Hunker down, here it comes

I’m glad you all enjoyed the pictures, now you get a very small taste of Thailand.
I’m really considering sending home a spider somehow so that you can see just
how big they are.

As far as the accent, I’m still working hard at it but all the vowels are different
sounds than we're used to, I’ve never had to use my throat and nose to make a
sound before; it’s a workout sometimes.

So supposedly there’s some crazy weather coming our way, you probably know
about it. It’s been raining for well over a day straight. Every Thai person we see
tells us to get into a house because when this storm comes…dun dun dun!!!
Personally I’m way excited about it, I keep thinking about Helaman 5:12. I really
know nothing about this storm though except that we were told (from what I
understood) 300 people died from it. This is going to be awesome!

The sisters called last Thursday, as soon as I picked up the phone I knew they
were stressed, “I’ve had it, I can’t take it anymore, I want this thing dead” I knew
better then to tease them, so I just said "we’ll be right over." From the way they
described this “thing” it was about as big as King Kong and twice as fast and
stinky. So there we stood outside the door of their study room not knowing what
was on the other side. After getting ourselves all pumped up and exchanging
“good-games” we charged into the room as if possessed with mania. We moved
the table and right as I turned to move a chair the creature made its move. In
unison we started jumping around waving our arms while screaming “MOUSE”. It
was quite a pitiful sight. It jumped up into the air conditioner. It took us a minute
to find a screwdriver, but finally, with screwdriver in hand we went back to work.
I took the front of the conditioner off and the games began again. I really don’t
know what happened: brooms, mops and papers flying everywhere, then the
mouse ended up under my shoe somehow. What a rush! The mouse slayers
is our companionship name now, I’m just kidding!

They asked for a translator this week in church again and I offered to do it
because I wanted to know if I had improved at all. It was crazy the difference,
I actually taught this man the lesson being taught, I may have stretched
something a bit because I didn’t know but it felt so good to see that I’m actually
learning this language and that it’s a pretty safe bet to say I’ll speak it
someday =)
 
As far as the baptism; we’ve been working hard with him and he seemed to be
doing really well.  While thinking about him during personal study the other
morning I again had the strongest impression “he’s not ready.” I couldn’t figure it
out, he kept saying I don’t think I have a testimony but I knew there was
something else, too. We stopped by his house this past week to see how he
was doing. We walked in his store and couldn’t see him anywhere, we looked
out the back door and there he was out back smoking. You can imagine how
we felt, he turned around and saw us, it was really awkward for all of us. It’s so
hard for me to see, he was doing so well. This one think is stopping him from
receiving the happiness of membership in the church. I can’t describe my
feelings, I didn’t feel angry but rather I felt inside myself how much I really loved
this man. I don’t know how to help him see, I feel like I’ve done everything I
could. I was close to tears: I have spent every day thinking about him, praying
for him, and dedicating all my study to helping him. Please pray for him I know
he wants to be baptized but this addiction is so hard for him to overcome.

Every week we visit this man named nii-pone. He is handicapped; he has a very
hard time controlling himself, and can’t talk. I love teaching him because he is
so solid in the gospel and has such a spirit about him; and he is so funny. We
ended up coming to his house a day late due to missionary complications but
as soon as he saw us his face lit up and he couldn’t stop laughing and smiling.
He brought us in and Elder Wright and I taught a powerful lesson after which we
asked him to say the prayer. He was so excited. He grabbed a piece of paper
and a pencil and he started writing the prayer, it took him a long time but the
spirit was so strong and you could tell it was sincere and that he knew his
Father was listening. He wrote “Father in Heaven, your child is so grateful for
this day of happiness, in the name of Jesus Christ… what an experience.  

We just got the call saying I’ll be with Elder Wright for another moves, it’s
awesome! I’m stoked; I know we’re going to be able to do some great things in
the next 6 weeks!
Well time is short so I’d better wrap this up, I love you all, I can’t believe I’ve
almost been out for 4 months, it seems like a couple weeks ago I left. I’m
doing great and loving every minute. This is the church of Jesus Christ, he
has given and will do everything to help is of we but ask him in faith. I love
you all so much.
Tyrel (Elder Parkinson)
P.S. How's Mychel doing? Did everything go okay with the baby?