MTC- Week 3

I am still having a great time at the MTC. We had Neil L Anderson come this Tuesday to our devotional. It was awesome to hear from an Apostle, and I hope we have the opportunity to hear from another Apostle while we are still here. We got to sing "More Holiness Give Me" at that devotional. It was awesome, and the devotional was broadcast to all the MTC's around the world. 

Daniel left for New Mexico this morning. I got to talk to him for a while during our temple walk yesterday. I am happy he is going out, but now I don't have any friends from home here at the MTC. It isn't really that bad because I have 11 new friends in my district. I really do like everyone in my district. 

I had to teach the priesthood lesson yesterday. It wasn't too bad. Because we have Mongolian, Laotian, Cambodian, Cantonese, and Vietnamese speakers in our zone I didn't have to teach my lesson in Thai. I was really nervous about giving my lesson, but I only ended up getting through about half of the stuff I had prepared. I was teaching about faith in Jesus Christ. I found a lot of good articles about the topic and when it got to the time that I was teaching my lesson I could feel the spirit really strong. I got a few compliments on my lesson, so I felt pretty good about it. 

Last night, we ended up not having choir practice because it was Fast Sunday. I was a little disappointed. Choir is one of the things I look forward to most each week. It is a good time when you don't have to worry too much about learning the language. 

I feel my Thai is still coming along well. We had an English fast on Wednesday where we didn't speak any English all day. I couldn't tell how much it really helped because, normally, when you don't know a word or something you just ask. But when you are English fasting you pretty much don't say what you want to say. Our district was thinking we will try to just use more SYL (speak your language). It gets confusing though when people rush through a sentence half in Thai, half in English. Teachers have been telling us if we know how to say a word in Thai, there is no reason to say that word in English. I have been trying to do that as much as possible, but it is really easy to slip back into English. 

Halloween was kind of funny here at the MTC. I was dressed up as Elder Cecil. It was funny because that morning they did a Teaching Thing where we just thought the RM's were playing the role of themselves which was nice because you don't have to try to explain a lot of stuff with them, you just give a spiritual message and they share their thoughts about it. Well anyway, I was dressed up as Elder Cecil and when I went to introduce myself, I got confused for a second and had to explain what was going on. Later in the evening, a few of the elders from our district went trick or treating around our residence. We had pretty good results for the rooms not being prepared for trick or treaters.

I had to stop eating peppers every night because they were giving me some stomach problems. I still am trying to eat spicier foods so it doesn't get bad once I get to Thailand. 

Our Phii Thai's leave in a week. (Phii means older in Thai) It is nice to have them around to help us learn, but I guess in a few more weeks we will be the Phii Thai's

I am still doing great, I love being here, It is nice to be in a place where everyone has the same beliefs. I am still pretty anxious to go to Thailand, but I don't think I would make it in Thailand if I went there now, so it makes me appreciate all the time I have here to learn.

Elder Cheney