"You can say you're shipping off to 'Nam!" (Week 7)

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. 

Secret bathrooms and a sick meatball (Week 6)

Xin chào, mọi người! 

This week was so busy, but I am not even surprised by it at this point because that's pretty standard for the MTC and for missionary life in general. I definitely should have written about things throughout the week, but I was irresponsible and neglected to do that, so I have had to scramble to write today! This email may be slightly unorganized because I'm trying to write fast, but không sao. Here is some stuff from this week! 

On Sunday, we found out that our branch president (President Hamilton) owns a harpsichord! Sister Hamilton spoke in sacrament meeting, and that was the most I have ever heard the word harpsichord in a talk before—it was really hard to not laugh every time she said it because for some reason it was just so funny to hear "harpsichord" so many times. I felt bad about this because she gave a fantastic talk, and we learned so much about harpsichords! Until this week, I did not know that harpsichords worked by plucking the strings instead of hitting them like a piano! Pretty exciting information. My sister Miriam will be so disappointed that I didn't already know this. Sorry. 

Finally a free woman! (Week 5)

Xin chào, mọi người! 

This week was far better than last week! This email, however, probably won't be very substantial because I have only been back in the Real World (not that the MTC is quite the real world anyway) for a couple days, but man is it nice to be out of the prison that is the sick bay. I am so motivated to repent of my crime of getting Covid just to avoid ending up there again. In all seriousness, quarantine wasn't that bad—it was discouraging to be stuck by myself and I definitely felt like I was going to fall behind language-wise, but it was nice to be able to rest because I was too sick to do literally anything even if I was allowed to go anywhere, and I am so glad the MTC was being cautious about it because Covid is not something I want to give anyone else. That was honestly my biggest worry when I got sick because I just did not want to get my companions or district sick, but so far everyone I know has been fine. I don't know why I was the only one to get it, but I am just that lucky, I guess. 

I am basically Typhoid Mary (week 4)

My beloved [email list], I write unto you again that you may know that I am yet alive.*

This week was mostly good but at the same time so chaotic and stressful, and also I have become incredibly ill! I am actually writing this email from the sick bay—how exciting! Ugh. On Friday morning I went to the doctor because I was feeling awful and ended up testing positive for Covid, so I am now being quarantined for 3-5 days, depending on when I start to feel better. I'm essentially an old timey isolation patient; it's like in all the books I read about polio as a child. I had to pack up all my belongings and move to the quarantine within an hour of being diagnosed (not to brag, but I did it in around 25 minutes because I'm just that impressive), the doctor comes to check on me every morning, and people drop food off at my door and have to leave before I can open it. The good news is that my symptoms so far have not been too bad—like, it's horrible, but not as debilitating as when I got the flu last year. So I will survive. And they probably won't even have to put me in an iron lung or anything. 

I will probably break down this week by the days because I'm not super sure what the best way to approach writing emails is yet! If this is a horrible format you have my permission to respond, "boooo Chị Heiss this is so bad," but you also have to keep in mind that I am an invalid right now. Ha. I am preemptively making you feel guilty, take that. 

I stormed the castle all by myself (Week 3)

Xin chào!

This email is going to be all over the place because General Conference (as much as I love it) is totally messing up my P-day! So I am writing this in an auditorium with a bunch of other missionaries, which is perhaps not very reverent, but I have given myself permission because I do have to send emails and no one can really stop me. In my next email I will probably explain what my daily schedule is like, but I am so pressed for time right now! 

On Saturday and Sunday I mostly just packed and ran errands, but I also got to go to brunch with my great-aunt and uncle, so that was lovely. Sunday was the Primary Program, which was as per usual very cute and kind of hilarious. Monday and Tuesday were also mostly just packing! I thought that I would never finish packing, but I did manage to survive it. I also managed to survive my two weeks of home MTC! What a miracle. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but I am so happy to not have to sit on Zoom all day anymore. 

On Tuesday I watched The Prince of Egypt (for probably the millionth time) because I didn't have any classes, and that is such a good movie! The song "Through Heaven's Eyes" made me cry like a baby because I was so stressed out about going to the MTC and it just made me feel way better. Right now I feel like a "single thread in a tapestry" who can "never see its purpose in the pattern of the grand design," but I know that God put me here for a reason even if I don't quite know what that reason is yet. I am trying to look at my mission and my whole life "through heaven's eyes," and trust that everything will work out even though I don't know what the future's going to be like.

On Wednesday morning, my family (gia đình của mình!) called me and sang a beautiful parody of the happy birthday song with the lyrics "happy MTC day" (there were no other words). I also got to hear an Original Phoebe Song featuring the line, "have fun storming the castle all by yourself," which was pretty creative of her even though she stole it from The Princess Bride. 

Fun fact: castle in Arabic is قصر (qasr), which maybe comes from the Latin "castrum," but the root in Arabic (ق ص ر) is related to shortness! This is so interesting because it could be referring to the short/small boundaries that you're confined to in a castle. If we just go with the Arabic root meaning, then the MTC actually is kind of like a castle! 

Chị Heiss and the quorum of the 12 (week 2)

Chào buổi sáng (good morning), mọi người!

To quote the 17-1800s midwife Martha Ballard,* I have been at home. Like, all week. The majority of my life is just sitting in Zoom meetings right now, which is not particularly exciting but also isn’t terrible. Home MTC is definitely not my favourite thing in the whole world, but it has been better than I expected!

I am not sure how to organize these emails and the way I am writing them will probably change, but for now you are just going to get a lot of my semi-unorganized thoughts from this week! I should probably apologize in advance for how long this is, but my emails will almost definitely get a bit shorter once I am at the MTC and when I am in the field, so really you should appreciate me writing while I still have time on my hands. Or, if you hate both me and reading, you can comfort yourself with the knowledge that in a few days I will be way busier and probably won’t write novels every week.

Saturday was P-day! I finally got to go for a walk and went to the grocery store with my grandma (hooray for leaving the house), and called my family. I also got to help put new hymns in the binders at church!

Sunday was pretty much a P-day too because we didn’t have any classes, but it was not a relaxing day because that’s when I gave my farewell talk! I was very nervous about it because public speaking makes me incredibly anxious, but I didn’t even die! That is always a positive thing. A bunch of people came to see me speak and say goodbye, which was lovely (thank you all for coming).

Farewell Talk

Good morning, brothers and sisters! 

For those of you who don’t know me, which is most of you because I’ve only been in the ward since June and I’ve been gone basically every other week, my name is Rachel Heiss. I’ve been living with my grandma, Sister Layton, while I’ve been taking summer classes at BYU and preparing to serve a mission. I’m sort of from Georgia, but I’ve moved around a bit for my whole life, and now my family is living in Qatar—if you don’t know where that is, it’s a little country that’s connected to Saudi Arabia. My parents and my five younger siblings are watching this meeting on Zoom right now because that would have been a long way to travel to see me speak in church! I just finished my freshman year at BYU, where I recently declared my major as Middle East Studies and Arabic. In June, I was called to serve in the Vietnam Hanoi mission and started on September 16th, so as of a few days ago, I am officially Chị Heiss!