BRADY MISSION TO THAILAND: June 2025

Dear family and friends,

How can June be nearly over!? Time is flying by! This week was filled with, guess what, missionary work! Last Saturday, we spent time with our Rayong missionaries, had a baptism on Sunday, played pickleball on Monday, closed a condo on Tuesday, taught English class on Wednesday, went to the post office and two markets on Thursday, and went to the temple on Friday (today) with our Bangkok missionaries. We did all of the above along with our regular day to day office work. And somewhere in there we fit in a night at the movies, and I (Shelly) got a massage. So, yes, the week was filled and flew by. See the pictures below for more details and fun!

By the way, we love and miss you and appreciate you taking the time to read the blog! We love hearing from you too!

May the Lord bless and keep you,

Love,

Elder and Sister Brady (mom and dad, grandpa and grandma, John and Shelly, and so on)!

Shopping in Rayong with the Elders, we came across this giant bag of a Cheetos looking snacks!

Good thing we read the (not so) fine print and did NOT buy this bag of SQUID flavored Cheetos!!

The Elders have an impromptu meeting while trying out the camp chairs. We bought a chair so we could have a chair for the confirmation after the baptism on the beach. And then I could use the chair during the week to sit in the sunshine on the roof our annex and read and relax. (So far, I have not had time to do that . . . but one of these days it will happen!)

Fish for sale at the grocery store!

The Elders think that maybe "this is the place!" for Sunday's baptism.

I had to get a picture of these pretty trees on the beach on Saturday.

The baptism would be here on Sunday.

Then I zoomed in and notice this interesting looking fruit in the tree. Those aren't coconuts!

I don't know what they are!

Church is over. Time for our weekly potluck!

Sister Brady is trying a new fruit! It is sort of a bitter sweet fruit!

This is actually a fruit! I forgot the name. It was sort of sweet and sour. The Thais eat it with a little sugar mix (you can see it spread on one of the pieces).

Sister Nice, Sister Brady, and Sister Aujima!

This is Nom Tham. She was one of the first converts in our little branch in Rayong.

She loves to hug and calls me mom.

She is the age of our oldest daughter, so I guess it is appropriate! She is so sweet!

This is the Rayong Branch on the beach at the baptism of Nui.

Nui's baptism.

Nui gives her thanks to the Elders for baptizing her.

Elder Berg congratulates Nui with a bow and a rose.

The picture above is from our zoom fireside on Sunday evening. I have to share with you the coolest story that one of the missionaries shared! Elder Smith, who is leaving soon, shared a story about how his family came to Thailand when he was 7 or 8 years old. They spent some time serving in an orphanage where they just fell in love with two little orphans named Em and Bean. Two years ago, Elder Smith was so happy when he was called on his mission to Thailand. Through a crazy series of events (miracles) he ended up in the right place at the right time. He was teaching an English class in Phuket Thailand when he met a young man named Em. He discovered that it was the same Em he knew as a child. He was able to teach him about the gospel of Jesus Christ and Em was baptized.

Motorcycles on the sidewalk. All day long wherever you go!

This did not look safe going 65 miles an hour on the highway!

Walking to pickleball!

Hey Elder Brady! Wait up!

Pickleball with the office Elders - Collado and Freedman

Langsat Fruit (Longkong in Thai)

Google describes it as a tender, perfectly balanced, sweet with a pinch of sour fruit.

Looks like orange segments, but tastes like a grape according to google.

Let's try it. Google was correct!

Moving time again! Closing the Bangna Condo. Packing up, throwing away, and giving away!

Good bye to this view.

Elder Wood kicks back on the sofa. He has been helping us pack and clean while attending a district zoom meeting on his phone. Multi-tasking at its finest! (Elder Wood's grandpa and grandma are friends of ours back in USA. His grandfather was the Portland Temple President during Covid.)

Elder Bird scrapes tape off a window.

Smile!

Group photo!

I don't know if this picture really captures how tiny this road was!

The GPS insisted we drive this way and our big van barely fit!!

Now turn right and go under this bridge . . . if you dare!

This was the craziest, longest line to get on the subway that I had ever seen! It took me 20 minutes and about 10 trains before I made it on the subway! I probably could have walked to my destination as fast!

Another view of the long lines!

At the mall on my way to get my $6 Thai Massage and I discovered that there is a Pepper Lunch at this Mall! How have we not seen this before??

Thursday morning at the market!

And that is a wrap!

Thanks for reading! You are the best!

Dear family and friends,

Happy belated Father's Day to all the dads out there who might actually be reading this blog! It was a great day in Thailand. John heard from all of his children so that was a big plus!

Have you ever had a week that felt like it was a month long and at the same time it flew by? That was this past week! I think I will let the pictures do most of the talking!

In short, it was a lot of house visits (inspecting missionary apartments for safety and cleanliness), one big move (moving Elders from one Condo to a new apartment), Father's Day Meals (that means a trip or two to Pepper Lunch), a trip to a market or two, and a walk in the park (that means a literal walk in a Park!), and new callings! If I missed anything, I am sure I will cover it in the pictures below!

As always, we love you and miss you and pray you are well!

Love,

Elder and Sister Brady (mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, John and Shelly)

On our way to inspect the Elder's Condo! I found a plumeria for my hair (it reminded me of living in Hawaii!). John is wearing his hat because he got a little sunburned last week!

These four Elders share an apartment! And I have to say they did a great job cleaning. They win the most improved - haha! These are our terrific APs (APs - assistant to the mission president) Elders Canfield and Geilman and our Office Elders Freedman and Collado

(they come into the office a couple times a week and help us!)

I spy the temple from the train! This is on our way home from our inspection!

A trip to Chatuchak Market.

A walk through Chatuchak Park.

Chatuchak Park.

I spy a water monitor! (I mistakenly called this a Kimono Dragon before.)

Water monitor - google it! They roam freely through the parks in Bangkok!

I spy Elder Brady through the beautiful bougainvillea (this is another favorite flower that reminds me of my years living in Hawaii so many decades ago)!

I spy a happy father! This was our day before Father's Day meal! Yummy Pepper Lunch!

Elder Brady got the Jumbo Beef! The food is served on dangerously hot cast iron pans!

I spy the temple again! This is on our walk home from the market through a large university campus. We walked to an "American food" store called The Villa Market to purchase ingredients for Chocolate Chip Cookies. I haven't done any baking since we have been here. Mainly because I have not been able to figure out how to use the oven (it is all in Celsius and symbols I don't understand). This may be the reason John has lost 23 pounds and I have lost 18 in the past 5 months. You all know I don't particularly like to cook . . . but I love to bake! And we love sweets. So not baking has been good for us. We needed basically all of the ingredients and we walked a mile and a half home with, as John says, "45 pounds of flour and sugar." Fun fact: It was 5 pounds of flour and 2 pounds of sugar. But all the exercise, walking and sweating helped us from gaining too many pounds after our cookie binge on Sunday!

Happy Father's day to John. We actually made spaghetti with meat sauce (we are not exactly sure what the meat was - we are hoping it was hamburger). It was good! You can see by the excitement in John's face! Haha! He did enjoy it and we had fruit and veggies and cookies! Lots of cookies (not pictured).

We got to facetime with Michelle and family who called us Monday morning (to be fair it was still Father's Day in the USA)! John chatted with family while he kept his eyes on the road!

Where are we driving to, you ask? To this fancy Condo in Chonburi. The Elders were moving to a better area closer to the church. This condo (really fancy I might add) was a 30 minute bike ride to the church and they moved to a new (older place I might add) that is closer to the church.

The condo they were in had an amazing view of the ocean.

This new place is just a couple of blocks from the ocean. So there is that!

Elder Fairey all loaded up with bags to take down to the van!

Elder Brady and Elder Olsen just finished taking down the bunkbed!

That was a rough move! We had to unwind with some Mickey Ds!

The beach just a few blocks from the Elder's new digs!

The new place didn't have a kitchen, so a makeshift kitchen was set up on their balcony!

Even though they left a fancier condo, these Elders were such good sports and hard workers!

Did I mention how much we love these missionaries?

It's so beautiful here! Fun fact: the young missionaries can enjoy the ocean view but they do not go swimming on their missions.

Did I mention how beautiful it is? Fun fact: Senior missionaries can enjoy the ocean view and if the want go swimming too! Serve a Senior Mission! It is great!

A cool statue on our drive home!

These four Elders live in a home in Chachoengsao. They are just over an hour away by car. We normally take public transportation for our visits, but this was easier by car. Elder Brady did more driving this week than normal. Good thing we are working on getting our Thai driver's licenses! These Elders help with a relatively new branch in this area! They work hard teaching English classes, running the small branch, and finding people to share a message about Jesus Christ!

We liked this cool transformer guy right near the train station, so we had to take a picture!

See that line on my arm? Two words: Pepper Lunch. Dangerously hot dishes!

Elders Tripoli and Wingrove always keep us laughing when we make a house visit!

Grabbing lunch with some missionaries at this fancy mall!

Let's go to some place new! How about Pepper Lunch?? (with Elders Fowles and Hutcheon)

This might have been our 3rd visit this week. But who is counting?

I love the random figurines you find in malls here in Thailand. Speaking of malls, it is amazing how many malls there are here! And they are always full of people! I thought malls were going out of style in the USA. But here they are thriving!

Another train ride home after a long (lovely) day of house visits!

Clock tower in Chatuchak park! (View from the train station.)

We met these cute girls on the temple grounds. They were mission companions in Spain! One is from Spain and one from Argentina! They are here visiting Thailand.

A picture with President Johnson. He is in the Asia Area Presidency. As many of you know, John was a patriarch before we left for our mission. He met with John this morning and extended a calling to be the English Language Patriarch in Thailand. It is a new and unique calling as he will be giving blessings to people from all over Asia. Many people from other countries don't have the opportunity to get a blessing in English and when they come to the temple in Thailand they ask if they can get a blessing. Additionally, missionaries from other countries come to the MTC here in Thailand and have not had an opportunity to have a blessing and ask if they can get a blessing. Until now, the answer has been no as there was only a Thai speaking patriarch here - plus patriarchal blessings are normally done in your home area. So the fact that Elder Brady will be able to give blessings to people from India, Cambodia, China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and many other countries is amazing and humbling. For our friends of other faiths, here is some more information on what a patriarchal blessing is: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/patriarchal-blessings?lang=eng