Sisters Conference!

February 21st at the Asoke Chapel in Bangkok, all the sister missionaries in the Thailand Bangkok Mission gathered for "Sister's Training."

The theme was taken from James E. Faust:

Faith is the power

Obedience is the Price

Love is the Motive

The Spirit is the Key

Christ is the Reason

Speakers were Sisters Painter, Sawangwong, Ference, Sahagan, Manning, Zaugg and others who bore testimony. Sister Senior and President Senior gave great talks on the value of Sister missionaries, and obedience. A musical number was "The Olive Tree." All talks were excellent and I came away rejuvenated to work even harder.

The luncheon was fantastic--as always.

I have to add this picture of Sister Meeker mixing the chicken salad for the sandwiches. Gotta do something big for a hungry group like this!

Learning about the Creation

Saturday’s youth activity the elders taught about the creation using Genesis’ version. Most Thais do not know the bible well, or the creation story. When they start investigating the church, they are given a  Book of Mormon, and later they will have a Bible.

Building the creation

The youth were divided into groups and had to make (flour dough/paper cutouts/etc.) something to represent what happened each day of the creation. One young man turned on the overhead fans to represent the presence of air on earth. Two boys used a flashlight for "Let there be light." We had animals, fish, birds, plants (not in that order) and last of all--a salt dough man and woman. It all worked out. We built our earth on a cookie sheet.

Boonlerd teaching making bows

Then we played a make-shift version of Creation Cranium where teams had to answer questions about the creation. The most fun discovery was that Sister Ja cannot walk like a penguin.

Afterward, Sister Boonlerd taught the youth how to make flowers and bows from ribbon. For the treat, we had a sundae bar with food items representing each day of the creation: Ice cream was formed matter; homemade chocolate sauce and whip cream for the separation of light and dark; bananas and nuts were the plants; gummy bears and animal crackers represented the animals; and for mankind, we used plain M&Ms for “man”.   It was delicious fun.

It is Elder Crump's birthday and Sister On brought this gorgeous cake. He served it to all the members and didn't save a piece for himself.

  

History in the Making!

Elders Fronberg and Steiner are first to go to Myranmar

We witnessed history today! The first two "Branch Builders" (aside senior couples) are assigned to Myranmar. Elders Fronberg and Steiner will work with Elder and Sister Hobbs and Elder and Sister Haymore already in Yangon. This is so exciting to see this happen. It is not legal to proselyte, but they can teach those who come to the church house.

Our mission is growing (170) as you can see by the photo. All elders and sisters were invited to this transfer meeting. Many changes were made. I love the energy of transfer meeting. Ayutthaya lost elder Slaughter (sorry to see him go to zone leader) and gained Elder Kettavong. Good things are in store for Ayutthaya!

Here are the newly arrived elders and sisters:

Elder and Sister Brown – Riverton, Utah, assigned to Udorn  

Elder and Sister Ure  - Orem, UT, assigned to ChaingMai

Elder Tamang – California

Elder Boonmee – Riverton, UT

Elder Lingard – Mesa, AZ 

Elder Savage – Provo, UT

Elder Finlayson –North Ogden, UT 

Elder Smith – Lindon, UT            

Elder Baldwin, Concord, CA 

Elder Hales – Orem, UT

Elder Bassett – Layton, UT

Sister Black – Alpine, UT

Elder Burke – North Ogden, UT

Elder Larsen – Fairview, UT

Elder   Cooper - Australia

Elder Lodwick- Nashville, TN 

I probably missed someone or got their hometown wrong! Each of these elders and sisters are eager to start to work. Please say a special prayer for the Thailand Bangkok mission's success.

 I missed listing last transfer's new Elder and Sisters, so here they are:

• Sister Allyson Adams
  
• Sister Brooke Embley
  
• Sister Samantha Holmes
  
• Sister Brittany Lam
  
• Sister Brynne Woodbury
  
• Elder Reid Arne 
  
  Those who are boarding the plane for home (Yep, their two years are up) are:
  
  
  Elder Dillon Haughton
  Elder Joseph Gibbons - served in Ayutthaya
  Elder Narin Rakmak 
  Sister Mary Orchard 
  Elder Carson Tatton 
  Elder Joseph Cox 
  Elder Braxton Davies 
  Elder Corbin Sharp 
  Elder Nathan Bartling

  Elder Barry Engle - served in Ayutthaya
  Elder Landon Simonsen 
  Elder Ethan Bennett 
  Elder Eric Campbell
  Elder Rhett Gilley
  Elder Jace Saunders 
  Elder Matthew Creer 
  Elder Jackson Harley 
  Elder Keoki Yuen 
  Elder Renner

Six Baptisms in February

Joy comes in six's. The Ayutthaya Branch is celebrating six baptisms in the month of February! The baptisms throughout the mission are up due to the new approach of inviting to be baptized on first meeting. All these sisters and brothers will be great additions to our branch!

It took almost 8 hours to fill our beautiful, new baptismal font. The faucet is tiny and the water pressure is so poor. The safety drain is about 2 1/2 feet from the floor, so the elders had to duck tape over it so they could fill the font high enough to baptize. We are still learning the joys of a new building.

Siriraj Hospital and Museum, Bangkok

On Tuesday a van from the largest hospital in Thailand picked us up in Ayutthaya and took us to Siriraj Hospital (Mahidol University Medical School) in Bangkok. This hospital/medical school was started by the H.M. King Chulalongkorn of Thailand in 1888 after losing his 1 + year-old son (Siriraj) due to the lack of available medical treatment. He realized if the King’s son could die due to poor medical help, so would many common citizens. Another of his sons went to Harvard medical school and became a doctor. He returned to help start the hospital and a medical school. Today, the hospital sees about 12,000 patients a day, including doctor visits. The hospital has also build a private hospital next door that promises great (fast service) at private hospital prices. Counting the hospital's, labs, medical university, the campus has 72 buildings, including one building with rooms like a hotel for families to stay while a loved one is a patient. 

Cute elephant made from bath towels

This private hospital's goal is to be recognized as one of the best hospitals in the country. After hearing Elder Sowards speak at the Thailand Quality Award conference, Dr. Cherdchai asked him to come observe their Lean processes and give ideas. He accepted, wanting to help Thailand through his own specialty. 

The hospital also has natural healing Thai services. They treated us both to a traditional Thai massage, which we enjoyed.

Students outside the museum. They flocked to
Elder Sowards when he began speaking in Thai to them.

Sister Sowards' guide on campus, Deiry, who spoke excellent English.

Elder Sowards with two doctors implementing "Lean" principles at the hospital.
Prof. Visit Vamvanit, MD, Elder Sowards, and Prof. Cherdchai Nopmaneejumruslers, MD

Our night view of Bangkok and Rama VIII Bridge.

The Thonburi railway station was once on this sight. Now the station is the Siriraj Bimuksthan Museum displaying the history of the hospital and medicine in Thailand, about the railway, and the artifacts found in the area--including a 24 meter long boat. It had been buried for over a hundred years and regarded the biggest wooden boat ever to be excavated in Thailand.


























This is a view of Rama VIII Bridge. It is a cable-stayed bridge crossing the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok. Construction of the bridge took place from 1999 to 2002. It made a spectacular view from our room.

Harts and Seangsawans Complete Missions

Elder John and Sister Sally Hart (ID) and President Mani and Sister Nada Seangsawan (UT) have completed their missions. We were privileged to  attend the farewell dinner at the mission home (Pres. and Sister Senior). 

Back row: Sister and Elder Sowards, Elder Gibson, Elder Seangsawan, Elder Hart, Elder Marvel, Elder Manning, Elder Meeker, President Senior.

 Front row: Sister Senior, Sister Goodson, Sister Seangsawan, Sister Hart, Sister Marvel, Sister Manning, Sister Meeker.

We are so blessed to work with such wonderful, faithful saints who are willing to give this time in their lives to serve our Lord. We have grown so much from our association with them.

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.

Former Thailand Mission President Smith Visits

President and Sister Mike and Janice Smith visited Thailand last week, touring the country, and visiting many members.The Smiths are from Mesa and Mike served in Thailand cir. 1970 at the same time as Elder Sowards. 

In the true Thai tradition of taking a group photo at every event, this photo is at a luncheon at the service center honoring the Smiths before they returned to America. Front row Sister Goodson (Humanitarian Services) Sister and President Senior, Mike and Janice Smith, Sister Sowards. 2nd row: Service Center staff, Ronny (Translation), Pae (Seminary and Institute), Supreeda (Service Center Sec), Pay (Translation), Elder Smith (Office), Wannee (Facilities), Wan (Accountant), Elder Casper (Office), Noy (Service Center Facility). Bro. Poonsak (Finance & Records), Elder Keller (Office), Elder and Sister Marvel (ERC, PEF), Bro. KC/Arm (Distribution Center), Bro Narin (Mission Admin), Bishop Arun (Seminary Country Director), Elder Meeker (Finance Sec), Elder Sowards (Ayutthaya BP), Bro. Jongsathid (Tech Support), Pres. Wisan (Thailand Service Center Manager).

A Week of Surprises

We were to move to the new church building this week, but as I suspected it was not ready. We were packed to go, then were told not to move until Feb 2. So on Saturday, we had to unpack enough to hold church and move the other stuff out of the meeting area.

On Wednesday, we surprised a branch sister by taking a cake to the school where she teaches English.

The cake was for her 60th birthday. We sang with her class Happy Birthday and she shared the cake with her students. We didn’t bring enough forks so she told her students to share forks – which they were happy to do. (Try that in the states!). We ended up teaching her class for the rest of the hour.

Our branch had a baptism! This young woman is the last baptized in the old building and the first to be confirmed in the new. Also on Sunday, the sister who plays the piano for church went to Bangkok to get her patriarchal blessing, so last minute Joan played piano for Sacrament meeting.

Good news (we hope). On Sunday we had two new men investigators come to church. What a great thing if we can baptism some future priesthood leaders. Also, one male permagator (permanent investigator) told me he plans to be baptized before we return home - as a gift to us. He has been coming for 2 years, but needs to marry his "wife." I told him thank you, but that he needs to receive baptism for his own salvation.

We fed our four young missionaries on Sunday night (Elders Slaughter, Mageno, Crump, and Vance.) Joan made burritos. (We found tortillas and refried beans in Bangkok.) Joan also made enchiladas with salsa, and brownies too. They acted like it was heaven. It's always good to feed appreciative elders!

Funny Story about Communication

by Elder Sowards

While cleaning the church, a 9-year-old recently-baptized boy asked if he could help. I gave him a garbage bag that already had some trash in it, and in what I thought was my best Thai, asked him to go to the 3rd floor to empty the wastebaskets from the two bathrooms into the bag. 

Or that is what I thought I said. He went and returned about 10 minutes later, handing me an empty garbage bag. I thanked him, and then, when he was sweeping the rooms on the 4th floor, I went to the 3rd floor and found the two wastebaskets overflowing with the trash that had been in the bag. No trash was on the floor, just distributed to the two wastebaskets. I collected the trash and took it outside to the big trash barrels. 

I will have to work on my instructions.

Adventures of a Senior Missionary Couple

It's always an adventure in Thailand! - by Elder Sowards

As we finished a great district meeting at the church Tuesday, a lady walked into the church and proceeded to talk about a seven year old boy who telepathically told her things in her future. She also spoke of an American man (showed us his picture) who continually robbed her, even though she could not see him. She hoped we'd say it was a Christian sect. We did not know, of course, but told her about our church services. I am not sure I would be excited to see her walk in some Sunday.

Later that day, we (Sister Sowards, Elders Slaughter and Crump) traveled to visit a member, when a car swerved over from the center lane and almost hit a motorcycle moving into the same lane from the outside lane. Luckily they didn’t collide. The motorcycle moved to the center lane to turn. The speeding car pulled up beside the motorcycle and started talking (possibly yelling) at the driver. Then he pointed a gun and at the driver. After a few tense moments the sped off. That was scary as to what could have happened\. From my view the car driver was at fault. But at fault doesn’t matter when someone is crazy and has a gun.

We had a good experience that day, too. We met with the member as she had asked for a priesthood blessing. Her older brother had died last week and the whole family was so distraught that no one could sleep, and all were shedding many tears. I sealed the anointing and promised her, in the blessing, some things I had not thought to say or would not normally promise. I trust the Lord will deliver on His words. Then, I felt to ask her if her younger sister, who is a member, desired a blessing. She said her sister did, so we administered to her, too. It was a different blessing than what was said to the 1st sister. The whole experience was wonderful to be part of.

Saturday, I took the elders quorum president to Bangkok to attend the Asia Area training. I leaned much about improving the branch. One point I really liked is that, as a church leader, we cannot really help members solve their problems. We can only help them seek answers from the Lord. The answers will come from the Lord as the member prays and studies the scriptures. Our role is to help them do just that. Consider what that means in our own lives too?

While I was at the training, Joan led the youth activity. Each youth had to bring 3 things to put in a bag. These 3 items were to tell who he/she was. As the bags were opened, people had to guess whose bag it was. Then, the person explained the meaning of the 3 items. After that, Elder Mageno taught about family "Coat of Arms". They each then drew their  own. Joan said the bag discussions when fast, but the youth took 45 minutes to create their family coat of arms. The pictures were very interesting.


Monday, the Smiths (our friends from Mesa, and previous Thailand mission president) took Sister Sowards and I to Khaw Yay (translation: large mountain) a national park and game reserve. I had visited it as a young missionary. It was all dirt roads then. Today we saw a beautiful park much like Yellowstone. Their visitor’s center was comparable to any one might see in a national park in the USA. There are wild animals roaming around including elephants. We didn’t see any elephants, but saw some elephant dung. We saw some other animals – pictures attached. Another picture attached, it is of a replica of the last man-eating tiger killed in this park. 


That was about 10 years ago. It was cool


er there – about 62 degrees. (Cold for Thailand.) And it felt wonderful.

Ayutthaya Branch is Changing Locations

We hope to move church house locations this week. The branch has met in our current rental for at least 10 years and is on a side street with little visibility. Our new location is still a rental, but on a major road and is a newer building. We are hoping the move will help our small branch grow and bring us closer to having a church-built chapel. It is a better location for public transportation and for our English class.

The construction crew has worked on our building for several weeks, constructing a baptismal font, putting in walls and room dividers, preparing the kitchen hookups, and installing the backdrop for a chapel podium.

Elder Crump taking a break from his busy missionary schedule

We announced to meet at the newer location this Sunday, and hope the construction crew will move out by then! A baptism is scheduled for the brand-new baptismal font, too. Our current
location has served us well with good neighbors, and security personnel.  Our members have mixed emotions about leaving but we are all excited about the change.

A formal open house is scheduled for Saturday, March 8.

Editor's note: As all good news is subject to change, it has been decided to allow the contractor one more week to finish his work. We will begin meeting at the new location in February. Looking forward to it!

Our Cabinet

We now have a kitchen cabinet. Found in the basement of the mission office, and knowing we have a limited kitchen, the office elders brought it up to us. What a nice gift! Very Thai.

Little by little, we have a kitchen.

I think it's cute and goes well with the pink refrigerator, blue sink, and orange tile. Love it!

Children's Day and a Baptism

Sister Y's baptism.

by Elder Sowards

Our Zone Leaders taught the importance of baptism in a way I had not considered. “Go and baptism" are the first words Jesus told Nephi when he visited the new world. There are six times that Heavenly Father has spoken to mankind, and four of them, the messages is: “Repent and be baptized.” What does this say about the importance of baptism?

Joan made chocolate chip cookies for the zone training, and they went fast. What does that say about the value of freshly baked CC cookies?

Sister Y was baptized Sunday! We have been involved in her missionary lessons and it is a joy for us that she has accepted baptism. She is a student and is holding a weekend job--a very busy girl. She is already a great addition to our branch.

Thai names are a challenge for me to pronounce. Sunday, I sustained several callings and set several members apart in their callings, having to get their names right. We called a deacon’s quorum president and 1st counselor, and a full Beehive presidency. We finally have youth to staff these callings.

Saturday was Thailand's Children’s Day--a day to take children to visit fun places and give them gifts. Thailand has no Christmas! We held our youth activity (Joan's last post) and most of our youth still came. That evening, our home community held a New Years/Children’s Day party in the small park almost in front of our house. We went to check it out and soon found ourselves sitting with a bunch of not-so sober men. At one point they gave me a microphone and asked me to say a few words to the people at the party. I tried to politely be brief and let them know we liked being their neighbors.

Ever wonder what elders look like
when they are writing home on P-day?
Intense.

On Saturday we received from the mission a used free-standing kitchen cabinet and a stove-range and oven. We were so excited to install them today. To our surprise and disappointment, we discovered that the stove is gas! We don’t have gas outlets in the kitchen or on the property. We though we had it made, as stove/oven combinations are hard to find. 


We are having a great learning experience. Please leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you!
-E. Sowards

Sister Missionaries Delight Ayutthaya

 We invited Sisters McDermott (NV) and Croft (UT) who serve in Changwattana to be our guests at Ayutthaya Branch's youth activity. They spoke on being sister missionaries and how they decided to serve a mission. Since Ayutthaya hasn't had sister missionaries in who-knows-how-long, we thought it would be fun.

Of course our own hard-working Ayutthaya elders were in attendance. They teamed up with the sisters and sang "I Hope They Call Me On a Mission" in Thai. Everyone was invited to sing along. Sister McDermott accompanied on the harmonica.
Elder Sowards led a panel discussion on missionary life. We learned that some of these diligent sister and elders have sweethearts at home waiting for their return. We also learned that most of them like chocolate. What did they wish they would have brought from the states? -American chocolate and bicycle repair tools were among the answers. How did you prepare for a mission? -attended church, read scriptures, kept commandments, daily prayer, broke ties with girlfriends.  Where had they hoped to serve before receiving their call? -"anywhere I didn't have to learn a language." (ha, ha!) Australia, Brazil, but no one said Thailand.

Panel

Every youth received their own missionary name tag.

Our closing activity included:
 -Learning to tie a necktie. (I have to chuckle about Thais tying ties. Thank you Noy from the service center for sending the bag of elders' abandoned ties.)

 -Looking up and reading D&C 4.
(I quoted from memory. Pretty good for an old gal!)

 -Giving an effective door approach. No, these elders do not live in the closet.

We also wrote letters home--actually, they were fill-in-the-blanks, but fun.

Sister McDermott played the violin as Sister Croft accompanied us singing "To Bring the World His Truth" in closing.  Then we ate homemade pudding in mini-cups. Ah! a taste of home.

As soon as the activity ended we whisked away our lovely visitors so they could catch transportation back to Changwattana for an early evening investigator discussion.

Unrest in Thailand

Some might have heard of the political unrest in Thailand. If you want to know more about it, information can be found on the Internet.

Since we live upcountry, we haven't experienced the protests firsthand, but missionaries living in Bangkok have. The church is staying neutral to political issues.

Here is a map of the roads that the protesters plan to close this week. The church office building is immediately north of #2 on this map. Our most central chapel is in this area, and four senior couples and one elders' apartment is located on this street. The mission president's home is within a few blocks.

During the last incident, 1000 people protested in the intersection of Petchaburi and Asoke (this same area) cutting off traffic in all directions, which also impacted the church office building at the same crossroads.

...compared to this shot taken in April

The joy of temp inversion. Bangkok in late afternoon....

Christmas in Ayutthaya

Sister Sowards and I finished reading The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson, just before Christmas--an annual family tradition we are grateful to continue. "For unto you a Child is Born!" Ah! You've gotta love Gladys.

We held an open house for members and friends at our house Christmas Eve. Joan fixed pumpkin pie, chocolate chip cookies and fudge, I made brownies and fruit crunch. So much fun stuff to serve Thais American yummies they have not eaten before. One young man came into the house and kept saying, “Wow!” in English. We played games and showed the short video Luke 2. Joan introduced them to the coin on top of a mound of flour game. One uses a knife to cut away parts of the flour while trying to not make the coin fall. Everyone enjoyed it. We sang Christmas carols. It was just like Christmas.

Christmas day started early when the four elders

We Have New Elders in Ayutthaya

Here is the new Ayutthaya line-up of elders! We will miss Elders Watkins, Smith, and Gibbons. We are thankful for their hard work.

Welcome to:

Elders Winsor (South Weber, UT)
 Elder Slaughter (Kaysville, UT)
Elder Mageno (Springville, UT)
Elder Vance (Laguna Nigel, CA)

Christmas, Baptisms, and the Giggles

Elders Sowards, Gibbons, Smith, Watkins, Winsor
sitting with the entire high school student body 

Joan and I gave our Christmas presentation at three schools this week. Each went well for the most part. The most challenging was in an open covered building. The sunlight was so bright it washed out the screen so our slides could not be seen. They had put up two large plasma displays but one didn’t work and the other was also impacted by the sunlight.  In our presentation, we use pictures to help the students understand Christmas. A picture is worth a 1000 words and we didn’t have time or their interest to say enough to describe our pictures.  We did what we could but felt very defeated. After we were finished, the elders sang The First Noel and spoke a little to the group and made the students laugh--which saved our show! As thank you gifts for coming they gave our group two gift baskets of Veta vitamin fruit drink.

Saturday morning a mother, daughter (age 12) and grandson (age 9) were baptized.  It was very special but we had one unexpected happening. After the two speakers finished, and before the baptisms, an investigator stood up in the back of the room and asked if he could say a prayer for the people being baptized. I was conducting and my initial thought was it couldn’t hurt as long as he didn’t say anything improper in the prayer. He gave a wonderful prayer. 

In Sacrament meeting Sunday we had the three confirmations, a letter from a counsellor in the mission presidency, three speakers, and two musical numbers--which was all too much for one hour. The first musical number "Silent Night" sung by three ladies--one started giggling, and then they all were giggling by the end of the song. The elders sang The First Noel beautifully. All three speakers had to shorten their talks. I felt bad having to ask them to cut their talks short. We sang only one verse of the closing song and was still over time.

McD's in Thai culture

Another highlight of the week--we found a drive-thru McDonald's near Ayutthaya--one of the few DT McD's in Thailand. Yeah! A taste of home.

Ayutthaya Choir! Blending Cultures

Ayutthaya Branch choir in shepherd costumes for district concert

Our branch pulled together and sang at our district Christmas program Dec 14. We sang a song I wrote entitled "The Son of God, the Messiah" and added eight Thai instruments called angalung. The challenge with angalung is they are whole-step scale instruments, each playing a single note as would a bell, but not our western scale. We had to work with the scale to find a key for the song that best suited the instruments. I secretly worried that someone who was well educated about the instrument would think we were crazy to combine voice, piano, violin, and western civilization music with the ancient instruments.


The program listed us the second choir from the last to sing. There was no applause during the first ten numbers. When it was our turn, we lined up in the choir loft, and when angalung players held up their instruments, a delighted gasp rippled through the chapel.

The restless audience hushed. Elder Gibbons cued us and we began. (My hands shook so much I could hardly play the piano.) Our 14 year-old violinist played beautifully. The choir sang with full hearts "He is the Son of God, the Messiah!". I was proud of them. And at the last note, with relief, I knew we had done our best.

But the more delightful part--a few hands began clapping in the audience, then the whole congregation burst into applause. For a no-applause concert, we were all surprised!

It was the angalung that made it special. The Thais love their history--and bringing an instrument of their own culture into a concert where adaptation to another culture was clearly portrayed--they saw the two cultures blended in celebrating the birth of our Savior.