Nyob zoo!
It was a great week except for the fact that it has been super cold and snowing. It has been good though because I have been able to see Elder Vang slip on the ice like 100 times haha. This past week was honestly quite amazing. A lot of great things are happening here in Madison, Hmong including, and a Christmas card coming out soon :) We have a lot of great potentials and investigators. We also found a new investigator named Ntxawg. When we first found him we didn't really think much of him because he goes to a Baptist church and we thought he was going to just bible bash us the whole time. But actually he has been progressing really well. Everything we teach, he is very open to and he always says, “That makes a lot of sense.” We have given him a Book of Mormon and taught him the first 2 lessons. We are excited to see what happens with him.
This week also we won the award for the cleanest car in the zone. It basically is an award to motivate people to clean the cars haha, and we won. We set a companionship goal that we wanted to win the award (mostly because you get a McDonald's gift card if you win). So the day before we cleaned our car really good and put some air fresheners in the car. It was all worth the cleaning because now we have the Golden license plate to show off on our car and also the McDonald's gift card. The cool thing though is a few days later, we ended up going to McDonald's for lunch really quick before one of our appointments. After we were done we went outside and saw a couple of kids just sitting in the snow. It was really cold outside and we were confused why they were sitting outside in the cold all by themselves. Elder Vang went up and started talking to them. We found out that the oldest boy, Deyizon, a 6th grader and his little sister, Kamariah, a 4th grader just left their home and started walking to their aunt’s house in the cold by themselves in a busy area. While they were walking, the sister got a headache and started crying, so they had been sitting there ever since. After talking to them, we took them inside, bought them their little Happy Meal and toy, and called the parents. Even though we didn't teach them anything, we left a good memory for them about missionaries and our church. You could tell the mom was appreciative and so were the kids. So hopefully in the future when missionaries knock on their door, they can remember this experience and have an open heart because of this.
This week we also had our ward Christmas party combined with the YSA ward so the campus Elders were there too, which was fun. We invited a ton of people, but none of them were able to come. It was still a great time with all the members of our ward though. We ate some food and sang a lot of Christmas songs. One of the members, Chakong Lee, bought Elder Vang and I Christmas ties. So the three of us all wore our Christmas ties to the Christmas party.
This past week, Elder Vang and I were thinking a lot about the Christmas season and the true meaning of Christmas. We shared a message with a less active family and showed them a video called "Jesus is Scourged and Crucified.” It is one of the Bible videos that the church put out and is on lds.org, youtube, and the lds app. After we were done watching it, we asked them all
“What does Jesus Christ Mean To You Personally?” It was really cool to see all their different answers and after the lesson was over one of the kids texted us and said he really appreciated the message and said he was going to share with some of his friends “What Jesus Christ Means to Him.”
This week, I was able to ponder on this question too. As I was thinking about this, it reminded me of a story that I heard called “The Interview.” Basically it is about 2 friends. After they both die the 2 friends go to heaven. The first friend goes in a room and is interviewed. The interviewee asked him one question. “Who is Jesus Christ to you?” He answered with some great answers like “He is my Savior, he atoned for my sins, and he died on the cross for me.” The interviewee says, “Great what else?” He then says, “He was a great teacher, he is the son of God” and other similar answers like these. After the interview is done, the next friend comes in to be interviewed. Right when he gets into the room he gets on his knees and starts crying and says, “Jesus Christ, My Lord, My Savior.”
It got me thinking - after I die and go to be judged by Jesus Christ, will I recognize him? He is not going to be wearing a name badge like we do as missionaries. So this past week I have been just pondering that question “Who is Jesus Christ to me Personally?” If any of you have any spare time this week, I recommend watching that Bible video and then just ponder on “Who is Jesus Christ to you?” for 5 mins or so.
That is all for this week. Hope you guys have a great week.
Love Elder Tshwj Xeeb
Pictures: (1) Elder Vang slips and falls again, (2) Christmas Card Preview, (3) Picture with Chakong Lee, (4) Christmas party with the Campus Elders, (5) Wisconsin Christmas Lights, and (6) Deyizon and Kamariah.
