2nd WEEK IN THE BOOKS

OCTOBER 16, 2017

Ok, so I guess last week was probably my first real, full week of missionary work and it was great! Highlights of the week.... we taught an investigator named Jasmine who has been progressing and then had a chapel tour on Saturday and apparently it was great, but she still didn't make it to church. That was kind of sad. We also went to some more Hmong people's homes and visited them. We went to a Shaman's house and he had a shrine on his wall that was literally 6 feet tall. It was insane. I didn't pick up what most of the lesson was about, but it was still great to talk to him. 

Thursday we had interviews with President Ward. That was so awesome. He is such an inspired man. I love interviews. He has such great advice too. It was awesome. Also on Thursday, someone in our ward took out our whole district for lunch to some Indian buffet place. First time eating Indian food... I guess it's good, but I did not feel very good after, probably because I ate too much, haha. 

Yesterday, we went to Hmong branch and I translated my first real talk. It was rough. I felt bad for the people listening, haha. My comp had a little bit of a hard time too. It was a rough day for translation. But my Hmong is getting better! It's a lot better out here than it was at the MTC, I think. It's easier when I'm speaking to real Hmong people, but they are so hard to understand, especially all the really old people who don't speak English, but it's so fun to try and say stuff to them, haha. A lot of when I talk to people is just guessing at the context, haha. 

On Friday, we had weekly planning, and we made cookies. So that was fun. Mom you need to send me your cookie recipe though, and if anyone has a good pumpkin chocolate chip recipe, please send it because I want to make those when its closer to Halloween. 

Saturday, we went on exchanges and I went with one of the zone leaders to a city called Callusa. It was a fun time. It's pretty far out in the middle of nowhere though. He's a great guy though. I had a good time. 

Today for p-day morning, we went and hiked the Sutter Buttes, the smallest mountain range in the world. They are pretty small. And literally everything is on private property and all of the mountains are fenced in. Luckily, we found someone who let us go for a quick hike on their property which was super nice, and it was awesome. I felt like I was back in pine valley looking for deer, haha. Good times.

Other than that I don't have much to report on. Yesterday, one of the young men in the Hmong branch gave his farewell because he leaves on a Hmong speaking mission on Wednesday. We went to his house after for some good Hmong food. This week is all Hmong dinner appointments. I'm pretty excited to finally experience Hmong food, haha. 

Oh, one other thing, we got Facebook, so tell people to follow me I guess. Basically we're supposed to use it to connect with investigators, but that's been pretty hard for us so far. And it's not like filtered at all, which is lame, and now I can see what everyone posts... which I also kind of don't like. It's really easy to be distracted now. I have mixed feelings about Facebook. This week is zone conference, and they will train us on how to use it. So that will be good. Oh also, Elder Gunsay or I will have to give a talk in Hmong at zone conference, and the other one will translate. It's about using technology, and literally Hmong doesn't have words for like lots of things about technology, haha, so that will be fun. I'm excited though. It should be a good time. 

Love you all. Thanks for all the support and everything. Here's some pics, and I'll try to share a video with you on google drive that's a video tour of my apartment. Love you guys!

Love, Elder Muaj Koob