MTC Life

Dear Family,

I hardly know where to start right now. These last 6ish days have been crazy. The MTC is interesting. I guess I'll start with Wednesday. So it was so great to have Bill and Linda drop me off. Please tell them Thank You from me. They are seriously the nicest people ever!! That feels so long ago now. Funny thing about the MTC, it feels like I've been here for WEEKS. The days are long and my brain always just feels like its exploding. My khuu (companion) is Sister Remington though! Isn't that crazy?? She is such a sweet girl and a great companion! So a total of 12 Nong Thai's came in the same day as me and we are split up into two districts. In my district is, Elder Sun, Elder Webb, Elder Graham, Elder Darby, and then my khuu and I. We have already gotten so close. We are with each other SOOO much you kind of have to. My teachers are amazing though. I have Brother Chamberlin and Sister Painter. They only speak in Thai so it's hard to have meaningful conversations with them, but what we can have conversations about is great!

So I am going to break this up into Language and Spiritual.

Language
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It's been difficult, but I absolutely love it. We study for hours on end each day and sometimes it just feels like I am learning nothing, but when I reflect on the day before I realize I have learned something. So my attitude is that I'm not going to let myself get overwhelmed because honestly all I can do is take it one day at a time. I can pray in Thai now though! That is so exciting and something I have been wanting to be able to do for a while now. So that is so nice! The studying I did the 4 months before coming here helped TREMENDOUSLY! I can't even tell you how grateful I am that I had an understanding of the language before I came here. We taught our first Investigator Friday and Saturday, his name is Phii Bcc. I'm pretty sure it's Brother Yuen though. Our other teacher (khruu) but he acts so much like a real investigator it's crazy. The first lesson started out rough but as I stopped trying to preach our scripted lesson and just try to intently listen to Phii Bcc to try and understand him something incredible happened. I actually started to understand. I actually understood the Thai he was speaking. The words just started flowing in my head and I was able to actually teach by the spirit. For the first time since I've been here I finally felt like I could actually do this. It's hard not to get discouraged but honestly praying works. Meditation works. When you actually believe what you are praying about, and actually have faith that you can be comforted through prayer, you will. I am a living witness of that.

Spiritual
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So something my khuu and I have decided is that each day is like a rollercoaster. Sometimes you're up and sometimes you just feel down. It's like a concentrated version of life every single day. I seriously feel bipolar sometimes. I never doubt my purpose being on a mission though. This is still exactly where I want to be, but the culture of the MTC I just do not like. I love the spirit of the MTC. That is POWERFUL. But the culture is just not me at all. Sometimes I feel out of place and I just want to go study alone to regain my motivation. Now I know why a mission is hard. The gospel isn't hard. The gospel is simple. It is imperfect people that make it hard! People complicate things. The only thing I have learned to do about it though is just love them. I can't let myself get frustrated because that will just add to the complicating. It takes a lot of will power but I have found a good median. Patience is a MUST when you're on a mission. And not just patience with the investigators. It's patience with yourself, and all the other missionaries. We are all on different levels and we all have different understanding. You truly have to rely so much on the spirit because of that very point. I love it here though. I honestly would not want to be anywhere else.

I love you all and should be able to send pictures in a little bit.

The church is true. The gospel is true. I've had that confirmed to me way too many times to count in just the last few days to doubt that. I love my Savior, I would not be here if it wasn't for Him. Chun rak Prayeesukhrid.

Love,

Sister Burbank