Christmas in Thailand

Hi Family First off Happy Birthday Jon! Hope you had a great day! Things here are great! This week was a little crazy though because we had a big stake party thing here in Bangkok. It was 2 nights and we were performing in it as well. And oh my Heavens I have never seen a Christmas party like this before! Thailand knows how to throw a party! haha So they had like a million booths outside, with postcard making, reindeer hands, and like a million other things. Then they had a bunch of food, and then there was a big stage outside, with a band, and then that's where we performed our song. Our Zone sang/acted the song "I'll Find you My Friend" not sure if you've ever heard it, I hadn't until i got here, but it's weird in English, it sounds much better in Thai! haha So yeah we performed that, and then another Zone had this like full on production inside the church! I can't even describe to you how good it was! They hired actors to do this play and then had a choir and then like those Bible Video things going along with the musical... i don't even know how to explain it! haha But they seriously just go all out here! It's crazy! That's one thing i love about here, it is such a missionary country! Everything here was geared towards helping our investigators and such! They had like a huge banner advertising it outside the church and like flyers up everywhere. It is like a full on production! But everything was so fun! There really is nothing like it anywhere else... and all i have to say, is america needs to step up their game with throwing christmas parties! ha! At the party i also got to meet one of my investigators from Ubon's older sister who is a member, so that was way awesome! And another member from Ubon was there too! It was nice to see them! But overall the 2 nights were just so good! And on the second night our mission president was there and then he surprised us and had us all come out after the party and we lit off the "tangled" lanterns with all the missionaries! It was soo cool! But then right as we all had lit them, someone came out and yelled at us and we got in trouble, b/c i guess we aren't suppose to light them off where we did b/c it's close to an airport. WHOOPS! But by that point we couldn't do anything about it! haha Oh yeah and we had Zone Conference this week which was so goooooooddd!!! We started off and our mission president took us all bowling and we did some fun little competions and such so that was awesome! Then we went and had the actually "training" portion of it and talked about how to find new investigators and what were some good ways to do that, so that was fun! And we applied one of them, as we were on our way to go out to dinner we were on the subway, and we decided to sing carols for the whole subway w/ about 26 missionaries! hahaha! It was soooo fun! We got some great reactions it was awsome! And even our mission president was singing with us! But then we went out to the most AMAZING dinner ever! it was this suuuppperrr high-so hotel and we had an amazing buffet! Oh my goodness it was excellent! And it was so fun to spend time with our mission president and his wife! Ah it was just a great day! Also this week in regards to investigators, one of ours, Pat, has a goal to be baptized next month! She is so cute! She has been working really hard to figure out her work situation b/c she works on sundays right now, but she made a decision and found a new job! YAY! So we are just waiting for her contract to end at her old job and then she will be able to get baptized! She is so cute and just so excited to get baptized. Anyways this week has been a little crazy with Christmas stuff and also my companion is going home this week too so she's been a little stressed out, and I'm moving again tomorrow so ya crazy week, but a wonderful one! And I will get to skype with you all next week! AHH!!! So I think we will probably skype at about 9 am. here on tuesday which will be 7:00 pm. on monday for you, so i guess just plan on that for now... I don't have all the details at this point b/c i don't know where or who i will be with but ya i guess just plan on leaving monday night open and being home! i will probably just use my skype account which is just jenitri so you can figure that out and figure out who's you want to use. But plan on that! Love you all can't wait to talk to you next week!!!! AHH!! Love, Sister Itri