Call Me Betty Crocker

Royal Palace

This week is for you chefs out there. I will be including recipes for authentic Thai dishes we made with a Thai friend... it is up to you to find the weird ingredients at your local Asian market hahahahahaha so good luck! 

THANKS MOM FOR HALLOWEEN/THANKSGIVING. IT WAS AMAZING! I LOVEEE YOUUUUU!

Happy early Thanksgiving...

The Work: 

Some great things happened this week! Our district is killing it here in Thonburi. As a group, we work together in making sure we get a balanced missionary effort. So as a district, we have set certain goals at the beginning of the transfer, and we have done our best to accomplish them! We are working our best, and our work is paying off! It is all paying off because the Lord wants it to of course - not because we did anything special, but because certain people needed to be baptized, and certain people needed to come back to church. We are on track for 8 baptisms and 11 LAs [less actives] brought back to church for the transfer! Please pray that we can reach our goal - we are so close! Every one of these people are God's children that can eventually go to the temple and receive saving ordinances! WOOHOOOOO. There are still some hard days of course, but we never have a BAD day here in Thonburi. We can't afford to have a bad day! We are missionaries! This is the Lord's work people! A little update on some of our investigators: 

Brother Luck is doing great.  He brings his 9 year old son to every lesson, and he will be getting baptized in 2 weeks! He is really eager to learn and follows every commitment we give him! 

Sister Grace and Brother Augustine: They are doing great! A little speed bump with the whole re-baptism thing, but they are going to be ok. They love the Book of Mormon and believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet. They LOVE the "good word of God."

Culture: 

The guy that we made food with, his name is Dew. He lived and studied in LA for 10 years and lives right next to the church. His wife is Muslim, his mom is Buddhist, his dad is Christian, and he is an atheist. Do you want to know how we got an appointment to have lunch with him? You bet I pulled the ole, "Hey, if I beat you in basketball we are coming over for lunch." NAILED IT hahahaha. I play basketball with him for about 10 minutes every week - just in my missionary clothes. He comes to the church sometimes to play, so I go shoot with him. He always asks questions about the Mormon Church, so we have practically taught him the restoration, gospel of Jesus Christ, word of wisdom, law of chastity, 10 commandments, and even a little bit about eternal families. So you never know what a friendly game of 1-on-1 will do hahahahaha. He is not an investigator or anything, but now he is friends with the members at the church, and we get to cook yummy food with him! Dew is such a nice guy, and he is actually way good at basketball - not going to lie. Just a fun little story for ya ;)

HERE ARE THE RECIPES:

ผัดไท (Phad Thai)

Start with oil in a pan. This dish will be made like a stir fry (cook time: 5 minutes) 

Fresh Shrimp (cook fresh - none of that pre-cooked stuff) 

Dried Chilli Powder (Hot Thai pepper. Called prick (thai word for pepper) crush it up until it becomes a powder... this gives the dish its Thai kick ;)

Tofu 

Bean sprouts 

Tamarind sauce (made homemade but I am sure that you could find some sort of copy at an Asian market)

noodles (rice noodles)

leeks (small leeks) [Mom comment: the green things in the upper right bowl - they aren't U.S. leeks - they look more like green onions without the white onion part at the end. But Elder Smith-Driggs said Dew called them "leeks."]

1- 2 eggs at the very end 

Raddish (ham colored looking stuff in the middle of the picture... it is mashed up Thai radish)

Adding the eggs at the end here.

Usually served with fresh lime, raw leeks, and random leaves that I don't know what we call in English.  Season with salt as needed. (See picture with 2 plates below.)

Thai stir fry dish

2 large fish air bladder (commercial term: maw) - dry it out to the consistency of a soft pancake, cut it up into bite size pieces, and throw it in the pan first with oil (of course you have to put the oil in there)

Cook like a stir fry 

Garlic (fresh not powder)

Bean sprouts (a Thai staple) 

Soy sauce 

Oyster sauce 

Leeks (small... not the gigantic things you get at Costco... imagine a regular leek in America and then imagine its normal natural size at 6 inches long - that is what you want) [See Mom Comment above.]

Thai Pepper! Put a titch smacker of that bad boy in there, and you are good to go.

(See picture.)

Funnies: 

1. We got in a taxi the other day and the driver's name (romanized of course it doesn't sound like this in Thai) but his romanized name was HITRUN NOIPONG. Hahahaha Hit & Run taxi driver. You have to love that! 

2. Another Taxi driver asked me If I liked Thai girls, but I misunderstood and thought she said Samlo (which is like a 3 wheeled Tuk-Tuk)... so I answered and said, "Yes I love them so much. They are WAY fun!" Hahahahahaha Elder Chamberlain just died of laughter.

3. Halloween was an absolute blast this week and some costumes were absolutely hilarious. Hopefully I can send some pics.

Men in Black

4. MY DAD WAS GHANDI hahahahahaha for Halloween! 

Spiritual thought: 

I want everyone to go and read the talk entitled "The First Great Commandment" by Jeffrey R. Holland. I want to share my thoughts from that talk. Elder Holland talks about Jesus' interaction with Peter after He was resurrected. The apostles have gone back fishing because they don't know what to do after Jesus dies. When Jesus calls them to the shore after he has been resurrected, he basically tells Peter, "Peter do you love me? Then why Peter, are you here? Why are we back on this same shore, by these same nets, having this same conversation? If I needed to get fish I obviously can get fish. I NEED DISCIPLES - THAT IS YOUR MISSION."

I really love this message. How many times does Christ have to ask for our hearts? How many times does He need to remind us that we can't turn back to our old ways but need to continually improve? As disciples, it is our job to spread the good news. Whether you are a missionary or not. Preach the Gospel always, and when necessary use words. 

I LOVE YOU ALL! Dad your Halloween costume... I just can't ..... hahahahah wow hahahahahaha.

-- 

Love always,

Elder Smith-Driggs