Hey family!! Glad you all had a good 4th, looked like lots of fun. We both got the packages from you guys, thank you so much!! I really appreciated it, and Elder Gunsay was really appreciative too. I love you guys!
So this past week was awesome! Probably like the fastest
week of my mission, we were just so busy, holy cow. Tuesday was crazy too. So
we finally had a lesson with this super promising couple, their names are
Thaomee and Yang Chue. Thaomee isn't a member, but Yang is. We met them, and
had a really awesome lesson about families and the temple, and then we put her
on date for baptism at the end of the lesson! Aug. 22! The only problem is they
aren't coming to church because they both work at the same place on Sundays...
but we are going to work through the problem, haha. So that was at 9 in the
morning, cuz that's the only time they could meet with us. After that, I led a
district meeting that I probably wasn't as prepared for as I should've been, but
it went well. It was tough because we had to push personal study back for the
lesson. After that, had a quick lunch, did some comp study, and then had a
lesson with Shane (ntxoov oos) and his wife Becki! We taught the Plan of
Salvation, and it was actually a really good lesson. We talked to them about
baptism too; Becki was kinda against it, but Shane was open to the idea if he
finds these things to be true... which is like, we can't ask for anything better, haha. So that was cool, and they thanked us for being really cool too, cuz they
have met with a lot of other missionaries from other churches, and we were the
nicest and coolest... probably cuz were from Jesus Christ's church, haha. After
that, it was like 3 in the afternoon, and we finally got some personal study...
and then had another lesson after that, then met with a member who spoke, and
man we were just slammed. Such a good day!
The 4th was really good too, although it felt nothing like a
holiday... what we did was we helped 2 niam tais (grandmas) ua teb (farm). It
was pretty fun. I have a lot of respect for Hmong niam tais. They farm like all
day long, every day, just for fun, cuz that's what they do back in Laos. Also,
she gave us this huge cucumber to eat, haha. After that, we came back for lunch,
and it was the 4th so we had to grill... and we had this llama steak in our
freezer for a while, so we decided why not grill it up on the grill... it was
disgusting. Looks really good, but was soooooo bad, haha. But that's ok, cuz that
night we had to come in early, so the other elders came over and we grilled up
some dang good burgers and had a lights show with our Christmas lights that are
hung up in our living room.... we couldn't see any fire works, so that's the best
we could get haha.
Friday we weekly planned and taught the Hmong class and
helped a member set up for a wedding reception, which was on Saturday. So the
next day, we went to the reception cuz they invited us and free Hmong food is
always good, so we go and show up at 1:30 (it was supposed to start at 1) and
hadn't had lunch, and we didn't eat until 3:30!!!! That's Hmong people for ya, they
just love to talk and talk and talk. There was so much food, but it just sat
there for like 2 hours while they had this whole program type deal. The food
was way good though, thankfully we didn't have dinner cuz I was full for the
rest of the day haha. So that was most of Saturday. Also explained some pretty
deep doctrine to a former Hmong investigator about the Holy Ghost, and did it
in Hmong, so I felt like I had the gift of tongues then. Hoping she's not
offended. We were pretty straightforward and said the only way to have the gift
of the Holy Ghost is being baptized into our church, haha. It's true
though.
Yesterday was really good too. We had a bunch of YSA kids
come up from Sacramento to be in the branch, so we were pushing probably like
50-60 people. It was awesome, and Bee came too. We have been working with him
since I got here. He just started coming back to church this transfer. He is
the type of guy who just stays home and plays video games every single day all
day long, and doesn't work or go to school or anything... just plays video
games, so it's awesome that he's started coming back to church. I had to teach
gospel doctrine though, and there was a ton of people! But like, only 2 people
would talk!! Nobody participated, and I have to just like stand in the front
and teach in Hmong all by myself! It was so hard, but i think it went
alright... some people thanked me for the lesson, said they learned something,
so I think the spirit was there. Afterwards, we never have too much time, we
did some finding and met an English guy who was really mean. I hate it when
people tell me what I believe. Most of the time what they say is like so out
there too... like this guy said "it says in the bible to not let people
who teach the false Jesus into your house" and i was like, ok I'm done and
just walked away from his doorstep, haha. I love people like that. Anyways, it is
pretty funny, cuz like I don't think I've ever got mad at anyone because of what
they believe, haha. Had some more pho for dinner with the Xiong family. It was
really good. All in all, it was an awesome week. I feel like I had a lot of
prayers answered, and I came to the realization that even though there are not
a lot of outward results that I see coming from my work, my work still has
value. It's still helping people, even without the baptisms... and that made me
really happy, cuz a lot of times it's hard, especially lately because Pres. Ward
has been putting a huge emphasis on baptisms, and said to Elder Gunsay during
interviews that the work isn't going good unless we're baptizing people.... but
in my opinion the work is going good, haha. Lots of potential. I still love
Pres. Ward though, he is just putting a huge emphasis on baptism lately. We
have zone conference this Wednesday too, so that will be fun.
Love you guys, hope everyone has a good week!
Hlub nej!
Elder Muaj Koob
No comments:
Post a Comment