March 26, 2012

Sawad dii khrab! How are you all? Oh and by the way, males use khrab,
females use khaa (just letting you know mom :) ). It's a polite word
you put at the end of a sentence, it doesn't really mean anything. I'm
doing great here in the MTC. The language is coming along nicely,
we're well ahead of where our Phii Thais were at this point. We've
really started hitting the Script hard. It takes a while, but I can
read it fairly easily if I take the time. The hardest part is that
there are no spaces in between words, so you just have to know where
one word starts and one ends. It's pretty tough to do, especially if
the word you're reading isn't in your vocab yet. But it feels so cool
when you can read a sentence. Our teachers tell us the best way to do
it is to just memorize the "shape" of all the different words, and not
read them one character at a t time (which is actually what we do in
English as well).
Our investigators are doing well. We've invited both of them to be
baptized and they've both accepted (though we're not too sure if they
REALLY know what that means). Phii Pragad seems to get most of what
we're talking about, but Phii Dom is pretty out of the loop I think.
We taught him about prayer a couple of lessons ago, and then yesterday
we asked him if he had kept his commitment to pray daily. He said he
loved prayer so much, and me and my comps were pretty shocked at his
enthusiasm, until we found out why he loved it so much. Apparently he
had to quit his job because he hurt his knee, so he's been going to
the horse racetrack and "praying to know which horse to pick," and
he's been winning a lot of money. He said God "understands him." When
we figured out what he was trying to say, me and Elder Bartling about
died laughing. But now we gotta figure out how to explain it to him
that gambling's not good! This is going to be tough, but good
practice.
Last Tuesday, Elder Oaks came and spoke at the devotional. It was
awesome to hear an Apostle speak! He spoke a lot about the Spirit and
the Sacrament. One of my favorite things that he said was that the
Sacrament is for renewing our covenants, but it's also for feeling the
Spirit and making sure that we have it with us. It gave a whole new
light to Sacrament meeting on Sunday.
Last week (not sure which day, they all blur together), one of the
Sister's in our districts brother-in-law brought us Thai food from her
mom's restaurant during study time. It was sweet! Yellow
curry...delicious. Then we started hearing a ton of people walking
down our hall, wondering where that awesome smell was coming from. We
tried to keep it a secret, not too successful though haha.
On Satureday we had our first TRC lesson. It's where we teach members,
usually returned Thai missionaries, a lesson and our teachers watch us
on video monitors. It was really cool, and really helpful. It was also
nice to not have to worry if we were going too in depth on a certain
topic, because they already know everything.
Guess what? I'm District Leader now! And Elder Bartling got made a
zone leader. I'm really excited to show the Lord what I can do in a
leadership position, but I also know that I'll need his help to be
successful.
I didn't make the MTC choir for conference. Bummer. I just didn't have
enough experience in singing. Oh well though, I'm still way excited
for conference. It'll be cool watching it as a missionary, I'm sure
it'll be a different experience.
I'm slowly getting over my sickness. It's not too bad, it mostly just
bothers me at night. I just get congested and have a sore throat. I
bought some Mucinex, and the ibuprofen makes sleeping bearable. I'm
sleeping better now. The only things that keeps me up are Thai phrases
running through my head, or Elder Bartling talking in his sleep (a lot
of the time in Thai now).
So I found out that even though my mission covers three countries,
missionaries aren't allowed in Laos or Myanmar, so I'll definitely be
in Thailand. And Thai missionaries aren't allowed to extend, but we're
out 3 weeks longer than our departure date, just because of the way
transfers work.
A lot of you have been asking what my daily schedule is. It changes
from day to day, so I'll send a copy of it home, so you know what I'm
doing at any particular time :)
I'm getting my first haircut today. Ah! Pray that it comes back!
Mom - thanks you so much for the cookies and shorts! Those are exactly
what I needed. There's only one thing I need right now, a list of
everyone's birthdays (you know how I am). Oh and about the bank, I'm
pretty sure we put your name on my account, and I know I never took it
off. If you need any info or anything, let me know.
Brooke - thanks for the cupcakes! Great early easter treat, just what
I needed after a long day. It sounds like you and Derek and the boys
are doing great! Give Linc and Cart a big hug and kiss for me.
Dad - Thanks for the letter! It was so great to hear from you. And
keep those sports updates coming. I know Peyton went to Denver
(disgusting), and I know Kentucky, Louisville, and Kansas are in the
Final Four, I can't remember the last one.
Trevor - Happy Birthday buddy! You're getting so big! I love you!
Lauren and Lance - I hope you both had great birthdays! I heard your's
was a great surprise Laur ;)
All my other siblings and family - Hope you're all doing good! I love you all!
All my friends - Thanks for all of the letters and support! I love
hearing from you, and I hope to keep hearing from you. Red and Kyle
and VK, can't wait for you 3 to get here! It's so awesome, there's no
better place in the world right now. Preston and Landon, ya'll better
be getting on your papers! Prest, I heard you're getting in to golf
now, very nice.
Well I love you all! Hope to hear from you soon! Thanks so much for
all of the love and prayers and support, I'm praying for you as well.
Chokh dii!

Elder Sharp