Nyob zoo os,
This week is transfers and Elder Lamb and I will be staying another one in Milwaukee. Pretty excited because we are getting stuff done and having a good time. I'm excited for these last 2 transfers.
This week we found a new investigator who I am very excited about. Her name is Eena who is a 25-year-old young mother of 3 kids. The funny thing is the first time I met her when I was on exchanges we did our door approach and she said she wasn't interested and already had a church, but we didn't give up and kept testifying of the blessings of the church and also spoke a little Hmong which opens their hearts too! 
Anyways after that, she was like "well I actually I have been looking for a church and I would be interested in you guys coming back." So we did just that and met with her twice this past week. She is super prepared. We gave her the plan of salvation pamphlet the first time we met her and when we came back she had read the whole thing and had tons of questions that we were able to answer. She is super open, prepared, and sincerely wanting to learn. So that's exciting!
We also we able to go help a Niam Tais farm this week! It was super fun to get out and help her. She was super grateful because when we pulled up she was making slow progress, but we able to get it done very fast for her.
The coolest thing about this week was we had Mission Tour. The whole mission came down to Milwaukee. Two of the Hmong sets stayed over at our place the night before at our apartment which was way fun and 8/10 Hmong missionaries were able to go to dinner the night before and ate some Hmong food after the conference. Hmong brotherhood 
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Saturday morning we had mission tour. We had the great opportunity of having all 160 Elders and Sisters in one building, but not only that we were all visited by Elder Ulisses of the quorum of the 12 apostles. We were all able to shake his hand which was awesome and hear him speak.
He said a lot of things that I really liked. He talked about the process of how missionaries are called and how he has the special opportunity to call the Elders or Sisters. He said it is an amazing experience and testified that every Elder or Sister is called to where THEY need to go and WHO they can influence and not only that but also the mission president that can help them grow the most. I thought that was really cool.
He also shared about when he was called to meet with President Nelson to become an Apostle. Elder Soares was overwhelmed and said "Why me? There are 1000s more qualified than me. I can't speak the English language very well. Why me?" President Nelson responded by saying to him "God isn't calling you for who you are now, but who you can become." Elder Soares said he knows he has many weaknesses and isn't the most qualified, but he knows that as he tries his best the Lord will bless him with all the pieces that he currently doesn't have. I thought that was super powerful.
To end he shared with things that we can do personally to continue to grow and stay active for the rest of our lives. Below is the counsel that Elder Soares said:
1) Live with purpose
2) Study the scriptures
3) Learn how to prioritize your time
4) Attend the temple regularly
5) Remember our temple covenants
6) Serve in the Church
7) Actively serve others who are less-active and guide them back to the Church
8) Do something good
9) Just do all we can do
10) Remember that Heavenly Father called us not necessarily for who we are, but for whom we can become
To end he said, "You all probably thought I was going to give you all tactics and strategies for how to be better missionaries, but I'm not. The best way to share the gospel is through ourselves, the light of Christ that is in us!"
I know this church is true and I know what Elder Soares said is true. The little things we do every day are going to influence who we become and our identity and others will see that in us. It is so important for us all individually to strengthen our testimonies every day, to feast upon the words of Christ, to strengthen our relationship with our Heavenly Father and Savior every day through prayer and also by repenting.
Love,
Elder Rich
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| Pday haircut |
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| 8/10 of us going out to dinner |
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| all 10 Hmong elders at Mission tour |
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| meeting up with my trainer and his fiancee last week |
