Tuesday ended up snowing a lot, so we drove around with our shovels and went shoveling contacting. We helped a few of our potentials and some new people. That was a good overall day.
Wednesday we were on the busses and let me say I am not a fan of the busses. We rode the bus for about an hour to get to the area we wanted to go finding. We stayed in that area till around 5. We had an appointment at 6 and the busses said we would get there by 6, but the busses ended up being late and slow so we ended getting there around 6:30. Luckily he was still there. He was about to get in his car and leave, but luckily we were able to catch him. He thought we weren't coming because we were late and told him 6. So we got in with him, but sadly we weren't able to stay very long because the last bus was coming in about 30 mins and we had to walk to the bus stop from his house. Dang busses!! Thankfully he was kind enough to invite us back next week!
Thursday was Valentine's day. We decided to go to an area that we have never tracted before. We knew it was probably not going to be Hmong because it was in Middleton which is a super wealthy area, but we tried it anyway because you never know until you go. Sadly, we ended up being right and it was a lot of Non-Hmong Asian people. For dinner, we went out to eat at Chick-fil-a with the English Elders.
Friday I went on exchanges with Elder Purvis in the English area. We visited 2 medically less active members and read the scriptures to them, so that was really cool. We also had some service that we did. Dinner we had at a member's house. She is a single old lady so we brought a member over will us. We ate dinner and after "attempted to share a message." I read a scripture and after Elder Purvis asked her a question which was super simple and should easily be answered in 30 seconds, but instead she went on for a whole hour story. We were trapped and had no escape. Towards the end, I zoned out for literally 3 seconds and she caught me haha. I felt so bad, but it was so hard to listen for that long in such a warm apartment. I was trying so hard. After she finished we forced into the conversation and wrapped up the lesson. It may not have gone as planned or as Elder Purvis and I intended, but that is the way of missionary work. We are here to help the members and non-members alike and if want she needed was people to talk to because she is lonely then we accomplished our purpose.
Saturday we had a lesson with Kelly and Shaun. We are teaching them about the temple. Last week in the temple class they asked us to translate a 30-page pamphlet all about the temple. Again that was a good test of our Hmong skills. I would say it was pretty good. They understood it and we did pretty alright. Definitely a lot of room for improvement, but when your learning such a hard language like Hmong and have literally no resources, but the Hmong people it can be pretty hard to learn especially since we sadly don't get to use the language that often. So with all that being said, we are doing pretty good - I mean all we can really do is do our best and God will help us with the rest. We also had some Pho with them. It was a Pho that I never had before called Fawm Xib Nyias and it was pretty good. It had a lot less broth then normal Pho and a lot more noodles and meat. It was pretty good. After we tried pronouncing some Laos and Green Hmong words. We would try and try again and fail over and over again, but eventually, we were finally able to get it. They were both laughing their heads off as we both made a fool of ourselves. It reminded me of the MTC it was exactly the same making a fool of ourselves. Good times!
Sunday we had Hmong sacrament and Hmong Sunday school. It is so good to hear Hmong for that long. It's like being immersed in the language and it is so awesome! I am totally jealous of all the missionaries in Thailand, Laos, Korea, and all the other missions that get to only speak in their mission language and are fully immersed in it. That would be so cool and a dream come true.
I have been enjoying reading the New Testament and reading about the Saviors life and teachings. One of the passages I liked this week was in Matthew 16.
25 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.
26 And now for a man to take up his cross, is to deny himself all ungodliness, and every worldly lust, and keep my commandments.
27 Break not my commandments for to save your lives; for whosoever will save his life in this world, shall lose it in the world to come.
28 And whosoever will lose his life in this world, for my sake, shall find it in the world to come.
29 Therefore, forsake the world, and save your souls; for what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
I really enjoy the Joseph Smith translations and the extra insight we are able to receive. Without it, we are confused and left to wonder what exactly the Savior means because of the things that were lost over time and the things that weren't correctly translated. Great blessings for us to learn from and study from to further understand the teachings of the savior.
Love you all,
Elder Rich
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| Waiting for the bus in the snow |
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| Rising the bus |
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| Fawm Xib Nyias |
