I learned Dek Gra!

 My view on the bus every day.

 My key chains that people have given me.

 Me with some friends.

 Second floor of the market place in Bangkapi.

 This is a waterfall inside the mall 

that was really cool.

 They are ready for Christmas here in Bangkapi!

 Showing off my new tie.

I gave out a picture of Jesus to someone and later I saw it inside the window of their car. 

Made me happy.

 This is a normal meal I get. I am pointing to the intestines of a pig. I ate them all. It was a bit squishy and probably would taste better if I didn't know what it was.

Playing "Dek Gra" with some local guys on preparation day today.

What happened this week:

Hello! 

This was a very interesting week. I mentioned it a little bit in my last letter, but this week, as a district, we did “Heaven Week”. This was where we wake up early and go inviting really hard to find new investigators, and we work hard all day and all week. We made super big goals of how many new investigators we were going to find, how many new people we could invite to church, and how many people that had a date to get baptized. We came short of our initial goals because Elder Killian and I had a lot of sickness that sometimes held us back, but our numbers were still the highest I have had so far on my mission. It felt really good to work hard and to do the very best that I could. It definitely made me a better missionary and person in the long run.

Lately for all of our free days that I have every Monday, the 4 Elders in my district have been going to the church to play basketball for the whole day. While we were playing last week, one of the other missionaries tried to dunk it and hang on the rim as hard as he can. I told him to not do it because it wasn't a breakaway rim and it was going to break, but he told me it wouldn't and then he went and hung on the rim. Now it is a 9 foot 6 inch rim. Delightful. Anyways, we will probably play basketball a little less now that this happened.

One of my favorite ways to get better at Thai is by reading in The Book of Mormon in Thai. Almost all the words that I read are words that I would never use in normal speaking, but reading it gives me a lot more than just vocab. It helps me read more quickly, comprehend easier, and my pronunciation is helped a lot too. Every once and a while I have the strange realization that I can speak a different language. It always takes me by surprise when I have a conversation with a Thai person because in my head I think I can't speak Thai, but then I just go and do it. I know that God has helped me while I am in Thailand trying to serve the Lord and the children of God here.

This week, Elder Killian and I were on our bikes inviting and I saw some old guys who were playing a game called “Dek Gra”. I'm not 100% sure how it would be spelled in English, but you should totally look up some Dek Gra highlights. It is amazing to watch! We passed by them and kept riding our bikes down the road, but I decided to go back and ask if we could play with them. They were super excited to let us play! Dek Gra is sooo hard though. It is playing volleyball with a hard plastic ball, using your feet. These old guys are so good though! Every time I kicked the ball it would go in a random direction, but the old guys would be passing it all around to each other doing behind the back kicks. It was fun to play!

I know that God is helping me here in Thailand as I share the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are many things that seem like it is too hard, but anything is possible when you align yourself with the desires of God. 

Everyone have a great week and send me an email at boston.barron@myldsmail.net if you have the time!

-Elder Barron 

Adventures in Bangkapi

Someone (un-named) disrespecting 

me with their feet.

Some absolutely delicious Thai food 

that I ate today.

An ugly dog of our neighbors.

Out working and I saw all these cats on a balcony.

Me at one of those night markets where they 

sell a bunch of food and good stuff.

Sunset that was cool.

Letter:

This week was very short because we had transfers. Our mission president assigns us to a new area and companion, or we could stay where we are and have the same companion. It is fun because everyone has a chance to move and we just sit there and wait for a call from our Mission President. Whenever we find out who is leaving we all freak out. For these transfers it was kind of boring though because not a single person in my district moved or did anything. Our call was super short because he said "Hello, all of you are staying" and then he hung up. Very anticlimactic. Lol

This week, we had a surprise zone meeting in Asoke, Bangkok, Thailand. We got to go listen to an amazing speaker and General Authority named Ted R. Callister. He taught us on the importance of being a good teacher. This is definitely something that I need a little bit of training on. For me, the most difficult part of teaching is involving the person who I am teaching and making them interested in what I am saying. Especially in Thai, I need to get better at sparking an interest as a teacher.

A few days ago, our district leader decided to make this upcoming week a really good missionary work week. We decided to call it "Heaven Week." This is a play on words from something in the US military called "Hell Week." In the military, this is a week where you are worked to death. You have to hike at least 10 miles or more a day, you always have to wear a super heavy pack, you get about 2 hours of sleep a night, and they try to make you do things that would "break" you mentally. For us we are calling it “Heaven Week” because we are planning on getting out of the house earlier, finding more people to teach, spending a substantial less amount of time wasted during eating, studies, or traveling, and basically anything that will physically work us to death so that by next week, we will be exhausted. I can't wait to start!

This week as I was studying in a book that explains the Old Testament of the Bible very in depth, I read a section that made me think a lot about my own personal study of the scriptures. The scriptures consisting of The Bible and also The Book of Mormon, both have this in common. They’re many teachings coming through parables. A parable is a short story that uses objects in the story to convey a larger and more meaningful point. These parables can be confusing and unclear, but as we study the symbolism and try to understand each piece to the story, we receive more knowledge than we thought was there in the first place. This brought me to the question, "Why can't God just give us the straight answer and tell us what to do?" This is the same reason we were sent to this Earth in the first place, but only on a smaller scale. If we have a reward handed to us, we don't grow and become better to get it. We need to work towards something to get the reward and the more we practice at this thing the greater is the reward. “His purpose, however, in telling these short stories was not to present the truths of his gospel in plainness so that all his hearers would understand. Rather it was so to phrase and hide the doctrine involved that only the spiritually literate would understand it.” (Mormon Doctrine) 

I know the more that we work towards strengthening our relationship with God, the more we will be blessed in everything we do. There is an unimaginable amount of happiness that we will receive through studying and following the teachings of God through the scriptures. 

3 Nephi 24: 10 

"...prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it."

Everyone have a great week! 

-Elder Barron 

The "Greenie" is Gonzo!

My parents friends who brought me a package!

Each chair represents how many transfers we have left in the mission.

I caught this pic of some lightning.

Me dunking on Prep Day.

This is my good friend Bom Prakronkiate. The first time I met this guy was in an Anatomy and Physiology class in high school. He was a foreign exchange student in Bentonville, Arkansas, my home town. I am very good friends with him. I knew he would have to go back to Thailand, so I was sad I wouldn't be able to hang out with him for much of the summer.
Little did I know, out of the hundreds of missions I could have gotten called to, I was going to Thailand to be a missionary.
About five months later, Bom and I are here eating together speaking Thai with each other.
This is truly a miracle in my life that has been led by the hand of God.
Moroni 7: 29-30
29 And because he hath done this, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men.
30 For behold, they are subject unto him, to minister according to the word of his command, showing themselves unto them of strong faith and a firm mind in every form of godliness.โมโรไน​ 7: 29-30

Update:

Hello Everyone! Thailand is still going great! We had what felt like the coldest day in Thailand so far. It was about 11 o’clock in the morning, and it was still only 85 degrees F. It felt so good! This title talks about me being a “greenie”, but I am not anymore. Being a "greenie" is slang for everyone who is new to the mission like I have been. Everyone is a greenie for the first 3 months they are out in the field being teachers. Today marks the last day of me being a "greenie", so I have officially been in Thailand for three months now! It is totally crazy thinking about that! I am amazed by the great leaps I’ve made in learning more about Jesus Christ, God's plan for everyone, how to live in everyday life, and especially the Thai language. The things that are possible to do when you are on God's side is amazing!One girl in my district named ​Sister Pimsuwan (we call missionaries who are girls "Sisters" just like I am an Elder ) who I am pretty good friends with has been in the hospital lately. I don't know for sure what she is suffering with right now, but I feel very bad for her. I really hope she can get better.

One of my very favorite parts of teaching here in Thailand is that at our church every Tuesday, we have a free English class. There are so many students that come and I have a very good time teaching them. A lot of them are very willing to learn, which is a good example to me to try my very best at Thai. It is also fun to see someone else struggle with speaking a language instead of myself. =) Since we have the class in our church there are a lot of our students ask questions about Jesus Christ because they have never learned about him before. It is a great way to find great people wanting to learn more with us. 

As a missionary, my main goal is to help others come unto God through the gospel of Jesus Christ, and one of the most important parts of that is finding other to teach. I think one of the most important things I have learned is how to find people who will be interested. I used to thing the best way was to go out on the sidewalks and talk to everyone I can to see who is interested. I have learned that this way is not the most effective. It is good, but if I want to find people who would sincerely like to change their life for the better through the gospel of Jesus Christ, then I need to work through people who already have a strong relationship with God. People can understand and strive for the happiness brought through following God's commandments if they have a friend or family member who has already made the journey. The path is paved already for any friends wanting to venture as well. I know that I have the truth because of the goodness I feel as I share these feelings and let others tag along on my path I have created for a while as they begin to understand for themselves and make their own path. Eventually, everyone will need to have their own, personal relationship with God, but there is always help when we need it.

This week, Elder Killian and I met with a man named Brother Doy. He has already been baptized, but he stopped coming to church because he said he was too busy and bored of going. I decided to bare my testimony about what I believe is true and Elder Killian did the same. Then we asked Doy​ to share his testimony too. His testimony of how his life has been helped because of the gospel was so powerful. I don't think even he knew everything that he said before he said it because when he was done, he said he wanted to go to church again. The next day, we got a call from his wife saying she and his daughter wanted to be baptized. It was definitely a miracle from God.

This week right before church, there was a white couple who walked in and instantly looked at me. I am going to be honest, it was very weird. Haha, I hardly ever get to see white people all the way out here in Thailand. Even more surprising, they said "Elder Barron, we have a package for you from your Mom." Apparently, my parents found someone going to Thailand and sent a gift with them so they could get it to me for free. Thanks Mommy!

Thanks to everyone who reads my emails and emails me, I appreciate it very much. Have a great week!

-Elder Barron

Weeks are flying by

 Teaching class

 Group picture of our Friday night social 

at the church.

 Totally awesome zone conference.

 Lunch at the zone conference.

 We rarely get to ride in cars so I took a pick of this cool car that we rode in.

 This is my favorite kid in the ward. 

His name is Adam and he is hilarious. 

(I found this on my phone.)

This guy reminded me of Daddy because he was playing the guitar and had a harmonica holder around his neck that he was playing too.

A tiny Sister missionary in our district. 

She may be small but she is not boring.

Update:

This week has been fully of amazing miracles! We have been teaching this guy lately who's name sounds like Ong. He is very interested in learning about The Book of Mormon. He has a lot of faith when we teach him about God. He always tells us that he believes God helps him in life and so he wants to learn more about Him to understand His ways and why Ong is here on this Earth. As missionaries, we go on missions for the reason of helping others to come unto Christ. I do this because I know The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. Even if I knew nobody would listen to me at all, I would still go on a mission and do my very best to serve. People like Ong are blessings along the way because they have the humility and understanding to try to change their lives for the better and be baptized following in the example of our savior Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for this knowledge that I have received at a young age so that I am able to serve God in this way. I know for a fact that so far in my life, this is going to be the best 2 years!

Bangkapi has really been really fun lately. Our district has been playing a ton of basketball at our church lately on our preparation day. Elder Sudekum is a new Elder in our district and he is very good at basketball. I have so much fun playing with them because it is very hard to find good basketball in Thailand. YES!!! It’s so fun!

Every once and a while we have to ride a taxi, and it is so tight in the taxi. We have a 6' 5" guy in the car, a 6' 6" guy, and a 225 pound other guy. Whenever we all ride in the back in a taxi, we barely fit. It would be funny to see, but I'm not gonna take a picture of it.

As missionaries, we get the opportunity to work a lot with the members of our church congregation. There is one member that we visited this week named Golf. He is a super nice guy and he just barely had his first child. We talked to him for a bit about how he was doing and how his family was and we shared a spiritual thought with him. When we were about to leave, he asked us if we could stay longer and eat dinner with him and his wife, so we accepted. While we were waiting for dinner, Brother Golf took us to a room in his house and showed us this mirror, Elder Killian and I didn't really understand what he was doing, but all the sudden, Golf took out this card key and put it against the wall AND THE MIRROR SLIDES OFF AND THERE IS A SECRET ROOM! It was so surprising I almost popped. He had a ton of awesome guns, bows and arrows, and other awesome manly things. It was so fun looking at everything. Then we found out that he ordered us KFC. That chicken was amazing!

I love you everyone, thanks for reading my letter. Have a great week!

-Elder Barron 

It was a great week!

All my change.

Pretty sunset

On our one day off this week we got to go to a place called "Dream World"(Thai Disneyland. =)). It was tons of fun!

This is the strongest man in Thailand. 

(Yes I wear a fanny pack like my Mom now.)

Me showing an old man the way.

Us eating at Subway-seemed like the lost amazing taste in the world at that moment.

Update:

Hello Everyone!

This week was a good week. We worked really hard. I also got to watch the second half of general conference, which was great. There were many great talks by our church leaders. Watching general conference always strengthens my testimony that God has called Prophets on the Earth in these days to be the leader of his church.

I know that this church is true and there is no way I could be here in Thailand speaking Thai without the help of God. I have been blessed so much as I have been sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ here in Thailand. I will use all the time here to the best of my ability and always remember the real reason why I am here. To bring souls unto Christ.

-Elder Barron 

I will DUNK on you someday.

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.

 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