serving in the land of smiles: “15 Never Comes, Seeeeester! She Never Comes!”

I'll explain the title of this email in a minute.

BABY TIGER

Ok fam. So first thing’s first.

ANIMAL WATCH

So this week was pretty major for the Animal Watch. On Monday we went to Samuprakarn Crocodile Farm and Zoo. I thought it was just going to be the world’s largest crocodile farm (which it was). But what I failed to realize is that it would ALSO be a zoo. Of other animals. Meaning I...

HELD A BABY CHIMP

HELD A BABY TIGER

FED A CROCODILE A NASTY FISH HEAD

and

RODE AN ELEPHANT FOR THE FIRST TIME AFTER WATCHING IT DANCE TO GANGAM STYLE.

So there you have it for Animal Watch. It was pretty great.

Now for the rest of the week!

This week was good, we spent a loooot of time working with the members here in the Saphaan Suung WARD. That’s right. On Sunday my crazy little branch was made into a WARD. It was such a good moment :)

On Wednesday, we decided to call Sister Bun, who has been sick for a while. We love her and help her a ton with Primary. So we called her to see how she was doing. She was thankfully feeling better. At the end of the call, I asked her if she needed help with anything and she said YES! That is music to a missionary’s ears. So we put on our grubbies and went to help her clean her mom’s house. It was such a crazy time. Sister Weed cleaned out the bathroom...the brave soul...and I cleaned the bedroom / living room area. It was quite the adventure sorting through all kinds of weird, half-used Thai medicines and such. Oh and it was so hot. We were so sweaty. At one point, I went to the sink to rinse out my rag and I looked at myself in the mirror. I was covered in sweat, literally everywhere, and lots of dust and dirt. And grime. And Bun’s mother was yelling in the background and Cartoon Network was on loud (translated into Thai) and it was such a crazy moment. And I saw myself and thought, “Hey. I'm a missionary. For reals.” And I couldn’t help but smile. Because this is the best kind of stuff in the world.

This week I also learned how to play ping pong from Pa Gua. Oh, that was quite the time. You see, we were at the church waiting for an appointment, and he and Pa Samran were there, as well, playing ping pong as usual. Elder Barfuss and Elder Angkham showed up, too, and soon everyone was playing ping-pong. Pa Gua asked me if I was going to play and I told him I would, but I wasn’t good. That was when he announced, “I will train you. This is how the national team trains, Seester.” So then we proceeded to play back and forth until I could hit the ball 10 times in a row. And then he wanted me to get to 15, which proved near impossible. He then made Elder Barfuss train me because Pa lost his patience with my lack of skills. Haha. So then pooooooor Elder Barfuss had to practice with me until I could get 15 hits in a row. Oh, that boy was so patient with me. haha. It took almost 30 minutes, but I finally made it. Pa was laughing the whole time and kept yelling in English, “15 never comes Seeester, she never comes!” Oy. My life.

On Saturday we had Sports Day at the church. That was all kinds of fun. It was a big day because I am finally good enough at Thai to make jokes and the members now think I am funny because I am funny and not because I can't speak Thai. :) Sister Weed and I have also officially been hired to bake all treats for every branch I MEAN WARD activity, so that’s exciting. I made some traditional Utah jello cake, it was a big hit. No one in Thailand knew was it was. I told them to eat it and they would love it. They all looked at me skeptically. But they saw the light and they all wanted the recipe. Haha. Also, the best part of the day was seeing a group of old Thai men try and do yoga. So that was fun. We also met a member who lives in our area but goes to the international ward named Cecile. She is from France. She joined the church there in the 60s (I think? I can't quite remember) and knew the Book of Mormon was true after just 20 minutes of talking to the missionaries. She was willing to give up literally everything to join the church. She is so so good. She and her husband want to have us over for dinner soon. They have no children; she told us that she adopts all missionaries because they have no “mama” with them. She looked at me and very seriously told me in her French accent, “Tell your American mother that you now have a French mother, too.” Haha, oh, she was so good :)

Sunday was such a great day. SAPHAAN SUUNG IS NOW A WARD! It’s exciting. Everyone was so happy. We had so many people at church. Which means we had SO MUCH FOOD at church. Haha. We eat dinner all together after church every week so it was exciting to look in the kitchen and see all that food. Sister Tia, the woman with the two sweet little children we take pictures of, came to church this week. Out of nowhere. We weren't expecting her to come because when we saw her this week, her baby was sick and she was worried about bringing little Aom to church. But she told us yesterday, she prayed, and the baby was well enough to come to sacrament meeting. It was such a good thing. Also, I was sitting with them and my favorite thing in the whoooole entire world was when Sister Tia would call her daughter “Sister Oy.” Never have I ever smiled so big in my life.

Plus, this week was Beyonce’s birthday, so it was great. (Actually, it wasn’t. But Sister Weed’s brother is named Bryson and it was HIS birthday...but when I glanced at her planner, I thought it said Beyonce. I was like “Girl, you're obsessed!” Haha. So we fake celebrated by buying Pepsi cans with Beyonce’s face on them.)

Overall, it was such a good week. There is so much joy in serving people. I love it. And I love being a missionary. :)

I love you!!!

Sister Hungry