Dear Friends and Family!
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ours was uniquely wonderful, and so I want to give you a little synopsis. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner with some of the local missionaries at the Mission Home. In addition, Elder Lindorf and I were asked to help prepare, and in the process teach, 2 Thai Branches (almost an hour away) how to have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. I couldn't even conceive what it would be like to prepare Thanksgiving Dinner for over 100 people, but we trusted in the Lord and off we went!
The activity was held on Saturday, with dinner planned for 8 PM. So we got started early with turkey and food preparation.
Yes, Thais do a lot of work and eating, while sitting on the floor. And they love any opportunity to socialize and chat.
While we were working through the language barrier, I was reminded of that first Thanksgiving. As the Pilgrims and Indians prepared their feast, side by side, I'm sure they resorted to some of the same antics we were going through.
They really wanted to learn how to make these wonderful Thanksgiving dishes, and in the end we were quite successful. Most of my "teaching" involved a lot of gesturing, pointing, and demonstrating. In this picture you can see that it was frustrating at times, but we all had a good time.
 
The dinner was held in conjunction with a "Birthday Party for Joseph Smith (Samit)." I don't know if you are doing anything like this in the US, but here, all the wards and branches are celebrating the birth of Joseph Smith with a birthday party. They play games centered around the life of Joseph Smith. They also portray parts of his life and watch videos on the First Vision. They usually have someone give a talk on his life and bear their testimony. Then they sing with gusto the hymns of the restoration. (Thai members LOVE to sing with gusto - we could take a lesson!) And what's a birthday, without birthday cake, candles, and singing Happy Birthday? (The cake reads: 200th Birthday Anniversary, Prophet Joseph Smith, 23 Dec 2005.)
Where's my helper? Oh, there he is!
We cooked using varying methods. It is rare to find an oven (or a roasting pan) large enough to hold a turkey, so we had to scramble to find two big ovens. Then, we used woks, crock pots, and very, VERY large kettles. We ended up cooking the potatoes over a "fire crock" with a huge open flame (outside, of course!).
And the cook pronounces it GOOD!
Here we have with the BEFORE and AFTER pictures! It was a big hit! (The women in yellow, behind the table, worked tirelessly all day to pull this off.)
Finally, all good missionaries had to skee-daddle home, in order to not break curfew.
Because we don't go to either of these branches, we began the day as strangers, but ended the day as dear friends. We departed with fond hugs and farewells. As we walked down the lonely, dark road (to catch a taxi home), and receded back into a memory for them, it seemed to me that this is what the 3 Nephites must feel like when they finish a day's work. After all, they probably just show up in the morning out of nowhere, they work to bless lives all day long, and then they're gone.
All my love,
Sister Lindorf
|
