This week it snowed a lot and was super cold. It is supposed to get even colder and continue to snow the rest of this week. I am not sure how cold it is supposed to get this week, but I know that the high is in the negatives and it could be potentially too cold that we wouldn't be allowed to go tracting for a few days because of the poor weather. With the wind chill, Wednesday is supposed to feel like -57!
Elder Parker and I have been having a great time serving together again. We have taught some of the best lessons, if not the best lessons, I have taught on my mission. They have been really good and powerful. On Monday we had a fantastic lesson in Hmong with Shaun about the atonement and how we apply it in our life. It was a really good discussion and was funny to hear some of her stories of times when people did rude or mean things to her, but she was able to forgive them because Jesus forgave her. Really cool to see her growth in the gospel and also both Elder Parker's and my own growth as missionaries and our ability to speak Hmong. That has been one of my favorites things of this new transfer so far.
Tuesday we had zone conference. We had great discussions on missionary work and the gospel. I always enjoy zone conference and the things that I take away to improve as a missionary.
Tuesday night we went to visit Mai and her family. We ate some delicious eggrolls and after, just like Monday, had a wonderful gospel discussion. Since it was Elder Parkers first time meeting her, she shared her conversion story with both of us. Her testimony is so strong and as well as the rest of the recent convents here. They have such strong faith and it is amazing to hear.
Unfortunately, the 3 return appointments we had this week all fell through, but that is okay because we had almost all day to find every day this week. Even though it was cold and not many people wanted to open their doors because of the cold weather we were still able to set a few appointments for this upcoming week. One which I thought was really cool is we stopped by one of our Investigators named Mai and we asked how they were doing and if there was a time we could come back. The majority people either say they aren't interested anymore or they say a random day and time that doesn't seem too solid after we leave, but what was really cool was after we set up the time to come back she asked us how we have been and how are holidays were. We ended up talking to her for like 15 minutes. It was cool to see that she actually was interested in talking and meeting with us rather than the opposite.
Like I said this past week was super cold. It was funny knocking on people's doors and they would say how it is super cold and we would be like "We know!" We would share our quick door approach and the whole time they were just shivering. Some people had a little bit more kindness this week because of the weather which was nice, but a lot still weren't too interested.
We also had the opportunity to go out to eat with one of the Hmong families in the ward that I haven't had much opportunity to get to know well. They are a young family and really busy. It was only the 2nd time I have eaten with them so it was good to get to know them better. We went out to Sumo which is a sushi place. I got a plate of straight raw fish meat. I don't remember what it was called, but it was really good. After we went to their house and again we shared a great message about prayer and even their 2 1/2 year-old daughter had some cute thoughts on prayer. Their daughter is super cute. We played with her for a few minutes and then we closed with a prayer and started to head out. When we were leaving she started bawling because she wanted us to stay and play with her longer. Super sad, but at least at church, she might be a little less shy around us.
Saturday we gathered at the Yang family house. They cooked Fawm (Pho) and hosted 5 of the recent converts and a few other Hmong families. We compared the plan of salvation to a trip to Thailand and how if we went on our trip to Thailand without a map or plan it wouldn't be a fun trip because we wouldn't know what to do or where we are going. Just like that, in our life, we have our map or our plans of life. We know where we are going and what we need to do in this life. We talked about the temple with them and that got all the recent converts about going to the temple. After I had a really good discussion with Kaozong one on one and how much she wanted to go to the temple to be sealed as a family. They have had some hard times as a family in the past and she knows that going to the temple will help the have more peace in their life. I am grateful for the temple and the opportunity to have been sealed as a family. I am grateful for the knowledge of that and the opportunity to share it with others.
Love,
Elder Rich
Elder Rich
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| 2/3 of the squad - Elder Purvis, Parker, Kleinman and me |
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| Pile of snow |
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| Madison forecast - YIKES! That is not wonderful at all |
