Hello family!! Sounds like everyone had a great week. I'm glad to hear it!! Things are good here in California. The weather has been super awesome! It has been like in the 50s and 60s lately, with not too much rain, so no complaints here.
This past Wednesday, we had zone conference up in Chico, and
it was a great time!! I really enjoyed it and learned a lot. The topic of the
conference was faith, and it was just under the direction of President Ward,
but he did a great job even though he was sick, and I really learned a lot
about how to have faith be a bigger part of my day. A big part of it is prayer,
and it takes a lot of praying to be able to know what to do. And sometimes I will
even pray and then have to just pray again and again before I receive an
answer, but prayer really works! That was pretty much all of Wednesday, and I
got to be with the other two Hmong elders a little bit more, so that was fun.
The new elder, elder Kelsey gave a talk in Hmong, and he did pretty good!
On Tuesday, we helped a member move, and that ended up taking
like 4 hours. It was forever but was still good.
Thursday, I went on exchanges with the other elders in the
district. So Elder Gunsay went with the district leader, Elder Woodcox, and I
went with Elder Farhni, who was the elder who I've been with since the MTC, so
that was way fun! I love Elder Farhni, and with transfers coming up next week
he will probably be leaving and it makes me really sad cuz Ill miss that guy.
We had a good time though, tracted in the rain, didn't find anyone, but still
had a fun time, haha.
Friday: So Friday was awesome! Mai and Pheng had us over for
another lesson and Mai invited her brother named Xeeb Pov, or SP for short. We
basically just like introduced him to Christianity, and invited him to read the
Book of Mormon, but it was awesome, and he might not be the most interested now
but it definitely seems like he is willing to learn. Also, what was amazing for
me was that so I asked SP like "hey, so what is your understanding of
Jesus Christ, and who He is?" And he just sat there for a minute and
didn't really say anything. It was a bad question on my part, but I realized
something: He didn't know who Jesus Christ was. Like maybe he had heard the
name before, but he literally had no idea who Christ was or what he did. And
this is America, he's lived here I would assume for his whole life, just such a
different lifestyle. It really touched me that I made a difference and like
just how many people actually don't know who Jesus Christ is. Also, on a
different side note, Mai is awesome because she invited her brother out of her free
will. We didn't even ask her or anything, like she just wants to share the
gospel with her family, and Pheng is all in too, like they are going to be
baptized soon. I just am really praying that things will work out and maybe
Pheng's dad will allow them to because they are just amazing.
Saturday, we tried contacting people and tons of people
weren't home, but we did have a lesson with a less active who served a mission. He was super cool.
Sunday: So yesterday was way cool, there was like a special
broadcast to all the stakes in California or something, and it was for like
stake conference, even though we just had stake conference. But anyway, Elder
Christofferson spoke, which was cool. But if I'm being honest, I dont even
remember what he spoke about. So Michael and Jasmine Booth, (the Jasmine we
committed to be baptized a little while ago) finally came to church!!! It was
awesome!! Only one problem: Jasmine has really bad anxiety, and the thought of
interacting with or being around lots of new people scares her a lot, like she
doesn't have a driver's license or even really leaves the house that much because of her
anxiety, but they came to stake conference!!!!!!! She recently got medicine for
her anxiety, and she took a step of faith and came!! It was tough for her
though, all of the people. The first like 15 minutes she was really struggling
and the entire time I was just praying, like "please, comfort Jasmine so
she can enjoy church" and I was worried literally the entire meeting. But
we came out of the meeting and walked them to their car and they said that they
both really liked it and that they had a good time and were glad they came, and
Jasmine was like "yeah at the start I was really struggling, but then
everything was good after that and God just really helped me out" and I
was in my mind like, YES GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS, THE CHURCH IS TRUE, THIS IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!
So that was definitely a testimony builder. Also, another cool thing that
happened, we've been meeting with this Pentecostal guy named Steve, who we
somehow found like a month ago, it was a total fluke. I thought the house was
Hmong cuz shoes on the doorstep, but he's from a small country in Europe and we had
a talk on the doorstep and have just kept coming back since. We invited him
to stake conference like just an hour before it started and HE SHOWED UP!!!! So
that was awesome!!! And he thought it was cool!!! So that was awesome!!!
Funny stories: I'm including this new segment into my emails,
prepare to be entertained. So on Sunday, with Michael and Jasmine, we had to go
into the overflow's overflow, the relief society room. So I led us into the
room and they have it on a TV, and the opening prayer is in Hmong, so Jasmine
and Michael are already thinking like "what is going on" and then the
room we were in was the room they were translating into SPANISH!!!!! Oh it was
so funny cuz we walked to the very front of the room and sat down. The hermanas
were laughing pretty hard at us as we were walking out, haha.
Also, yesterday we had a ton of time to tract, and so we
were going and came to a house with a gate that had a no soliciting sign. We
usually just ignore those, cuz we're not selling anything. Anyway, after the
gate there is this courtyard with another sign that says "what part of no
soliciting do you not understand?" And Elder Gunsay was like "ok,
were not doing this" but I was feeling brave and was like "if the
church wasn't true, we could turn away, but it is and these people need
it" so I knocked on the door. The dude who answered the door was not
pleased to see us, and right off the bat i said we were missionaries and not
selling anything, and he was just not having it and then from inside a voice
yelled "read the sign!!!!" And so they yelled at us and it wasn't the
first time, and actually not even the last time that night, but the church is
true and if people wanna be rude they can. They're rejecting Christ, not me. So
I was feeling good after that. haha.
That's pretty much my week. I have pics, but they are in the
truck so I will send them later.
Oh, other cool thing. At zone conference President Ward said
there will be a new Hmong elder coming in in March!!! So that's way exciting!! Also, at my last interview, President kinda drilled me and was like "do
you think you could train right now?" and then asked me my concerns and
whatnot, but I answered yes and he was like "that's good. Now,
unfortunately there's no new Hmong elders coming in this transfer, but that is
good". So now there is someone coming in in 2 transfers, like middle of March, and I'm thinking I will probably train him... it kinda freaks me out. My
language skills are still really bad, but hey if the Lord calls me, I will go
and do it!!
Lately, I've been really studying out of the Book of Mormon,
and I made it through the Isaiah chapters to 2 Nephi 25, and holy cow, I love this chapter so much. Nephi is just like going off to the people and being an
awesome missionary and teaching about Christ, and I just love him and that
chapter, and plus vs. 23 and 26 are some of my favorite. Like all I'm trying to
do is help people access Christ's gospel and His Atonement in their lives. It's
awesome, and I am really loving the mission!! It is so much fun!! A different
kind of fun, that is for sure, but I really do love being here. I love the
members, I love the Hmong people, I love my comp, I'm learning to love the
Ghetto, and I hope eventually I'll love the people of California more than they
love me. But I know for a fact that this is Christ's church, and am so glad to
be a part of His work!!
Love you guys so much!!!!
Love,
Elder Muaj Koob
We went and saw the most interesting thing in Wheatland,
this point of historical interest. It's literally just a field, haha.
At first glance this may just look like a poorly taken picture, which it is, but its super foggy and like super hard to see every morning.
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