Thai'd Up for 18 Months: D-Day! (Departure-Day!) Week #9

Today is D-day! In just a few hours I will be getting on a plane and start my journey to Thailand!!! I can't wait!

So this week... Well I have maintained a level of sick. My best accessory is my tissue box. I don't even know whats wrong with me anymore. I just hope that I don't crash in Thailand and upset my trainer because I am unable to do anything. I think 20 hours of sleep on the plane should help. But we'll see.

Monday night we had to say goodbye to Brother Thrap because he was going to his family reunion. He sang Let it Go fro us in Thai... Funniest things I have ever witnessed. Ha ha. He got so into it. Who knows why he is going to dental school, he should go into theater! But it was pretty sad, some of the district teared up. Its hard to say goodbye to your MTC teachers.

For the Tuesday night devotional, John H. Groberg came and spoke. The movie The Other Side of Heaven is based off of his mission experience. It was a great last Tuesday night devotional to end with. He and his wife really seem like cool people! Watching that movie when I was younger I didn't realize how much I looked up to him. That movie is one of the reasons I wanted to serve a mission and go somewhere crazy foreign. I guess eating bugs in Thailand will work. :) But he spoke about testimonies. He said it doesn't matter how small your testimony is, that if you share it, it will grow. He said we need to bare whatever testimony we have whenever and where ever we can. He suggested 6 different ways of baring a testimony: in words, in action, in song, through prayer, by writing it down, and by who you are. Just because you aren't good at sharing your testimony in words, it doesn't mean there aren't many other ways of expressing the testimony you have.

On Wednesday, we hosted again. For once it wasn't in the upper 90's while we did it. At one point, I turned and saw Tyler Packard and got really confused as to who he was dropping off. I guess this week he had the opportunity to bring a sister he taught on his mission and drop her off on hers. That must be one of the most amazing experiences you can have. I'm not sure I will get to experience that because I am serving in Thailand but that would be an amazing feeling.

Thursday was our last lesson with Ploy. It was not our highest note to end on. We had assigned her to read part of Joseph Smith History which she did. But then she didn't bring her triple combination to the lesson which we planned to use through the entire thing. And because we were talking about the restoration, she had some questions that were extremely difficult to answer in the amount of Thai we know. On top of that, I started feeling feverish just before and was coughing the whole lesson. So poor Sister Zoller had to take the reigns for most of the lesson. She did great though. It wasn't the worst lesson in the world, but its nice to end on a high.

Friday we had infield orientation. That was interesting. I still can't decide if I liked it or not. There was a lot of good information in it but a lot of it didn't really seem to apply for the people of Thailand. Also, it was all in English so it seemed like a waste of my time. Any time there was a "discuss this or practice this with your companion," Sister Zoller and I would always try to practice in Thai so it could be more applicable. Lets just say when we had to practice with other missionaries that weren't our companions, teaching in English seems so easy now. Ha ha. And then they preformed this really cheesy skit about entering the mission field. Our district was laughing so hard a few of them were crying. We all kind of sat together which meant if one of us started laughing... It had a ripple affect. No one else was laughing and we could not understand why. There is no way you could watch that without laughing because it was so painful! And between scenes they would pause it and the teacher would come talk to us. When we were laughing uncontrollably he just gave us a look that said, "yep they are nine week missionaries." So that part seemed like I was wasting my time... I think studying the scriptures or Thai would have been a better use of my time. Its funny how time is so precious as a missionary. But over all infield orientation was fun and interesting. It made the day go by super fast because it is the first day we have done something different in 9 weeks!

Saturday was our last day of class. We had to say goodbye to Sister Stolworthy, Brother Shipley, Brother Sanders, Sister Hirschi, and a couple other teachers we didn't have as often. It was kind of sad. Who knows if we will ever get the chance to see them again. They are super awesome and I am so happy that I was able to learn from them. Then after class we decided we better start packing... Well the books we were given here are super heavy. I don't know where all the weight is coming from because before the MTC when we weighed my bags, there was a lot of weight to play with. After Saturday night, between all 3 bags (which includes the carry on with a weight limit of 15 lbs) I was 8 lbs over.

Sunday night we had a devotional with Kevin J Worthen. He spoke about using power to be a good missionary. And then I finished packing. I got everything within weight... with the help of others suitcases. I am just not willing to give up my food! Ha ha

This morning Sister Zoller and I went to the temple for the last time for 16 months. We made sure to wake up really early and gave ourselves an hour in the celestial room. That was honestly the hardest goodbye, with the temple. I really will miss having the opportunity to attend as frequently as I want. The temples here really are such a blessing. I hope I will be able to do enough work in Thailand so that they will be able to have a temple for themselves!

Thanks Grandma for the DearElder! Yes I did get your other two letters as well. Sorry if I forgot to mention them and thank you for them. We just don't have much time with the computers for email so I end up rushed and forget to write things. But thank you so much, love you too!

Also, thanks mom, dad and Joey for the dearelders you sent me this week!

Now I am going to try and take the advice from John H. Groberg. I just want to share a few things I've learned here at the MTC that have strengthened my testimony. The MTC is really like nothing else you can experience elsewhere. Just on this little plot of land you have a group of young people speaking/learning 55 different languages. All of them with the same purpose. Most of them working hard, full of dedication. It really is pretty cool to be in an atmosphere where everyone is striving to serve their Lord. That doesn't make it easy though. No matter how much of a bubble you are in here, there are still plenty of things to distract you from reaching your full capacity. But I know that as you do your best to work hard, be obedient and serve best you can, Heavenly Father will bless you for your efforts. My testimony that Heavenly Father does hear and answer our prayers has grown so much. I know if we sincerely turn to him with good desires, he will answer us. Maybe not right in the moment but the answer will come. I know that The Book of Mormon is true. That it teaches the true doctrine of Christ. I believe in personal revelation and that as we study The Book of Mormon we can receive answers that are personal to us. I know that God loves me and that he loves all of his children. He doesn't care what you have done, as long as you turn to your Savior and use His atonement, God does forgive. I ask you to not only use the atonement for repentance, but for strength also. I know Jesus Christ will help lighten our burdens and that He will give us strength to endure. Through Him is the only way. I say these things in His name our Savior Jesus Christ, amen.

I hope you have all had a wonderful week! Love you all!

-Sister Nethercott

I got this from my chocolate... Scriptures every night. Ha ha

The Elders looking "law" (handsome, its a Thai thing)

saying bye to Brother Thrap

"On Wednesdays we wear pink, on Thursdays we weekly plan." -Brother Sanders. (Explaining about weekly planning). You should get that in my blog... I forgot to get it in there. :)