Dear Family and friends,
...Chiang rai, not to be mixed up with chiang mai, two different places, but I am as far North as you can get, and not be in Berma. From next door neighbors to Laos, to next door to Berma, life is fun. But dear goodness, the bus ride is the longest one you can take as a missionary. So I came from Nong kai, which is a 9 ish hour bus ride to chiang rai which is a 13ish hour bus ride. -_- and I shall tell you the story of getting here, because it is a tale to behold.
So I get my new companions. yeah fun, then we eat get ready to go, we have to wait because our bus doesn't leave until 7 we decide that we should go early just to make sure, and we have a lot of stuff, so we're going, and it's raining cats and dogs like the heavens have opened, so we are going really slowly, then we're both like, are we going to the right bus station? so we ask our bus driver, he's like yeah that guy told be to go here. ( because our Elders packed our stuff into the taxi and told him were to go) we're like okay sure, he knows what he's doing....... yeah so it ended up not being the right bus station, and so we missed our bus, but some how the elders were at the right one, and they were nice enough to wait for us, so then we needed to get to the right bus station, but finding a taxi driver that was willing to take us, and not charge us an arm and a leg.... was difficult and stretched all my Christ like charity I'm suppose to have as a missionary. Taxi drivers, they see a bike and they're like Oh not possible. >.< totally is and I know how to do it! grrr. but we finally found one with the aid of a really nice thai person. but then it turned out to be the wrong station. and this point it's like 9, and we bribe the taxi driver to take us to the right station, and he's fuming, for no apparent reason, and we're none of us happy. so we finally get there, and the elders are way nice and helpful, we get tickets for a bus, but it leaves the next day at 6, so we had to sleep at the bus station or couches. not the most comfortable thing, but we finally were going to get on the bus and they were like, actually we can't get all you luggage on the bus. we were livid. So we talked it out and our bikes came on the bus behind us, and it was all good and after that it was smooth sailing.
That was the adventure to get here. But I love it. So my new companion is sister Holmes, she is from Utah, she's 19 and she's younger in the mission than me by 1 transfer. I love her so much! she's super cute, and full of faith and I think we're going to see lots of miracles because she's just so faithful. Also our district leader is Elder sugihara, from my district in the MTC, I was a little worried, but he's a great district leader. And his companion is takeguchi, yes, they are both Japanese. actually half Japanese. and it's Elder Takeguchi's 3rd transfer. yea!
The members here are great, and the work here is exploding. chiang rai is a new sister area, I am the 5th sister to serve here.The branch president is awesome. He has everything under control, this is the first branch I've served in that the branch has felt at all comparable to a branch at home.
We had a baptism on Sunday, with more then a few hiccups, but as one of my companions taught me, if there are no problems with a baptism, Satan wasn't trying that hard to stop it. The biggest problem was a member that freaked out that our investigator wasn't wearing white underwear, and basically told her her baptism was invalid, and she wouldn't enter heaven... We WILL be having a chat with that member, or delegating that chat to the president, we still don't know what would be best. But our poor investigator was in tears, and Thai people don't cry. But we managed to calm her down, and make sure she knew everything was fine.
Oh so there are a ton of Christians here in the North! the hill tribes, the mountain people what ever you call them, they are all christian, and there are lots of people that know a little about it.
We are a branch, apparently before the rainy season, there were about 80 people coming to church, now there's about 50. -_- rain. We don't have a proper church, it's a rented building. I also shall try to learn the Norther dialect but I just put so much effort into iisaan T.T of well.
Culturalmoment: Mothers day, and Fathers day are the queen and kings birthday. Tomorrow is the queens birthday. Also after church we did this really odd thing were all the mothers sat in a row, and we got on our knees and wai-ed them ( the putting your hands to gather thing) each individually it was odd. I can't exactly explain it. I probably look really odd doing it though. Weird farang.
Spiritual moment: People do not determine your happiness, but when you have good people around you they can influence you in great way, and the opposite is true. I've learned that for sure on my missions, your companion is supper important to what kind of transfer you're going to have, luckily, I've had some great companions.
I love you all!
Sister barber
Picturs:
My new companion!
Elder Sugihara sleeping at the bus station
...Chiang rai, not to be mixed up with chiang mai, two different places, but I am as far North as you can get, and not be in Berma. From next door neighbors to Laos, to next door to Berma, life is fun. But dear goodness, the bus ride is the longest one you can take as a missionary. So I came from Nong kai, which is a 9 ish hour bus ride to chiang rai which is a 13ish hour bus ride. -_- and I shall tell you the story of getting here, because it is a tale to behold.
So I get my new companions. yeah fun, then we eat get ready to go, we have to wait because our bus doesn't leave until 7 we decide that we should go early just to make sure, and we have a lot of stuff, so we're going, and it's raining cats and dogs like the heavens have opened, so we are going really slowly, then we're both like, are we going to the right bus station? so we ask our bus driver, he's like yeah that guy told be to go here. ( because our Elders packed our stuff into the taxi and told him were to go) we're like okay sure, he knows what he's doing....... yeah so it ended up not being the right bus station, and so we missed our bus, but some how the elders were at the right one, and they were nice enough to wait for us, so then we needed to get to the right bus station, but finding a taxi driver that was willing to take us, and not charge us an arm and a leg.... was difficult and stretched all my Christ like charity I'm suppose to have as a missionary. Taxi drivers, they see a bike and they're like Oh not possible. >.< totally is and I know how to do it! grrr. but we finally found one with the aid of a really nice thai person. but then it turned out to be the wrong station. and this point it's like 9, and we bribe the taxi driver to take us to the right station, and he's fuming, for no apparent reason, and we're none of us happy. so we finally get there, and the elders are way nice and helpful, we get tickets for a bus, but it leaves the next day at 6, so we had to sleep at the bus station or couches. not the most comfortable thing, but we finally were going to get on the bus and they were like, actually we can't get all you luggage on the bus. we were livid. So we talked it out and our bikes came on the bus behind us, and it was all good and after that it was smooth sailing.
That was the adventure to get here. But I love it. So my new companion is sister Holmes, she is from Utah, she's 19 and she's younger in the mission than me by 1 transfer. I love her so much! she's super cute, and full of faith and I think we're going to see lots of miracles because she's just so faithful. Also our district leader is Elder sugihara, from my district in the MTC, I was a little worried, but he's a great district leader. And his companion is takeguchi, yes, they are both Japanese. actually half Japanese. and it's Elder Takeguchi's 3rd transfer. yea!
The members here are great, and the work here is exploding. chiang rai is a new sister area, I am the 5th sister to serve here.The branch president is awesome. He has everything under control, this is the first branch I've served in that the branch has felt at all comparable to a branch at home.
We had a baptism on Sunday, with more then a few hiccups, but as one of my companions taught me, if there are no problems with a baptism, Satan wasn't trying that hard to stop it. The biggest problem was a member that freaked out that our investigator wasn't wearing white underwear, and basically told her her baptism was invalid, and she wouldn't enter heaven... We WILL be having a chat with that member, or delegating that chat to the president, we still don't know what would be best. But our poor investigator was in tears, and Thai people don't cry. But we managed to calm her down, and make sure she knew everything was fine.
Oh so there are a ton of Christians here in the North! the hill tribes, the mountain people what ever you call them, they are all christian, and there are lots of people that know a little about it.
We are a branch, apparently before the rainy season, there were about 80 people coming to church, now there's about 50. -_- rain. We don't have a proper church, it's a rented building. I also shall try to learn the Norther dialect but I just put so much effort into iisaan T.T of well.
Culturalmoment: Mothers day, and Fathers day are the queen and kings birthday. Tomorrow is the queens birthday. Also after church we did this really odd thing were all the mothers sat in a row, and we got on our knees and wai-ed them ( the putting your hands to gather thing) each individually it was odd. I can't exactly explain it. I probably look really odd doing it though. Weird farang.
Spiritual moment: People do not determine your happiness, but when you have good people around you they can influence you in great way, and the opposite is true. I've learned that for sure on my missions, your companion is supper important to what kind of transfer you're going to have, luckily, I've had some great companions.
I love you all!
Sister barber
Picturs:
My new companion!
Elder Sugihara sleeping at the bus station