We had a fun and eventful week in the ministry! So I will try to relate a few experiences we had. First off, during our first week of preaching here, Jake and I came across a Thai woman named Nareesara. She lives in a nice complex and is married to an englishman and so she speaks fairly good english. She invited us into her patio to sit down and we were there for maybe 10 minutes or so. I gave her a set of magazines and an invitation to the meeting in Thai and that was that. Since we were so new in the area, we didn't have our bearings yet so I was worried I wouldn't be able to ever find her again. (addresses and streets are a little confusing here!) But no worries! Now that we have been out for a few weeks, we are starting to get the lay of the land and we found her house this week! We went back yesterday and she seemed very happy to see us. She invited us into her patio again to sit down. This time we were there for maybe 40 minutes or so. She had many questions about what we believe. One thing that must be said is that the VAST majority of people in Thailand are Buddhist. So, not only are they unfamiliar with Jehovah's Witnesses, they are completely unfamiliar with the Bible and Christianity in general. So talking with them is a lot different because there is no common ground. They tend to lump all "christians" together. Nareesara had questions about things she has seen in movies like going to confession, infant christening, hell and heaven etc. So, we were able to make clear to her that we don't actually believe in any of those things and that the Bible doesn't teach such things. It took a while but once she realized we weren't Catholic, she literally gave a sigh of relief and said "oh that makes me feel much better". She asked about why christians kill each other in war...so we got to discuss that a bit. We told her that Jehovah's Witnesses don't go to war and won't enroll in any army and she was happy about that. We explained to her that the reason we go out and talk to people is to help them see what the Bible really teaches and to clear up these misconceptions. Then she said, "I am just gonna ask this directly I hope you don't mind: if I don't come to your meeting that you invited me to, are you gonna stop coming to talk to me?" Of course Jake and I were like "no way! of course we will still come visit you!!!" I just thought it was so cute that she was really concerned about that. Like we would drop her like a hot potato just because she didn't make it to a meeting! The thing is, she really does want to come to a meeting, but she is afraid of her husband. Like so many of the Thai women here, she is married to a much older European/American (read:white guy) man. Most of these men we have talked to are atheist, bitter and unhappy. She said that her and her husband don't see eye to eye on anything and that he doesn't like her to be interested in religion of any sort. In fact she told us that we were the nicest couple she had ever met and that we seemed to get along and agree on things. We have only visited her twice so for her to say this was kinda funny. But I think that all of her friends are in the same marital "boat" as she is, my guess is she doesn't see a lot of happy marriages. So we will see what happens. She was so sweet and seems to really be looking for the truth. We made plans to visit her again next week.