In between the sessions of General Conference, there was a documentary about Gospel seeds being planted in Cambodia. Watching that brought back a flood of memories of my mission. April 1st was the 28th anniversary of my going into the MTC to begin my missionary service. My mission was to Bangkok, Thailand but the last part of my mission was spent in one of the refugee camps, Phanat Nikhom. I worked with many Laotian, Hmong, Vietnamese and Cambodian (we called them Khmer) people there. It was a special time in my life and I consider it one of the great blessings of my life that I was able to serve there. I have some pictures of my mission available, but I need to get the rest of my pictures put on my computer so that I have better access. Here are some pictures from my mission to Bangkok, Thailand. I served there from May 1982- October 1983.
I prayed for the ability to love the people I served. The Lord answered my prayers and the result was that it almost broke my heart to leave! How thankful I am that I responded affirmatively to the Spirit when I felt the promptings that I should go. I met people I will never forget and had experiences that I couldn't get anywhere else.
ASOKE
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This is me with my trainer, Sis. Sharon Record inside the Asoke chapel. |
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Elders Draney and Smith, Sis. Howard, me, Elders Bergener and Carrick, our branch president, Prayoon |
CHIANG MAI
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| Sis. Howard and I trying to plant some rice. Usually the rows are much straighter than that. It is harder than it looks! |
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| On our bikes |
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| Still on our bikes |
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| Elders Bakker, Barney, Hoopes, Connors, me, Sis. Randall, Elder Draney |
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| Sis. Howard and me in the traditional Thai dresses that we had made. |
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| We did health presentations at local schools. |
LAMPANG
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| Fresh khaw niaw sanjkya served on banana leaves- yummy! |
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| Teaching one of our investigators |
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| Two girls that lived nearby |
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| We didn't go door to door. We did a lot of street meetings. Here we
are with our "Plan of Salvation" street meeting display in front of the
Elder's storefront apartment. Incidentally, this picture is backwards.
You can tell by looking at the Plan of Salvation. |
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| Me with Prathaan Phrot's daughter |
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| Congrag, our Relief Society president, and me |
REFUGEE CAMP at PANAT NIKHOM
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Me with a Hmong family |
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| Two special Khmer (Cambodian boys) who used to stop by and talk to me at
my open window in my office. One of the boys used to paint me pictures
all the time. |
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| A Hmong family |
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| One of my Vietnamese students took this picture of me teaching an English class. My translator is Jenny. |
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| Sis. Russon, Sis. Barica, Sis. Paulsen, Sis. McCune, Sis. Madsen, Sis. King and two of our Khmer translators. |
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| July 1983- WSURT staff and translators |
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| A picture I had taken in Thailand. |
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| The Thailand Bangkok missionaries, I think this was taken Dec. 1982 |
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| My parents came to pick me up. This is a picture my last night in Thailand with my parents and Pres. and Sis. Hogan. |
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| With Dad at Waikiki beach |
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| With Mom waiting to get on the train to go to the Bridge over the River Kwai |
