Elder Holt's in Thailand: What did I just feel?

Hey family

No matter how bad the media portrays the damage from the earthquake, I am doing great. I was informed of the earthquake right after it hit Bangkok by our investigator Sister Mam. She called us to ask us how we were doing. That was really strange because it was about 9 at night and we had just finished our nightly planning for the next day. Any ways in the phone call she said she was just checking up on us. That was strange because she has never done that before and didn't say anything about the earthquake. The next day when we went to an appointment that we have with her she explained that she wanted to see what floor of the apartment we were on to see if we felt the earthquake or not. With us was a member who was in a different apartment but on a higher floor who said that he felt a little bit of a shake but it wasn't too noticeable. Other than that I heard up in Chang Mai, it hit at a magnitude of about 3.6. was that right? (Local news said 6.9 Mom) I also have seen a few photos of the damage of some of the Buddhist temples up there. Truth be told that's something I never would have thought Thailand would experience.

This last Sunday we had Sister Mam, Mo and Mae's baptism. It went really well and there was a huge turn out of members to watch. We even had the Primary sing a epic version of "Follow the Prophet". That was May's and Mos favorite song that they learned in Primary. Lately when we have had baptisms we have been asking the recent converts here to be the ones to baptize so that they can have the opportunity to learn and use their priesthood. For Mae and Mo we had a priest who was about 17 baptize them. Then for Sister Mam we had Brother Nipone baptize someone for the first time. He was kind of nervous and I think we forgot to tell them both that she had to be fully immersed So in the end Sister Mam was baptized 4 times! There was a investigator in a different area that made a funny comment of well the little girls hadn't had as much time to sin so they were quick but the older lady had to be baptized a lot to be cleaned. It made Elder Christensen and I laugh and then it gave us an excellent opportunity to explain about baptism.

This last week wasn't too eventful, however this next week will mark another 6 weeks down, to my horror and sadness. So coming up is transfer meetings. This is going to be a really really big one. From what I'm hearing it sounds like that there will be a lot of people switching up assignments in order to allow those who are younger in the mission to begin to get experience before our MTC group and the group in front of us pack up for home in the next 2 transfers. I'm kind of crossing my fingers hoping that I go down in the assignments but, it probably won't happen. However because Elder Christensen became my companion there is a very good chance that I may be moving. I'm not to sure how happy I am about that. I love Pakkret now and there are a lot of people that I can still help get baptized but in the end I'll go where the Lord wants me to go. So this area or, if I move, my next area will be my last area depending on this transfers meeting. I'll let you know the results of it next week.

So I haven't got the package yet but it is probably in the office. And I will get a hold of it this week.

I sent some photos first is of the baptism. Next I really like because its the path that leads to Sister Mam's house. Its all wood. Last year when it was flooding the path was covered by water with another 2 or so feet above and then the path is about 5 feet off the ground. There was a lot of flooding. Then the 3rd picture is of the house that we go under to get to her house. Then well the last is of me... I think. Its one that Mae took when she got a hold of Elder Christensen's camera.

This week I'm going to take some money out of the bank because I'm going to start sending packages home with stuff that I want to keep but don't want to take with me. I'm sending it home by boat so it should get home about the same time I do