March 11, 2012

Hello family!
I wish I could think of a more interesting way to start my e-mails, but for now, I got nothin! I SO love hearing how all of you are doing! It makes my week! Mama, it sounds like you are so busy! I am glad your new job is taking care of you! I just hope you don't get burned out! Yay! Soccer season! I love soccer season! I am excited to watch all of you play when I come home! As for Jared and the military, I used to hate the idea, but I'm pretty sure every Elder in the Thailand mission are in or want to be in the military and listening to them, my perspective has changed a bit. It really would be good for him...BUT it is NO EXCUSE TO NOT SERVE A MISSION!!!!!! There is nothing in the world that could ever replace or make up for dedicating that time in your life to serving the Lord. It is an opportunity that no young man should EVER EVER pass up! And I think that girls should all go to...unless God tells them otherwise! : ) Ok, that is my soapbox for the day. Interesting fact about Thailand, all young men when they turn 18 are required by law to serve in the Thai military for at least two years. So all of the Thai Elders in the mission are older, because of that. Wow! That is super crazy that Kristin and Nate had another baby! How fun! Grandma Pancheri wrote me a letter (so sweet) and told me about how they were going to induce Kristin on March 9th and, phaa dee, I got the letter on March 9th! Too funny! How is Austin's foot doing? I can think of another teenage boy who one accidently shot himself in the leg...maybe they could be friends! Hahaha! But, I am really glad Austin is ok. And I am way excited for Alyssa that she didn't get cut! Is she loving waitressing or not so much? It can be a really frustrating job somedays, but the cash in hand everyday is addicting!
Well, this week was absolutely nuts! On top of trying to get our investigators taught, and find new ones, and visit recent converts and less-active members, and teach english, and everything else we have to get done, we also got kicked out of our house...yeah. We have been trying to move and we had a new apartment all set up, but we werent' going to be able to move til the end of this month, cuz the crazy land lady wouldn't let us out of the contract until the end of the month. Well, I am not quite sure what happened, but we were teaching a lesson on Wednesday, and when we got out we had like 10 different missed calls and messages from the land lady and from the mission office saying that we were being kicked out and we had until 6pm to get our stuff out of the house. So we had to cancel a few appointments (so frustrating) and miss most of English in order to get moved out. Luckily, our new landlady at the apartment was totally willing to let us move in early, and we have AMAZING branch members! Seriously, within 30 minutes of all this we had half the branch at our house, packing up all of our stuff and loading it all into cars and trucks. We didn't even tell anyone what was going on exept the Elders, and I guess they told the Branch President who called all the members. It was the sweetest, cutest thing I have ever seen! These people are incredible. They are so willing to help, and they do it happily without being asked. So great! That was Wednesday, then Thursday, we got a call from the Elders asking us to go to the church to help translate for a man from California. So we went to the church and met this man. I guess he has a friend who's wife just kicked him out of her house because he is a crazy drunk, and is now detoxing.He needed us to help him find an apartment for this friend while he detoxes. He used to be married to an LDS women, and came to the church for help because he knew we would help him with no strings attatched. Well, turns out that this man is "Buddhist" and believes that in his previous life he was Japanese, and he came to Thailand and killed a bunch of Thai and Cambodian and Vietnamese people. So he came back to Thailand in this life to visit the place he killed them all at and ask their graves for forgiveness, and next year to make up for killing all those people in his past life, he is going to come back and teach the poor Thai people how to make Thai food so that they can feed themselves. Did I mention that this guy used to be addicted to just about every drug under the sun? He was quite a character! But he is a child of God too, and he came to church on Sunday, so maybe this is an opportunity for him to turn his life around? Also, Sister Tano got bit by a dog yesterday, and we spent like 30 minutes debating whether she needed rabies shots or not. She ended up not getting the shots, so hope she's ok. So, yeah, it was a crazy week, and time is flying! As of Thursday, I have exactly a year left before I come home...NUTS!!! How did we get to March already?
K, well, I love you all! Have a wonderful week, don't worry, be happy, Hakuna Matata, and all that kinda stuff! Love you tons!
Jess