Returned missionaries at BYUH share comedic experiences they had during their mission
The sudden U-turn
After accidentally leaving their mission boundary, Chaoboran Oroum said he and his companion frantically turned their car around before the Tiwi monitoring device notified their mission leaders. Oroum is a sophomore from Cambodia majoring in business management. He said he served in Sacramento California Mission from 2015 to 2017 speaking Laos.
Oroum said he was on the mission for eight months, and his companion, Elder Page was fairly new to the mission when this happened. They were leaving a lesson and driving past the airport when Tiwi told them they were outside mission boundaries. “If we don’t get back into our area as fast as we can,” he said, “the device would send an alert to our mission president.”
Oroum said in the dark of the night on a freeway going 80 miles an hour his companion immediately tried to make a U-turn but hit the curb. They stopped the car to check the damage, he said, and found a dent on the side of the car that was only visible if you looked at it from a certain angle. Both scared and relieved, Oroum said they made a silent agreement to never tell anyone about what had happened.
Oroum said their mission president only found out about the dent a few transfers later as he announced it during one of the zone conferences they had. He added, “The mission president never found out who did it, and we still laugh about it ‘til this day.” He said this experience was so absurd he can’t help but laugh about it every time he talks with Elder Page.
The long walk
Brady Kuhn, a freshman from Arizona majoring in political science, said he served his mission in Ecuador. The political unrest led to what might have been a frightening experience, but Kuhn said he found a way to laugh about it instead.
He said he was about 18 months into the mission in an area called ‘El Quinche,’ when he and about 16 other missionaries were going to the stake center in Cumbayá to play sports.
On their way back home, Kuhn said all the roads were blocked because the indigenous people of Ecuador were protesting to show they were unhappy with the government. Normally, they would take a 10-minute bus ride, he said, but no buses came so they had to walk.
They wove their way through the chaos, he said, of tires on fire and trees laying down to block the road. “There were hostile groups of people armed with spears and bats, some of them would ignore us and some would shout obscenities at us,” he said. He added he was the only ‘gringo,’ meaning a white person, in the group and the yelling was mainly directed at him.
He said they started walking at 4 p.m. but didn’t get home until 8:30 p.m. Kuhn said they were laughing the whole time because it was an insane thing to be going through. He added he felt the spirit was with him and he was not afraid of the people but dogs were chasing them on the way back. He said the highlight of that day was when they got back to their area, a family who were members had a nice warm meal waiting for them.
The poo incident
William Vatikani said during a transfer of his mission he lived in an apartment surrounded by pig farms that led to a smelly lesson. Vatikani, a freshman from Tonga majoring in political science, said he served in his home country of Tonga. Two months into the mission, he was in a small area called Fatai with Elder Nikua.
Vatikani said this was the first time missionaries were living in Fatai next to pig farms. “The area was surrounded by pigs manure,” he said, “everywhere, even on the road.”
He said they were going to a teaching appointment on a Monday night with a new member of the church. “We walked over to the appointment from our apartment without knowing what we accidentally stepped on because it was dark outside,” said Vatikani. He said as they got to the appointment thinking nothing was out of the ordinary and began teaching.
“After a couple minutes, my companion started smelling something strangely familiar, and he asked me if I smelled anything odd,” he said. Vatikani said he looked everywhere to find the source of the smell. “The new member noticed too,” he said, and they paused the lesson to frantically look for the suspicious scent.
Eventually Elder Nikua lifted his feet to reveal a thick layer of pig’s manure stuck to both of his shoes, said Vatikani.
“We laughed so hard, even the member was laughing, and it was hard to get back into the lesson,” Vatikani added. “I shared this experience during one of the zone conferences when I was sharing a lesson on how we need to check ourselves and be prepared before we go and teach people.”
The tale of three
Sodanin Prak, a freshman majoring in business management from Cambodia, served her mission in Perth, Australia from 2019-2021. Prak said, “The funny memory happened during my last transfer in Joondalup, Perth.” She said she was training a new sister missionary, Sister Tuala from Melbourne.
Prak said after a teaching appointment, on their way home by bike, “there was a dog that came out of nowhere and was barking at us.” She added the dog started chasing them so they were biking faster to outrun the dog. Prak said after about 5 minutes, they thought they were going to be okay for the rest of the ride because they couldn’t see the dog anymore.
She continued, “After a few minutes, a snake slithered past us. I was dead afraid of snakes in general so I screamed at the top of my lungs and biked for my life.” Prak said they were riding on the main road’s side and had to turn left onto a bike trail.
Her companion jokingly said, “We were just chased by a dog then a snake. What’s next? A kangaroo?” Just a minute after her companion said this, Prak said two kangaroos jumped right in front of them and said she almost fell off her bike when it happened. “We biked so fast to try and outrun the kangaroos that were not really chasing us but they were fighting,” she said.
Prak added, “A bike ride that should be at least 40 minutes ended up being only 20 minutes.” She said they laughed so hard when they got back home after these insane encounters. •