Monday, October 12, 2015

The week we were all called "Babies"

HELLO FRIENDS AND FAMILY!
I hope you all had the best week ever and are enjoying the Fall weather! It's getting pretty nippy here and I'm trying to soak it all in before we head to Cambodia and it becomes Summer for 18 months straight. 

This week was a little stressful because it was our first full week. I was sitting in class studying and had a strange moment of realization that this is my life for the next 18 months. It got a little stressful this week because the language is soo difficult and we started sticking to our real schedule which is 
6:30 wake up 
7:00 breakfast
7:35-8:25 gym
8:55 personal study
9:55 companion study
10:55 language study
11:55 lunch
12:40-1:30 additional study
1:30-4:30 classroom instruction
4:30 dinner
5:15-8:15 classroom instruction
8:15-9:00 additional study
9:00-9:15 planning 
and then until 9:30 our district sits down a talk about things we are grateful for and say a quick little family prayer. I can't complain because really we've only been here for not even a month and it's truly miraculous how much we already know. Also, I can't complain because our district made it a goal to not complain and be only positive. Can I just say how much I love them? At the end of each stressful day this week, we were able to laugh all the burdens of the day away and it felt great. 

Oh! So last Monday the Vietnamese delegates came. They only came into our class for five minutes but I got to use my mediocre Vietnamese on them! It was cool. There are only 15 missionaries in VN but 100 in Cambodia! Insane. Also, a senior couple sat next to us at lunch and it turned out the wife was Vietnamese and she told me my Vietnamese was really good which made me LOL because it's literal garbage, but I was really happy also because it reminded me of my mom :)  And the instructor from the Vietnamese class said I have the opportunity to serve in Vietnam because I already know some Viet. So fingers crossed that I will go get to teach my distant family over there!!

Our investigator, Vibool committed to baptism! The language is hard, but the Holy Spirit is so real and I know he's doing most of the teaching and testifying to our investigator, not me. And we get two new investigators this week. I am excited, but also nervous which means I need to put more trust in the Lord.

We had our first real sacrament meeting yesterday. Want to know what's scary? We all have to prepare a talk each week and no one knows who will be talking in sacrament meeting until we get there and they call your name. Haha. Luckily I did not get called up there this week. But I know I definitely will. 

I honestly can't remember much from this week other than we started learning script. Yikes! Very intimidating. It's all a blur. It's true what they say, a week feels like a day and a day feels like a week. 

Somethings I just want to share: the power of prayer is incredible. With true faith and real intent, Heavenly Father can provide us with so much help. Also, I never stop feeling the spirit here. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is real. Our district went to watch the Character of Christ by David A Bednar together last night and it was an incredible talk. We were all so happy at the end of the day because we were reminded of what really matters and why we are really here. I'm grateful to be here preparing to serve. I'm so excited to share the healing and enabling power of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I love you all so much and I'm grateful for the prayers because I know I am not doing this alone. Well, have a wonderful week!!

With love,
Sister Nguyen 

PS we went to the temple this morning and an older lady came up to us and said "Look at you little babies going out to save the world!"  It made me laugh.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Picture 1: "The Natives" Elder Phaan is Khmer and going back to Cambodia; Vietnamese speaking, Elder Rigby is Viet and going to Vietnam; Vietnamese speaking, Elder Mendenhall is Khmer going to Cambodia Vietnamese speaking, and the there's me!! 

Picture 2: The amount of joy I felt because we got to go on a temple walk and were out of the MTC for 40 minutes!!!

Picture 3: Missionaries headed for Vietnam and Cambodia outside the MTC

No comments:

Post a Comment