Week 2: The week the MTC encouraged us to break the rules

Hello hello!

MTC

So let me explain the title of the email a little bit. First of all, happy fourth of July! We had a devotional July 2nd and they called it our 'Freedom Festival" We celebrated freedom across the world and it is hilarious to hear the people from Australia in our group talk about how funny it was that the MTC tried to make it an international holiday to support all nations haha. Then that night they let us stay up to watch the fireworks from Stadium of Fire! They let us stay out until around 11:30 (but we left earlier) anyway they let us stay up so we could "ponder how freedom helped the restoration" hahaha okay, sure MTC that is exactly what we did. 

THAI

This week is also the week my mind grew 3 sizes--aka the week we started learning Thai script. There are so many rules and it was terrifying because our teacher kind of gave it to us all at once, but it is incredible! Our group is apparently learning Thai earlier than any other group in the past because our second teacher (I'll get to him in a second) thinks it is easier that way. But there are also cons because that means we will have less vocab, but yeah! So far I have learned 10/44 consonants but our district has a goal to know them all by Saturday along with our 500 word common core sheet..haha lets just say prayers are needed this week. 

BUT! Super happy because Sister Painter had us do this role play thing where we were just talking to a Thai as if they walked into church off the street and I was paired with Sister Painter! It was remarkable how many words I actually knew. I talked to her for 5 full minutes in Thai and I think I got the best deal because she is so fluent it is almost like she is Thai. The language will come, I just need to be patient with myself. THE GIFT OF TONGUES IS REAL. I testify of that.

Funny story about the language-- we were talking to two sisters (who didn't know where we were serving) and they were learning Spanish. As we were asking them how the language is they were both saying how difficult it was and then one of them said "yeah but when we get discouraged we just think of the people going to Thailand or places like that and then we feel better" hahaha yes learning Thai is an adventure.

Also someone in my district prayed to the Holy Ghost and my companion called me Sister Volleyball. They say after 30,000 mistakes in a language you will be fluent, so we're getting there!

PEOPLE

As I say in every email, I love my district. I can't even imagine how close we will be with 8 more weeks of bonding, but I am SO excited to find out. Also we got a new teacher! Our first investigator randomly showed up one day in class and said "SURPRISE! I double team teach your district with Sister Painter" hahah it was funny. His name is Brother Hartman and he is INCREDIBLE. You can feel his testimony and see the light around him when he walks in a room. He loves Thailand and was actually born there (even though he is white) Anyway the first night he said a prayer in FULL Thai ( I say full because usually Sister Painter goes slow and only says vocab that we could figure out, but he didn't) It. Was. Beautiful. I started crying because it brought such a spirit. One day I will be able to do that! Super funny because right when  he ended an Elder said, "wait, didn't we all teach him how to pray yesterday?? Well now, the student has become the master" Haha, Brother Hartman talks in Thai more than Sister Painter does, but we are getting used to it. Also now we are teaching 2 investigators! Our teachers got new investigator profiles so we will switch off daily. 

RANDOM

Okay so this is mostly for my family, but Sunday night my district went to watch The Testaments and lets just say watching the romantic/kissing scenes with a bunch of missionaries is one of my favorite MTC memories so far. I was almost crying laughing. (I know to all of you this doesn't seem that funny but when you are deprived of entertainment like us, small things become hilarious)

SPIRITUAL

The MTC is a spiritual fire hose and I love it. We had an amazing devotional Sunday morning for fast Sunday, and it was all about repentance, which was amazing! The main point being pushed was that you don't have to repent for sins, repent for things that you could have done better! I don't know why but that hit me hard, and when I do that throughout the day I can feel the happiness that it brings! So that is where my challenge comes in, try repenting just for the things you know aren't bad, but you could have done a little better. You can feel the difference, I promise!

This is an incredible place and I just hope that I am being the best I can be! I am so blessed to be a representative of Jesus Christ and I couldn't be more excited to share this happiness to the beautiful Thai people!

Much much love,

Sister Hammon

Hahaha to get us active we do this thing called “Thai-Exercise” and we decided to try it with water bottles on our heads because why not.  

I was not successful.

Thai-xercise!

GRANT!  Told you it looked better than the other ones!

First Thai script I learned :’)

We all matched because of the fireworks.  District goals.

Look at us rebels, staying up past 10:30.

Probably one of my favorite pictures ever, just me and my khuus (plus Elder Hanks)

Sunday #2

Tuttle selfie.

BETH CALDWELL.  She came this week and I see her all the time so life is good.

Haha memorizing 10 script characters.

FUNNY STORY.  So we were all tired from the sleep we missed for the fireworks so literally half of the missionaries (the others were in the hall) fell asleep during personal study.  I supplied the picture as proof

Week 1 and Practically Fluent...maybe

Sawadii!

MTC

I love it here! Just an update on the MTC itself. Last Wednesday when we missionaries arrived at the MTC earlier in the day than normal, first because we had 700 plus missionaries (a record) and second because the mission presidents came in the same day we did. Everything was different when they were here, the food (we had incredible food because they were trying to impress all of the apostles that were here haha) Every single one of the 12 apostles were on campus plus the first presidency throughout the week and guess who we got to hear speak?! No one! Haha it is actually funny, most missionaries think we're getting the short end of the stick, but hey, we could feel of their spirit;) OH! And after 5 days of looking through so many buildings I FINALLY found the picture of Grant!! It is so neat because his picture is way bigger and nicer than the ones next to it so he is basically a celebrity. I forced my entire district to come on a field trip after dinner to see it, you're welcome Grant, you're famous.

All you need to know is that the spirit is here constantly and so much happiness is felt, ALL THE TIME! :)

MTC Nametag.  It will be in full Thai when we get in country.

PEOPLE

I cannot explain just how much I love my district! It is such a testimony to me that we were all placed with random people who I now consider family. God knew that we would need each other and goodness I am grateful that he knows better than us all.

The Phii-Thai's have been here for 6 weeks and it is so encouraging to hear them speak because it means we have hope! Haha they have taken us all under their wing, especially because they have more sisters than elders so we are with them a ton.

I have seen SO many people I know from high school but also from BYU! Trevor Brown (a super good friend from my ward at BYU) is actually in my district so I see him all the time. I have seen Brenn Parker (it took me forever to find her!) and a bunch of others. My companions make fun of me because I know so many people, they have started a tally and have told me I can only say hi to a certain number of people haha. 

Another thing that is really neat is how old our zone is. A majority of elders going to Thailand went to a year of college, or worked, before coming here so we are such a mature zone! You can definintely tell the difference between ours and others. Also about 80% of people (including elders) in our zone played volleyball in high school so our excercise is SO FUN.

COMPANIONS

Sister Nixon is my favorite! I seriously love her. (She is the tall one from Wyoming) and Sister Robinson is hilarious and VERY talkative. She kills both of us with things she says. Some how we figured out that we have met this one random time before the mission (long story) and she knows lots of my friends which is crazy! I was not expecting a trio so it has been difficult but we are figuring each other out!

Me with Sister Nixon and Sister Robinson

THAI

It is coming!! Whenever other missionaries ask us how the language is going I always reply "we get better everyday!" Which is so true. We are learning Romanized Thai which is just Thai written in english except the sounds are very different. Apparently the Thai people call it passa-Elder (Elder language) because missionaries are the only people who actually want to learn Thai haha. We will switch to the actual script in 2/3 weeks. I LOVE MY TEACHER. She is absolutely hilarious and is incredible. Our branch president (over lots of different countries) has told us multiple times that the Thai teachers are some of the best in the entire MTC. And it is so true! We probably spend 11 hours a day studying the language (haha but definitely not all of that because like I said earlier, we all love each other so we get VERY distracted) One thing that was an answer to my prayers was a compliment that I received from a Phii-Thai. She said that all the older Thai's were jealous because when I introduced myself apparently I had incredible tones and they sounded better than their own! Ah. It is hard not to get discouraged but the moments like that just make things so much easier. Also I have noticed that I am fairly good at understanding people. Sister Painter told this huge story to see how much we caught and I completely retold the entire thing! (the only one in my class who got all of the different parts) However, I can't speak as well. I'm working on memorizing and our goal is 20/30 words a day but I think we are hitting more like 50.

Thai has one of the largest book lists in the MTC haha, but we can do it!

What we walked in on the first day!

Luckily we have one of the NICEST classrooms in the MTC!  Although floor 5 is a rough 96 stair walk 3 times a day.

How we all felt after the first day (Elder Hansen).

LESSON

So our investigator is a Thai teacher based on a Thai person, Phii Kaww (pronounced "Pee Gaow". He is so sweet. The other Thai district got a super hard investigator so we were blessed. Our first lesson was...rough. So we worked so so hard and our second lesson was amazing! I testify that THE GIFT OF TONGUES IS REAL! Here I was, a white girl from Bountiful Utah sitting in a lesson after beginning to learn Thai 3 days prior and I could understand the questions he was asking us! Kind of sad because he got sick yesterday so we weren't able to teach him, but tomorrow! OH! And I already asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he does! It wasn't an official challenge so it doesn't really count but the spirit was so strong. One of my very favorite things is testifying in Thai because it is so simple but we care so much that I think he feels it. 

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK (haha should be a spiritual part but it isn't)

So our district can get...distracted. The elders have this thing to toss a waterbottle and try to get it to land upright. They had been doing it for probably 15-20 minutes and no one had landed it. I wanted to try so I stood up and BAM. IT LANDED. The ENTIRE zone was dead silent for a second or two then everyone threw their arms up and was cheering and hahaha. It kills me just thinking about it! Until yesterday I had landed it FOUR TIMES and no other elder could! Haha Elder Brooke (district leader) told me "at first I thought it was just luck but after your second time I just realized that it was a gift" Yeah. I'm kind of a big deal.

THE MAGIC BOTTLE I LANDED!

I landed this water bottle ON SCRIPTURES!! I'm telling you, it's a gift.

CHALLENGE

I just want to challenge you all to do a doctrine/scripture study with another person. I have been blown away about how much I learn through companion study, SO POWERFUL. So do it, you won't regret it! 

Sorry this was so long, I just had so much information to spit out. Just know that I love it here! I was blessed because the first few days weren't too difficult for me. I have already gotten very discouraged over learning Thai (which I promised myself I wouldn't do) but other than that things are amazing! The Lord is my Light and I couldn't be happier! Have a wonderful week of waterbottle tossing (you won't get it, trust me, you don't have the gift) and enjoy not spending 11 hours in a classroom;) Pray for the gift of tongues for me and my companions as well!

Choog dii! (take luck)

Much much love,

Sister Hammon

Sister Hammon first Sunday at the MTC

Sister Robinson, Sister Nixon and myself in front of the temple on Sunday. My Khuus ;)  (pronounced choo)

(We are sad that the temple is closed for two weeks for cleaning.)

I LOVE MY DISTRICT!

Elder Tuttle selfie--it's a daily thing.

Haha!  So Elder Tuttle (LOVE HIM because he reminds me of Grant) is so so tall!  (6'4") and somehow he ended up with the smallest desk in the class!  He would balance it on his knees, and I was right next to him (a foot shorter) and I had a giant desk!  "Tiny Tuttle Desk"

Yes I am on a chair and yes he is almost as tall as me.

Sister Nixon's mom sent chopsticks so we had to use them.

We used them with goldfish earlier so we could practice for sushi.

SaveSave

I'm finally Sister Hammon!

Just a quick hello from the MTC! 

      

     My branch president is letting us email home to let you know how we are, but our normal P-days are Tuesday so I will write then. Oh my goodness I love it here! I am in a trio with Sister Nixon (Wyoming, just graduated high school but she is older than me) and Sister Robinson (SLC and went to BYU last year-Political Science major). We have 2 Thai districts, but we are the only sisters in our district, there are 2 more in the other district. I LOVE my district. We have already have so much fun and we are officially 'Team Thai'. I am currently in the largest zone in the entire world! We have over 100 missionaries (Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Mongolia and a few more random countries totaling 8 languages) The older group of Thai's are so helpful and we are already love them so much.

       I just want to say how incredible it is here. I have already felt guided by the Holy Ghost in learning Thai, and by the way our teacher is AMAZING. Love her to death and I wish she was coming to Thailand with us. Sister Painter kind of breaks the MTC stereotype by speaking Thai only 95% of the time instead of the 100% so she catches us up when we give her the blank stares that are happening 100% of the time. Thai will be hard, but so rewarding. I cannot wait to really start diving into it. We teach our first lesson in full Thai tomorrow so that should be interesting. 

Okay I am running out of time but I love you all so much! Mom, don't worry about me I am loving it! I cannot wait to live as Sister Hammon for the next 18 months because if it is anything like these first few days life will be difficult but full of so much joy!

Love you all and I will write you Tuesday! Sawadii!

Much much love,

Sister Hammon