Sept 12 MTC week 6

Nyob Zoo

The time is flying in the MTC.  It blows my mind that I have been here 6 weeks. Only 3 more weeks to go and I will be out in Wisconsin. This week my companion needed to go to the doctor so we got to go out in the "real world" which was super fun and also really bizarre. I haven't been in the "real world" in over a month so it was felt really weird, but it also made me soooo excited to get out to Wisconsin. I can't describe how bad I want to get out there and start helping people. The time will fly and before I know it I will be out there. The MTC is awesome as well, but it is different than how it will be out there in my mission. I know I need to really enjoy these last few weeks and finish out strong.  9 out of the 15 Elders in my District are going somewhere else than where I am going. I really am going to miss them all as well as my teachers when I leave in 3 weeks.

Something also cool that happened this week...we got our Hmong name badges this week and they are soooo sick. I have been here 6 weeks now and I still can't say my name yet haha. I will put a picture of it down below.

The Utah vs BYU game was Saturday night.  I was basically the only Utah fan.  Everyone was cheering for BYU.  The day of the game was for sure the hardest day of the MTC for me so far.  If you guys know me, you know that I LOVE football.  It was the first time I haven't been able to watch the big rival game in as long as I can remember. We could hear the fans cheering and screaming from the stadium in the MTC. We couldn't hear the announcer or the score, but we could hear all the fans cheering.  It was the first time in a while that I really felt like I was missing out. Sometimes being a missionary is hard because we do give up so much, but at the same time, it is the greatest thing ever. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. And I haven't even gotten to the best part yet. It is gonna be so sick when I get out to Wisconsin and can help the Hmong people.

Last thing for this week, we did our first Skype lesson yesterday. We Skyped a young kid named Tsim Meej from California.  We were supposed to have 45 minutes to teach. We planned out a really good lesson on Jesus Christ and what he did for us. We ended up having a hard time connecting on Skype so we ended up only have 25 minutes to teach him.  Since we had such limited time, we were just going to focus on the Atonement and Repentance. We started teaching and everything just felt weird. We prepared and practiced some of the words for the lesson, but something just felt off.  In the lesson, we couldn't speak anything and everything we taught felt really weird. I decided to give a scripture that would maybe explain it since we couldn't say anything. The guy we were teaching said that he was struggling to understand the scriptures.  So we just bagged our lesson completely and told him we would help him with that. He asked us if we would teach him in English so we did. It was a really cool experience and neat to see how the spirit works. That is how I think missionary work is supposed to be. We are just going to try to help people with whatever they need help with, whether it is in English or in Hmong, it doesn't matter. As long as we are helping people, that is what matters. I just can't wait to get out there even though I know I am going to get wrecked when I get out there. It is going to be so awesome.

That's all for this week. Miss you all and hope you have an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Tshwj

In the "Real World"

New Name Badge

Utah vs BYU football game

Skype

Model pic featuring the French elder - Elder Mocellin.  He's going to San Fransico speaking Laotian

Model pic 2 - Elder Green also speaking Laotian

Some other pictures we got from Elder Rich this week

This tree smells like cream soda.  It's bizarre

Chilling on P-day

The new bigger classroom. Nicer desks and chairs too.

Hmong ties that Elder Vang's mom MADE for us and are ready to ship.  They are so sick.
I bought two and can't wait for them to get here.

another picture from the "real world"

Sept 5 - MTC week 5

Nyob zoo 

Thanks for all the emails this week! It is crazy that I have been here 5 weeks now. It feels like just yesterday I got here. On Saturday, it marked exactly my halfway point through of the MTC.  Only one more month and I will be heading out to Wisconsin.  All the “older” Elders in my zone officially left yesterday.  Today it felt so empty and weird with 40 Elders gone from our zone.  Do you guys remember the Elder I talked about in my very first email? Probably not haha. His name is Elder Leseur and he is the funniest kid ever.  He is a legend around here.  He was the Elder who would sing at the top of his lungs every single morning to wake us up.  He wasn't even a good singer either.  He was completely awful, but he would do it every morning to wake us all up.  Anyways, in honor of him leaving, my entire district started singing “God Be With You Till We Meet Again” the day before they were all leaving. It started with only 15 of us, but it grew into our whole floor. All 80 of us singing at the top of our lungs. As well, we had to sing the Air Force fight song because that is what he sang almost every morning. It was super loud, but it was really awesome because you could feel the brotherhood and unity.  At the same time, it was super sad because we all knew they were leaving the next morning, and more than likely I will never see any of them again.  It's crazy how close you can become to people you have never met before. I’m sad to see them all leave, but I know they are gonna do awesome things.

The language is still coming along. It is definitely a grind. Studying and learning all day long. The Hmong language is still really difficult and honestly, 95% of the time it doesn't make any sense at all.  But I am definitely starting to understand more and more.  This past week especially, I felt like I learned a ton.  A lot of things are starting to make more sense and "click" in a way.  The words are just really random and a lot of them are super long so it makes it really hard to learn them. For example, the word “peace” is “txoj kev thaj yeeb nyab xeeb.”  The Hmong Book of Mormon is around 800 pages compared to the English version that has about 500.  Another thing is there are 18 different ways to say the word "The".  

Quick Story: These random sister missionaries came up to me and asked me if I would be willing to listen to them practice their lesson on the plan of salvation for like 5 minutes so they could practice their Spanish. I said yes and they did a quick practice in Spanish, and I honestly understood like 75% of what they were saying and I haven't taken a Spanish class in over 2 years. I can understand more of their Spanish than I can Hmong and I have been here a month. Sometimes I think, man it would be so much easier if I were speaking English or learning an easier language like Spanish. But I honestly wouldn't want it any other way. I know this is where I am supposed to go and these are the people I am supposed to teach. I am grateful for the opportunity. I am one of 13 missionaries that are Hmong speaking out of thousands of missionaries that are going out for this whole year.  I am grateful that Heavenly Father trusts me to learn such a hard and rare language. The language is a struggle, but I know I will get it eventually.

My scripture for the week is Alma 29:9. It goes right along with this so. And it says:

9 I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.

Now on the lighter side of things, I am really having a blast. Every week gets better and better.  The MTC is honestly a lot of fun and has lots of good people. I really love my district and my roommates.  We all have a good time together. Lots of jokes, teasing each other, and pranks.  I always steal Elder Tarone's picture of his girl back home from under his bed and put it under my bed to mess with him. Sometimes he doesn't notice for quite a while.  I think the longest it was under my bed was for 3 days haha.  There have been some hilarious pranks, but I won't write them for time's sake.  Somehow my district gets every sickness possible. A guy got pink eye this week as well.  So that is going around our district too. Gotta love that.  We exiled him though haha.  Somehow I have been able to avoid all the sicknesses which is a miracle.  I am the only Elder in my whole district who hasn't gotten anything.  Quite a blessing.  Some other cool things. I saw Elder Drayney who I haven't seen in like 2 years.  Ian is probably the only one who knows him beside me.  So I threw that picture in here for you, Ian. He is going somewhere in Africa which is super awesome.  I also played volleyball with Parker Fillmore, which was fun.  He went to my school and Ian is good friends with his brother.

Last thing, shout out to Elder Bud Jackson Gardner who left to Argentina yesterday. Good luck bro. I know you are gonna kill it out there. I’ll miss ya!

Miss you all and thanks for all the emails this week.

Love,

Elder Tshwj

Me and Elder Leseur

Me and My Girlfriend (Elder Tarone's)

Me and Elder Drayney

Exiled Man

Model Pic

"HAWTPIC" according to Elder Miller

My District

August 29 MTC week 4

Nyob Zoo

It is pretty crazy that it has already been 4 weeks. It feels like yesterday I just got here, but on Saturday it will be my halfway point for the MTC. Thanks again for all the emails throughout the week. I love reading them.

I have been blessed with an awesome district, zone, and zone leaders. When I first arrived at the MTC there were 3 other districts in our zone. They are all leaving in a week which is really sad to think about. They have all been so awesome and so much fun. I’ve heard a lot of times it is hard to fit in with your zone the first week They usually pull pranks or just give you a hard time because you are the new elders. They were so awesome to us from the start though. They adopted us into the zone. They called us the "Baby Hmong's" and we were like their little brothers. But now they are all leaving in a week and it is way sad. I have loved hanging out with them and playing sports with them. We have had some good times. The Hmong district is now going to be the oldest district in our zone. That is just crazy to me. We got some new elders this past week and I am pretty sure we will get some more when they all leave next week. It's going to be so different when they all leave.


The language is still really frustrating. I have made tons of flash cards.  I study them in lines for food and really any spare time I get. I'm just having a hard time getting them to stick.  I learn them, but I forget them. I feel like I am one of the hardest workers but still don't understand much.  I know it will eventually click. It will just take more time and patience. I can read the Book of Mormon aloud with all the tones and stuff which is cool. I don't understand it - haha - but it's still cool.

On Saturday we got to do TRC again. I love teaching them. The members that come are so much fun and are so awesome. They are all so cool about us teaching them. They don't get frustrated with us when we can't speak. They help us and teach us a lot. It is a lot more realistic than teaching our "investigators" (teachers). As well on Saturday, we had our first lesson on the Hmong culture. I will say that they have a very interesting culture and religious beliefs. Their religion is Shamanism mixed with their cultural beliefs. They are very ritualistic and don't believe in God, but believe in a lot of different spirits. It is cool to see how some of their beliefs are similar to what we believe, but they just have been changed over time. Their story of how they came to be is as follows:

There were 2 people on the Earth. A boy and a girl. The boy wanted to get married but the girl didn't want to. They decided that if they each rolled a rock down a hill and if the boy's rock landed on top of the girl's, then it was a sign from the spirits that they should get married. They did just that and somehow the rocks landed on top of each other and they got married. This is where the story gets a little weird. They have their first kid and instead of it being a baby it was a huge chunk of meat. They somehow decided that they were going to cut the "chunk of meat" into 18 slices and spread it all over the land. In the morning when they woke up the chunks of meat grew into individual people. This represents their 18 tribes that they have.

It's an interesting story. When I get out into the mission field I will get "adopted into one these tribes and they will give me their name. So I will become a part of their family. Maybe more than one tribe. They give you their name if they like you. For now, my name in the MTC is Elder Tshwj.  Our teachers gave each of us a Hmong name when we arrived here. They gave us names that were as close to our last names and that also had a good uplifting meaning behind them.  My name means special. But once I get out to Wisconsin, my name will change again once I become a part of one of their tribes and take on their name. 

I'll just end with one more thing. My Grandma Criss told me of a talk that really helped her in her life and I really loved the message so I thought I would share it will all of you. It is titled, "Come What May, and Love It" by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin from the October session of Conference in 2008. It has a super awesome message. I would challenge you all to read it. As well I have really found a love for the scriptures. It is one of my favorite parts of the day. I'll throw in a scripture that I really like this week as well. The one that I kept in mind this week was Alma 26:12. It is a super awesome scripture and a great message. And it says:

Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

I am grateful for this gospel and how happy it makes me. I love my Savior and am forever grateful for what he did for me. I know this gospel is true. I can’t wait to get out and serve and help others.

Love,

Elder Tshwj

Pictures: (1)The zone, (2) Wisconsin Elders/Hmong ties (we borrowed these from Elder Vang, but we are getting our own ties soon. His mom is sending us some), (3-4) Roommates/Nerf Guns, (5) Birthday Boys - Elder McArthur and Elder Israelson on Monday turned 19. (6) Our teacher showed us this in class and it is a picture representing the Hmong rituals. 

We also got a few other pictures from Elder Rich this week

Treats in the mail

And the map photo

August 22, MTC week 3

Nyob Zoo

 Thanks for all the emails and packages throughout this week. After being here for 3 weeks I have gotten pretty accustomed to how things work around here. There are really only 3 days of the week in the MTC.  There is Day, Sunday, and P-Day.  Not a lot happens because all the days are pretty similar.  Something I did learn this week though is that you have to give it all you’ve got. You have to give it 100% all the time.  The first 2 weeks I would give it 97% and wonder why I wasn’t doing all that great learning the language compared to everyone else.  But I know that if I give it my all every day, Heavenly Father will make up the rest. It's still a struggle, but I found out today, it is the 3rd hardest language to learn in the  MTC out of the 56 languages so that is pretty

humbling. The hardest to learn is Icelandic, 2nd is English, then Hmong. But nobody really learns English here, so really the 2nd hardest. This past week I have been able to say my prayers 70% in Hmong which is pretty awesome.  Also, my companion and I taught our 2nd investigator this week for the first time.  His name is Lis Xyoog.  We taught him without using our language books and everything was off memory. My companion probably said 70% of the lesson, but it was still pretty cool to see all that we have learned in 3 weeks. 

I also think how crazy it is how close you can become with your district in 3 weeks.  We are a big family and we have so much fun together.  They are all brothers and I love them.  This week the Hmong plague started which is not good.  It is the scariest thing ever.  Basically it is a throat infection that is similar to Strep Throat, but it is worse.  So far 3 people in my district have gotten it and no one else so far has gotten it and thus why it is called the Hmong Plague.  No one wants it because it makes your throat swell up super bad and also it hurts so bad you can not eat. The guy in my district who got it first hasn't eaten anything but ice cream the past 3 days. So it is pretty sketchy. We all walk around covering our mouths because no one wants to get it.  It has kind of turned into a game in a way and is pretty hilarious. It is supposed to be contagious for 14 days, so more than likely I will get, but I hope not.

Another thing that happened this week is my mom sent the 3 new bags of Lays chips for 2017. The 3 bags were Fried Green Tomato, Crispy Taco, and Everything Bagel.  I had most of the people on my floor try the chips and the one that was the most popular for sure was the Crispy Taco.  It wasn't the best out of the 3 in my opinion, but it was the most realistic for sure.  It for sure is the weirdest bag of chips I have ever had in my life.  You can literally taste the shell, the meat, and the lettuce.  It was so bizarre.  Every bite was like eating a Taco Bell taco.  If you haven't tried it yet, I definitely recommend trying them.  It's a life changing bag of chips.

We got to do our first TRC on Saturday, which I loved.  Basically we just taught members in Hmong, but it was so much better than teacher investigators because they already know the gospel.  It wasn't really a lesson, but we just had a conversation about the gospel.  Super cool experience.  I also got to do the tours again this week which is always something I love. I love talking to all the people and I always run into quite a few people I know which is awesome.  One last thing -  Brother Ferguson, who is one of my teachers, wrote a quote on the board during class that I really liked. It says, "An average missionary serves for himself.  A great missionary serves out of the love for others.  And the best missionary serves out of the love for God." I thought this quote was super awesome.  I miss all of you guys and hope you all have an awesome week.

Talk to you all in a week!

Love,

Elder Rich

The pictures are as follows: 1- The plague, 2- My classroom during the plague, 3- My roommates and I doing laundry, 4- Me helping with the tours, 5 & 6- and when I saw Jackson's fam/Landon's fam while I was playing ball.

We have literally the smallest classroom for 13 people

Elders Tarone, Lamb, Seims, Vang, Rich

Gardner and Barclay kids

Jackson's parents - it was so fun to see them

Aug 15 - MTC week 2

Nyob zoo

Thanks for all the letters and packages this week. I love reading all the emails throughout the week and hopefully, I will have time to respond to all of you today. 

This week has been awesome. It is crazy how much better this week was than the last week. The first week was so long and frustrating, but this week just flew by and I had a blast. On Wednesday I had the opportunity to help with the MTC tour which was really awesome. The MTC tours are really fun and I loved talking to all the people. I ran into quite a few people I knew so that was fun. I am pretty sure we will help with the tours once a week till the tours end which I am pretty excited about. 

This past week was a blast. It is still a lot of hard work, but also a lot of fun. We got 2 new elders in our district so now there are 15 of us, but they aren't speaking Hmong they are going to speak Laotian. All the elders in my district are super cool guys, but the people in our zone that are on our floor are crazy. It is probably because they have been here 7 weeks. Every morning a guy in my zone, who is going to Vietnam, sings at the top of his lungs a Patriotic song like America the Beautiful to wake us all up which is really hilarious. They are some of the craziest and funny people I have ever met. 

This week as a joke I said we should do story time and it kind of caught on as a tradition. Every night we all gather in our residence and we have one elder in our district tell us a story about their past. Either something embarrassing, dumb, funny or a combination of all 3 sometimes. My district is absolutely crazy, but we are all family. Elder Vang and I also gave everyone in our district spirit animals and also thought of animals in movies that fit their personality. Some of them are pretty hilarious. 

 When I first got here I didn't think I would run into anyone I know, but I have run into quite a few people I know which is fun. My cousin Reese is on the same floor as me, so I see him all the time and Jackson I see every so often at dinner. Me and Jackson are going to go play ball together later today which will be super sick. 

One of the guys I have got to know pretty well throughout this week is Elder Tarone. He is from Las Vegas and is a way, cool guy. He is in my room but isn't my companion. He is my companion for everything not gospel related haha. We go on splits together and play basketball together every day which is way fun. There are some pretty competitive sports here. I have really enjoyed the volleyball and basketball. As well, my district played kickball against the Thai district who are in my zone and it was hilarious because it was the most competitive kickball game ever. There was a lot on the line because they couldn't lose to the new elders. There was a lot of trash talking and a lot of cheating by their part, but we still whooped them so it was all good.

The language is coming along. It still is really hard and I am not the fastest learner compared to everyone else, but that is okay. I can almost say my prayers in Hmong which is pretty sick. I found out the other day that we actually have 9 tones instead of 8 which is awesome too (Not) haha. Our first investigator eventually became our teacher which was pretty cool as well as another guy. So we now have 3 teachers. Brother Gardiner, Brother Lee, and Brother Ferguson. 

I'll just end by telling a funny story:

I was talking to Elder McArthur while we were eating. Somehow we got to the conversation of who is your favorite sports teams. He said that his favorite football team was the Colts and we instantly bonded over that because that is my favorite team too. He told me a story which I thought was hilarious. He said the day he was getting dropped off at the MTC he went out to eat right before. His family ended up going to Red Robin. He said he was holding his emotions in real well. He then looked up at the TV and saw that ESPN was showing the Colts highlights from the last year. He then started to cry because he realized he wouldn't be able to watch football or watch the Colts play for 2 years. His whole family thought that he was crying because he was going to see his family for 2 years. His family all started crying too and gave him hugs, but that wasn't even why he was crying. I just thought that story was hilarious because I could totally relate.

Anyways I miss you all and hope to hear from you all. I love reading all your emails throughout the week. Also, the picture with the 5 people walking are all the people in my room and the dude with the glasses is Elder Tarone. 

Love Elder Rich

Austin's roommates.  They are all going to Wisconsin together Elders: Tarone, Lamb, Rich, Vang, Seims
along with Elder Gibbons ( blonde/glasses pictured below in front of Austin.)

Aug 8 - 1st letter from the MTC

Nyob Zoo (Hello)

How are all of you doing? I sure do miss you all. Thanks for all the letters and emails this week. 

I thought the transition from regular life to missionary life would be a lot harder, but it wasn't bad at all. It actually went quite smoothly. Missionary life is like a roller coaster. It has a lot of ups and downs. Some days are just the best day ever and then some are the hardest. I feel like a lot of people don't truly appreciate what missionaries do because everyone serves missions now days. I for sure have gained a greater appreciation of missionaries and missionary work over the past week because it is not easy. 

In my district there are 13 Elders and no sisters. We all arrived the same day and all are speaking Hmong. 4 are going to Minnesota, 3 to California, and 6 are going to Wisconsin. All of the Elders are super cool guys. Our district is already pretty close. We do everything together. We eat together as a district, work out together, etc. In my room there are 5 total people. Me, Elder Lamb (My companion), Elder Tarone who is from Vegas, Elder Seims who is from Alaska, and Elder Vang who is kinda fluent in Hmong is from Fresno. 

When I arrived at the MTC we went straight to class. My teacher is Brother Gardiner. He only speaks in Hmong. No English. I think over this week he might have said less than 50 words in English. It is a lot of guessing and hand signals to figure out what he is saying. A lot of people are probably wondering what the language is like and how is it going. To be honest, it is the hardest and most frustrating thing I have done in my entire life. The alphabet is all the same letters, but most of them make different sounds than what they do in English. For example, the X makes the S sound, R makes the D sound, etc and also the 8 tones. The language really humbles you because I know for sure that I can not do it by myself. I pray so much throughout the day to have comfort, patience, and help from my savior Jesus Christ. I know I can't do it without him. I even joined the MTC choir to help my tones. I don't even like choir. You know the language is hard when I would join the choir to help with my tones. My Papa would be so proud. 

This next part is a story that I thought was pretty cool:

So Friday it was my 3rd day. I knew very little of the language and I was pretty frustrated with my self because I wasn't getting it at all. I am one of the slower learners compared to the other Elders. That Friday we taught our first investigator completely in Hmong and it did not go well at all. I literally couldn't say anything and my companion literally said everything. I was so mad at myself and Heavenly Father. I thought why am I even here? This language is too hard and I will never learn it. It seems impossible and I just wanted to give up. After the 6 hours of language class. I was so angry and overwhelmed. I thought it would be so much easier to just give up and go home. I felt hopeless and like no one cared about me. Not even Heavenly Father or Jesus Christ. When I got back to the room I wanted to email home so bad and say mom I am coming home. I was so frustrated with myself. 

When we got back to the room after, I asked for a priesthood blessing. As well did the rest of the people in my room. We took turns giving each other priesthood blessings. We all felt the spirit so strongly. Even so we all started crying. Letting out all of our frustrations for the day and as well the spirit was stronger than I ever felt before.The spirit testified to all of us that everything would be okay. We felt our heavenly father's love and comfort.The next few days were much easier. The first few days were so hard, but I want to testify that it does get easier. Just stick with it and keep working hard.

I want to end with my testimony that our Heavenly Father loves us and cares for us. He knows us by name and only wants the best for us. He knows our struggles and trials. He knows how to help us, but he can't help us if we don't ask. That is one thing I have really learned throughout this past week is to pray. When I pray, I know that Heavenly Father will answer my prayers and help with whatever I may need. The MTC is such an awesome experience. It isn't always easy, but it is so rewarding. My testimony has grown so much in this past week and also my relationship with the savior. I am grateful for this opportunity to serve Heavenly Father for 2 years. I know all my struggles will be worth it in the end. I honestly think if I didn't get such a strong confirmation when I opened my mission call, I would have sent that email. I know that this is where I am supposed to be and the Hmong people are waiting for me to bring this glorious gospel to them. I love this gospel with all my heart and can't wait to share it with the Hmong people.

I love you guys and I love my family!

Sib Ntsib Ntau (Goodbye)

Hlub (love) Elder Rich

P.S. I'll do a little of my language so if you guys want to try it out haha. 

Kuv puab hais tias Yesux Khetos hlub koj. ( I know that Jesus Christ loves you)

The last letter of the word are the tone you have to say it in. 

In English it would sound like Goo pua hi daya Yaysoo Kaytaw hlu gaw. 

I don't want to include the tones because that is to complex. 

Austin and his companion, Elder Lamb

Elder Rich's district

All the Hmong Elders getting their Hmong Books of Mormon

While helping with the MTC tour, Austin ran into his friend, Lexi Sorensen.
She was awesome enough to send me the photo.

Another photo of Austin and his cousin, Reese.  My favorite photo so far.