Week Three in Thailand!

Things have been crazy as always, but I love it!  I'm starting to adjust to, adopt, and love the cultural differences in Thailand.  First adjustment was to our shower...we don't really have one.   LOL  The bathroom is more just like a giant room with a toilet and sink and then as a bonus, you get a shower spray, hose thing on the wall...but the water is warm so it’s not bad.  J 

Next, the kitchen.  What can I say, we don't really have one.  J  We have a fridge and a hot plate, which we use to boil water for “mama” (the Thai version of Top Raman)  Mostly we just by food from the street!   Reason, because it’s delicious and really cheap!  So I don’t cook much which is a change for me but I'm still eating a lot of really good food.  No one has to worry.  J 

The food.  It didn't take adjusting to, in fact I thought I would have to adjust because I would be obese from how much food I eat every day.  Luckily that hasn't happened.  Probably because of the biking.  LOL  Meat here in Thailand is interesting.  My whole life I’ve be taught that if you leave, even cooked meat, out for too long, it will kill you or something just as bad, get you really really sick.  But in Thailand, they kill and prepare meat, then it sits out for hours/days until it gets bought.  Sits out for hours/days until it gets cooked.  Sits out for hours and then you buy it and eat it and I'm still alive...as for the rest of the country, I don't know if they do the same.  We'll see if this is true in a year.  LOL  But regardless I’ve yet to eat something I didn't enjoy!

 

This week was really awesome because our branch had a Halloween party which we got to help plan and bring investigators to.  We had everyone eat doughnuts off of a string and race to make toilet paper mummies.  A lot of people dressed up as ghost/zombie scary looking Asian things, like from Asian horror movies…and then, because we’re in Thailand, the youth had a costume contest/ fashion show, which I got to judge.  J  We elected a popular Halloween King and Queen.  It was so fun and everyone loved it but what made it awesome was that a lot of my/our English students came!

Which brings me to English!  I love teaching English!  My companion and I teach the advanced class (because I can’t really speak Thai yet).  Half of our students are like 17 year-old girls and they are so giggly and cute.  Then we have a variety of people who are so sweet and enthusiastic in learning English.  Sometimes, throughout the week, I forget how much I love talking until I get to English Class and get to chat with the students!  (because my conversation ability in Thai is pretty low. LOL)  It also helps me remember how much Thai I have learned in such a short time.  I know that the gift of tongues is so real, because I’ve been studying Thai for like 1/10th of the time I studied German and I'm leaps and bounds ahead.  I pray every day for help in understanding and learning Thai and I definitely see the results, mostly when I'm teaching.  Sometimes, actually most of the time, I don't really know what is being said and then my “Khuu” (companion) looks at me and I just start saying things that I've barely studied and it always fits in perfectly....or so my Khuu says.  My testimony of the gifts of the Spirit, especially the one given in Luke 12: 11-12 or D&C 100 5-8 where we are promised that if we study and ponder truths we need not worry about what we will say because in the very moment we need them the, spirit will tell us what to say.

Yesterday was Fast Sunday and my “Khuu” and I were fasting for our investigators and the ability to teach them with the Spirit.  After riding around in the country side all day, sweating like crazy, we had one last appointment with one of our progressing investigators.  Though we were both tired and it was really hard to focus and understand what our investigator was saying, I know the Spirit was there, helping me answer questions and addressing concerns that I really didn’t know or understand what he was talking about.  I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary and to witness the power and the blessings of the spirit hourly!

Well, more next week I love you all!

Love Sister Peterson