MTC Week 3

     I forgot to mention last week: we had Vocal Point give the devotional last Sunday, which was awesome.

     This week we learned how to tell time in Thailand. It's very messy and way more confusing than is reasonable. We also started learning script, but I studied that before I came. That's been convenient. I love all of our teachers, they're great. We asked them for a daily Thai Idiom/joke/cultural tip to help us out in Thailand (for instance, things like "It's raining cats and dogs" will sound totally bizarre to them). They weren't overflowing with ideas, but they did tell us one: If you sneeze in Thailand, they will ask you if you showered that morning, and then laugh like they just made the funniest joke of all time. We all found that bizarre, and laughed. Another teacher, in seriousness (it's part of the MTC Thailand mission prep curriculum) told us that when it comes to Thai women, "Ask and ye shall receive. Be careful." He is a native Thai with an accent, and it was funny. Apparently they find "fe rangs" (white skinned individuals) very attractive.

     They have spiritual movies every Sunday night for us to watch. We watched one by Elder Bednar called "Character of Christ," and it was awesome. The focus was how Christ turns outward to others when we would turn inward to ourselves.

     Our devotional this Tuesday was given by David F. Evans, and he did a sort of reverse Bednar from last week. He proposed questions, and had missionaries stand and answer them. People have some neat stories.

     We stopped teaching Molly (she became our teacher) and picked up two other investigators. The lessons my companion and I were teaching seemed to be falling flat. We decided that we were trying to teach too much in one lesson, and also ignoring the investigator in doing so. So we cut it back and taught a few basic principles and really focused on what they needed in their life (Investigators are our teachers. They act as investigators they had while in Thailand, and present problems and questions that were actually asked to them). The lessons went way better, and the spirit was there. After a couple lessons, we got one to commit to baptism. Just as we were closing, my companion told her that she couldn't live with her boyfriend anymore if she wanted to get baptized. Ooh, I would have waited until the next lesson for that...

I'm learning a lot and having a good time. Not like a party good time, but a good time nonetheless. Thank you all! Until next week!

-Riley Parish