Thai'd Up for 18 Months: Thai name tag! Week 7

"Looking back seems like forever and looking forward seems like no time at all," -Sister Zoller. Its crazy we have already been here seven weeks! We leave in only two! It seems as though my whole life was spent in the MTC but at the same time the weeks are suddenly flying by! I seriously can't remember things about my "previous life" anymore, to the point where it gives me a headache to remember someones last name. I am so happy the weeks are going by quickly now and we only have two more!

This week was unique... Due to certain circumstances with part of the district, my companionship was changed. It happened on Wednesday night. I am now khuus with Sister Zoller! Funny enough, the swap happened in the sixth week which is the same length as a transfer. I really enjoyed being companions with Sister Brown and for all the things I was able to learn from her. She was a great first companionship experience. We also knew that it was likely we would be involved in a companion swap so the past couple weeks we appreciated each other more than usual and we were able to end the companionship relationship on a high. So far it has been a great experience being companions with Sister Zoller. Nearly all of our goals and things we want to accomplish before leaving the MTC align with each other. Its makes accomplishing tasks a lot easier when the person you spend all of your time with is trying to accomplish the exact same things. So far, we have memorized our purpose (in Thai), the first verse of called to serve (although that one is still pretty rough on my end, in Thai), and the first half of the list of doctrines on page 176 in PMG (which is actually in English and seems to be taking the longest). That's just within a few days so I hope we can keep up the hard work and accomplish all of our goals!

Beyond the companion swap, nothing too interesting happened this week. Really everything is so repetitive here you have heard it all before.

The devotional this week was given by L. Edward Brown. He spoke about the sacred name of Jesus Christ. He told a funny story about a time he spoke at the Gold Lions club or what ever it is called, I can't remember. He came to the end of his speech and realized he didn't know how to end it and almost said in the name of Jesus Christ amen. He caught himself last minute and then ended with thank you instead. He said that his LDS friends there knew what happened and teased him about it. Ha ha But he spoke about how we shouldn't use His name to get out of a prayer or a talk. That we should recognize the sacredness of the name of Jesus Christ and that we should mean the things we say in His name.

Something else that happened on Tuesday was the departure of the Cambodes. It was weird saying goodbye to them. I felt a lot closer to them than the Thais because they had girls in their district we would talk to in the residence hall and their classroom was right across the hall from ours. The Thais classroom was in another building so we really only saw them at lunch and dinner. Also, when saying goodbye to the Thais we knew we would likely see them again. There's a good chance I will never see the Cambodes again... So it was just kinda weird. Oh and bad news from that, one of the airlines they were flying through had a weight limit of 15 lbs per carry on. So that whole theory we could stick our heavy books in our carry ons to help make weight limits is not going to help... Hopefully we don't fly with that same airline. They had a lay over in Hong Kong so I am hoping we fly through Tokyo and won't have that 15 lbs restriction.

On Wednesday we had district unity by all wearing pink. We even got Sister Hirschi (our awesome, amazing, perfect teacher) to wear pink with us. But when I say perfect, she took the bar exam without studying for it and only needs 3 more points to feel confident about getting into Harvard. She is going to be in Boston a few days this week checking out schools. I am super jealous... I want to be in Boston this week. Oh well two more weeks and I will be in Thailand, I just have to be patient.

Also on Wednesday, the Nang Thais (the new Thais) arrived. There are only 3 sisters. Because the first weeks schedule is so crazy, I haven't seen or spoken to them much, but they seem nice. They keep hogging Sister Hirschi from us so thats kinda annoying. We don't like sharing our teachers. Ha ha

So Friday night food party this week was a bust. I don't know what happened but it was pretty much just me and Sister Zoller (with Sister Pitts for a minute and then Sister Mamea showed up at the end). I have no idea where everyone was because we were in the other Sister's room! I even had cake! (Thanks for that mom by the way, it tastes so good!) We even invited the Nang Thai Sisters and they choose going to sleep instead... I don't get it. You can still get to sleep on time with Friday night food party. I was really disappointed, if you can't tell. Ha ha

Something funny that happened this week (hopefully the funny context exists when you weren't there) was during class one day. When the Nang Thais were hogging Sister Hirschi we had Brother Sanchez (a Lao teacher who knows Mong, Lao, Spanish, Thai, English, Arabic, and I think a bit of some other languages, so he is pretty awesome) substitute us. I think Elder Hinckson was trying to ask him to translate something but instead of saying Khuun Blaa (as in apple) he said Khuun Blaa (the same sound as A in father) which instead of meaning to translate it means fish... So what he ended up saying was, "khuun blaa on the fly." Which translates to beloved fish on the fly. Ha ha he called Brother Sanchez beloved fish. Gotta love learning a new language. Ha ha

The most exciting thing of the week? We got out Thai name tags!!! YAY!!! I have been asking about them for weeks but apparently to the wrong teachers. Foreign name tags are like some evil thing here at the MTC. They don't let you wear them because they want everyone to be able to read your name. And they don't want to give them to you in case you lose it before you leave. So I have been asking about them because Nethercott is so hard to write in Thai I wanted to see how it was done. So the other day I asked Brother Thrap if he had them. His response was (well in Thai but...) I don't have them. So then I asked does Sister Hirschi have them? He just said, I don't have them. So I was like Sister Hirschi has them, thanks got it. He was trying not to say who had them or if they had them yet because they don't want us to have them. Once missionaries know they exist, they want them so bad! So later that day Sister Hirschi taught and I asked if she had our name tags and if I could just read it. But then she was like yeah and I'll give them to you! Our whole district got really excited, we didn't expect her to have them on her! She had apparently been carrying them around in her back pack for two weeks. I think the real reason she gave them to us was because she wanted that space back in her back pack. Ha ha

Elder Covey is down the hall from me learning Malagasy. I had him bare his testimony a few nights ago and his language is coming along great. Speaking of the Coveys... Why weren't they at my farewell? You should have heard them when they were trek ma and pa and they were preaching about how as a trek family we needed to go and support each other in things like farewells. Oh well. Ha ha

And the Lao speaking Elders are leaving this week to Sacramento. There are only two of them but they were our zone leaders so it'll be sad to have them go. And because they are leaving, we had to get new zone leaders. Elder Curtis and Elder Hinckson... Ha ha

The Sunday night devotional was given by T. C. Christensen who makes a lot of church movies. He showed some clips for 17 miracles and gave some good advice like the importance of keeping a journal.

Last night I dreamed in Thai and Lao! It was so exciting! Everyone in the district was speaking Thai and Sister Zoller and I were speaking Lao (which probably means it was just mumble jumbo because I don't know Lao). But I think that is because during the devotional last night I was learning the Lao alphabet from the Elders that are leaving this week. Ha ha But first time with a Thai dream!!! :)

Also, thanks Hall family for the letter! Hopefully I will make it to your house one day! I think I am the only relative who hasn't seen it yet. Love you guys!

And I love you all! I hope you have had a good week!

Love, Sister Nethercott