From Sister McKinley Week Two: Welcome to the MTC 9/15/2018

Can't believe I am one the blessed missionaries who will get to welcome all of the new missionaries every wednesday for 9 WEEKS. This week for sure felt like 9 weeks in one. We had our first investigator this week. Well, when I say investigator, I mean my Vietnamese teacher just took his glasses off and dressed in regular clothes. His name is Anh Chung. He is very nice. Some would say that he's a golden investigator because he happens to have a friend who is part of the church and wants to know more about the church. Wow. It feels like he's been baptized since the age of eight and he served a mission in Cambodia speaking Vietnamese. hahaha.

Thank you to everyone who has sent me love letters and tasty packages! The MTC is PACKED. The field is white and ready to harvest. Well except that they need more room for the amount of people who are coming in. I guess since it's the end of summer, it's super super packed. I usually will spend up to 35 minutes waiting in line for food. And then I have like 5 minutes to eat. So food packages are most welcome! There was one day where we skipped out on an hour of personal study just so we could wait in line and get to class on time. They say, feast upon the words of Christ, but what they don't tell you is you should feast on MTC food before you do anything else. Hopefully all the Spanish speakers will leave soon and then it will just be us haha. Although most of my zone is leaving. Maybe for the best hahaha. The Khmer elders are literally going insane. Rumor has it they stay up until 4 am every night hanging out with each other. Another rumor is that the Elders tried to fit three districts into the handicapped shower in the boys dorm. They're wild. They're so ready to leave. It's created tension in our zone. It's the Cambodians vs. Thais. The Cambodians hate hate haaateee to be told what to do and the thais love love loveeee to tell people what to do. Meanwhile, the Viet district is super close. We kind of stick to ourselves for the most part but we mingle when necessary. We're all just really really good friends with each other and pretty much just want to hang out with only each other. But we'll be more welcoming when the new Thais and Khmer speaking people come in.

My Vietnamese is improving every day! I guess a better way to describe it would be, I am speaking Viet every day. Hahaha improve is a strong word. but I can say things like "The book of Mormon is restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. The restoration bestowed the authority of the priesthood to us. God speaks through the prophet he called. He calls prophets to guide the methods of the organization of the church. Through the Book of Mormon, he testifies that loves us and speaks to His children daily." Improvement!

We had a super great devotional about gratitude. Sister Hopzafel testified that when you write down your blessings and miracles, the Lord acknowledges the fact that you're grateful for them. If you write them down, he will send you more. Trust in Him, and you will see the "joy and marvelous light" in the gospel.

Well that's all my friends!

Until next week,

Chao!

Chi McKinley

Photos:

"Our Vietnamese mission shirts came in! It's ya girl!"

"Every Saturday night is called Sister's Night. We eat goodies that were sent to us and discuss the "gospel" (We talked about boys. HAHAHA)"

"A pretty good summary how I spent my freetime. Laying down with my eyes closed."