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!

 

It's Here!!!!