April 23: Kinda Phởed out - for now!

Nyob zoo os,

Wow, this week a lot happened. I had the opportunity to go on 2 exchanges with 2 missionaries in the zone. Both times I was in the Hmong area which was fun to be the only one able to speak Hmong and being with the English missionaries because they think Hmong people, culture, and language are really cool. So that is really fun doing exchanges with them. A part of the Hmong culture is giving names and "adopting" people into their clan. So, for example, I was adopted into the Tsab clan so I'm "a part" of their family. I had the opportunity to talk to a Hmong grandma and get a Hmong name and clan for Elder Dickinson but wasn't able to get one for Elder Conlin. I have a big list of missionaries that want one in the zone so we will see what we can do haha! 

Also one of the cool things that I learned is that Elder Dickinson family has only been members for 18 years. Missionaries knocked on his door when he was a baby, his family was baptized, and now he is on his mission. Really cool! 

Saturday we had the opportunity to go down to Appleton again for a baptism for a family of 6 that Elder Lamb worked with, so lucky for me I got to tag along again! It was amazing! A whole Hmong family of 6 was baptized and they are super awesome. Last month when I went up for the other baptism with Elder Taylor I visited them. It was cool to hear their testimonies. They were Shaman before and they said that "the gospel has changed their life." Super cool! After the baptism, we had some bomb Hmong food and got to talk to some members and hang out with Elder Lo and Carlson which was a blast! 

Afterward, we went to a Hmong wedding of a Hmong member and ate some more Hmong food! 

Afterward, we went go the Vangs and they taught us how to make Phở, so now I have a recipe to try out. I had 2 bowls that day and it was so good. I also had 2 bowls the next day too! So much Phở. Kinda Phoed out :/ Cool thing is they are going to teach us how to make something every Saturday. I am pumped! 

Next day was Sunday and we had a great Sacrament meeting on the Atonement. It was really powerful and great to hear others' testimonies of the Atonement and ponder what the Atonement means to me as well. We also had the opportunity to sing in sacrament with the Vang family. We sang 'Peace in Christ' and that song is a really powerful song. That day I actually had the opportunity to work with Elder Lamb in our area which was good since we weren't together like the whole week! You would think the Hmong people that practice Shamanism wouldn't celebrate Easter, but they do haha. I guess it's an excuse to get together, eat food, and drink alcohol! They even put out Easter eggs for their kids to find, but sadly I guess they don't know what the true meaning of Easter is. 

Monday we had interviews which is why my P-day is today. Had a great interview with President. We had a great discussion on the Atonement. He said something that I really liked he said, "Never judge yourself in the past with your testimony and conversion that you have today." I think that is so powerful that as we go further on the Covenant path we will become more righteous and our testimonies will become even stronger. Things that we didn't think we did were bad in the past we may now realize is not good, but we shouldn't judge our past selves with what we know today. We can always repent and become better. That's the amazing thing about the gospel and the atonement of Jesus Christ. 

Love, 

Elder Rich 

Baptism in Appleton

Hmong elder selfie

Lotus flower cookie - a Hmong treat

exchanges with Elder Dickinson

April 15: Hello from Milwaukee

Nyob zoo,

I finally made it down to Milwaukee. I have been really enjoying it down here besides the fact that it has snowed 3 times this week. I was so certain that spring was finally here that I sent all my winter clothes home on Tuesday before I came down to Milwaukee. Pretty funny!

Coming down to Milwaukee I was thrown into the fire really fast. Thursday we woke up at 5 to take a missionary to the airport and once we got back I was told that we had to prepare for our 50 min training that we would be doing in Zone Conference the next day! So we prepared that training and the next day was Zone Conference which I was asked to conduct the meeting which was fun/scary at the same time. Our training ended up going really well which was good for the limited time we had to prepare for it! After Zone Conference, we went to an old favorite, Kopps, which has some of the best ice cream I have ever had.

Saturday we planned out the rest of the things we need to do for this upcoming transfer and let me say it is going to be really busy. This past week has been the fastest, but also seems like the longest week of my mission. We have had so many things to prepare for, phone calls, logistics, and other things we have had to do. It has felt like we haven't really been doing missionary work this past week just because of how different it has been, but it should be better this upcoming week when we have more time. We only had about 10 hours that we were able to go out and do stuff this week so next week should be good since most of the planning is out of the way. 

Even though we were limited in time, we were still blessed with success in our finding and teaching. I think that it is really cool that no matter what our circumstances are or what we are going through, God will still bless us for our hard work, diligence, and desire to do his work and follow him. We were able to set a person we are teaching on baptism date named Treivy, but passed him off to the YSA Sisters and as well were able to find some really cool potentials that hopefully we will be able to get with this upcoming week. 

A really interesting thing that happened this week that I've never experienced before was that we met a guy who was speaking something called striped Hmong. Basically what it was is the 2 dialects white and green Hmong mixed. I had never heard that before. It was really odd to listen to. To kinda explain what I mean, one sentence he would use the White Hmong word 'poj niam' meaning wife and the next sentence he would use the Green Hmong word 'quas puj' meaning wife, white Hmong 'thiaj li' or 'txhaj le', 'tuab neeg' or 'tib neeg' etc. It was funny because it sounded like he couldn't make up his mind on what dialect he was trying to speak so he was mixing back and forth the whole conversation. I guess an example you guys could probably understand is if someone was going back and forth between an American accent and a British accent. Obviously, that's not exactly the same, but a good example. 

Spiritual thought this week which I am actually going to steal from my companion because it thought it was really cool. He was reading in the Bible about Jesus Christ's last week because of the Easter Season. One of the things that Jesus did that last week was cleansed the temple. And the part that is thought was cool that he compared that with 1 Corinthians 3:16 which says: 

16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

Just like Jesus Christ cleansed the temple and got rid of the things that didn't fit the holiness and the sacredness of the temple.  It is interesting to compare that to our body or our "temple." If Jesus came to us what would he take out of our body to cleanse our temple? Whether it is things temporal or spiritual it is a good way to reflect on our bodies and how we treat them and the importance to strive to make our body holy just like the temple. 

Love, 

Elder Rich

Saying bye to come families in Green Bay.
This is the Niam tais who made the ties

This is her sister

The other family is Ci ntsa tshiab. Alvinia and Karden who we were teaching.

Stil making snow angels

My new companion Elder Lamb

April 8: New week, New transfer, and New area

Nyob zoo os,

Well, I was a little surprised to see that I am getting transferred. I was hoping to stay in Green Bay for a while, but obviously, the Lord has other plans for me. I will be heading down to Milwaukee and my new companion will be Elder Lamb. I served in Milwaukee back in May last year so it should be fun to go back and I also will be serving with my MTC comp which I am stoked for! 

General conference was amazing! I loved all the messages that we were able to hear and learn from! 

A few things that I liked:

-What are we casual in the gospel? What could we do more carefully? 

-We can't be perfect, but we can be worthy. 

-There are so many voices around us calling for our attention. It's important that we listen to the right ones.

-Where will this choice or decision lead me? 

-When we repent we allow the Savior to mold us to become the best version of ourselves. 

-We aren't expected to be perfect, but increasingly pure. 

-Do an inventory of where your time is being spent and that will tell you where your heart is. 

So many wonderful talks that I enjoyed listening to this past conference. I could go on forever about all the amazing talks. I am excited to reread and learn new things from the talks. I know the words were truly inspired and meant for us personally and we can all continue to learn and grow when we review and reread these past general conference talks. 

Love, 

Elder Rich

Thao family - An awesome Hmong family here in Green Bay

We went to Lambeau stadium today for P-day. There is a fun complex with shops,
activities, restaurants, etc called Titletown near Lambeau Field that we went to also.

April 1: God will always support us in all things

Nyob zoo os!

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

March 25: Lots of flooding this week and Stake Conference

Nyob zoo os,

On Tuesday we had district council and also interviews. My interview was pretty fast and rushed, but nonetheless, it was great to talk to President as always. The rest of the day I was on exchanges with Elder Israelson in the Hmong area. He is only been out for 5 months so it was fun serving with him and his fire. We worked really hard which was great and were able to meet some people as well which was good. 

We had the opportunity to help a few families this week. With all the recent warm weather all the snow has melted which caused a lot of flooding. A ton of the city was flooded, some parts up to 5 feet. A ton of houses were flooded causing lots of damage and loss of property and possessions. One of the Hmong families houses got condemned and they lost everything in their basement. So many cool memories and possession that they had to throw out. It was super sad. 

We do a sports night every Thursday. This Thursday we had a really good turnout. Alvinia who we are teaching came and a few of her friends. That was awesome and we had a great time playing volleyball! 

On Friday we had dinner with one of the Hmong members, Mai See and her daughter. Super fun and super good food as always. I told her how I need to learn how to cook Hmong food and she said that it's super easy so next time we come over she is going to teach us how to cook Pho (You're welcome mom).

We also have been talking with a super awesome Niam tais and her daughter who own a Hmong clothing store. She is so awesome and she loves us. Anyone that can speak Hmong to the older generation they love it. Anyway, she has been making some super cool Hmong ties for us and really cheap as well. I have received a lot of compliments from people about the Hmong ties, so if anyone wants to get one let me know and I can hook you up with one for pretty cheap. 

Saturday and Sunday we had stake conference. We had a super sick 70, Gifford Nielson, come and visit. He played quarterback at BYU, for the Houston Oilers, and also was a broadcaster for 25 years. He was a really good speaker and his testimony was really cool to hear. I always enjoy that. 

Saturday afternoon we went to Chuck E. Cheeses. I haven't been there in a minute. It's been a while haha. We went for one of the Hmong family's kid, Nathaniel's birthday. He is a super cute kid. Always gives us hugs when he sees us. We got him some pokemon cards and a Pikachu stuffed animal. Good times! 

Sunday we met with an awesome guy named Shoua. He made us breakfast Hmong style which was really good and after we had a good conversation. He just barely had his first child 3 months ago. He is really looking for answers to questions that he has like "What is the purpose of life?" "Is God really there?" and "Why do bad things happen to good people?" He grew up in a Shaman family, but now he is really open to learning about God. He seems very promising and it is very interesting because he has a lot of the same values and morals as the church, but just isn't a member. We are excited to meet with him more. 

Also, exciting news all the recent converts in Madison went to the Chicago temple for the first time. 

Something that I thought was cool is in the very first verse of the Book of Mormon it says the word "affliction." If you click on the word affliction something really cool is the 2 tabs underneath affliction say 1. Blessing and 2. Gifts of God. I thought that was a different twist from how we usually view afflictions and trials. It all is on our attitude and our positivity on how we view our struggles. God wants us to learn and grow, but it is up to our mindset.

Love, 

Elder Rich

snow is melting

flood cleanup

Chuck E Cheese's bday party

Madison members and converts temple trip

March 18: Hmong conference, setting goals, and the gift of tongues.

Nyob zoo os!

Tuesday we had district meeting. The Jensons are super awesome and brought a ton of snacks for us to eat. We had a good meeting about setting goals! I never really understood the importance of setting goals, so I got a little slap in the face. A good quote that I shared was by President Benson which says:

"Every accountable child of God needs to set goals, short- and long-range goals. A man who is pressing forward to accomplish worthy goals can soon put despondency under his feet, and once a goal is accomplished, others can be set up. Some will be continuing goals. Each week when we partake of the sacrament we commit ourselves to the goals of taking upon ourselves the name of Christ, of always remembering him and keeping his commandments. Of Jesus’ preparations for his mission, the scripture states that he ‘increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.’ (Luke 2:52.) This encompasses four main areas for goals: spiritual, mental, physical, and social. ‘Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be?’ asked the Master, and he answered, ‘Verily I say unto you, even as I am.’ (3 Ne. 27:27.) Now, there is a lifetime goal—to walk in his steps, to perfect ourselves in every virtue as he has done, to seek his face, and to work to make our calling and election sure.” 

I thought that was a really good quote on why we need to set goals in ALL aspects of our lives, not just specific aspects like I was doing. I am excited to work on setting some more goals. 

Thursday we had lunch with a super sweet Hmong Niam Tais (Grandma) as Hmong people call them. Her name is Niam tais Ying Moua and she is literally the sweetest. She made a really beautiful Hmong tie and it's all hand made which is insane. Super cool. She taught us a few things about Hmong culture and also shared her conversion story which was powerful. It is always crazy to hear how much the Hmong people have gone through, but they trust in God and know they are doing the right thing even though they face ridiculous trials in the process. It is always a testimony builder to hear their faith and testimonies. During the night we went to one of the people we are teaching, Alvinia to support her at her talent show. She did a super insane hip hop dance. It was super cool. 

Saturday was definitely the best of the week! Not only did we get to see all the Hmong Elders again, but we had an amazing conference just for the Hmong elders. We learned a lot about Hmong culture and how to help the Hmong people. It was really helpful and I learned lots of things I am excited to apply. The highlights of the conference were listening to all the Hmong Elders bear their testimonies, Awards which had a compliment and also a funny roast for every Elder, and afterward, we all went out to eat together. We definitely have a strong brotherhood and it was hard to say goodbye to everyone. I wish we all lived closer to each other so we could hang out and see each other more often. It was also so cool to see how much we all have grown personally, in the language, and our love for God. It was just like when Ammon and his brethren all got together again. Super cool. 

Sunday we had the opportunity to hear from a return missionary. He gave a really great talk on revelation and the lessons he learned on his mission. The second hour of church I translated again and it was by far my best translating of my mission. It was really cool. Something that Elder Taylor and I have been talking about recently is the gift of tongues. He asked me how I see the gift of tongues in my missionary work since I have been out a long time. In the beginning of my mission, I would have said that the gift of tongues helped me to be able to speak and understand which is true.  Now, I feel like I can rely on my own abilities to speak because I don't struggle and need to rely as much. But... I still always will need to rely on Heavenly Father to help me know the things to say - things that can help the Hmong people to feel of God's love and feel the spirit. Even though now I can rely on my own skills pretty comfortably, if I don't help them to feel the spirit than my words are vain and honestly are a waste. I am grateful to be out and serve the Hmong people and know how important it is for me in all my actions to help others feel the spirit. 

Love you all, 

Elder Rich

All 12 Hmong elders

Thought we were finished

 Most Improved Hmong 

Most likely to become a Hmong rapper - roasted award.

March 11: Jordan High reunion in Green Bay

Nyob zoo,

Monday night we had a really good lesson with 2 of the people we are teaching, Alvinia and Kardan. We taught about the Plan of Salvation and about Jesus Christ's role for us individually. We were able to testify very powerfully about Jesus Christ's love for them both. The spirit was very strong and they could feel the love of Christ for them from the spirit. It was a really cool experience to be with them. 

This week we also had zone conference. It is always a good time to learn and grow, as well to see a lot of past missionaries that I served around before. Always really fun and learn a lot. 

A funny coincidence was this week I was talking to Elder Jenson. He and his wife are senior missionaries in my zone and also in my district. I was talking to them and asked where they grew up and he said "Draper" and she said "Sandy." So I asked where they went to school and they both said "Jordan High school" which I thought was cool. Not only that, but I found out that his dad is the same Jensons who live on 7th west and own the farm right by my house. So he grew up 5 or 6 houses away from where I live right now. I thought that was so cool. 

We had the opportunity to have dinner with one of the Hmong families here. Their son is leaving for his mission this upcoming Wednesday. It was really fun to talk to him and see how excited he is to go serve a mission in Fresno California Hmong speaking. I am super excited for him. 

On Sunday he gave his farewell talk and also another Sister in our ward did too. So we had 2 future missionaries giving farewell talks which was so cool. I really enjoyed listening to them. Neng who is going to Fresno I was really impressed with his talk. It was very short but very powerful. He talked a lot about how the gospel has blessed his family and his reason for wanting to serve a mission. He said "I am going on a mission because of God. I am going to help others because of what God has done for me. I am going to bring others to the gospel because of God." I really liked that, and even though it was so simple, it was really powerful. God really has done so much for us and blessed us with so much. We can't even count all the many times he has patiently helped us and blessed us even when we didn't deserve it. It made me think of the true simplicity of the gospel. Everything we do comes down to our love and respect for God and all that he has done for us. The reason we follow his commandments, the reason we go to church, is because we love him. I hope we can all remember that this week. 

Love, 

Elder Rich 

Neng who is leaving for his mission to Fresno this week

Found this huge icicle while tracting. It was even bigger -
about 1/3 of it broke off when it fell

Neng's sister

Elder Taylor

Got to talk to my sister Sadie on her birthday last week.