Hey Everyone!
How are things? Well finally
the first week is over! It was a long week, but missionaries do say the days
begin to feel faster.
So my companion is Elder Keller
who is from Alaska. He is pretty cool. I love the district we are in
though. There are 6 Elders and 4 sisters in ours and I think there are 4
Sisters and 8 Elders in the other district. That is of the new missionaries
only though. In ours we have Elder Beatty who is from Copper Hills, Elder Crump
from Olympus, Elder Keller from Alaska, Elder Smith from Jordan, and Elder
Vance is from San Diego. As for the Sisters, there is Sister Bentley from
Kaysville, Sister Downs from California, Sister Jackson from Skyline, and
Sister Norrell from Alabama. We all get along pretty good and have tons of fun.
The first day we were
completely immersed in the language. Our teacher is Brother Olsen he came back
from his mission to Thailand 3 years ago and goes to BYU. He's way cool and a
good teacher and puts up with us having fun, which is nice. We had a sub also
Brother Thrap who got back from Thailand 8 months ago who teaches the Phii
Thai's (Which is the older Thais that have been here 7 weeks now). The process
goes like this; at least this is what the older Thai's say. You’re first 3
weeks there are Phii Thais, then the next 3 weeks we will be the only Thais
which is 22 of us, then the last 3 weeks we get a new group of Thai's. So there
are 4 total Thai districts. There are 8 districts in our zone starting today we
only have around 70 people in our zone/branch. There are 5 Languages Thai,
Hmong, Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian. 4 new Laotian Elders get here today,
but they are the only ones and there are no Vietnamese ones here.
Days are pretty much you wake
up prepare, eat, study and do other random things in the mornings, then have
lunch. After we usually have class from 1-4 then times to prepare for our
lessons to teach our Investigator Nike at 6 with dinner in between. So yeah we
taught our first lesson in Thai to Nike on Friday. Yeah I know it’s a joke
having us try and teach a lesson in Thai after 2 days of instruction. We just
write down what we wanted to say in Romanized Thai as a script and literally
just read to him the whole time. We taught again Saturday and
did the same thing so both lessons weren't very good ha-ha. Good thing is
"Nike" as we call him; we don't know what his real name is. He is a
returned missionary, but was a Native Thai Missionary then moved here after his
mission I think. He's really cool though and try’s to help us understand his
Thai even though it’s like talking to little kids ha-ha. We are starting to get
better though with the last two lessons we had Monday and Tuesday me
and my comp didn't even use a script really at all and we did way good and even
though he isn't a real investigator you could still feel the spirit it was kind
of cool. We don't have to teach him tonight which is nice so we have time to
prepare for tomorrow.
On
Sunday we had
such a great devotional! Stephen B. Allen spoke who is a guy who like made LDS
commercials back in the day. He was so funny and it just brought such a great
spirit to everyone in the MTC. We had a devotional at the Marriot Center
yesterday which was cool. Robert C. Gay spoke not really sure who he is just
know he was like a mission president and works for the church now. He told some
way cool stories about following the promptings of the spirit which was his
main focus. It’s true though we all need to hear the promptings and act. No
matter what we think about it just act because he said it could be life or
death, but you don't want to find out when it was life or death.
The food here is okay nothing
great ha-ha. The lines aren't too bad when finding meals we've kind of figured
things out on how to get our stuff the fastest and where it’s least crowded.
The only thing is though after this morning we went to the temple which was
such a great way to feel the spirit and start off the morning. Our session was early this morning and
lots of our missionaries were falling asleep but I stayed awake ha-ha. After
they have a cafeteria in the Provo Temple who knew! Maybe they have them in
others too and I'm just dumb, but we ate there after. That food was like
amazing compared to the MTC food, but it doesn't cost money. I just got a Ham
and Cheese omelet with hash browns, and it was so tasty. I can already hear Mom,
“You ate a ham and cheese omelet!?" ha-ha. I guess I'm going to try and
figure out my laundry then today if we can find somewhere to wash it.
So for things I need or can't
find. I could use some socks that aren't church socks unless you know where
they are I thought we packed them but looking through my stuff I can't find them. Then besides that I can't
think of much I need. Letters; I guess they are nice to read at night. I'm
trying to think of other stuff that I'll add while I answer your questions.
So I already said this but
there are 22 in our group I think or maybe only 20 that’s for ones that got
here on June 12. Yes I did get the package from Andy which was way nice to get
the cookies they were delicious. I did also get the pictures, newspaper, and
bookmark from Grandma Watkins, tell her thanks. She is probably gone on her
trip though getting me a hat right? Yeah I felt find after the Japanese shots I
honestly didn't feel it at all, allergy shots are worse ha-ha. Yes we will get
to go to the worldwide broadcast thing on Sunday we have to be there by 2:30 though
so way early and sit there for a while they said. It’s so exciting! Who
wouldn't get excited to see President Monson, Uchtdorf, Eyring, and the 12
apostles!! It’s like a little mini general conference here for us; it’s going
to be amazing! You will all get to watch it and I’ll let you know how the
spirit was at it since I get to go in person; I'm sure you’re jealous.
We’ll talk to you all next
week!
Love
Elder Landon Watkins
