Dear loved ones,
This past week was one filled with house inspections and new friends. It's interesting being on a mission. Each transfer we fill our days with house inspections, patriarchal blessings, and numerous other office responsibilities. It often feels like our calendars are filled with the same things as the day, week, or month before. And yet, everything feels fresh and new. Every transfer, missionaries we have grown to love leave and new ones arrive and we start all over getting to know and love them! This week was just another lovely week in Thailand. We had a lot of apartments to inspect (more than usual packed into one week) because of the Christmas Zone Conference week and our week looking at hotels with the Hokes. The transfer will be over next week. And we will start all over again!
Enjoy the pictures! Thank you for reading the blog!
With love,
Elder and Sister Brady (mom and dad, grandpa and grandma, John and Shelly, and so on)
Saturday we made the drive down to Rayong. On our way, we stopped in Chonburi for a house inspection. Elders Jones and Saodaeng did a great job! Their bathroom was so clean, I took a picture of their toilet to share with all of the missionaries on the mission Facebook Messenger thread. I thought about posting it on the blog . . . but then, thought better of it.
In the Chonburi house, we found this lovely framed picture of Elder Auernig. This was one of the most coveted White Elephant Christmas gifts at the Christmas Zone Conference! Gifts were allowed to be stolen 3 times! Everyone was fighting over this picture! It ended up here in Chonburi! Haha!!
After the house inspection, we headed to Taco Bell for lunch! I paid with my visa card and when I went to rip out the receipt, the entire roll of paper came out and rolled all over the floor. The missionaries thought that was funny and wanted to take a picture of me fumbling to roll it back up!
In case you were wondering, the Taco Bell was good! We were starving!
And we actually like Taco Bell (no haters on the blog!)
Breakfast buffet in Rayong included these lovely options. You can zoom in to see what they are. But if you would rather, I can tell you. The bottom one is "celery." It did not look like celery to me. The top left one is "Stir fried Pickle turnip with egg." And the top right is "Crispy fish." Need I say more?
This was Sister Brady's breakfast. Coconut cake (fruit), raspberry (fruit) frosting on the chocolate brownie, cupcake made from flour that was wheat at one point, and Nutella (hazelnut is good for you, right?)
After church, Sister Brady and Sister Mary Grace pose for a picture!
On Monday, THE Elder Auernig stopped by the office to say hello on his Pday. He was on a video call with Elder Nash! Elder Nash (one of our APs - assistant to the president) was not in our house inspection picture on last week's blog because he had to head out to another appointment! So we will include him in this week's blog! Hello Elder Nash!
Monday afternoon, I stopped at the fruit lady's fruit stand. Actually, I stop here nearly every day or every other day! Here she is cutting up some mango for me. It is not ripe but it is sweet. Some nonripe mango is SOUR! And some is sweet. She knows I like sweet! I am also buying some watermelon and cantaloupe on this day! She sells pineapple, guava, coconut (fresh milk right from the coconut), and other amazing fruits! On holidays, she does not set up "shop" and I am so distraught that I have to go to an actual store and cut up the fruit myself!! I don't know what I am going to do in 2027!!!
The weather this week . . . in case you are interested!
Tuesday, we did a house inspection at Elders Wingrove and Casinillo's apartment! They did a great job so we celebrated at . . . Pepper Lunch!
We were still hungry so we got some ice cream for dessert! Mixue is great!
The cones cost 15 Baht (less than 50 cents USD).
On Wednesday, we headed over to do a house inspection in Ramkhamhaeng. This is one of the apartments that is super far from the Annex where we live. It is one underground train and sky trains away (about 1 and 1/2 hours of travel). We enjoy the journey. I love to listen to my book, a talk, or study my Thai! Elders Muir, Seesombat, and Parker did a nice job cleaning. Well Elder Parker didn't ...
... because he has a broken foot! Poor Elder Parker is headed home one transfer early because he broke his foot playing soccer a couple of weeks ago. We will miss him! His family was planning to pick him up in March, so he will actually be coming back to Thailand in March with his family!
We got back from house inspections and a trip to the grocery store and found out some of our favorite missionaries (ok - they are all our favorites) were in Bangkok for immigration! We stopped in the mission home to say hello! We found them waiting for us and standing at attention! Haha! Elder Brady jumped in for the picture! Left to right: Sister Kanyaphan (our mission leader), Elders Lewis and Jones (our old Rayong missionary!), and Sisters Malquist and Colver! And, of course, Elder Brady!
Sister Colver smiles with the Bradys!
Elder and Sister Brady with Sisters Colver, Cameron, Malquist, and Jasper!
We love these sisters!
Thursday morning, I enjoyed these lovely ladies from the Bangkok International Ward for a game of pickleball! It was awesome! Sister Brady with Jen, Katie, and Cindy!
After pickleball, Sister Brady hurried to meet Elder Brady for a walk to the Post Office! Fuzzy picture of Sister Brady on the run!
Outside the Post Office (which is located on the university campus) a wonderful "back to school" lunch was set up! If you zoom in you can see an interesting dish!
Ok . . . I will zoom in for you!!
Thursday evening, we headed over to the Bunkers! I played pickleball with Katie earlier in the day and had lunch with her last week. Her husband (a United pilot) was back in Thailand after working (flying) for 10 days our of Guam. We wanted our husbands to meet, so they invited us over for dinner! It was an incredible meal of Cashew Chicken and Thai pomelo salad!
Colin and Katie Bunker with Elder and Sister Brady! We are so happy to know this great family!
Their son Stephan and daughter Caroline (former Thailand missionary) are not pictured.
Walking to catch the train home. So many cars and motorcycles!
Friday morning we took a walk to the Post Office (again)
and Elder Brady stopped to enjoy some basketball!
Friday afternoon, we went to the temple with some of our Bangkok missionaries.
And that concludes another lovely week in Thailand!
Spoiler alert ... next week is transfer week!
We will be busy saying goodbye and hello to old and new missionaries!
And we found out our building will be shutting off electricity
for 10 hours on Monday for the yearly maintenance,
so we will be going on an all day trip to see the Bridge on the River Kwai and Erawan Falls! Schedule in some extra blog time because there will be tons of pictures coming your way! Haha!
Thanks for reading!
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