Well, I've moved to the heart of the mission (so to speak). I'm now in Sanaam Bin Naam, which is in the Nonthaburi province. Our zone is called Pakkret South and includes the mission office elders (Elder Blodgett and Elder Bloom), the APs (Elder Turner and Elder Griffith), two other elders in Muang Thong Thani (Elder Thatcher, our ZL, and Elder Hyde), two sisters in Muang Thong Thani (Sister Hart and Sister Biggs), two elders in Ngamwongwan (Elder Dehoyos, our DL, and Elder Bate), and me and Elder Lund in Sanaam Bin Naam. We're in the Pakkret branch, which is where President and Sister Hansen attend church when they're not going to other wards for mission business. Elder Lund and I are in a two-man house on Rattanathibet, soi 26, and are a twenty-minute taxi ride from the mission office and the church. The house is fairly nice and there's a rat kill tally of at least six so far. ;) There's a Lotus and a Jusco, but we usually go to Carrefour instead since it's right across the street from our soi.

As for other moves info, Elder Rock moved to Ayutthaya, Elder Garrison moved to Thonburi, Elder Berlin moved to P-lok (lucky elder :)), Elder McLelland moved to Ratcha Thewi (companions with Elder Vogel), Elder Ford in the group ahead of me moved to Lampang (with Elder Jackson), Elder Walker moved to Lampang (with Elder Keenan), Sister Grimmius moved to Chiang Mai, Sister Kravetz moved to Bangnaa, and I think that's it (that I can remember). Our best investigator, Pay, drove us from home from the church after moves. Unpacked and went out proselyting as usual. I really like my new area -- it's part of Bangkok (kind of -- even though it's technically a different province, everyone calls it Bangkok) and so there are taxis and buses and neighborhoods and all sorts of stuff that weren't in P-lok (especially traffic ;)). This zone has some kind of connection with P-lok, I think, because Elder Vogel moved from P-lok here to Ngamwongwan, and both Elder Marsh and Elder Blodgett moved here as well. :)

We teach English at the local school for two hours on Sunday mornings and teach on Tuesdays and Thursdays at a nursing college. Correlation is on Friday nights and that's when we get our mail (kind of convenient, being so close to the mission office :)). There are a few senior couples here (the Hootons, the Coxes, the Pattersons, and I haven't met the others yet but I think there are a few more), which is the first time I've served with senior couples. It's really nice to be down here in the center of things instead of being isolated in P-lok. ;) On the other hand, out of the 18 people on our 24-month list, not a single one came to church on Sunday. (We missionaries are responsible for members baptized within the last two years in our area; after that, the responsibility lies solely with the branch.) So we'll be doing a lot of member work here. :) We're starting to re-teach all of our members the discussions, to help them review and to help keep our teaching skills up. (It's a really good way to get referrals, too.)

Now for the really exciting part. President Hansen called us up on Sunday night and called both Elder Lund and me to be in the new missionary choir they're setting up. There'll be seven elders and four sisters, and I'll be the accompanist on the piano. Our first rehearsal is tonight at the mission home and apparently we'll continue to have them every Wednesday night at the mission home. President said we'll put on music firesides at different branches and wards in Bangkok, focused on the Restoration, twice a month. A lot of the people in our zone will be involved, which is probably why both I and Sister Hart moved here (we're the only people who moved into the zone this moves).

Oh yes, Elder Lund. He's from Bountiful, Utah, was born ten days before me, and is a very accomplished musician (cellist, singer, etc.). He was the state Sterling Scholar in music and studied at BYU. He's in the group before me (Elder Blodgett, Elder Ford, etc.) and so I knew him from the MTC. He's been here for six weeks and served in Bangnaa and Ubon. I'm his second junior (Elder Denning is who I replaced; he moved to Udorn).

Well, I'm out of time. Keep up the good work, everyone. Oh, by the way, I haven't been in a letter-writing mood lately, so don't expect any letters for a bit. ;) (Lack of time is another part of it.) Anyway, we're going to go bowling and eat all-you-can-eat pizza at The Mall today, so I'd better go. Take care! :-)

My second week here is already over. Where's all the time going?!? :) I love it here in Nonthaburi -- the branch is really good and it's nice to be around lots of other missionaries again. Last Wednesday we rode over to the mission office and waited for everyone to gather together, then all 18 of us (Elder Blodgett, Elder Bloom, Elder Turner, Elder Smith, Elder Tran, Elder Vogel, Elder Calder, Elder Suttiphong, Elder Theerasak, Elder Pettit, Elder Rodearmel, Elder Mitchell, Elder Lund, me, Sister Hart, Sister Biggs, Sister Taggart, and Sister Taggart's companion) packed into the office elders' van and drove over to President's house. Those in the choir (Elders Smith, Vogel, Calder, Theerasak, Pettit, Lund, me, and the four sisters) stayed there with Sister Hansen to practice, while the others went on switchoffs. We ran through a bunch of songs to see which would work and which won't. Our first fireside is in Bangkhae on the 28th and will be pretty good. Oh, I don't think I've mentioned yet that Elder Lund has perfect pitch.

On Friday we went to correlation early so I could practice playing the songs for the choir. Ran into two members from Bangbuathong (Phet and Gaw) who were there to be interviewed for their patriarchal blessing. I asked them if they knew Ao (the investigator in Bangkragam in P-lok ,the one forty kilometers out who we went to see three months ago) and it turns out that they're her older sisters. Small world. :) Speaking of Bangbuathong, we stopped on the side of the road a few days ago to decide where to eat lunch, and a taxi pulled up next to us. The driver got out and asked, "Are you Mormons?" He's from Bangbuathong and wanted to know about the Church, so we got his phone number and gave it to the office to give to the Bangbuathong elders. Apparently there are 80,000 taxis in Bangkok. Wow. :)

I finally passed off the 1000-word list! :) Now I just have to memorize the SYL list and I'll be completely certified. We went to city hall the other day and got the big city map and photocopied it, like Elder Haase and I did in P-lok. It's very detailed and helpful.

Pai (our best investigator) is doing good and went to church on Sunday. He loved it and wants to pick us up for church this week. :) Our other investigators are so-so but there's a lot of potential. As far as new members go, nobody on our 24-month list came to church, for the second week in a row. ~sigh~ We're visiting all of them, though, and before long they'll yearn for the Spirit again and come back.

I can't think of what else to write. Take care and have a great day! :-)

Life is wonderful here in Nonthaburi. We're short on time today so I'll keep this quick. Last week we had choir practice as usual, but we decided to change the time to 9:30 a.m. Rehearsal finished at noon and went fairly well. We're performing about ten or eleven pieces and our first fireside is Saturday the 27th at Bangkhae. President Sathid (the branch president here in Pakkret) asked us to put one on here as well, and the plan is to go all over Bangkok. Quite exciting. Some lady in the branch here is getting married this weekend and asked Sister Hart and Sister Biggs to sing at the wedding reception Monday night, and so I'm accompanying them (and Elder Lund will sing as well). Yesterday we went to the hospital down on Sukhumvit 1 because Elder Lund has had a lump in his throat for the past five months. The doctor said it's chronic tonsillitis but isn't too serious. We then went to the Peterson Piano Gallery to see how expensive it'd be to rent a cello (for the choir). Did I ever mention that twenty years ago there was a missionary choir here in Thailand? It was called Sidthichon Yugsudthaay ("Latter-day Saints") and toured all over Thailand, singing mostly pop-style songs. There's a possibility that we could go upcountry, if we're successful and everything goes well. :) Pai will be baptized on October 5th and is doing very well. We had lunch at the Hootons' on Sunday after church. It was kind of weird, being in an American-style house -- I rather felt like I was in a foreign country! ;) When we went downtown yesterday and there were so many farangs around, I felt out of place. Sorry, but I probably won't come back to America. Just kidding. :) I don't know what else to write, but will hopefully have more time next week. Keep up the good work. Oh, by the way, I won't be able to write many letters at all for the next few weeks -- sorry, but eventually I *will* write back to all of you who've written. :) (And if you haven't written, well, feel free to wait a few more weeks. :)) I've become (i.e. non-American) since coming to Thailand. I don't think I'll be content until I've seen a lot of the world or at least gotten to know all sorts of different people from all over the globe. It's soooo fascinating! :) I'm so glad to be here as an ambassador for the Lord Jesus Christ to declare the glad tidings of great joy to the world. My testimony grows more solid and more sure with each day, as I walk along the path Jesus led and learn who He really was. Never let your light grow dim. Take care! :-)

Well, I don't really know where to start. :) It'd be nice to get some feedback (there's been a little bit but not too much) -- what do y'all want in these letters? If certain parts are a tad on the boring side, let me know (via my parents) and I'll try to spice them up in the future. :) (Actually, today I heard a very intriguing story from Elder Heaton and his greenie, Elder Tran, about an investigator they had who was sniffing glue while they were teaching him a 4th. At first he pretended to stab them with a knife but then said, "Just kidding, Elders, you're my friends -- I wouldn't really do that to you." He opened the glue can with the knife and poured it into a plastic bag, which he then put to his mouth and nose and started snorting in the fumes. Elder Tran took the knife away and hid it behind him, which was good, because later on he squeezed the bag shut when the guy wasn't looking, and when he (the guy) tried to snort again and was foiled, he got rather mad and started looking around for the knife. So, there's a less drab story for y'all. :)) The missionary in me would love to just write long delicious sermons on the gospel, but the historian in me demands that I chronicle the week's events and so I suppose I'll continue on in this jumbled manner, mixing anecdotes and spiritual thoughts in deteriorating English. :)

So, we had zone conference last Thursday at the Bangkhen church. The Pakkret South (our zone), Pakkret North (Ayutthaya, Lopburi, and Bangbuathong), and Bangkhen zones all met there and had a wonderful conference on mentoring. I played the piano and did a surprise musical number (it was a surprise to me, since they forgot to tell me beforehand that I was playing ;)). Mentoring is a way for the missionaries to help members fulfill their duties in their various callings in the Church, and hopefully it'll have great results in the near future. It's nice going to a zone conference that isn't seven hours away by train. :) (It only takes forty-five minutes or so to get to Bangkhen.)

On Monday we went to the Impact conference center here in Muang Thong Thani for the wedding reception. In my last e-mail I said it was a sister in the branch who's getting married, but that was wrong -- the lady who lives across the street has a daughter (Yui) who was getting married to a man from Africa (Francis), and she knows the members a lot (she makes food for the missionaries on moves day) and so she invited us to participate. So we arrived at 5:00 to check things out and get some study in before the reception started at 6:00. The bride and groom and the bride's parents were taking pictures with the guests and the mom pulled us over to take a picture with them. She ended up on my side and grabbed hold of my hand just as the photographer was about to take the picture. I lost my composure (how can I let them take a picture with a woman holding my hand?!?) and tried to squirm my hand out of hers, with a disturbed glance on my face. She let go and I thought I was safe, but then she put her arm around my waist and I nearly fainted. ;) Right before the photographer pushed the button, however, she let go and I was quite relieved.

A lot of members showed up, as did the Pattersons and the Hootons and the sisters. At 7:00 or so they started the reception with dinner. At 8:00 we (Sister Hart, Sister Biggs, Elder Lund and I) went up to the side of the stage and finally at 8:30 we were able to do our three numbers. It went really well and they seemed to like it a lot. This was a *fancy* wedding reception, in a huge hall with a gigantic 10-layer cake and huge ice statues of Cupid and Gladiator-style music for the people who came up on the stage and even a mushy slideshow of pictures of the bride and groom as kids and students. :) They had Elder Patterson come up to give words of wisdom to the groom, too. All in all, it was an interesting experience and I'm glad to get back to missionary work. :)

We had interviews with President Hansen yesterday, which was wonderful. Every time I interview with President, I feel so much better about the work and myself. My testimony grows and in those short few minutes I seem to have a clear picture of who I am as a missionary and what the Lord wants for me. (It's clear at other times too, of course, but interviews is when it's the clearest.) Since moving here to Pakkret I've rededicated myself to the Lord and to the work, and I've felt my testimony growing more solid as I realize what really is and isn't important in this work and in life. One thing I mentioned to President that hadn't hit me was that I've changed -- the gospel is who I am, what I am. I can't *not* share it with others, can't not try to help my brothers and sisters keep the commandments and follow Christ. It's so much a part of me that that's just what I do. I don't have a separate "Church life" on Sundays that gets stuffed in a closet on Monday through Saturday because I'm too busy with work or school. I *can't* put God on the back burner because I know that He lives and that if I give everything I have to Him, I'll be happy. When God takes first priority in our lives, then it's not a sacrifice to read our scriptures every day, to pray always, to go to church, to serve in Church callings and elsewhere. Examine your lives and see if you're holding anything back from God. We *can* be holy like the prophets of old, but only if we're willing to make the same sacrifices they made. The setting is different but the principles are the same. Have faith in God and the miracles will start happening in your life. Don't cheat yourself out of what God's willing to give you. In my own life I've seen how much happier I am when I get rid of my selfish desires and all the little specks of spiritual dirt that keep me from being a true disciple of Christ. It's true and it's worth it.

We had choir practice again this morning. I forgot to mention that Elder Heaton is in the choir, I think. He's our violinist. We perform in Bangkhae this Saturday at 7:00 and there'll be two Area Authority Seventies there (Elder Anderson of the Asia Area Presidency and Elder Ho). :) On a related note, for the past two weeks Elder Lund and I have been helping the Priamry prepare for their primary program, which'll be on the 26th of October. General Conference is coming up soon, too. I can't wait! :) Well, I'm out of time. Take care, read and pray every day, and keep up the good work! :-)

Is it really October already? Only one more week left in this moves period. Crazy. :) So, we had our first music fireside on Saturday at Bangkhae. We left in a taxi at 2:00 or so to get to the office by 3:00. At around 2:30 we were coming off the freeway and there was suddenly a lot of traffic up ahead. Turns out that there was so much rain that Muang Thong Thani was partially flooded, all over the streets. So we hopped out of the taxi and walked from the freeway all the way to the office (arriving right at 3:00). It wasn't too bad at first, but when we got closer, we were wading through over a foot of water in our suits and nice shoes. Everyone stared at us as if we were crazy (which I suppose we were ;)). Ah, it was so much fun! The office elders drove us and the sisters and Sister Hansen down to the Bangkhae chapel but it's far away and so we didn't get there till 5:45. The fireside began at 7:20 when President Hansen, Elder Ho (Area Authority Seventy), and President Wisit (stake president) arrived. President Hansen spoke for a few minutes and then we went straight into the program, singing about 10 songs mixed in with some narration and a slide show on the Restoration. The Spirit was strong and it was absolutely wonderful. Everyone seemed to love it.

We have a few new investigators. Gope is a man who called us up a few weeks ago and said he'd talked with the elders and wanted to learn about the gospel. We went over a couple Sundays ago and taught him the basics. We weren't able to get in touch with him again till Thursday or Friday, though. When we called him, he said, "I have something special to tell you. On the 22nd [Monday] at midnight, I prayed to know if this book is true. I was in a dark room, but when I finished praying, light flooded the room." He got his answer. We've been trying to visit him since then but it's really hard to get hold of him. ~sigh~ One time when we were leaving his house (he wasn't home), we ran into a young man who lives across the street from him. This guy is named "X" and he's Catholic. He has a *lot* of potential and we taught him about the Restoration last night. We'll see how it goes.

Oh, on Sunday after church, they had a family history fireside. Elder Lund and I helped translate for the two elderly couples that went (the Hootons and the Crosbys). Three members from Bangkapi came to present it, including good ol' Chayaphrug. After the fireside (which had a decent turnout of 30 or so people) I got to chat with the Bangkapi people. I *really* want to go back to Bangkapi but I don't know how it's possible (unless we go there to put on a music fireside).

Sister Hansen told us today at rehearsal that there were 2255 at church on Sunday, a record for Thailand. :) Our next fireside is on Wednesday the 23rd, at a convention that Elder and Sister Davis are putting on for all the humanitarian missionaries around the country. We're also performing here in Pakkret on the 26th. Oh, last Wednesday we joined in with the family home evening Elder De Hoyos and Elder Bate do each week with their new members, and it's probably going to be a new tradition. There's a lot going on down here. Sister Jones and Sister Tovey will be finishing their missions next week and they're going to stay down here with Sister Hart and Sister Biggs until moves.

For those who don't have it, here's my snail mail address. Last week I wrote a bunch of letters and I think I'll be able to start getting caught up again, so feel free to write. :)

That is it for this week. Take care and keep up the good work! :)

Times are a-changin'. We had a special ZDM (Zone Development Meeting) on Monday and placed our guesses on who was moving and where. Played two rounds of around-the-world ping pong, too. :) Yesterday morning Elder Bloom, Elder Hyde, Elder Bate, and I all had to go to the immigration office to renew our visas, so E. Bloom drove us down in the office van. I hadn't had to renew my visa since December or January, but there's a new person in the department there who's making us renew them every three months again. Talked with Elder Orrock about Bangkapi -- he said Bunying is always asking, "Is Elder Crowder here?" whenever they have stake meetings (like General Conference last Sunday at the Asoke chapel). :) When we got back to the office, Elder Blodgett and Elder Thatcher announced the moves news. Elder Blodgett is moving to Chiang Mai and will be the ZL there, companions with Elder Luker. Elder Bate is moving somewhere in the Isaan. And after just one moves here in Sanaam Bin Naam, I am moving again. They said I was taking my bike (i.e. Bangkok) but we all pretty much guessed where I was moving, which was confirmed this morning when President Hansen called and said I'd be the new office elder, replacing Elder Blodgett. So, I'll be companions with Elder Bloom (co-seniorship) and will most likely be in the office for the next six months. I'll fill y'all in on the details of office elder life next week. :) From what both Elder Blodgett and Elder Bloom said, only three or four of the elders in my group are going senior this moves.

Last Wednesday we had a family home evening at Piak and Pao's house again, and tonight we'll hold it at Sister Nok's. It's been really good for the new members and investigators to get to know each other better. On Thursday last week we spent some time cleaning up trash off a bridge, which was lots of fun. Everyone's talking about APEC and President Bush. Apparently Bangkok will be closed down (for the most part) for the better part of a week. Should be interesting. :)

Ah, here's a small-world story. On our way back from the office a few days ago, I started talking with the taxi driver and asked where he lived. He said, "Sukaphibaan 1," which happens to be the main road in my area in Bangkapi. I pressed further and he revealed that he lived in the flats behind Jusco. I knew that place very, very well (went there almost every day to proselyte) and asked him which building he lived in. He said #8. I told him we had a friend that lived on the second floor (Nat, the girl Elder Nelson and I baptized back in January), and he immediately said, "Nat?" Turns out he lives on the first floor and I'd actually invited him and his wife when I was back in Bangkapi, though I didn't remember him. :) Small world. :)

Well, today is going to be a day of packing and of writing letters. We had thought about going to Ayutthaya, but will probably wait till another day. I'll still be in the same zone, but I'll switch districts (I'll be with Elder Bloom (of course :)), Elder Thatcher, Elder Hyde, Sister Hart, and Sister Biggs). It's nice, because I'm not leaving the branch. In fact, I'm pretty much guaranteed that I'll stay here in Pakkret for six more months, which makes me very happy (I don't want to leave). My only concern :) is that I'll have to learn how to drive here in Bangkok, left-handed. And I've never driven a stick-shift before. So, please pray for me. :) There will certainly be a bunch of interesting stories to tell over the next six months. Office elders are in the office until 6:00 p.m. and then proselyte till 9:30. My new P-day will be Saturday instead of Wednesday.

Okay, that's it for today. Keep up the good work! And if you haven't written yet, write! :)

Life has changed, a *lot*. :) I woke up at 4:30 on Thursday to finish packing, which I was able to do without any difficulty. A wave of nausea did, however, strike me several times and I thought I'd be sick, but it went away after a few hours. We called in a taxi and were at the church for moves by 7:10 a.m. The missionaries chatted amongst themselves until President Hansen and the greenies showed up. The moves information was going to be announced on the balcony outside, but it started raining, so everyone filed inside the church and President began announcing the moves with the megaphone. Within a couple of minutes he'd gotten to my name: "Elder Crowder is going into the office, with Elder Bloom." Other people (that I know personally) that moved: E. Heaton moved to Ramkhamhaeng; E. Keenan moved to Ayutthaya and is now in the same house as E. Rock (they were companions together in Lampang); E. Peterson moved from P-lok to Ngamwongwan and is with E. De Hoyos; E. Zaugg moved into my spot in Sanaam Bin Naam; E. Applegate moved to Samut Prakarn and is with E. Theerasak; E. Bate moved to Buriram and is with E. Lo; S. Kravetz is training S. Thitiphorn; E. Blodgett moved to Chiang Mai and is with E. Luker; E. Pitzer moved to Roi-Et; E. Segsan moved to Sakon Nakhon; and E. Suttiphong moved to Udorn North. E. Applegate and E. Lo are the only ones in my group who went senior (though E. Bloom and I are co-senior). But next moves almost everyone else should go senior, since there are 9 new elders coming in and about that number going home.

So, I'm writing this e-mail from the office on my new P-day, Saturday. It's been raining outside for an hour or so and the streets are flooded again. (Anytime it rains somewhat hard, the streets flood.) Life in the office is quite different from life as a regular missionary, I've found. I'll start from the beginning, right after moves. E. Turner (AP) needed to go to the mission home for ZLTM (E. Griffith was already there with President), so he asked E. Rasmussen (an old office elder who knew how to drive) and I to take him there. Did that and returned to the church to see what still needed to be done. At 10 or 11 or so we went to the office and I began working on entering 24-month list data. Pretty soon the phone calls started coming in, lots of them. In the early afternoon Sis. Craner and Sis. Skidmore came in and asked us what they were supposed to do -- Sis. Skabelund was moving to Sisakaet with Sis. Benjawan, but Sis. Benjawan was at the hospital with Sis. Knapp and there weren't any other sister missionaries at the office to stay with Sis. Skabelund. We searched through the whole building but couldn't find a single female, so E. Bloom called up Sis. Patterson and asked her to come over and stay with Sis. Skabelund. When she arrived, E. Turner and I drove S. Craner and S. Skidmore to the bus station (they were four or five hours late for their bus) and picked up S. Skabelund's luggage (which was waiting at the bus station for her, but she wouldn't be leaving till 8:00 p.m. or so, after S. Benjawan would get out of the hospital). Returned back to the office at 3 p.m. and continued working on 24-month lists. Then at 4 or 5 p.m. E. Hansen called up from the mission home and asked when we'd be taking the luggage of returning missionaries over to the mission home. So we drove the van over to the church, loaded it with all the luggage, and went to the mission home. Returned to the office for a half-hour or so, then had to go back to the church to get all the luggage for the ZLs and ZL companions. Drove to the bus station with the luggage in our van and the ZL/ZL comps in the APs' van. We were supposed to drive E. Blodgett, E. Luker, E. Mitchell, and E. Walker to the train station by 8:30, but the traffic was bad and we didn't get back to the church till 8:25 or so, but thankfully they made it there themselves.

We four returned home (we live with the APs in a house one street away from the office -- very conveniently located :)) and I began to unpack while E. Turner rested. E. Griffith and E. Bloom had to shuttle some missionaries around, and they got back at 10 p.m. We then left at 10:15 or so to go to the airport to find Elder Buarawong, a missionary from Thailand who served in New Zealand and finished his mission. Found him at 11:40 and were back at our house by 12:45 and in bed by 1 a.m. *Then* we woke up at 4:30 and drove over to President's house (us, the APs, and E. Buarawong) by 5:00 to take the returning missionaries to the airport. Said goodbye to them and then E. Bloom and I had to drive E. Jirayut to the bus station and send him back to Phitsanulok (he finished his mission). Got home at 8:15 or so, ate breakfast, showered, studied the Book of Mormon for fifteen minutes or so, and then had to go to the office.

That was my crazy first day in the office. :) This morning we went to Korat (a two-hour drive from here) to pick up the office elders' van, which had been totaled a few months ago in an accident. Fun trip. And in another hour we'll be going to the priesthood leadership and general adult sessions of district conference at the church here, since they asked me to play the piano and E. Bloom to translate. Yesterday we got to do an hour of proselyting before correlation, which felt soooo nice. :)

So, the office is quite a change but I really do love it. Lots of exciting adventures in store over the next six months (and also a lot of lost sleep and skipped meals :)). We're here to serve the missionaries and President and Sister Hansen, a four-man support crew. Anyway, I can't think of what else to say. Take care! :-)

Wow, there's a lot to write about. :) On Saturday we had the leadership and general adult sessions of district conference at the church. I played the piano and Elder Bloom translated. Then on Sunday we went to the Jasmine (a conference center nearby) for the general session. A fair amount of people showed up but not as many as should have been there. ~sigh~ President and Sister Wheat of the Hong Kong Temple came to the conference and spoke about temple work. Afterwards, there was a short meeting for new members (two years or less). President Hansen spoke and then he had me and Sister Hart and Sister Biggs do a musical number ("Where Can I Turn for Peace"). We spent the afternoon and evening proselyting (the APs were free and so we did switchoffs with them). At 9:30 we returned to the office and waited for all the zone leaders (there are 15 of them) to call in with their weekly results. Finished inputting those by 10:45 or so. The office here is on the fourth floor and there's a tradition of kicking one's shoes into the stairwell (not on the stairs but in the hole in the center of the staircase) to see who can get closest to the corner. It's hard because the shoe falls four floors down and often bounces off the stairs or the walls, but it's a great stress-relieving activity. ;)

Monday we had DDM. It's a little weird switching districts within the same zone. :) We spent most of Monday afternoon getting the mail ready to send out. That evening, after our one teaching appointment (with Tia, a police officer), we put all the mail in envelopes and took it in a bag to the airport. Dropped it off at the post office there and ate dinner while we waited for them to calculate the cost of the mail. Got home at 10:30 p.m. On Tuesday we met with President Hansen for half an hour to talk about some new projects coming up, then headed out to Panthip (a computer store downtown) to look for a new digital camera for the mission. Bought one (a Canon A70) and spent the evening proselyting. Found a good family, Jiab and Uan. We're going back to teach them on Saturday. After that we went to President Hansen's house to pick up his laptop and then went to the church to set up the audio system for recording. Wednesday we woke up early and went over to the church at 7:00 to record the piano part for all the songs for the choir. Everyone showed up at 9:30 and we recorded the whole thing. It turned out fairly well -- there's an equalizer there and we were able to hook up two microphones to the laptop through it. Elder Zaugg, Elder Coles, and Elder Thornley are now part of the choir. On Oct. 22nd we're performing at a convention for all the humanitarian missionaries here in Thailand; on Oct. 26th we're performing here in Pakkret; on Oct. 29th we're going to some wheelchair distribution activity (the mayor of Bangkok will be there, as will a member of the General Relief Society board); on Nov. 8th or 9th we're performing in Bangkapi or Srinakarin (tentative); on Nov. 29th or 30th we're performing at stake confere nce; and on Dec. 12th we're performing at Journey to Bethlehem in Asoke. There'll no doubt be more as well. Quite exciting.

A few days ago we found out that 12 U.S. Marines would be coming in as part of President Bush's support team for APEC and that one of them, Major Skanke (sp?), is LDS and served a mission here twenty years ago. Brother Skanke wanted to put together a service project for them to do with the missionaries and members, so on Thursday afternoon we all went to the Somdej Park (Elder Bloom and I found out how to get there in the morning and then came back to lead the caravan) and cleaned up the park. The Don Muang branch was in charge of it (I think) and so there were a bunch of members, four Don Muang elders, and then us eight Muang Thong elders and sisters (including the APs). We were there for three or four hours and got all the sidewalks looking quite pretty. :)

We've been trying to go get my Thai driver's license all week but haven't had a free day to do it, so yesterday we finally went to the U.S. embassy to get the affidavit. Usually it takes forever but it only took us fifteen minutes. We stopped by the doctor's afterwards to get a quick physical ("Are you in good health?" "Yes." "Okay, you've passed." :)) and then went to the airport to pick Sister Hooton up. (She flew back to the States for her child's wedding, I think.) Came back and were going to go to the DMV to get my license but it's closed, probably for APEC. We won't be able to get it till next week or later. ~sigh~ There's also some tragic news: they tore down the Dairy Queen at the corner yesterday. Hopefully they'll rebuild it, but if not, I guess I'll just have to come home. ;) (Just kidding.)

So, being in the office is crazy and stressful and anything but ordinary. Notwithstanding all of that, I like it and I'm glad to be serving here. We drive everywhere, which is kind of weird after riding a bike for a year. I'm learning how to type Thai, which is really fun. Oh, Elder Lund won 5000 baht at Carrefour last week. I realized this week that I'll be the one taking the sisters in my group to the airport when they finish their missions, which is really quite weird. :) Anyway, I've run out of things to say. Keep up the good work, everyone. Take care! :-)

P.S. If anyone wants to send packages, I'm very conveniently located to receive them for the next six months. ;)

Well, this past week has been APEC down in Bangkok, so lots of places have been closed. And Thursday was a Thai holiday, so everything that wasn't already closed was closed. Agh, I want to write this in Thai. [Thai section that didn't turn out.] (I hope it turns out okay.) Y'all can read Thai, right? Right? Aw, shucks. Well, English °Á‰¥È. So, because of APEC, we still haven't been able to get my driver's license (the DMV's been closed), and we haven't been able to send bikes (the √ æ (Raw Saw Phaw) is closed as well). Crazy week but I'm sure it'll all work out okay someday.

We had zone conference on Monday, and it was really good. The lessons focused on outlines and we did practice sessions with members from Bangkhen (kind of like the TRC in the MTC). On Tuesday we drove to the Raw Saw Phaw to send bikes but got lost and didn't arrive till 5:20. We found out then that the RSP closes at 5:00. ~sigh~ Decided to eat at the A&W there and while we were eating, a farang came in. He ordered and then sat down and talked with us. His name's Ethan and he's from Israel. It was rather weird to speak in English (my brain kept trying to speak Thai), but it was really neat. We spent the next two hours trying to get back to our proselyting area, but downtown Bangkok is a jungle and a few wrong turns really ate up the time. Driving here is one big headache. :)

On Wednesday we left early to go to the Fortune Hotel in Din Daeng for our choir performance (for the humanitarian missionary conference). Well, we got all the way to Din Daeng and thought we were on the right path, but then after another twenty minutes or so the signs started looking familiar. Very familiar. We'd somehow gotten turned around and were almost back to where we'd started. ~sigh~ But we made it to the hotel only 10 minutes late, so all's well. The performance went well, too. All the senior couple missionaries around the country were there for a two- or three-day conference. They seemed to really like the fireside. Everyone got to eat at the buffet afterwards, too, which was the best part of the day. :)

This morning we had a sports activity at the church. The Bangbuathong branch came to play as well, so there were a *lot* of people. Played volleyball and ping pong. Lots of fun and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Tonight we're having a Hold to the Rod activity (based on 1 Nephi 8) and so I don't have a lot of time to write. Tomorrow's our fireside at Pakkret, then on Tuesday there's a special fireside with Sister Hughes of the General Relief Society Board (I found out on Wednesday that I'll be playing the piano for an arrangement of "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go"), and then on Wednesday we're doing a wheelchair presentation thing (I think it's the same as was in the Church News not too long ago), and on Saturday we're going to Ayutthaya. November 8th or 9th we're performing in Asoke and on the 15th we're performing in Thonburi (tentatively).

Well, life is going quite well, although it's quite a bit more stressful than it was as a normal missionary. But no matter how stressful it is, it's a calling from God and He knows that I can do it, so of course I've got to give it my all and magnify it just like any other calling. I'm learning a lot. Before I was called into the office, I thought it'd be so neat to be an office elder. Now, though, I realize that although all the fun stuff is real, there's a whole lot that I didn't know about, and it's not really something to aspire to. :) The APs say the same thing about being an AP. Anyway, the point is that the gospel is true and we've dedicated these two years to doing whatever the Lord asks us to do, so even when we're called to do something that we'd rather not do, we do it because we promised. Any calling in the Church comes from God, and to reject a calling is to slap God's face, so to speak. Don't reject callings! :) The blessings that come are worth whatever effort and sacrifice you may have to make. Have faith in God and in yourself. The Savior had enough faith in you and love for you that He died for you, and if *He* loves you that much, then surely you can trust that He knows you can fulfill that which He's called you to do. The yoke is easy and the burden is light if we rely on Christ 100%, using the Atonement the way it was meant to be used. Let the Lord into your life, every single aspect of it. Let His light guide you every single moment of today and of every day for the rest of your life. There is not a single second in which you don't need the Lord. Okay, I'm out of time. Take care and keep up the good work! :-)

Smile,

Elder Crowder

P.S. Why do I write "Smile" at the end of every e-mail? Letting our light so shine before the world means that we must reflect Christ's love, by being kind and thoughtful and friendly to every soul we meet. There is no place in the gospel for sulkiness, for making other people feel awkward or hurt, for ignoring the lonely and unattractive, or anything else like that. Smile! And if you don't feel like smiling, smile anyways. :)

This week has been one of activity. Saturday night we had that Hold to the Rod activity, based on 1 Nephi 8 (Lehi's dream about the iron rod and the tree of life). Lots of people showed up and it was an amazingly good experience, especially at the end when everyone was in the chapel with the tree of life. One of the counselors in the branch presidency read selected verses from 1 Nephi 8 and then Elder Lund and Elder Dehoyos both spoke a little bit about the symbolism of Lehi's vision. Finally, Sister Hart and Sister Biggs sang "I'll Find You My Friend." The Spirit was strong and those present seemed to really understand the meaning of the tree of life and especially the need to share the gospel with everyone.

On Sunday we had the Primary program, with about seven songs and several talks. Ah, I love kids. :) Sunday night we had the musical fireside here at Pakkret and it went very, very well. Around eighty people showed up, including several investigators. At correlation last night, the branch president (Sathid) came up to us and said that because of the fireside, "many hearts were touched" and several members in the branch have asked that a branch choir be organized. On Tuesday we went down to Asoke for the special fireside where Sister Hughes of the General Relief Society Presidency spoke. I accompanied Elder Heaton and Elder Lott in a violin/piano rendition of "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go." Then on Wednesday Elder Bloom and I went to the Eastin Hotel nearby and picked up Sister Hughes, Gary Winters, Elder and Sister Nixon, and three people from the Wheelchair Foundation (David Baring, Joel Hodge, and Jeff). Took them to the Center for Crippled Children for the wheelchair distribution ceremony/activity. Two vans arrived with all the kids and we lifted them out into normal chairs. The choir came as well and sang "Because I Have Been Given Much" with Elder Heaton accompanying on the violin. We then got to hand the wheelchairs out to the kids, then took them inside to their rooms (I could see two rooms, with around 10 beds per room). Played with the kids for half an hour or so. I sat down next to a 10-year-old boy who didn't have much muscle control -- he couldn't really talk or move his hands with coordination, but he *could* smile, which I got him to do after a few seconds. :) I showed him my family pictures and the pictures in the front of the Book of Mormon. He really liked those. I then drew him a picture on a Book of Mormon flier and folded it into a paper airplane. The flier was too small for good lift, though, so I took one of the pages to "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go" (it was still in my bag) and made a quick paper airplane. All the kids *loved* it, so we made a few more and had a rollicking good time flying paper airplanes all around the room. :)

Tuesday afternoon we went to the DMV and I finally got my driver's license. It took about an hour and all I had to do was get a quick eye test. Drove home, which was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I still haven't driven a whole lot, though. Getting used to a stick is kind of weird. :) Someday I'll be good at it, though...someday. On Wednesday we spent the afternoon moving a bed over to the Thonburi sisters' new apartment and collecting all the Church-owned stuff from their old apartment. Also, on Wednesday we got a new senior couple, the Hansens. (So now we have President and Sister Hansen *and* Elder and Sister Hansen. :)) We stopped by HomePro the other day and got some PVC pipes to make a portable screen on which we'll project the media presentation part of the musical fireside. Today we went to Ayutthaya as a zone (got special permission from President to go, since there are 10 of us and it's out of our zone). Elder Bloom drove us up in the van and we went to four or five wats (temples). Lots of fun. We went to Que Pasa (the local Mexican restaurant) to eat lunch but they were closed today, so we had to go to McDonald's instead.

So, that's the week in a nutshell. Tonight we're going to proselyte a little closer to home, instead of going 45 minutes down to the usual area (it takes up too much time in traveling). I didn't really appreciate how wonderful it is to be able to preach the gospel all day long until I wasn't able to do it anymore. It's almost like being an RM in a way, so I guess I just won't come home. I think I'll hide in a monastery on moves day so they can't send me back. ;) Just kidding, of course. I often think about how I won't lose what I've learned here, when I go back. In this past year I've learned what really matters in life and where my priorities need to be. Keeping God first is the most important thing, even when I'm busy with school and work and whatnot. Will I be too busy to serve? I didn't do a whole lot of service back home, which I regret, and which I'm determined to fix. If we want to retain a remission of our sins, as King Benjamin talks about in Mosiah 4:26, we must serve God's children. Excuses don't cut it. Would we be too busy to serve the Lord Himself if He were here? No, of course not -- I'm sure we'd all make time in our schedule for Him, no matter how much homework we had. And yet we often let our schedules fill up without any (or at least not enough) time for the things that matter most. "It is expedient that [we] should be diligent, that thereby [we] might win the prize [of retaining a remission of our sins from day to day]." When I was at college, it seemed that my school load often took first priority, and anything that got in the way was an irritation. Sure, I'd help out, but most of the time my heart wouldn't be in it -- I'd grumble to myself or at least feel annoyed. In the MTC I read a talk by C. Terry Warner at a BYU devotional ("Honest, Simple, Solid, True", in 1996 I think) that really made a difference in my life. Basically, when we pledge to follow Christ, we cannot let things irritate us. There is no room in the gospel for murmuring or complaining. It's hard, but in the little progress I've seen in my own life, it really, really, really makes a difference. When we become masters of ourselves (by letting Christ stand at the reins of our lives), no longer are we prisoners of other people or of Satan. We become free, truly free. How committed are we to being disciples of Christ? If we don't give up everything we have for Christ, meaning everything the natural man does that isn't in compliance with the teachings of the Master, it's not enough. We're the heirs to the kingdom if we just do our part. His yoke is easy and the burden is light *if* and only if we decide to let Him lead us. If we're trying to pull the load ourselves and follow our own path, tearing the reins away from Him, oh, the burden is heavy.

Anyway, I'm out of time. Everyone, keep up the good work. Follow Christ 100%. We cannot be of the world -- the world truly is too much with us, and in the end it will pull many off the strait and narrow path to eternal life. In the movies we watch, in the books we read, in the things we laugh at, in the things we talk about, in the clothes we wear, in the thoughts that flicker on the movie theater of our imagination -- in short, in every decision we make and in every thing we do -- we choose to become closer to God or to fall farther away from Him. Many things are enticing and yes, many people are doing the things the world does, even within the flocks of the Church. Will we follow the crowd like lemmings off a cliff or will we cling to the iron rod? Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.

This week marked one year in country for me and my MTC group. When I was younger I thought one year was forever long (this was when I counted down the days till my birthday or till Christmas or till Easter or other candy holidays :)), but now time is melting together and I have a feeling I'll be seventy-five with eleven kids and fifty grandkids before I know it. ;) I've been in the office for a month now. Hmm, that can't be right. It feels like a couple of weeks at most. But no, it's true, and moves is just a week and a half away. This week has been another event-filled one. We woke up early Sunday morning and drove to the train station to pick up two soon-to-be missionaries, Brother Ekarat (from Kumphawapi) and Sister Jiab (from Ubon), for the Thai MTC. Took them to church here in Pakkret and then afterwards to Bangnaa to get their patriarchal blessings from Brother Phonchay. One of the other Thai MTCers, Brother Awb (from Khon Kaen), was already there. Left them there and went to the Crosbys' for dinner.

Then on Monday morning Elder Turner and I went to the train station to pick up two more Thai MTCers, Brother Jack (from Chiang Mai) and Sister Oen (from Roi-Et). The last Thai MTCers was Brother Golf from good old Bangkapi. Of these, only Ekarat and Awb have their mission calls (they enter the field next week). The Thai MTC lasted Monday through Thursday and was hosted by the APs. They had several returned missionaries come in (President Wisit, his wife, Brother Chayaphrug, Brother Thanthawat, Sister Wanthanee, Sister Ratchanee, and many more) and teach the class how to preach the gospel by the Spirit of the Lord. For the Thais who don't go to the Philippines MTC, that's all the formal training they get before coming into the mission field. Each night we and Elder Thatcher and Elder Hyde took them on switchoffs. It was a really good experience.

On Monday after DDM Elder Bloom and I drove to the airport to pick up Elder Faulk, an elder from Cambodia who dislocated his knee (his bike chain snapped while he was going up a hill) and had to come to the Bamrungrad Hospital here. He was amazed to see paved roads and cars going faster than 20 kilos/hour. :) I hadn't realized how different Cambodia is. We brought him to the office and President Hansen took him to the hospital. On Tuesday we had to pick up Elder and Sister Houssian, the auditors from Hong Kong (I translated for Elder Houssian and Brother Chaimongkhon when I was up in Phitsanulok a few months ago), from the airport, and then take Elder Faulk to the hospital to pick up his X-rays. I didn't realize being in the office would mean putting on the chauffeur's cap. :)

The last exciting bit of news is that our phone was disconnected last week, our water was disconnected a few days ago, and then on Thursday our electricity was cut off. We've got to start paying those bills on time... ;) One of the reasons we didn't pay them, though, was that our house money (reimburseable) wasn't in yet, and so we didn't have any money to pay the bills. We were going to get an advance from the Hootons on Thursday and pay the electricity bill, but by the time we were free to go, the electricity place was already closed. So we slept at the office. :) Woke up at 5:45 Friday, drove over to Elder Dehoyos' place, and took Elder Faulk to the airport. (He's been helping Elder Dehoyos teach his Cambodian investigators.) Finally paid the electricity and water bills. I took electricity and water and the phone for granted, but now I really appreciate them. :)

As for current projects, I noticed that the 1000-word list (1000 words in Thai for greenies to memorize) was last updated in 1993 and that the copy we have is a bit shabby. So I'm typing it in and revising it and adding Thai to go along with the English and romanized Thai. I'm also planning a detailed guide to how the mission office runs, for future office elders. And I'm working on a revised Thai script card and various other little projects. There's also an exciting little tidbit about the new translation of the Thai Book of Mormon but I'll have to wait till next week to write about that. :)

I've got a lot of other letters to write today, so au revoir. Remember your covenants. And don't forget to have a great day! :-) (You're the one who chooses whether it'll be a great day or a wish-I'd-stayed-in-bed day. Attitude determines altitude!)

I don't have much time at all (we were very busy yesterday for P-day) and so this'll be very short. We had two firesides this past week, one in Bangbuathong and one yesterday in Thonburi. Both went fairly well, especially the Bangbuathong one. We're getting ready for moves, which is on Thursday. It's a big moves but I can't spill the beans till next week. :) Preparing for moves is taking up most of our time right now. I'm getting used to driving with a stick, which is good. :) Brad Lindsay of the scripture translation department in Salt Lake came here last week and met with a group of four elders to review the new translation of the Thai BoM/D&C/PoGP. It'll be done in three years and will be very, very nice. Loi Krathong was last Saturday but Elder Bloom and I taught a guy named Yo and the guard near our house instead. :) I made some new D&C 4/Standard of Truth posters a few days ago. Today one of the sisters' investigators, Ohe, was baptized today and gave a really good testimony about how the gospel has changed her life. I accompanied the Primary kids on the piano as they sang "The Holy Ghost" for the special musical number. My contact lens fluid acidified last week and it really hurt when I put my contacts in last week, but I switched fluid and all is well. I should have realized something was awry when the liquid started turning browner and browner. ;) The APs brought home a fried rat from Ayutthaya on Monday and we took pictures of it for the weekly announcement we send out to the mission. Oh, wait, maybe I wasn't supposed to tell about that. ;) Sorry this is so abbreviated, but there really isn't any time. Next week there should be a longer letter, though. These last few days I've learned just how much faith, hope, and charity are linked together in missionary work and how absolutely essential they are. Without them, especially charity, we are nothing and cannot do the Lord's work. I read a quote from the Joseph F. Smith book this morning that talked about the work of saving souls and how "it is worth *all* your attention." Does the work of God matter that much to us? How important is it in our lives? Are we ready to dedicate *all* our attention to it? If not, why not? When we pledge to serve God with all our heart, might, mind, and strength, we covenant with the Lord God Almighty that we will do *everything* within our power to build Zion in ourselves, in our homes, and wherever we are for the rest of our lives. I just read Elder Oaks' talk in Conference about giving up every tradition and custom that conflicts with the gospel -- very true and very necessary. We must give up the world if we want to gain Zion. There's no way to cling to one without being cut off from the other. Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.

Moves is over! :) It's been a crazy week and we haven't had much time to sleep, so we've been dead tired the whole time. Nevertheless it's exciting and now I understand what the office elders and APs go through on moves day -- I had no idea it was so involved. So, on Monday morning President Hansen and the APs finalized moves (only two changes were made). We got all the orders put together (orders for supplies from the distribution center here) and put everyone's mail and packages into bags, separated by zone. The APs have been putting together binders for every house in the mission (all 73 or 74 of them) with relevant sections from the Church handbooks of instruction, and that was a huge project that took a lot of time.

On Wednesday we ran downtown to pick up name tags, then returned just in time to go pick the greenies up from the airport. There's a lot of them this moves: Elder Atwood, Siser Jessop, Sister Lamb, Elder Main, Sister Matheson, Elder Messervy, Sister Olsen, Elder Robinson, Elder Smith, Elder Tungmala, Elder Tuttle. There were also four Thais: Elder Chatniyom, Elder Ekkarat, Elder Thawon (but he's at the Philippines MTC right now), and Sister Suphaporn (from Hong Kong). Sister Olsen's carry-on was lost in Lost Angeles, which was a problem because her visa and passport and tickets were inside. But luckily they found it and she came in only 12 hours late (midnight on Wednesday). We ate lunch with the greenies at President's house and unloaded their luggage there, then went back to the office to continue getting stuff ready. The new elders helped us load all the Book of Mormon boxes into our van, which we then unloaded at the church. Ate dinner at President's house with the greenies. Spent the rest of the evening with the APs getting stuff ready and setting up the church for moves. The Korat and Lopburi elders stayed the night at our house.

Moves day itself went surprisingly smooth, with no huge stress-inducing frustrations. :) Everyone in my group went senior, as did Elder Keller in the group behind me, and Elder Burin. Elder Hamblin moved to Bangbuathong South. Elder Haase moved down here to Don Muang and Elder Ithiphon replaced him up in P-lok (as Elder Berlin's junior). Elder Walker moved here to Muang Thong Thani and is our new ZL. Sister Mabey replaced Sister Hart, and Elder Calder replaced Elder Peterson (who moved to Khon Kaen). Elder Orrock's going to be training Elder Thawon when he returns from the MTC. Elder McLelland returned to Udorn North. After things settled down a bit, we took all the cobbers' luggage over to President's house. Spent a nice easy afternoon at the office (although there were tons of people there and so it was a bit hard to get work done). In the evening we took all the ZLs and their luggage over to the train station and sent them off. Had to finish some more stuff at the office and got to bed around midnight.

We had to rise early to get to President's house by 5:00 to take the cobbers to the airport. Those going home were Elder Simon, Elder Doi, Elder Henderson, Elder Goodwin, and Sister Taggart. Sister Hart's and Sister Draper's families were coming to pick them up and go thiaw, and Elder Taweesak and Sister Peerunrak also finished their missions. Sending cobbers off at the airport is like foreseeing your own death -- not very fun at all. I feel like I'll be a missionary the rest of my life, like this lifestyle will never end. I don't want to go home. ~sigh~ Heard some disturbing news from the P-lok elders. Apparently Loogkit's husband has gone off the deep end and has become the town drunk and is harassing both her and the elders. They've separated and she now lives a few roads down. It sounds pretty serious (the harassing stuff) but I can't really do anything about it except pray for her and Ao.

Well, that's it for this week. We're going to Swensen's today with the APs to celebrate mine and Elder Bloom's 1-year-in-country mark (which we passed a few weeks ago). I can't really think of what to write -- too tired. :) Keep up the good work and have a great day! :-)

Well, today I don't have much time so I'll have to keep this one short. We were excited to get the Joy to the World DVD in the mail earlier this week. All of the missionaries got a copy. Later this afternoon we're going over to the Harrisons for Thanksgiving dinner, which we're all looking forward to. :) On Thursday we translated for a district finance training meeting. I found it fascinating (I guess that's what comes of being the son of an accountant :)). Yesterday I drove downtown for the first time and on the highway for the first time. Neither was too stressful -- now that I know how to drive a stick-shift, driving is fun instead of harrowing. Finally, Elder Burin was riding down Doi Sutheeb (a steep hill up in Chiang Mai) on P-day and crashed, busting up his mouth pretty bad. He's been in the hospital getting plastic surgery and it's looking a lot better.

I wish I had more to write, but I don't. Keep up the good work, everyone. Take care and have a great day! :-)

This'll be another short one because we're incredibly busy and there are lots of deadlines. Last Monday at DDM our district brainstormed ideas to help the members become unified and fellowship each other, and so we're thinking about doing a movie night (Church movies) every other week, and then sports on the alternating weeks. We're also planning on putting together a Member Training Center and teaching the members how to do missionary work (introducing the gospel to friends, asking good find out questions, teaching clearly and with the Spirit, resolving concerns, etc.).

On Tuesday we did switchoffs with Elder Walker and Elder Hyde. Because our proselyting time is not very sure (with all the office work we have to do), we're going to do more and more switchoffs. Tomorrow we'll switch off all day with Elder Dehoyos and Elder Calder, and then on Tuesday we'll switch off again with Elder Walker and Elder Hyde. These past few days I've been working on a big report for President Hansen, on missing baptismal/confirmation records and on priesthood ordination.

Oh, on Wednesday Sister Edna Hongphakdy arrived. She's a senior sister from Salt Lake (though she's Laotian) and the APs and Sister Mabey and Sister Biggs have been training her for the past few days. This morning we took Sister Edna to the airport with the Pattersons and the Hansens and they all flew to Chiang Mai. (Sister Edna will serve there with Sister Skidmore.) Also, Elder Thawon from Sakon Nakhon was in the MTC in the Philippines and we thought he was coming back today at 4:30, but on Thursday President Hansen got a call from him at 5:00 saying his flight had come in and he was waiting at the airport for us. So Elder Bloom and I drove over there and got him, took him back to the office to fill out some forms, and drove him to Bangkapi to meet Elder Orrock. Ah, it was so good to see my old greenie area. :)

Wednesday morning we had choir rehearsals. A bunch of people joined the choir (Elder Muir, Elder Dawson, Elder Bennett, Elder Luker, Elder Main, Elder Robinson, Sister Thitiporn, Sister Hall, Sister Redd, Sister Kravetz, Sister Matheson). We're doing a handful of Christmas songs for Journey to Bethlehem next week. I played the piano from 9:00 until 3:30 (because a member from Bangbuathong wanted me to record a few songs for him, and then Elder Heaton and I had practice a few more pieces). Lots and lots of piano. :) And today we're doing another rehearsal. We're going to see if we can shift the responsibility over to another pianist, though, because being in the office leaves me virtually no time to practice. The next two weeks will be crazy -- we have rehearsal on the 10th, Journey to Bethlehem on the 12th, mission tour with President Daryl Garn of the Asia Area Presidency on the 13th, a choir fireside in Bangkhen on the 14th, Christmas thiaw to the beach on the 17th, 19th, and 22nd, and the Pakkret Christmas activity on the 20th.

Okay, I'm out of time. We're working on a big project for Christmas thiaw (which is secret for now :)) and the deadline is tonight. I'll tell you about it in two weeks. Keep up the good work and have a great day! :-)

It's a short preparation day, so this will be another somewhat short letter. These two weeks have been and will be the busiest of my mission. :) I really can't wait till after this moves, because all the craziness will finally be over and life will return to normal. Mission tour started on Monday when President Garn and Elder Burton and their wives arrived. The last mission tour meeting was today in Bangkhen, which the Bangkhen, Pakkret North, and Pakkret South zones went to. It was really good and inspiring.

Last night we went down to Asoke to perform at Journey to Bethlehem. We did about 10 Christmas songs that we've been practicing for the past two weeks (we only had two practices), and it went really well. Got to see a lot of people from all around Bangkok, including Super, Chayaphrug, and Athorn from Bangkapi. :) The "show" runs tonight, too, but we're not going (no time). Tomorrow night we perform the regular Restoration fireside in Bangkhen. President Garn and Elder Burton were there last night and will be there tomorrow.

We got home today from mission tour and my bike was missing. I guess it was stolen, unless someone borrowed it for the day. Well, I only have four and half months left after I leave the office, so I'll just get a dinky little bike that'll do the job. I hope whoever took it has good use for it. (I'd been hoping to give it to a Thai missionary when I go home, but oh well.) On Wednesday we have our first day of Christmas thiaw at the beach. It'll be at the Pinnacle Hotel, a nice somewhat-secluded beach area that's away from all the dens of iniquity and has enough room to play volleyball. We've spent the past month working on a big project for it (it's a present that the mission will give to each missionary) and it'll be nice to see it finished.

Okay, that's it. Sorry it's short, but there's no time. :) Being here in the office has helped me to find a love for all the missionaries here, since these are the people I serve. It really is true that if you want to learn how to love someone, serve them. Here in the office we do our best to support the missionaries in their work and through this service I've learned so much. With 180 missionaries it may seem hard for a mission president to know and love each of them, but if *I* can know and love each of them, then certainly President Hansen can, for that is a gift that goes with the calling. I've looked back over my past year as a missionary and it truly has been the best year of my life. I don't want my mission to end. "Greater love hath no man than this, that he give his life for his friends." (Paraphrasing because I don't have a Bible nearby.) In like manner, he who "gives his life for his friends" -- by putting others' needs before his own, by losing himself in the service of others -- this is he who finds that greater love, the pure love of Christ. This is what life is about. He who knows not love knows not God, for God is love, and the only meaning that reality has is found in love. Without love, all existence is utterly meaningless, a huge universe of wasted effort, a spiritual ghost town. I'm finding more and more that that's the core essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ, of every teaching and every commandment. Love God and love thy neighbor. I know that this is where true happiness lies, because the more I learn to love other people, the more happy I find myself. It's real! Don't waste any more time in being irritated at others, in feeling offended, in being selfish. It's not worth it. Let the Master into your life and you'll find that His perfect love will make a home in your heart and all fear will depart. Keep up the good work!

It's another busy day in the office but I'll try to write a little bit more than I have the last few weeks. First off, last Sunday, President and Sister Garn went to church here in Pakkret, which was a neat experience. (The Burtons went to Asoke, I think.) After sacrament meeting ended, Nathan (an Australian kickboxer) and his Thai girlfriend, Toon, came up to us. They came to church a few weeks ago and he expressed an interest in having her taught the discussions (he's been a member all his life). So we taught her with President Hansen and Sister Gai. She wasn't too interested at first, but toward the end of the discussion she opened up more. They live in Rayong, which is down south a bit (four hours away), so we set an appointment with them to meet with us at Christmas thiaw (since we'd already be down there in Pattaya). They showed up yesterday afternoon and Elder Bloom and I taught her about the plan of salvation and why the gospel matters so much. When we talked about families and how the gospel will help our families to be happy and together forever, Toon started crying. The Spirit was really strong and I felt like a miracle had happened (she wasn't interested at *all* to begin with, but had just come down because her boyfriend wanted her to). We're meeting them again tomorrow at church.

Sunday night we had a fireside in Bangkhen which went really well. There were more people there than we'd ever had at a fireside before. On Monday we went to the train station at 6:45 to pick up Sister Sirina, a new Thai missionary from Khon Kaen/Roi-Et. (She came to the Thai MTC a few weeks ago.) She stayed with the Muang Thong sisters for a couple days and then went to Bangkhae with Sister Daeng and Sister Hall (Sister Daeng will be her trainer).

On Wednesday and Friday we had the first two days of Christmas thiaw, which we've been preparing for several weeks now. Everyone met at the bus station at 6:30 or so and hopped on two buses to travel down to Pattaya (well, it's actually past Pattaya a little bit -- the Pinnacle Hotel in Jom Tien). When we got there we took the groups on a short tour of the facilities and let everyone change into preparation day clothes. Played on the beach for a few hours (most people played volleyball, soccer, or chairball). At 1:00 we changed back into missionary clothes and ate lunch, took a group picture, and gathered in the conference room. President Hansen spoke on the dedicatory prayer President Hinckley offered for Thailand in 1966. Sister Hansen shared a Christmas story. Then Elder Bloom and I started the video presentation we've been working on for the past month, a DVD photo album. We had everyone send in their best pictures of their missionary experience and then made those into a video and put it on DVD. Everyone received a copy at the thiaw as a gift from the mission. Afterwards, there was some time for bearing testimonies, which was wonderful. There was a gift exchange and then we all piled into the buses and went back to the train station, where everyone separated and departed for home. The last day of thiaw is on Monday and we're looking forward to that. I think my favorite part wasn't playing games (though that was fun), but rather talking with the other missionaries and seeing the light of the gospel in their lives. These past few days have filled me with a love for all the missionaries that keeps getting stronger, and now I think I have a small idea of what God's love for us is like. I can't really describe it, but it's overflowing inside me, bubbling over and I feel like I'm about to burst with it. This is the real flavor of life for me -- love, love, love, it's all about love. Not fake love or romantic love, but Christlike love, the pure stuff, the powerful force that conquers all fear, the love that lasts till the end of eternity.

The branch Christmas activity is tonight. I think our zone is doing a musical number, but I'm not sure. The current release date for my group is September 10, which is a week and a half after school starts. Originally I thought I'd have to leave July 30 (one moves before), but that's a wee bit early (not a full two years). President Hansen talked with us and what'll probably happen is that he'll release those of us who need to go home for school (six or seven, I think) on August 20, which is exactly two years and gives us just over a week to get ready for school. It's not set in stone yet, but I think it'll happen. Further details will be forthcoming.

Okay, that's it for today. Thanks for all the support, everyone. Right now I'm very very busy with a bunch of deadlines before the end of the year, so I haven't had time to write any letters, but I'll try to catch up once January comes around. Take care and keep up the good work! :-)

Well, Christmas is over. It doesn't feel like the Christmas season at all -- no snow, no cold, nothing. But the important part of Christmas -- the giving and love and all that -- was still here (just in a different way). On Christmas day my district (us, Elder Walker, Elder Hyde, Sister Mabey, Sister Biggs, and Sister Whitaker) drove around caroling for an hour or two to investigators and members. That was the best part of Christmas for me, because we could see the Christmas spirit start to enter into their hearts as they listened to the carols. On Monday we had the last day of Christmas thiaw at the beach, which was fun. I'm glad it's over now, though, so that life can return to normal. :)

This letter will be short because we're going to make a massive effort to clean our house, and it'll take all day. :) Life is good and I'm happy to be a missionary. I talked with my family yesterday, which was fun. President Hansen finished setting up moves yesterday (he'll pray about it over the weekend and make any final changes on Monday) and so we know now where everyone's moving. It's a different moves -- lots of surprises. We were quite surprised to find out where Elder Bloom's going. The new office elder is a really good elder and he'll do a great job. The only thing I can tell you now is that I'll be district leader here, which isn't a surprise since the junior office elder always becomes district leader when his senior leaves. Two elders and three sisters went senior. Moves day is on January 1st, so it'll be a wee bit crazy, but we think we can keep it sane. Oh, I revised the romanized hymnbook and the 1000 word list and we'll hopefully get those printed and bound next moves.

While making send-off packets for the soon-to-be RMs, I found a really good article by Stephen R. Covey for returning missionaries. I'm not trunky or anything at all like that, but the article has some extremely good advice on how to make prayer and scripture study worthwhile and meaningful, I wish I'd known about it when I first came on my mission. It's adapted from his book "Spiritual Roots of Human Relations," I think. Quite good.

Well, that's it. This year has gone by very fast. Time is a blur. My testimony has grown deeper and more solid than I ever thought it could, but not in the way I expected it to. In examining myself now, I can truly say that my desire has changed from whatever it used to be to a wholehearted pledge to serve God the rest of my days and do everything I can to build up His kingdom here on earth. I've learned what it's like to serve the King of kings and it's worth every step of the way. Never before have I or my family been so blessed. I don't think I could have understood this before. It's something that you have to experience to understand -- you have to *do* it to discover how wonderful it really is. That's what spiritual growth is dependent upon: to grow, we must first learn (through study) and then do (through action). Faith without works is dead. Throughout my life I've seen that when I get stuck on a spiritual plateau and stop progressing, it's because I'm not doing something I know I should be doing. Whenever I truly try to do everything I know I should be doing, which almost always involves a mental/spiritual battle with myself to overcome the carnal tendency towards laziness and apathy, I find myself moving forward and gaining greater light and happiness. But as soon as I give in to the devil and hold my heart back from the Lord, darkness clouds over my spirit and I get stuck in the mire. It seems like a pretty simple lesson -- obey the Lord and be happy; disobey and be miserable (or as the Book of Mormon puts it, inasmuch as ye keep the commandments ye shall prosper in the land) -- and yet I have to relearn it over and over and over. Nephi felt the same way -- "I am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily beset me. And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins; nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted." I wish I could be free from this continual struggle against weakness and temptation, for it's not exactly fun, but I do know that in this I have learned and continue to learn to know my Savior. In a testimony meeting a few weeks ago one of the members related a story which I'd read back in the States, and goosebumps flooded my body as I thought about what it really means. I'll have to paraphrase (apologies to the original author :)):

"I found myself in a desert, looking at two sets of footprints walking along a long, dreary path. One set looked familiar -- they were mine. I wondered who the other set belonged to, and then I realized that they belonged to the Savior, walking alongside me, leading and guiding me through life's journey. As I continued to gaze upon the tracks, there came a time when one of the sets of footprints disappeared, a time strewn with dangers and disappointments. Why did the Savior abandon me? Couldn't he stay with me in that time of need? I heard a voice from the distance, a soft, small voice. It whispered, 'That was when He carried you.'"

I rejoice in the honor of being called a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, even though I often fall short and hardly deserve the blessings He gives. He is my Master and I will follow Him to the end, no matter where that may lead me. Joseph Smith is His prophet, the great one chosen to restore the Church of God. The Creation, the Fall, the Atonement, the Restoration -- it's an amazing thing, a grand fairy tale, but the beautiful thing is that it's *true*. In Christ all our needs are met, every single one. We have the hope of Zion in our hearts, a glorious vision of what lies ahead for those who love God. Trials and persecution stand in the way, but not even the very jaws of hell can stop the kingdom of God. Oh, how lovely is this morning of the latter-day dispensation, when we have the fulness of the gospel, temples, a tremendous missionary force, and so forth, all working wholeheartedly to establish the kingdom of God and the reign of righteousness. The spirit of God like a fire is burning throughout the world and we each can be part of this magnificent work! We decide where our loyalty lies. Choose ye this day whom ye will serve, and don't look back once you've decided to serve God. Lot's wife looked back to her old ways and was turned into a pillar of salt. When we choose to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, we must desert our old ways and abandon the world. There's no place for Babylon in Zion.

Hmm, so much for it being short. :) But I felt better for having written it, spiritually uplifted and energized for the day, and hopefully it'll help some of you as well. Have a great day! :-)

It has been an exciting and crazy week. We spent the first half of the week preparing for moves. On Tuesday morning Elder Bloom, Elder Walker, Elder Hyde, and I went down to renew our visas. Half of my MTC group was there (us three, Elder Orrock, Elder Applegate, Elder Rock, Elder Hamblin, and Sister Kravetz). Lots of fun. While we were there, an old Chinese man came up to us and said, in English, "You're missionaries, right?" Elder Applegate asked where he was from. He said something that sounded vaguely like Srinakarin. Elder Applegate greenied there, and about two seconds later the light clicked and he exclaimed, "I taught you!" (He wasn't actually his investigator, but he'd taught him on switchoffs.) The man had read the Book of Mormon, D&C, and Pearl of Great Price in English and in Chinese, and he started telling us about how Abraham saw all the big stars and how in the Book of Moses, Moses meets the devil and tells him he's not afraid, and how Enoch walked with God, and all sorts of stuff that investigators usually don't know. Quite entertaining. :) But all that knowledge isn't of any worth if you don't apply it, living it so that it becomes part of you. For another interesting tidbit, as we drove out of the parking lot, we saw a guy on the sidewalk who had a T-shirt that read "Army of Helaman," and on the back it had a Boy Scouts of America logo. Welcome to random Thailand. :) That afternoon, Heidi from the Travel Office in Salt Lake called me and said the greenies' flight was misconnected in San Francisco and instead of coming in at 11:20 a.m. on Wednesday, they'd be arriving at 11:25 p.m.

So, on Wednesday morning we and the APs moved the Book of Mormon boxes out of the storage room and into the van. To do that, we have to back the van up into the office (there's a ramp that goes up onto the sidewalk, and then there's another incline to get up into the parking spot. Well, it was my turn to drive, so I prepared to back up. The other elders were watching from outside and told me to go for it. I pressed the gas down and went back pretty fast, and then I heard a "Stop!!!" but my foot didn't react until I'd smashed the van into the wall. Pretty embarrassing. :) Luckily the wall was undamaged and the van wasn't too bad off either (broke the taillight and dented in the fender, but that's about it). It shook me up a bit. About two minutes later, Elder Hansen called to have two of us go upstairs and give him a blessing (he's sick). Elder Ensign-Lewis and I went up and blessed him. It was a little intimidating at first because I still felt all jiggly inside from the accident and boy did I feel inadequate, but the Lord compensated and it turned out really well.

Our district had New Year's Eve dinner at the home of the Primary president of the English branch in Asoke (I don't know her name). Her husband is a lawyer for the Motion Picture Association of America and knows the prime minister of Thailand personally. (He's not a member, though.) They've got a really nice family. Later that night, President, Sister Hansen, Elder Bloom, and I went to the airport at 11:30 and waited. And waited. And waited. :) The four greenies (Elder Butler, Elder Tateoka, Sister Atkinson, and Sister Garff) finally arrived at 1:30 a.m. What had happened was their luggage got lost along the way (they hadn't seen it since they left Salt Lake) and so the airport would send it to us as soon as they found it. So we took them to the mission home and let them get a good night's sleep. We, on the other hand, continued setting up moves (getting mail ready and setting up everything at the Pakkret church). Got to bed at 3:30 a.m.

Woke up on Thursday at 6:30 a.m. and hurriedly went over to the church for moves. President Hansen announced everything and people started on their way. Elder Dehoyos found out that he's going to Ubon. (He's been in Bangkok his entire mission, and all this moves we've been pretending that he'll go to Asoke, the heart of Bangkok. He was certain we were right, but he's very happy to finally be leaving Bangkok.) Changes in our zone: Elder Bloom moved back to Roi-Et and is the zone leader there; Elder Lund moved to Bangbuathong and went DL; Elder Hyde moved to Surin; Sister Biggs moved to Bangbuathong and went senior; Elder Calder went senior and his new junior is Elder Willis, who moved from Mahasarakham; Elder Zaugg's new companion is Elder Allen (from the group before me); Elder Kenison replaced Elder Hyde; and Elder Lott is my new office elder companion. Elder Orrock moved to Saphaan Sung (same zone, but different branch) and went DL, Elder McEwen moved to Din Daeng, and Elder McLelland didn't move but went DL over there in Udorn North. Because the incoming group was so small, we had to close three areas: Thonburi Sisters, one of the Chiang Mai areas, and one of the Samut Prakaan areas (though Samut Prakaan and Thonburi will reopen in three weeks for sure, and there's a good possibility Chiang Mai will reopen as well).

As soon as moves was announced, I was pretty much in charge of things, because Elder Bloom had ZLTM. At 8:30 or so Elder Lott and I gathered the four trainers (Elder Wittig, Elder Haase, Sister Redd, and Sister Thitiphorn) and took them over to the mission home to meet their greenies. President announced the assignments there: Elder Wittig will train Elder Butler in Thonburi; Elder Haase will train Elder Tateoka in Don Muang South; Sister Redd will train Sister Garff in Bangkhen; and Sister Thitiphorn will train Sister Atkinson in Srinakarin. We then took all eight back to the office and had the greenies do the financial orientation with the Hootons. Took them to the Kodak place down the street to get passport pictures, then came back and gave them the packet of forms to fill out. When they finished with those, they left to their respective areas for the day. Elder Lott and I drove over to the church and put all the luggage of cobbing missionaries (missionaries going home) in the van, then took it to the mission home. When we got back to the office, Sister Russell's parents were there and needed a ride to the Eastin hotel, so we took them over. Returned to the office and got Elder Lott settled down. At 5:30 or so we drove over to the hotel and took the Russells to the mission home for the testimony meeting there. Went to the church and put all the ZLs' luggage in the van. We, the APs, and all the ZLs and ZL companions then drove to the train station and got them ready to go.

That's moves day in a nutshell. It's crazy but fun. The next morning we had to take the cobbers' luggage over to the office. Usually we send the cobbers to the airport, but only one (Sister West) was going to the airport this morning, so only President and Sister Hansen went. They also sent off Sister Metinee later that morning and Elder Turner and Elder Adams in the afternoon. The other cobbers (Sister Hall, Sister Winkler, Sister Russell, and Elder Tarayao) went thiawing with their families. Then at 10:00 Elder Walker, Elder Allen, and I met for DLTM (District Leader Training Meeting) in the office. For this moves we're going to be focusing on the new converts baptized within 24 months, helping them stay active in the church and grow and serve and learn to know Christ and really live the gospel.

So, I'm senior now, after a year and a half. :) I'll admit that the last few days before moves I was starting to get a little nervous, but all of that left me Thursday morning and hasn't come back. Everything went surprisingly smoothly and I sure hope it continues to do so. :) I'm the district leader now, so I now do nightly phone calls to the other two companionships in my district to make sure they're home safely and give them encouragement and follow up on how their investigators and new members are doing. I'll also be doing DDMs from now on. I've been preparing lessons for DDMs for the past few weeks now and I'm really looking forward to it.

Well, that's that. This letter ended up a lot longer than I thought it would, but that's okay. I'm glad to be serving here in Thailand, which truly is the best mission in the world. :) Serving a mission is the best choice I ever made. I've heard several leaders of the Church (President Hinckley, Elder Richard G. Scott, and others) say that all the things they now treasure most in life began to mature in the mission field. Very true. I've still got a lot of time left but I can already see the growth and the change that's happened in me, and I often feel that all I treasure most right now has blossomed while out here in the field. Miracles happen, and not only in the lives of investigators and new converts but also in the lives of the missionaries.

Okay, I'm out of time. Keep up the good work, everyone!

Well, this past week was the most stressful of my life (mostly Monday through Wednesday), but it's slowly fading back to normal. Lots of new responsibilities and craziness. I've grown a *lot*. Today I haven't much time so I'll try to get all the essentials in as quickly as I can. First off, Monday we had special DDM with our whole zone. When we got back up to the office my to-do list lengthened tenfold. :) We sent mail off without a hitch. In fact, we left the office at 8:10 p.m., which is the earliest we've ever done it. I'm going to try to get it done by 8:00 p.m. this next Monday -- that would mean we'd get to bed on time. :)

On Tuesday we drove downtown and sent bikes. Went downtown again to Din Daeng on Wednesday at 6:30 a.m. to bring some missionaries to the mission office, then had the choir rehearsal. We're performing in Srinakarin on the 18th, Ayutthaya on the 23rd, Bangnaa on the 24th or 25th, and Bangkapi (hooray! :)) on the 8th of February. We've been working on a better way to keep track of the investigators who come to these music firesides. On Thursday we took a few more bikes back downtown to be sent (at the RSP). We then needed to go to the Pinnacle Hotel across the street to give Books of Mormon to Brother Phayab to be bound (we take orders for leatherbound scriptures every six weeks or so). Well, to get across the street, we had to go a few kilometers away to get to the first U-turn, so it took roughly 30 minutes (downtown traffic is beastly, even at mid-day). The Pinnacle is in off the road a bit, so we weren't exactly sure where to turn. I thought I saw the right road and started turning left, and then suddenly a motorcyclist pulled right where I was turning and I had to slam on my brakes. Barely missed him. I tried to continue turning into the lane once he moved, but then I saw the van coming towards me flashing its lights and it dawned on me that I was trying to enter a very narrow one-way street. The guy in the tuk-tuk behind me waved that I couldn't go that way, so I pulled back and went to the next soi, which fortunately was the right one.

Now for the story. :) So, we delivered the scriptures to Brother Phayab without any further difficulties. As we were driving home along Rama IV Road, I thought I saw the intersection to turn onto the expressway, so I moved into the right-turn lane. As we got closer, however, I realized I wanted to turn at the *next* intersection, so I tried to get back into the lane going straight. The light was red and until the cars started moving there was no way I could wedge myself into the lane. So I waited. The right-turn light turned green and the car behind me honked, wanting to move. I pulled up to the stop line to let him swing around me and turn right, which he did. The light turned red and we figured we'd wait for the straight light to turn green and go with the other cars. But then the right-turn light turned green again, and there were a bunch of cars right behind us. I didn't want to block traffic, so I moved in front of the cars in the straight lane, kind of in the intersection but not in the way of any vehicles. As we waited there on the crosswalk, I said to Elder Lott, "I sure hope there aren't any policemen here." Then I looked past him to the sidewalk and saw a policeman walking to me from the control box. ~sigh~ :) He came up to the window and said, "Give me license." I replied, "We need go fast fast over there. Turn right no can do, I need go there." He shook his head and said, "License. License." I pulled off my name tag and gave it to him, saying, "This, right? License." He examined it and said, "You go police box," motioning over to the station on the corner. He then started walking over there. I couldn't really pull over to it without blocking the two left lanes, and he didn't seem very determined to have me come over (once he got to the station he just sat down and chatted with his friend), so when the light turned green, I had no choice but to go with the flow. In summary, the name tag I've had since my first day in Thailand is now in the hands of the policeman at the Maha Nakhon intersection at Rama IV. ~sigh~ Luckily I had another one made a few months ago. :)

Both President Hansen and President Sathid (branch president here in Pakkret) have gone back to Phitsanulok within the past two or three weeks, and Sathid showed me some of the video footage he took while he was there. I didn't know that Phadoongsak (the old district president I visited every week there) was the first Thai branch president ever. Ah, someday I'll get to go back to my beloved Phitsanulok, I hope. On the 8th I'll be heading back to my greenie area to put on the fireside there, which'll be very nice.

I was quoted in the January 6th Daily Universe, I found. :) Katie Waterfall, the girl who wrote the story, called me up here at the office a few months ago and said she had a few questions. I didn't know if the story would actually get published or not, but it did. :) Sister Hart's quoted too (as is Elder McAdams, but I never knew him). The article is entitled "Thai members make sacrifices to embrace LDS beliefs" and it's available at http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/47443/1121. Yesterday we picked the Thornells up from the airport. They're public relations missionaries for the Asia Area and have been stationed in Hong Kong for the past eleven months, but they'll be here in Thailand until they go home at the end of July. We helped them get settled in a bit yesterday and this morning.

For part of companionship study this morning Elder Lott started teaching me how to play the violin. Lots of fun. :) I won't have a lot of practice time, but at least I can try building on some fundamentals. It's not as hard as I thought it would be. We'll see how it goes. :) Today at 6:00 I'm doing my first baptismal interview. Ta is the sisters' investigator and will be baptized tomorrow if she's ready (which the interview will determine). I'm really looking forward to it -- it'll be a good learning experience. Okay, the last bit is that we've decided on our focus as a district here in Muang Thong Thani: helping converts baptized within the past 24 months get started on their books of remembrance. I'm really excited for it. Well, that's it. I'm out of time. Keep up the good work, everyone. I still haven't had time to write letters (I think it's been four or five weeks now) -- sorry if you're one of those that's still waiting. Someday, someday, I promise. :)

This'll be a short one, mainly because I haven't written snail mail letters in five or six weeks *and* we don't have much time today (we've got to go buy train tickets for some of the missionaries coming down to renew their visas). So, it's been an interesting week. President had the four sisters (S. Mabey, S. Whitaker, S. Alvord, and S. Hall) design seven display posters for the open house of the Roi-Et chapel dedication, and then I took their design and did it up in PageMaker and Illustrator. We got the posters back from the printer yesterday and they're quite impressive. We had zone conference yesterday, on building Zion through unity and focus. It was fantastic and very inspirational. Whenever I find myself apathetic about the work or just plain worn out, the vision of Zion gives me the boost I need to get back on my feet and get to work building God's kingdom. Beautiful Zion, our hope of the future. I don't think I really thought too much about Zion back home, but out here it's essential. (Often I feel a connection to the pioneers of the past, traveling out west in the hope of building Zion in the future. Our journey is different but it's the same God, the same faith, and the same Zion.) I held my first district development meeting on Monday. We decided that our goal for the next two months will be to have ten new members hold temple recommends by the end of March. It's lofty, but with God nothing is impossible. We're going to focus on family history as a way to get members excited for the temple, and we'll start by having them begin writing their personal histories and keeping a book of remembrance. I'm pretty excited about it. :) (It's pretty good training for my life's work, really. When I realized a few months ago that I'm going to be a genealogist for my career, I was sure I wouldn't be able to do much at all with that until I got back from my mission, but I've been proven wrong. :)) On Thursday Elder Teerawat came in from the Philippines MTC. Elder Rock is training him in Ayutthaya and Elder Nhok (who was Elder Rock's companion till yesterday) is now with Elder Applegate in Samut Prakaan. Next week we have two more sisters come in: Sister Hatch and Sister Vandenbos. All sorts of interesting things happen in the mission. :) We're getting ready for tomorrow's fireside in Srinakarin, trying to get the video presentation working. I feel swamped by the gargantuan size of my to-do list, but I know that this is God's work and I've dedicated my whole life to serving Him and establishing Zion, and so I'll continue on in the faith that someday I'll be able to rest at the feet of the Almighty. Keep up the good work, everyone. Take care! :)

This week was just as busy as ever, and it doesn't look like there'll be any slowing down until I leave the office. So, on Wednesday we picked up the two greenies, Sister Hatch and Sister Vandenbos, with President and Sister Hansen. Sister Mabey's training Sister Hatch here in Muang Thong Thani, and Sister Whitaker is training Sister Vandenbos in Asoke. We spent most of Wednesday and Thursday shuttling them around, getting bikes and going down to Asoke to deliver the two sisters there. Lots of driving lately. :) (By the way, all of my fears of driving disappeared as soon as I went senior and had to drive. :) Now it's quite fun, and I'll certainly miss driving when I leave the office.)

Other than that, we had a fireside in Ayutthaya last night. I drove one van up and Elder Lott drove the other. It went quite well, notwithstanding the fact that I forgot to bring the power plug for the projector (luckily there was a CD/tape player in the church and its power plug was a perfect fit for the projector). 111 people showed up (including both the Ayutthaya and Lopburi branches and all the missionaries). Before the fireside, Bishop Richard Edgley of the Presiding Bishopric came to our mission office (he's coming for the chapel dedications here and in Cambodia, along with President John Dickson of the Asia Area Presidency). He didn't go to the fireside, though. On Sunday we'll perform again in Bangnaa.

Well, that's it. I hope you're all doing well. Perhaps one of these days I'll get some time to write personal letters. :) Keep up the good work and have a great day! :-)

Life just keeps flying onward, doesn't it. As most of you probably know, there's an avian influenza going on in Asia right now. It's recommended that we don't eat chicken or eggs, but if we do then they need to be well-cooked. The medical bulletin we got yesterday said that the disease hasn't yet been contracted by consuming the chicken or the egg, so we're not too worried. Hardly anyone is selling chicken nowadays, though.

Saturday night we got a call from President Hansen. He needed us to pick up President John Dickson from the airport Sunday morning and take him to the Don Muang church, so we did. Later that night we held our music fireside at the Bangnaa chapel. I guess I never really explained what these firesides are, did I. :) So, they're firesides on the Restoration. Through music, narration, and video presentation, the basic message of the Restoration and the Church are presented. We sing eleven songs ("I Am a Child of God," "He Sent His Son," "Jesus Was No Ordinary Man," "I Stand All Amazed," "Joseph Smith's First Prayer," "Song of Testimony," "Go Forth with Faith," "We'll Bring the World His Truth," "I'll Find You My Friend," "I Heard Him Come," and "I Believe in Christ"), with short segments of narration in between some of the songs. During "I Stand All Amazed" the lights go down and a slideshow with paintings of Christ's life is projected on the screen. Then a video Elder Bloom made is played on the screen (it's a nine-minute segment on the Joseph Smith story). The lights come up and we sing "Joseph Smith's First Prayer." As of the new year we've added some prelude songs before we start -- "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go" (a violin duet with piano accompaniment), "The Spirit of God," and "How Great Thou Art." After the prelude, the branch president or bishop will start the fireside, we'll have an opening song and prayer, and then we start with the program. We've made referral/comment sheets that the missionaries hand to everyone who comes in, and the BP/bishop will explain what those are to everyone. (We have them write their name and number down and whether they're a member or investigator, and they can check a box if they're interested in having the missionaries contact them further.) We've also given the district leaders in each area a form in which they record how many people were in attendance (Srinakarin had 93, Ayutthaya had 111, Bangnaa had 145), how many investigators came, and how many new investigators (we call them referrals) came. We usually practice on Wednesday mornings from 9:30 to 11:30, but it's not every week. Tonight we're singing at the Don Muang open house, and next Sunday we'll sing at Bangkapi, my good ol' greenie area. :)

About the only other thing I have to mention is that I finally finished the revised edition of the 1000 Word List and got it printed. The sisters in my district are editing the Speak Your Language list for their language study and we'll get that printed as well. Oh, the posters we made for the Roi-Et open house were a big success and will be used at the Don Muang open house tonight and several other meetings in the near future. Today I'm hoping to get caught up on all the letters people have written me to which I still haven't responded (which are many). Keep up the good work! :)

This'll be really fast and short because I don't have any time. This last week we started getting ready for moves, which is on Thursday. This one will be kind of weird because most of the missionaries going home are my good friends. But that's life. I realized that I'm now on the last quarter of my mission, which boggles my mind. Anyway, we're getting everything ready for moves, so we're really busy. Tomorrow we're singing in Bangkapi, which'll be really nice (it's my greenie area! :)). I'm excited for that. Yesterday I did two baptismal interviews. Leenont was the first -- he's been studying for eight months now and knows a *lot* about the gospel. He's very close to baptism but has one last test of his faith (we're having him wait a week or two). Jiab was the other baptismal candidate and she's quite ready. I could tell that the interview was different than the other two I've done -- it's hard to explain. Admittedly, before the interview I didn't think Jiab would pass. For some reason I'd thought she wouldn't be ready. But then almost from the beginning of the interview I could sense that she really did have faith and was living the gospel and felt a true dependence on the Savior. And I was learning from what *I* was saying, which Marion G. Romney said was how he knew when he was teaching by the Spirit. These baptismal interviews have been good growing experiences. They're awfully hard -- especially when trying to find out what the Lord really wants for them, not what my own opinion is -- but through these refiner's fires I've learned a lot about the Spirit.

Well, that's it for today. Keep up the good work, everyone. Take care! :)

Valentine's Day. Wait, I'm a missionary... :) Anyway, life's great and we just survived moves. Everything went pretty smoothly. This time, instead of having people from upcountry go back on buses during the day, we had them all go home on night trains. That meant they were at the church and mission office all day, so we had some enrichment seminars to make the time worthwhile. Elder Dressen is the new assistant to the president. Yesterday morning we took the returning missionaries to the airport, which was a sad occasion especially since some of my dearest friends were going home. But life goes on. For those who have served here before, Bangbuathong has now become part of the Pakkret South zone. That's the only big change. Last Sunday (the 8th) we presented our missionary music fireside in Bangkapi, my greenie area. It was sooooo wonderful to go back and see Bunying and Tu and Chaad and everyone else I worked with there. I miss it a lot. Wow, this is a short e-mail. Once I leave the office I'll be able to write longer e-mails again. :) Well, keep up the good work, everyone, and have a great day! :-)

Once again the week rolls over. It's been a busy one, getting everything ready for the zone conferences, but all is well. Lately I've had a literary urge start bubbling up inside, ever since reading about B.H. Roberts and about how some of the hymns were written. I've tried to suppress my artistic drive for the last year and a half, thinking it better to focus 100% on the missionary work, and that's what I'm still doing. But I've begun to wonder if perhaps I could (and maybe should) be using the empty moments to be actively engaged in culturing my writing, to further build Zion. For that is how I've already decided to use whatever talents I possess: to build the kingdom of God on earth. Before my mission, I'd thought of devotional literature as nice and good, but most of my literary energy was rather unfocused. Now, however, I know my focus. Of course I won't spend a whole lot of time on it during my mission, since that's not the main point of my calling, but I do think I can magnify that call through the written word, somehow. Oh, yesterday I read a really good article in one of the 1980 Ensigns, entitled "Patience," by Elder Neal A. Maxwell.

I've learned that the hymns are my favorite music, really. I can't understand how it's taken me this long to realize it, but in the last few weeks I've really recognized the Spirit that comes with the hymns, and I've seen how other music often doesn't have that same Spirit. The hymns of Zion *fill* me. That's why I love them, and so I rather liked the article on hymns in the last issue of the Ensign. We have a visitor from Singapore: Sister Waewchimplee, aka Sister Waew (Wow), is a Thai missionary from Korat who's been serving in Singapore/Malaysia for the past year or so. The government wouldn't let her back into Singapore when she was extending her visa, so she has to stay here in Thailand till Tuesday. On Tuesday we went to send bikes and found that the RSP (transport authority) at Rama IV had been shut down on Monday. :) We now have to go to the big RSP at Sri Ayutthaya Road.

Well, that's about it for today. I only have one more month in the office. It's interesting to look back over the past five months and see how things have changed (at the beginning I had a lot of fears, all of which have completely disappeared). The more we know God, the more our fear will fade away. Doubt not, fear not -- and how do we do that? Perfect love casteth out all fear. Even petty social fears that I had when I was a teenager (the awkwardness of being a nerd ;)) have faded away as I've learned to think about others more than myself, following the pattern of the Master. It really is freedom, the best, deepest, richest kind of freedom I've ever tasted. I can't imagine ever going back to my old ways -- unthinkable. I'm too happy living the gospel and trying my hardest to be like Christ. Well, I hope you're all doing well and progressing spiritually. Don't sit still on a spiritual plateau and wait for the escalator to start moving, but start trekking up the stairs. Examine yourself and see what the next step of your own personal progression is, and then promise to the Lord that you'll take that step. Oftentimes you'll need to be humbled first -- I've seen that in my own life, that I can't progress until I humble myself. Every single time it's like that. I can feel when my heart is stubborn and hard, and once I break it open, *then* does the light begin to shine again and I can feel God's smiling face beaming down upon me. This humility is a hard thing to keep, but without it there's no way to become like God.

This week I've been persistently impressed with just how little time I have left in the office, and also how little time I have left in my mission. It's awful in a way, knowing that one's exit date (or as we call it, death) is imminent. Sure, life afterwards will be great and filled with many wonderful things, but I love being a missionary so much. It's hard to explain. I finally understand what it means to be a missionary and whoosh! it's already time to go home. Yes, there's post-mission life, but aw, I'm going to miss these two years. Anyway, this realization of how quickly my mission will be over has pushed me on to work as hard as I can in these precious few months I have to savor.

At choir rehearsal on Wednesday, President announced that the choir will be performing at the dedication of the new Chiang Mai chapel. We'll go up the night of the 18th by train and return the night of the 21st. There'll be some open houses on that Friday and Saturday and we'll help with those (both in singing and in preparation), and on Sunday we'll be there for district conference. The best part (at least for me :)) is that all of the members in P-lok will be going to the conference and so I'll finally get to see them again. I'm really, really, really excited for that. :) President really wants the choir to work extra hard these next few weeks to make up for those days when we won't be here. We're also performing in Asoke on the 13th. Next moves (in April) the choir will record some hymns in Thai on CD to distribute to new members and investigators to help them feel the Spirit.

That's it for now. Have a great day! :)

Ah, it's been an interesting week. For the first time in my mission, I started to get trunky. At first I didn't realize that's what it was -- me, trunky?!? That's something that happens to other people, not me. I assumed it would just go away and so I didn't really think much of it, but rather indulged in those thoughts of the future. I didn't realize how dangerous that is. It's not that thoughts of home and school are evil -- of course not -- but as I continued to think about it, I started feeling less and less like a missionary. It's like the mantle was slowly disappearing. I didn't quite feel the need to work hard here in the office and even out proselyting. At the time I didn't realize what was happening to me, which is the scary thing. Then, as usually happens, the Lord clunked me on the head (so to speak). The enlightenment happened this morning while I was reading the Book of Mormon. I started reading, and then a verse came to mind, the same verse which I'd given my district last night to read (Helaman 5:40-43). As I thought about it, I realized that that very verse was what the Lord was trying to get through to me: that a cloud of darkness had wrapped itself around me and that I needed to repent and call on the name of the Lord if I wanted to be saved. I received a letter from a friend today that put into words what I had felt, namely that Satan is trying to slow us down as we're nearing the ends of our mission, trying to disable us as best he can. Now, I haven't really thought much about that lately, and as a result I was off-guard. But now I know better. I had to humble myself this morning, kneading my heart until it was soft enough that the Lord could work through me again. Once I'd done that, oh wow did it feel good. :) I've found that if I can keep praying sincerely and reading the scriptures deeply, I have the motivation to be a missionary. As soon as my prayers crust over and become superficial, or as soon as my scripture study becomes skim-surfing across the pages while I daydream away, that is when I forget who I am and why I'm here. It's like seeing the Nephite pride cycle within myself in miniature, over and over and over again. The key is so simple: watch and pray always, and be immersed in the scriptures. I can tell when I'm beginning to slip spiritually, because my scripture reading will become less interesting and sometimes even boring. It's a good self-checkup.

Anyway, there are my thoughts for the week. :) Ever since the shipment of Chinese Book of Mormons came in last week, I've been dabbling a little bit here and there in Chinese, trying to pick apart the language by comparing it with the English Book of Mormon. Fascinating study, but I've only been able to spend five minutes a day on it. A few days ago the Japanese Book of Mormons came in and Elder Walker had studied Japanese in high school, so he taught me some of the rudiments of the script (katakana). Before my mission I had absolutely no interest in studying Asian languages, but alas, I fear the Asia bug has got me. :) I do realize I'm still on a mission and that I was called to speak Thai, of course, which is why I'm not studying Chinese or Japanese seriously. I just do it to keep my language study interest alive. :) Speaking of which, I read the Proclamation on the Family in French yesterday and amazingly I understood almost all of it, even though I haven't read or spoke French in two or three years (and even then I'd only studied it for three months on and off). Lately I've entertained thoughts of trying to work for the Translation Department on the Book of Mormon in various languages. We'll see where the Spirit leads me when that time comes. I finally finished the Pearl of Great Price in Thai. Yesterday morning the assistants announced that there will no longer be any language certification (memorizing discussions, etc.), which is from the area presidency. So we now get to develop a new language study program to replace certification. We're also revising the mission handbook (the red book). Lots going on. Leenont got the priesthood on Sunday and Jiab was finally confirmed. It's weird -- I only have two more Sundays in Pakkret (my last Sunday I'll be in Chiang Mai).

That's all for today. Have a great day! :) (And if you're going to write any letters, start doing it before I come home. ;))

Well, another week goes by. :) Everything's quite busy now and will continue to be so until after moves. I've been preparing a bunch of posters and other materials for the Chiang Mai open house and dedication, finishing a new pamphlet on Heavenly Father and prayer, preparing the Book of Remembrance for printing and distribution, and running all the usual routine office tasks. Yesterday I interviewed Mack (the sisters' investigator) for baptism. She's really good but will need a little more time to prepare. Yesterday the six Thai missionaries came back from their temple trip to Hong Kong (they left on Tuesday). This evening we're putting on a music fireside in Asoke. Oh, I talked with President Hansen a couple of days ago -- my return date is set for August 20. A few others in my group will go home then, with one or two leaving on July 30 and the rest on September 10. I can't believe the end is so close... I really really really don't want it to end, but there's nothing I can do about it. Well, I'm really tired and the words just aren't coming, so this week's entry will be rather boring but I'll try to make up for it next week. :) Keep up the good work!

I now know where I'm moving (a lovely town out in the Isaan) and everything else about moves, but I have to keep it hush-hush until next week. So, I'm almost out of the office! I've loved my time here but I'm quite glad to get back to normal proselyting. This'll be the last five months of my mission, probably in the same area. President has a special assignment for me there, but mention of that will have to wait till later. :) Anyway, this past week has been rather crazy. On Thursday we left for Chiang Mai (20 choir members). Most of the choir spent Friday out handing out pamphlets advertising the fireside, but we helped the branch members get the open house ready. Got to pick up Elder Ho at the airport with Sister Nattamon (district Relief Society president) and the Thornells and a few others, and then we all went to the county commissioner's office, where Elder Ho presented some Church materials to the commissioner and then they all had a little talk for 20 minutes about the Church and Chiang Mai. Pretty neat. :) We didn't do anything except sit there, but it was still fun. The choir sang for about four hours Friday night, two and a half Saturday morning, and another hour or so Saturday night. Did two firesides and lots of background music. The best part was that all my P-lok people arrived on Saturday -- Tom, A, Ann, Muy, Por, Kaew, Kwang, Loogkit (Ao couldn't come because of school), Aab, Somkhuan, Renuu, Lee, etc. Ah, it was sooooo good to see them all! We saw them off at the train station Sunday afternoon while waiting for our train to leave. I hopped on their train for a moment to take a picture before they left, and oh I wanted so bad to be able to just stay there and go back to Phitsanulok with them all. It was a wonderful daydream, but of course I couldn't do that, so I got off the train and waved a goodbye to my Phitsanulok family. :) Someday I'll go back, for sure. I'm certain I'll love the people in my new area, too, so that makes it better. We got back this morning at 5:30. Right now we're getting everything ready for moves and will continue to do so almost nonstop till Thursday. Life is indeed wunwaay as we say it in Thai, but it's okay because I know that I'll be out proselyting in just a few more days. Well, I don't have much more time, so this'll have to be it for now.