Yes, I have begun learning Thai. And yes it is quite difficult.
Quick terminology run down:
MTC - Missionary training center, the place where I go to learn Thai and more importantly about the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that I may teach the people in Thailand. Ill be here in the MTC until August 19 (So send me stuff till then because shipping to Thailand is horrible...or so I've heard)
District - This is the group of guys that will also be heading out to Thailand with me, there's 8 of us right now. 6 from Utah, 1 from Oregon. Then me. Yeaahhh
Zone - These consist of groups of districts. The zone i'm in covers languages such as Thai, Cantonese, Laotian, Vietnamese, and Cambodian
Missionary - What I am. Devoting 2 years of my life (all the way till June 2017) to share and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ
Imagine getting dropped off, saying bye to your family, then going to your dorm room to drop off your stuff, pick up around 15 pounds of books and then walking into a classroom and having people speak to you only in Thai.... yeah....I didn't like it that much either.
But don't worry! It was rough. not gonna lie. There's a point where I got so frustrated one night that all I wanted to do was like cry. but I didn't. cause that would've been pretty weird. So yeah frustration definitely hit hard. And the next day we had to start teaching and talking with a khon (or is it kon? idk. pronounced "cone") thai. Rough translation to "Thai person/thai people/native speaker." going into to teach and talk to the native speaker I was terrified. we walk in (my companion and me) and we sit down introduce ourselves then...nothing. Hah. I started to testify and share a bit about God but my companion said nothing. Crazy right? Ho. was tough. It was a pretty rough first lesson that day. The next time we went to go and teach and practice though it went a whole lot smoother. We had prepared and were able to teach with the Holy Ghost as our companion, helping to bring a lot greater sense of happiness in our words. I'm sure we butchered all of the words we tried to say but the feeling that was in that room was so real.
So if you're confused about any of the terms i'm using, I invite you to go and look them up on lds.org or you can always reply to SENDER. Don't choose all. please. there's a lot of people. But yeah i'll probably get back to you next week hahah.
Gotta love the new roommates. Maybe i'll attach a picture. we'll see. But they're all great people. All of them are fresh out of high school. pretty crazy stuff. One of my roommates brought a carry on full of ties. Im talking like. A TON of ties. upwards of around 40? 50? hes got a lot. Ties in Thailand. THAI-land. ahhah yeah... ok not that funny.
Also gotta give a shout out to all the 53rd ward members I've seen in the MTC. It's like this big awesome reunion from BYU. It really was a comfort to see all these friends of mines. Helped the transition to no technology and to this foreign land, move a whole lot smoother.
Forgive me for any grammar errors....like I'm in a rush. don't get to spend the whole day on the computer but as I get used to doing this I'm sure things will go a lot smoother...
I've got some great Thai teachers, bro. Yuen, and bro. Thralp. Apparently i'm related to bro. Yuen. pretty cool. doesn't mean he cuts me any slack though....I wish. nah nah nah. but seriously. I think ive heard less than 10 sentences of English from them. They've been speaking to me all in pasay Thai (thai language). Also side note. I study the language like 5-8 hours a day. BUT what I've learned is that if you just study the gospel and gain confidence in that, the language will come much easier . so there's a FOREIGN LANGUAGE MISSIONARY PRO TIP.
It's been a lot of fun, I haven't drank the orange juice. I haven't eaten as much ice cream as i expected. I should've brought more hangers. Match your socks to your slacks. And be careful of tones.
Have a blessed week, I know it sounds like I'm rambling...cause I am. but hey. We learn as we go right?
My camera wont connect to the computer. yeah. sorry guys. maybe next time? idk. maybe. or ill leave you all waiting. I miss the go pro (RIP 2014-2015).
Oh wait. another fun thing i forgot to mention. I can count from 1-999 in THAI! how cool is that. it only took me like 20 minutes to learn how to do it. really easy actually. and funny story. so to really like learn how to do the whole counting thing we were asked to go around the whole building and count our steps. so being the obnoxious people we are we start going (gonna spell it so you can sound out the words idk how to get the funny characters on here)
NOONG SOONG SAM SI HAH (1 2 3 4 5) all the way up to 100. it was hilarious because as we walked around everyone started closing there class room doors. Thai is just so beautiful. its like painting pictures with the words. except if im off a tone either I just said i will bless someone or that I will kill them. and beautiful and ugly are off by a single tone (high tone vs low tone) so like...good incentive to not even try complimenting or saying that at all. Thai is a beautiful language. and I'm sorry but I wont be in Thailand till August..
also my address is
Elder Logan Kalaiwaipono Ellis
Aug17 Thai-Ban
2007 N 900 E Unit 55
Provo UT 84602
Forward ever, stopping never,
Elder Ellis
or elduuuhhh elliiiiss (in thai. sound it out. you got this)
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