Khwaamsug caag thii MTC

Older brother fail. This should have been posted last week. Apologies

Here's the lowdown on this week. It was a bit crazy with the mission presidents here, we actually had to eat in 1/2 of the cafeteria (they got catered food), so the cafeteria was super crowded. They really seperarted us from them due to the flu. I just happened to see the Murdocks before lunch. They looked good. On Friday, we had a special fireside from Elder Holland who talked about both listening to and teaching by the Spirit. It was pretty good. Elder Holland always gives a fantastic talk.

This week we also learned a lot of grammar. Kham, khwaam and kaan are all very interesting features of Thai. They all change the part of speech but it's all dependent on what kind of verb or adjective or word it is. Complicated but fun. We are now reading only out of the script hymnbook which is hard but really cool. The translations bring new meaning to the songs.

This week we also had our task and teaching on Saturday. OUr task was to follow up on commitments while taking an investiagtor on the bus with everyone else talking to theirs. Our investigator was a Thai teacher who teaches the senior couples to speak Thai. We did well besides not knowing what one crucial word meant. He said he was confused about the reading but we didn't catch that so Elder Fowles accidently said that he was also confused about the reading. But all in all, we did well.

It's crazy to think that we have been here a month tomorrow. We still have a lot of time left but it seems like we have been here both forever and for a very short time. Apparently after our Phii Thais leave next week, time speeds up A LOT. Two weeks from when they leave, we get a new district of four Thais. These numbers replace those who are leaving Thailand. We will be replacing a group of 15 that leaves Thailand around the 14th or 15th of August. The mission has about 125 non-natives and 25 natives.

Thanks for all the letters. I loved hearing about everything from Katie's volunteering to Beth's broken bones and Sister Knight's hard mission.

The swine flu restrictions have eased up a lot. But we still dont' use metal silverware or real plates. But they started soccer back up again (I typically play either volleyball or foursquare though).

Overall, our district is very tight knit. It's really nice to have a second family here at the MTC. We all work together to learn the language and to practice it. This last week we had an English fast on Thursday that was really good until about lunch. Then we got worn out.

I am healthy and trying to do my best to eat well. I am going to get you some pictures as soon as I can. I just don't have enough time to really email them to you because I don't know how it works at the MTC.

I heard the Church is coming out with a new Thai book of Mormon but I have yet to actually hear that officially. Does anyone know if that is true. There aren't very many materials in Thai available here. They already gave us almost everything the Church publishes in Thai.

Anyway, I love you all and pray for you frequently. Your prayers really do help so much as I strive to learn Thai and come to love the khonthay (Thai people). Please keep up the letters and support, I love it. Some of the other Elders claim that I get a lot of mail. Some sort of fan club thing, as mother would say. La len la len (just teasing, just teasing!)

Love,

Elder Jacob Newman