SHORT VERSION: Service, Craziest Niam Tais you ever heard, Exchanges with Elder Reynolds, Hmong girls, and Fire department.
LONG VERSION: This week we had some crazy things happen. We will start with something not crazy lol. This week we were able to help one of the Hmong members, Pang Her. She is a single mom, recovering from a car accident, and working a full time job. She has a lot on her plate so we went over there twice this week and helped her out with some yard work. She hasn't had time to get to any of the yard work at all. She had some huge weeds. Some of those weeds were almost as tall as I am haha. It was quite a task, but it was so worth it because she was so very grateful and really needed our help. Seeing peoples gratitude makes all the hard work worth it...well and maybe some egg rolls and coconut bubble tea too :)
Now something crazy. So we were walking down the street and we see this Niam Tais (Grandma) so we go and talk to her. She was gardening so we talked to her about gardening. During our conversation, a (Miskas) white dude came up to her and started talking to her in English. I was thinking in my head ummm... bro she is old Hmong Niam Tais - she doesn't know English at all, but to my surprise, she starts speaking in fluent English. It was the craziest thing. She starts having a full conversation with this guy about Real-estate agents and insurance. It blew both Elder Parker and my minds. She is the one and only older Hmong lady that knows English. Most only know a few words at best. It was crazy. She knew better English than we know Hmong lol.
Also this week I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with my District Leader, Elder Reynolds, in the Hmong area. The English Elders in the mission are all super funny. All of them have Hmong names and Hmong tags for when they come on exchanges. They come prepared for the Hmong work. I also taught Tub Txib Tub Xeeb (Elder Reynolds) some Hmong lol. It reminds me of the good old days in the MTC trying to make all the weird Hmong sounds and try to pronounce the tones. Let me say it is a lot more fun and funny being on the other side of things haha.
It was a fun exchange. I will quote what Elder Reynolds wrote. " Friday I was in the Hmong area again. It was super fun to be with Elder Rich and to learn to speak a little bit of Hmong. I tried to learn a door approach, but that did not work out very well. I just sounded like an idiot trying to sing a foreign language... And I thought it was easy... But then later in the day we met four Hmong girls that are going to be seniors in high school. We weren't sure if they wanted to meet with us because they were interested in the gospel, or in us... but they told us we could come back, and Hmong people usually don't do that so we were excited, but also scared because they were four 17/18 year old teenage girls. It actually went pretty good. We had a good discussion with them outside about what they believe and all sorts of weird stuff. The funniest thing about it was that one of them goes "do you have girlfriends?" It was definitely one of the weirdest experiences of my mission, but we think they are interested in the gospel too...not just us lol."
Also our apartment almost burnt down because a drunk guy in our apartment left his stove on while he was gone. Jk it wasn’t that bad, but it could have been bad if we wouldn't have gotten to it in time. That was a crazy experience!
Man, this transfer has really flown by. Only 1 more week and it will be over. This transfer has been a really good growing experience for me. It has been really hard, but it has been awesome. Yesterday was one of those hard days. I was translating and I was getting frustrated. I was thinking "Why am I even trying to learn this language? Why am I even out here?" I think Satan puts those thoughts in our heads a lot when times are hard. He wants us to give up and he doesn't want us to try. I am grateful for the hard times because those hard times are what help me to rely on my Heavenly Father and to strengthen my relationship with him. Those hard times help me to stay humble and pray to him to plead for his help. A mission has helped me to appreciate the hard times in life a little more. It isn't fun going through them, but after, I always know that it was for my benefit and to help me to improve and grow. I am grateful for this time to serve. It is hard, but I have learned so much. I love it and it is awesome!
Love,
Elder Rich
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| Fire trucks at our apartment |
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| Fish head! I didn't eat the head, but the rest of the fish was really good |
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| Traditional Hmong clothing |
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| Exchanges this week |
