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.