Dear friends and family,
This week has flown by. If I am starting all of my blog posts with that sentence, I am sorry, it is what it is! From potluck gatherings after church to missionaries heading home and new missionaries arriving in Thailand, it was go, go, go!
Sundays details are in the pictures below! Lots of good stuff if you want to jump ahead!
Monday - Aside from all of the regular office stuff, we had a staff meeting and after that, I helped count inventory in the Distribution Center. Monday night we we went out for pizza with the Belnaps.
Tuesday - We couldn't get much done in the office because the internet was not working well. Without the internet, I really can't do my office work! The highlight of the work day was going upstairs and cleaning the guest room down the hall, preparing for the arrival of our new Senior Missionaries. Fun fact: I love to clean, do laundry, and iron. I do NOT like to cook! Tuesday evening, I got a Thai Massage and it was one of the most painful I have had so far! But, as always, I felt so much better afterwards!
Wednesday - I had my Thai tutoring class followed by our English Connect class. We love our English Conversations with our ESL missionaries! We went to lunch with the mission leaders and our new senior missionaries, the Howards. They were going to be in Bangkok for a couple of days for some training before they headed out to Ubon to serve as MLS (member leader support) missionaries. We had a visit from some Sister missionaries who were leaving Bangkok the next day. We trained the Howards on their housing inspection responsibilities. And I took the Howards over to the mall to explore and buy some necessities.
Thursday - We had a pickleball game with the Elders (Hansen and Fowles). Fun Fact: Anyone that played with me, lost! But we had fun and the scores were respectable . . . like we just barely lost. So I felt good about that! When we got back to the office, the Mission leaders invited us up to the mission home for lunch with our departing missionaries. I have to say this is the first time that the sadness hit me as we have been here long enough that we have gotten to know some of the young missionaries well and we are sad to see them head home or new areas. Some tears were even shed! Thursday night we went to the mall and ended up eating a donut and seeing a movie! (Be sure to see the pictures below!)!
That brings us to today! Friday! We were up early to get out the door to go grab breakfast "to go" for transfer day! John grabbed the Thai donuts and I grabbed the meat and rice! The Belnaps grabbed the other important foods! We enjoyed the missionaries coming and going all day long. We had some housing training and I got trained to help with the medical training (at future arrival days) since our nurse lives in another zone upcountry. We had another yummy Thai food lunch in the mission home and a ton of stuff to do in the office. Transfer time (when missionaries move from one area to another and new missionaries arrive and missionaries finish their missions) means there are lots of reports to run, print, and mail out. Its a busier time for me. And, of course, Elder Brady is always busy with a never ending task list of broken bikes to get fixed, rice cookers and wardrobes to order and ship, and air conditioners and fans to get fixed! Our office is often very quiet so transfer week is a fun week where we get to see lots of our young missionaries. We love it!
And we love you and miss you and would love to hear from you!
May God bless you and keep you!
Love,
John and Shelly (mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, and so on)
Pictures below tell more of the story:
Our little Rayong Branch had the largest attendance we have ever had! It was wonderful. We make the drive down every Saturday. It takes 2 and 1/2 hour - 4 and 1/2 hours one way depending on traffic. We drive home to Bangkok after church on Sunday.
During church we did an activity discussing the gifts of the Spirit. Each of us were surprised to find an envelope under our chairs. I was so happy to see a little bit of Disney on my envelope! Haha!
THIS IS DURIAN! People either love it or hate it! The smell is so pungent it is not allowed in the subway or in many hotels. You see signs everywhere that say "no Durian!" A sister in our Branch has a farm and brought some to share!
We learned about gifts of the Spirit in Sunday School! My gift was translating!
I am going to have to start working harder on learning my Thai!
Time for a picture after church! Elder Bergstedt gets photo credit!
Lots of yummy snacks and fruit at our linger longer!
Elder Brady and Sister Brady trying new fruits in the background! (Durian and Mangosteen)!
More fruit! Pictures left front to back: bananas, jackfruit, and durian.
The sister who brought these fruits owns a farm and is also a Master Chef!
She told me she was on the Thai version television show "Master Chef." I love the US version.
She told me she was a Master Chef and I told her I was a Master Eater! Haha!!
Mangosteen in my hand. And Lumpia (made by some of our Filipino Sisters).
Trying the Mangosteen for the first time!
Eating another bite of Durian!
Here is what our bedrooms look like where we live. This is the room down the hall. I spent the morning getting it read for our next guests (The Howards). Sheets are clean and bed is made!
Out to lunch with the mission leaders and the Howards at our favorite Thai place! Yummy!
Close up of some of our dishes! Did I mention it was delicious??
The temple is closed for two weeks for cleaning and maintenance. Zoom in to see the window washers!
Never mind, I will zoom in for you!
Bradys and the Kanyaphans (our mission leaders).
The sisters love the pictures of our grandchildren. Sister Taylor has transferred out of Bangkok and Sister Bullock has finished her mission! We will miss them both!
So many motorcycles!!!
Pickleball with the Elders!
Bradys and Elders Hansen and Fowles!
Our departing missionaries! This time it hit harder to see them go! Such a great group!
Sister Bullock, Kanyaphans (they are staying), Elders Springer, Rassavong, Sangrungrut, and Pantila!
Transfer, departing, and arrival day! Suitcases fill the office!
Suitcases rolled out to the hallway, so now missionaries fill our office.
Sister Ellis trains the newly arrived missionaries!
Our new sister on the right (Sister Peterson) with her senior companion, Sister Thomas.
Another new sister on the right (Sister Sanford) with senior companion, Sister Pathoumma.
These are not my pictures, but I had to share them. These belong to sister Barker (West Mission). She told us she was serving in Lopburi (a city known for it's monkeys) and a monkey stole a Book of Mormon from her! And ran off with it!
Then he started reading it! Hahahaha!
And then he got mad at her when she tried to take it back!
I asked her if I could share the pictures because I thought they were great!
On my way to the post office, I saw a cat taking a catnap in the shade.
Trying to escape the heat, I guess.
I cut under the streets via the subway metro mall to walk to and from the post office.
It is nice and airconditioned.
All of the subways have these little metro malls and I don't have to cross the crazy traffic filled streets.
Coming up the subway/train escalator.
Thursday night we went to the mall. John always used to eat "Mister Donut" donuts when he served in Thailand back in the 70s. It was the only donut place that Thailand had back then. Now there are Dunkin Donuts and other pastry shops everywhere.
We had to try one of course.
We shared it.
Then we decided to go to a movie! We found an English speaking movie and thought, why not?
Since we had only had half a donut for dinner, we thought we should get some popcorn! This is literally the largest popcorn I have ever seen!!! We got a buttered and cheese mix! It was good!
We sent the pictures to our kids and they used a little AI to brighten our smiles!
Hahahahahaha!
Well, if you made it this far, I hope you got a few good laughs!
It is Saturday morning now and I want to post this so we can get on our way to Rayong!
Thanks for reading!
Bye!
