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.
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