Nyob zoo
This was a super hectic week. This week we had zone conference and since we are so far away from everyone, we had to drive an hour and a half to get there and an hour and a half back so by the time that was over, the whole day was over. We also had interviews with President Williams at our Sheboygan ward building since he was already up this way for zone conference so this whole week was a lot of meetings and we didn’t get to do a lot of missionary work. So next week will be good because we can finally get some work done.
Other stuff this week:
We got to watch President Monson’s funeral on Friday, so that was really cool to be a part of that.
On Wednesday, our ward mission leader, Brother Klunk, had his 5 year anniversary of when he got baptized. Elder Vang and I went to the store and bought him some apple pie and we brought it to his house. We were able to take a picture with him and celebrate the 5 years since he was baptized.
Also, there is a less active family in our ward that owns a Hmong store and sells Hmong food. We were going to go in there for dinner because we were hungry and wanted to buy some Hmong food. It was around 7:30 and that was right around when they were closing. They would have had to throw all the food away anyway so he just gave us a ton of food to take home. We got chicken, pork, sausage, rice, and some noodle dish. That was awesome and we haven't even eaten it all yet.
I also ate some pretty interesting food this week. A member family gave us deer meat. The Hmong people like to hunt and fish so I had deer and I had some type of fried fish. I don’t even know what type of fish it was, but I think it was catfish.
On Tuesday, we went tracting, and we didn’t have that long because we had a lot of meetings this week. but we had about 3 hours that day. The first house we knocked on was an old lady and she let us in. The old Hmong people talk forever so she talked about 99% of the 2 hours we were there about random stuff. It was really frustrating because I didn’t understand hardly anything - maybe 20% of it. Oh my gosh - it was terrible. But on Sundays, we have a Hmong class the 2nd hour of church and I understood about 80% of it - so if it’s gospel stuff, I understand pretty good, but if it’s anything else, I don’t understand any of it.
Also this week, I learned a lot about the Hmong culture religion, Shaman. I didn’t really know what it was before. I knew a little bit about it, but it’s actually some pretty crazy stuff. We went over to a member’s house named Brother Yang. He told us a bunch of crazy stories about Shamanism. He used to be a Shaman before he converted, but now he is really active. HIs family is probably one of our most active Hmong families in the ward. So basically, Shamanism - they pretty much worship the evil spirits, not because they want to but because they are scared. The evil spirits - whenever they want something, they will do something wrong and make something happen to the Hmong people. So the Hmong people will have to do a ritual to worship the evil spirits because they are scared. This keeps going on and on, so they basically worship the devil which is pretty crazy. This is why it is pretty hard for them to convert to Christianity because it is completely opposite from what they’ve always believed. One side you are worshipping God who brings you hope and that brings you love. The other is worshipping the devil where it brings you fear and you are scared the whole time. Someone who is using you and makes you live in fear. This is why we have so many less active Hmong members. They convert to Christianity and after they are baptized and something goes wrong, they don’t understand how the church can help them because they grew up in fear. They are scared and they go back to Shamanism because that’s the only thing they know how to do. This week we have to go over to a Hmong member’s home and visit with her because she did some rituals or something because she got scared. We need to bless her because she accumulated a bunch of evil spirits in her home, so… I’m pretty scared. But it’ll be pretty interesting.
This week’s quote is from President Thomas S. Monson
"Find joy in the journey --- Now...There is no tomorrow to remember if we don't do something today." - Thomas S. Monson
These past weeks, I have watched, read, and listened to a lot of the things that President Monson said. Life is not always easy, even in the mission field, it seems that the journey isn't going how I planned it to be. Times are hard and stressful, but that doesn't mean we can't find joy NOW. I sometimes think about the future of my mission. What will it hold? I think how in the future, I will be able to speak and to understand Hmong, but I need to focus on today and what I need to do now. I need to find the joy in everything I do - even all the hard work because life is supposed to be a good time, not the opposite. So "Find joy in the journey, Now, There is no tomorrow to remember if we don't do something today." -Thomas S. Monson
Have a great week
Love,
Elder Tshwj Xeeb
Pictures: (1-2) Brother Klunk and his pie (3) Lots of Hmong food (4-5) Snow pictures because it snowed a ton here
