Food is Love

September 14, 2014

I'm short on time today so here's a quick recap of the week:

Monday - I slept. P-days are grool.

Tuesday - We ate three meals in a row. It was supposed to be four but one had to be cancelled because Sister Tra and I were beginning to see the light. Food is how Vietnamese people show love. Seriously. They don't say I love you, they just make good food for each other. I love being loved...until I'm fat.

Wednesday - At the end of English class we had all the students get together and watch the Restoration video. It was the largest group we've had in a while and everyone was super into the movie. I looked around and everyone was smiling and I was super happy. And I've learned that when things are going right in missionary work, there seems to always be something that tries to stop the work. RIGHT at the part where Joseph Smith is praying and he looks up and sees "a pillar of light over his head" the video just stopped. #PMITF Everyone freaked out and the kids were sighing because they didn't know what was happening. It was like at the end of National Treasure 2 when they bring up "page 47" in the Book of Secrets and you're so excited to know what the secret is but then the movie ends. So the Restoration video stopping was comparable to that...

Fortunately for me, as an Asian, being tech savvy is part of my blood so I got it fixed and it was a grand evening at English class.

Thursday - We went hard with contacting. Some guy on the street invited us into his house after 15 seconds of talking (we had Khanh as our body guard so it was totes safe. No worries.) THIS MAN WAS EXACTLY LIKE DAVID SPADE AND I ALMOST CRIED BECAUSE I WAS LAUGHING SO HARD AT EVERYTHING HE SAID. I am proud to announce that I have found my Vietnamese best friend! 

I also accidentally contacted a police officer that was undercover...We all thought we were going to go to jail. Haha #YOSMO (You Only Serve A Mission Once)

Friday - We were supposed to have a big billion hour long zone training...until the zone leader didn't get back from Cambodia in time.

Saturday - "Sister Tra, do you know who the Beatles are?", I said. She replies, "Ummmm. Band with Justin Timbaaa...." *I literally punched myself in the face*

Sunday - I went to church and they made me translate...little do they know that when I translate I just make up and teach my own lesson because I can't translate. Jokes on them.

See you later alligator.

-Egghead

Photo 1: This is my cool bike. His name is Marty McFly because there's a sticker that came with the bike that says Back to the Future!

Photo 2: Sometimes Khanh tries to teach me Vietnamese but I don't know what he's saying so he has to do things like this as an example of the word he's explaining.

Hey, are you happy?

September 7, 2014

Friends, so you know how we used to go to Salt Lake, or Washington D.C. or really anywhere that was crowded and I would just go around giving high fives to random people, ask strangers if they were happy, or give compliments to random people? 

I would try to walk through a crowded area and put my hand up and shout "up top!" to everyone in hopes that someone would give me a high five! I would roll down the car window when we stopped at a stoplight and ask the people in the cars next to us if they were happy. We would always smile and wave to the people that were around us. Well, a majority of the time the response received would be a confused look, but each time we went out I would find a few people that actually found it fun or humorous to talk to someone they did not know.

A lot of people, even including my friends, thought I was weird or a freak for just going around talking to strangers though. Honestly, it is weird. Normal people don't just go around talking to people they don't know asking them how their day was. But I never have been normal.

So why would I make myself a fool and go do this? Because I honestly believe that a smile from a stranger could change the world. If we would all just take a moment each day and stop being so caught up in our own lives and see what and who is around us, we could do incredible things! 

Don't hate me for this but I'm going to quote a Hannah Montana song:

"I want to see beyond my own little world, and see the world with clarity. We all want to be part of the greater picture. It fills the universe and lights the sky above. It rescues all of our hearts. It's love! That's what's bigger than us. We all want to believe in love, we all want to believe in something that's bigger then us. That is love."

Okay, so that is my lousy quotation of Hannah Montana, but do you get what I'm saying? If we will all love people, and not just the people we know and consider friends, but if we love ALL people we can do something that's bigger than us.

How this connects to missionary work:

President Moon has set a goal for each companionship to contact at least 10 people a day. For me and Sister Tra here in Vietnam is takes about 2 - 3 hours at the minimum to contact 10 people. When the goal was first announced I thought it was completely impossible. Before that I had probably only contacted 10 people within two transfers, and now I was expected to contact that many people in one day?! Ha. Well jokes on me. It's totally possible and it's totally fun! It's like being at home. I just walk around the streets and talk to whoever I want. The only difference is that now I don't just chat with them and leave, but I talk to them in hopes of sharing the sweetest, coolest, most fantastic message ever - The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ! Boom! It's super cool and tons of fun. We also take members who plan to go on missions with us so they can get a taste of what the work is like...and they know the streets better so we don't get lost...

I really liked being a missionary this week! 

With LOL (the old people version of LOL not the youthful one),

Sister Egelund

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-07-006-the-hope-of-gods-light?lang=eng

Photo 1: Preach My Gospel class only had one student because of the rain. But it was probably one of the best lessons we have ever had. Chú Nghĩa, the man in the picture, is like a mini mission president. He has tons of faith in missionary work and he always shares scriptures with us to encourage the missionaries....and if we do something wrong he also tells us straight what we need to change. I love him!

Photo 2: Quick contacting break to take some selfies.

Photo 3: The beginning of flooding outside of our house.

Year 1. Not as special as you would imagine.

August 31, 2014

So apparently sections of my emails are copied, pasted, and stuck into some ward bulletin back home. 

That's nice and all, but if you want to know what's going on in my life you can just email me directly. 

Or not, it's whatever.

This week marks the one year anniversary of being a missionary.

In celebration I've decided that I really am lazy and I don't like having to come up with interesting emails for you all each week. Therefore, these things are probably going to be really boring unless something fantastic happens. Plus, I know that my blog doesn't get updated either, so really no one even reads these emails and they're a waste of my p-day sleeping time.

Updates of my week:

Six Viet missionaries died this week. Not like died died, finished their missions died. Five of them were at the Thao Dien branch of Sunday. I hated it. They're just normal returned missionaries now and they can hug each other and go to the bathroom without someone having to stand outside the door. You know, normal people stuff. It kind of made me trunky, but also made me not want to ever go back to being normal. 

Here's my big news for the week:

I'm staying an extra transfer!

Yay! Last week someone from the mission office called and asked if I wanted to go home on February 13 or March 27. My exact 18 months is in the middle of a transfer so I can choose to go home early or later. I thought for sure I would want to go home as early as possible, but you gotta practice what you preach - sacrifice is a source of blessings. 

"The concluding section of For the Strength of Youth, in a section titled “Go Forward with Faith,” it says: “As you do these things, the Lord will make much more out of your life than you can by yourself. He will increase your opportunities, expand your vision, and strengthen you. He will give you the help you need to meet your trials and challenges. You will gain a stronger testimony and find 

true joy as you come to know your Father in Heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ, and feel Their love for you”([2011], 43)."

www.lds.org/liahona/2014/09/youth/susume?lang=eng

And there you have it, my weekly email.

Respectfully submitted, church auditing department.

The piccha: The dead missionaries. So weird, so weird.

#Lovatic

August 24, 2014

Highlight of the week: While in the middle of personal study I can hear out in the lobby of our apartment some familiar music. Part of me wants to just ignore it and keep studying, but I listened just to see if I'm still good at guessing songs. Once I focused in it wasn't too hard to guess - it was Demi Lovato! And not only did I, the top 40 expert American recognize the song, but so does my companion Sister Trà. Haha We both just stared at each other for a moment, laughed, then decided we should probably try to focus on studying again. But it kept going - Demi song after Demi song. Suuuper distracting. After studying we had to head over to the church. While leaving I looked to see who it was that is a Lovatic. I thought it would be the receptionist, but nope, it was the old man security guy! Haha He was watching a whole reel of Demi music videos! He's cool.

Okay, so that probably wasn't the ultimate highlight of my week. I would say the highlight of my week was seeing Khánh open his mission call. Although there has only ever been one missionary from Vietnam serve outside of the Cambodia mission, we all like to guess random places. I had everyone play that silly game when you put the mission call on your forehead and guess. Well, all of our guesses that he is going to go to Singapore, or South America, or Africa were all wrong. Brother Khánh will soon be Elder Khánh in the Cambodia, Phnom Penh mission! I'm super stoked for him! In the year that I've been here I have seen Khánh change so much. When I first began in Thảo Điền he had a calling as a branch missionary, but never came to the meetings because he wanted to go play soccer instead. But after a lot of persistence from the elders, he began coming each week. Just a few months ago he was called as the branch mission LEADER! Normally BM leaders are returned missionaries. Not Khánh though, he's an exception. (You are the only exception. Oh you are the only exception. Guess that song! C'mon it's super easy!) And now he's off to the MTC the end of September. 

In one year I have seen SO many things change. My own self, my friends, my family, and especially this branch have all changed so much. It's a little weird to think that just a while ago I was trying really hard just to say the tones on khỏe không (how are you?) and now I'm having straight conversations with people. My language is still a work in progress though. Here's an example from this past week: Sister Stephens and I were on an exchange and went to Khánh's house to visit his family and teach a recent convert. After the lesson we were helping them with their English a bit and they wanted us to choose English names for them. We chose Khánh's name to be Jordan, his mom is now Sister Susan, but I couldn't think of a good name for the little brother Lộc. After some deep thinking I came up with one that's perfect for him - Matt! But when Sister Stephens and I told them they all just busted up laughing. Why? Because apparently there is a Vietnamese word that is pronounced like Matt - Mách - that means 'crazy'.... 

Speaking of crazy - transfer calls . . . for the first time weren't super crazy. Sister Trà and I are staying together another transfer! There are a few other changes within the Viet program that are a little interesting but nothing too nuts. The Vietnamese kid from California who was assigned to the Khmer speaking program has now been moved to the Viet program...I think he's spent over an entire year learning Khmer and now he's switching languages. The Viet program is so small (24 missionaries) that it should be pretty easy to guess who is going to transfer where, but weird things always happen that don't make sense. We've all given up on guessing now.

That's it for the week.

B.B. (Viet way to say 'bye bye'.)

-Chị Cả Trịnh Ly

Photo 1: The mission call opening.

Photo 2: Me and my cousin - mean muggin' 4 lyfe.

Photo 3: The headline of the article is "I wish I wasn't an American."

The Book of Mormon + Law and Order

August 17, 2014

You know why I like my mom?

Because she does funny things like secretly coming to Vietnam, getting sick from eating random food, and then goes to the hospital and refers people to the church. So shout out to Mama Hương for referring to us our most recent investigator...who has already accepted to be baptized in October!

So this kid is awesome! His name's Duy and he's in his third year of college in the city. He's really shy, but just a super sweet, genuine guy! It's kind of hard to get him talking, but him and my cousin Hoàng have become pretty good friends so they share a lot with each other! Like I've said from the very beginning, the Trịnh/Egelund family is doing the Work of Salvation together! In the words of my favorite Disney Channel original movie, "We're all in this together."

Speaking of all being in this together - what have you done recently to be a member missionary?

This is my friendly reminded for you all to follow Elder Ballard's commitment to invite four people a year to learn about the restored gospel. https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/following-up?lang=eng

I'm really grateful for my mom inviting Duy to come to church because now Sister Trà and I have the opportunity to teach an investigator! It's been a while since I've had the chance to teach an investigator, so I'm really excited about this. It's really hard to be here and be a missionary when there's no investigators to teach. I mean, teaching members and recent converts is awesome! But when you meet an investigator and you see that they're ready - they want to be baptized, they keep commitments, and the Spirit testifies to them and to you that the things you are teaching are true - that's the best feeling. 

So, help the missionaries out and refer us your friends, your family, your colleagues, your neighbors, anyone and everyone! The gospel of Jesus Christ is for everyone so just take a chance and invite them to learn. Invite. That's all you have to do. Then the missionaries will take the reigns and teach! Please and thank you!

Moving on to the next topic in my typical incoherent email:

-You know what I don't miss about home? Commercials on TV. 

I don't know why I thought about this the other day, but I really don't miss things like Proactiv commercials telling me I need to buy random stuff to make my face nicer.

-Have you ever read the book of Helaman in the Book of Mormon? Most of it is really cool stories of trying to figure out who killed who and while reading iIt I just imagine it like that show Law and Order. Am I the only one who feels like this?...

Probably.

Last but not least, I miss sitting with my family during sacrament meeting at church! That's something we do at home that they don't do here and I hate it. It's hard because they drive moto's to church so everyone in the family gets there at different times and it's hard to find seats all together, but sitting as a family at church is really important! So there's another thing to add to my list of things I miss from home.

Sister Egelund, over and out.

Dueces (I'm trying to get that to catch on in Vietnam...)

Photo 1: Look at these clouds and tell me that's not the coolest thing ever. I was riding my bike down the street and stopped for probably over 5 minutes to just stop and stare! They were amazing!

Photo 2: Caption missing, really, Emily didn't say anything about this one. But doesn't she look great anyway? 

#MissionaryLingo

August 10, 2014

This week. 

I liked it.

On Tuesday morning we went over to Cambodia to renew my Visa and I went out on exchanges with Sister Litchfield for a few days. It's always fun to have the opportunity to serve together again after being companions with each other in the MTC. Sister Litchfield is a really hard worker and she is super diligent which is perfect because that's the Christlike attribute that I've been trying really hard to work on - Diligence! #ThingsMissionariesSay

Anyway, we had a good time and we were able to contact a lot of people! Honestly, I hate contacting. I mean, who really likes it though? You have to go walk around under the blazing sun and talk to people who are total strangers. BUT in the end you find super amazing people and you become "forever friends" with them! 

On Wednesday night we had English class so "Elder Cambo Tran" (A Vietnamese Elder who is in the Khmer program) had us stand on the streets with posters inviting people to come to a FREEEEE English class! If any of you remember my prom campaigning in high school you know that I'm really good at going out on the streets and yelling at people...

That's probably my best talent and I def haven't lost it while serving a mission! In the end English class was a hit! I even contacted this white guy from London...who was on drugs...and claims that Quinten Tarantino wrote the Bible. Super awesome guy to say the least.

One sad thing happened while I was in the Cambo - I found out that there is no way I can become assistant to the president. I mean, life gets tough sometimes but I have a testimony that in times of trial we simply have to pray. Okay okay just kidding. Well, not kidding, you should pray. And also not kidding because I was devastated. Life goes on though...

And that's what happened this week.

Be cool. Be you.

-Sister Egelund

Photo 1: I bought 18 boxes of cereal because it was buy one get one free.

Photo 2: You can't really tell but that's the view of a double rainbow from the top of the Saigon bridge.

Photo 3: The Zone.

It's the Plan, Stan.

August 3, 2014

My mission definitely hasn't been ordinary. From the moment I got my call to serve in Cambodia/Vietnam this has been an adventure and a half. I never imagined that being assigned to serve in the "homeland" would be like this - every week seeing my cousins, meeting people again that I met eight years ago while only traveling in Vietnam, and even having my own mother travel to the city every other month and trying to avoid running into her. I don't know what a "normal mission" is like, but this isn't what I expected.

One thing that I've learned while serving is an appreciation for my Vietnamese roots. Yeah, I know I was born and raised in America but being a halfsie has always been important to me. And if you knew me in high school you probably just knew me by the name Asian. I did, and still do take a lot of pride in being a Viet.

Another thing I have come to love and really appreciate is my cousins. Last summer my family and I went to the Manila, Philippines temple together. At the time I could barely communicate with them, really I could barely say their names correctly. And although my Vietnamese is still not that great, I am able to talk to them a lot, especially my cousin Hoàng! These past eleven months he has always helped me and encouraged me to do the best work I can for the Lord. Hoàng is the best and all Vietnamese girls should want to marry him...in the temple...maybe even this year....anywayyy...

I know the Lord answered my prayers when He allowed me to serve in Vietnam. But He didn't just send me here because He knows I thought it would be fun. I think the Lord knows that I'm really too weak and wouldn't be able to do this whole mission thing without my family's support. Missions aren't for quitters. When things get tough, when you're stressed or frustrated, you just have to make 1 phone call to the president and you can go home. They don't teach you this, but I learned it while in the MTC - if you want to go home, go. No one is going to force you to stay. No one is going to help you with your bags though because no one wants to see a missionary go home. To be honest a lot of us want to quit sometimes. I wanted to quit just three weeks ago - made the phone call and everything. Well, obviously I didn't go home because I'm currently in a really hot internet shop in Saigon. But yeah, sometimes this gets difficult. But because I have my family, I'm staying.

So let me tell you about what happened this past week and maybe you'll understand why I've told you of the importance of my family. 

I have two cousins, Huy and Dung. They're Hoàng's brother, and sister-in-law. They're members but live far out of the city so I don't get the chance to see them too often. Dung was pregnant expecting a baby girl who was to be born this week. But, Tuesday morning I received a call and found out that Dung had had a miscarriage. From that morning, even until now I feel like this is a dream and that none of this has actually happened. I really wish that it didn't happen. I really really wish that this week I would have a new baby cousin. That's not God's plan though. This past week I have had to really practice what I preach and simply put my life in the Lord's hands and really trust that it is all part of His plan.

Tuesday afternoon I went to the hospital to visit. Being there was hard, really hard. The hospital was full and she just had to lay on a bed in the hallway. And in there we all just sat crying. You know when you're surrounded by people but you just kinda feel alone? (That may or may not be a song. I don't know.) I felt like that for a bit until I remembered one of my favorite scriptures in Alma 7: 11 - 12

 11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

 12 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.

He knows. The Lord knows it all because He felt it all. And in our infirmities He knows how to comfort and heal us. He understands this trial that has caused heartache for many people. And He is here for us.

I'm grateful that I didn't go home and I chose to stay here. I'm grateful for the numerous members who served and went to the hospital this past week to be with Huy and Dung. I'm grateful for families - the ones that are connected to you by blood, and also the ones that are connected to you through the gospel. I'm especially grateful that we have the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation and knowing that we never really have to say goodbye to our families. And I'm grateful for temples that make eternal families possible.

Huy and Dung hope to go to the temple this year to be sealed as a family, and plan to move to the city so they can attend church regularly.

Lesson learned this week: Endure to the end - it's all part of His plan.

With love,

Sister Egelund

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-00-1420-because-of-him?category=topics/easter&lang=eng

Watch this a million times because it's the best.