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| Elders of the Thai district in front of the Provo, UT Temple. Can you spot Elder Ellis? |
These weeks are flying by. The hours seem long but next thing I know, im
nice and cozy in my bed, trying to get another full 8 hours of sleep.
So recap of the week hmmm
Hosting-I
hosted new missionaries, tons of cool people. Got to host two friends
from college, Elder Braden Brundage and Elder Jacob Watabe. Love seeing
friends here! Also a few of the elders I was hosting and walking to
their dorms had these hugggeeee suitcases. im talking like a solid 50
pounds each. and guess where their dorm rooms were.....on the 4th
floor. and no we dont have elevators. and my job as a host is to pretty
much be their pack mule. so yeah. i should hit the gym. la len. ( Just
kidding in thai) im not about to go lift HAH. ill keep on struggling on.
ive got more important things to do...
LIKE DOMINATE FOUR SQUARE
Oh
yeah. you heard that right. i dominate four square with my limited hand
eye coordination. (Not really. i just play four square cause my
companion likes basketball and ever time i try play basketball with
these other elders i just get pushed over) so yeah four square is my
thing.
Hopefully
Ill be able to send some pictures we have a card reader but theres some
email size restrictions soooo. we shall see how that goes I guess?
This
week was truly long. like we all felt so tired. we tried to stay awake
during our additional study time but we started to watch a bit of a
Mormon message and 5 minutes in everyone was asleep.
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| In Elder Ellis' room... they get back so exhausted they fall right asleep |
Only two elders
were up. one was reading the Book of Mormon in Thai and the other said
he couldnt get into a comfortable sleep position. which leads me to the
next topic...
I
CAN READ THAI
sorta. not really. it takes me a long time. im still
working on memorizing the thai script but its interesting cause vowels
can go on top, left, or right. and you just need to memorize their
direction. and just cause they come before the consonant doesnt mean
thats how it is when it is sounded out. and like certain combinations
make different letters. theres like 3
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| Thai Book of Mormon |
s sounds then you add in these two
other consonant combinations and they make another 2 "s" sounds. so we
have a total of 5 sounds. yeah. yeah. and then theres all these other
weird rules that I dont understand (yet) but hey. im working on it and
two weeks in and I can read thai. I read at about the pace slower than
my baby sister. Im talking a solid word or two every 5 minutes? hahah,
nah nah. maybe like 1 word a minute. Its an interesting language but I
can feel God's hand helping me learn and understand and I am so grateful
for this blessing.
Oh
but a sport that I actually do enjoy playing here is soccer. So we
arent allowed to get competitive but we do....and we cant keep score so
instead of points we keep score in smiles. so whichever team has the
biggest smile after wins hahah.
Also.
I couldve totally brought my skinny ties. just saying. thought I should
tell the world that. Yes skinny, but not like pencil thin skinny. i
guess its up to preference. its ok if you think its ok. but hey im happy
i didnt bring any of them. cause Tie-Land. yup. ties. in thailand.
sickest things ever.
Oh
and I wear my sandals all the time with my slacks. ill take a picture
to show you all how amazing and stylish I look. ho yups.
Im also happy that Im still dark cause all these white people. yup. I stand out still. the tan is still sorta here
OK FUNNY STORY TIME
So
thai is a tonal language. and also for certain religious and royal
terms you add sorta like a modifier (phra-) to the beggining of it. so
like phrapupenjaw is God and phra bidda bon sawan is Heavenly Father.
and then the word for missionary (which i am) is phuusoonsadsanaa. So we
go and teach mock investigators to practice our Thai and my companion,
with complete confidence knocks on the class room door, introduces
himself and proceeds to say "Raw pen phrapupencaw" Which basically translates to "We are God."
Yeah....yeah....got some strange looks from the teacher hahaha
Also funny story number two.
Another
two elders were teaching a mock investigator and talked about a Book of
Mormon prophet named Lehi, Lehi was the father of Nephi. The word for
father is paa, with a valley tone. the word for goat is paa with a
rising tone. These two tones are pretty similar. so my friend goes (in
Thai, i translated it for you)...." Yeah Lehi was amazing, he was
Nephi's goat. Lehi was a terrific goat, and helped his family so much,
the goat received revelation from God."
Yup Thai language. Gotta love it a ton
OK NOW SOME FUN MORMON FUN FACT/HISTORY STUFF
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| Sister Srilaksana the principal translator |
|
Brother
of Jared, were all familiar with him right? really faithful guy. okay
so in the English translation of the Book of Mormon, the brother of
Jared isnt said to be older or younger. Get this. In Thai you have to
designate older or younger according to the the person speaking. So the
lady translating the Book of Mormon to thai receives revelation that it
should be "phii" which translates to older brother! ho. sick ah. I
wonder if thats how it is in the Hawaiian book of Mormon, cause all the
kaikunane/kaikaina etc. I challenge you guys to go find out. but just
thought Id share that
Oh
and one more thing, apparently two mormon missionaries were sent to
Thailand looking for the Asian equivalent to the Book of Mormon. Cause
like Christ appeared after his resurrection and visited all of his
disciples. so like Middle east has the bible, the Americas have the Book
of Mormon, and the Church had wanted to find the Asia "Book of Mormon"
if you will. so yeah. who knows. it may still be out there! God loves
all his children so im sure that he would have disciples in Asia. just
gotta wait and see.
Im
doing good, getting fat, not working out enough and eating way too much
ice cream on Sundays. Yeah i had 4 bowls and then an ice cream bar....I
am officially 150! WOOOO celebrate by....eating way MORE!!!
Choose
the right, stay safe friends, God loves you and he wants you to be
happy. I know that prayers can be answered, mines most certainly have
been as I have been studying the Thai language. Things get easier. I
miss the beach. but not really cause im so focused on learning a
language.
Oh
wait and sriracha. Yeah so to my cousin Kai who sent me sriracha. ur
cool. Thanks! idk what to do with it though cause i didn't think about
how awkward it would be to like have to take the sriracha bottle in and
out of the cafeteria. but hey ive got fruit out (yes i know #rebel) .
maybe I can use it to help me stay awake in class.
Good vibes, Provo wide.
Aloha,
Elder Ellis
