Elder Barron in Thailand / Laos: 2018-06-17

Week 2- I Love the MTC!

The MTC has flags from all over the world.

This is the Thailand flag!

My zone. There are 3 districts of missionaries all going to Thailand. For the first time ever, there is a district that is learning Burmese at the MTC!

We are headed to the temple!

This is my Bro in law Nate's little brother Ben.

He is going to Japan on his mission.

Week 2 letter home:

To email Elder Barron: Boston.barron@myldsmail.net

Hello everyone! It has been a great second week here at the MTC.

It was definitely a lot harder than the first week I was here. I knew it was going to be super hard, so I was mentally prepared for it, but it was still very very hard. I spend about 6 hours in a classroom every day learning Thai, which is draining on the brain, and if we don't study outside of class too, we get behind. So it can get overwhelming at times. My companion and I are good at keeping spirits light in our district though. We sing all the time and we make jokes when everyone is stressed and it helps to calm down.

A bit of where I am in Thai right now: We have learned about 200 words in Thai, I am trying to get better at reading Thai and recognizing the letters with out looking at a script card by reading the scriptures in Thai, yesterday Elder Benteti and I taught two lessons in Thai to two different people we hadn't met before and it went really well. We are good at keeping spirits up and improvising when we don't know what exactly to say. Over all we are doing pretty good for being here for 14 days. I want to emphasize that this isn't like a slave driving thing though, learning this intensely is a lot of fun, and it shows you how mentally strong you are.

My district is a blast. Every single one of us is so fun and good at learning Thai. Our teachers tell us that we are the best group of Thai speakers that have gone through the MTC. I guess that's pretty good :) We push each other to be the best we can be. I know I wouldn't be as good as I am without having them to learn along with.

One thing I learned this week that I try to remember every day is that it doesn't matter what your goals are and if you get them or not, or if every single person is better at learning Thai than I am, or if I'm not successful with what I wanted. All that matters is if I can honestly tell myself that I have done my best to do what God wants me to do, follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, and be the best person I can be. Literally nothing else matters because if you do those three things, everything else you need to be will come naturally.

I challenge everyone who reads this to ask yourself every morning and night if you believe you did your best to do these three things and if you haven't, ask yourself what you need to change to make that happen.

Love to all, Elder Barron

WEEK 1 in the MTC!!! Entered June 6, 2018

This is Boston's district.

They are all learning Thai.

His companion is named Elder Benteti.

He is from Austin, Texas.

6-8 hours a day learning to read and write Thai.

Receiving his Japanese Encephalitis and Typhoid vaccinations.

Week 1-Letter 1:

Dear Family and Friends,

I don't know where to start. I can feel my life changing every day for the better. I love being a missionary! My companion is Elder Benteti (except its weird and sounds like bendesi) He is so fun though. He is from Austin, Texas. He is sooooo good at memorizing Thai. He has some kinda photographic memory cause I am studying a big paper with vocabulary and I am looking at it for hours and I still don't have it all, but he looks at it 5 times and has it down perfectly. He is very fun to talk to and we just kinda sing songs that pop into our heads and yell Thai words that we are trying to learn. There is a million things to talk about but I will do my best.

When I walked into my class for the first time the teachers NEVER speak English to us. It can be very difficult at times, but it helps us to keep calm and focus when we don't completely know what's going on. I am very good friends with Elder Davidson, who is standing on my right in the group picture of our district, but it is interesting because Elder Davidson's best friend back at his home in Wyoming is a kid named Kuhio, and Kuhio just moved into my ward in Arkansas about 4ish months ago and we became good friends! It is a small world after all!

Thai is a very difficult language to learn. It has a completely different alphabet and there are about 80 letters in the alphabet that I have to memorize. It takes about 10 minutes to read a single sentence that I don't recognize, and that just figuring out how to sound out the words. I still don't even know what it means, but when I am here with all of these great friends who are in the same boat, it is extremely helpful and we learn a ton faster. I love how unified everyone everyone here is. We are all here for the same reason and none of us are critical of others in times when we get mad or frustrated. We are understanding and working as one. I wish everyone could be like this all the time.

During the day, we have about 6 to 8 hours of class time where we are learning Thai and it is suuuper draining! I sometimes get to a point where I feel like my brain is gonna pop and fizzle out, but I just keep on chuggin along. I love having the opportunity to do something that seems impossible because with the help of The Lord and faith, we can do anything. Whenever I feel overwhelmed with my studies all I have to do is think about my true purpose here. I am not here to learn Thai, I am here to prepare to teach the people of Thailand and bring them closer to our savior Jesus Christ.

We have had some choir practices and I am going to them (even though I am not much of a singer, but I am trying to get better at singing base cause my voice can't handle anything else). We have had a few devotionals and they are very inspiring. One talk in particular hit me hard. It was my Elder Bednar who is a general authority, or one of the leaders, in our church. His message was primarily on forgetting yourself and turning outward towards others. He used the cookie monster as an example of a worldly, self centered person. I WANT COOKIE AND I WANT IT NOW! and as soon as he gets it he devours it. We can be a lot like that in life and not be grateful or think about others, but I challenge any of you reading this that in your greatest point of selfishness in your week, think about someone else and think about what they need and what Jesus Christ would do in your place.

สวัสดี (sowatee)

Elder Barron