The Records of Thailand Continue

 Notice the basket on my bike. 

I talk about that in my letter.

 This guy is our Zone Leader.

 Traveling to a lesson.

 This is a random guy that we invited to learn about Christ. He loves America (notice the jacket.)

 One of the main parks here in Surin. We like to invite people here because it is a popular place in the evening for people to go.

 This is where we buy groceries.

 At Zone Conference! Fun seeing friends!

 Here we are practicing our phone skills. Lol!

Eating dinner with our investigators.

 A cute dog at the park.

 We are teaching this kid how to work out at the park. He wants to get stronger.

 I made myself breakfast.

 Working with one of the new greenie missionaries. His name is Elder Body and he is from Thailand. We got to be good friends.

Random street that we invited on.

My Letter:

Last P-day was really fun. It was just a very chill day where we didn't have anything special planned, so we had time to just rest from the last week of working. It is nice to have one of those days every once in a while. I was exploring around the house because there is just a ton of random stuff that has accumulated over the years from all the missionaries that have lived here and left stuff. I ended up finding a basket that I think was used for motorcycles, but I bought a rope and tied it right on to my bike! It is now super useful when we have to carry things around to peoples houses or shoes when we are going to do service or for groceries! It was a good investment!

At the end of P-day we went to the basketball courts and I got to play some against the guys that were there. They kept forcing each other to play me one on one to see if anyone could beat me. Nobody did. :) They are completely freaked out when I dunk it on them Haha. It was so fun.

Lately, Elder Siebert and I have been doing some service for the Branch President Arm. We just go over to his house, and we carry a ton of buckets of dirt from their front yard to their backyard. Then, at the end, his Mom will give us some delicious free food. Totally worth it. We also have also been giving President Arm personal English lessons because he is about to take a test that will prove whether he gets a job or not, so we are helping him out. President does a lot to help us in our missionary work, so it is always fun to repay him in any way that we can.

I went on a switch off with another missionary, Elder Dollery this week. Elder Dollery is one of the hardest working missionaries I think I know. He literally talks to every single person that he possibly can. He will just talk to people non stop unless I remind him that we have one more meeting with someone that we are already late for. Sometimes he even forgets to eat food because he is working so hard. I don't think I can work so hard that I miss my minimum four meals a day =), but he is definitely a good example for me of how to be a good missionary. While I was with Elder Dollery, we met with a man that is ready to get baptized! We asked him some questions about how he believes God helps him in life, and how being baptized will help him in the rest of his life. It is so much fun to see people realize the goal of this life and how to follow the path of righteousness.

We have had some challenges teaching Nuey lately. We have taught her just about everything that there is to learn to become baptized and she says she feels God helping her in life. She also believes the Book of Mormon is true, but she continues to have questions about whether after she is baptized if she will be able to be Christian for the rest of her life. Hopefully she can have faith and realize that she doesn't have to worry about these things as much. If she has faith in God everything will turn out good in the end. 

There is a sister in the branch named Sister Goong. We met with her and asked her about her conversion story to believing in Christianity. When we heard her tell her story of how she got baptized, it surprised me how similar it was to Sister Nuey's current experiences, so hopefully we can get them both working together. 

This week we had Zone Conference, so we rode a 3 hour bus to Roy-et. I love our Mission President, President Hammond. He has the spirit of God with him so strongly. Every time I get to talk with him I feel rejuvenated. Our mission has been focusing a lot of finding new people lately. As a zone we are trying to find at least one new person a day through inviting per companionship. 

Another woman we visited is named Koko. She is a mother of a little boy, and when we visited her we talked about the temple. We talked to her about how close it will be and how easy it will be to go. Then we showed her a video about the blessings we receive from temples and how it can help us in life. The spirit was so strong in that time. She said she was going to try to come to church often and she wants her son (who just happens to be 8 years old) to me baptized. Totally awesome. Miracles are pouring down from heaven. 

This week at church we had a random drop in our number of people attending church, so I had to help do some parts of sacrament meeting. I was the chorister, blessed the sacrament, and gave a talk haha. Hopefully more people will come so we can delegate these responsibilities to more members in the branch. 

Today is the 250th day I have been out on my mission. And last night officially marks the first time I, Boston Barron, have ever filled out an entire journal. Truly miracles are happening every single day. I can probably count the amount of pages I have written in a journal before my mission on my fingers, but I haven't missed a day yet. (woop woop) #thehungrydontstop #IamachildofGod

I hope everyone has a great week! 

-Elder Boston Barron

Happy Chinese New Year!

 I got to help cook at President Arms house.

 Doing paperwork, paying bills.

 We had a family night at one of the members houses. An awesome group of people were there and we had a great time!

 This is Brother Larson, one of the nicest people I have ever met. He went to Thailand on his mission long ago.

 When we went to the Cambodian Border.

 Brother Suk and after he got his new tablet from Brother Larson. Fun day!

 Bus ride we took to Buriram.

 Me getting a haircut.

 Shoes galore.

 Surin views.

 We got to do service at President Arms house 

(our Branch President) We carried dirt.

 Me trying to be muscley like Elder Siebert.=)

 We found this massive scorpion while 

digging in the dirt. We killed it.

 One of the cool night markets.

 Food food and more food.

 A little cafe that I ate food at.

 Some freaking HUGE cockroaches.

 The market.

Some Cambodian money that I got.

Letter Update:

Wow this last week has been very eventful and amazing! Last Monday, we had dinner over at one of the members houses. It was so much fun because a ton of the members came and it was a really good way to strengthen the friendship between all of the members in Surin. I was having fun joking around with the old ladies there. They were all telling me that I was too tall. They told me I need to stop growing or I never would get a girlfriend! I asked “why is that?” and they replied with, "It hurts our necks just to look at you, and it would hurt even more if someone had to kiss you." so I replied with, "That is why someday I will need to find a tall girlfriend!" They looked like they were in pain they were laughing so hard at me. 

This last week for District meeting, we went to Buriram. (Surin and Buriram are in the same district and we have to ride an hour long bus to get to district meeting. Every week we switch which place we have our meeting at so we don't have to ride the bus every week.) Elder Siebert and I rode the hour long bus ride and walked about 20 minutes to the church building in Buriram. We didn't see where the Buriram Elders were, so we called them. It turns out that they were headed to to Surin on a bus! It was kind of funny, but also annoying at the confusion.

One thing about Elder Siebert. He loves being super healthy, so every morning, he makes his own breakfast. Once a week, he buys all the ingredients that he needs and every day he eats a ton of chicken. I thought it would be cool to know how to make what he makes and so last week when he bought the food for himself, I bought myself the same stuff, and I am learning how to make meals and stuff. It is fun! And it gives me an opportunity to eat more food which is always good.

Lately we have been teaching a new person named You-tana). We found him for the first time just riding bikes down little streets and talking to people outside their homes. (Nobody has front doors, so we just have to do that.) The second time we wanted to meet with him, we told him we would meet outside his house on a certain day at a certain time. We waited outside his house for about 15 minutes at that time, but he wasn't there. It is kind of sad when people skip our appointments that they make with us, but we decided to wait 5 more minutes. We said a prayer together that he would show up and right when we were about to leave, he drove up in is car and apologized for being late! I was so happy. He is a very intelligent man and when we told him that following the commandments of God could change his life for the better, he we so ready to listen. He is a man that loves his family, so I really like that about him.

This last Thursday consisted of a lot of service. We started out in the morning by going our to our Branch Presidents house and we cut up branches and pulled out trash and we did a lot of clean up. Then we hauled a ton of dirt from his front yard to the back yard. Because he didn't have a wheelbarrow, we used buckets. It was super fun! We found a few cool wildlife too! (a few spiders, two venomous scorpions, a million ants, and more!!!) 

There is one kid in in our branch who is nineteen years old and he doesn't come to church super often, so we wanted to make friends with him and help him come back to church. His name is Leew. He always tells us how much he wants a girlfriend and since Elder Siebert is a body builder, Leew asked if he could help him work out, so we worked out with him. It was a great way to be good friends with him and just do some service. 

At the end of Thursday, (this is my favorite story) we were riding to one of the night markets to go inviting, and we were about to ride across a big intersection to get to the market, but I saw this man who was in a food cart. (these are carts where they have bags of food or snack that hang off everywhere and usually it is like a bicycle also so they can ride it around) This man was leaning down and using his hand to turn the wheel to cross the intersection. I thought he had a flat tire or something, but it turns out, this guy can't use the bicycle pedals because he had no legs. He only had a lever that he moved back and forth to spin the wheels, but he could use the lever until he got himself going by turning the wheel with his hands. It is hard to explain, but it was very hard for this guy to get around. He wasn't going to make it across the intersection in time because he was moving so slowly, so we pushed him and his cart across the intersection to help him out. At first I thought he was just headed to sell at the night market, but he was actually going home. I offered that we could just push him all the way home because we could ride our bikes on either side of the cart and hold on to his cart with a hand. The man kept saying no because his house was too far, but that just made it a better reason why we should help him, so we kept pushing him along. We probably rode our bikes pushing him for about 30 minutes down dirt roads and pot holes and the whole time I was just wondering how this guy possible got this far away from his home on his own. It would have at least taken 2 hours for him to go on his own. While we were going down the roads, there was a giant pack of dogs that ran up to us and were barking and nipping at our legs, so I kept pushing him and Elder Siebert fought off the dogs with a stick. It was an adventure! Lol! When we got him to his home he told us that he makes that same ride every day all by himself so he can go sell things from his cart. This guy amazes me. It was so fun to help him that night.

We got to visit a member named Mah-noon). He used to work with dead bodies. He would dress the dead bodies for funerals, and he would let the missionaries come help him sometimes, but when I came here to Surin, he changed his job and now he just works with blood. I was a little sad that I would never be able to dress a dead body, but I guess it is okay.

Lately, Elder Siebert and I have been teaching a girl named Sooin. She has been learning with the missionaries for a long time now and some people were starting to tell us that she is an engineer, or someone who will never stop learning and also never get baptized. We refused to let it stay just like that, so we had a good talk with her and gave her a baptismal date to help her work towards the goal. I also think she is intrigued by the temple being built here in Thailand. We taught about families and the blessings she can receive in the temple. She is a great person. 

This last week as Elder Siebert and I were headed home we decided to take a detour by the basketball court and see if anyone was there. There were people there when we got there so we split up to talk to different people, and I met a guy who was playing basketball. Apparently he had been taught by the missionaries six years ago, but he wasn't super up to learning again, so I told him we can play one on one and if I win we get to meet with him again one time, and he agreed! I won 16-2. Hopefully we can spark his interest to learning again.

Today on P-day, it was Chinese New Year! They didn't really celebrate at all here, except for some Chinese lanterns and cute Chinese baby pictures on some of the local stores. I don't know if the baby pictures are part of the Chinese New Year, but they are still pretty cute. 

This was a great week! On to the next!  I hope everyone else has a great week too!

-Elder Barron

Snowball Effect

 GROUND BREAKING OF THE TEMPLE!

 I got to see a bunch of my friends from the MTC at transfers!

 We were talking to a woman and this guy walked up to buy something and I noticed that he had 5 baht in his ear(coins). I asked him why and he said, "It is freaking convenient" That made me laugh so hard and then I pointed out that he has another ear and could carry 10 baht if he wanted to and then he said, "You are a smart man." Lol

 This is all of the garbage that we collected that is laying around the house.

 Riding in a Tuk Tuk.

 Pictures of Thailand.

 Saying goodbye to Elder Harding. 

He is headed to Bangkapi!

 Some amazing food that a sister in our ward made for us. I was so excited (as you can see) that I had to take a picture of it.

 I made some eggs in the microwave. 

I have never done that before.

Art for sale on the border of Cambodia.

This is Brother Larson.

My weekly update!:

Hello family and friends!

This has been a very special week here in Thailand. For a very long time, the Church has been planning to build a temple here in Thailand. This is actually the first temple that will be built here in South Eastern Asia. It is a very big deal and a big land mark for the church. This week on Saturday, we had the ground breaking to officially kick off the building of the temple! I am so happy for the people of Thailand because when people have the chance to go to the temple, they are able to go there and receive blessings through making covenants with God to live a righteous life. Since being on my mission, I have not had the chance to go to the temple and now that there is one currently being built, I can feel the love of God more here in Thailand and we have already seen blessings pouring down from heaven.

This last week, Elder Harding left Surin, he is now going to serve in Bangkapi, which is the same place I have served, so I had the chance to tell him all about it before he went. It was totally cool that he gets to go serve there as I did. 

I also got a new companion. His name is Elder Siebert. I guess the first thing that usually comes up about him is that before he was a missionary, he was a hardcore body builder. He has also been a missionary here for almost a full year longer than I have, so he is very good at the language and very knowledgeable in the gospel. Those are both things that I really want to get better at, so it is a great fit for me!

As soon as Elder Siebert came into Surin, he asked a ton of questions about how the Branch is doing and different members and investigators, I could really tell that he had been a missionary for a while now because he totally had it all down! 

We had the chance to meet with Bah Meh and talk to her about the new temple that is being build in Bangkok and she was super excited. She had never been to the temple before because she just got baptized recently, but she was willing to do what ever it takes to prepare. We taught her about family history and how we have a website that is used to organize our family tree and learn about our relatives. I love it!

There is a member here named Sister Ying. She has been a member of the church for less than a year, but she is one of the most intelligent people that I have met here in Thailand. Sister Ying​ loves studying in all the different kinds of church books and information manuals. Whenever we meet with her, she always asks questions that I don't know the answer to because she is getting into deep doctrine. I definitely need to study more and learn some new Thai vocab.

Lately there has been a man who came to visit all of the members in Surin. He used to be a missionary here in Surin when he was my age, and he served in Thailand again later on in his life with his wife. All of the members love him so much. His name is Brother Larson and he is an angel. After church was over on Sunday he wanted to go use his vacationing time to go visit some people who didn't make it to church. We went to visit a ton of people who were really far away because he had a car and usually we can’t make it out there. A lot of the people we visited had a money problem where they can't fix their motorcycle to go to church so Brother Larson helped them out. Also we visited Brother Sack, who I have mentioned in previous letters. He is bed ridden, so he doesn't have much to do all day. He has a very old tablet to play games on, but it is so old it has stopped working, so brother Larson bought him a new one today to let him be able to read the scriptures on his tablet and other things. Brother Larson is a very nice man.

Today, he spent one of his last days in Thailand to help us travel on our P-day. We went out to a place called Chong Jom, which is a massive market on the border of Cambodia. We also got to see Cambodia and it is way beautiful. There were a ton of beautiful trees. I also got to exchange some Thai money for some cool Cambodian money as well.

Seeing Brother Larson return to Surin makes me want to come back too because the impact that he had on the people continues on. Even more so now that they all know he has a family and he has his own life, but he is still willing to visit again. I strive to have that relationship with everyone that I can here on the mission so that I can continue helping even after I return back to America. Each person that we help can go help others and the chain can continue on forever. That is why I am here in Thailand. I want to help the people. 

-Elder Barron