Week 5 Pictures

Packages from home!

Packing tape vs scissors!

Oh Canada!

They're half way there!

When it's time to eat you have to stay focused!

De-stressing with the sisters

Week 5

Sawaat dii kha! Sitdee rak khrobkhrua khong sidtee maak maak! 

So... This week has been good, but I also feel worn out. I want to work harder so I can learn more but I think if I did that I'd burn out... so pray for my mental learning capacity to be expanded (if that makes any sense!). 

Happy Birthday Ben!!! 

This week us sisters have started watercoloring to help us destress, we gather all of our treats from packages and we play uno and watercolor and write in our journals and it's been so great! One of the sisters got the half way package with sparking cider in it, so on our one month mark, we celebrated (for like 20 min and then it was quiet/bed time)! It's crazy for me to think that I have 17 months left. I feel like I need to work harder to make the most out of these 17 months that I have left and really give it my all. 

This week the Provo MTC has been playing host to the mission president seminar, and so all of our meals have been somewhere else, and it has kind of been crazy... they've run out of food a few times, so once last week I ate 2 brownies, honeydew and a plate of chicken nuggets for dinner. Haha it's been good though! 

Thank you mom and dad for the packages!!!! I really don't know what I'm going to do with the chocolate (I'll probably make the elders take most of it) but sister Bingham, Roberts, and Engstrom loved all of the Canadian stuff and they are looking forward with much eagerness for Canada day lol. 

Last Wednesday our district was chosen to do "people and our purpose" (a class for new missionaries on their first day) and we had to be the 'experienced missionaries" and talk in front of 50 ish missionaries to an investigator and set the stage so that the new missionaries could get to know the investigator and try to teach them. It was a cool experience. 

Our district was also chosen to have A mission president come and teach us with his wife and we had to prepare a small lesson for that. Sis. B and I went to the cambodian district for that to help even out numbers, and also to help translate a little for the Elder who is from Thailand who doesn’t speak english. I always love trying to help him how (we all do) and practicing our thai, and he helps us pronounce things right :)

I've got a little bit of a cold from eating junk food and stress and two of the elders were sick too (ugh...)

Sister Binham and I taught the District mtg. lesson on sunday, and it went really well! It's so nice to teach in english every now and then. It was about doubting our doubts and fortifying our faith. I definitely needed it, and I think so did the rest of our district because we are all under pressure. One of my favourite scriptures that we used was 3 Nephi 22:7-10 and John 6:67-68. I know that God loves us and even in times when it may feel like He isn't there, his arms of "everlasting kindness" are always there. We are all children learning to walk and Heavenly Father is there for us if we fall :) I have come to love the scriptures more than I ever have before. EVERYONE: read the scriptures! Just do it! I know that when we read the words of Jesus Christ, especially the Book of Mormon, we will recieve so much help and so many blessings. This gospel is true and it brings so much joy and light into my life. 

Everyday is a battle against discouragement or a lack of motivation sometimes to be honest, but God always blesses me with more than the amount of discouragement I sometimes feel, and I love being able to see His hand in my life so much! 

The language is super hard. keep praying for me! 

I've been thinking about this scripture a lot: Ether 12:27. I know that with God, my weaknesses will become strengths.

There is rumor that one of the Apostles will be speaking at the devotional tonight!

I love you all! Read the scriptures! 

Sister Peterson

Week 4 Pictures

Thai time

Some of the complicated script

Week 4 – My brain is changing!

 Saawaat dii kha! 

Wow this week went by so fast! I have learned so much, and am doing good!

I have never learned so much in almost a month as I have now. It's actually insane how much and how fast I have learned what I have. I can officially say this too, that I am now better at Thai than I am at French, by a long shot too! That is not to say that I am good at Thai by any means, or that I'm a fast learner. Honestly, God has been helping me out through this process so much, it's incredible how much he loves and helps me. I wouldn't know the majority of what I have learned here without Heavenly Father's help. This language is so hard, holy cow. We learned how to read script this week with all of the vowel rules and exceptions and then the 3 classes of consonants, and then to top it all off, the rules with tones! Yep, I cried after that class. But I'm glad I did because it means I'm human, right? Or stressed lol. Don't worry, Sister Bingham took good care of me and let me have some of her candy stash and as I was wallowing away in self pity and eating candy, she read to me the adjusting to missionary life book and we evaluated my stress and ways to cope and to see if I need counselling or anything (totally kidding, I'm not at that point... yet.) But yes I did cry, and yes Sis B gave me candy and read me the stress book and helpful tips on how to pull myself together. 

Learning to read script has been so hard but awesome. I know that I am going to love this language once I can read more (I already do love it, it's just hard). Script is so beautiful, but after 15 min of trying to read (at a time) my brain can't handle it anymore, but my heart wants to keep going! At one point this week, I had the weirdest feeling in my head (you all probably think that I've gone insane) but I could literally feel my brain working so hard and could feel it changing and that parts of my brain that I don't usually use were being used and that new connections and pathways were being made. It was a weird but cool feeling. But then I had a headache after. But it was still cool to know that I am giving my whole heart, might, MIND, and strength to God. :)

Donny Osmond spoke at Sunday night devotional. So naturally I've had "Be a man" stuck in my head for the past 2 days. ugh. 

Last night we had TRC and it was really good! The first lady we spoke to was a Khon Thai (Native Thai) and she was so sweet and really nice, but we couldn't understand her. But we tried! I realized that that is how it will be in Thailand though, because the people we speak to there won't be our teachers who speak really slow and repeat themselves 5 times and are masters at playing charades. But I loved hearing her speak and every now and then I would understand a few words so I would say back (in Thai): "If I understand you right, you said that you thought ...... about that scripture?" That seemed to help a little bit :) The next person we taught for TRC was a very happy old man, Brother Brown, who (if I understood him correctly) went on a senior mission with his wife to Thailand. He loves the Thai people so much and he honestly taught us more than we taught him. He said to Sis. B and I that we taught very well together and "I can already see that you two have many of the characteristics of Christ" Which of course made me tear up. 

Yesterday we learned how to tell time in Thailand. So different. In North America, we have AM and PM. Some people choose to use military time in Thailand, but there is another way, and it is insane to learn, but I'll be super happy and love it when I will have the hang of it. So like we have 2 parts of time (AM and PM) In Thailand, they have 7 different parts of time in a 24 hour period. It's too hard to explain over email, but I'll send a picture of my notes! 

I am so grateful for this opportunity that I have to be here, and I am so humbled at the fact that God has faith in me that (with His help) I will be able to learn to phuud passa thai l3? sccn luuk khong Phrapuuphencaw (rough translation: learn to speak Thai, and teach His children) I am also so excited when I won't have to use romanized Thai anymore and will be able to write and read script!!! I love being immersed in a life devoted to Christ, and am constantly praying for help, guidance, and peace, and I love how much I have learned and found answers through the phrakhamphii (scriptures), especially the Book of Mormon. I have a strong testimony that if I am having a hard time, or am looking for an answer, that studying the Book of Mormon, along with prayer, will bring peace, enlightenment, and answers that we all have in life. I love this Phrakhidikuun (Gospel) and Phrayeesukhrid (Jesus Christ). 

Have a great week! Read the Book of Mormon! 

Love Sister Peterson 

Week 3 Pictures

Sister Roberts accidentally ripped one of her dresses while trying to stretch it so they made head bands out of them and wore them during service!

Karlyn's first word

The zone before 4 of them left

One last zone picture.  The elder in the middle has already left for Thailand and will be missed - he was so helpful to everyone.

Trying to study

Trying to make her bed