Fear and Festivals - 10/27/18

Lights

Flower boat things

Tons of people at the festival

Guess which one I am?

Hey guys!

It's been another good week out in the People's Democratic Republic of Laos. We did some fun stuff this week, but there were a lot of cancelled appointments as well.

This week definitely started off well. Last Saturday night we went to go help at a haunted house put on by one of the members over here. We had a bunch of students from a special English program come, as well as a bunch of YSA peeps. Apparently my room was one of the scariest ones. I think the success might be due to the extremely creepy mask I found at a random Lao market. The whole night was a big success though, and we were able to scare the heck out of a ton of Lao children/young adults. Good stuff. 

On Wednesday there was a big festival to celebrate the end of Buddhist Lent, where Buddhists were supposed to go without smoking and drinking for a period of 3 months. HAHAHAHAHA ~ jk, they don't actually do that part. But for the festival everybody will cancel everything they have planned, go to the Mekhong River (conveniently right outside of our apartment), and proceed to get devastatingly drunk while lighting these little banana leaf boats to increase their boon (merit). It was a good day. Thankfully the members only follow through with the cancelling appointments and going to the Mekhong to look at the lights. It was pretty cool to see.

On the day immediately following that festival, they have the annual Boat Racing Festival. It consists of a lot of the same stuff, except no lighting all of the lights. Instead they go and watch these boats full of Lao people race each other. Also during these two days, half the city closes down and a massive market appears that takes up about 3 massive streets. The day after the festivals, the entire market is disappears - which is pretty impressive - and all that is left over is a bunch of trash.

On the other hand, Lanoy is still set to be baptized next week, so that'll be a pretty good birthday present. 

So that's pretty much been the past week haha. It was pretty cool though! I hope that all of you have had good weeks! I love and miss all of you!

<3

ເອວເດີ ຣິດ 

Elder Ridd

A Mooving Experience - 10/20/18

Cow eating me

Cow getting accustomed to human flesh

More cow vs. human violence

The field

Sad/tired cow

What's up guyz?

This week was quite an interesting week. Let's seeeeee, the majority of it was English, English, and English. We finished all of our midterms and graded most of them. The students either did really well or they were, uh, very not well. It was kinda predictable to see who would do well and who wouldn't, though. Pretty much if you showed up, listened, and participated daily then you would do great. Everybody else, not so much. So that was fun.

La is still doing great and should be able to be baptized on my birthday. Her friend is progressing pretty well, so she will probably be baptized pretty soon.

Tonight we have a Halloween Party that we are helping at. We will be scaring children in a "Haunted Maze" kinda thing. It should be a riot of a time. 

The big experience this week happened yesterday. It all started with the decision to go and visit some members up north. One of the old Lao elders who served here about 2-3 years ago is here teaching English for a charity owned by a member here, and he wanted to go with us and say ສະບາຍດີ to some of the members up there. It was a good time. We all talked a lot in the two hour ride up to the north, and then we met with the members there. One of the members always begs to let him cut our hair, so we take him up on the opportunity ‘cause free haircuts are always accepted.

As we were eating lunch with some members up there, one member ran into the room really panicked. We were like, "What's up bruh?" and she was like, "One of our cows straight-up collapsed in our rice field and now he's stuck way out there." This conversation was of course in Lao though. We offered our assistance and then we went out to the middle of this member’s rice field. When we got there, we had to wait for this strange cow transport vehicle that everybody out here has. 

As we were waiting, I decided to hang out with some of the other cows there. Those cows are wild, man. They are obsessed with human flesh. This one cow would not leave me alone. He kept licking my entire body and trying to bite me. This cow had no teeth, so instead of biting me it would do this fun kinda slimy suck thing on my arm and hand. It was neat. By the way, cow tongue feels like sandpaper lol.

After about 30 minutes of steak taking its revenge on me, the vehicle arrived and we made our way through the mud to the stuck cow. The cow had collapsed - apparently from exhaustion. We had to find a way to transport this cow to the vehicle because the vehicle couldn't make it out into the super muddy rice field. The members then tied up the cow’s legs and shoved a stick between its tied hooves so we could have some hand holds. We all got around the cow tried to lift it. After realizing this cow was probably around 650 Kilos, we decided that this was maybe not gonna work. So instead they decided to do the one thing that makes sense. Just drag it through the mud instead of lifting it. So instead of humanely lifting this cow, we were now tasked with dragging it through a muddy rice field while it's tied to this stick. Yeah, okay.

There were a few time when we had to pause to lift it over some not so conveniently-placed ledges, so I was in charge of grappling with the cow itself to half squat, half dead-lift the cow while a few others pulled on the stick. Great time. 

We then had to accomplish the feat of lifting this bad boy onto the truck thing. Also fun. I assumed the usual position and we did it. After that, we had to push the truck up a large hill because it wouldn't make it on its own. It was like a strange, communist version of trek with more cows and less people. Funfunfun.

SO yeah, that was the big experience this week. Wild, right? I'm not too sure what the members would've done if we hadn't gone up there yesterday, but I'm guessing the process wouldn't have been nearly as efficient. 

Ladies and gentlemen, that is ministering. Please go out and do the same.

Well yeah, that's pretty much this week. I hope you all had some fun times as well. I miss and love all of you!

Shout out to my boi, Brett, who turned 20 this week. Nice man. 

<3

Elder/Teacher/Comrade/Cow Wrestler Hayden Ridd

Getting into the Halloween spirit at the hospital we teach

Teacher's Day - 10/13/18

Getting a present from some English students for Teacher's Day

 Crossing the Mekhong River between Laos and Thailand

Eating lunch with Elder Eckersley's cousin

Korean food from some students

Random foxes in a mall in Thailand

Hey everybody! This week has been pretty good! Elder Jorgensen and Elder Eckersley have been pretty sick for most of it, but they're doing better now, so that's good.

This past Sunday was the usual. We had church and taught a bunch of people. La brought a friend to come learn and she is really good too. Then on Monday, we had no English teaching because it was Lao Teacher's Day. That was kinda nice. I spent all day making the midterms though.

We gave the midterms already, so now we just have to grade them all. In honor of Teacher's Day, one of my classes gave me some lovely tank top shirts. How sweet of them lol.

On Thursday afternoon, Elder Phasay and I went down to Thailand for Zone Conference. The trip from Laos to Thailand is always interesting, but Elder Phasay and I have done it so many times that it is pretty much muscle memory now. My passport is so full of stamps that I need to get a new passport from the embassy, because I've run out of room for stamps.  

At zone conference we talked about the creation and goals. We talked about God's goal “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” In order for Him to accomplish this goal, He had to plan extensively and focus on the goal. It's the same thing we should do with all of our plans and goals in this life. We should plan and be focused in the goals we create. Even though we cannot control all of the variables and factors such as people's agency, we should do the best in the areas that we do have control over, to bring about the goals and vision we have. 

We still haven't watched General Conference over here, but we are planning on doing it tomorrow! Let me know what your favorite parts are!

Well, that's it for this week. Thanks for all the love and support, everybody! Have a dank week ❤️.

Love and miss you all!

ເອວເດີ ຣິດ, ອາຈານ​ ເຮດັນ