MTC Week 6

A Windy day At The Missionary Training Center

This has been another glorious week here at the MTC! It's getting warmer and it is so sad to be inside our little classroom all day. It's definitely preparing us for Thailand though oh dear so hot in that room. Oh! Have I told you about TRC already? So every Saturday we teach two 20 minute lessons to volunteers that are usually returned missionaries from Thailand. It's so fun, it kinda feels like visiting teaching. This week they didn't have enough volunteers so we ended up teaching Brother Shipley for one of the lessons. I am so grateful though because after our lessons we went back to class and did an evaluation with him and he was able to give us some really good feedback. He told us to just be confident, and commit people to read to Book of Mormon forever. We're still laughing about that. We taught about receiving revelation through church attendance. (look up revelation in the bible dictionary, so good) Something I learned in preparation for this was that the principle of revelation is the principle of salvation. If we want to learn, progress, and change to become like our Heavenly Father receiving revelation is the way we come to know personally what the Lord would have us do. I hope that made sense. Our second lesson went really well too and our volunteer even said we had great Thai! Ah, that made my day. Thai is so wonderful. I'm so grateful that the sentence structure mostly follows English. For the most part anyway...We've been reading a lot more this week. It's SO hard! Especially since I haven't memorized all the letters...working in that. It is the best feeling thought when you can read a word right! Ah!!

I spelled my first Thai word right!

 

The MTC is great, I can't believe I've been here for 7 weeks. So funny story about the Elders in my district....they play a game every week. They call it "Game." I don't even know it's just funny. So basically they just write down challenges on note cards that they sell in the bookstore and they let us read some of them yesterday. One was, set Elder Mageno's watch 27 minutes fast. Elder Cutler had to eat a tissue paper. Elder Hunt had to tear out 20 pieces of hair out. Elder Martin wore 16 ties at once. Another one was don't read from the Pearl of Great Price the rest of the time you are in the MTC. Oh brother! The elders said they are making one for the sisters. Oh and Elder Hunt had to knock on someones door and then ask for someone and then jellyfish away. Elder Mageno had to go around sobbing all around on a different floor. They keep us entertained.

 

It really has been such a good balance. The crazy dose of fun from the Elders keeps me sane and I feel so much more patient with myself than the first few weeks I was here. I love the time I have to study on my own. I have grown so much in this short time here. I love my Savior. Christ is utterly incomparable to what I am- in what He knows, has accomplished, and who He is. And yet, He calls me friend. I am overwhelmed by His love for each of us. Last Sunday we watched a talk from Elder Holland (always so good) and this really stuck with me: Why is this so hard? (Life, your mission, whatever it may be.) Because Salvation is not a cheap experience. Why should it be easy for us if it want easy for Him? The road to Salvation goes through Gethsemane, it carries a cross to Calvary. We must expect to have some of those same experiences. And the most beautiful thing to me is that we go through these hard things and we are never alone. I am so grateful for the Atonement. I am grateful for God's love, His son, and the knowledge that I have that He lives.

 

Have a wonderful week!

 

Love,

Sister Sahagun

 

MTC Week 5

Dear Family,

This has been another lovely week at the MTC! I can't believe time is going this fast. It makes me crazy to think about it. Our Phii Thais left for Thailand yesterday! We will be joining them in just 4 short weeks. AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! I'm feeling good though.

I finally got to see Elder Sahagun again! We ran into each other a couple times actually. I saw him this morning at breakfast and he said, "Hey, so do you wanna take some of my stuff and send it to me? My laundry bag doesn't fit and I don't know what to do with it." Me-"Did you try folding it up and putting it in your bag?" Him-"No. It's full of dirty clothes." Oh dear. I told him to fold them haha it sounds like they won't have time to do laundry before they leave. Hopefully he figures that out. I probably won't see him again before he leaves. So sad! He came to my classroom yesterday and gave me the Girl Scout cookies (THANK YOU!!!) and I gave him a huge hug and almost lost it. He's going to be such a good missionary!

I wish you all could just read my journal or something, that would be so much easier! I don't even know how to explain all the amazing things I am learning here. I read this AMAZING talk by Brad Wilcox called His Grace is Sufficient. LOOK IT UP! (byu speeches.byu.edu) It changed my life and my understanding of the word grace. I have felt my Savior's love so much this week and my testimony of the Atonement has grown so much. His grace is not the finishing touch; it is the Finisher's touch. Ah, I just loved that so much and I can't say it any better, so just go read it. I love being a missionary!!!!! AH! Experiencing the spirit teaching others through you is just incredible.

The language is so beautiful. We have made some hilarious mistakes. Yesterday during our lesson, Sister Mullen was intending to commit our investigator to continue reading the Book of Mormon, but instead asked her if she would commit to reading it for the rest of her life! Our investigator just looked at us for a second, "...for the rest of my life? YES!" It was so funny! Especially since our investigators are our teachers! At least it was an eternal commitment for something great! Read the Book of Mormon for the rest of your life!

I love you all, have a wonderful week! The church is SO TRUE!!

Love,

Sister Sahagun

MTC Week Four

Dearest loved ones,

The MTC is now home to Sister AND Elder Sahagun!!!! The day he came in to the MTC was one of great excitement and rejoicing in the Thailand district! (Mostly just me and my companion...or just me) Sister Mullen got a package slip after lunch so naturally we had to go get it right at that moment. It was around 2-ish and I just kept thinking "Nick is coming any minute!!!" On our way to the mail room I ran into a Sister I knew at BYU it was so fun to see her, and then all the sudden someone grabbed my shoulder and it freaked me out! I turned around and it was Elder Sahagun looking super anxious, a lil excited, and lost with this huge grin!!! I was so shocked that we actually ran into him I was speechless. He gave me this super awkward missionary handshake and that was pretty much it. His host was walking away and the whole situation was just weird. Oh brother, I should have just hugged him! I haven't seen him since and I have no idea how he's doing or where his classroom is or anything! I got his box number from the front desk and they let me send him a message so I could get those pictures from him, but he just left the bag in my classroom without a note or anything! Such a punk! Any-who, I probably won't run into him since we have such different schedules, but I'll send him a message and you all should too. He's only here until March 13th so write him lots! Use dearelder.com! He'll love that.

Elder Nicolas Sahagun

MTC Mailbox #158 VA-RICH 0313

2005 N. 900 E

Provo, UT 84604-1793

Elder Russell M. Nelson was our devotional speaker last Tuesday! It was amazing, I love every devotional here. He talked about how much the Lord trusts his youth. It's incredible to think about that and go through all the examples we have of that in the church especially Joseph Smith. The Lord trusts us! We must live worthy of that trust! Also, Preach My Gospel is the best book second to the Book of Mormon. I love it. Every question I've ad about being a better missionary, improving my scripture study, being a better planner, all of them have been answered in that book. This work is hard, but I know that I can do it with the Lord's help. I am so happy.

Thai is coming along. It's such a pretty language! Sister Mullen and I have memorized our purpose in Thai!! Oh and I can read script! It takes forever just to read one verse or scripture. There are so many rules and exceptions, but I guess it's not as bad a learning English. I think the hardest part is figuring out what tone it is. We are teaching two investigators right now, and we will begin teaching a third one this week (It will actually be a companionship from our district). Oh dear some of the Elders in our district say the most random thing. Elder Smith to our teacher Brother Shipley, "Do the people in Thailand use rice for sacrament instead of bread?" It was hilarious. That is not a thing. There is bread in Thailand. Wow.

Sorry this was all so random. All is well. I'll keep an eye out for Elder Sahagun. I hope you are all healthy and happy! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Sahagun

Missionaries going to Thailand

My MTC District

MTC Week Three

Sawatdiikaa!!!

 

I think I spell that different every time...ha ha I can't wait to just be able write in script! Script is so beautiful and hard and complicated! We've slowly been learning the rules for reading it. Yesterday we spent 40ish minutes just going over random questions that people had. I thought my brain was going to explode. There was no order to people's questions. I understand most of it, I was just so overwhelmed! I walked out of class and screamed a little. In a dignified manner. I felt much better. It's hard because everyone is at a different level since we've mostly just been reading on our own. The Elders went crazy the first day we got our "Urim and Thumim" (basically it just tells us what sounds the letters make) . They have been trying to spell the most random stuff like Utah Jazz and their names.  Oh dear and telling time in Thai is crazy. There is a different word for like every three hours of the day and then from 7-11 at night you count 2-5 or something like that. I'm still working on it. We have the most amazing teachers. They are so patient with us! So the word for ready is "phrom" and perfect is "dii phrom" so whenever someone asks if we're ready we just say "dii phrom". Well Brother Shipley overheard us yesterday and kindly reminded us "Not yet." It was pretty funny.

 

I AM SO EXCITED FOR NICK TO BE ELDER SAHAGUN!! :) He's getting set apart tonight right? I wish I could be there! He is going to be amazing!! I'll be looking for him tomorrow!! And I'm so excited to get those pictures too. Oh and THANK YOU for the Valentines package!!! Mom, that book of Love notes was adorable. Pinterest? So cute. Thanks for all the cookies! The Elders helped us finish them off. This is getting random. I had no idea Hope was going on a mission?! I'm so excited for her! And Jared and Lexi too! This is so exciting! The MTC is bursting at the seams. If we didn't sing in the choir, we'd have to go like an hour early to devotional just to get a seat. Still, you have to show up like half an hour early for choir because there's not enough room for everyone to do that either. It's a good problem to have. We can almost fill up the whole gym with just the Sisters. Every week in Relief Society they have the new sisters stand up, it's my favorite. This week there were soo many! Then they have all the sisters that are leaving stand up. I love it.

 

We met this Sister missionary from Thailand!! She is so tiny and adorable. She is serving in Australia Mandarin speaking. We were so excited to talk to her in Thai, but she talks soooo fast. She even just said a sentence with just words we know and I couldn't pick it apart. She said our Thai was very clear and not to worry about speaking fast because people will just look at us and see that we're American and even though we're speaking Thai "may khawcay" they won't understand at first.

 

Right now Sister Mullen and I are teaching two investigators P. Nun and N. Bugkhii. They are both learning at very different phases. Our first lesson with N. Bugkhii she saw the Book of Mormon and asked us if it was for her. Yep! So I gave it to her and she asked us what she wanted her to read. She is so good with commitments! P. Nun is a little more hesitant, but still she asks god questions and we've been able to help her find answers in the Book of Mormon and we helped her learn how to pray! On Saturday, we taught at the TRC (members of the church, usually RMs volunteer to be taught by us). So it was kind of like sharing a visiting teaching message because we were teaching a member. It was such a good experience! Our goal for our lesson was to help our investigator see what they could do to improve their scripture study. Our lesson was on the Restoration of the gospel, so we talked to him about Joseph Smith and his search for truth and answers. Joseph had a question, and then read in the scriptures to find an answer. I was worried he wasn't understanding anything I said. I got really excited at one point  we had just read a scripture and then I randomly asked him where he worked. I was trying to help him see how reading the scriptures could help him personally and with whatever problems he may have at work or something I dunno, Sister Mullen and I laughed about that a lot after our lesson. Anywho, we had an evaluation with Brother Shipley about how it went, and despite all my worries and randomness, our volunteer had written on his evaluation paper that he had felt the spirit in our lesson and as a result had the desire to improve his scripture study! Hooray! I was so excited!

 

I have no more time! I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week! Phrakidtiikhun pen khwaamcin! CIN CIN! The church is SO true!!

 

Love,

Sister Sahagun

Week Two MTC

Hello! All is well at the MTC!! I can't believe it's been two weeks. Time is such a weird thing here. I am so glad we have 9 weeks here to prepare! So the first week was kind of a lot to take in. It felt like trying to drink from a fire hose. It kinda felt a little bit like studying for finals week, but that eventually passed. I'm just trying to soak up everything that I'm learning!

 

The tower of learning!

I think the hardest part was being patient with myself. The first couple days they didn't give us very much instructions on the "how" of missionary work or how we should be using our time or how to approach starting to learn this crazy language. I was so frustrated because I wanted to make sure that I was doing things the right way and being effective with my time. I was so worried about saying things the right way or whatever that I was really hesitant to even start doing anything at all. I'm so glad only lasted for a day.

I talked with one of my teachers that second day and she helped me understand that for that first week, I didn't need to worry about doing things right. We would be given guidance and instruction soon enough. I simply needed to focus on loving my investigator and teaching with the spirit. That made things so much easier! That experience helped me understand the "why" of missionary work. This week we've been doing more of the "how" and I am so grateful to have both the "why" and the how".

 

The spirit that is here is incredible. I love this place so much. On Sunday we had a wonderful fireside about faith and miracles. Faith empowers us to change what is and to make things happen. EXPECT MIRACLES!! I definitely need to hear this. I've been limiting myself here. It's easy to be patient with other people and encourage them when they're frustrated. I am learning to remember that I too have great potential and I just need to be patient with myself! Just like our investigators can't learn everything about the gospel in one lesson, I can't learn Thai in a day or two or twelve.

 

Sis. Mullen & I

Did I tell you how wonderful my Khuu is? Sister Mullen is amazing. We are working on having quiet dignity. Sometimes we have too much fun. I just love the Sisters in my district. I tried to send some pictures but I don't think that worked out too well. I think I need an SD card reader? Is that a thing? Any-who I'll work on sending some pics. Sister Madsen and Sister Broader are the other sisters in our room and they are so great. Seriously, so blessed.

 

This is where we're going!

Sis. Madsen, Sis. Broader, Sis. Mullen and Sis. Sahagun

Sister Mullen and I aren't teaching P. Nooy anymore. She is actually one of our teachers,Sister Ropper. So really our "investigators" are our teachers. This week we have two new "investigators"-Sister Hirschi and Sister Ropper. I am so grateful for role plays! They are so helpful and I've tried really hard to make it as real as possible so that I can learn from it.

 

Oh, Mom you asked me in your first letter what I ate the first and second day. Honestly, I don't know and I don't really want to remember. The food got old pretty fast, but I'm grateful for the energy it gives me to get me through these long days! I really like the croutons and the salad bar and there is usually graham canyon ice cream on Sundays. Valentines day was so crazy here, the mail room was a zoo! So many cookies!

 

Well I hope this finds you all happy and healthy. I love you and I hope you have a wonderful week!

 

Love,

Sister Sahagun

 

MTC Letter Week One

Dear Family and Friends,

Sawadikhaa!! Sabidi may khaa?,

 I don't even know if that is spelled right, but Hello and I love you! This week has been amazing, I love being a missionary. The MTC has never had that many missionaries come in at once before. I think there were 832 of us or something like that. So exciting! So after you dropped me off, I met my lovely and amazing companion Sister Mullen. She is so sweet and we have really similar sense of humor so we laugh all the time together. Her mom is Thai and her dad served his mission there! So cool! So she understands about 80 percent of what our investigator is telling us and I'm getting about 10%. It'll come. I'm so grateful I have her to help me understand and learn new words. She is from Elk Grove and her dad is really good friends with the Newbolds. Love those small world moments. And actually those happen about every hour of the day. I seriously see someone I know every time I leave our classroom. Our district is amazing, I've been so impressed with these Elders and it's awesome to have so many Sisters. Oh! Guess how many of us there are going to Thailand? Yep, 29!! We have 8 Elders and 6 Sisters in our district. It's wonderful. The Sisters are amazing, so prepared and we all know pretty well a balance of having fun laughing and getting to know each other and then transitioning to reverence, focusing to study, and help prepare our lessons. The Elders are great, so funny and still 19 year olds, but I've really been impressed. They all have a great desire to serve and will be great missionaries. I've got a great quote book going of ridiculous things they've said. I'll share some good ones next week. We are teaching our investigator P. Nooy every day. I can't say much in Thai, but I can bear a simple testimony and the spirit takes care of the rest. I am so excited to learn more of the language so that I can better express myself. There are a couple Sister missionaries sitting next to me right now speaking Russian and it's really distracting me, sorry if this is all over the place. I know there was more I wanted to tell you! Well, I'll think about it, write it down and tell you later. Thanks for your dear elder letters! If you send it before noon, I'll get it that day. I love you all! Have a marvelous week!

Love, Sister Sahagun

Missionary Training Center

Today our whole family took a road trip to Provo, Utah where Heather entered the Missionary Training Center. There were 800 missionaries that entered today! Before we dropped her off we had the chance to walk to the Provo Temple, which is across the street from the MTC.  As I looked around the scene was very touching. There were many families gathering for pictures with their missionary son's or daughter's, just like we were.  I thought of the sacrifice these young men, young women, and their families are making. I thought of the love they have for their Savior and their desire to serve. It was overwhelming. Heather gave me a gift before she left. It was a small plaque with the following phrase: Mis-sion-ary, (noun): A person who leaves their family for a while, so others can be with their Families Forever. I loved that reminder and as much as we'll miss her, we know that she is doing the Lord's work and  is helping families to Come Unto Christ!