Nov 19: Decorating for Christmas/cockroach killers/my new favorite scripture

Well, exciting news! The cockroach killers are coming today! They are going to go in the whole complex and hopefully find the problem, but even if they don't it won't matter because they are gonna kill them all...well hopefully. Well in the meantime we still have been killing them. And we even have some new Christmas ornaments for our tree. It's definitely something only Elders would do. Hopefully, you like them, mom! 

On a more serious note, this week was really awesome. We finally got in with one of our most solid potentials Chang and Mai. They are a young couple and recently had a baby. They practice Shamanism so they don't know much about Christianity. It was a great opportunity to teach them about God, his plan, and that we can have an eternal family. We taught them the Plan of Salvation. It was a really spiritual lesson. We invited them to pray since they have never prayed before. It is going to be a really cool opportunity to work with them.

The recent converts here are all doing really good. Elder Giddings and I had the opportunity to see 4 of them this week. We went out to eat with Kelly and Shaun on Monday which was really fun. On Thursday we went to Joua's house. That was really a good opportunity to practice our Hmong. Her dad is like 80 and he is hilarious. I can understand like 80% of what he was saying, but he uses a lot of Laos words, so I am gonna have to start learning some Laos words. I made a list of 200-300 flashcards that I am going to start learning. Lastly, on Friday we got a text from Mai that said she was going out to eat with her friend at Olive Garden and asked if we wanted to come. Of course, we said yes because one, Mai is awesome and two, it was with a non-member. Elder Giddings and I both got all you can eat pasta because we don't get a good meal too often anymore since we have had roaches. It was really good food and a really cool opportunity. Also, it was funny at the end because they were both fighting over who was going to pay for the bill. 

Our finding efforts are going really good. We rode our bikes 15 miles one of the days. It was a really good exercise especially since Madison has so many hills. I always wanted to ride bikes on a mission and my wish has come true. I definitely enjoy the bikes a lot. 

On Sunday we had our 2nd Hmong sacrament. We had fewer members than last time because a few families were out of town, but we had a couple less actives that haven't come in a really long time which was really an amazing miracle. 

This week I think I found my new favorite chapter of scripture. It is super good. I spent over 3 hours of study reading it. For some reason, I could just read it over and over. I really enjoyed pondering on it and really trying to understand it. So if you have time read 2 Nephi Chapter 9 because it is soooo good. I wish I could explain the things that I learned in this email, but there is no way I could fit that all in here so I will just share one verse that stood out to me. It is 2 Nephi 9:

39 O, my beloved brethren, remember the awfulness in transgressing against that Holy God, and also the awfulness of yielding to the enticings of that cunning one. Remember, to be carnally-minded is death, and to be spiritually-minded is life eternal.

I think this scripture is very powerful, especially the last half which really stood out to me for some reason. "Remember, to be carnally-minded is death, and to be spiritually-minded is life eternal." Our earthly desires, passions, and desires are the things that lead us to sin and go astray from God which eventually lead us to spiritual death, but if we can overcome the natural man and become more spiritually minded and focus on the things that actually matter in life like family, our relationship with God, helping others, etc that is life eternal. Or in other words, those are the things that are going to help us to learn, improve, and grow into the person we need to become so that we can reach our end goal that we all want which is an eternal family. 

Love you all, 

Elder Rich

Pictures: 

Happy Thanksgiving this week

New ornament for our Christmas tree

Jimmy Johns for lunch - I wouldn't have gotten that big of one, but 1. I have a gift card,
2. I didn't eat breakfast and 3. Have roaches so when I go out to eat I eat good

Our bike seat. We put a band-aid on it because band-aids fix everything 

Happy birthday Elder Vang

Nov 12: It's getting cold here!

Nyob zoo,

This week we had Zone Conference. It was by far my favorite zone conference of my mission for a couple of reasons. One it was super spiritual. Almost everybody was crying because the spirit was so strong. It was really cool. We have some awesome missionaries here. The second reason I liked it so much was because of the things we learned. We really focused on the basics like how to set goals, planning, finding, and lots of other things. It was really good for me because the longer I am out, the more I over think things and do more than I really need to. It was a good reminder to me of the importance of the small and simple things in missionary work.

This past week we had a few people that we stopped teaching because of various reasons such as not progressing or being unable to contact them. So this past week and next week are gonna be very focused on finding which I am very excited for. Most missionaries aren't huge fans of tracting, but I actually don't mind it. Since getting all the addresses into the phone, we are able to find people a lot more effectively and the time we took to put those in has already paid off. We were able to tract all the Hmong houses in the city of Deforest this week. We have set some goals this upcoming week to really help us find people to teach. We are gonna spend about 4-5 hours finding a day and then outside of that we are going to talk to 10 extra people a day while we are tracting.

It definitely is starting to feel like Winter here in Wisconsin. It snowed a couple times this week, but luckily it isn't cold enough for it to stick yet. We had a funny story this week. Elder Giddings and I rode this bus to an area to knock some doors. We knocked most of those houses in that area, but it was so cold so we wanted to get a bus for a few minutes to warm up. We checked our phone for the bus stops and then while we were waiting we kept thinking we saw the bus, but every time it turned out to be something else. It was like being in a hot desert and dreaming about water. It was hilarious. Eventually, the bus came and we were grateful when that happened.

Also, this week Elder Giddings got sick, so that was no fun. Even though he was sick, and it was very clear that he was sick, he still was determined to go out. So we went out even though his voice sounded like a worse version of a teenage boy going through puberty. His voice was so squeaky and his voice cracked after every other word. I feel bad for him, but it was honestly really funny to listen to at the same time. By the time Sunday rolled around his voice was gone. He couldn't really speak at all. So it was really weird knocking doors for 3 hours and being the only one to talk. It was really good practice for me which I was grateful for, but you do start to miss your companion’s voice and testimony after hearing only yours for 3 hours. It definitely is true that 2 testimonies are more powerful than 1 and that is why I am grateful I have companions to testify alongside me. Hopefully, his voice will be back by Tuesday. 

Love you all, 

Elder Rich

Sister Wilson from my stake got transferred here for the winter from Nauvoo. 
She is in my zone so I have already seen her twice.

Riding our bikes

The snow this week

Elder Giddings and his foggy glasses haha

November 5 - Txoj Hmoo Phem (Bad Luck)

I have officially been out 15 months now. That is so crazy! 

On Tuesday I went on exchanges with my bud, Elder Goodworth, who is the ZL. I went to his area. We had a few good hours of finding in the rain. The highlight of the exchange was meeting with a recent concert. Recent concerts are so cool and always have such an awesome spirit. 

Well since last week our effort to get all the addresses into the Google Maps failed miserably, this week we had to enter all the addresses into our area book individually. We entered over 1700 addresses into the area book 1 by 1. Man, that was so boring - a whole 7+ hours of doing that, but it is awesome now that is all done. We can find the Hmong houses super fast now.

The battle with the cockroaches is still raging. We are in a full on war. We have our weapons all over the apartment just in case we see one and if we do see one they are dead pretty fast, well except for this one time when Elder Giddings was messing with one and chopped it in half with a knife and somehow it lived and crawled away. Dang roaches!!! Because of that, we decided we can't mess around anymore so we decided to go to Walmart and upgrade our weapons of war. We got some nice traps that we placed and some spray. And let me say, that spray is the best! No escape for those dang roaches anymore. #instakilled

One of my MTC teachers actually moved to Wisconsin for school. The funny thing is he is now in my ward. It is fun having him here since he served in Wisconsin a few years back. This week he took us 4 Hmong missionaries out to eat. That was a lot of fun.

24 But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things

A lot of bad luck for us the past couple of weeks. It seems like everything isn't going our way at all, but I know things are put in our paths for a reason - even if we don't know why. God wants to help us to learn and grow and I have definitely learned and grown a lot from these obstacles.

Love you all, 

Elder Rich 

Helping Kelly with Farming

And no I didn't actually ride the tractor lol 

This was on Halloween.  We just got glow in the dark stuff for pics

lunch with old MTC teacher, Richard Lee

Oct 29: Looking on the bright side

Nyob zoo,

This week's email will be a little shorter because of a lack of time due to other things we have to do today which you will find about later in the email. :)

So this week we had a couple great days of finding. We finally got bikes and bus passes since we are in a car share with the other Hmong set. We are super excited for that since we have been waiting a while for that. Every other day we will be riding bikes and taking the bus which I am super excited about since I have always wanted to ride bikes. We got all the bikes fixed up, and the funny thing is, the first day we were super excited to finally have bikes and after only 1 hour, one of the tires popped already haha. So we've got to fix that. 

Tuesday we went to Kelly and Shaun's farm and we helped them to prepare for planting. We used these super sweet knives and whacked the old flowers down and dug up the roots for planting next week - Super fun. I still remember helping Kelly plant the Tulips last year so it was really fun to help again this year. 

On Wednesday we went to Mai's. We had dinner and painted pumpkins with her kids. It was really fun and I do have to say mine was pretty good. I am not very artistic, but I am pretty proud of what turned out. Afterward, we shared a message with her about Patriarchal blessings. She was very interested and is working on getting one. Pretty awesome! 

On Thursday we had dinner with Kelly and Shaun. They both are doing awesome and that was really fun to talk with them. 

Friday was one of the worst days of my mission. We were trying to go to the libraries to get access to the A-Z databases to look up Hmong address and then put the file into our Google maps on our phone so then we can find Hmong people more effectively. We decided to do that and we thought it would only take an hour or so, but it seemed like everything just went wrong. We went to 5 different libraries and by the time we found one that worked we were in a city called Oregon, Wisconsin which is a super small town in the middle of nowhere. I don't know why they had it there of all places, but they did. By the time that was all done it was 6. And we were both pretty mad because we felt like we wasted a whole day. I mean we did a little, but it was just a lot of bad luck. We went online and messaged the workers for the A-Z databases to find where the nearest library was that had access and every time they told us a place we would go and they wouldn't have it. It was a little frustrating. The 4th library told us they did have it so we were super excited and then we went and tried it and it happened to be that they actually didn't and he was confusing it with the other library they worked at, so that is why we drove all the way out to Oregon. We were able to get over 3000 Hmong addresses. So after, we went to eat at a barbecue place called Ziggy’s which was really good. We treated ourselves with ribs and brisket because we deserved it for that awful day. So now we had a full stomach and drove an hour back to our apartment and we find out that our Google maps on our phone doesn't even work so we can't even access it. We were so MAD!!!  Stupid MaaS360 which prevents us from doing everything. What is the point of having a smartphone if we can't even use it?  Hopefully, that will get fixed soon. Sorry, that was a long rage. 

Also, another thing that was a bummer this week is that we found cockroaches in our apartment. So we spent 3 hours last night killing cockroaches and cleaning up. We assume they are coming from our neighbor's apartment through one of the cracks. So today we are gonna be continuing to clean our apartment really good and getting rid of food. We really don't have much food anymore since we found some in our fridge too, so we basically chucked everything because we thought it was gross. Better be safe than sorry.

This past week it seemed like everything was not going right. I swear we had the worst luck with everything, but we decided to be positive throughout all the situations. I mean I would never have had the opportunity of going to Oregon, Wisconsin. I would never have had the opportunity to make funny videos of us attempting to kill cockroaches, or getting scared like 3-year-old girls from the cockroaches. Overall it was a pretty frustrating week, but we chose to stay positive and happy, Well as much as we could haha.

Love, 

Elder Rich 

Painting pumpkins on Wednesday with Mai's girls

Pretty proud of my pumpkin

Elder Giddings, me, Elder Lo

You can see the capitol in the background

Helping at Kelly and Shaun's farm

It was fun to be able to help them again this year

More matching Hmong ties

Oct 22 - Hmong Conference

This past week has been so awesome and so much happened! On Wednesday Elder Giddings arrived in Madison and man he is such a good guy and such a good missionary. What a blessing it has been to serve with him already. He is such a good example to me of a consecrated, urgent, and faithful missionary. He literally is the hardest working missionary I have ever met. Super excited to serve with him and grateful for his example to me.

We did quite a bit of finding this week and it was awesome! We and the other Hmong Elders are in a car share, so Elder Giddings and I got to do a lot to walking which is something I have never experienced as a missionary before. I have always had a car before, but it was awesome because we were able to talk to so many more people. As we were walking around we would just talk to everybody and I mean everybody. We had a couple of funny stories this week. First, we were walking around and we saw a white guy get out of his car so we started walking over to him. He saw us coming and said “Hey! I am not buying anything.” and Elder Giddings replies “well great we aren't selling anything”. He didn't really like that. The second one, we were walking around a complex looking for a specific Hmong house and a lady was watching us, but we didn't think much of it. So once we found it, we knocked on the door and right after she asked us what we were doing and I said “Knocking doors.” She said that there is no soliciting in this apartment complex. And of course, I replied, “Great we aren't selling anything.” She didn't like that either. She made us leave the apartment complex, but the funny thing is that the guy answered his door and all we said was that lady won't let us talk to you and just left. Last one - we were walking around and we see a Hmong guy pull up in his car. Of course, since he sees us he doesn't get out of his car. So we just walked by and went and knocked on his house, but they didn't answer so we just went and knocked on his car window. Haha. 

On Saturday we had the annual Hmong conference. This year it was held at Sheboygan. We had a super good turnout. I don't know how many people came exactly, but there was a lot of people and it wasn't even everyone. We were still missing a lot of people. This year's theme was “Christ-centered homes.”  It went really well with the new time change for the church. They had a few workshops on Family home evening, sabbath day, and other things that can help us to have a more Christ-centered home. It was really good and will be very beneficial to all the Hmong members. We also had a great lunch and were able to have a lot of get to know you games. It was fun to see a lot of members from old wards that I have served in previously and also to see the other 14 Hmong missionaries. 

On Sunday we had our first Hmong sacrament meeting. It was all in Hmong and it was really awesome! We had over 40 Hmong members show up and a had a few families missing. It was really cool to hear a few Hmong members share their testimony in their own native language and to also feel the spirit testify that the things they were saying were true. It testifies to me that God knows us all  - no matter what language we speak, race we are, or where we are in the world, God understands and loves us and that was really cool for me to experience that. 

I love this work and I am grateful to be a part of it! 

Love, 

Elder Rich 

Oct 15 - Another transfer already? a new companion but staying in Madison!

This week is transfers. It is weird to say because I feel like I just got to Madison last week. Well anyway, we got the transfer text today and the bad news is that Elder Carlson is leaving, but good news that I am not leaving. 5 weeks was very fast and not very long to be with such an awesome companion like Elder Carlson. My new companion is Elder Giddings who was in my MTC district so I am super, super pumped. I have wanted to serve with all the Elders in my MTC group and now I get to serve with another awesome companion, Elder Giddings.  I only have one more MTC buddy left to look forward to. Let's just say this transfer is gonna be awesome!

This past week we went to a super nice sushi place called Red. It is in downtown Madison and it is super good. It is one of the nicest Sushi places in Madison. Our Zone Leaders took us out so that was awesome. Sushi is always awesome. Quick funny story - we were eating and Elder Carlson being his awesome self,  boasted me up way too much. He was saying how I could eat anything spicy and that it doesn’t phase me at all. Being 4 Elders you can probably guess what we did next. The only spicy thing in a sushi place is Wasabi, so after being boasted up this much, I had to prove myself haha.  I grabbed the whole thing of Wasabi which was about a nickel size amount and put it in my mouth and swallowed it. Man, that stuff is spicy. The nose burn was brutal, but the worst part is the taste. Worst thing I ever tasted in my life. Pretty funny though.

This week I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Lo. That was fun. I have never been on exchanges with another Hmong Elder so that was awesome. We worked really hard and met a lot of people. One family that seems really solid. Pretty exciting. 

This week we went to the Vang pre-New Years party. Lots of Hmong people, but like most Hmong people, they were all super drunk. We talked to a few people including Elder Lo's cousins. We had a couple of funny encounters with a couple drunk people and it was pretty hilarious. I am glad that I have a knowledge of the Word of Wisdom because drugs and alcohol make you do weird things haha. 

At church on Sunday, one of the older Hmong guys approached me and told me he wanted me to translate for him for priesthood. I don't think he asked me because he wanted my translating but just wanted to help me out. It was a fun 45 mins of translation. It was more of a conversation and discussion between him and me about the lesson which was fun. And of course, he corrected me a bunch which I appreciated. I still have a lot to improve, but I have also come a long way. 

This past week has been a harder one for me. My brother, Ian, just recently entered the MTC so lots of my thoughts were turned to my family this week. I am excited for my brother and the great things that he will do, but I also miss my family a lot. It has been 14 1/2 months which is crazy. It is a long time and may seem hard in the moment, but in the broader picture, it isn't honestly that long and it isn't honestly that hard. Some days I may think it is a sacrifice for what I am doing, but it really is not. I have the opportunity to bring others eternal happiness and not only that but bless my family. I have never really taken the time to see the things Heavenly Father has blessed my family with since I have been away, but this past week I did. First off, I have seen my brother make the decision to serve a mission and not only that but give his all and serve faithfully. I have seen my sister Alli gain more of a desire to read her scriptures and by doing so come closer to her Father in Heaven. I have seen my sister Jill grow her faith by giving a talk in sacrament and also fast for 21 hours and afterward email me saying that she wants to do a full 24 hour fast next month. I mean what 12-year-old does that? It is so cool. I have seen my sister Sadie try more to choose the right. These may seem little, but to me, these are all testimony builders of the importance of what I am doing and that I need to do my best every day to share this gospel. I am grateful for this gospel. I am grateful for it changing me into a better person. I am grateful for being able to learn from my younger siblings examples and from their examples, I desire to be a greater missionary.

Love you all, 

Elder Rich 

It's starting to look like Fall

This past week we had our Halloween party. It was really fun. It was Harry Potter themed.
We had piñatas, truck or treating, and even had kids throw pies at the bishop.
It was a fun party, but it was pretty cold. 

We wore mustaches

Elder Carlson saying bye to Mai's family

Oct 8 - I am grateful for conference

Well, it is finally October here in Wisconsin and it definitely is starting to feel like it. It is getting colder and colder every week. It is almost winter :(

This week we were really, really busy. It is a good thing to be busy, but we didn't have a whole lot of time to find new people because of other things we had to do. With the time we did have, we were able to talk with 2 Niam Neebs. A Niam Neeb is a female Shaman. I guess you could compare it kinda of to a Bishop or other leader in our church. They are the people that do the rituals and all the crazy stuff in the Shaman religion. It was fun to talk with them and learn a little more of their religion. 

This week we went to Mai’s as usual. She is so awesome and is such a good missionary. She told us all these things that she has been doing. First, she invited one of her friends over that same day so we talked a little with her. Second, she talked to one of her friends at work and talked about church. That friend is now interested in coming to church and seeing how things are. Third, she has a couple friends that she has been talking with. We are going to go to their church and hopefully, they will go with us to our church too. And last, she talked to her husband Alex about Hmong conference which is the conference for all the Hmong members in Wisconsin. The first time she asked him if he wanted to go he said he didn't want to, but a couple days later he said that he changed his mind and wanted to go, so that was really cool. Mai is awesome and it is cool to see her desire to share her testimony with others.

Saturday we watched conference with a Hmong family named the Changs. We watched the first session and after we had some great Hmong food. They stuffed us with a lot of food. The second session was not as good, well… I assume it was really good, but we all fell asleep. Let me defend myself real quick haha. Hmong people give us so much food and we were stuffed and they had the softest couch ever too. That is not even fair. Us 4 missionaries tried our best to stay awake, but we all failed. Game over. The kids thought it was hilarious and video recorded us.

Sunday we watched conference at the church. A lot of Hmong members came and watched it at the church including 5 of the recent converts and Mai’s husband Alex. In between the sessions, we had some great Hmong food again, but luckily this time we weren't on the comfiest couch in the world. We were on the church benches which, BTW are super uncomfortable, so that day was a win. We all stayed awake.

All jokes aside - I really enjoyed conference. My favorite talk was definitely Russel M. Nelson’s talk. Ever since I was little I always have loved hearing the prophet's words. I know he is a prophet and I know he is an inspired man of God. He talked about the name adjustment and focus on calling the church by the correct name. I thought there was such power in this. Our church isn't Mormon’s church, it isn't the saints’ church, but it is Christ’s church. And with that, we as members (me included) need to call it by the correct name. What a blessing to know that our church is Christ’s church and that he leads this church. That we have a modern-day prophet. I am grateful.  

Have a great week,

Elder Rich

We waited all day to get pictures from some members from conference but were unable to get them today.  So the pictures I have.  

Had the craziest sandwich. Similar to the McDonald's sandwich everyone makes but this was a 2.0.  Double Cheeseburger from 5 Guys and put a Chick Fila sandwich on it.  It was good but so bad for me. I've always wanted to try it. I need to exercise more haha