I learned Dek Gra!

 My view on the bus every day.

 My key chains that people have given me.

 Me with some friends.

 Second floor of the market place in Bangkapi.

 This is a waterfall inside the mall 

that was really cool.

 They are ready for Christmas here in Bangkapi!

 Showing off my new tie.

I gave out a picture of Jesus to someone and later I saw it inside the window of their car. 

Made me happy.

 This is a normal meal I get. I am pointing to the intestines of a pig. I ate them all. It was a bit squishy and probably would taste better if I didn't know what it was.

Playing "Dek Gra" with some local guys on preparation day today.

What happened this week:

Hello! 

This was a very interesting week. I mentioned it a little bit in my last letter, but this week, as a district, we did “Heaven Week”. This was where we wake up early and go inviting really hard to find new investigators, and we work hard all day and all week. We made super big goals of how many new investigators we were going to find, how many new people we could invite to church, and how many people that had a date to get baptized. We came short of our initial goals because Elder Killian and I had a lot of sickness that sometimes held us back, but our numbers were still the highest I have had so far on my mission. It felt really good to work hard and to do the very best that I could. It definitely made me a better missionary and person in the long run.

Lately for all of our free days that I have every Monday, the 4 Elders in my district have been going to the church to play basketball for the whole day. While we were playing last week, one of the other missionaries tried to dunk it and hang on the rim as hard as he can. I told him to not do it because it wasn't a breakaway rim and it was going to break, but he told me it wouldn't and then he went and hung on the rim. Now it is a 9 foot 6 inch rim. Delightful. Anyways, we will probably play basketball a little less now that this happened.

One of my favorite ways to get better at Thai is by reading in The Book of Mormon in Thai. Almost all the words that I read are words that I would never use in normal speaking, but reading it gives me a lot more than just vocab. It helps me read more quickly, comprehend easier, and my pronunciation is helped a lot too. Every once and a while I have the strange realization that I can speak a different language. It always takes me by surprise when I have a conversation with a Thai person because in my head I think I can't speak Thai, but then I just go and do it. I know that God has helped me while I am in Thailand trying to serve the Lord and the children of God here.

This week, Elder Killian and I were on our bikes inviting and I saw some old guys who were playing a game called “Dek Gra”. I'm not 100% sure how it would be spelled in English, but you should totally look up some Dek Gra highlights. It is amazing to watch! We passed by them and kept riding our bikes down the road, but I decided to go back and ask if we could play with them. They were super excited to let us play! Dek Gra is sooo hard though. It is playing volleyball with a hard plastic ball, using your feet. These old guys are so good though! Every time I kicked the ball it would go in a random direction, but the old guys would be passing it all around to each other doing behind the back kicks. It was fun to play!

I know that God is helping me here in Thailand as I share the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are many things that seem like it is too hard, but anything is possible when you align yourself with the desires of God. 

Everyone have a great week and send me an email at boston.barron@myldsmail.net if you have the time!

-Elder Barron