My Companion studying
Weekly Update:
This week has been a crazy week!
We have been getting into the language hard core. I study Thai at least 8 hours a day. It is so fun, but also the hardest thing I have ever done. I find that the more I pray and think of my true reason for being on my mission, I have less stress in learning the language which ultimately helps me learn faster. My purpose for being here is to help others with their relationship with God, and to invite the Gospel of Jesus Christ into their lives through repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. I work on being the best person I can be at doing these things every day, and I never cease to see the blessings coming out of it. I can't explain the amazing, pure feeling I get out of the Gospel.
Thai is seriously such a fun language to learn, I love how different it is from the languages I have learned about in my life. I took a little Spanish, 3 years of Chinese, I obviously know English, but Thai is not even close to the same structure of these other languages. The hardest part about learning the language is changing my minds normal way of thinking and beginning to think in Thai. I love how hard it has been. I have always loved doing things that don't seem easy because I stretch my normal abilities and get better all the time.
This week has been interesting because all the new Mission Presidents going into the missions all over the world have been training in the MTC! Since they are all here, they meet in the basketball gym for their meetings and the gym has been closed for our exercise time (I get about 1 hour a day to exercise), but I just really want to play basketball! =) One thing that is awesome is that we got to meet our new Mission President and his wife for Thailand! They are such great people and I can't wait till I get to go out there and work with them! (Only 6 more weeks!!!)
Another amazing thing that happened last Sunday was that we had a devotional for all the missionaries and ALL of the 12 apostles (who help our prophet lead the church) and their wives were at one devotional and taught us! It was a very rare thing to happen in the MTC and I feel so blessed to have been there! The spirit I felt in that meeting was like no other feeling.
I challenge everyone reading this to try to strengthen your relationship with God every day. I think life is like one of those moving side walks in the airport. We are all trying to move in the opposite direction of the way it is dragging us. If we aren't trying to move in the right direction, we are moving backwards. If you are simply trying to be average and walk in the right direction, we aren't really moving. If we really want to get to our goals, you gotta run for it! Don't let the worldly temptations of life behind you make you fall behind. Some way you can strengthen your relationship with God is to pray to God with your questions before you go to bed or when you wake up in the morning. You can read scriptures and use them to answer the questions that you have. There are many ways to do it.
Thank you for caring about me and reading my emails. I gotta go study some Thai ;)
Love, Elder Barron
This is my Mission President and his wife. President and Sister Hammond!
