Ahh, Gee Ma, Don't Worry.

Hey Mom and Dad,

In case you were wondering, broken stomach is the literal translation of the Thai word for diarrhea. Just thought I'd let you know that I am sitting at this computer getting a workout in the lower regions of my body as I clench and strain in an attempt not to lose it all over this nice clean internet facility... I haven't eaten anything outrageously spicy since the 20 pepper challenge, and last night I decided to up the antie (sp?) a bit. Bad idea. Not sure why I haven't yet learned not to put the edible equivalent of lava inside of me anymore... I'm telling you, this broken stomach is bad. Three long, arduous visits to the bathroom before we left the house. Oh man.

On a more appropriate note, life here in Lampang is great. Oh yeah, I am quite positive that the sister missionary you two mentioned is the one I told you about during the phone call on Mother's Day. She most likely lives in Chiang Mai, and I most likely met her mother at district conference a few months ago. That's pretty cool.

You know what, since I told you about one ailment, I guess I'll just lay the rest of 'em down for you. I think this one may have started with constant boot wearing for the past two years, but ever since a few months after getting in country, every morning and every evening my toes have started to itch, underneath the nail... Fungus for sure. No worries though. Talked to Sister Dodge, and she gave me the go ahead to get some drugs. The left foot is good to go, but the fungus on the right is a bit more stubborn. The guy said it is a three month treatment, so I have to be satisfied with the fact that at least the left side is already cured after just two weeks. The other ailment I think is skin cancer. Too much sun down here on the equator. Haha. No, it probably isn't skin cancer, but some weird white spots appeared on both my arms during moves 2 and 3. They went away, but now I have this weird dark spot on my middle finger, left hand. No need to worry though. I can still work. Just thought I'd mention it so you would start worrying even though there is absolutely no need to worry.

Well, this moves started off with a bang. This is President and Sister Dodge's last moves as mission president. President Smith will be here at the end of this month. This past moves meeting, President Dodge committed us to all actually start doing missionary work... Ok, he didn't say it like that, but he said that while baptisms have been on an increasing trend for the past few years, this past moves, there was a "significant decrease". So we all fasted last Sunday as a mission and set goals for baptisms this moves and the next. Elder Law and I decided four per moves... It may be harder to accomplish that initially expected since we just decided to drop one investigator with a date today during companion study. (Well, actually the Lord decided. We didn't want to do it.) We dropped Sumali. We reviewed the baptismal interview questions with her last night, and her answers showed us that she just doesn't get it, and until she starts reading in the Book of Mormon, she won't. She basically has narrowed the Buddhist thinking that "all religions teach people to be good" and applied it to Christianity as a whole. "Christ is the center, and they all teach about Christ, so it doesn't matter what kind of Christian you are" is basically what she said/believes. It really is too bad that she feels that way. She had a lot of leadership potential (people with leadership potential are who we have been asked to focus our efforts on). We wrote up some scriptures for her to read and questions to answer each day this week. We will probably call to follow up and if we see a change re-approach the situation. Dang it. Dropping people hurts.Fortunately, Iit's wife, Sister Bii, is doing great. She is still way nervous when we teach but once we get her talking we can tell she is coming along. She prays all the time, and brings the Liahona and Book of Mormon to work. She and Iit started praying together two nights ago. Oh, man. What joy awaits them!We also had an amazing lesson with our investigator Nu. Took Brother Iit to help teach. Nu is reading in the Book of Mormon regularly, so regardless of how unsure I personally am with his interest level, I have faith that the Book of Mormon will work the miracles the prophets who wrote it promise. We talked finished teaching the Plan of Salvation. I can't give you a play by play, but I'll say the Spirit was strong, he was understanding, and we laughed together (which I feel is something we all need to be able to do with out investigators; shows they are comfortable with you and trust you enough to let their guards down). I had an opportunity in this lesson to use comparison I thought of while riding my bike a few weeks ago. Think about how similar driving a car (or bike in my case) and having a knowledge of the Plan of Salvation are. Where do new drivers look when they drive? Right in front of the car and at the lines to the left and right. What do new drivers do? Drive in crooked, curvy lines and get in accidents (and you know I can attest to that from experience). But what about experienced drivers? Where do they look? They look to the distance... It's kind of like having an eternal perspective, isn't it? It's interesting how one day you just stop looking in front of the car, start looking forward, driving in straight lines, and stop getting in accidents? (Unless you are me, then you just keep getting in accidents, but for the sake of the comparison, keep my inability to operate an automobile out of you minds. I promise I am pretty good on the bike these days though.) Once you know what your goal is, you stop looking at the pain and slow progress of now and start looking to the glory and peace that lies ahead. Pretty cool, huh? I need to think of more simple comparisons like this. I used it twice yesterday and it worked great both times. Haha, it's teaching like Christ taught! Preach My Gospel says to do that, why didn't I figure it out sooner?!

Hmm... regarding your air show visit... I am jealous. The pictures are sweet. I saw the ones on you blog page, Mom. You should have asked Iron Man if you could punch him in the stomach to see if he was the real deal! The best I got is the videos Elder Wiser showed me at moves meeting. He is in Ubon on the east side of the country. Ubon is basically a city that started because the USAF had a base there during Vietnam (there are a couple places like that in Thailand). Ubon still has a massive Thai AF base, so Elder Wiser got some videos of old school F5s flying right over the house. The last part of the approach just happens to be located just over the elders' house. And Elder Wiser, if you don't remember, is the elder who did AFROTC before he came on his mission. Lucky dog got put in Ubon for his last three moves. He is done after this moves. He is going to re-do his second year, so we will probably graduate at the same time and perhaps be lucky enough to go to UPT together.

Tell Jake congrats for all his awesome accomplishments. Or, if you are reading this Jake, congratulations! Now, whatever you do, don't let the fire die. Take the momentum and roll on.I love you all. Thank you for being stalwart examples. Keep each other motivated and don't forget to give the missionaries referrals.

Love,Aaron