Roberts 3rd week - Meeting Mission President Hammonds

Hey everyone, 

So week 3 just flew by and I can't believe I've been here over 20 days. The start of the week wasn't that great. On our first lesson this week I felt super confident and didn't bring any notes with me. Well, the lesson ended up going horrible even though  my companion and I were prepared, so we had to redo the lesson the next day. It kind of humbled me and made me realize how much I still have to learn in this language to be able to have a simple conversation with someone. 

Speaking of humility, someone in my zone that was called to Cambodia and spent the last 9 weeks learning the language and preparing to serve there was reassigned to Kansas like 4 days before he was supposed to leave. I felt so bad for him and could tell how disappointed he was but he had a good positive attitude about it and humbled himself. The next day he was assigned back to Cambodia and just flew off to Cambodia today. He was a great example to me of what it means to have true character. 

All the other older พี่ Thai elders left on Monday. We all got up at 3:30 am to say goodbye so now we got the whole dorms to ourselves which is gonna be super sweet. They were a great group of elders and I'm excited to see them again soon in Thailand. 

On top of that we got to meet our mission president for the first time this week. He is full of joy and happiness and I am really excited to serve under him. My district and I had hit a plateau in the MTC where we felt like we weren't progressing so much on the language. But meeting President Hammonds got us going again. He makes us want to become better and reach our full potential. 

But the coolest thing happened this week ... (I know for most people this won't make any sense) but the entire Quorum of the 12 apostles and First Presidency of the church all came to the MTC this week. A couple of elders and I got to see and visit with them firsthand, and even shake some of the apostles' hands. We sat outside a building we knew they were gathered in so they would have to walk past us. Elder Suarez, then Elder Cook, then Elder Holland, and then elder Ballard who stopped and told us "we love you." Then we shook Elder Christopherson's hand. I think we were all in shock after that, haha. 

One of the things I was able to work on and memorize this week was the first vision in Thai which is pretty long for those who don't know what it is. I realized how much the language is coming this week because of this thing called TRC. The people at TRC speak Thai incredibly fast and I was able to understand about 1/3 of the sentences they would say which sounds bad but that's way better than the previous week. 

Thank you to all who have been keeping me in the loop on the world cup and the NBA haha I definitely enjoy hearing what's going on in the world. 

What's been on my mind though is that my sister is about to be a mom, in like 2 weeks!! I'm so excited for you Jess and love you and my future nephew! 

Tomorrow I get to host for the new missionaries coming in and I'm really excited. I remember when I came in here like it was yesterday ...  ​ and now I'll be showing people around this place. Time moves so fast here I can't believe it. 

Here are some photos form this week.

1) me, Elder Schmitt, Sister Peterson, and Sister Vance 

2) me and some elders in my district with the Mission President Hammonds and his wife

3) me thinking about going to Thailand which was spelt wrong...sorry dad (correct spelling - ประเทศไทย) 

 4) Elders in the zone 

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Elder Lowe