Week 12 Bangkok

สวัสดีครับ!

What a week! Thailand is so cool! So many fun and different things here. Last P-day we went to this park with an outdoor "gym" with all this rusted and bizarre machines for exercising. And people use everything in any way they want. This one old buff guy started talking with us. He had this weird oil stuff that he had us rub on our arms, he saw I had some acne on my arms and back so he rubbed a bunch more on and it burned so much, but he said it would help. It didn't burn to any of the other missionaries who didn't have acne so who knows. Then as we were exercising this other guy came and helped show us better technique. We talked to him and got his number. He owns a fancy Italian restaurant so this week me and my comp and the two sister missionaries and two members went to his restaurant. It was really expensive but was honestly so nice to eat some good food that my body was familiar with. And it was super peaceful in there with Josh Groban and other Italian music playing. We met with him again and had a good discussion. We taught about prayer and gave him a Book of Mormon. As for our taxi guy that I talked about last week. We called him and he said he started making a bunch more money when he started praying and says he thinks God wants him to be a Christian. So that was awesome. He was out of town so we couldn't meet with him. But he said he'd come to church. Well he came to church... a half hour late and saw that we started and so he left. But we have an appointment tomorrow. For Sunday school we had a meeting with some of the ward missionaries and the investigators. Last week Brother Golf gave the lesson, the return missionary from my grandmas mission, and this week his girlfriend taught it. It was an awesome lesson about the restoration. She had me talk about Joseph Smith and I gave the first vision. In priesthood meeting I couldn't understand anything but it was about ministering.

This week we had companion exchanges. I was with Elder Robinson who is one transfer older than me so we saw each other in the MTC. He is awesome. We met with some LAs and did lots of inviting. We were walking and I started talking with this guy in front of an auto shop. We talked for a while and shared some scriptures. He is interested and has a big family, but the other companionship gets them :/ but its okay, we just got a bunch of referrals from a member.

Some other cool experiences this week was me and my comp gave 2 priesthood blessings. So I got to do both parts of the blessing. It was a little stressful because I have a very limited vocabulary, but was a really neat experience. 

 

I love you all, God is real and loves all of you. Thanks for all your prayers!

 

 

Pictures, 

song tao (two rows): what we usually use for travel

Me and Elder Robinson on comp exchanges

Us at the italian restaurant

Pad Thai

Krispy Kreme in the mall

 

Week 11 In Thailand :)

สวัสดีครับ!

Oh my goodness what a week! So much has happened! So two Fridays ago I told the doc I felt good enough to go and he cleared me. They said they would call my mission president and see when he could take me. Well on that Monday I got my flight plans to leave the next day at 3:30am. So I spent all night packing, slept for an hour and headed out. I spent the next 20ish hours navigating myself to Seattle, then to Souel Korea, then to BANGKOK! President and Sister Hammond where there to pick me up. They are so amazing!! I slept at their house and met my companion in the morning. His name is Elder Ratelle. He is so amazing! He has already taught me o much! We went for the next day and a half getting all these logistics done like blood work for a work permit, and buying a phone. So my area is a section of the great city of Bangkok called Srinakarin. At the end of the day we went to get some food. There are tons of these tiny restaurants just hidden in the streets and we went to one and while we where ordering, this young couple that were members and that my companion knew came up and we introduced ourselves. I was wearing my name tag that had my name in both English and Thai. He asked if I knew a Sister Shill from Pocatello. My mouth dropped. My Grandma just served a mission in Pocatello and at my farewell gave me the name and address of a missionary who just recently finished his mission in Pocetello from Thailand. Well, I lost that paper in like 3 weeks, and thought that there was a 0% chance I could find him anyways. But God is real and found him my first day in Bangok and he is in my ward.

The food here is awesome, It is so different. We eat with members a lot and that is always a party. I haven't eaten anything too weird, maybe liver but I didn't know it was liver until after I ate it.

On one of our trips somewhere we took a taxi. We talked with the driver and eventually got on to a religious topic. His name is เขก (kake) He is Buddhist. But believes that some higher power created the earth. We taught him about Heavenly Father and about Prayer. I taught how to pray and read some scriptures that worked perfectly. We have an appointment to meet with him tomorrow. 

The language is stressful. I can't understand people. But I'm getting better at recognizing the words that I know. But when I speak people can understand me just fine. But then they think I can understand them. And that's always kind of awkward. But my companion can speak and understand Thai, so its all good! 

Well I love you all! Stay safe!

Elder Shill


Elder Shill meets his first companion, Elder Ratelle

Week 10 Headed to Thailand :)

I leave at 3:30am tomorrow to Seattle then Seoul Korea to Thailand