My last P day, I got to go to Bangkok and go bowling with Elder and Sister Larson, and a bunch of other missionaries. Loads of fun. 

     I got to do switch-offs with some of the missionaries in Bangkok. It rained. A lot. And we had to go see a church member in an apartment, and since the irrigation system in Bangkok is so awful, we had to take off our shoes, and wade through the water up to our ankles, to get to their apartment. I just hope I don't contract any disease. 

     Elder Fukino and I were walking past the Monkey Buddhist temple where most of the monkeys hang out, and where all the tourists go to when a tour bus pulled up, and a group of tourists came out. It was the most stereotypical group of tourists I have ever seen. All middle-aged, all had cameras, all of that. When the monkeys came out, all of them pulled out their cameras and took photos. 

     The four of us missionaries and some members ate at a Shabu Buffet together, and then Elder Tone (the Burmese missionary) said, "Man, I am getting fat! I need to go running!" Those words were music to my ears. Elder Tone usually sleeps during exercise time, and he never told me that he likes to go running. So now, we are running every morning. I'm happy that we get to do it, but now the problem is that my endurance is pretty much gone. 

     Elder Fukino and I were going to visit a church member, and she wasn't at her house. It was the middle of the afternoon, and very hot and humid out and we were sweating bullets. We decided to walk through some neighborhoods, and find people interested in hearing the gospel message. We turned into a random street, and ran into a man and started talking to him. He then told us that someone gave him some red colored Christian book a few years back. Books of Mormon (Is that grammatically correct?) are blue, so I thought it was another church that gave him a Christian book. Later he took us to his house, and he pulled out an old blue-colored Book of Mormon. He said that some missionaries gave him that book 10 years ago. He said that he enjoys reading some of the stories in that book, and would like to know more about the book.  Not a coincidence, a miracle. 

Shoutout to my good friend Preston Seymour to getting his mission call to Peru.

-Elder Brinkerhoff

Monkeys, Monkeys Everywhere

     

     Hello from the Monkey City. 

     Things are going well here, and I am all settled in Lopburi.

     Last Wednesday night, I packed up all my stuff and the next morning I met up with all the missionaries that were going to be transferred in Bangkok. I was looking for my new companion but then turns out he was still in Lopburi, and I would be going with Elder Tone (The Burmese missionary) to Lopburi, to meet our new companions. Then an older Thai couple with a truck came to Elder Tone and said that they were driving us to Lopburi (A few hours north of Bangkok). They treated us like we were family, despite us just meeting them. After going to Lopburi, these extremely nice church members took Elder Tone and I to lunch, then took us to our house to meet our new companions. I met Elder Tone's new companion, who is half Thai.  Looks like I am the only white guy in the house. Should be fun. 

     My new companion is Elder Fukino, he is Japanese-Hawaiian from Hawaii. Funny thing is, that we were in the same house together when I was in my greenie area (Surin), so I already know him. It's really fun to serve with him.

     I love being in a four-elder house. Because if you have a companion on the quiet side, you got two other fun missionaries to be around as well! And it's double the fun. 

     The members are awesome in Lopburi, along with the other areas that I have served in. They are a really tight-knit group, and they love us missionaries to death. I have eaten with them at least once each day ever since I have been here. One member asked if I could write my name in a little notebook she had, and she has written down the names of every missionary that has served here for the last few years. She had 50+ names in that little book. 

     People weren't kidding when they said this place was nicknamed the monkey city. In the "downtown" area, there's an ancient stone Buddhist temple, and

there are hundreds of monkeys roaming around it and surrounding areas. I see loads of tourists there, and all of them travel a few hours north, just to play with monkeys. These monkeys aren't the cute and cuddly kind. They steal a lot and are kind of crazy. If I get one scratch or bite from them, I have to get a series of rabies shots. 

     Elder Fukino and I were visiting a church member, and he was wearing a Fishers High School shirt. That high school is in Indianapolis, and it used to be a rival high school to Harrison when I was there. I've always been curious on how shirts like those wind up in Thailand. 

     I have been noticing some other patterns concerning the areas I am serving in. I am now the pianist for the church congregation. I have been using my piano abilities in all the areas I have been serving. I have noticed some common characteristics concerning the missionaries called to Thailand.  If you:

- Have studied Chinese or Japanese (I have)

- Had a parent serve a mission in Thailand (Thanks mom!)

- Have a parent that had served a mission in Asia

- Have one or more parent that is a Thai or Laos Native

- Have connections with Thailand, such as teach English or have lived in Thailand before

No joke, about half of the missionaries here in Thailand fall under at least one of those five categories.  

     Have a good week,

     Elder Brinkerhoff

​

Transferred

     Our Pday was moved to Wednesday since it's transfer week. 

     Last Pday, Elder Duke, Brother Love, and I went to a Chinese Market in Bangkok, to buy fabric and other fun stuff. Why am I buying fabric? Because Thailand has lots of really amazing fabric, and we give the fabric to people who make ties. We then trade them and sell them to each other. Now I have over 15 different types of fabric, from musical note fabric, to elephant fabric. There's one missionary who spent over 1000 American Dollars on fabric and labor for making ties, and he has over 200 ties. I won't go that crazy I promise.  Also, here there are places that can make you tailored suits for about 100 dollars for a brand new suit. I love how cheap stuff is in Thailand!

     Elder Duke and I were walking to a bus stop, and Elder Duke walked next to an older man and politely asked him if he would like to learn about Jesus Christ. He started YELLING at us. Like yelling a lot at us. Never got that before, and he yelled at us until we walked to the bus stop and walked onto a bus. It was kind of hard to take him seriously, since I was about

nine inches taller than him. I later asked Elder Duke what he was yelling about, and Elder Duke told me that he was yelling at him on how religion kills people, how religion supplies weapons and stuff like that.

     You never know what kind of stuff you will see when you walk through neighborhoods in Thailand, finding people to teach. I saw a mom and her three kids outside of her house, and I started talking to her, and asked her what she was doing. She said she was doing something with her kids, and after she said that I saw Elder Duke laughing. After I talked to her, Elder Duke told me she was about to hit and punish her kids. Whoops. Also, while wandering the neighborhoods I saw a cock fighting business with a ring included, a woman bathing outside her house (I am scarred for life), and at one point Elder Duke and I were surrounded by 16+ Barking dogs, 12 of which were free roaming dogs.

     I love reading stuff in English here in Thailand. Sometimes Thai people are really awful at translating and writing in English. I was looking at a Ukulele and read something on the side of the box. The stuff they said in English was so awful that I took a picture. I should invite that whole company to come to English class.

     After church each Sunday, the whole church congregation gets together to eat. One member brought a Spanish omelette. So now I can tell my friend Cannon Garner (serving a mission in Spain) that I have eaten Spanish food in Thailand. 

     While travelling to church, a very nice 81-year-old Thai woman was talking to me and couldn't stop telling me how handsome I was. Hopefully, girls about 61 years younger than me can say the same thing to me that when I go home from my mission. 

     I am getting transferred out of Samutprakan. I am going to Lopburi, a few hours north of Bangkok. I am starting to see a pattern in the areas I am serving in. Surin was known as elephant city, Samutprakan is known for the world's largest alligator farm, and now I am going to serve in Lopburi, which is the monkey city. Maybe my next area after that is Sakkon Nakkon, an area known for eating dogs (eating dog is illegal in Thailand). 

     My new companion will be Elder Fukino, he was in the same house as me when I was serving in Surin. Also, Elder Tun, a Burmese missionary who was in my district these past four months, is going to Lopburi with me as well (It's a four-elder area). I am going to miss Samutprakan. Made a lot of great friends, and even was honored to meet Brother Pronchai, one of the most inspirational people I have ever met. 

     Next Stop: Lopburi!

     Elder Brinkerhoff

​

Expert Trackers

     

     Man this week flew by, just like the last few weeks. 

     A church member took Elder Duke, Brother Love, and I to a floating market. I was really stoked at first,

but then when I got there it was a little disappointing. I heard was there were boats that sold cool stuff, but they cancelled the boats because people kept falling in the water. It was still pretty cool though, we fed some fish, goats, and ate lunch and watched a bunch of happy old people sing and dance on a small stage. I saw a woman selling a bunch of wooden frogs with a spiked spine and a stick in it's mouth. I have seen many people selling those, which I don't understand why they are popular. Then she demonstrated, and

my mind was blown. She pulled the stick out of the wooden frog's mouth, and stroked the stick on the spine. It sounded EXACTLY like a frog's chirp. I bought it immediately for a dollar. Thai people are so clever.

     I saw an anti-smoking billboard, and below I saw the website and it said stopforking.com. I didn't know forking was a problem in Thailand. Stop forking! This has been a public service announcement from the country of Thailand.

     We have a few church members that we have lost contact with. Their phones stopped working, and we have little information about them. So guess what? We spend some time tracking them down. We called one church member that never picks up her phone, and surprisingly she picked up her phone, and said she lived in a certain street. When we went to her street the next day, we called her and then she picked up, and then her phone died. So we had to find her the old fashioned way: asking people in that huge neighborhood. It was like finding a needle in a haystack, but miraculously we found her. We had something like that happen the next day as well.

     Flashback: One day I was waiting to cross a busy street, and was not paying attention at one point. Someone grabbed my arm and started escorting me across the street. I looked to my right and it was an old Thai lady who was about five feet tall, escorting me across the street.

     When I am inviting others to learn about Christ and/or English, some Thai people struggle and try to respond to me in English, despite me asking them in full and complete sentences in Thai. Some people say: "No... no... busy.... I... go...." in English. Almost every missionary in Thailand has also gotten the reply "I am Buddha!" in English as well.  Man there are a lot of Buddhas in Thailand.  

     Some people have asked me, so what to you do on missions? What you do do as a missionary?  Well, it actually depends on where the missionary is. Our main purpose is to find and teach the restored gospel to people, and to help them come unto Christ.

     Here are some of the responsibilities that I have to do when I am in Samutprakan:

1. Find people; teach them about the restored gospel

2. Teach English

3. Find inactive church members; help them any way we can.

4. Help and serve church members, and strengthen their faith.

That's just a few things that I do.  Missionary work isn't easy. It can get really hard at times. But it is worth it. Very worth it. I have seen many miracles happen in missionary work, and get to help many people as well. I have read my friend Cannon and Jonathan Degraw's emails in the last week, and they have shared some amazing, mind-blowing miracles they have seen in their work too. Also, as I read other missionaries' emails they shared many other miracles as well.

     Despite hardly running at all on my mission and losing my endurance, despite not getting to be on social media, despite learning a very hard language, despite struggling, despite missing my friends, family, and America, despite not listening to my favorite music and watching my favorite movies, it's all worth it. Serving a mission is worth it. 

     Much Love from Thailand,

     Elder Brinkerhoff

Songkran and Easter

     Before I go off on how Songkran was, let me give an update on the week:

     Two Elders had to stay in our house one night, because one of them had to renew their visa in Bangkok and their area was on the other side of the country. One of them who had served in Samutprakan before, Elder Bow, asked me how many rats I have killed in the house. I hadn't killed any, I replied.  He said when he was here he killed 13 rats in his house!  When the lights were out, Elder Bow asked if the door to the room was locked. I told him no, and he may or may not have said that the house next door was abandoned and haunted, and he may or may not have had a paranormal experience one night when he served in Samutprakan. 

     At the end of each district meeting, our district does a group "cinnamon roll." Don't know how to cinnamon roll? There is a demo video attached.

     Elder Duke, some members, and I went to help a member cut some grass in her yard one morning. She lives in an interesting neighborhood. Many of the small wooden houses are built over a small river, and there's about a five-foot sidewalk over it, and if you fall off the sidewalk, in the water you go! The most ridiculous thing is that people ride their motorbikes on that sidewalk to get around. I have always wondered how those bikers never wipe out and have their bike end up in the water. Well, on that day I saw that happen on the way to the member's house. The man was ok, just not his bike.

     When we cut that member's grass, it wasn't with a lawn mower, it was with a large knife, the old fashioned way. Also, that member told us to be careful, since she had seen poisonous snakes in that large patch of grass. Luckily no snakes were out, (maybe they were out playing songkran or something). It started getting really hot, and I was drenched in sweat and started getting blisters on my hands. But, we kept cutting, until we got much of the job done. I don't know why, but every time I do labor like that I think it's just practice for when I am going to work in my Grandma Brinkerhoff's Garden, when I go to college. (My grandparents live in the same town).

     We also had zone conference this week, and some of the missionaries made a recording in honor of me. I feel so loved.

     Songkran was a blast. It was a three-day celebration, where everyone has a water fight. The day before our Pday, we had nothing to do, so we had to go out and walk around some neighborhoods, in the heat. I was not looking forward to it, but then come to realize that that was probably the most fun I have had when walking through neighborhoods. Since I'm white the natives feel like they HAVE to get me soaked. They would ask me first, then I would tell them "yes," when I

would get drenched a bunch of times. Some kids were too shy to throw water at me, but when I told them it was ok, they reacted like I just gave them 100 dollars and fired away. Later, we took a truck ride (a truck with benches and a metal frame) to a member's house. During that 20-minute ride, I was standing and then BAM; we got blasted with water, three or four times on that ride. People stood at the streets, throwing water at every truck that passed by that had passengers. 

     On Pday, we went to Central World, a massive chain of malls, to go play. It's the only area approved by our Mission president, since it's family friendly, and other Songkran celebrations can get really sketchy. Elder Duke and I bought massive water guns, wore our floral shirts, bought waterproof bags, and were ready for war.  We went to one street, where we were with hundreds of people, All the missionaries in Bangkok showed up, met together, and had at it. Many missionaries, including us, brought church members as well. People were spraying each other with water guns, people had buckets, large water fountains were spraying each other, and there were water tanks everywhere so people could refill. At one point one of the missionaries wanted to start a "train" of missionaries so a large group of us got together and walked together in the large street. At one point another missionary yelled "Members!" There was a group of 16 members together, and we had a Members vs. Missionaries battle for a few minutes. I should have taken more pictures, but my camera wasn't waterproof. Dang.

     After, we went to another area, called the "foam area." A large group of us missionaries waited in line, and we played with foam. There was foam everywhere. At one point I was completely covered in foam. 

     Later Elder Duke, a member, and I went into the freezing cold mall to get some food. Since all of us were soaked, we were freezing. I thought Elder Duke was going to get hypothermia or something, since he was shivering so much. 

     We took a bus ride back to our house, and at that point I was mostly dry. Then when we got off of a bus, we walked toward our house, and guess what? Our neighbors were out ready to get us soaked. And so I walked into the house, completely drenched again. 

     I loved Songkran. So much fun. But all that aside, Easter will always be the more important holiday. It was last Sunday. Despite it feeling like another ordinary Sunday, I am forever glad for Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice. I will be forever grateful for Christ and his love for me and all of us. I hope that all can come to appreciate him, and follow his great teachings. Every day I ask people if they want to learn about Christ, and I get turned down, laughed at, and ignored most of the time. But, I am happy that I get to have my name and his name on my missionary name tag, and get to serve him and other people every day. 

     Happy Easter!

     Elder Brinkerhoff