Week 22

Well, yesterday marked 3 months in country. I feel pretty good about language. It's kind of crazy to think that a few months ago, I didn't know a single word in Thai, and now I can carry a decent conversation.

Songkran was crazy. I bought a really good water gun that served me well. We first went to a street in central Bangkok that was sectioned off for Songkran. There were 55-gallon barrels on constant refill lining the street, and hundreds of people with guns and water toys. We played there for a couple hours, and then went back to Bangkae and played on a another street that was less structured. It was chaos. Cars lined the sides of the road, and slowly moved up and down. When two drew near each other, it was a Pirates of the Caribbean-style cannon (/water) fight. People were pumping brown water from a nasty canal alongside the road, and spraying it everywhere. Another part of Songkran is chalk mixed with water that people wipe on each others' faces. It's a rather invasive holiday. Everybody wanted to play with the "ferangs" (white guys), so we got a lot of chalk on our faces and very wet. My camera isn't waterproof, so that made taking pictures tough. Another Elder had one though, so I do have some pictures.

As expected, the work during Songkran was kind of impossible. I got a new companion who is awesome, and I'm excited to work with him. He's 6'5", which means he towers over Thai people more that I do, and he's got great work ethic.

We're going to be inviting a lot the next couple days to get a base of investigators. That's something my last companion and I didn't really have, but I feel good about this transfer.

We're still teaching that security guard. He's way solid, told us in the last lesson that he's grateful for the things we've been teaching and that he sees blessings in his life already. The only stopping him is his work schedule, so we've been working to help him get off work.

Thank you all,

Elder Parish

Pictures: Songkran