Goodbyes and Hellos!

 This is the sending off crew. 

I am literally going to miss them all so much. 

They are so nice and so much fun.

 This is a member named June who kept saying that she wasn't going to cry when I left. But then she did. Haha I had fun teasing her.

Sister Salyad gave me a bag and an awesome tie. She is so nice.

 In my new area with my new companion, Elder Pastores (from the Philipines). The first person I wanted to visit was Brother Duhey! (He has autism.) He is one of my favorite people in Bangkapi. He's so great.

 Back in Bangkapi.

 My new district! The sister in the right is Sister Chambers, she was in the MTC with me and is way cool.

What's goin on:

So every time I feel like I am getting used to being a missionary, I get thrown a curve ball and I have to take a while to adjust. I think each time I am getting quicker at adjusting though.

So basically what has been happening lately:

So a week ago, I was told I would stay in Buriram for 7 more weeks and then head off to the country Laos to continue serving as a missionary there. Then I got a call from President saying that the plan is changed. I am actually going to Laos in a week. (like 2 days ago). Then the day before I was going to leave, President called me again and said, "You going to Laos is delayed. I can't send you why just yet, but instead of going to Laos just come to the mission office." So the next day, I rode a 6 hour bus ride down into Bangkok during the night. I got to the mission office at about 4 in the morning. When I got there I was told my new companion (Elder Pastores) was in the hospital. Apparently I am going to serve with him for a while before I go to Laos. He has been getting sick lately, and needs to go to the hospital often. So I waited about 8 hours at the mission office for him to get back from the hospital and then we traveled back to our area. Another twist, the area we get to serve in is called Bangkapi. This was actually my very first area in Thailand. Another twist, it was my companions first area in Thailand as well. We got there into our area and as soon as we went to the church for a meeting, everyone was so excited because they remembered us. At church I got to bare my testimony and it felt so good. I remember standing in that same exact spot almost a year ago and having really bad Thai. After sacrament meeting, one of the members came up to me and said they cried during my testimony. Oh, how far I have come. 

So Elder Pastores has been getting extremely tired lately and he didn't know why. There was one time he fell asleep on his bike and crashed. He was so tired he walked over to a tree and started sleeping under it. The mission nurse said he should go to the doctor and check his kidneys cause he was showing a lot of symptoms for kidney problems. The doctors checked Elder Pastores's urine and found an extensive about of protein. A normal amount of protein would be read about 30-40(I don't know what the measurement is). If there is over 1000, there is definitely something wrong and you need to go to the doctor. Elder Pastores had well over 2000.

Right now, we are in the hospital. I will be staying with him at least tonight and maybe longer on a couch. Elder Pastores is very weak because the doctor took cell samples out of his kidneys or something. I really hope he gets better and the results come back well. Everyone pray for Elder Pastores that he will get better please!

I don't know what day I will go to Laos, but I am fairly certain it will be soon! 

I love you all!

-Elder Barron 

Wild Ride This Week

This is one of the members who is about to go on her mission. I gave her this picture of the King of Thailand as a going away present. It was in our apartment. Haha!

Phone was baptized!  It was such a great day!

 I'm so excited for her!

 We played this balancing on each-others legs game. It was really funny.

My last sports night in Buriram.

 Selfie stick while riding bikes to a lesson we taught.

 This was my last time I got to visit Sister Nuu. She is one of the nicest ladies I have known. She told me when I come back in a year, she probably won't be alive. I hope that's not true.

 For dinner we got to eat at a market and it was really fun.

Fun family home evening with the members.

 We got to have our last district meeting here in Buriram. It was fun. I am going to miss Elder Siebert. My chairs keep getting shorter!

 I gave Elder Siebert this tie as a going away gift. He goes home in August.

Eating dinner with the members. 

They are so awesome.

  Fun time at the Bishops house.

 Our Bishop is so cool! 

He is the one taking the picture.

 I had to take some pics with this massive bush with yellow flowers all over it.

 

 I saw these goats and it reminded me of Texas.

The beautiful fountain. All the members thought I was full of myself because I was posing like this for the picture. Haha! It was funny.

 Some cool pics of Elder IIanera.

Trimming up our elephant.

 The Bishops son fell asleep and I thought he looked dead.

 Just did a successful bottle flip.

 Dinosaur sighting

Letter Update:

This week I feel like I am riding in a canoe down some white water rapids. If you try to follow the path that you want to go, you are gonna turn side ways and flip. You just gotta feel the current and follow it. No matter where it changes, just follow it. I thought I would be going to serve in Laos in another month and a half, but I got a call from President this last week and it was changed that I would be leaving for Laos today. Then, I got a call yesterday saying that I will actually serve in Bangkok for a few weeks before I go on to Laos. I don't know what is really going on, but I do know I have to pack my bags and leave Buriram. 

I am so sad to leave Buriram. I love all the people here so much and I have had so many people that are so nice to me and help me. I have learned so much from being here. I especially love the members who are keeping the ward here together. 

So on another really important note, I figured out that cows in Thailand don't make the Moo sound. I was talking to a member and making a joke about the sound a cow makes somehow, and I said Moo. Then they got way confused and said, "what are you doing. Cows don't make that sound." I was like what? What sound do they make then" and they said "maaaaw" It was way weird and it blew my mind a little bit. 

So one of our investigators named ฟรอด​(fraud) who was pretty strong stopped answering our calls about a month ago, and we were pretty sad. We wanted to meet with him. He randomly called us this week and said, "sorry I haven't answered your calls. I just got out of jail." That was unexpected. We got to meet him again and we taught about repentance and he loved it. He was so excited to repent.

There was a member named มอส​(moss) who called us and asked us to come bless his baby. His baby was born after only 7 months in the womb and so he was tiny. It was very strengthening of faith that the father had faith that giving the baby a blessing would help and make a difference.

This week, ฝน​ (phone(but it actually means rain)) got baptized. Everything went way well and the spirit was so strong I am so happy for her!

Alright I gotta go pack all my stuff so that I can leave Buriram tonight! I love you all and have a great week! 

-Elder Barron 

World War 3

 Biking home for the day.

 

 The student drew super heros for the day in class. Who do you think won the competition?

 A little market on the side of the street, things were seriously everywhere.

 Riding back to Buriram on the bus in the middle of the night after a zone conference.

 Some cool Buddhist stuff.

 Some random selfies.

 We helped a lady feed her chickens. This lady was so funny. I love doing service in any way.

 I caught this butterfly out of mid air and then set it free.

 What I would look like if I wore glasses.

Look Mom, I sewed up this hole in my bag! I am having fun repairing my stuff all by myself.

Update for the week:

Dang sometimes I really forget the amazingness of being here in Thailand being a missionary. There are just so many blessings from being here. I will never be able to explain all of them. I can definitely try though! Last P-day, we rode our bikes over to a mountain that is pretty close to us. At the bottom is a staircase that goes up forever

 At the very top, there is a massive Buddha statue and an AMAZING look out at the top. We woke up at 4:30 to ride our bikes there and go up the steps. Then we watched a stunning sunset from the lookout on the mountain. Everything about it was so beautiful. I could just feel the spirit as I was thinking of all the amazing things that God has created for his children to see. 

We have an awesome investigator named ฝน.​ She is so cool. We have been teaching her for 2 months now, and she is on track to get baptized next Sunday. I am praying that everything goes well! 

I am so tired this week. We had to ride busses last week for a total of 22 hours. It was a combination of having district meeting in Surin, an emergency call to come to Bangkok to so Visa work and stuff, and a Switchoff that we had in Roy-et. The hardest part of all of it is trying to use time wisely on the bus instead of just sleeping the whole time haha. 

I got to go on a switchoff this last week with Elder Borg. He is a missionary who used to be AP, and he is currently on his last transfer. He is going home in 10 days. It was really fun being able to learn from him and talk with him throughout that day. 

This last week we were eating some lunch over at Sister หนู​ (nu)​'s house. She is an older lady in our ward who got baptized just recently. Whenever we go visit her, she makes a lot of food for us. (I love going over there.) She loves to make jokes about how much I eat. Sometimes they don't make much sense, but they are always funny. This week she told me, "I bet when the World War 3 starts, everyone will be running around going crazy and killing each other, but Elder Barron will be sitting right here when he always is just eating food the whole time." I laughed for a good while on that one. 

One strange realization that I had when I was talking to one of my Thai friends, a lot of people who speak English says Asian voices sound so high pitched. I got asked by someone this last week why all white people have such low voices. A lot of them think we are the weird ones because our voices are strangely low while a lot of us think the opposite. I thought that was funny. 

I got a call from Bishop late on Saturday night asking if I could teach Second hour of church for the relief society and priest quorum. I didn't have any time to prepare, so I woke up early Sunday morning to prepare. I tried to center the lesson half off Come Follow Me and also a really good talk given by Brad Wilcox called "His Grace is Sufficient". If you haven't listened to it, or if you have already, you should totally listen to it (again). It is an amazing talk and really helps me to put being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in perspective. (it is on

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/brad-wilcox_his-grace-is-sufficient/?M=A

I really hope I said something that touched the hearts of the members and investigators listening. 

It was a really great week! I love the gospel. I know it is all true. I know The Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that through Jesus Christ's grace we will be saved. I thank you all for being such a great support to me! 

-Elder Barron