Elephant pictures

Emily sent home these pictures of her elephant adventures.... with more to come when she gets home!

In honor of Christopher Columbus....

we will eat Indian food (although I'm sure Columbus was quite disappointed when there was no Indian food to be found when he entered the Americas)!!!!!
You know, it's Columbus' thought that counts.

The elephant pictures are on a CD and unfortunately all of the internet places don't have CD-ROMs so.... ya, you'll have to wait! SORRY!!!!!

The flooding is all gone now. It's now headed towards Bangkok. That could be exciting!!! We just have lots of cleaning to do. This weekend, the members have been helping each other find their stuff. You know in a flooding how things get swept away. So they all search the area for lost items. Sounds exciting!

I've got FANTASTIC news!!!!! So do you remember my first baptism? Her name was Nan. While I was there, her husband refused to meet with us or even come close to the church. He would go to the effort of dropping her off a block from the church. Ya, weird. Anyways, he's getting baptized!!!!! Isn't that great? Also another that I taught in Roiet (Ma Maliwan) she got baptized. I was like, "Why did no one tell me????" It's just so great to see all these people progress!

Also, the Chinese girl we've been teaching, she knows this church is true. She came to Conference and LOVED it! Sis. Sorge and I split yesterday and I taught her. That was one of the BEST lessons I've had on my mission.

Funny fact: we were biking home the other night passing by all the bars. I happened to glance as I went by. You know what they were watching? The Chronicles of Narnia. Yes. I'm serious. I thought it was an interesting selection to have at a bar. They were all drinking and watching Narnia. :)

This week we got "Daughters in My Kingdom" in the mail from the office. In Chiang Mai all of our mail gets sent with the Elders. So we have to wait for the District leader to pass it out. Kind of like the MTC. Anyways, he left the book for us in our closet at the church. I asked if we get to keep them or what. He said he didn't know and that they actually got 2. "One for you and one for the Elders," he said. I couldn't help but laugh. I told him, "I think they're both for us. I don't think they'd be sending out books about the Relief Society to the Elders." He agreed and gave the other one to us. Although I could tell that the Elders really wanted a chance to read it! Shhhhhh! Don't tell!!!

General Conference was FANTASTIC! What they do is that we all sit in the sacrament room and watch it on the screen. They put Thai over the speakers and they put English over the translation headphones. So I got to watch it too! Glad I did! Really random foreigners showed up too! There was a family from Denmark that came. I shared that Dad went on a mission there. They said that that had to have been a while ago.

I'm working to get this place all ready for when I leave. We already swept the leaves off our roof! One thing off the list!

Today, I'm going to go shopping to find more stuff. YAY!!!!! Oh, for my goodbye party, Chiang Mai is setting off lanterns into the sky! Isn't that nice of them? :) (It's actually a Buddhist thing but we won't go into that)

Well, I love you all!!!!!!!!!

Em

Well, I guess I should've worn a shower cap

Thank you everyone for your emails and letters! You're all so great!

I was trying to figure out how to get an elephant home, but I don't think it will happen.... :) Pictures will suffice!

This week was another great week. Although it ended with me getting sick AGAIN!!!! What's with me? Just a cold. I guess in the future I'll wear a shower cap like everyone else when I go outside. This will prevent me from getting sick again!!!!!
Chiang Mai, I don't know if you heard, took quite a hit this week. It's flooded! Some places are about knee height and others to the second floor. Fortuantely it only flooded on the Elder's side of Chiang Mai so we never saw it or encountered it. They've been spending a lot of this week helping people move stuff and clean stuff. The elders gave us strict instructions that we were not to go near it. Not that I would want to! There's lots of snakes over there! The Branch President kept us all busy doing stuff. As Sisters we were asked to go shopping. We bought so much food and water to give to the members who lost everything. It was cool to see the city come together to help everyone out.
The testimony meeting this week was a really humble one. Many of the flood victims got up and bore their testimony about how they had lost everything but they didn't seem to care (we're talking computers, appliances and stuff too). They saw miracles and acts of love and kindness. The ward really came together to help each other. They felt that even though they lost a lot, they still had everything that mattered the most: family and the gospel. I thought that was so cool! Very touching! The Branch Pres. then re-emphasized that everyone needs a food storage and water supply. It's true! Everyone, you better have one or get one!

This week was also the battle of the Book of Mormon eater. The little 6 month old guy is a Bof M eater! More on that story later my friends.... like my homecoming talk! YAY!

Thanks for the General Conference review! It sounds great! Fortunately I'll be able to listen to it in English because there's so many foreigners here! YAY!!!

Love you all!!!!

Em

Mud, bananas, and elephant dung

This week was amazing!!!!!


As all of you are wondering... I rode elephants for the day!!!! To answer the question, yes, that verse is true! They are more useful than horses! YAY!!!! The Book of Mormon is so true!!!

Oh my goodness! I can't even explain to you how amazing it was. I got to take care of an elephant for the morning and then ride it. I felt like I was in the Jungle Book or something. It was in the middle of the mountains in the jungle! Way cool! I got assigned a girl elephant named Ma Mai. She has a 5 month old son! So I got to take care of the baby elephant too! He was soooooo cute! He reminded me a lot of Holly when she was a toddler...... yes, quite the troublemaker. Ya, you're all jealous! Sis. Sorge got a teenage male. So she had to learn getting on and off with the tusks in the way! hehehehe! We were the only ones who spoke Thai so we got to know the elephant trainers (the Karean guys who helped us) really well. Amazingly enough, they are friends with one of the members. They're interested in learning more.... It was an unforgettable experience! I was so dirty afterwards! Plenty of pictures to come..... just not today. Sorry! Thanks mom! It was soooooo worth it!!!!! I will give a detail depiction of my adventures on this day when I come home! :) Today we're going shopping for random tidbits like keyboard in Thai and a Thai mat. Things I can't live without you know!

So, it was a great week! Pres. Smith came up for District Conference. so that was fun! Sis. Smith has family visiting so she didn't come.
Love you all!!!!!

Em

Well another week of miracles!!

This week was awesome! Another miracle filled week. I could try to share about it, but it would be too complicated. Let's just say, we had a lot of investigators go to church. One of them sat next to me and cried on my shoulder all through sacrament meeting because the spirit hit her so strong. Another investigator asked us if he could move up his baptism date. That can definitely be arranged. I'm just really excited to see so many people come unto Christ and see the light come into their eyes. I love it!


As to what I'm doing this week, take a look at Ether 9:19 in the Book of Mormon.(Ether 9:19 And they also had horses, and asses, and there were elephants and cureloms and cumoms; all of which were useful unto man, and more especially the elephants and cureloms and cumoms.)We decided as a companionship that it would be good to test out this scripture. We just wanted to see if it was true. So, in an hour we'll find out! :) I'll let you know how it goes!

Tell Stacie thanks for her email! I love her!

Well, like I said, short and sweet!

Glad everything is going well!

Love you all!!!
Em

I'm on a boat!!!!

Hello there everyone!!!

 

So, this week has been really weird. It was kind of depressing to send Sis. Chambers off to Bangkok. She got to ride the airplane! So we went to airport and dropped her off. Fortunately we'll get to see her again this week. Her homecoming should be on the 25th. 

The mission just feels a little weird with all of my good friends gone like Elder Baker. He's a legend. And so I entitled my email as one of the things he always used to say. In memory of the GREAT legend. :) 555!  

 

Oh, next week Sis. Sorge and I are going to do something fantastic for p-day. It costs a little bit more money, but when we worked it all out to how much it includes, it's totally worth it. Plus, I'd probably regret it if I didn't do it. Who knows when I'll be back? So, just a little heads up there. Also next week's email will be short and sweet because of it. But no worries, there will be plenty of pictures AND a DVD of our adventures. I'm sure you'll like that!  :)

 

This week was great! I don't remember what all happened because it passed by so fast. Oh, a lot of our investigators are from the same tribe as Sis. Green. I've been learning a bit of their language. It's absolutely nothing like Thai. In fact, when they come down for school, they have to teach themselves Thai so they don't speak very well. :)

 

Also I'm teaching a lady from Taiwan. She openly said that she's not interested in learning but she keeps coming to the church to find us. Also she even showed up all dressed up for church in the middle of sacrament meeting. So we decided to go teach her anyways. :) To which she accepted very well and was reading the Book of Mormon...... Also she was very sweet to give me her Chinese drinks to cure my whatever sickness I have going on now. My body is just tired. It's the weirdest thing. I can't explain it very well. Don't worry about it. It's nothing serious. Plus her remodies are making it heal so we're all good. My favorite part is that all the members are like, "You're sick because you rode out in the rain and you didn't wear a slicker!!!" Honestly I ride out in the rain everyday of my mission without a slicker and I've only been sick a couple of times so I doubt that's the cause. I think I got it from one of my many sick investigators. Everyone is sick right now. One of our investigators didn't go to church yesterday because she was coughing up blood.... Anyways on a happier note, we taught this really cute family yesterday who had 9 month old triplets. They were quite the energetic bunch. The mom was able to get them to all sit down and fold their arms for prayer. It was the cutest thing ever!!!!  They acted like Sis. Sorge and I were the plague though..... :)

 

Love you all!!!!!

Em

Phobias........

Everyone eating!

Sis. Namtaan

Sis. Da

Sis. Green

Sis. Mot




First off I would like to thank Stacie for her wonderful email to me! I miss you too! I will ride another elephant just for you!

YAY I get to go back to school, although that is seriously the last thing I want to think about right now!

Future Thai missionaries!

So this week, was kind of weird. We had a baptism. One was an 8 yr old son of a member and the other a 9 yr old son of a member. The 8 yr old got baptized first. We sat and waited for the second one to get in the water for a long time. Turns out he's scared of water! hahaha! He's been excited all week and was really energetic beforehand but when it came down to it, he just couldn't get over his phobia. We actually all had a good laugh. As you can imagine his mom was a little embarrased. :) Gotta love little kids!

Yay! Everybody!

Yesterday we had the big goodbye FHE for Sis. Chambers. They've been plotting and planning for weeks now! It was very cute! Everyone performed a little something for her. Sis. Sorge and I sang " These are a few of my favorite things" but rewrote the lyrics to things in Thailand. Needless to say she bawled! hahaha! While I was on exchanges with the members, I would help them plot and plan while we were traveling. As we were leaving the FHE they began to plot mine. hahaha! Weird!

Sis. Chambers is touched!


Ya, it's weird to be sending Sis. Chambers home. She's always been here on my mission and then to have her gone will just be weird.

Everyone singing a song!

Love you all!!!!
Em