Coincidences vs. Miracles
- By Alexa Nguyen
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- 07 Dec, 2017
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MTC Week 5
Let me tell you about a miracle:
My knee has had some major pain issues since day 3 of the MTC and stayed consistently there ever since. I hit a lot of road blocks. I could tell that I just needed a simple chiropractic adjustment but the MTC is SUPER anit-chiropractor because they feel like it's dangerous (lol). I'm trying not to be critical, but not gonna lie, it's been really hard. I went pretty high up the chain of command and I still couldn't get approval to see a chiropractor. I was so frustrated with hitting road block after road block for something that should've been so easy to resolve. I even talked to one of the counselor's wives in my branch and as soon as I started explaining my problem to her I just broke down crying. I'm talking UGLY crying, friends. Sister Nguyen doesn't ugly cry.
ANYWAY
She helped me see the positive side of things that being sent to Physical Therapy instead of a chiropractor is actually really good for prevention once I'm in Cambodia. If I started having knee pain in Cambodia and not the MTC, I wouldn't have access to a physical therapist or anything like that.
THEN
We go to my physical therapy appointment at the BYU Health Center and there are two other girls there and guess who one of them was?? A Cambodian who served a Cambodian speaking mission in Washington! WHAT. THE. RANDOM. We talked to her and practiced our Cambodian with her and asked a bunch of questions. She also knew our teachers super well! Here's picture proof (excuse my messed up hair, cough):
There's no such thing as coincidences, and that was wayyyy too huge of a coincidence to just be a coincidence. I really feel like that was God's way of saying that everything is going to be okay, He's aware, and He's taking care of me, and I'll be fine. Phew. That's a load off my shoulders.
AND THEN
I figured there was one last resource I haven't exhausted and that was a priesthood blessing of healing. I never get priesthood blessing because I didn't grow up with the priesthood in my home in any shape or form. Because of that, I took me a long time to realize I should've asked for one a long time ago. I told Heavenly Father, "Okay after the blessing, there's nothing else I can do besides continuing my PT. It's all up to you know!" I asked Elder Koepp to give the blessing and his companion, Elder Park, to anoint and the rest of the Elders to participate in the laying on of hands. It was such an awesome experience. It was Elder Koepp's first blessing of healing and when I told him he did a great job, he said, "It wasn't me.". #Whoa
I love our Elders and I'm so grateful for them.
ANYWAY
Literally the next day I was able to go up and down the stairs for the first time with literally zero pain.
Coincidence? I THINK NOT.
I experienced way too many amazing coincidences to just call them a divine influence. For me, that was a miracle. I can't explain how emotionally overwhelmed and frustrated I was to not get the help I thought I needed.
So how is the language going?
Ummm I'm doing pretty bad, but I just have to keep recognizing my strengths instead of weaknesses. I also have this horrible but also blessed personality trait where I don't stress about things. It's nice because...well I'm not stressed out about it, but it's not nice at the same time because I probably should be more concerned in order to motivate me a little bit more. Overall, I'm just really grateful that Cambodian doesn't have tones.
Wish me luck:
I'm going to audition to be a narrator for the Christmas Eve program. They need one sister and one elder. I'm hoping my acting background pays off, because I really want to do this. Wish me luck!
Also, guess what?
My companion, Sister Webster, has an incredibly similar knee pain and she went to the MTC clinic today and they diagnosed her with somewhat the same knee problem as me! So they rescheduled my PT appointment with hers so that way we can go in together. Companions who do PT together stay together, lol :)
Okay. That's it for now. Oh wait, just kidding one more thing. I finalized what my new cambodian is going to be and the romanized spelling is "Viin". They don't have a "w" sound, so the "v" sound is the closest thing. It's not really like hard "v" in english, it's like "vw". So I'm "Sistuh Vwinn". Hahaha :)
Funny quick story:
The MTC doctor saw my birthmark/mole on my foot and really really wanted me to see a dermatologist because it was shaped irregularly. So we scheduled an appointment, got driven off campus into the real world, and the doctor asked if I was born with it (yes), looked at it for two seconds and said, "lol, your fine." Shortest appointment ever.
Okay that's it. Wow that was long. K bye.
Looove,
Sister Nguyen
P.S. This is my district and 2 out of the 4 teachers I have. (L-R) Elder McFarland, Elder Smith (He's technically in the Thai district, but he's an honorary member of our district), Elder Park, Elder Cameron, Sister Sorensen, Brother Lauritzen, Sister Eckman, Elder Koepp, Sister Webster, and yours truly.
Me and my old companion, Sister Peterson, got to go back to an old area to see the baptism of Jack Nith! She is so prepared! It's amazing seeing how the work continues without you and it's even more of a blessing getting to see the fruits of your labors (in combination with other missionaries' labors.) She is so excited to serve a mission, too! SHE'S AMAZING.
Me and Sister Peterson walked into the church for the baptism to see an awesome surprise. Our RC's daughter was there and she was getting baptized the following week! Me and Sister Peterson tried contacting her but she was so busy with work and couldn't start learning with us.
Lo and Behold she just got baptized! We didn't even know she had started meeting with the sisters! It was a wonderful surprise. Seeds really do grow after all!
We got smartphones now!
Having smartphones in this mission is going to be an absolute GAME CHANGER. All future missionaries who get to serve their whole mission with smartphones will never know the Nokia life. But Alas, many missionaries are starting to get their phones and it's so awesome! I, unfortunately, am not going to be getting one because I'm too old in the mission. Sigh. It's okay.
In order to receive a smart phone, all of us have to do a ton of training about all the new rules that involve smart phones and how to deal with all the temptations that come with it. Which means everyone has to watch a video that I filmed for the church 4 years ago! I've gotten many texts and phone calls and it's way funny. I play a waitress that serves a set of elders that come into a restaurant. :)
Facebook
All the members say, "Sister you're famous!"
I give them a confused look and they say, "I saw your facebook video!"
I made ANOTHER video explaining an English idiom in Khmer for the English Class Facebook page and the senior couple in charge of English Class liked it and promoted it so it appeared everywhereee! English class is one of our many ways we are able to find people who want to know more about Jesus Christ. So many prepared people find us through english class. So I was super honored I was able to help the Facebook page out so we can continue to be blessed with new students. But boy, all the members come up to me and say, "WOULDN'T BE CAUGHT DEAD!" (That's the idiom I taught)
We were doing companion study at a donut shop (because the power was out which means we had to find a place that had a generator and AC) when all of a sudden we get a call from the Senior Sister Training Leaders.
"Are you free in 30 minutes?" They asked.
"Um...we can make ourselves free," we replied.
"Cool, because there's a government official coming to tour the church and they want us to sing to him."
WHAT.
We rush home to look good and to grab the sheet music for Sister Saunders. We were singing a song in Khmer but she doesn't know how to read Khmer yet so she has her own version of "Come Unto Christ" with all the khmer words written in Vietnamese letters #LooksCanBeDeceiving :)
We get to the Church sweaty and gross and start practicing. There's 6 of us Sisters and thankfully all of them already knew this song.
AND THEN IT WAS SHOWTIME.
They come into the chapel and we greet the government official. One of the Sisters says, "Hello, Bong!" Bong is a word used for people who around your age/Not old enough to be parent.
IMMEDIATELY after she said, "bong" one of the church officials walks up to us and says, "You can't used the word, 'bong' because he's technically considered royalty, so you have to say. "asdkjf;" <--Some word I don't know BECAUSE YOUR HOMEGIRL IS NEVER AROUND ROYALTY.
Anyway, Mr. Royalty was way chill that we accidentally used the wrong word for him and was super nice. We sang for them in the chapel and we made a Senior Sister cry! Mission accomplished.
CATCH UP TIME! A LOT OF CRAZY AND GREAT THINGS HAVE HAPPENED, YOU READY?
BUCKLE UP, FOLKS.
Okay. Imma start in chronological order. FIRST:
Me and Sister Binns celebrated our one year mark
in country the khmer way! We bought khmer cakes and wore our khmer kramaa's like the old people here. Kramaa's are basically light weight scarves that khmers use for SO MANY THINGS. The main use for missionaries is to wipe up the good ol' sweat. :)
I'm training the one and only Sister Obeng. This girl is straight on fire! She loves talking to people even though she can't understand their responses, she don't let that stop her though. It's going to be a very easy training because she hit the ground running. Let's gooo!
The theme for our mission is "Expect Miracles"
and it has been awesome!!
Literally so many miracles this week. And last week, too (sorry I didn't write anything last week...hahaha).
We've been visiting this one less-active family for a while but the parents just simply don't come to church. Their faith is there and they love the gospel...they just don't come to church. Well surprise, surprise, the dad came to church this week!! Sister Obeng recognized him and said, "Wait, do we know that guy? He looks way familiar."
"Nope. Don't recognize him."
I LITERALLY DIDN'T RECOGNIZE HIM BECAUSE I WAS NOT USED TO SEEING HIM OUTSIDE OF HIS HOUSE MUCH LESS INSIDE THE CHURCH. Hahaha :)
Also, a former investigator from out of the blue called us and said she wants to be baptized and is willing to do whatever it takes to come back to church every week. She dropped off the face of the earth over two months ago because we couldn't find her new house that she moved into, and her phone was kind of broken so it was way hard to hear directions, and she stopped coming to church.
I thought, "Alright. Here we go again. We're going to find her house this time." AND WE FOUND IT. A lot of it was because her husband had come back from a different province and she used his phone to give us directions instead of hers. It was niiiice and clear. She wanted us to teach her husband as well who also is literally one of the most prepared people ever. I'm way excited for them. It was a joy to call Sister Chanthakhoun and Sister Olivas to tell them the good news. They were WAY happy.
Fun fact: We went without water, electricity and a working AC unit several times this week. In Khmer, we call this
ទុក្ខវេទនា (Rough translation: Straight suffering, bro.)
I think my sweat glands will be broken by the time I get back to America.
Love,
Sister Nguyen
P.S. I love Cambodia
I'm sorry I haven't written anything in forever. I've been doing school stuff...
Anyway! We got transfer calls last night, I found out that I am training which means I'll be doing a total of 6 months in this area. I'm excited to show the ropes to a new missionary!
Random Fact:
If I had to describe my area in one word, it would be BIKING. So much biking. It's mainly because we don't live in our area. I'm not complaining, it's keeping me from gaining weight. Love the food here. :)
There's too much to catch up on, but the one thing I want to talk about is our BAPTISM!
Hello! I'm not sure if I have ever said this but I get to do one more transfer with Sister Chanthakhoun whom I absolutely adore! I'm way excited. I'm really loving the mission. Not going to lie, I had a hard time loving the mission for a really long time. There were a lot of days scattered through out mission where I absolutely loved it, but in general I struggled. I think a big part of that was the language barrier. I'm still not perfect at the language but I'm never afraid to talk to people anymore because now I can understand them and they can understand me :)
Last night was way fun. We got a call from the young women's president asking us to come over to eat some food. She was celebrating the fact the she got a new calling to be the District Primary President! Hahaha, the food was SO GOOD. It was like an omelet thing that you put in a piece of lettuce and you dip it into a really good fish sauce with peanuts.
Last week, my favorite investigator came to church. She's super old, but so so so cute. She loves what we teach her and she says every night she hugs the restoration pamphlet after she says her nightly prayers. She's so funny. MIRACLE:
She came to church for her first time and it turns out she's related to some really good members and has a really good friend that's a member. It was awesome to see all that unfold!! Where are we, Utah?!?!
Members for the win!
Story Time
We went to go exercise outside, and we lost our keys! It had the keys to our house AND the church. This is way bad because the church keys are way hard to replace. You can't just make a copy of the Elder's key, you have to get it specially made from another country.
We went back immediately and didn't find it. It was gone. We went back again a few hours later to where we had exercised that morning and I saw about 10 little boys playing with each other. I called them over and I told them we lost our keys. They immediately started looking without me having to ask! Then one of the boys leads us to one side of the Wat where a random guy pulls up on a moto saying, "You're looking for a key, right?" YES. He points us to a groundskeeper who walks into a building and then walks out with our keys! Random little boys for the win!
Our area is AWESOME
I was sad to leave my last area because it was hopping full of investigators. Then I came to this area that I'm in now, and it has always had the reputation for being a hard area. I asked people what made it hard and I never really got a really solid answer. So I decided that's it's just an attitude issue. If you believe you have a hard area, it WILL be hard. So I chose not to believe that I had a difficult area. One of the ways I changed my beliefs about this area was by saying, "This area is about to blow up with investigators, sister!" all the time.
Blow up it did.
When I got here we had 3 investigators. 6 weeks later, we have 18! When I left my previous area that was hopping, I left it with 17 investigators. This supposedly difficult area surpassed
it!! Our investigators are all quality investigators, too. I'm way excited.
If things aren't going how you want them to be, just change your attitude, man.
Cambodian Kids Are The Best Kind of Kids
Me and Sister Chanthakhoun were riding our bikes through a village and there was an 8 year old kid dancing by himself with a bucket on his head.
We were dying.
AND THEN
We were all winding down for the night when we heard a strange and really loud sound outside that we at first thought was a cat. We opened the balcony door from our bedroom to find a kid blowing into a bottle. Then he runs into his house and comes back out with a trumpet.
So loud.
So funny.
I love Cambodia.
Sister Nguyen
So they power went out 9pm on Christmas Eve. #ClassicCambodia
Usually the powers comes back on at one point so we didn't fret. The power goes out all the time in Cambodia. We went to bed at 9:30 as it slowly got hotter, and hotter.
I sleep in a room with 4 other sisters and one of them got way sick and was stuck in the bathroom all night in the heat and complete darkness.
At 2am after sweating like a beast for hours, I said, "Alright ladies. This is the worst." We get up and sit on the balcony because there was a soft cool breeze. I called a senior couple AND THEY PICKED UP! And told them our situation and they came and saved us!! They put us in this empty apartment by the mission home that was SOOOO NICE.
So we only got a few hours of sleep but we woke up in the nicest apartment ever and Sister Lewis fed us a Christmas Breakfast and we got to Skype home in the mission home, and spent our Christmas in the convenience of the city!
It was a blessing in disguise.
I love Cambodia. Power outages and everything.
Sister Nguyen
Christmas Show
I've literally done nothing but sing, sing, sing this last week! We had a super fun music concert/show thing for the members, and then another night for the public. It was so fun and really got me into the Christmas spirit. All the songs were in Khmer so let's say way I'm way grateful I know how to read Khmer script now.
ALSO So many members from my birth area (takhmau) were there participating and they all remembered me! It was so good to see them, I literally thought I would never see them again when I left.
