我是神的孩子

Hey everyone!

It's my third week here and I'm absolutely loving it! We are growing closer and closer as a district every day. The weeks are going by so fast now I feel like I don't have enough time. We are learning so much so that's great. I haven't been getting fat though, even though I feel like I'm eating so much. I try to eat good food as much as I can, and I exercise every day but nothing is getting sore so I guess it's not really working out for me haha. 

Something that was funny that happened this week is Elder Bates our district leader was playing Basketball when his companion Elder Cheung stuffed him and broke his pinky finger. He's been dealing with it for five days but now it's swollen and huge haha.

This is the first week that Elders and Sisters are going home in my zone. It's really weird saying bye to them cause they've been there for so long, you just feel like they're going to stay around. We won't be the newbies for much longer though cause we have some new Mandarin speaking Missionaries coming in on Wednesday. I still feel super young and I'm not gonna pretend like I know everything about the MTC even though I've only been here for three weeks. They call Mandarin speaking missionaries:" Mando's," which I think is pretty cool cause it's from Star Wars Mandolorians...I know I'm a nerd.

Since a bunch of the guys from the zone were leaving this week they have a tradition called "Saucin" where they go and have some of this hot sauce on a ritz cracker and see how many rounds of it they can take. I didn't want to do it cause it was supposedly super hot. It is so hot that it is one of the hottest in the world. Right before they were about to do it one of the Elders named Elder Allen said: "This isn't hazing, you don't have to do it... but it's highly encouraged!" I decided to do it and it was one of the worst pains I had ever experienced. right when I took it and swallowed it my eyes became as red as a Ute flag and I started having tears. It wasn't even hot, it was just pure pain. It felt terrible and it was hard to breath till about thirty minutes later when I started to feel better. Oh man it was terrible, but it was fun.

This week I've been studying very hard on Faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement. Elder Beus and I had a lesson this week in Priesthood so we were preparing during the week. It seemed like things stuck out more when I was listening with a topic in mind. One of our teachers this week taught us about faith. He asked us why we think we came down to earth. He then told us that we had faith that our brother, Jesus Christ would be able to Atone for us and cleanse us from our sin. He told us that we had faith in ourselves that we would make the right choices to be able to come back into God's presence. Probably the coolest thing I learned is that Heavenly Father has faith in each of his children. I think it would be so hard for him to look at each of us and send us down because of our free agency to the earth, even though he knew some of us would fail. I want to prove him right. I want to prove that his faith in me isn't in vain. And then to teach people that have never heard of this plan that they are loved and their Heavenly Father is waiting for them to come back home. I know that Heavenly Father loves each of his children and wants them to return back to him more than anything. By the way the title means:"I am a Child of God," Wo(1) shi(2) shen(1) de haizi(2,4)

Week 2 of 9

Well you read the title. It seems like I've been gone awhile but I'll still be around for about two months haha. I'll try to entertain you.

I've been learning lots of Chinese this week! Our Role Playing investigator surprised us and is our second teacher. His name is Ding Laoshi. He served his mission in Australia Mandarin speaking. He's pretty nice and he likes to help out. I feel like I'm forgetting most of the stuff I learn but I keep reminding myself that if I really work hard then the spirit will bring the words back to me that I should say right when I need them. 

The Sisters in our district were being dramatic this week, but then they taught the lesson on Sunday and asked if we could kind of start over as a district, since we got off on the wrong foot. I think it'll be better now. The Elders are as cool as ever. We actually had this water bottle challenge, to drink 125 ounces of water a day to get healthier. We were doing good till one day I drank a bit too much too fast, you can guess what happened next.

Our Chinese branch is interesting though. When we came in the Elders that were over us were breaking all kinds of rules and doing things they weren't supposed to. They didn't even know Chinese very well and they had been in there for 6 weeks. It was bad and I was wondering why the MTC was like this. I realized then what Mitchell and Talmage told me. Not every Missionary is the same. You have to choose who you want to be. They had an emergency meeting with all the Chinese speaking missionaries and set us straight. They had a speaker talking about his time in Taiwan and what the people there mean to him. He said we are carrying Jesus Christ's name on our chest. We need to represent him. I wasn't doing anything wrong but I knew I wasn't trying my hardest. I knew I could be doing better to be a real missionary, and I would need to be the example to the new elders coming in each week.(Oh and the speaker was actually my Chinese teacher in high school for a year before he quit cause of the students. Ruan Laoshi.)

But yeah MTC life is good! The food is great, the people are great , and the opportunities are amazing!! There are so many people here though. The week I came in there were 700 new missionaries. We got some more last week, and this week we're getting another 700. It's way over capacity. It takes a half hour waiting in line to eat haha. 

I love you all!! If you have any questions for me go ahead and email! I'll happily answer them!

-Love Elder Grayson Thayne

First week!!!

Hey everyone!!

Well I have lots to tell and not much time to tell it so I'll give you a bit! 

Well I got to the MTC on Wednesday and P day is on Mondays for me while in the MTC. It may change when I'm out in the field though. It was sad saying goodbye to everyone, but I was happy to go! It's been a super crazy week though but it's also been a blast! My companion's name is Elder Beus. He's from Provo and he likes to ski and he's a way cool guy. Everyone in my district is super tight too cause we all live in the same residence and do everything together. We won't see our district as much out in the field though. 

The other Elders names are: Elder Bates, and Elder Cheung. Elder Fernandez and Elder Yeh. They are awesome guys and we really get along!! We mess around and have so much fun together. I make jokes and do stuff all the time so they call me the comedian. We're really tight and working hard. We have three sisters in our district that are in a triple companionship. Sister Fisiauhe, sister Caten, Sister Blacker. Too bad they don't like us very much. They think we don't work very hard just cause we are having fun while working(Our Chinese is better than theirs though). We all work hard though. 

It was cool cause the first day we got to sit and observe an investigator lesson. The investigator was actually Taiwanese so it was cool to here her. An Elder stood up and introduced himself as Elder Leung, he is from Hong Kong. He talked to her in Chinese and invited her to a youth activity. He then told everyone after that it is super important to become friends and serve people before sharing the gospel, cause they'll say no if you start with that. I then went up to the fake investigator and told her I'm going to Taiwan! She said that is cool, and then as I was walking away she added:" You guys will be pretty hot over there haha." Yes it will be so hot over there but I'm excited!!

I'm going to be here for 9 weeks though so I'll try to keep everyone entertained. It already feels like I've been here forever but I'm glad I'm here cause I need the time to study the language. Our teacher is named Ye Laoshi. She is hard on us, not a very nice woman but she can be nice sometimes hah. On her nice days we call her Miss Woo. She is sister Ye 90% of the time though. She served her mission in temple square so she is pretty strict about things, but she's a good teacher.

Last thing I want to say is that I am already getting overwhelmed with the language and I've only been here for 5 days. I went back to my first scripture I ever memorized which is 1 Nephi 3:7. It explains that with whatever the lord commands you to do, he will provide a way for you to do that task. I need that cause I know I will learn Chinese but it will be a long process.

Love Elder Thayne