Week 7-Take A Leap Of Faith!

 Practicing the Thai squat =D

Boston with the Leavitts!

Update:

Hey y'all! It's been a good week out in Utah! I want to go to Thailand SO bad and everyone is on a high all the time because we are so excited! We are constantly talking about what we are most excited for and for me, it is definitely the FOOD. =D I get hungry every time I think about it. 

Lots of great stuff happened this week! We got to hear a talk by Elder M. Russell Ballard. It was a very good talk about how Joseph Smith was told by God and Jesus Christ to find the Book of Mormon and translate it into English. Then he founded The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I am thankful for the faith of Joseph Smith and everyone who came after him to keep the church alive. I know this is the true church of Jesus Christ and everything in the Book of Mormon is true.

All the new Thai speaking missionaries came in to the MTC on Wednesday. There are about twice as many speakers in their group as in mine. =0 I got to greet Elder Ryberg, (shout out to Bentonville Arkansas!) It was fun getting to talk to him! I have already gotten to know and became pretty good friends with Elder Taylor and Elder Olsen. Elder Taylor is very good at volleyball and we are having a ton of fun playing sand volleyball together. Elder Olsen said he played basketball in High School, so I can't wait to play some hoops with him, but the gym has been closed for a week and it will be closed for another week sadly. =’(

The food at the MTC has been pretty good. Everyone that I know that has gone to the Missionary Training Center says the food isn't good... but I have enjoyed it. It may be because I just eat anything or maybe the food has gotten better lately.

My teachers are all cool. All of them know Thai through their mission and they just got back and decided to teach Thai at the MTC. I think it would be so fun to teach Thai when I get back from my mission as a side job. I know that all my teachers love us a lot and want us to be the best missionary we can possibly be.

I have fun going to the temple each week because being in Arkansas we are 4 hours away from the nearest temple. (Kansas City and Oklahoma City) It is fun to be so close and able to go a lot. Lately the temple close to the MTC has been closed because it is under renovations, so we haven't been able to go as much as we would like.

One fun thing our district has been doing lately is practicing the "Thai squat." I have some pictures of it in the email. But all while I was growing up, I sat like this and my Mom always told me that I would go on my mission to an Asian country where I would do the Thai squat a lot. She was right! Haha! I am definitely the best one at sitting in the Thai squat because of all the practice I got when I was growing up:) Haha!

This last week Elder Benteti and I had the opportunity to teach a person in Thailand over Skype. It was so fun because we actually talked to someone who had Thai as their first language and they had an accent and they spoke super fast! I can't wait to be in Thailand with all these people! The land of a thousand smiles! =D

This week was very fun! I hope everyone is doing great and everyone is encouraged to email me! I love when I get emails from anyone! Actually YOU, yes YOU!

Elder Boston Barron

PS. TWO more weeks!

Week 6- Welcoming the new Thai speakers this week!

Missionaries watching the fireworks shot from BYU Cougar Stadium!

 From inside the MTC windows. 

God Bless the USA!

 Overlooking Jerusalem =)

Weekly Update:

Gosh only 3 more weeks. I am learning a lot, but I really can't wait until I get to leave here and actually go to Thailand! I know that when I go there I will not know nearly enough Thai, but it's okay I will learn more when I actually get to start speaking with the people there.

I am super excited for tomorrow because the new group of Thai speakers are coming in and I got to see pictures of all the new elders coming in to start learning Thai. They look like a great group of guys! While I was looking at all the pictures I noticed a familiar face! Stewart Ryberg is going to be coming in and I will get to see him a lot! If Stewart somehow reads this, I can't wait to see you Stewie!! (He is a friend from Bentonville!)

Not many different things happened this week. I still go to class a lot and study all day. I got to see my good friend Neil Loveland here in the MTC. (Another friend from Bentonville. He is headed to Brazil.) I have fun whenever I can see him! Great guy!

I heard an interesting quote this week. It basically said- if you can't keep simple rules in life, (I have to wake up on time at 6:30 every day). And if God can't trust me with simple rules like waking up on time, how can he trust me to go to Thailand and do the job of inviting others to the gospel of Jesus Christ? I challenge everyone to do the small things like listening to your parents, or going to church so that God will give you blessings in the big areas of your life.

Love You All, Elder Barron

Week 5- 4 left in the MTC!

 We scored some awesome 4th of July packages!

 Elder B making his offering....? 

Or just playing around..

The sunglasses have really added to the missionary outfit...8)

This is me with my cousin Marcus!

Weekly Update:5 Weeks down. 4 to go in the MTC...

This week was awesome. I have made large strides in learning Thai and I love it! I have of fun when I can see myself getting better, and I can't wait until I can go be immersed in Thailand and teach the people of Thailand about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I love everyone in my zone and district that I get to learn with and have fun bonding with. We all have the same purpose. I am thankful for my companion Elder Benteti. I have gotten to know him very well because we stay together all the time. =) We eat together, study together, work out together, pray together. He is a very smart guy and I am glad I have him to help me be a better person in everything I do. Plus, he’s funny. 

I can't believe it has only been 5 weeks here at the MTC. Every day is so productive and I have learned so much. It doesn't feel like I could possibly learn this much in such a short amount of time, but I have, and it is all because the Lord has blessed me to do so. I know the Lord blesses everyone of his children here on Earth. We sometimes can't see the blessings until later in life.

I challenge everyone to think about all the things you have in life that are blessings and also think about some of your challenges or burdens that are blessings in disguise. 

Talk to y'all later,

Elder Boston Barron

Week 4- My cousin Marcus got here!

 Celebrating a birthday. 
Can you find me in this picture?

 Emailing our families.

 I always wondered what I 

would look like with glasses....

What the Thai language looks like.

Email Update:

This was a good week. I am getting better at the language. It is crazy hard and I have never been good at memorizing vocab and such, but I know that God is helping me with every step of the way. Since my Companion and I are zone leaders for our zone, we have to go to a lot of meetings to report how our zone is doing. It makes me happy to know my Mission President trusts us with the responsibility. It’s been cool.

I'm having fun with my companion Elder Benteti (still sounds like Bendesi) because here in the Missionary Training Center there are athletic records for 12 different events and my companion and I want to try and beat the vertical jump and long jump. The vertical record is 36.3 inches and I got 35.1 inches and Elder Benteti got 34.9 inches. We are both really close on the long jump record too, so we are both gonna try to beat one each of those records by the time we leave. We are also doing 100 pull ups every other night and 400 push ups on the other nights. 

In basketball we can only do half court and we can only play 2v2 or 3v3. It’s kind of lame. But they don’t want anyone injuring them selves right before leaving to go out in the field so I can understand that. You aren't allowed to touch the rim, net, or backboard. I have gotten in trouble for doing a lay up and slapping the backboard. Every once in a while if I can't see the instructors I sneak in a 360 dunk though. It is still getting easier to dunk.

We are teaching some lessons to fake investigators to practice for when we have to do it for real. It is getting harder each time because they are starting to speak faster like how they will in Thailand. There are a lot of times when we don't know what they say, so we just have to improvise. 

I got to see my cousin Marcus Krommenhoek! ( I will try and get a picture next time I see him!) He entered the MTC this week and is headed to Russia in a couple months. It has been fun seeing him around. I am very grateful to his mom, my Aunt Emily for sending me a package of cookies! I didn't know how to thank her so I guess this is the only way :) THANK YOU!!!

I would like to urge everyone reading this this week to think of your family this week. Family is a very important part of Heavenly Fathers plan for us. " The family is central to the Creators plan for the eternal destiny of His children." This is a quote directly from one of our former prophets President Gordon B. Hinckley. You should read the rest of it at this link

https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation?lang=eng&old=true

Always keep your family in mind and let them know you love them often because we are all on Earth together and nobody else would rather help you along the way other that your earthly family and your Heavenly Father.

With Love, Elder Barron

Week 3-Words Can't Express

 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!

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