TBM - Bangkok Banter

I decided to send out a fun update instead of being so serious all the time.  After all, missions are fun! Last Saturday night we got to attend the symphony at the Cultural Center in Bangkok.  The conductor, a native Thai, happens to be LDS which is why we were invited.  He was truly amazing to watch.  The Princess also attended so we had our first real exposure to royalty.  They literally 'rolled the red carpet out' for her.  This was a first class affair and good PR for the church.  The Thais really like this LDS conductor.  He's famous in several countries besides Thailand. I mentioned last week that I would tell you more about Thai traffic and then I have a few pictures to share with you from the Ancient City. Driving here, or even just riding in a car, is always a thrill!  They don't really have many traffic rules - just whatever works is OK.  They drive on the left side of the road for starters, and that one they're pretty consistent about.  The right of way is the most interesting part.  Here's how it works - whoever is in front gets to go.  So if your bumper is slightly ahead of the guy next to you, you can cut him off - you get to go.  In the US, that type of driving will likely get you shot, but here it's just a way of life.  They don't get mad at all if someone cuts them off because they just cut someone else off to get where they are.  It actually works pretty well!  It's sort of like skiing.  Priority to the downhill skier, only here everything is flat. They don't have stop signs, just speed bumps in the road periodically so that traffic has to slow down.  That gives drivers in the cross traffic a chance to pull out and cut off the oncoming traffic!  It's really wild to watch if you're used to driving where there are actually signals, stop signs and traffic cops. They do have stop lights, but they are only on the really busy intersections.  Red lights can last up to 10 minutes, but people are surprisingly patient.  While the light is red, the scooters weave through the traffic and line up in front and between all the cars.  Sometimes you might have over two hundred scooters massed at the intersection on each side waiting for the green light.  They line up in all the lanes, because after all, there's no one coming the other way until the light turns green.  Since they are there first, they have the right of way!  Watching the scooters queue up gives the cars something to do while they're waiting!  They use U-turns a lot to avoid having to have signals at all on most roads. I read a very funny article on Bangkok traffic that I would like to share a few lines from, entitled 'You don't have to be crazy to drive in Bangkok, but it definitely helps!' "The first rule in Thailand is that the rules you think are rules are not rules here.  For example, just because a lane is not marked doesn't mean it doesn't exist.  Larger streets (sois) that are marked for three lanes in reality have room for six, not including motorcycles. Very few streets in Thailand are one-way.  But this does not mean that they cannot change and become one-way, usually when you least expect it. At some point you will flee the streets and seek refuge in a parking garage.  Uninformed visitors assume that the two lanes in the ramps of the parking garage are designed to let traffic proceed up or down.  This is wrong.  One lane is for you to go up or down, whichever direction moves you.  The other lane is a passing lane." I haven't seen that last example yet, but all the rest is true.  Another interesting thing is parking.  Double parking is not only the norm, they actually encourage it.  As a parking space is a sought after commodity and since everything is flat in Bangkok, people routinely park behind someone else, blocking them in.  They lock their car, but leave it in neutral with the brake off.  That way, when the car they're blocking needs to leave, they just push it out of the way.  This happens every day, in every busy parking lot.  Amazing!  I've even seen a parking lot where they have painted parking spaces designed to hem in whoever is brave enough to park in the 'normal' spaces. Well, enough about traffic.  Here are a few shots from the Ancient City just slightly South of town. Young Thai girls dancing in traditional costumes. How would you like this in your backyard??? Thanks for sticking it out to the end.  You did very well! Elder Lindorf

TBM - Thailand Update

Hi All! We're sure loving it here in Thailand.  Church today was interesting being the only ones who don't speak Thai.  One of the Zone Leaders translated for us.  We want to learn more Thai so we can tell what's going on and communicate a little better.  We were able to sing along in Thai this time as we now have the Romanized songbook.  Singing hymns is delightful because the tempo for most of the hymns is a little slower than regular speech so it's easier to follow. It's hard to describe the happiness and joy we feel each day, just being a part of missionary work in Thailand.  President Hansen briefed me this week on the mission's upcoming plans to begin proselyting soon in Myanmar (Burma).  I read the 'Red Handbook' this week which described the growth of the Church in Thailand from the very beginning in the late 1960s.  I wondered what it would have been like for those first missionaries that came from Hong Kong and didn't speak a lick of Thai.  It's exciting to think that the book is yet to be written for Myanmar.  We may know personally the Elders that are blessed with the opportunity to be the first ones to open a new country.  This prophecy is literally being fulfilled in our day.  How blessed and fortunate we are that we can be part of it. 2  The keys of the kingdom of God are committed unto man on the earth, and from thence shall the gospel roll forth unto the ends of the earth, as the stone which is cut out of the mountain without hands shall roll forth, until it has filled the whole earth. (Doctrine and Covenants | Section 65:2) I appreciated the talks in Conference that were a tribute to Joseph Smith and his divine calling.  Truly he could see our day and beyond.  We live in exciting times indeed! Now for the fun part. The pineapples here are the bomb!  I don't know why we import pineapple from Hawaii.  They grow a different variety here and it's unbelievably sweet and good.  Plus you can get a whole pineapple for about 50 cents. Saturday (P-Day) we took a two hour train ride North of Bangkok to Lopburi to see the monkeys.  I think I know why the Thai economy is in trouble.  Our train ticket was only $2.50 roundtrip! I'm going to put some pictures in to dress this up.  Besides, words cannot adequately describe what we found there. Here we are at the train station.  Do you think there might be some monkeys in Lopburi? This little guy decided he wanted Teena's water bottle more than she did! The monkeys have pretty much taken over this town.  Notice the bars and screens on all the buildings to keep the monkeys OUT! Most of them live in an ancient Buddhist Wat.  This guy is happy to see us! They like to take things from you.  After Teena lost her water bottle, she almost lost her sunglasses. They must think that Elder Thielet needs a haircut.  These monkeys are not in a cage.  They're outside.  We're in the cage feeding them! This little guy was particularly friendly to Elder Holley. What's this?  A Restoration brochure? I guess this gives new meaning to 'Preach the Gospel to every Creature'. Hope you're all well. Elder and Sister Lindorf

TBM - Welcome to Thailand

Dear Ones, What an amazing week this has been!  As I ponder words to describe how I feel today, after one week in Thailand, the best I can come up with is "awesome wonder."  And I have found that being on a mission lends that quality to almost anything we are doing.  I love being a missionary! My heart reverberated with love as I heard Elder Faust, in the Relief Society Broadcast, say:  "A sister missionary serving in Thailand wrote about sitting with sisters in Bangkok for last year's broadcast. She said, 'I felt such a strength from this tiny group of Thai women, doing their best to follow counsel from women in Salt Lake they have never met. Isn't it remarkable to feel the bond of sisterhood that spans the oceans and rivers in many countries as we join together in this meeting!'"  There I was, a Sister Missionary, sitting shoulder to shoulder with my dear sisters in Bangkok Thailand, listening to a prophet of God talk about us!  The meeting came alive!  It brought a sweetness to that gathering that was fed by the Holy Spirit.  My heart echoed the very words that my beloved friend, Barbara Lockhart, had offered in the opening prayer, "We rejoice, Father, in the privilege of being gathered together as Sisters all over the world." We have had a wonderful week of new experiences.  And when I say new, I MEAN NEW!  One quick example, I will call a "monsoon roadie."  Here's how it happened.  We go out to eat every day for lunch.  At first we were going to the more "established" restaurants with more "established" prices.  (None of the food we have found is very expensive, really.)  Then the Office Elders talked us into (challenged us?) to try one of their missionary haunts for lunch with the accompanying cheaper budget.  We tried it and loved it!  So they've been taking us to different places each day.  So fun!  ... and so good!  Well, we heard about a dessert made by the street vendors called a roadie (spelled phoenetically).  But you never know if you'll be able to find someone making them on any given day (kind of like the ice cream truck - you just have to wait until you see one).  So, Elder Lindorf came bursting into the office all excited last Friday, because he had seen one down the street.  So we rushed out the door (it was still lunch hour), and down the street to catch him before he moved on.  What we hadn't counted into the equation was that we had been having lightening and thunder for about an hour and the storm was about to break wide open.  And so it did!  As we were running down the sidewalk (of course, in our haste, we had left the umbrella back at the office), the deluge began!  When it rains in Thailand, IT RAINS!  We were ducking in at every overhang we could find (along with everybody else on the sidewalks) and giggling the whole way.  When we found the roadie vendor, we were completely soaked.  So we just abandoned any concern for staying dry and watched as he made our roadie.  Let me describe this little wonder for you.  He begins by rolling out a dough to very thin, which he then fries in a large wok with a little oil in it.  The dough puffs up as it turns golden brown.  In the meantime, he takes a banana (he has all of this down to an art form, and performs this "dance" with great finesse), slices it finely and places it in the pastry after he has turned it over.  Then he adds sweetened condensed milk (a favorite sweetener here) and rolls it up all fancy.  We stood under his extra-large blue umbrella in the middle of a "monsoon" relishing every bite of our roadie and enjoying his company.  We thought we'd wait until there was a little let-up in the storm before we headed back, but there was NO break.  You can imagine our appearance as we entered the office for our afternoon's work.  Now, to add insult to injury, that afternoon at 1:00 happened to be the BIG 3 hour meeting (with all the office members - 10 of us), where our Mission President announced to everyone that we would be the new Office Managers!  Us!  The two who were a giggling, wet, soggy, frumpled mess with roadie on our faces!  Such fun! To conclude, let me tell you about the baptism we went to today in our little Pakrett Branch.  Since our branch is in a District (instead of a Stake), with no satellite facilities, we had church as usual, instead of General Conference.  We had been to Downtown Bangkok, where the only Stake Center in Thailand is, for one taped session of Gen Conf.  But the members of our branch didn't go.  Because we had to cross town, we arrived at the baptism a little late.  As we quietly entered the meeting, one of the sisters was giving a talk on baptism.  As Elder Holley translated for us, I felt transformed.  I knew that here was one of the most important events that can transpire on this earth.   And that this humble ordinance was taking place in like manner all over the earth.  I knew that the Holy Ghost was speaking to each brother and sister in that room, just as He was speaking to me - NO TRANSLATION NECESSARY!  I knew that as Sister Juan came up out of the water, that the look on her face was being duplicated at baptisms all over the world.  ...Different languages, different skin colors, same look!   God lives!  And as Pres Faust said in this Conference:  "President Hinckley richly enjoys the guidance of the Head of this Church, Jesus Christ." God bless you! Love, Sister and Elder Lindorf PS  The attached pictures are a couple of shots of our new little home.  We're in an 11th story apartment, with a view!  Who would have thought?  We're very comfortable and have more room that we even anticipated.