Dear family and friends,
You will all be so happy to hear that there are not as many pictures this week as normal! So today's blog should be a quick read - maybe only 5 minutes instead of 5 hours! Haha! And since the days are passing at lightning speed, and I am aging just as fast, I am having a hard time remembering what we even did this past week! I will let the pictures do the talking (and remind me of what actually happened this week - haha)!
But before I move on to update you on the week, I have a huge favor to ask . . . Indeed, I am begging you. If you mail out Christmas cards/letters, we would LOVE to get one from you!! I won't be sending any this year, but I promise when we get back next Holiday Season, I will send you one!!! We love getting cards and letters in the mail and hearing from you would make our Christmas! We will tape it to our door and think of you everyday!!
Many of you know that I have sent out a Christmas card and letter every year for the past 41 years. As the years sailed by, the letters got sillier and seniler (new fake word). We have added to our list and in the past few years (as postage rates got higher) trimmed our Christmas card list to more of a Christmas card/letter exchange. This year, we will not be able to send out our annual card in the mail, but I will put our "card" in next week's blog. And my annual Christmas letter will likely be one of my weekly blog posts. So if you feel so inclined to send us a card, ($1.70 for a global forever stamp for a basic card according to my friend Google) here is . . .
Our address:
Elder John and Sister Shelly Brady
Thailand Bangkok East Mission
1645/6 New Phetchaburi Road
Makkasan Bangkok 10400
Thailand
Ok, thank you for putting up with my pleas for Christmas joy. And now on to the pictures of week 44!
PS - we love you and miss you and love your kind notes and emails!
Love,
Elder and Sister Brady (mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, John and Shelly, and so on!)!
Ahh! Now I am remembering what we did this past week! Thank you pictures on my phone! Saturday started with a trip to Chonburi to do a house inspection! Elders Jones (from St. George) and Kaiyafai (from Thailand soon heading to London for the rest of his mission) did a nice job.
We celebrated with lunch at McDonalds.
Breakfast in Rayong. I felt I needed to try all of the desserts for breakfast. My favorite was the Nutella.
Sunday school. Our new member, Piti, led the discussion on the Beatitudes. He did a great job and Elder Westcott did a lovely job translating for the English speakers.
After church, Sister Noi (our masterchef), made some amazing Massaman Curry!
I mean this was seriously delicious!
Elder Sevilla (also the Rayong Branch President) gets a "selfie" with the branch. Elders Westcott, Borden and Morgan are smiling with the rest of the branch members.
Monday we got a surprise messenger video call from Sister Taylor. I guess we can call her Malea now. She called us from the USA and we had so much fun catching up with her!
We miss her here in Thailand!
Monday night! It's time for family home evening! Let's watch a Christmas movie!
I baked cookies, chocolate chip and no bakes (not pictured) and we made popcorn too!
And we invited our dear friend Jessica over. Jessica is in Thailand for 2 years teaching music at a private elementary school. She is a graduate of BYU-Provo's Music, Dance, Theater program and she is directing our Christmas Choir! We predict more Christmas movies with Jess in our future!
This gorgeous nativity was handmade by the lovely Sister Meeker (West mission Senior office Secretary). Sister Meeker handmade each piece out of clay!
Sister Meeker made this 11 years ago when she and her husband served their first Senior Mission in Thailand. Each figure has unique faces sculpted to look like the Thai friends that they served with!
Yes, she even made the elephants, water buffalo, and the fruit all out of clay!
Would you look at the detail! The woman that is standing next to the boy is Noi. She still works here and bakes the most amazing snickerdoodle cookies that she shares with us!
I was honestly quite smitten with this nativity.
Aside from working in the office, admiring the nativity, and going to physical therapy (for my neck), I also scrolled through Facebook and came across this funny meme that needed to be shared!
On Wednesday morning, Elder Brady had a patriarchal blessing. This is Anuhya and her parents. They are here from India. Her father (in the picture) has been called to be a patriarch in India. He met with Elder Brady for some training while he was here.
After the blessing, we headed out the door to head to Bangna for a house inspection with Elder Collado and Elder Htoo. Elder Collado is from the Philippines and Elder Htoo is from Myanmar. The are our office Elders. They both have a great sense of humor. Whenever I say "me too" to Elder Htoo, he says "no, I'm Htoo, you are Brady!" Haha! :)
They got a handshake from Elder Brady for their A+ cleaning job!
Since a handshake was not enough, we hopped on a songthaew to head to the mall for lunch!
Outside of the mall, we noticed this wavey sidewalk!
It is a crazy optical illusion! This sidewalk is flat!!!! There are no hills or valleys!
I had to bend down and touch it with my hands!
Wednesday afternoon, the Senior office missionaries decorated for Christmas!
Sister Meeker and Sister Stepp from the West mission are such lovely senior Sisters! Sister Howard was out of town this week or I am sure she would have joined in the fun!
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . . everywhere we go!
This beautiful Nativity is in front of the Bangkok Temple (as you can see).
'Tis the season here in our office too!
I had fun putting up little decorations on our end tables.
Merry Christmas - OK - I know it is early, but since our missionaries will be here on Saturday for zone conference, we thought it would be fun to surprise them with some Christmas cheer!
Welcome to the East Mission Office :)!
And that is all I have for this week! Spoiler Alert . . . next week is going to be crazy busy with Zone conference breakfast tomorrow and the return missionary return to the temple seminar! I cracked 130 eggs today to get ready for scrambled eggs and French toast tomorrow morning. I should have taken a picture of my sink full of eggshells! I had fun talking to some of our kids and my mom while I cracked!
Thanks for reading!
