Mormons. Go us.

SO.

My job has led me to realize that there are lots of misconceptions about the church. Which is fine. Any religion is prejudiced and bizarre from the outside. I'm not going to say "we're NORMAL!" because, frankly,

we're not.

If you want to know why people think we're weird, and the REALLY AWESOME misconceptions about us, watch this video:

So here are the top 10 misconceptions, and how we actually believe.

10) We don't believe we get our own planets when we die.

9) We are Christians. We don't belong to the Christian Coalition, but we are Christians, in that we believe in the divinity of Christ.

8)  Women are not forced to get married and make lots of babies and stay home. If women want to do those things, more power to them. It's not a requirement.

7) We don't worship Joseph Smith.

6) We don't do weird or gross things in the temple. It's basically a more in-depth church service. Not that different from what we already know.

5) We aren't a cult. We have free will.

4) Caffeine is not banned. Coffee, tea, tobacco, illegal drugs, and alcohol are. Not caffeine. Thank goodness.

3) We don't practice polyamy. Period. we used to. Don't anymore. Hear something about mormons who have lots of wives and such? Not us.

2) We're not racist. The truth is, we don't know why people of african descent couldn't have the priesthood until 1978. Any mormon who tells you different is flying by the seat of their pants. The bottom line is: we don't know. Also, we dont' believe dark skin is a curse.

1) We don't hate Gays. Anymore than people who support certain legislation hate people of the opposite opinon. OBVIOUSLY, there are some crazies out there who happen to both hate homosexuals and be mormon, but you get crazies in any organization.

Anyway. That is the summary of my wisdom from being a representative of mormon.org.

Dear patrons of mormon.org;

When you call mormon.org to talk to a missionary, please either turn off or turn down your porn. That way we don't have to hear it.

Also, if you want to masturbate while talking to a female phone service representative, call a 1 900 number.

Thank you for your time.

Leah

Seriously???

Yeah. THIS wins for most bizarre commercial ever.

My newest obsession....

Country music.

I know. Random, right?

But It's a legitimate addiction. All day, all night, first thing in my head, last thing out of my mouth.

Here are my current favorites:

(Zax brown band - Knee deep; Josh Turner - Your man; Johnny Cash - I hung my head)

I feel like country music talks about all the things that never get old, and that are never too young. Like rap has a generation, and punk has a generation, and ska has a generation, but country spans everything.

Anyway. Just wanted to share that.

You should share your favorites :) I'm still new to the genre.

About Thai Food

I just have to post something about the deliciousness that is Thai food.

So Thai cooking has 4 major flavors to it. Spicy, sweet, sour, and salty. But the way they get those flavors is very different than how we get those flavors.

I learned this in a cooking class I took in Chiang Mai, where I learned how to make spring rolls, pad thai, Tom Sab (SOOOO GOOOOD), and curry paste and curry. Let me just show you a couple of dishes I had in thailand while I was there.

This was the green curry I made. It was SOOO spicy! Our instructor called peppers "sexy vegetables"

This is called the "welcome snack". It is a leaf, filled with lime, shallot, ginger, coconut, and palm syrup. YUMMY!

My sister made that. I think its called something uw.

My sister made red curry. I think I prefer red curry actually.

Coconut milk soup with chicken.

My pad thai. NEVER in my LIFE did I think it could be that good! I didn't even take a before picture.

Classic fried dish.

Lemon glass soup!

 OK. On to the fruit, which legitimately ROCKED my WORLD! First, let me tell you about the Durian. According to wikipedia, a Durian is a fruit that looks like this:

 and has a smell that is "strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and offensive. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust, and has been described variously as almonds, rotten onions, turpentine and gym socks. The odour has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia". I got the chance to smell the durian, and it is like a pungent combination of rotting onions, slightly old meat, and detergent.

It was banned from our hotel.

One morning, I woke up with a desire for funnel cake. Instead, I got this - fried pineapple! And it was GOOD. The pineapple in thailand is a totally different fruit from the one here. It is mild, and not acidic, and a whitish yellow color.

THis is called a Rambutan. I loved it. A brit in my group on the tour said it tasted like "slimy nothingness". I told him that was what I looked for in a fruit.

Blended coconut juice, from a young coconut. SO fatty and SO good!

Last, but certainly not least, this is was my lunch the second day on the trek. It was noodles packed in a banana leaf and we use chopsticks our guide cut off of bamboo from the jungle. FREAKING AWESOME!!!

The much awaited thailand pictures post.....

Alright. So here is the post you've all been waiting for... with pictures from thailand! If you want to see them all, visit facebook. I plan to put my favorites here though. And for those of you actually planning on reading this, good luck. I plan to be long winded. :)

SO After a 14.5 hour flight to Guangzhou, a layover, and a 3 hour flight to Bangkok, Debby and I successfully met in the airport. Our hotel was AWESOME. And since we got there in the morning, we headed straight out.

This is what I looked like at that point. TIRED.

So we went to see the sights, and got to ride in this rickety little thing called a tuk tuk.

In bangkok, it looks cloudy all the time, but it is actually a thick layer of pollution. We had good food, saw cool stuff, and it was the most overwhelming of anywhere I've ever been. Here are some examples:

Cool stuff

Students at the Univesity

A Wat

Good Food:

Amazing. We took a day trip to Ayutthaya, which was the old capital. It has amazing ruins:

As well as some pretty cool other stuff:

We then headed up to Chiang Mai. The most interesting part was the trek. We hiked in this jungle:

Swam in this waterfall:

Rode this elephant:

Slept in this hut:

 Wore out these shoes :( :

 Ate this fruit:

Pretty awesome. Then we headed down south to Koh Lipe for some sweet island succoring. Here are some samples of photos:

Does anyone remember this post?

Does that last photo bear any resemblance? :) Dream come true.

Not to mention the accomplishing of many life goals. More on that later. As well as more on the food :)

From sunavarnbhumi international

SO. Here I am in the bangkok airport, with the longest 36 hours of my liife in front of me. It is 12:30 local time, and I am tryinng to be onn California timme.... which makes it 10:30 am yesterday morning.... so as youu can imagine, stayinng awake is AWESOME.

I just waanted to do a brief update onn my trip, noow that it is cominng to a close. Ffirst of all, Bangkok is one of the most overwhelminng places i have everr been - in every waay you can imaginne. Iit is loud, annd  big, and smelly, and gorgeous, and liike nothinng I have before seeen. the grand palace is onne of, if not the most brreeathtakinng compoundss i have ever seen. Tthe food is delectable, and never in ,yliifee have I seen eggs with  such big, orange yolks! Ii tasteed a pad thai in bangkok that I swear came straight from heaaven. Tthe smoothies aree increedible, as are the fruits - ramuptom and lychee and mangosteen, oh my!

we headed up to chiang mai, where we weere stayinng inn a "guesst hoouuse", with decidedly more character than  ouur chhain hotel in  bangkokk. Our key had a giant carved elephant attached to it. which Ii loved. Wwe "'trekked", meaning a combinationo of jungle hikinng, waterfall swimminng, elephant riding, as well as sleepinng in a hut in a hiill people villlage and eating lunch out of a banana leaf. Oh and bambooo raftinng. I loved all of it but th hiking - I'm not reaaly a hiker,I've decided. But eatinn freesh fruit under a waterfall? Tthat Ii can do.

afterwards, we headed to the deep south. After a dayy in songkhla, we tookk a taxi to  a boat to go to  the thai island  of ko lipe, which is basically the furthesst souuth youu can go on an island and still  be in thailland. it iis off of thailland's west coast, in the andaman sea, and it was inncredible! aquamarine waters, squeaky soft white sand, beautifull panamanas of the sea, protecteed coral reefs - the whole kit and caboodle. Tthe pictures I haave arre breaathtakinng.

so now Ii just have abbouut 12 more houurs in thiis airport, and then I'm on my way home. I'm super excited to gie people the presents i got them! and if youu didn't get one, no hard feelinngs ok? I did my best: :)

I hope the next few houurs passes smoothly. and i will see youu all soon!