Aftermath of the Red Shirts 5/24/10

Hey Guys,

We had a lock down one day this past week. Apart from all the stuff that happened in Bangkok (which was absolutely ridiculous by the way), the red shirts managed to burn down several goverment buildings through out the Isan, including Ubon, Sisagate, Kongaen, Mahasarakam, and there was a warning for our area, Roiet, as well, but the army stopped anything from happening. The sister missionaries gave me a big scare as well. They were supposed to go to Udon, a city about 6 hours north of here, and switch off with some other sisters. Well, they told me the night before, but they weren't sure when they were going to leave. On the day that they were going to leave, I had been trying to call them since the morning, but they didn't answer their phone. Then (Wednesday) at about 1:00 the zone leaders called to tell us that the red shirts were going to burn down the building in Udon, so I was supposed to cancel the sister's switch off. I couldn't get in touch with them, so we decide to race over to their house and see if they had left yet. We got to their house and their door was locked, their bikes were chained up, and the gate was locked. Oh No! It just kept getting worse! I called the zone leaders back, and told him to stop them if they got to Kongaen first. The next little while involved racing to the bus station to see if they had left, and finally they answered their cell phone and were like "oh no, we were just teaching, we decided to walk" Oh My Gosh!!! Well, the zone called back during that scramble and said the mission had ordered everyone to get in their houses, and stay there the rest of the day. Everything was fine after that.
I seriously still can't tell that anything is going on. There really are no signs, other than stuff from news reports and people on the streets, but it sounds like the government is really cracking down on this, and the worst of it is over. Thank goodness! We have been out working like normal, and had a great week.
Right now we are in Kongaen after watching a special broadcast from Bangkok, of Elder Hallstrom. I will tell you more about it next week, but anyway, we are fine. Things really weren't as bad as it seemed, but they really did do a lot of damage. Seeing the pictures in some newspapers around town here of the destruction really reminded me of all the pictures of 9/11. People here just want this thing to be over. Anyway, sorry, more spiritual stuff next week. We really had some awesome suprises this week, and a really great family that came to church. Finding new investigators has been going really well. Well, I have to go. Thanks for everything!

love -Elder Schulte