We rode elephants again on our P-day, and this time we rode the elephants and took a dip in the disgusting pond. I was submerged to almost my neck in water at one point, and almost fell off the elephant that was almost completely submerged, and a large chunk of elephant poop floated literally two feet in front of me. Thank heavens it didn't hit me. Hours after, all of us were super exhausted.
We had two missionaries from another town come and join us for the day to supervise us. During language study one of the missionaries wanted to make me read in Thai. Every mistake I made, I had to do 5 pushups. It's a good idea.
Elder Cecil was talking to a woman on the street, and I was trying to follow what she was saying but I couldn't fully grasp what she was saying. I spaced out for a minute, and then she looked at me and said, "Beautiful?" I stood there and said, "Very Beautiful!!" in Thai. Later on I found out that she was talking about her 16-year-old daughter that she wanted me to marry. So I just called her daughter beautiful, and no I'm not going to marry her.
There's a member in our branch who is paralyzed from the legs down, and he can't make it to church. He lives alone and in very poor conditions, but he is a happy man. He uses this old, run down wheelchair. Elder and Sister Larson, Elder Cecil, and I went to his house one day, and drove him to a store to surprise him with a new wheelchair. His smile: Priceless.
Last Sunday we took a bus to Roi Et, and had a stake conference (where church congregations come together for a meeting). I got to play for the choir for a musical number, and it went alright.
While we were in Roi Et, I met a church member who served a mission in New York. Then I realized something: In the summer of 2015, a bunch of the guys in my church went to New York to visit some church sites, and when we were at one site, two sister missionaries were our tour guides, and one of them was from Thailand. This world is too small. Now this time I am the missionary and she is not. I told her that, and she thought about it for a minute, and she said she remembers our group that came.
On Monday, the missionaries in our area got together to have a Christmas party. We started off watching, "It's a Wonderful Life," had a white elephant gift exchange (I got a backscratcher and candy), and had a Christmas lunch. During lunch we did the mannequin challenge, so keep an eye out for that video on Facebook. At the end we had a Christmas devotional, and last minute I was asked to play 10 Christmas songs on the spot. Somehow I pulled all of those songs off, despite not practicing at all. It was a lot of fun, and we all had a good time. We drove home with the Larsons and stopped at a 7/11, and it was infested with bugs. Completely infested.
Fun week and a half. Fun adventures.
Tis the Season to give service,
"Service with a smile!"
-Po's father from Kung Fu Panda
Have a great week,
Elder Brinkerhoff
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