Our first week in Ubol, pronounced Ubon

We are in Ubol Ratchathani-near the Laotian and Cambodian borders. Twenty six hours after leaving Salt Lake city (at 8:30 pm) we arrived in Bangkok.  The office couple arrived and we were taken into Bangkok for blood work to determine if we had syphilis. This was Thai government requirement for us to get a work permit. We also needed to have a photo taken and an ID card made for Thailand. That evening we were invited to dinner with all the Bangkok senior missionary couples, President and Sister Senior, and Elder and Sister Watson, the area president. We realized we had been up for 50 hours with only a little sleep on the airplane and a nap before dinner. The next morning we were picked up at 6 AM to fly to Ubon where we attended the district conference all day until after 4 PM, then were shown the apartment the elders had found for us. It is a sweet, basic little place just a five minute bike ride from the church-but empty of everything except a hard bed, tiny kitchen containing a sink and a fridge, and a small table-a small bathroom is also included. There was no drinking water, toilet paper or pillows for the bed so we decided to take a taxi to do some essential shopping. Our bedroom air conditioner made loud noises so we hauled our mattress into the living room, flopped down and went to sleep. We laughed the next morning when the major repair we thought the air conditioner needed was completely unnecessary when the apartment service man moved the unit about an inch! Why didn't we think of that!

Friday we were very blessed in making contacts with good people at the alternative medicine department at the hospital, a fruit stall, an English-language school where we stopped to use their Wi-Fi to help us find a bike shop, and people in our apartment. We gave out some pass along cards and invitations to the English class at the church.

Saturday we brought bicycles and I love riding around town! Last night we rode to Tesco-a 15 minute ride away and bought a foam cover for our hard mattress. We bungee corded the covers onto Jim's fender rack and happily rode home in the hot, humid dark with our bicycle lights flashing.

Our first Sunday in the Ubol branch we were asked to give our testimonies. As I did, I looked into the smiling, kind faces of the members and felt grateful for them. All during the meetings I listened carefully for any words I could recognize-certainly some people speak fast I couldn't make out much. After church, the members always have a potluck lunch. A sister handed me a plate of curry and I smiled and said “Khohb khun maag kha (thank you) and tried some conversation-I'm going to have to do a lot of language study this week, let's just say that! I made myself useful and washed dishes in the kitchen instead.

In the 70s the streets were full of saam lors or three wheeled bicycle taxis, and they were also full of bicycles. Now we see very few bicycles-everyone has scooters or nice new cars.  As I came out of the church I noticed that there were nine bicycles there for the nine missionaries, all the members had cars, trucks or scooters. I decided this is a good thing that the members are so prosperous.

The highlight of church meetings today was recognizing one tiny elderly sister. She is the mother of Sister Chompoonud and eleven other children. She remembered me.

We had some incredible som tam at a restaurant close by on Friday before we went shopping for furniture. After church we enjoyed the potluck. the fresh vegetables and spicy dip were fantastic. I loved seeing all the sticky rice containers, and things that people brought.

Sunday night we went on splits with the missionaries to the humblest home Karyn has ever been in. She loved looking into the face of Brother Bunraai and his earnest expression and happiness as Jim and Elder S taught about the Melchizidek Priesthood. He joined the church in April and faithfully sets up the chairs every Sunday. Karyn felt so excited to be here. She said there is no where else she would rather be than helping teach the gospel to such a good, humble man. She even got to recite a one sentence principle for the lesson.

Teaching English

Jim and I teach English to some university students. They were way more attentive than our seminary students ever were!
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