Skype Details

She was very late getting on--although we found out it wasn't her fault. She had told us 7:00 p.m.  We waited and waited, and sometime around 7:40 we heard her trying to dial on.  It ended up that the Cambodian family that they had planned to skype from stood them up, and so they were scrambling at the last minute to try to find any family that would let them skype.  It was a lot to ask of these members, because there are 3 missionaries in the companionship and each one needed to talk to their family for 40 minutes to an hour and so that’s a lot of time for a family to give up to missionaries.

When Janessa first got on, we asked her, “how much time do you have?”  She said, “I don’t know.  I think an hour.”  And then the members whose home she was at said in the background, “What? We only got 40 minutes with our missionary child.”  So then Janessa said, “So I guess we have sometime between 40 minutes and an hour.”

She was very enthusiastic and happy and bright eyed.  She thanked us heartily for her presents.  She and her companions had opened each other’s presents before Christmas so that if the presents came unwrapped a companion could wrap them and put them under the tree.  That way the missionary wouldn’t know what they were getting, but the companions would know.

She told us that right before Christmas, Janessa was in the mall with her companions and she nearly bought herself a hand-mixer because she has been so frustrated at trying to whip cream by hand. Her companions knew that we had sent her one for Christmas, and so they were able to distract her from her purchase by suggesting that they go get some food to eat.

She said that this winter is the coldest winter on record in Washington State in the last 20 years.  Every night from 5:00-7:00 is consecrated “tracting time” throughout the whole mission. So before 5:00 Janessa said that she and her companions go home and put on all of their warm clothing. She said they wear several pairs of tights, several pairs of leggings, and then they all wear Janessa’s knee socks, as well as boots and coats and head out for the “chilly hours” of tracting. She said that most people won’t let them in or talk to them when they knock because “it’s too cold” and they don’t want to let the cold in.  Janessa says that she’s always thinking, “I know how cold it is.  We’re standing out here in the cold!”

She also talked about the 1 day a month called “Park day” where the missionaries can’t drive to any appointments. They park their car for the day and walk everywhere they go, contacting everyone they meet along the way. She said that December’s park day was brutal because they were frozen all day and they were outside all day and couldn’t go back home to put on more clothes.  She and her two companions all  wear her knee socks daily.  She said her comps didn’t have any boots when they arrived in the mission, so she loaned them boots from her small collection.  

She talked about writing a Christmas skit about a missionary doing door approaches and the investigator on the other side pretending not to speak English, so when the missionary counters with Spanish, they pretend not to speak Spanish, and so on and so on, with about 5 other language attempts--every time the missionary is able to speak the language that they say they speak, only to have the investigator come up with another nationality that they think will foil the missionary. Until finally at the end, the investigator says in perfect English, Well, I'm just not interested." Janessa says this happens all of the time. The Cambodians hide behind "I don't speak English--I'm Cambodian--in heavily accented, broken English, and when Janessa pulls out the Cambodian, they say, in perfect English, well, I'm just not interested."

She also rewrote a Christmas song for the missionaries which was supposed to be quite witty. She said she'd send us a copy.

We each spent 5-6 minutes with her alone—each of the siblings, each of the parents, filling her in on our lives and asking her questions.

Janessa skyped from a laptop on her lap on the couch, so the sound and the picture were not great.  We missed a bunch of things she was saying and had to ask for “repeats.”  Also, the picture would suddenly just shift and jiggle all over. She did show us that she was wearing the lacy crocheted tights that James and I had bought her in Rome. She had a pair of red tights underneath them that showed through.

She was also sitting on the couch in a house that had a huge red Christmas bow decoration right above her head, so when she sat up straight, it looked as if this Christmas bow was right on her head.

Over all—she seemed in a really good mood.  She was really responsive and happy about everything we told her.  She was really grateful about everyone that sent her Christmas items.  And she just told us some fun stories in her engaging and dramatic way—like how many layers they would put on before they went out.

Merry Christmas

Janessa's Zone at the Mission Christmas Party 

at the Church

Thanks to Janessa's Mission President's wife, Sister Weaver for posting this photos on the mission blog!

Chestnuts roastin on an open fire, baptism fills you with a new desire

December 17, 2013

I love my tiny live Christmas tree! You should've been there to see my reaction when we got home and saw it on our porch. I about woke up the whole complex screaming I LOVE CHRISTMAS THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE THE CHURCH IS TRUE etc. 

Also I got the winter wear package, which was perfectly timed and has been keeping me snug for tracting all week. And I got the one at the mission office, and a big one that says "Don't open till Christmas". Also the Dunford family sent me the cutest ever package that I wasn't sure if I was supposed to save for Christmas, but I'm so glad I opened it because it significantly improved the quality of my life. Think tiny Christmas treats and notebooks all wrapped in little baggies with bows. I am so spoiled. 

Sorry I didn't have time to email last week! I was writing our zone's skit for the Christmas party and then before I knew it my computer was timed out and I never got to send what I wrote.

News:

1. transfers today- I stay with my girls for another 7 weeks, but all our bestest friends in the zone have been scattered far and wide which has caused exceeding tears and distress. We've had the most dope crew this past transfer and we've gotten so close with each other, and it's sad to think it'll never be like it was again. My companionship is lucky enough that we have bigger boundaries than most, so we'll be able to see our friends while we're teaching cambodians in their areas. But we won't be all reunited as a crew until September 2015 when the last of us are home. Still though, we're pretty lucky- this has been a heartbreaking transfer for some, with many going clear across the mission and having to spend Christmas after only a week in a brand-new area with strangers. Transfers are so tough sometimes!

2. I usually make lunch every week for our Wednesday district meetings. There's 12-14 in our district, depending on if the zone leaders come (they switch-off every other week). Some weeks I'm way elaborate, like steak and potatoes and lion house rolls. One time for zone meeting I asked every person what meal they missed from home and then made everyone their own separate lunch. There's 2 districts in our zone and most everyone is either an elder or a sister with the appetite of an elder. That one took forever. Anyway, this picture is from the time I decided to try to create a griddle on the church stove to cook pancakes on. It worked really well, at least the pancakes were delicious, but then unfortunately it melted the bottom of the pan and so the stove and the pan were ruined. 

Don't ever listen to anyone who says a mission is a sacrifice. It's not. You're giving up nothing compared to what you get in return. The investigators and less-actives I've worked with here have absolutely changed my life. I am a better person, a better missionary, and a better Christian because of the experiences I've had here, and I'm not even half-done. If you're thinking about going on a mission, stop thinking. Just go. You will never regret that decision, and you'll spend everyday thanking your heavenly father for trusting you enough to serve and teach his children.

I've been in the WA-TAC 29 weeks, and the church is true here too!

-Sister McQuivey

Thanksgiving and

12/3/2013

For thanksgiving we dressed in coordinating fall colors!

The best thing about 5 sisters living in 1 apartment complex is 5 closets to pull from. No one shown in this picture is wearing clothes that actually belong to them.

 I love these girls so much. I really lucked out big time by getting to have them as companions. We have so much fun and laugh nonstop which means that we don't pause long enough to let the craziness of what we're doing stress us out. We found out today there's a 4th sister who's been called and is coming Cambodian speaking in the end of March/beginning of April. At which point we'll finally be two separate companionships! Hopefully by then we'll have some sort of branch or at least a group to work with. Right now we're not assigned to any ward, so we just try to get all the inactives and investigators to come to the wards which are in there areas, and then pick which ward we want to go to each Sunday. But we don't have a bishop to work under or a ward mission leader or ward missionaries to work with. So we're just pioneering it and hoping eventually we'll get enough people to church in their respective wards that it'll legitimize a need for a single group that all the Cambodians go to. After all, we cover all the wards in the mission but we can only translate in one meeting at a time! 

The work is slow moving. We're getting dropped a lot (the term for investigators deciding they no longer want to meet with us and instead pretending they're not home). Also we spend a lot of time just trying to find out where the inactive members live now because most have moved at least 2x in the last 8 years and very few have kept in contact with each other. A huge problem we're finding is that many of these inactives didn't understand the gospel when they were baptized back in '82. They weren't really taught, at least not very well, and so they got baptized to thank the members of the church who helped them make a life here when they moved from Cambodia. But they think that Buddha and Jesus are the same, and that it doesn't matter which path we follow because true happiness comes from having a lot of money. This is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't know who the missionaries were who served here in '82, but we seem to be doing a lot of clean-up from instatisms (instant baptisms, without teaching lessons first) they performed.

I've been in the WA-TAC 27 weeks, and the church is true here too!

-Sister McQuivey (the tall one in the picture)

Cambodian Reunion Photos, plus a bonus picture!

Our Cambodian Reunion/Activity. We had no idea if we'd get 10 people or 200.  We had 70!  We were very happy with the turnout!

Janessa singing at the Cambodian reunion.

 From Sister Weaver's blog:  Janessa and her comps at the Cambodian reunion

 Cambodian Reunion

Janessa singing at the Cambodian reunion (Thanks Sister Weaver)

All of the missionaries in Mountain View spelling M.V. with their bodies!

Photos--In which I'm a stoplight, Jessie, and a chef, amongst other things.

We're a Stoplight!

 Our Zone

Me and Cassell on Halloween.  I'm dressed up like Jessie from Toy Story.

At a park close to our appointment. Sister McQuivey and Sister Cassell.

I fixed Sister Cassell her favorite lunch--steak and potatoes.

A mission wide conference in which I meet Elder Neil L. Andersen and shake his hand...

11/26/2013

This past Saturday, we attended our mission-wide conference in which a member of the Quorum of the 12 and a member of the 70 came to speak to us. For security issues, they couldn't tell us who was coming until they were already here. So it remained a surprise to us until only a few minutes before the meeting started that Elder Neil L. Anderson and Elder Craig C. Christiansen were assigned to come speak to our mission. Elder Anderson wanted to shake all of our hands individually, and as we lined up and it got to my turn, I said quickly, "You were my mom's mission president in France, Sister Megan Kelly" to which he said, "Oh of course you're Megan's daughter! How is your family doing?" He talked to me for a bit, remembered that we were in Boston and said, "I've met your dad now, I think" and said he was told I was Hmong speaking in Washington, which is pretty close anyway. Then he said, "Thank you so much for stopping me and telling me! It's good to see you." which alone I thought was pretty cool. But after he'd shook all the missionaries hands and went up to the podium to speak, he said, "I just want to show you how we're all connected. Sister McQuivey, stand up so everyone can see who you are" and then talked about how he was my Mom's mission president years ago and how weird it is to think that his missionaries now have kids who are serving missions and that one day, we'll have kids that will be serving missions and if he's not too old he could one day meet them at a mission conference too. He also said, "and she looks exactly like Megan, with her red hair and everything" which is awkward considering I'm a bottle redhead and have only had red hair for a few weeks. So that was way cool!

It was an incredible meeting. He was great humored and very calm and comfortable which made us relax a little more. He talked about how key the principle of repentance is, and how no one should ever be baptized without having first repented and having a full understanding of what repentance is. He also made a significant remark about being sure to only bear testimony of principles we have a definite testimony of. He said if there's something we're teaching that we're unsure of or are questioning, it's better to let our companion bear testimony of it than to try to say the words anyway if we don't fully believe it. Without conviction, the spirit can't be present, and so it's better to bear testimony of things that we have a testimony of rather than try to force it. He said it's okay to say, "I'm still learning this in my own life, but from my experience this is what I understand.." I thought this was pretty important because it makes you step back and think, "do I have a testimony of this principle?" before jumping in and declaring something. And it helps you recognize if the answer is no, which principles you need to study out and 'experiment' upon in order to gain a stronger testimony of them.

Another thing that stood out to me was when Elder Anderson spoke about the atonement, he broke it down to the mercy, merits, and grace of Christ that we can learn from. Especially regarding the mercy of Christ he said, "We should be teaching this everyday, shouldn't we? What else is there?". I think as a missionary I've kind of been hesitant to teach mercy because I find the Cambodian people think it gives them permission to have an "eat, drink, and be merry" attitude because they think if they can be forgiven through the mercy of Christ later, there's no need to repent now. But that's something I need to learn to teach more clearly, with emphasis on the balance between justice and mercy and the focus being to invite the spirit so they'll feel a desire to repent. The atonement isn't something that you can gain an appreciation for without applying it first in your own life.

So to bring both points together, if you don't have a strong testimony of the atonement, apply it in your own life until you do. There's a quote I love from George Q. Morris in 1956 that says, "the principle question is not whether we comprehend the atonement, but do we accept it". In light of that quote, my challenge is that we work to accept the atonement in our own lives through daily repentance, including forgiving ourselves and moving beyond our past mistakes.

Something I need to repent for is not being a good enough missionary before my mission. I had no idea all that I could be doing to be more involved, and I didn't realize how many opportunities I missed to share the gospel with those around me. Now that I know, I'll be a much better member missionary when I get home a year from now.

I don't ever really know what to write about, so maybe send me questions of things you want to know and I'll respond to those.

I've been in the WA-TAC 26 weeks, and the church is true here too!

-Sister McQuivey

Thanksgiving Gathering For Tacoma Missionaries at the Mission Home

Janessa and fellow missionaries in Tacoma play PIT

Janessa and her two trainees on Thanksgiving night at the Mission home.

Vigorous Round of singing!

All of the missionaries gathered get to play Catch Phrase

Can you find Janessa?  She is on the right, in front of the Christmas tree, just behind her companion in the yellow sweater.

Goal setting is an act of faith; We follow up simply to count the miracles

November 19, 2013

The only picture I can procure at the moment from Halloween. I was Jessie from Toy Story 2, Cassell was Esmerelda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. We're not allowed to tract on halloween, on account of this is Tacoma and so pretty much we're gonna get shot. So we were required to listen to the gunshots from the safety of the church building with all the missionaries in the Tacoma East zone from 3-9pm. 6 hours is a long time to entertain a bunch of 18 year old Elders, so my comp and I planned out a plethora of activities (one of which was carving oranges, see picture) and made about a bajillion snacks. We over estimated the hunger level of the Elders though so we had 2 pans of cupcakes, 1 pan of cookies, and a pan of rolls left over. We walked around the next day and gave them to the homeless. Having been in the same area for 4 transfers, I'm pretty much on first name basis with all the homeless people in the greater Tacoma area. Also all the Cambodians. I love love love talking to everyone but that means I'm talking to about 200 people a day everyday for 6 months so I'm running out of people I haven't already invited to learn more. I am legitimately making round 2 on all these people who are like, yeah you've already prayed with me and given me a book of mormon back in June, don't you remember? What I really need to start doing is asking the cambodian ones if my grammar and pronunciation has improved at all since the last time I contacted them. But then there's the awkward times where it's like, yeah you've already tried to teach me in Cambodian and I'm still Marshallese/Korean-black/Laos/PuertoRican-Chinese so I still don't understand you. This happens more than I would like to admit.

The latter picture is the most unattractive thing I've ever seen and therefore I plan to print out copies and distribute them among the investigators and fellow missionaries. If this doesn't shake their testimony, I think it's safe to say that nothing will. In the black is Cassell, my former comp who still is in my area and teaching the people we used to teach but with a new comp, sister Packard (in the blue). It is so weird for me. They're talking about investigators that used to be mine too and it's hard for me to hear about it later and not be a part of it. Also I feel like I'm being broken up with because I call like the day after transfers and the voicemail message is changed and the text signature doesn't have my name on it and I can't help but feel like HOW COULD YOU MOVE ON SO FAST. Except obviously this is how it works in missionary work, you get transferred and it's fine.. minus the unusual situation of I still see my old comp and old investigators everyday and they just have someone new now. Sniff. But I have plenty to do to stay busy so occupying my mind is the best way to move on! In the white and yellow is one of my posterity, Sister Walker. I think Sister Dunster is directly behind Cassell so that's unfortunate that you don't get to see her too but when I find my camera cord I'll send pictures that I took instead of ones other people sent me because they thought I looked funny. These two are from our Zone Leader Fish, who was in a car driving away and zoomed in super close to try to get a candid of our group but I spotted his sneaky behavior, hence the pointing and the face which translates to, "I see you, you fiend". Also besides that I just look like this on a fairly regular basis.

Well those were meant to be brief picture captions and as it turns out, each could be their own chapter book series for young adults.. so look for those published in a kindle bookstore near you.

In other news, our reunion was a great success. We had 70 people there, it was such an interesting mix because we had people come who had told us they wouldn't go, and people who drove 1.5 hours just for the event, when there were people who lived 5 mins away and said they'd come and make 100 egg rolls for it and then didn't show. Don't worry though, we went and visited those people and they gave us some of the egg rolls. I creepily took pictures of people the whole time on my storm trooper pentax, so we could know who was there and who came in what groups and was friends with whom. Last night we sat down with an elderly couple who used to work in the branch and went through the pictures with them so we could connect names to faces and find out the background stories of the people who were there, including how active they were initially, where they were living now and who they still keep in touch with from the branch. That was equal parts helpful and hilarious, because they sat and bickered over every person that was brought up (ie they disagreed on what their name was, how many kids they had, what callings they held, why they stopped coming to church etc). Considering the amount of eye-rolling that occurred between them in just those few minutes, it's a marvel that after 50 years of marriage, their eyes haven't rolled out of their skulls.

Lastly I gave you the wrong address. This is so uncomfortable.

7227 13th Ave Ct E apt #21

Tacoma, WA 98404

All the numbers are the same but the difference between Ave Ct. E and Ave is randomly significant because in Tacoma those addresses are completely across town from each other. I do not understand how this is possible. Also, there's a 13th St E, a 13th St Ct E, a E 13th St, and then on the other side of Tacoma there's a 13th Ave S, 13th Ave Ct S, a 13th St S, a 13th St Ct S, and a S 13th St. If anyone knows who created the Washington street system, please alert me immediately so that I can send them a strongly worded letter, along with an invitation to learn more about the gospel. Which, chances are, I've already extended to them at some point over the last 6 months anyway.

(Anyone notice how I just brought it back full circle?)

I've been in the WA-TAC 25 weeks, and the church is true here too!

-Sister McQuivey

I'm Full time Cambodian and I love it!

November 12, 2013

The Twins are doing well! I've been working them hard so I'm lucky if one of them stays awake during planning at night. It doesn't help that they're battling a 2 hour time difference (1 for utah, 1 for daylight savings time) and that all 3 of us have some sort of variation of the same flu/cold. But we're missionaries and we don't have time to be sick so we're pushing through!

We've got a huge reunion planned this Saturday for the old Cambodian Branch which lasted 26 years and has been dissolved for 8 years. The most updated ward list is from 2004, so most of the phone numbers and addresses are totally incorrect. But we're working through the list and hoping for attendance of 100 of the original 600 members. We've called every phone number on there and are driving around to the addresses to deliver fliers which we made inviting everyone to the reunion. One side is in English, the other side is in Cambodian, because in most of the households there's a mix of some people (the parents) who can only read Cambodian, some who can only read English (the kids) and some who can't read either (the grandparents).

 My previous comp Cassell and I worked super hard on those fliers, including meeting with this monk Chao 4 different times to check our grammar and translation. He pretty much laughed and said, "who translate this for you? This make no sense! This funny!" to which I held my head in shame and admitted most of it was Google translate. According to him, our finished product "makes much more sense for Cambodian people" so at least we have that. We're hoping to meet with the monk weekly for language study help.

At this point with the reunion, we've gotten so many 'maybe's that we could end up with 10 people there or 200. We're hoping it's closer to the latter but there's no way to no for sure until it comes. All I know about Cambodians is that they don't ever keep appointments or schedule anything, but maybe if enough people give them enough reminders, they'll come to a party.

We're in a brand-new apartment so our bishop, Relief Society President, and Elders Quorum President have been trying to acquire us furniture. We each have a bed and a dresser, and dishes in our kitchen, so that's pretty much all we could ever need! Minus a microwave. I'm now learning how much I rely on a microwave every day now that we don't have one. But our bishop assures us one is coming  around the corner, so I guess this is the perfect time to exercise some faith.

Tell Tutu I got the package with the socks, the Target gift card, the Halloween package, and the one with the 6 foot tall pumpkin man. Thank you so much!

My new address is 7227 13th ave E apt # 21 Tacoma Wa, 98404

Love you all!

-Sister McQuivey

P.S.  As it turns out, they sell hair dye at the dollar store so obviously I had to try that out. I died my hair red for Halloween! I was missionary Jessie from Toy Story 2. I'll send pictures next week. Also it's permanent so that's interesting. I'm officially a Weasley!

Photos of Janessa's Twins!

Janessa's two new greenie companions. They are both (or rather all three of them are) Cambodian speaking!

Thanks to Janessa's Mission President's wife who posts all of these great photos for us to pilfer!

And They're Off!

Getting picked up at the airport!

A little later on...6 weeks or so...Transfer Day!

It's TWINS!

November 5, 2013

My two baby greenies fresh from the mtc arrived today! I've been a madman for the past few days packing and unpacking in my new place and trying to get things in order to train baby missionaries. It's going to be a blast but for now I'm exhausted and am just trying to get through to the end of the day. Twins are twice the fun and twice the work! I'm proud at last to be a mission mom and to introduce them to the rest of the mission family (their grandmother is the missionary who trained me, etc.)

They are named Sister Dunster and Sister Walker and are so adorable! We are going to study hard and work harder and hopefully get some work done.

Love you all! I've got to go tend to the twins but I'll send out a longer email next week.

-Sister McQuivey

This Post Features Photos from September and October

Sister Cassell and Sister McQuivey

The missionaries in the Tacoma area were invited to the mission home to carve pumpkins and to meet the mission president's children and grandchildren who were visiting.

October 2013.  Transfer date.  We're staying together! Things are going so good. I'm working so hard. They've set the goal mission wide to teach 20 lessons a week, so we've set our companionship goal at 40 a week and make it almost every week. 10/22/2013

Pictures From District Meeting, Saturday September 13th 2013

Role Playing

More Lovely Photos

Sister Cassell and Sister McQuivey

Zion's Camp Activity

The missionaries got to take a day in their service clothes to test themselves physically, learn to rely on each other and the Lord, and enjoy lessons for life and the mission at this beautiful retreat.

Dinner Zion's Camp Posted Sun. Sept. 27

Beautiful Zion's Camp

Pictures from Letter 10/8/2013

Me and the other sisters in my district/zone on a p-day. In case you forget what I look like, I am the one wearing the iron man glasses

As per usual, I have befriended all of the UPS workers in the greater Tacoma area. This is an average day with ups Ryan.

This is when our ward had a Luau. Me and my companion, accompanied by 3 primary children and a less active we've been working with in the back right. 

This is a Sister Baca, a 4-foot tall Korean woman in our ward who we adore. She's a convert of like 9 years, and just went to the temple for the first time a few weeks ago. She has us over for dinner a lot, and calls us to come pick up containers of rice and kimchi even more often. One time when we were at her house we were taking pictures of our eyeballs up close (it was the elders idea, I promise) and she wanted to try but every time the flash went off she blinked so we have about a kadrillion pictures of her eyes closed and this is the most open eye picture we got. She is the cutest human being to walk the earth. When I grow up I want to be her.

I've been in the WA-TAC 19 weeks, and the church is true here too!

And dang, wasn't conference good? I shoulda brought my notes so I could type up my favorite things. There's always next week.

-Sister McQuivey

More photos of Sister McQuivey and Sister Cassell

Baptism!

Just found this gem on her companion's blog.