On a more serious note, this week was really awesome. We finally got in with one of our most solid potentials Chang and Mai. They are a young couple and recently had a baby. They practice Shamanism so they don't know much about Christianity. It was a great opportunity to teach them about God, his plan, and that we can have an eternal family. We taught them the Plan of Salvation. It was a really spiritual lesson. We invited them to pray since they have never prayed before. It is going to be a really cool opportunity to work with them.
The recent converts here are all doing really good. Elder Giddings and I had the opportunity to see 4 of them this week. We went out to eat with Kelly and Shaun on Monday which was really fun. On Thursday we went to Joua's house. That was really a good opportunity to practice our Hmong. Her dad is like 80 and he is hilarious. I can understand like 80% of what he was saying, but he uses a lot of Laos words, so I am gonna have to start learning some Laos words. I made a list of 200-300 flashcards that I am going to start learning. Lastly, on Friday we got a text from Mai that said she was going out to eat with her friend at Olive Garden and asked if we wanted to come. Of course, we said yes because one, Mai is awesome and two, it was with a non-member. Elder Giddings and I both got all you can eat pasta because we don't get a good meal too often anymore since we have had roaches. It was really good food and a really cool opportunity. Also, it was funny at the end because they were both fighting over who was going to pay for the bill.
Our finding efforts are going really good. We rode our bikes 15 miles one of the days. It was a really good exercise especially since Madison has so many hills. I always wanted to ride bikes on a mission and my wish has come true. I definitely enjoy the bikes a lot.
On Sunday we had our 2nd Hmong sacrament. We had fewer members than last time because a few families were out of town, but we had a couple less actives that haven't come in a really long time which was really an amazing miracle.
This week I think I found my new favorite chapter of scripture. It is super good. I spent over 3 hours of study reading it. For some reason, I could just read it over and over. I really enjoyed pondering on it and really trying to understand it. So if you have time read 2 Nephi Chapter 9 because it is soooo good. I wish I could explain the things that I learned in this email, but there is no way I could fit that all in here so I will just share one verse that stood out to me. It is 2 Nephi 9:
39 O, my beloved brethren, remember the awfulness in transgressing against that Holy God, and also the awfulness of yielding to the enticings of that cunning one. Remember, to be carnally-minded is death, and to be spiritually-minded is life eternal.
I think this scripture is very powerful, especially the last half which really stood out to me for some reason. "Remember, to be carnally-minded is death, and to be spiritually-minded is life eternal." Our earthly desires, passions, and desires are the things that lead us to sin and go astray from God which eventually lead us to spiritual death, but if we can overcome the natural man and become more spiritually minded and focus on the things that actually matter in life like family, our relationship with God, helping others, etc that is life eternal. Or in other words, those are the things that are going to help us to learn, improve, and grow into the person we need to become so that we can reach our end goal that we all want which is an eternal family.
Love you all,
Elder Rich
Pictures:
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| Happy Thanksgiving this week |
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| New ornament for our Christmas tree |
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| Jimmy Johns for lunch - I wouldn't have gotten that big of one, but 1. I have a gift card, 2. I didn't eat breakfast and 3. Have roaches so when I go out to eat I eat good |
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| Our bike seat. We put a band-aid on it because band-aids fix everything |
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| Happy birthday Elder Vang |
