Nyob zoo!
On Wednesday we waited at the transfer point for Elder Chue, the newest member of the Madison Hmong missionary squad. Also, our ward now has English Elders instead of sisters so now my boy Elder Kleinman is in the Madison 2nd ward with me. Funny thing is that when I was in Milwaukee, Elder Vang, Elder Kleinman, and I were all in the same ward and now we are again. I am super excited for this transfer to serve around some awesome missionaries.
Wednesday night we went to Mai's and we ate some really good food as always. After we drew some pictures with the kids. We all drew pictures of our families and man I sure do miss my family. I can't believe it has already been 16 months that I have been away from them, time sure does fly when you love what you are doing. I am excited for the Christmas call coming up and the opportunity to be able to talk to my family again and for the first time will include my little brother Elder Rich Jr who is in Arizona.
Quick funny story: Mai's daughter, Aliza, is super cute and really funny. She came up to me while we were drawing and said, “Elder Rich can I call you Elder Reeeecch? I think that sounds better and is more fun to say”. And then she said it again “Elder Reeeecch.” So now my name is Elder Reeeecch haha.
On Saturday we had our ward Christmas party. Our ward went all out with decorations. It looked really beautiful. It was a really good party. We heard lots of Christmas songs, stories, and ate some really good food including some Hmong food which is always delicious.
We found a really cool potential this week. She has actually been to our church before and knows one of the Hmong families. She said we could come by any day Monday through Friday and share our message with her. We are pretty excited about that. She seems really cool and solid, so hopefully, we will get in with her this week.
I really love the Christmas season because it gives us an excuse to serve more. Sometimes, using our time to serve can seem like a burden and we can feel like we don't want to serve because of that. As a missionary, it takes up our time, we are away from our family, and sometimes we can just feel tired since we are always serving in the church. I really like the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15:4-6. I feel we often think of ourselves as the shepherd going out and helping, but it is often good to reflect on the times in our lives when we were the one lost sheep. When we needed someone to help us, to love us, to talk to, or just to be our friend. I can think of countless times when I was that one sheep alone, sad, and needed a friend. I can also think of countless people that were there to minister and help me and they may have not even known at the time, but I knew and I will always be grateful for those people. Those little acts of service can make someone's day. We never know who is that one lost sheep who needs us. What a great time this Christmas season is to focus a little more than we usually do on serving others, acting as the Savior would, and just going out and loving others. I hope you were able to think of a time that you were that one lost sheep and the time that someone came to your rescue and helped you because those people are literally angels from God and we can be those angels that bring the light and love of God to others this Christmas season.
Love,
Elder Rich
