Yeesh, I'm the Worst at Sending Emails Ever

August 26, 2013

Okay, new transfer, same area, new companion. My companion is an absolute doll. I love her to death. She's hilarious, hardworking, and we think the same way. We get along so well. We never disagree about what to teach an investigator, and we're always having a blast, no matter if we're studying, knocking doors, or teaching lessons. My favorite thing is that she love, love, LOVES this area as much as I do. She can't get over how incredible the people here are, how much faith they have and how strong they are even through really tough living situations. It's so fun to be able to show someone something which I care so deeply about, and have them appreciate it the same way. I just love my new companion and this is going to be an amazing transfer. 

Reasons you should go on a mission (I'm gonna put one in every email):

1. Being on a mission helps you learn a lot about yourself. For example, as it turns out, I'm slightly super incredibly competitive. My wonderful zone leaders know this and know me. So they will set goals for us as a zone, and then tell me what the set record is so far for it, and that just sets me off and motivates me to beat it. Exhibit A: a few weeks back, the goal they set for us was to contact 2000 people in a week (a contact is an invitation extended, whether to go to church, be baptized, read the Book of Mormon, visit mormon.org, or have us come back to teach them more about the church). There are 16 of us in the zone, so that means we each have to extend 125 invitations in the week. The Zone Leaders told me that the most contacts in a day was 156. So I set my sights at 157, just to find out later that the 156 was between the 4 of them in that area, not a single person contacting that many. Whoops. Doesn't matter, because it was the motivation I needed. I ended up contacting 175 that day, and 405 that week. So as it turns out, I  might be slightly competitive.

We had a baptism this past weekend, a woman named Sara. She's 33, and has a 12 year old, a 10 month old, and is expecting twins in February. She's never been married, but has had some really tough relationships in the past that have helped her recognize that living the ways of the world don't bring lasting happiness. She's been looking for a church to raise her kids in, so that they can grow up with morals and values that she wasn't taught as a kid. We've been teaching her for 6 weeks now, and finally Saturday she was baptized. She bore her testimony at the service about how she's excited to make covenants with God and take the first steps to return to live with Him again. She was confirmed yesterday in Sacrament meeting. The spirit in the service was so strong, and I was so touched by how anxious she was because it showed that she really understood the significance of what was happening. I asked Sara why she felt nervous, and she said, "the first time I was baptized (in a different Christian church), it didn't feel real. But this time, it feels real". I was happy to testify to her that it was real, because our church has the priesthood authority of God to perform baptism ordinances. In the bible, Christ walked 60 miles to John the Baptist specifically to baptize Him, when there were any number of Rabbis along the way that He could have asked to baptize Him. It's because only John, had that proper authority of God to perform the baptism. It was important to Christ to be baptized by that authority, so much so that he walked 60 miles to allow it to happen. If we want to follow the example of Christ in all things, then we too have to ensure that we're baptized by someone who holds the authority of God. Sara was baptized and confirmed by that authority, and the spirit testified to her that this time around, it was 'real'. She is an incredible woman, and it's been such a blessing to teach her and see how she's been blessed as she applies the gospel of Jesus Christ to her life.

I've been in the WA-TAC 13 weeks, 13 is my favorite number, and the church is true here too!

-Sis McQuiv

Weird Obstacles to Missionary Work

August 12, 2013

There's the things you anticipate might be difficult in missionary work..

and then when you're in Tacoma there's all kinds of other weird things that slow down the work and just make you go, "really, Satan? That's the best you can do?"

Case in point: knocking on a door, saying, "Hi, we're the Mormons. Tell me something good you've heard about us". Their response: "Oh, Mormons, you guys are the ones who don't use spoons, right?"

So, that's a new one. For those of you who may not know, Mormons do use spoons. We eat cereal. We eat ice cream. We eat soup. These things are all difficult to eat with a fork or chopsticks. I know, because sometimes I'm too tired at night to wash the dishes, so I end up trying to use miscellaneous clean silverware to eat dinner. Some foods are just meant to be eaten with spoons, let's just leave it at that.

But weird rumors that are just laughable? Good try, Satan. Too bad for you we've started carrying spoons with us when we're tracting. 

Other unexpected obstacles: angry guard fowl

As a missionary in Washington, you expect dogs. Everyone has dogs. Even their dogs have dogs. They are huge and they are teensy and everything in between. In fact we have one investigator who I'm quite positive is actually a werewolf because whenever he's home, the dog is mysteriously gone, and when the dog's at the house, the wife tells us her husband is either sleeping or at work. That just seems a LITTLE TOO SUSPICIOUS to me, so of course the logical explanation is we are teaching a werewolf the gospel of Jesus Christ. How cool is that? We'll just have to plan his baptism around the full moon. 

But I digress: dogs are not a surprise. What is a surprise is when you go up to knock on the door and a rooster comes out of nowhere and flap attacks you and pecks your ankles until you leave. I kid you not, I have bloody rooster-pecked ankles (do not worry, I purchased Phineas and Ferb band aids so I am in good hands). This is not a joke. Neither is the fact that we've been up on a doorstep and a peacock will just wander around from the backyard and stand next to us and follow us around from door to door like it's a little pea-missionary. 

This email had no point. But pretty much the moral is this:

Tacoma is absurd. I love it here.

I've been in this crazy town 11 weeks, and the church is true here too!

-Sister McQuivey

10 Weeks and I'm teaching in Vietnamese

August 5, 2013

A neat thing that happened today- so we just got back from a mission-wide barbecue and while we were all eating and chatting I saw this familiar face in a white shirt and tie that didn't make any sense. I went up to him and sure enough, the name tag read Elder Lowe. He didn't know I was in this mission, and I didn't know he'd been reassigned here so we had a lot of catching up to do. So, for some background, Mitchell Lowe is a good friend from BYU who I met through Justina. He's from Bellevue, Washington, and got his call to Brazil. He went in the MTC in June, got his original reassignment to the Seattle mission, but that's his home mission so he'd be running into his parents and friends and stuff (no good if you're trying to stay focused on missionary work). So his stake president let them know it was his home mission, and they re-reassigned him to the Tacoma mission (so he could still take the same flight and everything, but not be quite so close to home). He's been here since Tuesday. Craziest turn of events! It was so fun to see him though, and I'll be sure to keep his visa in my prayers (before he loses all his Portuguese language in the states). I introduced him to my companion, a visa-waiter for a different mission in Brazil, which was a mistake because then I was caught in the middle as they simultaneously recited scriptures in Portuguese to each other (think: surround sound).

I am the only non- English or Spanish speaking missionary out here, which means that no one knows what Cambodians look like. So I usually receive a lot of Cambodian referrals that turn out to be Vietnamese  Korean, Thai, Laos, Filipino, or Japanese - ie, some other kind of Asian with a completely different language and culture then the one I learned in the MTC. We just keep every language of Book of Mormon in our car trunk and most of them that we give out aren't in English. I've learned basics in all the languages we run into a lot so I can at least find out if they're interested in learning more.

Super cool- There's a 17 year-old girl in our ward who was baptized only 2 years ago and is Vietnamese. She's only been in the US 6 years, and is the only member of the church in her family. She's not very comfortable in English, and is very shy and reserved so I didn't know all that much about her. Yesterday we took her to a lesson with us with a new Vietnamese investigator, a man named Tan Ha. The girl Truc was clearly uncomfortable and kept shaking her head when we asked her to share something in the lesson. Tan was really struggling to understand what we were teaching, and so after trying to explain it several different ways, Truc finally just repeated it in Vietnamese. The rest of the lesson, we'd teach a principle, he'd ask her questions about things he wasn't clear on, and she would answer in Vietnamese. The more questions he asked, the more comfortable she got until she was teaching him bible stories without being prompted, reading scriptures she thought to share on her own, and bearing her testimony of all of it. It was really remarkable how quickly she was able to come out of her shell and share the things she knew to be true. Tan was able to teach it all back to us at the end when we were checking for understanding, so it was clear he really grasped the lesson. Truc was just beaming as my companion and I recalled all our favorite moments of the lesson during the car ride home, like you would after just seeing a great movie. It's a really amazing thing to see, and I wish the Elder who taught and baptized Truc 2 years back could see what an impact she's making today.

I've been in Tacoma 10 weeks, and the church is true here too!

-Sister McQuivey

A Christmas Miracle 7/15/2013

We've been working with the Relief Society presidents and Bishops in every ward to get lists of the members who used to be in the Cambodian branch but are now in regular family wards (at least according to the records, because none of them are active). We drive around checking up on any names they give us- a lot of people have moved, many others have gone back to Buddhism, but out of 25 names or so we'll usually find one or two who will let us come back and visit them. It was about 8:45 one night, and our curfew being 9, we only had time to check on one more name. We prayed about it and I felt like we should go back to a name we'd already tried to visit but found that the address as listed didn't exist anymore. So we plugged the address in to the GPS, went where it took us (which was a parking lot) and parked and started walking down the street. I really don't even know how this happened (well, I do, it's called a miracle) but we found the right house. They weren't interested.

BUT it's not over- because living in the same building as those people was this inactive Cambodian woman in her 50s. She used to be a relief society president back in Cambodia, and went to church once here when she moved to the US 6 years ago. But the meetings were in English and she couldn't understand a lick of it so she hasn't been back since. Enter McQuiv, the Cambodian speaker for the entire WA-TAC mission- and this woman agreed to come to church Sunday! She showed us her room which has pictures of Christ and her Cambodian scriptures (well marked-up). She was also excited to show us her collection of pictures and toys of "prophets" in her room, which I had to explain to her were actually all someone named Santa Claus (much to her confusion). I'm pretty sure she thought they were all bible prophets (Noah, Moses, Abraham) because of the long white beards. 

Anyway, so Relief Society president (hereafter to be referred to as RSP) came to church yesterday and was so happy to have someone who can translate the meetings for her. She held my hand the entire time. She asked me to introduce her to the bishop and to tell her how she can pay tithing here. She hasn't been to church in 6 years and her first Sunday back to wants to make sure she pays tithing! What a testimony. So she's awesome and between the miracle that allowed us to find her and the fact that she's got a whole room of Santa/Moses dolls, I'm declaring it a Christmas Miracle.

A Sister Walker just accepted the call to serve Cambodian speaking in the WA-TAC. She's supposed to be here in November. So granted that I'm able to have enough Cambodian success between now and November to necessitate a Cambodian mission here, she will be coming and I will train her. Which means we will be working full time Cambodian! (as opposed to about half English half Cambo, on account of my companion doesn't speak  Cambodian). That definitely puts the pressure on for the next few months, because if there isn't enough work ready to occupy full-time Cambodian missionaries, they won't send any (she'll get reassigned).

I've been in the WA-TAC 7 weeks, and the church is true here too (both in Cambodian and in English)!

-Sister McQuivey

A Baptism Story July 8, 2013

Evidence that miracles really do happen: 

I make my bed everyday. 

So once upon a time on a park day (1 day every month when we're only allowed to walk even if we have a car), we were on our way to an apartment complex we wanted to knock, but decided on the way to just knock a few houses. In one of the last ones, we met a Cambodian grandmother who as it turns out is an inactive member of the church (as is pretty much every Cambodian we run into here). She told us she wasn't interested in coming back, she was too busy for church, etc. But we left her with a Cambodian Book of Mormon with our names and numbers written on the inside and bore our testimonies about the spirit she'd feel if she'd read it. Then we left. We'd been walking for maybe 20 mins when we got a call from this woman's granddaughter. She had just gotten home from school, seen the Book of Mormon, and immediately called us and asked us to come over. She's 8 years old and can't read Cambodian, so she didn't even know what the book was. But when we walked back to her house, she was hugging the book and wanted to know if she could have one in English. Her grandmother gave us complete permission to teach her and for her to come to church, because she wants her grandchildren to be raised in a church environment. So we started teaching her right away. 

We got her a children's picture Book of Mormon and gave her little reading assignments in between each lesson. We did our best to make sure there was someone from her primary class there with us in every lesson. It was so neat to see these little girls get all dressed up in their Sunday best and bring their scriptures and say an opening prayer in every lesson. They were so excited to be asked to help teach Angelina, and now she has friends she looks forward to seeing every Sunday. When she came to church her first Sunday, she surprised us by announcing, "hey, I've been here before!" She then proceeded to tell us about this friend who used to take her to church and one time she saw someone wearing white clothes get dunked under the water and come up again, and could we tell her what that was all about? We had a picture flip-book and showed her how Jesus was baptized that same way, and read with her about how baptism cleanses our sins and helps us follow the example of Jesus. She asked us, when can I do that? She was baptized yesterday at 4pm after church. Her whole family came to the baptism, and told us afterwards that they would come to church to support her on the Sundays they aren't working. 

Don't you just love it when the gospel absolutely changes peoples lives?

On a side-note, I have been assigned a new companion for next transfer, and she moves in starting tomorrow! She speaks English, of course, but that's totally fine by me. She's been out as long as I have, so we'll be follow-up training each other. I'm super excited to be the senior companion because I've been with my trainer long enough to know what works and what doesn't (what doesn't work: waiting until the day of the baptism to arrange everything for the baptism). I'm determined to kinda be the chain-breaker in all of the less-awesome missionary stereotypes in this area and earn the trust of the ward by showing them our willingness to work hard under their direction. 

I've been in Mountainview ward, Tacoma, Washington for 6 weeks (a full transfer!) and the church is definitely true here too.

-Sister McQuiv

P.S. write me letters I'm lonely

1204 73rd st. #34

Tacoma, WA 98404

Sua sdei--or hey!

My job, technically, is to only work with Cambodians. But because I'm the first Cambodian missionary in this area in a long time, no one came before me to keep records of where the Cambodians live and if they speak English or have ever heard of the church or anything. We meet up with Elders in each area, look through their area book for Cambodian-looking names, and ask them where would be the best places for us to tract (go knocking door to door) based on what they know of that area. We check up on old names, people who were baptized in the 80s and haven't been to church since the Cambodian branch was dissolved 10 years ago. And then the rest of the time, we're praying to know where to go, and knocking on doors.

I've come up with a formula for identifying Cambodian houses, at least in the state of Washington. Here it is, for your use:

1. Look for shoes -Cambodians all leave shoes outside the front door

2. Look for a quadrillion cars in the driveway - Cambodians all live like 4 generations in a house. Most people who come to the door are Grandparents or children, because the parents are at work. But the parents siblings and their spouses will live with them too

3. Look for Cambodian flags - everyone here is proud of their heritage, and so many cars have tiny flags in them that say American Samoa, Cambodia, Thailand, etc. The Cambodian ones are triangles with a temple in the center and yellow fringe around the outside. They're very distinct and easy to spot from a distance

4. Look for crazy gardens - Cambodians have the most absurd gardens. Everyone in Tacoma is wild on roses, but Cambodians will grow their own lemongrass, sesame seed, bamboo, Aloe Vera. Even in apartments where they don't have a lawn to plant in, they'll have 30 potted plants on the porch and in the house. They also have fake plants next to real ones, like a random fake flower planted in the dirt next to an herb. I don't understand it, but I love it.

5. Look for Buddhist shrines - even members of the church have them, because usually someone in the house is a practicing Buddhist. For a lot of the Cambodians here, it's just a way to hold on to their cultural roots, but they don't really care about the religious aspect of it so much.

6. Look for carpets- I don't know why, but they'll have like layers and layers of rugs. Like the floor will already be carpeted, and they'll put a rug on top of it, and then there will be more carpets overlapping each other covering the entire floor. So everywhere you step is triple-carpeted. 

I've been in Tacoma 5 weeks, and the church is true here too!

-Sister McQuiv

Tacoma: My Beloved Ghetto Home (June 24th 2013)

Tacoma is wicked diverse- probably less than half the people we encounter speak English, and for almost everyone, English isn't their first language. There's a little bit of everything here, but the biggest represented populations are the following (in order):

-Spanish

-Cambodian

-Samoan (there's a Samoan branch here)

-Vietnamese

-Russian

-Laos

-Thai

-Ukrainian

-Filipino

-Korean

-Native American

-Marshallese

We've learned door approaches in several languages, but we never know enough to be able to communicate, and even if we can and they say they're interested in learning more, we don't have anyone who can teach them (the exceptions being Spanish, because there's probably 12 missionaries for those, and Cambodian, because there's 1 me). Case in point: we found this deaf woman who is very enthusiastic about learning about Christ. She's in her late 20s/early 30s and has the most beautiful family. I took 1 semester of sign at BYU so I'm able to communicate okay, but it's slow and we end up writing back and forth on a sheet of paper a lot. I wish so bad I knew more or someone out here knew enough to be able to teach her!

Where we spend most of our time is in the ghetto, because that's where the Cambodians live, and we run into a good number of Spanish too. So I'm teaching my companion Spanish, which is hilarious considering I don't speak any Spanish. But I'm pretty fluent in like Dora-level language, meaning if you have a map and a backpack and need directions to a castle, I'm your girl. We were required to take it in elementary school and then we've got all these American TV shows that sneakily teach us things. Plus I'm proficient at the card game Uno, so I've got my numbers down pat. So I can count and name all the colors and ask if they go to iglesia or have heard of Libro de Mormon or want Missionaros to come to their casa.. This amazes my companion and she's always asking me how to say different things, because in Cambodia the language they study in school (if they go to school) is usually Chinese.

My companion is the definition of too-cool-for-school. This last week she showed me her scars and was like, "this one is from a gang fight, this one was in a motorcycle race, this was a knife wound". She sold her motorcycle to come on a mission and she knows everything about cars. She worked with the military for like 2 years before she came out here and lived in the jungles with them. She joined a gang when she was 11 and was somehow was able to leave it even though it's like a 'you're in for life' thing. She walks with the utmost swag and always wears sunglasses. She regularly describes herself as, "yeah, I'm pretty chill".

I had my first baptism this past week on Friday. I've been here teaching him since his very first lesson, so it's cool that my first baptism is someone that I've taught, instead of just someone my companion taught. His name is Aaron and he's 54 years old. My companion and her trainer tracted into his wife back in March, and she was baptized a few weeks later. But he wouldn't have anything to do with the church or the missionaries and wouldn't attend her baptism. After she was baptized, the missionaries were back over helping her with yard work and setting up a TV stand in their house, and Aaron just kind of hovered and asked all kinds of questions about the church and why on earth his wife was so happy all of a sudden and why she'd changed so much and how could he be that happy too? They answered his questions and told him, you know, you can be happy too. Aaron said he didn't think he could be a Mormon because he was a redneck. My companion was like, no problem! We've got tons of those in our ward, you'll fit right in.

 My first week we got a text from the wife, Toni, and she said he wanted to start learning with the missionaries. It took him only 4 weeks to get totally off cigarettes, coffee, and beer, and he was baptized on Friday and confirmed (meaning he received the gift of the holy ghost) on Sunday at church. When I first met him he had a huge beard and shoulder length hair, and over the weeks he shaved and cut his hair and even wore a button down (jean) shirt on Sunday! We didn't ask him to do any of those things, but as he was learning about Jesus Christ and changing on the inside, he started to want to change on the outside too. 

I've been in Tacoma 4 weeks, and the church is true here too!

-Sister McQuivey