Not Crazy...INSANE!

Hey everyone, as I said in the subject, this week wasn't crazy it was literally so INSANE. 

First of all for P-day last week we went and rode ostriches in Chiang Rai. That was super crazy actually, because I am pretty sure it is the only place in the world where it is legal. There was a sign proclaiming a classic Thai-English translation,"For once time in life." So I am thinking it was a one time kind of deal. haha. So they had 2 ostriches one that was slower, and one that was faster. They asked me which one I wanted, and as I was a little scared I said the slower one. Elder Paxton got on the faster one, and then we were off - riding ostriches around a dirt arena. Then all of a sudden, Elder Paxton's fast ostrich goes CRAZY and starts running around as fast as its little ostrich legs could carry it trying to catch my ostrich and bite me.... I was FREAKED, and my whole district was laughing. At that same time that cowboy movie song started playing, "dun dun dun...duh, duh duh.. and then a whistle/ a whip sound." Idk if anyone can actually decipher what that song was from that, but to say the least, it was like I was living a movie. I don't think I've laughed so hard on my whole mission. 

After that we went and saw the white wat...I'll send pics of both. After our day in Chiang Rai, we needed to head back to Chiang Mai (3 hours away), so we went to the bus station. All the buses were full so we hired this white van type thing to take us back. While we were there this Chinese guy who spoke VERY loudly in the little english he knew, approached us and asked if he could come, as he needed to go back to Chiang Mai as well. We said sure, he paid and we all get in the van. I got in the van last so I was stuck sitting by him....and man that was an adventure. He starts by taking selfies with my district in the back, tells us to call him "China", and then out of the BLUE puts his arm around me and starts taking selfies and telling me my "eyes shine so bright" etc. Elder Black and I tried to explain to him what missionaries do, but as we tried to give him a passalong card he thought that I was giving him my address/phone number!  (no buddy that's the address and phone number of the church.)  So awk, and then the Elders saved me and we all switched seats. 

This week SIster Ellis had to go to Bangkok to a leadership thing so I did a switchoff with Sister Larson in Lampang. It was really good! We had a lesson with a lady kneeling outside her house, and another one with a lady that only spoke Lao in a tree house sitting on a mat on the floor. It was really cool, because even though we both don't speak Thai super well (or speak Lao) (SIster Larson is 6 weeks ahead of me) the lady said when her friend tried to explain to her about Jesus Christ she didn't believe her, but when we explained she believed. Wow that was awesome. 

Okay warning to all this next part of the letter contains gross things, so feel free to skip.

Because Lampang is a really small non-touristy town, the food is a little more sketch. For lunch I'd eaten at this dam sang place, and gotten this chicken and rice thing. After the lesson with that lady I started to feel a little sick. We went to the church and I barfed. We speedily went home where I proceeded to spend literally the next 24 hours straight throwing up. The worst food poisoning of my life. I could not even keep any water down... so bad. Then to make it even worse the power went off..so no AC. I remembered what my mom said to do when I was sick though....and laid on the cool bathroom floor...actually slept there for 5 hours. On the floor. Without a pillow. That's how sick I was. Sister Larson wasn't sick for the first bit, but then at around 11pm she got it too, and we were both dying. We finally started to feel a bit better 24 hours later when our companions came to pick us up. We still hadn't eaten though, and then it started raining, but Sis Ellis and I went back to Chiang Mai on a windy road on a smelly leaky bus and got back at like 1230. Then for the next 2 days I was still pretty sick, so we did missionary work but took it really slow and I got to sleep in. It was rough when I finally told myself I needed to eat again (Saturday) We all went to the dukes and I got a ton of food...bad idea...threw it up. SO.....I've been taking it slow on the food thing.  I lost 12 pounds though, but for anyone looking to lose weight, I would not reccomend food poisoning. Especially Thai food poisoning where it goes on for DAYS. Anyways, sorry for probably two much information about that whole scenario. Also...barfing up rice...not fun. Yesterday at church I explained the whole storybto this lady in my ward and she gave me the advice to, "chew my food better next time." I also talked to this Thai member who spoke PERFECT english. I was amazed and asked him how he'd learned it. To which he replied,"That's so Raven." So great. (A Disney Channel TV show)

Church was good yesterday we had this special fireside put on by the missionaries (Us). And the members loved it! They were so involved and excited! We had a couple members who had been on missions come and share their testimonies about their missions, and then did these role plays where they'd practice sharing the gospel with their friends. My all-time favorite part though was when we had the members write the blessings they'd recieved from the gospel on a big white board at the front of the room. They wrote stuff like, "life change, eternal family, good health, good friends, happiness, opportunity to serve etc." We then had them imagine what it would be like if they didn't have the gospel, and had them erase the "less important" blessings one by one. They didn't want too, but finally did...until the only one left was good health. I thought it was funny how that was the last one left. haha The whole point of it was that lots of people don't have the blessings of the gospel so we need to share it!

The big thing I've been thinking about this week is Agency. Especially Agency with regards to the atonement. It had never really dawned on me before that Christ chose to atone for our sins, and to die for us so that we might be forgiven and live with God again. I never really realized that the single most important event in well...ever, was a concious choice. That made me think about my life and how the most important things in our life don't need to be something we were compelled to do by some force or circumstance beyond our control, but something we chose to do. And these choices we make could turn out being the most important things in our lives. Those things of great worth. As usual,  I don't know if this makes any sense, but ya. My district leader also told us of this acronam he learned a while ago..AANO. Act as agents not objects. 

I love you guys! Have a great week! I miss you all but being here in Thailand is getting better day by day!

Love,

Sister Remington