THAIme to teach in THAI

I hope everyone is doing swell this week. I had a pretty fantastic one so I will just get right into it! 

Funnies: 

1. So Elder Yoon (This elder in my district) is quite the character, I don't know what we would do without him. The other day we noticed he had been wearing the same tie for two weeks now! He said he has like 10 but he doesn't want to tie them every morning so he just keeps one tied and wears it everyday...I don't know if you can get more lazy than that. 

2. We were doing language study and trying to come up with an action for this character, and it means tiger so sis. Christensen did the rawr thing with her hand and said it accidentally to a bunch of elders walking in our direction and they didn't know how to handle themselves. 

3. The elders in our district cordially invited us to a "bubble party" they were having because they found some bubbles in the trash. It was a blast, we blew bubbles, and danced to some solid gospel music (it's the only music we are allowed to listen to). We realized if we are already finding this fun 2 weeks in, by the end of the 9 weeks it's going to be a disaster.

Thai Learning: 

Alrighty, this was the best part of my week honestly. I know when I wrote my last post I was really struggling but right after I did language study for 45 minutes and could read, say, and write all 40 consonants. Just 2 hours earlier I couldn't recognize any of them. Seriously such a huge miracle. Classes have been going super well. We learn so much in such a short period of time its nuts. I can now, pray, teach, count to 999, and get to know someone all in Thai! (broken Thai but still, it's progress). 

Yesterday we had our first TRC. We have to teach 2 real people some aspect of our religion for about 25 minutes. Not too bad right?? EXCEPT ALL IN THAI. No English allowed. So we went in super nervous because we can't speak super good Thai, but more because we wouldn't be able to understand the person either. SO we start getting to know the first woman and it's rough. She's speaking super fast with all of these words we don't know. I said a little prayer and all the sudden I could understand everything. like pretty much everything that she was saying. It was the strangest feeling ever and super hard to explain. If I didn't try to focus on the words too much and just kept a clear mind I knew exactly what she needed and wanted and was saying. I talked with my companions about it after and they said they were super lost the entire time and could only pick out a few words. I know that was Heavenly Father blessing me and showing me that it really is possible to do all things through him if we have faith. His miracles and blessings are wonderful. 

Random Tidbits: 

My stomach is feeling so much better this week, and I don't really know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. It's either one scenario or the other...Either the food has gotten better and healthier or somehow my body has become desensitized to it which is kinda scary. I don't think the food has gotten better.

Also Elder Fiore and I see each other EVERYWHERE it's wild. We have eaten lunch, sang in choir together (yeah that's right. I do choir now), and played sports together. Don't worry we keep page 33 to a tee

We also have to watch like 15 "safety videos" so now every Saturday we have Saturday night movie night and watch those with the insane amount of snacks I have now. I actually love saturday night movie night...it's the only half real entertainment I get!! 

There are 2 sisters from France in my district so I actually get to practice French decently often it's sick! 

Spiritual Thought:

This week we were able to watch "the Character of Christ" by Elder Bednar, and it's actually shown only at the Provo mtc and it was so inspiring. He talked about how Christ always looks outward in love and compassion for others when we would have the tenancy to look inward. Heavenly father doesn't expect us to neglect ourselves in the least but we do  find true joy and peace in life by helping and serving others. He can heal us, he will lift our burdens, and he can help us in any way we need as we look outward and do as much as we can do for those around us. That is what a mission is all about, and I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to do this. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and I would love to hear from anyone! I can read all emails and messages, I just can't respond to them until Tuesday. I love you all!! 

Have a good week :) 

Love, 

Sister Clement 

                          Elder Fiore and I accidentally matched! Plus look at how well we are are following page 33 ;)

 Fellow Canadians picture!! 

The people I have class with everyday! (elder Yoon is on the end with the lightning bolts over his head) 

Best service ever... Picking up garbage around the Mtc with the grabbers 

Mom's shout out:

Ginormous thank you to my friend Melanie Lumsden, who lives nearby and volunteers at the MTC, for sending 2 packages of snacks to Rachael.  If the food causes her grief, she is now able to go back to her room for some comfort food!  It truly takes a village! 

Funerals at the MTC- RIP Gordon

Funerals at the MTC -RIP Gordon

Funnies: 

So I know most of you reading this blog or email really only want to know about the funny things and look at the pictures so  I figured I'd keep it simple for you. 

1. I am still getting to know the mtc and while in that process I fully walked into a window thinking it was a door/just going outside in front of a bunch of people...it was a learning curve. But to be fair they keep the mtc pristine and those windows are very very very clean with no smudges so who can blame me. 

2. I'm in a trio and we drop bars every where we go while walking...we are preparing for a mega thai rap battle at the end of our mtc stay with one of the elders in our district, and honestly I'm getting pretty good.

3. One of the Nong Thais (Older thais) so the missionaries that got here 6 weeks ago is from the philippines and he has two creams that he thinks are going to lighten his skin so that the thai people will love him and want to take pictures with him all the time. He uses them like 3 times a day and he is so determined, it's hilarious. 

4. The Nong Thais are a bunch of crazy 18 year old boys.. probably about 20 of them, and one of their chickens died at home so we had a full fledged chicken funeral with musical numbers from the elders and black umbrellas. They made a chicken out of clay and had a burial box and everything. Tears were shed, solomn words were spoken...it was the most 18 year old boy thing you could possibly imagine 

The work/schedule: 

The schedule is pretty intense and gets a lot of getting used too. We have about 6 hours of class for language and then we have personal study time, companionship study time and individual language study time. Then we have such a short time for meals which really hurt my stomach and an hour for exercise. 

Thai is coming along slowly but surely. Heavenly Father is definitely humbling me because we are expected to be able to read by now but I don't have the entire alphabet memorized because its soooo hard. I can meet someone now and ask them questions so that's progress! I definitely know more thai then before I left so yay! 

Random Tidbits: 

Most of you know that Zach is here but there are also 3 other people from southern Ontario that I know so that's hype. I see them ALL TIME. Especially Zach which is awesome. It was funny though because as I was telling my comps on the first day that I knew no one here I saw all 4 of them in a row lol.

All the thai missionaries have super intense beach volleyball tournaments during exercise time and is so sick 

Also apparently I talk and laugh in my sleep all the time and on the second day I was yelling thai in my sleep ( who knows if it was actually real thai but they said it sounded like it) 

Spiritual message: 

So this week has been super hard for me, it's a huge adjustment, the language is so difficult, and I've been sick a lot. In our devotional someone said that "our trials and struggles and temptations have nothing to do with our relationship with that trial or temptation and more to do with our relationship with Jesus Christ." He is the one we need to turn to and focus on and everything else will fall into place. We are here doing His work and he will not let us fail at that.

I love you all and thank you so much for the love and support! 1 week down ;) 

Love,

Sister Clement (still so weird to say that)

1. Our district doing the Wai (how you greet in Thailand)

2. Studying hard w my Koos for language study 

3. Group photo from the chicken funeral (we were all very sad) 

4. Nametag and script card! (There is a whole back too with characters to learn) 

5. Eating lunch with Elder Fiore!!