Young Single Adult Family Home Evening

The first Monday night of each month finds our apartment filled with enthusiastic young single adults. We move the couches, put mats on the floor, and set up a HUGE white board against our dining room table. 

We have lessons which we take turns teaching. This night, Sam (white pants) presented the lesson with the help of several other YSA's on following the prophets . We had a rousing game of charades--the kids are very competitive and have a lot of fun!

A very happy and fun group!

We play games. We did a "hold to the rod" obstacle course the week our lesson was about holding on to the iron rod (the word of God). We had a scripture chase another night when our lesson was about Easter. Again, the kids are very competitive but try to involve everyone!

 

We have yummy treats. We have had cookies, cupcakes, banana bread, fruit, etc.  They always disappear very quickly!!

We love our Young Single Adults!!

Dinner with the District Presidency

This was our first meeting with the district presidency: President Wongsagorn (left) and President Khampii and his wife. These are good, good people. President Khampii is from Laos so we don't get to spend much time with him. District presidency meetings are held via Skype due to the distance and hassle of crossing the border. President Wongsagorn lives just a few minutes away from us here in Udorn. We have become very close friends with him and his wife, Sister Ann (She was out of town visiting family at the time of this picture). We have dinner with them most Sunday evenings, alternating their house and ours. (also alternating Thai and American cuisine. We have fixed chili and tacos, roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, and pork chops, mashed potatoes and gravy to name a few. They seem to like most of it--Sister Ann especially likes mashed potatoes and gravy, and we learned she loves chocolate pudding with whipped cream. The Thai food they make is delicious.)

You will notice I am wearing a sweater. It was quite chilly from the air conditioning at the time, but I don't think I have worn a sweater since that night! (I know that's shocking to most of you!)

Here is a closer picture of the food. We had fish, hot and sour mushroom soup, tom kha gai (coconut/mint soup that Ray likes a lot), spring rolls, and stir-fried sprouts. I was a little uncomfortable with the fish staring at me during the entire meal. The food was mostly good and the company was great.

Udon street scenes

Just wanted to share a few pictures of scenes we see every day as we go about our city. 

This is our laundry. The lady who owns it, Nud,  has such a sweet face and is so pleasant and helpful. When she sees us pull up in front in our tuk tuk, she slips her shoes on and runs out to get our bag of clothes. Then, when she sees us coming to pick up our clothes, she carries them out to us. It costs us a little less than a dollar per shirt to have one washed and ironed, and she does a great job. She is a very hard working women--the laundry is open at least 12 hours a day--she and her family live in the back of this building. That is very common--they often live in the back or the upstairs of their shops.

Park on the sidewalk? Not a problem. Or it's common to see them park vehicles 2 or 3 deep along the side of the street.

Love the wiring system in Thailand, and this isn't really too bad. More pictures to come later on this issue. The little cauldron looking thing is a garbage can.

On street tailor shop--a jacket fitting in progress.

This man is driving his food stand to where he is going to serve today.

Here you can see his big cooking pots and fuel supply for cooking.

Some street vendors already set up for the day. A cart and an umbrella and you are in business.

Instead of choosing one spot from which to sell, some walk around the city selling their wares. Drivers watch out for them and go carefully? around.

A sam loh driver. Sam loh means three wheels in Thai.

This man makes a living by recycling what he can find. Many people work so hard for so little.

If you were to go inside Central Plaza, you would think you were in a major shopping mall in the U.S. You can see there is KFC, McDonald's (The Big Macs taste just like at home.), and there is even a Sizzler. I like to go there when I am craving salad. They have a great salad bar here, too.

Just a few sights from around the city. There are many more to come. Wish you could all be here to see, feel, and smell the real Thailand. We love it--the people are wonderful and Udorn has become a part of our lives forever.

Young Women Activity

The sister missionaries often help out with Young Women activities. One week, they asked me if I would help the Young Women learn to bake cookies. We made Snickerdoodles which they all loved. We started with washing our hands. Then we learned to measure ingredients, use a mixer, and stir in dry ingredients. They had fun rolling the balls of dough and then rolling the balls in cinnamon and sugar.  They got pretty creative by putting a twist in the top of the ball which made kind of a swirl on the top of the cookie after they were baked. They delivered them to people they thought would benefit from a little kindness. They also ate a good share of them themselves. It was a great success. You can see that the activity was attended by more than young women. Fun was had by all!

Happy sixty whath?

 There is a huge inflatable rubber duckie on Nong Prajak Lake Park here in Udon. It's something of a symbol for the city (See the previous post). This duck looks just like the one in the park but has the added feature of sound. It quacks! A thoughtful gift from an adoring husband.

At district meeting the missionaries had noise makers and the tiara along with treats.

 

 For my birthday, the missionaries taught me the "Tim Tam Slam". Tim Tams are basically a chocolate covered graham cracker. One performs the slam by biting off one corner, then biting off the opposite diagonal corner and sucking milk all the way through the Tim Tam. It's an ingenious use of both cookie and milk.

 Almost laughing at rude age comments from Ray

 One of the beautiful young single adult girls here in Udon made this pencil sketch for my birthday. It is much bigger than the picture looks. We love Ae (Kiriya Phrabang) and know she will be a great missionary. She received her call to serve in the Australia, Sydney North Mission just a few days ago.

 Our English class celebrated with us and brought a beautiful plate of traditional Thai khanom (treats).

Thai food is beautiful in its preparation and presentation. With Thai food each of the senses is included in the experience..

 The day after the "BIG DAY" we went to the one and only Mexican restaurant in Udorn (and probably within a 200 mile radius). It's a Tex-Mex style with really, really good chile. The owner, Casper, came and introduced himself. He's Dutch and taught himself how to cook Mexican from the internet. Right, a Dutch guy who is self taught doing Mexican food in Udon, Thailand. Expectations weren't very high but we were very pleasantly surprised. The prices were very reasonable and the food, all things considered, was quite good.

It was a great sixty-whath birthday!

Udorn's Rubber Duckie

One of the landmarks in Udorn is a huge rubber duckie in the middle of Nong Prajak Lake. 

Normally it sits peacefully in the middle of the lake, but not long ago we had a huge wind storm that made it go a little crazy. As you can see, it was a very stormy day. The poor rubber duckie got untethered and blew to the side of the lake and was impaled by the light pole.

Poor thing lost its equilibrium  . . .

and then lost itself!

All of Udorn mourned the loss of our rubber duckie. It wasn't long before a new, slightly smaller version was installed.

Songkran--Happy New Year! (celebrated from April 13-16)

Songkran is Thai New Year. The custom used to be to gently pour water over the hands of people to give them a blessing for the coming year. Now it is a four day water fight. People stand on the side of the street with hoses and buckets of water and spray/splash water on anyone who goes by--walking, on bikes, on motorcycles, in cars, taxis, whatever. They also put 50-gallon barrels of water with blocks of ice in them in the back of pickup trucks and drive around throwing buckets of water on people. After they get you wet, they sometimes throw flour or baby powder on you for good measure. They don't care what you are wearing or what you are carrying, it is understood that you are in a "war" zone. If you go down the street, you are going to get wet! Happy New Year!

 This is an advertisement in a Tesco store (Thai version of WalMart) for supplies for Songkran! Everything from special shirts, to water guns, food, and more.

 

Here is our district all ready for fun and frolic with the members at the church. (back row) Elder Watts, Sister Downs, Sister Yim, Sister Slaugh, Elder Brown, Sister Brown, Sister Tilley, and Elder Burke. (front) Sister Phorn (relief society president Udorn Branch Two) Elder Cahoon, and Elder Terry.

Before the attack began, they gave us garlands of jasmine. This is Sister Kulaab (Rose), the oldest party goer and one of our new dear friends.

 

The little kids are especially treacherous--this little girl, Ice Cream (all Thai people have a nickname that they go by-we don't know most of their real names) stalked Ray. Surrender was futile.

Elder Watts gearing up and Sister Downs sneaking up from the rear!

 Sister Yim's little cup of water was no match for Ray's hose!

Sister Kulaab had partied all she could and was headed home!

 The attack squad lined up wreaking havoc in front of the church. They took no prisoners.

 Again, it's the little ones on the attack (with a little encouragement)!

 Elder Burke taking it like a man, flour in the face and all. Elder Proctor and Sister Tilley kept pouring it on.

 Refueling with som tam, fruit, corn on the cob, and treats. As always the members provide great food.

 Since it was impossible to do missionary work during Songkran, the elders and sisters had an early curfew--7:00pm. It gave us a chance to get everyone together for a taste of home--pot roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, with apple crisp for dessert.

Sister Yim, Sister Downs, Elder Terry, Elder Watts, Elder Proctor, Elder Cahoon, Elder Jensen, Elder Burke, Sister Slaugh, and Sister Tilley

Apology from Jeanene: Some things are published out of sequence. We have had changes in district assignments that gave us a new cast of characters. Some posts show the new district mixed in with the old district. I hope it's not confusing. We are having a great time with our new missionaries and miss our former ones.