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.