AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Family,

   I am really not quite as freaked out as that subject line might suggest, but still, I am rather excited.  I think Dad put it best when he said they haven't worried about me too much because I have been in a controlled environment, well that is about to change...I'm actually excited about the rice, too much sitting the last two months, and I'm excited to meet the people even if they will laugh at my accent or lack there of of tones, but the Lord can make up for so many deficienies as long as we do our best.  These are His children I will be teaching and he most definitely wants what is best for them, as long as I am trying I know the Lord will help me meet the needs of His children.  I am a bit nervous to prepare to enter Cambodia for this last week, we have a new Vietnamese teacher.  We met him for the first time yesterday.  It was so strange having someone speak to me in Vietnamese, in the evening.  He seemed a bit abrupt, but most likely he was as nervous to meet us as we were to meet him.  I'm curious to see how my last five class days will play out, and hope the Lord will prepare me for what is coming.

   I share two things that have strengthened my faith in this knowledge.  First, after teaching our investigator Chi Thuy (who at long last has committed to a confirmed baptismal date, that was an amazing lesson) we headed outside to feel the rain and the sunshine.  As we were standing outside two elders who are learning German came up to us and asked if they could share their testimonies.  It was amazing to feel the Spirit when I could only recognize half of the words.  What struck me even more was when the elders asked our trio to share our testimony.  We might not be able to street contact a single Viet our first day in Cambodia, but each of us can share a testimony from the heart.  I was shocked to realize I could understand every word my companions were sharing (considering we have all focused on different vocabulary, we really haven't been able to follow every word before).  I bore testimony that I know God is our loving Heavenly Father, we are his loved children, he sent us here to learn and grow.  I know he sent his Beloved Son to atone for us so that we can change, grow, learn and be better than ourselves.  As I bore testimony to two elders who really had no idea what words I was saying, but could feel the power of the Spirit I realized that is the message I go to spread throughout the world.  Our Savior enables us to become better than ourselves, to overcome challenges that alone make us weep. Because of the Atonement of Christ and the covenants we make we can and will return to live with our Heavenly Father again, who promises us worlds without end.  I'm so very excited to share that message.

   Second powerful moment this week, I was sitting in in-field orientation ( a week early yes, but Anh Ca Bruggeman leaves tomorrow, so they moved the rest of our district up a week) and our facilitator shared something rather powerful.  He told of a 92 year old sister who bore her testimony in Stake conference having just received her patriarchal blessing a week before.  She was a new convert of about a year and she shared just a brief line from her blessing.  It read "dear sister you would have joined the church sixty years earlier if Elder White had served a mission".  I was blown backward in my seat in that moment.  I admit that there has been times here when I have wondered why I was sitting at the MTC learning a language I might not ever use again instead of a myriad of other things I could be doing, like watering tomato plants.  Of course those thoughts were always shoved out of my mind, but they haunted me as I wondered what my true purpose was and what Heavenly Father had for me to do.  In that moment I understood what work he has for me to do.  He loves that 92 yr old sister so much and so wanted her to receive the Gospel and have all the blessings the Gospel affords her, but he still allowed a prospective elder to have his agency.  Yes she still received the Gospel and she still will receive the blessings, but when she received her blessing I wonder if she thought about how her life could have been different.  The second night we were here we were asked to share how we managed to get to the MTC, why did we decide to serve.  I thought about the many different reasons I was sitting there preparing myself to learn Vietnamese, but the one I shared amounted to "I am here because Heavenly Father asked me to".  He did ask me to and I did say yes.  I accepted a call to go to a very foreign sounding land where I will stick out in every possible way, from my height to my hiccups, but yet the Lord called me there.  Somewhere in that country perhaps waits a man or woman who will accept the Gospel because when the Lord called I answered.  Now you might wonder what this information can be used for in your own lives.  Well everyday the Lord calls and asks us to do something, it is different every day and perhaps it feels insignificant.  But I promise you it is not.  Heavenly Father has billions of children on this earth at this time and if he asks you to do something it is because He specifically needs you.  Let him use you, listen to those promptings and follow them with gratitude.  What a blessing it is to bless those around us and help them see the wonderous blessings God has for all of his children.

    I am so very, very excited to do this work, I don't know why it is that Heavenly Father called me for such a responsibility, but I know with His help He will make me equal to the task.  

 

                                                   All my love,  Sister Fabricius

Adventure Time

Dear Family,

   I have survived another week with flying colors and still love the MTC, even if I am more than ready to leave two weeks in advance, oh well i'm sure it will come soon enough.  We hopefully get travel plans this week so I'll have more details to give about when we are flying out and the number of layers.  A district who left three weeks ago had a thirty hour layer while trying to get to Thailand, I hope that isn't us.

   I am still in major shock my time at the MTC is almost over, what makes it feel more unreal is having two of my teachers leave before I do.  We have a teacher assigned to us whose english name is Bro Stevens, he speaks Kmer, Mandarin, the phrase "your wife is very attractive" in Hmong, but no Viet.  At first I wasn't sure how this teacher was to help me prepare for Cambodia, but the Lord knows what he is doing in this as well, for Bro Stevens is helping me focus on personal and language study, direction i greatly needed.  We have grown to love this step in teacher  and have given him his Viet name Thay Chung (which means to be universal, which given his language and his travels seem appropriate).

  I wish I had tons of amazing stories or humorous anecdotes to share but I fear I am running a bit low on them this week.  Our teachers are more uptight about us leaving than we are so that has led to a greater emphasis on the grind stone than before, but considering they know more of what we face than what we do and they have a better idea of what we need i can hardly complain, in fact I am rather thankful.

  Ah here is a funny story, Chi Hoa came in laughing from her last branch council meeting, it took her about twenty minutes to stop laughing when she did she told us about portal.  Portal is apparently an assessment program we missionaries were supposed to be doing on Sundays the last ten weeks, except for we didn't know it even existed.  So our branch president was talking to a new district about their schedule and what they should be doing on various days of the week.  He asked a Kmer elder to explain about portal, but all the ten week elders just gave blank looks, at that point Pres Jackson realized they had never explained what we were supposed to be doing.  At first I was a bit miffed considering those assessments are supposedly sent to our misison president, then I just laughed.  I loved the nature of the MTC, this is vital to your progression as a missionary, we just won't tell you about...anyway, it isn't anything to fret over considering our mission president is new and most likely doesn't know these assessments exist either :-)

  One of the two elders in our district is leaving next Tuesday, which has put all of us into freak out mode to take pictures.  I'm grateful for Sis Yang being so picture taking conscious, in fact today we went to the "famous" world map today to take pictures of all the elders in our hallway, the Hmongs and kmers.  It amazes me that in just ten weeks I have grown to be so attached to all these younger brothers.  it is a weird feeling considering I grew up with one older  brother and now all of a sudden I have 21 younger brothers, each so unique and strange.  I have enjoyed getting to know them, even if sometimes they are weird, and I know I shall miss all those who aren't coming to

Cambodia with us.  The only thing that weirds me out is all the elders hugging each other all the time, and they call the sisters clingy.

  Last two things, first, Bro Stephen B Allen came and spoke to us again, the third time during my stay here.  i so enjoy how friendly he is having us stand up if we've received dear John's or Jane's, if we are home sick, if we like the food yet, if we have decided to hitch hike home yet. I feel his love and his encouragement, this week he played Come Come ye Saints by Motab and asked us to think about the lyrics, due to my state of mind that night, I am so very thankful for that song and its message.  But the real fun came in the logistics of the evening, they are redoing the gym floor so they were broadcasting the devotional to all parts of campus meaning different rooms and different buildings.  Well during a time of audio technical difficulty my hiccup decided to make itself known, in the middle of silence.  Well eleven branches packed into one tiny room burst into laughter.  My companions and I laughed hardest because we knew what we were laughing about.  I am thankful to say how much my companions and I enjoy laughing and that we have enjoyed quite a delightful giggle session or two in the last week.  laughter truly is some of the best medicine in the world, you should try some.

  As I contemplate myself going to a foreign country, me the person who has never been out of the country before, I am thankful i do not go on this adventure alone.  The Lord has sent me two very experienced travelers to go w/ me (my companions) and he sends his Spirit with me as well, I am so thankful for that Spirit which brings comfort and peace even as I contemplate ROUS's and monkeys that steals things out of backpacks.  that same Spirit helps when the first counselor of the MTC presidency asks you and the elders going to Cambodia with you to audition for a musical number in a devotional (singing Viet and accapella) on a Sunday when the audition is on a Thursday, but as Chi Hoa said that is what the Atonement is for.

   And really family, that is what the Atonement is for.  This week in Sacrament meeting the topic was about enduring to the end.  Each week we as missionaries are supposed to prepare a three to five minute talk about the given topic.  Well I had spent the evening before planning my thoughts, but with a ginormous branch and only two speakers, i didn't worry too much about speaking.  But after relief society and the speaker telling us about truly using the Atonement in every aspect of our lives not just having it as a decoration on the wall I thought about how we really use the Atonement in our lives.  As I sat as they passed the sacrament I pondered on what it meant to endure to the end and fully utilize the Atonement in our lives and not just for sin.  The Spirit whispered two things to me, first He told me I would be speaking in just a few moments and next he helped me understand what enduring tot he end means.  Enduring means keeping your covenants and relying on the Lord with joy, but it also means to always be striving to improve ourselves.  We have an incredibly high bar raised in front of us, we are commanded to become like our Savior Jesus Christ.  True our Heavenly Father knows we are not perfected in this life, but while we are here we are commanded to do all we can to prepare for that perfection. It doesn't matter how good we are according tot he world's standard we can do better.  Now that I am feeling a bit more comfortable in Viet and I'm enjoying getting to know my companions more and now I feel I've adapted to MTC life, this isn't the end of the road.  I admit, I have let myself become just a bit complacent, but Sunday reminded me I have so much more of life ahead.  I have thought that if something was beyond my current ability I was free from the responsibility to try. But that's not how it works, when we feel something is beyond us we try anyway and then pray with all our heart for the enabling power from our Savior to make up the difference.  I struggle memorizing in English let a lone Viet, but with Christ I can do all things.  So this week I'm working on memorizing Come Thou Fount in Viet to sing for Sis. Nally and trying to memorize Moses 1:39 in Viet.  We can't afford to let ourselves become complacent, there is too much in this life to accomplish.

   I apologize if i have preached to much this last paragraph, i didn't mean to, but that is what has been on my heart of late.  There is so much to do and sometimes it feels overwhelming, but the Lord truly does provide a way to accomplish all he asks us to do, whether gaining patience, finding love, loving someone, figuring out work or fulfilling a calling, I know Heavenly Father lives, he loves us, this is His Gospel and He sent His Son to make more of us than we can make of ourselves.

            Thank you all for the letters, support and love, Cambodia here I come (in two weeks :-) ) 
 Sis Dao Fabricius

Never a Dull Moment

Dear Family,

   So much for the idea of a nap today, however due to the fact Bro Reynolds (a man I respect very much for his advice about my trio and his love for missionaries) said that missionaries don't get time to sleep I don't know whether naps are out of the question.  Well I'll go on faith and instead just get my eight hours and hope for the best.

    Well we have said goodbye to another Viet teacher...you would think we were scary or something. I have loved Thay Tuan and his patience with me as I continually butcher the language his loves, I am trying to improve, but if I never grasped Latin grammar (some Vietnamese structures seem the same) after two and a half years, I only have slightly high hope for improving grammar in 12 weeks.  But with the Lord all things are possible even me understanding correct sentence structure.  Thay Tuan ( please ask about tone and vowel marks later) helped me understand the importance of the language and the gospel language.  After he left I was surprised to realize I understand the northern dialect better than the southern dialect now, that isn't necessarily a good thing because I should be speaking southern, but I was excited to realize the random tender mercies Heavenly Father sends us.

    There really never is a dull moment here, whether it be saying good bye to your Vietnamese teacher three weeks before you leave the MTC (yes folks I am now down to 21 days, yes I am nervous, but I am also so very excited to meet the people and fall in love with them.  Sis Buoi our native Vietnamese sister going to Atlanta told Chi Hien (Yang, who is a size two and size five shoe) she'll be able to buy dresses for a dollar in Cambodia, I wonder how much my dresses will cost when it will take four dresses sewn together to fit only my bone structure :-) but I really am excited for everything) or whether it be spilling food on myself twice in a period of three weeks.  I have now managed to drop my tray at both breakfast and at lunch, all for the love of ketchup, somehow the counters aren't situated to balance a tray while trying to squirt ketchup onto your plate.  So when I did it two weeks ago I actually managed to break a plate, but a kind worker cleaned it up and told me to get another plate of food.  Today was more awkward, after spilling salad dressing and gyro dressing down my front I was swarmed by a pack of elders and teachers, before my plate had time to settle on the floor even.  They kindly gave me napkins, refused my help to pick up my gyro, salad and french fries (yes I still love my french fries, I'm trying to enjoy them as much as possible before you to the land of rice and beans) and the elder (the one who had cancer as a lad and is now a teacher here) from the district (the show missionaries watch before entering the MTC, just ask Mom, Dad or Natalie about it) went and got me another gyro while another teacher took my tray to the washers.  I'm so thankful for their kindness, I still felt awkward, but I'm clumsy I usually feel awkward at some time or another, I'm thankful I didn't have to clean my mess up alone.

  And really that is what life is all about.  We all feel awkward or strange or unprepared or lonely or like we just had the floor pulled out from under us, but the Lord is always there to pick up our fallen dinner tray.  For instance I have been practicing to audition for a musical number for about two weeks, on Sunday the elders I was working with apologized and said they didn't feel good about doing it for various reasons, I don't blame them.  In that moment I realized Heavenly Father knows our hopes, dreams and desires he wants those things for us to and he desires our happiness, but sometimes it is better for us to suffer disappointment so he can truly bless us and so we feel his abundant love for us.

  I apologize for the shortness of this email, I had a lot to do in 20 minutes, but I tried.  As a parting thought please go on lds.org and look for the summarization of the new mission presidents seminar.  I am amazed to read what the general authorites had to say.  I know it is for mission presidents, but I think it will apply to all of us.

   Thanks so much to all of you for your love and support and I hope this week is fabstastical for you!!!!

                                         Love Chi Dao (pronounced dow w/ a falling tone) Fab

I almost died

Dear Family,

   I am writing this email earlier in the day because I will not have time later. I am very excited for the opportunity to clean the temple today!!!! I have no idea what we'll be doing, but they said to plan to be there from 12:30 to 4:00 so who knows what will happen.  I have never cleaned a temple before and am excited to see how they do it.  Regardless this means anytime to email later in the day isn't much of a possibility because I really need a nap today when I get back....let me explain, no that will take too long let me sum up.

  My subject line really is appropriate today, I could have potentially died...at least.  This morning I was harshly awoken by the light in my room being turned on, I couldn't figure out why.  I looked at my watch and found out it was 12:45 in the am.  My foggy brain then realized there was a very obnoxious noise blaring over my head, yes you guessed it the fire alarm.  It took me about three minutes to actually get out of bed and comprehend what was going on, my companions didn't really say anything to make me move faster so remind me not to rely too heavily on myself in an emergency at night, we might not ever make it out of a building if I was incharge.  Anyway, I knew I wasn't supposed to bring any personal possessions with me, but Chi Hien (Yang) brought her towel to stay warm, Chi Hoa (Hays) brought her journal and scriptures and I wanted to ensure that if the building burned down I had something from home, so I left my glasses and brought doodle bear.  I apologize if this seems to be a lack of judgement, but in my defense I was really confused, very tired and I didn't want Doodle bear to die. Anyhow after an eternity we finally made it into the hall where it was truly deafening.  We made it out side all in a hodge podge of alertness and waited for a half an hour for a firetruck to show up that never did, we did get a green truck with a ladder that stopped by to check the building and I guess really a fireman really only needs a ladder (my apologies uncle Greg).  By the time I finally woke up I noticed myself rocking Doodle bear back to sleep and pondering when we could go inside.  After about thirty five minutes they let us back in the building where of course none of us got any sleep.  It was okay though, Sis Lloyd and Sis Tobias leave tomorrow so it was fun sharing some laughs in our adrenaline filled state,  I will miss them greatly, disney movie quotes really are funnier in the middle of the night.

   So now that I have enthralled all of you with my "terror" filled night I move on to my delightful week.  With only a month left (less than now) it feels like the days are going by twice as fast.  My companions and I have reached a gelling point and teaching is actually fun.  I'm not quite sure how it happened, it most likely has to do with all the prayers on our behalf, which I thank you all for.  You have to make the choice to love someone, but until the love of God enters your heart it feels hopeless. I'm thankful Heavenly Father helped me make the choice to love and serve and then blessed us with the gift of his love, because what is happening in our trio could only be a gift from Him.  What was before silence and awkwardness is filled with laughter and creating good memories.  Our lessons go smoother and we work together better because our planning sessions are more effective. If I wanted to get all humany womnny on myself I could chalk it up to the fact Chi Hays is a better senior companion than I am and truthfully she is, she actually knows how to teach and how to do missionary things, I was simply learning, but I'm thankful Heavenly Father gave me the opportunity to learn.  It has been a hard eight weeks and I'm sure some rough spots are still ahead, but really if you think about it, it took us two thirds of our time here to figure it out, just like it takes two thirds for the three week missionaries.  The work truly is fun.  My tones are still atrocious and I most likely don't make sense, but that doesn't matter, I feel like I finally have something to say and feel the Spirit guiding me to what to say.  The Spirit is the real teacher and can help the person I am teaching understand not just what I say, but what the Lord wants for them, that is a truly powerful thing to be a part of.  I love teaching at the tRc (teaching resource center) on Saturdays.  We teach real Viets and I get to learn how much love God has for them and how much he wants to bless them.  I love those appointments knowing I have to improve, but with the desire to improve, to be a blessing from the Lord to a people who need His blessings so much.  I know I am a  a simple servant of God, but right now I can't imagine being anything else, oh what a marvelous work this is.

   So to illustrate one story of what my teacher thay Tuan is like, which he is leaving next week to go to Vietnam, our trio isn't sure what to think about that, Thay Tuan had words written up on the board and told us to learn them in two minutes.  He told us the better you say the word the better off this activity will be.  He rushed us outside and walked us out to a crazy hilly place.  He sat down pulled out a bag of candy and started shouting at us in tieng Viet. He had given us pieces of paper and started gesturing to them.  We finally figured out the paper was money and we were to figure out how to barter the price down to get the candy we wanted.  He would showcase the candy for sell and we tried to get what pieces we wanted for the price we wanted.  Sometimes it would work splendidly and we, or in one case I got a large handful of pieces for only three doe's while Anh Ca Hai (steele) paid four and only got three pieces.  We spent forty minutes outside shouting at him in Viet trying to get candy, sometimes if we wouldn't pay his price he would eat the candy and we simply missed out or someone else would steal the buy from us.  Apparently this excercise was to teach us how bartering in Viet fruit markets was like, oh it was so much fun.  I know that when I get to Cambodia I will be lost for a long time when people speak to me, but for now I am just so grateful I can follow Thay Tuan when he is teaching me in rapid Northern Viet, which sounds a lot different than sourthern which we are learning.  In Northern accent all the soft d's and g's sound like z's.

   It amazes me how much the Lord loves us and I hope each of you are feeling the same way, God is good.

   Thank you so much for all the packages which I have put to good use sharing with others, let's just say it is so much fun to share food again, I hope Natalie is continuing my tradition at DI.

 

                Everyone have a fabtabulous week, know I pray for you and the Lord delights to answer the righteous desires of our hearts. Sis Dao Fab

Hmmm

Dear Family,

   Last weeks devotional was not what I was expecting. We had ten members of the Quorum of the 12 in the room, which was amazing, and yes world I hiccupped in front of them, but I tried to stifle it :-) Elder L. Tom Perry spoke to us and gave us a PR stats presentation about the benefits of being a member of the Church.  It was sort random, but he also gave good counsel as we prepare to leave for our field.

   So I found out yesterday that letters from Natalie have been ending up in Cambodia already, I am very excited to read them when I get there :-) Something else exciting to look forward to other than tarantula. So we have a temple walk each Sunday when we can talk to other zones, take pictures and have 45 mins away from the "compound" I am only slightly kidding. I always enjoy the walks, but this week was crazy, I felt like I was in the movie Dante's Peak, there was ash falling from the sky because of the fires in the canyon, it was kind of gross, but that is what a shower and washing machine are for.  I am enjoying getting to know the elders who are going to Cambodia with us, they are all a bit goofy, but they have a good heart and two of them have agreed to sing "I Heard Him Come" with me, I am so very excited.

   So I am about to wax random, so if any would prefer to avoid such strange things feel free to skip to the end.  So we found out last Friday that one of our teachers Thay Kiet is leaving and going to Cambodia on Wednesday, we sisters are hoping to see him again when we arrive.  He is going to help with a humanitarian project there and to visit the people he taught.  This meant that instead of receiving our Vietnamese first names at the end of our time we received them five weeks early.  All the teachers were so excited and we couldn't figure out why until they started gesturing at their name tags and waving us up to stand at the front.  We stood at the front of the class and waved away our old names and were introduced in our new names.  This means two things, one in Vietnam I will be called by my first name (Vietnamese of course) which will be on the tag arriving sometime this week and two that I will still be called Fabricius outside of class, but inside of class I will be called Da`o, which means to create or mold.  I receive my Vietnamese last name from my trainer or a family in the field.  At first I wasn't quite sure what to think of giving up Fabricius this soon in my mission, I mean I am sort of attached, one silly reason I gave for serving a mission was to thoroughly enjoy Fabricius before I got married and received a different name, I did receive a new name, just a lot sooner than I thought I would.  But as I thought about this name and heard that our teachers have been pondering and praying about our new names for three weeks I knew Heavenly Father knew what he was doing when he had it given to me.  So our teachers stood at the front of the class speaking in rapid fire Tiếng Việt and gesturing, we realized they were trying to describe what our names mean.  I actually guessed what my name meant before I knew it was my name.  I thought about my life in the last year, how much the Lord has molded me and how much we all mold each other.  I thought about being here and trying to create an effective teaching unit from three seperate individuals.   I thought about starting my Vietnamese life with a new name and how excited I am.  Thay Kiet told us we each had a part of Vietnam in us the whole time, we just didnt know it til now.  As I was writing down different thoughts and ideas I pondered about baptism and how we take a new name upon us then.  We promise Heavenly Father to take Jesus Christ's name upon us and to remember him always, we are charged to be a witness to the world of who Christ is and what he has done for all of us.  What are we doing with that name in our lives?  We have each exchanged our name for Christ's and have promised to do his work, are we doing it? It was interesting to be reminded of my covenants in this way.  When I signed my acceptance letter I promised to obey all the commandments, rules and schedules of this mission, it doesn't matter that I didn't know what they were at the time, I promised and with this new name I have I hope I live up to that promise, I hope I do the work of the Father and only bring good with this name D`ao of mine.

  Due to some encouragement from Bro Reynolds I have begun a reading of the Book of Mormon with charity in mind.  I am amazed by how much the Book of Mormon speaks of charity, without ever saying the name.  We are encouraged to read scriptures by topic, but if you ever want to read the old BofM, but are curious about a topic, read with that topic in mind, you will be amazed at what you find.

   Last night we had practice teaching time to teach the Restoration with all five of us in the district in Vietnamese, that was amazing.  At first we seemed so scattered and I admit rather lost, but it was amazing to see us working together by the end. We still struggled, but the Spirit truly does wonders.  My teacher pulled me aside the other day and told me my sentence structure stinks (my sentence structures seems to have that problem in every language I learn, I blame this on Latin) and I really need to focus on tones.  At first I was sort of in shock, but he said I do apply the vocabulary I learn really well.  My new goal is to review sentence structure for various types of sentences and listen to tones on TALL oh and of course pray very, very hard to speak like a Viet.  I know the Lord will bless me as I do my utmost and rely on him.

    The Lord knows of our needs and so wants to bless us, ask him.  He knows our pains and desires to bring us peace, ask him our God is a god of miracles ask Him, I know he answers.

                                                                With love Sister Dao Alison Fabricius

P.S Genevieve Draper are you still alive? Chelsey Funk I need your address :-)