One Year In The Books

I got to see my companion from the MTC, Elder Benteti. He's one of my best friends.

Holding the smallest cat I've ever seen.

We got to have a fun family Home Evening at the Bishops house and we ate some pork.

For English class, the students made ultimate foods and voted on who's foods were the best, they voted for the ice cream.

This is my Myanmar mens skirt 

and my Chang Rai jacket.

"Chang" is how you say elephant in Thai.

Talking to some members and investigators.

We did some service on a VERY hot day. It was so hard, these pictures don't give it justice on just how hard and hot it was.

 Still maintaining our elephant bush 

for a sister in the ward. 

Elder Llanera was having so much fun!

Update:

It's that good ole half way mark in the mission! At this point in time, I have been away from my family, my sweet ole home in Arkansas and my friends, for one year! It has been a wonderful journey and I have learned so much. I can't even remember how many fun and unforgettable experiences I have had in this last year, but that’s why I write each week! I am writing to tell everyone about things that I have learned and experienced (including telling myself in the future). Thank you to all have supported me through all that has happened, and don't stop now! There is another year coming!

This last week we got to have a fun family home evening with a lot of the members because one of the elders who used to serve here came back to Buriram for a little bit. It was way fun to be there because all of the members love it so much when someone comes back to visit them. Elder Brown and his whole family came to visit and we all ate some good ole rice together. Thai people are not shy with using the little bit of English that they know. They are very good at just not being shy when they speak, so they have a lot of fun when they meet a new person who can't speak Thai. That is their time to practice some English.

In this last week, we have been trying to do a lot of member work. First of all, we have gotten a list of all the members here in Buriram. Then we are going through that list of members with other members who have been here for a long time and know them. We are trying to do some ministering to all of the members who have previously been strong in the church and consequently have some good friends in the church as well. We believe that doing this will strengthen those members who are less active and will also strengthen the ones who are coming to church regularly as well.

One of our recent investigators named Bee has had some dramatic things happen lately. She has finished learning all the lessons which are needed to get baptized, but she is still having troubles keeping one commandment. We have concluded that it would probably be better off if we give her some time to think about it where we just don't visit her for a while. We told her that she is still completely welcome to come to church, but since we have nothing left to teach, it is up to her whether she wants to get baptized. She still came to church though, which made me way happy. I hope that God can touch her heart in these next few weeks to help her know what she should do. 

We have been teaching a girl named ฝน​ (Fon)​ lately. She is one of June's friends and she is totally awesome! Fon has been learning with us for only a few weeks, but she hasn't missed coming to church in like 5 Sundays now. This last Sunday, I didn't even know Fon would bring her, but she brought her Mom to church with her! It was awesome how she told her Mom about it and she was willing to come with her. I love it when missionary work is happening and we didn't even do it! It helps us so much in the work. 

It was too bad this last week because Elder Llanera got sick. He had a huge headache and I think he threw up some. I totally understand because I didn't feel too good in my first week in Thailand either. He is all better now though and is working harder than ever! Elder Llanera is way good at the language for his first week in Thailand. He definitely knows more vocabulary in Thai that I initially knew and he speaks very flowingly. (does that make sense???) 

Elder Llanera and I got 2 more baptismal daters in this past week. Right now we have three people that have goals to get baptized in the future, and (I didn't do this on purpose at all) they all set up the day on the exact same day haha. I usually let people that are getting baptized choose what day they will feel comfortable with, and all three of them chose July 7th. I don't know what happened, but maybe that is just going to be a special day or something. 

We got to do some great service this last week. We were pulling up grass and cutting down some trees. It was at 2 O clock in the middle of the Thailand heat, so it was pretty much so hot that we almost drowned in our own sweat, but it was still fun. I love getting to do some physical labor service. Last night, we were coming home from visiting the Bishop and his family, and a lightning struck the ground about 30 feet in front of us. It was SO LOUD. My ears were ringing for the next few minutes. It was scary, but it was pretty fun too. 

Thank you for reading my letters! I'm gonna keep em coming every week, so don't forget to read! 

-Elder Barron