Squeekity Sqeek Skweekers Skweekums

 We got to go to a Buriram soccer game with some of the people we are teaching and some of the members of our church!

 It was a total blast!

 I got to eat some interesting foods.

 Buriram beat Lambang 4-1 ANNIALATION

 There was a sick sunset right in front of us.

This soup is called

ก้วยเตี๋ยวน้ำตกหมู​ (geuy diaw​ Nam thok Moo) it translates to waterfall pig soup. It was so good too.

 We went to a cool night market to eat dinner and invite people to hear of Christ.

 It was way fun. 

They also had this awesome fountain.

 Today I did my first sewing that I have ever done in my life. I sewed up a hole that popped up in my sock. My mother was so proud of me.

 Ether 12: 27 in Thai. Love that verse. It has literally changed my life. Here it is in english:

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

 On P-day, Elder Llanera and I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and we hiked up this mountain to watch the sun rise. It was so so beautiful.

There was a concrete slide and I tried to ride down it, but it didn't work, so I just ran down it instead.

I got to help one of the young members when he was having a really hard day. He posted this on his Facebook story and it made me really happy.

 After watching the sun rise.

My Letter:

Just another great week in Buriram! This week was extremely busy, and I am so tired. It is all worth it though. Every time I think of all the good we are doing to help others, I am filled with energy to keep going. 

So we changed our P-day this last Monday to Wednesday so that we could go to a Buriram soccer game. It was so SO FUN! I'm so thankful that our Mission President said we are allowed to go! Buriram is also one of the best soccer teams in all of Thailand, so that makes it even better. Buriram beat Lambang 4 to 1. We also got to go to the game with a few members and investigators, so that was really fun strengthening our relationship with them. 

I was kind of sick this last Monday. It was really hard to do anything  because I had a raging headache, but I prayed and was able to work my hardest until it was night. 

So it is getting hard to write in my journal every day at the end of the day because I just keep getting more tired, and having more responsibility. I had a goal at the beginning of my mission to write in my journal every day, so every single day I have wrote a full page in it for 376 days, and I was about to change my goal to be just a half page a day. I was about to just stop at the half page in my journal, and then I just thought, "What the heck! Why would I just stop now if I haven't finished what I initially started?" I got mad at myself and repented because I want to finish the goals that I make. I wrote the whole page that day. 

I know that might sound a little bit cheesy, but I think it is not just that fact that I would be writing less in my journal, it is the fact that I wouldn't have finished my goals and things I strive for. It is honestly very hard to write in my journal every day, but I am going to do it because later on it will give me more confidence to finish those things I want to do. 

I had my last switch off with Elder Siebert that I will have on my mission. I is such a good missionary. I hope in the future I will have a strong knowledge of the scriptures as he does. He know SO much. When I was riding back to Buriram from our switch off, I think I was on the squeekiest bus I have ever been on in my life. Im sorry I can't describe it any further, but I really hope they are able to give that bus a bath in WD-40 some time in the near future. 

I was talking to a kid named Fresh who is a way cool member here in Buriram. He is about 14 years old, and he was just asking me a ton about how he can be a better son and how he can do better to follow Jesus Christ. It was a way good talk and now he keeps telling me about how excited he is to be a missionary in the future! It made me way happy when he told me his desire of doing that. 

I hope everyone's week is good one!

-Elder Barron 

Rainbows and Marshmallows

 Sweet sunset picture of Buriram.

 A screen shot of one of our district meetings. This was a special one where we did it over video chat because it was the same week as zone conference.

 Just a normal day riding our bikes down the road.

 A cool elephant in the roundabout.

 This was taken in Royet. They are building a giant monument there that will be finished in 2021.

 Eating some super delicious food 

right after zone conference.

  

 We had an awesome day at church where a ton of members who used to come here came back for a day. It was fun to see all the old faces.

 The Bishops son.

Quincey's trainer from her mission in Portugal and her new husband who served in Thailand! 
They are here on vacation!

This was a chunk of my delicious sour patch watermelons from America!

Kittens galore! They are growing slowly.

This weeks update:

The weeks just keep getting better and better. Buriram is growing so much in the church and I can truly say that my heart is growing for the ward here. This is the first time in my mission where I can feel that all the work I am doing in a week is being driven by my love for the people and the knowledge of how the gospel can help everyone individually.

Elder Llanera and I got to do some cool companionship bonding in the morning a couple times this last week.  We got to play some basketball! We went to the nearby college and shot around for a while on their courts. We got to play two on two with these two Thai guys and we whooped ‘em. Let's just say that Elder Llanera throws some pretty clean alley oops. When we were done playing with them, they invited us to come play with them at the hospital sometimes at 6 O ‘clock in the evening. They said there was a ton more people that play there. I really want to go try to play there sometime.

Maybe we will have some time on another P-day to go.

Lately in the mission, there has been a major focus on getting as many people to be baptized as possible, which is not a bad thing. Baptism is an essential part of being able to live with Heavenly Father, but as we have been doing this, we sometimes forget about helping those who are already members. The mission is changing to have more of a focus on strengthening the members and helping the family of the members to become strong. I know that when we work harder on this, the missionary work will become so much more effective and even easier! I have seen a change starting here in the Buriram Ward lately. Just last Sunday, we had the first ward council that I know of. I'm sure it has happened in the past, but not that I know of at least. I'm just so happy for this ward because there are changes happening. I really want to see it grow because as the membership grows, so does their testimonies, and so does their happiness in the church. 

This last week, my Sister, Quincey’s favorite companion on her mission in Portugal came with her husband who served here in Thailand on his mission. (did that make sense) Anyways, they brought me a present all the way from America! It was some genuine Sour Patch Kids. Not just any Sour Patch Kids... WATERMELON FLAVOR! THE BEST ONES! It was way funny because since they brought it all the way from America, it had been through some rough spots, and now the entire 2 pound bag is melted into a single massive gummy watermelon. It is like so much better because you don't just have to take little bites, you can just bite off a massive chunk. It was a tender mercy of my week. Thank you all thoughs who took part in this endeavor. 

On another basketball note, I got to play basketball with a bunch of missionaries because we had zone conference and we woke up early for it, and one of the elders, Elder Ratelle, totally skewered my eye ball with his finger on a rebound. It hurt like really bad and I didn't enjoy it. I couldn't see out of that eye for a good 10-15 minutes, and I really thought I was going to throw up because of how much it hurt. The worst part was that because of that, everyone stopped playing and we went home. That was annoying. Haha. 

This week was like jumping on rainbows and marshmallows the whole time. It was way fun. I felt the spirit so much and my testimony has indeed strengthened. I have some family members who have been distraught for the past few days because of the sudden death of a family member, and other sad events. I am praying for you all every day and I hope that you will be able to feel to the spirit, or the love of God, at all times. Just like my Grammy said ;). It will help you (everyone) in your times of need. 

Love you all! 

-Elder Barron 

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