On Saturday Jim had meetings in Sisaket. He and his friend Brother Uan decided to ride their bikes there. It is 65 km so they got up and left before 6 o'clock to be there for a 9 o'clock meeting. (we rode 40 km before the brethren in a pickup caught up to us. It was a beautiful morning with all the rice paddies so green in the morning sunlight. Brother Uan told everyone at the meeting that he would've died if we had tried to ride all the way but I could've made it. Sunday I thought he would be really stiff but he proudly did a deep knee bend and said his legs weren't sore at all.)

While Jim was gone I had a teaching appointment myself. I went to Vinh's house. They are the couple from Vietnam. I saw something wonderful happened as I visited. I asked Tam to read the New Testament stories for children online in Vietnamese, so I could teach her about the pre-mortal existence. I asked her husband Vinh to translate what she was reading into English for me. This kept them focused on these truths and and a wonderful spirit came into our meeting. Usually Vinh spends a lot of time venting about the corruption in Vietnam, and asks questions about things he's read on anti-Mormon websites. Not Saturday! I think he's on the road to conversion. I talked to him about Capt. Moroni and what he did to combat fraud and deceit of Amalakiah. He is quite upset about the Communist corruption in Vietnam. We talked about the traits of Moroni, and how Vinh can use those same traits to teach his family to avoid the deceptions of the world. It was the best teaching appointment yet with his family. The spirit was with me, and I saw genuine interest in Vinh's eyes.

The youth choir and play is a challenge. One of the boys is not too keen, but in practice on Sunday I had him lead the music for the men's choir. He had never done it before and was very excited. I showed him how to play The Priesthood Is Restored with one hand. He practiced it for ages. He uses his real name without a nickname-his name is campy which means Scripture. He is a happy, handsome, tall boy that is getting to that rebellious age. He's pretty tender and pretty excited about the baby his mother is expecting so…

Some of the parents say that their children will do anything for Sister Redd. As they were singing We'll Take The World His Truth with radiant faces I thought, "where else would I want to be?" I continue to worry about the youth on the fringe who don't come and participate in all the activities despite our efforts to invite and include them.

We have been teaching the owner of the store where we bought my violin. When we bought the violin he told us that he had studied with the missionaries in the past. Recently we went there to see if we could rent a cello for Elder Jensen to play a stringed duet with me. He said that although he has been able to travel to many of the places he dreamed of, he didn't find it as exciting as he expected, and has begun the search for more meaning in his life. It has been fun to share with him the plan of salvation, and his questions are perfect. This week he told us that he really isn't close to his parents although he and his wife with their three daughters lived with the extended family until one week ago.

One evening last week I wound up talking with a doctor who was surprised that I could read Thai. She asked where our church was and when I told her the name of the church she asked if we were Mormon. She worked in Phuket after the tsunami helping to identify bodies as they were recovered. She and some friends planned another project go back in the later rebuilding. This project was helped and funded by the church. She says she has a copy of the book of Mormon in English given to her by one of the other volunteers. We gave her a Thai copy. She was busy Sunday but said she will come to church this coming Sunday or one of the week's real soon. It's exciting to see people popping out of the woodwork who have met with the missionaries before. We hope some of them will be ready to progress to making baptismal covenants.

This is how we celebrated Thai Mother's Day in early August. The yellow box and the guy in the long sleeve shirt floated by periodically selling ice cream in the lake. We had lunch on the raft in the background.