Hello! It's Monday again here in the MTC and we have the opportunity to email home again, yipii!

Dear แม่,

I love you so much and I'll probably write this one short also because we'll also write on Monday (also because I don't have my journal with me right now). Our new area is doing well, I think, and the work here is progressing well. Every year, Thailand has about 500 baptisms and in this year alone we've had nearly 2,000. There is so much growth and we're in the heart of it! It's so exciting! Our new area it self is small and the best way to grow it is by baptizing. We go out and find potential investigators everyday. We have two investigators we're close to baptizing. บ. เออ was supposed to be baptized last Sunday, but felt unready. This week, however, he'll definitely be baptized and I'll be the one to baptize him. First I need to figure out how to say the baptismal prayer thing. Our second investigator is บ. แจ๊ก and he should be able to be baptized, but we're not entirely sure how he feels about it yet. We also taught a brother ตัาร์, sister ชใ, and another brother whose name I can't remember. We've contacting a ton to find new investigators. We ask people if they're familiar with the church and invite them to be baptized right off the street. Most of the time, they're not interested, but on the rare occasion, they'll take our inviting cards and give us their number. It's so exciting and I love every part of the work! I only get a few numbers each time we go out, but people are so awesome and it's so great to help them be even more awesome by coming to know Christ. The understanding what people are saying is super hard still, but what I love the most is talking to people. Meeting people and getting to know them and help them is what I enjoy the most. None of the investigators we've taught have had any problems with keeping commitments or anything, but one of our investigators in our lessons expressed some concern (at least I think they did) about keeping the Word of Wisdom. They had drunk coffee their entire life and is now trying to change. They said how it's very hard when your family and everyone around you are, but you can't. I was thinking about how I didn't understand all of what they were saying, or even completely understand their situation - having not gone through something like that before, but I knew that Christ knows each on of us personally, individually, intimately, and all of the other words you can use to describe His relationship with us. His love for us is unfathomable and infinite. He knows our strengths and weaknesses and as we strive to come unto Him, He will strengthen us and enable us to do anything that we need to. "If ye have faith ye can do all things which are expedient unto me." Moroni 10:23. I know that this is true and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to share this message and to help others know this.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Elder Sun

P.S. Also, the members say I look like Harry Potter

Hello! It's Monday again here in the MTC and we have the opportunity to email home again, yipii!

Hi Mom!

Wow, it sounds like you had a pretty busy week! It's quite often we're busier than usual during the holiday season, even as a missionary, especially as a missionary, haha. I'm glad I had the opportunity to call you! We'll be able to skype home some time around Christmas, so I'll let you figure out whether you'd like to be called late night or early morning, haha. It's hard to remember to smile with everything happening and going on around you, but I have been doing better at it, especially since that's the least you can do when you don't speak the language and don't know what people are saying or what to say. I'm glad people are enjoying the things I write back home. One thing I love about it is that we can serve and help everyone, not only just the people in the country we're serving. One devotional or message that was shared in the MTC is that when we write home, it's a great opportunity to reach out and touch people who may need it back at home. It was in one of the many meetings/devotionals we had before leaving.

We were able to see the Sunday devotional the Sunday before we left the MTC. It was a neat experience. It was also neat because we also watched it yesterday after church in English. It was pretty crazy because it's been several days of people speaking Thai and I would have basically no idea what they're saying, but having the chance to have that block of time to listen to English made me realize how appreciative I am of being able to understand when people do say things I understand. You could say I had a moment of gratitude for the gift of understanding. Sorry to hear about the computer, it sounds like it's giving you a lot of problems. I hope it all works out in the end. Just remember to treat it nicely and it'll treat you nicely. I say that kind of jokingly, but as I was studying some of the things from seminary, I looked at the story of the creation and one thing that I learned was that everything has a spirit because all things were created spiritually before physically. I'm not sure what to think or make of this, but I'll leave that for you to decipher as you choose.

Hearing about your progressive dinner makes me kind of hungry and miss 'American regular' food. Thailand is a pretty 'foreign' and 'exotic' country. The food is, too. All the food is quite different and it'll take me a while to get used to it and eventually like it. It's also very spicy. I told Anthony that for the first day or two I lived off of goldfish that I brought from America. Other than that, the only foods that haven't been strange (including the airplane food, which I'll expound later) have been french toast we made, watermelon, bananas (but they were the small bananas we ate at the McCuen's once), pineapple and sometimes some of the fried rice is pretty 'normal'. It's actually pretty different from Sawadee, too.

I love Christmas and Christmas songs/carols. I enjoyed hearing one over the phone! Music was one of the best things in the MTC. We had the opportunity to sing Silent Night to all of the district/branch presidents in the MTC. Everyone in our group was pretty much obsessed with Christmas, too, so we sang Christmas songs at every opportunity - in class, and out of class. For a stake Christmas party, all of the missionaries who were there sang Silent Night in English and for our ward Christmas party, we're singing too, but it's in Thai and I still don't know how to read very well - one of the things I miss most about the MTC is the singing (in English).

As for Christmas packages, thank you so, so much for the Christmas package you sent. I look back and can remember how awesome it was to see a big package. A lot of people in my district/Thai group get a lot of packages, but I think my companion and I received the least. Everybody had a lot of packages, and big ones, and it was slightly disheartening to not receive any. It was like Christmas when I handed my package slip to the post office workers and they came back with that box. I bet my eyes widened a bit. It was full of really great stuff which, I'm sad to say that I had to leave most of it at the MTC because of the weight restrictions on our bags. Looking back, I kind of miss food like what was in that package because we really don't have any of it, or anything like it, here in Thailand. Just give it some time and I'm sure I'll love all the food here.

I think that addresses all the comments I had on what you wrote, now for the travel stories. Sorry for writing so much. It's been a really busy week.

So we left the MTC, took a bus, then a train, then a slightly smaller train, then a small-ish plane to LAX where we had a seven hour layover until we boarded a huge plane to HGKG where we waited two hours then boarded a medium-ish sized plan to Bangkok. There we found our bags, met up with our mission president, President Senior, and his wife and APs. We met them, talked a bunch, got a few pictures, then took a van ride to a subway thing. It was a really kind of information jam packed experience. The two APs, Elder Kelly and Elder Kohler, were telling us a lot of stuff and asked for any questions we might have and how we felt, that kind of thing. They said, and President Senior said things like, don't even try to catch up on rest or anything, because it won't work. They said fill every moment with something productive. Also that it doesn't matter how hard you try, you will get sick from the food. Some of us were worried about eating from side vendors because they're kind of super-sketch, but they said that's where we would be eating the majority of the time. What may seem super sketch to us in the states and where we live is common place here in Thailand.

The flight to LAX was only about 1hr 30min. We finished packing, received our travel documents and left the MTC. We were super excited as we finished our preparations and the day to leave the MTC finally arrived. We took some time to say our final goodbyes to the rest of the zone. Pretty much the entire zone was there to see us off. It was quite the send off. We finished passing down all of the items we had over the weekend, too. I gave my Nerf things to Elder Morley, one of the Nong Thai's. We also had to give away most, if not all, of our food to the Thai's before we left. None of us had very much room or weight left to pack food. On the first train ride we were able to talk to a train worker who was a member. We were kind of isolated from the rest of the train, but it was still cool. I think it was just because we were a big group of missionaries and people were kind of 'afraid'. One person was walking towards us, looked up and kind of took a step back and said "Whoa, it's the God squad". That kind of made us all laugh and that person was the first non-MTC person we talked to and the first words of a non-MTC person were funny. The second train ride was in a smaller train and we had to really pack and squeeze in with all of our luggage. On this train, several of us were able to talk to people about the Gospel and get to know them. We then went through the crazy hustle and bustle of an airport and ate Cafe Rio - our first non-MTC food. It was kind of weird to be suddenly in the world of non-MTC again, especially as missionaries. Sometimes, in SLC, random people who were members would come up to us to start talking to us which was kind new and weird. It got even more weird-ish in the LA International Airport. There were a lot of interesting characters there, compared to the people in the MTC. We also saw Kanye West in the LAX airport. He was being followed by a bunch of people with cameras and it was a weird/funny moment we had.

While in the airport and on the plane, we went contacting and talked to people - it was cool. We phoned home, I ate Panda Express for the last time in probably two years, and we eventually started the fifteen hour flight to Hong Kong. The plane was pretty fancy and we slept a lot. We also played a lot of battleship on the touchscreens in the seats. We ate dinner, breakfast, and cups of noodles. It got pretty much completely foreign after that. On that fifteen hour flight, there were a lot of Mandarin-speaking people and it seemed pretty foreign. Then on the flight from Hong Kong to Thailand, it was pretty much entirely foreign. The food we ate was compared to 'scrambled egg jello' and English was now the foreign language from Hong Kong to Bangkok. One funny thing that happened on the plan was that Elder Sagapolu fell asleep and he's a really heavy sleeper. He fell asleep with a set of headphones on so we turned his volume down, selected ACDC Back in Black to play, then turned the volume all the way up. He jumped when the song started and threw off the headphones. It woke him up pretty good.

As soon as we touched down, it was like Thai script everywhere. The Airport was super nice. It is pretty hot and humid, but it hasn't rained yet. President Senior had a photographer and a videographer. After the sub way ride to the church and after contacting some more, we ate our first meal in Thailand. That was when I realized it would take a while to get used to the food. We ate a bunch of stuff whose names I can't remember and can't really pronounce. We then split up and went inviting again. We got kicked out of a place and then returned to the Church where we then went through some other things I can't remember. We got instruction on money and health and some things then took the van to dinner back at President and Sister Senior's where we ate some more rice, I think. By the end of this all we were all very tired and were anxious to get to bed. We had just traveled 30 hours and I don't think we even had a Tuesday. We went to a hotel where we slept. It was pretty high class and comfortable. We ate breakfast there which was pretty good. We had pineapple, watermelon, sausage, eggs, fried rice, and stir-fried noodles. It was good and was a small taste of the adventure to come. It was also an interesting breakfast - noodles and rice.

We traveled to another church building where transfers were held. We first sat in a room and talked to President and Sister Senior again and got a health talk. Apparently, if we get a really bad upset stomach, we're supposed to eat charcoal tablets, I'd never heard of this before. There were also some other health stuff I don't remember. Anyway, we moved into the main room where there was a lot of cheering and we found out our companions and ares. My first area is Bang Naa and my first companion is Elder Davis. He's a pretty cool, super-chill guy. He's really a super amazing missionary and works hard. He's always talking to people and members. he's been out for sixteen months and he definitely knows what he's doing - even thought it's a new area for him, too. After the transfer meeting where we also said good bye to all the leaving missionaries, we went to another meeting and ate hot punch with cold pizza. After this, we hung out at the church and talked to some members where I learned that I couldn't understand anything they said. We took a taxi to our apartment/building/house/place and waited while another group should up. I sat in the front of the taxi and talked to the driver for awhile. I honestly had a really hard time figuring out what he was saying and I didn't know what to do. We got to the apartment, the sisters came, we dropped off my-stuff, and took another taxi to my trainer's old area to get his stuff. My trainer didn't know he was moving until that day so while he packed up his things, I had a nice nap on an empty mattress. We got a ride from some neighbors back to our new place. They were super nice and I still had a hard time understanding them. They bought us some fish from the McDonald's. I think my trainer said Thai people are really nice and will buy you stuff even after you say not to. I later found out that they were actually investigators.

Our current house is really small - only made for two people and we now have four. The full day, we actually spent the entire day looking around for a new, larger apartment that we will hopefully move into today. It's Elder Williams, Elder Suphan, me, and Elder Davis. In our district/area is also a set sisters, Sister Morgan (who was on of our Phiis) and Sister Herman (who's super nice and went to high school with Elder Bunker). The first night, we filled the main room with all of our mattresses and suit cases. Living out of our suitcases, cramped in a little room, and with bugs literally crawling around and in the general dirty state of the room, it's just like camping, but more foreign. I don't mean to complain at all, it's just going to take some time to get used to. The next day, I think it's Friday now, we moved some things around to make the space livable and did a little bit of studies before going out. I took some time to ponder on the recent events and to write in my journal (because I was and am far too tired to write at night) and I figured that sleeping is definitely, probably one of my new favorite things to do because of how tired I am but also because that's what I actually know how to do - at least for now.

The area that we are in is actually entirely new, my trainer says. We have to start from scratch and we don't have anything - not even an actual place to sleep. We were actually pretty lucky that they had four mattresses. We spent the majority of the day looking for a place to live. We street contacted some people and this is when I found out that Sister Herman and Sister Morgan were in our district. We went out looking for something to eat for breakfast/lunch and we went to a little side street vendor. What we would definitely call sketch is pretty commonplace here. We ate stir fried rice with chicken and it was good, but actually quite spicy. Just some random vendor and the food was nearly too spicy, yikes. We toured the church building some which was really close and I rode in a little cage truck taxi for the first time. We contacted at a few places and Elder Williams showed us around because he's not new to the area.

I'm actually out of time, but I have more to say. I kind of forgot to include message, but I'll leave with this. I love it here. I've just recently had the opportunity the past two days to meet some members and people. They're super nice. We went to a stake Christmas activity and even though I have no idea what's going on, I still love it. The members are all nice and this Sunday, we taught our first lesson. Next week, we'll probably have our first baptism. It's super awesome here and maybe next week will be less busy and I can catch up on writing about this week, too. 

Elder Sun

Elder Sun Arrives!

Elder Sun flew safely into Thailand and is being well taken care of there. Also, we can already see the effect this experience is having on him--have you ever seen him smiling so big?! Rock on, Elder Sun!

Hello! It's Monday again here in the MTC and we have the opportunity to email home again, yipii!

Dear Mom,

It's so great to hear from you every week, it really is. We're all so excited to be traveling today and heading to Thailand where we can start the actual mission part of our missions. Haha. Yea, I just realized that as I was thinking about it - I did forget to include the travel plans. We leave at 11:30 today - in a few hours, to the SLC airport where we will then leave around 4:30 to LA. We will then have a 7-hr lay over until we fly to Hong Kong then we'll be in Thailand 4hrs later. We have about 30 hours of total travel time. We'll likely be calling home in SLC or LA, but I'm not sure. We leave today, but won't be in Thailand until the 10th. It's probably too late to call today, but I'll see if we can call in LA or something.

I didn't play a part in the Thanksgiving program, but I still enjoyed it alot. There were two Indian men and women, Puritan men and women, and three turkeys.

The speaker said that agency is different when we are baptized because - in short - when we enter into covenants and make decisions to break them, we no longer are excercising agency but are breaking covenants. It was a very interesting way to look at it. We have a responsibility to choose certain things when our agency is changed and when we don't, we aren't using our agency to choose not to obey, but are simply breaking sacred covenants we've made. Maybe I'll get my notebook and see how it was explained to help a little more. I'm not the best with words.

Wow, Sister Sylvester came home already. It almost feels like she just left, at least to me it does.

I don't know if Brother Eggett is related to the Eggett's in our ward, but I have met a lot of people here that know a lot of other people back home. I also wonder if Sister Johansen and Sister Belnap in my zone are related to anyone we know.

We saw the first presidency Christmas devotional, too. And we watched "He is the Gift" several times here in the MTC. It's a great video and everytime I watch it, I marvel at the scripture - John 3:16. "God so loved the world". God so loves the world. God so loves us. Each and every one of us. He knows all of us deeply and cleary and more than we can even comprehend. He wants the very best for us and knows how we can get there. He's guiding our lives every step of the way. He is always there. He so loved us that he sent His only begotten Son. His Son was a gift to us. "He is Christmas". That's such a simple, powerful, and true phrase. "He is Christmas". He was the gift to the world, for the world. As I watched that video for another time, I thought about how Christ's birth was a gift, but it wasn't the only gift. The Atonement was an amazing gift, as was the resurrection. "God so loved the world" and he continues to love the world. He sends us gifts along the path of our lives all the time. In the District Devotional review after this Sunday's Christmas devotional, I had the chance to hear one last testimony from everyone here in the MTC. As I listened to their thoughts and felt the Spirit, I knew that each one of them was a gift in my life. Having the opportunity to be here in the MTC for these nice long weeks is such a gift. Having the opportunity to get to know all these great Elders, Sisters, and our teaches was a tremendous gift. I know that Heavenlly Father and Jesus Christ are with us every step of our lives. Through hard times and good times they desire for us to be happy, successful, and to become the best sons and daughters They would have us be. I know that Christ lives. He is the gift and we can use the gift in our lives. We need to use the Atonement in our lives to strengthen us, to help accomplish our purpose in this life - what ever it may be. Heavenly Father has a plan for us and knows exactly what we need to do. As missionaries, we are told a lot that He is preparing people to hear the Gospel. He is softening people's hearts and people are waiting for us to show them the way that will bring them lasting joy in their lives. We are told that as we follow the Spirit, are obedient, and work diligently, that we will be lead to the people that have been prepared for us and we will be able to help them. We've been guided in our lives in such a way that we will be able to touch people in ways that are unique to each of us. I know that this is true and that as we strive to do as Christ would do, we will receive tremendous blessings in our lives and great opportunities to love and serve others. When we turn outwards as Christ would, we will develp the Character Christ more fully in our lives and will be blessed in blessing others. I know that these things are true and am so thankful for this Thanksgiving/Christmas season to share the love of Christ. In Thailand, they don't really celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas, and I'm so excited to be able to share with others what Christmas is all about.

Elder Sun

Hello! It's Monday again here in the MTC and we have the opportunity to email home again, yipii!

Dear Magnificant Mom,

ONE MORE WEEK

Well one more week, Booya! Next Monday at this time, we will be on a bus headed to the SLC airport. It's super exciting and totally nerve wrecking. We revieced our flight plans on Friday and we know all of the different flights and layovers we'll be taking. I'll sent a picture of all the times that you can look at if you're interested. We have thirty hours of total travel time and I'm anticipating some major jet lag.

I've been expanding my studies to include more of the New Testament and Old Testament from my seminary things you sent me. I find it amazing all the stuff that we learned in seminary that I never remembered. As I was looking through, I found a bunch of references and talks that could have helped our investigators and me. Lesson to be learned: paying attention in seminary can help us greatly.

Probably the best Thanksgiving every happened here in the MTC (not to one-up your Thanksgiving experience you shared last week). We had a day jam packed full of awesome. We had an early morning (and a late night on Tuesday) choir practice on Thanksgiving. We sang what the director said was the hardest song they've ever sang in the MTC in the past twelve years. We sang Come Thou Fount and the Spirit during the practices was so strong. The devotional it self was really awesome, too. Elder Bednar came and after some short, inspiring remarks, he turned the devotional into a world wide question and answer session. It was broadcast to all the MTC's in the world. They passed out several hundred cell phones and missionaries were able to text questions to Elder Bednar's ipad and he answered them. We were pretty impressed that he was able to answer all the questions so clearly, simply, and smoothly without having planned any specific responses. The Spirit really does work through the Lord's apostles. Probably another highlight of the day was a service project we did. We made food packets to help feed people in need in Utah. We had several other service-oriented devotionals and presentations throughout the day. Apparently, 1:5 Utah children are struggling with food. We also had a Thanksgiving program where missionaries took on roles of indians and pilgrims. My companion was a turkey. At the close of the day, we watched Meet the Mormons. It was a really god movie. Hearing about all of the cool, inspriing stories of converts and those who have helped others was really cool. It also made me reflect on our roles in helping others and about my own conversion story. Some thoughts that Elder Bednar shared is agency is a fundamental and simple principle that is the most misunderstood. He explained that when we are baptized, our agency is changed, is altered. Another thing is that, regarding note taking, it would be great if we never remember what a speaker says, because it is so much more important what the Spirit makes us feel. One question Elder Bednar was asks is how he can keep going and going even though he, and all the other apostles, are pretty old. He answered saying if we are tired, just keep pushing. He said this work is energizing, it is hard and demanding, but we will feel the energizing effect. He also shared how, as missionaries, we are doing what anyone who honors his preisthood would want to do forever. This work gives a spiritual vitality. Another great question was "How can I have faith in something that cannot be proven?". He focused his answer on the definition of true vs false in science. He said that, as a scientist, he can analyze it this way. I actually also noticed that what he said completely and entirely builds off of the principle I learned in physics class - that science only makes things more plausible. He said that science is not wholly objective or scientific. He said that for science to  even work, we have to have faith. We have to have faith in the institution conducting the research and that science answers a lot of good questions that should be answered by science, but it can't answer the most important. In physics class, our teacher told us that research that is most 'successful' when the result is such that further pursuit is possible. I can't quite remember the exact wording, but basically, science's view of true and false is such that it actually supports religion. Both religion and science are two sides of a pair of glasses, if you will. Those who believe that science can prove or disprove have a naive belief of what science actually is. He also said how the age change is not new and that the age change in North America actually just set America on the same plane as the rest of the world who have had younger missionaries going out for decades.

On Sunday, we had BYU vocal point perform. It was pretty spiritual. They started off with a Christmas medley of 12 days of Christmas and some other festive songs. They then sang I Need Thee Every Hour, Where Can I Turn for Peace, and bunch of others. The songs themselves were super awesome, but also the thoughts and experiences that they shared. All nine members of Vocal Point are returned missionaries and they shared really cool stories. Three things that stuck with me are two cool thoughts and a story. One of the Vocal Pointers said that the only day when we truly realize the power and authority of being a missionary and an official representative of Christ is the day you take the badge off. As he said that, it kind of just reassured me that although we try our hardest and it may not look like we've grown a ton from our perspectives, we actually have and we have two years to serve the Lord and a lifetime to look back and see how we did. But for now, we just need to focus on doing what we can. Lesson learned: 

One missionary who served in Portugal shared a story about two elders. They were walking down the street and saw two men across from them walking towards them. They were a ways off, but started taunting and insulting them. As they approached the missionaries, they said some very vulgar things about them, the church, and as they were crossing, they also insulted the Lord's name. The missionaries were very angry, but did not respond. One was very angry and almost turned and reacted, but his companion grabbed him by the arm and they kept walking. A small woman who was watching them ran up to them and asked what church teaches their men to act like that. She was then taught the lessons and was baptized. That story was cool because it would take a lot of patience and Christ-like attributes to handle that situation in the way those missionaries did. By simply not responding, their example was seen and they were blessed with the opportunity to teach someone. Lesson learned: Do what's right, be an example, you are seen.

The last thing is what Jordan Hale would have liked to know before he went on his mission. He said that you always have people saying 'a mission is so cool. You're going to love it, but it is also hard'. He said that he knew it would be hard, but not as hard as it actually was. He told us, since the real work doesn't start until we get into the field, that in every single way possible, it will be hard. Physically, mentally, spiritually, etc. It is the hardest best two years of your life. The advice he gave us was to tell ourselves "I will do what's right". Make the decision now to do what you know is right. It'll help us get through and end up 'on top'. Lesson learned: understand that missions are likely the hardest thing you'll ever do up to this point in your life and that the way to get through it is to 'Do what is right'.

Hearing from the choir director has been one of my highlights every week. He's a very charismatic guy, but even more than that he's super awesome. He's had a ton of life experiences and gives us new perspectives on missionary work, the songs we sing, and is honestly a greate person/example/role model. He shares a lot of really great stories and is an awesome teacher. He shared a story about Mitch Davies, the director of The Other Side of Heaven. In short, he told us how amazing and awesome missionary work is. He told us that missionary work is great, but he sees missionaries all the time who are super stressed about it. He said that our job is so easy and so simple. It's to simply represent Him and teach. That's it. He was quite amusing when he told us this important message. He said all we have to do is walk around and talk. That's all our job is. He then adlibbed (as he does often) we don't even have to worry about what to say. We just open our mouths and they'll be filled. Lesson learned: don't stress, focus on our purpose, to teach.

The emphasis I think on this story was remember how great missionary work is. We were practices Away in a Manger. A pretty straight forward, simple song with a simple message, or so we thought. Brother Eggett always knows how to help us look at the deeper doctrine. The point he was telling us was that missionary work is powerful. He said he had heard Elder Holland on numerous occasions say that his mission was the 

One cool story from sacrament meeting was that our district president and his wife spoke to us. She shared a story about how two missionaries lived in an old broken down house. They kept it clean and tidy and what not and when they left, a non-member family moved in. The family asked the neighbors who lived in the house before them because they could feel something different in that house. The neighbors told her the Mormon missionaries had lived there. They then asked to meet with them. I was really impressed that the missionaries had left a feeling in that house that was 'potent' enough to make an impact on the family. Lesson learned: strive to have the Spirit as much and as strong as possible, but at the same time, don't think too much on it or you may lose sight of how to actually have the Spirit.

Emails from Elder Derrikk Sun

Hi guys! This is Diana, Derrikk Sun's sister. I've been really bad at getting his weekly emails distributed, but I'm going to do better! He's almost at the end of his time at the MTC, so if you just take a second to shoot him a note of encouragement I know he'll really appreciate it!

Diana

On Monday, November 24, 2014 1:47 PM, Derrikk Sun <derrikk.sun@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Dear Mom,

I hope you're doing well. Thanks for letting me know everything that's happening over there. I'm not sure what happened regarding the ice bucket. The bucket I filled with ice ended up being dumped on me. I'm not sure how I don't fall asleep while prayed or why I'm not dead-tired at night. I'd like to think it's because I know that, especially as a missionary, the Lord gives us so much strength beyond our own - mentally and physically. The days are long and hard, but I'm always excited for the next day that we get to teach the Gospel some more. I'll probably be mailing some stuff, like full journals, home before leaving the MTC if weight is an issue.

Wow, it sounds like weather up there is crazy. It hasn't been very stormy here at all. We've been having really nice warm days here and have only had one or two that were chilly. Also, I love Elder Bednar. We've listened to several devotionals and talks by him recently and he's such an amazing speaker. Just last night he spoke on burdens and that Christ will bear us up. Thanks so much for your testimony.

I received Diana's email this week. It's so cool that she's going to a linguistics conference. On Wednesday we received a new batch of Thai-speaking missionaries in our zone. There's a solo sister in their district that just graduated college with a degree in linguistics and also in ASL, just like Diana! Coincidence, I think not! It was so cool to talk to her and get to know her because she ended up being really into linguistics and ASL.

I also received Katelyn's email from Diana. I can echo her thoughts on prayer that she shared. This Sunday's sacrament topic was on recognizing the Spirit. In PMG, there's a whole chapter on recognizing the Spirit and a section on prayer that talks all about how to better use prayer to help us receive and recognize the Spirit.

It's weird being the oldest missionaries. We're pretty much the oldest group of missionaries in the entire MTC at this point. When we first got here, all the Phii Thai's were so old to us and now that we're the oldest, we don't feel like we know as much as the old Phii Thai's did. Thinking about how we're going to be thrown into the field soon is crazy. I started studying 'Jesus the Christ'. I'm really excited to learn specifically about Christ's like and how to be a better missionary through Him. The language is, in all honestly, super hard. We've learned a ton and are now 'refining' our language such as tones. Tones are really hard. It's like singing every word you say. Eventually we'll have it down second nature, but right now it's hard to just remember the vocab but also the tones and then being able to say them right.

Sunday, like most Sundays, was really good. In priesthood meeting, Brother Lords (on of our branch counselors), shared a really cool overview of the BoM that I never realized. He talked about how, right off the bat, the first sixty pages in the BoM address all of the basics of the restoration, atonement, and prophets. The way he explained it was powerful. Even the very first verse, the most read verse of the Book of Mormon, is full of great principles. He said that if we can just get our investigators to read the beginning of the BoM, they'll be able to grow tremendously. In just the first few chapters, we learn the way God deals with His people. He sends prophets. The process was: prophet->prays->vision->sees Deity->receives a book->teaches/preaches->mocked/rejected->people try to kill. In the first 12 pages we learn about the revelatory process and how to receive revelation of truth. In the first 30 pages we learn about opposition in all things. Brother Lords lists a whole bunch of comparisons. Light dark, happiness sorrow, etc. We then learn about the Gathering of Israel. Why we're here and why we go out and teach people. In 2 Nephi 2 we have a great section on the Atonement. This is all within the first sixty pages. At the end of the time we had, Brother Lords expressed how he wished that we had more time. He didn't get through very much and there's so much great stuff to be said about the Book of Mormon. I love learning about and studying the Book of Mormon. I need to work on the larger picture though. Often times we study the scriptures verse by verse and sometimes miss other ideas. On our Sunday film yesterday, we watched a devotional address by Elder Bednar about Doctrine, Principles, and Applications. Elder Bednar's talk also made me think about how we study. Do we focus on doctrines and principles, or on applications in our lives? I've often found that finding the larger, big picture ideas we find in scriptures requires shifting our focus just slightly. Elder Bednar's address, along with other talks, have made us completely rethink how we teach. Elder Bednar said "investigators will ask a lot of application questions. Answer application questions with a principle, not an application". He shared to examples. One on home teaching and another on 'Can I eat pork?'. How can we do better on home teaching? Can I eat pork? These could have answers such as, yes you can eat pork, let's reassign, etc But Elder Bednar answered both of these questions with the response of a doctrine and principle. PMG has a great quote that Elder Bednar shared. True doctrine understood changes behavior better than a study of behavior will change behavior. If my poor explanation is confusing, let me know and I'll expound on it. I just know that this is so true. That we can help others and ourselves more, but focusing on doctrines than just applications. While applications are necessary and important, we must make sure the doctrine is understood or else any application will not create a lasting change

Also what was awesome was the devotional we had Sunday night. It was as if the topic of the week was receiving and recognizing the Spirit. Brother Stephen B. Allen, managing director of the missionary department, spoke on receiving a witness and on spiritual self-reliance. He emphasized the need to turn to God for help and for answers. He shared, to give a brief overview, to receive a witness we must build faith, understand the revelatory process, be worthy, listen, pray, and act. For us, it's our choice what we get out of a meeting. We can choose whether or not we will receive revelation or not. God expects us to be self-reliant. We not only get to choose, we have to choose. For our investigators, Brother Allen stressed the importance to help investigators become spiritually self-reliant by introducing them to the revelatory process and getting out of the way. We must teach investigators to turn to God for their answers, not to us. If they are having struggles, have them ask of God. Ask if they are in the process of asking God. If they ask, the Spirit will begin to give them answers. I was intrigued by the phrase 'begin to give answers'. It's a process. After asking and believing, we must help others to act. A thought that he shared (that I can't quite remember) was that when we begin to act, we begin to repent. Repentance comes through action. Or something along the lines of that.

On Tuesday, we had a tremendously awesome devotional. Linda K. Burton, the Relief Society General President, and her husband spoke. Craig P. Burton gave a cool object lesson. He said the mantle of a calling is like a suit that doesn't fit. When we're set apart we are given a mantle that is much larger than we are. None of us can be missionaries on our own. Through the enabling power of the Atonement, we can grow into it over the span of two years. However, he said the key is that you don't stop. You never stop being a missionary even though we're released from full time service. After two years, you're not done. You're not able to say 'finally, I'm done'. We work to maintain and to magnify our mantle on our missions and we retain this metaphorical mantle even after a mission. It made me also think of the sacrament topic last week, baptism. I thought about how, in our baptismal covenant, we promise to serve the Lord however we can. We promise to give all that we have to Him. As missionaries, we do that too. We're set apart from the world to give all we have to Him. I thought about how we don't need to be set apart as missionaries to share the Gospel and we shouldn't limit ourselves to sharing the Gospel to only when we're missionaries. All members are missionaries. The message that I liked from Sister Burton the most was that, as missionaries, we don't need to be perfect teachers. We don't need to be anything close to a perfect teacher - there's just no way that no matter how hard we try, we'll be perfect at speaking the language or teaching lessons. The key from this was that we need to be not a perfect teacher, but a Christ-like teacher. I think that if there's anything to learn from the MTC, is to become more Christ-like. To become a more Christ-like teacher and a more Christ-like person.

I think I may have left some stuff out, but we're out of time. I'll end by sharing my testimony of the Savior. phom ruu waa phrayeesukhrid mii chiiwid yuu phom ruu waa mxa raw mii khwaamtuk panhaa rxa sing tii yaag gee raw hay rab kwaamchuaylxa caag phrakhrid day khab phom ruu waa phrayeesukhrid chodchay samrab raw day phom pen phayaan waa dooy phrayeesukhrid raw mii chiiwid niran day

I know that was a short phracag phayaan, but I'll have to have more time to collect my thoughts next time.

Elder Sun

Small Update

Hey guys. Diana here. Derrikk (er, Elder Sun), unsurprisingly, is not too concerned about sending me things to post on his blog. Rest assured that his family has heard from him and that he is doing well in the MTC. The language is hard, he's learning a lot, and he has a strong testimony.

That's all I got for today. Sorry. Hopefully more next time!

T-minus Ten Days

Hello world! Diana here. I'm Derrikk's older sister, and I'll be managing his mission blog for the duration. Derrikk leaves for his two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on October 8, 2014. While he's gone, I'll be posting his weekly emails so you can check up on how he's doing! I may also post photos and my own anecdotes from time to time.

Derrikk didn't tell me what to call his blog, so I chose "Ties in Thailand" for the time being--it's a play on words referring to his need to wear ties as he serves in Thailand.

Thanks for following Derrikk (soon to be Elder Sun) 's blog! I'll be posting his contact information as soon as I find out.

Rock on,
Diana