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3/13/2012

Week 7 in the MTC


How is everyone?! Thank you for all the letters mom and especially for the flowers. :-) I love them and they are so nice to look at every day!  Are you all in Arizona this weekend with Trina?   I'm pretty sure that's this month.   I hope she recovered and she is doing well.    I pray for all of you and your health to be dii maag :D   Trina told me that you were driving to Timpview High for her concert and you and her waved at the MTC trying to guess where I was at.   Now that the weather is getter nicer, sometimes we study outside.   We are on the south side by the flags because we have classes there, typically though, we are inside in class or having personal or language study etc.   I'm glad you had a chance to see Connor, he was always very encouraging when he wrote letters to me.

Well this week seemed to come and go.   It seems like we just had P-day but still learning many things each day.   It's a little hard to remember what went on because I got sick again for 2-3 days.   I'm not sure how I keep getting sick but I took the appropriate medicine, had soup and went to bed early one night.   I am 100% now so don't worry.   I just think it's so strange because I never got sick at home (or rarely).

So as a district, we make goals together as well as individually.    We have several but my favorite is Thai day.   All day we speak Thai and any words you say in English our companion writes down and we look it up later.  It's a work in progress because not everyone sticks to speaking Thai all day but I love it because it helps me see where I need to improve and I also get to see what the other district is learning.   A personal goal I set last week that has been really rewarding is reading the Book of Mormon.   The teacher from the other district, Brother Day came in and talked to us.  It was good to see the different teaching styles but he said, 'you can finish the Book of Mormon here in the MTC. You can even to it in two weeks'   I liked that so I'm doing it.   I started last Wednesday and I'm about to Alma right now so I have one more week to finish the rest of it.  I carry my Book of Mormon and study notebook around everywhere.   If I find a spare moment I pick up where I left off.  

As far my struggles are concerned, I expressed last week, from reading the Book of Mormon, I am learning more about the qualities of Christ.   Also the thought I shared with you last week from Alex Boye that "We become what we think about most," well it is true.   There are days and times when I get frustrated and so I've been trying to think, what would Christ do in this situation?  I'm sure He felt that way in His time here on earth.  Looking at it that way helps me so much.   Preach My Gospel is so right when they say that the Book of Mormon is key to conversion.  It has helped my relationship with the Savior grow more this week.  I hope that family scripture study feels the same way for you all.   I love 2nd Nephi; it hard for me to understand in the Isaiah chapters, but later I love how simple it is.  Have faith, repent, be baptized and endure to the end.  Pretty much the missionary purpose on page one of preach my gospel. :-)

Firesides and devotionals were also really good this week (but when do I think that they are they not?)

*sidenote - Our NoogThay's (younger district) are super great.  They will by far be better Thai speakers than us.  The thing about the MTC and I guess the Church in general is that they are always surveying and analyzing how things can be better.   Some of the grammar books for them have been modified and they are on day 4 they are already learning script!!  We didn't start that until week 3 or 4.   It's good because I hope they are better so when we all go to Thailand the work just rapidly increases.  It would be amazing if President Monson announces a temple in Thailand this conference! :-) :-)

Ok, so Sunday Brother Heaton who is the MTC facility president (at least I'm pretty sure that's his title.) he talked about goals.   It was super interesting because he shared thoughts about goals that I've never thought of before.  He said that often times, we missionaries will set goals for investigators and when they don't go to church, or keep their commitments, we think we have failed.   He said that, that is the wrong attitude because the key indicators we set as goals are about them and their agency.   Those goals are a perhaps, goals.   In my study notes I wrote they are faith goals.  Which when I thought about it more afterwards, it really makes sense because we often say that it is according to the Lord's time table and he will help that person because He knows them far better than we do.   So he told us to not be frustrated about how the investigators choose to use their agency, because it is something we don't control.   Goals help us exercise our faith but if goals are not met, we keep caring for those people and evaluate those goals.   He shared so many examples from the scriptures and I wish I had time to explain them all but it gave me a different perspective.   One I really liked was in Jacob 5.  “The allegory of the vineyard.”   The tree decided how it was going to grow and long story short, when the tree did not produce fruit; the Lord continues to prune and dig and nourish it.
  
At time I know I tend to measure myself if I accomplished my goals or not but the last thought he shared was, "Your worth to God has nothing to do with how many people say yes [if you accomplish your goals].  Serve with all your might."   I loved that.  

Well in the last minute, is there anything that you would like me to share?  I have a few question for you mom about the airport stuff; like what I should lock and other question I can't think of at the moment but I’ll ask you those next week.   We leave so soon!!! :D  

I'm hoping to send pictures home today but we took a nap so our schedules are a little off and that why we are e-mailing so late.   It was needed though. 
  
LOVE YOU ALL
Love, Sister Yeo

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