Our English Class

We teach advanced English classes every Tuesday night at the church from 6:30 - 8:00 PM. There are many people who want to learn English to improve their job and schooling opportunities. In Thailand, students are taught English in school from the time they are four or five years old, so they normally, but not always (see the store advertisement below) know the grammar quite well and can read pretty well, but their pronunciation needs improvement. Our goal is to help them with their verbal skills. We have a lot of fun, but we try to challenge them. We have high school, college, and professional people like teachers and nurses in our class. We do lots of different activities from impromptu speaking, to pronouncing hard words--beginning with 'V' or ending with 'L', we play a Jeopardy game with English language categories, such as synonyms, past present and future tense, idioms (They hate this one because they can never figure them out), US geography, etc. We do listening activities to check for comprehension and lots more. It takes a lot of planning, but the class time is fun. We have anywhere from four to thirteen students a week.

Preparing a one minute speech on a topic they drew at random

Great and motivated students.

THIS IS WHY WE TEACH ENGLISH!!!!!!!

Honoring the king and queen

The people of Thailand deeply love and respect their king and queen. The king of Thailand is the only ruling monarch who was born in the United States (Massachusetts). His father was university at MIT at the time. This king became king in 1946. They have done a great deal to help their people improve their quality of life.There are monuments all over the country in their honor! This one is in a roundabout in Udon Thani right by where I get my hair cut. As you can see it is quite imposing!

You will see all sizes and variations of designs along the streets with many companies displaying the monarchs' pictures both inside and outside their businesses......

and across the highways. . .

in cities and in the country all across Thailand.

Around the church

This is our church in Udonthani. It is well-loved and well-used.

The members hang out here after school and work. They do homework, practice piano (since most of them don't have one at home), help the missionaries teach investigators, cook and eat, and just spend time with each other. There are so few members of the Church here that they love the support they get from being together. L-R Wiw, Ping Pong, Jack, Tuey and a friend. All of these are nick-names. We don't have any idea what their real names are. No one ever calls them by their real names.

Sister Downs and Sister Tilley are teaching a discussion. Mai (the boy in front) is helping teach the Plan of Salvation to his girl friend, May, (next to him). Sister A (middle) is waiting for her mission call, and Mo is an awesome convert of about 7 months. The missionaries do most of their teaching at the church.

Brother Jack sharing something interesting with Tuey, Sam, Dam, and Nam (Really) and green eggs and ham, Sam I am.

The church is always swarming with mosquitoes because the doors are always open. The missionaries and members take turns hunting them down with the mosquito zapper! Sister Slaugh is helping Sister Yim stay focused on them.

It's a tough job, but someone has to do it! I usually come home from the church with several new mosquito bites each day, so I appreciate their efforts to reduce the number of attackers! Two of the sisters went so far as to hunt down the lifeless corpses of the mosquitoes they slaughtered and placed them in a mosquito graveyard. (Just as a side note, we spend a lot of time in this particular room in the church--this is where we teach English and have district meetings, and I teach piano here, too. When we're not working on something at home, much of our time is spent here.)

Saturday evening--In the background Elder Burke is helping Brother O find the right size clothes for the baptism tomorrow while a dedicated sister helps clean up for Sunday meetings.

More help to clean the church, Dam and Pim. I'm sure Sam is working somewhere because he is always there on Saturday nights helping to make sure the church looks good on Sunday morning.

Welcome sight!

Our apartment is on the right side nearly all the way to the back. At the end of a long, tiring day, this is a wonderful sight. We love our work--and rest is welcome!

NongKhai Branch conference

NongKhai is a town about an hour away from Udorn. There are many lovely people there and they were very welcoming. In Sacrament meeting, Ray spoke, and I bore my testimony. (It's about the only thing I can say in Thai!) It's interesting that in just about every meeting wherever we are, the people look to us as experts on everything and expect us to have material at hand to add to the lesson. The district Relief Society president turned to me about half way through her lesson and asked me to teach a section of it--5-10 minutes. It was about the sacrament, so not too hard. Sure, happy to!! Thank heavens for Sister Zaugg (middle front) who could translate for me.

As is the custom here in Thailand, they invited us to join them in enjoying their potluck lunch after the meetings. It's an every week occurrence in each branch.

President Sitichai

President Sitichai is the president of Udorn Branch Two. He is a very humble and kind man, and his wife is a sweetheart, too. We went to visit them one day, and they seemed happy to see us. When we told them we wanted to take their picture, she turned and checked her hair in the small mirror hanging on the corner of their stand (like every woman I know!) They make their living selling skewered meat from this stand on the roadside across from a lake in Udorn.

Our driver took this picture so we could all be in it. There aren't very many pictures with Ray in them--just making sure you know that he really is here with me!

The meat is served with sticky rice which President Sitichai cooks the traditional way--in a pot over an open fire. He says he won't cook with gas because the flavor isn't as good. When I told him he was a "chef--a real rice artist", he smiled big. (He said on a busy day, he can cook up to 45 pounds of sticky rice!)

Out to eat--Vietnamese style

President Wongsagorn loves to find good places to eat. He found this Vietnamese restaurant and wanted us to try it. He likes to give us new experiences.

We had a version of spring rolls, fried shrimp, lettuce wraps (filled with pork, green banana slices, garlic slices, hot peppers), and some veggies wrapped with egg and cheese. Each type of food has a different sauce to put on it, and the sauces are amazing!

Yummy dinner!!

Bringing home the groceries and laundry

 

We went to the grocery store and then stopped at the laundry on the way home. We often have the tuk tuk loaded all the way to the back and still need to hold things on our laps! Not too full this day. It's a fun way to get around!

(Please note the black and white shirt I am wearing and the pink shirt coming home from the laundry. I really do wear something other than my orange blouse!)

Piano lessons

I have 21 piano students so far ranging in age from 12 to ? . There are more people who want to take lessons, but schedules need to be figured out before any more are added. Most of them don't have a piano or even a keyboard at their house, so they come to the church to practice. They spend a lot of time and are making good progress. The goal is to get them ready to play in their sacrament and other meetings. Right now, I play for most of the meetings and all of the baptisms. That is about to change, however!  Here are some of my many dedicated students:

May comes to Udorn on Tuesdays for school, so we have her lesson on that day. She lives in Kumpwabi--about an hour away. She has great talent and plays for sacrament meeting in her branch. (She was the girl in bright pink in the district Relief Society birthday celebration picture.)

Sam hasn't been a member for very long, but has a powerful testimony and is a strong member. He is the executive secretary to the district president. He is also helps with young adult family home evening for the two branches here in Udorn. He has a natural talent for music and can hear music in his head and then figure it out on the piano. He wants to skip the simplified stuff and go straight to the difficult hymns in the hymn book. Currently, he is working on "Come Thou Font" (it's still in the Thai hymnbook). I am encouraging him to learn some hymns he can play quickly while he works on the others. We need him! He is very dedicated!

In order to get them ready to sing with a congregation (when they have to keep going even when they make a mistake), I have some of my other piano students sing along while they play. Playing for a congregation is a difficult skill to learn, so it takes practice. They get very frustrated sometimes, and it often turns into a laugh session. Better here than in sacrament meeting! Tuey (middle) is 15 and very good on the piano. She can play nearly every simplified hymn in the book. Pim (right) is a new member in the last three weeks and a new student for me. She loves it and is doing well.

There will probably be more pictures to come. Piano lessons are a big part of what I do!

Saturday night before a baptism

There is a problem with the drain in the baptismal font at the church. So, in order to get ready for a baptism, the members roll up their sleeves and form a bucket brigade--they fill buckets and garbage cans with the water and haul them into the restroom to pour down the drain. They clean out the font and refill it. This takes quite a bit of time, but they are happy to do it. Mai (in the white shirt) was baptized about 3 months ago. Brother Jack (plaid shirt), a young single adult, is a counselor in the branch presidency and doubles as the branch mission leader. Tam is a beautiful young single adult. These kids are great!

Brother O (black shirt) was baptized two weeks before we arrived in Thailand and is a real stalwart in the branch.

These kids just about live at the church and are serving all the time.

Marriage Fireside--March 29, 2014

The district president asked us to teach a fireside on marriage relations. It turned out to be a fireside for the entire branch--married, single, kids, everyone. At starting time we had about twelve people in attendance. By about half way through, we had forty or so. By the end, we maybe had 60 or more. It's the Thai way to be more than fashionably late.

I am very surprised as I look at these pictures to see how many of the couples are being affectionate. We never see anything like this, EVER! Husbands and wives don't hold hands in public. At the beginning of the fireside, the district president even had to ask the couples to sit together. Consequently, I would say this quite unusual.

We felt a little uncomfortable talking about husbands and wives showing affection to each other because of the cultural differences, but it seems to have worked. We talked about principles of love: faith, repentance and forgiveness, regard your marriage as a priceless treasure, viewing each other as equal partners, and loving your spouse with all your heart. We talked a little bit about the Five Love Languages and how people perceive love in different ways: quality time, words of affirmation, gifts, acts of service, and physical touch. These were new concepts but people seemed to enjoy the discussion.

Here are some of the great people in Udon Thani:

President Wongsagorn and Sister Ann--wonderful people!

These are some of the married couples who attended. Amazing, really!

 

Some of the singles who attended.

More delicious food!

I post these pictures to make you jealous of the delicious food we have to enjoy--and the prices are so reasonable! This is somo (like pummelo we get at home only much sweeter) and small pineapple. But you can see that they are not really that small. Ray put his glasses on the somo so you could get an idea of how big they really are. The dinner plate contains just one somo. Somo costs less than a dollar each--the pineapple is about 25 cents. So we enjoy them often.

 

Here is just one section of somo!

 

This is one of our favorite little restaurants not far from the church that we eat at fairly often. This lunch of sweet and sour chicken and Thai omelet cost us a total of $2.50.

Sometimes we bring it home to eat. This day we had pad Thai noodles, Thai omelet, sweet and sour chicken, and soup. Cost $3.75. We had leftovers for the next day. Anyone hungry yet?

Just a note: I noticed that in the last two posts I am wearing the same blouse. Yes, I have more than one blouse. These pictures were taken days apart, but it seems that we take pictures the days I'm wearing orange!

Rainstorm!

Monday the temperature was 106°, Tuesday 104° with high humidity. Temperature on Wednesday was in the high 90°'s. When we came out of the church after choir practice that night, we felt a few raindrops on our heads for the first time since we've been here. We climbed into the tuk tuk and started home. Within just a couple of minutes, it was a drenching downpour. If you remember our mode of transportation, it is quite open, so we were getting very wet even though protected directly over our heads. The wind was blowing the rain sideways! There were loud cracks and bright flashes of lightning in the sky. We got home to find the sisters and elders laughing and playing in the rain. We made them come under our carport because of the lightning. It was very close! (light and sound almost simultaneous)

 

They look much better with wet hair than I do. I can see I am going to have to figure out something to do with my hair during rainy season which is coming up in a month or so!

 

This bug was flying madly around scaring all of the females and making all of the males laugh. The bug appeared close to death, but it was making the most of its last breaths. It even flew up under one of the sister's skirts which was not good for her or for it! Happily, it finally got forced out into the rainstorm and away from us. There are too many big bugs like this in Thailand for my nerves.

There are all kinds of excitement in Thailand!

Udorn District Relief Society Birthday Celebration

The Udorn District Relief Society Presidency went all out to celebrate the Relief Society birthday on March 15 . There were talks (Ray and I both had to speak), games, displays, food, and a program featuring each branch of sisters performing a dance from a different country in Asia. It was well attended and everyone seemed to have a good time. The district relief society president (far left) asked me if I would dress up as a pioneer. She wanted the people to see what the sisters in the beginning of relief society looked like. (Thanks, Kae for your help.) I was quite a hit, and as you can see, stood out from the crowd. They were all dressed in silk and jewels, and then there was me! Women kept saying, "You look so beautiful!" Uh, Huh!

The Udorn District Relief Society Presidency:

Elder Brown was a standout in his suit, as well.

One of the young single adult girls told me that they all wanted to have dresses like mine for next year's celebration. We will see!

The  cultural hall was full of people from branches as far away as four hours! They had fun talking to each other. They don't get together very often as a district. The girl in the front center is one of my piano students, Muk Mik. She is 19. She and her sister, Mo (age 23), joined together 7 months ago.  They have powerful testimonies and want to be missionaries as soon as they can. They already accompany the sister missionaries when they teach. Behind her and to the right is the YW president in one of our Udorn branches. She has already had me speak in YW's about temple marriage.

You will notice in the pictures that it wasn't attended by the women only; husbands and children also participated.

 

This was our lunch--so delicious!! 

 

Young Women and Young Single Adults from the Udorn branches. (our girls!)

Vietnamese hat dance. There were many other lovely dances.

 

Playing games (the girl in front is another of my piano students--May). These sisters are from Kumpawabi--aren't they beautiful!

In another game they had to work together to create a protective covering for an egg to prevent it from breaking when dropped. The sisters were quite determined and creative.  The lesson to be learned is that we all need to work together to protect and help each other remain strong in the gospel and active in the Church.

It took many hands, hearts, and minds to succeed just as it does in fellowshipping and loving each other. 

At the end of the activity, they had a singer and musician perform while everyone danced. I wish you could hear it--It isn't like anything you've ever heard before. (Can't seem to get video to upload properly. We will keep trying!)

They even got me out there against my protests. Elder Brown was pulled out to dance for about 2 seconds--not long enough for a picture.

 

These are just two of the many displays around the room. Home crafted items:

 

And yes, the language may be different, but the plea is the same--FOOD STORAGE! 

It was a wonderful activity. The gospel is true and loved and lived all around the world!