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Hey Family,

Happy New Year! New Year's in Bangkok was a crazy night. We went home early. This neighborhood was getting kinda sketchy. People were getting really drunk, there was some crazy party going on, so we went home.

This new year has been really good so far. We tried to be as productive as possible, because a lot of our members were gone this week, and so were the investigators, so what we decided to do was go through the membership records of people who are really inactive, and we decide to go out and find them, and also do inviting on the way. So it wasn't just going to be a whole week of just wandering around and finding new people to teach (I hate just wandering around). . But actually, we had some good results this week. We found that a lot of these people had moved, but also made contact with many people on the records, and will be going back to see them. On top of that, a week of inviting has given us many potentials, and a new investigator as of last night. So there we go, and we had long term planning last week, and have some objectives,and things that we are really going to try and do better to work more effectively. So this week is looking pretty good.

Last week with Dan, the relative of the King was great. He is mentally and
physically handicapped. He speaks and understands English really well, but isn't all
there, and he has to have people sit with him to hold him up, or else he would
fall over. He was really nice, we brought the games and things, but ended up not
playing that with him, instead before we went over, Elder Parkinson was like"hey
maybe you should bring the guitar, he really likes singing songs, in fact he
really likes 'By the way' by Red Hot Chili Peppers!" So, I brought the guitar,
and while we were over there, Elder Parkinson was like "Hey Dan, Elder Schulte
brought a guitar today, Do you want to sing songs?" and he was like "Of course
I want to sing songs!" and he was like "well what's your favorite band?" "Red
Hot Chili peppers!" and I was like "really? well uh ,do you know this song?"
and I started to play "by the way" and his face just lights up and he starts
singing along "...By the way I tried to say I'd be there...", way funny guy, he
would occasionally make funny noices and was always like "Hrrrr....Im hungry!"
and then a while later he had to go to bed, so the servants came and fed us
really great food, the woman wasn't able to come that night, but will probably be
there tonight, we do this every Monday night.

So here's the story behind missionaries going to visit Dan. The Church and mission program in Thailand has really good connections with members of the royal family, who have helped the church get access to various places in Thailand to do service projects and be able to proselyte in various areas. And Dan's mom, who is a member of the royal family, is the church in Thailand's link to the government. She has helped the church a lot, and in return, likes to have missionaries come to talk with Dan each week, not about religion, but just to help him practice his English. Dan's
funny!
Have you guys gotten the Ensign yet? We have the Liahona Conference issue and we are
supposed to Study Jeffrey R. Holland's talk on the Book of Mormon, I read it
this morning ,wow, way powerful! Anyway, that's for zone conference coming up
this week.

I gotta get off the computer. Happy 2010, holy cow!
Love you Elder Schulte

Mom made Thai food, that sounds exciting. Yeah I will definitely learn some
recipes too.