Wow, I am super tired! This week so much went on. All four of us are super tired and are grateful for a much-needed P-day to rest so we can be refreshed for this next week.
On Wednesday we had interviews with President Williams. Nothing much to say other than I am grateful for all that he does and that it was a great interview as always.
Thursday was Thanksgiving. Thursday morning we had our turkey bowl. Lots of fun playing football with the young men. In the afternoon we had a great Thanksgiving dinner with our ward mission leader and his family. After, we spent the rest of the night preparing for the Hmong New Years the next day. We came up with plans, packed supplies, created posters, and got the rest of the stuff ready for the booth. We ended up staying up until 12:30 am, which I want to feel bad for ourselves, but it is our fault for procrastinating and doing it the day before the Hmong New Years.
Friday and Saturday was the Hmong New Year. The Hmong New Year is a huge Hmong gathering to celebrate the Hmong culture. People come from all over Wisconsin. I love the Hmong New Years. It is super fun to see all the Hmong people express their culture through clothing, songs, dances, and many other things.
Since it is such a big gathering, there are a lot of people that come and set up booths to sell stuff. I bought a ton of souvenirs for Christmas presents for family and also bought some delicious Hmong food. We also ran a booth which we did from 9-4 both days. We gave out lots of Books of Mormon, Bibles, pamphlets, and were able to talk to a lot of people. It was a really good, full two days of language study. We were able to see a pretty good amount of success from the booth. Besides all the things that we gave out, we had around 20-25 people write down their address or number so that we could share with them more about our message which is really exciting.
After the new year, on Saturday night we went to another Thanksgiving. It was at a recent converts house and she had tons of her family members there from both her side of the family and her husband's side. It was a really good opportunity to talk to a lot of their family. We also had some really good Hmong food. The sad part is alcohol is basically a part of the Hmong culture. Wherever there is a gathering there is always alcohol., so we were offered alcohol many times and even punch which probably was spiked with vodka or something else. We just stick with our water. The gathering got pretty crazy. We only stayed for support of the member. She told us countless times how sorry she was. We stayed for a little while because we didn't want to offend the member by leaving so quickly, but after about an hour or so we left because it was getting way too crazy to stay any longer. It is crazy what alcohol can do to a bunch of grown men. They all totally lost control of themselves and were going crazy. It was like they were all in college again. It was pretty sad to see from the other perspective watching the female just disappointed and frustrated with the situation. I mean that is just the Hmong culture for you and it is even worse when you pair that up with the most drunk state in the country. #Wisconsin. I am very grateful for the word of wisdom and protection that it gives me. It truly is a health code for us all and I wish everyone would just follow it because it would make this world such a better place.
Love,
Elder Rich
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| Happy Thanksgiving |
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| Everyone dresses up in their really cool traditional Hmong clothing. I wish I could have worn some, but I am too tall haha |
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| Mai and Kelly |
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| Our booth |
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| Madison Hmong New Year 2018 |
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| Christmas Decorations |
