Xin chào and happy Halloween!
I swear the MTC is some kind of weird time warp, because I feel like P-day was maybe two days ago and now it's here again! The days are so long, but the weeks are flying by somehow—I am over halfway through the MTC and it won't be that long until I am actually in Vietnam, which is insane. Here is my Google Photos link at the beginning in case anyone wants to see pictures but does not want to read to the end of my emails: https://photos.app.goo.gl/HKR23DtXgexxAjM5A
Here are my updates from this week for those of you with attention spans/time!
I forgot to write about this last week, but my name tags have been incorrect the whole time I've been a missionary! Sister in Vietnamese is Chị, but they put an extra i on my tags so it said "CHIỊ" instead. I didn't realize that this wasn't intentional until my teacher showed me her old tag, and then I had to request new ones, but now my name tags say the right thing and no one asks me why there is an exclamation point after Chi anymore. I used to tell people it was just because they were so excited to have a Vietnamese speaking sister at the MTC, but I guess I have become old news at this point so the excitement is no longer necessary.
On Sunday, we ran into the MTC president and his wife on the way to a fake sort of birthday party we were having for an elder in the Thai district—it was pretty exciting! It always feels like running into real celebrities even though my companions and I see them around the MTC pretty frequently. Our Go and Do experience on Sunday (basically just when we get to sit down and read the scriptures or General Conference talks for an hour and a half and then talk about it with our district) was very nice and I got a lot of studying done. We also saw a double (triple?) rainbow that day, which was so cool.
Tuesday was, as per usual, probably my most chaotic day this week. In the morning we went to the field to exercise, which is always fun because we get to leave the MTC campus and feel like independent people. Sister Luth and I were feeling lazy and did not actually exercise—we just sat and chatted/studied while watching Sister Phetsomphou (and Elders Law and Spiers), which made us feel like soccer moms. At one point we actually had to yell "please don't push each other!" and that did not make us seem less like mothers. As my family likes to say, though, I am One Of The Moms, so this is not out of character for me.
I also had my second Vietnamese helping others appointment on Tuesday! It went better than my first one did and I think I did a pretty solid job teaching this guy how to pray. I still really hate teaching all by myself (this won't happen in the mission field) but I will survive it for a couple more weeks. I forgot to say this in my email last week, but I get to go to my companions' Thai helping others appointments, which is pretty fun! I understand essentially nothing, but I am able to say, "hello," "I don't speak Thai, I speak Vietnamese," "sorry," "repent," and, "read the Book of Mormon" in Thai, so actually I am kind of fluent, clearly. Send me to Thailand, guys. (Just kidding, Thai is so so hard and I am very excited for Vietnam)
We had early arrivals again on Tuesday! It was a very chill group compared to past ones—only 20 people! Very quiet and unproblematic, too, no one ran away from us and we didn't have any shenanigans to deal with at night. We got sisters from Samoa, France, England, Wales, Canada, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mexico, Brazil, and Indonesia! It is always so exciting to meet people from all over.
Our devotional this week was with Elder Cook, the general authority and not the apostle. I feel bad that he has that name because it would be pretty sad to constantly disappoint people by just showing up and not being Quentin L. Cook, but I guess I probably also constantly disappoint people by not being Quentin L. Cook so really that is a universal problem. Except for Elder Quentin L. Cook, who is, of course, himself. Anyway, Elder Cook had two of his granddaughters give little talks during the devotional, and it was so sweet to hear the 6 year old talk about faith! Whenever I hear kids bear their testimonies I am reminded that the most important parts of the gospel are actually pretty simple—God loves us, we're His children, and He wants us to have faith and return to Him. The main point of Elder Cook's devotional was "faith is just not worrying," which was also super simple, but really good for me to hear. I was initially a little offended by this as an Expert Worrier who does in fact have faith, but he wasn't saying that if we worry we aren't faithful—his point was that having faith is being able to put our worries aside and trust that God will be able to help us with anything. Our worries show that we care about things, but we also need to believe that God cares about us and wants to help us. I am trying to be better at not worrying so much (even though I care a lot about stuff!) and trusting that God will help me figure things out.
On Wednesday I got to help with all the new missionaries coming to the MTC again! It was very fun even though I did something to my wrist (I don't even know what happened, it was quite mysterious) so it hurt to move that much luggage. Anyone who knows me outside of the mission would be baffled by how much more I talk to people here. I mean, I have not magically become an extrovert or anything, but being an STL has made it so I yell hi at the girls in my zone when I see them, and I talk to all of my early arrivals and new arrivals when I run into them, and I have been trying to get better at being brave enough to chat with the Arabic district when I see them (because I don't want to lose all of my Arabic!). Overall it is pretty impressive growth for me—who knew I could be friendly?
Honestly, days at the MTC sort of blend together. Most of what I do is just go to language class! It is very fun even though I occasionally feel super lost. But hey, I know I will feel even more lost in Vietnam so I am trying to be positive about things now. Overall I feel like I am learning a lot, and I keep having to remind myself that a couple months ago I knew no Vietnamese at all so my progress has actually been really good.
On Thursday we got to meet the old mission presidents from my mission! They just walked into our class with no warning, and my teacher was thrilled because they were the mission presidents when she was baptized. They were so nice and encouraging, and it was so great to meet them and hear about their experiences in Vietnam.
Friday was a good day, despite the kind of horrible pizza we had for dinner! It was rainy all day, which is my favourite even though it was cold rain (I am not used to this because we get warm rain in the south!) and I will probably get sick of the rain in Vietnam eventually. In between class and dinner we found a piano and sang hymns while my (lovely and talented) companion Sister Luth played for us, which was so fun. I would like to apologize to my mother for being kind of anti-singing until right before I went to college, because I actually really love it now and I don't know why I was so grumpy as a child!
Random things I couldn't fit anywhere else:
- Watched an elder in my district eat four full bowls of chicken and rice within like 20 ish minutes (horrifying!)
- An elder in the elevator asked me where I was going on my mission, and when I told him he said, "oh, my grandpa served in Vietnam too! Just like...not the same kind of serve. But it is pretty funny that you can say you're shippin' off to 'Nam!" This happens to me a lot.
- One of my friends from my old YSA ward just got here and I have seen her every day somehow, which is so nice! (Shout out Sister Hines)
That is basically everything from this week! I will say once again that I am sorry if I haven't replied to your email yet; the MTC is so busy but I will get to it eventually. Please keep sending me emails! I love you all, have a great week!
Boldly going where no one has gone before (in honor of Sir Patrick Stewart),
Sister! Heiss
Bonus content:
Things I have wanted to google:
- BH Roberts (historian)
- when did the BYU jerusalem center start
- which US president could write in different languages with both hands at the same time
- Abstemious definition
Songs that have been stuck in my head:
- all you wanna do (six)
- Get down (six (can you tell six was one of the last things I watched before I was set apart?))
- the la la land theme
- one day more (les mis)
Quotes (a new section! There will not be as many in subsequent emails because these are from the past several weeks):
- "Yeah I, uh, don't know what Tahitian is" - random elder in the hallway
- "It's a beautiful day out...what's your deepest sin?" - sis Phetsomphou
- "Would you me hit you or throw a rock at you?" - elder spiers "I would rather you be a good person" - elder law (they love each other I swear)
- "You'd be a GREAT 24th wife" - me
- "You see, now I can kiss my companion and you cannot. Ha." - elder alliaud (of the 70), about his wife
- *pointing, distressed* "no, no, you're white!!" "Không sao!!"
- "I am going to cold to death" - me, shivering, rather grumpy, and apparently confused about words
- "Who am I, a sinner...not to sin?"
- "Ooh, the pinecone of satan! Thank you!" - me
- "Some words just mean meatball, and like...whatever, you know?" - Cô Degn
- "I feel like I am already more posh here! I sound so haughty! It's just because I CANNOT start talking with an american accent, ugh" - an early arrival from wales
- *pointing to the patio* "wait, what's a patio?" - random elder
- "I am going to go experiment with my teeth...hopefully I won't die" - sis rogers
- "Temptation's coming at me like a steam train and I am tied to the railroad tracks" - anonymous elder in my district
- "The missionary life is not for me...I wanna be an otter. Send me to the ocean. Let me eat seaweed all day and float around. Otter life or bust." - sis luth
- "Top ten ways to own someone in an argument: make goat noises! It leaves them confused and bewildered. No comeback for that." - elder law
- "Uncle's heart...who can fathom it? Tại sao who can fathom it?? Why?? Không hiểu! Tại sao?!"
- "ADAPT!!" - cô thanh, aggressively
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