Week 6: Robert becomes an UNCLE

สวัสดีทุกคน (hey everyone), 

It's been another great week here at the missionary training center with a lot of excitement. First things first, my sister finally had her baby and I couldn't be more thrilled. I know she will be an awesome mom and I can't wait to meet my new nephew! The other cool thing on Wednesday was that I got to host this Laotian speaker going to California and he's in my zone. It was really cool cause Laotian and Thai are relatively similar so he was speaking a little to me on his first day. What a beast! 

Our lessons are going super well, but I  think these days are starting to feel kinda similar. It's a lot of work each day and at this point I kinda just wanna go to Thailand. Even though I know I'm inadequate with the language and probably won't understand most of what anyone says, I feel like I'm ready and super excited to head out in about 3 weeks! 

The other weeks I focused a lot on vocab and learning more words, but this week I focused on reading and tones and I'm actually getting pretty fast at reading. Like not super fast but I'm reading faster than anyone in my class with correct tones. This week I've gotten about 3 elders ask me to help them with reading every single day and it's really cool to be of service to them and teach them. And I really enjoy seeing the other elders in my district progress so much. 

This week me and my companion learned another hymn in thai. We learned the hymn "families can be together forever" and used it in our lesson! The spirit was so strong again and I didn't realize the power that hymns can have in bringing the spirit when teaching an investigator! ผมกตัญญูสำหรับครอบครัวของผม. I'm so grateful for my family. They are the biggest blessing to my life. One of the biggest reasons I'm serving a mission is because of this quote that I heard. It states, "a missionary is someone who leaves their family for 2 years so that others may be with their families for eternity." That's the point of what I'm doing: serving others and bringing them joy through this gospel so they can be with their family for all time and eternity!! 

This week was somewhat of a wakeup call. Yesterday at the beginning of the day it hit me on how I will be going to Thailand soon and how much I still don't know. I felt like I had forgotten all my Thai yesterday and just was stressed beyond anything I have felt in a long time. I think it's because I had a lack of faith and belief and didn't trust in God like I should. Another quote that I really enjoyed this week is, "two people can accomplish anything...if one of them is the Savior." With the Lord's help I know I can do all things so I don’t need to stress. If I do my part and work as hard as I physically can Christ will do the rest. 

Tomorrow will be a big changing point in the mission though. We are getting like 37 new missionaries in the zone. I think there are like 18 or 19 Thai missionaries coming in and 18 or 19 Cambodian speakers coming in. I'm so excited for a change here and to get to know some of the people that I might be serving with for the next two years! 

Thank you for all your support and for all those who keep in touch. I'm grateful for all of you. I love you all, I love this language, I love this gospel, and most importantly I love my heavenly father and his son, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! You are all in my prayers! 

ผมคิดถึงรวมทั้งหมด (I miss you all)

1) me staring off to Thailand 

2) sweet quote

3) me and the old zone leaders, elder Barron and Benteti

4) me and my comp

5) me and old zone leaders again

6) me and new Laotian missionary, Elder Williams 

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