From Thailand to... Hooper?

Hello readers!

I've been pleasantly surprised at the response I've received from this blog. I've had a lot of requests to see the rest of our pictures from Thailand. I took a lot of pictures, and didn't want to cram all of them on here, but here are some of my favorites. They're organized by area, so we'll start in Chiang Mai, go south to Krabi (pronounced Grah-bee), and then head back to Bangkok. Sound good? Good! Because it's not like you really have a choice.

Chiang Mai


I made mention of the painting elephants in the my last post... I think. Well anyway, here's one of them! Pretty amazing!


These are a few of the pictures they painted. Can you see the one the last elephant was painting?


This is a picture of Sister Imelda, her kids, and Sister Pawn. They were my first baptisms in Thailand and were still going strong! Imelda was kind enough to bake me a delicious chocolate cake. She mentioned it was also endorsed by Oprah... which was comforting.


Here we are at the beautiful Mae Saw waterfall. This is the same hike that we saw the spider.


Another picture from the monkey show.


The man on the left is President Prod. He was the first member I met in Thailand. He is one of my heroes. Prod has had polio since he was a child, and can't use his legs. But that never stopped him from hopping on his custom made motorcyle and going teaching with us. He's one of the most optimistic people I've ever met.


Bamboo rafting. Weeeeeee!


Rotis... mmmmmm. We ate these at almost every chance we got. They fry up this yummy dough and wrap it up with mangoes or bananas and top it with sweetened condensed milk and sugar... mmmm... rotis...


Here is a picture of my beautiful wife at a waterfall we visited on a trek to the Hmong villages.

Krabi


When we got to Krabi, we were a little disappointed by the water, because the beach at the bay we were staying at wasn't what we had seen in pictures... that is, until we took a boat ride. We visited several islands while in Krabi and were anything but disappointed by what we saw. Beautiful clear water and white beaches. They DO exist!


The water was so clear you could... um.. see that it wasn't not clear... yes.


While the beach we stayed at didn't have the clear water and white sand, it still made for some fine sunsets.


We took a canoeing trip to explore Thaleng bay in Krabi. And the first thing we saw on our trip was...


more monkeys! We got to get out our canoes and feed them. However, they weren't afraid at all to jump right on to our canoes and take our pineapple either. It was cool to see them in their natural environment climbing on the mountains and zipping down vines in the jungle.


We had a chance to do some snorkeling while we were there also. Look at all those fish! Lydia and our tour guide were throwing bread into the water so they would swarm and devour me.


Fortunately, I'm a pretty good swimmer and managed to evade their devious plans. I took refuge on another island and took this picture while I was there. Even in the face of death I was thinking about beautifying my blog. I risked my life for these pictures! I hope you can appreciate that.

Bangkok

After our time was up in Krabi, we took another flight back up to Bankgkok.


On Sunday, we went to church in Bangkhen and got to meet some of the people that Lydia taught and baptized. She was here for seven months and did some great work! We were happy that so many people she had taught were still active and progressing.


These same members took us out for some Korean bbq that week. We had eaten three or four meals already that day because we were meeting with members and investigators pretty much all day. We felt bad that we couldn't eat more... especially because it's so good. You grab meat and veggies and throw it on top of this frying pan/pot... contraption. Just make sure you cook it long enough or you'll pay for it later... believe me I know.


Speaking of paying for it later, did you know that coconut juice is nature's laxative? Sure does taste good though. This was on a ride around the famous floating market! It was cool to see all the people trading fruit and merchandise on the boats. It was also a huge tourist trap though. Most of the vendors didn't sell fruit, but souvenirs. We, of course, couldn't resist. I mean we're tourists after all.


Here's a woman selling some bananas. Keep it up old woman!


This is an amazing woman, Aunt Josephine and her husband, who we just called Uncle. They were some of my best investigators in Thailand, but never got baptized and probably never will. We used to sit down and talk about the gospel for hours with her. She's one of the most spiritual persons I've met in my life. Lydia and I had a great time visiting with her and even had a chance to read some scriptures and pray together. It was awesome!



Sister Mod (pronounced "mote") was another person that Lydia taught while on her mission. She's now a missionary in Bangkok! Mod has a special calling as she's only teaching Cambodians. Both of her companions are from Cambodia too. She's had to learn the language and will serve the entire rest of her mission in one area.


Sister Parinda and Sister Peerunrak. These are both sisters we served with in Thailand. Sister Parinda (left) was the one that set us up! She was so proud of herself for being such a good matchmaker (as she should be)!


Here is a picture of Ronald McDonald. He's "waiying" instead of waving. He's obviously been possessed by some sort of demon. I hate clowns.


Here is Bishop Khabuan (Kenny) and his family in front of the Srinakarin church. They have been meeting in a townhouse for years now and in two months will start meeting in this beautiful new chapel! He's been a member for decades now and even served a mission. He's more deserving than anyone I know of such a beautiful meeting place. I think sometimes we take that for granted.

Roy


Here is our house in Roy! Idn't it cute?! When we went to church last week we went to the wrong chapel and ended up in Hooper (pronounced "huh-per"). Luckily, we're still in Roy, but just barely.

We had some awesome help this week moving in and painting. Thank you so much to everyone who came and helped out - it would have taken us forever by ourselves!