Jan 14: The odds have been beat!

The odds have been beat! Being honest I thought I had like a 2% chance of staying here in Madison another transfer. Everyone in the district thought I would be leaving, including myself. The odds have not been in my favor in the past for staying in areas for long amounts of time - I mean I have already been here 3 transfers this time but 5 total transfers since this was my first area on my mission. Elder Giddings has been here only 2, and I was so certain I was leaving that I started making Elder Giddings carry the house keys around because I was certain that he was going to be staying, but I guess I need to be here for another transfer. I am not complaining because I love this area and the people here This now makes 4 straight transfers here and 6 total on my mission, which is actually as many transfers (6) as all my other (4) areas combined. Pretty crazy! I am super excited to be here another transfer. Elder Giddings is going to re-open Wausau so congrats to him. My new companion will be my former companion, Elder Parker, from Appleton, so that will be a fun reunion. Also, Elder Tarone will be with Elder Chue here, so we should have a good time here in Madison! 

This week on Wednesday we brought a youth member with us named Logan to go around and visit a few people. He is a super cool kid and fun to talk to. To end the night we went over to Mai's which I thought for sure would be the last time. Anyways we ate an amazing dinner as always. After we shared a lesson with the family "For with God Nothing Shall be Impossible" and we went through different gospel picture books and showed all the amazing things that God can do that we might think are impossible. It was a really cool lesson. Logan shared a really powerful testimony of how much the church has helped him in the last 2 years since he was baptized. He was getting emotional over that which was cool to see how much the church and the gospel truly have helped him.

Ever since I got in the Field I always wanted to serve with one of my friends back home Elder Green. We never were able to have the opportunity to serve with each other until this week. I got to go on exchanges with him which was super fun. He has a month and a half left so he is heading home next transfer so it was a thing that we were able to serve together for 1 day before he goes home.

On that exchange actually, a lot happened. We went to have lunch with one of the Hmong members named Chong sore and his wife Neng. They are like the grandparents for all the Hmong missionaries. They made us a very good meal and after we were able to talk to them. He talked to us about the temple and I never actually knew that he went through the temple before. He has done everything including the sealing which is so cool to hear about because very few Hmong families have been sealed in the state of Wisconsin - we are working on that. 

Later in the day, we had dinner with Brother Fredric and his family. They are also from South Africa and actually the same town as the Goues when they both lived there. He made us some really good African food and after we talked. He has only been here for 2 years so there was quite the language barrier, but he was super cool. I love hearing members' testimonies and the faith and trust they have even through the hard times.

After dinner, we had a lesson with Phao Yang and his family. He hasn't been taught in 8 months, but last week I felt like I should text him so we did and we were able to meet him. We made the connection that his family owns one of the Hmong stores in Madison. We have been there a few times - bought Hmong food and Hmong ties from them, so this week we were able to meet the whole family. We talked a little about the Book of Mormon and we are gonna bring a few copies next time we go back. They are a super cool family. One of the kids is super funny. He is able to speak Hmong and English which is super rare for kids these days. Anyway, his mom said that he knew Hmong and then I asked him if he knew how to speak Hmong and he responded back, "No I speak Miskas." Miskas just means English, but it was funny because he used the Hmong word. We are excited for that family.

Sunday night we did a member missionary lesson with the Chang family. I am super impressed with their family. They are such good examples of a family that lives the gospel and they truly have that light to them. We were able to talk to them about missionary work. It will be cool to see the things that they will be able to do. 

Love, 

Elder Rich 

Camp Randall Stadium

We were invited to a Hmong wedding
and had some really good food

The "Ian Rich Selfie" done better by your Boi Elder Tshwj Xeeb

Jan 7: New Year, Senpai, and a crush!

Nyob zoo os!

It is finally a new year and the holidays are finally over because as missionaries the holidays make it way harder to do the work - especially for the Hmong people! The Hmong people straight up party for 2 months from November all the way to December which has made missionary work really hard. They had all the traditional holidays, all the different cities' Hmong New Years celebrations, and then clans get together as well. During that time span, most Hmong people are out of town, busy, or not interested, but now that all the holidays and celebrations are over, everyone is available and willing to listen. I swear we had more interested people this last week than the last 2 months combined so I am very grateful for the new year!

This week we had exchanges twice. Once with the Zls and once with the DL companionship. It was kind of funny because one of those 2 days we went tracting on the west side of town and it was the area that I tracted the first day of my mission. That was over 14 months ago and it is cool to think back over that time. All the things that happened, the people that I have met, and my progress.

Funny story... This week we were using our Polk to find. We have all the "Hmong addresses" in our phones and we see an address so we go there and then we see Apt #303. We go inside the apt building and look at the door and see a Pic of Jesus and then we thought - "something isn't right" so we walk down to the mailbox to see the name and just start laughing. It was an Elders' Apt. Super funny.

Also, this week on Friday we went out to eat with Mai and her whole family. We went out to a pretty good place called Journeys. It was really fun and we celebrated Iris's early birthday. Every time we see their family the littlest one, Aliza, always tells me she has a secret for me. Sometimes she tells me a secret or other times she is too shy and doesn't say anything. I didn't think much of it, then all the sudden all 3 of the girls start laughing. They were like "Do you know what Senpai means" and I was like "Nope!" It is an Anime tv word which of course I had no idea what it means since I have never watched Anime before. I guess it just means master in Japenese or something like that. So again I didn't think much of it. I was like "That's cool" but then Iris says. "It also means crush too" and I don't remember exactly what they said after that. But apparently that was Aliza's secret this whole time and she never told me until that day. So a 6-year-old girl has a crush on me. It is pretty hilarious.

Sunday was the first week of the two-hour church. It was really weird. After the 2 hours, we were like "Is it really over?" It was just weird to comprehend. Anyway, we had a good 2nd hour in Hmong class about the new Come Follow Me. The members are excited to start doing it and I have really enjoyed it so far. I have learned a lot and my testimony has grown a lot from doing it so far. I know it is an inspired program and that if we do it, our testimony will grow of the reality of our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ. 

"Whatever changes the Lord directs in an organization or a schedule or curriculum, what He's really hoping to change is you and me. He wants to change our hearts and enhance our future." -Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Love you all, 

Elder Rich

Pics: (1) Elders mistaken apt (2-3) This was a day we didn't have the car so we were walking around it and saw it. It was odd because I've never seen pine trees before (4) It finally snowed in Madison

December 31: "Are you Rich?"

Nyob zoo,

This past week was literally the fastest week ever. It doesn't even feel like it is P-day today.

On Thursday we had interviews with President Williams. Like I always say, he is such a good guy and I am super grateful that he is my mission president.

We met with Joua this week. She is one of the recent converts. We ate dinner with her and sung a few hymns in Hmong to her because she can't read. She really liked that because the lyrics to the songs are really powerful. She bore part of her conversion story with us and it was really cool. She said that she has seen how much God and the church have helped her to become a better person. She said before she knew about God and before she went to church, she wasn't a good person which I am sure isn't true because she is the nicest lady ever, but I do agree that the gospel changes us and helps us to become better people and it is cool to see that first hand.

We did a lot of finding, as usual, this week. We have been trying to use as much of our day as we can. We calculated that language missionaries have 6 hours of available time if you take out meal times and studies. We are trying to use as much of that time as we can and trying to cut out all the fluff time that we can. The longer I have been out, the more I have learned the importance of urgency in the work.

Funny story: So this week we were out finding. I have had an ear infection in my right ear for a little while. I can't hear very well out of the ear and my companion has joked that I am basically deaf in that ear. Anyway, we were walking around an apartment complex. We try to have him on the left side and me and the right side so that I can hear him, but for some reason, I was on the left side. As we were walking he was yelling something at me which of course I didn't hear. 5 seconds later I look at the bottom of my shoe and there was a giant thing of dog poop on my shoe. My companion comes laughing saying he warned me and I was like, “What? I didn't hear anything.” He said he was yelling “Elder Rich dog poop. Elder Rich dog poop!” and then just watched me walk into it after I didn't hear him. I guess I am pretty deaf.

Sunday we got the awesome opportunity to be in primary while all the teachers were getting training on the Come Follow Me for next year. I haven't been in primary in a long time, but it was fun to sing along with the little kids and hear their testimonies through songs. Also another funny thing… Of course, all the little kids loved to pick on me and “bully” me. My childhood joke of "Are you Rich?" lives on. The kids thought they were so funny and they had a good laugh about all their jokes. After church was over, one of the kids snagged my name badge and laughed super loud with an evil laugh saying, “Hahahaha I am Rich now and guess what? You are poor!” After that I snagged a quick picture and after he just says “Well I better be heading home now” and just takes off running with my name badge. So funny.

Sunday night we had dinner with one of my favorite families I have met on my mission, the Goues. They are the nicest and most genuine people. They also are super hilarious. They are from South Africa and made some amazing African food. It goes hand and hand with the best of the best Hmong food I've had. I know if I didn't get called Hmong speaking I would have gone somewhere in Africa. It was a good dinner, but also super sad because they are moving to Utah.

Love you all, 

Elder Rich

winter has decided to finally come

Goue Family

Elder "Wesley" Rich

James Harden Pt. 2

December 25: Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! 

It was a great week! Lot of the same stuff this week. We did a lot of finding and visiting members. On Wednesday I went on exchanges with Elder Kleinman and that was a blast!

On Sunday we had a great sacrament meeting about the birth of the Savior and the true meaning of Christmas. We had a lot of faces that we don't see too often. After church, the English Elders and we made some cookies and delivered them to some recent converts and less active families. Before we gave them the cookies we sang a Christmas song. It was a fun thing to bring the Christmas spirit to others. 

On Christmas Eve our whole zone went to help at a blood drive. It was a cool opportunity to see so many people come to serve on Christmas Eve and also for the opportunity to serve myself too! For dinner, we went over to our ward mission leader’s house just like I did last year. We had a very traditional meal similar to what they would have had back when Jesus was born. Afterwards, we all dressed up and the whole family and the missionaries acted out the birth of Christ while Brother Oliphant read the story. It is definitely an awesome tradition they have and I am grateful to be a part of it again this Christmas. 

Christmas day we woke up and played board games with the other 2 sets of Elders in our ward. Later in the day we met as a zone and did white elephant gifts and played some card games. At 3 we are going over to a member’s for dinner and skyping our families. Super excited for that and to talk to my brother as well. After that, we are planning on going to Mai's house and spending some time with her family. Should be a fun day! 

Merry Christmas! Thanks for all the support! 

Love you all, 

Elder Rich

Pictures: (1) Helping at the blood drive (2) Merry Christmas (3) Skyping with my family

Dec 17: #lightyourcommunity

Nyob zoo,

To start off the week we had Zone Conference which is always fun to see other missionaries and to hear great training from President & Sister Williams and other mission leaders. We focused a lot on the basics which is a good reminder for all of the missionaries because as a mission whole, most of us are on the downward scale timewise. I am excited to apply the things that I learned into the work.

This week was a slower week. Most of the doors that we knocked were actually not Hmong. That was kind of frustrating because it is hard to find people to teach when they aren't even Hmong, but that is how Polk finding works. Oh well. But on the bright side, we were able to get in with Paj Neeb Lis this week. She is the one that I talked about last week. We shared a message about the Book of Mormon and she really enjoyed that. We gave her a copy of one in Hmong and invited her to read a chapter that is directed to one of her questions. She even asked if we have one in English for her kids so that her kids can read it too, so that was pretty cool. 

On Saturday we went downtown to the zoo to help one of the Hmong youth with his Eagle Project. He is a building a deck for the zoo. That was a cool experience to help him and to see how his hard work to get his eagle and serve others will help him out the rest of his life. He is a good youth and his actually preparing to serve a mission, so that is super exciting! 

On Sunday we had the 3rd Hmong sacrament. I always enjoy that and hearing the Hmong members bear their testimony in their native tongue. Mai was one of the members asked to give a talk. She was scared at first because she thinks her Hmong isn't that good even though it is really good, but she exercised her faith in God and did an excellent job. I am always so impressed with the Hmong people - their faith, their love,  and their kindness. I am grateful for these past 16 months to serve the Hmong people and am grateful for the 8 months I have remaining.

Elder Rich

Dec 10: This Christmas season - let us bring the light and love of God to others

Nyob zoo!

On Wednesday we waited at the transfer point for Elder Chue, the newest member of the Madison Hmong missionary squad. Also, our ward now has English Elders instead of sisters so now my boy Elder Kleinman is in the Madison 2nd ward with me. Funny thing is that when I was in Milwaukee, Elder Vang, Elder Kleinman, and I were all in the same ward and now we are again. I am super excited for this transfer to serve around some awesome missionaries. 

Wednesday night we went to Mai's and we ate some really good food as always. After we drew some pictures with the kids. We all drew pictures of our families and man I sure do miss my family. I can't believe it has already been 16 months that I have been away from them, time sure does fly when you love what you are doing. I am excited for the Christmas call coming up and the opportunity to be able to talk to my family again and for the first time will include my little brother Elder Rich Jr who is in Arizona.

Quick funny story: Mai's daughter, Aliza, is super cute and really funny. She came up to me while we were drawing and said, “Elder Rich can I call you Elder Reeeecch? I think that sounds better and is more fun to say”. And then she said it again “Elder Reeeecch.”  So now my name is Elder Reeeecch haha. 

On Saturday we had our ward Christmas party. Our ward went all out with decorations. It looked really beautiful. It was a really good party. We heard lots of Christmas songs, stories, and ate some really good food including some Hmong food which is always delicious. 

We found a really cool potential this week. She has actually been to our church before and knows one of the Hmong families. She said we could come by any day Monday through Friday and share our message with her. We are pretty excited about that. She seems really cool and solid, so hopefully, we will get in with her this week. 

I really love the Christmas season because it gives us an excuse to serve more. Sometimes, using our time to serve can seem like a burden and we can feel like we don't want to serve because of that. As a missionary, it takes up our time, we are away from our family, and sometimes we can just feel tired since we are always serving in the church. I really like the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15:4-6. I feel we often think of ourselves as the shepherd going out and helping, but it is often good to reflect on the times in our lives when we were the one lost sheep. When we needed someone to help us, to love us, to talk to, or just to be our friend. I can think of countless times when I was that one sheep alone, sad, and needed a friend. I can also think of countless people that were there to minister and help me and they may have not even known at the time, but I knew and I will always be grateful for those people. Those little acts of service can make someone's day. We never know who is that one lost sheep who needs us. What a great time this Christmas season is to focus a little more than we usually do on serving others, acting as the Savior would, and just going out and loving others. I hope you were able to think of a time that you were that one lost sheep and the time that someone came to your rescue and helped you because those people are literally angels from God and we can be those angels that bring the light and love of God to others this Christmas season. 

Love, 

Elder Rich 

Dec 3 - Staying in Madison for Christmas

Well, another Month and another Transfer have passed. I have now been out for an uncountable amount of months and transfers. All I know is I go home in August and that is coming way too fast and way too soon. Well, on the bright side, Elder Giddings and I will be staying in Madison together for another transfer. Out of the 4 Hmong Elders leaving only my boy Elder Lo is leaving.  Elder Giddings, Vang, and I are going to miss him a lot. He will be hard to replace, but it is a good thing all the Hmong Elders are awesome so I am sure we will get another awesome Elder to be paired with Elder Vang.

This week was again a lot of finding, but it was finding in the snow which made it even more fun than normal even though it was really cold. I have got a lot of snowballs thrown at me by Elder Giddings. Maybe it isn't a good thing that we are staying together haha jk. 

We were able to meet with lots of the recent converts this week. We met with Andrew and Kaozong and that was good to see them again. I wish I would have gotten a picture. We also saw Kelly. She is awesome. We taught her about “Light the World” and that is a little weird to explain in Hmong, but she was still very excited to share her light, the gospel, and serve her community, her friends, and family this Christmas season. We also went over to celebrate Mai's daughter, Kalista’s, birthday on Saturday which, oddly enough, was my sister, Jill’s birthday too so I was celebrating both their birthdays on Saturday. 

One of the days this week we got a message from some people that we had taught previously. We stopped teaching them because they only seemed interested in bashing us and not learning. Well, we got this text that said they wanted us to go over and they had something they really needed to tell us. We were pretty skeptical about going over, but we had a good feeling about it so we went over.  It ended up being such a cool experience. The guy just completely apologized to us, which we were not expecting at all, and it was probably the most heartfelt apology I have heard in my life. The guy said that he had recently scraped his knees really bad to the point it felt like the skin was almost to the bone and felt like his knee was rotting - so pretty serious. One day he was praying and he said that he heard something whisper to him saying "Why would I want you to talk to me? You have been judging your neighbor when I commanded you to love your neighbor."  Basically every time he prayed he was reminded of this until he invited us over to share all this with us. He also said that he knows he needs to open his heart to listen to what we have to say because he has been prejudging what we have to say. He said he wants to open his heart and mind and actually read his scriptures with the context they are supposed to be read in instead of reading one verse and pointing fingers saying “Your church is false.” He is completely flipped 360°. It was cool to see God's hand in that miracle. We hope he continues to stay humble and listens to our message with an open heart now. 

I know God loves us and cares for us all. I hope you all have a great Christmas season and remember the true meaning of Christmas throughout this fun season because that is what the gospel is all about. God and Christ first loved us so we therefore love and serve everyone around us. 

Elder Rich 

(1) Under the Christmas light because Christmas is finally here (2-3) Kalista's birthday on Saturday, (4) One last picture with Elder Lo (5) View of Madison

Nov 26: Thanksgiving, Hmong New Year, and Christmas all in the same week

Wow, I am super tired! This week so much went on. All four of us are super tired and are grateful for a much-needed P-day to rest so we can be refreshed for this next week.

On Wednesday we had interviews with President Williams. Nothing much to say other than I am grateful for all that he does and that it was a great interview as always. 

Thursday was Thanksgiving. Thursday morning we had our turkey bowl. Lots of fun playing football with the young men. In the afternoon we had a great Thanksgiving dinner with our ward mission leader and his family. After, we spent the rest of the night preparing for the Hmong New Years the next day. We came up with plans, packed supplies, created posters, and got the rest of the stuff ready for the booth. We ended up staying up until 12:30 am, which I want to feel bad for ourselves, but it is our fault for procrastinating and doing it the day before the Hmong New Years. 

Friday and Saturday was the Hmong New Year. The Hmong New Year is a huge Hmong gathering to celebrate the Hmong culture. People come from all over Wisconsin. I love the Hmong New Years. It is super fun to see all the Hmong people express their culture through clothing, songs, dances, and many other things. 

Since it is such a big gathering, there are a lot of people that come and set up booths to sell stuff. I bought a ton of souvenirs for Christmas presents for family and also bought some delicious Hmong food. We also ran a booth which we did from 9-4 both days. We gave out lots of Books of Mormon, Bibles, pamphlets, and were able to talk to a lot of people. It was a really good, full two days of language study. We were able to see a pretty good amount of success from the booth. Besides all the things that we gave out, we had around 20-25 people write down their address or number so that we could share with them more about our message which is really exciting. 

After the new year, on Saturday night we went to another Thanksgiving. It was at a recent converts house and she had tons of her family members there from both her side of the family and her husband's side. It was a really good opportunity to talk to a lot of their family. We also had some really good Hmong food. The sad part is alcohol is basically a part of the Hmong culture. Wherever there is a gathering there is always alcohol., so we were offered alcohol many times and even punch which probably was spiked with vodka or something else. We just stick with our water. The gathering got pretty crazy. We only stayed for support of the member. She told us countless times how sorry she was. We stayed for a little while because we didn't want to offend the member by leaving so quickly, but after about an hour or so we left because it was getting way too crazy to stay any longer. It is crazy what alcohol can do to a bunch of grown men. They all totally lost control of themselves and were going crazy. It was like they were all in college again. It was pretty sad to see from the other perspective watching the female just disappointed and frustrated with the situation. I mean that is just the Hmong culture for you and it is even worse when you pair that up with the most drunk state in the country. #Wisconsin. I am very grateful for the word of wisdom and protection that it gives me. It truly is a health code for us all and I wish everyone would just follow it because it would make this world such a better place. 

Love,

Elder Rich

Happy Thanksgiving

Everyone dresses up in their really cool traditional Hmong clothing. 
I wish I could have worn some, but I am too tall haha

Mai and Kelly

Our booth

Madison Hmong New Year 2018

Christmas Decorations