August 24, 2010

August 24th, 2010

Hi

I have no idea how I am going to tell you everything that has happened this week. It has been probably the most exciting and fun of my entire mission, also a bit ridiculous. I will start by explaining why I am writing on Wednesday instead of the usual Monday. P-day was changed this week because the mission has been doing trainings for all the Zone Leaders and District Leaders. So all (yes all) leaders had to go to Bangkok this week. You may be asking yourself, "what do they do with all the companions of the leaders?" I will tell you. They stick them together. This is some important information because the only elder close to me that wasn't a leader is Elder Anderson, who is one moves older than me in the mission. So this week we have been together, a person who has been here for 3 months and a person who has been here for 4 months. We are both still greenies! It has been so fun, we just go around making fools of ourselves and loving it - We are having a blast. We spent Monday and Tuesday in Nong Khai, and then today we came to Udon (it is right below Nong Khai) and will stay here until Friday, it is great. So I think your story this week fits in perfectly dad. I can totally see us getting on a bus and ending up somewhere else, like Khon Khen. I think between the two of us we speak just enough Thai. We taught a lesson yesterday, we got a member to help us so it went well. They are these two peeps who have been investigators before. They have probably gone to church a total of 30 times, which for an investigator is pretty amazing. But until this lesson they had never understood who god was... No wonder they weren't progressing before! I haven't been here that long but even I know that the first step to baptism is believing in God, but they are way good. I'm pretty sure this time around they will get baptized.

Another cool thing that happened this week, I had a minor surgical procedure done. There was a bump under my arm that was way painful so I had to go to the doctor and have a “doctor” cut it off. It was way sweet. There is a pretty good size hole in my arm, but now it is healing. Every day I have to go back to the “doctor” so they can clean the inside out and re-bandage it. Nobody told me what it was, they just said they see that a lot. It was way cool.

I have also had some bad luck on my bike this week - I have fallen twice. It was way terrible. Both times I came out without a scratch, but I feel like I should have. One time I was on this highway with my companion and as we were just going along we were biking at about 15 miles an hour so not terribly fast, but it turns out we both hit this bump and all of a sudden hit each other. I went straight down to the ground and rolled like 15 feet. He hit the guard rail and just kind of sat down on it. He barely even fell. I was so scared, but turns out nothing bad happened so we just got up and carried on.

The next one was a little worse. It was raining way hard I was with Elder Anderson, we were riding down the little road, it had nobody on it, but there were speed bumps. So I was riding around each of them and as I came around one, my tires stopped gripping the road and I went straight down to the pavement on my face. It hurt a little bit but, one again no scratch. I guess someone is looking out for me.

That is way exciting about BYU. I hope they go independent even if it is harder to make it to the BCS bowl games. That way they can play some better teams. They will at least be more fun to watch. And they are already set up with Texas. I'm so stoked... I will be home for those games – YES!!!!! What great news.

I'm glad your leg is getting better mom. I know it is slow, but hopefully it is steady. I've always been told that, that is what wins the race. You’ll have to let me know if that is true.

Also some good news, because my companion went to Bangkok he picked up my package. So, I will get that on Friday or Saturday instead of next week, I'm way excited for it. He also picked up mail so maybe I will finally get Maren’s letter, who knows. Let me know how she does on Sunday. I know she can do great.

Also, next week is moves, which means I will be getting a new companion. President Smith told us in advanced what was happening with us. Elder Greene is leaving Nong Khai. That means I am going to have to lead the area. Scary!

I'm not sure when P-day will be next week so if it is not on Monday again don't be too shocked. But I think it probably will be - who knows.

Anywho, I love you all. Have a great week.