9/1/14... Sarah's First Letter!!!

Family!! Hello hello hello

Ok so I am officially a missionary and life is G-O-O-D!!!! Did you guys get my letter? I hope so. Side note-- I LOVED the Dear Elders and letters--- keep them coming, walking into the classroom after lunch and seeing mail on your desk is like walking into Nordstrom and seeing something you love-- BUT BETTER. dumb analogy but you get the point, PJ and Mom I almost cried when I read your little Dear Elders, you guys are the Best!

I am just going to write, I dont want to run out of time, so just try to make sense of whatever comes next :)

So I got here Wednesday, and I went down some halls and through some rooms and picked up my NAMETAG and keys etc. while my host took my bags, then I went and got my books-- SO MANY BOOKS!! Ty, you were not kidding. Everyone was pointing at me and asking, where the heck are you serving?? Cause even the spanish speaking Elders and Sisters don't have nearly as many books. haha. Then I had another host take me to drop my stuff off at the Residents and it was straight to the classroom! Our teacher Sis. Stolworthy is SO amazing, you can literally just see the light of Christ in her eyes and she is SO good at Thai. So literally we get there, and she is only speaking Thai to us, and we are trying to make sense of it, and it was just super crazy. hahaha. Then we did some other missionary activities later with all of the new missionaries, like an introduction from the MTC president and we sang "We'll Bring the World His Truth" but instead of "We will be the Lord's missionaries, we sand We are NOW the Lord's missionaries"... so powerful!!!!!!!!!!!!! On Thursday I got the Japanes Ensephalitis shot in the morning, and in class we learned how to pray in Thai!! This language is seriously crazy, but so awesome. I am just gonna say it, I love learning Thai. haha. On Friday, we taught our investigator, Ice Cream for the first time!! HAHA can you believe it--- day three?? So there were definitely some long silences, but we used the phrases we knew and tried to use the Spirit. Our biggest trouble was that we did not know how to end it!!!! So I just said "Raw rag khun le Prapupencaw rag kun!" which is We love you and God loves you! hahaha kind of creepy maybe, but it was all I had. On Saturday, we taught him again and it was SO much better, but still not great! I think we prayed three times in the lesson that was probably 10-15 min. hahaha. I have so much room to grow and improve in my teaching, but I know when I listen to the Spirit, I remember things that we have learned. The Spirit is so key!! Then Sunday--- The day everyone says "Just make it to Sunday and you will be ok!!" Haha so somehow we survived until Sunday and it was great! We studied in the morning, I studied the Atonement and finished my talk (we all have to prepare a 5 min talk for Sundays and the Branch Presidency randomly selects people to give them! Scary... I offered to give the closing prayer, partially because I wanted to and for the blessings, partially to dodge speaking the first Sunday ;) jk) Then we went to Music and the Spoken Word, then to Relief Society where the RS Gen Presidency 1st Counselor addressed us...so good! She really drove home the idea that the Lord needs us as Sisters to aid in the work because of certain attributes like love and nurturing that he has given us as women, which is a super great thing to think about.Then we had Sacrament with our Branch, and side note!! Craig Callister's dad is in my branch presidency!! He is on vacation in England right now, but Bro Penrod told me he is a dentist in Payson and has a son who is also a dentist there, so way cool! At night we had a devotional by the old President of the Alabama Birm. mission-- probably knows Jaxon Munns-- but it was SO good. He talked about the importance of starting a study journal now in the MTC so we can learn how the Lord reveals things to us, so in the field we will be able to recognize when he is revealing something to us about investigators etc. To keep a study journal also shows the Lord that we treasure what He is teaching us, and then He will want to bless us with more. Then we watched the movie for the night, which was a talk by Elder Bednar called "The Character of Christ".... can I just say... WATCH IT, READ IT, LIVE IT, LOVE IT!!!!!!!!! So amazing. One of his main points is how the character of Christ is to turn out when the natural man would turn in. He talks about how we are like the cookie monster... I WANT COOKIE NOW!! or I want things my way... I want the mission to go my way.... I want investigators now.... I am definitely a cookie monster in a lot ways, and I am excited to renew my focus to TURN OUT. that is just one of the things from the talk, but please read it!

So I feel like I didnt even give a portion of what we do... But let me just tell you that we STUDY A LOT!! We have morning class instruction for like 3 hours, lunch, 3 more hours of class instruction, additional study time, dinner, personal study, companionship study, language study, more additional study, then planning then bed!

We also have gym time in the mornings at like 7:35 for an hour so I have been able to work out which is great! They offer a 6 am work out class for Sisters as well, so my companions and I did kick boxing on Friday morning, hahaha. The other mornings I have been able to do an "exchange" and go running at 5:45 with one of the Phii Thais (Thai speakers who has been here for 8 weeks) Sister Ong... it has been way fun!!! She is from NYC and went to BYU.

Also we eat breakfast at 7... Lunch at 11:30... and Dinner at 4:30.. Weird right? haha and the food has been good! There is this room that you can get stuff like grilled chicken or salmon, vegetables, hard boiled eggs for breakfast, so I have been ok!!!!  

And guess who my khuus are?!!!!!!!!!!! Sister Coates and Sister Smith who I had already met on Facebook! They are AMAZING-- we have so much fun together, and we are definitely all super different about some things, but way the same about a lot of things which makes it fun. We balance each other out well. Sis. Coates is the one from Murray, and Sis. Smith is from Arizona. Like the third night we all just layed in bed laughing SO hard... that night bonded us and I am so grateful! I love all of the Thais sooo much. We have 2 districts that just came in at the same time as us, and everyone is so great. Sis. Beuchter and Sis. Lor are the other Sisters in our district, and they are awesome. Our district leader is Elder Frodsham and he is from Kaysville and went to Davis! Then in the other district is Max Hall's little brother... Elder Hall if you didn't guess that. haha. Also! Jourdan and Lisa, tell Todd and Brenda Elder Nelson is in my zone! He is really cool besides the fact that he is a hardcore U of U fan. haha. But he was talking about the guy you guys were with when you went to Thailand who served his mission there and now teaches English. ALSO HE LOOKS JUST LIKE BRAD....... LIKE IT IS FREAKY. my companions were looking at the pics of our family (thanks so much mom I LOVE THEM!!) and Sis Lor was like Oh my gosh is this Elder Nelson?????

I have seriously seen SO many people I know here... everyone in my district is like what the heck and my companions play the game "count how many people Sister Morgan knows" haha. There are so many people from my ward at BYU here! Also I ran into Luke who makes our salads at Costa Vida... But lets not talk about Costa Vida right now or I will just get sad. haha. Then Sis. Daly who is the daughter of your roommate from college Mom. Then most random one was I kept seeing this kid everywhere and I was like umm that is Elder Peterson who I grew up with in Kentucky!! So I went up and introduced myself and we took a pic and I dont think he knew exactly who I was, but I told him that I recognized him because I like hoard and study our Christmas cards HAHAHA... Which my companions let me know was probably creepy, but he promised to make sure his family starts sending us Christmas cards again. His family lives in Shanghai now and he is going to Texas Spanish speaking!

Well there are a million things I still want to tell you but i think I am running out of time!!!!!!! 

I know Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer and I love him!!! I have so much to learn and I know that this is the best place for me to be right now to do that. The mission is amazing. Please know that I am happy. SO SO happy. and feeling so grateful that the Lord helped me know that I needed to be here right now.

How are you guys?!!

Brad way to go on the Senior girls, you are the man. Now just talk one of them into going to Homecoming with you which is coming up! haha

PJ how is school?? I am sure you are killing it, especially in leadership. Did you have some fun assemblies to plan and stuff? I loved that about leadership. 

Dad, I am so happy you are doing well with your calling, I want to hear more about it!!! write me :)

Mom, you amaze me with all you do. Thanks so much for the letter, I love it cause the way you write helps me hear your voice in my head. 

I love you guys so much!!!

I am out of time for the qs but I will answer them later or in a letter. 

love, Sister Morgan

ps I brought way too much stuff and I will send pics soon!!! 

Mom scripture study... study 2 Ne 32.... Doctrine of Christ :)