Me getting my hair cut.
Me cutting the neighbors dogs hair.
Eating dinner with some members.
Rice field.
I took Elder Siebert to the Elephant Village and we had a blast.
This is a monument welcoming people to Surin.
This is a shot above,
right before we got on the elephant.
This is the guy who fixed my bike.
He has a little bike shop on the side of the road.
The tiniest cell phone I have ever seen!
Nuey got baptized!
This is the program that we made for it.
This is the lady that I buy bananas from.
We did service for a family. We piled a bunch of garbage out into the yard and BURNED it,
it was great!
Weekly Update:
There is a family that we have been teaching lately. Their family name is Rabbit. So we can just call them the Rabbit family. They said they have been extremely Christian their whole life. They read the Bible as a family together, and they all go to church every Sunday. This is not a normal family in Thailand. 99% of all the people here are Buddhist, and those few people that we meet who say they are Christian just say that because they want to be different than other people. This family is actually very into learning about Jesus and genuinely want to follow the religion that is the best for their family. This week when we visited their family, we looked in The Book of Mormon that we had previously given them and the father of the family is highlighting each verse which has new information in topics from the Bible. It was really cool to see what he had highlighted!
It is kind of funny getting on a bus because there are always a ton of people trying to help us. They all think we don't know what is going on and we don't know where we are trying to go. Most of the people who try to help us are older ladies. There was one bus we rode this week that had a lot of older ladies on it and they were all just yelling at us trying to ask us where we were going. The truth is we know exactly where we are going and we don't need their help. However, they think the opposite. They were all yelling at the bus driver telling him, "HEY THE WHITE PEOPLE ARE GETTING OFF AT THIS PLACE!" Then we were just yelling back, "no we aren't!" It was sooo crazy. Eventually we were driving up to our stop we needed to get off at and so we started walking to the front of the bus and told the bus driver that this was our stop and literally all the old ladies were just yelling at the bus driver, "NO THIS ISN'T THEIR STOP! JUST KEEP GOING! THESE WHITE PEOPLE DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT!" and we literally ended up missing our stop because the bus driver listened to the ladies instead of us.
On the way back it was a lot easier because I didn't see any older ladies, but I did sit next to this one kid named บอล (or Bahn) This guy loves basketball. It was really fun talking to him about how I played in high school. I some how got on the topic of how I played with Malik Monk in high school. He just really likes the NBA, so he though it was cool that I had played with him. I got his phone and showed him some videos of Malik Monk in high school. He said this Friday when we had sports night for the church at the park he would come play basketball with us! Cool!
This last week we had a goal to talk to three families every single day about Jesus Christ and how their family will be blessed by His gospel. This is a really good goal because families are the main unit in which the church of Jesus Christ grows and is strengthened. I have found that when we get families to support each other in the church, that is when we can feel the love of God through each other the strongest.
Last week we had a mom and her 4 year old child show up for English class. It was basically impossible teaching the child because he just kept running around the room like a mad man, but eventually I found some Uno cards and I was able to have him say some numbers in English haha.
Last P-day was super fun. We got to go to the elephant village again and it was Elder Siebert’s first time. The more I play with the elephants and see them, the more I am amazed at how weird/amazing/different kind of animals they are. They are unbelievably strong. Like REALLY STRONG. There was a baby like 7 months old elephant that I was feeding some peanuts and I was all out of peanuts so it grabbed my arm and it just started pulling me around. I swear that thing could have just pulled my arm out of its socket if it wanted to. And the adult elephants are like 20 times stronger than that. While we were riding the elephants, I got to video chat with my family. Sure, it was the middle of the night for them and I woke them up (sorry Quincey), but I thought it would be like the coolest thing ever to video chat with them while I was literally on the back of an elephant in Thailand.=D
So this week, by bike tire popped and one of the spokes on the back tire came off, so my back tire looked like it was wobbling when I rode it, so I took my bike to the bike shop. The bike shop guy said that he had to order a new wheel for me cause he didn't have one right now. The wheel wouldn't come for another day, and he said he had to keep my bike while he was waiting. I was just like, "wait, but I need a bike..." I asked him if there was one I could borrow and he thought a really long time on it and tried to figure out things to do. He ended up giving me his own bike, which was a super nice road racing bike. It was way fun just riding it around for a day because it was so smooth and fast.
One of our investigators named Nuey had her baptism this last week, so we met with her a few times to make sure she was totally ready. One of the times we met with her she said her phone broke so she had to use her backup one. I'm sorry that this even made it into my weekly email, but her phone was SOOO SMALL. Like literally I could put it in my fist and completely cover it. It was like 2 inches tall.
On a more important note, Nuey got baptized!!! It all went so perfect. I am so happy that she made the decision to enter the waters of baptism. One thing she has been worried about lately is that her parents are so Buddhist that they won't like it and they won't support her, so we felt like it was good to ask Nuey to try to talk to her parents about it. Nuey was hesitant, but agree to try. We didn't hear anything about it, but on the day of the baptism, her parents came to the church and watched Nuey get baptized. I did not expect that and it was truly a miracle from God that her family was ready to support her in this. It made Nuey so happy they were there too. Sister Nuey had an especially impacting experience because she has been learning with the missionaries for 9 months now, and never wanted to get baptized because she was scared of a lot of small problems that might come up, but as soon as she came out of the waters of baptism she told us, "all of the problems that I have been feeling have just washed away." It was amazing.
Lately I feel like the branch here in Surin is strengthening. I can see the difference in all the members how they treat each other, and during sacrament meeting, I can feel the spirit more strong than before. I can feel the love of God flowing through the members and it just makes me so happy.
This last Sunday, we got to go do some service in one of the members house. We walk into Thai house and there is just a TON of stuff. We were just like, "um... What do you want us to do..." and they replied with, "I want you to take everything out of our house. Go throw it in a giant pile over there. Then I want you to burn it." So some of you might know, but a lot who read this might not know what it is like in the brain of a male teenager missionary. This is pretty much the dream service. We got to just grab giant shelves, books, trash, clothes, anything you can think of, destroy it, and burn it. What more could I ask for? I also found a really cool picture of the 9th king of Thailand and before we destroyed it, I asked them for it and they let me keep it. It is way cool.
So if you are still persevering through reading my letter, you will probably remember that I had some bike problems where I had to fix my potato chip back wheel. Well. About 5 days after that happened, I got hit by a motorcycle while I was riding my bike. Haha yeah... Now my front wheel looks like it is constantly rolling over bumpy pancakes. I didn't think I really hurt anything, so I just kept going about my day normally. At the end of the day, I was getting undressed and I found out that I have a gash on my leg and blood on the inside of my clothes. Then there was just a big purple bruise too. I thought it was kind of funny, but I know it could have been way worse. I am very grateful because I know God was helping me in that situation. I was only annoyed that I have another messed up wheel again.
So today is officially my nine month mark. If I was a female missionary, this would be my half way mark.
Also, I got transfer calls last night. I was so surprised! This was literally the last thing I expected. I got called to Buriram, which is super close. It is even in the same district as Surin. I have been going on switch offs and meeting all the members in Buriram and even joking with them that I would go serve there. I never thought it would actually happen! My new companion is going to be a missionary from Thailand named Elder Body. He in on his second transfer and I can't wait to be with him! It is going to be so fun! Anyways this was a totally awesome week and I can't wait for next one! There is always a surprise around the corner!
Everyone have a great week!
-Elder Barron
