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