Nyob zoo family. Hope you're all doing good. This week definitely had its ups and downs. It's like really hard to remember what happened throughout the week... like some stuff is worth sharing, most of what happened is just pretty normal, I don't know.... no super crazy miracles or stories or anything... Wait, here's a good story.
So, backstory: There's this super old frail Hmong man, named
Nqaij Yaj. He lives down in Southside (which, to put it nicely, is a much more
humble part of town). Last transfer, and a few transfers before that, Elder
Gunsay was visiting this guy fairly frequently, and he was getting more and
more sick. End of last transfer he dies, and I never got to meet him cuz we
were on exchanges the one day he was home. He left a wife at home. OK, back to
the story.
Last Monday, maybe Tuesday, can't remember, we go to visit
the wife. We've tried to see her for like a whole month now, and every time we
try, she's not home. Actually, we went to go see her neighbor, and she just
happened to be outside watering her plants. We got talking to her, and these
guys show up to fix her house, and she invites us in, and then her neighbor
comes over and what ends up happening is her neighbor (who is fluent in Hmong
and English) has us translate for these 2 white guys fixing her shower, and we
spent the next little bit doing that and talking with the grandma's friend. It
was a pretty cool experience. Also, had a pretty good talk with one of the
worker guys. So that was really cool to see how that all unfolded and we were
able to give some impromptu help, haha. We actually went back to see her last night
though and she just talked and talked and talked and wouldn't let us get a word
in, so I'm not sure about her... but it was a cool experience, haha.
Other stuff, let's see.... Saturday we did a ton of service.
Mowed the lawn of a member down in Gridley, her name is Momma Hamblin. She
watches out for all of us Hmong missionaries even though she is in the Miskas
ward. Then after that, we came back and got a call from brother Jae Zae. He
wanted us to give him a blessing, and we fixed his roku for his daughter. That
was fun. So lots of good service.
Friday we planned a whole ton for Elder MacDonald to go
home. He goes to the temple this Thursday, while I stay up here. He had to
arrange rides with members though to get down there, and then will come back Friday. So this week will be pretty crazy. There will be a lot going on.
Tuesday he has his departing interview with President, and then on Sunday, the
branch is planning a little potluck for him. Also Sunday, we will find out
about transfers and who will be training the 2 new Hmong elders. Exciting
stuff! This is gonna be an exciting week.
This was a miracle, Mai and Kathy came to church! They are
another one of those less-active families who we've been visiting every week
since I got here. This was the first time they've come since I've been here!
Mai is blind. He probably has the best sense of humor ever, haha. He really
doesn't like going out to places or parties or events or anything, but this
week his wife brought him to church with her and it was awesome! It's
been cool to see how people will just choose to come, cuz we haven't been
straight up inviting them to come to church or anything. They seem to not respond
well to that. Also, we taught Sunday school again. It went pretty well I
think. Taught in 1 Samuel. It's really hard to teach from the Old Testament in
Hmong, but it really helps us a lot, so it's a good thing.
We had Zone Conference. It was fun to see the other
missionaries. We wore the ties we had made. Everyone thought they were pretty
cool, haha. I had to give a talk about what the sacrament means to me, which was
pretty interesting. They have us give it in Hmong, and then our comps will
translate. I don't like it very much. I'm not very good at just speaking in
Hmong... I feel like I can't really fully express myself yet, but that's ok, it
was still a decent talk I guess.
We committed Thaomee and Yang to live the word of wisdom this
past week... so that was good. They've at least given up coffee for the past
few days, hopefully they keep it up. We also taught the lady up in Washington
some more. She is progressing a little. It's really tough when we teach her
though, like we will be trying to talk about a topic and will explain it
clearly and then she will just like go off about how God is so good and about
how she met the missionaries and how we're like God and how God is just the
best and stuff like that.... so not sure how much she is actually understanding,
but we're doing our job I think.
Other cool things: I've been studying the Bible a lot
lately. Recently finished the book of Luke, and then started John. One thing
that stood out to me yesterday was in John 6. The 5,000 people are following
Jesus, and He wants to feed them. Jesus asks the disciples what they've got to
help all these people, and this is what they reply:
9 There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and
two small fishes: but what are they among so many?
And then Jesus takes that small offering, which is obviously
terribly insufficient, blesses it, and makes it more than enough, so that in
the end, they had 12 baskets gathered of the remaining fragments... and
everyone had eaten till they were full. I think many times in our lives, we are
like this little lad. The task at hand was so much greater than what this
little lad could handle with his meager loaves and fish... however, when in the
hands of the Master, it was more than what was needed. I think that when God
calls us, He knows what we have, and our job is to not try and do everything by
ourselves. When we turn everything over to Christ, when we give him our humble
offering, He makes it enough.
Anyways, have a great week, love ya'll.
Elder Muaj Koob
Huge thaj neeb (shaman altar) of that grandma is Southside
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