Hellooo Family! I love you all so
much!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for
your wonderful letters!
It is so crazy that it has been three weeks since I got
here! It has flown, but at the same time I feel like I've lived here my whole
life. Time is super warped at the MTC. The days go by normally, but the
weeks fly! Crazy!
This week was so awesome! So many great
things happened I don't know where to start.
Our branch now consists of only our two districts of Thais
because all the Phii Thais, Cambodians, Vietnamese, and Hmongs left on Monday
and Tuesday. It was actually way sadder than I thought it would be to say good
bye to them all. They had become great friends. So, for the next week it is
just us Thais. Then on June 12 we will actually have 22 Thais, 8 Cambodians, 11
Hmong, 6 Vietnamese. Then the next week we will get 4 Laos. So great! I have
not gotten called on yet to speak in church, but now that everyone has left I
think my chances will increase a lot!
We now have three progressing investigators! And things are
going well. We are teaching "Samad" who is an alcoholic and smoker,
but who wants to make changes in his life. We've taught him about 4 or 5
lessons.
This week we also had our first TRC (Training Resource
Center) when we teach people from the outside world! haha We taught Thai
RMs about the restoration. We taught two twenty-minute lessons and we did it
pretty much without notes and got good feedback! It's kind of funny because
they video record you while you teach so that your teachers can watch you...
kind of creepy, but helpful for the teachers, I guess! haha
Brother Shipley asked everyone to buy Thai hymn books.
We now have to sing in our class just reading the Thai script. It is
hilarious to say the least. We're doing much better now, but last week the
first time we tried, we sang soooo slooooooow and completely off tune because
we were concentrating so hard on the script. It sounded awful and I started
laughing and could not stop for the entire song! It was even worse because I
was trying to hold it in. I felt bad because Brother Shipley is pretty serious
and he probably thought I was totally setting the wrong mood for his class...
but he was smiling. Whew! Every once in a while that Arbon laughing gene kicks
in! haha
Another funny story related to the language. This week in
one of her lessons, Sister Tilley was explaining to Samad that through
repentance we can be forgiven. She said something along the lines of,
"when we repent, we pray and ask God. It's easy!!" But, the word for
"ask" is very similar to the word for "kill." So, you can
fill in the blank. Samad was confused! Made me laugh all day when I
thought about it. I love language mistakes like that. They happen all the time.
One of our teachers, Brother Sanchez (who served Hmong speaking) said that one
time on his mission he went to a member's house for dinner. They asked him what
they normally eat for dinner, and he replied, "Ramen." Unfortunately,
"ramen" translates perfectly into "breastfeed" in Hmong.
The family just kind of awkwardly laughed and thought it was a bad joke... he
didn't realize this mistake until much later!
This week a new sister from Thailand came. She'll be serving
in Washington. Her English is really good. I think her dad is a church leader
and Wisan is her uncle. She told me that I speak Thai very
clearly! (you don't need to post that) Yay!
This week we also practiced placing Book of Mormon's in Thai
just within our building! So fun! Can't wait until I get to do it for real!
Sunday was awesome! I love Sundays
at the MTC! The talks and meetings were great. The RS speaker was on the RS
general board and she served a mission in India with her husband. So, Sis
N and I went and talked to her afterward so they could chat it up about India.
Later at the temple walk we practiced bearing our
testimonies in Thai to random missionaries and I ended up talking to an elder
from Teton Valley (or something like that) about Yellowstone for a long time. So fun! Later we watched the Testaments. I was excited to see it, but I
remembered that it was kind of cheesy. But, I love the parts where the Savior
is ministering, and then when He comes to the Americas and heals the main guy's
dad. It hit me so hard how very much our Savior loves and cares for us! I just
love little witnesses like that!
I love you all so so so much! I'm going to try and write
some more snail mail to you all today! Thank you so much for your love,
support, and prayers! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!! I'm going to start sending pictures
before my time ends!
Love,
Sister Stevenson
