BRADY MISSION TO THAILAND: Letter 65 - Week Two in the Hospital - Elder Brady Finally Comes Home - AND The Vernons Come to Thailand

Dearest family and friends,

The past two weeks have been a roller coaster ride! Time moved slower than dirt and then sped by like the Columbia River Gorge East Wind in January (Oregonians know what I am talking about). Enough with the hyperbole, I am going to cut to the chase!

After 2 weeks in the hospital, John is home!

We cannot thank you enough for the love, support, fasting, and prayers. His situation was so precarious. We count it as a miracle that he is alive and well. His abdomen is still sensitive and in some pain, but he is much better and we are so grateful.

On top of all that was going on, Michelle and her family came to Thailand (a trip that was planned months ago)! It was so wonderful to see them and a tender mercy that they came when they did. While we were so disappointed (but completely understood) that John could not be with us on all of the adventures we had planned, it lifted our spirits to have family with us from back home. Love and hugs from our children and grandchildren was absolutely the best.

Since John was out of the ICU by the time the Vernons arrived, was feeling somewhat better, and had excellent attentive care at the hospital, he encouraged me to go with them to Phuket and to show them around Bangkok when we got back. We were able to visit him every day (except for the 2 days in Phuket) and Michelle's youngest, Audrey, said her two favorite things in Thailand were seeing the glowing plankton in Phuket and seeing grandpa.

There are so many pictures of our adventures that I have decided to make this a two parter! I will get Part One out today and Part Two out on next week's blog!

As always, we love you and we miss you and we thank you again for your support and prayers.

Love,

Elder and Sister Brady (mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, John and Shelly, and so on)

Skipping ahead to the good part!

After two weeks, John was finally released from the hospital Friday evening!

Here we are all ready to go home at last.

Now going back in time to last weekend. Michelle and family arrived Saturday night after midnight. It was actually around 2:30am Sunday morning when they got to their hotel. They stayed the first night at a hotel right next to the temple. I was so excited to walk next door and greet them with hugs! Here we are hauling their luggage to our apartment next door!

After we dropped off their luggage, I gave them a quick tour of our home away from home. We stopped for a picture in front of the Christus. Drew, Michelle, Audrey, Jenna, August, and me, Grandma!

Our next stop was the hospital where we had a happy reunion with Grandpa! It was so good to give him hugs and spend some time visiting with him.

Since John was out of the ICU and on the mend, AND since he was receiving such excellent care at the hospital, he encouraged me to go ahead and go with Michelle and family to Phuket. They had come all the way to Thailand to spend time with us and we had pre-purchased our flights and tours. It was a hard decision to make, but we decided I should go. We had plenty of friends here who promised to look in on him while I was gone. Here we are waiting at the station for our air train ride to the airport. Jenna loves waffles, so we stopped and got some from the waffle stand.

On the train to the airport.

Look! It's Phuket Island!

The beautiful Sunset view from our hotel. We stayed at the lovely Novatel Phuket Resort.

The beautiful swimming pool with plumeria blossoms floating across the surface.

The Vernons enjoying the beautiful night =vView of Patong Beach Bay.

Meanwhile back at the hospital, Katrina and family Facetimed with John. They gathered around to sing a song to him to lift his spirits, but could not stop laughing when they saw grandpa's head (the facetime window) exactly on top of Nick's body! Zoom in for a better look! Hahaha!

Monday morning at the hotel breakfast buffet! The Vernons were amazed at all of the food! Hotel breakfasts in Thailand offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner items!

And ice cream! Ice Cream for breakfast is grandma Brady approved!

My breakfast started out with fruit and cake and also ended with some ice cream,

just in case you were wondering!

Our first tour was to the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary.

Audrey and Grandma.

From what we read, this place was a sanctuary for elephants that used to be in the circus, worked the fields, etc. Here they were cared for and loved.

Tourists are able to come in and feed them, shower and bathe them.

It was so much fun to feed them watermelon and bananas!

We got to feed about 7 elephants.

August has a banana for this elephant!

After the fruit, we got to make Elephant Sushi balls.

This was a mixture of rice, pellets, and tamarind seeds. We mixed it with our bare hands and then gathered it into small balls.

This was a nutritious mixture for the elephants.

This was so fun!

My new friend!

After a snack break (for us), we got to get in the shower with the Elephants! Water poured down on us as we brushed their skin to massage and clean them.

Smile!

On our way back to the hotel we saw this motorcycle with 2 humans and 1 dog!

Meanwhile back at the hospital, President and Sister Kanyaphan checked in on Elder Brady.

After we changed into our swimsuits, we headed to the beach. We stopped for a quick bite to eat and enjoyed some mango sticky rice for dessert.

We rented a long boat (with a driver) to take us to Freedom Beach. Freedom Beach is around a peninsula and tucked away in a bay. It is a more private beach where you can swim and snorkel.

Out on the ocean!

Enjoying the cool breeze! It is the hot season in Thailand and the temperatures are scotching! It was so nice to be on the boat!

Michelle and Drew did a lot of research and she came with some great ideas of places to see and visit!

Freedom Beach was a great idea!

After a 20 or 30 minute boat ride we arrived at Freedom Beach.

Glamma gramma shot! Haha!

Jenna is ready to snorkel! I love her shirt! It says "Todd Dawson thinks I'm Awesome."

Todd Dawson is her school principal!

Michelle and Drew!

Lots of snorkeling. The kids saw a lot of colorful fish and an eel!

August let me use his snorkel equipment and I saw some as well!

My toes!

The view!

The easiest way to get to this beach is by the Long Boat, which is how we got here. The other way is to take a cab to the trailhead and then it is a long hike into the beach. If you zoom in on this picture, you can see a truck stuck up on the hill!

The dog days of summer! It is summer in Thailand and these are some of the many stray dogs wandering around the beach!

Meanwhile back at the hospital, the Elders stopped by to visit John and sing to him. They made him cry (in a good way). Elders Hiatt, Collado, Saunders, and Dollar - our APs and Office Elders.

I loved this cool sand castle!

After 2 and 1/2 hours, we caught the long boat back to Patong Beach.

Then, we caught a Songthaew back to our hotel.

Meanwhile back at the hospital, Kaitlyn stopped by to see Elder Brady. Others who stopped by (not pictured) were President and Sister Harper (the MTC leaders), Elder Meeker and Elder Justensen (West Mission Senior Office missionaries), and the Calls (our office partners). We are grateful for all of those who stopped by and visited while I was gone. And we are so thankful for the many get well wishes and prayers for John.

Tuesday morning at the breakfast buffet. This is the omelet station. Yum!

Here we are in the van on our way to the other side of the Island for the John Grey Sea Canoe Cave and Hong by Starlight Tour (google it!) It was an amazing day! 10/10 I would do this again!

Life Jackets on and ready to go!

Life jackets off and ready to go!

Smile! It's lunchtime!

First thing on the tour is an amazing lunch!

There are so many beautiful Islands that we floated by!

Here we will get in Kayaks and row closer to the Island and then go in some caves.

We would have to come back to this Island later because the tide was too high.

Grandma and August!

So beautiful!

Beautiful Islands and beautiful Michelle!

The tide is just right here so our adventure begins!

Jenna and I shared a canoe!

We stayed together in a group. We had 3 kayak guides. You can see Michelle and August and Drew and Audrey in the other two canoes. I took a picture of Michelle taking a picture of us!

Haha! Here is that picture!

Here we go through the narrow canyons.

The sky above.

Inside!

This rock formation looks like a fish!

Grandma and Jenna!

This was so much fun!

Here our guides made a decision to go in a cave even though all the other boats did not go because the tide was on the high side! We got a special treat!

Inside the cave!

Guess what is on the cave wall!?

Can you see the VIPER????

Look how close we are!!

Here - let me zoom in!

Our guides assured us that even though they are highly poisonous,

they are nocturnal so we did not have to worry!

Inside another cave!

Here our guide is testing to see if we can get through the opening!

Here is a screenshot from a video I took. We had to lie completely flat on our back and the cave top covered in sharp rocks and shells was just inches from our face! And they had to let the air our of the kayak so we would be low enough to squeeze (literally squeeze) through! It was slightly terrifying!!!

But we made it through!!!! Time to sit up!!

The rock formation - bottom center - looks like an elephant (according to our guide).

Let me zoom in!

This day was amazing!

Jenna and grandma!

Time for a swim!!

Say cheese!

Look at the sky above us!

Jenna!

Coming out of a cave!

Our guide said, "Do you see the heart in the sky?"

Beautiful Islands everywhere!

James Bond Island! This is where "The Man with the Golden Gun" was filmed! This is a popular tourist spot. It is difficult and time consuming to get on and off this Island so our tour just floats by for a picture opportunity. John and I did stop here when we visited Thailand 32 years ago.

The tour guides throw chicken skin of the back of the boat to attract the Sea Eagles to fly behind us! It was majestic to see!

Time for another cave tour!

Here we go!

But wait! Do you see the Lizard? On the rock wall?

Let me zoom in!

Inside the cave! It is a Bat Cave!! Do you see the bats on the wall? It is actually pitch black in there. The kayak guides had head lamps that they shown on the walls so we could see the bats! It smelled bad!

Through the Bat Cave and inside another Island! Smile everyone!

This place was filled with monkeys! Do you see the Mama Monkey and her baby!!??

Everyone is gathered around to see the monkeys!

Mama and her baby!

A better photo of mama and baby - courtesy of Drew!

When we got back to the big boat, we had the option to swim or kayak on our own for free time. But then the guides on the big boat said to be careful because they saw some Portuguese Man of War Jelly Fish in the water! Michelle's guide told her she would be OK to swim the short distance to the boat if she wanted to. She jumped in the water and immediately felt a sting across her ankle!! Poor Michelle! Can you see the jellyfish in the water?

Let me zoom in!

Here one of the Kayak guys catches it!

The next activity was to make Kathrongs. These are beautiful flower arrangements we made to light, make a wish, and float on the water.

See what we made!?

All of the beautiful Kathrongs!

Audrey and Grandma.

Grandma and Jenna with our Kathrong.

Here we are floating to our final cave where we put our canoes in a circle and in the dark of the cave, lit our Kathrongs, made our wishes, floated them on the water. After we blew out the candles, we ran our hands through the water and saw the water light up like stars in the sky! We could see bio luminescent plankton! We could scoop them up and hold them! It was incredible! It was really a highlight of the whole trip!