Elder Austin Rich : July 29: 2 hands!!! (10 days)

Nyob zoo os,

I'm heading into my last full week as a missionary. I have 10 days left which is sad, but also super exciting.

This past week we had lots of stuff to do and lots of people to visit which I am very grateful for. I love meeting with people and I love sharing the gospel with people. We are still teaching Lee's kids Hmong which is sweet, but this week we also started teaching her and her family about The Book of Mormon and prayer. We read out of the picture Book of Mormon since they are young kids and then we taught them about prayer and invited them to pray.

We got a random call this week from a less active member. She wanted to meet with us. She is actually Sister Chang's sister from Madison. We met with her at the church and she started to break down and cry. She grew up in the church, but when she got married she had to stop going because her husband practices Shamanism. In Hmong culture, the wife has to practice the religion her husband practices regardless of what she practiced and believed in before. It was really sad to hear her testimony of the church and that she knew it was true, but she couldn't really do much about it. She doesn't like Shamanism at all, but because she is married to her husband she has to practice it. She knows there are a lot of things she can't control and also a lot of things she can't do, but she also knows there are some things she can do and that is to pray and to continue to read the scriptures. We read a little bit from the Book of Mormon with her and gave her a new Book of Mormon to take home with her. You could see her excitement and enthusiasm to have the Book of Mormon again. She thought that when she got married since she had to in a way "stop believing in God" that she could stop doing the things she used to do like pray and read the scriptures. At first, she was able to do that, but after a while, it began to take a toll on her. She missed her old self, the spirit she used to have, and the strong relationship she used to have with her Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ. I love no matter what we do or how far we go off the gospel path we can always come back to our loving Heavenly Father and loving Savior who have been calling and waiting for us with open arms the whole time.

We also had a lesson with Vince this week. We brought along our ward mission leader Brother Martinez to the lesson with us. Brother Martinez is a convert and has a really strong and powerful testimony. He shared with Vince and also his nephew John his conversion story. He said he first received the Book of Mormon when he was 21 years old, but didn't pay any attention to it. He put it on the bookshelf and didn't read it. He said the line on the cover "Another Testament of Jesus Christ" always struck him. 7 years later he opened it up and it changed his life. He shared with them this and the rest of his testimony and told them to not be like him and allow the Book of Mormon to sit on their bookshelf and collect dust like he did. It was a really powerful story and life lesson that hit them hard and also me really hard. It is so important to read the scriptures every day. Like Brother Martinez said "it changed his life" and it can have the same power and can change our lives if we just open it.

Saturday we were invited to 2 barbecues. The first one was a guy named Gary that we knocked into about a month back. We got some really good barbecue pulled pork sandwiches and also were able to talk to Gary, his wife, and also his wife's sister. Gary's wife said that Gary has been talking about us so you know that is a really good sign haha. It was a really good time and also really cool to be able to share more for about what we do as missionaries to them. I love how the Hmong people are amazed at us speaking Hmong. A lot of times the middle generation says we speak better and deeper Hmong then they do haha. Excited that we have a couple more solid people that we could start teaching here shortly.

Vince also had a barbecue as well. He invited a lot of his friends and family as well. It was awesome because they asked a lot about us missionaries and what we do. We gained a lot of respect and curiosity from them all. They were amazed at the dedication and time we put in to learn Hmong and help the Hmong people and we don't even get paid. It opened their hearts up a lot. They even said that before they probably would have said no if we knocked on their doors, but now if we knocked on their door they would have to open and let us in. So we got a lot of potentials there and even taught a whole Restoration to one of Vince's nephews who came up to us and asked us what the difference between us and all the other churches are. It was pretty cool.

We also had a funny experience this week. We were talking to a Hmong guy probably in his 60s. He didn't speak any English at all. We were having a conversation with him in Hmong and his daughter comes from around the corner hearing this Hmong conversation and looks at us and her dad and starts laughing because she was so impressed. I have never seen anyone laugh before, but it is hard not to smile when we impress a Hmong person enough with our Hmong that she starts laughing out of pure astonishment. It is a good feeling to think of where I was when I started to where I am now. I have come a long way. It's been tough, but it's been worth it. It's been amazing and all the hard times make me enjoy moments like these so much more. It is kinda like an "I made it" feeling.

Love,

Elder Rich