Thailand, Zone Conference, and Double Baptism - 4/1/19

Zone Conference

Baptism 

Rocket Festival

Enchiladas (made by a Thai member)

Hey Everyone!

This week was pretty good! It got pretty busy towards the end, but it was fun. The start of the week was pretty usual, just a bunch of visits and English teaching. On Friday we went down to Udorn for zone conference on Friday night. President talked a lot about the Godhead and helping people understand who God is. 

On Saturday we had more training on teaching and helping investigators with their needs. Right after zone conference we took off with President to hop the border into Laos. We finally got there and immediately had to go to the church for a fireside that President planned on giving. It was pretty good. 

The next day we had two baptisms! It was the mother and brother of one of the YSA in the branch that we've been teaching for a while. It was awesome. The dad came and watched it as well, so hopefully he will continue coming. After that we went to the Rocket Festival celebration with the Branch President. It's pretty much an excuse for Lao people to get drunk and launch homemade rockets and explosives into the sky. Very entertaining. 

That's pretty much been my week! I hope that you have all been doing well!

Love and miss ya!

Elder Ridd

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