I hope your week was great. This week was a little hard, but it went by fast!!
Grandma Cammy!! Thanks so much for the mandarins you sent, I shared them with my district and zone and they loved them!!
Funny story about that actually:
I went to go hand some of them out to the Hmong elders, and I stood in the door of the classroom and tried to lightly toss each elder a mandarin. After doing this, one elder asked for a second mandarin, but told me, "Sister Remington, I bet you played baseball or softball, so throw it hard." I told him that I actually didn't play baseball or softball, but that I could still throw pretty hard. So in classic form, I wound up and threw it super hard, only it didn't go to him, it smacked against the elders desk next to him and juice was everywhere! It was super funny, and actually a little embarrassing as all the Hmong elders are all like, "Oh, Sister..." They then made me try to say the word "Hmong" correctly for like 5 min. Apparently its like a breathy H, where you blow out of your nose. It was hard, and I still can't say it right hahaha
Some random news of the week:
*They are starting to send Sisters to Laos!
*My blood type is O negative, not sure what that means, but it is.
*I realized everyone in my district is taller than me, and also some of the Elders who have just graduated high school are older than me too.
*Elliott! We learned how to say please pass the rice!!!!
Thai is coming along pretty well, however any prayers are still appreciated! Asian languages are hard!
This week I said so many funny things in Thai. For example in a lesson teaching about the word of Wisdom, instead of committing my investigator to Stop Smoking (leeg subburi). I committed him to Start Smoking (reum subburi) So embarrassing, and my teacher was laughing so hard, and was all like in Thai, "Don't you wan't me to stop smoking?"
Another time in class, my teacher was testing our Thai by saying sentences in Thai and then having us raise our hand and translate them to English. He said in Thai, "In which book in Alma do they talk about Faith?" I raised my hand super quickly, and translated that sentence. But instead of saying, "In which book in Alma do they talk about Faith, I said, "In which book in Alma do they talk about Satan." Everyone just about died laughing, as the word for faith is "Sattah", and the word for Satan is "Sataan." My teacher then wrote in huge letters across the chalk board, sattah does not equal sataan. So funny.
My teachers also think It is really funny that in just about every example/answer in class I bring in the Thai word for cake. We even told our investigator we would bring him a cake. haha
Anyways, I learned a lot this week.On tuesday, we went to the devotional in the Marriott center. It was really neat to finally go off MTC campus, but also kinda hard as I missed BYU a lot. I did however, think about how grateful I am to go to such an awesome school, and also have the opportunity to go on a mission. It was still a little hard though. Anyways, in the devotional they talked about tenacity, and how it is the "persistence, perseverance, stubborn determination, and people that just won't quit." I loved that. I really want to be a tenacious missionary, and person, and to "Pray about it, Make some decisions, and Get on with it." I also loved this devotional, as in the end the speaker referenced a talk that helped me a lot when deciding to go on a mission. The best line is, "NEVERTHELESS I WEN'T FORTH." Sometimes in life we may not know all the reasons why we are doing certain things, but the Lord will help us if we pray, have faith and hope, and go forth.
I also kept thinking about how in this life, often hope is the most important thing someone can possess. We can never lose hope. It even says in D&C 18:19, "If ye have not faith, hope, and charity, ye can do nothing." This is true, without hope we will not have the power to go forth in anything, big or small, be it waking up, or deciding what we should major in, if there is no hope.It kind of hit me this week, that this is why I am on a mission. To tell people about the hope that the gospel brings, of knowing who you are, and in a sense the purpose of life.
In another devotional I saw this week given by Sister Nelson, (Russel M. Nelson's wife), she told the story of young 13 year old Henry B. Eyring. He had just moved from New York, to another state and school. In this new school all the kids teased him about his "accent" and he got pretty down, and wanted to stop going to school, and basically give any effort. One day when he was playing basketball the words came to his mind, and he wrote them in his journal :"Someday when you know who you really are, you will be sorry you didn't use your time better." Those words hit me hard. I thought about them over and over, and they are so true. We need to always give our best effort, in anything we do, be it a small task or large. This is how we live happily. This is how we live without regret.
I love you all, and pray for each one of you!
Make each day the best.
Rak mag (lots of love),
Sister Remington
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