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