Thailand Letter
(This was received as a paper letter and Bob scanned it and emailed it to the family)
July 19,1997 Bangkok, Thailand
Dearest Family,
It is Saturday here and it is about 2 o'clock in the afternoon. If I have my times right, it is about 1 o'clock in the morning on Saturday in Utah.
I WAS ABSOLUTELY THRILLED LAST NIGHT TO COME HOME AND FIND THE LETTER FROM THE BOB MELLORS!!! THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR WRITING SO QUICKLY. We haven't had a mailbox on our gate and I have been SO worried that maybe you had written and they hadn't delivered it. Virginia kept saying, "Barbara, there is no way they could have received your letter and written back so you could have received it." Our Principal, Pra Pa, could tell I was worried so she arranged for one of her teachers to take us to the store to get a mailbox - that is no easy trick. It takes over an hour to get to the store and back because of the traffic and then when we got it we had to wire it to our gate without any pliers or anything. The next day, Pra Pa sent some of her "officers" over to wire it better for us. WELL -she brought us home last night and it was dark but as soon as we drove close to the gate she said, "Somebody has some mail". I flew out of the car and was more excited than I have been for a long, long time. I LOVED ALL THE NEWS ABOUT ALL OF YOU AND THE QUAIL BABIES AND JUST EVERYTHING! ! !
I believe you are all at Lake Powell now and I hope so much you are having a WONDERFUL time and that you won't get hurt. I told Virginia that I will be SO happy when the time has gone by and you will be home safe and sound - I always worry about Lake Powell. You can see we have a computer and we are SO happy! ! ! They brought it to us about two days ago and it is almost exactly like the one Bob bought. I can't tell you how thrilled I am to be a "little" computer literate and there is now way I would ever have learned if you hadn't done that Bob. It makes me feel like this was all planned - I had time to learn a little bit and Bob and John were SO patient to teach me. I have a long, long ways to go but I am at least smarter than Virginia is on the computer - she will learn more quickly than I did but it pleases me to know as much as I do. She is VERY smart!
Virginia wants to buy the modem since I have one on the one Bob bought. BUT - the only way I would be able to send e-mail is if someone in Utah has "America On Line". It will cost us $6 a month for an hour but they say we can type our letters before getting on the internet - I didn't do it that way when I sent e-mail. I couldn't remember which company we sent e-mail on but I don't believe it was AOL and that is all the church uses here - even in the Mission Office. I will wait to hear what you have to say.
We have had another very exciting week. We go to different schools each day and I am in awe of them. They teach everything - besides all the basic courses they teach cosmetology, barber, agriculture, science, etc. I may have told you all this - I can't remember who I told what to. They have chickens in the backyards of their schools and grow most of the vegetables they eat. Bob - I wish you could have seen the "Boy Scout Camp" we went to on Thursday night. They invited us to go and we worried about what to wear because we didn't bring any really casual clothes. WELL - all the dignitaries came dressed up so we were happy we weren't casual. They had told us many times that it would be their big camp fire night - SO we expected a big Utah bon fire. When we got there they had a huge circle with benches all around it and in the middle they had what we would call a "Dutch Oven Kettle" with a few briquettes in it that were on fire. They made a big ceremony about lighting the fire and then they honored many dignitaries and then they did "Thai Dancing" all around and they came to get us and we danced too - it was fun. It is a big honor for the students to be selected to go to camp - they only choose 20 from each school - there must have been about 250 all together. They served us all kinds of fruits and juices in a very nice hall before the ceremony. We left before it was over.
That afternoon they had a big celebration at Sai Mai School. They decorated a truck and had three little girls all dressed up in Thai costumes to ride on the truck and then all 1,000 students were dressed in their Scout Uniforms and we marched to the Buddha Temple. They had a. huge candle to present to the temple - this is symbolic of the times when they didn't have electricity in the temple. I just can't describe in a letter what this was like. They had 10 Monks lined up in front of some 3,000 students and they chanted songs and sayings for over an hour. Pra Pa kept telling me what they were saying and it was to do good things for all people. They have 5 major rules: Don't drink whiskey, don't tell lies, don't covet another person's wife or husband, don't kill animals or people and don't steal. They are monks for as long as they want to be and ail the Buddhas in Thailand have GREAT love and respect for them and love to go to their temples. I took A LOT of pictures - I hope they turn out. I have no idea when 1 will get them developed -so far I haven't seen a place.
The Cambodia thing is REALLY bad. We have a couple with us who were serving there. They have a 300 acre farm in West Ogden where they raise turkeys and chickens and the church sent them to Cambodia to teach them how to feed them. They have just built a big feed mill there. Reed and Verda Wight are their names and they told us about the fighting. I was surprised to find that Cambodia isn't as large as Utah. President White who was just called as Mission President there wants the missionaries to go back in but the Government won't let them. 1 guess the people fighting have done lots and lots of damage besides some killings.
I hope Tommy, Jumper, Flip, Cuddles and Pecker are a11 still alive. I think you are all very smart to be able to feed baby quails. I am thrilled that Brett and Laura were able to go to New York and Massachusetts - did you go with a school group`? Michael, I am proud of you for going to EFY again - I remember when you went last year and stayed with me the night before.
Virginia and I are going to venture out and try to find some easier shopping places and 1 want to find a place to buy a 7-up or something "Fizzy".
I hope things are going very well for you -= I LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH AND MISS YOU LIKE CRAZY - PLEASE BE VERY, VERY CAREFUL 1N EVERYTHING YOU DO.
I love you--Grandma B. XXOO
She also wrote: John- How are the tomatoes, cucumbers and St. John's wort doing????
Thanks for everything. I am dong great! We will teach English in church tomorrow!!! Marie Osmond and her family were in Bangkok last Sunday-they went to the International Branch so we missed them!
Hopefully you all get this O.K.. I will try and get Grandma to get an internet address so she can write to us all at the same time using a 'multiple address' mailing. That may take a while. In the meantime we will use this format if that is acceptable.
Bob