Week 11: Decepticons

One thing that's been a new experience is the driving style in Thailand. I was laughing on the first day at how it works. For one, they drive on the left side of the road, and the steering wheel is on the right. But the whole style of driving is different. There are lines painted on the road, but sometimes it doesn't seem that way. Everyone just slides around wherever they want to be, and people just see and accommodate. Between all the cars are motorcycles and scooters weaving around. They'll often get up and ride on the sidewalks as well. 

One form of transportation is the sawng tao, which means "two rows." It's kind of like a low flatbed truck with a roof over the back and two rows of seats in the back. The rest is standing room. You signal one and they stop, you get on, and press a button when you want to get off, then walk up and hand the driver 5 baht. Sometimes there are around 25 people riding around in the back of these vehicles.

Tourists like Thailand, and there are sites to accommodate them. The prices are in English to be friendly to them, but the real price is written in Thai. Thus, tourists pay more because they can't read the Thai person price in script. But we can. And it freaks people out sometimes.

There are 7/11's all over the place. Seriously, you'll see one directly across the street from another, and then a third one half a block down.

In English, we focus more on the consonants in our language. We can understand more off of just consonants than just vowels. In Thai, that is opposite. If your vowels are off, they don't understand anything. 

Walking around the streets, we occasionally see what the missionaries call decepticons: boys who have been taking hormones for years and look like girls. Big girls, often with deep voices. It's weird. The sisters are teaching one, and he accepted baptisms and said he would stop taking hormones. The gospel has real power.

At FHE last week, a member convinced me to eat a straight prick. I did, and they all watched for my reaction. I didn't give them anything. It was hot, but manageable. Haha.

We aren't allowed to knock on doors; all contacting is on the street. But Thai people get so confused about why we're talking to them. A lot of the time they think we're lost and are asking for directions. We'll say "Hey, do you want to wash sins away?" And the'll say "Uh, I don't know. Ask him, maybe he can help you." We also sometimes get "Nope. I don't have any sins." But every once in a while we get a yes. One day this week we were inviting (we do a lot of that) and we were about to pass a mean-looking Thai girl with close-cut orange hair. I thought, there's no way she'd be interested in hearing about Christ and washing sins. But then I remembered the countless conversion stories that started in a similar way. So I invited her and she was interested. We got her number and are trying to meet with her. There isn't a final resolution to this, but you never know who might want to hear more (a side note: we teach most of our lessons at the church building. We set up appointments for everyone to meet there. Partially because addresses in Thailand are very difficult to find).

We went and visited an old recent convert at her home last week. We sang a hymn, and gave a short lesson on a scripture. She lives in a one-room apartment that's like 15x10 feet, with one corner partitioned off for the bathroom. She was so humble and sweet, and talked about the gospel with such tenderness. It was like that was all she had in life. It was very touching.

The work is starting to pick up. We're starting to find and teach people more. I hope that trend continues.

Thank you all, until next week

Elder Parish

1. We went to the zoo last P-day. This is the giraffe Bin Laden. Yup.

2. This was a tasty--and surprisingly spicy--dish called yah mama.