"Phra That Na Dun" from a Buddhist park located in Na Dun district of Maha Sarakham Province
Last week in the moves! Crazy that moves is next Tuesday. Every 6 weeks "moves" happens. That is when the mission president receives revelation on who is going where, with who, and doing what. I'll know in 5 more days if anything is changing for me. I suspect that my district will remain the same, but time will tell!
Today was sports day. The last preperation day in the moves the zone gets together and plays sports. We all met at the church here in Mahasarakham. It was nice not having to go travel anywhere for the activity. We played soccer and ping-pong for a couple of hours and ate together. It was fun. It was nice to get some excercise aside from biking.
On a side note, we do have a ping-pong table in our apartment. Not quite sure where it came from, but whoever was the Elder that bought it, we appreciate it! Not only because we can play ping-pong on it every morning for our 30 minutes of "exercise," but we can also use it as a dinner table! It just so happens that our ping-pong table is the only piece of furniture in the whole house. Joy!
I hope I don't move out of Sarakham this moves. Just thinking that I could be somewhere different in 7 more days is very scary. There is a lot that I still want to do here. I still haven't taken hardly any pictures of this place. I have a feeling that I will be here for 3 more moves though. That is around 4+ more months. Time will tell.
This week has been incredible in terms of people to teach. So far this week (today is Wednesday) we've taught 8 lessons with a member. Lessons with a member is probably the most telling indicator. Lessons without a member are very difficult. Investigators hardly ever understand what we are teaching and are afraid to ask us questions because they feel we won't understand. I am grateful to have a branch that has lots of willing people to help us teach.
Today we were teaching a guy named Dang (means red in Thai), he lives very far outside the city (about 50 kilos), so he has a very hard time understanding our Thai. We would say something to him, he would look very very confused, then Brother Rung would say the exact same thing and he would understand. Thais understand Thais. Silly white people.
On a side note, I have started to enjoy rotten-fish sauce. Pretty much every good dish here in the Esan has rotten-fish sauce in it. It actually has a pretty good flavor. I still can't really eat the fish here... but fish sauce and fish eggs are pretty good.
I've been lucky to have had some time play the piano quite a bit since I have been here. I play the piano every week at church for sacrament meeting, priesthood meeting, and the new investigators class. I even get to practice quite a bit. Whenever Elder Nance and I go to the church to mass-call people (happens once or twice a week) I ususally just play the piano. I'm really happy that I stuck with piano long enough that I can sight-read hymns. The Mahasarakham branch hasn't had a pianist for a couple of years. Many of the members in the branch have never heard hymns sung with a piano until I came.
I have also been using some of my extra time at night and on preperation days to learn the Ukalele. One of the other Elders in my district, Elder Cline, has a Ukalele. I am getting pretty good. I know enough chords that I can play most hymns and primary songs with a little practice. I ordered a Ukalele from Roi-ett, it should arrive in a week or two.
That's all I got for the week. Juhgan next week.
Love,
Elder Brown
No comments:
Post a Comment