Service Experience Time!!!!!

So THIS is the reason we are here in Thailand. It is the ministry, and Oh is it wonderful!
I have been trying to keep track of all the great experiences we have had, So here we go:

In search of "farangs"

(foreigners)
A funny one to begin with was one day when I was with Amanda shortly after she moved here. I was wanting to help her find some english speaking return visits and I was feeling lazy myself too so it was a good excuse to make her do the work haha! I would helpfully point out white people and make her talk to them. One man told us he had a friend in Germany who is a witness and was favorable to our visiting him. He gave Amanda his address and phone number, and we later saw him pushing his 1/2 Thai baby in a stroller. so cute :)
A little bit later we saw a black guy riding by on his motorbike with his little girl. I could tell he wasn't African so I yelled, "HELLo!" as he rode by. I try this sometimes and its funny how it can work. He slowed down and said hello, so I yelled, "Where are you from?" He stopped and told us he is from Ohio. We told him we are witnesses and he gave us his number as well. Amanda called him but he was out of town for 2 weeks, so the other day as we are riding on the scooter I hear Amanda yelling, "Royal!!". He and his daughter were driving in the next lane, saw us and yelled, "We just got back into town, call us this week!"His little girl had a Huge smile on as we rode by, its so neat how friendly the "foreigners" can be! I mean in the states I don't think my approach would work quite so well or that we would get as many phone numbers as we do. I think many people are happy to have someone with whom they can speak English, and they are also impressed to see JW's everywhere. Maybe it makes them feel like a piece of "home" has followed them here to Thailand. Many times I make people guess who we are and then congratulate them when they get it right. It makes me happy when they say Jehovah's Witnesses. One man I met from Las Vegas I gave a high five when he immediately knew who we were. He says he really likes our religion and is thinking to retire here and would like to come to the meetings. I have to keep working on him.

Forgiving my terrible memory:

     I feel terrible because last night someone called me who I had saved in my phone but didn't recognize their names at all. So I texted them that my memory was failing me as to where I met them, that I was a Jehovah's Witness girl here in Pattaya, and did they remember where we met? Well it turns out it was this nice couple whom I had seen while eating lunch at a Chinese Bible student's house and ran out to the road to give them a tract. The wife is from the Philippines and the husband is Middle Eastern. They welcomed me to visit them and even gave me a card with thier information on it. I was So upset when I lost the card, and I did not know I had saved their number in my phone. So I was So happy when he called me and told me who they were. But the awful part is he also said he and his wife saw me at the market and said hello to me and could tell I did not remember them. :(:( But said it was fine and that I can visit them this week! I am grateful for their kindness as well as Jehovah's in allowing me to keep them though I am so Bad!

"    This was the delicious chinese lunch we were enjoying when I met them ;) The woman in yellow is a Bible student who insisted on feeding 8 of us who were just stopping by to say hello! She sent out her husband for groceries and he whipped up all this food on his return. (Just another perk to the ministry here lol ;)

Jack Update:

So last time I think I wrote about this funny and thoughtful kid he had left for Bangkok to be with his mother. I didn't know when he would be back but kept following up with his dad. So one day about a month ago his dad called me and told me, "Jack is coming back this week and I told him you would come see him." And So I did. :) I took Bridgette (CO's wife) and she was just as happy to meet him. He took us in his room to show us a Buddhist idol the cleaning lady had put there. He told us it creeped him out but that she told him if he fed it he would make it happy. I said, "But you know the truth about idols, right?" He had told me one of the first times I met him. "They have a mouth but can't talk and eyes but they can't see!" I forget what other funny things he said but I was very happy when he came to the meeting that week. It was the Sunday meeting and he was late but said he was able to find the Kingdom Hall because he must be psychic, so I told him Jehovah helped him find it. And then that's what he told everyone else. Partway through the meeting he leaned over and said, "I feel very blessed here." He said he wanted to come every Sunday after that but then got sick for a bit. I still came with Br Glen who I turned him over to. He is so funny because he will be reading, "Some people hold back out of shame or embarrassment (from asking Q's) and will interject, Why are they embarrassed!? You don't need to be embarrassed!" Glen has devised a good way to keep him focused when we are reading by having him read the next word when Glen pauses. But he really is an intelligent kid who thinks about the Bible and is enjoying learning about it. We also visited his dad yesterday after having had one great study with him in the chapter "Real hope for our loved ones who have died". He says he likes our religion the best out of all religions but doesn't understand our view on blood. Glen offered to bring him the video about it and he is really interested in seeing it he thinks if it weren't for this issue more people would be witnesses. I am going to hold him to that ;)

PI-Pod Nong Piin and Nong Thiik!

One of my very favorite and consistent studies is Pi-Pod. (we say Pi for anyone older and nong for those younger) And get this: She Only Speaks Thai!!! I found her many months ago while working with Br. Samnuk. He was wonderful making me use my baby presentation and then interpreting for me when I ran out of words. He and his wife are translators at Bethel. So I gave her the truth tract and asked her if she had ever wondered about any of the questions. She said no. This is actually common for Thai. So then I said I was sure she thinks about the future for her children. Would she be interested in a future where she would not have to worry about their security? She then said a lot in Thai and Samnuk told me, "She wants to study the Bible. Her father studied through the post when she was little." And that's how I started to study with Pi-Pod.

I prepare my lesson in English and Thai and read the questions in Thai. I have also prepared short Thai prayers, and she is incredible at being patient with me and trying to understanding my thai baby babble. I always bring a Thai friend with me all but 2 times. Those two times were pretty funny but the last one (this week) was a little exciting how well I feel it went. Not terrible, that's how well! haha Pi-pod told a friend early on that even though she cannot always understand me since I don't speak Thai (yet) that she could tell how much I care about her. That was so encouraging to hear. She also said that she had received literature from Witnesses before and always wondered how she could learn more. The fact that she has SUper Adorable children doesn't hurt either! Nong Thiik is about 4 and is sad if I don't come. He always gives us juice boxes and is one of the cutest little boys Ever!

Daisey:

Last time we did our visa run (3 months now) I was trying to be like my roomie Liza and the Russian friends here. Meaning I was trying to preach to everyone or just be more conscious of it. So when there was a Philippino girl on our bus I gave her a tract and ate lunch with her when we stopped. I asked her about what she thought God's Kingdom was. I showed her Jehovah's name and said at some point that Jesus was King of God's Kingdom. Later I called her and visited her while she was working at a hair salon. I asked her if she had any questions she said yes and than asked if Jesus was King of God's Kingdom why did he sit at his father's right hand waiting after he was resurrected. I did some research and returned. We started studying in the Bible Teach book and she has prepared from the start underlining and writing out every scripture. She chose the chapter What Happens When we Die? I had her explain it to me using the scriptures once we finished. The challenge was that she was working 7 days a week and could only take 5-10 minutes away a week to study with me. I offered to come early morning or late at night and nothing worked out until she decided to quit! She wanted to more time to study! YAY! So this week we had our first hour long study. I absolutely love studying with her. I asked her if it was difficult at all since she was raised Catholic and what we have been learning is different from what she's previously been taught. She said no because it made sense and she could see clearly it was from the Bible.

Nicholas:

One sweltering hot Sunday after enduring 2 hours of nothing but Thai (at the meeting) the LAst thing I wanted to to was to go in service with the Thai congregation in between meetings. Often I would be the only english speaker out and I So did not want to speak Thai. I was tired and yes a little grumpy. I wanted to go with Liza on her study but she told me Jehovah would bless me with a good day. I begrudgingly went. And he did reward me though I did not deserve it. It was a good thing I was with the Thai friends because I Was the only one who spoke English.

We met Nicholas a German man living here in Thailand with his 3 daughters who have a Thai mother. She had recently left him after he could not afford to buy her mother a house. He was very depressed and was told by his neighbor to get a Bible. After discussing many scriptures about the future of the Earth (he thought it would be destroyed) I told him I could get him a German Bible when I went back to the Kingdom Hall in an hour. Well he decided to come and get it himself. We picked him and his girls up and they came to the meeting less than an hour after we met him! He says God sent us. So I returned the next week with our German elder Han. We were there for 2 hours. And then he moved several hours away. I called to see how they were doing a few weeks after and got on the subject of how much the Bible can help him. He then asked me, "What can I do to keep learning now that I live out here?" That was so touching, Skype! I said!! So we have had several Skype studies that Amanda and I are conducting until Han returns from elder school in Germany.

Last News Flash for Today!

Amanda and I got our Drivers Licences!!! And we have inspired scared girl Everywhere to do the same! (or at least Janelle) Glen, her husband, made this comic to commemorate our special day. O the delicious freedom! Don't worry though, we drive chaaaa chaaaaa (slow slow-Thai) and ALways wear our helmets, Amanda wears hers even when she is not on a bike! yay!

They're pastel and pretty :)-(our helmets)

It has been beautiful to see Jehovah drawing people and to have a small part in it. There are so many experiences to share but I don't have the time to write them all. Be assured studies are plentiful out here!
I hope you have enjoyed a taste of what they are like-It's Wonderful!

Bye and Love you all!!!!
Meeeeee