See ya MTC

 I'm finally leaving. I got flight plans yesterday and we get to fly out at 8am Wednesday morning woooo. But we gotta be at the travel office at 3:30am to make sure were on time so I might be a lil low on sleep. This has been one of the funnest weeks of the MTC. I'm so glad its gone by fast and slightly sad. I love all the people here, but I'm so glad to be out of the mtc.

Tuesday was the first day that anything really happened this week. All the new missionaries came in, soooo Andrew's finally here. I didn't get to see him on tuesday tho so I had to find him Wednesday morning. Tuesday was devo day tho and it was great. President Susan Porter came and talked to us and it was one of the most spiritual devotionals we had. There really cool story she shared of a missionary who had nothing coming off of his mission, but the lord had a plan for him. Also, She shouted out President and Sister Craig!!! She shouted them out like 3 times and it wasn't until like the 3rd time I realized, "oh those are literally my branch Presidency" Actual Spiritual Giants.
Wednesday was jus the day before thanksgiving for me. We got the thanksgiving schedule for what we were doing tho so that was nice. Lame day other than I got to see Andrew in the morning☺️ I got to talk with him for like a half an hour during breakfast tho.
Thanksgiving was firreee🔥🔥 As much as it can be in the MTC at least. We got an Apostlic Devotional with Elder Quentin L. Cook in the morning. Then we got a Thanksgiving meal for lunch which was surprsing decent. We had to pack our dinners after tho and they were lowk mid. Andd thenn we were part of the first group so we got to go watch the Fighting Preacher. Had dinner. Then we got to do service from 5 to 7. It was run by Fight Hunger and we got to make oatmeal meals for struggling people. To end off the night we got a music devotional by John Schmidt at 7:30. He's crazy at piano. I wasn't sure why I felt like I knew the name but the dude has wrote like half the piano books that I learned from as a kid. It was actually siickkk. Finally we got to have snacks and talk with people around the christmas lights. Can't lie it feels a little weird talking about Christmas lights on Thanksgiving, but it was still fun. Side note I also got to talk to Fam on Thanksgiving so that was so nice, even though they were all over at my house for Thanksgiving hahah
Today we got to go to the temple. Soo nice. Our teacher Brother Dolbin came at the same time as us too. Sadly, we were in the Baptistry and he had joined an Endowment session but we got to talk after. Anddd meet his Girlfriend!! She's super nice. Other than that pretty lame day.

Funny stuff
-This was a while ago but it involves brother Dolbins girlfriend. On some random day at lunch we decided to all friend his girlfriend on facebook cuz way back in home mtc he accidentally shared his screen with us so we found out her name was Natalia hahah. We all did it at the same time and literally in like a minute he texts our groupchat with a photo of all the friend requests and he's like "what is this" It was pretty funny


Last thing I'm gonna include, I'm eating a Carolina Reaper right now because an Elder in my district got them and they really want to eat them as a district. It's like the hottest pepper in the world tho and looks disgusting so send me your prayers🙏🙏

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I am Pi Thai Now

 I'm actually soo excited!!!! Were finishing up our last 2 weeks here, so you could say were an English District now. I'm a Pi Thai because our Nung Thai's just came into the MTC this last week. I love all the new districts that come in, but it's cool to have a new district of Thai's that are learning the language, some of them are already kind of goated at Thai but I have realized how much I've learned while being here. Def not jealous of them tho haha, they gotta go to workshops and stuff, and some of them were great but having an extra hour in the mornig is sooo niceee. I didn't have much exciting things this week, but I'll try and make it interesting.

Last sunday and monday were great. I've liked every go and do so far and last week was no different. The Sundays aren't as exciting anymore cuz we've had them a few times, but I actually love having a lot of time for personal study in the middle of the day. The best part about mondays is I gotta read everyone's emails. Shoutout to tucker, I loved the conference talk he talked about in his email and it was really cool.
Tuesday is devo day so its honestly one of the best parts of the week. We only have one class and we get to go to a Devo. Elder Budge came and spoke to us. One thing I liked that he talked about was "Don't Lament, Repent" We shouldn't focus on why were not enough, when we make mistakes we just need to repent and press forward, Jesus has already payed for it all.
Wednesday was the new arrivals day so me and my comps went and met all of the new missionaries. They seem really cool.
Thursday nothing really happened. I don't know if I can share this but spoiler Andrew isn't in my zone of new missionaries 😢 I found out that because of thanksgiving all new missionaries come in on tuesday tho so thats a plus for me☺️
Friday was also really boring. Best part was probably that we got to have a class with Sister Hendrickson again wooo. This last week we've had a lot of subs and some of them don't speak any Thai so having our teacher back was greatt.
And thennn today I got to go to the temple. We woke up early and made it over, we couldn't do baptisms, but we did confirmations and it was really nice. Also really surprising when out of no where our temple worker gets switched out and when the new one comes over, he realizes were thai missionaries and starts speaking with us. Thai was the last thing I expected to hear at the temple hahah. Apparently he works at the MTC tho and he's got really good thai.

Funny/fun stuff

-Lee was sick this week and friday he was really feeling it. They had an helping others appointment tho so I joined elder Giles, and I got to be Elder Lee. I just snatched one of his nametages, and introduced myself as him. It was super fun
-My mom sent me a pumpkin pie this week as a surprise!! Thanks mom. Problem was we had just eaten dinner and lowk our entire district was so full. Then I remembered Elder Giles and Elder have a massive mini fridge so now I've been having pumpkin pie and whipped cream everynight😋

Sorry kind of had a lamer email
I wanted to end with a poem. Ik I actually don't kinda like this one even tho I'm not a poem person.
President Monson shared it in his talk "What have I done for Someone Today" it goes
I have wept in the night for the shortness of sight
That to somebody's need made me blind;
But I never have yet, felt a tinge of regret, for being a little too kind"

Love you all
Heres a few photos

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STILL HERE

 Lil late, but better late than never. Soo this week puts us at 7 weeks as missionaries or something like that. The days feel so long but the weeks have kinda been flying by. Krew and Keegan left at the beginning of this week. It's kinda surreal with both of them gone because I became a missionary the same day as krew, and Keegan literally got here yesterday but they're both gone. I'm gonna miss seeing them for 2 years, but I'm excited to see how we change. This week was pretty sad but one happy thing is i found out andrews coming to the mtc, WOOO😊 He'll get here my last week of the mtc so i get to end off with a bang. The reason this week was sad is because elder huntsman got sent home for medical reasons this last wednesday. He's got to get a second neurologist to check him out so plz keep him in your prayers. If u havent noticed most of my emails funny stuff is about elder huntsman so if i dont have as much funny content ite cuz we've been missing him. His comp was elder helquist tho so now he's in a trio with us. Its different then the duo but in a good way.

Sunday was a great way to start the week. I've loved every GO and Do study time so far and this one was great. We had a new devotional at night, it honestly wasn't my favorite but I still took some good things away.

Tuesday we had another general authority devotional. I think it was honestly my favorite one so far. Karl D. Hirst of the 70 came and spoke to us with his Wife, Sister Hirst. They were both so funny and had great messages. Sister Hirst shared about how we should focus on the millimeters we know and not the mountain ahead of us. Elder Hirst talked about having cheer in situations where cheer isn't need, and he had an analogy I loved about stress. When glass undergoes stress it breaks and becomes less under pressure. When a cricket ball endures stress it might become bent and deformed, but it's resilient and bounces back. When a hammer undergoes pressure it breaks the cause of the pressure. It's robust. However, Heavenly father wants us to be better than these things. If we try, we can let stress have the same effect on us as it has on a muscle. When a muscle undergoes stress it breaks, but it comes back stronger than before. He had another great analogy, but I'll save it for one of my spiritual thoughts. 

Wednesday was the day Huntsman left so that was honestly just a sad day.

Friday is always the busiest day of my week. We had service in the morning, then quickly had to run and grab breakfast. After that we had our first Trio HOA, (Helping Others Appointment) so we had to run over to that. Then we had an hour of gym time and our personal and group language studies. And by that time our day was filled cuz we had our regular classes. Honestly tho having a busy day before Pday helps because it makes it come faster.

Today was a great day. We woke up at 6 a.m.so we could go do baptisms at the Provo City center temple. We were able to walk in and do baptisms, it was a great way to start the morning. Then we got back and went right to class, but we got to have one of our funnest classes today. We made a trip over to the mtc store to learn how to say more things in Thai that we might want to buy. Then we did a The Price is Right type game, but in Thai. I wasn't able to pull out a win, but it was probably one of the funnest lessons we've done. 

Funny stuff

-I feel like I gotta share one last thing about Elder Huntsman so even tho he gave this analogy in a testimony a few weeks ago I'm gonna include it.

Don't be a chimp, be a bonobo.

-Elder Giles from my district can eat a lot of ice cream. He also happens to be friends with Nathaniel who's here right now from Timpview. They decided to have an Ice cream sandwich eating competition and it was pretty funny. Once they got past 10 they were starting to feel cold, so you'd think they'd only get a few more. Somehow tho they were both at 22 ice cream sandwiches!! We ended up getting stopped by one of the workers tho because I guess your not supposed to eat like 40 ice cream sandwiches between two people. It was gonna end in a tie, but Than was willing to keep going outside and beat Giles by eating like 3/4 of another sandwich. Giles about died after that, but at least he doesn't eat a ton of ice cream now. He was def averaging like 3 ice cream sandwiches at lunch and dinner.

-Something that kinda surprised me, but is honestly pretty funny. I got surprised this morning with a picture of my sister and one of my friends (cough cough Jack). At first I was like oh that's cool they saw each other at Utah State. Then came the surprise when I realized they were holding a true aggie card with both their names on it. Haha it def caught me woke me up from my morning slump.

Thats about it

Here's some pics

I Want THAI FOOD

 Another sad week down. It was actually really good, but Beckem just left this Wednesday. It's so weird that he's in the DR now. This week in class we've also been going over food, and OMY it looks so good. There's some mid stuff, but I'm so excited. It felt like at least daily there was something this week that made me want to be in Thailand sooo bad. I'm halfway tho so I'm making progress. The weeks go by really fast, but some of the days are long.

I don't remember a ton from the week, but the sunday devotional was good. We went to a different one because it's our fourth time so they've started repeating the big devotionals with everyone. It was good and it was way better than having to watch a repeat of a devotional we've already had. Tuesday was a super good and sad. Beckem flew out at like 5, but we also had a general authority devotional so that was cool. We didn't have night class and we came early so we got to sit in the front section. Gary E. Stevenson came and spoke to us. I love hearing from the Apostles, it's weird seeing them talk in person. Then we had to say goodybe to our english district. We were here when we they got here and then said goodbye to them on tuesday. Soo crazy.

Thursday was our First SYL day. SYL is speak your language and basically were supposed to try and go the whole day only speaking Thai with our district and the other Thai district. It was fun, but hard. We did pretty well tho, we got through like the first half of the day with only Thai, but around dinner we started speaking some English so I didn't overload. Solid day tho

Friday is my busiest day of the week. It's nice because I get to Pday faster, but it's also super tiring. We had service in the morning, and then we immediately had our first 25 minute fake lesson in Thai, and then we went to the gym, and then we had group language study, and then we had to do personal study and then it was lunch time which means we have classes for the rest of the day. We gotta a lot of stuff done, but I like having time in the morning to just chill for a lil bit, going from thing to thing is to busy for me. 

Oh yea I also almost forgot about the Presidential election. I didn't get to hear anything for it in the MTC so I basically just heard when it started and when it ended. Usually it's like a 2 day process but it felt like a one night thing here. I didn't vote cuz I never set up my thing so I can mail in my vote from the MTC. Probably should have but oh well. 

Funny stuff

-We went to the Provo City Center temple last Pday for baptisms. I just happened to see emily's roommate there which was so funny. I felt like I knew her, but I couldn't remember how until we started talking. It was nice to talk to someone from the outside world.

-One of the says in class this week Elder huntsman did something (I can't remember what he did) but he was trying to apologize to brother dolbin and accidentally said he hopes he dies. Hahaha it was so funny cuz lowk Elder huntsmans one of the ppl I could see saying that on purpose so it made it 10x funnier. 

Here's some photos

1 Month Down

 I have now been a missionary for over a month. It's weird because it feels like one of the fastest and slowest months at the same time. Sadly I still have a month more to go in the MTC so pray I don't go crazy🙏. This weeks been great tho. Keegan finally came to the MTC!!! Still as cute as I remember. Now I've got 3 friends here for just a lil bit before they all leave me to suffer by myself.

Started out the week strong on Sunday. As ZLs we have to plan the assignments for sacrament meeting. We didn't realize everything that entailed tho so we had some last minute assignments, but it worked out. It wasn't fast sunday either so the food wasn't quite as bad. Fast sundays are rough here. Later we had a devotional and district meeting that was really good. It was one of the most spiritual days of the MTC for me. And right after I finished the devotional and district meeting I got to listen to Braden and Keegan's talks so I was at a spiritual high.

The rest of the week has been pretty normal. Tuesday we had a devotional with a general authority. Elder Buckner and his wife came and spoke to us. I really liked the talk he gave. He talked about the Limhi and how they couldn't find Zarahemla even tho they prayed. But they did find a land of bones and plates. It wasn't the answer to their prayer, but if they hadn't found it we wouldn't have the book of Ether. Sometimes we might feel like we've just found a land of bones and old plates. We might not see the reason for it, but in the long run we'll be able to understand why it happened.

Also, HAPPY HALLOWEEN. It was pretty lame in the MTC, but I didn't expect much. Some people were creative with their costumes and had some funny ideas. 2 Elders in my district switched clothes and tags, and then a few of us just put a paper over our nametag with our teachers name. We just spammed the stuff he says in class like FOGAD or MAIPUD. I definitely missed being at home tho. Dressing up for real and going to stuff is sooo fun. It's gonna be really weird when I get to thailand tho cuz I'm gonna have my first sunny christmas.

The Thai is really hard but I'm finally getting a little bit of it. It feels like were just constantly blasted with words and I can't really tell how much I'm getting from it. Looking back tho I've learned so much. I'm semi competent at reading now if I go slow and I can make a few sentences I just don't have the vocabulary to say everything I want. Basically tho I'm screwed. We listened to a video from the Thailand facebook about a dude with a really cool story. He was lines we knew, but I could not tell. I guess he talked kind of fast, but I genuinely did not understand what he was saying. I think I understand a lil bit more about how its gonna be when I get there. I'm so excited to go tho and I'll I was thinking about during the video is how sick its gonna be when I finally go to Thailand.

Funny stuff
-I finally gotta play some ball with beckem and krew. I have a different schedule then them so I never get to go to the gym with them. It was soo fun, and I'm honestly surprised I'm not horrible at basketball after not playing for a while. The funny part tho is one of the elders tripped over himself while guarding me. He honestly kinda had me locked, but he was trying to get the ball to much or something and just ate it. I didn't even keep playing after that, but the loser was sooo piissed at me. He was kinda a crybaby. It worked out tho cuz he got up and called me a dush, but I passed it over to my 6'5" Elder Giles and he scored immediately sooo karma. I also found out he's krews ZL after which is even funnier.
-You can prolly guess what this one's about. Elder Huntsman does the funniest things, even when he has a freakin aneurysm. So basically he was having some bad headaches so he went to the doctor. They sent him out of the MTC to get an MRI cuz they were worried he had a bloodclot. They missed most of our afternoon class cuz they were there. Then during evening class him and his comp get called to the front desk. They got the results back and he had an aneurysm. All he texted tho was I had an aneursym no biggie, and I'm going to the ER. So we thought he was gonna have to get some brain surgery or something crazy, but I guess the blood clot they saw on the MRI was small and not in the brain so he's good. His headaches were from overexhaustion.

Extra pictures this week cuz I forgot to send some last week. Sorry Mom😊