Dear family and friends!
Happy Friday the 13th and also a big happy 26th birthday to our baby daughter, Emily! We look forward to talking to her later today and are so grateful for technology that keeps us connected to our family back home! We had another lovely week which included a senior missionary welcome (to the Calls) and farewell (to the Taylors) dinner, tasting new foods (we have barely tasted all we need to taste here in Thailand - good thing we have 10 more months!!), missionary house inspections, dinner with friends, and stitches removed! If you don't believe me . . . just scroll on down and let the pictures tell the story!
As always we love you, miss you, and thank you for your prayers and kind messages!
With love,
Elder and Sister Brady (mom and dad, grandpa and grandma, John and Shelly, and so on!)
Well, there is a story behind the picture above! Sister Brady wanted to get on the bandwagon of "Hey AI, make a picture of me!" So Sister Brady gathered a bunch of pictures of herself (granted Elder Brady was in many of the pictures, but there were some pictures with other female friends - Sister Brady was the common factor in all of the pictures). Imagine Sister Brady's surprise when AI came up with the above picture! Yep, Elder Brady actually does have a shirt that says, "I have nothing to wear." And he does love to eat at Pepper Lunch. Sister Brady may or may not give AI another chance to get it right!
Friday night - Dinner at Simmers - an amazing Thai Food restaurant across the street from the Temple. This dinner was to Welcome our new Senior Office Missionaries Elder and Sister Call and to say goodbye to the Taylors. Pictured: Sister Howard, President Kanyaphan (Sister Kanyaphan was missed but had another family obligation), the Bradys, The Calls, The Taylors, and Elder Howard.
Saturday evening in Rayong - We have been wanting to try this since we got to Thailand over a year ago. It looks like a taco. Would it be savory? Sweet? Yummy? Not Yummy?
We finally got brave and asked if it was sweet (important and necessary information for Sister Brady). After being told, yes! it was sweet, we bought one to taste!
It was delicious! It is like a crisp thin cookie with a marshmallow filling and something sweet and coconuty across the top! 10/10 would order this again!
Monday - back at the office. Happy Valentines to Elder Brady from Sister Brady and Elder Gibby! A couple of weeks ago, Elder Gibson showed Sister Brady his collection of new ties. The Elders like to pick out Thai Silk and have several of the same tie made and then they trade the ties. Sister Brady asked if she could purchase one from him to give to Elder Brady for Valentine's Day and Elder Gibson would not take any Baht! What a kind hearted Elder. A couple of other kind Elders have donated to Elder Brady's Thai collection (Elder Gao, Elder Wingrove, and Elder Howard to name a few).
So one of our Bangkok missionaries came across this great meme and felt like it summed up their lives here in Thailand! Soon all of the missionaries were posting selfies and exclaiming:
"Smiling through it all! Can't believe this is my life!"
Honestly, that is how we feel here in the Thailand Bangkok East Mission!
Chachoengsao Elders - Gibson, Jones, Schaffner, and Clark
Elder Brady was scrolling through the Bangkok Zone page and wondered if the Elder's were making fun of him, because this how he actually sits at his desk!
The Ubon Zone gets in on the action!! Sisters Henry and Zabala, Elders Dixon, Jones, Saunders, Guanuna, Park, and Prapromma!
Our office Elders - Elders Wright and Collado!
Our Rayong Elders - Elders Allred, Westcott, Hutcheon, and Casinillo!
Chonburi Elders Saodaeng and Kelly!
Our ZLs! Elders Bergstedt and Wingrove along with Elders SaeWang and Cypers!
Elder Sae Wang!
Our APs - Elders Nash and Hiatt!
On Tuesday - Sister Brady discovered some bread at 7-11 that looked very intriguing - Chocolate chocolate chip bread. So she had to buy a loaf!
And she ate it for dinner. And it was very good!
Wednesday - Elder Brady reads his Kindle on the subway.
Sister Brady sits in the special seating for the Elderly.
House Inspection with Elders Hunt and Muir!
"Smiling through it all!"
After our visit, we headed over to lunch at a gigantic mall.
The mall had a beautiful fountain celebrating Chinese New Year!
Happy Chinese New Year!
Elders Vang, Brady, and Dollar!
These Elders did an A++ job! It was honestly OUTSTANDINGLY clean!
"Can't believe this is my life!" haha
Wednesday evening, the Bradys head to Terminal 21 to meet friends for dinner!
Elder Brady, AJ (our former missionary), Sister Brady, Belle and her niece!
We met AJ on the mission and we met Belle at the Returned Missionary Fireside. We love that they like to hang out with us sometimes! And Belle, just got a new job and treated us to dinner!!! We did not expect that! That was so kind of Belle.
We took our friends to dessert at DQ after dinner! We miss our grandchildren, so we pushed the stroller for a while to make ourselves feel better!
Elder and Sister Brady with Belle's niece.
Heading up the escalator . . .
On Thursday, Sister Brady walked to the hospital to get stitches out of her arm and head!
We miss Lainey and it was so fun to see her happy smiling face!
These super sisters always get an A++ on their house inspections. Here we are enjoying an amazing New York pizza lunch in Thailand! Pictured: Sister Jenkins, Bradys, Sisters Brooks and Polsan.
Sisters brought us a yummy Treat! Sisters had a laugh when they handed us the soft melted chocolate bars! We stuck them in the freezer when we got home.
This pizza was amazing!! Short story. We went to this pizza place about 6 weeks ago. We met the owners, a man named John (kuhn John - mr. John) from New Jersey and his Thai wife. We had a good conversation with them. He asked us to write a review. Elder Brady wrote a very good online review. The owners were so lovely and the food was so good. On our visit today, after we finished our pizza, the Thai owner who got to the store when we were about halfway through our lunch said, "I need to tell you something. Kuhn John died." We were shocked! She was so sad and started to cry. We all had tears in our eyes. She said she did not share this with everyone, but she knew that we were close to God and she wanted to know if her husband would be OK. The sisters were so wonderful and prepared to share their testimonies that God loves her and that her husband was OK. They shared a pamphlet with her about God's plan of salvation. They plan to go back and visit her tomorrow to share more about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the resurrection, and the plan of happiness. We hugged this sweet Thai woman and told her we would pray for her.
After lunch, we needed Dunkin Donuts.
Friday afternoon, on our way back to the office, we stumbled upon these steps (no pun intended) that take you up to a bridge that walks you over a busy highway. The steps are seriously all different sizes! That third step is a doozy! I wanted to think of some cool analogy regarding these steps, but I am tired and can't think of anything and I have switched to first person! Haha!
You made it to the end! Woohoo!
We love you! Thanks for reading!
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