yet, but I did see more elephants. There are tons of taxis and buses here. If we have to go downtown or to the office, we almost always take a taxi. I've only been on a bus three or four times. We're about 45 minutes away from downtown by taxi. I saw some tuk-tuks in Ayutthaya (which, incidentally, is where Elder Nelson and Elder Stevenson greenied). Haven't ridden any yet, though.
The humidity isn't too bad. We do sweat a lot (even when doing the dishes), but it's better than I imagined. But then again, it's the cool season. :) Thailand uses the metric system, so everything is in kilometers and degrees Celsius and all that. We ride about 10 kilos a day (roughly 6 miles). It gets dark at 6:00, so we often ride at night, but it's not too bad -- most areas are lighted.
I wore my glasses for a week and the members saw some sort of resemblance, so now they call me Elder Harry Potter. (Or Mr. Bean.) Sister Jones found out that her family is moving to Alaska this week. For food, we usually eat breakfast at home (oatmeal), eat lunch out (at streetside places), and eat dinner back at home (whatever's around -- I usually try to get some sticky rice on the way home). I love sticky rice. They also have good smoothies (called naampans), treats called rotees made by Burmese men, and lots more, too. And everything's wonderfully cheap -- a meal is 15-25 baht. It'll be weird going back to the States. :)
In the mission field we use the infamous blue planner to schedule our week. It's a blue sheet of paper that has a calendar on it and some room for statistics. Every six weeks we have transfers (called "moves"), and the next one is on December 19 (or thereabouts). We won't know till a day or two before if any of us is moving. Wednesday is preparation day, from 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. We usually find a nearby Internet cafe for doing e-mail. Wednesday mornings we go to the post office to pick up our mail (which the mission office sends out early in the morning). The mission is doing pretty well for an Asian mission. It's the largest in terms of missionaries. We've been averaging 5.9 first discussions a week, 20 baptisms a week. There are 16 zones (4-7 areas per zone) and 166 missionaries. Most missionaries spend 4-6 months in each area.
Oh, Elder Lo finally made it! He flew in a week and a half ago and is now in Bangnaa. We're all quite glad about that. :) The mosquitoes are bad and I get bitten all over, but I'll get used to it. I haven't had any bike accidents yet, surprisingly. In our house we all sleep in one bedroom (four beds), the room with air conditioning. We have lots of fans, a fridge, a stove, a toaster, a rice cooker, a microwave, an iron, and a water filter. And yes, there are locks on the doors. The people are fairly friendly, but most say they're not interested because they're Buddhist already. Lots of people cancel appointments or just don't show up -- that happened to us 19 times last week. (To put that in perspective, 12 of our appointments didn't fall through.) Thais generally look younger than Americans, so it's hard to tell how old people are. I had stomach cramps for two days and pink eye for a few, but I'm doing fairly well. Nothing too bad yet.
Nat, our best investigator, is getting baptized on the 15th. We're quite excited. She's really good and understands a lot. Others are coming along, slowly but surely. It seems like customs are changing; not everything is quite the way it was in the books I read before I came here. Lots of American stuff everywhere, definitely.
Photo development is pretty nice here -- cheap (5 baht a picture), and they give you your photos in books (in sleeves and all). Twice each moves we go on switch-offs with the zone leader and his companion -- tomorrow I'm doing that with Elder Suttiphong, in his area. I'm used to baht now, and it's hard to remember what prices are back in America. Sorry this is kind of jumbled, but we have to leave in a minute and I want to make sure I mention everything I wanted to. We almost always follow up on appointments by calling them the night before.
I wish I had time to write personal letters to everyone, but there usually isn't much time, so these group e-mails will have to suffice. Two years will go by fast, though. :) I might not be able to write next week; we have our Christmas thiaw at the president's house and I don't know if we'll have time for e-mail there. If any of you have any questions, send them to my family and they'll pass them on to me.
Well, the work is going well and I'm glad to be here. Thailand is certainly not like Utah. :) Take care and have a great day! :-)
So, I left the MTC a month ago. It's gone by soooo fast. Last week we thiawed at Ayutthaya, which was really neat -- lots of ruins and old wats. We visited three wats there, Wat Yai, Wat Chai Watthanaram, and one other one. My second Sunday here the bishop asked me and the other new missionaries to bear our testimonies (in Thai, of course). Last week was stake conference at the Asoke chapel (the stake center). Ran into Elder Orrock, Elder McLelland, Elder Hamblin, and Elder Applegate there. It was good to see them again. On Friday we spent the morning at the office, since apparently we have to renew our visas every three months now (my trainer, Elder Nelson, had to get his renewed). On Saturday we had Thanksgiving dinner at the home of David and Sally Ann Bates. They served a mission here a few years ago. Today, like I said, we went downtown. I bought some ties for 35 baht apiece ($1). We also went to the king's birthday party for an hour or so. It was really neat to see him walk by. He's speaking right now, but we didn't have time to stick around and listen. Tonight we're rehearsing for "Journey to Bethlehem," a Christmas thing that the Church is putting on here. We're escorts. It'll be on Friday and Saturday, but we only come on Saturday.
Two Sundays ago I got to play the piano in Gospel Doctrine. That was quite fun -- I really miss it. Haven't touched a piano since, unfortunately. I haven't seen any geckoes yet, but I did see more elephants. There are tons of taxis and buses here. If we have to go downtown or to the office, we almost always take a taxi. I've only been on a bus three or four times. We're about 45 minutes away from downtown by taxi. I saw some tuk-tuks in Ayutthaya (which, incidentally, is where Elder Nelson and Elder Stevenson greenied). Haven't ridden any yet, though.
The humidity isn't too bad. We do sweat a lot (even when doing the dishes), but it's better than I imagined. But then again, it's the cool season. :) Thailand uses the metric system, so everything is in kilometers and degrees Celsius and all that. We ride about 10 kilos a day (roughly 6 miles). It gets dark at 6:00, so we often ride at night, but it's not too bad -- most areas are lighted.
I wore my glasses for a week and the members saw some sort of resemblance, so now they call me Elder Harry Potter. (Or Mr. Bean.) Sister Jones found out that her family is moving to Alaska this week. For food, we usually eat breakfast at home (oatmeal), eat lunch out (at streetside places), and eat dinner back at home (whatever's around -- I usually try to get some sticky rice on the way home). I love sticky rice. They also have good smoothies (called naampans), treats called rotees made by Burmese men, and lots more, too. And everything's wonderfully cheap -- a meal is 15-25 baht. It'll be weird going back to the States. :)
In the mission field we use the infamous blue planner to schedule our week. It's a blue sheet of paper that has a calendar on it and some room for statistics. Every six weeks we have transfers (called "moves"), and the next one is on December 19 (or thereabouts). We won't know till a day or two before if any of us is moving. Wednesday is preparation day, from 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. We usually find a nearby Internet cafe for doing e-mail. Wednesday mornings we go to the post office to pick up our mail (which the mission office sends out early in the morning). The mission is doing pretty well for an Asian mission. It's the largest in terms of missionaries. We've been averaging 5.9 first discussions a week, 20 baptisms a week. There are 16 zones (4-7 areas per zone) and 166 missionaries. Most missionaries spend 4-6 months in each area.
Oh, Elder Lo finally made it! He flew in a week and a half ago and is now in Bangnaa. We're all quite glad about that. :) The mosquitoes are bad and I get bitten all over, but I'll get used to it. I haven't had any bike accidents yet, surprisingly. In our house we all sleep in one bedroom (four beds), the room with air conditioning. We have lots of fans, a fridge, a stove, a toaster, a rice cooker, a microwave, an iron, and a water filter. And yes, there are locks on the doors. The people are fairly friendly, but most say they're not interested because they're Buddhist already. Lots of people cancel appointments or just don't show up -- that happened to us 19 times last week. (To put that in perspective, 12 of our appointments didn't fall through.) Thais generally look younger than Americans, so it's hard to tell how old people are. I had stomach cramps for two days and pink eye for a few, but I'm doing fairly well. Nothing too bad yet.
Nat, our best investigator, is getting baptized on the 15th. We're quite excited. She's really good and understands a lot. Others are coming along, slowly but surely. It seems like customs are changing; not everything is quite the way it was in the books I read before I came here. Lots of American stuff everywhere, definitely.
Photo development is pretty nice here -- cheap (5 baht a picture), and they give you your photos in books (in sleeves and all). Twice each moves we go on switch-offs with the zone leader and his companion -- tomorrow I'm doing that with Elder Suttiphong, in his area. I'm used to baht now, and it's hard to remember what prices are back in America. Sorry this is kind of jumbled, but we have to leave in a minute and I want to make sure I mention everything I wanted to. We almost always follow up on appointments by calling them the night before.
I wish I had time to write personal letters to everyone, but there usually isn't much time, so these group e-mails will have to suffice. Two years will go by fast, though. :) I might not be able to write next week; we have our Christmas thiaw at the president's house and I don't know if we'll have time for e-mail there. If any of you have any questions, send them to my family and they'll pass them on to me.
Well, the work is going well and I'm glad to be here. Thailand is certainly not like Utah. :) Take care and have a great day! :-)
posted by Ben at 8:36 PM
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