Hello everyone! I
hope all of you are doing fantastic!
This week has been
the longest week of my life, and it hasn't even been a week yet! That being
said, I AM SO HAPPY. I was feeling very nervous and sick as Aunt Alice was
driving me to the MTC, but as soon as I saw all of the smiling missionaries
waving at me, all of that anxiety went away, and I felt at home. There have
been some things that take getting used to, but I am adjusting very well. I was
so excited to get my name tag. My companion is Sister Bingham from Layton UT
and I love her! She is awesome and very hard working and obedient and patient
with me. We get along very well! I walked into the class the first day, and of
course all the teacher spoke was Thai! He is very patient and helps us understand,
but speaks Thai the whole time! I have a HUGE district. 5 elders and 8 sisters
all going to the same mission. In our zone we have missionaries going to
cambodia and 2 vietnam elders, and one elder going to thailand in a few weeks,
and another elder going to CA speaking some asian language that I can’t
remember what it's called, but I think its so cool all of the different asian
languages that we're all learning! It's truly a miracle how much Thai I have
learned these past few days. Phraaphoopencaw son ben dii (There are a few tones
and accents and interesting letters missing because of this limited key board I
have to type on) = God is good
On my second day
we had the opportunity of teaching a lesson to an 'investigator' in ALL THAI
AND THAT REALLY FREAKED ME OUT but it went well and I could definitely feel the
spirit even though we were reading off of our translated lesson in broken Thai.
I'm pretty sure I said "Phrayeesukhrid l3? Phraphoopencaw rak khun!"
probably 3 times (Jesus and God love you. The 3 and the ? mark are there on
purpose, it's part of the romanized alphabet. a ? mark means an abrupt stop,
and "c" makes a "j" sound. Confusing, I know.
It's funny because
I keep seeing all of these missionaries, and then I feel my tag and I realize
that I'm one of them! It's so crazy to me that I am actually a missionary
now!
The cafeteria food
here is fine. for now.
Sis. B and I went
to choir practice and it was amazing!!!! I could feel the power of the spirit
very strong as about 400 missionaries sang their hearts out! I loves it! We
watched "the character of Christ' by Elder Bednar and it was life
changing, and all of us sisters were all feeling so motivated to become better
and to turn outward like Jesus Christ, and to forget ourselves.
My district gets
along pretty well, we're always laughing, and sometimes get distracted, but
thank goodness sis. B and I like to stay on task, so sometimes we go out to get
studying done or to finish preparing a lesson, but other than that my district
is pretty good.
Yesterday was
probably my favorite day. We taught our investigator, Teey (the closest way I
can spell it, but this keyboard doesn’t have upside down 'e's' or a little
accent to put over it, her name is pronounced 'Doy', but not really. Thai has
so many sounds that I can't even explain. It's crazy, but I able to pronounce
most of the sounds and roll my 'r's pretty well. I personally think that Thai
sounds like a combination of Asian and east Indian (punjabi?) but any ways...
back to yesterday: We had a very simple lesson plan where we were just going to
try to focus on what Teey's questions were and try our very hardest to answer
them in our very limited Thai. So we prayed really hard before, and prayed with
Teey (we taught her how to pray last lesson) and just tried to rely on the
spirit after all we could do. We were able to answer and understand most of her
questions, and the entire time I just felt this great love for her (even though
she is a returned missionary acting as an investigator and Teey isn’t even her
real name!) Then we started talking about Jesus Christ very simply and then we
asked her if she wanted to be baptized! she said (in Thai of course) "Yes
I want to follow Phrayeesukhrid and be baptized. Will you help me?" Sis B
and I were so so so so happy, and we said "Sitdee rak khun l3?
prayeesukrid rak khun!" (I love you and Jesus Christ Loves you!) After we
left I couldn’t stop smiling and we saw our Thai teacher Br. Tirrell and just
said "Baptidsimaa! baptidsimaa!!" We cried a little bit after and
said a prayer thanking Phraphoopencaw (God) for that experience. God loves his
fake investigators too! That experience was especially amazing for me because
that morning I wasn't feeling that well and then I started feeling sad because
I missed home and then I wasn't feeling that motivated and had a hard time
feeling the spirit. But we came back feeling so happy and everyone in our
district were like "HOW DID YOU GET HER TO COMMIT TO BAPTISM?!"
I'm pretty sure my language skills aren't any better, and for the most
part it was sister bingham who could understand teey and not me, but knowing
the language really well isn’t why we were so happy or why Teey said yes to
baptism, it wasn't us at all, it was the spirit.
I love feeling
productive all the time!
We play beach
volleyball for gym time with our zone and it is so fun!
I'm in a room with
sis B and sis Roberts and sis Engstrom all from UT. The other room of Sisters
has 2 from idaho, one from alaska and a sister from New Zealand - she's super
nice. 4 of the elder's in my district are american and one is Fillipino and he
is the sweetest missionary ever and is so humble and tries so hard to learn
both english and Thai!
I'm pretty
sure that we get to be hosts for new missionaires tomorrow! that should be
awesome, except I don’t know where half of the buildings are...
For this Sunday
Sister Bingham and I were asked to prepare a lesson for district meeting on the
Book of Mormon, and then our sister training leaders (2 sisters going to cambodia)
asked us to teach in RS too, so we have so many lessons to prepare this week,
especially the lessons with Teey.
I pray for you all
and think of you often. Overall, I am very happy. I love Phrayeesukrid and I
love the way Thai sounds, even though it's frustrating because chuay and chuay
(imagine there are different tones over the 'a') both sound the same but one
means to believe and the other means evil.
Keep praying for
me!
love Sister
Peterson
No comments:
Post a Comment