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
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