it seems like these weeks are just picking up speed. one saturday we'll be halfway!!!
and yet... i'm gonna speak baby thai when i actually get over there.
waaaaaaa.
we're learning lots. (no kidding right?) we have weird words like hay and day, that have very important and specific uses in thai. they basically use them all the time. and i hate them. they kept telling us that they would tell us how to use them (for 3 weeks) and they finally did! i just wish i could ignore them some days. but in the meantime, i can actually pray MOSTLY in thai now! as long as it is kept to religious/doctrinal stuff... i'm great. you ask me about door, spoon, walking, and words like that... then i can't tell you anything. :P it is a pretty cool way to learn.
i know how to say seed too! it's maled. at least ish. tones are really hard to describe via anything other than speech. i'll work on that.
one favor. i want the WHOLE text of elder packer's byui devotional called the "20 mark note". they block byui's website here. :( but it is intense! elder bednar gave a devo at the mtc where he talks about that 20 mark note... it's called "the spirit" i think. i don't know how many of these talks i tell you about you can actually find, but if you can - they are AMAZING! and you should definitely listen to them.
another great thing about thai. NO CONJUGATION!!! best thing ever. minus the tones. but i'm sure everyone that has learned spanish dislikes conjugation like i do. maybe someday i'll learn spanish too. sister peterson and i were calling each other on the phone the other day... which consisted mainly of us holding our "hanging loose" gang sign up to our ears and trying to use the word "gamlang"... she said something in spanish and i responded. the look our teacher gave us........ could have melted my chocolate. nay phasaathay! was his response. (in thai!!!) oops.
so i had a thought the other day. you can do it if you want. or not. so for sunday, we have to prepare a "talk" and then they randomly select 2 missionaries to give their talks. i gave mine the 2nd week, so essentially i'm home free. BUT, i'm still doing it for my personal study during the week. (they're kinda important...) i think it would be cool if you guys wanted to do the same thing. you could study about it all week with me (until october) and then on sunday or monday night just do that for fhe. it's been really good for me to learn about the doctrine that i'm going to be teaching. we did the atonement the first week, baptism this last week, and recognizing the holy ghost this week. (just a thought). after sacrament we all get together as a district and share our talks with the companionships in our district. that's a little bit less stressful. but i wasn't too overwhelmed by speaking in sacrament. i don't think that'll be anything compared to the first time i'm asked to bear my testimony in thai. ahhhhhhhhh! i'm scared already.
eek.
other things of note. almost died eating a thai pepper.
an elder's family decided to plant them in their garden when they found out he was going to thailand. but now that they are grown, they don't know what to do with them.... so they sent them to us. i think it's just a method of torture. the elders came into our classroom with them and told us to eat some. it looked so small and innocent. i should have known.
the pain was delayed a little bit. but when i say pain, i mean there is no taste to those little boogers. just pain. and heat. and pain. drinking water doesn't do anything but swish it around in your mouth. so sister peterson takes off running back to our room to get food... anything. so we run out after her. not a good idea. i got back to the room and my tummy was just angry. rawr! it felt like a civil war was happening inside of me. needless to say it was suprisingly warm. i don't think i would have felt so bad if i hadn't attempted a sprint right after eating it. i'll just have to figure out the pain part...
we listened to sounds of sunday (on sunday) and they sang "it's a grand night for singing"... does that sound familiar brooke? i was humming along with it, and it made me think about you.
if you guys want to check out any other blogs from my district, i believe that there is one from an elder osbourne (from provo) and sister barber. another sister's blog that is there right now is a sister hughes. if you want to stalk people and see what it's like over there.
ahhhhhhh i just love you guys so much! i could talk to you forever and ever and ever. but time is limited. i just want you all to know how much i love you! your support has been tremendous! and i love knowing what is going on at home! i know that heavenly father will take care of you if i totally commit myself to this work. but i'll make sure to keep you posted on everything that's happening! i am going to send my journal home when i leave the mtc. i'll be done with it by then. (it's already halfway full.) so then you can read all about my experiences from here AS i experience them! so i haven't been too worried about giving you a play by play of every single day. i hope you can survive with that... ;)
you guys are the best. love you oodles. and tons. and gobs. i think about you all the time and i pray all the time that heavenly father will keep his eyes and his guiding hands near you. :)
love you bunches!
jess'm
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