Letter 87 - Less Than Three Months - The Lion Park Zoo - Another RMRT - Blessings

Dear Family and Friends!

How have we been in Thailand for 20 months?? How is it that we have less than 3 months left here? Where did the time go? FYI - Monday, September 7th was the "only 3 months left" mark! 

This past week was filled to the brim with exciting things like a trip to Sriayuthaya Lion Park Zoo, a BYU Football game on YouTube for John, the new church schedule (which I like to call Speed Church - like Speed Dating), a 2 hour and 20 minute nap for me, a Thai Massage for me (which I like to call Physical Therapy), another RMRT Seminar (our 3rd this year) which includes devotionals, yummy meals, trips to the temple, and the DINNER CRUISE, and 4 patriarchal blessings (possibly more to come this week as I write this).

I guess the paragraph above explains where the time has gone. It continues to fly by as we stay so busy with our many adventures here in Thailand. 

With no further adieu, on to the pictures!

But first please know that we love you and miss you and thank you for your love, support, kind words, and prayers!

With love, 

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

PS - This blog post might just have the most pictures I have ever posted. There will be a prize if you read the entire blog and can actually tell me how many pictures there are. I don't actually know the answer because there were too many for me to count! Haha! And the prize will be announced at the end of the blog! 

Last Saturday, the Senior Missionaries went on a little field trip to the Sriayuthaya Lion Park Zoo. Pictured above is Elder and Sister White, me, the Calls and the Justensens. 

Elder Justensen drove us in the West Mission Van. It was about an hour and 45 minute drive.

This Zoo offers a lot of interactive experiences, feeding the animals, petting some, and taking pictures. This was an area to take pictures and play with some little lion cubs! The were so cute!!! 

Here is a sweet little baby monkey. Sister Call is petting a baby kangaroo. 

Isn't this baby roo darling? 

The zoo also had lots of shows. I really had mixed emotions about watching these animals perform in cages. On the other hand, I couldn't help but appreciate their beauty and majesty! 

They did look well fed and cared for. 

The shows had a bit of a circus feel. 

This tiger was so big!

This lion was also ginormous! 

Next stop, the crocodile show!!

This is my favorite part of the show! I would not be brave enough to this! 

This cute little orangutan was very talented. 

And friendly!

Next stop was lunch! My plate of fried rice with chicken cost around $2 USD. And the entrance to the zoo was around $4.50 USD. They gave us the Thai entrance price because our missionary name tags were written in Thai and I had a Thai driver's license! Otherwise, the entrance would have been $9 USD, which is still a decent price compared to back home! 

Senior Missionaries - White, Calls, Justensens, and Me! 

The elephant show did not disappoint. 

This little baby elephant was so cute! 

After the shows and lunch, we took a walk to see the animals. First stop - the hippos! 

This hippo was opening his mouth wide for more watermelon and bananas! 

Crocodile!

Elder Call paid a few extra baht so he could feed the crocidiles! And they came running! 

(If crocodiles run!? haha.)

Elder Call gets ready to drop the chicken! (Raw meat)

The crocodiles anticipate!!! 

And this one goes in for the reward!! 

Zebras! 

Notice the carrots are offered with Tongs? I would not want those teeth biting my fingers! 

Giant fish! They were huge and reminded me of the Sturgeon you can see at Bonneville Dam in Oregon. 

One of the Seniors - I won't name names - tickles the feet of the gibbon! 

Who is being entertained by who?? 

Up close and personal! 

Giraffe time! 

No tongs here!!! Only tongues!!! 

Goodbye Lion Park and Zoo! It was a fun day! 

On our drive back to Bangkok, we had to stop at this beautiful Wat. 

This is Wat Thammikarat.

The giant rooster statues commemorate King Naresuan 

and a legendary cockfighting victory that freed the kingdom! 

Almost home!!! I can see the temple spires! 

Here let me zoom in! 

On Sunday after church, I got to meet Anan Eldredge and his wife. He was the first Thai person to join the church in Thailand. After his mother passed away when Anan was 8 years old, he met an American couple who adopted him and introduced him to his faith. He helped early missionaries learn the Thai language, and in 1969 he became the first local full time missionary for the church in Thailand. He was a counselor to President Brown when John served his mission in Thailand in the late 70s. And in 1988 he and his wife were called to lead the Thailand Bangkok Mission. Note - I did not get a picture of John with his former mission president's counselor, so I borrowed this from the internet, because I did not want to forget this cool story!!

Sunday afternoon, I took the longest nap!!! 2 hours and 20 minutes.  I had several nights of poor sleep! I needed the sleep!!! It was glorious!! And, I will have you know, the nap did not affect the next night's sleep! I did not get a picture, so here I am reenacting my nap for you! 

BYU Football!!! Many of you know how great of a sacrifice it is for Elder Brady to be on this mission and miss his BYU sports LIVE! But he was so grateful to discover he could watch the game on YouTube a day later! AND do you see number 16?? We knew him as Elder Geilman here in Thailand! 

Go Elder Geilman! And go BYU! 

IKEA meatballs, potatoes and gravy, and lingonberry jam!! We had purchased these sometime ago (frozen meatballs and potatoes, the gravy packet, and jam) and it was the best Sunday dinner! 

Monday - workers keep the temple driveway spotless! 

Pretty blue skies and clouds. This is the rainy season, so we enjoy blue skies whenever we see them! 

Monday evening dinner with the Calls. We haven't been to this little place in about a year! They have the best Thai Corn Salad! I forgot to take a picture of the Salad! So this will have to do! 

Here is a picture of Tuesday's lunch instead. I bet you can't guess where this is! 

I know you won't believe this, but KFC is elevated in Thailand!!! And I am going to miss it!!! 

Wednesday! Another RMRT begins. We had the privilege of meeting beautiful Daphine from India and Elder Brady was able to give her a patriarchal blessing. She was such a sweet girl and she was so happy to get her blessing. We are grateful we had the opportunity to meet her. 

Wednesday afternoon, the Merkley's arrived. This is cute Sister Merkley. They asked if I could show them the store where we buy household supplies and food. They are Area Senior Missionaries. They were assigned to be Area Auditors and they travel all over Asia training auditors in local units. They were living in Hong Kong, but they have been moved to Thailand and will be living on the 5th floor down the hall from us. Elder Merkley is also a patriarch. When they travel to do their training, they almost always have blessings lined up when they get there. He will also give blessings in Thailand when they are in town. He helped with the RMRT this week, so that was nice to have some support there! 

This is Jason from India! He finished his mission in August! But, we met him in June when Elder Brady gave him his patriarchal blessing! He was given special permission to leave his mission and come to Thailand to be a part of his families' sealing in the Bangkok Thailand temple. He received his patriarchal blessing at that time, as did his parents. It was so wonderful to see him again at the RMRT Seminar! 

RMRT Dinner!!! Amazing Thai Food!!! 

Followed by the BEST Coconut Ice Cream!!!!!!!

I dared Elder and Sister Call to try the Thai Ice Cream Sandwich. Elder Call didn't want to at first, but we told him if he could eat bugs, he could certainly eat a Thai Ice Cream Sandwich! It is coconut ice cream in a bun! Haha! 

Sister Packard - the wonderful, fearless leader of RMRT. She and her husband are Area Missionaries and her main responsibility is organizing this event 4 times a year! The young people love her and her husband! We love them too.

Wednesday evening getting to know you activities and games! 

Ruth, Mewish, me, and Marisha

Thursday morning, Ruth from India received her patriarchal blessing. She is a special young woman. She is only 22, home from her mission, has completed her degree, and is serving as the RS President in her Branch! Church is 2 hours away for her, but she diligently goes each week, ministers to the many sisters in her ward, and extends invitations for all of them to join them at church. 

This is Marisha from India. She also serves with joy in her Branch in the leadership. She was so lovely and so excited to get her blessing. I am so impressed with these beautiful sisters from India. We would love to go there some day and visit our many new friends! 

Lunch time! Pizza day is always Elder Brady's favorite day! 

Floyd jumped in for the picture!! 

Sheeza said "Hey! You just put your hand in my face!" Haha! 

Elder Brady says pizza should always and ONLY be pepperoni! It is his favorite! 

Hello lizard! 

Suneel from Pakistan said I remind him of his sister, Emmy. 

We arrived at Asiatique and paused to take a group picture in front of the Ferris Wheel. 

One of these days, I am going to take a ride on that! 

Now it is time to wander around Asiatique for an hour until it is time to meet for the Dinner Cruise!

Our traditional stop at Big C to get some ice cream to tide us over to the dinner cruise! 

This ice cream is the best!! 

This is the Calls first time joining us for the RMRT seminar, so we had to take them to get ice cream. We normally eat our dinner at 5 or 5:30pm and the cruise does not start until 8pm! So of course, we need a little snack! 

Me and Sister Call! 

Elder Brady and Elder Call, or as we like to call them, Supermen! 

At 7pm, we met back at the Ferris wheel to walk over to the cruise together. Here I am trying my skills as an I-phone photographer. 

I spy a fun looking ride on the way to the boat!! Who would ride that sky high swing???

On the boat and time to eat!! 

It looks lovely! 

Thank goodness, we made it to the boat before it started to POUR!!! 

The rain was coming down so hard, there was a section of the floor that was a giant puddle!! 

Good thing I wore my waterproof Tevas!! I love these sandals! 

Dinner! This is my second round! 

The Senior table and some friends from the area and country office! John, me, the Calls, Nelson (from the area office), Sister Packard (Elder Packard did not make it on the boat because 2 of our RMs did not make it to the boat!! So Elder Packard waited on line for them. It was so sad that they missed the dinner cruise, but he did find them, so that was good!!), the Whites, Tata and Nok (from the country office). 

Round three!

Sheeza and Me!

Hello!

Justine and Naveen taking pictures on the deck in the rain. 

Wat Arun.

Me and Sister Packard catching the rain! 

Elder Brady made a new friend! 

I had to shake his hand too!! 

This little cutie was only 2 years old! 

He was a handsome little doll! We miss our grandchildren!!! 

Catching a golden globe! 

There it is! 

I don't know what it is actually, but it was really pretty on the waterfront! 

It's time to dance! 

One of our jobs at these RMRTs is to get the young people up and dancing! Haha! Not really - but it seems to be what we do!

Unfortunately, there was no dance floor on this dinner cruise! There always has been in the past! 

So, we just danced in the aisles. 

The RMs took pictures and videos, so I tried to grab a few screenshots! 

We are having a good time! 

Elder Brady was ready for a break, but I had to dance off four rounds of dinner! 

And guess what, we ended up getting most of our RMs up and dancing and then other people on the cruise joined in! It was a real dance party! 

And the rain continued to come down! 

Here we are at the end of our cruise with our new friend from Israel! She enjoyed our dancing so much she wanted to get a picture! She was darling! 

This man from Bangladesh really liked Elder Brady's dance moves and got a picture on his phone. 

I wanted a picture too! 

Lucia, from Taiwan, told me that I reminded her of one of her former missionary companions. She pulled up a picture on her phone! I can see it! Sister Call jumped in for the photo bomb! 

On the bus at last! Everyone is happily worn out from dancing and eating! 

Say Cheese everyone! (too much cheese, Sister Brady!!)

Yay!!! 

All that rain caused some flooding in the streets! 

It slowed our bus ride home down just a little bit. 

But we made it safe and sound and finally got to bed - way past our bedtime! 

I woke up Friday morning to missed phone calls and texts from Sister Merkley! Remember the Merkleys?? Who just moved to Bangkok?? Elder Merkley, the other patriarch, went out for a walk early in the morning on the klong that we always walk on (multiple times a week) to get to the hospital/doctor's offices or go to the Villa Market. And he got bit by a dog!!! Unprovoked! And then a pack of dogs started to approach him. He prayed for a miracle and managed to get away, but he had a serious bit on his calf! Drenched in blood! I did not post the actual pictures she sent me (but feel free to message me if you want to see them!!). He got a blessing from Elder Brady and Elder White and then went to the hospital where they scraped, cleaned, and packed the wound. He has to go back daily for wound cleaning, and will have to get 5 rabies shots!!! Poor Elder Merkley! Welcome to Bangkok! 

Friday morning, Justine, from India, received her patriarchal blessing. She was so sweet and lovely to get to know. She was very excited for her blessing. We are grateful we got to meet her! We feel so blessed to have made so many new friends from all over the world! 

After the temple on Friday, it was time to met for the group picture! 

I thought I would grab a few shots while we waited for everyone! 

Tata (from the country office) and me! Tata helps with all of the travel arrangements for the RMRT!

Gerry from Macau poses for a picture with us! He is a nice young man! He brought treats from Macau to share with everyone! 

Dinner on Friday night! MANGO STICKY RICE! And cantaloupe and pomelo! 

The fruit here is OUT OF THIS WORLD! 

Another view of dinner! 

Uan and me! She is the the wife of the amazing couple who caters all of the food at the RMRT! They are amazing cooks! The food is always excellent!

Friday evening devotional was a fun dating and marriage class. Three newlywed couples shared their stories and advice! It was sweet, humorous, and inspiring! 

Another photo with our friend Jason, from India. 

The final photo! This group of returned missionaries came from Pakistan, Laos, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and India. Elder Brady has given five of them their patriarchal blessings. This beautiful group of people have gathered together for four days to worship together, attend the temple, be inspired, and share their testimonies and faith in Jesus Christ. We feel so blessed that we got to spend time with them over the past few days! 

Well, even though I started this on Friday, it is now Saturday afternoon.

The RMRT seminar ended around 2pm and so I came down to the office to get the blog finished and sent out! And then we can collapse!! We have a crazy busy week ahead! So, until then . . . Adios! 

PS - Thanks for reading! I am so sorry this was a LONG ONE!! 

If you read this far, and can tell me how many pictures there were, you win!! 

The prize?

 I will eat some mango sticky rice on your behalf! Hahahahahaha! 

Unless you come to Thailand, and the I will buy some for you!