March 4: Busy in Green Bay

Nyob zoo os,

Tuesday I said the rest of my goodbyes to the members in Madison and then Wednesday morning headed up to Green Bay. When I left Madison I was completely healthy, but right when I got to Green Bay I started to feel sick. It was really odd. So this whole week I was sick but didn't let that hold back our week. We were still able to do a lot of stuff. We are really busy in Green Bay and it is really awesome.

Wednesday night right when I got here we went and visited a less active family. We ate Pho with them, which of course was fantastic, and after taught the kids some Hmong words and phrases which we both probably learned more than we taught, but nonetheless still really fun. After we taught a lesson and it was cool to hear their testimonies. 

Thursday we had dinner with one of the Hmong members Mai See. She was really cool. We practiced a lot of Hmong with her even though she is fluent in both Hmong and English. She was able to help us both out a lot, so that was cool. She is really good at painting and painted some really cool portraits of all the characters from the TV show Naruto. Really cool. 

Saturday we did a lot of finding with not really any success sadly, but we were able to meet one of the recent convert families Nhia and his wife Kia and their 5 kids. Nhia plays semi-pro football. Super awesome family and they have really strong testimonies. We had a good discussion with them and it is amazing to hear the sacrifices they made for the gospel and for God and Christ. Nhia was Shaman before and after he converted, basically his whole family disowned him, but he didn't give up on his faith because he knew it was true. Amazing example of faith to me. Honestly so insane. 

Sunday was an amazing day! We had an amazing turnout at church. Recent converts that came, a few less active families, and Avania and Kardan who we are teaching came as well, so that was amazing to see. Of course, we were translating in Sacrament and while I was translating I see one of the Hmong members go up there to bear their testimony and Elder Taylor nudges me to go up and translate for her. I was like gosh dang it. It's hard enough to translate from English to Hmong, but now to go do it the other way and in front of the whole congregation was really scary. It ended up going really well though. I was able to understand and translate her testimony to the congregation fairly well. There were only 3 words that I didn't know in her testimony so that was really cool. Gift of tongues for sure. After Sacrament, we had 2nd hour which I translated for as well. After both hours I was so tired haha! 

After church, we went finding and it was one of the best days of finding in honestly soooo long. We met 3 Hmong people and they all said we could come back! One we knocked and did not think it was going to be Hmong, but it ended up being Hmong. We spoke Hmong which amazed the wife and she went to get her husband. They let us in. The cool thing is they've never met missionaries before. That's a first haha, but an amazing miracle. They are super prepared. They want us to come back and teach them and their kids more about Christ. Another cool thing is that the husband is actually Chinese, but is fluent in not only Hmong but also 4 other languages. That was really cool. After that, we were super pumped to go out and find. It's cool when you find people prepared - it increases your motivation and faith a lot. The next house we knocked the guy wasn't interested, but then Elder Taylor didn't give up and asked an inspired question which sparked his interest. He said we could come back. 

For dinner, we had an amazing meal to break our fast. Elder Taylor and I were getting 4ths and 5ths, it was so good. The family that had us over was married to a Chinese lady so Elder Taylor got to speak Chinese. That was cool to listen to. It was cool to hear him speak and a few of the words are the same as Hmong or really similar. 

Afterward, we went to another members house to see if they were still planning on helping with the Hmong conference in a few weeks. Since I'm sick she helped me out the Hmong way lol. She made this nasty medicine that I chugged and almost threw up and wrapped medicine around my wrist and ankle. We will see if it helps at all haha. 

A couple of verse I like from this week. 1 Nephi 15:23-24.

   23 And they said unto me: What meaneth the rod of iron which our father saw, that led to the tree?

   24 And I said unto them that it was the word of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction.

We know that as we hold on to the iron rod it will get us to the tree of life, but what is also cool is that as we are doing that, we will be able to overcome the temptations that the devil throws at us. So keep reading your scriptures! It must be the spirit, happiness, peace, and joy that we feel when we read that makes it so we can't be tempted. 

Love, 

Elder Rich 

Some of the Hmong elders at transfer point on Wednesday. Elder Green on the front left
and Elder Vang in the back middle both finished their missions and are home now.

Green Bay Packer's stadium

New companion, Elder Taylor

medicine the Hmong way

Naruto paintings

Feb 25: The cycle is complete! Headed to Green Bay

Nyob zoo os!

Today I found out that I will be leaving Madison and will be heading to Green Bay on Wednesday! Finally, the cycle is complete! I am going to be able to serve in every Hmong area in Wisconsin! What a blessing! My new companion is Elder Taylor, he has been out for only 5 months and actually met my brother Ian while they were in the MTC at the same time. He is an awesome kid and I am super stoked to serve around him. Although I never met him in person he is already my favorite missionary. I have told that to him the couple times I have talked to him on the phone haha! He responded by saying that everyone says I am the goat. So from the sounds of that, we are gonna have a grand time in Green Bay together! I am excited!

This week we had a lot of preparation for the transfers. I knew that things were going to be switched up in the Hmong area. We got a text before transfers that our apartment would be closing, so we spent a lot of time cleaning and fixing things. This apartment has been open for around 15 years so it had a lot of stuff to do. We patched probably over a 1000 holes in the wall haha! Good times. 

This weekend we had stake conference. We had a visitor from the Seventy, Elder Kim B. Clark, come speak to us. I enjoyed listening to him. One thing that really stood out to me is that he still acknowledges his weaknesses, his mistakes, and his dependency to the Savior and his atoning sacrifice. Growing up, and even now, you think the general authorities of the church are so righteous and don't make mistakes, but it was cool to see that we are human beings and are all trying to improve and become more like Christ every day no matter what stage of life we are in. A couple of other things that I enjoyed in his talks were using the correct name of the church, importance of being missionaries in our everyday life, and asking God for 1 thing that we can remove out of our life and 1 thing that we can do better. 

Although I am very excited to leave Madison and head up to Green Bay, I am also really sad to leave. I didn't think it would be this hard to leave. This morning Kelly invited us over for breakfast and to say goodbye. After we ate we took a picture together and then said our goodbyes. She started to cry and then everyone knows me I started to cry too! Man, I really am going to miss all the people that I have met here. So many wonderful people and it is going to be hard to say goodbye. Grateful that we don't have to say goodbye forever and I can see these amazing people again someday. It has been such as blessing to serve in Madison for 9 months of my mission and see the growth in these wonderful members. It's been amazing and will be something that I will always remember. Glad that I had this opportunity to come on a mission and serve the Hmong people. Even though I am not great at the language and it's been harder than anything I have done before, there is nothing I would want to change it for.

Love, 

Elder Rich

Saying bye to Kelly

patching walls

Stake conference

Shoveling snow for days

We saw this lady shoveling and went to help.
She wanted to take a selfie with us

Feb 18: Too Much Busing!

Nyob zoo os!

Tuesday ended up snowing a lot, so we drove around with our shovels and went shoveling contacting. We helped a few of our potentials and some new people. That was a good overall day. 

Wednesday we were on the busses and let me say I am not a fan of the busses. We rode the bus for about an hour to get to the area we wanted to go finding. We stayed in that area till around 5. We had an appointment at 6 and the busses said we would get there by 6, but the busses ended up being late and slow so we ended getting there around 6:30. Luckily he was still there. He was about to get in his car and leave, but luckily we were able to catch him. He thought we weren't coming because we were late and told him 6. So we got in with him, but sadly we weren't able to stay very long because the last bus was coming in about 30 mins and we had to walk to the bus stop from his house. Dang busses!! Thankfully he was kind enough to invite us back next week! 

Thursday was Valentine's day. We decided to go to an area that we have never tracted before. We knew it was probably not going to be Hmong because it was in Middleton which is a super wealthy area, but we tried it anyway because you never know until you go. Sadly, we ended up being right and it was a lot of Non-Hmong Asian people. For dinner, we went out to eat at Chick-fil-a with the English Elders. 

Friday I went on exchanges with Elder Purvis in the English area. We visited 2 medically less active members and read the scriptures to them, so that was really cool. We also had some service that we did. Dinner we had at a member's house. She is a single old lady so we brought a member over will us. We ate dinner and after "attempted to share a message." I read a scripture and after Elder Purvis asked her a question which was super simple and should easily be answered in 30 seconds, but instead she went on for a whole hour story. We were trapped and had no escape. Towards the end, I zoned out for literally 3 seconds and she caught me haha. I felt so bad, but it was so hard to listen for that long in such a warm apartment. I was trying so hard. After she finished we forced into the conversation and wrapped up the lesson. It may not have gone as planned or as Elder Purvis and I intended, but that is the way of missionary work. We are here to help the members and non-members alike and if want she needed was people to talk to because she is lonely then we accomplished our purpose. 

Saturday we had a lesson with Kelly and Shaun. We are teaching them about the temple. Last week in the temple class they asked us to translate a 30-page pamphlet all about the temple. Again that was a good test of our Hmong skills. I would say it was pretty good. They understood it and we did pretty alright. Definitely a lot of room for improvement, but when your learning such a hard language like Hmong and have literally no resources, but the Hmong people it can be pretty hard to learn especially since we sadly don't get to use the language that often. So with all that being said, we are doing pretty good - I mean all we can really do is do our best and God will help us with the rest. We also had some Pho with them. It was a Pho that I never had before called Fawm Xib Nyias and it was pretty good. It had a lot less broth then normal Pho and a lot more noodles and meat. It was pretty good. After we tried pronouncing some Laos and Green Hmong words. We would try and try again and fail over and over again, but eventually, we were finally able to get it. They were both laughing their heads off as we both made a fool of ourselves. It reminded me of the MTC it was exactly the same making a fool of ourselves. Good times! 

Sunday we had Hmong sacrament and Hmong Sunday school. It is so good to hear Hmong for that long. It's like being immersed in the language and it is so awesome! I am totally jealous of all the missionaries in Thailand, Laos, Korea, and all the other missions that get to only speak in their mission language and are fully immersed in it. That would be so cool and a dream come true. 

I have been enjoying reading the New Testament and reading about the Saviors life and teachings. One of the passages I liked this week was in Matthew 16. 

25 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.

26 And now for a man to take up his cross, is to deny himself all ungodliness, and every worldly lust, and keep my commandments.

27 Break not my commandments for to save your lives; for whosoever will save his life in this world, shall lose it in the world to come.

28 And whosoever will lose his life in this world, for my sake, shall find it in the world to come.

29 Therefore, forsake the world, and save your souls; for what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

I really enjoy the Joseph Smith translations and the extra insight we are able to receive. Without it, we are confused and left to wonder what exactly the Savior means because of the things that were lost over time and the things that weren't correctly translated. Great blessings for us to learn from and study from to further understand the teachings of the savior. 

Love you all, 

Elder Rich 

Waiting for the bus in the snow

Rising the bus

Fawm Xib Nyias

Feb 11: Ice Ice baby

Nyob zoo os,

We have been living in Antarctica this last week. It hasn't been cold, which is super nice, but it melted all the snow that we got and rained. And then after all that happened, it got below freezing and froze all the water. So everything, and I mean literally everything, is ice. Sidewalks, roads, plants, even the snow that didn't melt is ice. It was pretty sketchy walking around. We had to walk super careful. Luckily I didn't fall even though I was really close over 100 times haha.

Tuesday I went on exchanges with Elder Reynolds and his companion in his area. We served around each other in Appleton so that was fun to serve together again. We had a pretty great exchange. We had a lesson with one of their investigators and she was asking some really, really good questions about what makes our church unique and the Book of Mormon. They were really thoughtful questions and you could tell she had a sincere desire to learn. The rest of the day we actually did some Hmong and English finding even though it was the English area because the city of Middleton is about 40 mins away so we don't get over there too often. We had one of the funniest door approaches I think I ever saw. Elder Reynolds knocked on an English door and a girl answered - she looked like she was 17, but sometimes you can't tell and they could be older. He did his regular door approach and threw in the would you or your family be interested in this message just in case. She then looks at us real weird and asks us "Is this a joke?" He then responded, "Noooo this is for reals." She then responded with "Oh, well then I am not interested" and slowly closed the door awkwardly. It was really weird and funny. Never experienced anything like that before. The only conclusion we could think of is she saw 3 guys dressed up nice and probably thought he was pulling a prank to ask her to prom or something like that.

Wednesday I got back to my area with Elder Parker. We had a really successful day of finding people. We had been in a slump for quite a while and were pretty down, but we had a tender mercy of finding a super prepared family. We knocked on their door. I saw that they had lots of boxes outside their house, so once they answered, I introduced who we were and asked if we could help bring in these 7-8 boxes on their doorstep. Of course, he said yes and after we had a great talk with them. They have met with missionaries in the past and even came to our church with a couple of their friends before they moved to Minnesota. They were super open to hearing more and were very welcoming of us in their home.

Thursday we had interviews with President Williams. Good to talk with him as always. Very loving and caring guy. I am grateful for all that he has done for me over the last 18 months. 

Sunday morning we had a correlation and pancake breakfast at the Oliphants house. Afterwards, we went to church and after we had a great opportunity to translate for the temple preparation class. The 4 people taking the class are all Hmong and 3 are recent converts of the last year, so that is very exciting. The translating part was definitely a struggle to explain some of that stuff. You get a lot of Hmong culture and more complex church concepts to try to explain. Try to explain the sealing in the temple and how that connects your family, family history, millennium and what happens then, and a lot more fun stuff like that. I never talked about 99% of that stuff in Hmong before so it was fun to think about it and give it my best shot. I mean that's all you really can do in Hmong. It was a really good overall class and they all super excited to go to the temple in a couple months for the first time. 

Sunday night we had a great family home evening lesson with the Lee family. Super fun and awesome family. We had a great lesson on Alma 8:8-18. Talked about how times in our lives hard things happen, but no matter what, don't give up. We always have prayer, the scriptures, church, etc. to help us. And at the end of the day even if life's hard, we can always know that our father in heaven is proud of us. Afterward, we played some Exploding Kittens which is a card game for those that don't know and ate some pizza.

It was a good week.

Love you all, 

Elder Rich

Ice

Pure ice

Elder Tarone a prime example of the ice

Finally a pic with Elder Parker

Feb 4: Walking through Antarctica!

Nyob zoo os, 

Wow, this was definitely the coldest week of my life. I am pretty sure it was the coldest temperature in Wisconsin in over 50 years. I did the boiling water challenge like a lot of people wanted me to do. I boiled the water then threw it into the air and it turned straight to snow. That's how cold it was. I remember one night walking back from the other Hmong sets apartment around 9:30 and it is about a 1 min walk to our apartment and by the time we got to our apartment my face was completely numb. Super cold!

The 3 cold days this week were Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Wednesday it was so cold that everyone in the mission was told to not go out. So luckily we have 3 sets close otherwise it probably would have been pretty boring. We did a bit of extra studies and then after played some card games the rest of the day. Tuesday and Thursday we thought it would be smart that both companionships stayed in the car together. Usually, we have 1 set ride buses and walk around and the other uses the car, but it was way too cold to have 1 set walking around for 5+ hours. It wasn't as effective as normal, but we were still able to get stuff done and safely too!

The rest of the week was super warm it went from feeling like around - 50 with wind chill to feeling like 40 degrees. The other days we were so cold that once the warm weather came we were actually pretty hot. 

For this week we had volleyball night on Friday. Usually we get a huge turnout, but this week there wasn't a whole lot of people, but still fun to play. 

We also celebrated Elder Tarone's birthday this week. We went out to eat and had a good time. I also hit 18 months as a missionary on Saturday.

Saturday we had a good lesson with Mai's husband Alex. We had a good discussion on what the purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ is, God's purpose, and the purpose of churches. It was a good overall discussion and went really well. 

A few scriptures that I liked this week were Luke 7:36-50. A little background... Jesus is eating dinner with Pharisee named Simon. The Pharisees are an over the top religious group during the time of Christ that lived the law of Moses but refuse to follow the Savior. They live hypocritical lives and pride themselves in their obedience to the law. Anyway, this Pharisee invited Christ to eat with him and while doing so, a sinner comes and washes Christ's feet and anoints him. This Pharisee asks Christ why he lets a sinner touch him. For this Pharisee, he showed his obedience to the law and showed respect for God if he didn't interact with sinners. It was what they believed and is why he didn't understand why Christ would allow a sinner to  interact with him

Christ then gives a parable in verse 41 and 42.

41 There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty.

42 And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?

43 Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.

   

44 And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.

45 Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.

46 My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.

47 Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.

What Christ is basically saying is those who are forgiven more are those that love the debtor (Christ) more and vice versa. I think that is so true when I was talking with Alex on Saturday I was thinking the most important thing that a follower of Christ could do is to follow his example and live like he lived which don't get me wrong is a great thing, but there is a better thing and after I read this passage that came clear to me. That way we can show Christ that we are true followers and love him is by repenting and using his atoning sacrifice in our lives. The more we repent the closer we will come to him, the more we will depend on him, and the more we will love him. 

Love, 

Elder Rich 

Walking through Antarctica

Antarctica got you feeling like

Snow from boiling water

Early Valentine from Aliza

Jan 28: Deep Freeze!

Nyob zoo os!

This week it snowed a lot and was super cold. It is supposed to get even colder and continue to snow the rest of this week. I am not sure how cold it is supposed to get this week, but I know that the high is in the negatives and it could be potentially too cold that we wouldn't be allowed to go tracting for a few days because of the poor weather. With the wind chill, Wednesday is supposed to feel like -57!

Elder Parker and I have been having a great time serving together again. We have taught some of the best lessons, if not the best lessons, I have taught on my mission. They have been really good and powerful. On Monday we had a fantastic lesson in Hmong with Shaun about the atonement and how we apply it in our life. It was a really good discussion and was funny to hear some of her stories of times when people did rude or mean things to her, but she was able to forgive them because Jesus forgave her. Really cool to see her growth in the gospel and also both Elder Parker's and my own growth as missionaries and our ability to speak Hmong. That has been one of my favorites things of this new transfer so far.

Tuesday we had zone conference. We had great discussions on missionary work and the gospel. I always enjoy zone conference and the things that I take away to improve as a missionary. 

Tuesday night we went to visit Mai and her family. We ate some delicious eggrolls and after, just like Monday, had a wonderful gospel discussion. Since it was Elder Parkers first time meeting her, she shared her conversion story with both of us. Her testimony is so strong and as well as the rest of the recent convents here. They have such strong faith and it is amazing to hear.

Unfortunately, the 3 return appointments we had this week all fell through, but that is okay because we had almost all day to find every day this week. Even though it was cold and not many people wanted to open their doors because of the cold weather we were still able to set a few appointments for this upcoming week. One which I thought was really cool is we stopped by one of our Investigators named Mai and we asked how they were doing and if there was a time we could come back. The majority people either say they aren't interested anymore or they say a random day and time that doesn't seem too solid after we leave, but what was really cool was after we set up the time to come back she asked us how we have been and how are holidays were. We ended up talking to her for like 15 minutes. It was cool to see that she actually was interested in talking and meeting with us rather than the opposite.

Like I said this past week was super cold. It was funny knocking on people's doors and they would say how it is super cold and we would be like "We know!" We would share our quick door approach and the whole time they were just shivering. Some people had a little bit more kindness this week because of the weather which was nice, but a lot still weren't too interested.

We also had the opportunity to go out to eat with one of the Hmong families in the ward that I haven't had much opportunity to get to know well. They are a young family and really busy. It was only the 2nd time I have eaten with them so it was good to get to know them better. We went out to Sumo which is a sushi place. I got a plate of straight raw fish meat. I don't remember what it was called, but it was really good. After we went to their house and again we shared a great message about prayer and even their 2 1/2 year-old daughter had some cute thoughts on prayer. Their daughter is super cute. We played with her for a few minutes and then we closed with a prayer and started to head out. When we were leaving she started bawling because she wanted us to stay and play with her longer. Super sad, but at least at church, she might be a little less shy around us.

Saturday we gathered at the Yang family house. They cooked Fawm (Pho) and hosted 5 of the recent converts and a few other Hmong families. We compared the plan of salvation to a trip to Thailand and how if we went on our trip to Thailand without a map or plan it wouldn't be a fun trip because we wouldn't know what to do or where we are going. Just like that, in our life, we have our map or our plans of life. We know where we are going and what we need to do in this life. We talked about the temple with them and that got all the recent converts about going to the temple. After I had a really good discussion with Kaozong one on one and how much she wanted to go to the temple to be sealed as a family. They have had some hard times as a family in the past and she knows that going to the temple will help the have more peace in their life. I am grateful for the temple and the opportunity to have been sealed as a family. I am grateful for the knowledge of that and the opportunity to share it with others.

Love,
Elder Rich

2/3 of the squad - Elder Purvis, Parker, Kleinman and me

Pile of snow

Madison forecast - YIKES!
That is not wonderful at all 

Jan 21: Wisconsin weather has returned!

On Wednesday we said our goodbyes to Elder Giddings and Elder Vang. Elder Chue and I waited until around 2:00 when our companions finally got there. Like I said last week, my new companion is Elder Parker who I actually served with in Appleton for 2 transfers and Elder Chue's companion is Elder Tarone who I served with for 1 transfer in Wausau. It has been super fun to serve around both of them this week.

This week was the coldest week of this whole winter so far by far. We have been blessed with sunny and non-snowy days this year. The majority of our days this year have been in the 20's, 30's and even some in the 40’s, so this week was so cold. The Wisconsin winter I remember from last year sadly decided to come around, windy and in the negatives. We were so blessed this year so far with the higher temperatures and overnight it went from 30's and sunny to negative temps, snowy, and dark and dreary skies. Let's just say that we got wrecked by the cold this past week.

A couple quick funny stories this week. First, we were riding the 30 bus up to the mall to catch the 20 to go the Northside. After getting off the 30 the app said to wait where we were for the 20. Well, a few minutes later we saw the 20 we wanted driving past another bus stop we didn't see. So we decided to wait for the next 20. We waited in the cold for 30 mins and while doing so checked out the times of the busses. We saw that the next 20 would come soon, so when the next bus came, for some reason both of didn't check the number, but just hopped on - probably cause it was so cold and we just wanted to get on the warm bus. We'll then we see the bus driving back towards home and we were both like “Nooooooooo!!!!” So we ended up getting to the Northside a little late because I am still not super good with these bus routes haha. Funny times though. 

The other thing that happened is that dropped a good foot or so of snow. That happened to be our car day which was crazy to drive in. Anyways we were following our GPS which was taking us to the next house. It took us to T crossroad. Turning right was a steep hill that already had 2 cars stuck and left was a dead end culdesac, so we went left and were planning on gunning it up that hill. We waited while the cars came backwards down the hill and drove back from where they came from. Then we were about to go, but a dang minivan thought he would be able to make it up that hill, but obviously, he didn't and got stuck halfway. So we were gonna gun it around him but then started coming down the hill, so we decided to wait until after. Finally, the minivan came back down the hill and turned around, but at that exact moment 2 more cars went up and both got stuck blocking the whole road and then on top of that, 30 secs later, another car tried to go up when there was already a car stuck. Not smart because he got stuck too and the road had a 3 car pileup. After all that waiting we decided it would just be a good idea to come back the way we came and go the long way. 

Elder Parker and I have been working hard and it's been really good. We set a couple return appointments for next week which should be exciting. Also, our studies have been insane. We have been learning so much about the gospel and the language. We started reading the New Testament in Hmong this past week in our language study and have learned a lot of grammar and words. We also have been going through a Grammer book and learning a ton from that. I also started learning Moob Leeg (Green Hmong) which is just a different dialect from Hmoob Dawb (White Hmong). It's pretty fun and I have caught on to the difference pretty quickly. It is still going to take a little time to get it down. Here is an example sentence between the two. 

So white Hmong -

 "Wb xav qhia ib zaj txog Tus tswv Yexus uas yuav pab nej heev" 

and green Hmong - 

"Wb xaav qha ib zaaj txug tug tswv Yexus kws yuav paab mej heev."

Pretty cool and fun!

Sunday we had Hmong sacrament meeting again and also 2nd hour was also Hmong class, so we had 2 hours of just learning in Hmong which was really fun and a good Hmong listening practice. We had a pretty good turnout so that was good. Later that night we had dinner with one of the Hmong families, the Yangs. They are super fun and would do anything for the missionaries. They made us Khauj Poob (Probably sounds like Cow Pong minus the tones). It was really good plus they added something into that I never had before Ntshav (which is just a cube of dried blood. I was really scared to try it, but it really wasn't too bad.

Overall it was a really fun week! I got a tie from my brother which was a fun surprise and also got a fresh haircut. 

Love you all, 

Elder Rich 

Pictures: (1) Saying bye to Elder Giddings (2) Wrestling in the snow with Elder Chue (3) New snow (4) khauj poob with the Ntshav (cube of dried blood) (5) My boi Tarone - headband bois reunited!