SURGERY, SPAGHETTI & SUSTAINING THE PROPHET


Let's go in order.

Surgery - Wednesday night after our English Class, Chi Man Nghi and I went to the home of Elder and Sister Noorda (one of the senior couples here) for some ingrown toenail surgery! So glamorous, I know. Chi Man Nghi has had this problem for a long time now, and we are just barely getting around to fixing it! We we got to their apartment, Elder and Sister Noorda were all decked out in scrubs with the kitchen dining table covered with  tableclothes, syringes, and blades of some sort. Best part of the whole procedure was that when it was over, Sister Noorda brought out rice krispie treats for us. So here we are, sitting around the same table that Chi Man Nghi just had surgery on, eating dessert. Totally normal.

Spaghetti - Chi Man Nghi and I live as if we are freshmen at BYU again. Except for I had the Cannon Center and could eat whatever I wanted, and she ate Nutella sandwiches for every meal. So I'd say our meals here are worse than when we were freshmen at BYU.. Anyways, our most exciting meal this week was our creatively-made spaghetti: eggplant, sauce, and then those dry noodles that come in Ramen noodle packets (we cooked them, don't worry). So, if you ever want to make spaghetti but don't have proper noodles for it, have no fear. Boil up some ramen noodles and you're good to go. My mom would also be proud - I made some "breadsticks" by cutting up 2 slices of bread and sticking it in the toaster oven. You learn so much on your mission :')

Sustaining the prophet - On Sunday, Chi Man Nghi and I had the opportunity to teach Relief Society about sustaining our prophet and other church leaders! This was in preparation for General Conference, which will take place in Salt Lake City this weekend! Our prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, receives revelation from God to help guide and direct us - ultimately so that we can better our lives. There have been so many times that I have received things that I needed to hear through his talks given at General Conference, and I know that he truly is called of God. Everyone should tune in to General Conference on Saturday, October 1st, and Sunday, October 2nd! You can contact me or my parents for specific information (You're welcome for volunteering you, Parents). I'll also attach a link to lds.org where you can find out more :) General Conference isn't a blast of religious information that has no application to you if you aren't a member of the church. It really is a great time for you to receive advice and counsel on how you can strengthen your family's relationship, how you can feel better/more confident about yourself, how you can be more self-reliant. It's also a great time to bake lots of yummy food and pig-out in the living room while wearing your pajamas.

Viewing times/General Conference in general (hahaha, used general twice in one sentence, I'm sorry)-

https://www.lds.org/church/events/october-2016-general-conference?cid=HP_FR_16-9-2016_dCN_fEVT_xLIDyL1-C_&lang=eng

Link to a talk from last General Conference, April 2016, just so you can see General Conference can apply to those outside the church, too :) -

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04/refuge-from-the-storm?lang=eng

The quote for this week would be.. "The xac cua em met qua!" This is literally translated into, "my body is tired." According to Chi Man Nghi, this isn't the proper way to say that. Because of all my little blunders such as this one, she has begun to compile a list called "KT PHRASES". You can tell that my Vietnamese is coming along great :')

Bowling in Vietnam!

Enjoying P (preparation) day and yes, wearing pants (as opposed to dresses and skirts)!

HELLO HO CHI MINH CITY!!  (9/18/2016)


This Thursday, Chi Man Nghi and I got to fly down to Ho Chi Minh for some exchanges! Unfortunately we were only able to spend about 7 hours in the city with the sisters down there, but it was still fun! I've noticed that Ho Chi Minh is a lot quiter, the food is really good, and the air is a bit cleaner.. Still love Hanoi, but I definitely will not have very many complaints if I get transferred down to Ho Chi Minh!

This week I want to share a scripture, D&C 122:5-9
(I would copy and paste the scripture on here but I really don't like the way it formatted in this email.. So you will just have to go look it up on www.lds.org!) This scripture talks about trials that we have in life, and that ultimately every trial that we are given is for our benefit. We have trials in life to improve and become the person that we are meant to be. We don't have trials because Heavenly Father thinks it's funny to watch us suffer. Trials truly do help us reach our full potential. Serving here in Vietnam has been rough - there are so many things to plan and think about, a lot of stuff that I didn't even know missionaries had to do! But I know that with every trial I have, I'm improving (maybe just a smidge, but improving) and hopefully by the end of my 18 months I'll be someone that people actually enjoy being around! 

Not much happened this week, except for that our investigator Chi Trang officially accepted 10/22 as her baptism date!!!! SO EXCITING. 

This Saturday, we were invited over to a member's house for lunch: Chi Tan. She is the relief society president here in Hanoi. She lives about an hour away, so we new it would be a LONG bike ride. Unfortunately, we forgot our cellphone at home.. So when we got lost we had to ask about 15 people for directions!! But we couldn't give up and go home because Chi Tan makes really good ice cream and we knew she would give us some when we got to her house. So we endured this bike ride pretty well. FUNNIEST PART of this whole experience though, was that her kitchen (where we ate lunch) is only about 5 feet 10 inches tall. I'm 5 foot 8/5 foot 9 (depending on who's measuring). So that's right, I had about 1 inch of space when I stood up. It was the funniest thing ever. I will be attaching a picture of it later on so that everyone can laugh about how ridiculous my life is here in Vietnam.

On Saturday night, we had a party for Le Trung Thu, the mid-autumn festival!! We had a lot of new people show up for it, so it was a great night for us! My least favorite part, however, was when my lovely, kind companion Chi Man Nghi volunteered me for the banana eating contest. I absolutely love the bananas here (they're so cute and little) but I don't love them when I have 2 minutes to eat as many as I can! Thank goodness I had a little helper, Em Ha (5 or 6 years old). She managed to eat 1 banana and I ate 4 more for a WHOPPING TOTAL OF FIVE MINI BANANAS. We place third... Out of 3 teams. Don't worry, I know that this is just one trial that's been given to me in my life, and (like I said before about trials) through it I will be able to improve to become the person I was meant to be. A person that can eat 10 mini bananas in 2 minutes.

The one quote to describe this week would be this: "Hai Chi Ca an thoai mai, nhe!" Which translates to "Oh, eat comfortably!" Meaning that we can eat as much or as little as we want. Unfortunately, people here say that and then expect you to change your definition of "comfortable" so that you eat everything they put on your plate. For example, Co Hang said that to us this week and then forced us to eat a huge platter of ban cuon, nep com, and papaya. Yum.

SHOTGUN BAPTISM (9/11/16)

The only 4 sister missionaries in the whole entire mission!

This time I'm going to start off with the quote of the week, because it pretty much summarizes what my whole email will be about: "SURPRISE!"

Surprise #1: I can't handle spicy food. Last Tuesday for lunch, Chi Man Nghi and I went to a Mi Cay restaurant - this Korean noodle restaurant that has 7 levels of spicy noodles. My whole family knows that I don't like spicy foods. I'm such a baby when it comes to that kind of stuff. And turns out, just because you live in Southeast Asia for 2 months doesn't mean that you can handle spicier foods. So, out of the 7 levels, I took the bold move of ordering level 1. Chi Man Nghi ordered level 3. Let me just tell you, this might have been the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life. I felt like such a wimp for not being able to conquer level 1, but it's okay. It's fine, I'm fine, everything's fine. 2 girls behind us ordered level 4's and they went through 3 huge jugs of water and a box of Kleenex to wipe up their tears. 

Surprise #2: Right after Chi Man Nghi and I had finished up our daily planning session on Friday night (around 9pm) we got a call from Chi Hien, the wife of the branch president here. Turns out that her daughter, 8 year old Bong, is going to get baptized THIS UPCOMING SUNDAY RIGHT AFTER CHURCH. And she needed us to put the program together. So with that came the fastest baptism planning that I have ever been part of - calling people to give talks, arranging a special musical number, FINDING CLOTHES SMALL ENOUGH TO FIT AN 8 YEAR OLD VIETNAMESE CHILD. But no worries, the baptism was fantastic.

Surprise #3: Our investigators!!!!! We had three of our investigators attend church & the baptism this week: Chi Trang, Trung Anh, and Em Linh. All three of them are wanting to get baptized, but we only have a set date for Em Linh. In our last lesson with Chi Trang, we extended the date of October 22nd for her baptism, to which she replied that it was too soon. But, yesterday after the baptism, Chi Man Nghi was joking around with them and said, "Oh so you guys are next, right?" To which Chi Trang replied, "Yeah, on October 22nd." MIRACLE. In just 4 days she had completely changed her mind about that day! Mine & Chi Man Nghi's faces were definitely in shock.

Surprise #4: Banh Trung Thu. September is the month of the Moon Festival, so there are tons of outdoor stands selling Banh Trung Thu - these yummy, cute, little cakes. Chi Man Nghi and I are really scared to try the adventurous flavors (specifically the meat ones) so we stick to Dau Xanh - Mong Bean. It's the best kind. Anyways, after Bong's baptism yesterday, all of the members brought out food for everyone to eat (no surprise there). Someone had brought a big platter of Banh Trung Thu, so I decided to try one! There was this deep green colored one, which of course I thought "Oh, that has to be green tea. Can't eat that one." But then a member told us that the green one was some kind of fruit flavor... Of course I wanted to try it, but RIGHT before I put it in my mouth one of our elders said, "Chi Kim Thu, that's green tea!!!!" I almost caused the biggest scandal in all of missionary history. Xin loi.

Surprise #5: CHI MAN NGHI AND I ARE GOING TO HO CHI MINH ON THURSDAY. We were informed this last Wednesday and had our tickets booked that same day. We will be doing a 24 hour exchange with Chi Tam and Chi Thu Hong so that we can learn the area (just incase one of us gets transferred down there). Super excited to see them (especially Chi Thu Hong!!!) but also super nervous. We will see what happens.

Seeing as I spent the majority of this email talking about a baptismal service that we had, I want to spend some time to talk about why baptism is such a big deal for us. You always hear missionaries talking about baptisms, baptisms, and more baptisms. But why? I believe that baptism is the first step to live with our Heavenly Father again after this life. No one is perfect, and because of that we all make mistakes. I make millions of mistakes every single day, so thank goodness for repentance. But, when we are baptized, all of our sins and mistakes are completely wiped away. It's a brand new, fresh start. We make a covenant with Heavenly Father that we're willing to live the way that He wants us to live - to serve others, to be patient (or try to at least), to love one another. I'm attaching a link to a General Conference talk about baptism by Elder Robert D. Hales that will give more insight on baptism:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2000/10/the-covenant-of-baptism-to-be-in-the-kingdom-and-of-the-kingdom?lang=eng

Alright well, not much else has changed out here in Vietnam! Weather is still hot, it still rains off and on, the food is still delicious, and the people are still the nicest people I have ever met. The most patient, too, because I struggle a lot with the language and they still try to understand me.

Vietnam Week 4

Happy Birthday Danny! Wanna know how they sing happy birthday in Vietnamese?

“Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to you"

it’s really creative. Well, another week come and gone! This week felt really really fast, but maybe because last PDay was on Tuesday so it wasn’t like a full week. So last Tuesday I had the coolest dinner that I have to tell you guys about. After our museum trips and emailing, we had to go prep for English Class (the kids class is on Tuesdays now). Afterwards we had an appointment to meet with a less active member who just came back from China, so we were at the church until pretty late and we hadn’t eaten dinner yet! So we biked to this grocery store called Circle K to pick up something called Rice Burgers that Anh Ca Thoai’s family makes. It’s this cute little circle cut out of rice with some teriyaki beef in the middle - ITS SO CUTE. It tasted really good too. I took a picture so you’ll get to see it. We also got ice cream shaped like fish and then drank milk out of a bag. It was a cool dinner.Now for my bike story. This is rad. And hilarious. On Friday afternoon we had an appointment with Co Hang, the member that lives about an hour away from us. This would be my second time going to her house. My bike had been squeaking for a few days before, but I didn’t want to worry about it. It was still functioning properly. So I didn’t think much of it when it started squeaking again when we left for Co Hang’s house. But then, about fifteen minutes into our ride, I started to feel my left pedal making some weird clicking noise.. I had absolutely no idea what was going on. And then it got REALLY REALLY bad… next thing I knew, the whole leg (not just the black pedal part, but the legit silver leg that connects the pedal to the bike) had fallen off and was laying in the middle of the road!! This was at 3:45 in the afternoon, so there were a ton of people out on the roads. I was screaming for Man Nghi because she didn’t notice that it had fallen off while trying to maneuver my way back to the pedal. I tried to fix it myself, but it wasn’t working at all! So we got the help of some nice random guy to find a bike shop in one of the alleys by us, got it all fixed up, and kept on biking. So my bike felt a LOT better, but it was still clicking a little bit. We got to Co Hang’s just fine, and had a nice dinner and lesson, but then on the way back the bike sounded REALLY BAD. I knew the pedal was going to fall off again, and everytime I looked down at it, it was farther and farther away from the part it connected to. So me and Man Nghi had to get creative. We couldn’t just leave the bike on the side of the road because we don’t have any extras here, so we had to take turns pulling each other (it looked like Napoleon Dynamite when Kip is on the roller blades, just without the rope part). I sat on my bike without pedaling and held on to her with one hand, the other hand steering my bike. She would pedal for the both of us. Only thing is, the bike she was using that day didn’t have brakes! Mine did, and they still worked, so I had to brake for us everytime we came to a red light or hit traffic. It took us legit 2 hours to get home. It was HILARIOUS. But all is well, the elders took my bike and got it fixed up real nice Saturday morning.Speaking of Saturday. Here’s another hilarious story. Our day was basically all planned, but we had one appointment get dropped so we didn’t have anything for the evening. But then, this old less active grandma called us - her name is Bac Bon - and asked us to come out and help her around five. She didn’t say what she needed help with. So we show up at five, walk into her house, and she tells us that she wants to feed us dinner and then we can help her bring out stuff for her store! She cooked us rice and bi xanh (this light green vegetable thing). She also brought out cold fish eggs and some weird soggy nut looking thing, but I lucked out and didn’t have to eat any of that. While we were eating, she made me teach her English and her pronounciation was SO FUNNY. She would write down the phrase she wanted to learn, her first one being “An Com” as in “Eat rice”. I then would have to write down what it meant in English, and then she would write down what it sounded like to her. So “An” became “Eat” which became “I a tho - It”. It was SO FUNNY. We did the words for eat rice, don’t eat, grandpa, grandma, grandaughter, grandson, mom, and dad. After dinner, we cleaned up and loaded up her cart (which is a piece of wood on wheels) with bananas, tea, water, some weird black water thing, and ice. She then had me wheel it from the front with this dingy little rope while Man Nghi pushed from the back, and she would just stand there and yell “Thang, thang! Tu, Tu! Cham, Cham!” (straight straight, gradually, gradually, slow, slow). It was the funniest sight to see, you guys would have been dying. We wheel her stuff out to the opening of the main road and help her set up “shop”: a plastic table, ten plastic stools, and then all of her goods spread out for people to see. I didn’t think much of it until she, out of NOWHERE, pulled out a container with boxes of CIGARETTES. So here me and Man Nghi are, sitting with Bac Bon, selling cigarettes on a corner in Vietnam. Bac Bon was dying of the heat, so she brought out this little red dish towel, soaked it with water, and laid it straight down on her head. She looked like ET, it was so funny. We sat there for a while and then another worker came over to talk to Bac Bon. I didn’t understand what they were saying, but all of the sudden the worker hands Bac Bon a full on HOOKAH PIPE AND BAGGIES OF TOBACCO. (Man Nghi said that it’s stronger than tobacco but not quite weed). At one point Bac Bon left us by ourselves, so it was legit just me and Man Nghi with a table full of bananas, water, tea, cigarettes, and hookah. We had no idea what to do!! We told her that we would help her, and we couldn’t just leave her there by herself! Luckily she only had one customer in the hour that we were there and he just bought a pack of cigarettes (so i can now say that i’ve sold a pack). I think that if he had wanted hookah I would have died. Yesterday was my first fast sunday here in Vietnam, and going without water was SO HARD. It’s just so hot. Luckily we get to drink water if we have to bike somewhere, so we had water on our 1 hour and 15 minute bike ride to a dinner appointment. We ate dinner with this American from Milwaukee, named Anita. She’s been living all over the place - Thailand, Hong Kong, Vietnam, etc. She also invited an american older couple, the Stephens, who are here for work (Sister Stephens works at an international college). The dinner was SO GOOD (it even would have been good in America) especially since we fasted all day. She made us SALAD (like the kind with lettuce, not just chopped up cucumber) and chicken, french bread, read butter and cheese (we only have the money to buy slices of kraft cheese) and then for dessert some sort of Mango Honey Lasi and brownies. It was theeee best. Sunday after church was my first branch council! I’m pretty sure dad would have gone insane. It started 30 minutes late and took 2 hours, so we were at church for like 5 hours yesterday hahaha. For the first hour, all we talked about was this 13 year old boy who has autism and is romantically obsessed with this 10 y ear old american girl who lived here for like a year but now is back in the US. This boy likes to message some members here and doesn’t stop talking about this 10 year old girl, and everyone was trying to figure out a way to get him to move on. HE’S THIRTEEN IT WAS DRIVING ME CRAZY. We then discussed the possibility of having a “food donation box” for the missionaries. Where the members could literally dump whatever food they had/wanted to give us. I was dying. So funny. We only discussed one thing that was actually important - helping a member find a job. So this branch has got a lot of work to do.Update on some of my investigators: Em Hien will be getting baptized on the 20th now. She came to church yesterday for the full three hours, and so she’ll have her interview this saturday and then one more sunday of full three hours and then her baptism! We’ve been talking to Trung Anh about an actual baptism date as well. She’s a little frustrating because she doesn’t think she’s ready for it - she wants to learn more. But we know that she’s ready because she applies the gospel so well into her life, she always keeps our commitments, and she goes to literally every single church activity there is. Yesterday she even brought her little brother to church. So we have to keep working on her..For my personal study hour, I rotate between the Book of Mormon and the Teachings by the Prophets: Joseph Smith book. The other day I was in the Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 10, and read a footnote in D&C section 76, verses 50-62. These verses talked about 3 blessings that are promised to us: being blessed with everything we’ll ever need, overcoming all things, and living with God and Christ. As I was thinking about these promised blessings, I realized that I think we already have the first two. We really are blessed with everything we need right now, at least everything that God knows we need right now. Everything that we receive is according to God’s schedule. He knows the best time for us to receive certain things. And as for overcoming all things, as I kept reading about this topic, we aren’t promised necessarily to just overcome all things. We’re promised with the strength to do so. When I initially read about overcoming all things, I started thinking “Oh great, Heavenly Father is going to take all of my trials from me”. But that’s not what overcoming is. Overcoming requires work, especially work on our part. It’s too easy for Heavenly Father to just snap His fingers and make our lives a breeze - He can do that in a matter of seconds. But the blessing that He’s given us is for us to work to overcome them, so that we can gain experience and develop Christlike attributes. It was just very cool for me to think about how these two blessings, which are basically everything we could ever want in this life, have already been given to us. We just have to 1) realize that we have everything we need at the moment and 2) realize that if we want to overcome all things, we have to work.

Touring Museums Today

Vietnam Week 3

Guess what we got to do last Monday for pday? Get facials. It was HILARIOUS. They don’t have any special tools or anything, they just use their hands and these cool lotions and stuff. The lady’s hands felt like a MACHINE it was the weirdest thing of my life. She was playing with my cheeks and all that, so funny. 

I’m skipping from topic to topic because I’m pretty bad at recapping my week. 

SO, last Thursday or something like that there was a TROPICAL STORM. It was crazy. We got tons of texts from members and investigators about the storm all throughout the week, and then it finally hit Thursday morning! No one wanted to meet with us because of it. We had to go outside 3 times, once to get money, once to go grocery shopping, and once to go get a new SIM card for our phone (for every phone here, including smart phones, you have to buy SIM cards that have a certain amount of calling and texting minutes and once your minutes run out you have to go buy another one!). All day we just stayed inside and studied, too crazy and too windy and too wet to go out! The elders, Toan and Nguyen, came over and tried to set up a fire alarm in our apartment. No success because there are random bricks everywhere that make it impossible to put anything in the wall. BUT while they were there, elder nguyen cooked lunch for us. It was hilarious how it happened. YOu aren’t allowed to be in the same apartment with the elders unless there is an odd amount of people, so man nghi and i had to sit outside OUR OWN apartment and yell cooking instructions to elder nguyen through the doorway. He cooked us some pasta and it actually tasted pretty good.

Speaking of food, I got to eat like 4 things this week that tasted american.

1. Toan and Nguyen cooked us spaghetti last night. SUPER GOOD.

2. WE FOUND HONEY BUNCHES OF OATS AT THE GROCERY STORE. Costed like seven bucks (US money) but it was so worth it

3. We had dinner at a potential investigator’s house. She made us this really yummy pasta with peppers and bacon.

4. There was a linger longer after church this last Sunday! Two older senior couples made CHEESECAKE and COOKIES. It was like heaven mixed in with some sticky rice and pumpkin che.

Just yesterday, man nghi and I biked an hour to go to her dentist appointment. The dentist offices here are TOTALLY PIMPED OUT and have all these cool high tech gadgets and stuff. Funniest part was that the workers made us wear these special crocs so that we wouldn’t get the floor dirty. They were black and bright green, and about 2 sizes too big. SO FUNNY LOOKING. Will attach a picture of them.

TODAY’S ADVENTURES. We took a taxi to the museum where the body of President Ho Chi Minh lies! I don’t know if it’s the actual body or just a replica, but it’s creepy looking. It was SO HOT OUTSIDE TODAY. I felt like I was back taking a tour of Versailles. We then went and ate lunch - PHO. It was delicious, but I think mom and ba ngoai make it better. Here they cook these little “bread sticks” which you can dip into your pho. Those were pretty good, too. We then went and got some ice cream (kem) and these cute little shop, bought some souvenirs and stuff at this market, and then went to a different museum. This second museum was like the history of Vietnam, so we got to see the Gold Plates that the royalty wrote on and then all the cool statues and stuff! I am EXHAUSTED because today is just so stinking hot (it’s officially august). Tonight we have English class for the little kids and then that will be our day. SO MUCH TO DO HERE IT’S INSANE.

Life here is so hard, and I think I’m feeling homesick a little bit. BUt I’m trying not to think about myself as much, LOL. A lot harder to do than I thought it was going to be! With one of the less actives we visit, we extended her the commitment of the 40 day fast - choosing one thing to do every day for 40 days. We decided to do it too, and so I decided to write down tender mercies every night. I think this will really help me feel less homesick, because I really am SO LUCKY to be able to be serving a mission right now, especially here in Vietnam. I think it’s really easy for all of us to forget about our tender mercies/blessings when we are going through a hard time or feel sad. But I think that when we have trials, those are the best times to count our blessings. Because it really is the little things that make all the difference.

Bahn Mi

Hailey’s friend Em An, same age - Hailey is sitting in a chair while her friend is standing (for height comparison)

Eating snails

The street when it's not too busy

Street food

Hailey's handmade scripture case

Vietnam Week 2

Good morning/good night, family! Week two is offically complete. Well not officially, not until Wednesday, but it’s pretty close. This week has been great! It went by pretty fast, and I’m pretty much used to the heat by now. So that’s good, I’m no longer dying because of it. Don’t really know where to start, so this email will be a little bit all over the place!

On Monday we did our pday activities, which is email, grocery shopping, NAP (we get to take one on p days) and then family home evening. At FHE, the members threw a cute surprise birthday party for Chi Man Nghi (my companion). The cakes here are so funny. They aren’t too bad tasting, not as good as america’s, but the way they decorate them is HILARIOUS. They always do white frosting with the person’s face outlined in a different color. It’s so funny, i’ve witnessed three so far. At FHE, Chi Ha (my companion)’s brother opened his mission call! He will be serving in Anaheim California, Viet speaking. We also played this hilarious game, but I will talk more about it in the big email. 

Tuesday, we had a district meeting, a few lessons (if I remember correctly) and of course planning. WE plan SO MUCH here because everything is so new. We plan for english class, branch correlation, weekly planning, daily planning, relief society planning, happy families class, self reliance class, basically everything you can think of.  As of right now, we have about… 4 or 5 investigators/less actives we teach. Em Hoa, Em Hien, Chi Trang, Trung Anh - those are our investigators. Em Hoa and Em Hien are both 19, but they’re both like 3 foot 5 and weight 70-75 pounds.. So my age but literally half the size of me. Chi Trang is older, we just started teaching her. Trung Anh is 21 and is TINY but I love her to death, she’s so cute. Em Hien and Trung Anh are committed to baptism.. Oh so is Em Hoa. But Hoa and Trung Anh don’t have official dates yet. Em Hien’s date is Aug. 20th. There’s also another investigator that I haven’t met yet, Chi Ngat. Her baptism date is sometime in August as well, but she’s not progressing right now so I don’t really know what we are going to do about that. Every week we try to make contact with the recent converts, Em An and Chi Hien. This week we also met with a girl named Khanh Linh - she’s good friends with Nhi Tran, one of the people I talked to at BYU when I got my call. Our only less active that we visit is Chi Trang. She’s super pretty, I think she’s 23. She’s been a member for a year or so now, but she hasn’t been to church in a long time. When we visited her last week we made this fabric scripture covers! I will send a picture of it later.

Wednesday is English Class day! Chi Man Nghi and I teach the little kids. They are super smart and know more English than I know Vietnamese, but none of them like to participate or talk in class. Every lesson we have a spiritual thought after words from For the Strength of Youth. I gave it last week with Chi Ha to the older class. We had probably 15 people stay to listen. None of the little kids stay, but I think it’s because class ends at 8 and 8 is a really late time for people to be out because it gets dangerous outside. We even have to be in by 8 every night or else the elders have to come escort us home.

Thursday. Don’t remember what happened on Thursday.

Or Friday. The days blend together so it’s hard to remember.

BUT on Sunday, yesterday, I GOT TO BAKE BROWNIES. I haven’t baked anything in 2 weeks and 2 months. It was President Hassell’s birthday yesterday, so we gave him a picture of our district and a pan of brownies that Chi Man Nghi and I baked. They were pretty good, the sugar here is a LOT BIGGER than in america. Like chunks. Anyways, when we delivered the brownies, Pres. Hassell invited us in for some CAKE THAT HE HAD MADE. IT TASTED LIKE AMERICA. It was so good. Apparently he is a really good baker, so he made a chocolate cake with really yummy chocolate frosting. Nghi and I are going to try to make frosting one of these days, if we ever have time to. LOL. Anyways, so yeah, last night for dinner I had a brownie and a piece of chocolate cake. Probably the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I don’t even feel bad about it though because once we go outside we bike and sweat it all off. 

Oh, Sunday Nghi and I also had to teach relief society - revelation and prophets. I have a hard time understanding when people answer my questions, so I just ask questions, nod my head, and then look at Nghi and she comments about it in a way that I can understand. Anyways, afterwards Co Hang (i’ll talk more about her in the big email) told me that my vietnamese is getting better! So that’s good. I feel like I’m not really improving much.. Like I’,m just saying the words that I already know. I am learning new vocabulary though, so I guess that’s a start.

So lately for personal study, I started the Book of Mormon over so that I could read it verse by verse and actually understand what’s going on. It takes a LONG time. For example, I’ve been working on 1 nephi 8 for like 3 days now and I just finished this morning. It’s really fun though because you notice things that you wouldn’t have noticed before. For example, 1 N 8:28 has a footnote linking it to 2 Peter 2:20, which talks about pollution. As in like, the world pollutes us. I thought that was SO COOL because I had never thought about using that word before to describe worldly things, but I love how perfectly it fits. Anyways, I challenge you guys to try it out, study the Book of Mormon verse by verse and see what you find!

First Week Out of the MTC

WHATS UP FAMILY. I would say good morning but it’s like 11 pm in Idaho so that doesn’t work for you. Just about done with the first week in Vietnam, and it is CRAZY. This place is insane, and probably the most different from America than any other place! Where to start where to start.

So our first day, Schley and I stayed the night at a senior couples’ home, the Van Wagenens. They are super super nice, from utah, been here 4 months. The the next day I was assigned my companions, Chi Ha and Chi Nghi, who are THE BEST. I love them so much! Chi Nghi is from Texas, full Vietnamese, and was serving in Georgia (9 months) when they gave her the new mission assignment. She’s been here about 2 months or something. Chi Ha is from Ha Noi and doesn’t speak English, so she’s learning English while I’m learning Vietnamese! They are both 20 (Nghi just turned 20 on Thursday) but Chi Ha is SO TINY I feel like I’m talking to like Katie or Sarah. She’s so cute.

So my first night at the apartment where I’m now living… Was definitely different. For one, I killed a cockroach. Never done that before. It ran out onto the kitchen floor right after we finished planning. Haven’t seen any more since, so that’s good. For our meals: breakfast is usually like yogurt and fruit or something. The yogurt here is white, really good, and has like chunks of white jello or something in it. The bananas are about the size of my pinky! So I eat like 3 in one sitting. HAHAHA. Also mom, when we make like scrambled eggs or something, I have to use a METAL SPATULA on a METAL PAN. I’m cringing the whole time because I always here your voice: “NEVER use metal on metal, it will ruin the pan!” And no Dad, the drawers with the pots and pans are not organized like how you like them at home. We just throw them into whatever drawer we want.  Lunch is usually street food. Our rules are that the restaurant has to have at least 3 walls and LOOK decently clean. These places that we eat at are so funny. You walk up, they hand you a tray and scoop some rice on it, and then you just point to the dishes you want - kinda like a buffet. Except I have no idea what I’m eating… It all kinda tastes the same I guess? I haven’t eaten anything that’s bad yet! But when I’m trying to choose meat.. I have no idea if I’m eating pork or beef or chicken or even dog. Who knows. For dinner… Sometimes we eat dinner and sometimes we are too busy planning or biking or something. OH but THURSDAY NIGHT MOM YOU WILL FLIP OUT. MOM AND LINDSAY. Thursday night, for Nghi’s birthday, we went out to eat bom ba hue (I have no idea how to spell things) and then for dessert we had che chuoi. It was pretty much the best. So good.

The first day that we got here, I had to start biking. Biking here is INSANE. It’s like a real life game of frogger. If you were to look up Hanoi on Google Earth, multiply the traffic by like 5. So here I am, just pedaling away. with a thousand cars honking at me and motorbikes buzzing all over the place. To think that at some point I’m going to have to be the senior companion leading someone through this is insane. Biking is so fun, it’s so exciting. Haven’t gotten hit yet, so that’s good.

Saturday night we had a lesson at the church, and then afterwards we stayed behind to clean for church the next day. As we were cleaning, I started to hear these loud knocks on the windows and I thought someone was trying to get in. After awhile though, the knocks got more frequent and it started POURING RAIN. We had called the elders to come help us clean, and by the time they got there they looked like they had jumped into a swimming pool! The rain is AMAZING it’s so loud! I took a video of it but I’m not sure if it will upload. It’s so cool, everything I thought the rain here would be like.

Now for the weather… It is SO HOT. SO SO SO HOT. I mean, I can deal with it, but heat mixed with humidity is something else. Most of the time I show up to places just all sweaty and gross, but it’s fine because everyone else looks like that too. Except for Chi Ha, I don’t think she sweats.

OH YEAH So right now I’m serving in Ha Noi. Schley and Staheli got sent down to Ho Chi Minh, but me and Ray are still here. So there are 7 missionaries in Ha Noi right now: Me, Nghi, Ha, Nguyen, Toan, Toa, and Khiem (ray). All of the msisionaries here already spoke Vietnamese, and all of the elders were previously serving in Cambodia.

Side note: Mom, can you be checking my FB just in case I get any random requests? On Wednesday night we went to english class, and 3 girls asked me for my facebook, hahaha.

LOL SPEAKING OF ENGLISH CLASS. When I was there, I was helping them practice their english. And one group of girls asked me: “Do you have boyfriend?” and it was in that exact accent as the nail salon people it was SO FUNNY. And when I said no, they said “why not, you so pretty”. HAHAHAH DYING.

OKAY WELL. As of right now, I think I’m doing good! I keep having little freak outs (not out loud of course) because this language is SO ROUGH. It sounds completely different than in the MTC!!! Especially when girls talk becasue I’m not used to female voices. I keep trying to remember that at SOME POINT ON THIS MISSION i will be able to understand people. It’s not right now, not only being here for 5 days, but it’ll come at some point.. I hope.. Anyways, I"m trying to pick it up but it’s SO HARD. SO SO SO HARD/

Going to go send out the mass email now. Love you all so much!! Send pictures soon!!!!! Have a great week, talk to you next MONDAY at around 11!!!

Hailey

Last Week at the MTC

I received an answer to one of my prayers last night. I’ve been really really really freaked out about going to Vietnam. Mostly because it’s something that I have never done before so I really have NO idea what to expect. The weather, language, people, culture, just everything! And the fact that I won’t be able to speak well for a few months made me realize that I am literally going to be depending on my trainor.. Which is just weird to think about. I’ve never struggled with something like this, so I’ve never had to rely on someone to help me find my way around places or help me talk to people. It’s a really scary thing to think about. But last night, during our evening class, we practiced street contacting. Which is way more  nerve wracking than I thought it would be. Anyways, I was practicing with Thay An, and after I finished he helped me evaluate myself. He told me that I was probably scared/nervous because I didn’t want to say something that would turn them away from accepting the gospel - which is way true. But then he said that becasue I still tried to say something and was willing to open my mouth and give it a shot, I was acting on my faith. And when we act on our faith and try to overcome our fears, we invite Heavenly Father to perform miracles through us. I think that statement applies to me going to Vietnam in general. I don’t think I’ve ever been more scared/nervous about something in my life, but I’m hoping that by sticking this out and making it to Vietnam that Heavenly Father will bless me even more and perform miracles through me.

"We only have 2 weeks left... Better party like crazy!"

This week’s subject line was said by Chi Schley when we were eating breakfast this morning. The context? Whether or not we should save the extra napkins we were given. If you’re wondering, we saved them.

This week was SO great because of many reasons.

1. MISSION PRESIDENT CONFERENCE. I had the great opportunity of singing in a choir put together by the MTC choir director, Brother Ryan Eggett. He’s great - one of the funniest men I have ever met. We memorized and sang 3 songs for the Mission Presidents’ Seminar on Thursday/Friday/Saturday morning. It was such a great experience and I will never forget it. Present at this conference were the 12 apostles, and the choir was even able to shake hands with Elder Andersen and speak with Elder Bednar. It was such a blessing to just be in the same room as the apostles, let alone speak with them! For those of you reading this that aren’t members of the church, you may be wondering “What’s so great about these guys?” Well, I’d be more than happy to tell you. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we believe that our prophet, President Monson, and his apostles, the Quorum of the 12, receive revelation from God that will bless our lives and make us happier. I believe that God constantly reveals things to us through his prophet and through his apostles because He loves us. He knows exactly what we struggle with, and He knows exactly what will help us overcome our trials. Having said that, it is amazing to be in the presence of those that receive that revelation. These men are such great men, and the words that they speak during General Conference (and other meetings) and words that really can bless our lives if we choose to let it. I’ve attached a link to one talk given by President Uchtdorf, the second counselor in the First Presidency. I would encourage you all to read it - He is an amazing speaker.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/10/the-love-of-god?lang=eng

2. MY FRIENDS ARE OFFICIALLY HERE. Every Wednesday, the MTC gets a new load of missionaries. This Wednesday, two of my good friends from BYU, Ali Snooks and Andrew Oakes, checked in! It was so great to see them, and I managed to snatch Ali up to take her around MTC before any of the other hosts got the chance to. I’m so excited for them to start their missions and I know that they are going to be FANTASTIC (why else would they have gotten sent to serve in Southeast Asia?) 

3. This one is for all my BYU friends… BROTHER GILES. Last week when I was at the temple, my companions and I decided to go eat lunch in the basement (the food is a lot better than the MTC’s, LOL). While we were there, I see this little old man walk over with his lunch and sit at the table right next to mine. Guess who it was? Good ole Brother Giles, on of the counselors in my YSA ward at BYU. Seeing him made me miss all of the good times we had together at BYU - from Moab, to cabins, to Questival, to just random nights spent together. I miss all of you SO MUCH, but I know that you’re all doing great things right now. It’s so cool to see all of you heading out or preparing to head out on your missions, and I couldn’t be more excited for you to experience the happiness that I’ve experienced just from these 7 weeks. I’m also INCREDIBLY PUMPED for Anna Hu to head off on her study abroad - it’s going to be such a fun adventure!

4. PRESIDENT HASSELL. Last Saturday we had the great opportunity to meet with our mission president, President Hassell, and his wife. They are such GREAT people - I love them already! They talked a lot about what we can expect missionary life to be like in Vietnam. Towards the end of our meeting, they said something that I will never forget. President Hassell was talking about the recognition of the church in Vietnam, which happened on May 31st. He said the main reason why the government allowed this was because they trust us. They trust us because of our virtue, character, and integrity - they believe that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will help improve the Vietnamese community. How amazing is that? A country that hardly had any members at all (maybe 1200 out of the 93 million people) recognizes the church because of it’s good works. This made me realize how important it is to remember who I represent. I represent Christ, and because of that it is imperative for me to act in such a way that people will know who He is. I encourage you all to keep this in mind. People that know nothing about our church trust us because of our virtue, character, and integrity. It is so important for us to act in a way that they can know of who Christ was just based off of our words and actions.

I have one last spiritual thought that I want to share before I tell you of the funny Vietnamese blunder of the week. Last Sunday night we had the opportunity to hear from Brother Steve Allen. He talked a lot about sacrifices that missionaries and their families make, but he also said something that really affected me. He said this: “Satan knows exactly how to push our buttons.” How true is that! It made me think back to the time when I was younger, when I would always do things to annoy my sister (sorry, Linds). I knew exactly what would make her aggravated. Well, the same thing applies to us. We all have weak spots because no one is perfect, and because of that Satan knows exactly how to get to us. But, on the other hand, Heavenly Father knows exactly what will help us get through our hard times. He knows us even better than we know ourselves. I testify to you that Heavenly Father loves each of you, and that He knows each of you personally and individually. If there is ever a time when you feel alone or unloved, I encourage you to give prayer a try. Heavenly Father will always listen to your prayers, even if they aren’t the most eloquent. He will always answer our prayers, no matter what they are. I’d be happy to answer any questions about this, or about anything concerning the gospel. I’ve also attached a link to a different talk given by Elder Russel M. Nelson about prayer.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2003/04/sweet-power-of-prayer?lang=eng

ALRIGHT, now for this week’s goof-up. Whenever we teach a lesson, we make a big effort to bear testimony as often as possible. However, the phrase for “I bear testimony…” is awfully close to the phrase “I make eggs…”. In fact, “eggs” and “testimony” are only one tone away from each other! It’s happened so many times in class that one of us has accidentally said, “I make eggs that God knows you personally.” Let’s just hope we all get this mistake out of our system before we head off to Vietnam!

This last blunder was from Anh Ca Staheli. Yesterday, he was teaching one of our investigators about baptism & confirmation. His intention was to say “After you are baptized you will be confirmed.” However, due to a different tone, he ended up saying “After you are baptized, you will be assassinated.” I’m so glad that we are able to accurately express true church doctrine here at the MTC. (jokes)

I hope everyone has a great week this week! As always, I’m so thankful for all the emails and letters I receive from you each week. It’s so great to hear from everyone!

If there was one quote to describe this week, it would be this: “All is well in Zion”, as recently said by one of my good friends, Sister Baker. The context? Whenever something isn’t going as well as you hope, just remember: All is well in Zion.

Chi Kim Thu

June 28

We got to meet with President and Sister Hassell on Saturday night! It was so much fun, they are so great. They both don’t sound anything like what they look like, so I was really surprised to hear them talk. They told us a lot about what we can except missionary life to be like in Vietnam. So first things first, I don’t need to bring my temple clothes. So I will be sending those back right before I head out of the MTC. Second, we aren’t going to be allowed to wear our nametags out in public, so they told us to take them off during our last flight to Vietnam. Sister Hassell said that people will confuse us for business people/salesmen, so wearing our nametags would just make the work harder. BUT the good thing is that we can talk openly about the church when we’re out and about. Our lessons will most likely be taught at the church because they said the people don’t really like having different people come to their houses, unless they want to brag to their neighbors about having Americans over. Right now there aren’t a lot of Books of Mormons in Vietnam because you weren’t allowed to print or ship them in, so hopefully we can get more into the country or else teaching/extending commitments will be REALLY hard. As of right now, there are only 2 sister missionaries in the whole country! 2 sisters and 7 elders. And the 2 sisters were 2 girls that could speak Vietnamese but were serving in London and Georgia - they pulled them from their missions so that Chi Schley and I would have trainers! It’s going to be crazy. By the time we get there, there will be 14 missionaries total (including us) and 93 million Vietnamese citizens. Something that was SUPER cool was that President Hassell said they were going to start looking for grounds to build a temple. Apparently when Elder Holland came to the country a few weeks ago, he said that the timing was perfect for the church to be opened up to Vietnam and that he could sense that there was going to be a big boom in membership. HOW EXCITING IS THAT. If a temple gets announced in my time there, I will FLIP OUT. That would be so cool.

Week 6 Complete!

Only 3 more weeks to go. WHAT IS LIFE ANYMORE I DON’T EVEN KNOW.

First I want to share with you all some really hilarious and crazy news.

We’ve all known that for 19 years of my life, I’ve been the second worst singer in the family. Sorry Danny. BUT. Guess who got asked to sing in a SPECIAL CHOIR FOR 171 NEW MISSION PRESIDENTS + THE QUORUM OF THE TWELVE + THE FIRST PRESIDENCY? Yes, also the second worst singer in the family. Sorry Danny.

BUT GET THIS. Wanna know why/how I was chosen??? SO a few weeks ago during choir practice (the choir that everyone can go to), Brother Eggett, the director, passed around slips of paper to sign up for this special choir. He could only take 40 missionaries. So I signed up, because WHY NOT. I put my name down, said that I had never sung in an organized choir before, and that I could read music well because I played the piano. I didn’t get chosen, which I figured would happen. There’s like 20000 missionaries here. BUT, 2 weeks later I walk into class and Anh Ca , who is an amazing singer and got chosen, said “Chi Graviet, Brother Eggett needs more people for the choir so I put your name down because I figured you could sing since you can play the piano well.” I about died because that’s hilarious. I told him “Okay well I’ll do it if he asks me to, but I’m not a good singer.”

ONE DAY LATER. Chi Hyde comes up to me and says that Sister Bertasso has been looking for me everywhere, and then later my zone leaders get a call saying I need to report to the front desk ASAP as possible. So we go to the front desk and there is Brother Eggett, looking for me. He sits me down and explains that he wants to have me in the choir. And this is the LEGIT reason why:

“I was looking at the missionaries that we had selected one day, and I realized that they were all white. And I had this prompting that something wasn’t right. An all-white choir doesn’t represent the church accurately, but it just so happened that the best singers in the MTC right now are all white. We really need to add some diversity because this will be publicized and the church will get in a lot of trouble if we only show white kids. I know that you play the piano and other kids in the choir right now say that you can sing pretty good, so we really need you to join.” SO JUST LIKE THAT I’ve been added into some special choir among 40 missionaries that have been singing in choirs their whole lives. And we are going to perform next week. 3 songs and I have to memorize all of them - I’m in the alto section. This is probably the funniest thing that’s ever happened to me, I get recruited because I’m not white. So great. I’ll let you know how it goes next week.

So here’s what else happened this week…

Last Tuesday we went to the temple with Chi Hyde for the last time because she left for Indonesia yesterday. We did initiatories, and now I understand why Mom only goes when she doesn’t shower before. MY HAIR WAS AN ABSOLUTE GREASEBALL it was so nasty. I was cringing the whole time. 

Every Thursday we have our service hour, and last Thursday we did literally everything you could do to clean a bathroom: mopping, toilets, sinks, mirrors, sweeping, trash, EVERYTHING. Afterwards during class, Thay Long asked us what we did for service and so I said “Oh, chung ta tay sach ve sinh.” Which I thought it meant “Oh, we cleaned the bathrooms.” but turns out I said “Oh, we cleansed the bathrooms.” Which is just really awkward any way that you take it.

On Sunday I was called as the music director for our branch! This means that I get to choose the hymns each Sunday, arrange special musical numbers, and figure out who is going to play the piano. LOL.

Week 5

Half way done with the MTC as of last Thursday. HOLLA.

So last Tuesday was when Elder Bednar came to speak to everyone at the MTC, and it was SO GOOD. Just to answer your questions right now, no I didn’t get to shake his hand. His grandkids had sung during the devotional, so right when it was over he went down to go talk to them and he didn’t visit with any of the missionaries sitting on the stand. I’m super bummed, but it’s fine.

The theme of Elder Bednar’s devotional was “One by One”. Heavenly Father knows us one by one and teaches us one by one. One thing that Elder Bednar said that really stuck out to me was this: “The first thing that was ever said in this dispensation was a name: Joseph.” For me, I’ve always skipped over this detail. But it really is amazing that the first thing Heavenly Father said to Joseph was his name. He knew him personally and knew his name without even meeting him. This just goes to show that every person on Earth is a valued child of God. Everyone is equally important, and Heavenly Father wants each of us to succeed. Another thing that Elder Bednar said was this: 

“By the power of the Holy Ghost, we will know that we are a ‘one’”. When I think about being a 'one’, it makes me realize that Heavenly Father truly does care about me. Everything that is important to me is important to Him, no matter how trivial it may seem to other people. I know that is the same for all of you, and for everyone else for that matter. Whatever is important to you is important to God, no matter what it is. We can’t be timid about asking for help just because we think it isn’t important enough - everything is worth taking up with Heavenly Father if it’s truly something we need help with. The challenge for me now is to see everyone that I serve as Heavenly Father sees them - as the 'one’. I need to teach according to their needs, no matter what they are, because I know that’s how Heavenly Father would teach them. 

Most of all, my favorite thing said was this: “There are no coincidences when on the Lord’s errand.” If we are doing our best to serve Heavenly Father, we will realize that everything happens for a reason. We have had certain callings for a reason because Heavenly Father knows that we need to help certain people. I was called to Vietnam for a certain reason. I don’t quite know why yet, but I know there is something that I need to do there or someone that only I can help. “What happens to me is what needs to happen to me.” Elder Ames (going to Mongolia) during our devotional review.

You guys should go read the full talk given by Elder Bednar online! During the devotional we sang the primary song that he wrote, “One by One”, so you should also give that a listen, it’s really good.

 Invitation to perform at the devotional

Last picture with Ty before he leaves the MTC

WE GOT OUR NEW NAME TAGS LAST NIGHT

I was bored

Our favorite member of the branch presidency, brother Seouw

Chi Cheney = Tuyet = snow, as in Snow White

Anh Ca Staheli = Hiep = brave

Anh Ca Ray = Khien = humble

Chi Schley = Tu Hong = pink autumn/ autumn rose”