So COLD!

Oh my gosh! Yeah.. i know that has to sound crazy.. but DANG! I wore long sleeves yesterday! Biking home at night, or biking over these bridges is so dang cold! Seriously.. I can take it better then Elder Tom (and everyone else in Warin) but its still so strange! Everyone on the streets in bundled up like there about to peace over to Mount Everest for a few weeks.. i didnt even know these people had full winter coats. Really funny actually.. everyone on motorcycles just cover their faces with whatever they can.. extra shirts, plastic bags hahah.. Its way comfortable.

So Dad... how does it feel to have gotten straight dominated by an 88 year old man? Sounds fantastic! So what did He say about your hair Josh? Theres words for that out here, cause theres a couple members with hair like that.. only a couple.

So what happened this week. It was a pretty good one. We had district meeting with the zone leaders and then a 2 days exchange. I was with my Nong on wednesday, and then with the zone leader on thursday. With Elder Jensen (my nong) we killed it! Got 6 new investigators and taught 5 lessons on the spot. Epic. Its sweet cause normally when i go on exchanges we find some awesome golden investigator but in someone elses area besides mine.. but here, i can meet them at church! Then with the zone leader, Elder Panom (yes another thai elder.. im just on a role!) back in Warin... we had.. "success." We had some fun inviting and we did find a pretty sweet family close to a members house. They are crazy.. i love em. The son and the daughter are very fun.. but a little hard to make them concentrate. Better than nothing eh? The son just had these laughing fits all the time and the dad is very funny about it.. he just starts laughing to but hes just like "what are you laughing about?! i dont get it!" The Mom is super hardcore Buddhists so that should be fun.

So right now we have 2 people with baptismal dates: 2 daddies. both old. 1 speaks so unclearly its absurd! But i love him. the first is Bulay and the 2nd is Grongjai. Something liek that.. i dont know how to spell them. Both have daughters who are starting to learn with us too.. we met Bulays daughter yesterday at the hospital because she has a fungus in her head and has halted movement to the left side of her body. While we were talking to her yesterday i dont know what it was, but i just saw her getting baptized. She had a lot of questions, but not only that, it was the way she asked them.. who facial expressions and stuff reminded me of something but i dont know what.. Its hard to described but shes gonna totally get baptized. We have 2 others that have yet to accept baptismal dates: Nai, and Mc. Nai is.. wow, he is hilarious. We both almost peed our pants one night. So, we go meet this guy at his house for an appointment: "Hey Nai! We're here!" "Yeah Elders.. ooo.. cmon up.. ah.." When we get up there, hes holding his stomach and bending over in pain." Whoa, whats wrong." "aw, Elders i got some seriously bad diahrea.. it hurts so bad! but here, lets sit and you can teach me." "uh.. okay." we sat down for about 20 seconds and he just gets up and is like, "Oh man.. im so sorry.. i gotta go to the bathroom.. oh man." And then he just peaced hahah.. he was like saying sorry the whole way to the bathroom and saying "ill read the Book of Mormon in the bathroom... wait.. is that bad?" hahaha.. i was dying. "NO! Its perfect reading material!" "OK Elder.. ill read and then we can meet tomorrow ok? Oh man.. im gonna die." We didnt get to meet him until 2 days ago (4 days after the first time) but when we called to confirm the appointment before, Elder Tom was speaking to him and i said to ask how his diahrea was.. went away or not. Elder Tom asked him. "OH man Elder Much better! But now im constipated!" Hahaha.. Elder Tom had to explain after he was done but he was about to die for about 5 minutes straight. When we did finally meet with him, we gave him the stock answers (by the way, Elder Tom knows that phrase now too!) and he accepted no problem. But for baptism, not yet. He was like "lemme compare this to someone proposing.. its a big deal! If someone were to ask me to marry them right now, i would say no, cause im not ready." "Yes.. now let ME compare that to members in our church.. do you think anyone feels ready for marriage?" "No probably not." "What do you think we do in our Church? Pray first. Then you will know if you are ready or not." He was silent for a bit and said... "Good point." So we had him pray and it was sweet.. he asked for more faith (which was funny as well cause he basically said "help me have a butt ton of faith") and then at the end... he only said Amen, and left out in the name of Jesus Christ.. so we just quickly corrected him, and very humbly he was just like, "ah crap i forgot." Hes a great guy and we are faithful that he will totally get baptized.

Okay.. so thats all i got for now... gotta peace. Im hungry. Warin is sweet, Ubon is sweet.. we ate at a place called "Hitlers" in Ubon.. yeah not kidding. Its Chicken. Fried. They took Hitlers face and put it on the Kernels body at KFC. And unfortunately.. Hitler does not make chicken as good as the Kernel. The ward here is.. interesting. to put it simply, theres some stuff that NEEDS to be fixed. Dont need to say, but we already introduced some things and things are going to change more. I know that no 2 places that serve would be the same, but when youve got a ward with 100 people and 5 lessons with them and a branch with 20 people and 30 lessons with them, theres something wrong with that picture. Anyway.. its good. Because everyone is strong enough in the Gospel, we are all willing to work together to fix what needs to be fixed, and make better what is already good so that these investigators will feel the love and jump in the water! Love you all.

Elder Gudmundsen