Nyob Zoo
Thanks for all the emails and packages throughout this week. After being here for 3 weeks I have gotten pretty accustomed to how things work around here. There are really only 3 days of the week in the MTC. There is Day, Sunday, and P-Day. Not a lot happens because all the days are pretty similar. Something I did learn this week though is that you have to give it all you’ve got. You have to give it 100% all the time. The first 2 weeks I would give it 97% and wonder why I wasn’t doing all that great learning the language compared to everyone else. But I know that if I give it my all every day, Heavenly Father will make up the rest. It's still a struggle, but I found out today, it is the 3rd hardest language to learn in the MTC out of the 56 languages so that is pretty
humbling. The hardest to learn is Icelandic, 2nd is English, then Hmong. But nobody really learns English here, so really the 2nd hardest. This past week I have been able to say my prayers 70% in Hmong which is pretty awesome. Also, my companion and I taught our 2nd investigator this week for the first time. His name is Lis Xyoog. We taught him without using our language books and everything was off memory. My companion probably said 70% of the lesson, but it was still pretty cool to see all that we have learned in 3 weeks.
I also think how crazy it is how close you can become with your district in 3 weeks. We are a big family and we have so much fun together. They are all brothers and I love them. This week the Hmong plague started which is not good. It is the scariest thing ever. Basically it is a throat infection that is similar to Strep Throat, but it is worse. So far 3 people in my district have gotten it and no one else so far has gotten it and thus why it is called the Hmong Plague. No one wants it because it makes your throat swell up super bad and also it hurts so bad you can not eat. The guy in my district who got it first hasn't eaten anything but ice cream the past 3 days. So it is pretty sketchy. We all walk around covering our mouths because no one wants to get it. It has kind of turned into a game in a way and is pretty hilarious. It is supposed to be contagious for 14 days, so more than likely I will get, but I hope not.
Another thing that happened this week is my mom sent the 3 new bags of Lays chips for 2017. The 3 bags were Fried Green Tomato, Crispy Taco, and Everything Bagel. I had most of the people on my floor try the chips and the one that was the most popular for sure was the Crispy Taco. It wasn't the best out of the 3 in my opinion, but it was the most realistic for sure. It for sure is the weirdest bag of chips I have ever had in my life. You can literally taste the shell, the meat, and the lettuce. It was so bizarre. Every bite was like eating a Taco Bell taco. If you haven't tried it yet, I definitely recommend trying them. It's a life changing bag of chips.
We got to do our first TRC on Saturday, which I loved. Basically we just taught members in Hmong, but it was so much better than teacher investigators because they already know the gospel. It wasn't really a lesson, but we just had a conversation about the gospel. Super cool experience. I also got to do the tours again this week which is always something I love. I love talking to all the people and I always run into quite a few people I know which is awesome. One last thing - Brother Ferguson, who is one of my teachers, wrote a quote on the board during class that I really liked. It says, "An average missionary serves for himself. A great missionary serves out of the love for others. And the best missionary serves out of the love for God." I thought this quote was super awesome. I miss all of you guys and hope you all have an awesome week.
Talk to you all in a week!
Love,
Elder Rich
The pictures are as follows: 1- The plague, 2- My classroom during the plague, 3- My roommates and I doing laundry, 4- Me helping with the tours, 5 & 6- and when I saw Jackson's fam/Landon's fam while I was playing ball.
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| We have literally the smallest classroom for 13 people |
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| Elders Tarone, Lamb, Seims, Vang, Rich |
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| Gardner and Barclay kids |
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| Jackson's parents - it was so fun to see them |
