it's amazing how quick this time flies!
i remember a month ago, walking in the front door to the mtc.
today, i waited at the curb for new missionaries.
i was the mean sister that walked away with their suitcases...
actually no. they told us to make mom happy. they also told us we could take up to 4 minutes. i thought it was pretty generous. ;)
saturday was our halfway mark.
holy cow.
i'm gonna be in thailand in 4 weeks.
scary.
i don't speak thai.
is that a problem?
so we have the "TALL" program that helps us learn the language. it's been a little tempermental for the last week... so we tried listening to general conference in thai. i don't know if that was a smart or a very dumb thing to do. i did recognize a few words. like prayer. and children. and earth. and i actually understood the testimonies at the end. it was pretty cool. i just can't wait til i understand the whole thing!!!!
i've found it to be really hard to condense the whole week into a few hundred words. it doesn't work so well. but i'll keep trying.
we had a pretty awesome experience last week at devo. we sang joseph smith's first prayer - an absolutely gorgeous arrangement. it gave me shivers the whole time. but i think better than the singing is actually going to choir. the conductor is a seminary or institute teacher... so he knows how to keep youngins' entertained. Or maybe just missionaries. We think that things are so funny here... that probably wouldn't be as funny anywhere else. we were singing the song, and he kept making bird sounds and making us think about running rivers and the breeze... to try and get us to really paint a picture while we were singing the song. then he started telling us the story of the first vision. and what led up to it. and how we should really be singing the song. it was probably the first time that i really realized that this is a story about a boy. at 14 year old boy at that. who saw God the father and jesus christ and that they called him by name. while we were singing that part, we slowed down, and just sang "joseph" like heavenly father would have said it if he were talking to his child. hear him. another pause. then a huge shout as all of us came together in our 5 parts to sing the phrase "oh how sweet the word!" i never realized that there was a narrator in that song. but right after we got done singing that part, the director stops us and tells us to sing that part with our whole hearts. he says, just think about what this narrator is thinking as he is telling this story - oh how sweet the word! then like he was poking his head though some sort of invisible window, he says "It's a new dispensation!" I don't know why that was so funny. but we were all in a riot. :) missionary humor.
the rest of devotional was amazing too. elder schwitzer and his wife were the speakers. he gave some great thoughts about great missionaries of the church. he talked about peter, paul, alma and the sons of mosiah. he said what made these missionaries the best was that they understood the process of repentance. they knew what it was like to need the lord and to fully rely on his atonement. which got me thinking. i'm not the 'vilest of sinners'... so how can i be that kind of missionary? i didn't think about it for too long before elder schwitzer answered my question. he said that the atonement isn't only for the pauls and the almas. it is to make the bad good. but not only that, it makes good better and the better best. it is talking about everyone! :)
he also gave an example about what makes a good missionary. he talked about a missionary when he was serving in russia. and about a missionary there that was always surrounded by people. he said that the first week he was there, this missionary approached him and just started asking him questions. his russian wasn't very good, but this elder didn't care. he just loved the people. he then said that he saw the missionary's companion, sitting alone a little ways off thumbing through his scriptures or a book. "what makes a good missionary?" he asked us. the missionary that is not afraid to open his mouth. the missionary that learns to love those he serves, and in turn, is loved by those people. i decided that it doesn't matter how much thai i learn or how thoroughly i understand the gospel. but i will come home not having done my very best if i don't love the people in thailand with all of my heart and show them how much i love them.
i know i mentioned this in another email, but we went and saw the character of christ (elder bednar mtc devo) video on sunday. it was incredible. again. if you can listen to it, you definitely should.
the whole talk can be boiled down into 2 words... but those 2 words will take a lifetime to understand and to really internalize. turn out. seems simple enough. but he gave a quote from elder mcconkie, "the atonement could never have occurred without the character of christ." (or something like that). the character of christ is to turn out, when the natural man in us wants to turn inward.
it was a pretty amazing talk.
other fun stuff of the week.
shots. i got three.
my companion almost passed out.
got free orange juice while they made sure she could make it back to the classroom safely...
we help with service on wednesday afternoons, and they have these gigantic room dividers. they are so big you can't just pull them shut, so they have to have two people to initiate the electronic closing... my companion (sister peterson) ran in front of them and was standing right in front of it right before it closed. she was quoting some potential headline "missionary dies - death by room divider" until the lady in charge of the service said "sister, you really don't want to do that." ha. it got even funnier when our other companion (sister barber) said that she'd turned around and said "don't mess with me, i'm a fate worse than death." hahahahahaaaa....
when thai people write ha ha ha, they usually just write 5 5 5 5 5.... (five in thai is haa)
so they usually have people leaving at like 2, 3, and 4 in the mornings to make their flights in slc. unfortunately for us, our room is right by the stairs. and also unfortunately for us, most sister missionaries aren't quite as athletic as me. so we wake up (most mondays) hearing sisters leaving in the middle of the night thud thud thud thud thudding down 4 flights of stairs. needless to say, i'm not the happiest person when i get awaken in the middle of the night. sister barber got up to ask them to stop... when they continued to drag their suitcases down the stairs, she gave them the 'evil eye' and told them it was NOT a suggestion - that they pick them up and carry them the rest of the way down the stairs. no more thudding. :)
aray in thai means what. some of our elders have a fascination with saying "ARAY" like a parrot. kinda like a "polly wanna cracker" kinda voice. the best part about it was that we had rye dinner rolls the other night. the best moment ever was when one of them said ARAY?! and we just looked at the roll and went - we found it! ok. so maybe it's more really lame missionary humor.
oh i almost forgot!
ron tanner came and gave our devotional on sunday. probably doesn't mean anything to most, until you find out that he produced 17 miracles. and the new movie ephraim's rescue. he talked a lot about pioneers, and how we need to remember them. he reminded us "no matter what - don't quit." it's gonna be hard, but always keep perspective. he also showed us some clips from ephraim's rescue. which left it at a clifhanger... i don't know what kind of horrible person does that to a bunch of missionaries that won't be able to watch movies for at least another 17 months........
i love you all!
i hope that you are feeling the love of your heavenly father and your savior! if not, i'll just have to pray a little bit harder!
:)
sister ellis
aka jess!
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