Teaching Phii Boh Plot Twist

HALLO!

It's been a good week but yesterday I definitely missed you guys a lot. We watched "Meet the Mormons" video and when the story about the missionary mom happened everyone was like laughing at how true half that stuff was, and we were all crying. It was a mess to see. :')

Well my face has been a nightmare to work with haha. It's so dry here and all the stress is insane so I'm hoping my skin gets better as the weeks go by. Haha there is a funny quote from a video we watched about stress during class: "Without stress you're dead." Not sure how I feel about it.

I love hearing about everything, even the small stuff! I like how I got multiple updates from the fam about the leaky toilet being fixed. I'm so glad to hear it's okay now, I was worried haha.

[re: Mom's question] Eating well is a pretty relative term. But no worries I'm eating mostly healthy meals. MTC cafeteria is basically like Cannon Center but with less food, no applesauce and more canteloupe. And they keep running out of mint choc chip ice cream! We eat in the cafeteria for lunch and dinner but breakfast we get up and get a sack breakfast and then eat it on our floor of our residence hall. Today we just figured out where the vacuums are stored...our floor was getting pretty gross. Oh! also when we were in the gym during gym time we found 2 bats! They were sleeping on the wall, I have no idea how they stuck to it. I thought they were dead then I remembered bats sleep in the day.

[re: a question about workout options] There are other workout classes! The other day we were super pumped to go to a relaxing yoga class only to find out it was this crazy ab workout, still fun though.

I'm getting more comfortable teaching, although thai still has plenty of room for improvement haha. I'll figure it out one day.

My schedule here is extremely the same. Today is P-day so we've just been chilling out. We did laundry, went to the temple, ate food, watched the Phii Thais play soccer against the Canto district--they lost I'm pretty sure but we left during their half time. The next thing on my schedule is dinner and then we have class this evening, planning, and then bed time. On not P-day, days are different only by the order we do things but we do the same things: breakfast on the floor, gym, get ready, personal study, comp study, lang study, lunch, class, add. study, dinner, class, add. study, planning, and then bed time. Tuesday nights we have a devotional instead of another block of class, and Thursdays our comp and lang study are cut short because we do service, but other than that, I feel like an episode of Monk. On Saturday's we are supposed to start doing TRC but I don't know what that is yet except some say it's fun, some say it's stressful, and I'm guessing it's a bit of both.

Okay now for the good stuff: So we had our last lesson teaching Phii Boh which was really sad because he committed to baptism and church on Sunday! But he said he was "moving back to Thailand" and he wanted to meet with the missionaries there in Roy-et. He even made a video for us, thanking us for letting him feel the spirit and learn about prayer and Jesus Christ. He even learned how to say "Thank you very much" in English for us. Seriously brought tears to my eyes.

PLOT TWIST!

The next day Phii Boh showed up in our class as our teacher!!! Which also brought tears to my eyes. His name is actually Brother Yeun, he's Taiwanese not Thai, and he is from Cali and he just got married to another teacher at the MTC. And seriously he is the best!!! I'm so glad he's teaching us now. Also he's a huge Lost fan.

On Sunday, Lloyd Newell came and did MTC and the spoken word--it was awesome! I was in the choir too so it was super fun and spiritual :) His message was so great: with the Lord's power, love, and a sound mind, we can conquer fear and do anything the Lord has in store for us. Wish I could say more but I'm running out of time, so I'll just share what Bro Newell's favorite scripture is: 2nd Timothy 1:7. Look it up! I love it.

Me and my comp! :)

The other day when we were teaching Phii Boh (now Bro Yuen) we wanted to give him a Book of Mormon, but we didn't have a Thai one, so me being all brilliant, I took a piece of paper, wrote "Book of Mormon" on it in Thai, and wrapped it around a Portuguese one. We all got a kick out of it during the lesson! Brother Yuen brought it back to us when he came to surprise us as our teacher so now we keep it in our class for old times sake.

Our makeshift Thai Book of Mormon

Miss you all, and I look forward to hearing from you!

First Week in the MTC

It's so good to hear everything that is going on at home. Yes I made it to the MTC safely. I met some really nice people on the plane and there were 2 other missionaries on there too! One is going to Barbados. Oh! After the plane we took the shuttle and I met some awesome sisters--2 are from Guatamala (but moved to Texas) and are going to the same mission in Modesto Cali, and one is going to the Everett mission! I told her to look out for some Smiths! Since I've been here, I've also seen Elder Perkins, Sister Parry (she's Mariah's cousin going to the Yakima Spanish speaking mission), Elder Proffit, and Elder Pexton.

As far as life at the MTC goes, there are lots of ups and downs and there is honestly nothing quite like it. It's so stressful but I love it. There are 5 sisters in my district and 1 elder. Since our elder (Elder Blad) is a "solo" missionary me and my assigned companion are his companion since he can't actually be by himself. The other tripan are 2 sisters from Utah, and one from Myanmar. (Sister Black, Sister Parker, and Sister Htwe).

The new Thai district at the Provo MTC

FACT: Sister Htwe (pronounced Tway) is the 3rd missionary from Myanmar ever!! History in the making! She is the sweetest. Today we got to go with her to the temple for her first time. It was the best!

At the Provo Temple with our district

Teaching the gospel is really intense at the MTC. The first night here, we went into these rooms and had a workshop where all the missionaries would be introduced to a practice investigator and if you felt inspired you could stand up in front of everyone and start teaching. One of our investigator's name was Vick and he didn't believe in prayer or Christ being the Savior. It was really hard for everyone to teach him, and we kind of lost the spirit because everyone started arguing with him how it was important to pray and stuff. Then out of nowhere I just felt inspired to stand up so I did and I told him to forget about what everyone's said, and to forget about prayer. Then I invited him to church with me because I wanted him to learn more about what I believed and if anything he could go to feel good. Right after I said that he stopped arguing and told me no one had ever invited him to church since he'd been there which was since May. Well these investigators are just actors, but right then the Spirit told helped me to feel my true purpose here as a missionary. I have been so nervous about Thailand but in that moment, I was like, "no matter what I have to go through, bugs, heat, whatever--I need to get to Thailand to share the message of Christ and to invite people to feel the Spirit whether that's church or teaching them to pray, whatever."

Sister Kwak (pron. Kwok) and I get along really well--she's so great! She was born in Korea but grew up in Canada and studied there for 5 years in Toronto. We make lots of funny jokes. One morning we went to this sister's only gym time, where we did Cardio kickboxing. It was so weird and fun and we also did Tai Chi in there too but not sure how it was related. Now during break times for class we "stroke the crane" and "push the wheel" (rather relaxing tai chi moves).

At choir practice with my companion, Sister Kwak

Speaking of class: Okay so the first the thing happened when we got here is they shipped us to a classroom where our teachers only spoke Thai (and still only) and we had no idea what was going on (and still don't really most of the time). Our teachers are awesome though--one of them (we have 2), Sister Painter, makes the best sound effects whenever she teaches its so hilarious.

On Sunday, we watched an old devotional of Elder Bednar called "the Character of Christ". He said something I love, and we often quote it here at the MTC: our purpose as missionaries is to get out of the way so that the spirit can take over. I've certainly began learning what that is like--to get out of the way for the Spirit.

The third day Sister Kwak and I taught our first practice "investigator" lesson to Phii Boh and our whole lesson didn't go so well...we weren't listening to him or each other. Also at the beginning, we couldn't find his classroom. But the next day, I actually prayed really hard to have the spirit. And we made goals to listen to each other better, and to pray before our lesson, and to not look down at our Thai phrases but instead just look at Phi Boh and try to understand him and oh man it worked. We were able to teach a lesson, and I bore my testimony in Thai, and we taught him how to pray and the Spirit was so intense.

This church is SO true and the gift of tongues is real. I can pray in Thai now, and share my testimony, and it's only been 5 DAYS since I've been here.

Well, now for the random stuff:

• Everyone loves popcorn shrimp here. 
• The first 2 days are so long, but then it goes quick...at least that's what everyone says. 
• Temple walk is the best! 
• We inherited a bunch of play-doh from the Lao's (who just left for Cali). 
• Sundays are only slightly stressful because the Branch President randomly picks people to speak while he's up there, so everyone has to prepare a talk (but it's only 3-5 minutes so not too bad). 

On a temple walk

Arrived at Provo MTC!

Sister Sabrina Smith entered the Provo Missionary Training Center (MTC) on September 9, 2015.