Week 5: OHHHH WE'RE HALF WAY THERE. OHHH LIVING ON A PRAYER

But really. Prayers are what keep me alive right now, and we are half way done with the MTC...  Lame Joke... Anyways I'm having a hard time remembering what all happen this last week so sorry if this email is a little rough. 

My Best friend MORGAN FIRMAGE made it to the MTC! Love her to death and so glad I get to see her every day. She is the cutest and is going to kill it in Canada. It is so fun to look at a  map and realize I have friends all across the world! (except Australia... Someone needs to get called there..) We are gathering Israel for the final days. So cool.

Funny Stories. 

#1 We have exercise time every day and I was really tired one day and decide to take a nap under a tree. Bad decision. I woke up with spiders ALL OVER ME! I probably looked hilarious from afar as I was "dancing" and screaming to get them off..... yay! can't wait for Cambodia.... HAHA

#2 Sister Cook dropped her key that attaches to your skirt with all her flashcards on it in the toilet somehow... not sure how, but I was dying laughing. (She is goign to kill me for sharing that)

#3 Sister Cook has never been around boys 24/7 because she has all sisters so this whole mission things has taught her way more than she was expecting. This week we learned what a "straight up G is." So proud of her. <3

We have been praticing the Asian Squat. I can't do it. Does anyone have any tips? Also I can't roll my R's. I thought that would be okay for speaking Cambodian, but NOPE. 

Teaching Om Thom is always a joy. This week we were asking him about his wife and with the little Khmer we know, we thought he said his wife was ugly and was going off about it. He noticed something was wrong because my mouth was open and I had a horrible look on my face... hahha Later we figured out that he was telling us she is old, like him... not sure how I messed that one up. Another story like that was when we were teaching TRC. TRC is when we teach a member who knows khmer for around 20 minutes. While teaching Tyler I thought he was telling us about how his wife had a baby so I asked him how the baby was. He looked at me all confused and Sister Cook informed me that he was explain how he was sore...from working out... hahhahah I have no idea how I got having a baby from being sore.... The language is going great as you can tell. 

Even though I do have embarrassing mess ups, the language is coming. I am able to have little conversations and do more in the lesson then just let Sister Cook do all the talking. This week my Aunt Jacque sent me a letter explaining how we can pray to have certain angels with us for help. As a missionary I am promised that I will always have the protection from angels but now knowing that I can request certain angels to be with me has blessed me. Every time I go in to a lesson I ask for Grandpa (Dan Majors) to be with me. The first time I did that I had the most amazing lesson. I was able to understand what she was talking about and teach to her needs even though it was nothing like the lesson we planned to teach. I am SO grateful for this new knowledge because it truly has helped me. 

This gospel has blessed my life and I cannot wait to share it with the people of Cambodia. I know this is going to be the best 18 months of my life. 

Love you all! 

Sista Snooks

SHOUT OUTS TO.........

The Hurst Family!! You guys ROCK! Fruit is exactly what I had been craving!!

Liv sent me some ZipFizz. She said she felt like a drug dealer sending it over. So this picture is just for her!! HAHAHAHA!!

Some BYU homies...

Some of my summer BYU homies....

This is all the sisters in my Zone. We're getting a new batch next week!

Week 4: Laundry Mash-Up

Hello! Hope all is well! They always say that when you are "set part" as a missionary that you are literally set apart from the world..... and I am! We were just informed about all the shootings and the attack in France. So sad. I pray for all the people who have been affected from this. 

This week was kinda crazy. I guess I will start with a week from today. I have made the comment before about how the laundry room here is insane. Everyone is trying to use the machines and somehow we always lose our socks. It's always an adventure! Anyways, Sister Cook and I did our laundry and brought it back to our room but didn't have time to fold our clothes until the day was over. We got home that night and our branch president's wife was in our room talking to us about our week as I was putting away my clothes. While I was talking to Sister Penrod I held up a piece of clothing and it was an elder's underwear..... HAHHAHAHAHAHHA I'm sure Sister Penrod was a little concerned at that moment! Somehow an Elder managed to not see my stuff in the dryer and put all of his whites in with mine. So funny! I called the information desk and explain what happen. The best part is, they weren't even phased! Must happen a lot. 

(​I'm scared I'm going to shrink something and I have a limited amount of clothes so basically everyone in the laundry room gets to see all the outfits I had this week. That purple towel is the end of my stuff...)

We have been teaching our "investigator" Om Thom who is actually our teacher Lookcrew (that means teacher) Garlic. He acts like a investigator he taught while on his mission. He has no knowledge of God or anything related to the Christain belief. So, I taught him how to pray one lesson by praying with him like you do with a child. I would say a line and he would repeat it. It was precious. We gave him a pamphlet that had a page about prayer and the three steps of how to do it. We asked him to pray every day to bring him closer to Heavenly Father. Our next lesson we asked him if he would say the opening prayer. He was hesitant and after a while we convinced him and told him he can look at the three steps in the pamphlet to help him. During the middle of the prayer I realized he was reading the pamphlet word for word and I lost it. I totally started laughing and "Om Thom"/Lookcrew Garlic totally broke character and starting laughing so hard he had to put the lesson on pause to be able to stop laughing. (Pretty proud of myself to have a teacher break character. It's really hard to do) Apparently I accidently told him that he can read the pamphlet as his prayer... oops.. hhahahh lesson learned.

Just to let everyone know, I can slove a Rubik's cube!!! Beat you Dallin :)

This Sunday was one of the best Sundays I've ever had. So many surprises! Every Sunday you have to prepare a short talk and the Presidency randomly asks some people to speak. I got asked to teach a lesson in Relief Society so I thought there was NO way I would be asked to speak in sacrament. So... I didn't prepare a talk. Smart right? Right before the Presidency got up to announce who was speaking, I looked at Sister Cook and said, "If I get called up can I use your talk?" as a joke. I got called up. I have NEVER been able to talk in front of a crowd about a topic without some game plan in from of me. When he said my name I laughed out loud. Of course, the ONE time I didn't prepare..... and I was the first one up. So, I went up and my talk was great actually. Had no idea what I was going to say but words were just put into my mouth and scriptures came to mind. It was SO cool!

Probably the best part of the week was the devotional. We got there and watched the character of Christ video I'm sure you've all heard about 100 times from all the missionaries. Best Talk Ever. Anyways we watched and at first I was a little upset that this was was devotional but I changed my mindset (because I'm trying to look at the bright side more often). So I watched it again and got so much out of it. Right as it ended we started signing a hymn and then everyone stood up. I thought it was for the hymn, but no.... THE Elder Bednar came and spoke to us after!! WHATTTTTTTTT??? Ah it was so cool! And he didn't just speak to us!  We had the opportunity to ask him questions and he would answer them! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?  So cool. He spoke with such power and authority and brought such a spirit into the room. I love that man and all that he does for this church. I know he was called from God and is here to help us. He is an amazing man and I'm so grateful to have heard his words. 

This is the best couple weeks of my life. Some people hate the MTC but honestly, it's as bad or as good as you make it, so may as well make it a blast! I'm so excited for all you future missionaries! Shout out to Morgan Firmage! I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU!!!!

Love you all. Remember that His grace is sufficient for all of us. If you want to know more about that, here is the link to one of my favorite talks about His Grace. https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/brad-wilcox_his-grace-is-sufficient/

Through Grace I am able to serve a mission, I am able to learn a language, and I am able to not fall asleep in class (hahah). If we do all that we can, Christ will make up for the rest.

Have a great week!

Stay Fearless,

Sista Snooks

​Elder Sweet! A friend from BYU!

Week 3: Costa Vida vs Cafe Rio

Heyo. It seems like I've been in here for forever. Yet the time is flying. You know how all the Elders and Sisters say that days feel like weeks but weeks feel like days. That is very true. Time is weird here but then again I am on the Lord's time. 

Sadly a bunch of OG missionaries from my zone left this week. So sad. The Vietnam district was one that left so I had to say goodbye to Sister Graviet which was hard. But, Fun Fact, From the Capitol of Cambodia to the Capitol of Vietnam it's only 3 hours and 11 min by plane.... So we are still pretty close. Elder Stahlei left, the one who quotes dumb and dumber with me, so I will have to find another source of entertainment these next 6 weeks. 

Last Saturday we did TRC which is when we go in and teach in our language to someone that is a member and practice having conversation and teaching to the members needs. It was way fun. We taught this little, elderly Cambodian women who just came to america and she LOVED us. She kept telling Sista Cook and I that we had very clear Khmer. HAHHAHAHA WHAT??? I think she was just trying to make us feel good... and it worked. She also kept telling us how pretty and tall we were. Yes people, I am tall! hahah which mean Sister Cook is really tall! But we have been really focusing on loving our investigators and showing and expressing our love for them. I love teaching the members and I love the fake investigators we teach so much! And I know they aren't real but still... Our teacher, Lookcrew (means teacher) Garlick, acts like he is this 58 year old Cambodian man and its the cutest thing ever. He has no knowledge whatsoever of God or Jesus Christ so we are teaching him the basics. Yesterday we taught him how to pray and at the end asked him to pray. After some convincing, We got him to pray and I kneeled next to him and helped him pray like you do with a child; I would say a line and he would repeat it. It was precious and the spirit was so strong at that point.

I love prayer. We pray 50 times a day, no joke. The cool part is we pray in Khmer :) It is always fun to sit next to some elders and sisters at lunch/dinner/breakfast and try to guess what language they are speaking when they are praying. Praying is so important. I am still striving to do better in my prayers. God is waiting to talk to all of us. We just have to "pick up the phone" and talk to him. Pray to your Heavenly Father and ask for him to show his love for you and I can promise you that he will.

As a lot of you know, I am a big Costa Vida Fan. Shout out to the Wagstaffs for having the BEST Costa known to man! I miss it a lot... Anyways, I got into a big debate over Costa Vida verse Cafe Rio with another Elder and his response was, "You know about the lost 116 pages from the Book of Mormon? I believe that those pages were actually recipes that Cafe Rio has." HAHHA I was dying laughing! #missionaryhummor. I then found out that he's never actually tried Costa soooo I told him to humble himself and try it out. Hopefully I will have converted him.

So sometimes when people say my name they say it like Sn-ook (oo as in loop) which makes no sense to me whatsoever because most words with double o's don't make that noise and why don't they say the "s" at the end? It makes so sense. Especially because my companion is Sister Cook. The right way you say the double oo. Anyways, it's always bothered me just a little bit and I asked my teacher how they will say my last name and guess how they will say it? Sista Sn-ook (as in loop) HAHHAHA sooo I will learn to love people saying my name that way. Heavenly Father has a sense of humor. 

Well I love my mission. I love this language even though it is SOOO HARD but every time I start to get frustrated or tired of studying I remember WHY I am learning this insane language and who I am learning it for. I already love the people so much. This Sunday we got to watch Two Brothers Two when one of the brothers gets called to Cambodia so we got to see his mission for three episodes. It got me pumped and also freaked me out. It's a roller coaster. But if anyone wants to know what my mission will be like, check out Two Brothers Two. It is so cool :) I love being a missionary and every morning getting to put on my nametag. It is the best feeling in the world knowing I am a representative of Christ. This is the true church and If you have not found that out for yourself, pray to know if it is true and if you do with a sincere  heart you will get an answer. 

Shout out to Talmage. Let him know I will be hosting tomorrow so I will look for him to arrive!

Love you guys. Thank you for the dear elders and the packages!

Stay fearless

Sista Snewk

Week 2: Goal Accomplished!

Hello friends and family. I hope everyone had a great fourth of July! I sure did. It is a party here at the MTC. I'll talk about it more later on.

We had a devotional last week and the quote I loved from it was, "To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift." This applies so well to missionaries but also to everyone. I am only out for 18 months of my life, for Elders, they are out for 2 years, but it is such a small amount of time. To not give everyday my best would be pointless and a waste of my time. No matter where you are, serving a mission. playing a sport, in college, at work whatever it may be we should be giving it our all. None of us wants to look back with regrets of not doing our best. Just a little thought. 

Sooooo mom you know how I begged you to not send me to the MTC with just Crocs? Within 10 minutes of being at the MTC, I threw those suckers on. I love them so much. If you guys haven't invested in Crocs I highly recommend it. "They are actually cute in a granola way."-- Quote from Sister Winder.

I get roasted, as Michael Scott would call it, in class about everyday. I take it a lot better than Michael Scott did though.  It's the districts favorite thing when my teacher teases me. I'm pretty sure they look forward to it actually. I deserve it every time because I do something something or say something dumb. hahhahahha for example the teacher asked everyone in khmer, "Is Elder Taylor a prophet?" ( an Elder in my district) and I was the last one to raise my hand because I was having a hard time with the word "prophet." He called on me and the Elder next to me was whispering "Baaa" (How you say Yes for a male) So I said "Jaa" (Yes for a girl). My teacher then started going off in Khmer and everyone was dying laughing. I soon realized he was giving me Restoration 101 and teasing me for answering the simple question wrong. Another time I was telling some of the district about how one time I dropped a bell in my ear (I was young... it was a small bell and I had to go to he ER with my grandpa hahha) as we were walking into the class from our break and the teacher told us we need to speak our language more. Then he used the example, "Once time I dropped a bell in my ear." and made the whole class say it in Khmer like 10 times. I was dying laughing. Out of all the sentences to say.... So now, everyone cam say that in Khmer which is great. I hope at some point I'll be able to say the whole story in Khmer... One day... 

The language is alright. It's hard to not compare yourself to other people though. I fasted this Sunday to help me and I have seen the difference it has made this last week. You know how I talked about the ramen noddle scipt last week? We started learning that. KHMER IS SO SIMPLE I LOVE IT. There are like 10 rules and they stick to the rules which is perfect. I can't wait to be able to read and write. If you guy haven't seen what Khmer looks like, You should look it up. it's beautiful and mind blowing. After my mission I'm setting up all my gmail accounts to be in Khmer. It looks so cool. 

So Sistaa (that's how you say sister in a Cambodian accent) Cook and I make weekly and daily goals with the language, scripture study, and all the great missionary stuff we do! But the most important goal we had was to not loose any socks in laundry today. And yes, in he midst of all the chaos, the goal was accomplished.  "Obedience brings blessings, but exact obedience brings miracles." I can testify of that. It is so hard to go to bed at 10:30 and to wake up at 6:30am and not sleep in. I know that all these little things add up. When we choose to follow all the "rules" or "guidelines" Heavenly Father blesses us, like how Sistaa Cook and I were able find all of our socks. It may not seem like a big deal, the whole socks thing, but it actually is. We love our no show socks. 

One last funny story. We were teaching "Julia" (Made up person) and it was our first time with her so we were building her trust by asking her about her life and getting to know her then asking her what she is expecting to learn from us. She was catholic and after getting to know her my companion started asking her about prayer and how much she knows about it. Sistaa Cook started explaining to her about prayer and said a lot more than I thought she would so I kinda lost her on what she was talking about. She turned over and looked at me and I mouthed, "pray?" I thought she said "no" so I started giving the first lesson. Sistaa Cook stopped me around 30 seconds after when she realized I wasn't praying. Apparently I was suppose to pray but we totally had a misunderstanding and she zoned out when I started talking and didn't realize what I was saying. I was also wondering why Julia had her eyes shut the whole time I was talking... Makes sense now...haha

I love the MTC. I know a lot of people hated it but I think Heavenly Father is blessing me since I will be here for another 48 days. I am soo happy all the time and I figured out why. I don't have a phone to go to when I'm bored. I don' scroll through instagram envying people of their lives, their clothes, their body, or beauty. I'm not on snapchat watching stories where I wish I was somewhere else where they are having fun.  I'm not resorting to listening to music when it gets quiet in the house or in the car and I'm not watching TV when I have nothing else to do. All these things keep me from being able to be truly happy all the time. Yes, I was very happy at home, don't get me wrong, but I was not this happy. It's hard to explain. I'm just not in the world at all right now and it gives me so much time to pray, to ponder, and to read the scriptures. I have grown so much closer to my Heavenly Father. No joke, reading the Book of Mormon is SO FUN!! It's the best time of my day and I get so sad when I have to stop. I don't know why I didn't read it more often and make it more of a priority in my life. Actually, I do know why. It is because I would get a text, want to watch a show, and get distracted. Anyways, I challenge you  to read the book. It is amazing and it has changed my life.  

Love you guys. Sorry for the novel. If you make it to this point, you're a true friend <3

Stay fearless-

Sista Snooks

4th of July color coordinated, of course!

Yep, that's Bucky! He's doing great!