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
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