This is our advanced class for English
A creepy baby statue that I saw on the
side of the road.
These bush animals are
everywhere around Bangkok.
A guy we met while out contacting.
On a bridge in Bangkapi.
Our District eating together one
more time before transfers.
The food here is awesome
A goodbye dinner with all of our best friends for Sister Harris because she is leaving.
Elder Steele snapped this pic of me sleeping on the bus.
I thought this laundry detergent was funny because it looks like it says USA. But it is actually Thai and it says, "Breeze".
This is my new companion!
Elder Corban Killian and he is from Utah!
This weeks update:
Dang this week was a blast.
Every week we teach an English class at our church to whoever wants to come.
This is something that we like to promote throughout the day because teaching English is very fun and it is a way that we can get people familiar to our church and the friendly atmosphere that takes place at our church. Whenever I see younger kids walking by as we are traveling around Bangkok, I try to invite them to English class. The younger kids like learning English because for them, it is very important for a job in the future. This week, Elder Steele, Sister Harris, Sister Rogers, and I decided we should split the class into two classes. Now, we have an advanced class, and a beginners class. I think that was a great idea because now we can teach everyone to their own needs.
Elder Steele and I were out walking the other day and we found this old guy who was working on some of his plants. We asked him if we could help him. He denied our help, but he was an extremely nice man. We asked if he was interested in learning about our religion, and he said yes. We chose a time to meet with him for the next day and when we got there, he was very nice to us. He fed us these tiny bananas and they are sooooo good. I have had them once before and it tastes like the same amount of flavor in a big banana just smashed into a smaller one. Anyways, we had a great talk with the man about religion. He was Buddhist (just like 99%) of Thailand, but it was interesting how we got to talk about all the things that made our religions similar. The only major difference is that we believe that God has restored his church for everyone on the earth and he is leading the church through modern revelation. We believe The Book of Mormon is only a PART of this modern day revelation. I learned a lot through talking with that man.
In one of our scripture reading classes, we read a story in The Book of Mormon about Ammon. Ammon was a prophet of the Lord and he went to go preach of God to a group of people named the Lamanites. Ammon went unto their King and told him that he would like to be his servant. The King was very surprised by his request and assigned Ammon to take care of his flocks of sheep who were being scattered and killed by robbers continuously. All of the other servants were too scared to do anything, but Ammon had faith in God and wish his sword SLICES ALL THEIR ARMS OFF! (This is my favorite story in The Book of Mormon) The king is so impressed by Ammon that he knew God was real and began an Era of righteousness throughout the Lamanites. Everyone loved reading about that story, so we played a game called ninja where you have to "cut everyone's arms off with your arms. I got some pictures of it down below. Haha!
There is this one guy named Shokoon who goes to our English class every week. He is most likely the best one at English who shows up. One day after English class, he expressed to us how grateful he was to us for teaching him English and he told us he wanted to be our Thai teachers! Now every Thursday, he gives us Thai lessons for free and it helps out sooo much. I love learning from him because he has lived in Thailand all his life. I know for sure that everything he teaches is correct. I am truly thankful for people like him!
This week, Elder Steele and I visited this family who are members of the gospel. They had a baby who was sitting in a high chair right next to me. This was one of the most cute, funny babies ever. Every time I looked at the baby, she would stare right into my eyes and not make a sound, but whenever I looked away the baby would cry. We started our scriptural thought with a prayer and in the middle the baby was crying so I opened one eye towards the baby and she immediately stopped. Her mom was laughing cause she knew I did that.
This week, my little brother was back at home and he was doing something that we do in the church called a "mini mission". To describe it briefly, it is basically a one day training experience when all of the youth in our church do a short 2-3 day mission. It is similar to what I am doing now. For his mission, he decided invite all of my friends that I have played basketball at my church twice a week since I was 12. I asked my Mission President if he would allow me to Skype call him and help my brother teach. He told me yes, so I basically got to be my brother's companion for about 45 minutes! It was so awesome!!!! I was proud of Sarger.
Last of all. The reason I am emailing late this week, is because this week we have transfers. Every 6 weeks we will have these transfers and I might move areas/companions or not. I never know until the day before an we get a call about what will be happening to us on transfer meetings. It is like New Years Eve to us cause we are waiting for a call that will tell us what we will be doing for the next 6 weeks. When I got the call, I found out that I will no longer be companions with Elder Steele. We will both be staying in Bangkapi, Bangkok, but we will both get new companions! Elder Steele is getting a new greenie (so he is getting another person who just barely came into Thailand like I used to be), and I am getting a new companion named Elder Corban Killian. I get to meet him tomorrow and I am so excited! I can't wait to meet him.
I had an amazing week last week and I can't wait for the next one. I know that God is leading my ministries here and he is giving me blessings every day to be able to live here and speak Thai.
-Elder Barron
