Noe News is Good News

Very Sick and tired

11-24-2002

From my journal:

"The last few days I have been really really sick. It all started on Thursday night. I had not felt very well that day but was okay. Then when I got home, I was at my desk looking at my pictures when my fingers started getting numb. I didn't really think much about it, but when I got up, I started shivering- shaking uncontrollably. It's never happened to me before. I started crying and went to lay down on my bed. Sister Knapp comforted me, and with her hand on my back began to pray for me. As she was praying, the shivering calmed down a whole lot. It was a miracle- the Lord does answer prayers and He loves me."

I didn't sleep well that night- I woke up shivering cold but sweating- I felt like I had to have a lot of blankets on me. It was kind of scary- it's a lot like how I felt when I was in labor with Joselyn, actually. Right after that Sister Knapp also got very sick and we were sick for many days.

To this day I have no idea why we were so sick... maybe Dangue Fever which is a disease carried by mosquitos. Not sure. But we eventually recovered and were able to go back to work.

It seems like the journal entries that followed the few weeks after all said "We worked so hard today and I'm too tired to write" with quick summaries of what was happening. I think I've forgotten that feeling. What I DO remember was riding through the country side on our bikes all day. It was beautiful... and I miss it. But yes, riding your bike all day does get you worn out. My hands hurt from holding on tight to my bike handles, I was sore all over and riding a bike in a long skirt is not necessarily the easiest thing in the world!

 

A Scary Man

It's funny because as I read my journal, I am realizing that all these events I have remembered about my mission- some of the scariest of my mission- took place within days of eachother during the first few weeks in Thailand. I didn't remember that. It seems there was a lot of opposition- something- or someone- trying to maybe scare me into going home? I never thought about going home- but reading my journal I'm surprised that I didn't!

The day of the dog incident, we had been visiting with someone who was interested in learning more about our church. Her name was "Doy" and after our lesson began to warn us about Thai men. She was very concerned for us... but Sister Knapp and I had no reason to be scared really. We felt very safe around the Thai people who had mostly shown so much kindness to us. Yes- even the men. Sure we'd always get some "Hello" "I love you" "What's your name?" "This is a pen!" calls, but it didn't really phase us. Those seemed to be the only phrases Thai men knew how to say to us.

Every day as we left our house, we would go down this one street, and always there was this one man who would wave to us. He walked with a limp and one side of his face sagged. I'm thinking now he must have had a stroke at some point in his life? Anyway, he seemed harmless and kind. The very next day after the dog incident, we went down this same street and saw this same man. And for some reason I had the feeling we should go talk to him. When I mentioned it to Sister Knapp she had the same feeling. As we were talking to him, he would put his hand on our arms... but even then we didn't think much of anything because a lot of Thai people were that way. But as we continued to talk to this man he grabbed me in the chest. He looked at me and put his finger to his mouth like it was a secret and I immediately hopped on my bike and said "We need to go now!" Sister Knapp was oblivious to what had happened, but got on her bike and followed me. I peddled as fast as I could to get away and Sister Knapp was just so confused. I couldn't hold my tears in- something like that had never happened to me before. I was so scared. Finally when we got to a place where I felt safe, I told her what had happened.

So why did we both have that feeling to go down that street and talk to that man? It's hard to say... but I do know one thing. We knew to avoid him now and that area. It's almost like it was a warning. Maybe if we hadn't known that he was a bad person we would have put ourselves in a worse situation at a later time. We thought he was harmless... and know we knew better. It also taught me to be a little more cautious about who we talked to- especially the men. It was an important lesson for me to learn early on in my mission.

A few weeks later that man came to church with the Elders. He saw me and came towards me and I had to run and hide. Until that point I had not said anything to the Elders (the guy missionaries) about the incident. Once I told them, they made sure that man was never allowed near the church- at least as long as I was in Ubon.

Mean Dogs

"And whoso recieveth me there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up."

-Docterine and Covenants 84:88

That scripture was of special significance on my mission. When I think back to my mission, there is no reason I shouldn't have been more scared. Although there were so many nice people, bad things could have happened. And sometimes there were things that DID scare us. But we were always watched over and protected. I especially have bad memories of dogs.

They are everywhere, and most of them wouldn't bother us. But some of them seemed almost evil. Seriously. As missionaries on bikes, we learned a lot of ways to get dogs away from us. I remember my heart beating so fast after dogs would start chasing us trying to bite at our legs. We would slam on our brakes really fast and that would usually scare them off, or sometimes we would even have to kick at them. And who knows what kind of diseases those dogs carried... some of them were awful sick... and I didn't have the heart to take pictures of those dogs.

11-14-2002
(Summary from my journal)

I hadn't been in Thailand for more than two weeks, and Sister Knapp and I were walking trying to find people to talk to. We started noticing that this medium sized black dog was following us. And not just following us but growling and barking as if he were after us. It was really really scary. It seemed so evil to me- like, it could have had red eyes or something. It didn't, but it just seemed like one of those really scary dogs you would see in a horror film. All of our normal tactics like throwing a rock, moving really fast or pretending we were about to hit it weren't working. IT wasn't bothering anyone else- it was after US. We finally stopped and decided to say a prayer. We both kept our eyes open and kept an eye on the dog which I would say was about 15 feet away from us. As we said the prayer, something happened. The dog started walking away. It would turn around a little and bark, but it was walking away. Relieved, we started walking again. As soon as we started walking again, it turned around yet again headed toward us. So we both started praying in our hearts. Again, the dog turned around. Hearts beating fast, we continued to pray until the dog was completely out of sight and we never saw it again.

As if that weren't enough, we had yet another encounter with mean dogs that day. Sister Knapp sure was brave! We were once again walking when we saw about 10 dogs together... 5 of them, HUGE dogs, came out of their cages and started barking at us. Can you believe it? They could have killed us! I was so scared... but I remember Sister Knapp saying to the dogs "Go home" and I'm not sure if she said it in English or Thai because I didn't specify in my journal, but as soon as she said that the dogs went back.

Thinking back, I am so grateful for the danger we were able to avoid. I know without a doubt that God was watching over us and protecting us.

My first days in Thailand

All sorts of things were running through my head as we arrived in Thailand. It was a 24 hour flight and I expected to come out of the airplane and feel a huge heat wave. But it was actually quite nice... and in my opinion, Thailand never got quite as bad as I remember Kentucky being. But who knows... I may have just not thought about it so much. It smelled like Asia, and the airport was a pretty normal airport... except for the fact everything was in Thai! We went straight to the mission home which was incredibly beautiful. My mission president and his wife were both really tall and incredibly nice. President and Sister Slater. I remember being impressed that they lived in a gated community, but that was actually not uncommon in Thailand, as I would learn, unless you were really poor. Especially in Bangkok. We stayed that first night in the mission home and then the following morning we were introduced to our new companions. I was put with Sister Knapp and we were to travel 12 hours by bus to Ubon- which is located in the Eastern part of Thailand.

My first real taste of Thailand was waiting at the bus station. We ordered some water and they put straws in the bottles for us. It's just something they do! It was also weird seeing brands I knew well of things such as potato chips in a different language.

 

The bus ride was certainly long... and although I think I avoided talking about it in my journal I remember it being uncomfortable too. But it was a 12 hour trip... so if you can imagine, Sister Knapp and I had a lot of time to get to know eachother. She was from California and had the most beautiful skin. There were other missionaries in the bus with us too, so my mind was filled with lots of stories about missionary life in Thailand. I was excited! I was already feeling weird about not speaking the language well, and the Thai people did not sound like my teachers at the MTC. They spoke really fast and some had accents that were very hard to understand on top of that. When we arrived in Ubon, we took a little vehicle called a Tuk Tuk to our little house. That was very awesome in my book. And I never tired of riding in one the WHOLE time!

Our little house was a small home, but I loved it. We had one room that was air conditioned in our house- our bedroom. And we were only allowed to turn it on at night. We kept cool with fans and left the windows open everywhere. We had a microwave. When I woke up that first morning, it was LOUD. I couldn't believe it! Roosters, chickens, bugs, birds. They were all new sounds to wake up to but I loved it. There was something so exotic about it! There were pretty much bugs and gheckos everywhere. Even the fanciest of homes would have a few gheckos. You just got used to it and they avoided us. Ants, on the other hand, were unavoidable. Sister Knapp told me that there would pretty much be at least one ant on you the whole time you were in Thailand. I think she was right!

We ordered a lot of our food from street vendors. Fresh fruit was pretty much delivered to our door- pineapple and guava were my favorite. They would cut up the fruit on their little cart, stick them in a bag and we would eat right from the bag with toothpicks.

The Thai people were very warm and sweet. I felt welcomed the moment I arrived, especially at church.  The Thai people loved foreigners and there was never a time we met someone where they didn't offer us water that I can remember. Very kind people!

One of my first days in town we saw an elephant walking down the street! I had heard this was normal but to see it first hand was pretty sweet! I saw them many many times... and at night some of the elephants would have little lights on their tails.  There are LOTS of stray dogs... really yucky ones. Huge toads jumping around... cows, goats and chickens were not uncommon either especially in my first area of Ubon.

Since I didn't have a bike the first few days, we spent a lot of time walking, riding tuk-tuks and also song-taws which are covered trucks with benches in the back. That's the best I can explain!



It was definitely a whole new world, but I felt right at home.