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.
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.
posted by Ben at 6:59 AM
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