Week 8 - Last week in the MTC!

Hello everyone! This is it! This time next week I'll be on a 15 hr plane to Hong Kong, and from there to Bangkok! I am very excited, but scared (naturally), as I can barely say my name tag! 

 -All of us with our flight plans! (fr. L to R: S. Roberts, S. Rogers, S. Pherson, S. Engstrom, Me, S. Hall, S. Shaw, and the lovely S. Bingham front and centre.)​

Thank you Sister Juli Miller for the treats!  We ate them all in less than 10 minutes!

This week I finished reading the Book of Mormon, and let me tell you, it gets better and better every time I read it! Immediately after I had finished I had the thought "Well, what have you learned?" and with out even thinking, my automatic response in my head was "To come unto Christ!" The Book of Mormon is amazing, and it has helped me come unto Christ so much, especially while being here at the MTC.  

I've been having a hard time opening my mouth and trusting that God will help me know what to say when I need to say it, for fear of making a mistake, or confusing the investigators. I talked with one of my teachers, Sister Peck, and she was able to help me a bit 🙂 We read Doctrine and Covenants 33, and then talked about having to make at least 30,000 mistakes when learning a language in order to get a good grasp on it. If I never open my mouth, I won't ever make those mistakes and learn from them and then in turn get better at Thai! So I had a little bit of an attitude change, and tried to open my mouth more and try to let God help me with my words. And when I made a mistake, instead of feeling upset about it, I would say "Yay! I made another mistake. One mistake closer to 30,000!" It sounds ridiculous, but it helps me haha! 

One of our 'investigators', Pat (I really don't like writing Thai in romanized anymore, but I have to with this keyboard, I would rather write in Thai script) is getting baptized this week! We love her so much! She is so willing to follow Christ and is eager to learn! I want to be like her have have the same willingness as Pat! 

Yesterday I was able to help with the MTC 'test run' tours, so that was pretty sweet! 

Today I have the opportunity to help clean the Provo Temple! I am so happy that I have one more opportunity to be in the temple before I leave, even if it's just for cleaning. 😊

I think I have decided that Moroni 7 is my favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon. Read it! 

 I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have been given to me a missionary! In these 2 months my testimony of Jesus Christ and the Gospel has increased so much! I love the Gospel so much, and I know that if we trust God, and in His son Jesus Christ, live the gospel, and are willing to do what God asks of us, our lives will be better than we could have imagined, and that we will receive answers to questions, comfort in trials, and joy beyond measure.😊  

Love you all! 

Sister Peterson

Week 7 - Asian Squatting

Has she finally "lost it"?

Practicing

Holy Cow, 7 weeks in the MTC. Only 2 more to go! I feel like I've always been here. But I will be excited to talk to "real people" once I'm in Thailand, I think I'm around too many missionaries here haha. It's all good though! This week we got to Skype TRC (Skype a member in Thailand and have a lesson! It was so good! I loved the girl we were able to talk with, and I was able to understand her most of the time! (She may or may not have thrown in a few English words to help us out, but still!) From that experience, I have only gotten more excited to go to Thailand!!! This week, we also got around 40 new missionaries added to our zone! 2 classes of new Thai missionaries, and 2 classes of new Vietnamese missionaries. I love helping the new Thai missionaries when they have language or MTC life questions!  This week I have been working really hard, and practicing my Asian squat (yes, I know you were all thinking that I was going to put down studying the language, or working hard at something missionary-esque). If I do it for too long it feels like my ankles will go numb, but for the most part, I quite enjoy the asian squat position. The one pic of Sister Bingham taking a selfie, and me squatting in the background (I know it's a bad pic of me, but I was squatting down beside the brother of Jared. In the mural and I didn't know she was taking a picture!) I forgot to take pictures on my camera, so all of these are from other people. Hence why most of these pictures of me are weird haha.  This week, besides working really hard at improving my ability to asian squat, I have been trying to be more diligent. I want to be a "Go To" missionary and always want to be dependable. I've also have been trying to be diligent even if I'm tired - which is hard! Some scriptures that I really like are: Moroni 9:6  D&C 130:19 - Advantage given to those who are diligent and obedient. They will be blessed with knowledge and intelligence.  2 Peter 1:10 2 Corinthian 8:7 - abound in diligence, love, and grace.  I challenge you all to be diligent in whatever work you are doing this week at home! I know that God blesses the diligent. Jesus Christ was always diligent, and as His representative, I should try my hardest to be diligent too! Although I can never be as diligent as Him while on my mission, I can always do better, and give my best. And once I've given my best, I can give a little bit more! 😊 Sister Peterson

Holy Cow, 7 weeks in the MTC. Only 2 more to go! I feel like I've always been here. But I will be excited to talk to "real people" once I'm in Thailand, I think I'm around too many missionaries here haha. It's all good though!

This week we got to Skype TRC (Skype a member in Thailand and have a lesson! It was so good! I loved the girl we were able to talk with, and I was able to understand her most of the time! (She may or may not have thrown in a few English words to help us out, but still!) From that experience, I have only gotten more excited to go to Thailand!!!

This week, we also got around 40 new missionaries added to our zone! 2 classes of new Thai missionaries, and 2 classes of new Vietnamese missionaries. I love helping the new Thai missionaries when they have language or MTC life questions! 

This week I have been working really hard, and practicing my Asian squat (yes, I know you were all thinking that I was going to put down studying the language, or working hard at something missionary-esque). If I do it for too long it feels like my ankles will go numb, but for the most part, I quite enjoy the asian squat position. The one pic of Sister Bingham taking a selfie, and me squatting in the background (I know it's a bad pic of me, but I was squatting down beside the brother of Jared. In the mural and I didn't know she was taking a picture!)

I forgot to take pictures on my camera, so all of these are from other people. Hence why most of these pictures of me are weird haha. 

This week, besides working really hard at improving my ability to asian squat, I have been trying to be more diligent. I want to be a "Go To" missionary and always want to be dependable. I've also have been trying to be diligent even if I'm tired - which is hard! Some scriptures that I really like are:

Moroni 9:6 

D&C 130:19 - Advantage given to those who are diligent and obedient. They will be blessed with knowledge and intelligence. 

2 Peter 1:10

2 Corinthian 8:7 - abound in diligence, love, and grace. 

I challenge you all to be diligent in whatever work you are doing this week at home! I know that God blesses the diligent. Jesus Christ was always diligent, and as His representative, I should try my hardest to be diligent too! Although I can never be as diligent as Him while on my mission, I can always do better, and give my best. And once I've given my best, I can give a little bit more! 😊

Sister Peterson

Week 6 Pictures

New name tag!

pronounced "Sidtah (?) Pitdehsaan" 

Sisters Peterson and Cook, Elders Noad and Smith (fellow Magrathians!)

5 lb chocolate bar - since her parents can't send chocolate to Thailand this'll have to make up for it! Her district ate it in one day -thanks elders!

One of the many beautiful murals in the new building.  The sons of Mosiah.

Happy 4th of Ju-Thai!

Week 6, Oh my goodness. Only 3 weeks left in the MTC... I've already live here forever, so what's another 3 weeks?  That being said it's been a very good week! This week also went by soooooo fast! 

This week learning Thai has been quite enjoyable! Slow, but I love learning it (for the most part). I can slowly read script (but I usually don't know what it means) and my grammar is getting better little by little!

My cold only lasted 3 days which was great! #blessed haha

My companion and I had a cool experience with one of our investigators this week. Our investigator Phii gob (Gob - with a down tone- means frog in Thai too) has been a difficult investigator for everyone because he's already taken the lessons before, but he said that he didn't feel any answers from God and that the missionaries before were just trying to change him. So anyways we keep trying to give him commitments, but he won't do it because he either doesn't have time, or says he doesn't believe because he's Buddhist. And we had no idea why he kept letting us come back (always reluctantly). We've tried serving him, have him come serve with us (he didn't have time though), just talking about family, or the joys of service. Well anyways Sister Bingham and I felt like it was time to stop beating around the bush and try to get to the root of his concerns. We asked him if there was anything that he wanted to learn and if he had any questions, to which he said he didn't. Then we asked him if there was anything that we could help him with, and he said "Why do you even care? You always ask if I need help, and I don't understand why." After that, the Spirit came into the room, and with tears in her eyes (ok that's an understatement, she was full on crying), sister Bingham said "We love you gob. We want to help you." He then told us about how when he met with the other missionaries, he felt like they just always wanted him to change and "rab baptisamaa! rab baptismamaa!" and that he didn't feel like they loved him. We then told gob that we didn't want him to change for us, or for his family (they are all members but him), but that we knew that this could bless his life and that we wanted him to change for him, if he had the desire. We then read Alma 32:27 and talked about even if he has a desire to believe, to let that desire work within him. I then bore my testimony about the Book of Mormon (I was borderline crying, Sister Bingham was sobbing) and I could tell that he felt SOMETHING! I bore testimony about how I know that the Words of Christ WILL help in his life and that I know for myself that reading the scriptures has helped me so much in my life. We then asked him if he would try again to read the scriptures and to pray to know if they are true and that God is real and that he loves him. He said that he wouldn't make any promises, but that he would try!!!! This was a major break through! Our teacher handed us a note after saying how well the lesson had gone and that it was a powerful lesson, and that we did a great job of helping him feel like he's not being forced. 

That lesson was probably the highlight of my week, which is saying a lot, considering ELDER BEDNAR spoke at last Tuesday night's devotional!!! And there were 9 other Apostles there too!!!! It was so cool, and you can just tell how much they love the missionaries and how much they want for us to be our best. After that devotional, I was able to meet up with 3 other Magrath kids and get a picture with them! Me, Sis. Cook, Elder Noad, and Elder Smith! 

Another highlight of my week was CANADA DAY! Haha I gave my district Canadian pins and pencils and they all tried their hardest to wear read and white in support of Canada Day. It was great haha. I also lead our class in the Canadian national anthem for our opening hymn. Sister Roberts and Engstrom were especially excited for the happy occasion and would proudly say to everyone "happy Canada day!!!!!!" They're hilarious! Some people at BYU also must have know that it was Canada day because there was a firework show later that night too! (It was actually the Stadium of fire in celebration of Independence day.... but whatever) we were able to stay up late and watch the fire works! 

We love going to study in the new buildings here! They have such nice study spots, some of which play music and overlook the campus. Some of them have great big murals (that I talked about before) that are exclusive art to just the MTC. 

I go to Thailand in 20 days. Ahhhhhhhh!

Anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful 4th of Ju-Thai today (my puns just keep getting better and better). Read the Book of Mormon! It truly testifies of Christ and it is only through Christ that we can we reach our full potential!  

Love you all!

Sister Peterson