Why yes, the subject for this email would be my awful translation of "No longer green", meaning that I'm NO LONGER A GREENIE. As of this upcoming Wednesday, I will have officially finished me 12 week training period! Chi Man Nghi and I will be staying in Hanoi for another 12 weeks though, because there aren't very many sisters to shift around!
This past weekend, I had the opportunity to watch the General Conference session for all the women in the church. It was SO GOOD. One of my favorite things that was said was this, from Sister Jean B. Bingham, "We can't direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails." One of the biggest things that I've learned since being here in Vietnam is that attitude is everything. We are going to have trials no matter what we do - that's just a part of life. We'll have days where we don't feel like doing anything, days where we feel like nothing will ever get better. But, I know that when we face those days with a good, hopeful attitude, things always get better. If you didn't have a chance to watch the General Women's session (or general conference for that matter), here is a link:
Another important lesson that I've learned since being here: how to toughen up. There have been so many days where people will say things about the way that I look, since I look COMPLETELY different from anyone here, and I just have to smile and laugh it off! This past week while in an elevator, this little old grandpa stepped in, pointed at me and said, "Why is she so tall? That's not normal." :))))))) THANKS. (I also ran into him later in the week and he said the same thing, so we've developed a really great friendship). I've also started what I call an "ethnicity tally", a little chart to keep track of all the guesses people make about where I come from! As of right now, the most common is Filipino or (for some weird reason) Russian. Coming in a tight second is Korean.
Chi Man Nghi and I had the opportunity to visit one of our favorite people, Bac Bon. I've had some interesting experiences with Bac Bon already, and every time we visit her something exciting happens. This time, we were trying to share a scripture with her and invite her to come back to church. Right as I was reading in Mosiah 2, verse 41 (about "happy are those that keep the commandments of God") a customer stepped up to her little stand and asked to buy some cigarettes. So we had to take a bit of a pause so Bac Bon could do her job, selling cigarettes. But all is well in Zion, I was able to finish up sharing the scripture.
If I had one quote to describe this week, it would be this: "GIOI QUA" (gioi = talented, qua = !!!!!!!!!!!!). This is in total sarcasm. Last Tuesday, Chi Man Nghi and I spent 20 straight minutes trying to figure out how to spell "gioi" so we could text it to one of our investigators. I thought I knew it all, and was trying to convince her that to spell it a certain way. She finally gave in and sent the text, only for us to be told by our investigator that our spelling was completely wrong. So, unfortunately, I am not "gioi qua".
The next time you all hear from me, our mission will have DOUBLED IN SIZE. We are getting 8 NEW MISSIONARIES on Wednesday, for a whopping total of 20 MISSIONARIES!!!! This means we are big enough for ZONES!! (I can just see all my missionary friends laughing about this excitement). Big changes are coming for our baby Vietnam Mission!
Thanks for all the emails and updates! I hope everyone enjoyed General Conference. If you missed it, it's not too late to watch!
No comments:
Post a Comment