Letter 32 - New Foods and Pickleball

Dear family and friends, 

We hope this finds you well and in good health. We ate a lot of good food this week so hold on to your hats! It was a fun week tasting new foods, pickleball, and house inspections (our favorite - not that we love inspecting houses - but we do LOVE spending time with the missionaries).  

And we rode on a bus that had to be here when John served his mission in the 70s! Which was nearly half a century ago! I posted those pictures at the very end so you will have to keep on scrolling if you want to see them! And BONUS OFFER - if you make it to the bus pictures you win some free mango sticky rice if you come visit us in Thailand! Haha! 

As always the pictures tell the story best! So for now, we love you and miss you and would love to hear from you! 

Love,

Elder and Sister Brady (Mom and Dad, Grandpa and Grandma, John and Shelly and so on!)

Trying out some beach chairs at Home Pro / Mega Home! We thought it would be a good idea to buy some chairs so we can sit on the beach when we go to Rayong for the weekends!

Khao Phat Gai (Fried Rice with Chicken) at our favorite street stall in Rayong.

Yummy!

Som Tam (Papaya Salad).

Walking back to the hotel. Star Convention Hotel is off to the right. 

Do you see what I see on the ground?

Maybe someone will pick this pamphlet up and want to learn more about Jesus! 

Mermaid statue near our hotel. She looks like a sand sculpture, but she is not!

She is actually a real mermaid! JK! Haha!

Elder Lowry makes himself a pineapple and pineapple jam sandwich after church! 

Elders Saunders and Sevilla are in the background.

How does it taste Elder? 

It tastes pretty good! Elder Lowry gives it a thumbs up!

Elder Jones and Elder Lowry eating sandwiches made of chocolate filled cookies and sweetened condensed milk! I am not kidding! I am told in Thailand you can make a sandwich out of anything!

A closer view! PS - those cookies are good! Elder Brady and I eat a lot of them! 

I am also told that Thais love to put Sweetened Condensed Milk on everything. 

Look at this cool tube of Sweetened Condensed Milk! 

Well, maybe not everything . . . but for sure on white bread!  

How does it taste? Dii Mak! (very good in Thai!)

Time for a fireside. Dressed for the zoom meeting! Nice shirts and PJ bottoms! 

I spotted this pretty Buddhist Shrine on the way to play pickleball!

Pickleball with the Sisters! Sisters Lundberg and Taylor! We had a blast! 

Good times . . . even though I lost every game! 

Afterwards, we went to Dough Bros for Pizza, Soup and a Donut! 

This Bischoff filled donut is AMAZING!!! Aroi Mak! (Very Delicious!)

Sisters Taylor and Lundberg enjoying their meal! 

Riding the subway home from the store. I needed to do a little shopping Tuesday.

I don't wear makeup anymore. I wonder if I ever will again. It all sweats off here in Thailand so I don't bother. Elder Brady found an app that puts makeup on the picture, so problem is solved! 

The app even cut and colored my hair! Haha! 

Back to being a brunette, here we are with the Sisters after an A++ house inspection! 

This house was sparkling! 

We took a Songthaew Ride to grab a bite after the house inspection. 

AI created this pencil drawing for us! Please note how many arms I have and how many hands Sister Lundberg has! FYI - Sister Taylor is joping (finishing) the mission in 5 weeks. We will miss her!

On our walk to a mall to buy John some pants we found this cool walkway! 

The sign says "A bountiful Autumn Garden." 

I am certain that we will not get anything close to fall colors here, so this was a fun sight to see.

You can see window washers on the side of this skyscraper if you zoom in! 

Time to visit the Ramkhamhaeng Sisters! They live the farthest away. 

This time we took the water taxi to get to their place! 

Water Taxi Ride!

View from the Water Taxi!

We got off the water taxi and walked through a 

Wat (Buddhist Temple) to get to the main road to catch a bus. 

We passed this interesting art work in the Wat. 

Another view of the Wat. 

Elder Brady walks down the street leading out of the Wat. 

After the house inspection, we walked down this cute street to a food stall for lunch! 

Sister Peterson bought us this yummy dessert! Thank you Sister! 

It was a banana wrapped in a coconut something and then deep fried! 

By the way, Sisters Peterson and Johnston also had an A++ house! Super clean and neat! 

Getting ready to taste this Ancient Thai Dessert, Elder Brady puts his glasses on! 

Elder Brady observes closely as Sister Brady takes a bite! 

Bite taken! 

Chewing! 

And wow!!!! Aroi Mak!! 

Well, now that dessert is over, lunch is served! We enjoyed our visit with Sisters Peterson and Sister Johnston. We are sad because Sister Johnston is also leaving the mission in 5 weeks! 

We sure love these sisters! 

Todays lunch was called Phad Phrik Gang Gai. It was curried rice with chicken and an egg on top! 

It was delicious! 

On our way home we caught the 519 bus! 

We are certain this bus was around when John served back in the 70s! The floors were wooden and there was no air conditioning! It only cost 8 baht though (about 25 cents!)

On the bus! Windows were all open to stay cool! 

Speaking of cool! How cool are these floors? 

Well - if you made it this far, you get some free mango sticky rice when you come and visit us in Thailand! We love you and miss you! Thanks for reading! 

Letter 31 - Another Baptism and a New Friend (and More!)

Dear family and friends,

We hope this finds you well and enjoying your final weeks of summer! Most of our grandchildren have started school and hints of fall are in the air!

Here in Thailand I don't know what season it is because the weather is still hot, hotter, and hottest! However, I am told the rainy season is coming!

This past week we kept busy with a few meals out, a baptism in Rayong, and a visit from the Executive Director of the Missionary Department and leaders from the Asia Area Presidency. I apologize that I didn't take that many pictures of the food, nor did I take a picture of the giant tub of popcorn from the movie(s) we saw this week! It's true! Since it is my birthday month, we splurged and saw two movies in one week! I really wanted to see Freakier Friday and Fantastic Four. Both were good in my opinion. I have to say if you are reading this and you are a woman close to my age or older, go see Freakier Friday. It hits close to home and I laughed out loud multiple times! 

I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking! There aren't as many as usual, so maybe you will only have to spend a minute or two reading instead of an hour! 

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, and so on)! 

The beach in Rayong just before a baptism on Sunday! It was windy and had been rainy all weekend, but the rain stopped long enough for a baptism! 

Moving back in time to last Friday night, we had dinner with the Taylors. They are from St. George, Utah and are serving upcountry (in Korat) for one year. It was Sister Taylor's birthday and we ate burgers at a new restaurant across the street from the temple! 

The Sun was shining when we went in to dinner and the skies were dark, cloudy, and pouring rain when we got out of dinner! None of us were prepared with umbrellas! 

This picture can't really capture how hard it was raining! 

It was a short walk across the street, but we were all soaked by the time we got home! I also love this view of the temple. We really are in the middle of a busy city with nonstop traffic! It is amazing how quiet it is inside the temple. You would not believe there was a very noisy city outside! 

I love this picture of our APs (Elders Bird and Elliott) holding up Office Elder Collado. They posted it on Facebook as a very uplifting photo! Haha! I had to snag it for the blog!

Lunch time after church in Rayong! There is almost always a potluck! And it is always amazing! 

Elder Brady walks to the van with Elders Jones and Lowry, dressed in white for the baptism. 

Driving to the baptism, we spotted this statue. This is the Rayong Mermaid. There is a legend about a mermaid who helped the Prince, Aphai, and they eventually have a son named Sutsakhon. The Elders said this is her, but that she is really scary looking!

Elder Jones looking out over the bay where the baptism will take place. 

A beautiful heart-shaped rock. 

Walking into the water for the baptism. I love the footprints in the sand!

Amon is so sweet! We were so happy to see her get baptized. Here is what the missionaries said about her in our mission baptism book: "This is our friend ป้า อมร. She started off as a referral from the Pak Chong Elders back in May. Right off the bat, she was awesome, but wasn't able to come to church often because of her work. However, she used her 2 days off a month just to go to church. She ended up quitting her job and finding a new one just so she could come to church every Sunday. Since then, we've been able to teach her steadily and watch her faith grow so so strong. Today, she entered into her first covenant with God. She's excided to go to the temple and has a plan to go with the branch next month."

Branch member Noi with Amon. The members love to give flowers to the newest members.

All the sisters in the branch pose together!

Rayong Branch all drive in cars or on motorcycles to the beach after church to witness baptisms.

Sister Mary Grace and me :)!

A picture of food!! Finally!! This Salmon was amazing!! 

My new friend Katie! I have to tell you this story. 

I met Katie in the distribution center where she was also shopping (one floor below the mission office). Katie saw a bunch of missionaries gathered (on the first floor for a zone conference) and typically missionaries don't see their parents while they are on her mission. She saw me in the store with my missionary badge and asked me if I knew her daughter and if her daughter was at the annex (the building we live and work in) because if so, she needed to hide! Her daughter, Sister Bunker is serving a mission in Thailand (West Mission) and Katie and her husband moved here recently for work. Katie's husband (Sister Bunker's dad) is a pilot for United. When I heard that, of course, I had to say "I used to be a flight attendant! And then Katie said,  SO WAS I!" And!! Get this!! We worked for the same company. SkyWest!! That is where she met her husband years ago! So obviously we became instant new best friends! Haha! Our meeting happened several months ago and we have run into each other a few times. We finally made a lunch date! I needed some girl time. Honestly, John would have died if he had come with us. We had so much to talk about his brain would have exploded! Haha! 

And look who I ran into the very next day! Sister Bunker (Katie's daughter)! She spent the night in the spare room next to our apartment on the 5th floor of the Annex! I literally walked out of my room the same time she and her companion did! And I was like . . . guess who I had lunch with yesterday! 

YOUR MOM! Also fun story - I met Sister Bunker a few months ago shortly after I met her mom. As we were talking, she started telling me that her parents had moved to Thailand and I was like . . . I MET THEM! After that, I ran into Sister Bunker all the time! 

Elder Wood is back! He left Bangkok and is serving in Roi-et now! He and some other missionaries came back for a special missionary meeting and some training! Also back are Elders Fife (we miss serving with him in Rayong) and Neilsen. Fun fact: John worked with Elder Neisen's Grandma and Elder Wood's Grandpa! It is such a small world.

Posing with the visiting missionaries: Elders Wood, Fife, Neilsen, and Hiatt, and Sisters Cobia and Henry. And of course thre is me, John, and Elder Belnap!

This lady makes the best Moo Yang and Som Tum! This was our lunch on Tuesday! Her little street cart is about half a block from the temple. 

On our way to the devotional, Elder Brady does his best model pose with Elder Freedman. They are both sporting tailor made suits by: the Lax Man! 

The Bassetts and the Bradys. Elder W. Mark Bassett is over the missionary department. Turns out he owned a business in Gresham that our good friend, Jerry Hinton, worked at. Jerry hired some of our kids to work their as well over the years. And his wife was a Brasher and we knew Sister Brasher's brother and wife. They lived in our ward years ago when John was the Bishop. 

Did I mention it is a small world? 

Big group picture with Mission Leaders from the East and West along with visiting leaders, senior missionaries and young Elders and Sisters! (We are in the 2nd row if you are looking for us!)

That does it for this week! If you made it this far, you really are the best!