Riley Pictures 7.30.12

Elder Siriphan and I looking as dapper as ever. ----- I gave my camera to one of the investigators and I guess she though I'd appreciate pics of her daughter...

Yeah...Thailand has supreme sunsets. ----- Yes. New favorite shirt.

A little service. We helped an investigating family pour concrete at Khonkaen university. ----- Zone conference...sweet business. The missionaries who go home soon are sitting in front.

Khon Kaen 7.30.12

Dearest family that I love,

This week was fast. Too fast. I feel like the days, weeks, months are zooming by. I have already been a missionary for 6 months. A quarter of my mission is done, gone, over, finished. Yikes! It is motivation to really work my hardest and make the most out of my time here because it is so short.

The highlight of this week was Zone Conference. President Senior is so dapper, so classy. But he is great, I felt motivated and energized after the conference. He sort of reminds me of President Tew. He likes to call on people at random to share testimonies and he doesn't beat around the bush, he likes straightforwardness and directness. I have only seen him 3 times now but so far that's the impression I got of him. The Zone Conference started at 9 and ended at 3 though, it was nuts. But we had some breaks (fruit break-yes, pizza break-oh heck yes) in between all the lessons/talks so it was all good. I learned a lot though and also realized that there is a lot I can improve. That is really the theme of everything I learned this week: I have a lot I can improve. Luckily, I don't have to do it alone (frankly, I couldn't do it if I was). It is comforting to know through Christ's Atonement I can receive spiritual strength to overcome challenges and change my behavior/thoughts/attitude/actions. That is something President Senior really emphasized; personally living the gospel of Jesus Christ more fully. As we exercise faith in Christ, He will help us repent, or change/improve our lives. When thinking of the gospel I really like Moroni 7:33-34. We really can do all things with faith, even the seemingly impossible task of perfecting ourselves.

#Isthisreallifemoment: Elder Heslop were inviting this street. We are inviting this family when a guy on a motorcycle rolls up and starts talking to E. Heslop. I decided to continue inviting the family. I told them about Heavenly Father and how he has a plan for our families to have more happiness in this life and then asked if we could explain more. They said yes, come on in. Score. But E. Heslop was still talking to the man on the moto. So I tried to small talk (awkwardly) while we waited. When the moto guy left we taught them and they said we could come back again. Sweet. Just a normal invite? Nope. Later that night E. Heslop told me what the guy on the moto was saying. Apparently he had found a pass-along card on the side of the road. It is the card with Jesus holding a lamb. He picked it up and read the stuff on the back about the Book of Mormon and decided he needed one. So when he was heading to work and saw E. Heslop and I he stopped and asked for one. How he knew that we were the people that have the Book of Mormon I don't know but somehow he did. Unfortunately, the only copy E. Heslop had at the time was a misprinted one with some messed up pages but we got his number so we can meet him later. So in 10 minutes we experienced a mini miracle and got in a house and found a sweet family. I sort of felt like David after his trip to the dentist, "Is this real life?"

Bad news bears. One of our investigator's wife told him if he went to church he didn't need to come home. Nuts. Apparently she hates us...but we'll fix that. We plan on teaching him how to fast and fasting with him for his wife to have a softer heart. If that doesn't work, we'll bake her cookies. Done deal.

As for my companion, E. Heslop is a boss. He has swagger out the yingyang. He is from Utah. He is an expert dancer and plays tennis. He likes hightops and the jabbawockeez. Yeah...we get along great.

Much Love,

Elder M. Riley Creer

The Only

#Hashtags:

Improving little by little #babystepstotheelevator #namethatmovie #5letterweek

New Investigator. First Visit: baptismal date #Golden. Second Visit: He doesn't want to meet anymore #Psych. #ultimate bummer

Riley Pictures 7.23.12

yep...that's a buffalo ----------- Dinner at the market. yes.


We slammin, we slammin, we slammin (Bob Marley)


our branch president...and his service hat. what a champ

Khon Kaen 7.23.12

Hey Family.

This week was sweet.

First off, some funny things Buddhist people say/do: I was giving a baptism pass along card to a lady on a scooter at a stoplight and she completely misinterpreted the picture. Hilarious. She thought one guy was checking the other guy's pulse. I stifled my laughter and explained that he wasn't checking his vitals and that he was in fact performing a saving ordinance. I don't know if she understood any better but when the light turned green and she zoomed off E. Heslop and I busted up laughing. Second story: We gave a restoration pamphlet to an investigator we have been seeing for a while now. He learns really slow, so we just asked him to read the pamphlet and we'd go over it next time. Well the next time we get there and ask if he read it and he starts reciting it...word for word. He was trying to memorize it! I died laughing...on the inside. But it took us forever to explain that we don't want him to memorize the pamphlets we give him just read them. I guess you could say I realized this week that there is a humongous culture difference between us and Thai people. In Buddhism, everything is memorized prayers so this guy thought he had to memorize these pamphlets and the Book of Mormon. I would never even think of trying to memorize the Book of Mormon. Thai people just think differently than we do, which makes some situations hilarious.

Yes, Katie Thailand has 7-eleven. But they only have 2 slurpee flavors...Coke and Strawberry. My slurpee consumption has seriously declined since I've been here, I've only had one or two (shocking I know). But they have these delicious shake/smoothie things for pretty cheap that are way tasty. So we get those a lot.

Earlier in the week we met this guy and gave him a Book of Mormon but weren't able to teach him until yesterday. Well we go over there and he had already read 80 pages...true story. He had read the introduction and stuff about Joseph Smith about 3 or 4 times too. I was in shock. He actually recognized that the stuff in the back is an index (that never happens here!) and had already looked up some words in it. He knew that Moroni was the son of Mormon and that he had appeared to Joseph Smith. That's when my jaw dropped. So we tried to give him a baptismal date and he basically said he didn't want to change religions. Talk about a surprise ending right? But we made a return appointment and committed him to read and pray to know if it is true. We'll see where it goes.

Yes moment: We are inviting. Rejection out the wazoo. Just the usual, nothing special. Then we invite this one house. This guy walks outside and immediately says, roughly, "Welcome to my home, come on in." We taught a lesson gave him a soft baptismal commitment and made a return appointment. Yes.

Quick note about our boss of a Branch Mission Leader: He is a champion. He called one of our investigators who said she couldn't come to church because she had to study. Well on Sunday she came. We asked what he told her to get her to church and he said he asked if she had A/C at her house. Yeah true story. He asked her if she had A/C, she didn't. So he said why don't you come to church for an hour and enjoy the air conditioning. So she did. How does he do it? I don't even know but I suspect it has something to do with his great hair. E. Heslop thinks he looks like an Asian version of Link from Legend of Zelda. I think I agree.

Well life is great in the land down under.

Much Love,

Elder M. Riley Creer

The Only

#hashtags:

Gotta love that 15 minute bicycle sprint across town to get home on time. #8:59 #nailed it

Ate yellow watermelon...tastes the same as red watermelon #lowkeydisappointment

Came home to 4 letters one day #instantencouragement

Girl, I go to work. True Winnna. Jeans Skinny. #namethatsong

Riley Pictures 7.16.12

That awfully big guy was in our house...luckily in the Zone Leaders' room

Don't worry...we got it. Considered eating it for all of 2 seconds and then threw it into the yard behind our house.

Elder Tzanis and I hittin up Swensen's and McD's for dinner.

Flavor Overload

Khon Kaen 7.16.12

Dear Family

Yes. This week was pretty sweet. It was a bit of a roller coaster though. It started out way good, had a loop in the middle and ended crawling back to the station.

We served one of our investigators this week. She has crazy back pain so we cut her lawn (thinking of starting a landscaping company when I get back, I'll have plenty of experience). Well lawn doesn't really do her yard justice. I think jungle describes it better. The grass was as tall as me in places (not saying much). We attacked that mess with a hoe, a machete, and some pruning shears. Yeah...it took a long time. We were all so sore the next day it was ridiculous. It'd be a great ending to this story if she came to church and started gulping the gospel after we served her...but the truth is we haven't been able to meet her since. Part of the reason is because it is really hard to get male members to come help us, the other part is because the phone number she gave us was actually her 12 year old nephew's number. We'll see what happens this week though.

The loop: E. Heslop exchanged with E. Staten in Kalasin which means I got to work with E. Tzanis in Khonkaen. E. Tzanis is nuts. He is probably the funniest missionary I know. He is from Australia and freaking hilarious. We had a blast together and got some good stuff done. We taught one or our new baptismal daters and it was a stellar lesson. We were teaching Fern (yeah that's her name) about the restoration with our branch mission leader and some other members. It was nuts. The spirit was all over that business. Fern totally gets it too. It is awesome teaching her. But it was a powerful lesson full of the Spirit. The branch mission leader said he understood 95% of what I said #holleratthegiftoftongues. It was definitely the highlight of my week. I could feel the Spirit working through me, testifying to Fern.

The last two days: Saturday is when things started slowing down. I don't know if it is because I made the plans without E. Heslop (I planned with E. Tzanis) or just because crazy stuff happens. But we switched back and our streak of teaching a lot just dropped off the cliff. The appointments we had for that night canceled. So we went inviting...and didn't teach a single lesson. Yikes. So that was kind of a bummer. We were looking forward to Sunday though, we had 5 or 6 appointments planned. Well they all canceled except for one (humbling much?). So we invited until our only remaining appointment, rode our bikes across the city and find out the dad of the family isn't going to be home until 8. Nuts. The bad part is we didn't find out in time to tell sister นก (she was going to help us teach) not to come, so she rolls up right after we find out the dad isn't even home. It was a bummer. But sister นก was super cool about it. So yeah the last two days we haven't taught a single lesson. It was a real lame way to end the week. We have good plans for this next week though, it'll be sick nasty.

Scripture of the week: Ether 12:4. First of all, I really love Ether 12. It is champion status. But I think this verse is awesome. If we believe in God then we can hope for a better world, and this hope ties our souls to the gospel because if we want to reach that better world we need to live worthy of it. I'm not sure that last sentence makes sense but Moroni (at least I think he is the one talking) says it better anyway.

Keepin it real in Thailand,

Elder M. Riley Creer

The Only

Hashtags:

French Toast in a waffle maker #tastybusiness #divinerevelation

Red Tie. White Shirt. Blue Pants. #America

E. Heslop dances like a boss. #colormeimpressed

Missionary work brings joy #truestory

Riley Picture 7.8.12

We takin' over...one lesson at a time.

Khon Kaen 7.8.12

Hey family!

I have a companion! Yes. I'm not an awkward third wheel anymore. This week was madness.

#Bangkok: This city is massively crazy. We left Khonkaen Wednesday night at about 11, rode a bus all night and got to Bangkok at 4:30 am. The transfers meeting was held in a church building in the center of Bangkok. We anticipated lots of traffic. There wasn't any. We got there 3 hours early. Yikes. After the meeting was over I had to go renew my visa and work permit with a bunch of other missionaries in my MTC group. It was pretty cool to see them all again and swap embarrassing stories. Renewing the visa took for...ev...er #sandlotquote. We're talking 3 to 4 hours forever. Returning from visa mayhem was even more mayhem. It took an hour and a half to get back. #lessonlearned: never get in a taxi with missionaries that are just as young as you and expect to get through bangkok in a timely manner. When I finally got back to the church building where transfers was held the real madness starts. It's called getting luggage, bikes, and bodies to the bus station before the bus leaves. You think it wouldn't be too bad, just hop in a taxi, jerry-rig a bike to the back and go. Nope. Every taxi refused to take us to the bus station. So we hoofed it to the subway thing and rode that bad boy as close to the bus station as we could, then hopped into taxis to get us the rest of the way. We get there and I think the fun/misery is about to end. Nope. We spent the next 45 minutes cramming all this stuff on the bus. I felt pretty sorry for the luggage guy, he was under a lot of stress. He looked like he'd rather die than help all these white people get their bikes home. With some creative thinking and crazy tetris skills we got all the stuff on and headed out. We rode all night. Got home at 2:30 am. Went to bed. Up at 6:30. Nutshell: Anything involving Bangkok is automatically crazy.

Hilarious Story: We were serving a sister in our ward, just cutting her lawn...with a machete and glorified kitchen scissors, you know the usual. Sister ¹¡ wasn't there yet, so we just started. Bad idea. E. Heslop, my new companion, cut a ugly looking shrub growing out of the middle of her yard. We didn't think anything of it, actually we thought we had done her a favor (it was pretty ugly). Boy were we wrong. Turns out, her mom gave her that plant. It gets worse, the plant is really hard to find. It gets worse, her mom died recently. Nightmare. It was the perfect storm. E. Heslop felt like a monster. Sister ¹¡ was surprisingly calm about it, she didn't flip, she didn't kill us, she even gave us Swensen's ice cream after we were done serving. She was at church yesterday so I guess no real damage was done.

We were eating at an investigators house on saturday night. They said they would feed us isaan food. Score. We show up with two sisters from the branch. It's going great I'm thinking. The food is alright, no som tom but no bugs either. Then they bring out this meat that looks like straight up pooh. Seriously. It looked like pooh. It was raw meat. Sirens are going off in my mind. Salmonella, hospitals, death. I figure I'll just casually avoid it. Disaster. The dad of the house tells me to try it. #crap. So I get some on my plate and am adding rice to the spoonful when he says eat it without rice. Are you kidding? I can't get a break. I'm about to eat raw meat and I can't even eat it watered down with rice. It's like having to read a horrible novel for school and realizing they don't have sparknotes for it. #worstfeelingever. So what do i do? I eat it. Surprisingly it wasn't too bad. It was doused in enough spices that I was more concerned with my burning tongue than anything else. Crazy right? Well next they bring out snails. #realtalk #wishiwaskidding They give you a toothpick and you stab it in and twirl the little guy out of his shell...then eat him. It was awful. The most bitter thing I've ever eaten. SO gross. Don't do it. Just say no.

Life is great. Mission life rocks.

Much Love,

Elder M. Riley Creer
The Only

Hashtags:
back 2 back nights on a bus...#spareme
My new companion goes hard on the dance floor. We'll see what I can learn in 6 weeks #watchout

Riley Pictures 7.1.12

wow...the sky is on fire ----- Temple Time

The Thrio ----- Yeah..... No comment

So adorable

Khon Kaen 7.1.12

Dear Familia,

This week has been some more craziness. Before I forget, the new address is:

1645/6 New Petchaburi Road, Makkasan, Ratchathewi, Bangkok 10400

1645/6 ถนนเพชรบุรีตัดใหม่ แขวงมักกะสัน เขตราชเทวี กรุงเทพฯ 10400

As for packages Mom, I really don't need anything. It's so pricey to send stuff anyway.

No new companion yet. But I will find out tomorrow who it is. It is pretty absolute that I will stay in Khonkaen for another transfer (if I don't they would have to whitewash the area) but anything could happen. Tomorrow I meet the new mission president too! We are having a little meet and greet with our zone, the other isaan zone and President Senior and his wife. It should be a good time.

This week I gave my first blessing in Thai. This investigator was having serious back issues so we offered to give her a blessing. I thought for sure E. Grover and E. Staten (we exchanged with Kalasin that day) would do it. Nope. E. Grover anointed and asked me to do the sealing. It was cool and nuts at the same time.

We did some more traveling this week. We went to Udorn Thani, Roi Et, and Kalasin. In each place we ate Isaan food (sticky rice with spicy papaya salad stuff with assorted delicious meats), so I have eaten Isaan food in almost every city in the Isaan (Udorn was the best). In each place the zone leaders taught a district meeting, so I got to hear it 3 times. It was fabulous.

#Crazystory: Last night we had an appointment to teach some potential investigators we met by a street market. We didn't know where they lived so we agreed to meet them at a market near their home. While we wait E. Olive decides that I need to lead the lesson. So we plan it out roughly and then the guy meets us on his moped and starts leading us to their house. It was ridiculous, we were winding through all sorts of little streets. I thought for sure he had no intention of taking us to his house and was just leading us around town for a bit. Finally we get to his house and go inside. We find about 8 people, in a circle, gambling (we were only expecting to teach 2). They were pretty rowdy and may or may not have been drunk (see hashtag below). We asked if we could teach them all for about 10 minutes expecting them to tell us to come back later. Surprisingly they put their cards away, turned off the tv and circled around us to listen. We taught a little about who God is and how baptism can wash away our sins. All the while, trying to ignore their inappropriate comments and keep them under control. It was pretty nuts but E. Grover said I did pretty well. There was one lady (the one we met at the market) who was genuinely interested so hopefully we can meet her again...at the church.

These past two weeks have been pretty insane. I feel like I have learned a ton though from E. Grover and E. Olive and also from being forced to lead my area. I've had to rely on the Lord for help a lot in planning and teaching. Sometimes things didn't work out the way we planned it, but when you trust in the Lord you know that whatever happens is supposed to happen. Speaking Thai is still a challenge, but I know the Lord is helping me everyday. When we humbly ask for help, God answers and lifts us up. I know it.

I love you family. Thanks for the support. Thanks for the letters. Thanks for the prayers.

Elder M. Riley Creer

The Only

hashtags:

You know its gonna be an interesting lesson when the guy you are about to teach opens his beer bottle with his teeth. #roughcrowd

In America, I was told I looked Mexican. In Thailand, I was told I looked Indian. #apparentlywhereeveriamiamnotwhite

Saw my first Buddhist temple #kodakmoment