Letter 90 - When it Rains, it Pours!

Dear Family and Friends,

The rainy season arrived with a vengeance! It has been a wet week here in Thailand! It reminded John of his days as a missionary back in the 70s before pumping systems were put in place to help control flooding. We didn't really see any flooding last fall, but a weekend storm rolled in on Friday and the pumps could not keep up. Flooding was everywhere, freezing Bangkok and the outlying communities! It reminded me of a snow/ice storm in Portland where everything shuts down! 

This week was filled with hunkering down during the storm, venturing out later in the week for some house inspections, and saying goodbye to some of our missionaries who finished their missions. 

I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story. 

But first, we love you and miss you, and thank you for your love, support, prayers, and kind words. 

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

PS - happy birthday to our grandson Sebastian who turned 11 this past week! 

We got notice on Saturday morning that we should stay put and not go out as the roads were flooded. This is the back of the temple! There is a little gutter drain on the side of the road that had overflowed and water was covering the road and a bit of the driveway into the temple block. 

I walked the stairs Saturday morning, and afterwards I headed outside to check out the flooding. This is Phetchaburi Road in front of the temple! 

This is looking towards the Address Condo (next door to us - to the West - I think).

In front of the temple, looking in the opposite direction.

Fish out of water! On the Sidewalk in front of the temple!! 

Cab making its way through. 

This is in the back of the temple! The water is too deep for this motorcyclist. 

View from our living room window (out back). 

The Elders sent this picture of themselves waiting in line at a store to stock up on supplies. 

The lines were over 2 hours long! 

Shelves were empty (picture from the Elders - our APs).

More nearly empty shelves. 

Pictures I grabbed from the internet. 

Thailand declares a state of emergency. 

Saturday evening, we were homebound, so we made cookies. No Bakes! 

And we had a game night with all of the Senior Missionaries (serving in Bangkok) and our Mission Leaders (East and West)!

Clockwise starting with the cameraman! President and Sister Rich (West Mission Leaders), Sister and Elder White (Area Family History and Legal - and former Thailand Mission Leaders back in the 90s), Elder and Sister Justensen and Elder and Sister Thorsen (West Mission Office Missionaries), Bradys (East Mission Office Missionaries and Patriarch) President and Sister Kanyaphan (East Mission Leaders), and the Calls (East Mission Office Missionaries)

Sunday morning. More pictures snagged from the internet. 

More flooding. In person Church is cancelled. 

Zoom Church is held! It reminded me of Covid times! This is Brother Dwe. He gave a great talk. He is a new member of the church and John gave him a blessing a couple of weeks ago. 

One of the blessings of Covid, was learning how to use technology to keep us all connected. This is Brother Olson who is in the Bishopric. He also gave a great talk. John has blessed two of his children. One of his sons is serving in the Thailand East Mission and a daughter will be joining our mission soon as well! 

Sunday after church, we headed outside to check out the flooded streets. They had dried up!! 

We walked over to the Klong. Waters looked higher than normal. No water taxis were running. 

Under the overpass across from the temple. 

The flood waters caused the pavers to loosen and get disheveled! 

More pictures from the internet. 

Even though the roads had dried up in front of the temple, outlying areas were still flooded. 

Monday, we headed across town to close the President Condo. We crossed the river over the beautiful Rama VIII Bridge. 

Most people were not out and about so there was hardly any traffic which was actually nice. 

These electronic happy and sad faces are fun! They smile when you are driving the proper speed! 

Another view of the bridge.

Off to the left is an area called the Green Lung. We hear that you can rent bikes and ride all kinds of trails that wind through a community. We keep saying we want to do that one of these days. And now we are down to our last 9 weeks and 3 days! 

I could not believe how high the pile was on this truck in front of us! I am not sure what it all is.

But if you zoom in, you can see a man sitting on the bags!!

We finally arrived at the Condo for the meeting with the Landlord's rep. Backstory - One of the reasons we were closing this condo is that it was no longer suitable for the missionaries to live there. Whenever it rained, the floor would flood! Water would come up through the flooring, bubbling like a fountain! Last year, after the rainy season, the floors were replaced, but the problem was not fixed! The missionaries moved out a month ago. This past weekend Elder Brady got a ton of texts on the office phone (that he missed seeing because that phone is in the office) saying that water was pouring out of the door and they were sure we had left a window open inside. We had not! No one had a key to get in (we had them and were delivering them at the closing). So the juristic office had to put towels out to try to keep the floods in the room. This has been an ongoing problem. Ironically this room is on the 7th floor! How does the water bubble up through the floor?? It only happens when it rains!

Once we got inside, we saw the warped floors and pooled water. This normally only happened in the bedroom, but it was quite a downpour and the living room was affected this time too. 

The juristic office and the landlord reps discussing the apartment.

On our drive home, I had to get a picture of the giant bus doing a U-turn. There are not a lot of traffic lights in Bangkok (there are enough), so one of the ways to keep traffic "flowing" is a bazillion places to do a U-turn!

More pictures of the flood. This is what our friend Jan posted. She brought some food out to her sister's family and they had to bring a tub out to float the goods back to their house. 

We talked to our son Kevin on the way home. I was following the GPS and noticed the "Tobacco Monopoly Hospital!" I had never noticed that on the GPS before! I want to know more!! 

We were out of milk, so I went to our local 7-11 Monday afternoon and the shelves were pretty empty here! And they were out of milk. I did find some at the 7-11 across the street. (7-11s are everywhere!)

The sisters stopped by for their Pday and said hello!! Sisters Brown and Furlan! We love them! 

Monday night Elders Lowry and Collado are out spreading the Good News! They had water up to their waist near their apartment! 

Tuesday, time for a treat! On our way across the street we saw the displaced pavers under the bridge. Basically the temple is at my back and the little white building I am facing is our smoothie place! For 50 Baht we get a great big Oreo Milkshake! Or if we are feeling healthy, a coconut or watermelon (or a ton of different kinds of fruit) smoothies!

We were not feeling healthy. This guy was getting ready to pay for his smoothie and John said "Thank you" in Thai to him and pretended like he was going to take it! It momentarily shocked the guy, and then he (the guy) laughed! We all did! Although, I might have said, "JOHN!"

More flood damage on the sidewalk. 

For two days now, these are the only people who have made it into work in the Country Office! Most of the people who work here at the temple annex stayed home because of flooding issues. They worked from home. 

Also on Tuesday, I met John at the Villa Market on the way home from an appointment. 

We haven't seen Cheez-its in Thailand ever!! This must have been a special order to the International Store! We had to buy a box! You will never guess what it cost!! 

I will let you know at the end of this blog!!!! 

Walking home along the Klong. Fish were jumping like crazy! People were also fishing!

A newly placed light pole fell over because of the flooding. 

Another view.

We are almost home! I spy the Temple! 

Tuesday we played pickleball with Jan! I found out that the country office had access to a net and had started playing Pickleball on Monday and Tuesday evenings after work! So we invited ourselves! Haha! And we will probably start playing on Mondays and Tuesdays with them. The gym here at the annex is not regulation size, so we play on a shorter court. And there was only the three of us this time, because so many are not back at work yet. We played Jan and me against John (full court). He beat us every single time. Ugh. 

Wednesday on our walk to a house inspection, I noticed this nice ramp for wheelchairs. 👀

Also this big pink bear with ATTITUDE! 

This beautiful view on our walk. Taken through a chain link fence. 

Also our view. 

The walk from the train to the Cassio Condo is the longest walk we have on a journey to a house inspection. We like getting the steps, but sometimes the heat gets to us! This time we tried to find things we had not seen on previous walks! 

I spy a Buddhist Shrine at the top of this neighboring Condo. 

Let's zoom in. 

The Zone Leaders Elders Schaffner and Knapp did a nice job! 

The reward . . . Pizza Company Pizza! It was a buy one get one free special, so the Elders each wanted to eat their own pizza!!!! Elder Brady and I had a pizza and a half to take home!! 

On our way back to the train, I spotted this really cute building! I loved the bricks and the balconies! 

After work, I headed over to the mall for a massage and some shopping. On my way back, I spotted the temple lights as they just barely turned on. 

We live in such a beautiful, peaceful place in the middle of this noisy busy city! 

Well, we actually live in the building behind the temple, the annex! 

Almost home and look who I ran into! 

Sister Justensen! And for the second time, we were wearing matching dresses! I took the selfie, but Elder and Sister White walked out of their apartment and took this picture! Haha!

This is a Sweet Potato Bun from Yamazaki Bakery! These bakeries are all over Thailand and I have seen this purple pastry for the past 21 months and have wanted to try it! I finally bought it! 

And I cut it in half! 

And I warmed it up and ate it and it was yummy!!!

Thursday morning, we stopped by to say goodbye to Elder Tang and Elder Fowles! They leave today! 

Then we took off to head to Chachoengsao for a house inspection! I saw this on the back of a flatbed! 

The Elders have a little baby ant problem. 

They also have a beautiful view of a little pond and a banana tree out back! 

A bunch of bananas! 

We were blow away by how clean this house was!! We had never seen it cleaner! 

Fabulous job Elders Lewis and Smith!! 

We went to a little buffet restaurant for lunch. It was opening day! This place is owned by some members from Chachoengsao! We met them a week or so after we arrived in Thailand. We attended a baptism at their house! (It took place in their community swimming pool). This is Brother Gei! The owner and dad of the family! 

This little buffet specializes in this yummy soup called Kuai-tiao. It was so Yummy!!!! 

And this slushy smoothie drink was out of this world!! It reminded me of the Chili Mango Dole Whip at Disneyland! It was a like a Mexican Mango Smoothie with a little kick! I could not get enough of it! 

We finished the meal with some ice cream! And when it was all said and done, Sister Den would not let us pay for lunch. The Elders stayed and washed dishes as a thank you! 

The GPS sent us home a different way. We weren't sure why this was a good idea with the flooded roads! 

Apparently it was the fastest option!! 

We drove a different way to Chachoengsao and there was no water on the roads.

This route made us a little nervous. 

But we made it safely home. 

It has been a crazy week here! It hailed in Bangkok, which is a fairly rare occurance!

Thursday early evening, we dropped by the mission again to say goodbye to the missionaries one more time. Elder Lowry had not been there earlier and we had to give him a hug goodbye! We worked with him in Rayong for a few months and he has been in Bangkok for the past several months as an AP. We will miss these great missionaries! 

Thursday evening, we played some cribbage. We are working together on patience, charity, kindness, and not gloating. One of us really struggles with not gloating. Have I mentioned we don't play cribbage on days that John gives patriarchal blessings. 

Friday afternoon in the office! Here I am working on the blog! 

These pictures popped up on our all missionary thread! I cannot believe some of the flooding that happened right here in Bangkok. 

Some of our amazing missionaries helping the community clean up after the floods. 

Friday evening, the Calls came over for some games. We played Cribbage and Code Names. I am not going to say who won, because gloating is impolite! we ate No Bakes and Carmel Corn. The Calls brought over some Schwepps which is a favorite zero sugar drink we enjoy. 

This is a new flavor. Manao and Anchan, also known as Butterfly Pea. This is made from Butterfly Pea Flowers and fresh lime. It is a Thai specialty! We all enjoyed it! 

Here it the last picture of this week's blog. I snagged this from someone's stories. I spy a giant snake in the flood waters next to that curb!!!!! I am so glad I did not spy that in person!

Well, it is Saturday morning and the sun is shining. John and I are going to head out and do some exploring in Bangkok, do a little shopping, and get some chores done at home. 

I am going to get this posted and we are going to get on our way! 

Thank you for reading!

I can't believe this is letter 90!

Letter 100 should arrive in your inbox on the week we get home!!

We love and miss you! Bye!

PS - If you actually read the whole blog, you probably want to know what the Cheeze-Its cost!

About $11 USD!!!!! Ridiculous! But yes, we bought a box!