Dear family and friends!
Happy Birthday to our daughter Michelle, Happy Birthday to John, and Happy 6 month Mission Anniversary!
It was a crazy, busy, fun week here in Thailand! We celebrated John's 4th of July Birthday with our daughter Rikki and some of our missionaries (since it was transfer week). We had such a great time with Rikki in town. She has been to Bangkok before so we mostly just enjoyed eating good food, showing her what we do, taking her to our stomping grounds, and just spending time together. We went to the movies, saw the world famous Moo Deng (scroll through the pictures if you want to know what that is), visited the largest 7-11 in the world, and got pulled over by the police (and if you want to know more about that, you will definitely have to keep on reading - haha!)!
As always, we love you and miss you and pray you are well! We love to hear from you and we are so glad to have you as our family and friends!
Love,
Elder and Sister Brady (mom and dad, grandpa and grandma, John and Shelly, and so on!)
PS - Did I mention we just had our 6 month mission anniversary??? Over a quarter done!
Rikki arrived on Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, Sister Belnap took us next door to see the beautiful view from her apartment. The Belnaps will be leaving the mission in November and we have the option of staying at the Annex where we live now or moving to the Address next door.
Here is the view from the Belnap's balcony. You can see the temple on the lower right and the Annex on the lower left (that is where we live). Rikki said it should be a no brainer to make the move and have this beautiful view of Bangkok! In addition to the view, there is a gym...
...and this gorgeous rooftop pool! The downside of moving is, we would have to walk a whole block to work and the temple. Ugh. But in the monsoon season that would not be fun. And then we can't forget the earthquake that happened earlier this year. So...
We took a little drive up to Ayutthaya.
From the Google: The Historic City of Ayutthaya, founded in 1350, was the second capital
of the Siamese Kingdom. It flourished from the 14th to the 18th centuries.
Also from the Google: Ayutthaya, Thailand's former capital,
was destroyed by the Burmese army in 1767 after a 14 month siege.
This was the end of the Ayutthaya Kingdom, which had lasted for over 400 years. The Burmese sacked and burned the city, leaving behind extensive ruins.
We are not supposed to pet stray dogs here in Thailand because of the possibility of getting bit and getting rabies. And sometimes the dogs will attack and bite. These little puppies were so cute and followed us around the ruins. It was hard not to pet them!
They just loved us!
Following us down the path!
Say "cheese!"
This puppy was licking my toes!
This huge tree was growing up out of the ruins, displacing the bricks!
Beautiful ruins.
More from Google: In Ayutthaya, Thailand, roosters hold a special significance, primarily due to a legend involving King Naresuan and a cockfight that symbolized the kingdom's freedom from Burmese control. This legend has led to the widespread presence of rooster statues and offerings at temples and monuments in Ayutthaya.
Smile mom and dad!
Beautiful buildings.
More roosters!
People bring roosters and place them in front of the temples and ruins.
We had to take Rikki to Pepper Lunch!
The missionaries are in town for transfers and shared their durian with us!
Out on the balcony in front of the mission home! We were in down the hall in our PJs, but they invited us over so Rikki could try the durian! I gave it a 9, Rikki gave it a 4, John gave it a 10 (but I think I like it more than he does! Hahaha!)
Michelle Facetimed her dad on the night of her birthday (the 3rd of July) to wish him a happy birthday because it was morning (the 4th of July) in Thailand! It was the first time they were able to have their one day apart birthdays on the SAME DAY!
Friday morning! Missionaries sing a happy birthday song to Elder Brady as well as a beautiful rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" It's transfer morning breakfast time!
Sitting, chatting, and eating in the mission home on Transfer Day!
Sisters Cobia, Colver, and Taylor! We have the most beautiful missionaries in Thailand!
Sister Faux, Elder Freedman, Sisters Johnston and Endaya, and the Bradys!
Everyone thought Rikki was one of the new missionaries! Haha!
Elder Brady waits patiently for breakfast. Sister Taylor does a great job mimicking Elder Brady!
Birthday movie time! Jurassic World 15! (Or whatever number it was)! If you have seen one, you have seen them all. But that is OK! It was still a good movie! And the giant cheese popcorn was still a hit! We didn't want to but, yes, we shared with Rikki.
Haha just kidding! We were cool with sharing with Rikki!
Hello Rikki!
On our way home from the movies, we ran into these lovely ladies!
Birthday burgers to finish out John's special day!
John's favorite EAT AM ARE Bacon Double Cheese Burger!
This zoo is so scenic!
Capybaras! These are giant rodent creatures!! Google says they are the largest living rodents!
This monkey charged me shortly after I took its picture! I wish I had been taking a video!
But also I was glad to not get bit!!!!
Rikki was excited to visit this zoo because she had heard of Thailand's famous Pygmy Hippo. There are Instagram reels and TikTok reels that have documented this Hippo since her birth. I said to Rikki, I heard there is some famous hippo at a zoo in Chonburi and she said, "Moo Deng???"
And here is the world famous Moo Deng!!
If you copy and paste the link, you can learn a little bit more about her!
https://youtu.be/JngNAayMZ7w?si=40x_D98VzmjqPTvT
From Google: Moo Deng, the viral pygmy hippo was born on July 10, 2024, at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand. Her name, which translates to "bouncy pork" or "pork patty" in Thai, has become synonymous with her adorable and sometimes grumpy-looking antics.
Next stop: The Largest 7-11 in the World! This building, in the beach town of Pattaya, has a ship theme!
Heading into the 7 (as they call the store here in Thailand).
Inside the two story building.
Stairs up to the second level!
John takes our picture from above!
Sunday morning. All ready for church.
On our way home from church, we drove by the beach for Rikki to see.
And took a couple of quick pictures.
I always see dogs sitting on this cement wall on the freeway off ramp. This time I got a picture!
Monday morning we took a walk around Bangkok. We showed Rikki the Asoke Building that John served in when he was a missionary back in the 70s. This building is currently not in use.
We stopped at the bakery while we were out and about. These are delicious lemon tarts. This bakery is on the University campus next to the Post Office we go to whenever we have to drop off mission mail.
On the subway to the airport Monday night! It was so great having you visit Rikki!
Beautiful temple on the walk back from the train after dropping Rikki off at the airport.
Tuesdays walk home from the post office, we came across these beautiful flowers.
Wednesday shopping with the Zone Leaders for Zone Conference Breakfast!
Elders Wood and Gibson!
Catching the subway back to the temple annex with all of our groceries!
Ling and her mother brought us a beautiful tie and Book Cover.
Oh! I forgot to tell you about us getting pulled over by the Police! We were slowly turning left in Bangkok along with a ton of other cars, when suddenly police officers ran into the road and waved us down!! We were driving the mission rental car (the mission is buying a new car soon but for now they have provided a rental) and it has a big sticker on the front window that shows it is a rental car. And we are sitting in this rental car looking like foreigners! They ran up and told us we could not "cross over." We have no idea what we were crossing over. We were following all the cars in front of us. They asked for our licenses and looked surprised when John showed him his THAI driver's license. They told us he would get a ticket and need to go to the police station. I fiddled with my phone and that got them really upset. They came over to the other side of the car and demanded to see my phone. Fortunately, I had not taken a picture so I could say. "What? I did not take any pictures!" He pressed on all my photo apps - but thankfully there were no pictures! Whew! Then he writes 1000 on his note pad and shows it to me and points to it and says 1000 baht. Pay 1000 Baht. So I pointed to the driver's license and said "I want this." So I pulled out 1000 Baht and we exchanged 1000 Baht for the license. And that was the end of that!!! Several Senior Missionaries have had the exact same experience and so we knew to always carry 1000 Baht with us for just such an occasion. Even though it was only about $30 US dollars, we didn't like being told to pay the money. But we can add it to our list of interesting mission experiences!
OK! Now I am done! Thanks for reading! We love you!
No comments:
Post a Comment