HELLO HELLO Everyone!!
Wow.
WOW.
wow.
I don't even know where to begin. I guess I'll just go in order starting from the airports. First of all, SORRRRRRY!!! I really didn't get to talk to anyone for very long at all. I think Dad won with the most time- So congrats. ;) But just so you know-I love you all- SO MUCH- Thanks for all the emails and love and support. and I promise that at Christmas time we'll have more than 4 min each, then make someone else call a mysterious pay phone. :) Everything happens so fast now. Those few hour layovers were not boring at all especially the one in LA. That international terminal is horrible right now. Plus, we were like lost little children, even though LA is my home town, I still really had no idea what the heck was going on. The flights overall weren't bad at all. From SLC to LAX I stuck inbetween 2 of the Elders, one of them being Elder Murphy, so that was comfortable. Then from LAX to Taipei, we were all scattered about the plane, so I sat inbetween two randos. That plane was packed! And I pretty much sleep the whole way. I woke up when the cute, little, yet aggresive asian flight attendent pretty much put my seat in the upright position FOR me, then I think i started to realize what was going on when I noticed my tray was pulled out and she yelled at me "chicken or beef". I was just like.. "what the...? Chicken?" Dinner time. THen I feel asleep again until we were flying over Japan. We were in Taipei for maybe 2 hours and then on to another plane (jammed between the same two elders). It was fun sitting there listening to the announcements, looking around at each other, asking "oh no...was that THAI? I hope not...please tell me that was Mandrian or something." (it was mandrian, thank goodness... but I still had no idea what the Thai annoucement was saying.) THEN we got to THAILAND! WOOO.. Beautiful airport. We walked outside and I'm pretty sure I have not stopped sweating. ever. It took us a while to find President Smith, but we did and loaded up and went to their house. They have a beautiful house and we stayed there for a night. The next day was "moves" meetings. No one seems to know it's called "moves" and not transfers, but whatever. Sister Knudson describes moves kinda like a game show. She was right. It was fun. "and the new district leaders are:...." They made all the greenies get up and say hello in THAI, and that was fun.
SO....the new companion and area is:............!
I am in Baangna (southeast Bangkok) and my cute and amazing trainer is Sister Wichittra. She is a KhonThai (native) Actually, she's Chinese, but born and raised in Thailand. She speaks amazing English too, so that's kinda nice for me. Score. (she studied at BYU-Hawaii so we say she is 70 % Thai, 20 % Chinese and 10 % American/ hawaiian)
So unlike my expeirence at the MTC where I really can't remember anything that happend the first week or so, I can remember pretty much every detail of my life here in Thailand so far. Kinda weird, but cool. I don't know how long it will last, but I'm glad I can remember some things, becasue I swear I forgot all my Thai (but that comes later...so hold your horses). So after Moves meeting was over, we walked with some of the elders to a place to go eat. First place I ate at in Thailand : Subway!? (yes, american sandwiches) What the...Elders? But it was ok, becasue I wasnt really hungry anyway. Then we all hoped in some taxis [everyone is a taxi driver here....seriously...either they drive cars, mopeds/motorcycle taxis (maxium number...who cares... can you fit? jump on! I've seen 5 people on one mo-ped. no joke.) or Tuk tuks, buses,
trucks, other unidentifable vehicals..whatever...If it moves, it's probably a taxi. Maybe I can make some money while I'm here too. ;) ] Anyways... so we hopped in taxis and went to the other side of town to get our bikes. All 8 of the greenies and their comps were in the store getting bikes and it was fun. I have a sweet new green bike, with a basket and all the goodies. Then we put my bike in the Taxi (yes, in the back seat with us) and went back to the mission office to pick up the rest of my stuff and finally go to our house.
My HOUSE.. haha, oh man. What a happy place. Litteraly becasue we live in a little nieghborhood called "happy land." The elders like a couple streets over and their house is nicer than ours (or so I'm told, I acutally havent' even seen it yet) so we're either going to make them trade with us, or we're move out. OUr house seriously makes me laugh. It's a 3 story little apartment, with no kicthen (although we do have a refrigerator- score), no kitchen sink (it's out in the "back yard" along with the washing machine, right next to the cinderblock wall that divides our back yard and the factory /.sweet shop behind us...who knows... I think Nike owns it....ok, not really... but it is some kind of factory). ONe thing I like about our house is the stairs and the secret rooms we really don't use on the 2, 2 1/2 ish (?) and 3rd floors? (i'm not really sure...some are locked...and the roof definitely is... dang, gina) We use padlocks to lock our doors and selves in everynight. OH, and thank goodness for the Airconditioner that mostly works in our bedroom. Without that... i would just..... well.... i guess I would just sleep anyway...
but still. Awesome. The second day I was there, we came home and all the weeds/trees out in the front were gone. Made it look much better. And then we cleaned it today, too...so my life is better. Although... i am still going to clean more. My companion said today " you're not like other farangs (white peps) You like to clean." That's too bad that other people aren't clean... but i am. So yes. way to clean.
Let's see... Language. The first couple of days, I had great experiences with speaking and learning (again) that that Lord will qualify you for the work, depsite your weaknesses. We've had some great lessons with some people. (we TEACH all the time, BTW. Every single Taxi ride, walking around the street, and also to all our investigators). My favorite one so far was with this family. Jerjan's family. I, for the life of me cannot understand AT ALL.... but all the kids (ages 14 -24) are nice. We have high hopes for them. I'm not going to lie though. It's so hard! And I always feel better and the end of the day, then I do at the begining. But my comp is fantastic and helps me everyday. My favortie times are when I absolutely can't understand ANYTHING...and then I just smile and say "Well....God loves you. Sawadii Kha." I need to try harder. OH, so I asked Sister Knudson if people in Thailand speak softly (becasue i've always felt like most Asains speak quietly) and she said No... GOHOK.. (LIES!!) They totally do. Most times I can't understand ANYTHING becasue I can't hear them. But it's ok... i think I won't think they talk quietly when I can understand everything. So yay! for that day.
We have a good ward. THey made me speak my first day. Typical. And it was fine. They are all so nice and they all make great food.
Speaking of food. It's good. The first couple of days I was not hungry at all, so I didn't really eat, but now i'm doing better/ (well... i wasn't sick...so i'm not doing "better " casue i wasn't "sick" but i think you know what i mean).
Man... hmm.. I don't know what else. IT's so cool over here. Crazy. Busy. Crazy Busy. and I love it. There are dying dogs everywhere (our favorite is called zombie) and everyday as we ride our bikes around i hear "farang! Farang! Uan! Farang!" which means "Hey look! White person! A fat
white person!" excellent. I love Thailand. I'm going to count tomorrow and see how many times i hear it. Thai people love white people. But we do stick out. I didn't realize it until I saw 2 other ones the other day (and no, it wasn't the Elders).. cuase i was like- "oh, white people"
I hope that is a good enough report for now. We're going to go shopping at the market /mall. (sooo awesome..) Then it's off to teach English.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, YOU ALl. Thanks for all your prayers and love. They really help! The Church is still true. Even in Thailand. Even in the year 2552 (oh yeah.. it's the year 2552 here in Thailand. Thanks Buddah).
Love,
Sister O'Neen (how Thai's say my name)
