Week 7!

So definitely past the half-way mark here at the MTC and it's pretty crazy how fast the time has flown by! The new Elders and Sisters are all super nice and our zone just feels more complete now!

New zone picture outside the temple!

Remember how I told you they randomly choose people to speak during sacrament meeting? Well...yup, they totally called me up, and it was terrible luck because I might have slacked a little bit in terms of actually writing the talk...but it turned out well I think. I got to talk about baptism, so I brought up Dad's baptism story, which is always a crowd pleaser :)

Hmmmm....did I tell you that we committed one of our "investigators to baptism? Granted...they are all portrayed by our teachers, but it was an amazing feat for me and my companions! And it has really lifted my spirits in terms of my actual ability to teach...and speak Thai. One of my teachers even broke character and said that I was speaking really well!! soo yay!!!

Some good news...I can read Thai script now!!! I mean...probably at around a 2nd grade level, but waaaaaay better than before, and I'm really feeling more comfortable with the language now. 

It's definitely strange not being home for Thanksgiving. I think this might be the first time ever!...yup it is! But I am so grateful for everyone here at the MTC who is trying to make this the best experience for all of us. Tomorrow, we get to hear from a General Authority (supposedly one of the 12 apostles..we'll find out though), and then we get like 2 full hours just to eat! :) and we all know how much I love to eat! Then we do a service project and get to watch a Thanksgiving program from some other missionaries. So it's nice having my P-day today and basically another free-day tomorrow!

Me and Sister Choi

We had an awesome devotional from Elder John U. Teh of the Quorum of the 70 last night, and he said some things that I really loved. He read from Moses 7:62, which says, "And righteousness will I send down out of heaven; and truth will I send forth out of the earth, to bear testimony of mine Only Begotten..." 

And he related this scripture to our missionary purpose. Right now, we are 80,000 strong, and just like the great flood with Moses, we are a great flood that is coming into the world. Now is the time that the Lord is hastening his work. What will your harvest be? What effect will you have on the people you serve? And these are just some things that have been floating through my mind since that devotional. Will people know that we are servants of the Lord? Elder Teh just really put things in perspective for me because I don't think I have been as selfless with this work. I want to truly offer up myself to be a servant of the Lord so that people will know there is something different about us and will want to learn why it is we are so happy!

And that's all I got for today!! I miss all of you so much, and thank you for the letters and packages!!! I am truly so grateful for all of you in my life, and I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving and get really fat off of all that good food!!!!

Me being really happy after receiving a big package from my girls!

Love always,

Sister Lam :)

Oh... and ps I chopped off all of my hair!

Before

After!

More than half-way done with the MTC!

Soooo honestly, this week has been pretty uneventful. I didn't even take a single picture!!! But I just wanted to send you all a little note to let you know I'm alive and well! 

We are getting 11 new missionaries in our zone tonight, which is pretty exciting!! We're currently only at 9 missionaries (3 Cantonese speakers, and 6 Thai's), so the addition of 11 is great news and we're all really excited!

Today was the last time I will get to go to the temple for 18 months....pretty sad stuff, but you never know, maybe they'll decide to build a temple in Thailand while I'm gone....not that I'd be able to go since it wouldn't be done yet...but you get my point.

Ok...here's my spiritual snack for you all this week...

We had an awesome devotional from Sister Mary Ellen Edmunds, who I guess used to work here at the MTC. She is such an amazing woman! She's served 3 missions already in her lifetime: one to Hong Kong, one to Taiwan, and one to Manila Philippines. So ya...basically she is pretty awesome. 

But something she said that I loved is that, "When you do the best you can do, Heaven will come to help you with the parts you cannot do. Heaven has a plan for you." I think I just loved this because as we're here at the MTC...it's not all sunshine and rainbows...it's actually pretty cold here, and I know that I have struggle a lot here with feelings of inadequacy. Yes, my language is ridiculously hard, but if I'm doing the best that I can and completely turning myself over to the Lord, He will help with the rest. Sister Edmunds went on to say that as we turn our lives over to God, He will deepen our joys, lift our spirits, pour out peace, and raise our blessings.

So that's pretty much all I got for ya this week! Sorry, this email is a lot less detailed than normal...probably better since I'm sure my other emails bore you guys. 

Thanks for the DearElders and keep them coming! I want to hear about everything going on in all of your lives too!!!!

Love always,

Sister Lam

So so so fat....

I honestly do not know what they are putting in the food here...but I have never felt so FAT!!! Ok, it could be the fact that we eat, then have class, then we eat again, then we sit some more in class, and then you guessed it....we EAT AGAIN!!! I mean they do give us that hour of exercise time most days....but I normally resort to a group game of volleyball, and I guess that isn't giving me too much of a workout. So it's probably partially my bad.

Our district saying goodbye to Elder Sukhan. He's the one in the middle.

Well anyways, this past week has been pretty amazing. Elder L. Tom Perry came and spoke to us last night!!! For those of you who don't know, he is one of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. He spoke to us on the importance of companionships. And I think this was a talk that I really needed. Most of you know that I'm pretty independent in most things. So having to rely on a companion has been a definite challenge for me. And not only that, but I basically have 3 companions. I teach with Sister Holmes and Sister Adams, and I live and do most everything else with Sister Choi...so ya, it's been pretty different for me. 

But then Elder Perry quoted this scripture, D&C 42:6, which reads, "And ye shall go forth in the power of my Spirit, preaching my gospel, two by two, in my name, lifting up your voices as with the sound of a trump, declaring my word like unto angels of God."

When I first read this scripture coming into the MTC, I thought, great...I'm in a companionship of 3...how the heck am I supposed to preach the word 2 by 2 when I'm practically stuck to 2 other people 24/7. But when Elder Perry read this verse, I finally saw it a different way. Preaching in pairs is such a blessing because your companion is another testimony of the gospel, and you can learn from what they are learning because everyone learns different things. Because I'm in a companionship of 3 though when I teach, and because I also get to be companions with Sister Choi 

, I have 3 more additional testimonies of Christ with me at all times, and they are helping me learn and grow 3 times as much as just one companion would. So it really has been a blessing thus far that I am truly grateful for. I learn something new and different from each of them every day that helps strengthen and grow my testimony. I think maybe Heavenly Father knew that I needed to learn more than other missionaries here, which is why he sent me Sister Adams, Holmes, and Choi as my companions haha.

Our district outside the temple...again.

Something else that I loved was when Elder Perry said that "we should never leave a congregation without baring your solemn witness of the truthfulness of the gospel." I would definitely say that before the mission....I never did this. I was always kind of embarrassed at my lack of knowledge of the gospel, and I felt like I couldn't share such a weak testimony with anyone. However, since being here, you get called on to talk ALL THE TIME. And I am so grateful for the opportunities I have to bare a solemn witness of the truthfulness of the gospel every day that I am here, and hopefully every day on my mission and after.

Me and Elder Yuu! He was one of our Cambo elders who just left :(

Meet Elder Koochin. He's one of our zone leaders going to Hong Kong...He's trying to mimic a face that I apparently make a lot.

Soooo....that's pretty much what I learned on the spiritual side of things. I'm sure you're all probably wondering how my Thai is coming along....And all I can say is...it's coming haha. This language is so hard!!!! And this last week we finally learned how to read script. And I say we learned "how" to read script because none of us can actually read it yet. We know the basics behind it...but with all the different letters, tones, vowels, vowel clusters...it's hard to get them all straight. And the teachers basically taught us how to read in a total of 10 minutes...so you can imagine my frustration with not being able to read! But I pray that every day Heavenly Father will help my knowledge of this language increase, and he has kept his promise to help me :) I'm by no means anywhere close to fluent in Thai, but I can teach simple doctrines, bare my testimony, pray, and I also have some other things up my sleeves. So I have faith that I can pick up reading and writing!

Me and Elder Koochin.

Our zone is definitely diminishing in size as well this week. We lost all of our Lao elders and all of our Cambodians :( So it's been a sad week as we have had to say goodbye to them all. Now it is just our small district of 6 Thai missionaries and the even smaller district consisting of the 3 Cantonese missionaries. But we are small and mighty! aaaaaaaaaaaaand...we get I think 12 more missionaries in our zone next week! So Sister Choi and I will get to run a mini zone orientation for the new missionaries as the Sister Training Leaders, which is pretty cool, and it get's me out of class for a little bit! Woohoo! haha

Small but mighty zone.

K, well thanks for all of the loving via email, Dearelder, and the few of you that I got to see in person!

Love always,

Sister Lam

Pretty day at the Provo Temple.

Ps. Heard the temple is closing for the next month or so starting at the end of next week. So I will only get to go one more time for the next 17 months remaining in my mission...well I guess actually 18. SURPRISE. Thailand is a 19 month mission for Sisters. So I will actually be getting back in May 2015...but ya so I won't have as many temple pictures, which I'm sure you're all really bored of haha.

Utah is so cold!!! Someone send me tights!!!

So this week has been such an amazing blessing!!! I got a new companion! I still teach and study with Sister Holmes and Sister Adams, but now I'm assigned companions with Sister Choi, who is going to Hong Kong speaking Cantonese! So I had to move rooms the other day, which surprisingly took like 5 minutes since we don't really have too much stuff haha, but ya it's awesome because we have the whole room to the 2 of us! I made myself a queen-sized bed out of 2 bunk beds next to each other :) So I'm living it up here for the next 5 1/2 weeks!

Me and my new companion Sister Choi (she's going to Hong Kong)!

In other news, I was also called as the Sister Training Leader for our zone. And that was honestly quite the surprise. Maybe Heavenly Father knew He had to call me so that I'd actually read the white handbook....but it's been quite the blessing so far. In all of our training meetings, the messages have always been exactly what I needed to hear. I've learned so much about about having and trying to obtain the character of Christ, especially when it comes to working with the sisters. 

Sister Choi, Sister Peterson (Cameron's future wife haha), and me.

You all should read Alma 7:22-24. I think verse 23 sums up the character of Christ plainly, and it's what I'm striving for every day that I'm here. It says, "And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive."

I just love this verse so much. As I adjust to this new lifestyle as well as becoming Sister Training Leader, I have seen the blessings of striving to have these attributes of Christ. I've learned to be more humble and submissive, especially when I know a ton of these younger sisters and elders know way more than I do. Being diligent in all things has become an important characteristic as well, especially when it comes to learning Thai. (PS...we are learning how to read script this week!! It's complete craziness, and I might have had a tiny panic attack, but I have faith that Heavenly Father will be able to help me through this.) And now since being here, I have learned the blessings of being patient and long-suffering and being temperate in all things. Teaching in a group of 3 is definitely a challenge in itself, and it takes a lot out of us when we plan lessons for our investigators. But I know that if I go into planning with patience and complete love for my companions and my investigators, I can feel the spirit more strongly, and I will more fully be able to show that love for my investigators and hopefully bring them closer to Christ.

Some of my favorite zone missionaries! Elder Witt and Schindler were also our zone leaders.

My Thai companions!

Another cool thing that happened was we got a new elder in our district: Elder Sukhan!! However, we just found out that he's heading out to Thailand this Friday! He was a fast tracked elder just waiting on his visa stuff to get here. It was so amazing having him around though for a week cuz he helped us so much with our Thai. It was like having a Thai dictionary right in front of you if you felt too lazy to get your own out...which is most definitely me ALL the time. haha. It is most definitely sad to see him leave. And now Elder Arne is back to being a solo elder. So I guess we'll have to escort him to the bathroom and all that jazz again haha. 

Elder Arne and Elder Sukhan trying to be models.

And not only that, but a large majority of our zone left yesterday :( We had sisters and elders leave for Cambodia, Vietnam, and various places around the U.S., all speaking south-east Asian languages. So our numbers are most definitely dwindling, but it is allowing me to get to know everyone else here better, especially the sisters. That is another reason the calling I received is such a blessing. It allows me to get to know our branch presidency better, the elders in our zone, AND I ge

t to talk to the sisters one-on-one and really get to know them, their desires, needs, concerns, etc. It truly has been a blessing thus far.

Last zone picture outside the temple. (the majority of them left yesterday #sadday)

After hours herbal tea/hot chocolate party in our residence. :)

New companions #yesasianpride

Ok, and now I guess I'll just leave you all with a spiritual snack :) Something I really loved that was said in a past devotional was that "We should never settle for spiritual plateaus in our progress of becoming disciples of Christ." That was said by Sister Jan Zwick, the wife of Elder W. Craig Zwick of the Seventy. I just love this so much. It explains so simply that being a disciple of Christ is a life-long pursuit. And if we are always pursuing this goal, not only will we grow in our knowledge of the doctrine, but we will also grow in our relationships with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. So something I've been thinking about a lot lately is how our strength as disciples really lays in our righteousness. As we are righteous in all of our doings, and striving to become more like Christ and listening and obeying the council and guidance of our priesthood leaders, we will truly be blessed, and we hopefully will never just plateau in our relationship with the Savior.

#selfiesunday

Thanks for all of the DearElders and your sweet emails!! I miss you guys all so much and I really pray about you everyday!

Love always,

Sister Lam