Monday, September 27, 2010
Night sky photos
K these are the coolest pictures ive ever seen! No touching up or modifying at all.. this is exactly what it looked like. Epic right? That night picutre was so cool.. that was last night on our bike ride home. its not the best quality because its a snapshot during a video.. but i was riding along this ride and it was EXACTLY like that scene from saving private ryan where they left the church during the night and they are walking on the hill and the explosions are going off in the background.. yeah.. remember? So cool. Just no sounds actually.
My House and steak for p-day dinner
picture of our house and where we ate last pday.. Sante Fe Steaks.. was actually super good. Tiny portions though right?
BEEYAH!
So i think you already figured out that fedex is not the way.. lawl. 45 bucks! Thanks for it though.. loved the treats and those archer farms fruit snacks... oh my gosh so good! Thanks for the hankerchiefs too.. 1 of them had to be washed already from all the black coming off of ma face! So yeah.. send em USPS from now.. or whatever regular is... is it USPS? What'er. Oh, by the way... since im in bangkok i have an easier time of getting them, but if i go up country, or even an 1 or two away from the office, i will be able to get them only every 6 weeks. Why? Cause at Moves meetings is when they distribute them.. they dont send them out through Thailand post. So, for now its still fine cause we can just go to the office in Pakkret which is like 30 minutes taxi ride. That massager is way nice actually.. i didnt really have a specific one in mind, just whenever we went into Brookstone there were always those epic ones haha. Sorry, i know thats SUPER specific. But im trying to stretch out my back more.. i know that its just getting into the work.. cause when was i standing up/sitting crappilly for 16 hours back home? Yeah.. oh well. its good.
K so lets get into some things... the Scripture of the Week: D&C 49: 23 - This is the "epistle" if you will to the Shakers community in Ohio (?) basically chastizing them about what they believe.. they rejected it of course. But i read it and was like.. well hang on.. : "Wherefore, be not deceived, but continue in steadfastness, looking forth for the heavens to be shaken..." HAH! get it? "Shaken?" Its to the Shaker's.. hahah i thought it was so funny. If you arent laughing im sorry.. its the correct response here.
The phrase of the week is a conversation between Crowley and me. We were talking about goals for this week on how many member lessons we were gonna get. He says, "how about 8? Thats like 1 a day."... "Yeah.. that 8th one for the 8th day in the week." HAHAHA.. ah how sweet the joy this sentence gives. It was all in good fun haha.
K so lets get right into things... last Monday was INSANE! We set up family home evening with some of our investigators and it was pretty much all set up but it started falling through at the last minute.. We went over to Bii's house and said, "hey you going over to Wisads house in about an hour?" "yeah yeah for sure." "okay we will meet you outside their neighborhood at 7." Sweet. So we headed over to Mod's house who lives right next to us who was also going to go to Wisads house... "hey you ready to go?" "Nah, i dont have a way to get over there.." "Uh... can you borrow a bike or something.. " "Noooo...." "How bout a taxi?" "No money." "we will pay for it." "Thats okay." Suck.. so we left.. i stopped and was like, "Elder Crowley, hes GOING to family home evening. Lets go flag down a motorcyle taxi, bring it to Mod and tell him to get on.. we did haha. He hopped on and we had him follow us over there.. by that time it was 7:20.. crap! Bii! He wasnt there. So we dropped Mod off and said we would be right back.. biked over to Bii and grabbed him and then biked back.. phew! It might has well have been raining with how wet i was. But it went well and we got them there for a nice experience. On top of the that, Phat, Daa, and their two kids went over to Wisaans house as well.. the whole family! Awesome. The next time we met with them the difference was pretty crazy.. their sons were always hesitant to leave their rooms to come see us, but when we came over they just ran out and got us chairs, invited us in and stuff... way cool. But Phat is a taxi driver so he doesnt have much time for anything, but he still made it. As of now, we are trying to get a baptismal date on them, but we shall see if we can. He hadnt been to Church yet, but his wife and one of his sons have... Saturday we invted them and the Dad said he couldnt, and the mom said that she needed to take care of her grandma, BUT she would send her sons.. awesome. We are at Church yesterday waiting, and we call her and she says, "yeah they are on their way already." Soon after they show up... WITH THEIR DAD! So cool. Then, an hour later, SHE SHOWS UP TOO! Hah@!@!*&@ Was sweet. We want to commit them to Baptism but i think he will have a hard time with keeping the sabbath day holy... he works all the time.
K who else.. oh theres a super nice couple named Dick and Nu... Dick is into it more then his wife, but they love having us over, and we sort of commited them to baptism on Saturday.. he started to say that he wanted to be ready first, but that he probably would... basically he was dodging giving us an answer, and Nu butted in and said, "this is what he does when i cant say yes OR no." HAHA.. oh Love.... sometimes you are so funny. Then we have Wud, who is a man from Laos, who technically we arent supposed to teach, but we may or may not have anyway... we hadnt seen him for 2 weeks and when we stopped by he was like..." My wife was asking me last night where the Elders went and i didnt know what to say! I thought, did i offend them somehow?" We were just like NO NO NO... we want to teach its just we really cant... but here we are anyway! Then he said that his wife had a dream about me... UHHHH.... SAY WHAT? Yeah dont ask me.. never even met her.. ive seen chicas in his house but i dont know which one is his wife! Anyway, hes trying to get a visa that isnt a tourist one, then we can teach him and baptize him. But on Saturday we were going over to teach Bii, who is doing really well, and who meets us on the way? Well for one, the member who was coming too, but with the member was Wud.. he was just happening to go over to Bii's house WITH a Book of Mormon in hand. So we taught both of them.. THE LAW OF CHASTITY... haha.. that was fun. Never taught it before but it was quite interesting... i heard thai words put together in a way where i was like... yeah, i know what that means hahah. Bii said he has no problems keeping it but Wud was super awk and was like.. yeah, i might have a problem.. oops. Oh well.. REPENT! Speaking of Bii, he is still set for Baptism not this sunday, but the following. He hasnt smoked in 10 days! Going strong still. You can see how much happier he is and how much more energy he has now that he has stopped. Every time we ask him how he feels about something he says he believes it.. we ask why.. cause i prayed and the holy ghost confirms it. BEEYAH! (By the way i got Crowley saying that now.. its even on our Missionary Action Planm which is our Moves goals.)
So yeah.. thats kinda all i got for now. We do have a new investigator as of last night.. so going into this lesson we said its going to be short.. lately we have been running late.. like really late in our lessons. We had a nice Zone teaching conference on Saturday to incorporate chapter 10's "How to Begin Teaching" in the first appointment. They are epic. Anyway, we decided to just do it and keep it as short as possible. We got in their, settled distractions, got people sitting down, and taught. They guy pretty much committed HIMSELF to baptism. We told him that Jesus can redeem his sins, and he was just like, "Okay, what do i have to do?" uhhh... kinda caught us off gaurd. THE STOCK ANSWERS!! And baptism. "Okay. I cant do it now cause i dont know everything but yea... can we meet more?" hah! It works! So we have like 3 appointments a week. Epic. We had another appointment yesterday with a family of 4, with 2 sons... holy crap that Dad never shut up... seriously... didnt let any of his family speak for themselves, even when we asked directly to someone else's face. Funniest part was when he started telling us about Buddhism and the 5 rules or whatever that they have.. 1 of them is not drinking beer or alcohol... "oh really? whats the bottle next to your foot?" What a turd of a hypocrite right? hahah i lawl'd at that... he was so arrogant and acting like he knew everything and didnt even think that he just hung himself with that statement. Oh well... he didnt really seem that interested anyway so we will probably drop him.
So in our contacting we are trying to mix it up more... Crowley is trying to be less "greeng jay" in his teaching and inviting.. greeng jay means nervous or scared to say something. For example... the Mission uses key indicators right? Number of lessons, number with a member, number of investigators, etc... well i have my own as well. You already know of one "are you a thai person?" Well i have more now hahah. These are: 1.) All religions teach everyone to be good. We are at 123 times said since i started counting. 2.) I dont have any time. 143 times. 3.) IM BUDDHIST. 147 times. So, we are taking these, and saying them right off the bat so they cant say them.. 1 because it annoys the crap out of me, 2 its effective. Its like, they have nothing to say after you take the words out of their mouths so they kind of have to listen and just shut up and then say, "yeah you can come back." Epic. Also, when asking for refferals from someone who is rejecting us.. "Do you know of anyone who is interested in being happy?" Cant really respond to that without bringing up what it implies.. "whoa whoa i said i was happy?" "oh really? i thought you just said you didnt want us to share our message of HAPPINESS with you?" Hahah.. its for fun.
Okay so what else this week... oh, i found out a nice word... Chua. It means evil. We use it when talking about the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.. so i didnt think much of it. A member was making fun of me cause i couldnt open a fruit, so i pointed and said evil at them.. trying to joke like Americans... DONT DO IT! Its basically cursing someone in english.. they got "nooy jayed" beyond belief. I sincerely apologized cause i didnt know it was bad and they have since forgave me, but it was crazy.
Right now im eating those Pirouette things.. remember those? Those wafer sticks with like chocolate inside? Yeah, except ive got apple, strawberry and orange too.. sick. So i had a question... what song were you and Aroc singing at the Nuckols Christmas part 2 years ago that was hilarious? Cant remember. Oh well. Mom i have a question.. if i were to say that my retainer feels kind of jank, what would we do? Just asking, in case it ever happens... not that its happening now.. just that IF IT WERE, what would we do? Like, maybe call Toolson or something? Yeah, it kind of hurts and it doesnt really fit.. not because my teeth are bad, but because i think the retainers shape got jacked up somehow. K anyway i gots to go for now.. sorry if i again didnt answer any questions... good to hear from you all.. thanks for the Email Kari :) Hope all of you dont freeze from the 92 degrees.. i know for me that would be just too cold. haha. sad. K well hope you all enjoy conference.. we watch it the following week at some gathering.. i think the stake center. Should be way good. its the Day of Bii and "blessing's" baptisms. Oh and Super man fed us again last night.. shes so funny... at English class theres one woman who... struggles... to pronounce english words.. her vocab is quite extensive actually, but she looks... well she looks really funny when she tries to pronounce things.. Super man is like the nicest woman ever and knows she shouldnt, but when this woman tries to speak, Super man just covers her face as she dies laughing.. so funny. The woman is a good sport and laughs too, but man.. i die at this. Hah! K well thats all for now.. give Chase a big hug for me and i want to see pics! Tell him he better not get hitched before i get home! I was just telling Crowley about our poker games and got a little trunky hahaha.. dont want his wife to steal him away from us! Love ya guys. Thanks for you letter josh.. hah! Not. Lazy bum. Love ya anyway. Bye now! Hope you like the pics! Thailands great, even if some of the people arent.. biggest thing i learned this week was the language of the Spirit.. most of the time i understand 10 percent of words coming out of the mouths of people but somehow i know exactly what we are talking about.. after we leave i ask Crowley what they said.. pretty much exactly what i thought.. thats the Spirit YO! Feels good. K peace for real!
Elder Gudmundsen
K so lets get into some things... the Scripture of the Week: D&C 49: 23 - This is the "epistle" if you will to the Shakers community in Ohio (?) basically chastizing them about what they believe.. they rejected it of course. But i read it and was like.. well hang on.. : "Wherefore, be not deceived, but continue in steadfastness, looking forth for the heavens to be shaken..." HAH! get it? "Shaken?" Its to the Shaker's.. hahah i thought it was so funny. If you arent laughing im sorry.. its the correct response here.
The phrase of the week is a conversation between Crowley and me. We were talking about goals for this week on how many member lessons we were gonna get. He says, "how about 8? Thats like 1 a day."... "Yeah.. that 8th one for the 8th day in the week." HAHAHA.. ah how sweet the joy this sentence gives. It was all in good fun haha.
K so lets get right into things... last Monday was INSANE! We set up family home evening with some of our investigators and it was pretty much all set up but it started falling through at the last minute.. We went over to Bii's house and said, "hey you going over to Wisads house in about an hour?" "yeah yeah for sure." "okay we will meet you outside their neighborhood at 7." Sweet. So we headed over to Mod's house who lives right next to us who was also going to go to Wisads house... "hey you ready to go?" "Nah, i dont have a way to get over there.." "Uh... can you borrow a bike or something.. " "Noooo...." "How bout a taxi?" "No money." "we will pay for it." "Thats okay." Suck.. so we left.. i stopped and was like, "Elder Crowley, hes GOING to family home evening. Lets go flag down a motorcyle taxi, bring it to Mod and tell him to get on.. we did haha. He hopped on and we had him follow us over there.. by that time it was 7:20.. crap! Bii! He wasnt there. So we dropped Mod off and said we would be right back.. biked over to Bii and grabbed him and then biked back.. phew! It might has well have been raining with how wet i was. But it went well and we got them there for a nice experience. On top of the that, Phat, Daa, and their two kids went over to Wisaans house as well.. the whole family! Awesome. The next time we met with them the difference was pretty crazy.. their sons were always hesitant to leave their rooms to come see us, but when we came over they just ran out and got us chairs, invited us in and stuff... way cool. But Phat is a taxi driver so he doesnt have much time for anything, but he still made it. As of now, we are trying to get a baptismal date on them, but we shall see if we can. He hadnt been to Church yet, but his wife and one of his sons have... Saturday we invted them and the Dad said he couldnt, and the mom said that she needed to take care of her grandma, BUT she would send her sons.. awesome. We are at Church yesterday waiting, and we call her and she says, "yeah they are on their way already." Soon after they show up... WITH THEIR DAD! So cool. Then, an hour later, SHE SHOWS UP TOO! Hah@!@!*&@ Was sweet. We want to commit them to Baptism but i think he will have a hard time with keeping the sabbath day holy... he works all the time.
K who else.. oh theres a super nice couple named Dick and Nu... Dick is into it more then his wife, but they love having us over, and we sort of commited them to baptism on Saturday.. he started to say that he wanted to be ready first, but that he probably would... basically he was dodging giving us an answer, and Nu butted in and said, "this is what he does when i cant say yes OR no." HAHA.. oh Love.... sometimes you are so funny. Then we have Wud, who is a man from Laos, who technically we arent supposed to teach, but we may or may not have anyway... we hadnt seen him for 2 weeks and when we stopped by he was like..." My wife was asking me last night where the Elders went and i didnt know what to say! I thought, did i offend them somehow?" We were just like NO NO NO... we want to teach its just we really cant... but here we are anyway! Then he said that his wife had a dream about me... UHHHH.... SAY WHAT? Yeah dont ask me.. never even met her.. ive seen chicas in his house but i dont know which one is his wife! Anyway, hes trying to get a visa that isnt a tourist one, then we can teach him and baptize him. But on Saturday we were going over to teach Bii, who is doing really well, and who meets us on the way? Well for one, the member who was coming too, but with the member was Wud.. he was just happening to go over to Bii's house WITH a Book of Mormon in hand. So we taught both of them.. THE LAW OF CHASTITY... haha.. that was fun. Never taught it before but it was quite interesting... i heard thai words put together in a way where i was like... yeah, i know what that means hahah. Bii said he has no problems keeping it but Wud was super awk and was like.. yeah, i might have a problem.. oops. Oh well.. REPENT! Speaking of Bii, he is still set for Baptism not this sunday, but the following. He hasnt smoked in 10 days! Going strong still. You can see how much happier he is and how much more energy he has now that he has stopped. Every time we ask him how he feels about something he says he believes it.. we ask why.. cause i prayed and the holy ghost confirms it. BEEYAH! (By the way i got Crowley saying that now.. its even on our Missionary Action Planm which is our Moves goals.)
So yeah.. thats kinda all i got for now. We do have a new investigator as of last night.. so going into this lesson we said its going to be short.. lately we have been running late.. like really late in our lessons. We had a nice Zone teaching conference on Saturday to incorporate chapter 10's "How to Begin Teaching" in the first appointment. They are epic. Anyway, we decided to just do it and keep it as short as possible. We got in their, settled distractions, got people sitting down, and taught. They guy pretty much committed HIMSELF to baptism. We told him that Jesus can redeem his sins, and he was just like, "Okay, what do i have to do?" uhhh... kinda caught us off gaurd. THE STOCK ANSWERS!! And baptism. "Okay. I cant do it now cause i dont know everything but yea... can we meet more?" hah! It works! So we have like 3 appointments a week. Epic. We had another appointment yesterday with a family of 4, with 2 sons... holy crap that Dad never shut up... seriously... didnt let any of his family speak for themselves, even when we asked directly to someone else's face. Funniest part was when he started telling us about Buddhism and the 5 rules or whatever that they have.. 1 of them is not drinking beer or alcohol... "oh really? whats the bottle next to your foot?" What a turd of a hypocrite right? hahah i lawl'd at that... he was so arrogant and acting like he knew everything and didnt even think that he just hung himself with that statement. Oh well... he didnt really seem that interested anyway so we will probably drop him.
So in our contacting we are trying to mix it up more... Crowley is trying to be less "greeng jay" in his teaching and inviting.. greeng jay means nervous or scared to say something. For example... the Mission uses key indicators right? Number of lessons, number with a member, number of investigators, etc... well i have my own as well. You already know of one "are you a thai person?" Well i have more now hahah. These are: 1.) All religions teach everyone to be good. We are at 123 times said since i started counting. 2.) I dont have any time. 143 times. 3.) IM BUDDHIST. 147 times. So, we are taking these, and saying them right off the bat so they cant say them.. 1 because it annoys the crap out of me, 2 its effective. Its like, they have nothing to say after you take the words out of their mouths so they kind of have to listen and just shut up and then say, "yeah you can come back." Epic. Also, when asking for refferals from someone who is rejecting us.. "Do you know of anyone who is interested in being happy?" Cant really respond to that without bringing up what it implies.. "whoa whoa i said i was happy?" "oh really? i thought you just said you didnt want us to share our message of HAPPINESS with you?" Hahah.. its for fun.
Okay so what else this week... oh, i found out a nice word... Chua. It means evil. We use it when talking about the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.. so i didnt think much of it. A member was making fun of me cause i couldnt open a fruit, so i pointed and said evil at them.. trying to joke like Americans... DONT DO IT! Its basically cursing someone in english.. they got "nooy jayed" beyond belief. I sincerely apologized cause i didnt know it was bad and they have since forgave me, but it was crazy.
Right now im eating those Pirouette things.. remember those? Those wafer sticks with like chocolate inside? Yeah, except ive got apple, strawberry and orange too.. sick. So i had a question... what song were you and Aroc singing at the Nuckols Christmas part 2 years ago that was hilarious? Cant remember. Oh well. Mom i have a question.. if i were to say that my retainer feels kind of jank, what would we do? Just asking, in case it ever happens... not that its happening now.. just that IF IT WERE, what would we do? Like, maybe call Toolson or something? Yeah, it kind of hurts and it doesnt really fit.. not because my teeth are bad, but because i think the retainers shape got jacked up somehow. K anyway i gots to go for now.. sorry if i again didnt answer any questions... good to hear from you all.. thanks for the Email Kari :) Hope all of you dont freeze from the 92 degrees.. i know for me that would be just too cold. haha. sad. K well hope you all enjoy conference.. we watch it the following week at some gathering.. i think the stake center. Should be way good. its the Day of Bii and "blessing's" baptisms. Oh and Super man fed us again last night.. shes so funny... at English class theres one woman who... struggles... to pronounce english words.. her vocab is quite extensive actually, but she looks... well she looks really funny when she tries to pronounce things.. Super man is like the nicest woman ever and knows she shouldnt, but when this woman tries to speak, Super man just covers her face as she dies laughing.. so funny. The woman is a good sport and laughs too, but man.. i die at this. Hah! K well thats all for now.. give Chase a big hug for me and i want to see pics! Tell him he better not get hitched before i get home! I was just telling Crowley about our poker games and got a little trunky hahaha.. dont want his wife to steal him away from us! Love ya guys. Thanks for you letter josh.. hah! Not. Lazy bum. Love ya anyway. Bye now! Hope you like the pics! Thailands great, even if some of the people arent.. biggest thing i learned this week was the language of the Spirit.. most of the time i understand 10 percent of words coming out of the mouths of people but somehow i know exactly what we are talking about.. after we leave i ask Crowley what they said.. pretty much exactly what i thought.. thats the Spirit YO! Feels good. K peace for real!
Elder Gudmundsen
Monday, September 20, 2010
More!
this is like the most famous WAD (temple) because its so old and the architechture is the only one remaining in thailand. Cool huh?
WHAT THE....
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING JOSH!!?? TAKE MY SHOES OFF! What's mine is not yours just because im on a mission you little thief! Also... kinda random with Disneyland? looked like a lot of fun though.
Ok with that aside... hello thur! This week was pretty fun.. kind of interesting but went by pretty quick. Scripture of the Week: Alma 31:36 - Hope i havent shared this one yet, but basically... we have a clap-on ability! You know what im talking about right? Like, Bruce Almighty when he claps on the lights? Yeah, well in this verse, "he claps his hands and the spirit" does work hah! Awesome. Its kinda true though... essentially when we want to use the Spirit we can cause we have the gift of Him.. so by clap on, just start doing the right things! The phrase of the week.. is just so awesome. You know our phrase, "last one there is a rotten egg?" Well the teenagers here have a nice "last one" phrase: "last one gets a hot girlfriend..." HAH! Im gonna be the last on at everything!.... when i get back of course. Sweet huh?
Okay so what went down this week... well i finally found some sweet fruit smoothies.. and when i say fruit smoothies i literally mean fruit.. i watched her cut open a pineapple and put in the blender, then get watermelon and the do the same thing. Delicious (aroy). So Josh, not only is every kid playing dota again in this cafe, theres a chick too! Last week after i got off the computer, i was lurking some kid playing mirana and i was like, "dude shoot the arrow! you coulda killed him!" hahaha.. Elder Chaiyawat pulled me away :) Then, on Saturday we were in the park and Elder Crowley saw 2 dudes a little ways off who he already knows, so we went to say hi... super chill kids. They are kind of interested but they are going off to army camp soon, so i dont know if we will be able to do anything with them. Anyway, one of them, นืง, (number 1) was telling us, "you know, its weird.. it just seems like every thai kid and teenager now does nothing but play video games all day.. no ambition." For one thing, how mature is that? He spoke like he was like 30 or something but hes only 20. But then he friend started laughing cause hes one of the kids hahaha... he asked us if we played computer games.. hahah now THAT i understood in thai. He asked if i played dota.. HAHAHA. Oh boy that made me laugh... but dont worry, i said on i mission i cant play cause i dont have time cause theres work to be done.. he was like, "aw man i was gonna ask you to come play with us." Bummer, haha. Another day.
Everybody will like this.. ever wanted a seat AND a toilet? Yeah, i saw a commercial for one hahaha! No joke.. its like a leather seat that can lift up to reveal a toilet seat! Josh... Idiocracy? Yeah.. its totally happening! I thought that was hysterical. I want one.
Mom and Dad, i am surprised by your response... you think the city looks beautiful? hahaha i guess i should take more close up.. this place is disgusting hahaha! Don Muang especially.. so ghetto! For example, we watched a owner taking his dog for a walk... when we walked up to contact him, the dog was already peeing... we contacted him for 3 and a half minutes while the dog continued to pee.. yeah.. disgusting. But like i said last week.. its beautiful in a very strange way. Speaking of Don Muang though.. the members here? Kind of a big deal. President Wisid for example is a member of the presdidency.. he was also the first stake president of Thailand. Epic. His fellow counselor, President Wisan, oversees the Thailand service center, and was Wisid's first counselor in that same Stake Presidency. Our good friend Brother Thawid, works at the Mission office so everyone knows him. Brother Bithupon trained pretty much all the Thai Elders that i know when he was a missionary here. Mom and Dad you will both be happy to hear that Wisid and his wife "Super man" take good care of us.. every time we come over, which is quite often, she has a different home made fruit juice for us that are DELICIOUS! Saturday afternoon Wisid invited us over for lunch and we had some sweet curry. Love it! By the way, shes called super man cause her name in Thai sounds pretty much exactly like it. So when she first introduced herself to me, thats how she clarified its pronunciation.
Ok so how bout some investigators eh? So we only have 1 baptismal dater.. Brother Bii. Hes doing well.. accpeting everything, believes everything, and is trying to get the knowledge for himself. His biggest problem is smoking... he cant kick it yet. We will call him today to check up, but he didnt smoke yesterday, but he smoked HALF of one on Saturday... how? Dunno. Anyway, last tuesday we met with him and asked if he smoked... he said twice.. after the lesson i told Crowley to tell him, cause i didnt know how to, that we were taking his cigarettes and throwing them away. Elder Crowley's face was like.. terrified. "What?! Why?..." "What do you mean why.. so he cant smoke. Tell him were helping him..." "Ive never done that before!" "Well, now is the time to start." HAHAH. He asked Brother Bii to throw them away, very weakly... it was so funny cause Elder Crowley was shook up for the next hour for whatever reason.. i thought it was so funny. So anyway Bii is doing well.. he should be baptized on the 10th of October. Yesterday we had a sweet turn out at Church.. only 4 went, but it was still better than last week. We had the wife of an investigator, who came into the discussions late, go to church WITHOUT her husband who was the intial contact we had with the family. She also brought her son, and i think they had a really good experience. Now we got to get the OTHER son and the husband up to speed with them too. We had a guy named "mod" as well go to Church... we met with him on Saturday when we committed him to go, and its a good thing we had President Wisan with us.. we started explaining Adam and Eve (which i always hate explaining by the way) and he was just totally lost.. President Wisan just came in and started dhiarreaing (i know its not spelled right.. shut up!) off so many words, so fast.. i couldnt keep up. But it cleared it up for "mod" and he was like.. "when the Missionaries come back can you too?" Face palm... we suck! Whatever.. thats members are for. what else.. we had a lesson with a family and it was pretty standard first lesson... at the end we had the mother pray, and in it, all she said was, "cause my kids to be grateful for me.. amen." HAHAH. So weird. But hey.. she did pray right? I cant actually remember who else we taught.. oh theres Nat and Juy, who i told you about last week... hes blind and doesnt want to be a burden at church? Yeah, met with them yesterday... still kinda reluctant. But we asked if they could go to family home evening at wisids house tonight, so lets hope for that one. All in all... things were kinda slow this past week. We did a lot of inviting.. which was kind of discouraging.. especially cause i tried with this one old guy who told me to stop talking cause, "ใม่ ช้าด (may chaad - doesnt speak clearly). Yeah.. what a jerk right? Was kind of in a bad mood after that. I think my favorite experience of the week was the park that i mentioned earlier... where i met those 2 kids going to army camp? Before them, we had been making some calls to see who we had going to Church.. after a little while we started walking over to the bathroom and saw a man sitting by himself reading.. we walked over and after barely saying hello, he scootched over and had us sit down. He started listening.. we told him we wanted to come to his house on another day and share a brief message.. he said why not now? Sweet. Said an opening prayer and taught him the first lesson. He liked it. Said it sounded true and he believed it... also he likes reading so we gave him a BoM. He said the closing prayer and it was very heartfelt and truthful.. he asked for help in his police advancement test that he would have taken yesterday (today for you.. Sunday) and i felt the spirit at least.. so hopefully we can return and talk to him. He also asked us about our families and if you were in thailand with us.. told him all about missions. He didnt ask IF we got paid.. he just asked "how much." His face was very surprised in the response that WE pay it. Kinda cool. Hope he works out. Sooo... all in all things are going well. It was pretty cool this week.. not cool as in amazing, but cool temperature.. except today.. its blazing hot.
What else.. oh! We had the Asia Area president, Elder Perkins, come for a mission tour. Way good.. he is a SCRIPTORIAN! Pulled out like 5 scripture references in like 30 seconds. Also got to see Sister Itow and got to ask her how many times shes cried so far haha.. just once. Proud. Elder Perkins told us a funny story about explaining things to new converts or progressing investirgators.. like this one investigator when he was in Canada. He told him that they were having a Fireside at the church on a sunday evening.. the investigator was going to speak and share his testimony (recent convert this one) and when Elder Perkins showed up, the investigator was dressed up in a full parka and warm clothes cause he thought it was going to be BY THE FIRE. Lolollooolawls! Gave us some good advice aoub tasking questions... "This dispensation STARTED with a simple question. When we ask questions we tell the Spirit we are inviting him in to give us personal revelation. At every conference or devotional or whatever, have specific questions in mind, and almost all the time, you can get your answer during the meeting." Pretty cool huh? Tested it because he said, "right now, come up with 2 questions you want answered today and i garuntee at least 1 will be." Yeah, 1 was. Way cool. On thursday there were 8 thai elders about to go to the Phillipines MTC but apparently they had to come first to an area. So we got one of them and he was way nice. Spoke a little english so he could help me every now and then. Also, was funny to see how nervous HE even was during contacting, even though he can speak Thai. Kinda funny. Only had him for a day, but it was nice.
Okay well i think this is all for today... oh! Brother Thawid.. hilarious dude... had a funny comparison.. he said that "i imagine the difference between you, Elder Gudmundsen, and you, Elder Crowley, back home off of your missions, and they are very different." Lets just say.. it was pretty accurate.. hahah! And pretty much Elder Crowley got slammed! I enjoyed it hahaha. by the way did I mention he is a Ginger? I know right?! What are the odds! Hes come to the conclusion, and accepted it pretty well, that he doesnt have a soul.. but its okay.. we're working through it :)
Also, Elder Crowley thinks these 2 things: 1.) When i was younger i wasnt like other kids and i was always more interested in what clouds were, or what bark was made of.. he hasnt seen Zoolander hahah! So i let him keep believing. 2.) That I am like Mel Gibson from South Park... Josh, you know what im talking about.. ill leave it at that hahah... So one last thing.. I want to write Melissa Martutartus.. can you facebook her and ask for her address? Please and thank you!
K ill send some more pictures! We went to a temple last week and at was way cool. Love you all! Thanks for your support! Staley and Cade! Congratulations! Thats insane! Both of you within a month!? Yeah.. wow. Thanks for the email Kathy.. really enjoyed reading from you.. ill write an ACTUAL letter soon enough! Mom, my back is still hurting.. cant put a bar in the house cause its wood and we have termites.. were afraid if we put one up, the house will fall down. See what you can do. K gotta run! Once again, love you all and you are always in my prayers!
Love, Elder Gudmundsen
Ok with that aside... hello thur! This week was pretty fun.. kind of interesting but went by pretty quick. Scripture of the Week: Alma 31:36 - Hope i havent shared this one yet, but basically... we have a clap-on ability! You know what im talking about right? Like, Bruce Almighty when he claps on the lights? Yeah, well in this verse, "he claps his hands and the spirit" does work hah! Awesome. Its kinda true though... essentially when we want to use the Spirit we can cause we have the gift of Him.. so by clap on, just start doing the right things! The phrase of the week.. is just so awesome. You know our phrase, "last one there is a rotten egg?" Well the teenagers here have a nice "last one" phrase: "last one gets a hot girlfriend..." HAH! Im gonna be the last on at everything!.... when i get back of course. Sweet huh?
Okay so what went down this week... well i finally found some sweet fruit smoothies.. and when i say fruit smoothies i literally mean fruit.. i watched her cut open a pineapple and put in the blender, then get watermelon and the do the same thing. Delicious (aroy). So Josh, not only is every kid playing dota again in this cafe, theres a chick too! Last week after i got off the computer, i was lurking some kid playing mirana and i was like, "dude shoot the arrow! you coulda killed him!" hahaha.. Elder Chaiyawat pulled me away :) Then, on Saturday we were in the park and Elder Crowley saw 2 dudes a little ways off who he already knows, so we went to say hi... super chill kids. They are kind of interested but they are going off to army camp soon, so i dont know if we will be able to do anything with them. Anyway, one of them, นืง, (number 1) was telling us, "you know, its weird.. it just seems like every thai kid and teenager now does nothing but play video games all day.. no ambition." For one thing, how mature is that? He spoke like he was like 30 or something but hes only 20. But then he friend started laughing cause hes one of the kids hahaha... he asked us if we played computer games.. hahah now THAT i understood in thai. He asked if i played dota.. HAHAHA. Oh boy that made me laugh... but dont worry, i said on i mission i cant play cause i dont have time cause theres work to be done.. he was like, "aw man i was gonna ask you to come play with us." Bummer, haha. Another day.
Everybody will like this.. ever wanted a seat AND a toilet? Yeah, i saw a commercial for one hahaha! No joke.. its like a leather seat that can lift up to reveal a toilet seat! Josh... Idiocracy? Yeah.. its totally happening! I thought that was hysterical. I want one.
Mom and Dad, i am surprised by your response... you think the city looks beautiful? hahaha i guess i should take more close up.. this place is disgusting hahaha! Don Muang especially.. so ghetto! For example, we watched a owner taking his dog for a walk... when we walked up to contact him, the dog was already peeing... we contacted him for 3 and a half minutes while the dog continued to pee.. yeah.. disgusting. But like i said last week.. its beautiful in a very strange way. Speaking of Don Muang though.. the members here? Kind of a big deal. President Wisid for example is a member of the presdidency.. he was also the first stake president of Thailand. Epic. His fellow counselor, President Wisan, oversees the Thailand service center, and was Wisid's first counselor in that same Stake Presidency. Our good friend Brother Thawid, works at the Mission office so everyone knows him. Brother Bithupon trained pretty much all the Thai Elders that i know when he was a missionary here. Mom and Dad you will both be happy to hear that Wisid and his wife "Super man" take good care of us.. every time we come over, which is quite often, she has a different home made fruit juice for us that are DELICIOUS! Saturday afternoon Wisid invited us over for lunch and we had some sweet curry. Love it! By the way, shes called super man cause her name in Thai sounds pretty much exactly like it. So when she first introduced herself to me, thats how she clarified its pronunciation.
Ok so how bout some investigators eh? So we only have 1 baptismal dater.. Brother Bii. Hes doing well.. accpeting everything, believes everything, and is trying to get the knowledge for himself. His biggest problem is smoking... he cant kick it yet. We will call him today to check up, but he didnt smoke yesterday, but he smoked HALF of one on Saturday... how? Dunno. Anyway, last tuesday we met with him and asked if he smoked... he said twice.. after the lesson i told Crowley to tell him, cause i didnt know how to, that we were taking his cigarettes and throwing them away. Elder Crowley's face was like.. terrified. "What?! Why?..." "What do you mean why.. so he cant smoke. Tell him were helping him..." "Ive never done that before!" "Well, now is the time to start." HAHAH. He asked Brother Bii to throw them away, very weakly... it was so funny cause Elder Crowley was shook up for the next hour for whatever reason.. i thought it was so funny. So anyway Bii is doing well.. he should be baptized on the 10th of October. Yesterday we had a sweet turn out at Church.. only 4 went, but it was still better than last week. We had the wife of an investigator, who came into the discussions late, go to church WITHOUT her husband who was the intial contact we had with the family. She also brought her son, and i think they had a really good experience. Now we got to get the OTHER son and the husband up to speed with them too. We had a guy named "mod" as well go to Church... we met with him on Saturday when we committed him to go, and its a good thing we had President Wisan with us.. we started explaining Adam and Eve (which i always hate explaining by the way) and he was just totally lost.. President Wisan just came in and started dhiarreaing (i know its not spelled right.. shut up!) off so many words, so fast.. i couldnt keep up. But it cleared it up for "mod" and he was like.. "when the Missionaries come back can you too?" Face palm... we suck! Whatever.. thats members are for. what else.. we had a lesson with a family and it was pretty standard first lesson... at the end we had the mother pray, and in it, all she said was, "cause my kids to be grateful for me.. amen." HAHAH. So weird. But hey.. she did pray right? I cant actually remember who else we taught.. oh theres Nat and Juy, who i told you about last week... hes blind and doesnt want to be a burden at church? Yeah, met with them yesterday... still kinda reluctant. But we asked if they could go to family home evening at wisids house tonight, so lets hope for that one. All in all... things were kinda slow this past week. We did a lot of inviting.. which was kind of discouraging.. especially cause i tried with this one old guy who told me to stop talking cause, "ใม่ ช้าด (may chaad - doesnt speak clearly). Yeah.. what a jerk right? Was kind of in a bad mood after that. I think my favorite experience of the week was the park that i mentioned earlier... where i met those 2 kids going to army camp? Before them, we had been making some calls to see who we had going to Church.. after a little while we started walking over to the bathroom and saw a man sitting by himself reading.. we walked over and after barely saying hello, he scootched over and had us sit down. He started listening.. we told him we wanted to come to his house on another day and share a brief message.. he said why not now? Sweet. Said an opening prayer and taught him the first lesson. He liked it. Said it sounded true and he believed it... also he likes reading so we gave him a BoM. He said the closing prayer and it was very heartfelt and truthful.. he asked for help in his police advancement test that he would have taken yesterday (today for you.. Sunday) and i felt the spirit at least.. so hopefully we can return and talk to him. He also asked us about our families and if you were in thailand with us.. told him all about missions. He didnt ask IF we got paid.. he just asked "how much." His face was very surprised in the response that WE pay it. Kinda cool. Hope he works out. Sooo... all in all things are going well. It was pretty cool this week.. not cool as in amazing, but cool temperature.. except today.. its blazing hot.
What else.. oh! We had the Asia Area president, Elder Perkins, come for a mission tour. Way good.. he is a SCRIPTORIAN! Pulled out like 5 scripture references in like 30 seconds. Also got to see Sister Itow and got to ask her how many times shes cried so far haha.. just once. Proud. Elder Perkins told us a funny story about explaining things to new converts or progressing investirgators.. like this one investigator when he was in Canada. He told him that they were having a Fireside at the church on a sunday evening.. the investigator was going to speak and share his testimony (recent convert this one) and when Elder Perkins showed up, the investigator was dressed up in a full parka and warm clothes cause he thought it was going to be BY THE FIRE. Lolollooolawls! Gave us some good advice aoub tasking questions... "This dispensation STARTED with a simple question. When we ask questions we tell the Spirit we are inviting him in to give us personal revelation. At every conference or devotional or whatever, have specific questions in mind, and almost all the time, you can get your answer during the meeting." Pretty cool huh? Tested it because he said, "right now, come up with 2 questions you want answered today and i garuntee at least 1 will be." Yeah, 1 was. Way cool. On thursday there were 8 thai elders about to go to the Phillipines MTC but apparently they had to come first to an area. So we got one of them and he was way nice. Spoke a little english so he could help me every now and then. Also, was funny to see how nervous HE even was during contacting, even though he can speak Thai. Kinda funny. Only had him for a day, but it was nice.
Okay well i think this is all for today... oh! Brother Thawid.. hilarious dude... had a funny comparison.. he said that "i imagine the difference between you, Elder Gudmundsen, and you, Elder Crowley, back home off of your missions, and they are very different." Lets just say.. it was pretty accurate.. hahah! And pretty much Elder Crowley got slammed! I enjoyed it hahaha. by the way did I mention he is a Ginger? I know right?! What are the odds! Hes come to the conclusion, and accepted it pretty well, that he doesnt have a soul.. but its okay.. we're working through it :)
Also, Elder Crowley thinks these 2 things: 1.) When i was younger i wasnt like other kids and i was always more interested in what clouds were, or what bark was made of.. he hasnt seen Zoolander hahah! So i let him keep believing. 2.) That I am like Mel Gibson from South Park... Josh, you know what im talking about.. ill leave it at that hahah... So one last thing.. I want to write Melissa Martutartus.. can you facebook her and ask for her address? Please and thank you!
K ill send some more pictures! We went to a temple last week and at was way cool. Love you all! Thanks for your support! Staley and Cade! Congratulations! Thats insane! Both of you within a month!? Yeah.. wow. Thanks for the email Kathy.. really enjoyed reading from you.. ill write an ACTUAL letter soon enough! Mom, my back is still hurting.. cant put a bar in the house cause its wood and we have termites.. were afraid if we put one up, the house will fall down. See what you can do. K gotta run! Once again, love you all and you are always in my prayers!
Love, Elder Gudmundsen
Monday, September 13, 2010
Yo Yo Yo
Well hello everyone! Loved reading all your emails today.. and im trying to send some pictures home with this email.. it may be a few emails, but what'er. Ill get em to you. They consist of our trip to the SLC airport and our travels from the THailand Airport to the mission home... sorry there arent that many, but i havent had that much time to take pictures... but there are still some nice nuggets to see. Also, some hilarious pictures too.. particularly the picture for the bathroom... hahaha thats on the other side of this room in the internet cafe right now... epic. K, first things first... DONT SEND THE PACKAGE YET! Ive got some stuff to add to it.. I need a back massager.. im not talking one of those whimpy ones.. i need an epic one... you know how my back is.. it sucks. And when i come home at the end of the day it is just killing.. even right now it is but im ignoring it. Like.. i need one of those brookstone ones that Josh and I used to always want when we would spend a few minutes in there when shopping.. ya know? It just hurts so much lately, what with standing up all the time, or sitting in weird positions... or whatever. Please and thank you! Also, in addition to the pictures you said you would send with it, include some wallet sizes eh? When Thai people ask about you they ask about your family too and ask if you have pictures.. so i have never been able to show them anything. Dont be shy now send me some nice family ones! haha. And then just include some goodies in there too.. you know what i like... sour patch, jelly bellys, twizzlers... ya you know.
Ok so i dont have a scripture of the week this week but i do have a Phrase of the week: "Oh you are missionaries? About Christ? Oooooo! They're all the same! Every religion teaches everyone to be good people...." GOSH! I swear i hear this more than anything else here! So annoying! If they are all the same why are you buddhist! In addition to my "Are you a thai person?" count, i am now counting how many times i hear this phrase too. Im up to 67 of "thai person" and 59 of "every religion..." I only started counting the second one just a few days ago so i just assumed i had heard it at least 50 times already.
Let's get you up to speed on our investigators! Remember พร? "Blessing?" Yeah.. we lost her. Erika, to answer your question, she does have a baptismal date, but technically she doesnt live in our area... so on sunday we met with her and told her that she had to go to the ward in Bang Khen, which is a little ways away, and progress with those missionaries.. who happen to be Elder Shipley.. remember him? My phiithay from the MTC? Yeah, i trust them completely.. but it sucks cause she was our strongest investigator and Don Muang hasnt had a baptism in over a year.. so we were stoked to baptize her, but now we cant. But it was still reassuring cause she accepted it even though she really loves us, and agreed to transfer and still get baptized. Sooo.. oh well.. the work is still progressing whether it is us or not. But yesterday we solidified a baptismal date with another "baptismal dater" named บี (bii), and all in all i feel pretty good about him... we asked him how Church was for him yesterday, cause he went, and he said he really enjoyed learning more about the God Head and about Joseph Smith and the restoration. We asked if he believed in that.. he said yes.. we asked why.. he said because when he was hearing it, and the description of the Holy Ghost, he said he felt exactly how we described answers would come. He said some other stuff too, but i didnt catch it all. His biggest obsticle right now is สุบ บุรี (sub burii - smoking) because we committed him to stop like a week and a half ago, but then didnt get to see him that whole week, and he of course smoked. He said he needed to gradually stop.. which he didnt.. So yesterday we said just stop now.. throw it all away. He said he knew with the help of the Lord he could. I also said the second he feels like doing it, call us. We'll see if he does or not hah. So he is set for the 10th of October. Ok who else.... ah yes.. ยัง (yang), who is a crazy chinese dude, who we have been with for a little while. The other day we asked him how he felt about his reading in the Book of Mormon.. he said "i read it and think, yea! Jesus Christ definitely did all this.. hes real!" Elder Crowley, "Great! So you believe in Heavenly Father and God?" "No."... uhhh.. what? Me: "Uh.. why not?" Him: "Never seen him."... GAH! "Okay, so will you still be baptized?" Him: "uhh.. no. Im lazy.." hahahah i almost laughed actually. He also said, "when i was little i had a fear of water and pools because i always thought that there were sharks in the water." Gosh.. this guy is tough right?! Anyway, we gave him Ama 5 to read.. dun dun dun!... and we decided that if he didnt go to Church yesterday we would drop him.. we dropped him. Pretty funny though right? We have a couple others, but my favorites right now are a couple name Nat and Juuy... we've been there twice and both times... FEAST! Most thai people get us water but Juuy... no, she gives a feast! She just starts pulling out food from everywhere! Crackers, bagel chip things, fruit of every kind, omelettes, candy... i love it! hahah but more than that, they have faith in Christ! It's been interesting trying to get him, Nat, to commit to baptism, because hes blind.. and he thinks that he will be a burden to the branch if he is baptized... gah! One of the Sisters in the branch was there when he first said this, like a month ago, and she pulled out Mosiah 2:17 (?) about "when in the service of your fellow beings" and said.." Dont you dare deny us our right and privelege to serve you." haha! How epic is that? So.. what do we learn from this? Dont deny people who are willing to help you!
So thats all i can remember about our investigators right now. On to other things that have happened... we had switch offs! Friday afternoon i switched with our district leader, Elder Cline, to go over to Rangsit, with his companion, Elder Chaiyawat (a native dude) who is AWESOME! He's such a funny little thai person haha! Not really little though.. like 6 foot 2 or something.. maybe just 6. Whatever. Anyway, during the switch off i realized something... Don Muang is GHETTO! Im conviced it pretty much the ghettoest part of Bangkok. Rangsit wasnt much better, but there is a distinct difference between the two.. kinda crazy. Anyway, i was with Chaiyawat for friday afternoon until saturday night when Cline and Crowley came over to Rangsit house to spend the night.. their house is so much nicer then ours.. you will see pictures... but their study room is bigger than our kitchen and study room combined.. granted, it was originally for 4 Elders, but now its just big and only for 2. Anyway, first night we didnt get the chance to eat, so we ORDERED Mickey D's! hahaha as if that place doesnt make people fat already, now its delivered here! (hahaha Hans and Josh.. theres 5 thai kids playing dota right behind me! hahahah.. you were close enough Hans.. havent seen Starcraft 2 in here.. yet.) Okay, so saturday morning, it freaking POURED! From about 9 to 130 it was just a down pour outside! We couldnt go out, so we ordered Mac again haha! But we finally had to go out around 130 and the streets were just flooded. What did i do? Here we go everyone, its Paper Towels! Oh crap, look.. theres water up to my ankles while im biking.. no big deal! Just took some paper towels... BAM. Threw some down.. they just soaked up all the water! Just kidding.. but seriously the water was really that high.. my, being a noob, pedalled my bike like normal.. then realized Chaiyawat knew what he was doing and then i only pedalled half way, back pedalled, pedalled, etc... The first 30 seconds my feet pedalled into the water up to my shins hhahah! So awesome. By the way, if anyone reading this was lost with the paper towels things, go on youtube and type in "paper towels.." should be the first thing that comes up, and its infomercial style.. watch it. Its epic. So after a day of inviting and not much success, Chaiyawat and i had an appointment with a couple at 8 pm. We got there at 750, waited for a member to meet us, and didnt leave the appointment until 921.. hahah! I know, we're horrible missionaries! But, it was so good. After teaching them about prayer and heavenly father more, we sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" for them slash with them... Dad, you will rub it in again, but when we finished, the guy, whose name i forgot, started talking with Elder Chaiyawat about me saying, "He's only been here for 10 days?! And he can read Thai AND sing like that? (then he looked at me) Elder Gudmundsen.. you sing wonderfully." Now, i dont say that to brag.. but it was very humbling because the Spirit was totally there and the 2 really appreciated the song... and maybe i enjoyed singing too :)
Ok some other funny slash miscellanious stuff... one night we were planning and it started raining.. they the loudest crash of thunder shook the house and the power went out... i kinda screamed like a girl.. then, EXACTLY LIKE FEAR (the game) the lights kinda flickered... and i got chills! I was like, "No! this is how the lights worked right before Alma jumped in your face and then dissappeared once the lights turned back on!" I was scared hahaha.. but Josh you know what i mean.. it was freaky.
I saw Rattenball for the first time! Rattenball is volleyball, without your hands or arms! The net is only about head high, but its so amazing to watch! I got a video of, which ill try to send, but if i cant, look it up on youtube... its so cool. Again.. im a bad missionary, but its hard to resist looking at the TV when its on.. which it is everywhere... now before you condemn me! i look because its HILARIOUS! Thai TV is the most ridiculous thing ive ever seen! Every program, whether its news, or soap opera, uses friggin scooby doo noises! You know what i mean.. like those goody noises when someone falls, or like a snare drum cymbal crash for jokes? Yeah, those.. all the time. Combine that with soap operas which are worse than American soap operas.. you got a winner. Remember in Enchanted? When whats his face... wormtail? the fatty... is watching the TV and finds that ridiculously over dramatic show? Yeah try and imagine that with the scooby doo noises. Its so funny. OH, i got into a cab and almost crapped my pants! The driver had the FATTEST mole ive ever seen! With hair comin out of it that was longer than the hair on my head! Apparently it signifies Wisdom here.. yeah.. and jumping the empire state building signifies bravery. Rip that thing off man! Elder Crowley has the best sneeze ever.. the first time i heard it i thought i was in Street Fighter! Its like got that power like Ryu's Harruken! And yes i do say "Harruken!" every time he sneezes. So pineapples.. they are my favorite.. except when i eat too much.. my tounge starts tripping out! Like, after enough, i BECOME allergic to them. But they are soooooo good! Speaking of fruit... there are the coolest fruits ever here.. beyond being delicious.. they just look cool. Dragon Fruit.. its like, neon pink/purple on the inside and the outside looks like you could strap in to a stick and use it as a mace! This place is heaven for fruits. Speaking of food... i figured out why i cant eat things.. FISH SAUCE! Its called "nam plaa" and they have it on everything! If i even smell that crap i lose my appetite! So as soon as we took it off my food, i can eat... well there are still things i dont like.. but i can eat now! Pad thai.. amazing. Saturday i had fried pork with garlic and pepper.. delish. Oh! Jannette! I say hi hahah.. Sister Nooy comes up to me every sunday (which in this case is only twice hahah) and talks about you! So awesome to hear Krisina already went in to the MTC! She will love it! Sister Nooy loves talking about you and she reminds me a lot of you anyway.. you know, freakishly loud, but some how loveable.. hahahah! Just kidding.. but seriously, I do love you.
K last things... sorry Josh! I cant fit enough time to email everyone so these big ones will probably be the standard weekly emails. But i want to hear from you still! How was it with Aric!? Starting school soon? Hows Portal 2 look (question fo you too dad)? I re read Dads last dear elder and didnt realize that he talked about that.. thats crazy! Bet it looks awesome. Dad, the address you got is correct! I dont know what will happen with FedEx but Crowley says standard Mail has no charges.. why not try FedEx if thats easier for you? If we have problems the first time, we wont anymore. Try it. To everyone, there are no problems with letters or packages.. send em however. I think keep to email for the fam though cause otherwise if you send letters they will just get to me after a P day since it takes more than a week. Separate emails are okay dad.. i read fast :) Crazy to hear about Shawn! Tell him congrats for me! Glad to hear Padres stopped sucking if only a little bit hahaha. But thats cool that it was fun. Its been "cool" here lately... meaning still about 90 and 90 percent humidity.. but quite bear-able actually. The language is coming along... almost everyone says "oh you speak thai so well!" But yesterday i got the rare one.. "oh, you dont speak thai very good at all."... gee thanks lady! Ive heard that one once.. Crowley heard it 4 weeks ago hahahah! I found pants that are washable, but didnt buy them yet.. they are only like 5 bucks and pretty nice quality.. im gonna try washing a pair of pants i already have cause Crowley said some Elders did that and they are fine, if only losing their pleats.. which you lose anyway from rain or sweat. So, if that works, ill probably still buy some later, but for now will be fine. Don't really know what to say for 9/11 but i hope it was memorable and "good?" Yeah.. thought about it the other day.. interesting with the mosque and all.. they really shouldnt.. just asking for trouble.. yeah its sad that we cant accept them, but seriously.. why right there? Do they forget they are in New York city? hahaha. Oh well. K gotta run. Good to hear from you all. Sorry if i forget to write about anything, but its hard to remember everything. Ill get more pictures next week, but for now these will have to do. Stay safe! Church is true, this work is true, and its been fun, even though im sick! hahah.. bye now!
Elder Gudmundsen
PS: Say what up to Chase, the Twins, Steven, Jacob.. you know who.
Ok so i dont have a scripture of the week this week but i do have a Phrase of the week: "Oh you are missionaries? About Christ? Oooooo! They're all the same! Every religion teaches everyone to be good people...." GOSH! I swear i hear this more than anything else here! So annoying! If they are all the same why are you buddhist! In addition to my "Are you a thai person?" count, i am now counting how many times i hear this phrase too. Im up to 67 of "thai person" and 59 of "every religion..." I only started counting the second one just a few days ago so i just assumed i had heard it at least 50 times already.
Let's get you up to speed on our investigators! Remember พร? "Blessing?" Yeah.. we lost her. Erika, to answer your question, she does have a baptismal date, but technically she doesnt live in our area... so on sunday we met with her and told her that she had to go to the ward in Bang Khen, which is a little ways away, and progress with those missionaries.. who happen to be Elder Shipley.. remember him? My phiithay from the MTC? Yeah, i trust them completely.. but it sucks cause she was our strongest investigator and Don Muang hasnt had a baptism in over a year.. so we were stoked to baptize her, but now we cant. But it was still reassuring cause she accepted it even though she really loves us, and agreed to transfer and still get baptized. Sooo.. oh well.. the work is still progressing whether it is us or not. But yesterday we solidified a baptismal date with another "baptismal dater" named บี (bii), and all in all i feel pretty good about him... we asked him how Church was for him yesterday, cause he went, and he said he really enjoyed learning more about the God Head and about Joseph Smith and the restoration. We asked if he believed in that.. he said yes.. we asked why.. he said because when he was hearing it, and the description of the Holy Ghost, he said he felt exactly how we described answers would come. He said some other stuff too, but i didnt catch it all. His biggest obsticle right now is สุบ บุรี (sub burii - smoking) because we committed him to stop like a week and a half ago, but then didnt get to see him that whole week, and he of course smoked. He said he needed to gradually stop.. which he didnt.. So yesterday we said just stop now.. throw it all away. He said he knew with the help of the Lord he could. I also said the second he feels like doing it, call us. We'll see if he does or not hah. So he is set for the 10th of October. Ok who else.... ah yes.. ยัง (yang), who is a crazy chinese dude, who we have been with for a little while. The other day we asked him how he felt about his reading in the Book of Mormon.. he said "i read it and think, yea! Jesus Christ definitely did all this.. hes real!" Elder Crowley, "Great! So you believe in Heavenly Father and God?" "No."... uhhh.. what? Me: "Uh.. why not?" Him: "Never seen him."... GAH! "Okay, so will you still be baptized?" Him: "uhh.. no. Im lazy.." hahahah i almost laughed actually. He also said, "when i was little i had a fear of water and pools because i always thought that there were sharks in the water." Gosh.. this guy is tough right?! Anyway, we gave him Ama 5 to read.. dun dun dun!... and we decided that if he didnt go to Church yesterday we would drop him.. we dropped him. Pretty funny though right? We have a couple others, but my favorites right now are a couple name Nat and Juuy... we've been there twice and both times... FEAST! Most thai people get us water but Juuy... no, she gives a feast! She just starts pulling out food from everywhere! Crackers, bagel chip things, fruit of every kind, omelettes, candy... i love it! hahah but more than that, they have faith in Christ! It's been interesting trying to get him, Nat, to commit to baptism, because hes blind.. and he thinks that he will be a burden to the branch if he is baptized... gah! One of the Sisters in the branch was there when he first said this, like a month ago, and she pulled out Mosiah 2:17 (?) about "when in the service of your fellow beings" and said.." Dont you dare deny us our right and privelege to serve you." haha! How epic is that? So.. what do we learn from this? Dont deny people who are willing to help you!
So thats all i can remember about our investigators right now. On to other things that have happened... we had switch offs! Friday afternoon i switched with our district leader, Elder Cline, to go over to Rangsit, with his companion, Elder Chaiyawat (a native dude) who is AWESOME! He's such a funny little thai person haha! Not really little though.. like 6 foot 2 or something.. maybe just 6. Whatever. Anyway, during the switch off i realized something... Don Muang is GHETTO! Im conviced it pretty much the ghettoest part of Bangkok. Rangsit wasnt much better, but there is a distinct difference between the two.. kinda crazy. Anyway, i was with Chaiyawat for friday afternoon until saturday night when Cline and Crowley came over to Rangsit house to spend the night.. their house is so much nicer then ours.. you will see pictures... but their study room is bigger than our kitchen and study room combined.. granted, it was originally for 4 Elders, but now its just big and only for 2. Anyway, first night we didnt get the chance to eat, so we ORDERED Mickey D's! hahaha as if that place doesnt make people fat already, now its delivered here! (hahaha Hans and Josh.. theres 5 thai kids playing dota right behind me! hahahah.. you were close enough Hans.. havent seen Starcraft 2 in here.. yet.) Okay, so saturday morning, it freaking POURED! From about 9 to 130 it was just a down pour outside! We couldnt go out, so we ordered Mac again haha! But we finally had to go out around 130 and the streets were just flooded. What did i do? Here we go everyone, its Paper Towels! Oh crap, look.. theres water up to my ankles while im biking.. no big deal! Just took some paper towels... BAM. Threw some down.. they just soaked up all the water! Just kidding.. but seriously the water was really that high.. my, being a noob, pedalled my bike like normal.. then realized Chaiyawat knew what he was doing and then i only pedalled half way, back pedalled, pedalled, etc... The first 30 seconds my feet pedalled into the water up to my shins hhahah! So awesome. By the way, if anyone reading this was lost with the paper towels things, go on youtube and type in "paper towels.." should be the first thing that comes up, and its infomercial style.. watch it. Its epic. So after a day of inviting and not much success, Chaiyawat and i had an appointment with a couple at 8 pm. We got there at 750, waited for a member to meet us, and didnt leave the appointment until 921.. hahah! I know, we're horrible missionaries! But, it was so good. After teaching them about prayer and heavenly father more, we sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" for them slash with them... Dad, you will rub it in again, but when we finished, the guy, whose name i forgot, started talking with Elder Chaiyawat about me saying, "He's only been here for 10 days?! And he can read Thai AND sing like that? (then he looked at me) Elder Gudmundsen.. you sing wonderfully." Now, i dont say that to brag.. but it was very humbling because the Spirit was totally there and the 2 really appreciated the song... and maybe i enjoyed singing too :)
Ok some other funny slash miscellanious stuff... one night we were planning and it started raining.. they the loudest crash of thunder shook the house and the power went out... i kinda screamed like a girl.. then, EXACTLY LIKE FEAR (the game) the lights kinda flickered... and i got chills! I was like, "No! this is how the lights worked right before Alma jumped in your face and then dissappeared once the lights turned back on!" I was scared hahaha.. but Josh you know what i mean.. it was freaky.
I saw Rattenball for the first time! Rattenball is volleyball, without your hands or arms! The net is only about head high, but its so amazing to watch! I got a video of, which ill try to send, but if i cant, look it up on youtube... its so cool. Again.. im a bad missionary, but its hard to resist looking at the TV when its on.. which it is everywhere... now before you condemn me! i look because its HILARIOUS! Thai TV is the most ridiculous thing ive ever seen! Every program, whether its news, or soap opera, uses friggin scooby doo noises! You know what i mean.. like those goody noises when someone falls, or like a snare drum cymbal crash for jokes? Yeah, those.. all the time. Combine that with soap operas which are worse than American soap operas.. you got a winner. Remember in Enchanted? When whats his face... wormtail? the fatty... is watching the TV and finds that ridiculously over dramatic show? Yeah try and imagine that with the scooby doo noises. Its so funny. OH, i got into a cab and almost crapped my pants! The driver had the FATTEST mole ive ever seen! With hair comin out of it that was longer than the hair on my head! Apparently it signifies Wisdom here.. yeah.. and jumping the empire state building signifies bravery. Rip that thing off man! Elder Crowley has the best sneeze ever.. the first time i heard it i thought i was in Street Fighter! Its like got that power like Ryu's Harruken! And yes i do say "Harruken!" every time he sneezes. So pineapples.. they are my favorite.. except when i eat too much.. my tounge starts tripping out! Like, after enough, i BECOME allergic to them. But they are soooooo good! Speaking of fruit... there are the coolest fruits ever here.. beyond being delicious.. they just look cool. Dragon Fruit.. its like, neon pink/purple on the inside and the outside looks like you could strap in to a stick and use it as a mace! This place is heaven for fruits. Speaking of food... i figured out why i cant eat things.. FISH SAUCE! Its called "nam plaa" and they have it on everything! If i even smell that crap i lose my appetite! So as soon as we took it off my food, i can eat... well there are still things i dont like.. but i can eat now! Pad thai.. amazing. Saturday i had fried pork with garlic and pepper.. delish. Oh! Jannette! I say hi hahah.. Sister Nooy comes up to me every sunday (which in this case is only twice hahah) and talks about you! So awesome to hear Krisina already went in to the MTC! She will love it! Sister Nooy loves talking about you and she reminds me a lot of you anyway.. you know, freakishly loud, but some how loveable.. hahahah! Just kidding.. but seriously, I do love you.
K last things... sorry Josh! I cant fit enough time to email everyone so these big ones will probably be the standard weekly emails. But i want to hear from you still! How was it with Aric!? Starting school soon? Hows Portal 2 look (question fo you too dad)? I re read Dads last dear elder and didnt realize that he talked about that.. thats crazy! Bet it looks awesome. Dad, the address you got is correct! I dont know what will happen with FedEx but Crowley says standard Mail has no charges.. why not try FedEx if thats easier for you? If we have problems the first time, we wont anymore. Try it. To everyone, there are no problems with letters or packages.. send em however. I think keep to email for the fam though cause otherwise if you send letters they will just get to me after a P day since it takes more than a week. Separate emails are okay dad.. i read fast :) Crazy to hear about Shawn! Tell him congrats for me! Glad to hear Padres stopped sucking if only a little bit hahaha. But thats cool that it was fun. Its been "cool" here lately... meaning still about 90 and 90 percent humidity.. but quite bear-able actually. The language is coming along... almost everyone says "oh you speak thai so well!" But yesterday i got the rare one.. "oh, you dont speak thai very good at all."... gee thanks lady! Ive heard that one once.. Crowley heard it 4 weeks ago hahahah! I found pants that are washable, but didnt buy them yet.. they are only like 5 bucks and pretty nice quality.. im gonna try washing a pair of pants i already have cause Crowley said some Elders did that and they are fine, if only losing their pleats.. which you lose anyway from rain or sweat. So, if that works, ill probably still buy some later, but for now will be fine. Don't really know what to say for 9/11 but i hope it was memorable and "good?" Yeah.. thought about it the other day.. interesting with the mosque and all.. they really shouldnt.. just asking for trouble.. yeah its sad that we cant accept them, but seriously.. why right there? Do they forget they are in New York city? hahaha. Oh well. K gotta run. Good to hear from you all. Sorry if i forget to write about anything, but its hard to remember everything. Ill get more pictures next week, but for now these will have to do. Stay safe! Church is true, this work is true, and its been fun, even though im sick! hahah.. bye now!
Elder Gudmundsen
PS: Say what up to Chase, the Twins, Steven, Jacob.. you know who.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
New Address
If you are interested in writing Elder Gudmundsen in Thailand, here is his address:
Thailand Bangkok Mission
50/829-832 Muang Thong Thani
Chaengwatana Rd., T. Ban Mai, A. Pakkret
Nonthaburi 11120
Thailand
Thailand Bangkok Mission
50/829-832 Muang Thong Thani
Chaengwatana Rd., T. Ban Mai, A. Pakkret
Nonthaburi 11120
Thailand
Surprise!!
Hello everyone! what up from Thailand!! Im in the sickest internet cafe ive ever seen! These chairs.. yeah i want one. Totally gamer status in here too.. theres like 5 thai kids skipping school to play games and stuff.. i would totally do that too! So, right now it is 12 noon in thailand.. its about 10 pm over there right? Insane right!? Okay well, ill keep things the way i have so far.. first things first: Scripture of the week! Moroni 10: 34 - "...Amen." I'm done! First time finishing the Book of Mormon.. sad, I know, but you can kiss it. Finished about 2 ish hours ago for personal study this morning. Phrase of the week: "No one cares about how much you know, until they know how much you care." Pretty cool huh? Ill explain that one more later but i really loved it when i heard it and, its for you Dad.. which ill explain later too.
okay... FIRST WEEK IN THAILAND! Oh boy, where to start... How bout the plane? 13 hours and 20 minutes? No problem! Took some benedryl from Elder Merril... done! Was out for probably 10 hours. They served us breakfast... not bad. and when i say not bad, i mean it was terrible, but compared to most flights.. not bad. THey served some nasty eggs and Merrel loved em... he starts eating them "oh man! these are so delicious and cheesey!" Me: "Elder Merrel, thats the problem, they DONT HAVE CHEESE IN THEM." What'er. Taiwan was pretty cool.. longish layover and we just walked around for a little bit.. got some food.. Elder Hess and i were just like, "uh.. what do we eat?!" But it was all good.. ended up getting some fried rice and a passion fruit smoothie.. dank. Boarded to Thailand around 930 and landed around 1130. Met the AP's and the Prez.. they were awesome. One of the AP's, Elder Young, told us a story about a run in with a bus... at 65 miles an hour.. yeah. He went flying. Got up, walked away. Met President Smith and his Wife.. so awesome. She's was camera happy and just started takin so many pictures, but shes hilarious and so cool. He's a great guy too. Served his mission here so he speaks fluently. We walked outside... BOOM. Humidity. Who said we werent allowed to swim on our missions? They obviously havent been to Thailand. Enjoy that picture in your minds now. Got in the car, took about a 45 minute drive to the Mission home and saw a lot of Thailand... WOW! This place is sick NASTY! Both connotations of that phrase... Seriously, this place is so gross.. when it rains it just dumps and every building is all mildewy and green, the streets are broken, theres black mold everywhere.. UGH! Nasty! But, it is sick because theres temples scattered everywhere too, and man they are beautiful. Even the highway has little gold statues of buddha or whoever. I got some pictures but i dont have a sd port yet so when i get that today ill send some next week. So we get to the President's home and they had lunch all ready for us... wasnt thai lunch but they did have PINEAPPLE!! OMGSH ITS SO GOOD! I ate so much my tounge probably wanted to blead and it started tingling... kinda like right now cause one of the members's gave me ice breakers sours and i havent stopped eating them. Anyway, Prez took us over to the mission office for some paper work, interviews, and the Dan Jones exercise. Who is Dan Jones? He was called to serve in Wales and he did work. Nuff said. Anyway, they split us up with a "trainer" for the day and took us out for an hour to give out a book of mormon and 3 pass along cards to people on the street.. done son! No idea what i said when i was speaking but it must have made sense! Got rid of my book of mormon on the 2nd dude... and gave away the rest.. The guy with the BoM was surprising cause he was so interested.. i thought it was a trick, like my trainer, Elder Rovig, paid him to be nice and accepting.. not so. Thai people are just super nice and friendly.. i already heard about this, it was just still surprising. Elder Rovig had an awesome approach to finding.. he would just yell "Hello" to everyone he passed and wave at them, then go up and shake their hand for about 30 seconds so they couldnt go away. One kid looked absolutely terrified, cause when you stretch out your hand to shake they dont know what to do.. so this kids just lookin at Elder Rovig, then at me... then at Rovig.. then back at me. His face just screamed "hey.. you. Help me out here.. get him away." So funny. That kid ended up running away eventually but what'er. So we talked with other people and i didnt really know what i was doing, but hey! It was fun.
Went back to the office around 6 and finished up some other crap and went back to the mission home for some thai dinner.. delicious! Had some "prick" which is spciy sauce.. yes i know, unfortunate name. But it was spicy, but not tear inducing.. for Hess however, it was. He cried. Had a nice pow wow with the Prez and wife and hit the sack early.. i passed out. Next morning, thursday, was moves meeting over at one of the church buildings.. long story short, im in a little area, and by little area i mean pretty friggen big(!), called Don Muang. My companion is Elder Crowley.... MR CROWLEY!! Its not actually pronounced the same way, but who cares.. the point is the same and its awesome.. and hes great. Been out here for a little over a year now. He's from North Carolina and went to BYU the year before me. We are the only 2 Elders assigned to this area, as most missionaries are, and its a really cool place. So after moves our District from the MTC parted ways.. Lucky Elder King is up in Chiang Rai.. the mountain kingdom! I want to go there. Dropped my crap off at the house, which is both a dump and a cozy place, and had to place some stuff for this week. Then, went out for appointments and contacting. So like i said, this place is sweet.. Its beautiful... in a weird way... the culture is mostly preserved and there quite of few temples around, but also there are a lot of architecture that closely relates all that. Most places have a mini ancestry temple thing where they basically feed their ancestors with แฟฌฐา (Fanta.. its everywhere). Its nice. Then, theres the nasty part of it.. which is also all of it. The smell is absolutely disgusting.. i would rather stick my face in dog crap then smell this.. and theres still dog crap everywhere! Theres mold everywhere and if you thought Kawaii had a ton of chickens.. it aint got nothing on Thailand.. except for Thailand, its dogs. They are EVERYWHERE. And its really quite sad.. ive seen some already with legs bent in ways that shouldnt be bent, bowels hanging out (and thats not a joke), and some with no left eyes.. its actually really sad and im not even joking when i say i see them and get depressed. But in any case.. Don Muang is a sweet place.
So kawaii has nothing on thailand in terms of wildlife, and Starbucks has got NOTHING on 7-11.. they are on EVERY block.. usually 2 within 100 yards of each other. Probably my favorite place, even more now. Also, houses are just stuck in the most random places and every house is pretty much a store.. everyone cooks something or sells drinks. its kinda awesome. There are street vendors who ride bikes, or just push carts, with chicken or ice cream, or whatever. Love it. Stopped the other day to get ice cream in a bun.. so delicious. Bread, rice, fruit, ice cream and chocolate sauce... all for only 10 baht.. epic. Also, those little yogurt drinks? EVERYWHERE! Huge bottles too. Also blueberry, mixed fruit, and green apple flavors. Choco pies, pocky sticks, yan yan, and pretty much every other awesome korean market candies are here too. Finally found M and Ms crispy.. of course i had to go half way around the world to find it.. but i can buy that, a bottle of water for about 35 baht.. thats barely over a dollar! Bought a full meal of sweet and sour pork on saturday for 25 baht. Can life get better? I submit that it cannot! Im lying, but for the sake of the joke i had to say it. Not gonna lie though.. in terms of food.. kinda been disappointed.. not in the fruit, that stuff is delicious. But for some reason i havent been liking the food ive been getting. Maybe i need a little time, but right now.. eh.. not for me.
Ok now for some business.. investigators! We have 2 with a baptismal date right now.. phii phccn and phii bii.. we call everyone "phii" because its formal and polite. And that first one is a woman, and it translates to "blessing.." hahah.. how awesome is that?! Anyway, พร, is a reall sweet lady probably bout 30 ish years old.. shes histerical. She knows a little bit of english because thats where Crowley met her, was at English lessons. Shes been progressing for quite some time now... almost a month and a half i think. She loves to talk and when i first met her, it was thursday night, at President Wisid's house (by the way, this family is awesome! Really helping the work go forward.. ill try and tell more about them later) and when i told her that i had been in thailand for only 2 days her eyes got huge and she was quiet for a minute and said, "OH WOW!" But shes kinda bittersweet.. she seems to be really interested, and she went to church yesterday and loved it, then went to a baptismal service after and loved that too, but i dont think really understands how important everything is yet. Yesterday she bought us some drinks, and Elder Crowley was like, "well i guess we need to teach keeping the sabbath day holy again." Guess so. But we'll keep chuggin. Ok i think my time is running out.. not because i have a time limit but because ive been here for a while.
To answer your questions... havent found pants yet. But 2 of my pairs have already gotten soaked and they are still fine haha.. thursday and friday it just straight dumped on us from 7 until we got home. Ill keep looking. I need some hankerchiefs too.. lots.. i sweat so much, its kinda ridiculous. I made a joke in the MTC that we would be with investigators and strain to barely understand them already while wiping our faces and whicking the sweat from our hands.. without realizing it until right in the middle of the action, i did just that! Then i laughed a little bit on the outside.
As for you Dad, i go back to the Phrase of the week: No one cares about how much you know, until they know how much you care. The Missionaries at home need to know that the members care about the work. Missionary work doesnt stop after being released from the calling of "Missionary." It's really different to see our branch here.. there are only about 25 people and they care so much about the work that they are trying so hard to help us out so they can have more members.. its been over a year since a baptism and they are really wondering "whats wrong with our branch?" Well, theres nothing wrong. But they want to see more faces enjoying the gospel like they do. At home, it was really easy for me to not care about whether or not the missionaries need help, because "oh, someone else will do it." Don't assume that. Go out of your way to help them. Whether they ask for you help or not, they need it and are always grateful for anything you can do. Feeding them is great.. really great.. but going with them to teach a lesson is also amazing. Especially if you are a convert. Them seeing someone else who at one point was where they are now goes a long way. Be willing to stretch forth your helping hand before they even ask you for one. Ask them every week how investigators are doing, how they themselves are doing, and what you can do to help the work push forward. Show them how much you care. I hope you're getting this Ball and Drew! Stop texting!
K i gotta end this.. say what up to everyone for me, tell them i love them. I'd give you my address but i think i lost it hahah.. Erika has it though. Hope you are all doing well and sorry that this probably wasnt as personal as they usually are. Josh, thanks again for your letter 2 weeks ago.. i really appreciated it and still read it because those are some serious words of advice. Sorry i didnt get to email you personally but love ya bud. Say what up to Aroc for me, and give him a sweet bean dip. Mom, sorry about the mix up with the bank. No worries. We'll pull money out later. Glad you got to talk to Saakha. When you forward this to him, ask him to forward it to President Calder and the Macks. He'll know what to do. Thanks for all your support Mom. Erika, love you too. Hope all is well and you're loving the job. Next week ill get some pictures out and email all of you individually.
Love you all! Peace!
Elder Gudmundsen
okay... FIRST WEEK IN THAILAND! Oh boy, where to start... How bout the plane? 13 hours and 20 minutes? No problem! Took some benedryl from Elder Merril... done! Was out for probably 10 hours. They served us breakfast... not bad. and when i say not bad, i mean it was terrible, but compared to most flights.. not bad. THey served some nasty eggs and Merrel loved em... he starts eating them "oh man! these are so delicious and cheesey!" Me: "Elder Merrel, thats the problem, they DONT HAVE CHEESE IN THEM." What'er. Taiwan was pretty cool.. longish layover and we just walked around for a little bit.. got some food.. Elder Hess and i were just like, "uh.. what do we eat?!" But it was all good.. ended up getting some fried rice and a passion fruit smoothie.. dank. Boarded to Thailand around 930 and landed around 1130. Met the AP's and the Prez.. they were awesome. One of the AP's, Elder Young, told us a story about a run in with a bus... at 65 miles an hour.. yeah. He went flying. Got up, walked away. Met President Smith and his Wife.. so awesome. She's was camera happy and just started takin so many pictures, but shes hilarious and so cool. He's a great guy too. Served his mission here so he speaks fluently. We walked outside... BOOM. Humidity. Who said we werent allowed to swim on our missions? They obviously havent been to Thailand. Enjoy that picture in your minds now. Got in the car, took about a 45 minute drive to the Mission home and saw a lot of Thailand... WOW! This place is sick NASTY! Both connotations of that phrase... Seriously, this place is so gross.. when it rains it just dumps and every building is all mildewy and green, the streets are broken, theres black mold everywhere.. UGH! Nasty! But, it is sick because theres temples scattered everywhere too, and man they are beautiful. Even the highway has little gold statues of buddha or whoever. I got some pictures but i dont have a sd port yet so when i get that today ill send some next week. So we get to the President's home and they had lunch all ready for us... wasnt thai lunch but they did have PINEAPPLE!! OMGSH ITS SO GOOD! I ate so much my tounge probably wanted to blead and it started tingling... kinda like right now cause one of the members's gave me ice breakers sours and i havent stopped eating them. Anyway, Prez took us over to the mission office for some paper work, interviews, and the Dan Jones exercise. Who is Dan Jones? He was called to serve in Wales and he did work. Nuff said. Anyway, they split us up with a "trainer" for the day and took us out for an hour to give out a book of mormon and 3 pass along cards to people on the street.. done son! No idea what i said when i was speaking but it must have made sense! Got rid of my book of mormon on the 2nd dude... and gave away the rest.. The guy with the BoM was surprising cause he was so interested.. i thought it was a trick, like my trainer, Elder Rovig, paid him to be nice and accepting.. not so. Thai people are just super nice and friendly.. i already heard about this, it was just still surprising. Elder Rovig had an awesome approach to finding.. he would just yell "Hello" to everyone he passed and wave at them, then go up and shake their hand for about 30 seconds so they couldnt go away. One kid looked absolutely terrified, cause when you stretch out your hand to shake they dont know what to do.. so this kids just lookin at Elder Rovig, then at me... then at Rovig.. then back at me. His face just screamed "hey.. you. Help me out here.. get him away." So funny. That kid ended up running away eventually but what'er. So we talked with other people and i didnt really know what i was doing, but hey! It was fun.
Went back to the office around 6 and finished up some other crap and went back to the mission home for some thai dinner.. delicious! Had some "prick" which is spciy sauce.. yes i know, unfortunate name. But it was spicy, but not tear inducing.. for Hess however, it was. He cried. Had a nice pow wow with the Prez and wife and hit the sack early.. i passed out. Next morning, thursday, was moves meeting over at one of the church buildings.. long story short, im in a little area, and by little area i mean pretty friggen big(!), called Don Muang. My companion is Elder Crowley.... MR CROWLEY!! Its not actually pronounced the same way, but who cares.. the point is the same and its awesome.. and hes great. Been out here for a little over a year now. He's from North Carolina and went to BYU the year before me. We are the only 2 Elders assigned to this area, as most missionaries are, and its a really cool place. So after moves our District from the MTC parted ways.. Lucky Elder King is up in Chiang Rai.. the mountain kingdom! I want to go there. Dropped my crap off at the house, which is both a dump and a cozy place, and had to place some stuff for this week. Then, went out for appointments and contacting. So like i said, this place is sweet.. Its beautiful... in a weird way... the culture is mostly preserved and there quite of few temples around, but also there are a lot of architecture that closely relates all that. Most places have a mini ancestry temple thing where they basically feed their ancestors with แฟฌฐา (Fanta.. its everywhere). Its nice. Then, theres the nasty part of it.. which is also all of it. The smell is absolutely disgusting.. i would rather stick my face in dog crap then smell this.. and theres still dog crap everywhere! Theres mold everywhere and if you thought Kawaii had a ton of chickens.. it aint got nothing on Thailand.. except for Thailand, its dogs. They are EVERYWHERE. And its really quite sad.. ive seen some already with legs bent in ways that shouldnt be bent, bowels hanging out (and thats not a joke), and some with no left eyes.. its actually really sad and im not even joking when i say i see them and get depressed. But in any case.. Don Muang is a sweet place.
So kawaii has nothing on thailand in terms of wildlife, and Starbucks has got NOTHING on 7-11.. they are on EVERY block.. usually 2 within 100 yards of each other. Probably my favorite place, even more now. Also, houses are just stuck in the most random places and every house is pretty much a store.. everyone cooks something or sells drinks. its kinda awesome. There are street vendors who ride bikes, or just push carts, with chicken or ice cream, or whatever. Love it. Stopped the other day to get ice cream in a bun.. so delicious. Bread, rice, fruit, ice cream and chocolate sauce... all for only 10 baht.. epic. Also, those little yogurt drinks? EVERYWHERE! Huge bottles too. Also blueberry, mixed fruit, and green apple flavors. Choco pies, pocky sticks, yan yan, and pretty much every other awesome korean market candies are here too. Finally found M and Ms crispy.. of course i had to go half way around the world to find it.. but i can buy that, a bottle of water for about 35 baht.. thats barely over a dollar! Bought a full meal of sweet and sour pork on saturday for 25 baht. Can life get better? I submit that it cannot! Im lying, but for the sake of the joke i had to say it. Not gonna lie though.. in terms of food.. kinda been disappointed.. not in the fruit, that stuff is delicious. But for some reason i havent been liking the food ive been getting. Maybe i need a little time, but right now.. eh.. not for me.
Ok now for some business.. investigators! We have 2 with a baptismal date right now.. phii phccn and phii bii.. we call everyone "phii" because its formal and polite. And that first one is a woman, and it translates to "blessing.." hahah.. how awesome is that?! Anyway, พร, is a reall sweet lady probably bout 30 ish years old.. shes histerical. She knows a little bit of english because thats where Crowley met her, was at English lessons. Shes been progressing for quite some time now... almost a month and a half i think. She loves to talk and when i first met her, it was thursday night, at President Wisid's house (by the way, this family is awesome! Really helping the work go forward.. ill try and tell more about them later) and when i told her that i had been in thailand for only 2 days her eyes got huge and she was quiet for a minute and said, "OH WOW!" But shes kinda bittersweet.. she seems to be really interested, and she went to church yesterday and loved it, then went to a baptismal service after and loved that too, but i dont think really understands how important everything is yet. Yesterday she bought us some drinks, and Elder Crowley was like, "well i guess we need to teach keeping the sabbath day holy again." Guess so. But we'll keep chuggin. Ok i think my time is running out.. not because i have a time limit but because ive been here for a while.
To answer your questions... havent found pants yet. But 2 of my pairs have already gotten soaked and they are still fine haha.. thursday and friday it just straight dumped on us from 7 until we got home. Ill keep looking. I need some hankerchiefs too.. lots.. i sweat so much, its kinda ridiculous. I made a joke in the MTC that we would be with investigators and strain to barely understand them already while wiping our faces and whicking the sweat from our hands.. without realizing it until right in the middle of the action, i did just that! Then i laughed a little bit on the outside.
As for you Dad, i go back to the Phrase of the week: No one cares about how much you know, until they know how much you care. The Missionaries at home need to know that the members care about the work. Missionary work doesnt stop after being released from the calling of "Missionary." It's really different to see our branch here.. there are only about 25 people and they care so much about the work that they are trying so hard to help us out so they can have more members.. its been over a year since a baptism and they are really wondering "whats wrong with our branch?" Well, theres nothing wrong. But they want to see more faces enjoying the gospel like they do. At home, it was really easy for me to not care about whether or not the missionaries need help, because "oh, someone else will do it." Don't assume that. Go out of your way to help them. Whether they ask for you help or not, they need it and are always grateful for anything you can do. Feeding them is great.. really great.. but going with them to teach a lesson is also amazing. Especially if you are a convert. Them seeing someone else who at one point was where they are now goes a long way. Be willing to stretch forth your helping hand before they even ask you for one. Ask them every week how investigators are doing, how they themselves are doing, and what you can do to help the work push forward. Show them how much you care. I hope you're getting this Ball and Drew! Stop texting!
K i gotta end this.. say what up to everyone for me, tell them i love them. I'd give you my address but i think i lost it hahah.. Erika has it though. Hope you are all doing well and sorry that this probably wasnt as personal as they usually are. Josh, thanks again for your letter 2 weeks ago.. i really appreciated it and still read it because those are some serious words of advice. Sorry i didnt get to email you personally but love ya bud. Say what up to Aroc for me, and give him a sweet bean dip. Mom, sorry about the mix up with the bank. No worries. We'll pull money out later. Glad you got to talk to Saakha. When you forward this to him, ask him to forward it to President Calder and the Macks. He'll know what to do. Thanks for all your support Mom. Erika, love you too. Hope all is well and you're loving the job. Next week ill get some pictures out and email all of you individually.
Love you all! Peace!
Elder Gudmundsen
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