REMINGTONS NEVER GIVE UP

Hey everyone! 

First of all, Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! Suffice it to say, I am super happy you guys got married.

Thank you all so much again for the dear elders. They make me laugh, and feel so inspired! I especially loved both Wyatt and Elliott's awesome ones this week ;). Also I only get them mon-fri, so if you send any sat/sun, i don't read them until late monday night. 

Also the Peterson's sent me the NICEST package and note, it definitely made my day :). Also Grandma Cammy thanks so much for the oranges! They were even better this time if that's even possible! 

This week here is some funny stuff that happened. First of all, I realized that I've given the Elders in my district Waaay to many prank ideas. Like I am the mastermind behind all their schemes. For example (time capsule in the ceiling, ice water bucket, crazy spoon thing etc.) I realized I have to keep some of them to myself. They also tried to prank me this week by unscrewing my desk.... but i caught them! hahah Anyways, if anyone has any good prank ideas let me know. Revenge must happen.

A funny thing with the language happened when I was teaching a lesson to my investigator/teacher Bro Chamberlain. We were talking about the 10 commandments, specifically the commandment, "thou shall not kill". He had a question if he could still kill animals, because in Buddhism they don't kill anything. Period. Not even Mosquitoes. Anyways, Sis B. shared a scripture about how killing animals is fine, because they are for eating. I kinda just had this funny thought come to my head so I was like, hey I'll just go ahead and say it. It was "Raw may gin cone" (we don't eat people)." SO funny. We all just died laughing, and Bro Chamberlain couldn't get it together for the longest time! 

Also, we've started singing by reading the Thai script for the Hymns. It's so hard, and we go so slow, and half the time are singing a different tune to the hymn, than the actual hymn we are signing just because there are so many things to think about. 

Oh, and I probably should have mentioned this in like week one email, but in Thailand how people great each other is by saying Sawatdee kha (female), or Sawatdee crap (male), and by doing this little pray bow thing with their hands. So that is how anyone in my zone/district greets each other, even if they are not going to Thailand, just because its so fun. 

This next week (week 7 yay! only 3 left)  should be exciting because we are having the new thai group come, and they have one sister who will be moving into the room with me and the other Thai sisters! So we are stoked cause it'll be a change up. Also, they keep telling us that there is something awesome planned for American Thanksgiving, so i'm stoked for that! 

This week honestly was the hardest week so far at the MTC. Thursday hit, and I felt like I was living the movie Groundhog day, where the guy wakes up and relives the same day over and over and over again. That day we had done the same activity in class, same this same that, i'd eaten the EXACT same food for lunch I had for seven weeks, the language was still hard (the tones), and suffice it to say I got really frustrated. And lost it a little. I hadn't taken my own advice about having hope, and trying to make everyday the best. 

I was also thinking quite a bit this week about why exactly missions are so hard, and I thought that probably the reason they are so hard, is because you don't have anything you can do to take your mind off of anything. For example, I used to be able to whenever I wanted not to think about something, I would just go on my phone/go skiing/ hang out with friends etc. Here there aren't any of those options, you can't in a sense "numb" so you have to face all the problems that occur, instead of just pushing them away through ignoring them. 

Something however that helped me a ton this week is someone said, "Everything in your mission that happens, happens to help you." And I do believe that. All the experiences I've already had in this short almost month and a half, have really helped me, and each day I've wondered if I could still do it, something would happen to reassure me that I still could. Heavenly Father never forgets us. 

This week especially I remembered something my Mom and Dad would always say to me and my siblings when something was hard. It's that, "Remington's never give up." When it gets hard I remember that and I will NEVER give up. 

I also read in Alma 3:26 this week and it says, "You'll either have happiness or misery, according to the Spirit you listeth to obey." This is so true, we choose everyday, so we might as well choose to listen to the good.

Grandma Cammy also sent me this awesome quote, "To find real happiness we must seek for it in a focus outside of ourselves."

Oh and Elliott sent me this awesome thought! She said she was in her seminary class this week and they were reading in Joseph Smith History 1:15-20 Elliott said, "It is really cool because it's when he is in the garden and he's praying for the first time and satan is all around him it's cool because he could have just given up, he could have so easily! But nothing worth having comes easily, remember that. No matter what happens don't give up, it's all worth it in the end." 

I am so grateful for the awesome example of my family.

Also, this week when I read Alma 26:1 which says, "For could we have supposed when we started from the land of Zarahemla that God would have granted unto  us such great blessings?"I had this realization, that sometimes its hard to know at the start of things how good things could be, it's often only in looking back at the end of events, that you see why things happened the way the did. In Phillipians 4:11 it says, "For I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." This really made me think, as when it comes down to it, none of us really have very much time on this earth so we may as well be happy. 

Something that I am going to work on this week is to try and gain more of an unshakable testimony of Christ. I realized that it is through Christ that we are able to do all things so that is what I must begin to do. 

An awesome quote that I would like to leave you all with this week is: 

"There are 2 kinds of people in this world, those who act and those who are acted upon. Be one who acts."

I love you all and miss you so much!

Love,

Sister Remington 

P.S. I feel like this email is all over the place so sorry if it makes no sense!