Don't Die, Elder Phasay - 3/23/19

Visiting Brother Khamwad

Some fun food we had this week

Hey Everyone!

This week was interesting. Elder Phasay was sick for a lot of this week with the flu. We forgot to schedule and get flu shots this year, so oops. But hey, he's doing better now. I had to drag him to the hospital a few times for a bunch of tests and stuff, so that was neat. 

On Tuesday, one of the investigators in Branch 1 passed away, so that was pretty sad :(. He was learning with his wife and two daughters, and they loved what they were taught. The family seems to be doing okay, but it's always hard to lose someone, so please send prayers for them. 

Most of this week was either nursing Elder Phasay back to health or teaching English, so not too much crazy stuff happened. 

We got two new senior missionaries here though! They will be replacing the Hamsteads when they go home to Australia in two weeks. They are the Kowalises. They are from Utah, and they seem like great people.

That's pretty much been this week! This upcoming week is zone conference, so we will probably have another Friday pday this week. 

Thanks for all your love and support!!!
<3

Elder Ridd

The Smog - 3/16/19

Lunch with some missionaries and members in Udorn

A Lao member wanted to take a selfie with me

The smog from one of the tallest buildings in Laos
(this was on the least smoggy day this week) 

Hey everybody!

I hope you've all had some solid experiences this week! 

Last week on Sunday was District Conference in Udorn, Thailand. It was pretty good. We got to see a lot of our friends serving there and met some of Elder Jorgensen's recent converts from one of his old areas in the district. 

This week has mostly been dominated by English teaching and member visits as usual. The thing that stood out the most was probably the fact that we have had a lovely, thick smog of pollution surrounding Vientiane for the past week. We can normally see across the Mekhong River into Thailand from our apartment, but this week we couldn't even see the coast of Thailand. I've also had a pretty nasty cold the past week, so the smog may have contributed some to that. 

We're trying to prepare a member's mother and little brother for baptism pretty soon, so that's also really exciting. They're awesome and have great faith. 

That's pretty been my life this past week. Nothing too crazy, but I guess that's good in a way.

I love and miss you all! Thanks for all of your support!

<3

Elder Ridd

Oh boy, District Conference - 3/9/19

Heyyy everybody. 

This week has been pretty good. Two of the people we are teaching really want to be baptized as soon as possible, so that's pretty neat. On Monday I found out that my Grandpa Leon passed away. That was way sad, but he hasn't been in the best shape lately, so I'm sure he's doing much better now and is happily reunited with his wife and many of his siblings. 

While we were eating lunch on the same day, we got a message saying that one of the older members over here had passed away, so we rushed over to the members house and met with the family - as well as a bunch of members over there. On Wednesday we had a funeral for that member. They did a traditional Buddhist style cremation at a Wat here. It was interesting as usual.

Yesterday we hopped on a bus and rode down to Udorn for District Conference. There will be an adult session tonight and tomorrow will be the rest of the meetings. That should be pretty cool. 

That's pretty much everything that went down this week besides some extra member visits and English teaching. 

I hope you have all had good weeks! I love and care about you all. 

You guys are awesome. 

Love and miss ya!

Comrade Ridd