Dear family and friends,
I'm a day late on this because this week has been so full! We have had our regular office duties, patriarchal blessings and the RMRT (Returned Missionary Return to the Temple) Seminar and on top of all of that we moved to another apartment last weekend! So, there has not been a moment to spare!
Today is May 2nd - So happy birthday to Tessa! I'm taking a quick minute to blog this Saturday morning and then we are off to the temple for the last day of the seminar. And John has two blessings to give to a couple of missionaries from India who are currently in the MTC here in Thailand! So it is another full day!
I just got through with my morning stair climb, and I thought I would pop into the office to get some pictures dragged over to the blog! Read on for all of the details of the week!
As always we love you and we miss you and we thank you for your love, support, notes and prayers!
Love,
Elder and Sister Brady (mom and dad, grandpa and grandma, John and Shelly, and so on)
What is the significance of a photo of a drawer of utensils you ask?!
Well - let me tell you! We moved last Saturday! We moved down the hall from apartment 505 to 502. And we have really grown accustomed to these little spoons and forks. I wanted to make sure the new place had the same silverware!
I also wanted to make sure I had the same kind of pans and room for my baking ingredients. I don't cook much, but I have mastered the use of the oven here! And we love an occasional homemade chocolate chip cookie!
On Saturday we moved! In case I did not mention it! Haha! We started at 7am and by 5pm we were nearly moved in and settled (that included time cleaning the other apartment for the new Senior Missionaries. I wish I had taken pictures of all of the boxes and the mess. But this picture is the last little mess I needed to sort through. Why did we move, you ask? Well, we wanted to be on the East Mission side of the Annex. That is just a little OCD of us. But the bigger reason is that this room is bigger! The two rooms on the ends are smaller (we were in one of those rooms). And the three middle rooms are bigger! We are excited to have a little more space!
On Sunday we attended the Bangkok International Ward instead of going to Rayong. John had a blessing to give that day - plus we spent all day Saturday moving. We love to attend church and to partake of the Sacrament and to feel closer to God. We also loved watching these cute little ones through out the meeting. It sure makes us miss our family back home! PS - that is our sweet friend Kaitlyn playing with the little ones. I think their mother was able to enjoy some of the meeting because of Kaitlyn's help.
The little ones continued to entertain us!
Outside of the chapel, the Thai Speaking ward set up some beautiful table decorations. Sister Thorsen from the West mission attends that ward and she shared these pictures with me.
The entire display is so beautiful! Those gorgeous carvings are Watermelons!!!!!
Sunday afternoon, Elder Brady gave Ramsey from Hungary a blessing.
This is Ramsey with his older brother. His older brother lives here in Thailand (and happens to be the father of those adorable children). Ramsey is leaving soon for his mission. He will be going to Boston.
On Monday, President Kanyaphan stopped by the office with treats for us Senior missionaries. Avocado smoothies! Yum! They were a favorite of Elder Belnaps. The yummy tradition continues on!
Thanks President!
Throw back to our training day (last Friday)! We only had two missionaries arrive in Thailand this month. We are excited to get to know Elder Banana and Sister Allen.
Elder Brady chatting with the Elders. I nabbed this pictures from a video made of the East mission arrival and transfer day!
Tuesday is another moving day. This time Elder Brady is meeting with the landlords to close a condo out in Ramkhamhaeng. We have had a number of missionaries leave and not as many arrive, so we have to close a few of our missionary accommodations.
The Elders did a pretty good job cleaning out the place. Since Elder Brady was in the hospital, the missionaries did all of this work themselves! This is all that is left to move or get rid of.
After the condo closing, we stopped by Sandy's pizza place to buy some pizza. Sandy is our friend whose husband passed away not long ago.
Sandy is so sweet and her pizza is delicious.
We also stopped at the Elders to drop off the condo key. They will be helping to finish up the Condo closing by contacting the Bishop and donating the bunk beds and other items to some ward members!
Thank you Elder Htoo and Elder Guanuna!
We will miss Elder and Sister Meeker. Thank you for the ice cream treat Sister Meeker!
Also pictured: Sister Justensen, me, and Sister Call!
Featuring Swensen's Ice cream! This was delicious!
Wednesday the RMRT Seminar begins! We finally get to meet the Packards in person! Sister Packard and I have spent a lot of time conversing via email! Here is a fun fact - they are best friends with some of our best friends - the Garlocks (from Tacoma). It is such a fun, small world!
Here is another fun story! This is Sister Buckner and her cute daughter (recently returned missionary) Lauren. Elder Buckner (her husband) was our presiding general authority at the RMRT event. He is in the Asia Area Presidency. Sister Buckner and I kept talking to each other about how we both looked so familiar to each other. Not to long into the event, John was talking with Elder Buckner about his time serving as Stake President (around the same time John was Stake President). The Buckners are from NYC and we have visited their stake for church a few times on vacation back East. Finally, John said he met a Young Stake President from Manhattan at Philmont Scout Camp back in 2008. They were there with there young family of 5 kids. We were there with our children at the time. Elder Buckner said, "that would have been me!! And my family!!" And that explains why Sister Buckner looked so familiar! I spent a week with her at Philmont. All of the women dropped their children off at the various age group "camps," and then we had our own woman's camp where we hiked, did a cope course, enjoyed time together in uplifting workshops, and just got to know each other! It really is a fun, small world!
Here we are with our new friends (returned missionaries) from Vietnam!
Our group had RMs from Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, China, Hong Kong, and India.
Wednesday night dessert was ice cream. I thought the add ons were mango and sweet sticky rice! I took a bite and found out it was some kind of potato and plain sticky rice! I still ate it all! Haha!
This is my friend from Indonesia. We played a game where we had to make animal noises and find our matching animal! We were both cats! :)
Resting at the fountain!
It was so hot and we got there a couple of hours before the cruise, so we headed inside to the AC at Big C grocery store and got ourselves some ice cream to cool down! And to tide us over! Dinner was not until 8pm! We are normally almost in bed by that time!
This ice cream looks interesting! Low Fat and Fish??? We did not try it!
Waiting for the group to gather by the big Ferris Wheel to head over to the cruise!
On the cruise at last. Our table had us, the Packards, and the Buckners.
Wat Arun! So beautiful!
The dancing has begun!
Dancing under an almost full moon!
The gorgeous skyline.
The beautiful moon.
Friday lunch time! Friday morning, I gave my Bill Porter talk. I related Bill's story to the challenges that returned missionaries have when they get home and face the world! No pictures of the talk this time.
After lunch, we had two patriarchal blessings for two of the RMRT attendees. This is Varshini from India. She is so sweet. We were so happy to be a part of her special day.
Mamatha's blessing got entered into our system at the very last minute. She was so happy because she wanted a blessing so bad and it was looking like it was not going to happen. After a lot of work by Elder Buckner and prayers by everyone, she was able to receive her blessing. She was so happy.
Elder Buckner and Elder Brady.
Mamatha and Varshini
Well, it is finally the end of the day on Saturday - I will start next week's blog with today. But for now it is evening, I am tired, and I want to get this posted!
Thanks for reading!
We love you and miss you!
