The Snuggly Duckling (Ch 39)

สวัสดี​ค่ะ​ everyone!!

Oh man. What a week. I can't wait to tell you all about it!

I'll start with Tuesday. On Tuesday, Chiang Mai was hit by a massive rainstorm. Thanks to someone's brilliant planning (I won't name names) (okay, it was me) our appointments were miles away from each other. So we biked and biked and biked and got SOAKED.

Here's what's else happened that day: lunch time rolled around, and we were getting a little hungry. I asked Sister Maughan if she'd rather eat in our area or when we biked into the city for English. She said the city, which I overrode when I saw a big sign that said "ลาบ." (lahb). It's​ a super yummy food that comes from the eastern part of Thailand. Normally it's ground pork and herbs and spices and you eat it with sticky rice. It's delicious. So Sister Maughan and I tore down the side street in search of the ลาบ​ shop. And we found it! We walked to the door of the shop and stopped. It was a dimly-lit cavern full of buffalo skulls and other mysterious artifacts. There was a guy with a chopping knife standing by the door, and two other dudes finishing their meal next to the single window in the room. Everyone froze when we came to the door. It was just like The Snuggly Duckling scene in Tangled.

But, not to be deterred, we walked in and placed an order. We sat down at our table. We struck up a conversation with the guys at the table, and, after a minute, they brought us out a dish to try, free of charge. 

Surprise! It was a black and red bloody mass, filled with chunks of intestine. My companion wisely declined, but I gave into pressure and ate some. After that, the man with the knife brought out our food. It was also black lumps of suspicious meat filled with intestines, which is NOT what we had been trying to order. We stifled our screams and laughter as the dishes were placed in front of us. We managed to choke down about half of it before we came up with the idea to look at our watches and fake an appointment and flee out of the store as fast as our bikes could carry us.

We talked with Sister Wong, a Thai sister in our district, after this episode. Here's what we've determined: it was buffalo meat... And the stuff I tried at first was RAW buffalo meat. Adventure is out there! I'm still alive at the moment, and my testimony that the Lord protects His missionaries is strengthened every day.

After that, we came into the city for English class. Sister Maughan and I were soaking wet. I pulled off my shoes for a moment and my toes were white and purple. It honestly looked like I had just rolled out of a morgue. Professional opinion was they needed to air out. So, to complete the day of adventure, I taught English class barefoot with the creepiest-lookin' toes you've ever seen. Hopefully people show up next week!

Here's more exciting stuff from the week: On Wednesday, Sister Maughan and I fasted for two of our investigators, Brother บอย​ (Boy) and Sister (แหม่ม) to feel ready for baptism. They've been doing so great and they are totally prepared, they've just been a little hesitant. This Sunday, they told us they want to get baptized next month!! It came out of nowhere. We are SO EXCITED. Seriously. They are incredible, and fasting holds real power.

Finally, we had some good experiences with faith this week. We had a couple tough days of canceled appointments and rejections. It was kind of tough in those moments, but we decided we would keep things positive. On our way biking back from one of our canceled appointments, one of us would yell, "Do you have the faith to find?" and the other would answer, "Yeah, I have the faith to find!!" and we got so pumped. Even though things weren't perfect in the moment, we had hope for the future. We knew something good was looming on the horizon because good things are always in store for those who trust God. It's like Come, Follow Me from this week says--in this gospel, blessings come. They come on the Lord's time, but they come. I want to add my testimony to that! Keep your chin up and keep hoping and trusting and doing what you're doing and things will work out! The Lord's team is a winning team.

Thank you so much, everyone, for your Christmas cards and letters! I got them this week. You are all so thoughtful and I feel so lucky to have you in my life. I love you!! Have an awesome week! 

Love, 

Sidter Harry