so i guess to repsond to your questions first:
i have not got your dear elder yet, those always come around dinner time (4ish our time), but i DO love getting them. they always make your day so much better. for exercise i normally ball out with the cantos (cantonese missionaries) hmongs, and thais whether its basketball or volleyball. most people dont really know how to play volleyball so basketball is usually a better time. occasionally we'll go play soccer, but it can be pretty cold sometimes. I see Torra Ming pretty often, Sister Allen from mission prep, and another sister i served in the temple with, but not gonna lie it gets kinda awkward everytime we see eachother bcuz she knows me on a first name basis and im too embaraseed to ask her her name... and her name tag is always covered by her hair, so yeah. As for chores- just keep your room clean, your own laundry, shower, brush your teeth, the regular stuff. we do have service projects, i mean "service opportunities" haha. we do those for 2 hours every thursday morning which is just like different cleaning stuff around the MTC. Pianos are everywehere so i do get to play a lot actually. pretty much every mormon person plays the piano though so its not rare just to here people going ham on the keys. Yes i got the thai flag thank you sarah i love you!!! megan sent me one too, and now we have a bunch so we are feeling pretty cultured over here. As for the temple- we go on temple walks on sunday and my comp and i go every monday morning. today we did sealings, but we can do initiatories, endowments, etc. As the District Leader i basically just report to the Zone leaders how we are all doing. i interview senior companions in all the companionships and just make sure everyone is doing well, and happy. then hold district meetings and what not. nothing too crazy. very heallthy very warm. (especially bc of the nice blanket thanks momma<3) What makes me the most happy is when we get to teach our investigators. We had whats called TRC this week for the first time where we teach people that arent role playing as investigators. There normally members of the church that served in thailand, and so we get to know them and teach them a short message in Thai as if we were teaching a member family in Thailand. Elder Dunnaway and I had a reeeeeallly good lesson, and its just so surprising how much Thai we know, and you dont really realize how much you know until youre teaching and just have to go for it.
So what i did this week: We had a devotional by Elder Evans of the quorum of the 70 on tuesday- we watched the "He is the Gift" video onchristmas.mormon.org and it was SOOO GOOD. anyone who hasnt seen it should go watch it right now. God's love for everyone is so real. One thing really hit me after the devotional too which i thought was cool. I've spent so much time growing up preparing for my mission. then in the MTC we spend all our time for being out in the mission field (thailand), and then we hear that the MTC is really just preperation for the rest of our lives. Then i read the scripture in the book of mormon: Alma 34:32 "this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God". It's like we're never done preparing. everything we learn, and everything we do is to help us grow and become someone greater- the person God knows we can and must become.
This whole week we have been singing christmas songs and its such good vibes i love it. sometimes i start to miss home, especially memories of going to "follow the star", and just being with family, but it is so awesome! Jesus Christ really did suffer everything for us, and i am so grateful for him. I love being able to really focus on the reason for the season, bc alot of times we can get caught up in all the hussle and bussle of christmas time (all pretty well explained in the he is the gift video). yeah so i love it here.
We have been keeping our "wall of quotes" in our room bc so many funny, and or spiritually strengthening things are said throughout the day. One i really loved was something Elder Galbraith said (hes our cripple... he tore his miniscus and is on crutches. he actually has to go back to california for surgery most likely so not exactly sure whats gonna happen but our district had the awesome opportunity to give him a priesthood blessing, and hes recovering really well, so hopefully he will be able to work things out and still go to thailand on time.) but yeah anyways he quoted someone in saying "there is no growth in the comfort zone, and no comfort in the growth zone". it sounds a lot like something megan said to me this week, that if things werent hard, God knows that we wouldnt grow. Its so true that trials really do help us to grow- even if we dont understand right now why or how. God knows and when we put our trust in him, he will never forsake us.
Like i said this week went by so fast i cant believe ive been here 3 weeks already. cant really remember everything that went down but just know im happy and doing well! Gods looking out for me and i know hes looking out for each and every one of you.
we set up a christmas tree in our room and i put my presents (from thee one and only megan) around it. its pretty cute ill send pics.
love you guys and miss you! i love hearing about how well you all are, and all your missionary efforts. especially love all the emails i got this week from the non-regualars you guys make me so happy to know people remember me <3 Love you all and remember the reason for the season!
Such a wonderful, hard-working smart missionary. Love that boy!
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