Spiders the size of Baseballs...

Hey Everyone!

Well another week down, which feels pretty good! Only like 3½ - 4 weeks left. I can't wait to get to Thailand! I'm having a hard time thinking of what to tell you all about because we are always, really doing the same thing, nothing much really changes. Last Thursday we did this BoM reading game which was pretty cool where we all came up with a question, wrote it on the board and then picked a chapter in the BoM to read as a class and as we were reading if you found the answer to someones question, you taught that person the answer, which was way cool and fun.

The next day was way cool, in class we had Brother Phan teach us, who is finally back from getting married. I volunteered to be our investigator for the class so Bro. Phan teaches me and I just make up a story and my name is Dasche ha-ha but it was such a fun, cool experience to role play. I loved it! It was hard to always understand what he was saying but I thought I did a pretty good job talking to him in Thai ha-ha. Then that night I also got my package from you guys which was amazing! Some awesome treats and the fuel band! The fuel band is honestly the greatest thing ever! It’s so comfy and just looks like a regular wristband, so no one will want to steal it but my roommates, because they think it’s awesome. 

On Saturday we had our usual TRC and we taught Jessica again and with a guy name Ethan this time they were way awesome and so nice and that lesson went really well. Then there was a little surprise for us. Some Khon Thai's... Native people that grew up in Thailand. They were from Udon so they speak Isan or something like that. We are learning traditional Thai which is what most people speak but their dialect was so hard to understand that we could hardly understand anything she was saying, her nickname was Cat, but her real name was way longer. She actually lives in Salt Lake and goes to the Thai ward that is in Murray which is pretty cool and her brother went to Murray High School. I'll definitely be visiting the Thai ward when I get back. That was sort of a hard day because it seemed like we couldn't speak any Thai ha-ha, but oh well, it will come!

Then later that night we had Bro. Booth teach us about some of the culture, which was cool; it was a good lesson. He taught us like gestures, how to bow and stuff because you don't shake hands, ever. He taught us some royal words and stuff apparently there is a royal dictionary of words that is as big as the regular Thai dictionary. Then he told us some stories, like apparently there are just these huge spiders about the size of baseballs that are everywhere and get into your apartment and they can jump like as high as your chest so you just have to swat them out of the air and burn them with electric flyswatters, he said which is the best way to kill them. You can't really step on them he said because they just jump, so that kind of gives me the Willy’s, but whatever. He also said that there are little geckos’ in your apartment which are way cool and you can just put them anywhere, behind your ear and they just hang out which is pretty cool. Listening to him tell stories got me so excited to go! He said electric flyswatters are must have though, so if they aren't in your apartment, just buy them when you get there, so I’ll be getting one of those.

Brother Booth above and Brother Olson below...and their artwork

So as for Sunday we had a zone meeting with the Branch Presidents and some changes are kind of being made in regards to companionships, like in our district the sisters companionships got switched up. Sister Jackson is now with Bentley and Norrell with Downs. Before it was Bentley and Norrell. Some Elders have been getting switched up too, but I'm not sure about ours, we may get switched or we may just go on an exchange for a few days up to the branch presidency. 

Monday we did service which was pretty crappy because I had to scrub brick walls for like an hour and my hands were like cramping up and hurting all day, who knows why we were doing that; kinda weird. Then we got new investigators again Rex and Jordan which is Elder Crump and Beatty. We have started teaching each other now as investigators which is pretty fun. Then I also got an awesome package from Andy Nielsen. Thanks Andy so many goodies! Been slowly munching on all the snacks. Take them to the devotional and stuff ha-ha.

Oh and a little quote from Brother Phan he said; "The easy path makes rivers and men alike, crooked." I thought that was pretty cool. Also yesterday was a pretty good day we got our breakfast of champions! Then we had a devotional at night and I got lucky enough to sit by Clay the whole time! I didn't bring a camera and as soon as he turned his on it died, so no picture of us sorry. But we talked a bunch about Russian and Thai. He said he's glad he's not learning Thai because it sounds way harder then Russian. I'm sure Russian isn't easy though either, but he said the alphabet and half the letters are like English but none of mine are ha-ha and plus my alphabet is twice the size! It was so funny though. Also, Richard G. Hinckley spoke to us, whose President Hinckley’s son which was way cool he was just like President Hinckley, way calm and had similar looks!

The Romanian and Italians all leave this Monday and they get a new shipment on next Wednesday so they have no leaders to greet them. Their Branch President asked ours if some of our leaders could help welcome them. So next Wednesday Elder Crump, Beatty, Smith, and I and the Sister Training Leaders will teach the new missionaries going to Italy and Romania about the MTC. That will be way fun I'm pretty excited to teach them all about this place, it’s pretty easy. Oh and also I will be teaching a piece of the lesson in Elder's Quorum on Sunday which will be fun! I get to teach in English ha-ha; that will be easy!

That's all for this week! Love you all! Oh and last thing I'm preparing everyone in my room for Thailand I'm making them all use the bathroom like Thai's so the “Asian Squat”, it’s so funny! I love it though, Nate knows how it is hoses are the greatest can't wait to use those there, since we can't here :(. Love you all!

Love, 

Elder Watkins