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
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