June 26, 2013
Sawadii kha khrabkrhua kccng Sidtee!
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| Our pretzel walrus faces |
How is everyone? Okay, to
start off, I have to apologize about my last email. Last Wednesday
(p-day) was kind of miserable. I was sick all Tuesday night through
Thursday evening. It all started on Tuesday night when someone knocked on
our door around 11:30pm. We were all asleep but when we didn't answer it,
they kept knocking and knocking, so I got up to answer it. There were
these two Sisters standing there to tell us about a sickness break out and they
told me that if any of the sisters in our room woke up feeling nausea then we
should call the main desk. Anddddd...that's how I got infected.
Okay maybe not, but I woke up feeling terrible multiple times in the middle of
the night. I had cold/flu type symptoms, but I am really unsure of what
it really was. We have heard different things, such as an intestinal bug,
or even food poisoning. On Wednesday the Health Center was PACKED
with sick missionaries. It all happened over night, and I was just
so lucky to be part of it! ;) Anyways, all I know is that I was
sick, and I was miserable. So sorry if I didn't sound like myself in my
last email! The MTC is kind of a breeding ground for all things disgusting...and
holy. :)
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| Our first day, notice our dork dots! |
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| Our first temple walk on Sunday - Sister Downs, Sister Jackson, Sister Bentley and I |
So this week has been very
interesting! Its been hard, but I can't even begin to describe to you the
changes that I feel have already taken place inside of me. The language
is coming along pretty well! We will be off of our romanized script by
July 1st...which means that we have to have all our consonants and vowel/ vowel
clusters memorized by then too! I might be half way done with consonants, but I
still have the majority of the low class to learn. Don't ask me the differences
between high middle and low classes yet, because I honestly don't know.
:) But it is all coming along well! We even bought Thai hymn books
today! SCORE! But the script is really tiny, so reading it will be
a challenge in itself! :)
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| My script numbers - Samrab! Success :) |
Our Phii Thais leave on Monday!! It
is kinda sad, but from what they told us, the 3 weeks when we are here alone,
we will learn so so so much! But it was always really nice talking to
them and seeing that what we are feeling now is very similar, if not better than
what they were feeling when they were in our shoes! Nonetheless, it is
refreshing to be reminded that it will get better! Brother Olsen
keeps telling us that by the time we leave, we will know SO MUCH. I'm
excited for that time, but honestly, it is hard to imagine that point when I
see where I am right now... But then again, two weeks ago I knew hardly
anything about Thai and now Sister Bentley and I are teaching 35 minute lessons
all in Thai without a script/translation right in front of us! Granted we
don't understand all our investigators say to us, but we are trying really
hard!
Oh, our lessons... so apparently we
are no longer teaching Nike! He has moved onto bigger and better things
than listening to our broken and monotone Thai I guess. :) (Thai is a
tonal language, so being monotone definitely isn't a good thing, haha!).
But we got two new investigators: Sam and Joe. Joe is REALLY
intimidating, but Sam is just really relaxed about everything. They are
both so willing to learn and we are glad that they have experiences with
members of the Church that have helped prepare them to receive our
message!
---Just a note about our
investigators. They really aren't investigators. They are returned
missionaries who served in Thailand, and they are also our teachers.
Yayyy. So when I say that Joe is intimidating, I mean it in a sense that
I am afraid to teach him because he is really Brother Olsen who teaches us
everything we know and tells us phrases to use with our investigators.
We're teaching the teacher who teaches us how to teach. Yeah, it's
intimidating. Oh, and he WROTE THE THAI GRAMMAR PRINCIPLE BOOK WE USE!
It's like he stares into my soul and wonders how come I am not using things he
taught me. Okay, not really, but it seems like it. I'm sure they
are good at separating their investigator selves from their teacher
selves. Also, they can give feedback, they know how we speak already, and
we can even understand them better because we are used to them teaching
us. So teaching your teacher has its perks! :)
So our other investigator, Sam, is
actually Nike, who is actually Brother Phan, who is also our teacher!
Yay! We really really like him, he has a calming sense about him,
but sometimes it is hard to understand him because he has a Vietnamese accent
with his Thai. But it is a nice balance between Brother Phan and Brother
Olsen. Brother Olsen pushes us and expects the best, while Brother Phan,
even though he expects us to give our all, is still encouraging and brings the
spirit really well when he teaches us. :)
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| Classes every day |
Brother Olsen told us this week that
we no doubt have the best mission in the world! The Thai people are so
kind, and especially respectful to LDS Missionaries. And its beautiful.
He says that the Thai people will love us as soon as we get off the plane,
regardless of how good we are at the language. They said they just
appreciate the fact that we are trying to learn their language!
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| Our district minus Elder Vance |
So the worldwide broadcast on Sunday
was so cool! If you didn't watch it, that's okay becasue they mostly showed the
Elders during the musical numbers. Bleh. Oh well. :) But it
was so amazing nonetheless! We got to be in the presence of 11/12 of the
Apostles! The First Presidency and President Packer weren't there, but it
was so awesome anyways! When we all stood when they walked in the
most amazing Spirit filled the Marriot center, and I just knew that these men
were called of God. The cool thing? I am called by a prophet of God
to do my work too! I love the church! Talking about missionary work and
singing about missionary work and practicing doing missionary work has really
gotten me excited to actually be in Thailand to do missionary work! I
can't wait to be there! But I know that it is not requisite for me to run
before I can walk. It gets EXTREMELY frustrating sometimes when I
feel prompted to say something in a lesson but can't because I don't know
how. But I know it will get better as I give my all to the service of the
Lord and help to bring others to Christ by helping them receive the restored
gospel. Wahoo! One of the things that I learned that I really loved, was
that missionary work is all about love. If we are not purely motivated by
love, our efforts cannot be and will not be as successful. We are called
to do more than extend commitments and follow up on them. We are meant to
help them learn about things that can help them for their entire lives, as well
as help them establish habits of study and prayer that can help them receive
inspired answers from the Lord to their questions.
Last night we heard a devotional
from Sister Janice Kapp Perry, who wrote so many children's song book songs,
including "A Child's Prayer", "I'm trying to be like
Jesus", "I Love to See the Temple", "Love at
Home" and the EFY medley. She allowed us to sing a medley of
these songs, and the Spirit was so strong in the Marriot Center as we sang
simple songs of truth and love that I'm sure there wasn't a dry eye among any
of the couple thousand missionaries in there. What an amazing
experience. I love the songs she has written and I am positive that she
was inspired from on high to write the lyrics that she did. They are some of my
favorite songs, and to this day I still have moments where they are songs that
bring me peace and remind me that Heavenly Father does love me.
"Pray, He is there, Speak He is
listening, You are His child, His love now surrounds you..." and my
favorite altered line from "Army of Helaman": "We are NOW
the Lord's missionaries to bring the world His truth."
I know that this church is true, and
I am so thankful for the opportunity I have to share the Gospel with the people
of Thailand! I have only been out two weeks and I already can't imagine
my life without this experience! I'm thankful that I can lose my life in
the work of the Lord, and for the promise that I will now find it. I'm
learning about myself and about how I can use my talents to serve others.
I know that Heavenly Father believes we each have special talents, abilities,
and characteristics that will be infinitely valuable to his kingdom. I'm
exctied to see where even this next week will take me! "The Lord
wants our talents, love, and our hearts". I love missionary work and
I love my Savior Jesus Christ. :)
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| Sister Bentley and I |
I love you all so much and I can't
wait to hear from you!
Sister Norrell
P.S: Send me
letters! I get them and DearElder.com messages throughout the week
instead of just on P-day like letters, AND I only have an hour to email. :)
P.P.S.(?) there was a salt lake
tribune article that was written about one of our Phii Thai Districts, so you
could probably look it up if you want!
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