Thai'd Up for 18 Months: Week #2

We got Lots of pics this week. I'll just post a few. My practical daughter answers questions. Guess I better start asking spiritual ones. :)

Alright so you have a lot of questions and they are all really random but I will do my best to answer them all.

1. The MTC was a lot better this week. We are actually learning about gospel stuff during class now and not just a bunch of hard Thai words. So that was a huge improvement from last week. I was really concerned about the lack of church doctrine we were learning.

2. Am I eating.... Well define eating. The food here really is not good. And then you end up eating a salad or something that doesn't have much to it. But when I do eat it is usually bread or french fry based so I will probably end up gaining weight somehow. Elder marks put on 20 lbs here!

3. My snacks aren't gone. They don't let you eat in the classroom where you spend your whole day and the only time you are actually in the sleeping room you are waking up or going to sleep. So it is hard to eat snacks. You just go hungry between meals. Ha ha

4. You asked what a typical day was like. Well...

6:30 wake up

7:00 breakfast

7:30 gym

8:30 get out of sweaty gym clothes and put on skirts

9:00 class time

12:00 lunch

!2:40 class

3:40 additional study

4:30 dinner

5:15 personal study

6:15 companionship study

7:15 language study

8:15 additional study

9:00 daily planning

9:30 personal time (we can go back to the rooms)

10:15 quiet time

10:30 bed time

5. Pday is Monday and we try to just roll out of bed and get to the temple as quickly as possible. Then we come back and print off emails. Then we do laundry and continue writing emails. Then we go to the bookstore and eat lunch and just kinda try to get everything done that we need to.

6. The MTC doesn't seem crowded but we all have different gym and meal times. The only time you see nearly everyone is Sunday and Tuesday devotionals.

7. I'm not exactly sick of my clothes. I have a couple outfits I like more than my boring ones so I wish I got more cute outfits. ha ha But I am sick of getting dressed every single day. I just want to wear pajamas for a bit. And the reason my hair is curly often is because all I have to do is sleep with it in that headband and then pull the headband out in the morning so my hair literally gets done in 5 seconds. Ha ha

8. I haven't heard anything about my visa stuff. I'll probably hear about it when they give us our flight plans like a week before we fly out.

9. Did you get the picture of my shot? I have to get another one of those toward the later end of my MTC stay. Apparently the two I got before coming weren't even mandatory. :(

10. The sisters shoes are actually pretty different. Nearly all of us have at least one pair of crocks though. We did good with my shoes, they are all super comfortable. :)

I love that you think me getting two bagels is so smart. Ha ha. You would think Sister Zoller was a genious because one day she had the brilliant idea to recommend I get 3. Thats why we were called to learn Thai, because we are smart enough to get more than one bagel. Ha ha

For the Tuesday devotional Elder Quinton L. Cook came and spoke. It was all about missionary work and kind of our image... He said right at the beginning he felt the spirit prompting him to say certain things. At one point in the middle of his talk kind of off topic he said something that nearly our whole district needed to hear and was struggling with. It was pretty great. He also made us all write down we are not the marketing arm for the church. Ha ha I thought that was pretty funny. We are supposed to be ward and branch builders.

So funny story of the week... You get absolutely no privacy here. I had just come into the room from a shower and was about to get dressed. I stood in the corner behind a open closet door and dropped my towel when the entire zone of girls walked in for zone prayer! It couldn't have been worse timing. Ha ha it was pretty funny and a bit awkward...

I can't believe I am the one on the mission and dad already has a full family of baptisms more than me! Not fair. But that is so awesome! Good for them! (In Kevin's travels to Kenya, he had his driver take him to church. He asked his driver if he wanted to stay, which he did. Long story short, his whole family is getting baptized in a week or so!)

The weirdest thing about the MTC is when you realize you are going to go 9 weeks without riding in a moving vehicle of any kind. That is the longest I will have gone for like my whole life! Ha ha

Thanks for the sports updates by the way. Elder Curtis says to keep them coming! Also they don't inform us about anything going on with Thailand whether with the church or political so those updates are also much appreciated. Thanks for the package and the dear Elders. You should get Dietrich to write me... I kinda miss that kid. And thanks for the letter Grandma! Its nice to hear from everyone. :) Really dear Elder is amazing. Ha ha

They don't check the packages here so honestly if you could smuggle me fruit or some form of healthy food and snacks... Cashews would be really good.

Now about your friends son going to cambodia. They are in our zone here. Thai and cambodian is kinda similar but they don't have tones so they are super lucky! They do provide sheets here and a blanket. There are pillows but I have been using my own. They also provide blankets but I haven't used that either because I have my own and Sister Herrmann freezes at night. (By the way, she is cousins with the Wistisons. Found that out last night.) So really if he doesn't need to bring anything for the field he doesn't need anything here. But I personally like having my own stuff.

As sisters we get 8 dollars a week on our ID cards for the bookstore and food and stuff. The Elders get $6. We can go to the gym and take naps and I don't know there isn't much time to actually do stuff on Pday. And the bathrooms are kinda like the towers at USU. There are just a bunch and you gotta wait your turn. Ha ha

Its not easy to upload picture because my cord doesnt work. You have to buy this thing for the memory card to use at the mtc. I am just going to borrow Sister Browns. My favorite word in Thai is missionary. This is the closest I can spell it with the alphabet. Pusansadsana Poo (ichi, ni,) san, sod(like grass) saw (like your cutting down a tree) na like a song na na na. Phusansadsana. Yeah. Its cool.

Well I love you all!

-Sister Nethercott

You might want to reorganize this email so that it actually makes sense...