Elder Ira Conner McArthur: ANOTHER AMAZING WEEK

NOVEMBER 6, 2017

Hey family! I'm alive and doing great! This past week was awesome!!

Tons of exciting stuff. I'll just do a quick run through of the investigators we're teaching. So the past like 2 or 3 weeks I have really been praying to find a family to teach, because that's what were looking for and what would be the best because they could all support each other, but unfortunately we teach only individuals for the most part. Before the investigators though, way super exciting thing. The branch president of the Hmong ward is in like super humble circumstances--well most of the Hmong people are-- but he farms and then works as a janitor. Anyway, he's a bit older, but is super respected among the Hmong community and really understands missionary work for Hmong people. We had dinner with him on Halloween, and he said that he had recently quit one of his jobs so that he has time in the mornings now, and he is going to dedicate some of that time to missionary work. This branch was just recently organized and hasn't had any new converts yet, so he really wants to help the branch grow and hopefully make it into a ward soon. That's a little ways off, but he said that because he now has that time in the morning he wants to meet with us, the Hmong missionaries, and teach us how to better teach the Hmong people, i.e. door approaches, how to phrase what we say, how to speak Hmong better and more respectfully, how to better teach to the people's hearts. Anyway, that is super exciting, and I'm so stoked and humbled by his goodness and desire to do missionary work.

Needless to say, I was feeling a bit of pressure, and my Hmong is still really bad, Elder Gunsay does most of the talking, but anyway, we really made an emphasis to find Hmong people, and like I said earlier, teach families. On Wednesday, the day after our dinner with President Sai, we got a referral for a Hmong lady who was in our English ward boundaries. So we go there, her husband answers the door, and they sit down and explain to us how they were wanting to know more about Mormonism. They had requested a Bible and Book of Mormon, and then told us how they were looking for a religion other than the Old Culture (Shamanism) that they had previously been apart of. So then Elder Gunsay and I got super excited, taught the first lesson, but it was hard because they were not familiar with any of the concepts... but then at the end of the lesson, we were going to leave the commitment of praying to know what we said was true, but before we even invited them, Pang (that's his name) said pretty much to the effect of "yeah this stuff you've been telling us makes sense, and it seems like a good thing, but we're gonna have to do some praying about it and see if its the best thing to do for us" and inside I was like HECK YEAH, LETS GO BOYS, SOMEONE FINALLY GETS IT!!!!!!!!!! but I tried to stay calm on the outside, haha. Then they were super friendly and nice and invited us back and so needless to say, I am SO STOKED about them!! I don't know how many kids they have, but I know at least one over 10, so like this was the family I had been praying for!!! I was sooooo excited!!! Still am, haha. I really hope they continue progressing, and we're going to invite them to church this Sunday!

Also, Jasmine, probably our most promising investigator, came to the stake play with her husband! The whole stake put on like a high school quality play in the stake center. It was really amazing, haha. They did so good, and Jasmine loved it, so hopefully we will get them out to church this Sunday. That pretty much wraps up all the exciting stuff. Elder Gunsay and I are giving talks in the Hmong branch on Sunday. Halloween was fun. We came in early and discussed the religious freedom thing that President wanted us to over a good game of Risk, haha. I destroyed Elder Gunsay. I can't think of much else, but just know I'm safe and doing well and loving the mission. It's such an exciting time too! God answers prayers!!

Love you all! Love, Elder Muaj Koob