Thailand Bangkok Mission ... สตีลน้องสาว

March 26, 2013

oh hello friends and family.

Hi my name is emily and i'm going to Thailand in 2 WEEKS!!! what?! we should be getting our travel plans at the end of this week i think. time is so warped here and i can't believe i'm leaving so soooooon!

This week has been great! and hopefully i have a few good stories for you too. well i guess i'll start with today, since it's fresh on my mind. we woke up super early (again) to go to the temple. This time it was just me, sis. yim, and sis. dorles (McDermott--but she totally goes by Dorles now because my nicknames rock.) anyway, the temple was awesome as usual. and i saw Dr. Ogden again, so he better tell dad hi for me. i see lots of dad's buddies in the temple, and then i see lots of rachel's buddies at the MTC as missionaries, and then i see lots of my buddies that are teachers at the MTC. Doonis doesn't have any buddies so it's ok. hahaha jk Doonis i love you. well the weather has been the typical utah weather, and one day we were studying outside in the sun, and the next it was snowing all day. oh and by the way, let me know if you're getting my pictures or not.

so there were a bunch of new missionaries that came in on wednesday, and every time new missionaries come in, they need 'host missionaries' to get them settled, get there books, show them where their residence and classoom is, etc. So me and my companions decided we wanted to try being a host missionary at least once while we were here. dorles and i were a little worried about our ability to guide someone around, knowing that we're both directionally challenged. but acutally, that ended up being the least of my worries, and i didn't get lost once! yay! 7 weeks in the MTC, i sure hope i know my way around haha. so anyway, i hosted my first sister, who was going to Billings Montana. order of events: We're supposed to grab their luggage from the elders, take them to their residence hall to drop it off, go to the bookstore to get their books and packets and everything, and then take them to their classroom. so we're walking to her residence hall, made it there ok, dropped off her stuff, found her classroom, everything was great, and i was feeling pretty proud of myself. right as i got back in line to meet my next new sister that i would host, i realized that the last sister had been really fast, and i was wondering why....and then i realized i TOTALLY forgot to take her to the bookstore to get her books. and then i forgot where her classroom was so i couldn't go back and get her, and basically i just felt like a complete idiot. i'm pretty sure i ruined her first day in the MTC, and here teacher was probably like, " where's all your books?" and she was probably like, "ummm...my dumb host forgot to take me to get them." ohhhhh mannnn i'm dumb. hopefully she got it all resolved haha. so my next sister was a little more quiet, and seemed more emotional. no i did not forget the bookstore this time, which was good because she was speaking portugese. so i took her everywhere she needed to go, but then we got to the classroom and she told me she hadn't eaten all day. and they don't feed you til dinner on your first day....so then i felt super bad for being a bad host x2. i told here where the vending machines were, and explained the situation to her teacher, who refused to speak english to me (dumb bum) and then i left the building. once I got outside i realized i had her key card in my hand still. and it has money on it. which she needed in order to go to the vending machines. by that point i was convinced that i am less intelligent than when i came in here. so i ran back and found her frantically looking for her key card, and then i gave it back to her, and walked away hahahha. and soo....no more hosting for me. i haaaaaadddd a baddddd experience (name that movie). oh! but there was one good thing that came out of hosting. as we were meeting with all the host sisters, i saw a sister that totally looked like she was from Fiji, and i started talking to her and it turns out she was! her name is Sis. Nawatu, and she knew Ateca and Margie Elder!!! she was in Navatyamba when we visited and played in the river and stuff. SMALL WORLD. we just talked for a long time about people we knew, etc. She's going to the Phillipines!

I have just a few random funny things that happened this week. well in between classes we had a break to get a drink, go bathroom, etc. So i was in the bathroom (sorry, tmi), and you can here everything that's going on outside. and in the hallway i heard the song 'slippery fish'....hahahaha. some missionaries were singing it in french, which made it that much more funny. it brought me back to my preschool days! Next random story: there's an elder in my district (actually he's my favorite) that can gleek on purpose. gross. he's always trying to gleek on everyone. and it just reminded my of rachel and her spit bubbles. I still remember the time that she was blowing them on Chelsea Kocherhans during sunday school and she thought they were coming from the ceiling. hahaha and then chelsea was the one who got kicked out of class for being disruptive....ohhhhh good times. i ate rancid pineapple here. MTC food=yummo. it tasted like it had been soaked in sprite or something. that's what they're feeding us here at the MTC wahoo!

i've decided that i'm super excited to finally go to Thailand, and to teach REAL people about the gospel! But i'm also gonna be a little sad to leave here. because i have made some pretty great friends. and that's an understatement. i feel like i left my family to come on a mission, made a new family here, and now i have to leave them too. but luckily we'll get to see everyone once in a while and zone conferences and stuff. I love every single person in my district, and i know i sound pretty cliche. but there's a lot of power that comes with experiencing spiritual experiences together, making spiritual changes together, and learning from each other every day. i feel SO blessed! i can't say it enought. i've learned that God is SO in charge of EVERYTHING. I know that all the experiences I've had up until this point in my life have prepared me to serve a mission in Bangkok, Thailand, at this specific time. God knows each of us personally and it's evident in the way that he guides us and directs us. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father saw more in me than I ever saw in myself. Oh and sidenote: i'm memorizing my favorite scripture in Thai! (Ether 12:6). Oh and Grandma Steele sent me the BEST cupcakes in the world. they were gone in a day. and my teacher keeps asking me if i have more of them. :)

Thank you all for your love, prayers, and support. i feel it.

peace and blessins....sis. steele.