WHAT? I do not believe that!

3/25/2014

An interesting trial- we're asked to be 2 completely separate companionships with different investigators and schedules working in different areas with different people..who all live together in the same apartment and share 1 car. As our investigator Brenda would say, "WHAT? I do not believe that!" (she says this after everything we teach her, but has started to add "well, I do believe that, I just didn't know that" for clarification purposes). We're trying to switch off the car on a weekly basis, but we cover the whole mission and there aren't even any Cambodians in the zone that we currently live in. So it's a pretty far distance from anyone who's even the right race, and that doesn't even account for if they say thanks but no thanks in which case we have to walk another half mile to the next nearest Cambod's house. Needless to say it is not productive. We spend a lot more time walking and talking to random white people then getting to teach those we're trying to visit. Cambodians aren't big on set appointments; if you tell them you're coming back on a certain day at a certain time and does that work for them, they say, I don't know it hasn't happened yet. But you can try and stop by, and if I'm here and not otherwise occupied, then sure. This is not as big of an issue when you can just get back in the car after a dropped appointment and go try someone else. But when you planned out your whole day around walking there to talk to that person, and then find they're not home, and have to walk another several blocks to try another person who may or may not keep their appointment..this is what we call frustration in the biz. If you must know I may or may not have prayed for patience recently (go back like 4 weeks ago email if you need to be reminded that God answers such prayers) and have therefore brought this upon my companion and I in order to teach us to learn patience very quickly. The question now is, at what point do I tell my companion that I likely inadvertently caused this? If you were thinking never, that's the same train of thought I'm on right now too.

So one of the lessons we're walking to today is Brenda, a 21 year old girl who is mentally about the age of a 10 year old. She's the sweetest, cutest, funniest person. She has a lot of fears that hold her back, in particular when it comes to church attendance. We've been teaching her for almost 3 months now, and are seeing her slowly make progress and come around to the idea of attending church. The coolest unexpected thing there is that when we first started meeting with her, she would always complain about the kids at school teasing her or talking to her or bothering her in some way. She would never talk to them, but always brought up the fact that she hated going to school and having to be around these kids that aren't her friends and she just wants to stay home with her mom and brother and not deal with those other kids. As we've been teaching her about Jesus Christ, she's brought them up less and less. It's probably been 3 weeks before she's mentioned anything negative about school at all. As she's kept her commitments and drawn closer to Christ, she views everything around her with greater positivity  and love. And she isn't so affected by the actions of those around her, because she feels the light of Christ in her life, and so the opinions of those bullies at school just don't bother her anymore. What an amazing thing to see. I have no doubt the gospel will continue to bless her life as she prepares for baptism.

I've been in the WA-TAC 43 weeks, and the church is true here too!

-Sister McQuivs

Janessa is down to one companion now--the gal on the far right. And here she is with one of her previous comps, (to the right of Janessa).

Eeeek! Quick e-mail 3/25/2014

March 25, 2014

We moved! Don't send anything to the old address. I don't know the new one yet, but the office address on 4007 Bridgeport is still good for anything!

I got the St. Pat's day package, it was way cute! For note of caution- all the candy in the package ended up tasting and smelling like Irish spring soap. Of course I still ate it. But just so you know- the permeating power of the soap is greater than any plastic covering. It all became soapy. Perhaps I should have tried washing my hands with skittles and seen if it worked just how it smelled.

Tell Tutu thank you so so much for that amazing gluten-free package, I can't wait to try out some of those mixes when we've unpacked the kitchen.

This transfer, my trainer Sister Noun is companions with Sister Walker, and Sister Dunster and I are together. There's only 1 car for the 4 of us, and we have to switch off per week which companionship gets the car. As sisters, we're not allowed to ride bikes. And the companionship with the car is not supposed to give the other companionship rides (the only exceptions being meetings which we all have to attend). Also, we now don't even live in our zone (if we get on the freeway, it's about a 15 minute drive from our nearest investigator). So every week, for the companionship that doesn't have a car..you sure better hope your investigators keep their appointments! Otherwise, it's sure gonna be a long walk to the next cambodian (it's not like they all live next to each other you know). What an adventure! I'm sure we'll become intimately familiar with Washington's rainy season this transfer.

On the upside, I'm now cooking for a family of 4 which makes preparing meals feel a lot more worth the time and effort (especially now that I can't even eat them, because I can't afford to cook gluten and dairy free for the whole household). I am freakin homemaker of the year these days. I've hemmed and mended suit pants for 4 different Elders in the last week, I cook 3 well-balanced meals a day, I make survival care packages in mason jars for missionaries who are sick (hand santizer, tissues, cough drops, nyquil, herbal tea, soup mix, with a ribbon and a note on the lid), and I create incentive programs to get my girls to do various things. Last transfer I made me and Walker sticker charts when we were getting over our colds, and every time she finished another water bottle she could add a sticker, and when she filled the chart, she could buy a new skirt she'd been wanting. I wash the dishes, fold laundry, and sing the girls lullabies (the last one's against their will).

Ready for this?

I've been in the mtc for 10 weeks and in the WA-TAC for 42, which makes a total of 52 weeks, or one year, serving as a missionary. I've been out for a year, guys! And the church is true here too!

-Sister Janessa McQuivey

Say's Story

We are in the Tacoma East zone of the WA-TAC mission. To our left (I guess that would be west-ish) is the other half of our stake, the Tacoma West zone. West-er of that is Lakewood zone. And then Wester and a little South-er of that is Lacey zone. As Cambodians, we're allowed anywhere where we have a referral. But our main teaching area is the two Tacoma zones and the Lakewood zone. Anywhere outside of that we can go, but we just have to get permission from our mission president first. 

In our zone is the Allenmore ward, which is the Samoan ward for the whole mission (and beyond). They kinda have similar rules as us, except their ward has been running for many years and so they already have active members in every area that they would visit. We're generally pretty tight with Allenmore, because they are in the most similar situation to ours (because they have no boundaries, and can only teach those who are Samoan, instead of teaching anyone who lives in their particular ward area). One of the Elders who served in Allenmore got transferred to Lacey, and his first day there, he met some guy at a bus stop and started talking to him. The guy didn't speak English (this is very common), but because he was friends with us, the Elder knew to ask him if he was Cambodian. The guy said yes, the Elder asked if he'd be interested in learning about Jesus Christ, the guy said yes again, the Elder got the guy's address and told him Cambodian speaking missionaries would come to his door. In case you didn't catch on, that guy was Say, and we were those Cambodian speaking missionaries.

Never before had we gotten a referral in the Lacey zone, because the only missionaries who give us referrals are ones who served near us and know to look out for Cambodians. Lacey zone is out of our usual tracting area, so every time we went to teach Say, we had to call our president and get permission first. The first time we met Say, we told him we probably only would be able to come teach him once every 2 weeks or so. He was fine with that, eagerly accepted a Book of Mormon, and prayed with us at the end of that visit. We called him a week and a half later to set up a second appointment, and he asked if he could go to church. We started calling around to all the wards in Lacey to figure out whose boundaries he lived in, and we found that there was a less active recent convert young Cambodian mother who'd been baptized a year before in the Lacey 1st ward. So we talked to the Elders there, they arranged a ride for Say, and we sat next to him and translated the meeting during 2 hours of church. That first Sunday was in the beginning of January. He wore a tie and button up shirt his very first time in a church, and then came every week since until the day he was confirmed, which was more than 2 months later. He even went to both sessions of stake conference, wearing a suit. 

Our first lesson with him was in a Jack-in-the-Box close to his house. Then we introduced him to the less active woman in the ward, Sawine, and with her permission, started holding weekly lessons at her house. Every Saturday we'd drive 35 minutes to her house, teach Say a lesson, give him a pamphlet to read on his own later, and leave him with a commitment. Every Sunday he came to church with a plastic bag holding the Book of Mormon and bible we'd given him, as well as every pamphlet we'd ever left with him. The bishop of the Lacey 1st ward tried to set up his ipad to the gospel principles book for Say to use, but the App didn't have Cambodian as a language option. By the next Sunday, the bishop had ordered 3 Cambodian gospel principle  books, one for Say, one for Sawine, and one to keep in the library. Then Say started bringing his gospel principles book every Sunday too.

When we told him about the word of wisdom, Say said he'd need at least 4 months to quit smoking and drinking coffee. He got a priesthood blessing in church on Sunday and was completely off both only 5 days later. He'd been free of both a week and a day when he was baptized on the 1st of March.

I have a testimony that Say was able to be baptized because he wanted to follow God so badly and had the faith necessary to keep every commitment we threw at him. We accidentally taught him that the law of chastity meant he wasn't allowed to create children, and he even agreed to that. Sawine quickly asked us what the heck we were talking about (while her 3 children ran around the room), and once she understood what we were trying to say, explained to him that once he was married it was perfectly fine for him to create children if he so chose. That's just funny because we're bad at Cambodian. But the point is, Say was willing to do it. No matter what we asked, even if it was ridiculous and incorrect, he was willing to follow because he knew that this is God's true church on the earth, and so whatever he needed to give up to follow God, he would do it. Say is one of the most prepared, amazing, inspiring people I've ever met. I feel so blessed to have been entrusted with teaching him. And so awestruck at the love that God has for each of us individually, that he knew to send an Elder all the way to Lacey so that he could see Say at a bus stop and send us the referral.

I've been in the WA-TAC 41 weeks, and the church is true here too!
-Sister McQuivey

More photos from the mission blog:

A Historic First

March 4, 2014

On Saturday, the first Cambodian-called missionaries in this mission in 10 years had a baptism; the first Cambodian baptism since the Washington Asian branch dissolved 10 years ago. 

We're also the first ever Cambodian-called Sister missionaries in the WA-TAC, in the entire state of Washington, and in the USA. All other Cambodian speaking missions in the US only have Elders.

The entire baptism service was in Cambodian: all the talks, songs, and prayers. The only things that were in English were the baptism itself, the conducting of the service, and the testimonies from members.

Our mission president came to the baptism and took some pictures with us and Say (our recent convert) so expect those to end up on the blog within the next week. It was a pretty moving service, very powerful to see so many Cambodians drive an hour to come to a stranger's baptism just so that they could support him and show him that there are others in the church that speak his language. Say lives in Lacey, which is out of our zone and our area. It's about a 35 minute drive on the freeway (that is if I'm driving. It's 45 minutes if Sister Dunster's driving, and 25 if Sister Walker's driving). It takes a lot of time to drive there and back every Sunday for church, as well as our lessons which are usually on Saturdays. Most Sundays we are up by 6:30, leave the house a by 8, stay for 3 hours of church in the Lacey 1st ward from 9-12 (where Say attends), drive back to Tacoma, go directly to 3 hours of church the the Mountainview Ward from 1-4, come home and change  Say knows hardly any English, so when we're not there to translate for him at church, he just sits and listens to the speakers and doesn't understand anything, but feels the spirit and tries to teach himself out of the scriptures. 

Look Who Came To My Baptism on Saturday?

Look Who Came to My Baptism on Saturday?

It's the Easters! (Former members of the Weston 2nd ward). They say Sydney's on his mission in Mexico, Rowan's finishing up school and getting ready to serve a mission, and Alex is in high school

Gluten and Casein Sensitivity

3/4/2014

I think it's going to be near impossible to go gluten-free and casein-free on my mission. We rely so much on member meals and I can't expect them to cook according to my specifications. Also I dropped about 25 bucks yesterday at the local gluten free store because I'm really trying hard this month to reduce my gluten to see if it makes a difference. But I can't afford gluten free, it's so expensive and as I'm finding out, most of it's really gross too. 

My companions are mutinying because I made a chicken pot pie that tasted like a sandcastle. They said, "I hate you so much right now. Like I'm sorry but I didn't realize how much your diagnosis would affect me, and all the food we eat now is disgusting and it's making it difficult for me to be your companion." 

I'm miserable.