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.
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