Dear loved ones,
How can I say how much we love our mission, but in the same breath how much we miss our family? I guess I just said it, didn't I? Fortunately, we keep so busy that there is little time to feel homesick, we love our time with the missionaries and the Thai people, and time is flying by!
Happy Birthday to our grandson, Sebastian, who turned 10 this week! We loved talking to him! Thank heavens for technology and Facetime!
We kept busy this week attending the temple with our Rayong Branch family, making preparations for Zone Conference breakfast, giving another patriarchal blessing, and attending to our regular office duties. We managed all of this while 3 of the 4 of us in the office were at the tail end of illnesses. The Belnaps have been getting over some bug that wiped them out for a couple of weeks and my cold settled in my lungs and gave me a case of bronchitis. Fortunately, Elder Brady's cold from nearly 4 weeks ago seems to be finally gone!
We love you and we miss you and we look forward to hearing from you.
With love,
Elder and Sister Brady (mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, John and Shelly, and so on)
Scroll on for the week in pictures:
Saturday: Rayong Branch Temple trip. The branch members got up before sunrise to make the 3 hour bus ride to Bangkok to come to the temple! It was so fun to serve in the temple with our dear branch family. It was the first time to the temple for some of them.
Moo and Gao are recently baptized young men. They loved coming to the temple.
Moo and Gao and Elder Brady in the background. This beautiful garden with the statue of Jesus Christ is between the temple and the annex (where we live).
Saturday afternoon: We made the 3 hour drive to Rayong in the afternoon. We always take a walk to Wan (the Costco like store) where we pick up a few groceries for the week. I noticed this cool tree with roots attached to the cement wall!
A closer look. I often see trees growing up right through the sidewalks here. Life finds a way!
Saturday night: Time for dinner! KFC has a special - 2 pieces of chicken, fries, and a soda for 98 Baht. That is $3 USD! We asked if we could have a chicken breast and they gave us 2 each! It was a yummy meal! You can see how happy Elder Brady is!
Sunday morning: Breakfast at our hotel. This healthy breakfast included: fruit (a mini banana), protein (nutella), dairy (the whipped coconut topping), and other unidentified yumminess!
Sunday: the weekly after church lunch! This is a yummy fried banana!
Other lunch items included some Filipino noodles made by the Albertos! We were told the best way to eat these was to use a piece of white bread as a plate and then you can eat the "plate!"
Sister Kim will have the noodles, but Elder Brady is sticking with strawberry jam on his "plate!"
And they are delicious!
Here are a couple of my favorite quotes by President Nelson:
"The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives".
On Monday and Tuesday we went to the hospital for Doctor appointments. While I was there, I coughed, which prompted the doctor to listen to my lungs. She told me I had bronchitis and started me on some antibiotics. I had started feeling better by Saturday, so we joined our branch at the temple and went down to Rayong, but by Sunday evening, I started feeling worse. I am glad I had an appointment already on the books and the doctor was able to catch the bronchitis before it got worse!
These beautiful orchids are out in front of the hospital! I had to grab a picture!
On the walk home from the hospital (which is also where all of the regular doctor appointments are), these buildings caught my eye. The one if front is what Bangkok looked like when John was here back in the 70s. There were no high rises anywhere. Most of the buildings looked like the one in front and I am sure it was standing back in the 70s. Behind that small building is one of the many high rises we see all over Bangkok. This city is such a mix of the old and the new!
Monday afternoon: We kept our lunch date with the Nuffers! Elder and Sister Nuffer are in Thailand while there is some unrest going on where they are currently serving their mission. Elder Nuffer is the brother of my former coworker - Coral Hammond. Coral and I worked together as flight attendants at SkyWest a few years ago. And the Nuffers are the cousins of the Nuffers from our stake (church congregation) back home in Gresham.
Tuesday afternoon: Time to go to the Pizza Company! John has a buy one get one free card! So every few weeks, we go get pizza, eat a couple slices, and then bring it home and freeze the rest so he can have a slice every couple of days! Sister Brady doesn't have to cook and everyone is happy!
See how happy everyone is?!?! Also - please note that this pizza which is called "double pepperoni" has a decent amount of pepperoni on it. A few weeks ago, we got about 3 pieces per slice and that made Elder Brady wonder what the regular pepperoni pizza had on it - 1 and 1/2 pepperonis per slice??
Wednesday afternoon: Elder Brady gave Sister Deepa, from India, a blessing. She was such a sweet lady who had traveled from India to Thailand all by herself to go to the temple for the first time.
She was thrilled to also be able to get her blessing.
Wednesday later afternoon - Thursday morning: Time to make bacon!! When the missionaries want bacon with their zone conference breakfast, it means that we need to bake it up ahead of time. It takes about 22 minutes per batch and I can only cook about 14 pieces at a time. There are 33 to feed and they want 4-5 pieces each. You do the math! It takes hours and hours! But it is fun to do and I can call my kids or listen to an audio book while I am makin' bacon! This bacon is for Zone Conference breakfast burritos on Friday morning! Made with love by the Senior Office Missionaries!
Throwback to training the week before! Sister Belnap and Sister Brady!
Our new arriving missionaries signing paperwork.
Meals at the mission home!
Breakfast organized by the Senior missionaries
(this was ordered and picked up by the Seniors).
Elder Brady visiting with the Elders.
Sister Brady telling some sort of story to the Sisters. (Cobia and Gilson)
Oh how we love these missionaries!
I snagged these screenshots from this fun video of our new arriving missionaries. If you have Facebook and some spare time, you can watch it!
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BVYvoa8LZ/
Thursday: Zone Conference lunch! TACO BELL! We haven't had Taco Bell since 2024! There is a Taco Bell about a half a mile away right next to the Pizza Company. Every time we walk to get pizza, we say, one of these days we need to get some Taco Bell. But we haven't done it yet! This was a fun treat!
And it is even more fun because we are eating it with our missionaries! Thanks for taking the selfie Sister Jenkins! Seniors on the chairs (Belnaps, Bradys, and President Kanyaphan).
The best flavors ever! Sister Peterson with the photo bomb!
Elder Fife and Elder Olson!
Sister Brady and Sisters Lundberg and Peterson!
Elder Runia eats Thai food while the rest of us eat Ice Cream!!
Friday morning: Breakfast time! Sisters Sirisouk and Lundberg and Elders Dixon and Morgan dishing up! Breakfast burritos were a hit! Tortilla wraps with scrambled eggs (made by Elder Brady), hash browns (by the Belnaps), Bacon (by Sister Brady - did I mention our apartment still smells like Bacon??), cheese and hot sauce, fruit, juice, milk and chocolate milk! Come On!!
Hello Sisters Siri and Lundberg!
Elder and Sister Belnap share their testimonies and a farewell thought at zone conference. I can't believe they are leaving at the end of this transfer! November 6th!
Friday afternoon: Lunchtime! Elders Htoo, Collado, and Jones are dishing up some delicious Thai food! Cashew chicken and other yumminess!
This pot of rice was ginormous!
Did we mention how much we love these young people?
Thanks for reading!
We love you too!
Sorry you've all been so sick, but glad you're getting better. I can't believe that you chose Taco Bell over all the other food you could have had! Yikes. We have so much fun looking over your blog and enjoying the sites and missionaries and friends and foods you are experiencing. We continue to pray for you. Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy general conference!!
ReplyDeleteWe are both feeling so much better, thank you! We love that you read the blog and get to vicariously enjoy the sites, food, and friends with us! We sure appreciate the prayers! We are watching conference about an hour a day and will finish it up this upcoming weekend (Thailand sets aside the week after conference for watching since we are asleep when conference is LIVE). We get amazing wonderful food options everyday, so Taco Bell was actually a fun and rare treat! We happen to enjoy an occasional Taco Bell meal! Hahaha! It's comfort food :)!
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