November 29th Letter

Ok family, I will type my very fastest so that I can get everything you need in this letter.

I'm sure the anticipation is killing you but yes, I did move to Bangkok. It isn't like Nong Khai at all! I have no Idea what I am doing down here. This is the most gigantic city in the world. You really can't see an end to it because it is so big, it goes from horizon to horizon - Well sort of. Because my area, called Samut Prakan, is right next to the beach; therefore, it goes only to horizon the other horizon is water. But it is still way huge, I'm just at the very very bottom of it.

My new companions name is Elder Devries. He is from Sparks Nevada. I still have not had one from Utah. He is probably 6ft tall, he has blond hair, he likes to listen to music and watch movies, and he probably enjoys long walks on the beach and reading a good book too. (Detailed enough?) Samut Prakan is his first area. He likes it, but I think he would prefer to be in one of the smaller cities, I can't blame him. We don't really ride our bikes in this area, we stick to taxis and buses. So learning the area is quite difficult, we have both been spending the last few days trying to figure out the area. It is pretty hard.

Today right before I came to email. we went and saw an ancient city. It was so sweet; I really want to bring you all back so you can see the stuff that I have been able to see here. The art in this ancient city was really quite amazing. I am pretty sure that most of the buildings are replicas, but they are still really amazing.

As for Thanksgiving, this one was way, way, way sweet. We got invited to go eat at a member’s house up near our mission headquarters. And guess what, President Smith was invited too! So we are the only missionaries in Thailand that got to eat Thanksgiving dinner with President Smith, it was absolutely amazing. The family that made the meal is an American family and the dad works at the embassy. He was able to buy the food at the embassy store, which is all imported food from the USA. I had a real(!) Thanksgiving dinner. I mean it wasn't just like being at home, but it was the best I could do in Thailand. This week has probably been the most I've thought about home. I didn't like moving. I feel so out of place. I don't have any idea what I'm doing because out of the two of us I've been a missionary longer, so he looks to me to know what to do, and the truth is I have no idea. I have never felt so awkward in my life. I hope those feelings go away.

As for the packages I got them and I opened them. And so far I have been loving them! The peeps are almost gone, but I am trying to eat sparingly so everything lasts us a while. I didn't open Maren’s gift so I will have a gift to open on Christmas day. If it is something that might go bad I should probably know. Also, somewhere along the trip the yoohoo all got broken open so I didn't get any of that. I was so sad, but it is ok. I will get over it. Those CDs are awesome. My companion loves them too. Those are probably from Judd right? Thank everybody for me ok?

Ok so I am going to have to take out another $30.00, but let me explain. I haven't spent that other money yet, but the mission pays for all our travel. It is called house money. They, the mission, give us 10000 baht in house money. Once we spend half we are supposed to request more, but the Elder that was here before me, spent it all, and didn't request it until last Thursday. So, when I got here we had no money. I have been paying for the taxis and everything with my own money, but now I am out and we won’t get reimbursed until the 2^nd. I will have to take a little more out, sorry. I will get all the money back as soon as the church reimburses me.

As for today I think this is all. I will be on for 20 more minutes so if you have any questions feel free to ask.

I love you all and miss you and appreciate you! Thank you for everything you do for me. I love you guys so much, have a good week and I will talk to you next week.

November 22nd Letter

The District (left to right: Elders Potter, Parkinson, Anderson, Warner, Nelson, and Hanni)

So, today I don't even know where to start. I think I will start by answering your question dad. I read the whole email right as I get on, but sometimes I don't know what to say back. I always think your comments are funny. I liked the Chuck Norris joke today, but I don't know exactly what to say in response.

Last week was a pretty intense week, because as you already know I went and played with monkeys, which nobody commented on by the way. Anyway as I was playing with monkey I got scratched by one of the monkeys, and monkeys were eating and licking their fingers, so I had to get Rabies shots. It was a good time, but I was surprised at how little the shots really were. Everyone has told me they were supposed to be big and painful, but no, they are small and surprisingly pain free. I also kicked a monkey and I got it on video, we were being chased by this giant monkey and I kicked it, it was sweet. When I get the video from Elder Anderson I will send it to you guys.

(While he was sending the email, I was on my email and so we corresponded for a minute. I told him about a time when I was 16 years old and getting attacked by a monkey and how I hate them. This is what he responded.) I hate monkeys and I will never play with them again, but I am glad I had the opportunity once. I love you. Have a great week. Tell mom I love her too!

And then after playing with Monkeys it was zone conference which was fun, and then district conference, that too was way sweet. We had the Area Seventy President presiding at that meeting. We had pretty much every president you could get there, Branch President, District President, Mission President and Area Seventy President. It was packed full of spiritual power. The only thing that could have made it better would have been an apostle, maybe next time.

As for your date night, that sounds like a really fun time. I really forgot how much I loved watching movies. I feel so out of the loop, I've never even heard of the movies you went to, but I did hear that Harry Potter came out. Apparently Thai people like that movie.

Oh yeah, Brother Ice told me what you said to him, I thought it was so funny. He had no clue what you were getting at, but it made me laugh. To answer your questions, we were burning the old hand books of instruction. They just came out with new translations of everything. They are more correct, so they have asked us to burn everything else. All the old copies are supposed to be destroyed. Apparently they are now apostate. But soon everyone will be burning their old Books of Mormon (Book of Mormons, I don't know). That is going to feel slightly weird. By the way the snake was not real, it was a plastic toy snake, but it looks pretty legit huh?

As for Thanksgiving – We will be celebrating it on Wednesday with the Takaras, because we will be going to Bangkok on Thursday. President Smith told me in my interview with him that this time I really am moving. So we really will be going to Bangkok. I am kind of hoping my next area will be in Bangkok, that way on Thursday night I can go eat a nice Thanksgiving dinner down there. I'll let you know how that goes.

Yes I did eat Isan food. One thing we ate is called nam tok (something). A nam tok is a dead lamb fetus. When the mother dies before she gives birth they take her lamb out and put it in a soup. It sounds gross and it is pretty gross, but I we had to try it – YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE!!!

I think I got all your questions and comments covered. It was good to hear about Andy still getting interviews, they stopped writing me so at least I hear it from someone. Have a good Thanksgiving!! I love you guys.

P.s. I am going to have to take some money out of the account to fix up my bike a little bit and make buy some other necessities. I hope that is ok.

November 15th Letter

HOWDY

So guess what, Nope – guess again. OK, stop guessing and I will tell you. Today we are back in Udon. I have to tell you about my last week, because it was crazy. Not really crazy it was just really fast. So, as you already know last Monday we came down to go bowling and then do switch-offs. On Wednesday we had a district meeting and then switched back. I got back up to Nong Khai at about 5:00pm. Then we got a phone call that night and we were told that our Zone Leaders want to switch off with us. So I am the person that is picked to go down to Khon Gaen in the Zone Leaders area. I stayed down there until Saturday. Once again I got home about 5pm. Now it is Monday, and I am back in Udon. It went by so fast. I was only in my area this week for one full day. I have no idea what is going on there. I don't know any of our new investigators, it is kind of sad. But wait, listen to this week. As I said, today I'm in Udon, I will go back to Nong Khai tonight at 5. On Wednesday we will come back to Udon for a District meeting, then we will go back home. Thursday night we will come back down to Udon because Friday we have a Zone Conference in Khon Gaen; however, no bus leaves Nong Khai in time so we have to spend the night in Udon. Friday we will get back to Nong Khai at about 6pm. Anywho, it just so happens that this week is District Conference for the branches up here. So we have 2 meetings in Udon on Saturday and one on Sunday, which means both days we will be traveling down to Udon. Then next Monday we are all going to go to the water fall, and the following Wednesday is moves. So all in all I have 2 days until moves when I will be in Nong Khai all day, and both of them are Tuesdays. And it just so happens that every Tuesday night we teach English class. This is going to go by so fast.

I can't believe you guys have already had your Ward Christmas party. It isn't even Thanksgiving yet, that is just weird. Why do they do it all bizarre? I remember when I was a young chap and we did the Christmas party around Christmas, ah for the good old days. That reminds me, I know can you believe it, on November 24^th I will have been a missionary for 8 months. It just goes by way to fast.. I have already been in Thailand for over 5 months, where does the time go?

So guess what I am going to go do today, OK we have already played this game, you don’t have to guess. Well first we are going to drive to Gumpawapii (the city were brother Sakhaa's family lives). We are going to play with monkeys, see a giant water buffalo, eat some sweet Isan food, see a cool Buddhist temple, and then finish it off with some ping pong. It is going to be a sweet day. I'm really really excited. (Mike’s note: I looked Isan food: fried locusts, fried lizard, silkworm stir fry, and ant egg soup – sounds delicious!!!)

Yeah so I think Brady is right. I haven't served in Bangkok so it is probably my turn. I kind of want to go there, it would be nice to be in a city that is bigger and with more people. I love Nong Khai a lot but I am ready for some change. My companion and I aren't necessarily best friends but we aren't at each other’s throats. We just realize that we have to be together for the next two weeks so we might as well make the best of it. So I think it is going pretty good.

Thank you so much for sending stuff. I hope it will get here before November 25^th. If it doesn't that is ok, then I will get it on January 2^nd, which is closer to Christmas any way. And, I'm not sure I would be able to not open it. MY curiosity gets the best of me sometimes.

So yeah, that is about all for today. I love you guys, have a good week!

November 8th Letter

Hello,

Move date is 25th of November, yes it is on Thanksgiving. All the people that finish their mission go home the day after Thanksgiving, sad huh?! Luckily we don't have to worry about that because I will finish in April. The best news that I have ever gotten is that University of Utah lost. In my President’s letter that I am about to write I will be able to make fun of him. It turns out that he is not only a Democrat he is a UofU fan, JUST my luck right. JK

Ok so I don't have a whole lot to say. This week was not very good, I mean as a missionary. We only have one progressing investigator so that is kind of sad. I feel like I have completely killed the area I am serving in, but that is ok. Everybody says we are in the re-building stage. I'm not exactly sure what that means. But the sweet thing is in the last 3 days we have found 40 potentials, so hopefully some of them will turn into progressors. It was a way sweet end to a terrible week.

Other than no investigators we are doing great. Something really good happened this week. We got a new translation of the Book of Mormon. It isn't in Thailand yet but it is on its way. This should be really sweet. They use new words that are supposed to be more correct. In case you didn't know Thai has a language called rachasap (something like that), but it is the language you use when you talk to the king or a God. So it is like a whole new language. It should be way sweet to read though. I'm excited to get it.

So today for P-day we came to Udon. It is really fun we are going bowling again, I'm very excited. After p-day we are doing switch offs. I am going to be with the district leader this time, it should be fun. I'm looking forward to a break from Nong Khai. It has almost been six months in one area, whoow!

Oh yeah... Brother Troy was wondering why you would text brother Ice back but not him. He says you should write him. Brother Troy speaks English almost perfectly, but Brother Ice struggles a little bit. He showed me what he wrote you. It was funny I told him it was correct, you may want to speak a little bit simpler with him.

There is something else that I wanted to ask for, new music. President Smith has said that we can't listen to anything that has "back beat" which has been translated as drums. So, pretty much all the music I brought is off limits; but, there is a group out there called Vitamin String Quartet. They redo all music into string quartet, so we can listen to it. They do all popular music and past music, it is really cool. If you could burn me some CDs, with sweet music and send it then it would be good.

Anyway that is all. I love you guys. Thanks for your letters they were great.

Love,

Chris

Ps. Mom, I looked at those words, and yeah they didn't make sense at all.

November 1st Letter

Hello,

I'm sorry about last week. It isn't that I don't love getting long Emails. I just didn't have a whole lot of time last week to email back, but this week will not be a problem. I have tons of time.

Q&A's:

1. Flooding in Thailand? Yes, Thailand is having some bad flooding because of some kind of storm down south, but Nong Khai is way too far away! In fact the river is going down. So no such problems up here.

2. I'm not going to lie, things with my companion could be better. I think I have just about driven him crazy. It all started yesterday when we were out inviting and we were just have a friendly conversation. Our conversation got onto the subject of sports some how. Eventually he told me he thought competitive sports where bad for missionaries. Of course, I corrected him and said that competitive sports where only bad if the missionaries let it get TOO competitive, but playing a competitive sport is healthy. It then got a little out of proportion and somehow he got to the point that he thought all competitiveness was contention and of the devil. I corrected him again by telling him that God’s plan is a competition. We have to over come our mortal desires to sin and become more aligned with God. That is a personal competition. He continued to argue, which I thought was humorous because he was trying to beat me in the competition of who was right about competition. I didn't tell him that I thought it was funny because I just done talking about it. In our companionship study we got on another topic that we obviously don't see eye to eye on and started a little argument. I was just a little bit fed up with him consistently trying to one up me, so I called him out. I said, “you are trying to tell me that you hate all compitition but everyday you argue with me and try to one up me!" Yeah, I pretty much called him a hypocrite. I feel a little bad! He hasn't really talked to me since, but I am sure I will get him to open up a little bit. I feel bad but It had to stop. I feel like it was just a companionship inventory. I know you probably wont have time to email me back in time buy if you have any suggestions I'm all ears.

That is way sweet about elder Blaustien’s new companion (Uncle Cliff knows his dad). I met him for a little bit on our way up to Nong Khai. We took the same bus after Transfers Meeting. He is a nice kid. Did you know he is half thai?

I'm glad you got my package too! I was trying to find things that everyone would like. Did you give the พักอาวมา (lava lava) to TJ? He will really be all the rage in the MTC if he wears it. I'm glad you liked the pictures. I thought you would especially love the unborn chicken. Something else you will be excited to hear – Today, in 40 minutes, I am going to go eat Dancing Shrimp! I know I'm pretty excited it should be okay.

As for seeing the fireballs coming out of the river, I didn't see them. They do that about 45 miles down the river, so I couldn't really get out there because it would have taken a lot out of prosalyting time; however, I saw a lot of the cool things happening in the city, that was fun. I guess we will have to come back and see the fireballs after I get home. Which reminds me, I was going to tell you about the season. It is way cold. I would never have guessed that it gets cold, but at night we don't use an air conditioner or a fan and I still freeze. It has just gotten cold in like the last 2 or 3 days. It hasn't rained at all, it is just always cold. Like right now, my hands are cold as I am typing on the keyboard and it is almost noon. I have even considered buying a jacket, but then I remember that I am in Thailand and that would be ridiculous.

As for the primary thing, the easiest thing would be a CD. Before Elder Greene left, he gave me his CD player, so I have one now. It is pretty nifty.

Ok so I did something way fun yesterday that I thought I would share with you. The Branch President asked Elder Takara (senior missionary) To speak in sacrament meeting. Anywho, in order to speak in sacrament meeting they needed a translator and he asked me to do it. So I said yes, which usually isn't that big of a deal, but he told me he was going to speak in Japanese. Yeah, he wrote a talk in Japanese and then translated it into enlish for me, then I translated it into Thai. On Sunday he got up and gave his talk in Japanese, and I said it in Thai, it was so cool. I had a little microphone and I sat in the corner. He put a number everytime he was going to break so I knew where we were. It was so much fun. I felt really legit having the talk actually in Thai to read instead of just getting up and trying to say what he says in broken English. It was a really good talk to. I think the members really felt the spirit.

Anyway. Thank you so much for your letters. I love you. Have a good week.

I know it is probably late, because the party has already happened but send my love to the rest of the family too.