Attack of the Microbes!

Sawat dee krab from the MTC once again. Wan nii phom ruusug mai dee. Today I don't feel very well. There are two elders in my district who have been put in quarantine for swine flu (which they now decided to just call influenza a...) and I am really sick today so I may be in quarantine before you know it. Though, I don't know if I have swine flu. Usually the first symptom involves getting the feet of swine. But seriously... I went to the doctor and she said to come back at 4 to see if I am still running a higher fever. It's really not a good time to get sick. In Thai, we are starting to learn how to read and write the script so I really don't want to have to miss that. But I would rather feel better How are you all doing? I think from what I understand you can all email me, I just may not have time to email you back. I like to hear the news of home and I am getting all the Dear Elders that you are sending. Thank all my friends on Facebook and on my blog for all their support. Also tell them that if I haven't written them back it is because I have been sick and I haven't had time to write them back today. Also thank SarahJane and Katie for the cookies. They were both delicious!

This week has been pretty good besides being sick. I felt okay until about three days ago. We are all on Tamiflu since our district has two cases of the flu and another elder in our zone has it also. You have to be in quarantine for 5 days. You get to rest, watch Church movies and take it easy. In some ways it would be nice, but I really just wish I were feeling better in general.

This week we had some great lessons and some great experiences. We went to the Teaching Resource Center for the first time on Saturday. Our language task was to talk to everyone so we made contact with a Thai "investigator" (an RM of the late 1990s) and then we taught him and a Thai girl RM the first lesson in English. It went pretty well. We thought we had done horribly but then the native teacher who listened to our language task said that "it was not okay.... it was perfect". When he first said it was not okay, I got this look on my face that was almost petrified. But then Brother Sakhaa finished his thought and I was happy.

We had a talk from Elder Bednar this last week that was pretty good. It was on following the Spirit. It was pretty good actually. He cracked a few jokes and smiled which was quite surprising.

Our entire district is a bit paranoid bout getting the swine flu. It's just a matter of time before we all get sick, however.

Now some more district info. There are 12 Elders in my district with 3 sisters. Then there are about 6 elders and 1 sister in the other (phii Thai) district. They should leave next month sometime I think. The solo sister is companions with the Cambodian sister. The Cambodian sister is the 11th sister to go to Cambodia that's non-native. It's crazy. Our district is really big for a Thai/Asian language district.

So as usual, you are in my prayers and I ask that you pray for my health and ability to learn the language. All will be well with rest, I hope. I hope that I will be able to recover.

Chok dee!

Kwaamrag (Love)

Elder Newman