LINDA

DECEMBER 3, 2018

Nyob zoo mom and family! I'm glad you guys had a fun time on your cruise! It looked like a really good time! Also, thanks a ton for the Christmas package. It was pretty fun to decorate the apartment, and now it's starting to feel like the holidays! 

This has probably been one of the most busy and crazy weeks of the my mission. Tuesday morning, I got here to Linda, and it was so crazy coming back. Elder Buck didn't get here till like 5, and we had a packed night set up for us. Dinner with La Zaag (love that guy) at 5, Hmong class at 6, quick comp study and then a lesson with Alyssa (who is going to be baptized this Saturday). It was awesome. I love being busy. There's so much good work going on in the English ward here and the Hmong branch. There's like 6 people on date for baptism right now, and 9 nonmembers came to church this last Sunday... and it's not like all the English ward. It was split like half and half.

About 2 weeks ago Grandpa Thao's kid passed away from a heart attack, and so his whole family (which makes up a huge part of the less-actives in the branch) have started coming back, and some of them aren't even members. So basically, this area is super prime for some miracles. Elder Buck is an awesome comp too. His Hmong... needs some work, honestly. It's almost like he just came from the MTC, but his heart and Spirit? 11/10. Example 1, Thursday night was pouring rain, we're driving home and there is this Hispanic lady walking down the street with no umbrella, and so elder buck sees her and we follow her, pull over, and give her Elder Buck's umbrella. He's a solid guy. 

Friday at the Stake Center, there was this way cool nativity thing. They went like all out. Then Saturday was the Marysville ward Christmas party, so we got to meet all the members. Pretty solid ward. Honestly though, I wish we could just do Hmong work. I don't really wanna do English work anymore, but on the bright side, we have a baptism this weekend, and then there's like 2 other people who could easily be baptized soon, so that's pretty cool as well. Probably the biggest miracle since coming back was finding out that Kang (you might not remember her, but she is the most solid member missionary in the branch and I have so much love for her) her husband, Jerry, has never been baptized because his parents and grandpa are all in Shamanism, so he couldn't convert... however, in these past months, his family has all converted to Christianity, so Jerry will be baptized next month. We just have to teach him! Such a miracle! Literally the most powerful lesson on my mission was when Kang testified of how her husband could be baptized and you could just tell how bad she wanted it, and now her prayers are being answered. Amazing. 

In other news.... well, here's a bunch of pics from my family in Oroville. First pic, Suav Nchai Yaj. I love this guy, learned a ton of Hmong from him. He is a less-active in Oroville, and we were helping him and his family start coming back to church and man, he had some crazy stories he would tell us from Laos, especially about all the times he would like see tigers. That was the scariest. 

These are my friends Kathy and Mai. Also people we're working with to help come back to church, and they actually did start coming back!! Kathy is like a superhero basically single mom... Mai is blind, so he can't really do anything. He also helped me learn a ton of Hmong, and he has the best sense of humor of anyone you'll ever meet. 

This is Chue Vang Lor and his wife. They are the most solid members you'll ever meet in the Hmong world. He was a prisoner of war in Laos. His whole family died, but he made it, and even though he's no taller than 5 foot 2, he's a spiritual giant bigger than Goliath... or maybe even 2 Goliaths. 

This is Shue and all his family. I love them a whole lot too. We basically built Shue's new house, but it's not done yet. He's pretty good at tennis too, but I got the slight edge last time, haha. His daughter is the cutest little Hmong girl you'll ever meet. Her name is Duab Ntxoo (it means shadow).

This is my favorite Hmong grandma in Oroville, Suav Tswb! She is the cutest little grandma, so short, but she always called me her son and we called her grandma, and she bought cool necklaces for me and Peem Tsheej at Hmong New Years.

So this guy is Bee. All he does all day long every day is play video games, but i love him so much. He started coming back to church. Not a whole ton of support from people, and we were like his best friends. Good guy. 

These 2 guys are Ncej Zeb (super solid member, love him) and his son in law, who was there for the day. We actually had a super solid conversation with him after church. He's not a member. Hopefully, one day he will be a member though. He's awesome. 

Last but not least, this is the Chue family! I'll send this one where Txuj is running away cuz he was crying and mad, haha, but I love the Chue family so much. President Chue is the branch president, and Sister Chue is the Relief Society president and my mission mom. She helped me so much, like that one time I was throwing up and missed church, and she fed us like so much, and plus right before I left, she started helping me a ton with my Hmong as well. I love them. And there's Hwj Xwm too. He's the 13 year old, and he's awesome. We balled it up at the church with him last preparation day. 

Well, that's my family up in Oroville. I told them all if I don't get back there as a missionary, that I'll come back after the mission. That's the nice thing about serving in Cali, haha. But i just love the Hmong people so much. They're the best.

Anyway, in like 5 minutes were gonna head to bowling alley and bowl 3 games. 

They do a special deal for the missionaries. I'm so excited cuz I love bowling. Honestly, life couldn't get much better at the moment... great companion, great area, tons of work to do. Great things lie ahead! 

Love, Elder Muaj Koob

THANKSGIVING, ELDER CLAYTON, AND TRANSFERS...

NOVEMBER 26, 2019

Nyob zoo fam. Hope you're all doing well. Thanksgiving looked like a good time, but honestly I had a great Thanksgiving out here so I didn't miss you all too much... we'll be back together next year too, haha, so that's cool. But there's a ton to talk about this week, so I'm gonna try to sum it all up quick.

Transfers: Well, I'm headed back to Yuba City, haha. I couldn't really believe it when I saw the transfer board, but I did have the feeling that my time was up here in Oroville. So right now, Elder Vang and Elder Buck are up in Chico, Elder Peem Tsheej and I are here, then Elder Kelsey and Elder Gunsay are down in Yuba City.. and what's happening is Elder Vang is training the new elder up in Chico, Elder Peem Tsheej is gonna stay here and be the new district leader (that's my boy) and Elder Kelsey is coming back up here, and then Elder Buck will be my new companion down in Yuba. So it's kind of like they are resetting the area, but then it's also not like that cuz I already served there for 9 months... but I have heard that there is a lot of good work down there right now, so I don't feel as bad leaving all of the good work up here... And plus I'll be able to talk to all of the people who I couldn't talk to when I started my mission, so that will be cool. I'm pretty excited to go, just really sad to be leaving here. It's like leaving your family all over again. And going back down, I'll be covering a different English ward as well, so I won't know any of those people, but that's ok. Also, I'll be the district leader for the district, and we will have a bunch of solid people, and I'll be able to do an exchange back in Wheatland, so that will be cool.

Thanksgiving: So Thanksgiving dinner we spent with the Chue family. They BBQ'd a bunch of steak, pork, and had some angel wings and rice and salad... and then some mashed potatoes, cuz Thanksgiving, haha. But it was like the best Hmong Thanksgiving ever, totally beats miskas Thanksgiving, even if I didn't get any homemade rolls. Then on Saturday, the Chues had us over again for their legit thanksgiving dinner where they invited family over from Sacramento area. They threw down so much good food again. It was amazing. And they adopted Elder Peem Tsheej into their clan, so that was cool. And they all made jokes that I was from General Vang Pao's family cuz I'm a Vang, so it was really fun. I'm gonna miss them a ton. 

Mission tour: So last Tuesday, Elder Weatherford Clayton from the Seventy came to our mission. It was pretty cool. He taught us a lot of good stuff, and we were able to have like the whole mission counsel about the people we found in Biggs. Too bad I won't be here to follow through with those plans, haha. Also, said goodbye to Elder Gunsay. That was super sad. I'm gonna miss him a ton. He's such a good guy. But one of the things I learned a lot from the mission tour was just to teach simply and cut out all the unnecessary stuff, so I've been trying to do that. ALSO, this is really important, I almost forgot. They announced a change in the missionary schedule for the Northwest American Region Missions. In order to protect prime proselyting time, Monday-Friday we no longer can have dinner appointments... we have to cook our own food at 4, then find from 5-7 and they want us to meet with members from 8-9 every night. I have mixed feelings about the change, but it is what it is so I'll happily go with it. We can at least still have dinner appointments on Saturday and Sunday, but they want the less-actives or part-member families to feed us. So if anyone has any good recipes that they like to make, send them to me cuz I'm going shopping tomorrow and don't know how I'm gonna survive like this, haha. 

Other stuff... last Monday we had a super bomb lesson with the Vang family in Biggs. They said they were going out of town for Thanksgiving, but that they wanted to come to church the week after... they are just so golden. They asked us so many good questions about Christianity, and we helped them find all the answers and then taught them how to pray and it was just so awesome. Yesterday we were able to meet with like almost all the members and get pictures, but I'll send them next week and talk about them. They're awesome, seriously like my family. I'm gonna miss them so much. 

Sorry if this email is a little shorter. I got sick yesterday and still feel pretty bad today, so the motivation is definitely lacking, and I still have to pack everything, haha. On the bright side, they packed it all up last week when we moved to Gridley, so it's a little easier. Anyway, love you guys. Don't forget to do light the world and to read the book of Mormon :)

Love, Elder Muaj Koob

A WEEK IN GRIDLEY

NOVEMBER 19, 2018

Nyob zoo nyob zoo. Hope everybody is doing well. Thanks for all the emails and videos and stuff. I'm excited for Mckay. Looks like the wedding was a fun time. I'm sad I missed it... hopefully I don't miss any more weddings, haha. And dad, good job on the law of chastity talk. I listened to the whole thing last night with Elder Peterson. You did a great job, haha. 

Here's an update on my week: So we were down in Gridley literally the entire week. On Wednesday, they decided we could start going back up to Oroville and Chico, but, for safety precautions i guess, we had to sleep down in Gridley. So basically, it was like the best of both worlds. We got to do some work in Oroville, and we still got to hang out with the other Hmong elders. We did a ton of service this week though. We had like 2 multi-zone service projects. On Wednesday, we went to the local evacuation center and sorted clothes and boxed them up and moved stuff back and forth for like half the day. It was awesome to be able to get out there and serve. Then Saturday, we had another cool opportunity. Church headquarters shipped out a ton of food to a warehouse in Oroville, so that morning all the missionaries and like 300 members/nonmembers gathered together, and we all worked together to make 5000 food kits to give to all the evacuated people. 

Honestly, it was pretty cool to be there and be able to serve with all the members. The thought that just kept occurring to me was that this is what Zion is like, everyone working together and getting stuff done and helping people who really need it. It was awesome. And plus, I think Elder Richins and I were the fastest box tapers there, so catch us in the 2020 Olympics, haha. It was also pretty cool cuz we got to wear the yellow helping hands vests, and I think they made a pretty cool article about it on the church's newsroom, so go check that out for more info on what happened.

Yesterday was kind of cool. All of the Oroville wards and the Hmong branch met together at 9 and had a special sacrament meeting. That was kind of cool. Also, we were able to give a blessing to grandpa Chue after church, and Elder Peterson gave his first blessing in Hmong, so that was cool. 

Pang is still progressing, something crazy happened this past week. So like his big need is that he doesn't have a car and doesn't have much money and not the best living situations, and there's not too much we can do to help with that, but this week in the mail there was like a car dealership doing a competition where if you get a paper with a scratch and win thing that like matches one of the winning numbers, then you win at least 500 bucks, or at most 20,000 dollars or a new car. So we show up to teach him on Thursday, and he shows us this paper and his number matched one of the winning numbers. We were so surprised. He said he had got 5 others too, but they didn't match up, so apparently it was legit. Our branch president is driving him up to Chico today, so we will see if he actually won anything cool, but he may have like won the lottery from that.... God works in mysterious ways, haha. 

Also, Chee, up in Washington, is doing well. We had a good lesson with her on Saturday night. The sisters skyped us in, and Chee said she had talked to here kids and they said they would want to go to church with her, they just had to arrange their work schedules, so hopefully some more good missionary work comes out of that. Also, the Vang family that we found in Biggs, we haven't been able to meet with all week just because they are so busy, but luckily we are having a lesson tonight, so hopefully that will go well. I'm excited for that. 

As far as my breathing goes... well, lets just say it hasn't been the best. I've been using my inhaler 2-4 times per day. Luckily I still have like 100 puffs left. I called the mission nurse about it. She was wanting me to go see a doctor, but I was like "I have prednisone, can I just use that?" but she said no. Pretty much, she wants me to get back on Asthmanex, so how can I get some more of that? Can you like send it in to a pharmacy here in Gridley? If you can and they can fulfill it today, then CVS pharmacy is a good one, but I did better over the weekend, only used it like once yesterday I think. So I think with Asthmanex again, I will be just fine. I was kind of frustrated she didn't let me use the prednisone though, she just told me to do a nasal rinse... 

We got the call today saying we can go back up to Oroville now to stay, so that will be good. The smoke is still kind of bad up there, but a lot better than it was earlier. It was terrible earlier in the week. I have a few pics, but like dang it just looked like super thick fog. Visibility was terrible... except it wasn't fog. It smelled like smoke, and they said on the news being outside without a mask for a few hours was the equivalent of smoking a pack of cigarettes... it was crazy seeing all the people walking around with white n95 masks though. It seemed like the apocolypse up in Oroville. 

I don't really remember much else... it has just been really cool seeing the community come together and help all the people who were evacuated. It was fun to be able to help too and to do something about it. Lots of sad stories from people losing everything. We met a few people who used to live in Paradise... sad stuff. But whats cool to know is that you can lose everything, but if you are centered on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you won't be lost. You can rebuild. Even if you don't have anything. You, God and I think that's what a lot of people are holding onto now. It's been crazy to see how people have been humbled too. People are also kinder too us, which is nice, haha. Hopefully lots of good missionary opportunities will come from this.

This week, we have a mission tour tomorrow. Elder Weatherford T. Clayton of the 70 is coming, and then Thursday is thanksgiving. We're still supposed to do work like normal though. Should be a good week. It's the last week of the transfer. I'm gonna try to let Elder Peterson take over a lot of the stuff. I'm really nervous I might get transferred. I don't wanna leave. And I'm worried that president might put the new elder coming in next week here in Oroville with Elder Peterson, and that would be rough because of Hmong... and just like we have so much good going on right now, I would just hate to leave... but, I'll leave it up to the Lord. Hopefully I'll still be here though, haha. 

Love you guys! Be grateful for your safety!

Love, Elder Muaj Koob

 With my n95 mask

  

 Dream team in action 

Picture from lds.org. I'm famous.

  Crazy pic of paradise

Hmong elders  

 Bad smoke in Ororville... it wasn't even night time either haha

Service

CAMP FIRE OF FAITH

NOVEMBER 12, 2018

Hey family! First things first, I am doing well, I'm safe, have basic necessities, and am far away from the fire that destroyed one of my favorite towns in the mission. Really sad for all the people who live in Paradise and who have been affected by the Camp Fire. It's been a crazy week. I'll do my best to sum it up.

Nothing really noteworthy happened before Thursday. Thursday morning, we woke up, did everything like normal, then went out the door after having done our studies, and we saw some clouds of smoke forming over Table Mountain. We didn't think too much of it, just went about our normal work for the most part. We had a good lesson with Pang in the afternoon (update: still no baptism date for Pang, he learns pretty slow, so we’re taking it slow and simple for him. He is progressing though and it’s awesome) and just before going into the lesson, we got a call from our zone leaders saying that the Chico Hmong elders were going to come down and be staying with us. They were being evacuated. We were pretty excited, we love those elders. They got here, we did some good work, had a good dinner with the Chue's. After dinner, we saw that we missed a call from the former Paradise elders (both sets, all of their stuff burned up) telling us we were being evacuated. By now it’s like 8:15 at night. We go straight home, and President calls, giving me instructions to pack up as quick as we can, and take the Hmong elders to Gridley that night. 

Ok, if you've never had to pack all your valuables and everything you might need in 15 minutes, you should totally practice so you know what to grab. I grabbed a few of the essentials and by about 8:45, we got on the road, headed past Gridley to Live Oak, where we met up with some other elders who live in a big house, and that night we went and grabbed food, filled up with gas, and tried to get situated. There were 10 elders staying in that one house. It was kind of cold and hard on the floor, but I was glad to have a place to sleep while so many others didn't. The next day, we got keys to an apartment in Gridley that was empty, so now all the Hmong elders are staying together there. Friday, we had a call with President. He informed everyone what was going on, filled us in on what to do. Basically, we just got a whole bunch of groceries to last through Sunday, and figured out how to do the work. We split Gridley and Live Oak all up to go tract and find people... the problem is these places are pretty small, haha. So this is when the miracle starts.

Friday afternoon, Elder Peterson and I were assigned to do work in Biggs, which is like such a tiny town north of Gridley. Of course, we figured we'd still try to do Hmong work, cuz it’s in our area still, but there's next to no Hmong people there. We decided to look up the 18 last names on white pages, and found like 3 houses. The only one we met, she opened the door and invited us right in.. unfortunately, she was the only one home, so we set up a return appointment for Saturday when her son would be home. Miracle in and of itself that we even found a Hmong house. It didn't even look Hmong at all. So we go back to see this Hmong family on Saturday, and this senior in high school answers the door and says "hey, do you remember me?"

Backstory: Our apartment complex in Oroville is pretty big, so we park a little ways away from our apartment. Back in June through like August, there was a Hmong kid who always parked his motorcycle right by our parking spot. He was such a cool kid. I would always talk to him whenever he was outside, and he had come to play basketball at the church before. I never had invited him to learn before, and then one day in August we saw him driving away in his car, and he tells us he and his family are moving. Super sad. That was in August, and we’ve never seen him since. Back to the story.

THAT WAS THIS KID!!! Joe, the Hmong kid who we talked to all the time, was here in Biggs. We NEVER find in Biggs. It’s so far away from Oroville, and there was no way we ever, ever would have found Joe and his mom again. They invited us in and we are talking to his mom and she's like "yeah we've always wanted to believe in God, we just haven't ever gone to a church, and the question I've always wanted an answer to is "why are there so many churches?"" I was like wow, this is the stuff that I dream about as a missionary, perfect transition to the restoration. We answered her questions about Christianity, informed her who Christ was and how he Atoned for all of our sins, and taught how God has always called a prophet, and has called one in these days. Just an awesome lesson, she really wanted to learn and was so nice, and Joe had some questions too, and then midway through the lesson, their dad got home. We were able to have an awesome talk with him, and gave him a Book of Mormon. He said he's always wanted to believe in God. He doesn't like Shamanism that much, and we're like "no problem, we can help you make the switch!" The only problem is that his parents practice shamanism and aren't willing to let them believe in God, but he said he would talk to his parents again, so we'll see. They even talked about coming to church just to see what it was like. Evacuation/fire miracle!!!!  There is no way we ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever would have found these people if we weren't evacuated to Gridley and stuck doing work in Biggs for 2 days. Honestly, I think this is one of the most prepared families I've met on the mission, so, while you're praying for the safety and comfort of all the people of paradise and the surrounding area, throw an extra prayer in for the Vang family, cuz the Lord's work moves forward no matter what. 

That’s my week in a nutshell. Definitely a crazy week I'll never forget, and some amazing miracles that proves that God is in the details of our lives. Thanks for all the prayers already. Please pray for Paradise.

Love, Elder McArthur

 Sleeping on the ground the first night woot woot.

 They gave us masks for breathing, so had to take a picture looking like doctors.

 The smoke was pretty bad in Gridley, but is getting better.

 All the elders the first night together. 10 in one house. 4 of those elders lost everything they had.

 Camp Fire from Oroville, before we got evacuated.

Hmong elders all together eating some good stir fry. It's been a party haha.

WEEKLY EMAIL FOR THE FAMILY

NOVEMBER 5, 2018

Hey mom and and family! Thanks for the package this past week! I loved all the orange foods and everything. Who knew candy corn and peanuts would be so good?! I hate candy corn plain, but throw some peanuts in there, it's great haha. Glad everyone is doing well though. Also, i didn't even know Mckay was engaged? You said he's getting married like this weekend? Holy cow. I'm sad I'm missing that. 

But anyway, this was a humbling, awesome week. Tuesday, l let Elder Peem Tsheej take over the area, and I went on exchanges in the English area... I imagine it's a lot like letting your kid drive for the first time right after they get their license... you know they know how to do it, you've driven with them for a few months already, but it's still terrifying. He did great though, even if some of the Hmong was hard for him to understand. Then Halloween, we helped Shue with his house some more. I'm getting pretty good at mudding and texturing drywall, so I think I could build my own house now, as long as I don't have a job so I can work everyday and I have unlimited funds... we'll see how well that works out. Nothing too crazy happened after that. We didn't have a dinner, and we had to be home after dinner. We went to Papa Murphy's, got the classic jack-o-lantern pizza with some cheesy bread. The lady kinda laughed when I said I wanted a pizza in the shape of a pumpkin, but I think that's the only reason why anyone goes to Papa Murphy's anyways, haha. Oroville 3rd came over that night, and I smoked them all in a game of Catan. They want a rematch today, so we'll see if I can stay undefeated on the mission... 2-0, let's goooo. Also, Elder Peem Tsheej and I thought it would be a good idea if we ate the entire pizza and cheesy bread by ourselves in one go. Not our best move... 

Thursday, we had planned for it to be a super good day. We were gonna have members at all our lessons, find a new person during our finding time, and put Pang on date for baptism. What happened was, we had the person in Washington, Chee (who isn't the same person that I was teaching with Sister Shakespeare mom, this is a different Hmong person in Washington) say she didn't want to be baptized this month cuz she needed to talk to her family more apparently. She seemed kind of off last week. Then, we didn't find anyone new who wanted to meet with us, but we did meet a super nice lady who took a Book of Mormon, and we placed 2 more copies so that was cool. And then our lesson with Pang went pretty well. We brought our branch mission leader, who he apparently knew, but our bml didn't remember him, haha. Good lesson. He said he wanted to be baptized on his birthday, which is in February, which isn't too far away, but still, I might not be here, so we kinda tried to push for earlier, but definitely not the right motives, so we didn't put him on date. That lesson was kind of tough too. I totally forgot the first vision in Hmong, and I kept fumbling over my words. I like lose all of my confidence when a member comes and teaches with us. I don't know why. Just the extra pressure I guess. So Thursday didn't end up going too much like we planned, but still ended up being a good day, despite some setbacks. 

Let me paint a picture of our Fridays for you.... it's 4 o'clock in the afternoon, You're so tired because you've been sitting down all day long, and, for the first time, you take a step outside your apartment and the sun is just blinding and you get to go do work for an hour before coming back home, making dinner, teaching Hmong class, and then coming back to study more. Yeah, Friday's are rough. Four hours of studies, and then usually at least like 3 hours of weekly planning. It gets old super quick. I liked Friday's a lot more before the mission. 

Saturday was pretty cool. We had like 4 lessons. A while ago, I don't know if you remember me talking about a Chinese guy named Richard, but we went and visited him and taught him how to pray and showed him how to get the BoM in Chinese. It was really cool praying with him for the first time in his life. Afterwards, he said he felt really good and peaceful after we prayed with him. I just feel bad for all the people in China who can't practice religion at all. Their lives must just be super sad. We also taught Pang the plan of salvation. I love teaching the plan of salvation, even though the vocab can be harder sometimes. Then later that night, we had a lesson with Study, who we haven't been able to see in forever. It was a good lesson. We talked a lot about feeling the Spirit. Had Sister Chue there too, I love her. She's so good to us missionaries. Then after the lesson, we ran to Panda Express (usually i try to eat semi-healthy, but I didn't do too well this week, haha) and there was a homeless guy outside named Mike. He asked us for food, so I bought him some panda, and we gave it to him with a Book of Mormon and man, that dude has had a hard life, assuming most of what he was saying was true. He has a strong belief in God though, and the thing that just struck me was how the world looks at this homeless guy as someone of no real value, a burden on society. But to God, this is his prodigal son. And here, Mike is telling us all of these trials he's gone through, but yet still has a belief in God. Man, it helped me realize how, no matter what we are going through or what circumstances we are in, God still loves us and is still there for us. 

After Panda, we went to Sister Chue's house, and she taught us a lot about how to teach Hmong people. Right now, that is like my biggest struggle as a missionary. It's so hard to be an effective teacher in Hmong. I really have to rely more on the Lord than I have been in the past. 

Sunday was pretty cool. Elder Peterson and I, last Friday, set a goal to have 3 people come to church this week, and Saturday we went and invited a ton of people, and then on Sunday only like 1 of those people showed up, plus Pang, so we were at 2; however, last Monday night, we had visited a less-active family who, the whole time I've been here, hasn't come to church. We shared about the importance of the sacrament, and helped remind them of how they felt when they partook of the sacrament. They have committed to come maybe 3 times before and haven't showed up, but this time, after we had extended the invitation at the start of the week, the wife showed up at church and we hit our goal! It was a testimony builder for me, and a tender mercy from God, letting me know that He is aware of us and that our work here is helping people, even if there isn't much quick progression. Also, we got to sleep in for an extra hour, so that was a blessing. Also, we had a bomb dinner with Shue and his family celebrating his dad's birthday. They barbequed a bunch of food, and today I'm gonna take Shue in a tennis match, and next week Shue's wife, Ah, is going to teach us how to make egg rolls. So fun stuff coming up. 

So a cool spiritual thought from this past week comes from the Book of Mormon, the story of Aaron. I like his story, because he isn't very successful at first, and I think it's pretty relateable. He goes from city to city, preaching to the people, and they all harden their hearts and reject his words. They go to the land of Middoni, and in Alma 21:12, "they did preach the word unto many, and few believed on the words which they taught." And then they get cast into prison. Thinking about that, I realized a few things. 1) the reason why they weren't successful was not that they didn't teach with the Spirit, but that the Lamanites used their agency and hardened their hearts. If you're Aaron, that's nothing to hang your head about, you did your job. 2) Aaron was rejected and thrown into prison and few believed, but yet God had been guiding him that whole way. It wasn't him just going off on his own. Later in the story, Ammon meets King Lamoni's father on his way to get Aaron and his bros out of prison, and then they are able to convert Lamoni's father, free Aaron, and then, in Alma 23, "thousands were brought to the knowledge of the Lord," and, in vs. 10, "the people of the Lamanites who were in the land of Middoni" were converted unto the Lord. ISN'T THAT JUST AMAZING?! These people had literally thrown Aaron in prison, a next to nobody believed what he was saying, and then boom, all of them were converted and laid down their weapons of war. Talk about a change of heart. So that was a really motivating story to study this past week, especially cuz I sometimes feel like Aaron, as he's going around, teaching the word with the Spirit, and everyone is rejecting him, and sometimes I wonder "man, is God really guiding me?" I bet Aaron wondered that too, but in the end, everything worked out according to God's design, and man, I just love that so much. 

Anyway, sorry for the long spiritual thought and kind of a long email. I love you family and mom and dad. I'm glad Sarah had fun at Sadies. I love you guys, hope you have a great week!

Love, Elder Muaj Koob

 Here's a flattering picture of me with our pizza, haha.

Also, you don't need to send these pictures of the milk, but Elder Richins drinks whole milk, so I did some simple math for him to help him realize how superior skim milk is. So thanks for raising me on that, even though it tastes a lot worse, cuz it's a lot better for you, haha.

FAMILY EMAIL

OCTOBER 29, 2018

First things first, the Red Sox won the world series! Woot woot!! Too bad i'm on a mission and couldn't watch a single game... thanks for the updates throughout the week though. 

This week was pretty good though. Update on Pang: So we went and saw him on Tuesday (which was also E. Peterson's birthday), and we talked to him and he told us the important thing he needed to talk about... At first, I thought he was wanting the church to give him money. I was struggling to understand what he was saying. Basically right now, he has some pretty tough circumstances, no car or anything, so he was wanting help from us, and I thought he was wanting money from the church... so that was kind of depressing. We were like "well, we can't just give you money, but we can help you get blessings from God." We established our purpose after that, and he did say that he wanted to learn, so that was good. We taught the first few principles of the first lesson. Meanless to say, we were a little deflated cuz we thought he was just wanting money from us... but its okay, the rest of the day was good. We got milkshakes for Elder Peterson's birthday, and it was a fun day. 

The next day we went back to see Pang, and he clarified things. He wants our help applying for like financial aid from the government. So of course, we can help him out with that! We also gave him a large print Book of Mormon, which was good. So he still is pretty promising, hopefully we will be able to help him. Then we saw him again another time and read the Book of Mormon with him... he can only read English, but it's really confusing for him, so we take it slow and end up reading a lot of the Hmong to him. Then on Sunday, stake conference, we got a member to take him down to Gridley, and then we translated all of stake conference for him. It was awesome! Some good talks... I think. I don't really remember what they actually spoke about. Sometimes that happens when I translate, haha. But yeah, he is progressing, so that is good! Still not on date for baptism. When we first saw him, he was kind of like leaning towards on his birthday.. which is in February, so we will see. 

Other stuff, on Tuesday, we taught Chee up in Washington. That was good, she is doing well. She has a whole lot of faith. We taught the law of tithing, then on Thursday, taught about a lot of other principles to prepare her, and then went back over the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. We left her with the commitment to pray about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon... the only problem is that she can't read. So we like testified about it and were like "we know you can't read, but will you ask God if its true?" She answered and was basically like "you guys are God's missionaries, if you guys know it's true, then I believe it's a good book and it's true." Not that we want people to believe stuff just because we say it, but it was cool to see that she believed that based on our testimony. Also, Tuesday, Elder Hanks came with Elder Peterson and I for the day. It was interesting being in a trio. 

Wednesday, we were on exchanges, Elder Richins came here. It was a fun day, and we were able to do some good work. Got some good pictures too. Also invited a lot of people to the branch Halloween party on Friday. 

Friday, we went down to Gridley for interviews with Pres. Ward. It was pretty fun. I always enjoy talking with him. He has a lot of good wisdom. We talked a lot about how I can continue to learn Hmong. That's kind of my goal right now, is to speak Hmong like a Hmong person instead of a white person, haha. Also, for the first time, he asked my opinion on the Hmong work and Hmong elders. Basically told me that a new Hmong elder is coming out, and went through everyone and asked if I thought they would do good training and if they could. It's gonna be interesting to see what will happen next transfer... cuz we only have 3 elders who can train. Elder Vang, me, and Elder Kelsey. He also complimented me a lot on training, so I appreciated that, haha. The Halloween party Friday night was fun. We ran the dartboard and people popped balloons with candy in them. 

Saturday we weekly planned and whatnot, visited some people, nothing too noteworthy. Sunday was good cuz we had stake conference and PRESIDENT WARD WORE THE TIE THAT ELDER MACDONALD AND I MADE FOR HIM!!! I was so excited, haha. Also, it was cool seeing that one lady who is Jake Owens mom. Also, I'm excited for Halloween, even though we're not doing anything special for it... might go get a pizza from Papa Murphy's though, haha. Thanks in advance for the Halloween package. I don't need anything else, doing well!

As far as spiritual stuff goes, I've been studying D&C a lot, and I love all of the promises given to missionaries and other people in there. Also, i recently read section 40 something, I don't remember, but it talked about signs of the 2nd coming and all these bad things that will happen, but basically said to not worry if we put our trust in God. I liked that a lot. So don't worry! Trust God. He knows better than we do!

I love you guys! Glad everyone's doing well!

Love, Elder Muaj Koob

 Elder Richins likes to flex a lot so we took some good pictures. 

Gotta knock all those doors, haha, even if the house is burned down... 

MIRACLES!!

OCTOBER 22, 2018

Alright family, buckle up, this is gonna be a dang good email. First of all though, I'm glad everyone has had a good week. thanks for the updates. Glad you liked the tie dad, and hope you liked the story cloth Sarah. I didn't, in fact, forget about your birthday dad, just forgot to email you about it last week, haha. Also, thanks for the banana bread Mom! I've almost eaten the whole loaf already, hahahaha. 

Alright, so this last week definitely had its ups and downs, but that's like every week as a missionary. However, we had probably one of like the biggest miracles on my mission yet happen this past week, so I'm gonna mostly explain that. 

Backstory: I've been here in Oroville for about 5 or so months now... In the time I've been here, I can count on 1 hand the number of times nonmembers have come to church. We haven't found anyone new that we are still currently teaching, still just teaching all of the same old people. And since I've been in the mission, there hasn't been a Hmong baptism, and perhaps hasn't been one for the year before I was a missionary as well. 

Ok, so back to the story. This week, Elder Peterson decided we were gonna go hard finding people. Well, as hard as we can with 4 hours of studies every day haha. But we spent a lot of time finding, and we ended up finding no new Hmong people, just getting a ton of rejection from people, haha. We did, however, OYM 2 English people, and one of them was a member who hasn't been in a longggg time and was like "I was thinking about coming back to sacrament meeting" so that was a mini miracle in and of itself. We also ate at Subway Friday night, and as we were walking in, this Miskas less-active lady stops us and gives us her contact info and tells us to give it to the missionaries close to Wheatland, so that was cool. But anyway, it had got to Saturday, and we hadn't found anyone yet... which like isn't a new feeling. It was pretty typical, in my opinion, just because how hard finding has been here. 

So anyway, we're in this awesome visit with a niam tais and Oroville 3rd Elders (the ones with the Hmong ties from last week) shoot us a text with an address and a voicemail explaining that they tracted into a Hmong house and the guy seemed cool, said we could come by. So right then, we were already pretty pumped. We called them back and figured we might try the dude next week or something. We go to our next appointment, and we miss 3 calls from Oroville 3 and think, huh, that's weird. We get out, we listen to the voicemails, and Elder Richins is like "come right now, we're with the Hmong guy." Meanless to say, we were pretty confused, but we went to the address as fast as TIWI would take us, and when we got there, they were all outside talking. We walked up and started talking in Hmong to the dude, and HE WAS GOLDEN!!! Super humble guy, probably like 50s or 60s, name is Pang Xiong (same name as Pheng down in Marysville). We talked to him for a few minutes, got to know him real quick, and he was like "yeah I would like to come to church tomorrow, I just don't have a car. If you could find me a ride I'd love to come." I almost didn't know what to say, I was so shocked. "OF COURSE WE CAN FIND YOU A RIDE!!" Then after that, I like asked him if he was a member (cuz I figured he had to be a less-active, there's tons of them here), he was like "no, but if you guys are willing, I would love to become a member"... WHAT?!? Who is this guy??? Apparently, he had gone to our church many years ago, and the only person he remembered was our branch mission leader. We left Pang, told him we would call him once we got a ride figured out, and then basically just threw a mini party in the car we were so excited, haha. 

So apparently after Oroville 3rd left, he called them, asked them to come back, and they started teaching the restoration, and just before we pulled up, they were going to put him on date for baptism... we kind of interrupted that, but it was okay. So that night we called Pres. Chue, and Sunday morning he ended his meetings a few minutes early, and we drove together and picked up Pang. He came to church with us for all three hours and just seemed really happy to be there. He doesn't read Hmong, only a little English, but it was awesome. He got everyone's number, and on the ride back he was talking a little bit with Pres. Chue, and we were basically like "hey, we would love to help you become a member, and we can give you a ride every week" and he was excited about that. MIRACLE!!! Like holy cow, I've never found anyone on Saturday and had them come to church on Sunday... I've never even heard of it really happening like that for English people, let alone Hmong... Miracle!!! 

"Has the day of miracles ceased? Or have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved?

Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that miracles are wrought" (Moroni 7:35-37).

It was a real testimony builder for me, especially cuz most of my time here I felt like has been pretty hard and hasn't had much productive work happening, and last transfer I felt like we tried super hard to be exactly obedient and work hard and now, out of nowhere, we have this super golden guy to help live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's amazing. We never would have found him either, he lives with 5 other English speaking people. His house has nothing to suggest that it's Hmong, and he lives in an area of town where I had never been before. I love Oroville 3rd ward, they need to go looking for Hmong people more often, haha. 

So that was awesome, really cool experience. It gives me a lot of hope for the work here. We're meeting with him again on Tuesday, so hopefully that goes well and we can set a baptismal date and help him work towards that. He has 11 kids, but none of them live here anymore, and his wife passed away... really sad. He is a pretty lonely guy who could really use the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I'm just so excited to help him. 

Anyway, sorry my whole email was just about that. There was a lot of other cool stuff that happened this week... like we went and talked with Sister Chue, cuz she was supposed to talk this Sunday, and then after we talked to her, she fed us Khaub poob, and we got to ask her a bunch of good questions about Hmong. Also, we were able to have some good lessons this week. Also, the high councilor who spoke in sacrament meeting gave a bomb talk about elk hunting, and I got to translate that. It was awesome, haha. Also, we helped Shue with his house some more. He is trying to get it done by the end of the month. Just a pretty solid week. I have a lot of hope for what's coming up. It's a great day to be a Hmong missionary, haha. 

Love you guys. Thanks for the support and all of the love and everything you guys do for me. Have a great week! 

Love, Elder Muaj Koob

Sorry I don't have any pictures, here is me with some of Oroville's natural beauty.

NYOB ZOO XYOO TSHIAB!

OCTOBER 15, 2018

Hey family! Hope everyone is well. This past week was pretty awesome cuz Saturday was Hmong New Years! We were able to have a booth there as well, just full of Book of Mormons and pamphlets and everything. Usually, every year, only the missionaries in Oroville get to go to Hmong New Year, but this year Elder Vang talked with President, and the other 4 Hmong Elders got to come too! So that was way cool. We had 2 running this booth and then the other 4 going around and talking to people! Unfortunately, the booth wasn't in the best spot, so we only gave out like 20 Book of Mormons, but hey, that's a lot better than none! There was probably like 1,000 Hmong people there though, and a ton of them were wearing traditional Hmong clothes. It was so awesome. Definitely want to come back after the mission, or go to the one in Fresno... apparently it's just like sooooo much bigger than this one, haha. But basically what Hmong New Years is, they use like a big sports complex place and there's a bunch of booths all around where people are selling cool Hmong stuff (kind of like a flea market), there's food booths with tons of good food, soccer and volleyball tournaments going on, a stage with entertainment, and just tons of people. Surprisingly, it was kind of hard to talk to the people there as we went around; most people already knew who we were and didn't really want to talk to us, but we did meet a few people who thought it was cool that we spoke Hmong, haha. Gave out some pass-along cards and overall it was just a really good thing. Saw a lot of members who we haven't seen in a while. 

Here's some pictures below. All the other Hmong Elders are wearing the Hmong vest thing, but we didn't wear one cuz Pres. told us to wear just Proselyting clothes, but like literally every other mission, the missionaries wear clothes like that for New Year... so basically, Elder Peterson and I missed out. We even had a member offer to let us borrow their clothes, haha. But we met one of the members there, she is an old grandma who is like 4 and a half feet tall and she is just the cutest little Hmong lady ever. She saw us and was like "you guys don't have any Hmong clothes" so she left and came back with a super cool Hmong necklace for each of us. She is the best, haha.

The rest of the week wasn't super eventful, Friday was pretty much just getting ready for Hmong New Year and the booth. Wednesday and Thursday, we were able to help Shue paint his house. He is getting really close to being done I think. Should get it by the end of the month. We have been helping him a ton lately. Also Thursday, I went on exchanges with Elder Rowe, my zone leader. We both got here the same transfer, and this was our first exchange, and now, yesterday was transfers, and he is getting transferred away, and we're getting a new zone leader. So that is kind of sad. He is a good guy, but I am also excited for the new guy who is coming. I really like him. Other transfer news, nothing changed in the Hmong world. Elder Gunsay is just going to finish his mission down in Marysville, making it 10 transfers in that area. So crazy. I'm super sad though. He's almost done. After that, there's 6 transfers where I'm the oldest Hmong elder, and then I'm home too. That's crazy to think about. But yeah transfers is always fun.

Tuesday was 5-week training down in Gridley. That was pretty good, learned some good stuff and did some good practice teaching and whatnot. Then yesterday, we had Yang (Thaomee's husband who's a member) come to the English ward at 9! So we went with him to that. It was really good. Lot's of people reached out to him. On the downside, that took up like all of our time to go visit people, but I'm super glad he came to church! Also, the gospel doctrine teacher was running a booth at Hmong New Year, so he had us teach Gospel Doctrine again... it seems like we've been teaching a lot lately... haha.

This week I've been studying a lot about charity, cuz I've felt like I don't have enough charity in me, haha. So I read a bunch of scriptures about it and the thing that stuck out to me is that it's not just having love for other people. It's doing things and serving other people; showing your love through action. Like my favorite quote from a John Mayer song, "love ain't a thing, love is a verb." It's so true though. We show our love and charity through others by the things we do and say. I've been trying to work on that lately, showing my love to other missionaries and the people we teach. It has sometimes been hard to show love for the people we teach, at least for me, in this area. They like really have a desire to do the right and progress, but they aren't willing to make some of the big changes in their lives to get there, so it can be pretty frustrating. That's what I mostly fasted for yesterday, the people we're teaching so that they can make the changes they need to in their lives to receive every blessing Heavenly Father wants to give them.

I love you guys, thanks for all the support and love that you have not only expressed but also shown to me. I hope that I can express all of my appreciation and love back. But keep choosing the right and reading the Book of Mormon!

Love, Elder Muaj Koob

Hmong Elders

 Cool Hmong necklace from Niam Tais Shoua

 This is a super cool story cloth that I bought. It's called paj ntaub, and this one tells the story of Hmong people getting kicked out of Laos and killed by the Vietnamese and escaping across the Mekong river to freedom in Thailand. Usually paj ntaub like this are expensive cuz it's all hand done, but I got this pretty decent sized one for only 40 bucks, so I was super pumped about that. 

A super cool Hmong member from Sacramento, and a good example of traditional Hmong clothes 

Mai and Carissa!!!!! Also, our booth in the background 

Oroville 3rd elders. They gave us money, so we got them some Hmong ties. They're pretty cool. I didn't get one for me cuz the one's they had here weren't really my favorite, but they all loved them. 

 District picture before Elder Rowe leaves. He's the one on the chair.

PANDA EXPRESS, CARNIVAL, AND WHATNOT . . .

OCTOBER 1, 2018

Nyob zoo fam. Hope you're all doing well. Anyways, this past week was good. It was a pretty weird week, but it was good. I'll tell some of the highlights xwb. 

Monday: So we came back and I was feeling so dang tired. Holy cow. I had no desire to leave the apartment after dinner, but we got out there and did work anyway, so that was good. I'm not here to waste the Lords time, haha. Also, Oroville 3rd (Elder Richins and Bradfield) apt. has been leaking water in their bathroom from upstairs, so they stayed with us in our apt.. it was supposed to be for 3 days xwb, but as I write this they are sitting in our apt. because the workers still have done nothing on their apt.... meanless to say, the mission is holding back rent until they get something done. 

Tuesday: We had interviews and that was good. Pres. talked about living the language. I've tried to live the language, but I am also really impatient. Like after repeating myself for the 2nd time and having him not understand, I usually just speak English. And it takes a whole lot longer to hais lus hmoob xwb, but that's ok, we're working on it. So that was most of Tuesday, had district council, Sister Ward basically took over for me and just shared a bunch of stories, so that was cool. 

Wednesday: So this was by far the weirdest day. Kind of a scarring day actually. We were going around and we're actually seeing a ton of people and it was a great day, and then we went to this old Hmong lady's house. Her son answers the door, she comes up and invites us in. We sit down in the living room, which is right by the hallway to the bathroom. We're sitting there for not 30 seconds when her daughter comes out of the bathroom... only she doesn't have a towel or anything. She then proceeds to get a towel from the next room, then walk right through where we are talking in just a towel (that was not pulled up anywhere near high enough) and her grandma gets mad at her, tells her to put clothes on. They go to the other room and this whole time E. Peem Tsheej and I are just staring at our BoMs and thinking that this was the most awkward visit of all time. Well, after that, her daughter comes running back out, this time with pants on, but no shirt... she struggled to put the shirt back on, and to make it short, we made it a short visit and got out of dodge pretty quick. Her daughter is like our age. She is pretty mentally handicapped, but she was like laughing the whole time cuz she could tell we were like super weirded out... yeah, it was pretty scarring. We just listened to Motab after that and tried our best to get the spirit back, haha. 

Thursday: There's actually a cool story from Thursday. So we helped Shue with his house again, and then did tons of studies and some work. We went out with the zone leaders to try to pass one of our people off to them, but the person wasn't home, so we came back to the apt. to drop them off and had like 30 minutes till dinner and they were just trying to shoot the breeze talking to us until 7 when they had dinner but we were like "nope, we've got Hmong people to find" so we went out there and knocked 2 doors, and both of them answered and were cool and said we could come back! So that was a cool testimony builder, yeej txhawb kuv lub zog heev. The first guy said he hadn't met missionaries, and we asked if we could share a message with him. He said he was about to leave home to go clubbing in Sacramento. We talked to him for like a minute or two after that, and then left. 

Friday: The rest of the story. So Friday, we helped Shue for a few more hours, did all our studies, and then it got to dinner and I had a real craving for Panda Express. So we decided to go there (using the gift card from you gpa and gma chat, thanks for that) and I just kept feeling like we needed to go inside, when usually we would hit the drive-thru. We go inside, and lo and behold, there is the guy who we had met the night before. He sees us and says "hey, you guys were at my house last night. Now you know where I work too." It was funny. We were able to talk to him for like 30 seconds. He just cooks in the back. We get to the checkout though, and he gives us the total bill and it was a few dollars cheaper than it should have been. I was a little confused, but then the guy who rang us up pointed to our newfound friend and said "employee discount." WE TRACTED INTO THIS GUY YESTERDAY AND HE HOOKED US UP WITH THE EMPLOYEE DISCOUNT! What a homie!! So basically, I count that as a good spiritual prompting, and we're going to see him again tonight. We will see where it goes. Exciting stuff though. Plus I ate my whole entire plate of Panda using only chopsticks, so that was cool too. 

Saturday: The stake put on a carnival down in Gridley, so we did that in the night. It was pretty fun, didn't have many Hmong members but we were able to help with all the trash. Also, before that, we did a zone blitz (which is where the whole zone does work for one companionship) for the YSA, and E. Peem Tsheej and I got to go out with the Branch President for the YSA branch and see people. It was interesting talking to him and comparing some of the struggles of the YSA branch out here compared with dads ward back home. 

Sunday: So Sunday, we ended up teaching gospel doctrine and then a combined young men and young women's lesson. The 1st counselor and the gospel doctrine teacher decided to go hunting up in Redding together, and they usually go for the whole weekend and come back on Monday, so they assigned us to do all their teaching.. only problem was, they were actually at church! So they came, and we still just ended up doing all of their teaching for them, haha. It was fun though. The lessons went alright. We taught about the book of Psalms in Hmong. It's tough cuz my comp really doesn't know much so I have to like teach the whole thing and it's just hard. I was kinda stressed out Sunday morning, but it's all good. 

There's an update on my week. I hope this was one of the more interesting emails for you guys.. it was definitely one of the more interesting weeks. I think a lesson I learned is that God will reward us for diligence. Even if we don't see a reward though from going out to do work, He will still reward us... just might not be how we think. Another lesson: don't go into any houses where the shower is running.

Read the Book of Mormon. I love the Book of Mormon so much. Please read it. I started Mosiah this week, and it was awesome. I love the first few chapters and just the whole book. I just love the book of Mosiah. It's the best. Anways, have a great week everyone. 

Love, Elder Muaj Koob