"Whoooooo hoooooooo! I can't believe that Matt is coming to the Bangkok mission!! I'm going to ask President Senior if I will be able to train him, but I'm not sure that if I ask, or he finds out that we are cousins, that he will never put us together. Now I have to learn the language even faster, so that when he comes, I can speak Thai to him and freak him out! haha Way crazy!!"
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| Elders Johnson and Smith making cookies? |
"I've only had one meeting so far and an interview with President Senior. At the meeting, I had to give all ten teaching points and then they checked my planner and gave me a B grade on it. I don't know where they got that, but I apparently have to do better. haha I did however pass off my teaching points. It was so hard, but I actually knew more of it than I thought. I passed them all off and the stress went away. I hope my language studies will be better now that I don't have to spend the entire time memorizing. My interview was interesting. I go in and President Senior set down a timer. He looked at me and said that he didn't believe that I am struggling with the language. He then gave me some inspiration by telling me that I'm much better than I think I am. I told him of the success we've been having and he was happy. He then looked at me and asked, "Are you jeeping with any of the girls there?" I thought he said "sleeping" at first and answered, "Alay na? (what?! say that again) Then he said, "Ruujak jep?" (do you know the word jep?) I said no and it means flirting. haha I was all, "noooooo way!" haha Then he said good-bye and I was out the door. I don't know why he asked that question, but I think that we will get along just fine and he is a really cool man."
"We have church at the Lat Phrao branch every week after church at the Bangkapi ward. It starts at 3:00pm and is mostly for less active members. We need the members in Lat Phrao to go and help give some support. The first meeting was a mess. We forgot the hymn books and I almost tripped passing the Sacrament. Elder Johnson gave a talk and Brother Arthone taught a lesson on tithing for gospel study. It was fun and actually went really well. We meet in a room about the size of a bedroom. The second meeting, we remembered the hymn books, but forgot the bread! We started late because we had to wait for the bread. I had to bless the sacrament and that was a challenge. haha Then Elder Marshall surprised us by saying that we were going to teach the gospel doctrine class together. I'm like "What?!" We went down the line, each taking a turn, talking about the Holy Ghost. I was last and had to think of something different to share after all of them and I hardly knew how to speak the language! I had 30 minutes to take up because they all only took a little time. I'm thinking how am I going to do this? I began by sharing about how I feel the spirit and then I asked why they think that it is called a gift? I got a good discussion from that and then before I knew it, the time was up! Sweeeet! I got through it! haha Apparently, Elder Marshall had something to share too, but he was totally fine with me teaching. haha"
"During English class on Tuesday, it started to thunderstorm. We saw lightening strikes that were so close to where we were standing! One lasted like 10 seconds and we watched it from beginning to end. It was Epic! All the missionaries were looking at it and going nuts. I'm sure the members and Thais that were watching us, thought we were crazy "falungs" (foreigners). We were a bunch of white kids outside going crazy and speaking a different language every time the lighting struck! haha"
"On Wednesday, we went to get grammar books copied for a member that only speaks Thai and is in the Stake Presidency. He wanted to learn English so we said that we would teach him. We teach him every Thursday. After that, we went contacting and taught a lesson to Brother Oat. We found out that he smokes, so we have to wait three weeks before he can be baptized."
"Thursday, we went over to teach Brother Israel and taught him how to pray in Thai. His wife is Thai, so he knows a lot of regular words, but not much gospel words and grammar. He is really cool. Dad would love him because he is all about the protein shakes and made us one from mangos. It was so good! He and Dad have a lot of the same interests."
"Friday, was the meeting I told you about and I went on splits with Elder Passey. We went around to his appointments and taught 4 major lessons. It was super fun since I've only been out one month and Elder Passey, two. The lessons went great and then we ate something that I don't even know what it was. It was kind of sketchy. We had to eat a little and then said we had to run and left. haha Good thing too because I think that guy we ate with got sick. haha"
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| Elder Marshall's Grandma's Birthday |
"Saturday, we spent all day traveling to Elder Marshall's Grandma's birthday. It took us a long time to get there. We ate sooooooo much food and fruit and then they brought out a cake! The frosting was like whipped butter. We ate the whole thing because they asked us to and they love it when we do. We all finished the entire cake with courage and left with bad stomach aches. haha I'm fine, but I had to do a lot of exercising with Elder Johnson to make up for it. haha We then taught a lesson to a less active who had dangue fever. Dangue fever is really bad and I hope I never get it. It comes from mosquitos. Only one Elder has gotten it so far that Elder Johnson has heard of, so I'll be looking out for that. Luckily, I've not been eaten here, so that's good. haha"
"I miss you all and the language is coming along so well. I can't wait until Matt gets here!!!"
"I'm going to cheer for BYU this week! I'm still so upset with Boise State, but they will always be my team. haha"
Elder Jacob Smith
