It was a Good Friday.....Saturday....and Sunday

The road to our house! What makes the red roads red? Sis. Eyestone trying to lock our stupid lock.

us together

Noppamas, Sis. Sod, Sis. Fon

Hello everyone!

Great week!
We didn't dye any eggs for the Easter Bunny, but we did leave him a pass-a-long card about the true meaning of Easter. I suppose he didn't like that because he didn't leave us anything else in return...

Me on my birthday!

The cupcakes were amazing! Thank you so much for them. Yes the frosting held up just fine. hahaha! We had quite a flame with those candles! It was quite a party. I stuck all the candles in one cupcake which ended up smooshing it. hahaha!

For my birthday, we had zone training in the morning. So that was really nice. Then we went to Black Canyon Coffee which has the best imported American food. After that to Dairy Queen. Then we worked and enjoyed a rather splendid day. The best part was when one of our investigators told us that she has finally quit all of her drinking and is keeping the word of wisdom!!!!! YAY!!!!

Funny enough, none of the people in the branch knew it was Easter let alone what Easter was. hahaha! Hilarious! We did enjoy delicious steak and mashed potatoes at a members house though for the occasion.

Okay, the water buffalo story...
So we were out inviting when we ran into this guy who's inactive, but we didn't know he was a member until later. He went off talking about Cherry this, Cherry that. We thought he was talking about one of the sister missionaries that served here awhile back. Then he was like, "You came to ride her didn't you?" I was really lost at this point. He walked us through his rice fields and there we met the Cherry. So he let us ride her. More like he insisted we ride her. Cherry is pretty much his most prized possession. It was really random. It made the Elders really jealous when they heard about that one. So yes, everyone does have a water buffalo!

Today I'm going to Ubon for the week. Should be interesting!

Love you all!!!!!

Em

Happy Birthday to Me!!!!!!!

Me riding a water buffalo.... (tell that story later) .... her name is Cherry

Our district wearing our songkran shirts

First off HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and Happy Birthday Nana!!!!!!!!!!!!! and Happy Earth Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and Happy Easter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Needless to say, this is probably the best week of the whole year!

Okay, imagine if you will Tera Maria Dr. packed with pick-up trucks going both directions. Each truck has about 5 to 10 people in the back with a huge cooler of water. They're slowly driving past each other as they scoop bowls full of water and throw it at each other. Then there are people running around slathering baby powder on everyone's faces. Then every house on the street is out with their hose squirting water and they have their own huge buckets of water they are throwing too. Each house is blasting their own music people are dancing in the streets and on the yards.

a car covered in powder (all cars looked like this afterwards)Now imagine trying to ride a bike through all of that. Then imagine the whole street is going after you trying to cover you in powder and water. Yep, that was my life this past week. There wasn't a place where people didn't play songkran.

















We came home everyday soaked to the bone and our faces just covered in powder. Some of the water was ice cold which was a little shocking.


The ward activity was so much fun. I wish I had the time to explain all of it but I don't. Join me after the mission for the complete story of songkran. It was just funny because everyone at the party insisted that I teach them how to dance Hawaiian. I don't know anything. Just what Sis. Supansa taught me from her hula class. They insisted that I must be an expert by the way I danced before. hahaha! Well, gave it my best shot!

So with all this going on, no one was free or willing to listen to us. So we spent our days trying to tract but in reality, just getting more wet. One of the days we went to a members house where she wanted us to take down trees full of red ants. That was hilarious! They hurt so bad! Don't worry, we got two of them down. two more to go!!!!

Eason means the countryside of Thailand. This is traditional Thai (eason) food. Somtum, grilled chicken with sticky rice

Love you all!!!

Em

Happy Songkran!!!

First off, Happy birthday Alyssa and Lindsay!!!!!! and Happy Songkran to everyone!!!!!! Songkran is the long awaited holiday of every missionary. It's the nationwide water fight that lasts for three days starting on Wed.-Fri. Today actually isn't my prepration day, but we were given permission to email anyways. We will have it on Wed. The branch is having a songkran activity where we will have a full out water fight (it is really hot now!). It should be fun! We've been told not to visit the park at all because the park will be all over you once you leave. Nasty swamp water! Also EVERYTHING shuts down for the occasion, except 7/11 respectfully. Today Sis. Eyestone and I took a leisurely 16 mile (28 kilos) bike ride to an investigator. Along the way, we ran into many kids who decided to celebrate early (like the early trick-or-treaters). They stood on both sides of the road with huge buckets and a hose. The first few groups missed me, but an older kid group nailed me on both sides. Ya, I was soaked! hahaha! The crazy thing was that I was dry in a matter of minutes! I can only imagine what it will be like when the whole town will play...... more of that saga to come! Conference was wonderful!!! Sis. Eyestone and I were able to listen to all of it in English before watching it in Thai. I'm so glad we did! I loved the talks that you talked about. We both especially loved the smack down that Pres. Monson gave at the end of the Priesthood session. (Get married Austin, what are you waiting for??? :-) heeheehee) I was so impressed with the members here. They all dedicatedly went to the sessions. We watched the YW meeting too. It was funny because apparently none of the YW showed up to watch it. The older women wanted to watch it though. They claimed they were just a few years older than the YW. It was so much fun to watch it with them. They just kept talking about how little and cute/pretty all of them were. It was a great meeting basking in the great divine nature of womanhood. Working with Sis. Eyestone has been so much fun. She reminds me a lot of McKenzie. So it's like being here with her. Yep, it's great! Oh, sis. eyestone had a great language mixup this week. hahaha. I'm still laughing about it! I'll definitely tell it during our phone call. Also, I can't remember if I told you, but on the 2nd day together, sis. Eyestone got bit by a dog! (I think I'm cursed) I fortunately escaped that fate but escaping the routine trips to the hospital is something I can't. I have enjoyed sitting down and watching her as the whole hospital has their eyes on her. People standing up and going over to see her dog bite and staring. She practically invited the whole hospital in the process. hahaha! Well, love you all!!!! Sure hope I survive this festival!!!!! em

I'm in.................

Here are some pics of my last days in Lopburi:

The District Becky and her neice and nephew. She's way cute! Plus loves Harry Potter and Twilight!

Mr. Billy Goat

My drop dead gorgeous companion and her new shoes!

Me with Cherry and Ai

Sis. Bao's family

( Emily is all about the food it seems! )The assortment of food layed out before us when we go to Cherry's house. They just keep bringing out more and more. It's so funny!

Mango, I eat this at EVERY house because it's mango season. I never knew you could eat mango in so many ways!

a Roddii. Its this like pastry that's super

amazing but super fattening.

The cake.

All of us.

Our last time teaching together

ROIET!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!! Yes, I moved up to the north with Sis. Eyestone. She's awesome!!! Go figure I move here just after Sis. Barton leaves. It's so nice here. I love it!!! Not to mention that I'm in the Eason! I wanted to come either here or Chiangmai. So I'm happy with the outcome! It actually turns out that they closed the Sister's area in Lopburi. So Sis. Chambers had to move too. She went to Chiangmai! They're putting more of an emphasis on missionary work in Bangkok so they needed sisters to go there. It was sad to go but change is always nice. .

To answer your question mom, Sis. Chambers and I ate that bowl of ice cream together. I'm glad you enjoyed the zoo pics! I enjoyed it too!

Here in Roiet a member owns an internet cafe so he's currently in the process of burning General Conference for us in English. How nice! Ya, I also forgot to put on my tag this morning too! hahaha!

Before I moved, Sis. Bao's family was so cute! They had us come over to the church and sing a song together. Then Sis. Geek made us a cake which we ate together. It was really sweet! Then Sis. Ruay came over and gave us a gift.

On Thursday, we had a nice trip to the renew visa center which didn't happen, but I had a nice Japanese meal. Then afterwards got on the bus which broke down 2 times. We got to Roiet at around 11pm. I got a little carsick here and there but overall I was good!

Roiet is really cute! I'm excited to celebrate all the big holidays here. The branch here likes to celebrate together. They really are so involved in helping us. It's so nice not to have to do everything! We really can't do it ourselves! Make sure you help out the missionaries where you are. It can't be done alone!

Love you all!!!!!

Em