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Hey Everyone,
Great to hear from you again! Thank you for taking the time to write me! I have heard the election results (Some Thai guy told me right as soon as my companion and I stepped outside). It's always fun to see the crazy stuff that goes on after elections! Would you mind sending me some of the Headlines from the Country and World news, just so that I could get an Idea of whats happening in the outside world?
That's sad to hear about the Huskies loss, but it's good to hear that they are having a good season this year!
Teaching is slow here, We mostly go LA finding, but since the records we have are about 10 years old, the people we are trying to find have either moved or want nothing to do with the church. A lot of the lessons we have are with members or recent converts so as of now I don't have to much to worry about in terms of investigators. It's kind of sad though, because I guess the missionaries before us didn't talk to the members too much. This Sunday, one of the members talked about how our visit with her was the first time the missionaries had sat down and talked with her for 3 years! So I think we are going to focus a little more on member relations even if it slows down finding investigators.
That's awesome that Jake and Tyler are going to be rooming together again. It was a blast during Spring Semester, so I'm sure it'll be just as fun this semester! I heard about the progress on the floors, good luck with that!
I hope Thanksgiving goes well over there! They don't celebrate it over here, but I think I heard something about one of the Elderly missionary couples preparing a thanksgiving dinner at there house for the missionaries, so hopefully that pulls through!
Not much has happened this week, but today is the thai equivelent of valentines day and apparently it's a pretty big deal of here, so I'll let you and Mom know how that goes!
It was great to hearing from you,
Wish you the best
- Elder Latimer
November 20, 2016
Hey All!
Haha! Yeah they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here, but we do have an elderly couple who is throwing a thanksgiving feast in Udon, so my comp and I might head down there on Thursday and see how it goes!
Things are going slow but good in Kumpawapi. The boy we are teaching got baptized this Sunday, and I have pictures but they recently just got recovered on my comp's camera and need to be renamed and reformated (some how they got deleted). It's still a bit complicated to speak. I can do fine with gospel talk, and with certain other things, but for the most part I can get by. Yesterday our branch president had me and my comp give a talk literally at a last minute's request, so mine was a bit awkward, but I got by.
I can't wait till Thanksgiving back at home! The food here is good, but its not nearly as good as American food!
That's great to hear Jace and Jonathan are moving up in scouts! Being an eagle is a great thing to put on your resume! And hopefully things clear up with the floorboards! I never was a fan of refurbishing and renovating!
The election sounds nuts! I wish I was there to see all the news on protests! I can never understand how people think that a couple thousand people protesting will reverse the vote of over a hundred million! Still though, it'll be interesting to see how things turn out!
I heard that Jake and Tyler would be going to BYU-I together in the winter, and I wish I could be there too because last semester was super fun! Best of luck with your Missionary work and thank you so much for the Headlines! Things sound really interesting!
Sorry if this email seems a little rushed, the computer I was on before crashed, and if that happens before you log off it's uncertain how much time you'll have on the next computer! Also be sure to let me know what fabric you want to use for a scripture case (I sent the pictures of the two I have to Mom) along with what type of scripture you have, and I'll be sure to try and get it put together!
All the best and wish you a happy Thanksgiving!
- Elder Latimer
November 27, 2016
Hey All!
Things are going great here! They don't really celebrate Thanksgiving here but they do sell a lot of Thanksgiving stuff in areas with a lot of white people. We were able to have dinner with the older Elders and it was awesome! I hadn't had Americanized food (aside from Mcdonalds) in a long time! It was cool to finally have a baptism but, the one I baptized didn't show up to church on Sunday so he still has to be ordained and given the Holy Ghost (his family has been harvesting rice for a while) but where hoping he'll be there next Sunday!
I'm glad that the Huskies are doing well and that we still have a tone of awesome movies coming out, I can't wait to check those out when I get back!
Skiing sounds fun! I'd love to go sometime when I get back. And as for pictures so far I just save all the interesting ones on my google drive, but I was also considering getting a hard-drive to store them on as well (that's what a lot of the missionaries here do). So I'll see about that!
The language is still coming along. I can understand pretty well when people are talking, but as soon as it's directed at me, I lose all comprehension, so I'll be working at that and as for interesting stories, this Sunday, the grandmother of one of my MTC teachers came to church as an investigator, so my comp and I are going to try to teach her, which should be cool! And in scripture study, I'm mostly just reading through Jesus the Christ, and memorizing a verse a day from the bible (I'm trying to memorize Hebrews 11)
Glad to hear that things are going good with the family and I'll definitely write Jake back (I didn't remember getting an email from him). Also I'm planning on making scripture cases for you and mom, As well as some ties, so be sure to let me know what kind of scriptures you have as well as what fabric you want to use (I sent pics to mom with the fabric and if you'd like a different one be sure to let me know and I'll pick a few more up). It may be a while before you get them though, because I'm going to try and get ties made for all the brothers as well and I'll have to ship them by boat! But hopefully I can get them made soon!
All the best, Love you
Elder, Latimer
MORE FROM LETTER TO MOM:
Hey Mom!
Mark is 11, and luckily for us we were able to go to Udon for Thanksgiving which was super awesome (and delicious). I don't have any pictures but my district president/mission first counselor, has some on his Facebook so we're working on getting those sent to my comp and I. Thanks giving sounds super awesome (except for organic turkey everyone knows that GMO's are where it is at)! And I'm glad to hear that Josh and Lettie are happy together. I heard that there were also a lot of other good movies that came out, so I can't wait to watch those!
White elephant sounds super fun! If we did it over here by one of the boarder markets (by laos) we could find a ton of awesome and crazy stuff for under $20 (rolexs, and fake handbags etc.)
My branch is pretty small and has about 21 people that come on average, and we teach a lot. Last week my comp and I had to give sacrament talks, teach sunday school and preisthood and then do seminary and tithing, so the church right now is fairly reliant on the missionaries, but hopefully with more people coming in it will be less so! As for stories, I met an investigator at church this week who is one of my MTC teachers grandma's so that'd be cool to teach her, and today I'm going to be ice skating in one of the big malls in udon, So I'll follow up on that either later today, or next week!
Miss you too and all the best!
Elder Latimer
December 4, 2016
Hey Everyone!
Thanksgiving was great! Ours was held by the elder missionaries who were serving a mission here a few months ago (Their mission officially ended then due to health reasons but they returned unofficially to help for what would have been the remainder of the mission) and they are super cool! My companion got the pictures from the Udon district president so I be sure to send those over!
Zone conference was great also! In the morning before things officicially got started, we watched "It's a Wonderful Life" and it was super good! Then we did some activities and white elephant followed by some Christmas songs and spiritual thoughts. It wasn't to much like a typical zone conference, but was I think the Mission president and his wife's way of wishing the missionaries Merry Christmas! So it was super cool!
Our new convert officially got confirmed yesterday which is awesome! We are working on re-activating a member who owns a restaurant. She is super awesome and has started coming to church semi-frequently, So we'll see how that goes! And we haven't official started teaching the older lady yet, but we have the chance to visit her this week, so we'll try to get our foot in the door then!
My comp and I did Giaw Khao (harvest rice) for a while 2 or 3 P-days ago, and this P-day we are getting some ties made. I'm going to send you some pictures of the ties I have so far next week, just to see what type you and the brothers would want me to send back for Christmas! I'm also going to try to get a suit made before then too but we'll see if that gets done in time
White elephant sounds awesome!
I hope you have a great time in the Big City and tell me how "School of Rock" is!
Have a great week!
-Elder Latimer
[MORE FROM LETTER TO MOM]:
Hey Mom,
Zone conference was a ton of Fun, and sorry for opening everything, I was really impatient, and was also worried that I had food or chocholate in there that would melt! Christmas day should't be too drone. I have a suit getting made and some ties that will be ready then, So I'll have some christmas stuff to worry about!
White elephant sounds awesome! We had one here and I assumed it was a joke gift giving activity like ours, but people actually gave pretty cool gifts, which makes me feel really bad, because I just bout 3 10 Bat sandwhiches and rapped them. One of the senior missionaries opened mine and started at me with the biggest look of contempt for a solid 5 minutes. so there was that!
Glad to here that Jake and Josh made it back to college saftely, and that Jace is doing better!
As for two stories, at the mission conference, I met a missionary who has spent $3000 american dollars on ties and dropped off and extra $1000 of fabrics off at a tie place. He has so many ties that he has just 2 suitcases devouted to ties. He sold some at the mission conference for super cheap, so I bought 5 for about $10 which is a sweet deal since I did'nt have to pay for fabric! And also at the Zone conference, we got permission to view "It's a Wonderful Life" and now it's probably one of my favorite holiday movies!
I don't have much to write about this week, but next week for p-day, we are going to try to ride a water buffalo, and this pday we're going to a border market up by Laos, and those always have some cool stuff! I'll look for something for the brother for christmas! And the package may get home a bit late just because I'm wating to send everything I got for the family at one time to save money (shipping is a bit expensive even to send it home on a boat!)
Also I think I may try to transfer to SUU. I was talking to a missionary who's already passed his MCATs and he said the SUU has one of the best programs! So could you look into that for me. And also I was wondering if you could send me some scholar ship essay promts, and I can try to submit a rough draft through email next pday!
Hope you have a great week!
All the best!
- Elder Latimer
December 11, 2016
Hey All!
I heard about your and Mom's adventure in New York! It sounds awesome! Hope you had fun!
So I will be calling after Christmas in Thailand, but it will still probably be Christmas there (just later at night for you guys) We haven't heard too much about it yet but I'll be sure to tell you when I find out more about!
I heard that Josh and Lettie were getting more serious! wish them the best for me! and I hope football stays exciting! from what it looks like, the Seahawks are doing really well this year!
Best of luck with your religious freedom symposium! Give em heaven!
Sorry I haven't had much time to write! I'm at a new internet cafe, and I only have an hour! So if I want to attach pictures I need to move fast (the internet here is slow). I think you and mom should be able to view most of my pictures on my google drive, but if you can't let me know!
All the best!
- Elder Latimer
