Hey everyone!
Happy Thanksgiving! We changed our Preparation Day to today because yesterday we had Zone Conference and luckily it just so happened that the day we changed our P-Day to is Thanksgiving! To Celebrate, our Zone did the American thing and had a Turkey Bowl. We all went to a park and tossed the pig skin around. Unfortunately it wasn't a pig skin that we tossed around though...Thai people don't believe in Real Football. They play everything with there feet. We tried to get a real football but they don't sell them here so we had to play with a dagraa ball which is just a round hollow woven ball. It worked well for not actually having a real ball. So we spent some time at the park playing around and then we came home to get ready for tonight which I am really excited for. There is an American Branch in Pakkret and some of the members invited the missionaries in Bangkok to go and have Thanksgiving Dinner with them at there house. So tonight, we get a real American Thanksgiving meal with Pies, Turkey, real mashed potatoes, and rolls! I'm so excited for it. I remember last year when I was in Rangsit, we got to go eat dinner at a members house and it was amazing. This is one reason why I'm glad I'm still in Bangkok right now. Up country they don't get this.
Yesterday we had Zone Conference where we were visited by one of the members of the Quorum of the 70. Elder Pratt who is the South Asia Area President came and talked with us and it was way good! He talked about true repentance and how it is much more then just stopping sinning. He talked about how it is a change of heart and attitude. Trying to become more Christlike is also a form of repentance. Trying to have more love, faith, patience, charity and all those qualities is repenting. It helped open up my mind to repentance and what it really means. It was really good!
Well I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I got the package you send with all the letters you wrote me. I think that will be my favorite part of the whole package! I haven't opened any of the presents yet but the think the thing I was most interested in was the cards. Last night as I was reading them, I just couldn't stop smiling! Thank you so much for writing them for me! I miss you all and love you so much! Ill talk to you next week!

Elder Olsen

Hey everyone!
So Its been my first week with my Greenie. His name is Elder Mitchell. He is from Washington State and he is a way good missionary! Its been fun being a trainer because he is experiencing everything for the first time. Sometimes I forget that he is a New Missionary and he still doesn't know whats going on and I just go on doing everything as normal. He says Thai food is very spicy but I don't see it. Thai food is Thai food, its just delicious! Not spicy. The first couple of day's he has been pretty tired trying to adjust to the new schedule of working but he is doing really good. Today for his first Preparation Day, we took him to the Crocodile Farm and Zoo to kind of set the tone for all the sweet things that he is going to see on his mission. The zoos here in Thailand are a lot different then the zoos in America. There are no standards and rules for doing things. You can go right into the cages with a lot of the animals. We took some pictures with some crocodiles, tigers, monkeys, and elephants and it was all acceptable! It was a fun day.
Our area has been doing pretty good lately. we are planing on having 2 investigators baptized next month. Pop and Tig are planning to being baptized on the same day. They have been a blessing for us in this area. When I first got here to this area, it was hard! Not much was going on. we had 0 investigators, but with a lot of hard work and prayer, we have been able to see a lot of progression and change here. Now our days are full of lessons with investigators. We have truly seen miracles here and I'm way grateful for the chance I've had to serve here. Ive been here for 5 months and haven't seen any baptisms of our own, only from the Sisters, but in a couple of weeks, seeing Tig and Pop getting baptized, will make all the time Ive spent here worth it!

Steve

Hey everyone!
So another Moves period has come and gone. I can't believe it’s already been 6 weeks! I thought I was going to move this week at Moves Meeting because I have been in Bangna for 4 and half months now and that’s about average for an area. I thought Elder Kongla would stay here and get a new companion but I prophesied wrong! I got a call from the Mission President that I wasn't really expecting. He called me and asked me to be a trainer. That means Elder Kongla is moving after being here for only 6 weeks and I will be here for another 6 weeks. I'm excited though. It will be fun to get a Greenie missionary. It will feel like being a greenie all over again! It will be sad to see my Thai District broken up though. We even went out and made a District shirt together! What we did is we went to a shirt screening place and drew out a pattern for them to put on our shirts and what we did was we drew a picture of 4 sheep, 3 black and 1 white and put our names above the sheep. I was the white one and everyone else was a black sheep. Thai missionaries are rare here and usually there will be only 1 Thai missionary in a district and they usually can’t speak English all that well so it kind of makes them the black sheep. But in my case, I am in a white sheep in a district of black so we had to make a shirt of it! It’s a way cool shirt. I feel like my Thai ability has sky rocketed being in this district. It has helped me be more confident with everything I say. I feel if there is anything I want to say I can say it. Also, my accent has gotten a lot clearer. It’s been a big blessing being in this district. Unfortunately, it’s at an end but it’s OK. It will be fun being a trainer.

Last week we went to Ayuthaya and went sightseeing to the ancient Temples of Thailand. The Temple that is in the pictures is the Temple that Mortal Combat was filmed at. It was really fun!


Things are going well here. We are having fun! I'm excited to get my Greenie tomorrow! It will be fun training him! I love you all and thank you for all your emails and comments and everything! Talk to you next week!


Steve

Today, we have a zone activity-we're going ice skating! Ice skating is a special treat here in Thailand - I'm excited, it's going to be a lot of fun.
Monday was a lot of fun-it was a Thai holiday called ลอยกระทง Loy Krathong. This is a special holiday where they have little (or big) items shaped like a lotus flower that have a candle in the middle and they set them in the rivers and let them float away. A lot are made out of banana leaves and have thick candles so they burn for a long time. They also have lanterns called โคม that they release in the sky (see pictures) that slowly float away. We set off 2 lanterns at the church with some members-Brother Noy and Sister May (recent converts-also recently married), Brother Ronny (translates conference and is Branch Mission Leader), and Brother Dawm (who is entering the mission December 23 Yay!).