Monday, February 3, 2014

Chocolate Chips, Our New Meetinghouse, and a Hospital Visit

Our week started a bit unusual when we received a call from a 480 (area code) number on our iPhone. It was a man named Jackson who said his daughter was friends with Ted & Rex and he had a care package for us. He was visiting his company in Lop Buri about 70 miles north of us. We decided to drive up and get it. Turned out he had a fishbone from his lunch stick in his throat so he went a clinic to have it removed. We did meet two of his co-workers and they gave us the package. They also bought us dinner and were very kind. 
A foggy morning at church. Unusual for Ayutthaya.
We finally have enough room for everyone's motor scooters.
Picture shot outside front door of church.
Our new church building, the last end two units
of an eight unit building.

 We were excited to discover chocolatechips, pecans, taco bell sauce (mild) and Almond Joys and Reece’s peanut butter cups in the box - what a treat!
We spent much of the week moving to our new church building. No, it was not completely ready by Sunday, but we met anyway. We had no airconditioning in chapel and no water in the upstairs bathrooms. The A/C unit in the primary room only blew hot air. We made it through the day!



Sun setting over Ayutthaya
The new church is further away from our house, but not much. It is a nicer building. I didn’t hit my head once on the ceiling while going up and down the stairs this past Sunday. I averaged 2 to 3 hits a day in the old church. One surprise was that we can’t use the 4th floor with its 2 bathrooms and 3 classrooms. The old church had 4 floors and we used all of them. The church facilities man said we are too small of a branch to justify the additional space. The rooms are unfinished (no A/C) but we can use the level for our storage.

The young missionaries often use the church building to teach investigators. This week we hosted several lessons at our home. It was fun, maybe we will encourage them to do more lessons at our home. At one lesson, Joan served chocolate chip cookies she had made earlier. The investigator said he thought Joan should open a bakery and sell them. We all agreed that the cookies were great.

Saturday we went to the hospital to visit a member (man age 25) who was hit by a car late Thursday night. He was on a motorcycle and was hit head on. He was still unconscious, has a broken arm and leg, liver damage and fluid leaking from his brain. The two young elders helped me administer to him. We could not touch his head or much of his body so we administered to his leg. I wish, in giving blessing like that, the spirit would say, “take up thy bed and walk” but not this time. His mother is so heartbroken she would not go into the room to see him. I told her to go talk to him even though he is not awake, that he would hear her. She did it. Sunday we received word that he is doing better. We went to visit him today but discovered that visiting hours for patients like him is only from 11 am to noon and 6 to 7 PM daily. We went at 5 PM and could not wait till 6.

A father of a member is in the same hospital. Actually the man’s mother is also a member so he is sandwiched between two members in the family. He is having lung and heart problems. We administered to him at his request, too. He was doing better today. Because his room (20 beds) is so crowded, his bed is out in the foyer. He was still there today and now there was a man in a bed next to his. Joan noted that that man was chained to the bed. Maybe a criminal (we didn’t ask), but more likely just a threat to skip out of the hospital without paying.

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