THAILAND

AHHH!!! I finally made it!!!! It was the LONGEST 3 days of travel EVER and basically just skipped tuesday all together b/c of the time change, but I made it!!! WOOO!!! So let's see, i will give a brief summary and then explain: So I have been sent to what is called the "furnace" (and rightly so), I had to take an extra 8 hour train ride after about 24 hours on a plane, I don't understand a single thing that has been said, I have been chased by a dog, the pedal on my bike fell off the first day, there are little critters everywhere, we got lost in town for a while and had no clue where to go and i have gotten poured on by rain while riding my bike..... and i have LOVED every second of it!!! It has been probably the hardest week of my life so far but it has also been very humbling and exciting! "The furnace" is Pitsunolok (i have no clue how to actually spell it) but it is in the center of Thailand if i have been told correctly... i don't have a map so i have no clue! haha but it is HOTTTTT!!! but it is fun! Me and my trainer (Sister Maxwell, from Arizona) have just opened the area for sisters and it has been closed for sisters for about 20 years! So it's pretty exciting, I think they are preparing for some big changes here b/c we now have 2 elders, 2 sisters and and senior couple!! So i am predicting some BIG changes here soon.... they told us that this is the only area that has been open for over 40 years and still doesn't have an actually church building (we just have rented space) so that a big goal for us. And the reason they don't have a church building is b/c i can count the number of priesthood members on my hand! They just have a ton of sister but no priesthood, and they need to have at least 15 priesthood holders to be eligible to get a building, so that's our goal! But the Branch is very nice. It's funny b/c they don't really know what to do with sister missionaries here b/c they haven't had them in so long. The Branch president had to ask what we do and stuff, so that was kind of funny, they are shocked that we do the same stuff as the elders and that we have to ride bikes and such, he was asking if we just like hang out at the church building all day and wait for people to come.. so kind of funny, but it has been great! We got to see 2 baptisms already!!! YAY! One was an 8 year old boy and the other was an older woman who seems just great! Even though i can't understand her, she just seems so interested and engaged all the time so that's awesome!! We also have 2 more baptisms this next week!! Another 8 year old and then a girl about my age, so it's super exciting!!! As for new investigators we already have 5!! so it's super exciting, for just getting here and not knowing where anything is or who anyone is so it's starting off great! 2 of them are some older women w/ kids and they met the elders at english class and then 2 teenage girls also that met at english class.. they are going to be a little tricky b/c apparently both of their parents are against Christianity, so hopefully we will still be able to teach them!! if not then hopefully in a few years they will still be interested. One of them seems sooo excited about it but it's her parents that are extremely against it. Her name is Meow. She is soo cute!! and she even helped us jag (pass out) some flyers for english class! So we'll see! and then our other investigator, Pat just lives across the street from us, she is 24 and has studied a little about Christianity and seems pretty receptive! YAY!! so now we just need to work on finding some priesthood members so that we can really get the church booming here!! Also another bit of fun news, i ran into my MTC teacher, Brother Chiu! He is here on vacation and came to visit the members b/c he served in this area as well, so that was kind of fun to see a familiar face! Ok so now i am going to back track a bit.. the first day! So we got to do a "Dan Jones" experience, so basically i had to go out and talk to people and place a Book of Mormon! SO intimidating, but it was actually kind of fun! It's so funny b/c i pretty much have to repeat myself at least 2 times for people to comprehend that I am speaking Thai to them... they kind of just look at me and laugh the first time i say something, and my trainer says that is absolutely normal! They are just astounded that we would learn the language, and basically think we are a bunch of silly "farangs" (white people). But after they get over the initial shock they tend to open up a little more, so that's good! But ya i was actually able to give out 2 Books of Mormon, not bad for a first day right? But don't worry I got humbled later this week! haha But ya then after that activity we went back to President Smiths for dinner and such, and we got to meet the other ELEVEN natives coming into the mission with us! So that was fun, then i got the best sleep ever! haha Day 2 is a blurr! we found out our trainers and where we are going and then we got to do some waiting for our train that didn't leave until later that night. But I did get to explore some of Bangkok so that was fun! We went to the mall there and it was HUUUGGGEE!! it has like 10 stories and ya it's just huge, i'm sure Terry knows what I am talking about. But that was fun, we went to this little paper shop and it is soo funny to see their translations to english, don't worry i will be sending some stuff home for you to see! Well, that's about it in a very unclear, unorganized manner that's my week! I hope everything is going well with everyone at home! (just an fyi it takes about 3 weeks for letters each way) But ya I'm doing great and super excited to get some work going! Love you all! Love, Sister Itri