Hello Family!!!
I love you all so much! Thank you so so so much for the
pictures/emails/letters this week!
This week has been great!!! It's crazy to think that it was
a whole week ago that I was sitting in this same spot... feels like yesterday,
but so much has changed since then!
Last week I talked about how the Thai was really easy and I
felt like things were super unstructured. Last Wednesday evening we kind of got
the scoop about it all. Apparently, they try to make the first week a
"fend-for-yourself" experience. They don't really teach anything
about teaching/speaking/etc... and expect you to teach lessons. The reason they
do this is to humble us, and give us a really low starting point to build off
of.... don't know if I wrote that so it makes sense. But, basically they wanted
to kind of let us figure things out for ourselves first, and then begin
teaching. I was frustrated because I wanted to learn more, but now that we've
been through the second week, things are very structured. We learn a lot in
class about how to teach lessons, what to focus on in lessons, and Thai. The
most important thing that we've learned is that everything we do all day long
needs to revolve around our investigators. Whenever we study alone/with
companion/language/plan/etc... it should all be about our investigators' needs.
So, I feel like we're learning a lot now and I feel way better!
We stopped teaching our first
investigator because he was sort of the "welcome-to-the-MTC-let's-totally-freak-you-missionaries-out"
investigator. And you are right... "Phii Dtam" is now one of
our teachers. We have Brother Shipley, Brother Burgess and Brother Sanchez as
teachers. Now, we are teaching Phii Samad and Phii Maag. We are learning skills
about how to teach them. Samad has drinking/smoking problems and wants to
change, so we are helping him learn about the Word of Wisdom, repentance,
atonement, etc... It's so great! Thai's coming along just fine! We're taught
over and over again to focus on the investigators and our scriptures/PMG/etc...
and then the language will come.
But, our zone made a new record (or so they say)
by being the earliest group to read Thai. We were taught the alphabet in the
first week, and now we all can at least sound things out. The tone system is
super complex when you're reading it. You should google how to read Thai tones. That'll take some practice! But, I was able to read
the first two paragraphs from PMG and understand about 90% of it! (most of the
words in the first paragraph are easy and things we've learned from class, but
it made me super excited still!) I love Thaiiiiii!!!!!!!
On Sundays RS is combined with all the sisters in the MTC.
This week Janice Kapp Perry spoke to us!!! Holy Cow! She was amazing and we all
sang a new arrangement of "As Sisters in Zion" that she
arranged/wrote. We also sang a whole bunch of her songs throughout her lesson!
She was so fun to listen to and talked about her experiences as a missionary
with her husband in Chile. Awesome!
Yesterday...drumroll... ELDER NELSON came and spoke to the
MTC for devotional!!! So glad we decided to join the choir because we got great
seats! haha He is so sweet and personable to listen to. He spoke all about
missionary work. There was so much that he covered I don't even know what to
write about. He talked about being obedient, keeping in touch with converts,
keeping our spiritual batteries charged, and more. So amazing!
So, I'm going to try to answer the questions from the
DearElders. When we run we just go around the perimeter of the MTC... about
half a mile (maybe a little longer). We tried running around the temple lower
fields last P-day, but we got kicked off! (The sign said "OPEN"!!!)
haha so... just around the MTC now.
The gym is in the basement of the bookstore. It has a lot of
machines... elliptical, bike, rowing, etc... and lots of weights!
Mom, I am glad that you are (sort of haha) training for the
SeaWheeze! sooo excited to hear all about it this summer!
Dad and Sam... good luck next time you go fishing! haha glad
you had fun outside, though. At the temple today at least 3 or 4 workers asked
where I was from and commented on the great fishing in MT!
I'm going to start sending pictures
now! I love you all so much!
Sister Stevenson :)
Sister Stevenson :)
