Hey hey wha's happenin'?

Greetings loved ones. (Snoop Dogg voice)

 

I am pleased to announce that the weekly email boycott of 2014 has come to a close. Last week, soon after beginning the boycott my beloved siblings emailed me. Unfortunately, this past week was a bit of a dud compared to other weeks so there's not too much to share.

 

We spent this week focusing a lot on teaching members about missionary work and helping them begin sharing the gospel with their friends and family. There are only one or two full member families so it's really important that we get the member's sharing with their relatives. The very first thing that is taught to new investigators is that the gospel blesses families. Our families are a gift from our Heavenly Father to strengthen and support us, and a gospel centered family is a happier family! We have many strong members, now we just need to get their families learning about the gospel too!

 

One of our lessons was with a member named Co Thuy. She is a single, older woman who owns a small hair salon in her house. We tried setting up appointments with her for a couple weeks, but she's always busy with customers. We got lucky one evening though and were able to stop by and teach a short lesson about missionary work. She, like most other members, was a little doubtful about her ability to share thinking that the people she knows would be unaccepting. We gave her three pamphlets though, The Restoration, Plan of Salvation and The Gospel of Jesus Christ and committed her to try and give them to someone she knows. She accepted our commitment, but probably thought that she wouldn't have the chance to give them away. We've got faith that everyone will have opportunities to do missionary work though! Following the lesson Co Thuy said she was going to go out on the street and buy us some soup (pig intestine's to be exact) for me to try. While Chi Van and I were waiting for her to come back a customer came by wanting a hair cut so we invited her to wait with us until Co Thuy came back with the food. We talked to this customer a little bit but didn't say very much other than we taught English classes and went to the same church as Co Thuy. Once Co Thuy came back we went to the back room of her house to eat and encouraged her to use that hair appointment as a missionary opportunity! BOOM! It worked. She came back and asked us if she should give away the pamphlets! Well, of course! It's as easy as that. In just five minutes someone was invited to learn about the gospel.

 

I don't know if that woman will want to learn about the church, but I also don't know if God has been preparing her to learn about the restored gospel. The most important thing for everyone to realize is that missionary work is easy. We're not asking members to prepare lessons and go to their friends homes and share full lessons like us full-time missionaries do. All we're asking is for them to invite.

 

Our purpose is to "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end."

 

Notice that the first word is "invite". That's all you have to do! Give someone a pamphlet, invite them to church, introduce them to missionaries. All that YOU have to do is invite! And I'm not saying this as a suggestion, missionary work is the responsibility of every single member of the church.

 

President George Albert Smith once said,

"This is your mission, my brethren and sisters of the church, that is your responsibility. Freely you have received and our Heavenly Father will expect you freely to share with his other sons and daughters these glorious truths. . . We will attain our exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom only on the condition that we share with our Father's other children the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and observe the commandments that will enrich our lives here and hereafter."

 

Thaaaat's right. Things just got real. You gotta share if you want to go to the Celestial Kingdom. Seriously though, I hope you will all listen to the prophets call that we are all missionaries and begin fulfilling your responsibilities!

 

That's all for this week.

Do what I tell you to do. Do what your parents tell you to do. Do what the prophet tells you to do. Do what Jesus tells you to do. Okay? Okay.

 

Love,

Sister Egelund

 

And shout out to my brother Eric who turns 17 this week! I remember on my 17th birthday right at midnight I listened to 17 Forever by Metro Station and it was sweet...but now I'm 19 and getting old.

 

Also here's a scripture I really like,

 

v16 . . . yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

v17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

v18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4: 16-18

Oh, hey.

Well, folks.

I have been serving for four months....

and my siblings have not emailed me once.

 

I regret to inform you that I am boycotting weekly emails until those stinkin' kids email me.

 

Just know that I am not dead. The work is progressing - yesterday the third meeting house in all of Vietnam opened. We currently have three branches in the country and are hoping for a fourth by the end of 2014!

New Year's was decent. I got kinda bummed remembering that for the past two years I was in Disneyland for New Years. This year I'm a missionary though and that's totes magotes a million times better.

 

I love you all. I love Jesus. Lit-rally he's my best friend.

 

-Sister Trinh Ly

 

While at the MTC I seriously saw about 30 - 40 people I knew from Southern Virginia University. It was nuts. Yesterday while teaching a lesson at the church I looked up at an old photo of the general authorities and saw SVU's President, President Sybrowsky. Apparently he was a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy...I come all the way to Vietnam and I cannot escape Virginia.

There was a poisonous frog in the chapel and the security guy went hard trying to kill it with a broom. Thank goodness I had learned the word for capture animal that morning. That little bugger was fast though so it is potentially still in the church. NBD

 

"Santaaaaaa!" - Buddy the Elf

(This email was sent on Dec. 29, 2013. Yes I'm a loser or a slacker or both. Honestly though, I read Emily's emails and then I forget to share them with all of you. I have like a year to get better at updating in a timely fashion. Cheers! Kristin)
 

This week was saaaahweeet.

So for those of you that don't own a calender, Christmas was this past week and it was killer. On Christmas Eve we had dinner at a members, Co Phuong's, house. It was a heap load of fun and her five year old grandson sang Feliz Navidad for like an hour for us. 

Christmas Eve at Co Phuong's house.



I felt like a chump though because I couldn't remember the words to the darn song. All of my not so hard work at Spanish is gone. Para Bailar La Bamba used to be my jam and now it's all gone. Back when I was at home people always mistook me for a Mexican and when they tried speaking Spanish to me I could at least sing Para Bailar La Bamba to them. Now when I get home and everyone thinks I'm a Mexican again what am I going to do?! The struggle. OH! Santa showed up at Co Phuong's house! You know in the movie Elf when Santa shows up at Gimble's and Buddy the Elf goes insane? Yeah, that was me when Santa showed up on his motorcycle.

 (Please reference the attached picture to understand my excitement.)

Santa, Vietnam style.

District One Christmas Lights.

Riding back home on Christmas Eve was a party and a half. The streets in District One were insane in the membrane so I took some sweet pics of the lights for you all------->

You're welcome.
 

Christmas Day we visited members and it was Chi Van's birthday too! Everyone threw a surprise party for her that included spring rolls, fruit and Dunkin' Donuts. It doesn't get any better than that. All in all I loved Christmas in Vietnam! Some of the members and investigators have told me that they read this blog, so shout out to all of you. Thank you for making Christmas awesome! :)
 

So yesterday I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting. For those of you that have heard me give talks before you know that I basically just stand up there and say whatever. It's not like I don't prepare a talk, but I just get up there and go with the flow. And typically going with the flow just ends up being a mess and I speak for like 5 minutes then the following speaker has to give a 40 minute talk....my farewell talk to be exact. Haha I spoke about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and it went fairly well.

Recently my new favorite scripture is Alma 7:12. It reads: "And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." I love this scripture because many of us know that Jesus Christ died for our sins. He willingly died so that we may all have the opportunity to repent and become better people each day. But he also went through all of that so He can know exactly how we feel in our experiences and trials. 
 

I relate the idea to a friend who cannot give us advice or counsel because they have never had experiences similar to us. Although they may sincerely want to help, they do not know what advice to give because they are not in our situation. Jesus Christ is the only one who knows exactly what we are feeling though. He clearly knows every emotion, every trial and every thought we have. He's the one who will counsel us. He knows how to "succor his people according to [our] infirmities." 

That is why the Atonement is so amazing. It's the opportunity for each of us to rid ourselves of sorrow and pain, become forgiven, receive the advice of the most perfect Person and become better and happier.
  

What a blessing it is to have a knowledge of the Restored Gospel! I just celebrated Christ's birth as a missionary - a servant of The Lord - and I'm in a mission that is perfect for me. I'm the luckiest girl in the world. 
 

I hope you all enjoyed Christmas and I hope you will always carry the Light of Christ with you. Share that Light with others and share the glad message. 
 

I love you all,

 

Sister Egelund

 

Matching ties and headbands for Christmas.

Fun fact: Out of 25 missions in Asia, the Cambodia, Phnom Penh mission is the fastest progressing mission!

Vietnam is hoppin' and poppin'

This year I literally will be dreaming of a white Christmas.

It's like 85 degrees here in Vietnam so I guess I shouldn't expect to wake up to snow on Christmas morning, right?

 

Christmas here is a really weird feeling for me. There are Christmas decorations everywhere and everyone is wearing green or red around, but without the snow it just doesn't feel right. The Vietnamese really go all out for Christmas though! 

Hey, my cousin Anh Hoang is the best and got me this shirt for Christmas. Being here with my family gets better and better all the time.

There are insane, huge decorations everywhere and they're gorgeous. Every business has lights, all the people that sell things on the streets are also selling Santa suits and the members and investigators have made us the cutest cards. Ahh I love it! For the most part the holidays haven't made me miss home, but I did have a little run in with something people called "emotions" last week. Last p-day the four sisters went to District 1 to look at Christmas decorations. I have a love hate relationship with District 1 because it has amazing shopping (even a Marc Jacobs store), but it's so westernized that it throws me off and I don't feel like I'm in Vietnam anymore. So we rode for about 45 minutes to get there and the streets were completely lined with amazing decorations! The weather wasn't that great though, so I wasn't really feeling the impromptu photo shoot the other sisters were having. We pulled up to a small mall to go inside and see their Christmas arrangement. Outside of the mall the Michael Buble Christmas album was playing and we all know that good music just means trouble for a missionary. The minute we stepped into the mall I started bawling! Seriously, there were tears everywhere! And you wanna know the reason why I started crying? Because the mall smelled like an actual mall and it reminded me of being at City Creek mall! #FirstWorldProblems I was seriously crying because I felt like I was at home with the overbearing scent of perfume! It was the worst. To top it off the security guy was laughing at me and kept asking me why I was at a mall where you're supposed to be having fun and I was crying. #GetOffMyCase I know you all think I'm an idiot after hearing about that, but how about you try and not go to the mall for three months! Family and friends, I know you all too well, you would have done the same thing if you were me. Haha.

Friday was our branch Christmas party but it ended up being a party for all of Sai Gon!

Awko-taco Christmas party pics.

The party was hoppin' and poppin' with tons of people that we had contacted and the friends and family of members and investigators. For me, the party was literally a miracle! Hundreds of people showed up and we could barely fit all of them! Lately the work has been progressing very slowly, so to have this night when so many people showed up was amazing! We took tons of pictures so I'll attach them for you. One of the photos is of me, Vivi and Truc Ly. We're actually a girl band named LyLyVi. It's like not a huge deal or anything but we're going to remix the hymns in 14 months when I'm not a missionary anymore, and that's how I'm going to continue my missionary work - through making super sweet tunes that speak to the soul.

The girl band LyLyVi!

Anh Ca Hieu getting the transfer call.

Last night the Thao Dien district went to a member families house for dinner. This family is Korean but have been living in Vietnam for the past 12 years. We had a joyous one hour bike ride to their apartment, then had the best meal I have had in a very very long time!! We all took a seat at the table and you know what they pulled out of the oven? A TURKEY. A straight up, full size, delicious turkey. I could not believe my eyes! All the things that are normal at home are like little miracles here. I mean, I didn't even know you could buy a turkey like that here. Mind = Blown. So that was a straight up 10 in my book! While riding back home we got the transfer call! Can you believe that I have already been in Vietnam for one whole transfer?! I'm staying put for at least another six week but Anh ca Hieu who has been serving here for about 8 months is going up to Hanoi, and his companion Anh Ca Tri is going to the other branch. They aren't bringing in any new Elders to our branch though, so it's just going to be four missionaries for our branch instead of six. I'm a little scared of that because Chi Van and I now have to take the investigators of Tri and Hieu and we already had our plates full with our own people. Challenge accepted though! Getting the transfer call was hilarious though. Elder Hieu picked up the phone and we all pulled over on the side of the street. He got off his bike and sat on the ground with his head against a wall while still wearing his bike helmet. It was so loud and we couldn't here what he was saying, but for anyone driving by they would have thought the poor kid was dying. Haha What's cool though is that Chi Van's mom and sister just got baptized in Hanoi so Elder Hieu is going to be the one who teachers the recent convert lessons to them!

This morning we did service for a member...by tearing down her entire home. She lives in a home about the size of your average living room and the house is made of scavenged wood, tarp and metal. You would think that this home (shack) would be easy to take down, but the fun thing about shacks is that they're like four layers of junk that is just nailed together. It took about five hours and 12 missionaries, and it's still not all done...Oh Vietnam, it just gets better and better every day.

My investigators are the cutest of cute.

So that's a recap of this week. I hope Christmas is fresh to death for all of you! I'm fully expecting you all to have one of those cardboard cutouts of me that you take everywhere. Not joking.

Love you all!

-Chi Ca Ly/Trinh/Fat/Egelund

Just another photo with the fambam.

JoBro's are da bomb

Sorry I'm writing you all on a Tuesday instead of Monday like usual. We had a conference yesterday with President Moon. He came out to HCM for a couple days as our "Christmas present". It was pretty good other than the fact that the power was out the entire morning and we were forced to have the conference in the dark and without air conditioning. I love the heat though so no probs. The best part of President Moon coming is always the food. Last time he was here we ordered Domino's Pizza and this time we went out to a pretty good restaurant. I had a chicken panini and it was a major throwback to my SVU days when I ate chicken panini's every single day. The menus at the restaurant had pictures of the Jonas Brothers on it though...that was basically the worst thing to ever happen.

Jonas Brothers menu's at a "high class" restaurant. 

 

 Last week the district went to Burger King and the JoBro's were playing and I wanted to die because I have loved them for like five years. I had to cover my ears while at BK and yesterday at the restaurant the Elders took the menus away from me. #RoughLife Seriously though, music has been a HUGE temptation for me. Trying to leave behind all those worldly things is so much harder than I thought it would be. Once while at BK Norah Jones started playing. NORAH JONES! The woman that I have loved since I was like 10 years old! And a couple weeks ago I had Pocket Full of Sunshine stuck in my head! Seriously, of all the songs that could be stuck in my head it was that. PMITF Usually when I get those worldly things in my head though I just sing "Come Thou Fount" and I feel like a 10 again. 

 

-So each Thursday and Friday we have English classes and this week was the end of a six week course so we had a special activity - BINGO! I was the Emcee along with Anh Ca Tri and it was the bees knees. No one understands my jokes so that's always the best. The grand prize for the winner was a rice cooker...classic. When we presented it everyone flipped out. I've never seen such an intense game of bingo!

-At the church we have two security guys who're basically the absolute best! They're hilarious and they're kind of like dad's for the missionaries. They always help us out and talk to us while we wait at the church for lessons. Early last week one of them saw that my watch is gold and told me I have to get rid of it or someone will cut off my hand while I'm biking. Yep, that legitimately happens. I bought a new watch a couple hours later...

-I used to think in Vietnam there were only two accents, but apparently people in each province speak differently. The members think I speak with a central accent, so now I'm totally embracing that. There aren't any missionaries that aren't native that speak central, so my goal is to get really good at it. I'm not quite sure how I have developed a central accent other than maybe it's from hearing the family speak with it and the summer I spent here I lived in a central city, but I don't know if that's enough for me to actually speak like that. I've learned most of my Viet in the MTC and in Saigon, so it's interesting that I sound different. Plus, my companion is northern so if anything I should be speaking like her. I refuse to have a northern accent though! Everything in the south that would be said with a 'ra' or 'ya' sound, the northerner's say 'za'. I absolutely hate it. 

-The best news of this week: I'm changing my name! That's right, I'm no longer Trinh, at least for my first name. I chose the name Trinh before because it's my mom's maiden name, but her Trinh has a different accent that makes it a last name. For missionaries we use first names though so I had to make mine different. Well, I never really liked the name so I'm changing my name to Ly. In Vietnamese if a person is older than you, you call them Chi or Anh and they call younger people Em. I'm younger than most people so they call me Em Trinh and if I change my name everyone will call me Em Ly - Emily! Sweet huh?! And now that I have a different first name my last name can be Trinh like my mom's maiden name! So my name is Ly Trinh. I still have to figure out what my middle name is though. I'm pretty excited about this! 

 

And that is all for this week. It's almost Christmas! I hope the holidays are going well for all of you! 

Listen to the JoBro's for me, okay?

 

You know you're in Vietnam when the Christmas tree isn't full enough until it gets wrapped with Christmas garland. 

 

-Chi Ca Ly

 

P.S. I already know the Jonas Brothers broke up so if anyone reply's to this email telling me about it I will be upset. I already went through a mourning period, I don't need to be reminded of that. 

They call me fat, they call me Emily. That's not my name, that's not my name.

So I don't have an actual story to share this week, just a bunch of little things.

 

-First, I have found out that I know quite a bit of Vietnamese slang because of mom. At the MTC one of my teachers who has met mom said that she talks like she's young and it's really cool. I'm not quite sure how I feel about people thinking my mother is cool because she uses slang. Anyway, I picked up a lot of that slang before the mission and my companion laughs at me when I use it.

 

We bought matching dresses. I think they refer to that as companionship unity.

 

-We found out the plans for Christmas...we're not doing anything. There was a tiny hope that maybe we would be going to Cambodia for Christmas, but nope, we get to hangout around here. Oh, here's my address for all of you that asked:

 Sister Egelund
#2b, Street 222 off Norodom, P.O. 165
Sangkat Chaktumuk, Khan Daun Penh
Cambodia

 

-Chi Van and I taught Relief Society yesterday. Guess what our topic was? Breast feeding. I'm so happy that they taught me all of that vocabulary in the MTC. All of the women laughed at us and it was extremely awkward. The best part was that there were about five investigators there who were having their first church experience. Welcome to the Mormon church...

 

-The investigators have been amazing! We're actually overwhelmed with the number of people we have to teach. So much work to be done, so little time! I'm very thankful for the blessing of having the opportunity to teach so many people though!

 

-The members have now named me Chi Map which means Sister fat. The Vietnamese people really are the sweetest people on earth. Haha I really do love the honesty of Vietnamese people. You always know when you look ugly.

 

-A lot of the YSA added me on Facebook before I was a missionary so they always call me Emily. That's a problem.

 

That's all for this week. Sorry I didn't have much to say.

 

Oh and family, thank you for updating me on the status of my goldfish, Joey. I am glad to hear he is doing well and cannot wait to see him in fifteen months.

 

Love, Sister fat

Obesity for the win

I do not understand how the time goes by so quickly! I have been in the mission field for almost a month now!

 

So there is no insane story for this week. Sorry about that folks.

 

Yesterday I had my first baptism! Chi Sen was baptized and it was a 10!

 

Chi Sen at her baptism!

 

On Friday the Thao Dien district went to a members house for service. We spent hours cutting down trees and weeds with butcher knives so they can plant a garden. When we first began Anh Ca Hieu, our district leader, looked at a small tree and said "This is a good starter" then cut it down. Well, a few minutes later the neighbor came out and yelled at us. Elder Hieu cut down her banana tree. Whoops. It's okay though because the members cooked it and we ate it for dinner. Haha. Tomorrow we get to go back and plant the garden. Everyone kept asking me what I thought about yard work like we don't do it in America or something...

 

The cousins at church! It's a pretty unique thing to be serving in a branch, but also having my family here.

 

My companion makes me eat everything that members give us. Consequently I am getting fat. That is my reasoning for not sending any pictures lately, plus missionary work just makes you ugly.

 

Fun realization: I should be getting home just after Valentines day 2015. Do you know what that means?! I get to go to Walmart and get tons of discounted candy. So family and friends, I am inviting you now to join me in the celebration.

 

Oh speaking of celebrations - Thanksgiving! The twelve of us went out to eat at a restaurant with the senior couple, Elder and Sister Perry. The restaurant was nice, but the food was basic and overpriced. We did the typical thing of going around the table and saying one thing you're grateful for; basically it was a testimony meeting. I have a lot to be grateful for this year though. Most recently, I'm grateful that not only I'm serving a mission, but I'm serving in Vietnam. I'm grateful for the temple (which I miss so much). I'm grateful that I was able to go to school in Virginia and have so many wonderful experiences. I am grateful that my friends and family are doing well and that I have been able to grow closer with many of them through serving. I'm grateful for La Frontera and that they have the best smothered burritos in the world. Really, I'm just grateful for everything. This past year is not what I expected at all, but I loved every moment of it!

 

Even more family! Haha these ones are from America and came by the church to say hi while they were visiting.

 

That's all for this week. I'll try to have crazier experiences this upcoming week to keep you all entertained.

 

Happy holidays from Vietnam where it's always hot and humid.

-Egelund