This is at a Birthday party for a guy in my ward named Butter.
A boat that rides on the canal
called the Klang Monster.
called the Klang Monster.
This was a really tall Thai person that I saw. I asked if I could take a picture with him and as you can see by the look on his face, he thought it was weird.
A giant Croc that was on display.
Celebrating Sister Rogers and
Elder Steele's birthdays!
A really cool sunset.
A pretty street.
Weekly Update:
This was an interesting week. It was a first for me because this weekend was our churches worldwide General Conference. General Conference is like New Years Eve for all of us missionaries. We were so excited to hear about what our prophets were going to teach us. I haven't been able to see the second half of it yet, but I have already learned a lot and I love the messages our General Authorities have shared. My favorite speaker of General Conference so far was by Dallin H. Oaks. He gave a talk about the where The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints stands on some of the biggest controversial topics in the world today. Elder Oaks explained very specifically and simply. If anyone is interested in watching it, you can go to lds.org and watch it for free. There are plenty more things on lds.org that can answer many questions you have about what our church believes.
This week had a lot of rain. There was a pretty big rainstorm about every other day. One day, we were going to a members house to eat dinner and it was storming super hard. We arrived there super soaked and we had to eat some of the spiciest soam dam I have ever had. (soam dam is like a kind of salad made out of unripe papaya and you put in a ton of peppers to make it super spicy.) I have eaten soam dam with 7 peppers before and even that was really spicy, but this member fed us 20 pepper soam dam. DANG it was spicy! I ate a ton of it and afterwards my companion said I would have stomach trouble, but I never ended up having it. He was surprised. Anyways, after we finished eating and shared a personal thought with the family, we caught a bus ride, but the whole street was flooded. There were cars that were stalled and the motorcycles were all on sidewalks trying to avoid the flooding. It was really fun.
This week we celebrated my old companion, Elder Steele’s birthday. He got a bunch of really good presents. The sister missionaries gave him a bar of soap, and I gave him all of my half and quarter baht coins that I had. (the only time you get them is when you buy milk or use the bus. They are so worthless that nobody wants them.) Then we sprayed him down with silly string and gave him a cake. It was probably his best birthday yet.
I had the opportunity to have an interview with my Mission President, President Hammond this week. He started talking to me about basketball and how he used to play way too much basketball, so God gave him a blessing in disguise by hurting his back so now he spends more time on work instead of basketball. One of my favorite quotes from him was, "Just remember Elder Barron, I'm going to DUNK on you after the resurrection!" It was really funny. We believe that every person will be resurrected after death with their body and everyone will become the perfect version of themselves.
I have made some massive strides in the language in the last few weeks. I am able to have conversations with people on the street. There is still a lot when I don't understand a word here and there, but I can understand what they were saying and respond most of the time. It feels amazing actually being able to speak Thai. I love it.
This week Elder Killian and I met this woman and her son named Krystal and Conor. They were very interesting people. The mom, Krystal, has been going to learn English with the missionaries since she was 12 years old, and she became interested in leading about Jesus Christ and learned for a while. She stopped learning in though because she didn't like how one of the Elders acted hypocritical with what he taught, but lately she decided to give learning about our church another shot. Now, she brings her son to learn with us too.
I give a challenge to everyone; if you haven't ever tried learning about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, just give it a shot. You shouldn't believe only what other people say about things that require straight opinion. You must take it upon yourself to find the answer and then act upon the answers you receive from God in every way you can. God knows your abilities and He expects us to use them to help ourselves and when you can support yourself, you can support others. That is my favorite thing about being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It takes some personal growth to have a testimony and believe it is true, but everyone can help you. When everyone has a strong testimony of this church, they support each other and multiply in spiritual strength.
I hope everyone has a great week! Please tell me about it! I love getting emails from everyone.
-Elder Barron
