This week was really busy! I had the opportunity of going on 3 exchanges this week! So a lot of time outside of my area.
First exchange of the week I was with Elder Roberts in the Spanish area. He is an awesome Elder! He has been out about the same time as me so we will be going home about the same time. We had some really good conversations about our missions and plans we have for after. It was cool to reflect on my mission so far and the remaining four months I have left. It's sad that it is coming to a close.
It was also fun listening to Spanish. I could pick up on some things since I took 4 years of Spanish. I did forget 99% of it, but I can still get the main message of some of the things people say which is pretty funny. So it wasn't a complete waste of 4 years of learning Spanish lol.
I also did an exchange with Elder Hacker and Elder Hubler in the Hmong area. We also had a really good exchange. Elder Hacker is really into goals and that's been cool to see more and more the importance of goals and using our time wisely. A question that he asked me is "If someone gave you $250,000 every day and you didn't know how long this person will be giving the money to you - what you would do with it?" My answer was "Invest it or use it." Then he said, "God gives us 250,000 seconds everyday so what are we gonna do with it?" I thought that was a cool thing to think about. Time is so limited, so what are we doing with our time? Are we using it to develop our talents and skills? Or are we using it in things that are not a great use of our time? We really do have so much time in our day and so many things that we can learn and improve on.
Saturday we went down to Appleton for a baptism. Her name is Kaj Siab. Elder Taylor taught her a couple of transfers back. That was really fun and we blitzed their area after. We also ate dinner with a family that is going to be getting baptized in 3 weeks. Funny thing is I met them before, but they were not ready when I was here. They flipped a complete 360 and they are so cool! After the great meal, we did some karaoke Hmong style. It was super fun. It was a good day to be in Appleton again and to see Elder Carlson and Lo again.
Sunday we were back in Green Bay. With all the exchanges and going down to the baptism, it took up a lot of time. I did less than 1 hour of language study this week which sucked, but what was cool is that I was still able to translate really well after being out of the area for so long. God will always support us in things that are important as long as we have faith and trust in him. I thought that was really cool especially since this week was especially hard to translate. I had to translate about Family history, ward emergency preparedness, and ward mission plan. There is no way to translate things like family history account, 72-hour kit, pedigree chart, but I was able to get across what was needed which was cool. Also, something that I noticed this week was that way back in the MTC, we one day practiced reading the sacrament prayer. That day we were so slow. I read it around a minute and a half and it needed to be around 30 seconds or less for the same time as the English prayer. That day I thought I would never be able to do that, but I totally forgot about that day until yesterday when I realized I have been able to go at the same speed as the English prayer for a while. It's cool to see God's hand in all that I do!
Love,
Elder Rich
Pictures:
1. Exchanges with Hacker and Elder Hubler
2. In Appleton for the baptism
3. Matching Hmong ties
