Hey hey there Dad!
So its actually around 10:00 here right now, in the morning.
Weird, huh? So I bet you'll be receiving an email from me somewhere around late
at night, or maybe not. So where to start?
After I called you guys from Dallas, it was good! We boarded
the plane to Hong Kong finally around 11;45 Dallas Time. Didn't realize that we
would be flying over Alaska and Russia and the sort! I suppose that is one way
to go around the world. Hard to imagine that we did though! So crazy.
The flight itself was good. I appreciated the space that we
had! International Flights were as big as I supposed that they would be! Two
Aisles and the whole bit, but my carry-on was too big to fit directly over me,
so it went toward the front, so I didn't have any snacks on the plane... just
the ones they provided. I did study for a solid 6 hours total though! Not all
at once, just for a little bit! We were there for a whole 16 hours there on
that plane. Too long! They fed us meals though, but I felt as though they were
a bit small... Oh well! I survived. I got up and walked around for a little
bit, often. Most of the time was devoted to translating the Book of Mormon.
Perhaps I'll do that a lot more! I want to try to start reading faster here. I
slept a little bit, but only around the same time people should be sleeping
around here.
Got to Hong Kong. The airport there is huge! It looks like
it anyways. Hong Kong Dollars confused me a little bit. Everything was worth
around $10,000 or so! In Hong Kong dollars. It was fun! Didn't buy anything
though. The bathrooms were also kind of weird as well! The flight was short,
but I really tried not to sleep, and then sleep when we got there! No studying
then though.
Arrived at the airport! Was really weird. Got my bags and
everything, all safe and sound. But going through all the immigration lines was
complicated and long. But we did, and we exited to where they were to pick us
up. They were holding up an Angel Moroni, so it was hard to miss them! The AP's
and Prathaan Johnson plus Sister Johnson came to pick us up! It was fun, but we
arrived in Bangkok at around 12:30 at night, so it was dark, and there was no
one in the streets really! So it was good for traffic. Went to a weird little
hotel.
Oh! I forgot to mention that our district got split, but I
think I already said that! I was in a room w/ Elder Hamilton and Elder
McClellan. Went to sleep at 2 in the morning our time.
Woke up, did the whole formal entrance into the Mission
Office (the videos you always see!) That was fun, and there were a whole bunch
of Elders gathered around because it was transfers too! The day kind of went by
in a blur after that! Got blood work done, signed some papers, and went to some
meetings with Prathaan Johnson. 'Twas fun! Then we met our trainers.
My Trainer is Elder Bjornson! He's from Utah, and he's been
out here for about 4 transfers. He pretty much understands most things that
people are saying here! I, on the other hand, am not understanding a whole
ton... but that will come with time! I am learning a lot, but some people speak
weird, or differently! Back to the timeline, so we immediately took a taxi to
the bus station we were going to go to. There I found out I would be serving in
the same area as one of my Phii Thais! Her name is Sister Gibbons, and she was
one of our Sister Training Leaders in the MTC. So It was fun meeting her again!
She's in our district, and we only have 6 people in it, so our district is
pretty tight. We ended up taking a bus to my area which I'm in: Sakon Nakhon,
which is waaaaaaay far out to the Northeast of Thailand. Here they speak Thai
and Issan, the Northeastern dialect of Thai, somewhat of a mix between Laos and
Thai, since we're so close to the border here!
Its pretty great here! It's not hot at all! Probably around
70ish or so degrees all the time! Its a great area for NoongKhiaws my trainer
said (young green). Seems like it! The members are all super friendly! But my
trainer said I'm already doing pretty well in the language! I'm good with the
gospel words, but all the conversational stuff gets a little complicated sometimes!
Good story here: We were on the Bus for 14 hours. Its way
out here! We almost missed our stop, so we stopped the bus right after we
missed it, and got my bags out. After that, we ran across to a Song Tao
Station, and waited there, where we were taken back to Sakon Nakhon (a Song Tao
is a truck with a weird passenger thing attached to the back of it!
We have a baptism coming up next Sunday! I just barely got
here, but I'm excited for her! Her name is Sister Eef. She's doing pretty well
about the Gospel! She seems pretty willing to learn! Things are going great, I
just need to keep progressing! Onward and upward, as always! Just keep learning
and progressing, practicing talking, reading, and listening!
Alright, Hope to talk to you soon! I love you guys a lot!
(By the way we can email back and forth apparently, and there's no time limit
on my emails!) I'm safe out here, don't worry! Love you!
- Elder Collin Decker
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