Looking for Recruits for My Support Group 2/25/2014

Guys. Something has happened. 

It's true what they say, that a diagnosis really changes your perspective on life.

You start recognizing what's really important, living life to the fullest, appreciating the little things.

The past 5 days I've been trying to adjust to my new life, knowing what I know now.

It all started Friday when I got the call that changed everything. 

I now join the millions who suffer from the 3rd most prominent killer of women in the US, after heart disease and cancer. Yes, I'm afraid it's true. I have indeed been diagnosed with..slight gluten sensitivity.

I know, it's been hard for me to reconcile in my own mind. I've spent a lot of time crying out, "why me?" and erupting into fits of tears and anguish. Usually this occurs in the middle of the night, and awakes both my companions. They've taken to throwing things at me.

I've decided to turn this debilitating illness into a positive- that is, to use my struggles to help others. Which is why I'm now forming a support group for those who have serious conditions that affect their everyday lives. So far it consists of a sister who has a mild peanut allergy, our less active Son Him who is 70 and has diabetes, and the guy who is sitting next to me at the library today who I'm pretty sure has at least 3 different STDs. We're going to meet together over some gluten-free, peanut-free, sugar-free snacks and discuss our difficulties and just in general complain about how inconvenient our lives are. If you know anyone who might be interested in joining my support group, please forward them my information. But make sure their problems are legit enough. Some clown with carpel tunnel tried to weasel their way into my group and I had to veto it, because I didn't want them to interrupt the serious discussion with, "yeah, it hurts sometimes when I type", and we'd all just get silent and then have to be like, get out.

I've lately taken to blaming all my problems on my slight gluten sensitivity. IE yesterday at a lesson when the Yiay (grandma) said she didn't understand anything I'd just tried to say, I responded with, "Khnom ot aac nyam gluten" (I negator can eat gluten) and she seemed to understand that somehow and didn't question me for the rest of the lesson. As result of this, my companions have started their own support group for "People who have to put up with McQuivey". It seems to be growing rather quickly.

I've been in the WA-TAC 39 weeks, I have a slight gluten sensitivity, and the church is true here too!

-McQuivey, inc.

Drop the Book of Mormon...That stick will gather by the thousands

...we know the house of Israel will be the outcome. -Kid Zion

  

Family! Friends! Acquaintances!

Every year in this mission, we do our own March Madness tournament that involves weekly optional assignments (such as read chapters 2 and 8 of PMG, complete the activities on page 18 and 22 and send them in, complete the activity on 152 including writing the answers to your questions, memorize 5 one liners from chapters 2 or 8 and submit those). Every week we get a new list of assignments that have to be completed and sent in by the next week. Those who participate will get a spot in the bracket, and at the end of the tournament, the zone with the most participation gets a p-day activity of their choice fully funded by the weavers (last year the activity was laser tag for the whole zone). Obviously anything related to competition is right up my alley. We are so all over this. We made a list of the Elders in the zone with the greatest likelihood of dropping the ball and check on them regularly to make sure they're completing their assignments in a timely manner.

Last week for a portion of our assignment, we did a study on humility. Then we lived the study of humility by checking some referrals. The definition of humbled? Knocking on a Cambodian's door, speaking Cambodian to them when they open the door, and being rejected because, "sorry, no speak English". We are humbled daily when we recognize that our language ability is so poor, native Cambodian people can't even tell that we're trying to speak Cambodian. Doesn't happen at every door, but when it does, it always makes me laugh.

We participated in a musical fireside this past week, dress-code black and white. The purpose of them is to invite investigators, less-actives, members, pretty much anyone and everyone to attend. There's a variety of musical numbers by those in the mission that have talent, there's some large group numbers for the rest of us, and it's all interspersed with testimonies about Jesus Christ and the powerful role He can play in our lives. It's a great opportunity to introduce investigators to what the spirit feels like, because it's there in great force during the whole meeting. As a member, feeling the spirit so strongly makes you become involved in missionary work. And as a missionary, the whole experience makes you want to be more diligent, more obedient, and more worthy of the spirit in your work. Warm and fuzzy overall. We love firesides!

Okay so I only got this picture off the mission blog, but it's probably the least attractive thing I've ever seen so obviously I had to make sure none of you missed it. In case you forget what I look like, that's me glaring casually on the bottom right corner. I recommend you edit it down so its just a picture of the 3 of us companions, and display it in some prominent location in the house. It's pretty representative of an average day in the life of JMcQuivs, Sister Missionary. There's actually a way cute one of us a little further down in the same blog post, but I don't feel the same need to share that one. Look it up if you so choose.

Hopefully next week, I'll be writing about our on-date investigator (meaning he's accepted an invitation to be baptized and is working towards a specific date to do so) named Say. He's probably one of the most amazing people I've had the privilege of teaching, and I feel so blessed to be one of the three to introduce him to the gospel.

I've been in the WA-TAC 38 weeks, and the church is true here too!

-Sister Quivs

And here are some more photos from the mission blog:

 Now this is a cute one!

 Not from the fireside--from interviews or zone conference or something else.

 The whole fireside group!

I wonder if Janessa saw this photo of herself?  I think this is a pretty funny one too!

Lalalala, lalalala, comp unity!

Greetings frogs and toads,

Transfers happened...we stay together for the 3rd transfer in a row. Which we are delighted about! We're a good team and are finally seeing efforts of our work pay off in small ways here and there, and it would be sad to be split up now when we have someone on date for baptism in the next fewish weeks, because spliting up would mean only a few of us would get to keep teaching him and see him all the way to baptism. We know this is probably our last one together, then next transfer Sister Noun (my trainer, Cambodian but called English speaking) will likely come in, and the following transfer, Noun will go back English speaking when Sister Loy, our #4, comes in from the mtc! We don't know yet who will train her, so I could either be a mom again, or more likely, I'll be a grandma (if one of my girls trains her). We're determined to make this transfer count. We've got 3 prospective people who could reasonably be baptized in the next 6 weeks, and we're going to do everything in our power (as well as pray mightily for the help of God's power) to make it happen. We're also working a lot with less-actives, and hoping we can see some of those return to church in the next transfer so we can get a branch started.

  Companions that plank together...are good companions. We're actually all sick (we've gone through 5 boxes of tissues in a few days) so this wasn't planking so much as just lying down in our graves and waiting for some merciful stranger to come bury us and thereby put us out of our misery.

 The first attached picture is called some Elders in our zone lost a bet, so they had to each draw a picture of one of us. It's a good thing they're solid missionaries, because art certainly isn't their strong-suit. So on the left is the before and after of me, in the middle is a portrait of Walker, and on the right is an interesting interpretation of Dunst.

The second attached picture is last week at district meeting, when we decided to put together all the patterns we have in our closets to create the most excellent outfits possible. Dunst is in all polka-dots, Walker is rockin' the stripes, and I'm looking quite distinguished in animal prints.

I've been in the WA-TAC 37 weeks, and the church is true here too!

-Sister McQuivey

I'm sick. My letter got returned. And I got the wrong bloodwork done.

In response to the fact that we didn't get a letter she had told us she had sent:

Wed. 2/5/2014

Yeah my letter got returned to me on Saturday. Awkward. I had a gut feeling I should have added a second stamp, but I only had 1 stamp in the first place so that would have involved going to the post office just to purchase a second stamp with money I don't have. It's all good though, I'm super sick today and barely have the physical strength to type out this email so I'm going to write a second one while my companions are napping (they're both sick too, but I can't nap on account of my adderall) and then mail them both together with a second stamp. I keep trying to eat some fruit or something so I can get some vitamins in me and get over this cold, but I'll take like 1 bite of an apple and then be in a coughing fit. Our kitchen looks like we're going for some sort of snow white-theme because of all of the apples with a single bite out of them.

Dad will be unhappy to know that I'm pretty sure I got the wrong blood test on Tuesday, I didn't even think to print out the email he sent about it. I showed up to the doctor and they assumed I was there for a check up or something, they hadn't heard anything about gluten or blood testing so I did my best to describe to them what I remembered about what I was looking for but I didn't know the name of it and I remembered you said that a standard gluten panel wouldn't cover it but that was all they had so I just said to test me for everything that might have something to do with gluten and then went to the blood lab and they took like 5 vials. If I had realized I was supposed to coordinate it all with the doctor myself, I would have asked for details and written stuff down but I figured if Sister Weaver was in communication with dad and had set up the appointment, she would have already taken care of communicating to the doctor what I was coming in for. So we spent 3 hours of our morning in various waiting rooms and I'm pretty sure I wasn't able to describe it well enough to even get the correct test, so we'll probably have to go back. Joy.

Okay I've sneezed 7 times (1 for each of my dwarfs) so that's my cue to excuse myself from the public library before I infect the general population.

-Sister White 

A wonderful birthday surprise for Sister McQuivey!

A wonderful favor done for Sister McQuivey by a new friend, Deirdre, through another beloved friend, Sarah McMullin. Thank you to you both!

Includes a special surprise: Lengthy Cambodian language from Sister McQuivey