The Gift of Tongues is REAL....I love just being around everything Thai all day!

Saawaadiikhaa!!! 

This week has been so fast! I can't even believe it's already P-Day again. So the Phii Thai's left for Thailand today! So sad. Honestly, I am going to miss them. It won't be the same without them. They are some of the greatest people/missionaries ever! I'll see them in a few weeks though. It will be crazy because the 33 Thai missionaries we have right now will go down to 12. Which means we will go from having two teachers to like 5 or 6! All the attention will be on us. Which will actually be really nice and helpful. So yesterday Sister Remington and I were called as the new Sister Training Leaders for our zone. They are the equivalent as Zone Leaders, so that should be exciting. We now have LOTS of meetings. Yay. Updates.

Language

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It's coming really well!!! We had our first TRC (where you pretty much do visiting teaching with volunteer khon Thai or RM's in Thai for practice) this last Saturday. I loved it! We taught an RM missionary, Quinton Allen(sp?), and some khon Thai named Nab(boy) and Phlccy(girl). It was probably the coolest experience I have had since being at the MTC. The RM was so much easier to understand, naturally. He served in Thailand 2008-2010. He said he knew President Smith (Rowland's first Mission Pres) and President Senior! He met President Senior in the MTC after his mission and said that he is really awesome! I can't wait to meet him. Teaching the khon Thai was my favorite part of the day though. Besides the fact I completely embarrassed myself. haha It was funny though. So Nab looked so much older than Phlccy so I asked in Thai if she was his daughter. Yeah wrong question to ask. Then Sister Remington thought they were dating and it got really messy and turns out they aren't related and are just friends! So after that whole confusing, hilarious situation we taught them about faith and prayer. It was powerful. We taught the whole thing in Thai and understood (somehow) pretty much everything that was said. The Gift of Tongues is REAL. I have never had a stronger confirmation of that truth. Wiew was also there too I found out later! We didn't get to teach or see her, but Brother Yuen said we will next week! I haven't even meet her but I just love anyone that knows the Grover's, so I can't wait to talk to her next week. The Elders in our district taught her and said she was really awesome. I feel like a stalker because she probably doesn't even know who I am, and I know so much about her, but oh well! Brother Yuen interviewed us after we taught and said we did a great job! I am not sure about great, but it was so much fun. I love teaching in Thai. I love the Spirit I feel. I love learning Thai. I love speaking Thai. I love just being around everything Thai all day! It is just the best.

Chun rak rian paasaa thay maag maag jing jing. Chun chxa nay phrakhrid. Chun pen phayan waa phrayeessukhrid mii chiwid yuu. 

Spiritual

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Now on a spiritual note. This week was tough to be honest. Something I have come to love is the importance of desire. Without desire a mission is painfully tedious. Your brain becomes foggy and your mind aches with the overload of information. One of the greatest gifts from God in my opinion is desire because it feels like it's swelling inside you. You feel like everything becomes less of a burden and more of a blessing. Around mid-last week I struggled with desire. I thought about how tired I was. I didn't put as much effort into my prayers and study as I should have. That led me to start blaming everything around me for my adversities. That my lack of desire to study was somehow everything and everyone else's fault but my own. I was becoming frustrated with the cloudiness of my mind. I lacked clarity. I struggled to learn the language and focus on anything. Everything in life seemed to come crashing down. Then I realized one thing. I not only have control over how much desire I have, but that once I took control of gaining my desire back, the Spirit of God made up the difference. The small desire I created for myself was magnified 100 times once I worked to regain that spirit in my life. The key word is WORK. It took effort to pick up my exhausted, sleep deprived body to regain that spirit, desire, and motivation in my life. And not just busy work, but spiritual work. I decided to simplify, and focus on one thing... studying the Book of Mormon. The second I committed to read the Book of Mormon from start to finish before I leave the MTC, is when I felt peace again. I found relief from that stress. But that only came when I put the effort in. It seems counter-intuitive to work harder when all you feel like is giving up, but I am proof that if you deny the natural tendency to give up, and pray to God earnestly to help you in your adversity. He WILL pick you up. He WILL comfort you, and show you what you need to do to regain that peace in your life. Your intent MUST be pure though. You must BELIEVE he can actually help you or it doesn't work. In devotional yesterday the speaker brought up Isaiah 55:8-9. I absolutely love it. It talks about how our ways are not God's ways, neither are our thoughts His thoughts. He knows the bigger picture. Strive to align your will with His. Trust Him.

I love you all. Thank you for the support and the prayers. Hope everyone is doing well and you are having fun on your cruise Mom and Dad! I am just going to post the testimony I sent to my Branch President this week (we have to email him weekly):

 "....My testimony that Jesus is the Christ is real. I know He is my Savior, and I know that I could do nothing without Him. I am so grateful for His example, and for His selfless desire to Atone for all the sins of the world. Not just the members of the church but EVERYONE. Especially those people in Thailand. I am privileged to have the opportunity to be one of the many missionaries going to teach that doctrine to those people who do not know Christ, but reflect so many of His attributes already."

Rak,

Sister Burbank