two more months till thailand

Being only three years apart, Stephen and I have always been really close. But since we've been at BYU together we have become best friends. Being in the same ward, living literally one minute apart, and having the same friends has been so fun. With Stephen graduating this April and going off to medical school, I am so excited that we'll be able to go on this adventure together.

We both have always wanted to go abroad to do a humanitarian mission and now we are finally doing it! This May we leave to go to Chiang Rai, Thailand with HELP International. HELP International is a non-profit organization

that works across the globe, empowering local community members by teaching self-sustainable skills that can be passed on to others. As both Stephen and I are interested in medicine, we will be working on the public health team in Thailand. We will be teaching basic health classes in disease prevention, nutrition, sanitation, and hygiene. We will also be working in health clinics and hospitals. This service is desperately needed and very much appreciated by the under-staffed and resource-poor facilities. Projects in Thailand are done collaboratively with locally operated Non-Government Organizations in country. Projects taken on require commitment from the community. They are aimed at helping, thereby not only securing more sustainability, but also increasing effective program transferability. We hope to start such projects that will change the lives of potentially thousands of people for the better.

We can't wait to get to Thailand and start working. Only 2 more months and we're off :)