More daily sights around the city

A woman going home from the market with her purchases. Not many purchases today.

A  loaded-but-always-room-for-one-more song taew.

Motorcycles at the intersection. They weave their way through traffic at the stop lights to get to the front and then beat everyone taking off, usually even before the light turns green. There seems to be no limit on how many people can get on one--there can be one person or a family of five with all their stuff.

This seemed a little atypical--a monk with a briefcase and cell phone.

A sausage vendor waiting patiently for a customer to stop by.

Transporting pigs--I feel sorry for the ones on the bottom!

A very loaded truck--we have seen loads lost and trucks tipped over trying to haul this much.

This is on the highway outside the city, but it is so interesting how people just set up right on the side of the road--in a 75 kilometer per hour zone--and expect people to stop and buy. And, I guess they do!

The neighborhood sewing shop. We drive past here at least once a day since it is close to our house and on the way to the church. There are two or three sewing machines set up that face the street. All that separates them from the traffic is that narrow sidewalk where the shoes are sitting. Cars drive right against that curb. I think I would be distracted all day, but they seem to have no problem working.

Every day Ray and I talk about how we would love to have our family and friends here with us to see the sights, hear the sounds, and smell the smells. It really is an amazingly different place than home.

Visitors to Udorn

The Meekers made a trip from Bangkok to Udorn to visit the missionaries along the way, check out their living conditions (which for the most part are very good), see some of the country, and bring a CAR to the Browns. Yes, we got a car. We are so grateful--not only is it more comfortable and convenient, but it allows us to visit more people and be of service in so many ways that we couldn't before.

The old and the new

Now, I am not saying that Ray likes driving in Thailand, nor does he like driving with ME in the car in Thailand (understatement!), but hopefully we will all survive. 

The Meekers were accompanied by the Moleffs who are the Family History missionaries. They presented a great family history fireside while they were here. We are hoping we can get the people excited about that work. President Senior has asked that the first thing the missionaries ask a new convert to do in the after baptism lessons is begin filling out the "My Family: Stories that Bring Us Together" booklet. (If you don't have one, and would like one, you can order one, or fill out an online version at familysearch.org.)  We really want them to catch the vision of temple work. 

 

While the Meekers and Moleffs were here, we took a little day trip to NongKhai. We visited the Friendship Bridge between Thailand and Laos which spans the Mekong River .

Just to the left of where we were standing was a quaint little restaurant.

And to the right was a garden. Made me think about my garden at home a little bit.

While we were there by the river, a monk and his family came by. He was married, had two children (who were grown), and five years ago, he decided he wanted to become a monk. He can go on vacation with his family at times but told us that he now lives at the wat (Buddhist temple); he no longer stays at home. Interesting decision at this later stage of his life.

Elder Moleff, Elder Brown, and Elder Meeker with this very friendly monk

Also in NongKhai, we visited a wat called Kaew Ku (pronounced gow goo). It is a park featuring giant fantastic concrete sculptures inspired by Buddhism and Hinduism. Many of these are over 80 feet tall. Interesting. . .

I wanted to add this last picture to give a little perspective of the size of these creations. The seven-headed snake is impressive, don't you think?

Pretty amazing!

Happy Birthday, Elder Brown

Ray said it was "just another day" but not to me! I am so grateful for him; words cannot tell! Our kids called which was a highlight of the day.

We had a service project at a member's house--Sister Somridii's, this lovely tiny lady. The rest were the volunteer helpers, a great crew!

As you can see, her roof really needed repair. This is her sitting area and certainly not very comfortable when it is raining!

 

This is Brother Suwan, Sister Somridii's husband. He was a sam loy driver until he became disabled.

Washing dishes.

Leveling the dirt at the side of her house.

We worked for a while, but that ended when it started pouring rain--she lived down a dirt road and our little Toyota can't handle deep mud very well.We had to finish another day.

We met the sister missionaries for lunch at Los Amigos, the Tex-Mex restaurant in town,  so they could celebrate with us. They sang "Happy Birthday" and his praises. Each took a turn telling  him what they appreciated about him. It was great, and so are they! At dinner time, President Wongsagorn and Sister Anne brought pork satay and a yummy white cake with orange filling and frosting. It was beautiful. (I was sorry I didn't get a picture of it.) Very delicious and fun to share it with good friends.

The sisters came with an ice cream cake complete with lighted candles and another rendition of "Happy Birthday" (but not Brown style for those who know what that means). We laughed and ate and enjoyed the special day.

Happy Birthday to my dear, sweet, wonderful, wise, spiritual, adorable husband. (and no, this wasn't hacked!)

The Tailor

Ray decided to have some suits and pants made--prices were reasonable and he needed some new clothes. We purchased some suit fabric and then went in search of a good tailor. We went to a few shops, but this man showed us some good quality articles of clothing he had produced, gave us a good price, and said he could have them ready fairly quickly. He measured Ray, laid out the fabric and said, "Give me ten minutes and I can do a fitting." That was no exaggeration. It was really interesting watching him work--with just a meter stick and a curved tool, and he created a jacket in no time.

One fitting after this just to refine the fit, and things were perfect.  I had him make some blouses for me, too. It's nice to have things that actually fit. I would love to learn his skill.

Our street sweeper

My chosen form of exercise is walking. Two or three times a week, I walk to a DVD played on the computer in our office. The other days, I walk 13 times around our soi--that equals about two miles. Nearly every morning at about 6:15, the main street in front of our apartment complex gets cleaned up by our local street sweeper. She sweeps together many piles of dirt, leaves and debris, and then goes back and picks them up in her push cart to haul them away. She is very dedicated, but by the next morning, it needs it again. I appreciate her hard work.

An unexpected turn of events

We had prayer and then started out early one Sunday morning with Brother Bunthom driving President Wongsagorn, and Ray, and me to Sakon Nakhorn for branch conference. It is a long drive--about 160 kilometers--and their meetings started at 9:00 a.m. We were moving rather swiftly down the highway and were within about 20 kilometers of our destination, when a big dog ran out in front of the car. There was no way to avoid hitting it--and we could tell right away that the car wasn't functioning properly. We pulled off into a little home garage along the road to have the car checked out.

The damaged bumper is obvious. The radiator was leaking pretty bad, too. He filled it, which allowed us to limp into town for our meetings.

While he was checking out the car, we wandered around a little bit. We noticed two jars sitting on a table behind the house. This is a close up of one of them.

The wife of the mechanic was very happy to explain to us that her homemade balaa was almost ready to use. She had caught these fish in the rice paddy. She packed them whole as tightly as she could in the jars, covered them with salt and vinegar, and set them outside on the back table for just over three years now. Soon they will be ready to mash up and add as flavoring to som tam (papaya salad) and other favorite dishes.

In the meantime, the mechanic filled the radiator so we could make it into town, and we went on our way. We made it to Sakon Nakhorn in time for church and had a good time. Ray spoke and I was asked to bear my  testimony. I did my best to give it in Thai. My attempt produced many nods and smiles. After the meeting, one dear sister said she felt like she had a new friend. I have not seen her since, but Ray visited there a couple of Sundays ago and he said she asked about me and was disappointed I hadn't come with him. She was kind to remember me.

We were able to see Elder Boonmee from Riverton 2nd Ward who is assigned to Sakon Nakhorn Branch right now. It was good to see him--he looks great and is doing great, too.

A couple of members wanted their picture taken with me in front of the church. She is the family history person for the branch and doing good work.

After church, we went out to check the car. There was a big puddle of water under it, so we knew for sure we couldn't go far. The former branch president and his wife led us to a shop where we could get it checked out again.

Brother Bunthom was talking to the insurance company trying to figure out what to do; the former branch president and his wife, Ray, and President Wongsagorn.

The repair shop was a family affair--the mom took care of the kids while she ran a little drink and snack shop on the side--they had TV and everything. These kids were so cute! They were eating lunch--sticky rice in the baskets and a variety of foods to eat with their fingers. (They were keeping it covered to keep the flies off.)

It turned out that the car could not be easily fixed. We had to take it to the car dealership in town. It took about two hours to get everything worked out, and then we got a ride to the bus station from our Good Samaritans.

Instead of a private car with Tabernacle Choir or John Denver music playing, we got to have a four hour bus ride home. I wish you could hear the music. (I recorded it but can't get it to upload on the blog.) It was Thai karaoke. Take my word for it, it seemed much longer than four hours! (As a side note, it took about a month for Brother Bunthom to get his car back!)

Our view--we originally took seats near the back of the bus, but the driver moved people around and put us in the front seat. I hope people didn't think we requested the change!

Here are a few sights on our ride back:

A country soi (street into a neighborhood).

A house across the canal.

A nice country home.

Beautiful green fields.

Kwai (water buffalo) outside the fence and just off the road. We saw a lot of these.

Chicken cages for sale. (sorry it's a little blurry--taken from the bus window as we drove)

A lady selling brooms in one of the little towns we drove through. Also, lots of food carts set up on the sidewalk in the late afternoon.

A bridge across the canal from the main road is very common. There will be homes, stores, and restaurants that must be reached by crossing something like this.

It was a long and interesting day with good people, but we were very happy to get home from our nearly 12-hour adventure.

Senior missionary conference

We had prayer at 7:45 Thursday morning, and then all the senior couples loaded into three vans like this. President and Sister Senior drove their car, too. It was quite a caravan. There were five couples in this van including us--Elder Sowards drove our group. We had fun talking and learning more about each other as we drove through the beautiful countryside.

Our first stop was here at Khao Yai National Park. Many hiked down the trail to a waterfall. There were many steep steps which were a little difficult, so we chose not to go all of the way.

It was very beautiful where we did walk!

We had a lovely lunch in this shady pavilion. We had delicious chicken salad wraps, fruit, and chocolate. We all appreciated the good food, cool drinks, and great company.

Elder and Sister Hobbs, Sister Sowards and the Sippels in the background

Sister Sowards was kind enough to share this picture of the spider that was right by the bench where we sat to eat. We didn't bother it; it didn't bother us. She said it was about 3 inches big.

We continued on to our hotel--the Thames Valley Khao Yai Resort. It was a beautiful, peaceful setting for a wonderful experience.

A lovely gathering place.

(those whose faces you can see) Elder Manning, Elder Seppi, Sister Seppi, Sister Brown, Elder Meeker, Sister Senior, Sister Ure

Our room was lovely!

The view from our private outdoor patio was so relaxing.

The bathroom came complete with our own friendly, little frog. Loved it!

The food was delicious, the company interesting and the sights were beautiful. But most of all, the meetings were inspiring. We learned what other senior missionaries were doing in their areas of responsibility. I was so humbled by the great work that is being done for the people in Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos: wells being drilled to provide fresh water for those without it, clean latrines provided for sanitation, wheelchairs for those who aren't mobile, neonatal resuscitation training to help save the babies, English being taught. When it is permitted by the governments of our host countries, we also share the knowledge that God is our Heavenly Father who wants us to be happy. He has provided a plan of happiness for us to follow, and Jesus Christ is our Savior and example. It truly is good news!

We had wonderful learning sessions about family history, the keys and authority of the Priesthood, the power to become more than we are, the hastening of the work, and "What Christ Thinks of Me". We came away from the conference invigorated, renewed, and with a new vision of the possibilities of our work. We wanted to serve more and help build up the kingdom of God in Thailand to a greater degree. We not only wanted to DO more and help others progress, but we wanted to BECOME more ourselves. We left the conference with many ideas spinning in our heads and much to talk about. There is so much to be done. The people in Thailand are wonderful and so are our senior missionary companions.

A beautiful setting for a wonderful experience!