Pictures 10.26.13

 We sang all the hymns at the funeral.  B. Direk is on the left in front of the curtain.  

He lived in America for decades and is awesome.

 Leaving my mark on Thailand.

Check that mess out!

Supreme Shot.  Elephants...check. Old stuff...check.  Two handsome white kids...check.  Crooked tie...check.  Just send this one off to National Geographic with a note that says, 

"There's more where that came from."

Before my mission many people told me I'd find myself while serving the Lord.  Well I did.  I may or may not be the name of a Billiards club in Thailand

The view from my window.

I feel like I'm in Gotham City.  This is the university campus that is right next to our church which is right next to our house.  

AKA this area rocks.  

Priceless faces.  E. Davies and E. Fronberg.  Trying to fight their way through the onslaught of words.  

I was able to sneak away and snap this baby.

The Snoozers!

Asoke 10.26.13

Hey Family!

This week has been an adventure.

It started out with a funeral.  B. Direk from Nongkynonks lost his daughter this past week.  He asked the elders and President Senior (they are from the same stake in Arizona) to help him put a service together.  So we did.  I never thought I'd be planning a funeral on my mission.  We rounded up as many of the elders who have served in Nongkhai as we could and headed to the mortuary to show our love to B. Direk and his family.  The service reminded me how great the Plan of Salvation is, how blessed we are to know about it, and how urgently we need to share it.  Others don't know.  It's our job to tell them.

Later in the week, E. Davies and I were sent to Ayuthaya to conduct exchanges.  I was with E. Gibbons for the day.  MTC reunion baby!  It is nuts to think that I was with him in the MTC.  Part of me thinks it was just yesterday.  Part of me thinks it was a life ago.

Highlight of the day: I wrote in concrete.  Real talk.  I wrote "Jesus Christ lives" in this shopowner's driveway.  We were riding by and I saw the concrete man smoothing out the stuff.  I stopped and asked if I could write in it.  He said ask the owner.  So I did.  She was all for it.  But then the concrete man said we'd have to come back later when it was more dry.  So we did.  Turns out writing in concrete is really hard.  I kept hitting pebbles that would pop out leaving a fat hole in the middle of the letter.  After some serious sweating it looked ok and I was pleased.  Now her driveway will announce to all her customers that Christ lives.  Yeah Buddy.

Yesterday.  I got my Thai driving license.  The test was a joke.  Seriously.  There were 4 parts.  Part 1: This lady had us identify the color of the bulb on the traffic light.  Red. Yellow. Yellow.  Green.  It was pretty nerve-racking.  Part 2: we had to push this button that moved a pole until it was inline with the other pole.  I think it was testing our depth perception.  Easy.  Part 3:  My favorite.  We pressed on the gas.  The light turned green.  When it turned red we had to switch to the brake.  It tested our reaction time.  This one lady failed twice in a row!  She either couldn't press the brake with her 4 inch heels or has the slowest reaction time in the world.  Super funny.  Part 4: we had to put our face in this little device that had lights in our peripherals.  Again we had to tell the employee what color we saw.  Nutshell: all the tests have made me increasingly fearful of Thai drivers.  Anyone can get a license here!

Well.  I love you.  Let the Spirit guide.  When the Holy Ghost speaks, it is the one voice you can't answer with a "Don't tell me what to do!"

Elder M. Riley Creer

The Only

Mom...Do I need to worry about BYU business?  Housing business?  Have you found me a 2 month program to become a master welder?

 asok

Pictures 10.19.13

Crazy Aussie...is a goner.

My new companion: E. Davies 

 TimTam Slammin...travel edition.

 Fashion Show...oh baby.

 I think it's safe to say they stole this look from me.  I'm ticked.

What the...

Asoke 10.19.13

Hello Family.

Big news: My P-day is now on Saturday.

Bigger news: I moved...again.  I am now in Asoke (center of Bangkok) serving as an Assistant to the President.  Adrian.

E. Tzanis completed his mission.  He is now back in Australia.  Surfing, I'm sure.  He said his first surf after he was released was going to be in his missionary clothes.  What a nut.

My new companion is E. Davies.  We were in the same room back in the MTC.  He is super funny.

Sour Skittles:  I was pretty bummed to leave Ubon.  It is amazing how I came to love it so fast (less than 3 weeks).  I was really excited to work there and serve in that zone.  But when your mission president asks you to serve in a different capacity, you don't refuse.  Despite leaving so suddenly, I'm pumped out of my mind to be with E. Davies and to work with President Senior.  I'm still not sure what Assistants even do, but I'm sure it will be an adventure.  Asoke is a hustle and bustle kind of place too (unless you are in a taxi between the hours of 4 and 6...you ain't goin' nowhere!), so it'll be exciting to work here.  Extra sugar: All the best suit shops are in my area.  Now we're talking.

Oh Mylanta Week: Monday.  I called President to ask for a temple recommend interview for E. Tzanis and I.  He said he would call us back.  I guess he forgot or something came up because he didn't.  So I called again.  He answered the phone and our question.  Then he told me he wanted me to be his new Assistant and to get to Bangkok ASAP as possible.  I packed that night.

Tuesday.  We hopped on a bus that morning.  It took forever.  It made loads of stops.  So to pass the time we TimTam slammed.  I spilled milk all over myself.  Perfect.  11 hours later when we finally arrived in the BKK we grabbed some dinner, went to English class and then crashed at the AP's house.  Wednesday.  It was E. Tzanis' last P-day (we switched it from Monday to Wednesday).  So we went shopping.  E. Tzanis shops like an all-star.  We hit up 3 or 4 different malls and some of them multiple times.  In the end I could barely walk and had pulled a hammie.  It was intense.  Thursday.  Transfer meeting.  Crazy.  I saw Greg Madsen.  He is being trained by E. Federico who just stepped down from AP.  Greg is looking good.  After the transfers and a training meeting that I was completely unprepared for we went back to the office and helped out with the jobbers (missionaries who are going home).  Friday.  2:45 AM.  We took the jobbers to the airport.  Then some more Thai jobbers to the bus station.  We got back around 7, ate the hotel's complimentary breakfast that the jobbers didn't have time to eat, got a few more hours of sleep, studied, went out to work.  Nutshell: I was so exhausted.

What's the dealio with BYU in the spring?  Anything I need to do?

Much Love

Elder M. Riley Creer

Pictures 10.14.13

We used smoke signals to place our order with the cookie caravan.

 We went with the youth to help clean up the church-owned cemetery.  Thais believe that if you make angry faces as you work, you work more effectively (this statement is 84% false).

Amazingly they got it right!

 My favorite eating spot in Yasothorn.  They have a smoothie that tastes like Christmas.

 Yasho has the worst public transportation...so we had to resort to a scooter side-car to get back to the bus stop.  Rolling like a big shot.

High-pants studies...its super effective.

 The suriram (Buriram+Surin=Suriram) district.  Way too much fun.  They would erupt into applause at random moments in the training.  I felt like I was on a game show or something.

Fact: Australian vegetarian surfers are straight up nuts.

This cowboy is Brother Michael.  He used to work with the US military as an airplane mechanic.  He is hilarious.

Ubon 10.14.13

Hello.

How are you family?

This week has been awesome.  Last Monday, in my letter to president I told him that we would get balanced key indicators this next week.  I had no idea how we would do it.  Well...we did.  Heavenly Father helped.  A lot.  (Balanced key indicators is 2 baptismal daters, 2 investigators at church, 2 new investies and 10 lessons (member combined with recent convert/Less active)).  The first two weeks I was here our area was pretty dead.  Alright, real dead.  But with the use of a defibrillator (aka a zone-wide fast) and some help from God our area is alive and breathing.

Saturday.  We still didn't have any baptismal daters.  Oh boy.  We prayed together that morning asking God to help us get some daters.  During the first session of conference we received a text from the Asoke zone leaders in the BKK.  One of their daters had moved to Ubon.  OH BABY!  God had literally sent us a dater...via text message.  What a Champ He is.  We continued to watch conference.  After the Saturday afternoon session the Redd's (the senior couple here) invited us to go visit someone they had been teaching.  They wanted to invite him to be baptized.  When we arrived and exchanged the normal pleasantries (whatever that means) he asked about being cleansed from sin.  Perfect.  We taught about baptism and invited him to do it.  He accepted a date for the end of the month.  Yeah buddy.  We prayed for miracles and God gave them to us.

Sunday.  The miracle we prayed for that morning was that 2 of our investigators would go to church.  We headed to the church and waited for the Sunday morning session to start.  5 minutes before go time, in walked one of our investigators with her 2 kids.  YES.  Well the Lord wasn't going to stop there.  Before the Sunday afternoon session started a brother and his wife strolled into church with some friends.  They brought a family of 4 with them!  So after the session we taught them and invited them to be baptized.  They didn't say yes, but asked to discuss it together.  We are meeting them again on Tuesday.  I'm confident they'll be baptized next month.

Other miracles: A girl named Shampoo who has been coming to church for a while decided to be baptized before the Redd's go home.  A total of 16 investigators came to watch conference in Ubon this weekend.

Nutshell:  Fasting and prayer work.  We prayed for miracles.  We fasted for the whole zone to make their baptismal goal.  Our Father in Heaven took noticed and took action.  What a great Father He is!  He really loves us.

Well I love you all a bunch!  Keep praying, reading and serving.  That is how we stay happy and strong.

Peace out you bunch of scallywags.

Elder M. Riley Creer

The Only Zone Leader who is tallest in his family but still under 5' 8"

Pictures 10.7.13

 Comp unity.

even our elephants are blinged out in chains...

don't even think about flexin on us.

 Effects of living with a selective vegetarian...pray for me.

5 minutes in...out like a light.

 Uh...what do we do now?

 Action shot: Roll up the pants and ride across that mess!  

Get on my level, little flood-waters.

 Yasothorn district...serious business.

Sisaket district...no comment

 I don't know who this guy thought he was getting all frisky on me.

Holy Tusks!

The peeps who were baptized the Sunday after I moved to Ubon.

  Dee, Ann and View

Gob (means frog)

The whole crew.  Yeah Buddy.

Ubon 10.7.13

Hey family.

This week was nuts.  Truly nuts.  We had Missionary Leadership Council on Tuesday.  It was a good meeting about how to achieve our goals as missionaries.  President Senior also helped us see that we need to master goal setting now to benefit the rest of our lives.  He talked a lot about having a vision, making goals to achieve that vision and then plans or tasks to accomplish those goals.  What are your visions, family?  As always it was accompanied with very good food.  That night we caught a bus back to Ubon.  Sleeping on buses is the worst.  We spent Wednesday in Ubon and on Thursday went to Yasothorn to give them the MLC training.  Then we went to Sisaket to give them the training and exchange companions with them.  We spent Saturday in our area and then came to Surin last night to give them the training.  The bus took forever though and we didn't have time to give them the training so we now are crashing in Surin until Tuesday and will do it Tuesday morning.  Nutshell: I've spent way too much time on buses and not enough in my area.

This next week will be better though!

Miracle in Sisaket:  E. King and I went to a university to find someone who could be a future missionary.  After about an hour of no success we were about to head to the church for the training meeting.  We were getting on our bikes when we noticed this guy standing nearby like an awkward duck.  So we whipped off our helmets and talked to him.  I approached him and said hello.  He asked if there was anything he could do to help me.  I said that we were looking for someone to go to church with us and asked if he would like to go.  He said yes!  Then we told him at church he would learn about baptism and being cleansed from sin.  I asked if he would be baptized.  He said yes.  So we gave him a baptismal date on the spot.  Then we got his number and told him we'd call.  Sour ending:  His number is not in service...yikes.  And he didn't go to church yesterday...double yikes.  It was such an inspired encounter I was baffled that he didn't go.  We'll pray that he meets the elders again and they can help him go.

This week in my studies I re-learned the importance of the Spirit.  If we want to successfully endure to the end we need the Spirit.  If we want to be happy, truly happy, we need the Spirit.  Enjoying the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost should be our greatest desire.  When we are guided by the Holy Ghost we will see miracles daily, we will be a miracle in the lives of others and we will have peace.  Is that not what we all want?  This life is a test.  But our Father in Heaven has given us the best cheat sheet ever created.  It guides us, warns us when we are about to make a mistake, spurs us to make good decisions and constantly confirms that God is there and that He loves us.  I love and thank God that He gave us the Holy Ghost.

Not much to report this week.  Sorry team.

I love you all.  A lot.

Elder M. Riley Creer