Nyob zoo
We had a great lesson with one of our Investigators, Nxthais Xyooj this past week. She fed us some Hmong food and after we talked about the power of the Book of Mormon with her! She explained to us that as she has been reading the Book of Mormon, it has helped her to feel peace in her life, have protection, and not have bad dreams! For the Hmong people, bad dreams are a really bad omen and a prediction for the future. It was awesome to see the effect the Book of Mormon has on all cultures!
Also this week we went over to Yami’s house. She is one of the Hmong members and is super awesome. She taught us how to make Hmong egg rolls. We made around 100 egg rolls. That was pretty fun and they actually turned out pretty tasty even though we made them lol. For dinner, we also had some super good Pho. It was probably the best Pho I have ever had. After dinner, we shared a message with her family and also gave her son a priesthood blessing. It was a good day!
Elder Parker and I had a couple funny tracting experiences this past week. First, we saw an old Hmong guy sitting outside on his porch. I decided to go say nyob zoo to him. He said nyob zoo back and asked us where we were from. I said we were from The Church Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and we come to share an important message. After that, he just went silent. He didn't say a word after that. I think it was because he was stunned with how good my Hmong is. He has probably never heard such good Hmong in his life. No, but for reals, he just ignored us after he heard the word church. It was really awkward because we asked him like 3 more questions and he just acted like we weren't there and ignored us and stared at nothing. So we just awkwardly walked away. Most of the Shaman people are really nice even if they aren't interested, but he wasn’t too fond of us "church people".
Another funny door approach we had. I knocked on a door and a lady answered. She spoke English so we spoke with her in English. We talked with her for a couple mins and she eventually said that she and her family were having a party and weren't available for us to share our message with them. I just repeated what she said in Hmong and she was just amazed that we could speak Hmong. She said that she had never seen Miskas people speak Hmong before. She then talked to us a little longer and even invited us in to eat some food. We didn't go in, but it was really funny because as we were talking, a bunch of people came over and were watching us and one person even was videoing us speaking in Hmong. It was pretty funny. Hopefully they don't put it on YouTube or Facebook or something lol.
We also had a pretty awesome miracle this week. We have a pretty awesome ward, but recently there has been a lack of desire from the members for missionary work. So there hasn't been a whole lot of support for us missionaries and also a lack of fellowship from the members. Elder Parker, the other Elders, and I have been praying for a while for help and this week in ward council our bishop shared a really cool experience that answered our prayers. We have had a lot of members that have recently moved out. The numbers have been dwindling in both the Hmong and English. This past week the Bishop was praying for more members to move into the ward because the ward needs more help and support. After he prayed, he got a very strong impression that we already have strong members and we don't need anyone to move in - members like Ammon, members like Nephi, that aren't coming to church that we need to help come back. He also said that we have people around us like Captain Moroni, people like Alma that are prepared for the gospel that we need to go and find. As he was saying all this he was very emotional and the spirit was very strong. He testified of the power of missionary work and the power of ministering to our members. He said that the ward needs to be more missionary focused and that was a tender mercy for us 4 missionaries to hear because for the past 3 months it honestly felt like we were doing things without the ward's help and that doesn't work well. The bishop rekindled everyone’s fire for missionary work in the ward. That Sunday we had a couple LA Hmong members come to church and it was so amazing to see the ward fellowship and be friends to them. It was such a tender moment for me and made me so happy. It was an answer to many, many prayers. I know Heavenly Father is there and is listening to us. I know he answers our prayers and I know he wants to help us. We just need to ask.
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Rich
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| Dinner at Yami's |
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| Making Hmong eggrolls |
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| My pho! Prob the best pho I've ever had |
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| Bean mustache |
