THAILAND Letter home: 9/12

Sawadii krob krua!

Hope all is well in the homeland since I'm just hanging out here in THAILAND!!!! What!?

Anyway, pretty much Thailand is the greatest place on earth. I might only think that because I haven't seen any giant spiders yet but I think it would still be pretty great.

So we got into Bangkok around 10:30am on the seventh. The flight was pretty good. We slept alot. Like I said on the phone, I was able to place a Book of Mormon on the way to San Francisco with the sweetest man but on the other flights I was sitting next to missionaries but most people spoke Chinese so I doubt I could've communicated much of the message. President and Sister Smith were there to greet us at the airport with the assistants and some other zone leaders. We packed our selves into 2 vans and were off to President's house. \

First off, driving in Bangkok is kind of crazy. There are pretty much no rules. We had a couple close calls on the ride over. The assistants said people don't have very many accidents but there are tons of just misses haha. So the humidity and heat, not as all as bad as I expected it to be. Maybe when the hot season rolls around I will take that back but honestly, it hasn't been a big deal for me. I was way surprised.

Ok, so we are driving to President's house and just chatting with the assistants about the possibilities for our different areas. All the sisters were in this van together. So they're going through the different places and one of the assistants says, "We just passed Sister King's area." What?! haha totally gave it away. I definitely don't think he meant to say that but there it was. So yes, I am staying in Bangkok. I'll explain more in a bit.

President and Sister Smith are awesome. Sister Smith is so sweet and loving. She was really fun to talk to. President seems great. I'm sure I'll get to know him better pretty quickly. After a quick lunch at their house we traveled over to the office to do some paper work and have interviews. Then it was time for the Dan Jones experience...

So 12 experienced elders and sisters came and met us and we were paired off. I got matched up with Sister Hirschi (hershey, like the chocolate, yum!) and we were supposed to go out inviting and the goal was to place a Book of Mormon. The greenie was supposed to lead and do the majority of the inviting. Pretty much the scariest thing ever. I will admit, I was terrified! Like I said inviting and contacting is the scaries part of this whole deal for me. Sis. Hirschi was super great and started out for me just to show me the ropes. Then it was me. I did it! With help of course but we gave away like 5 or 6 pass-along cards and I was able to place a Book of Mormon with a nice lady who gave us her information. One of the other people we contacted seemed really interested as well. Twice, the people I was talking to were very uninterested and tried to ignore me and one even walked away but after those two is when we found the more interested people so it ended on a good note.

Ok, so that night we went back to President's and were able to get into bed early so hopefully we could catch up on sleep. The next morning it was off to moves meeting to meet our new trainers!

I'm pretty sure I got the best one, no big deal. Sister Naegle (pronounced naegly) is so great! I love her! She is so supportive but so good at talking to people and planning and teaching and pretty much everything. Sadly, I only get her for 7 weeks and then she dies (goes home). I guess I get two trainers. I'm her first luug (kid). We are serving in a part of Bangkok called Sapan Suun and it really is great. It's not the heart of Bangkok but it's still cityish but there are tons of families and students, perfect! We live on the fourth floor of an apartment building with two other sisters. The areas just switched a bit and now there are four sisters and two elders in our area which is apparently unusual. The apartment is pretty nice, there are a few issues with leaks and stuff like that but it's really open and the air conditioning and everything work just fine.

I got my blue bike with a cute yellow helmet (I really had no choice in the matter) and we ride it around everyday. I'll send pictures in a week or two so you can see everything.

Anyway, on my first night we had a teaching appointment with a lady named Phii Nang (phii is a respectful term for those older than you). It was the second time we were visiting her. She is super cute. Thai people are sooooooooooo tiny. In general at least. She really likes reading the Book of Mormon and prays morning and night. So we were reviewing Heavenly Father and families with her (I didn't actually understand a ton of it) and I had born my testimony and shared a scripture and such and Sister Naegle says, in Thai of course, Sister King has a question for you. She asks me in English to commit Phii Nang to baptism. Haha So I did. And guess what, she accepted!!!!!!!!! My first dater! hahahaha my ma (trainer) was super pround haha. It was kind of surreal. I love these people though. I can hardly understand them but I just love every single one of them.

So that was a great first experience but the next day was great too and full of lots of other new things.

I experienced my first flood (up to my calves) and the ward gave me a new nickname haha, Sister Suay (beautiful) but I don't really have time to write more right now. I will have a better outline next week.

Just know I'm safe and loving it. Love you!

Chog Dii

Sister King

GOODBYE USA- Letter Home 9/5/11

Sawadii!

Hope you're ready for some late night/early morning phone calls. I'm not really sure where I'll have the chance to call. I'm hoping in San Francisco if not in Salt Lake.

This week was great! It dragged a little just in anticipation of leaving but it was so great as well.

On Tuesday we had a real treat. So, the week before our group got to the MTC was this Mission President training thing so a bunch of the Apostles spoke at the MTC and then we came in and it was July, the vacation month for pretty much all the general authorities. Therefore we have never heard from anyone other than emeritus seventy members. We did have a chance to hear President Samuelson and then Elder Zivic who are both of the Seventy but on Tuesday guess who came for a visit?!! Only Elder Holland, no big deal.

He was soooooooo great! He hadn't prepared a thing yet it was one of the best talks I've ever heard. He is amazing! He was really emotional and passionate especially because that was the day a Sister missionary was killed in a car crash in upstate New York. I'm pretty sure I wrote a novel on his talk.

He talked about how everything in his life has been affected by his mission and that he can't remember a day when he hasn't thought about the mission. He talked about how the missionaries are the most prayed for people on the face of the earth other than the prophet. How everyone loves the missionaries and if there were a iconic symbol for the church like the cross is for most, he says he would bet it would be a picture of two missionaries. Then he got really powerful, you know when you can feel the Spirit in every word he says, and he warned us that we do not have the right to compromise this beloved image of missionaries, to damage the impression that people have that we are perfect. We aren't but all people have the right to hope and believe that we are. He talked about how it is incomprehendable to him that anyone can turn away from their mission afterward. To have been witness to the change in people's lives for two years of your life through the gospel and then turn away after it is unimaginable. That rang so true to me for some reason. I know I haven't really served a mission yet but even before that, when I would see certain people come home and then go back to the way they were living before... It doesn't make any sense to me. I feel like those people are denying the miracles they witnessed and the things they knew about God and Christ and especially the Restoration.

He spoke on the importance of immersing ourselves in the scriptures as well as the Restoration. This was one of my favorite quotes from his talk, "One verse of scripture on which the whole hinge of eternity would revolve," talking about James 1:5.

He told us that for 18 months (or 2 years) we are apostolic. Are calling is the same as those in the Twelve just with a lower case A. In spirit and kind we are the same, disciples of the Lord 24/7.

The last thing he talked about was in reference to the question, "Why does God love us?" Elder Holland began to describe the love he has for his children, it was so touching because you could feel the strengh of his love in his words. After expressing his feelings he talked about how great then must God's perfect love be for us, his children. And especially if he was willing to give up his only perfect son for us.

Ahh! It was sooooo good! I wish I could do it justice but all I know is that he is an Apostle called of God. The Spirit just radiates from him. It was crazy how silent and reverent and just joyful the MTC was after he had come. I mean there is always a special Spirit here but the difference was still tangible.

Anyway, prayers were answered and it was a perfect goodbye devotional. We also had the opportunity to host the new missionaries coming in this week. I helped 3 girls through the process of dropping off luggage, getting books, picture, card, and finding class. It was really fun. The first one actually knew Jocelyn from the London study abroad thing, CRAZY! haha Her name was Sarah Bown and she is going to Winter Quarters. The other two were going to Calgary Canada and Chile, Ospuro or something? I can't remember the name but it's the farthest south mission in Chile. So that was a fun experience. We had to miss some of class but it was worth it.

We had infield orientation on Friday where we learned more about contacting and things like that. I will admit I am terrified to contact on the way over there and just contact in general. Ahhh! Can Mom come do it for me? She'd be perfect at it! I bought some Book of Mormons and have my pass-along cards though so hopefully I can get a few out. Seriously though, terrified! I can talk to people but to force the gospel into the conversation... wish me luck haha! Sidter tom die! (I can do it)

On Saturday we had a sort of testimony meeting with our teachers after our last TRC. It was sad to realize we won't ever be together like this again :( I had the spiritual thought and shared Alma 17:13, it's perfect for this occasion but still sad. We are so sad to leave our teachers. That's one thing we will for sure miss at the MTC. They have been incredible and helped us all so much. Their testimonies are so strong and the love they have for Thailand and the Thai people is contagious. I am so excited and a lot of it is because they have shared that love with us.

We had a little culture lesson later that day. Bro. Olsen told us about when he got bit by a dog and Bro. Jenkins told us about getting his appendix out over there and the 3 giant spiders (GAH!!!!!!!!!!!) that visited his house. We have to remember how to "y" people (bowing and putting your hands together in front of your face) and all the different rules with respect to older people. It's going to be an adventure, let me tell you.

Well, I better go and finish the last little bit of packing, getting those dumb bags down to 50. I should be okay but it's super annoying to worry about it. Did I mention the books. So you know how they told us we should get like 10-12 pounds of books. Oh yeah, don't worry. We have at least 20 lbs. No big deal. I think I've got it figured out though.

I love you all! Thanks for all the letters and support! I really do love it and will read all of them over and over again. I have the best family in the world and I'm so grateful for the knowledge that families can be eternal. I am grateful for this gospel and know without a doubt that it's true. There's no way I'd force myself to do this contacting (ahhh!) if I didn't. No way! The Restoration really did happen and was soooooooo necessary. Joseph really had the faith to see God and Jesus Christ and they gave him the power to translate the Book of Mormon. The most correct book on the planet with the fullness of the Gospel. I love this work and I love that I have the opportunity to see the Spirit change peoples lives. Thank you again for the support and love!

On to the Land of Smiles! So deunden!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (excited)

Chog dii!

Sister King

Flight Plans- Letter Home 8/31/2011

Sawadii! Sooo flight plans are in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wooohoooo! So exciting! I leave in 6 days!!!!!!!!! So everyone went around and guessed what they thought the route would be. I said SLC-LAX-Tokyo-Bangkok. Don't worry, it's even better.

Here's the deal. We leave the MTC at 6:30 pm on Monday.

Our flight leaves SLC at 10:00 pm

We land in San Francisco at 11:00pm (CA time)

We leave California at 1:20 am

We land in, get this, HONG KONG at 6:35 am (China time)

We leave China at 8:35 am

Arrive in Bangkok on Sept. 7, 10:35 am.

Something like 19 hours on a plane. I love that we don't have to go to LAX, gross.

So I'm guessing I'll talk to you in SLC, San Fran or HK. Not really sure yet. We have a free day on Monday cause we're leaving so late so I will email you that day sometime.

So Jordan is gone, sad :( but I gave him 2 big hugs goodbye, we got a picture at the map, don't worry, and he seemed ready to go. It's weird to think I won't see anyone for 16 more months. Doesn't seem real since I can still tell I'm in Provo haha. Maybe it will hit me in Thailand.

So I have to be quick but I'll write a better email about these last 2 weeks on Monday. It's rough trying to relay all the things I need you to send and then still type a full email in 30 min.

We got a letter from one of our Phiithays, Elder Segura, and we finally found out where all of them are serving. We made a big map and it's so awesome and weird to think we'll be in those places in a week. Can't wait.

Things are still good at the MTC though. I love classes and will miss that time to just soak in Thai and how to teach. We all wish we could take our teachers with us. But even though our language is still super rough, we are all so ready to get into the real thing.

Being here helps your testimony to grow a ton but because of that it makes you want to go out and share it more. Everyone gets so into it and you start to learn to love these people you've never met because your teachers love them so much and are here because they want to continue helping them in any way they can and that love is infectious. I love this gospel and I love that it is important enough that we don't keep it to ourselves. That wouldn't make any sense!

I love you and will write more before I leave the country :)

Letter Home 8/23/11

Sawadii,

This will be fast since I had to write the list of things I need you to send me.

This week was good, they're going by fast!

Last P-day was Elder Thacker's birthday and so some of the missionaries in our district had family members send cake, cupcakes, cookies for us to celebrate with. It was delicious!

Sister Knutson, the new solo sister, and I, were challenged to eat 5 bowls of cereal in one sitting. haha so we had to prove that we could. Yep, I should just be a 19 year old boy, I know. I ate 5 bowls of cinnamon toast crunch and with my regular ratio of milk to cereal (milk: 2 cereal:1). That was a lot of cereal. They said I had to fill the bowl with cereal so the amount of times I had to add milk was ridiculous. haha wow, I feel awesome admitting that I actually did something this mature but hey, I had to show the Elders what was up, right?

I was asked to sing in Sacrament again. This time by myself and Sis. Roper was kind enough to play. I sang "I Stand All Amazed" and I can not sing that song or even read the words without feeling the Spirit. I love it! I don't know if it conveyed itself to everyone else but it always overwhelms me.

I found out about Jordan's flight plans. I hope that we don't get to Thailand in the morning. It would be rough to have the whole day ahead of us after traveling forever.

We got two new teachers this week to replace Bro. Everton and Bro. Miles (Bro. Miles was over the other district of thays). Bro. Olsen has been teaching double-shifts like crazy and the new teachers still have to be trained. Both Bro. Jenkins and Bro. McKonkie seem great though. They probably won't teach us much but they'll be able to help when we have questions.

Our investigators are doing well. They're progressing slowly but we're working on them. Phiidom is having a rough time keeping his commitment to pray and we're hoping to use Joseph Smith as an example of prayer next week. Phiiphen loves to pray but we talked to her about Christ and the Atonement and she understands that he suffered and that he suffered for everyone but she doesn't understand how it can help her in her life right now. She says she's happy and a good person so why does she need it. We plan on explaining that she is using it when she prays everyday. Hopefully we can get a little farther with them this week.

Thanks for the postcards and letters! I love hearing from you!

Sorry the email is so short, I'll write more next week!

Love you all!

Sis. King

Letter home 8/17/11

Hanloo!

The Nongthays are here! They seem great! The solo sister is awesome. Her name is Sister Knutson and I really like her. We've decided that the people called to Thailand have to be mature, it must be a necessity because there is such a difference in the missionaries going to Thailand and missionaries in general. It's weird, but oh so obvious. Especially with the Elders. I hear the conversations and see how most of the Elders in other districts act and it's kind of crazy to realize that our Elders are the same age as all these little boys haha. We've heard so many stories that don't fit into our perception of how Elders act because of the great example of ours. The phiithays and the nongthays are the same. I don't know exactly what it is but I'm not complaining!

Hermana Davis (Brynne) left for Argentina on Monday :( I'm going to miss our nightly chats as we brush our teeth. She was only 2 rooms away from me. I got her address though and we took a picture by the map. I really am going to be half a world away!

We had 2 familiar speakers this week, President Cecil Samuelson and Sister Rosemary Wixom. It was fun to see some familiar faces.

Let's see, I got stung by a bee on Saturday as I was walking up to the field for gym. Way weird. Somehow it got on the underside of my left arm, right where my t-shirt sleeve hits. Random. No big deal though since I'm not allergic.

I got called on to speak in sacrament. We have to prepare a 3 minute talk on a specific subject every week and then we find out after the sacrament which two missionaries are going to speak. I spoke on repentance. I think I shared Alma 5:26-27, I could be wrong. If it talks about "sing a song" then that's it haha. But I focused on the relationship between repentance and the Atonement and how the only way we won't take that gift for granted is to use the other gift we are given, repentance.

My khuu was really sick this week. We almost took her to the hospital. She has bronchitis and almost pnemonia. She wasn't telling anyone because she was worried about her family and didn't want to be a burden. Luckily we got it all out of her and she's doing a bit better now that she's had a blessing and been to the doctor. So pray for her and for me to know how to help her and for her to trust me.

We find out flight plans in 9 days! That means I can talk to you in Thai in 20!

Love you!

Sister King

Letter home 8/10/11

Krob krua,

I was so sorry to hear about Gabe. His family has been in my prayers.

I hope Christy is healing quickly, sounds like a rough injury.

I got my first aid kit and yes to the blanket please. The towels are just fine.

I got your envelope. Though sadly the majority of my small letter collection is not from my immediate family. I think I get the least mail in the district... hahaha but seriously. Jordan says his district makes fun of him for getting no mail. My district is nicer :)

Of course I am saving all my letters!

I can't believe that everyone is home from their missions, so crazy! I wish I could tell them all hello but unfortunately I am stuck in this bubble. It's a great bubble though ;) If you do go to some of their talks, please tell them hello and let me know what they speak about.

Along with Josh, my roommate Danielle is getting married this week and I want to send her something. I haven't seen an invitation though so I'll look into that and then Kathleen is getting married too and I'd love to send her something. I'll get more information to you as soon as I can.

I really need the addresses I asked for with mom's bday card! I have a bunch of letters just sitting around that I would like to send. Aunt Di, Grandma King, Olivia King, Sue and Angela Gong.... If you could Dear Elder me those ASAP that would be great.

So this week...

Um, the progressive investigator program changed and instead of one pi that we would teach once a week we now have at least 2 and we teach one every day. It's kind of intense. The Progressive Investigator is the one we teach all in Thai, though this week we started TRC teaching all in Thai too. So basically I never speak English anymore. We try to speak as little as we can during class. So Sis. Wongwirapab is Phii pen and she is definitely intimidating to teach. We were able to get her to pray for us and she loves when we talk about families. She has a husband and 2 kids and she loves writing poems about her family. She even teared up the first time we contacted her and told about how the Gospel strengthens families. Bro. Olsen is Phii dom (pronounced dome) and he has a wife and a son. He is out of work and we've only contacted him but from what the other missionaries say he is injured and has a gambling problem. Should be interesting.

Tomorrow we get our nangthays. We will be phiithays! What?!! So blag (weird)! There are 3 elders and a solo sister. I am SOOOOOOO grateful I am not her haha. That's sad but I would not want to have to be escorted to the bathroom by the elders and only have 3 nineteen year old boys to interact with. I guess we'll have to love her while we're here (don't worry, we would've even if there were 12 sisters ha) but it will be a different experience to feel like the smart ones for once :)

It's cool though, sometimes I catch myself thinking a word in Thai before I think it in English. Not all the time, just certain words. It's weird but awesome! Bro. Olsen decided we have to start reading the scriptures out loud in Thai for our spiritual thoughts from now on. Guess who has the next one? Yep, me of course. This will be the longest, slowest spiritual thought ever! But it is cool that I am able to read that once crazy-looking script :)

On Sunday night our district ushered for the fireside. That was kind of fun. Plus, we got seats saved up front for us and guess who happened to be sitting one row behind? Yep, Elder King so it was nice to hear his voice singing the hymns behind me.

So more craziness... We get our flight plans in count them, 16 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No way! But guess what that means? I leave the U. S. of A in T minus 27, yes, 27 days!!!!!!!!! Aray?!?! (What) I can't believe I am actually going to prataad thay (thailand). It still seems unreal! But in less than a month I will have a new trainer and will actually have to interact with real thai people and tell them about the most important thing in the world. My ben ray (No big deal) :s Too crazy but exciting too. I don't feel ready but I feel ready to leave the MTC hahaha as great as it is. But I have like no time left so maybe you could all write your daughter/sister a little extra this week to make up for lack of mail and she'll tell you bunches more next week! Rag koon (love you)!

Sister King

Letter home 8/3/11

Sawadii kha!

Hope all is well on the home front. Sounds like Bear Lake was a good time, next time I go, I'll for surely be able to bike around the lake with all of you! Sorry you had to stay home for a fun root canal Dad. Probably not as fun as the lake.

Aunt Carla was right though, Bear Lake is great as usual but the MTC is definitely better haha ;) This week was good but kind of rough. We found out that one of our teachers was leaving because he was offered a accounting job and since he has to support a wife and all he had to take it. So on Saturday we all thanked him and had a little testimony meeting, got a picture with him, and then he was gone. It was a sight to see. The minute he walked out the door I'm pretty sure 9 of the 12 of us burst in to tears haha. We are super bummed about it. Brother Everton was amazing! Even though he was born and raised here he is like a real Thai person, it's great! It was always weird to hear him speak English because it seemed so natural for him to speak Thai. So after that sad goodbye we had to say good by to the older district, our phiithays. They left for Thailand at 6:00 am on Monday morning so we had to say goodbye to them on Sunday. They probably just landed in Thailand this afternoon. They flew to LAX and then straight to Thailand! I sort of hope we get to stop in Japan, Korea, or China instead of just going straight there but we'll see what happens. Anyway, it's been really weird without them. They made the MTC a lot more fun but we'll probably be more studious without them around since we're stuck with just the 12 of us :)

So in losing Bro. Everton, Sis. Monterrosa and I lost our Progressive Investigator (which totally stinks because we were doing amazing with him!). But now, since the Phiithays our gone we get their teacher, Sis. Wanwirapab (the native) to replace Bro. Everton. That means she's our new PI. Way intimidating! She is tough but we were able to invite her and she is willing to let us come back and teach her so I will keep you updated on how that goes. I'm getting really good at bearing my testimony about God and how he's our Heavenly Father and all that that implies. The Thai is coming slowly but I do feel it coming. It's kind of crazy to think about it but I'm loving Thai. It's much prettier than I expected. Not as pretty as French but for an Asian language, I'm happy :)

I finished getting my immunizations last week. No more shots! They actually weren't to bad but I'm still glad to be done.

Let's see, on Friday Sis Monterrosa and I taught District Study and we focused on the Our Purpose sections of Preach My Gospel with some advice from Bro. Everton. He and we were definitely inspired in our subject choice because it was the best meeting we'd had as a district and I think it really helped us be more unified. The Spirit was really strong and we learned a lot from each other.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. I am the new branch Music Coordinator so I just choose the hymns, pianist, chorister, and musical number every week. So this last week I played the hymns in Sacament. I know, what? Since I can barely play the hymns at all... Luckily, Heavenly Father helped me and I made it through. Definitely not perfectly but good enough. One of the speakers last week talked about how Heavenly Father because Heavenly Father's love is infinite, he cares about every little thing we care about because we care about it. So my fear of playing the dumb piano was as big a deal to Him as it was to me and because I took the time to practice and ask for help, He let me know that He cared and helped me to be calm. Definitely not a big deal but it's always such a comfort to know He's there for us even when it's just the little things.

I think that's all for today. Oh, tell Candice congratulations! Grandma King wrote me about her engagement. How exciting!

Talk to you next week!

Love, Sister King

Lauren's Letter home 7/28/11

Krob krua!

Happy Pioneer Day on Sunday!

Things are dii maag (very good) here at the MTC. Just living the routine.

Today we went to the Temple for the first time since we've been here. All missionaries get to go to the temple once a week while in the MTC but we came in the week they closed the Provo Temple for some reason so today was our first chance. My second ever session was great. It was fun to have the video so the experience was completely different. I did just fine on my own. My khuu (comp) was going for her second time as well. It was actually only her second time ever, she'd never done baptisms for the dead! The temple food was also a nice break from the MTC cafeteria. I'm fine with the food but it's nothing spectacular so the giant waffle with strawberries and whipped cream was a delight this morning.

So last night was exciting. We woke up at 2:00 am to this obnoxious buzzing. Turns out it was the fire alarm. The alarm in our room did not work so we finally noticed the annoying but muted alarm through our sleep. We were definitely the last ones out of the building. Luckily, it wasn't for real. We still have no idea why it went off or if it was a drill but we are definitley all a little worn out today. Oh, and it was only the sisters hall. It was pretty funny to see all the girls congregated in their pajamas just talking and laughing as the sprinklers came on while we waited.

On Sunday Sister Roper and I sang in sacrament meeting. We sang a version of Savior Redeemer of My Soul that I sang at BYU before the mission. It went well and I think really brought the Spirit to the meeting. Jordan and I are working on a song to audition for the devotionals or firesides. Yep, I convinced him :)

I got sick this week. It was lame. Luckily it's pretty much gone. It only lasted like 3 days, just a little bit of sore throat and stuffed up sinuses. I sang through it just fine though.

Let's see, oh, Sister Wanwirapab, the teacher from Thailand, spoke to her sister the other day who has been out on her mission in Thailand for about a year. Most likely one of us will get her as a trainer. Just a little intimidating! It would be great to have a native trainer but super hard too. I don't know how I feel about that. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

Our phii thais (the older district) leave on Monday morning :( They fly to LAX and then straight to Bangkok, crazy! We are going to miss them so much! Hunter Tolman is in that district. I can't remember if I told you. They are so much fun, it won't be the same with out those 8 Elders. Then, after a week by ourselves, we get our nong thais (younger district) and there are only 4 of them. Maybe a sister or two, we're not sure. Elder Gong left yesterday for Taiwan. I'll miss seeing him all the time as well. He'll be great. I gave him a nice big handshake, almost as good as a hug. That reminds me. We took a bunch of pictures with the phii thais and it's so goofy to take pictures with Elders. It doesn't look that bad when you're taking the picture but when you look at the picture the no touching thing just looks so awkward. You don't really realize it until you have to take pictures without touching someone haha. Oh well, we'll just have to take better ones in 2 years.

My camera is great by the way. We can't upload pictures to the computer in the MTC but we will be able to in the field. In the meantime, I just put in an order for some prints so I will be sending you some pictures soon.

Is Roy Smith the Smiths on our street or where did he live. I can't picture him right now. I'm sending you my thank you notes in a package so if you could get them out that'd be great.

Casey is so great, if you haven't already told him, tell him hi for me! So the departure date thing, I really don't know. It says we're scheduled for Sept 5 which means I will be here for 9 weeks and 6 days. Not sure how I feel about cutting the learning short :s Someone said they might be trying to totally do away with 12 week programs which would explain the shortened time but I'm not sure. I hope I get to see Ethan but I guess we'll see.

Grandpa wrote to me about Mason and scout camp. Sounds like quite the week. I think it was probably very good for him :)

Oh Harry Potter. It does seem like a huge part of life. Can't believe it started when I was in elementary! Maybe I can get a Thai version a reawaken the newness of it haha

I'm so excited for a temple in France! That is great! Versailles, yes? Does that mean there will be 2 soon? Don't they have land in Paris as well?

Anyway, time is running out but if you have more questions let me know. It's kind of hard to know what you want to hear since everyday is pretty much the same.

Rag,

Sister King