Blame it on the rain (yeah, yeah)

1. Sister Fon, one of the members here, has a little dog and she's 

the cutest thing. So there's me, the dog, and Sister Ladle!

2. Elder Burke and Elder Hunt, the Elders in our district. 

They're an hour away in Maha Sarakham but we get to see 

them every week and they're hilarious. We love them.

3. To help us out, our Elders came up to Kalasin to help us do some finding, 

and then we ate at this Vietnamese place afterwards. Selfies ensued.
#ElderHuntdoesntknowhowtosmile

4. Me and Sister Ladle with Nate, a 15-year-old member. She and I definitely don't 

sing/dance Kpop songs every time we're together...anyways, she's preparing to go 

on a mission and she helps us out in lessons all the time. She's the bomb diggity.

I've been here for a month now! In Thailand, there are three seasons: the "cold" season ("cold" means about 70F), the hot season, and the rainy season. Sometimes they all happen on the same day...but right now, we're in the height of the rainy season and it's just the greatest thing ever to see these big black clouds rolling in and then the temperature drops dramatically and it just starts dumping buckets. This week's biking challenge was biking through flooded streets. It wasn't really a challenge, actually, it was just really really fun to have an excuse to get wet. Thai people hate the rain so it puts a huge damper (haha...damper) on the work here since the whole town shuts down, but it just makes me the happiest person in Kalasin.

On Monday, we had FHE with one of our favorite members and her family (she has a 13-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son who was just baptized, and her husband who is not a member). It was the first time I've been here in Thailand that I've felt home, just sitting around eating and having a lesson and then playing games together and NOT watching the football match that was on when we walked in... ;)

We were talking to one of our investigators after a lesson, and he was talking about how because missionaries are "born" (start their missions) in certain cities, they are children of that city. So because I was born in Kalasin, I am a dinosaur child because Kalasin is known for its dinosaur statues and museum. So that's pretty cool.

On Thursday, it rained a lot. It started at 7am and didn't let up for about three and a half hours. Just dumped and dumped. It was great...until it started leaking into our house. Through the light switches. Hehe...that was fun. While moving furniture around to keep it from getting wet, we also found a bunch of black mold on the wall. Despite all this, nothing was damaged, and when it stopped raining everything went back to normal.

Most of the time, all we hear around here is random Thai music, but in some stores they play American music. So we were sitting in Kodak because we had to take a picture for my work permit and while we're waiting, The Final Countdown comes on. It was the greatest moment of maybe the whole week. We left the store just super pumped up.

The members here in Kalasin are just amazing. They're all converts, all from part-member families/the only members in their families, and their faith is incredible, but not nearly as incredible as their understanding of the scriptures. They get it. They know how to really read the scriptures and apply them. That's all church classes are here, just reading the scriptures/manuals/resources and then applying them, not talking about them and planning to use them and having menial conversations about the deeper doctrine that doesn't matter. They go in, get everything out that applies to them, and then they go to work and do it! I am so grateful for their example and their understanding of the scriptures.

This Sunday was also the first Sunday I actually understood a large part of what was going on, language-wise. Awesome. Normally that doesn't come for like...months. I feel really really blessed to be able to go to church every week and to be spiritually enriched, even though I couldn't understand everything that was going on.

Also, Saturdays we eat at KFC. Thank the heavens for American food! Even though it's not really American food...it's like...Thai version of American food. Oh well. The ice cream here is legit, at least. #dairyqueenfordays

Shoutout to all the people starting classes this week at BYU! Have a great semester!

--

Sister Zoller