Letter 15 - Happy Three Month Anniversary in Thailand

 Dear family and friends, 

I cannot believe we have been in Thailand for 3 months! Time is flying by. This week was filled with all kinds of adventures. So buckle up - here we go!

Last Saturday, we made our weekly trip down to Rayong. We were excited to be with our little Rayong Branch for a baptism on Sunday and a potluck picnic on the beach to follow.

Monday was a lovely day in the office catching up on reports, emails, and projects. 

Tuesday we started this transfer's missionary apartment/condo/house inspections. (A transfer is a period of 6 weeks.) While we were visiting the Elders in Bangna, we discovered that one of the Elders is a grandson of a one of John's former coworkers (who was also the Portland Temple President during Covid). It is such a small world. More office work in the afternoon. That evening we had tickets to go and see the BYU Provo touring Ballroom Dance team! They performed at the Thailand Culture Center (a beautiful venue). It was an amazing show! Poor John ended up coming down with another nasty cold! Please pray for him. He has had one thing after another!! 

Wednesday was the day we teach English Connect in the morning. We taught our class and John took it easy most of the day. And by the end of the day, he was feeling much better, thankfully! I worked a bit in the office and took a little field trip to the Mall with Sister Belnap in the afternoon. I needed to pick up some things from the grocery store which is located in the fancy mall. Life is so different here. I don't have a giant Costco sized cart filled with groceries that I can roll out to my car. Instead, I bring a couple of bags and shop for the amount of things that will fit in my two bags and that I can actually carry out of the store, through the mall, down some escalators, on to the subway, and then up the stairs and around the block to my apartment! 

Thursday was a fun day. We actually slept in by accident! We woke up at 7am which is unheard of for us! And we both had over 8 hours of sleep - doubly unheard of! I think if I am lucky I get 8 hours of sleep twice a year! We had two houses to inspect and they were about an hour south of Bangkok by train. One of the condos was really close to an Elephant Museum (The Erawan Museum) and I really wanted to go see this museum. Every time the sky train goes by this giant Elephant, it has grabbed my attention. So we added an extra 2 hours to stop and see the sight on our way to the inspections. Lots of pictures to follow. The house visits were great. We love getting to know the missionaries and we love making sure they are safe and tidy :).

Which brings us to today. Friday, May 2, 2025! Happy Birthday to our daughter, Teressa! Well, we had another house visit with some Sisters that live 1 and 1/2 hours away by bus! So we took off this morning and caught the bus. We brought our books and Thai language study with us and made the best use of the time. We enjoyed the journey! We also enjoyed our visit with the Sisters. They keep a clean place! We joined them for some lunch afterwards and then headed back to the office! 

If any of you have actually made it through this post, I thank you! For those of you that have fallen asleep. You are welcome. 

We love you and miss you all and pray you are well. Thanks for reading! 

Love, 

John and Shelly (mom and dad, grandpa and grandma, etc.!)

   

John and Shelly on the lawn next to the Erawan Museum.

The view from our hotel room in Rayong. A sand sculpture event took place (you can see it to the right below). In the upper middle you can see the colorful tarps over the Star Light Street Market.

Close up of one of the sculptures.

A dragon sculpture!

Baptism of Namking on the beach - the Rayong Branch.

Saying thank you with a handshake!

Confirmation on the beach.

Time for a picnic! 

Namking with the missionaries.

One of our chapels in Bangkok.

Look at the jagged glass on the top of this wall.

House inspection with Elder Felt and Elder Wood (who is the grandson of John's former co-worker. 

Sister missionaries from the West mission!

A night at the theater with the Senior Missionaries! 

BYU Ballroom Dancers! 

It was an amazing show! 

Temple from the 5th floor balcony.

Chickens checking out the sidewalk and the parked cars! 

Anyone want to stop and play chess? Hey, Elder Brady! Wait up!

Some stormy rains flooded the path the walkway to the museum. 

So we got to walk across these wobbly benches to get to the entrance!

The Erawan Museum!

John hits the gong for good luck!

Summertime flowers (yes it is summer in Thailand).

Sitting on a bench on the Erawan Museum park grounds.

Beautiful statues.

Elephant statues (in the back) - John and Shelly (in the front).

Inside the Elephant! 

Beautiful art and shrines inside the elephant.

Also inside the museum. This museum was built in 2003 and advertises itself as the first and biggest hand-sculpture in the world. 

Looking down from the 2nd story.

The 3rd story has many antiques on display from many countries. 

The wood floors, staircase, and banister were so beautiful.

Lunch with the sisters (Sister Johnston and Sister Endaya) at Pepper Lunch. 

The food cooks on a HOT plate in front of you. And it was delicious! 

Cracks (from the earthquake) in the wall of one of the condos we inspected.

Another long bus ride! It's very bouncy, but airconditioned! 

These sisters were waiting for us. We could hear them singing to us as we approached the building. 

You can see them waving at us from the window way up high! 

Lunch with the sisters! Sisters Taylor and Bullock took us to a little Thai place 

where we ate rice and chicken! It was delicious! 

The sisters hamming it up with mini hamburgers in honor of Elder Brady's love of a good hamburger!