At Zone Conference
With Sister Smith and Elder Bastian (from Washington!)
On the Road
Udorn Zone
October 24, 2016
Hey Everyone!
Everything is going well
so far. There is a lot of work for my companion and me at church, but
everything is going by smooth enough!
Kumpawapi is probably
the smallest area in our mission, but it's tons of fun, and most likely a lot
different then what I will experience if I move out to Bangkok later on!
The King of Thailand did
die which is sad. Apparently he did a lot of good stuff. Most of the people in
the country wore black the day after and a lot of them still do. His funeral
ceremony has been going on for the last week or so, and it's always playing on
the T.V. when it's on, which means that you can hear monks chanting all the time.
It's a cool thing to see though.
I don't think they
celebrate Halloween here, but in the stores they have plenty of candy laying
out, and it's always way expensive, so it's obvious it's meant for the rich
white people here. Hopefully Jonathan has fun with his friends and Jace stays
safe trick or treating!
That's funny to hear
about the Elders (missionaries who visited looking for Joe). Sounds like a
typical church problem. We have had experience with un-updated church documents
here when finding less-actives and it's always not fun!
I heard about Mom's Car,
it sounds pretty awesome! And hopefully the Huskies keep it up!
Tell Ryan and Brenna
that I said congratulations (on being pregnant), and I hope everything goes
well for you this week!
Sincerely
Elder Latimer
October 31, 2016
Hey All:
Don't worry you didn't
miss me! I came back a little early from Udon, and got on email again to print
off some of the recipes that Mom gave me.
We are creating a new
stake in West Bangkok by the end of the year which is awesome (we only need one
more stake to build a temple in Thailand)! The temple probably won't be
complete for about 5 years though, which is sad.
I heard about Halloween.
It's sad that all the brothers are probably going to be done with Halloween in
a few years. Hopefully you can guilt trip Jace and Jonathan into carving
pumpkins for at least one more year. It's Halloween here, but because of the Kings
death, we can't have any major parties from either a month or a year!
Mom told me about the
ward party, it sounded super fun!
That's awesome that you
are doing service in your free time! I wish you the best of luck with that!
Thanksgiving sounds amazing,
but unfortunately people here don't celebrate it, so my companion and I will
probably spend a couple hundred baht on some American food in town and pig out!
Things are going good,
and my language skills are coming along slowly but surely! My day usually
consists of less active finding for about 8 hours, followed by appointments
with members every now and then. It's exhausting but it’s nice to not have
appointments every other hour.
My companion is cool,
and he speaks Thai for the both of us at the moment, but I'm sure that will
change in the next couple of weeks when I become somewhat competent!
I recently bought a พิน (Piin) which is basically the Thai equivalent of the Guitar, I
haven't learned how to play it yet, but I'm printing out some chords later today.
I'll be sure to send you some pictures next P-Day!
That's about all for
now!
Wish you the best and
have a good week!
Sincerely
Elder Latimer
November 7, 2016
Hey Everyone!
Things have been going
pretty good as of now. Unfortunately we didn't get to much done, because my
Companion had to renew his visa (meaning we had to take a bus to Bangkok), and
then we had mission and Zone conferences, so I don't have a lot of pictures
this week! Zone conference was fun though, and it was fun to be able to spend
the day in a big city for the 8 hours we were down there!
The work is pretty slow
in Kumpawapi, because there aren't too many people here, but we have a boy who
used to live Bangkok but is now in Kumpawapi for schooling. His mom is a member
and as of right now he is a non-member. His baptismal date is scheduled for the
20th so we'll see how that goes! Unfortunately, I didn't get to go to the
crocodile farm last Monday, because it was closed (there was a holiday the
weekend before so I'm pretty sure that everyone was just hungover), but from
what I've heard, the one in Nong Khai isn't that great, so I'll just go to the
one in Bangkok. If I'm lucky I might get a picture with a Croc! There aren't
too many things that affect the missionaries activities concerning the King’s
death, aside from wearing conservative colored clothes, and not proselyting in
crowded areas, and from what I've heard, there is a chance that the prince
won't even become King, because there is some Buddhist prophecy that says that
there will only be 9 kings in Thailand.
It's awesome to hear
that you’re working with UW law on religious freedom! I think legal stuff like
that is super cool, and if was wasn't so caught up in wanting to be a doctor, I
think a lawyer would be a good second choice!
Hope you have fun at
Tori’s. Tell me how the green beans and garlic potatoes are!
Sorry I don't have a lot
to write about this week, but as I said before, not much has happened recently!
All the best
Elder Latimer
P.S. I sent Mom a
picture of two checks front and back, do you think that you could cash those
digitally? There is a guy in Udon who makes high quality suits for about $50 a
piece and I'd like to try and get some made and sent home as soon as possible!
