Khwaampiti Yindii in the MTC (Joy)

Sawat dee krab family!

I hope that all is going well with all of you. We have had a good aathid (week) here at the MTC which I will report on after I answer some of the questions that you have. It's kind of hard to answer all the questions you have, so forgive me if I skip some. First I will look at the Dear Elder.

I was not diagnosed with swine flu, it appeared to just be a respiratory infection. I am feeling much better now. But two people in my district had Influenza A-swine flu- and now one of them has pneumonia. Mother, per your request I have been taking my Advair everyday.

I just saw a nurse. She took my temperature and tested me but she said it came back negative so I didn't have the swine flu.

We go to the referral center once a week on Mondays at 8:15. I have used my Spanish a LOT. I actually sent a guy to Church this Sunday in Ohio. I will call him on Monday to make sure he went. It's kind of hard because I get my languages all mixed up. In fact, on one call to Puerto Rico, I said kob khun krab rather than gracias at the end of the call. Seriously. It was awesome.

We went to the temple two weeks ago. We go everyweek but we aren't going this week and we won't go to do an endowment next week because it's closed for cleaning but we will get to clean it next week.


Our Thai teacher Bro. Sakhaa is great. But about two weeks ago, we were not showing him the proper respect as he was teaching us how to bear our testimonies in Thai. He was writing phrases on the board and we got onto talking about TV shows and people's girlfriends and stuff. We weren't really paying attention but then I asked him what a word meant and then he gave us a talking to about really focusing on learning Thai. He wasn't angry at all, just dissapointed. In fact, it was a good wake up call I think.

This week at the MTC my companion and I began a rather intense language study plan. We are using our language study time effectively. We read out of the Romanized Preach my Gospel for 10 minutes, then out of the Thai Script one, then we do grammar practice, listening practice/translation practice, and then we try to work on our vocab. We are working hard and praying that God will help us. We work to pray together everyday in Thai and hope that our Father in Heaven will bless us with the ability to learn this language. Our language task this week was introducing ourselves and talking about our families and relating it to the message we have in Thai. Our "investigator" at the TEC was an RM from Thailand. Elder Fowles and I did great. To practice before, we went to something called the TEC, where we got to try out our Thai on the Laotian teacher who doesn't have a district now so he works with our district a bit and the Vietnamese district. We did very well with him too even when he asked about being reincarnated as a tiger. I answered his question quickly. He said he was impressed. Prayer really does help with the language.

We had some good times this week learning the script. I love our native Thai teacher Bro. Sakhaa. He teaches us such great lessons and he is hillarious. He is going into special education at BYU. Right now he's teaching two districts since they are on the lookout for a new Thai teacher.

Everything is going pretty well, I feel well and the food is pretty good. I can only write mail on P-day but I can read everyday. So keep up the letters please. I love to hear from you all and I miss you all dearly. Please pray for me as I strive to continue to have sugkhaphaab (health) dii and as I rian phasaathay (study Thai). Hopefully this letter is long enough. I may begin drafting my letters to you.

Any other news before my time runs up? um.... Well we are having an English fast this Thursday. Wish us luck on that. Elder Fowles and I aren't too worried. So no worries, we can do it! Email questions and I will get back to you next P-day. I used almost all my time. I have like one minute left so I better get going!

Love you all dearly and I am praying for you all,

Elder Jacob Newman