The first picture with my new companion.
Elder Llanera, he is from the Philippines. We are on the bus trying to make it home from Bangkok at 3 in the morning.
Me preaching repentance.
Elder Llanera at the dentist,
he had a tooth bothering him.
Having some fun at the Bishops house. His family is the main reason that there is a ward here in Buriram.
Update:
I am training a brand new missionary
out of the MTC! I always thought that training would be the most fun and most
fulfilling part of a mission because the trainer of a missionary can affect the
rest of that missionaries mission. They can be a massive influence on the
future, and this is the reason I wanted to train. I think another thing I love
about training is that you get a new missionary who has no idea what is going
on, and they have that feeling of everything is amazing and new. I miss having
that feeling when I first came into Thailand, and I think it might reignit that
feeling for me a little bit when my companion feels like that.
The new missionary I will be training
is named Elder Llanera. Apparently you have to say it like "yanera" because
his Dad is a quarter Spanish. It was way funny when we first figured out we
would be together because I was the tallest out of all the trainers and new
missionaries, and Elder Llanera was the shortest. They all said he was a baller
though, so we are definitely gonna go play some basketball sometime! Elder
Llanera is from the Philippines.
After I picked him up, we headed back
to Buriram. I have taken 6 different bus rides in the last two weeks. 2 of them
were 3 hours long, and the other 4 were 6 hours long. All of those bus rides
were in the middle of the night. I am so dang tired of riding busses. I just
want to stay in Buriram and do some missionary work.
It was sad having to leave Elder LeMone.
He was here for a long time and he is such a good missionary. A lot of members
were sad to see him go. He is one of my favorite companions.
At transfers, we got to receive a
training meeting for all the trainers. It was a meeting training us on how to
train. It was fun being in that meeting with President, the APs, and also 3 of
the 5 trainers had previously been APs before. They were all such good
trainers, it was just fun being in the same room as all of them to learn and
feel the spirit.
Then we went to the meeting where we
met our companion. That was so fun! Everyone was so happy and excited to find
their new companion. I was the second to last companionship to be called, so
the tension was building up big time haha. I got paired up with Elder Llanera.
He is from the Philippines. His English is was good and he loves basketball!
That was enough for me to be happy haha. He is already pretty good at Thai for
only learning two months. I was impressed!
I don't know what happened this last
week, but my bike tires were having some major issues. I got 4 flat tires in 3
days. 2 of them were the same tire within 30 minutes. Now I am worried all the
time that I'm going to get flat tires.
We got to teach a school of kids some
English in this past week. There were about 40 kids from the age of 7 to 12. It
was way fun. Half the time none of them were listening because they were just
whispering to their friends that there is a massive white guy in front of them.
Also, every time I would try to get the kids to say anything for instance,
"I am seven years old" the teacher of the class would hurry and
interrupt them and say "Come on class say what he says! " and then
she would say it, but with incorrect pronunciation. She would say something
like, "ah em sefen yeahs ord". Then all the kids would try to repeat
what she says instead of me. So they would say it wrong too haha.
We got to throw a birthday party for
one of the members this last week during sports night. We told her we were
going to do sports night over at the soccer arena a few kilometers away, but
really we were doing it at the church to give us some time to prepare for the
surprise. It was a good surprise. She was a little bit mad that we made her go
all the way to the soccer arena, but she was still happy haha.
We have been helping a recent convert
named Brother Nai lately. He is one of the most funny old guys I know here in
Thailand. He just barely got the Aaronic and Melchezedek priesthood lately, so
we are having a good time teaching him about the responsibilities and power
that comes with it. He just got to help prepare the sacrament this last week,
so that was way good for him. He did great. Next Sunday he is going to bless
the sacrament for the first time. He is neither excited, nor scared. He is just
like... Okay. We also asked him if he could share his testimony to the
congregation to the 30ish people at church, but he said "the only way you
will get me to speak in front of everyone like that is if you put a cup of beer
up there." (We talked to him about that and it is confirmed that he still
is not drinking at all, and he has no desire to.) It was funny though. We told
him is would probably be better if he waited till he was ready instead.
This last week was fun and I am super
excited for next week because we finally get a full week of missionary work and
we are going to be able to get so much done!
Love you guys, สู้ๆน่ะ (fight on!)
-Elder Barron
