sept 3 - day 3

Day 3- we set our alarm for 8, but woke up at 7 due to excitement and eagerness! Went down  and had our first Thsi meal, breakfast consisted of toas and honey/jellyt, rice and vegetables, black pepper chicken and vegetables and some fruity juice that tasted like a tang of some sort. We were going to have my friend Patty come take us to an LDS church,  but she was busy this morning. We decided to venture out and take a taxi to find the location of the ward. Thank you for LDS meeting locator,  but it did not have a specific address. I guess it was written a bit odd for Thai people, but it was the general location.

Us getting a ride from our hotel to the taxi driver, literally was on this for 3 min if that! 

Here is our first taxi driver! He liked to laugh at himself and was a trooper when the address was confusing.  After driving around for a while, I thought maybe we should just get out and look, like I knew better than a Thai taxi driver, but mom suggested we stay. We started going down different roads where I noticed the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints logo,  not in English, but in Thai. So we followed the signs. The spirit guides and God definitely us at church today.  We walked in the building and saw  some missionaries, they took us to sacrament meeting and the meeting started two minutes later.  One of the elders offered to translate for us, he was from Clinton Utah. There was another sister missionary from Alpine Utah. We then talked to a returned missionary sister who spoke with an accent, we assumed that she served in Australia due to her accent, she totally did serve there and had been home about 1.5 months. 

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 Patty and her mom (Tao) came and picked us up from church,  due to having a hard time finding the church we were a little nervous she would struggle, but luckily a sister missionary  was able to call her and explain it in Thai which helped her.  Patty was my roommate for three months my freshman year of college in Orem Utah. 

 Once they picked us  up, we headed into Bangkok. We walked through a street market that had all you could ever think of.  They recommended that we eat at this restaurant, it was a riverside restaurant that we could watch barges and boats 🚣 going up and down the river. Patty ordered the food, we had pad Thai, spicy seafood  soup (shrimp, squid. Clams, and muscles), mixed vegetables, some breaded little nuggets that was delicious, with a sweet sauce on them. And yummy white and brown rice.  It was all really good, mom had a coughing attack when the spicy soup her throat, but she recovered.   

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 After eating this delicious meal, they took us down to the river edge And we loaded a ferry to take across to go to the Grand Palace.  As we were wrapping up eating, they suggested that we needed to hurry to make it on time to get to the Grand Palace court yard.  Then after we got off the ferry, they stated again that we needed to hurry, so we offered to run.  When we got to the ticket counter for the grand Palace, they were right about to close so we were the last people to buy tickets. When we went to the front gate we were the last people to enter it. Tao kept saying that we were "good luck" because of these experiences. The Grand Palace was beyond words. The ornate detail of everything was amazing. Their King passed away recently, so it was a time of mourning. There was a reverence and respect of the Thai people, especially in our hosessess. They loved their King and it was beautiful to witness and be a part of. You can see in the photos all of the people wearing black to show their love and respect. People come every day in September from early morning 5am to late evening 10pm to show their support. Hundred of people continually everyday for the whole month. Then they will have his final farewell Oct 26. 

We were also the last ones to enter a place of worship, in order to enter we removed our shoes and hats to show respect, we were the last ones there and we were able to witness our hostesses worship. The guard also gave me a lilac and rose wrist bracelet. It smelled wonderful. There again Tao says "you good luck" we were able to see monks chanting their prayers and feel of their reverence

As we were leaving the Palace, we walked pass a guard and took a photo with him, we asked if we smiled in the photo, then he chuckled. I hope we made his day, because it made ours. 

This experience was followed up with sticky rice and mango, that dessert is divine in Thailand! We went to the "toilet" which cost money to use them, no toilet paper, and no flushing so you were supposed to use the bucket of water near it to flush. Mom did it, but I stepped out unsure of the situation. My seeet friend Patty was waiting for us and once she saw me she asked " Are you okay?" I said "yes, just unsure what to do with all that."We were also able to try a dessert that Patty ordered that was water chestnuts in coconut milk with colorful chestnuts. We needed to buy sleeping bags, so we went to the "department store" wow! This was a department tower! 7 floors of every store you could imagine plus thousands of Thai people.  This is where they bought their clothes, food, groceries, and hang out. Patty and Tao asked us if we wanted ice cream or more food at the market, our minds said maybe, but our stomachs said heck no. They kindly drove us back to our hotel while we zonked out in the back seats. Let's just say we think jet lag may be a real thing. 

We crashed when we got to our bed. Once again, we saw the Lords hand in so many things today. All Taos "good luck" are tender mercies and love from our Savior. We know we are supported in this trip. It's amazing that patty and I were roommates only 3 months almost 10 years ago, and today she and Tao  treated us like we've been best friends for a long time. It was great to be able to share a mother/daughter day with them. They work 6 days of the week and generously  spent their day off with us.