Week 1: I'm Finally Here!

Hey everyone! This week was insane. I went to the MTC on Wednesday and went straight into my Thai class where we only heard our teacher speak Thai. Honestly, it really wasn't as crazy as everyone made it sound, but definitely overwhelming. My companion is Elder Christiansen. He's from Kaysville, Utah and just graduated from high school in June. He works hard and doesn't waste time. I've looked up to him a lot since I've been here and it's only been like 5 days. Anyway, there are 13 elders in my district including me (no sisters haha) and we're all going to be here until the end of September. They're all such amazing people! I've really looked up to them a lot. Age means nothing here. Most of the guys in my district just graduated from high school and we all try so hard with the language. Sometimes, as a district we'll just say random words in the hallway over and over again until they stick in our heads. For example, the word for God in Thai is "Phraphupencaw" so the only way to really memorize a word as crazy as that is by saying it literally over and over again. I love learning Thai so much. It's such a crazy language but I've already seen the Lord bless our district so much. We've learned to pray and bear our testimonies in Thai. Also, along with that, Elder Christiansen and I have taught our investigator in Thai a couple times already. Our investigator's name is Bon and we've taught him about Joseph Smith and our Savior Jesus Christ. We can't understand a whole lot about what he tells us and we can't really tell him exactly what we want, but we do enough to get the message across. I love love love being a missionary. Thai is a super hard language, but our district has loved it so much. I don't know how to quite describe other than it brings me so much happiness. There are people in Thailand who I know I need to teach and who are waiting for me to bring them to the gospel. I can't learn this language for myself, it's for the people of Thailand.

I love you guys and hope you all are doing well! I know that our Savior lives and loves us. I've had to rely on Him more than I thought possible these past few days. I know He loves us all. If He had to die just for you and atone for just your sins alone, I know He would've done it because He loves you that much. Email me when you guys get the chance! Sorry, I couldn't get the pics to upload for some reason but I'll definitely add them next week!