October 31st Letter

Hello family,

So I am going to send a lot of pictures today because that seems to be easier. They say pictures are worth a thousand words so don't get to angry if this isn't as long as you expected, I will make up for the lack of words through pictures.

To start off, this week was a little different. We stopped all proselytizing activities and did only service. It was fun to be a service missionary for a week or so. We did a lot of lifting and sandbagging and what not, and we didn't have to wear church clothes all week - How nice is that?! Everybody is trying to get all their stuff up on the second floor of their house so when the water comes not everything gets destroyed. We did a lot of lifting, helping them get their things to higher levels. So, it was kind of a fun week in those respects, but we sure did lose a whole lot of investigators. My area hasn't flooded yet but I have seen a lot of different areas in Bangkok flood and we have been in them a little bit trying to help out. I am sending a picture where we are in the car and the water is way high, that is right outside of the airport. That is why nobody can get in or out. I am not sure if anyone has died, I think it isn't that bad yet in Bangkok because everyone had such a big warning, but It is true a lot of Thai people never learn how to swim. No there aren't snakes or alligators in the water.

As for food we have quite a bit at our houses and what not. President Smith just sent the APs out the other day to buy 20000 baht worth of MaMa, which is equivalent to 700 dollars worth of Top Ramen. Funny huh?! I think when it comes to food we should be ok, but we are still trying to eat the food on the side of the road as long as we can so just in case that runs out then we can eat the MaMa that we have saved.

The water in Bangkok has all been contaminated so we can bathe in it and what not but we can't let it get in our mouths or use it to brush teeth or wash dishes with it. We have to use bottled water for all that. Right now we are still eating regular food but we have lots of restrictions because of the water so I think I might take some more money out of the account just because we may be eating a little bit more expensive for the next couple weeks. I hope that is not a problem. My zone right now only has 12 missionaries, pretty much all the sisters were shipped out of Bangkok, I think there may still be 5 here, maybe. There really aren't that many missionaries here right now, at least in our zone. I think we are going to be having a transfer meeting on this Wednesday and Thursday so I will be excited to see what happens with that. I wonder if I will leave Bangkok or stay in this area for another transfers. I will let you know next week.

I forgot to tell you what I eat on Sundays. I always cook everyone Sticky rice and then we eat it with hot dogs and usually BBQ sauce. A little bit of American Thai mixture, but it is really good.

Oh yeah, and despite the floods we were still able to baptize Eaw. It was a way good baptism; everything went very smoothly except somebody put a sandbag in the baptismal font so it was very dirty water. She couldn't get her dress under the water so she ended up getting dunked 3 times, and Elder Iverson and I still think she wasn't under on the third time, but the two witnesses both claim that she went under, so I guess that it is sealed now. It was a nice baptism. President Smith came to church with us this week because his hotel is pretty close to here, and the APs came as well. I don't want to brag but I felt kind of like a big deal being able to baptize someone while all the big shots were here, and during a flood!

Good news, I got my package on Saturday so not only did I have a camera I could take some pictures with, I also had a present to give to President Smith when he came to my church. I wrapped the mints up with a note that said "Dear President, Enjoy EVERY Bite! Love, Elder Warner" Ha Later that night he called me and said "Thank you so much for the mints. After beating you guys so badly I thought the least I could do was eat them." Yeah - I'm sure he had to think all day to come up with that!!!

Movies: Angels in the Outfield and Angels and Demons (which I've never seen) the theme is obviously Angels.

I think I got all your questions right? I hope the pictures are self explanatory I have way more pictures than that but I figured those gave a good explanation.

Anyway I love you guys.

Have a good week.

Flood Pictures

Email that he is OK (October 27th)

Hi

So I am not breaking the rules, I was commanded by President Smith to come and tell you that I am Ok. Even though the floods are coming to surround me, and trying to stop the work from progressing, all is well in Zion. Plus I have drinking water for the rest of my mission saved away.

Love ya talk to you later,
bye bye

October 24th Letter

So Hey family,

Hey so the best news of the week first, we had an investigator get interviewed for baptism and she passed she will be baptized on Sunday! Her name is "Eaw" It is pronounced like the word ow (like when you get hit and it hurts so you say ouch or ow.)

This week was crazy! I can't even explain it. All week long we have been doing nothing but flood stuff. Apparently the flood is coming to Bangkok. It has already come into north Bangkok and flooded it out. They had to evacuate all the missionaries out of the Bangkok North Zone and move them all to the esan (which is Thai for east Thailand). Anyway we have pretty much been buying food all week and water trying to save it so when the flood hits we will have stuff to eat and drink. One day President Smith called Elder Iverson and me and was like "right now is the time to buy water." So we immediately went out and bought a ton of water, and then seriously not even a full day later every single place was out of drinkable water. You still can't find any in like 7-11 or what not, no water at all. I thought it was a pretty inspired move by President to send us all out when he did.

Other then that we didn't get a whole lot done this week because of all the preparing and what not that we had to do. The transfers were supposed to be this week but now we are not having them for at least a whole other week but maybe even 2 or more. President canceled all the missionaries that were supposed to come in from the MTC so they are stuck there for a while. (I bet they are so disappointed! I remember what it was like with the riots going on and thinking that we might not be able to come in.) Anyway President decided to send all the missionaries that were supposed to finish this week home a week early because they weren't sure if the airport was going to flood. That means that one of the AP's went home and left Elder Larson all by himself to handle this flood garbage, I'm sure he so stressed.

Elder Iverson and I had a fun few days at the airport this week. We were asked to go and pick up a senior couple that was going home. They had to fly to Bangkok to get interviewed by President Smith and then take another flight to America with all the young missionaries. Anyway, Elder Iverson and I picked them up and took them to President Smiths hotel (yeah... he has to stay in a hotel because his house has/is flooded.) That was on Friday and then the next day we got an emergency phone call from Elder Larson. One of the senior couples flights that was flying in from the MTC accidentally didn't get cancelled so they had flown in and nobody was expecting them. So they sent us to pick them up, but when we got there we couldn't find them. They decided to leave the airport and go look for a church or a place to stay. Anyway we searched for hours but we didn't find them - Bangkok is a big city. It was such a stressful day. I'm not sure if they have been found yet. I think they went to church on Sunday and found some people or missionaries but i'm not sure.

It has been such a fast and crazy week. But even through all of that I still haven't seen any flood water. Elder Iverson and I are convinced it is a hoax. Everyone we talk to talks about the flood but we haven't seen any floods. It is just like one of those stories that you hear a lot about but never get to see with your own eyes.

So on top of all that I was able to do switch offs with Elder Osborne (my LOOG). Which was really cool. He has gotten so much better at the language since when I was with him, he is a way good missionary too. The Stake Conference was way fun. The speakers were from Salt Lake actually, it was Elder Scott and Bishop Burton, along with somebody from the Young Women's presidency and then Elder Perkens the general authority in China. It was good everybody had good talks about respecting our wives and about preparing for temples and personal revelation - we had a good time.

Umm... I haven't gotten the package yet because the office has flooded so their is no way to get there. But the marshmallow popcorn in the last package was really good. It tasted just like kettle corn to be honest with you. The movies this week are RV and Dumb and Dumber, and the theme is probably "Road Trip".

Yes mom I have seen a Thai wedding, at least part of one, it was wierd. They did it in a very western kind of way, but I think the typical Thai weddings are at the buddhist temples so I haven't seen one of those. If you ask me what I remember most about the wedding is that everyone (and I mean everyone) was way drunk. Alcohol is a huge problem in this world, but it seems it is 10 times worse in Thailand.

Umm... I don't have a whole lot more time so I will answer your questions about Halloween next week and then I will try and get the pictures of Thai kids as well. I love you guys.

P.S. You probably noticed I took money out of the account, that is just in case of an emergency and I run out of money. Don't forget, I am in good hands so don't worry.

October 17th Letter

Sup family?

This week was really good. I don't feel like I'm going to have a whole lot to talk about because we didn't really do anything. The main big thing that happened was a Zone Training on "how to begin teaching". It was pretty good, I have to be honest, I thought it was pretty repetitive, but that can be a good thing. It helps engrave things on peoples minds. Anyway, we did the training a little differently. We went through the scriptures and found out how people in the scriptures begin teaching. That was an interesting study. I feel like I learned a lot but I'm not sure what to tell you guys about.

We had a good week with investigators as well. We found a lot of new ones and we were able to get a new one to church as well. One problem is that a bunch of our progressing investigators decided not to come to church - Ugh!!! We have this lady who wants to be baptized in a couple of weeks but now she has missed church twice in a row, and she knows it is a commandment. We were teaching this other investigator the other day and I asked her why she believed in God and she said that she just knew because she "felt it in her heart" and then I asked if she believed that Jesus Christ was her Savior, she said "yes because without him I will go to hell." I was so shocked I didn't know what to say. I was just like, "yes - correct!" It is funny how two months ago she didn't even know who Jesus Christ was, and now she knows perfectly how important He is to her.

Anyway that is pretty much all the big news from this week. I'm kind of looking forward to next Sunday it is a Stake Conference and it is being broadcast from china so that should be interesting. This will be my first one of these, I wonder who the speaker will be. That is way cool that they called a new bishopric. Nobody even told me that the time was coming for that. I'll bet Bishop Haskell is grateful for a brake. I don't even know who Steve Smith is, and I would have never guessed the other two in a million years. How long was the other bishop, bishop?

The flooding still hasn't come to my area in Bangkok, which means that it won't, I think. Even if it does my room is on floor seven so I don't have to be too worried, it would have to flood about 56 feet to get to my room. As for the Good and Plenty's you asked about - let me tell you, there sure were plenty of them. Man, they still aren't gone and none of the elders I'm around care for black licorice. So I have been trying to eat it all by myself, And now i'm not even so interested in them, it was soooooo much!

Anyway, I know that one of the movies is Back to the Future But I don't recognize the other movie. You will have to tell me. I've tried it just isn't clicking.

Anywho, I love you guys have a good week.

Hey kiddos,

This week was super good. Both of your emails were UBER long! That is ok I really enjoyed reading them. I will try and write fast that way I can write a lot as well. This past week seemed was really busy! We had a couple of meetings that we had to go to near the mission office so that took time out of our day and then we had 10 hours of conference to watch, all the while teaching lessons and what not. It was a lot of fun. I really talked this week up with all of our investigators and encouraged them to come listen to conference. I have really learned the importance of having a prophet in these latter days. Last month the home teaching message was about how general conference is a blessing in our lives. They told a story that I really liked about a strong member of the church who was talking to a non-member and the non-member asked the strong member "you believe that there is a living prophet of good?" and the member said "yes." Then the non member asked, "they talk to you twice a year, last time what did they say?" Anyway after that the member couldn't answer because he couldn't remember what the prophet had talked about. That story just showed me how important it is to listen to the prophets and then review what they say often. If we really believe that we have a Prophet of God that speaks to us, then NOTHING is more important than the messages we get from him. So I shared that with my investigators a lot in the last week.

I think my favorite talks that were shared were the first one from elder Scott about the scriptures and then I really liked elder Packers talk. Those were just two of my favorites. Elder Holland gave a great one during priesthood. They were all really good. It seems like they talked about missionary work a lot!

Yeah so it turns out that this year is a really REALLY bad year with flooding. So everybody is doing service stuff for the floods, I attached a picture; we are doing humanitarian bags for the victims of the floods. But yeah this year is pretty wet and floody. As for my area there isn't any floods and I doubt there will be. We are in too big of a city, but yeah up north near Ayutaha and some other places it is pretty bad, I think the elders up there might end up doing something.

It is way cool that Ryan is getting married this week. I can't believe that has already happened. Both Ryan and Kasey are married. All my friends are getting married. I'm glad to hear that everything is good with grandma and gramps. I love the two of them, they are so cute. That is too bad about Maggie, but I totally understand. I wouldn't want to live by myself in New York. I am so sad about Uncle Scott. Why doesn't he go to America? Coming from somebody who has now used a hospital outside of the U.S., I can’t see why anyone would want to if you had the choice.

Anyway, thanks for the great letters. Sorry I didn't write back on a lot of stuff buy I really enjoyed it and all the stories and stuff. Enjoy the pictures that I sent, and I think that is all I need in the package I can't think of anything else.

Love you guys,

Movies: X-men and Bourne Identity – theme: Forgotten past/amnesia.

October 3rd letter

Dear mom and dad,

This week was way good. I find it funny how things can change so much in just one week. Last week we felt like everybody was dropping us and what not, but then this week we picked everything back up. It was a really great week for missionary work. We were also busy going around and visiting all the different districts in our zone, we needed to teach some district meetings. This month the mission decided to focus on "giving commitments" so we went all around training on how to give good commitments. This has been very helpful because it is something that I was wanting to work on, and in order to train somebody else on it. You have to know how to do it yourself. It gave me a good reason to work on it.

So Elder Iverson and I have decided that everyone in our zone needs to work on a few things. We have had a lot of conversations about how we can be better missionaries and how to help others be better missionaries too so that everything can improve. Anyways, we came up with 3 things that everyone could do to make the work better than it currently is. It is Building your Faith, Charity, and Temperance. We all need to have more faith in Christ and in the help that we will receive as we try our hardest to do His work. Next we all need to have more charity for our investigators, members and other missionaries. Last but not least is temperance – you ask why? Because you can't focus too much on any one thing and not focus enough on other things. You need to have the perfect amount of everything (i.e. finding, teaching, service, working with members, etc). If you don't have temperance one of these things will suffer and the work will eventually decrease, but if you try and have temperance in all the things then I think they will feed off each other and the work will grow. Anyway we know there are probably way more things that we need to work on but those are the basics (stepping stones).

As Elder Iverson and I have implemented this into our work we have seen a lot of improvement in ourselves, in our investigators, and in the ward. I would say all together we are just happier. Now we are just trying to help everyone else incorporate it also.

It sounds like all is well at home, staying busy and all. I meant to ask you guys what talks you liked the most, but it is not too late at least next week when you answer I will be able to relate because I will get to watch it next Saturday and Sunday. And guess what else, this time will be in English! Yeah – first English conference in a year and a half, I'm so excited!

Anyway the movies this week are ง่ายๆ We have Dodgeball and Bad News Bears. I think the theme would The misfit team coming out on top. Last week I totally forgot the pacifier had the bear dance, so that is why I didn't know. Plus I was really rushed a little bit. Anyway Thanks so much for your emails. It sounds like between the wedding shower and back pain you guys were "occupied" this week. (can you say that?)

I love you have a good next week.