MTC . . . WEEK 8

SEPTEMBER 26, 2017

Hello family! All is well at the MTC and i'm doing great! I leave at 4:20am next Tuesday morning!!! So that's super exciting! Anyway, not much is new with me. We heard from Elder Cook last Tuesday night though!! He gave a very powerful testimony of the Savior, and it was amazing! I love hearing from the apostles, and I'm stoked for conference this weekend! 

So, its actually been pretty cold up here lately. It rained all last weekend and the mountains got a lot of snow. So that was cool to see. There's a lot less people here right now, but still tonsssss of people. Also, we started infield training this week, and I met a few elders who are headed to Roseville with me. So that will be tons of fun! I mean other than that I don't really have anything to report on. I'll be out of here soon though and I couldn't be more excited. The MTC has been great, but I'm so excited to go to Cali. Love all of you, thanks for the support and love! 

MTC . . . WEEK 7

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

Nyob zoo. So I've now been at the MTC for 7 weeks, and I leave 2 weeks from today. According to google maps, I could have walked to Roseville and then back to the MTC 3 times. Or, if I would have found a bike the first day of the MTC, I could have biked to Roseville and back 12 times... but that's besides the point, I'll be there soon enough. Even though I've been at the MTC forever though, I don't think I would trade it. We've heard from 4 apostles, with a 5th coming tonight, and I've learned so much.

One thing that I've really wanted to do while being at the MTC is strengthen my personal testimony of Jesus Christ. After all, my purpose for the next 2 years is to invite others to come unto Christ. So two things that I've learned here: first is to have a goal. Come up with a righteous goal that you want to achieve in the future, pray about it, and then decide how to achieve that goal. For me, it was learning about Christ, it may be different for you. 

Then, you act on that goal. Some of the suggestions given by speakers and apostles are these: I set a reminder on my tablet to go off at important times throughout the day to remind me of the Savior and my goal. You can't accomplish a goal if you don't remember what it is and why you want to achieve it. Then, I studied the Book of Mormon, looking specifically for types and shadows of Christ, the character of Christ, the life of Christ, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. By doing these things, my testimony that Jesus is the Christ and my Savior has grown so much more than I ever could have thought.

So I invite you to think of something you want to accomplish, pray about it, write it down, and follow through on that goal. 

... So in other news I'm still going to class every day. And each week is the same schedule. Everyday is a little different, but there's dejavu everyday. Like edge of tomorrow, with Tom Cruise... except no aliens here. And no cool fighting scenes. Just fighting for the salvation of souls. 

Nothing much else to report on about my schedule or life. Hmong is coming along, its still super hard, but I think I'm improving everyday. Still making lots of mistakes. 

Love you all, remember the Savior.

Elder Muaj Koob

Elder Tayler, Elder Israelson, Elder Hinckley, Me

Our district in our Hmong ties made by an Elder's mom.

Ran into Lindsey on my Sunday Temple walk.

2/3 OF THE WAY THERE . . . WEEK 6

SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

Hey, so this week was great! Same schedule as normal pretty much. Just studying tons and trying to improve my Hmong skills, haha. It's hard though, still fun though.

So last Tuesday, we heard from Elder Oaks at the devotional and it was awesome!! He talked a lot about things that are specific to missionaries, but one thing he talked about that applies to everyone is the resurrection. He talked about the importance of the resurrection and how it gives us so much hope for a life after this life. One interesting perspective he shared was that temples are literally huge buildings of faith in the afterlife. They are physical symbols of our faith in the plan of salvation, which is awesome!

In other news, the BYU game was heard from the MTC, and there was some rivalry, but we still lost. So sad. Got a fun picture though.

Here's a cool story though: So we teach 2 lessons for TRC to real members who speak Hmong. The first person we taught, we taught about charity and we shared Mosiah 7:45, 47, and 48. Then we talked about them, but like our Hmong was really bad but we kinda got the point across. I had been kinda feeling down cuz our lessons with our investigators (teachers) hadn't been going very well. So after the lesson, the TRC guy asked if he could speak English and then told us how we were doing great and how we really brought the spirit and how he could tell that we were going to be good missionaries.

That was awesome, but not the best part.

When we taught the next guy, we kinda had planned to just say the same stuff and share the same scriptures, but then i had the thought to share vs 46 and 47 instead of the other two. I don't know why, but I did and so we read them and the verse I wanted to focus on was 47, because it talks about what charity is. But after we read them, the mej zeej had a question about verse 46 and I was like "great Elder McArthur, you really screwed that up" especially cuz we cant really understand when people ask questions. Hmong is freaking hard, but he was wondering why it said "without charity, you are nothing" and kinda what that meant. So I tried to testify to him that with charity, God can make us into something and it really shows the importance of charity. Then I testified to him that God will answer his question if he asked and studied the scriptures. We ended with a prayer, walked out, and Elder Tayler hadn't really said anything all lesson. I had kinda just taken over, and the whole lesson was just trying to answer his question. So we walked out and Elder Tayler was like "dang, you were speaking great, I couldn't even really follow the conversation." I still wasn't feeling too great about it though, other than it had given us a good opportunity to testify. They leave us reviews after though, and he thanked us for being so sincere and taking so much time to answer his question. He shared that the verse translated a little differently than the English BoM, but he thought it was really what he needed to hear, and he thanked us for ministering to him. So that was awesome! Our Hmong still sucked, and we taught a lesson yesterday that was just horrible, but we were able to help someone when it actually counted, and that was such a cool experience!

My testimony is really growing a lot here! I'm loving it. Thanks for all the support! hope you are all doing well!! love you!

Love, 

Elder Muaj Koob

BYU game day vs. Utah

Companion Swag

HALFWAY THERE . . . WEEK 5

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

Hello friends and family!!! I hope everyone is doing well. So update, I'm still at the MTC... but last Saturday was my halfway mark till I get to go to California! So that's exciting! Last week I turned 19, and the other Elder in my room turned 19 on the same day! we had as much of a party as you can at the MTC haha. 

The Hmong is coming along, but still kind of slow. I think yesterday was my breakthrough though. We teach investigators (who are actually just our teachers acting) pretty much everyday. So yesterday we taught Lus Yang about how Christ will help him overcome his smoking problem. It was a great lesson, and for probably the first time Elder Tayler and I were able to teach a lesson and get to know him and make small talk without using a script or language books or anything! The Gift of Tongues is real, I couldn't learn Hmong without it.

In other news, half of our zone left two days ago, so now the residence is really empty. Despite that though, the lines for dinner are still incredibly long haha. After BYU games, the cafeteria serves all of the leftover cougar tails (huge maple bars) and lemme tell ya, there were a lot. The new buildings at the MTC are sooooo nice, and there are some awesome study rooms with some sweet views. 

One thing that I have really learned the past few weeks is the power of the Book of Mormon in answering questions. Elder Tayler and I taught a lesson about how the Book of Mormon can answer questions, and we came up with a lot of temporal questions, and looked in the Book of Mormon for scriptures and stories that would answer these questions.... and wow. I can truly testify of the power of the Book of Mormon in answering ANY worthwhile question, spiritual, temporal, or otherwise, so long as you diligently study and pray to God. 

Tiag Tiag, 

Elder Muaj Koob

Kaydo and Me

BIRTHDAY WEEK . . . . WEEK 4

August 29, 2017

Hey family! I'm still alive. This past week was actually pretty eventful and went by really quick. It honestly doesn't seem like I've been here for 4 weeks. Anyway, so last Tuesday devotional we heard from Elder Whitney T. Clayton, and he gave such a good talk. I loved it, it really strengthened my testimony of the leaders of the church. Then Wednesday-Saturday pretty much everything was the same, nothing too crazy happened. Just everyday life of a missionary. Saw Kaydo on Thursday though, that was awesome. He seems to be doing well, except he's got a crazy rash/hives thing going on since he got here. I feel bad for him. 

So anyway, about half of our zone leaves next Tuesday. 2 Vietnamese districts and 2 Thai districts. They've been here ever since we got here and were our only friends for a long time, so its going to be kind of sad. But with them leaving, we needed new zone leaders, so who other than my roommates, Elder Hinckley and Israelson!!! So that has been awesome! Lots of work for them, but nice benefits for me and Elder Tayler, hahahaha. So that happened this last Sunday, and then we'll probably get a new district leader this Sunday. Change is about to hit us pretty hard. 

Yesterday was a great birthday!!! We just had a normal schedule, but it was a great birthday. And it was Elder Israelson's birthday too, which was actually super fun. I really liked sharing a birthday with him. It was like I had someone else to celebrate with. It was awesome. To celebrate, we got up early and worked out, and then I had chocolate milk for every meal. The food was actually pretty good, except dinner was Subway... and then they ran out and we had to have the MTC sandwiches. But other than that, it was an awesome day. And don't worry, thanks to you guys I didn't starve!!! Thanks so much for the package for my birthday!!! That was super kind of all of you, I really loved it! And the watch is super awesome. I'm stoked about that!!! So yeah, pretty much the whole day was normal, except everyone told us happy birthday and the teacher and class sang us happy birthday. Hopefully a video will be on the way. But then during what should have been language study time we took the first 30 minutes and opened presents. Elder Tayler's mom got both of us packages, which was super kind. Lots of food, and two frozen Cafe Rio burritos. In the mail. I decided I'd give mine to Elder Tayler. He likes Cafe Rio way more than I do, haha, but it was still super nice of her.

Then after all the classes we came back to the room and had a party. 

We made balloon animals, and Elder Israelson got a chess board, so some people played chess, and we jammed out to the EFY playlist. It was a great birthday. I don't feel 19 yet though. 

Everyone is getting a lot better friends, but still lots of sickness. Elder Tayler is better now though, and I got feeling better, and hopefully I wont catch the virus, but like 4 other people in our district got it, just not as bad. Everyone is on the mend now i think though, which is good, cuz tons of people have missed class and church and stuff. 

I'll think of more stuff to send later, but right now were about to go play volleyball, so when i think of more stuff ill send it. Love you all so much!! 

Love, 

Elder Muaj Koob

The teachers are all good, we have 3. Brother Gardner is going to BYU right now, and he's probably my least favorite of the three teachers because he only speaks in Hmong and its hard to understand what he's saying sometimes. Brother Ferguson is our other teacher. I really like him. He just got back from his mission in Milwaukee like a month and a half ago, so he knows what's up. Then Brother Lee, who's Korean, is probably my favorite teacher. He's really animated and uses lots of English so that we understand and actually learn things. All the teachers act like investigators once a day and we teach them as if they are real investigators, so that's fun. We plan lessons and stuff. It's hard though, cuz its not real life, they're just acting. And they aren't really receptive and they play hard roles, but its getting better. Also, on Saturday we did TRC for the first time. We taught two girls living here who were from Fresno who spoke Hmong. I was kinda nervous but they actually spoke a lot of English to us so that was nice. Then the other people we taught were a couple of one native speaker and a guy who learned on his mission. That was fun, but I realized that I really don't now that much Hmong. i just want to teach people in English so that they will understand me, and from what I hear a lot of Hmong people we will teach in English. But its still important for me to improve my Hmong skills. 

MTC . . . WEEK 3

August 22, 2017

Hello everyone. So the MTC is still good. It's hard to believe that I've already been out for three weeks. I'm learning so much though, so it's awesome. Also, I decided I'm only going to do a group email once every two weeks or like once a month or something. Don't worry though, I'll still send the important things.

So the past two weeks we heard from M. Russell Ballard and Neil. L. Andersen. They both gave great talks, but on completely different things; E. Ballard spoke about locking our hearts and not flirting, while E. Andersen spoke about the importance and significance of prayer. It's so awesome to hear from apostles.

The schedule has pretty much been the same over the past two weeks. I'm learning a lot, but Hmong is crazy hard. Like I know that there's no way I could learn it on my own. There will be times when I'm sitting in class and I'll understand phrases the teacher says or I'll be teaching and the phrase I want to say will just come to me. The Gift of Tongues is so real, I have a strong belief of that. 

***So the Open house at the MTC is still going on. I've seen a few people I know, but for the most part we just feel like animals at the zoo, haha. It's great though. I enjoy interacting with people who aren't missionaries. Cool story though, on Saturday my family came through the tour. The MTC president sent out an email reminding everyone that they weren't supposed to set up meetings or anything. So I didn't ask what time my family was going through, and I didn't really look for them. I hadn't seen them all day, and so it was about 7:00 at night, and my district and I were all walking out to the field for exercise time. On the way to the field, there's a small portion of the tour that the missionaries cross through; it is literally such a small spot in comparison with the whole tour, and the only place where we would see any tour patrons on our way to the field. Well, lo and behold, my family just happened to be right where we had to walk through! It was so awesome to see them all again and talk to them. I learned that God will bless us and allow miracles to happen if we are obedient to His rules and commandments. 

Anyway, the plague is going around. The other districts in our zone call it the Hmong plague. It started out about two weeks ago with Elder Wayment getting sick with the common cold, and then that hit about half the district pretty hard. I got that like three days ago, but I'm doing better now. But that's not what the problem has been. Elder Tayler has a different strain of the plague. He has a viral throat infection that has kept getting worse. He can't really fight it, all he can do it hope and pray and take pain meds. We were finally able to give him a blessing two nights ago, but his condition is still getting worse. Yesterday, he woke up and could barely drink water, but by the end of the day he could eat a tiny bit of food. Then, Elder Tarone, who has had a sore throat for the last five days, got a checkup. Turns out, he has the same thing. So that sucks. But sometimes it's also a good thing, cuz it means I can go on splits with other healthy companionship's. But the schedule has been really whack lately cuz all Elder Tayler can really do it just stay in bed, so I'm trying to get him to sleep as much as possible. I guess he can get out of bed and do stuff too, he just doesn't have very much energy, haha.

Kuv paub hais tias Vajtswv yog peb Leej Txiv Saum Ntuj Ceeb Tsheej, thiab Nws hlub sawv daws. Kuv paub hais tias Yexus Khetos yog Vajtswv Leej Tub. Kuv hlub txoj moo, thiab kuv ris txiaj ua tus tub txib. (That's a short testimony in Hmong. It's not much but it's the best I got, haha)

Sincerely, 

Elder Muaj Koob (which I found out means to have a reputation. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, hahaha)

I'M STILL ALIVE . . . WEEK 2

August 15, 2017

Hello family. I'm still alive. Things are good here. The days are longgggg, especially cuz we get up so early and are going going going for so long each day. But its a good time. I'm loving it here, for the most part. My testimony has grown a lot. This past Sunday, Elder Ballard came and spoke to everyone, and his message was broadcast to all the other MTCs. His topic was kind of surprising. He talked about locking our hearts and not allowing anyone to enter them. This means like don't get into relationships with Sisters or any girls in the mission. He also said "Thou shalt not flirt," and that was kind of the topic of his address. He also talked about true conversion, and shared his powerful testimony. Another thing he talked about was that our loyalty is to the Lord, then to the mission president. We should tell the president if things aren't quite in order, and our loyalty is not to our companion if they're not choosing the right. It's been really cool to hear the apostles though, and I think another one is coming for the devotional tonight

Back Row: L-R Elder Yang, Elder Wayment, Elder Giddings, Elder Miller (district leader) Elder Hinckley (roomate) Elder Rich, Elder Tayler (my comp). Front Row: L -R Elder Seims, Elder Vang (He's Hmong), Elder Tarone, Elder Lamb , Elder Israelson 

Anyway, here's some more specifics I haven't covered yet. The food here is decent. Like some meals are really good, but some meals are reallllly not good haha. It's basically like cruise ship style food, but nothing is even close to that good. Except the chocolate milk. That's delicious and the ice cream. I try not to eat too much of either though, because we literally sit down all day and I don't want to gain very much weight in fat. 

On Saturday, we had a crazy kickball game between the Hmong district and the Thai/Vietnamese district. In our zone, there are 5 sisters, and they were all on the other team. The weather was kind of crazy, and we were playing from 7:30-8:30 at night. It wasn't raining, but there was some lightning like further away in the city. I was out in outfield, and some crazy old lady came walking up. Like we were in the middle of this field, nothing was even close to us, and she just yells to me "you have to call it right now!!!" I kinda just looked at her and was like what? and she just repeated it. Then she said "if you stay out here any longer, someone's gonna get struck by lightning!" which i mean could have been a valid concern, but the lightning was like nowhere near us. So I said well, you want me to like tell the people in charge? and she, in a little fit of rage, storms off and yells "I'll see you on the news!" It was crazy, haha. Super weird. But don't worry, I worked at the RV Park, I understand old people, haha. 

The investigator we have been teaching, Phiab, revealed himself to be our teacher on Thursday. His name is Brother Lee, and he's actually an awesome teacher. He speaks more English than brother Gardiner, which is great. Now Brother Gardiner is pretending to be the investigator, and we're teaching him.

Dall and Kason left this past week. It made me kinda sad, I miss my bros. We're really bonding as a district though. We do story time every night, its pretty funny. Everyone is really crazy though. They also gave everyone spirit animals, and I'm Agent P, so that's cool! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNA!!!!!

NYOB ZOO . . . . WEEK 1

August 8, 2017

Nyob zoo family and friends! I suppose by now I probably don't exist to some of you, but I'm actually still alive haha!! Everthing is zoo (good) up here at the MTC. Kinda crazy to finally be here, but it's exciting. There's a special spirit up here.

The MTC is good, but it's super hard. I probably eat healthier here than I do at home hahahaha. My companion is Elder Tayler, the one with the curly blond hair in the pictures. The other people are my district, Elder Hinckley and Elder Israelson are our roommates. Our district is all the Hmong speakers, and were in a zone with all the other elders speaking southeast Asian languages. Thai and Vietnamese, and we'll get two Lao elders next week. I haven't really met anyone going to Roseville yet, my comp is serving is Sacramento, my roommates are serving in Fresno, and  everyone else is either going to Wisconsin or Minnesota. 

The people in my room are really cool and my comp is super kind, I really like him. The people in my district are honestly a little strange, but we have a good time. 

My District

  

The tiny classroom where all 13 of us study.

In case anyone is curious, my schedule goes something like this: wake up, get ready, plan, breakfast, companion study, language study, exercise, shower, lunch, Hmong class, personal study, dinner, Hmong class again (usually we teach Phiab, our investigator), then get ready for bed and lights out. The first couple of days weren't like that, but we're beginning to settle into that schedule. Hmong is incredibly challenging though. After being here for 2 days, they had us teach a lesson to an investigator who only speaks Hmong. In case you didn't know, Hmong has 8 different tones, and a lot of the letters are pronounced differently. I'm really not sure if he understood anything, but it was an awesome experience to use the language to actually teach someone, especially after being here for such a short time. I did feel kinda awkward for him though because we were flipping through pages of a Hmong manual for most of the lesson haha. 

Definitely the highlight of the week was Sunday though. It had been a long few days, and Sunday was fast Sunday. Not gonna lie, it had been pretty hard. We were sitting down for about 10 hours on Sunday because of meetings and what not, but at the end of the day we watched a talk by Elder Bednar about the Character of Christ. It was an amazing talk! And then after that talk, Elder Bednar came and answered questions for an hour. It was honestly an experience that could be life-altering, if I take to heart his teachings. I've learned a lot since being here, and I've certainly prayed a lot. The biggest takeaway I got from it is that the nature of Christ is to turn outwards and serve others. When things are tough and the natural man turns in and worries about himself, Christ turns outward and looks for ways to serve and bless the lives of those around Him. I strive to emulate Christ in this aspect, and I think it's a great goal for everyone. My mission isn't about me, it's about the people that surround me. It's about the investigators who want to learn more, it's about my fellow missionaries, it's about inviting others to come unto Christ by teaching His doctrine, but it's not about me. 

That being said, I wanna say ua tsaug (thank you)  for all of the support and love and kindness you have shown me over the past few weeks... and for all the prayers for the missionaries. It's a special work, and we can't do it alone. 

Also if you have any questions or you wanna say hi or really anything, I can read emails all throughout the week, and I can respond on Tuesdays.

Love, Elder Muaj Koob (pronounced like "moo-uh" in a high falling tone and "gong" in a high tone) That's my Hmong name, and as best I can figure, it doesn't mean anything. 

Found my cousin, Elder Bleak

Elder McArthur, Elder Bleak, Elder Lemmon, Elder Welch

LEAVING DAY FINALLY ARRIVED . . .

August 2, 2017 (written by Mom)

After a fun-filled summer and many mission shopping trips, the day finally arrived. With much hesitation, anticipation, and excitement, we all piled in the van early Wednesday morning and headed for the Provo MTC.

Many friends and neighbors came out to see Conner off, waving and sending well wishes as we pulled out of the drive. That meant so much. People are so kind. 

We arrived in Provo about 11:30 and headed to Red Robin for "the Last Supper" . . . Conner's choosing, of course. We sat right behind another family who was doing the same as us, only they were dropping off a daughter. Moods were good with lots of smiles and excitement. 

After lunch, we headed up to the MTC where we stopped on the temple grounds for a few minutes to take some pictures and say our goodbyes. Needless to say, this part was tough. The realization that he was leaving and this was it hit us all really hard. Thankfully, we only had about 10-15 minutes there for we couldn't have handled any more time to hug and cry. 

We drove across the street into the MTC underground parking garage where we were lined up behind several cars and a cute young Elder came over to welcome us and Conner. This was it! We unloaded the luggage. Everyone got out again because we had a few more minutes than we thought we'd have. We couldn't go anywhere until the cars in front of us left. We took some more pictures, hugged some more, cried some more and finally it was time to go. As he began to walk away, a piece of our hearts were torn out and went with him. It was the hardest thing any of us have had to do. Natalie was vocally yelling, "NO! Don't Go!", which only made us cry harder. We quickly got in the van and drove away, and as we circled around the garage and out, Ira gave an "ELMER" holler out the window. Somehow, we drove out of there. I'm not sure how. None of us could see through our tears. It was such a range of emotions but mostly just heart-wrenching. 

Conner was so excited and ready to serve. That is the only thing that got us through. Within about an hour, we had all calmed down to just mild whimpering. What a blessing it was to receive this short message via email from him.

"I'm alive. Everything is good. I heard p-day is tuesday? Not sure though. I met my companion, got my name tag, went to hmong class. Holy cow, its gonna be hard. Oh well though, I'm gonna do this. Love you guys. drive safe"

I don't know how many times you can read and reread 3 short lines, but we did about 15 or 20. It was THE BEST! Before leaving Provo, we all wrote him a letter and I had already made a box of goodies and stuff to put in the mail that day. We added our letters and stopped by the post office to mail it. He received it the next day, which made all of hearts feel a little better. 

Even though it was such a hard thing to say goodbye, we are so grateful for his willingness to serve. He is a great example to all of us, and we are anxious to watch his journey unfold, as well as ours. As parent's, we prepare them for this day their whole life, and he was ready! (Maybe we should've prepared ourselves a little better. haha!) Day 1 is in the books!!!

CALLED TO SERVE

Dear Elder McArthur,                                                      April 6, 2017

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the California Roseville Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 24 months. 

You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, August 2, 2017. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Hmong language.

The call came on Thursday, April 6, 2017

California Roseville Mission

Many supportive friends came to watch him open his call.