MTC Week 4

This is the half way mark for Jake at the MTC.  He says that the language is still really hard, but that he doesn't expect to learn the language well until he gets to Thailand.  He is just trying to understand the logistics of it all and build a foundation to build on.  This is a self evaluating time for the missionaries where the newness has finally worn off and emotions get close to the surface.  Jake's district is a great support to one another. 

"Hey Family!!  Before I get started, I just want to say that I'm sorry that I don't answer all your questions.  It is because I forget to bring the letters to the computer lab.  If you have questions that you really want to know, email them to me.  I'm a lot more organized with my emails now."

"First, I'll tell you how my p-days go.  We wake up early and get laundry done because we don't have the temple to go to anymore and we have nothing better to do.  We then go to breakfast while we wait for the laundry to get done.  I usually eat oatmeal or cream of wheat, or I'll get biscuits and gravy, which isn't all that bad, but they only have it like once a week.  Then we'll go get our clothes and fold them or hang them up in our room.  By this time it is around 9 am.  We usually then write letters or send our emails about this time.  After, we have some free time to get things done that we want, like go to the mailroom or just take a nap.  I never take a nap, but the others do, so me and Elder Keller will go get some exercise or catch up on reading or language.  I took Dallon's advice and found another Elder that wanted to play Volleyball.  It was awesome because I really enjoyed meeting and talking to the other missionaries there and it was a change from just playing soccer everyday.  Plus, I get back to the residence to shower before all the people from the fields. haha  I went with Elder Her.  He is a really cool kid from the Hmong district.  He always comes in our room to hang out.  There is usually about 2-3 hours of nothing to do.  We hang around the room talking until personal study around 4:30.  Then the day starts up again.  We have dinner, teach the investigator, and have classes.  Usually it's hard to concentrate during classes on p-day because we all need to get focused again. haha"

"Nothing really different happened for the Fourth of July except that we didn't have to teach our investigator because it was a holiday.  At the end of the day, we went to the gym for a devotional and sat right up front.  We listened to a guy talk about how the Lord and Gospel are tied to America.  America needed to be in order for Joseph Smith to restore the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It was a great talk.  Afterwards we watched 17 Miracles and then went to get ice cream and watch fireworks.  They let us stay out past our bedtime. haha  It was so fun, but made me miss you guys so much.  Another thing happened that day where I learned that sometimes, and probably most of the time, we don't get big feelings of the spirit to know what to do and we have to trust our own thoughts and feelings.  But if we are doing the things we are suppose to do and living righteously, we would do things that are promptings from the spirit and we wouldn't even know it.  So I need to keep on living righteously, so that when I make decisions, I make the right ones."

"The day after the Fourth was very hard.  We were all tired from staying up late, so everyone was out of it all day.  Everything we learned went right over our heads.  Even I started to fall asleep during TALL which is the most boring thing at the MTC.  We just sit at the computer and listen to words and really get nothing out of it.  I worked on 7 words for an entire hour and I don't remember them at all. haha  Then we had 3 hours of class where we had to teach Phii Joe and it went actually quite well.  We taught him about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon.  We didn't even have to use the dictionary the whole time!  It rained that day and our teacher wasn't there because he got stuck somewhere, so we all ran outside in the rain and got all wet.  It was soooooooo awesome!!  We were soaked. haha  When the teacher finally got there, we were all pretty much sleeping through class.  No one really knew any of the stuff we learned that day, so we had to go over everything again as a district later. haha"

"So my birthday was a great day!  I woke up and opened the gifts that you sent and I loved it!  I played with the yoyo all day and everyone wants one now. haha  I wore the tie that day and it was cool.  I was complemented all day.  I also got a gift from the Carlsons of dark chocolate, flaming cheetos, and a tie as well.  It was awesome!  I don't know why you sent me the BYU shirt?  I like it but the whole district are Utah Ute fans, so they didn't like that very much. haha  You should have sent me a Boise State shirt or something. haha  I then went to the classroom and all the Sisters wrote Happy Birthday on my desk and gave me a card.  They wrote about how much they loved me and they each bought me candy and cookies.  Everyone knows I love cookies! haha  The Elders also gave me a card and it is really funny.  You will have to look at the picture of it that I'm sending.  They also gave me a Hi-chew.  The day then went back to normal and nothing really special happened.  No Dear Elders print out on Saturdays."

"Sunday was fast Sunday and I survived!  It wasn't that bad because I don't like the MTC food very much.  We had testimony meeting and I bore my testimony.  Everyone said I did awesome.  We had missionary conference where we sit through a 2 hour devotional and then watched "Characters of Christ" by Elder Bednar.  I suggest that you all try to find it because it is soooooo good!"

"On Monday I got 10 Dear Elders and everyone was so jealous!  I also got a package that was a big cake!  It was soooooo funny!  I loved it and it tasted soooooo good!  Good thing I didn't get it on Sunday or I would have died!  I shared it with my district and we had fun.  It was some other Elder's birthday on Monday, so I surprised him with a slice of cake.  Everyone was laughing and happy."

"It's interesting that we really don't hang out in the hall when we are at the residence.  We just stay in our room doing our own thing and people love to just come hang out.  It makes me laugh because they are always wanting to come in and we let them.  I think that you can feel the spirit in our room because our whole district gets along with eachother.  I had a great talk with Elder Beatty.  He told me that I have great Christlike qualities and thanked me for being a good person.  It got me a little emotional.  I told him that he was also great and had his own Christlike attributes.  I also told him to not be weary and that I know he was called to be the Zone leader because he really does do a great job."

"The language is hard, but I'm getting it and feel that I'll learn more out in the field.  Well, that is about all I have to share.  I miss you and wish that I could be there with you.  I was able to get a picture with Elder Heiner and the other district.  I hope you like them.  Love you all!!"

Elder Jacob Smith

The Birthday Cake!

The Sister's decoration and gifts

The Elder's card

The Birthday tie from Hawaii

The other Thai district

Elder Smith with Elder Heiner

Elder Schmitz with Elder Smith

Elder Her with Elder Smith

Elder Smith with Elder Tran

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELDER SMITH!!

MTC Week 3

The temple is closed so they moved Jake's laundry time on p-days to 7:00 am.  We were able to talk to him a little on email real time.  His spirits are high and he is having fun.  His July 12th group is now the old ones in the zone, since a group just left for Thailand.  It was interesting to find out that his zone consisted of Laotian, Vietnamese and Hmong languages also.

"Hello Khrubkhrua!  I think that is the way to spell family romanized in Thai?  Nothing too exciting happened this week.  I've felt bored a lot which stinks because then the time goes by slower, so I try to find ways to keep busy.  Don't get me wrong, I'm doing a lot of work and learning and teaching.  It's just the same thing every day and nothing new.  I am still able to find time during the day to do things that I want to do whether it's for a couple minutes or a half hour."

"The Phii Thais have finally left for Thailand and now I am the Phii Thai and don't feel like a freshman in high school any more.  I'm actually sad about them leaving because towards the end, I really got to know them really well.  I hit it off with them and they seemed to like me.  Maybe that will be a blessing when I'm out in the field.  My district is way happy that they are gone. haha  I spend most of my time with my district, but I know the other districts and we still talk a lot.  There is one kid from Wisconsin who is part Thai as well and we always say, "us Thais need to stick together", and we laugh.  At one point he was feeling really down and I went over to talk to him.  He said he was going through some tough things that he didn't really want to talk about.  I told him that everything was going to be fine and if he needed anything or anyone, that he should come talk to me and I'll be there for him.  He said thanks and left.  When I saw him again, he gave me a big hug and we talk a lot now as friends.  He is a really cool person and likes to play soccer of course.  I get along with the zone pretty well.  In the zone there are many different languages.  There is Laotian, Thai, Vietnamese, and Hmong.  The Laotian and Hmong missionaries are way cool.  I love them all because I can tell that each of them have a special strength."

"Elder Vance was released and Elder Watkins is the new district leader.  Also Elder Beatty and Elder Crump are the new zone leaders. They do great and are very responsible and do what needs to be done and says what needs to be said."

"The language is coming along.  It's funny that I've only been here for 3 weeks and I know more Thai than I do from studying 3 years of Spanish.  It's probably because I really want to learn the language.  We started to try to read Thai.  It's so hard!  There are all these rules that are so confusing and when we read, I cannot find the tones.  However, it's coming along and I can read the words from the Preach My Gospel.  I've already read the first two paragraphs, with words but not with tones.  It is a big accomplishment.  I can't wait until I can just speak the language really well.  It's going to be cool to talk Thai.  However, the Thai language is really affecting my spelling in English.  I looked through my journal and I can see my writing getting worse and worse.  Like is wasn't very good to begin with. haha"

"We had some good devotionals.  They were spiritual and I liked them.  They all seemed to talk about how we are at this moment missionaries of God.  Those words really hit me this week.  I am a missionary and the Lord trusts me to be His missionary.  The investigator thing is going alright.  I don't like it too much, but I go in every time and do the best I can.  We get through a lot of it without even looking at the script.  We are off script and have to do the lesson with only our scriptures and a small dictionary that we try not to use."

"Oh, I get to watch the fireworks tomorrow!  I am super excited!  My birthday is also on Saturday, so I am super excited for that too! haha  Maybe my district will throw me a surprise birthday party. hahaha  One night me and all the Elders in my district were talking about Cafe Rio.  So one of the Elders told his brother in a letter to bring us some and the other night he did!  It was delicious!!  His brother snuck it over the fence in the back, shhhhh...hahaha.  It was super awesome because I was so hungry for some good food.  Ever since the temple closed, there is nothing to look forward to food wise.  I crave real food!"

"I miss you so very much.  I forgot to bring the letters with me to the laundry room, so I didn't really answer all your questions.  I'll send home a letter answering all that I can.  I love you!"

Elder Jacob Smith

Elder Smith finds Elder Stepan

  

Proof of "Operation Cafe Rio"

A shout out from Elder Smith

MTC Week 2

We finally got pictures this week!  Jake is doing great and has been blessed with a great district.  He seems to be settling into a routine and feeling more confident about learning the Thai language.

"Hello!  Saawaadii!!  This has been a pretty good week and much better than the last one because I'm getting use to life here at the MTC.  Not much has happened, but I have to tell you a sad story pertaining to the World Wide Broadcast.  On Sunday morning around 9:30, we went to a combined Sacrament meeting for the missionaries in the choir.  The director made an announcement that there was a problem with the number of seats they had for the broadcast.  Apparently, there were a lot more members attending than they had planned for and they didn't have enough seats for all the members of the choir.  They asked that all the missionaries that had only been to two practices to please step down.  I fell into that group because I wasn't here long enough to go to more than two practices, so I was not in the choir singing in the broadcast.  But at least you all watched the broadcast and received spiritual guidance, so I guess it wasn't all that bad."

"Nike, our first investigator, is now our teacher.  His real name is Brother Phan.  He is Vietnamese but speaks Thai because he served a mission there.  He is really cool but speaks really fast and that causes so much trouble with me because he is a lot harder to understand than Brother Olson.  He teaches much different as well.  However, I feel that I learn a lot better from him than anyone else because he teaches by the spirit.  He always bears his testimony at the end of the lesson and I think that is really cool.  He is by far my favorite teacher and I feel that I can talk to him.  We now have two new investigators.  Yesterday we taught a guy named Sam (Brother Phan) and today we taught a guy named Joe (Brother Olson) and it was scary.  We cannot use the script anymore, so we have to teach with what we know already.  I don't think I give myself enough credit because we actually don't do too bad.  We still struggle a lot in the lessons and there are some awkward pauses, but all in all, we do pretty good.  All the credit goes to the spirit though because without the spirit it would be terrible."

"My district is way awesome! They remind me of my friends back home. They are way funny and like to goof off way late, which isn't good, but ehh.  Elder Vance is from California and played water polo.  He is always wanting me to go do ab workouts with him...haha yeah right!  Elder Beatty is really smart and already knows the whole Thai alphabet.  He makes the rest of us look like idiots, but he is always willing to help us.  I'm lucky that he is here because he likes to work out, so he takes Elder Vance away so that I don't have to go lifting with him.  Thank Goodness!!  Elder Watkins is a baseball player and loves to goof around, but also gets what needs to be done.  He does the most hilarious Yoshi impression.  He is so funny.  Elder Keller is from Alaska and plays soccer.  Haha, wouldn't you know that even when I go some place different, there are still soccer players in my life.  He probably is my favorite because he wants to follow the rules and is usually the one that I talk to the most.  Awesome kid.  Elder Crump is very cool.  He is great at memorizing and always helps me out because I have trouble with that.  He is also very funny and says hilarious things thoughout the day that makes everyone laugh.  I have been really blessed with a great district to help me.  They are all really good people."

"My Thai is coming along.  I still struggle with it, but I can understand some words and can speak a lot of gospel words.  I can bear my testimony and say my prayers in Thai.  I'm not dreaming in Thai yet, but hopefully I will.  I am just starting to learn how to spell, but that is still far away.  It is a tough language, but I am impressed on how much I know in just two weeks.  Mom, you should try to learn Thai again so we can talk about everyone when I get home and they won't even know what we are saying! hahahahaha!!  In all, the Lord is blessing me and I'll have good days and bad, but mostly it's been a great learning experience."

"The Provo Temple is closed from now until August 12th!  Talk about a major downer.  Oh well, I'll just have to wait two years.  The MTC food still tastes bad.  It all tastes like it has been microwaved and the eggs made my whole district sick one day.  I usually eat really healthy salads with Elder Vance everyday, so no need to worry about me."

"Janice Kapp Perry came to speak to us and she was so funny.  Her talk was fantastic!  She talked about how we can be sanctified in the field.  She also talked about how good music brings the spirit.  I would listen to my ipod more, but half my room would rather not listen to music, so I don't.  At one point in her talk, she shared about how her husband's first words to her was in the music room at school.  He leaned over and said, "I think that your lips could be used for something a lot better than playing the clarinet." hahahahaha  Then he got up and grabbed her face and kissed her in front of everyone! sooooo funny!!  All the Elder missionaries stood up and gave a standing ovation.  She told us that she made a family song and it was awesome!  We need to make a family song.  The devotionals here are for sure the best part of the MTC."

"I miss you all so much.  Sometimes I lie in bed and just think about home, family and friends, and then I stop immediately because it makes me sad and I need to be positive here.  I heard that Sam Holmes got called to serve in Thailand and that is so cool!!  I really want her to write to me, so I can talk to her about it.  Letters are very special and I want everyone to write me because I keep them and look at them every night.  I want pictures of my friends as well as family.  The pictures you sent made my day so much better just seeing all of your faces."

"I love you very much and keep writing!"

Elder Jacob Smith

Elder Smith in the MTC

The District

Official Member Card

The room with Elders Vance, Watkins and Crump.

1st Companions - Elder Smith and Elder Vance

Elders Vance, Beatty, Keller, Watkins, Crump, and Smith

Missionary work is #1!

MTC Week 1

We were lucky to receive a letter by mail and an email from Jake this week.  Learning the language seems to be his main focus and challenge.  He included a note written to his Dad for Father's Day.  He also wanted us to send some supplies and snacks and asked for more letters from friends and family.  The letters are a source of comfort and strength for him.

"Hey! or should I say Sawaadii Khab!!  The MTC is what I expected... hard and challenging.  I don't quite understand the teacher, but I'm getting better at it every day.  When I got here, they gave me a HUGE bag of supplies to help learn the gospel and language.  I've already started to use my backpack.  Some things are helpful and others don't help me learn a thing.  I just want to start learning the Thai alphabet symbols, so I can read it.  I feel that I will understand better when I can read actual Thai.  Tell everyone to write me because it calms me down while I'm freaking out everyday.  I know I'll be fine, but this first week is hard for sure. We have a temple trip on Wednesday that I'm really excited for.  That is a place where I can feel real peace other than Sundays."

"I told you about my companion Elder Vance and you already met him. He is really fun to have as a companion.  He is district leader and so I have to get the mail with him and do all the stuff that they have to do.  I love my district and we get along so great, perhaps too great, because we stay up too late talking.  That's mostly because we have so many things we need to do before lights out.  We are always with each other and laughing."

"Here is an update on my week.  Friday was interesting.  We had gym time scheduled but we had to go get our immunization shots for Thailand, so we didn't really get gym time at all.  We had our first lesson with the investigator and it was terrifying and we did terrible which made it even worse.  We just sat there, read our script wrong and then left without even making another appointment.  OH, that was the worst thing ever!  Talk about a total downer, however it made me want to work harder because we have to teach him in Thai every day until we go to Thailand.  All we do is read from a script and it is just the worst because I feel like we need to get to know him, but we don't know how to ask the questions or understand what he will say back.  His name is Nike.  Cool name I know.  You should have named me that!"

"Saturday was the same in schedule; study, study, study, language, study, study, teach Nike, read Thai to Nike.  We tried to teach him about the Restoration and it actually didn't go too bad.  We seemed to teach it well even though we didn't understand a single thing he said.  The days are super long.  I got a letter this morning and by midday, I felt like I got it two days ago.  I feel like I've been here so long and then I look back and realize it's only been two days!  I can't wait to get out of here already.  The food isn't great and makes me gassy and I can't understand anything.  Don't get me wrong, I love to do the Lord's work, but I want them to teach us the language for at least 4 weeks and then start giving us the investigators."

"I now understand why everyone always says, "wait until Sunday," because it was awesome!!  It's really a day when we get to rest and think about the Lord without the distractions of everyday MTC life.  It was nice just to be able to recharge.  We had priesthood meeting where they talked a lot about what our purpose as a missionary is and how to be effective.  The AC was broken and it was so hot in the room for sacrament and priesthood.  It was still great to partake the sacrament and just be able to relax.  We heard a devotional from Steven B. Allen and he was super funny.  He used a lot of the mormon commercials in his talk that we got to watch.  TV! it was great!!  Plus the things he said were so amazing that I could really feel the spirit.  Afterwards, we went to the movie room and watched, "The Testaments."  Best movie for sure!!  Then it was off to bed."

"Monday we had a service assignment where we go to another building and clean it.  My companion and I luckily got to take out the trash and mop.  No toilets, Whoot!  We went to class and learned a lot of Thai and I have the prayer memorized! Yay!!  We're learning some new Thai stuff on bearing our testimonies.  We finally were able to understand our teacher today because he was teaching us fundamentals of teaching and it is really important for us to know, so he spoke English.  Then we had to teach our investigator again.  We tried to teach without the script, but that was a bad choice.  It went terrible!  Worse than the first day.  We had no idea what was going on.  At one point we sat there for 7 minutes not saying anything that made sense.  What makes it even worse was that we had to teach the investigator again the next morning which gave us no time to prepare another lesson."

"Miraculously the next day, I kinda just whipped out a lesson in Thai almost all by myself.  Let me just say that the lesson went well and we were able to get through it.  I was even able to ask some things that I knew he answered!!  I still don't know what he said, but I did it!  I also got him to pray and taught him how to, which was a plus.  It was still on script however.  We've made a goal to slowly get off script.  We then had gym time and Elder Keller and I went to play some soccer.  This is where Tori and Chance and all my soccer friends will be proud...I MADE A GOAL!!!!!!  Yup, like a champ!  Look out Thailand, Elder Smith is coming your way!!!"

"We practiced singing in the Marriott Center and I'm singing tenor, aaahhhh! too high!  We had a devotional there as well by Brother Robert C. Gay.  He talked a lot on missionary work and said that we need to not worry because we were ready before we came.  He said that it's not anyone else's testimony that matters, it's only ours that matters and that was awesome.  After that, we had a district devotional review and Brother Callister shared an amazing testimony that raised our spirits."

"I miss you all and love you with all my heart.  I think of you guys all the time.  By the way, I joined the choir with Elder Vance.  It's way fun, but takes up a lot of time.  I will be singing in the world wide broadcast for the church called "Work of Salvation".  It's on Sunday, June 23rd.  You can get more information about it on the LDS website.  Don't forget to watch for me."

Elder Jacob Smith

The First Letter!

We were so excited to receive a letter in the mail today.  It sure made our day!

"I made it through my first day at the MTC!  Let me tell you... I am overwhelmed.  Funny thing though, my companion is Elder Vance!  The Elder we talked to at the Provo Temple.  He is a cool kid.  He is from California and really eager to serve on a mission.  Luckily, he is just as ready as I am with the language.  Also Elder Beatty, who we met at the travel clinic, is in my district.  My district seems so cool!  Everyone is really nice and just awesome people.  My companion and I are getting along great."

"The MTC, WOW!  It's crazy the first day and I'll admit... I'm very nervous, but I have faith that the Lord will help me.  Plus come on, it's only the first day right?  Dallon's little skit about the first day is pretty accurate.  The language is hard, but not impossible.  I'm super happy to be here and can feel the spirit strongly.  I feel like I don't have everything I need... a notebook, stamps.  I think I'll get them from the bookstore.  I am feeling that there is so much stuff to do and not enough time.  Everything is just thrown at you all at once.  I really need to lose myself in the work because my head is all over the place."

"Second day was crazy.  I understand more, but it is still difficult.  I did understand the teacher more which I am really thankful for.  We started learning how to say our prayers in Thai and it's great, but difficult.  I'm getting it though.  Our goal is to start saying our prayers without the booklet by Monday and I think I can do it."

"My District Leader happens to be my companion, Elder Vance.  My district is: Elder Vance, Elder Beatty, Elder Keller, Elder Crump, Elder Watkins, Sister Bentley, Sister Norrell, Sister Downs, and Sister Jackson.  My Branch President is Brother Jackson.  They are all so cool.  My Branch President interview was today.  He said that I speak positively and have a very strong testimony.  He hugged me and said that I will do great things.  It really gave me some strength for the MTC."

"Oh man, I already miss all of you so much, but I'm not going to cry my first night, so HA!  I really do miss you all and I love you so much.  I don't know how I'm going to survive here.  I feel like I know nothing that is going on, but I guess I'll get use to it.  So far, I have seen Jake Stepan, Chelsey Tait and Peter Funero here."

"Hey, I love you all and I'm going to miss you for the next two years, but I want you to know that you will always be in my heart and I'll always keep you with me."

Elder Jacob Smith

"P.S. - My p-days are on Wednesdays"

And the journey begins...

Elder Smith's last wave from the MTC curbside.  He was so ready!