that's
"hello! how are you?" in hmong.... i think hahaha maybe the elders
are pulling a fast one on us ;) i have no idea how to say it haha i though
hello was "nao jong" so shows how much i know ;) boy do i have some
funny & awesome hmong stories for you this week! i love the hmong people!!
one thing i
forgot to mention about the Hmong culture is that they have shamanistic
beliefs.... so for example, one time we went to visit a sister whose son just
got baptized, she lives with her whole extended family in a little house, they
have these little paper dolls on the door, i don't know what they're for but if
we see them on a door we're not supposed to tract it because it means they're
hmong. there's also a huge (HUGE) shrine in the house that's really pretty and
has little dishes and pictures and things on it... and the door also had like
corn husks & honeycomb? i think? something like that.... way interesting! i
think it would be hard to be not only the only members in the home, but the
only CHRISTIANS. J & S are awesome though, & the ward & the
hmong-speaking elders do awesome work with them. J is a Relief Society teacher!
so awesome :)
Other things I
learned this week..... my name in Hmong! "Ntxhais Txib Muaj Txiaj!"
it's pronounced "nt-sigh t-see(b) moo-uhj t-sigh-j" ..... or something......
hahaha Elder Y taught me. "Elder" is tub txib, sounds like
"toot-sie" and means "son servant" ntxhais txib means
daughter servant! (isn't that so cool?) & muaj txiaj means "prophet"
(ha ha ha...) so that's cool. you have to have an old hmong lady
"adopt" you & give you a hmong first name... i'm still working on
that haha ;)
other cool
things... so basically last district meeting turned into a tracting support
group hahaha since we all had really bad weeks, numbers-wise.... so lame. but,
Elder Green (DL) shared something that I really loved -- "disiples of
Christ learn how to do hard things, & later learn that they weren't as hard
as they thought." :)
Tuesday night
we had dinner with the Y and... guess what? i love them!! they are just SO
amazing and so so GOOD. just one of those families that truly keeps their
temple covenants & gives everything they have & are to this gospel
& to the Church of Jesus Christ. UGH. SO SO GOOD. & so cute!! they live
all the way out in Neenah (since they're hmong.... the ward boundaries are
weird, it's like appleton & a few other cities if you're white, and then
ALL the hmong people in the fox valley, which is huge) so they have to drive like
30 minutes to the church building & even farther to do home & visiting
teaching & ward meetings etc etc etc but they never ever complain!! they're
just... awesome. so GOOD. & goodness is severely underrated i think. it's
nice to be funny & smart & whatever, but GOOD... i just wanna be good.
<3 i've met so many great examples of gospel families on my mission & i
love it. <3
i would now
like to share with you a parable called... the parable of me never getting any
letters hahaha. so over the past two p-days i've sent out like..... 13 or 14
letters haha and i've recieved like 3. one of which was from mySELF haha since
i got nathan's address wrong. so the parable goes like this...... sometimes you
send out TONS of letters (put forth tons of work) and never see any results
that week..... or the next week.......... but you just do everything you can!
and write everyone you have an address for! and then write a parable in your
next letter home about never getting letters so people will send you mail......
;) haha just kidding. it just went well with our tracting support group
district meeting about how sometimes you have weeks where you just put forth
TONS of effort & see NO immediate results..... but then out of nowhere you
get miracles! & they don't even seem related to all the work you were
doing, but the Lord knows when you're doing your best & I know that He
blesses us with miracles & that He loves us :) & i'm just kidding about
the letters hahah it's fine ;)
Scripture chain
for the week...... Jacob 5:20-23 & Alma 26:36-37. God always knows where we
are! & He knows where His children who are ready for the gospel are! :)
Also, 1 Nephi 17:13. "ye shall know it is by ME that ye are led" or
something like that :)
Last Wednesday
we had an amazing exchange with Fond du Lac... I was with a Sister who's only
been out 4 weeks! (she was in the MTC with nathan!) She taught me a lot about
persistance when ALL of our early afternoon appointments cancelled... that's
like the worst time ever for contacting but we did it anyways! even though
no one was home! we tried the next people over and over and over and over for
hoursssss and finally we just drove down a street, pulled over, and she was
like "let's knock that door!" WELL P (had a nametag) answered smoking
a cigarette with a pack of them in his pocket, we introduce ourselves, he says
he has his own church, which usually makes me want to back down, but Sister H
was like "well have you heard of the Book of Mormon?" & gives him
one and it turns out he's met with missionaries before! and only stopped
because he got busy, & he's willing to have them come back!! so that was an
AWESOME lesson on persistance. & when I asked if we could pray with him he
was like "well i gotta go..." but then he bowed his head & let us
say a quick prayer haha we just gotta be more persistant! our message is SO SO
IMPORTANT!! alsooooo we asked for referrals from EVERYBODY and got so many!!!
it was awesome!! a miracle! & we met these awesome people who are so
willing to change, we taught them the plan of salvation & they just LOVED
it and gave us like half a dozen referrals afterwards haha. it's so so
effective to lay out the plan of salvation, invite the Spirit, let everyone
feel how important & amazing this is, and then ask "Whom do you know
that we could teach this to?" they LOVE it & they gave us so many
manes haha it was awesome. So basically, Sister H is amazing & I LOVED the
exchange :) (i put more in my journal.... it's so hard to get everything down
in an email!!!)
Then on Thursday
we were at Sister B's house for our weekly Book of Mormon reading session (she
loves it!! she's less active and her daughter is a "dnc" that we're
ignoring hahah) & her son-in-law (he's always teasing us) said to watch out
because he's going to start "Wade's Discount Church of Present-day
Saints" hahahaha with 5% tithing - all the blessings, half the price! it's
like a 50% off church..... hahaha. hmmmm... now what's the problem with that?
hahah ;) too funny.
Also, I ate
stinky cheese lasagna. & it was delicious hahah.
AND THEN. okay.
the most amazing relief society birthday party!!! Sister J K was in charge
& I love her. Everyone brought a dessert from their heritage (hmong
desserts = SUPER YUMMY) & then some people told their stories of their
heritage & how they came into the church. so amazing!! okay but first i
have to tell you about K.... I LOVE HER!!! remember a few weeks ago we went to
visit some hmong members who speak english, but they weren't home, but the
gramma was? that's K, & she only speaks Hmong & we only speak English
but she is my BEST FRIEND hahaha EVERY TIME she sees us she just laaaaaaughs
and laaughs and laughs & hugs us & laughs & holds our hands &
laughs until she cries & covers her face with her hands hahaha she
thinks it's the funniest thing!! & i just love her!! she's the best haha
pssshh who cares about the language barrier?? she's awesome & we love her
so so much :) :) the best is when we can tell that she's making fun of the way
we mispronounce the hmong words hahahaha heyyyy!! sooooooooo funnyyyyyyyyyyy :)
:) :) love her.
so 2 of the older
Hmong ladies, K & Brother Y's mom N L, shared their stories. (Elder Y
translated.) WOW. just wow. I was telling Joseph, Hmong people come from Laos
& they helped us in the Vietnam war so they were hunted & chased out
their country into Thailand (i think) & then to the U.S. Brother &
Sister Y were both born in Laos. K told about the hardship she's endured in her
life as a farmer in Laos & how her mother died when she was a baby &
she was left alone her whole life, her dad didn't take care of her & she
was just alone to farm & take care of herself. she bore her testimony about
how now, having the gospel in her life, she knows that she is never alone. so
amazing. i didn't know what she was saying but i could still feel the spirit of
her words. so hard to imagine what her life used to be like. then N L, Brother
Y's mom, shared her story, & WOW. She told that when she was young she
lived with her brother & sister-in-law & learned a song about "God
loves me, God loves me" but then moved back in with her parents &
never heard any more about God. When she was married the situation in Laos
became very bad & she told her husband she wanted to leave but he said they
wouldn't have any food and besides, they had no potential so they might as well
just stay there & die. (!!!) But N L knew that her sons had potential, so
she moved her family out of Laos & sewed & sewed to make money so that
her family could eat. Shortly after they arrived in America, her husband died
& then one of her sons died, and she went into a deep depression where she
didn't sleep for 3 years. people would come & try to get her to learn about
their church but she didn't want to. her son S (s-t... brother y) invited her
to his church (LDS) but she said they he'd have to wait for her to pass away to
get her into a church. but then she met the missionaries and she felt the
Spirit and knew that it was true, that God loved her. It was so incredible to
hear her testimony.... I couldn't understand it (Elder Y translated every few sentences)
but I could feel the Spirit as she was talking. amazing. She said that now we
are her family, and she's grateful for all the trials in her life because
they've brought her here, to have the gospel in her life, and she just wants
her grandsons (s & e) to serve missions <3 so so so amazing. what a
legacy of faith. she bore her testimony at the end that the church is true.
"keep the commandments. pay your tithing. keep the commandments."
there was a quote that always made her emotional that i don't think i got down
right but it was something like "choose righteousness & walk away from
evil, and the sun will always shine on your face." anyways that was
amazing. & there were so many other amazing things from that night that
i'll have to write down later because i'm running out of time!! but the moral
of the story is who cares about the language barrier!! & i love the hmong
people!! :) :)
We went to
visit another Hmong family on Friday & watched the Mormon Message "He
Lives" with them (so good! ) & then afterwards the mom bore her
testimony to her son...... we taught about the resurrection & how we all
get our bodies back, which was news to him, & he was like, "well how
will i know where my family is??" hahaha so his mom said he'd just
have to follow Jesus Christ, & said but what if i get lost? & she said
-- "Jesus is the Light of life! If you follow him you will never walking
in darkness! That's like turning on the light & saying, "what if i
can't see?" of course you can see!" hahaha. such an awesome
testimony! i love it :)
Also Sister M
is a champion visiting teacher...... we were visiting with Sister B, who she
VT's, and she was telling us how Sister M had invited her to be the
"grandma" for her little kids (nathan & jacob! so fun) at
grandparents day :) & i just thought that was awesome :) also we read Alma
44 with Sister B & she said "oh my G-d he scalped him??" hahahaha
yep! hilarious :)
other
things...... I wish I spoke Spanish!!!! everyone....... take a foreign language
in high school. learn a foreign language haha i WISH i had!!! Also, learn to
play the hymns!! or at least conduct them!! i'm so so so so glad I know how to
play the piano, it's been such a service to the ward here & it feels so
good just to be able to offer to help if they don't have anyone to play the
piano & to be able to play whatever they ask. so thanks mom!!! haha :) I'm
playing the piano for the ward hmong choir next sunday!! we're singing
"come unto Jesus" & it's awesome :) :)
so basically,
life is awesome :) I love being a missionary!! Can't believe this transfer is
almost over already....... wow. where has the time gone??? i love you all SO SO
much!!!!! I'm SO grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I know that
through Jesus Christ we can overcome ALL weaknesses & truly become new. I
know that He is with us every day. I know that His Gospel is truly the only
path to enduring peace & happiness. I know that, & I'm so grateful for
that :) Also......... have you heard??????? God has again called a prophet!!!
yeah, it's true!! there's a living prophet again on the earth, who leads us
& guides us & SPEAKS WITH GOD & tells us how to have lasting,
enduring happiness!!! just like in the Bible!!! it's true!!!! tell your friends!!!!
hahaha.... but seriously though. general conference is the most AMAZING
thing!!!!!!! everyone needs to know about it!!! we have a PROPHET
again!!!!!!!!!!!! truth is restored!!!!! the priesthood is on the earth
again!!!!!!!!!!!! hallelujah, amen!!!!!!!!!!!! so tell all your friends :) :)
:)
:)
I love you!!!
You're the best :) Keep writing me letters! haha xoxoxoxoxoxoxox
SISTER PROFFIT
:) :) :)
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