Song Kran!!!! 2019

 We met these 12 year old boys that were playing soccer and played with them for a few minutes. The next day they had left this note on our door to invite us to come play again. It was cute.

 An amazing sunset.

"Song Kran" is a holiday in Thailand and it is a 3 day water fight. Everything shuts down and everyone participates. It's a blast!

 "Song Kran" ready to battle with our water guns.

 The district

 English Class
Letter:

It is starting to get pretty stinking hot these days. The heat is starting to smother and squeeze sweat out of me every day. I love it! I am really here in Thailand riding my bike many miles a day trying to share the gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone who accepts it.

This last week, my companion Elder Body and I saw many miracles. I just want to try to talk about a few of them.

Youtana is a person that we met in this past week. We were riding our bikes and saw Youtana sitting on the ground watching some grazing Buffalo. We tried to start talking to him, and instantly we knew that he had autism. That made me even more excited to talk to him. I love people with autism. They are the nicest, most angelic people on earth. It was difficult to understand him, but I would just ask him questions and let him talk for a while. Every once and a while I would crack a little joke and he would laugh his head off. (I wish everyone laughed at my jokes like he did) I think the best part about talking to him was how much he reminded me of my older brother Briggs. All of the sudden, Youtana said he had to go, and instantly started riding away. We decided to just get on our bikes and keep following him around. Youtana ended up going to his house, which was the house of a lady who we had talked to before. Last time, this lady wanted nothing to do with us. She just told us to go away and she never wanted to see us again. (probably one of the hardest turn downs I have had on my mission) This time we met with her, she saw us with her son. (I had no idea this was going to be her son) She asked us what we were doing with her son, so I just told her we were friends. Then Youtana said, "yeah we are friends!" I think that kind of melted her heart a little bit because nobody ever hangs out with her son, but now we were. It was just a few small things trying to show love to people and now this lady's heart was able to change and she was way more accepting of what we were talking about to her.

One day this last week it was starting to get late at night. The sun had barely dropped under the horizon, and we had just got home. We were winding down, about to start studying in the scriptures when we heard a bunch of voices coming from outside. We looked out the window and saw a ton of little kids riding their bikes around. I decided to open the window and start talking to them. (at this point I was on the second floor, so I was on a little balcony yelling at them) they thought it was funny talking to a white guy who spoke Thai, so they stayed for a while. They started saying jokes to me in Thai. I had no idea what the answers were because they were Thai puns, but the little kids didn't know that I had Elder Body, who is Thai, right behind me still inside the house. He kept whispering to me all the answers, and then giving me some other Thai jokes to say to the kids. It was dang funny when I would answer their jokes and come back with better ones. They were so confused who this white person even was. After that, I got out my guitar and played them all a song in Thai called "never". We had to go, so I told them we should play soccer sometime together and kind of expected to never see them again. I thought this little star was over, but 2 days later, we were riding on our bikes out of our neighborhood, and there was a small street that I had never gone on before. I decided to just turn down it and see what happens, and we ended up seeing those exact same kids! We stopped and played some soccer with them for a while and then one of them asked why we were Christian, so we sat down with them for a little bit and told them about Jesus Christ. It was awesome! Since they knew where our house was, we told them if they are going to play soccer, to put a note on our gate at the house. The very next day, we walked out of our house and they had written a note that said, "we are playing at the park at 5 pm. Come play with us" it was way cute.

So out in the Eisan of Thailand, or country side, most people have a water man who will come around and give jugs of water to them, and they have a machine that you just put the jug upside down on it and it gives you cold water. It's not too hard once you get used to it. We have to call the water man and switch out our jugs every 2ish weeks.

Okay, so for those of you who don't know about Thailand. It is time to learn about Songkran! This is the holiday for New Year here in Thailand. To make a long story short, it is a nation wide water party all day for three days where everyone is getting everyone as wet as possible. For three days straight, every hose in every hose in Thailand is running and people are filling up their buckets and water guns. There are numberless trucks packed full of people drenching every person who comes within 10 feet. There are some roads where the streets are packed like sardines full of people. People have a goo thing made up of baby powder, food coloring, and water called bang. Everyone will get bang and rub it all over your face and throw it on your clothes. Luckily, it all comes out of the clothes pretty easily. There was this one part where there was about 10 fire trucks lined up and they were completely drenching everyone with water. It was so much fun. Literally everyone in Thai land plays Song Gran these 3 days, so it is impossible to do missionary work. We get to play with some of the members instead and it was sooo fun.

This last week was one of the most crazy weeks of my entire mission. There was just so many things to worry about, but it also doubled as one of my most fun weeks of my mission. I love serving in Thailand so much! It is SO hot but it's all getting better every day! This was the last week before transfers. I do T know yet if I am moving or not, but I'm pretty sure I will stay since I have been here the least amount of time than anyone else serving here in Buriram. I will be able to say what will happen for transfers in one more day, but not yet!

Everyone have a great week!

-Elder Barron 

The rain......It's coming......

This is the professional soccer stadium in Buriram. Never got to see a game.

It is called Chang Arena, which mean "elephant arena."

I have no idea why the dogs are purple.

While doing service for a sister in our ward, I asked her if I could trim her bush into an elephant. She laughed so hard when she saw the finished product.

My letter

My Letter:

This week was a really great week! I can totally see the strides that I make in learning the language every single week. Being with a Thai companion is a lot of the reason that I learn so much. I think the hardest part for me right now is being able to extend my own vocabulary because as of now, I feel like I am could stop learning and be pretty fine for the rest of mission, but I don't want to settle for this. I want to continue getting better for at least the two full years I will be in Thailand.

I also love the opportunity we get every week to call our families. I feel like I have become a stronger missionary because of it. I have also received help from them in my missionary work. Especially from the three people who have served missions, my Dad, Mom, and my sister Quincey. I like hearing their different ideas on how I can be a better missionary and example of Jesus Christ to the people of Thailand.

Lately, we have realized that the most important think that we feel like the ward here in Buriram is missing is love. The members need to be one big family and support each other and any others who might come to church as well. So to fix this, we have been holding family home evenings where we will invite all of the members and just have fun talking and eating and then sharing a spiritual thought with them. I can already feel like the ward in changing for the better because of the love we can feel at church.

At one of these family home evenings, one of the members made a MOUNTAIN of meat which they called “waterfall pig”. I don't know if  I have mentioned this before, but ladies and gentlemen, THIS is THE most DELICIOUS food in the WORLD. I could eat it for the rest of my life and be happy. Anyways, this guy named Brother Tan made a heap of it and he said, "I bet you can't eat all of it." So obviously I had to try. I ate so much waterfall pig that I thought my stomach grew 3 sizes that day. All of the members that were there said my stomach is so big it is in my legs too. (Shout out to my dad who when he was my age got called long stomach by the Italian people on his mission) But, in the end, I couldn't eat it all. He did give me the rest to take home for my valiant efforts.

This last week, I got to visit Surin (my last area) for one day because we had district meeting there. I ran right up to the church and called for the dog that lives in the house behind the church and he came running to me like always and I pet him through the fence. It was a tender little moment between the two of us. Being there made me remember a ton of fun times that I had that and how much I loved it.

This past week I went to go visit an investigator named Bahn, and I brought my guitar to charge a spiritual thought with it, but when I got there, I realized one of the strings had broken off. I still used it for the spiritual thought, but I have no idea how to fix a guitar string. Bahn saw that it was broken and he said "I want to fix it for you. I can do it for very cheap like 50 baht, or you can take it to a guitar store and get it fixed for 300 baht." I was so thankful that he fixed it for me, it was way nice of him.

It has just been recently getting into the rainy season here in Thailand. Elder Body and I have gotten completely soaked for our first time when we were out riding our bikes to appointments this last week. I love getting soaked so much. It just makes everything more interesting. 

Ether 12:27 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.

(The Book of Mormon)

This is honestly my favorite scripture because this can be used in every part of life there is. Everyone has weaknesses. Excluding Jesus Christ, every single person who ever lived has made mistakes, including the members of the church. Jesus Christ never made a mistake. He was perfect. God knows us all perfectly. If you receive a personal witness that God is there, loves us, and wants us to be happy, that is something nobody can ever take from you. You cannot lie to yourself. It is impossible. Your mind knows when you are lying. I know that I have received a witness from God that this is the true church of Jesus Christ and that The Book of Mormon is a true book and through reading it, we will find answers to things we never thought would have an answer.

Thanks for everyone who is reading my emails! I love you all! Shout out to one of my basketball coachs, Coach Mackey. Piper says you still read them!  

Everyone have a great week!

-Elder Barron 

Cow Gra Doang!

 Elder Body and I

 Some friends that went to 

Cow Gra Doang with us.

 View from the top!

 Guys! This kid has a U of Arkansas hogs shirt on!!! He had no idea what it was but it made me happy!

 We have these vests that we wear in the rain so our shirts don't get stained while riding our bikes.

 A Buddhist Temple being built.

 People place food and drinks 

for the Buddhist Gods.

 I received this after chasing my ball into the woods. You can read about it in my letter.

 Teaching a class.

My Letter Home:

Last week on P-day was so much fun! We got to go to this one place called Cow Gra Doang. I had no idea what to expect when I was going to this place because nobody had described it to me yet. When I get there all I see is a massive staircase going up a mountain. It was like I was in Kung Fu Panda! When I got there, I tried to run up the stairs as fast as possible, and I got about half way up running, but by the time I got to the top, I almost died. It was so much taller than it looked from the bottom. The view from the top was way beautiful too. It was a perfectly cloudy day and the sun shining through the clouds was so cool. I brought a volleyball up the stairs too and tried to let it roll all the way down the stairs, and after it got about 1/3 of the way down, it was bouncing like crazy and hit a side rail and went way off into the woods. I had to go get it, so that was fun. There was a giant Buddha at the top of the mountain with was pretty cool too.

We have been focusing a lot with working with members. President Hammond told us that he wants us to "take the members on the journey of missionary work with us." I love that because if the members can feel the joy that we feel in the missionary work and then they will want to do it more with us. Our results will then be multiplied.

We found a new investigator this week named Teen. So we were just riding our bikes down a small street and Elder Body and I see a guy lying in a hammock on his phone. We go to the other side of the street to have a talk with him and he stands up when he sees us coming. I see his shirt and it blows my mind because this guy was wearing an Arkansas Razorback T-shirt!!!! Woooooo Pig Sooie! Teen had no idea what the shirt was even for, but somehow, this shirt traveled the ocean to Thailand and ended up in the hands of Teen, which gave me incentive to talk to him and now he has an opportunity to learn about Jesus! Talk about miracles!

There was a 18 year old kid we met this week who is a member, but he hasn't been to church in a super long time. Within the last 4 months, he got in a super bad motorcycle accident. Like really bad. His friend on the motorcycle died, and he couldn't walk or speak for a couple of months. When we visited him, he was able to walk and talk to us which was amazing. While I was talking with him, I got reminded about a ton of people in my life. Just a lot of people who have or are currently going through a lot of painful trials. This reminded me of how thankful I am for Jesus Christ and the resurrection. After this life, every single person who ever lived on this earth will be reunited with their bodies, so that they might be perfect as God is. We will get to see every person who has passed away in our lives including family and friends.

Everyone have a great week! 

-Elder Barron 

Bringing The World His Truth

Elder Body is one of my best friends.

English class.

 This place is called Cow Gra Doang, it made me feel like kung fu panda a little bit.

 Roi Et Zone-our awesome zone conference.

My Letter:

This last week has been totally great. I am having a good time with Elder Body my companion. 

Lately our Tuesdays have been pack full of things to do. We always have a district meeting at the beginning of Tuesday. District meetings are fun because it is a good way to kind of reset the week and get focused on missionary work again. It can get difficult to focus on work sometimes when we do it every day non stop, but when we can have district meeting with other missionaries, we get a spiritual boost to work for the next week again.

We had zone conference this past week too. (Another very good spiritual boost.) While we were about to leave to zone conference, we were late for the bus, but the other 2 elders in Buriram did make the bus. They called us and said, "YOU GUYS GOTTA GO! THE BUS JUST LEFT!" So we peeled out on our bikes and caught up to the bus while the other elders were asking them to stop the bus and wait for us. It was intense!

The focus of this zone conference was how everyone individually needs to know God better. This topic is very important because every single piece of truth in the gospel comes back to God and the fact that we are all children of God. One of my favorite things President Hammond told us is that the single most important fact that anyone will ever learn is that they, and everyone else, is a child of God. If this wasn't true, nothing else would be true. That makes me ask the question "If God knows me perfectly, how well do I know God?" We can all always get to know God more through prayer, reading the scriptures, and going to church.

Lately, Elder Body and I have 3 investigators who we feel like are progressing.

Their names are Bao, Alice, and Bahn.

Bao, is a guy who has learned a very long time ago with the missionaries, but dropped off. My first week here in Buriram, he just came up to us and said, I would like to start) learning again. Right now, he is doing very well, and it seems like he is making very good friends with the other members here in Buriram.

Alice, a young girl who comes to church every week with her grandmother. She is a very happy girl. I think she will get baptized fairly soon.

Bahn, we met him for the first time at his work, and just started talking to him. He has a wife and is the father of five children. Five children is unheard of here in Thailand. He is a very nice guy and he seems to like our message about families.

This area is doing pretty well as of now. We spend most of our time out on the streets of Thailand talking to everyone we can to teach them about their relationship with God and how it can help their life. It is absolutely the most fulfilling thing that I have done in my life and I have grown to be a better person because of it. There is nothing else that I would rather be doing right now.

Everyone have a great week! I love hearing from others and I thank you for reading my emails.

-Elder Barron