February 28th Letter

Ok family,

This week was uber sweet. So on Tuesday morning we had a surprise. Our zone leaders showed up unannounced. They decided to do some special training and what not. Apparently President Smith has decided to start up this knew thing that leaders are to surprise visit people and then either switch off or train them how to be better. We were his guinea pigs or something like that. Anyway, we stayed inside and learned from them all day. It was way useful. At first I felt like it was a waste of time, but then after that day everything just started to be really great, not that it wasn't pretty good before; however, since then it has just gotten better. It was nice to learn from some of the guys who are about to go home about what they wish they would have done their entire mission. This week we have seen a lot of progression in our investigators and in our area. It’s going pretty great.

Yesterday we took 4 of our investigators to see a baptism in Bang Na. It was so awesome. It got all of them really pumped to be baptized. One of them, after we walked out of the church, was like, "That was so spiritual, when I get baptized I know I am going to cry!" I took it to be a good thing. But she is way jazzed about being baptized. We also took that family of 3 to see it. Turns out they have been waiting a long time to see one and want to be baptized way bad. They are so cool. Anyway that is some of the cool things that happened this week.

Something else is cool starting tomorrow – we start studying in the afternoon. This is now “Hot Season,” and I mean HOT!!! During the middle of the day it is really hard to work hard. Also, Thai people don't really like to be out during those hours anyway, it just gets so hot. So now we will study during those hours. This will make it so we will be out during the cool parts of the days. AKA the "still hot, but not as hot!" part of the day.

I was just thinking, if you haven't sent that package yet, there are some things I would like, 1) fireballs and 2) deodorant. I think fireballs would be funny to give to people because they find them very spicy! They are not accustomed to cinnamon spice.

The movie this week is pretty difficult. I want to say The Guardian, but I am also thinking Annapolis. I can't decide. I think I am leaning towards The Guardian – let me know.

Mom, you asked for some mundane knowledge of my life in Samut Prakaan. Our house is terrible; we have mice, other rodents, and tons of cockroaches. We live far from the church and far from and inviting places. Nobody knows the name of our street so we always have to describe how to get there for the taxi drivers. But I figure it is the perfect house for two young missionaries! I'm not sure if I have told you or not, but we don't ride bikes very often. That is a nice thing about Samut Prakaan, but I kind of miss riding around.

Anyway, I love you guys. I am grateful for your love and support. You have been good examples to me.

February 21st Letter

Mom and Dad,

This week has been pretty good. I'm not exactly sure what to say about it. It just seems like it went by way to fast to mention. It has been fun with the teaching and what not, we have some really sweet investigators. We should have a bunch of people getting baptized on the 20th of next month. I'm not sure the exact number but it should be at least 5. I'm pretty excited because these will be the first people that I found and then led all the way to baptism, SO cool – right? I've heard there is nothing more rewarding than that. But just helping anyone get baptized is enough at least that is what the scriptures say. We are teaching this one lady, her name is pawn. She said she wanted to get baptized, but she had to find her birth certificate to know what her real name is. Anyway, she said that when she prayed she asked God to help her find it. That night she had a vision of where it was. In the morning she went and it was right there. She is one of the 5 people that is going to be baptized. She said that it was God telling her that she needed to be baptized in our church.

I ate the cheesecake, it was interesting. Not as good as the real thing, but I had no problem eating it; however, I don't think that is saying a lot. As for Makaboocha's day, I have no idea what that is. Maybe if you could spell it in Thai I might know. It is really hard to pronounce Thai words with English spelling. But I don't think I will know what it is.

The movie this week is Chuck and Larry, this one was a little harder.

I think someone forgot to tell me that Rachel Kime is serving a mission. That is really cool but I had no idea. I'm glad Lee and everyone else are doing all good. It is almost time for Ryan to be headed home, right? When did he go into the MTC? Elder Merrill and I just found out last week that we will be together for another six weeks, which is pretty cool. I think after that, I will be leaving Samut Prakaan - maybe. I sure like it here but I don't really want to be one of those missionaries who only has 4 areas because he did six months in each one.

You want to hear a joke. What did the "0" say to the "8"? Hey! Nice belt.

So that is pretty much all I have for today. I love you guys. Have a great week. I think I will end like you guys. I know that our Savior loves me and you too. He watches over all of us. I know that He knows each of us personally, and that if we trust in him and obey him completely, we will have happiness that is true and eternal.

P.S. I love Jimmer!
And for mom – For the most part Thai people like Edward (Twilight t is a huge fad over here)m they love his white skin.

February 14th Letter

Hi,

So, it is good to hear from ya'll. It is so cool that Maren is having a boy; I'm going to have another nephew how nifty is that. These little tikes are going to like me one day. When they go through that, I can't stand my parents stage, they are going to hang out with Uncle Chris. That is some really cool news though. I've been looking forward to finding out what it is for the last week.

I have a pretty cool story to tell you. I always wanted something way cool to happen on my mission so that I could tell other people about it and they would be shocked. So this is the closest I’ve come. This last week I was on switch offs with one of the elders in my district, he is native Thai. We had had a pretty good day and we were nearing the end of it. We had just gone to their house to grab my bag of stuff and then we were going to come back to Samut Prakaan and switch back. Anyway, as we were walking out of our neighborhood onto the big street to catch a taxi we heard a gunshot. All the cars on the other side of the road had stopped, and there was a huge traffic jam, then we hear like 4 more gun shots and then this guy runs up and starts pounding on this car in the front and yelling at him to drive. We started asking everyone what was happening, and it turns out that it was a shoot out between 2 undercover policemen and a criminal of some sort, we are not sure why. In the end nobody was shot, they tackled the criminal and put him in hand cuffs and then shoved him into a taxi and drove away. It was way exciting! It was one of the undercover police officers that was pounding on that guy's car to move because they needed a taxi to take this guy to prison, and no cars could get through. It was super intense but so cool!

Something else sad happened this week. A couple of our investigators, Sam and Jackie, are living together outside of wedlock. We decided that we had to teach them the law of chastity. Anyway, it was a really great lesson the spirit was really there. We started off by telling them that everyone makes mistakes, and when we make mistakes we have to repent and live clean lives in order to receive baptism. Then we told them that living like they are living is a sin. That was when the sweet timid girlfriend was like, "So pretty much you are telling us to repent." We told them that yes and they said, "ok, we will have to talk about this alone." Sam has a wife in America and he can’t divorce her because he is here in Thailand. Anyway, we weren't exactly sure what was going to happen with them but we weren't seeing any progression so we had to tell them. That was Saturday night, and we checked to make sure they were still going to go to church on Sunday. Then Sunday rolled around and they didn't ever show. We think they don't want to learn anymore. Way sad, they loved learning so much. Jackie really wanted to be baptized, it is such a shame!

Anyway, those are all my stories. I hope you have had a good week. I didn't get your talk mom. So send it next week ok? The movie was ringer. Although I don't think I've ever seen that part of it.

I love you guys have a great week.

P.S. HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!! Do something fun together.

February 7th Letter

Family, how is it going?

Boy have I got a funny story for you! So, last week I told you about an old guy that can't walk, well this week we had to help get him in a taxi and then get him to church and then help him get into church, right? So – anyway we get to his house and there is a little bit of slowness going on, and I’m not sure what exactly made it go slow. We were late getting to the church, about 2-3 minutes, anyway they had already started the meeting but when we got there they hadn't put the bench in the room yet. We were just going to sit him in the foyer and call it good, but a bunch of people saw us come in with him so they got up and started clearing out chairs to fit the bench, it was a huge interruption and way loud. We left the room because we had to change into our suits, which we leave at the church. When we got back into the room they had just finished the opening prayer and started announcing the meeting. The first thing they say is how grateful they are that a Seventy was able to come and visit today!!!!! Yes, the Area Seventy President decided to come to our branch on this particular Sunday. AWWWW – how awful! We felt like total losers. Oh well it was worth it because he will be saved in the long run.

Chris, Elder Merrill and pie-tune

This week was so much fun because we had Zone Conference. It was a really good one. พอดี We showed up a little late for that too, what slackers! Anyway, it was sweet because the president bought us all pizza after for lunch and then after that we had a big zone activity. We went to this place called the crocodile farm. It is supposed to be the biggest one in the world, I don't know; however, it was pretty cool. There was this one attraction where you can see tigers, and we are all sitting there looking at this big pen of tigers when Sister Smith (President’s wife) says "hey you guys look over there two of them are fighting!" We all look and it turns out that these two animals weren't fighting, they were mating. It was so funny! She was so embarrassed! I was laughing myself sick.

About that inside fish gut sauce you are talking about, It is called Bahla and yes, it is in a lot of Thai food, they love it here – everyone. It makes me laugh. But I kind of like it too. So I guess I must be weird.

I'm glad you liked the suits, way snazzy huh! No, the brown one is 4 buttons the grey one is a 3 buttons. But the Armani inside is uber cool huh? The super bowl sounds pretty fun. The down stairs seems like it is getting uber cool. I just can't wait to get home and play some Xbox on that giant screen, especially if you get those super comfortable chairs (jk). Is there a movie coming out that has George Clooney in it? I think I have seen some posters of him but I don't know why.
No, my companion is not a BYU fan. He is a Utah fan. But I think he knows that it is a big deal at our house so he doesn't talk about it very much. Although I think i might talk about it too much. I think 90 percent of the Elders in this mission are BYU fans. I am in good company.

Ok I hope you like the pictures, one is of picture of the old guy we carry, one is of a guy sticking his head in an crocks mouth.

Anyway I love you guys, thanks for the letters! Have a good week.

PS. Just in case you didn't get the other email, the two movies are -A Few Good Men and Walking Tall - piece of cake.