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