Nyob Zoo!
This was a WAY cold week. I think the average temperature was about 5 degrees. The coldest I ever saw it get was negative 9 degree. One day out the 7 days it was a good 12 degrees, but it was usually around 5 degrees so it was cold.
A lot of things happened this week so I’ll try to get through it all. We went to see Mai and her family. Mai is Naly's friend who came to church with her a few weeks ago. She’s doing really good. She really loves learning about the gospel and I think she read 10 chapters in the Book Of Mormon in the last week which is pretty crazy. She told us some cool experiences that she’s had that strengthened my testimony too. The first story was when she was a little girl. Her mom told her that two missionaries came to their house because she died. The two missionaries came and gave her a blessing and she came back to life. It’s pretty cool to think about that. The second story was about her past life. She said that there have been a ton of missionaries that have stopped by her house over the years. She never would answer the door or give them the time of day. But when Elder Vang and I came by, she changed her mind and she wanted to hear what we had to say. And now here we are with her progressing really well. She’s come to church 3 weeks in a row with her family. It just shows that it’s all in God’s time when people are ready to learn and accept the gospel.
Next up is Kelly. Kelly is doing super awesome. She is doing her missionary work. This week she invited her sister, Ntxoov, (Her English name is Shaun) to come and we taught them a lesson. It was kind of a review lesson where we taught the plan of salvation to her sister and Kelly kind of helped us teach. After we invited Kelly to continue to pray and see if the Book of Mormon is true. We also invited Shaun to pray and see if what we taught her was true. The next time we met with them, we asked them if they got their answer. And it’s pretty cool because Kelly got her answer AND Kelly’s sister got her answer that the things that we taught are true and Kelly got her answer that the Book of Mormon is true. So the Madison area is doing really good and right when all this happens…I’m getting TRANSFERRED!!! I’m going to Sheboygan. It was kind of funny to hear Kelly’s reaction to this. She said in her broken English, “No you can’t get transferred. You have to tell the people in charge - Yeah I can’t go - You have to say just say No. Sorry.” After the lesson, Kelly and her sister, Shawn, both said that they were going to start praying for me to come back. Haha. And that prayer will be answered when they are baptized and I will come back to see their baptisms.
All in all, it’s going to be pretty hard to leave Madison, Elder Vang, and especially the people here. I’m going to miss the area, the awesome awesome investigators, and all the experiences Elder Vang and I have had…especially all the times he slipped on the ice, all the times we tried to get chased by dogs, and all the other pretty funny experiences. Like this week, we were tracting to a guy’s house. And it was really cold - it was REALLY COLD - and this guy was really confused why we were there at his door. He was like, “Why are you guys here? It’s super cold.” And we were like, “Yeah…we know!!!” and he said. “Yeah, you guys are going to have to find another house to live in. You can’t live here.” We were so confused. He didn’t really get what we were doing and thought we were trying to find somewhere to live or something. It was pretty funny.
I know that even though it’s going to be hard to leave, It’s all in God’s plan. And sometimes we don’t understand all the things that God does, but it’s all part of his plan and he always knows what’s best. It’s always in his wisdom. I found a quote by Joseph B. Wirthlin that goes along with this. It says:
If we approach adversities wisely, our hardest times can be times of greatest growth, which in turn can lead toward times of greatest happiness.
That’s pretty true because right when I was getting comfortable and getting settled in, and we were doing some great things - I’m getting transferred. But when you are comfortable, you won’t grow! When you are uncomfortable and you are doing hard things, that’s the time that’s going to lead you to your biggest growth. That’s what God’s plan is all about - us improving ourselves and growing and becoming better. My mission president, President Williams, must want me to grow because first off, he put me with Elder Lewis who is one of the best Hmong speakers in the past 6 six years. Then I was with Elder Vang who is a native. And now I’m going to Sheboygan with another Native Hmong person. So President Williams must want me to be good at Hmong because he keeps putting me with a lot of really good Hmong speakers - or he thinks I suck. That could be possible too.
That’s all I have for this week. Have a happy New Year and I'll talk to you in Sheboygan!
Love,
Elder Tshwj Xeeb
Pictures: (1) Happy New Year (2) we are standing on the snow on the frozen lake (the whole city is surrounding this lake) (3) tracting in the snow (4) Mai and her girls (Iris 9, Kalista 7, Aliza 5) They all really like me haha. Every time we go to their house they are waiting and open the door before we even knock and in church, they always draw me pictures. It is so cute. (5) Saying goodbye to Kelly on my left and Shaun.
