Feb 6.2017
Last week of training. Boo yah
Monday-saw a super sketchy place called candyland and of course went
in. It was way less sketchy inside and we ended up buying some candy.
Tuesday-we went to go biking, but as we left the house we noticed my
COMPANION'S bike had a flat tire...I feel like this happened last
week...well we had to drive. He had to go to the hospital for a weird
breakout on his skin and while there an old lady called us. We didn't
pick up but heard the message. It was blurry but we heard that she
wanted us to come over. We tried calling her but she didn't pick up
but we felt impressed to go. If we'd been riding bikes we couldn'tve
gone because it was too far, but since his tire popped we were
driving. We parked in the parking lot behind her house which is also a
parking lot to a hmong store and while saying the prayer before going
in we prayed to find new people to teach and heard a knock on our
window. A hmong women came up asking if we were missionaries and if we
could pray for her. So we did, apparently she's having hard times. We
can't go over because her husband won't let her, but she wants to come
to church as soon as possible. Also I snagged a guitar from someone's
trash can...it's pretty nice I don't know why they threw it
away...it's just missing a string. I don't know how to play but I've
figured out 5 or 6 songs by ear already
Wednesday-one of our investigators asked us to bless their son because
he was going into surgery to remove an extra piece of lung attached to
the bottom of one of his lungs. We had a very spiritual lesson with
them, and had our ward mission leader out with us which helped even
more because he can relate to them better
Thursday-i went on exchanges with the Karen speaking missionaries. I
got a name in their language which is pronounced eh htoo and means
golden love...thanks man...not quite sure what that means but I'll
take it. A less active named Bruce came out with us and fell asleep in
both lessons, but that's okay because he couldn't speak Karen and
neither can I so it was hard to stay focused at times.
Friday-met a Jewish hmong guy which is unheard of. He said basically
that it's critical that we know the truth because if we don't we are
living way under our privilege and are putting our happiness at risk.
We taught him using his Jewish version of the Bible. I opened it up
and read the first one I saw and it defined what a prophet is and said
we need one to guide us. That kind of set up the whole lesson.
Whenever we taught a point Wed open the book and find a scripture in
his book that taught the same thing.
Saturday-a ton happened but the coolest thing was finding a less
active who knows one of our investigators and she invited us to come
out with them to eat pho. Her son and daughter in law are members and
came with us. They asked us to keep coming back and teach their mom.
Sunday-we didn't have investigators at church so we just prayed for
help in the future. But to our amazement in walked a very less active
with his nonmember girlfriend and she wants to learn more. Later that
day we felt prompted to visit a certain house and so we did. The
father has cancer and the mother was a member 25 years ago in
California. He let us in and she was very annoyed we came. But halfway
through the lesson she said "my heart has been opened" and testified
to us that in the church she felt sure, and had strong faith, but
today she's scared for the future and doesn't feel as connected to
God. That was amazing lesson and I know that isn't the end of their
story yet.
1. candyland
2. Inside candyland
3. My companions bike tire
4. Dad's birthday buddy...happy birthday to you both!
5. Hmong district at zone conference. The bald guy is new, his name is
elder Hutchinson
6. The family that took us out for pho
Again technical difficulties--stay tuned---
Thursday, February 9, 2017
Flat Tires Mean Investigaors
January 30, 2017
So this week in the chronicles of elder Hutchins
1.monday we went to the Holy Land...or tried to. We wanted to see a
museum in Minneapolis,but they were all closed, except for one called
the Holy Land. It had no picture on the Google maps app or time it was
open so we just went. It was some random guys house...pretty run down
too and it had a midget door in the back...weird. Apparently you need
to make an appointment before hand. This person and his friends dress
up like biblical times and take you on a tour of the house and "bring
the scriptures to life"
We also went to a soap factory which was the only other thing that
didn't specifically say it was closed that day. Aaaaaand it was closed
too. But is also wasn't actually a factor for soap. It was like an art
factory for up and coming artists to make and display their works.
2. We did a service activity called 'feed my starving children'. You
pack up food for children all over the world in struggling areas. We
packed for Haiti and in 2 hours packed 125 boxes each with 36 bags
of food which we had to pack and seal.
3. Got super scared. There was supposed to be 2 new hmong elders
coming in on Wednesday and even though I'm still in training president
asked me to train one...but unfortunately one elder went home. Sad but
he'll be back in April, it also let's me learn a little more in the
meantime. But the one elder who did come is elder Hutchinson and he's
pretty cool as you can tell by the name.
4. The missionary schedule changed, so now we can decide when to do
everything, which is good because hmong people aren't really available
at certain times of the day and this allows us to get to them better.
5. Investigator wise, we left one with a children's book of Mormon and
not only did he read and love that, but he watched the hour long
Joseph Smith restoration movie. When he told us about it he said, "it
was good, but why did they KILL him!? That made me so ANGRY!" Hahaha
yeeeees Nplooj we often wonder that as well...
6. We biked, a ton. One day elder Lucero's bike tires were kinda low
on air so we went to a gas station. Turns out you need to pay for air
out here. We didn't have enough change so we prayed and when we opened
our eyes this woman just walked over and handed us what we needed and
drove away. So we used it....but the hose had a hole in it and we
couldn't fill his tires. Then a Mexican came over and told us where we
could get free air. So we drove over there, but it was not in fact
free. So we set up our bikes on their kickstands for a sec, because an
old granny was calling us. And the wind blew my bike over. I picked it
back up, finished the call and looked over, and I had a FLAT tire. I
have never seen one so flat, I mean flat Stanley has nothing on this
baby. So we had to walk 5 miles to the closest members house, who was
home and took us to get our car when we returned for our bikes we went
tracting and found 3 solid investigators. Also because my bike had a
flat tire, and his were bad we just took them into a shop and found,
that if elder L didn't get his bike fixed soon it would fall apart
with him riding it. Miracles. We see too many, not even gonna talk
about how he got the money to pay to fix his bike a day later.
7. It's been a great week. Crazy if I do say so myself. It's been
reeeeaaal easy to see gods hand in my life this week and for that I am
great full.
Elder Hwj Chim
The Holy Land
My new house
Service
A duck
Flat stanleys cousin
The medicine Granny from last week
Technical difficulties with photos--stay tunes--
So this week in the chronicles of elder Hutchins
1.monday we went to the Holy Land...or tried to. We wanted to see a
museum in Minneapolis,but they were all closed, except for one called
the Holy Land. It had no picture on the Google maps app or time it was
open so we just went. It was some random guys house...pretty run down
too and it had a midget door in the back...weird. Apparently you need
to make an appointment before hand. This person and his friends dress
up like biblical times and take you on a tour of the house and "bring
the scriptures to life"
We also went to a soap factory which was the only other thing that
didn't specifically say it was closed that day. Aaaaaand it was closed
too. But is also wasn't actually a factor for soap. It was like an art
factory for up and coming artists to make and display their works.
2. We did a service activity called 'feed my starving children'. You
pack up food for children all over the world in struggling areas. We
packed for Haiti and in 2 hours packed 125 boxes each with 36 bags
of food which we had to pack and seal.
3. Got super scared. There was supposed to be 2 new hmong elders
coming in on Wednesday and even though I'm still in training president
asked me to train one...but unfortunately one elder went home. Sad but
he'll be back in April, it also let's me learn a little more in the
meantime. But the one elder who did come is elder Hutchinson and he's
pretty cool as you can tell by the name.
4. The missionary schedule changed, so now we can decide when to do
everything, which is good because hmong people aren't really available
at certain times of the day and this allows us to get to them better.
5. Investigator wise, we left one with a children's book of Mormon and
not only did he read and love that, but he watched the hour long
Joseph Smith restoration movie. When he told us about it he said, "it
was good, but why did they KILL him!? That made me so ANGRY!" Hahaha
yeeeees Nplooj we often wonder that as well...
6. We biked, a ton. One day elder Lucero's bike tires were kinda low
on air so we went to a gas station. Turns out you need to pay for air
out here. We didn't have enough change so we prayed and when we opened
our eyes this woman just walked over and handed us what we needed and
drove away. So we used it....but the hose had a hole in it and we
couldn't fill his tires. Then a Mexican came over and told us where we
could get free air. So we drove over there, but it was not in fact
free. So we set up our bikes on their kickstands for a sec, because an
old granny was calling us. And the wind blew my bike over. I picked it
back up, finished the call and looked over, and I had a FLAT tire. I
have never seen one so flat, I mean flat Stanley has nothing on this
baby. So we had to walk 5 miles to the closest members house, who was
home and took us to get our car when we returned for our bikes we went
tracting and found 3 solid investigators. Also because my bike had a
flat tire, and his were bad we just took them into a shop and found,
that if elder L didn't get his bike fixed soon it would fall apart
with him riding it. Miracles. We see too many, not even gonna talk
about how he got the money to pay to fix his bike a day later.
7. It's been a great week. Crazy if I do say so myself. It's been
reeeeaaal easy to see gods hand in my life this week and for that I am
great full.
Elder Hwj Chim
The Holy Land
My new house
Service
A duck
Flat stanleys cousin
The medicine Granny from last week
Technical difficulties with photos--stay tunes--
Prepared
January 25, 2017
Boy am I glad my teacher forced me to take a citizenship test in 8th
grade. All these Hmong people out here need help studying and some of
the questions are weird. Especially to try and translate. But
everything I did whether I knew it or not, prepared me for these
people and I am glad for that.
Had my first presidents interview this week. That was fun. We learned
we're getting new Hmong missionaries this week. Also that the schedule
missionaries run on every day is changing pretty dramatically and that
should be released this week. And we learned who the new mission
president will be this June, his name is president Barney.
Unfortunately the stake president here died on Monday from a heart
attack while riding his bike. For now the 2 counselors have been told
to continue on in their duties until a new president is called.
We taught an investigator about temples and showed her a few pictures
including some of the salt lake temple. I had just downloaded a really
nice one of the salt lake temple and when we got to that specific
temple she said "oh no" we were like ummmm what's up...? Then she
launched into this very hard to understand thing about how she saw
that in a dream but couldn't go inside yet because she didn't have a
pass...Hmong people always have dreams like this.
I was asked as a missionary in training to invite 7 people to be
baptized this week. And at the end we have 5 date sets for the coming
month. One on feb 19, is actually the investigator's birthday.
A Hmong granny taught us all about Hmong medicine and gave us a ton.
She made us drink this water with some root in it that smelled like
rotting flesh and tasted about as bad. Apparently it's very curative,
but I may pass next time.
We learned some Hmong, Hmong culture and stuff from some members and
they showed us their stash of money from back in Thailand and Laos.
They even had the silver bars you buy wives with.
A lot of Hmong people are ready for baptism and believe and even want
to follow Jesus Christ but their husband or wife holds them
back...like VERY frequently. So it's hard for us to see them stuck,
and not progress when they want to. But I know the gospel is true and
if people open their hearts enough to hear a little bit, then they
will feel the love of Jesus Christ and know at least that the things
we teach are good.
Some Hmong money
A super heavy necklace
And some Hmong stitching which is pretty cool, they make nice ties
Note: technical difficulties with photos--stay tuned---
Boy am I glad my teacher forced me to take a citizenship test in 8th
grade. All these Hmong people out here need help studying and some of
the questions are weird. Especially to try and translate. But
everything I did whether I knew it or not, prepared me for these
people and I am glad for that.
Had my first presidents interview this week. That was fun. We learned
we're getting new Hmong missionaries this week. Also that the schedule
missionaries run on every day is changing pretty dramatically and that
should be released this week. And we learned who the new mission
president will be this June, his name is president Barney.
Unfortunately the stake president here died on Monday from a heart
attack while riding his bike. For now the 2 counselors have been told
to continue on in their duties until a new president is called.
We taught an investigator about temples and showed her a few pictures
including some of the salt lake temple. I had just downloaded a really
nice one of the salt lake temple and when we got to that specific
temple she said "oh no" we were like ummmm what's up...? Then she
launched into this very hard to understand thing about how she saw
that in a dream but couldn't go inside yet because she didn't have a
pass...Hmong people always have dreams like this.
I was asked as a missionary in training to invite 7 people to be
baptized this week. And at the end we have 5 date sets for the coming
month. One on feb 19, is actually the investigator's birthday.
A Hmong granny taught us all about Hmong medicine and gave us a ton.
She made us drink this water with some root in it that smelled like
rotting flesh and tasted about as bad. Apparently it's very curative,
but I may pass next time.
We learned some Hmong, Hmong culture and stuff from some members and
they showed us their stash of money from back in Thailand and Laos.
They even had the silver bars you buy wives with.
A lot of Hmong people are ready for baptism and believe and even want
to follow Jesus Christ but their husband or wife holds them
back...like VERY frequently. So it's hard for us to see them stuck,
and not progress when they want to. But I know the gospel is true and
if people open their hearts enough to hear a little bit, then they
will feel the love of Jesus Christ and know at least that the things
we teach are good.
Some Hmong money
A super heavy necklace
And some Hmong stitching which is pretty cool, they make nice ties
Note: technical difficulties with photos--stay tuned---
Say 'Hmong People' backwards and What Do You Get?
Janyuary 16, 2017
Well not too much happened this week. Just learned more about Hmong
culture and how literally everything has connections back to Israel
and customs they had. Also when the 10 tribes left they went up to
north countries and the Hmong people came from up north then went to
Mongolia and then to Laos. They have the blue eye blond hair gene and
tall gene still. They are also the only Asian religion to believe in a
god...and they say stuff backwards like blue shirt is shirt blue, and
if you say Hmong people backwards it's xeeb hmoob which sounds
veeeeery similar to Simeon....hmmm just food for thought.
We had some great spiritual lessons and will be inviting 7 people to
get baptized this week, definitely people that have been prepared by
Heavenly Father to hear his message.
Also gift of tongues is super cool, like talking to a woman who had a
dream very similar to lehis of the tree of life and I could actually
understand what she was saying. She's not a member and hasn't heard of
this church and when she heard a man in the Book of Mormon had a dream
like her, she was like hold on I'm gettin ma glasses, I need to read
this ASAP!
In other news our district focus is on recording all members (recent,
old, active, and not) conversion stories. It's helped get a few people
back to church by helping them remember why they joined the church in
the first place. This week we recorded a few more which were all
awesome and as a result had several less actives in church this Sunday
who are preparing to return to the temple.
It's 28 degrees out today which is weird ,and also super hot, short and
t shirt weather for sure.
Hmong are super family oriented ,and so either the entire family,
extended too, is home; or nobody is. This week we found one where all
the wives were together while the guys ice fished. So we taught a
lesson to 9 people, we split up and my companion and I taught 2
separate lessons, one in English and mine, in hmong. That happened 3
or 4 times this week, so, super cool I guess
Elder Hwj Chim
Well not too much happened this week. Just learned more about Hmong
culture and how literally everything has connections back to Israel
and customs they had. Also when the 10 tribes left they went up to
north countries and the Hmong people came from up north then went to
Mongolia and then to Laos. They have the blue eye blond hair gene and
tall gene still. They are also the only Asian religion to believe in a
god...and they say stuff backwards like blue shirt is shirt blue, and
if you say Hmong people backwards it's xeeb hmoob which sounds
veeeeery similar to Simeon....hmmm just food for thought.
We had some great spiritual lessons and will be inviting 7 people to
get baptized this week, definitely people that have been prepared by
Heavenly Father to hear his message.
Also gift of tongues is super cool, like talking to a woman who had a
dream very similar to lehis of the tree of life and I could actually
understand what she was saying. She's not a member and hasn't heard of
this church and when she heard a man in the Book of Mormon had a dream
like her, she was like hold on I'm gettin ma glasses, I need to read
this ASAP!
In other news our district focus is on recording all members (recent,
old, active, and not) conversion stories. It's helped get a few people
back to church by helping them remember why they joined the church in
the first place. This week we recorded a few more which were all
awesome and as a result had several less actives in church this Sunday
who are preparing to return to the temple.
It's 28 degrees out today which is weird ,and also super hot, short and
t shirt weather for sure.
Hmong are super family oriented ,and so either the entire family,
extended too, is home; or nobody is. This week we found one where all
the wives were together while the guys ice fished. So we taught a
lesson to 9 people, we split up and my companion and I taught 2
separate lessons, one in English and mine, in hmong. That happened 3
or 4 times this week, so, super cool I guess
Elder Hwj Chim
Ted the Taxidermist
January 9, 2017
The week in review.
Monday we met with a super shy Hmong girl who is a pro card player. We
can never beat her at anything. Well she doesn't want to come to
church because she's shy so we challenged her, if we beat her to come
to church. She said no, then we asked if we could both beat her and
she came in last, if she would come, and she agreed. What happened
next was we played a game called shampoo, and my companion and I were
praying super hard to ourselves. It was not looking very good as we
approached the end of the game. My companion won the game which left
us to figure out who came in 2nd, and last, and while sending up a
prayer I played my last card. She's coming to church folks. The
members said using the power of god in card games is cheating, but
hey, there are no rules against it...
This week we started an amazing district focus. To get the conversion
stories of every member, less active included. So we've been going
around recording and writing down everyone's stories and they are all
amazing. One reason is because Hmong people go less active very
frequently for a variety of reasons which are all terrible excuses but
that's beside the point. Having their story in their own words helps
to remind them of their experiences. It helped us get a few less
active families and individuals to church this week. We had 140 people
there which it's usually 80 so BIG difference.
We also had an investigator and his family come as well and they want
to come back. The gospel is already playing a role in their lives and helping bring
joy and peace when they had some scary things happen.
We found a few new investigators this week, one lives with another new
investigator we already had and while we were over there we taught her
too. She knows the most spiritual member in the branch and is her
close friend....hmmm how interreeessstiiiinnngggg. The other lives 25
miles from us (goodbye miles) he's very solid. He was talking about
how he believes the Book of Mormon even though he's never read it. He
knows god is real and has blessed this land above others because of
its faith. He accepted he invitation to be baptized on February 19 so
that's exciting.
We met a man named ted and his wife who's Hmong. He and his family are
hunters and he had taxidermized stuff all over his walls. Made me
think of ole chuck testa. He is super cool and wants to take us ice
fishing one Monday, apparently the ice is thick enough to drive on.
We were called to the hospital to give a baby a blessing, she was
having tracheal issues and swallowing and breathing problems in
general. It was a neat experience, and to be around a spirit so new to
this world, babies are cool.
While recording people they go off on other things sometimes, and so
is week we ended up learning a ton of cool Hmong culture like what
kind of Hmong people wear what clothes, and how they also sing
different songs and we had an older lady demonstrate for us, super
cool, she said they don't say I like you, or I love you because
they're too scared, they just sing a certain song to the person. I
don't know if that's actually easier....but hey if that's what you
want to do...
Elder Hwj Chim
The week in review.
Monday we met with a super shy Hmong girl who is a pro card player. We
can never beat her at anything. Well she doesn't want to come to
church because she's shy so we challenged her, if we beat her to come
to church. She said no, then we asked if we could both beat her and
she came in last, if she would come, and she agreed. What happened
next was we played a game called shampoo, and my companion and I were
praying super hard to ourselves. It was not looking very good as we
approached the end of the game. My companion won the game which left
us to figure out who came in 2nd, and last, and while sending up a
prayer I played my last card. She's coming to church folks. The
members said using the power of god in card games is cheating, but
hey, there are no rules against it...
This week we started an amazing district focus. To get the conversion
stories of every member, less active included. So we've been going
around recording and writing down everyone's stories and they are all
amazing. One reason is because Hmong people go less active very
frequently for a variety of reasons which are all terrible excuses but
that's beside the point. Having their story in their own words helps
to remind them of their experiences. It helped us get a few less
active families and individuals to church this week. We had 140 people
there which it's usually 80 so BIG difference.
We also had an investigator and his family come as well and they want
to come back. The gospel is already playing a role in their lives and helping bring
joy and peace when they had some scary things happen.
We found a few new investigators this week, one lives with another new
investigator we already had and while we were over there we taught her
too. She knows the most spiritual member in the branch and is her
close friend....hmmm how interreeessstiiiinnngggg. The other lives 25
miles from us (goodbye miles) he's very solid. He was talking about
how he believes the Book of Mormon even though he's never read it. He
knows god is real and has blessed this land above others because of
its faith. He accepted he invitation to be baptized on February 19 so
that's exciting.
We met a man named ted and his wife who's Hmong. He and his family are
hunters and he had taxidermized stuff all over his walls. Made me
think of ole chuck testa. He is super cool and wants to take us ice
fishing one Monday, apparently the ice is thick enough to drive on.
We were called to the hospital to give a baby a blessing, she was
having tracheal issues and swallowing and breathing problems in
general. It was a neat experience, and to be around a spirit so new to
this world, babies are cool.
While recording people they go off on other things sometimes, and so
is week we ended up learning a ton of cool Hmong culture like what
kind of Hmong people wear what clothes, and how they also sing
different songs and we had an older lady demonstrate for us, super
cool, she said they don't say I like you, or I love you because
they're too scared, they just sing a certain song to the person. I
don't know if that's actually easier....but hey if that's what you
want to do...
Elder Hwj Chim
Whoa! I am a Missionary!
January 2, 2017
Well this week was cool.
All the Hmong people tab tom hu plig, they're calling in spirits to their house for the new year so we can't go into their homes, unless they're Christian, and don't believe in that anymore.
I got a new companion on Wednesday for transfers. He is the first non native Hmong companion I've had. But he grew up with Hmong people in his school. His name is elder lucero, he's hilarious. In his apartment before he came here he was growing potatoes and pine trees. He is super funny. I got some sweet Hmong ties from a member and elder lucero knows how to make them, so I might try to make one myself.
We found a ton of new people this week, which is super awesome, now every hour of every day we have like 2 or 3 people to see. One cool story is that we were biking, and we went to bike up this hill, but both our bike chains broke at the same exact time in the same spot and we couldn't move. In my head I was like 'oh wow what a coincidence, this is like something that happens to missionaries when there are people to find or when they're about to see a miracle'. Then I was like
oooOOOOoooOoOoOohhhhHhHhHh!! Boy, I AM a missionary! So we parked our bikes and looked around, and lo and behold we found a Hmong family right next to where our bikes broke. They didn't let us in, because it was a little late, but then we went onwards, and met a family where the husband had literally just gotten home from the airport ,and was about
to walk out the door, and we caught them at the perfect time. We've already been back and will return again this week. They're super cool and want to learn more, so miracles were indeed seen.
Ate a ton of Hmong food this week. That family we found with perfect timing fed us some legit pho, there was like whole octopuses and pig intestines and the whole Shibang.
This week we got a whole less active family to come to church together, sometimes the oldest son will come, sometimes just the parents, but this week all of them came and they brought their cousin, and their 9 year old son who hasn't been baptized. Their family is hilarious, always asking where the food is at. After sacrament they came up and said elder Hwj Chim, where is all the food? Sorry guys we just have bread and water....not much else happened this week, so
until next time
Elder Hwj Chim
We tried to walk on the ice near our apartment but while on it there was this huge crack, and we quickly shimmied off the ice, if you listen closely you can hear it. This companion is elder vang, before we had changes.
Some SUPER sour fruit I forgot the name of
Some frog legs and rice, and some eggs made with that super sour fruit
Octopus pho
Chicken feet
Note: photo technical difficulties--stay tunes ...
Well this week was cool.
All the Hmong people tab tom hu plig, they're calling in spirits to their house for the new year so we can't go into their homes, unless they're Christian, and don't believe in that anymore.
I got a new companion on Wednesday for transfers. He is the first non native Hmong companion I've had. But he grew up with Hmong people in his school. His name is elder lucero, he's hilarious. In his apartment before he came here he was growing potatoes and pine trees. He is super funny. I got some sweet Hmong ties from a member and elder lucero knows how to make them, so I might try to make one myself.
We found a ton of new people this week, which is super awesome, now every hour of every day we have like 2 or 3 people to see. One cool story is that we were biking, and we went to bike up this hill, but both our bike chains broke at the same exact time in the same spot and we couldn't move. In my head I was like 'oh wow what a coincidence, this is like something that happens to missionaries when there are people to find or when they're about to see a miracle'. Then I was like
oooOOOOoooOoOoOohhhhHhHhHh!! Boy, I AM a missionary! So we parked our bikes and looked around, and lo and behold we found a Hmong family right next to where our bikes broke. They didn't let us in, because it was a little late, but then we went onwards, and met a family where the husband had literally just gotten home from the airport ,and was about
to walk out the door, and we caught them at the perfect time. We've already been back and will return again this week. They're super cool and want to learn more, so miracles were indeed seen.
Ate a ton of Hmong food this week. That family we found with perfect timing fed us some legit pho, there was like whole octopuses and pig intestines and the whole Shibang.
This week we got a whole less active family to come to church together, sometimes the oldest son will come, sometimes just the parents, but this week all of them came and they brought their cousin, and their 9 year old son who hasn't been baptized. Their family is hilarious, always asking where the food is at. After sacrament they came up and said elder Hwj Chim, where is all the food? Sorry guys we just have bread and water....not much else happened this week, so
until next time
Elder Hwj Chim
We tried to walk on the ice near our apartment but while on it there was this huge crack, and we quickly shimmied off the ice, if you listen closely you can hear it. This companion is elder vang, before we had changes.
Some SUPER sour fruit I forgot the name of
Some frog legs and rice, and some eggs made with that super sour fruit
Octopus pho
Chicken feet
Note: photo technical difficulties--stay tunes ...
Christmas Miracles
December 26, 2016
Well that was awkward. Skyped the fam this week. Cried. Pretty embarrassing if I say so myself. Crying is the worst, why does the spirit got to work like that?
Real quick
This week we got a flat tire, apparently we ran over nails. Whoops. Tried to get the tire off but the bolts were too tight. A nice guy named Greg stopped by to help us. He was missing a piece of his power tools so he went to buy it. In the meantime we put the wrench on the bolts and jumped on it to loosen them enough to fix it. Then Greg came back and helped tighten the bolts after we got the spare on. Had a nice conversation with him and shared a BOM, it was Christmas Eve after all.
We got a bag of rice for Christmas, it was much needed. We basically eat rice with everything and we had just run out.
It actually got warm outside, like 38 degrees, felt like summer after -20, unfortunately that meant the snow melted enough to freeze over on the roads the next morning. Driving out of the garage and around the corner we felt like professional drivers drifting with the back swinging out behind us before getting straight and driving on. It was crazy, but we're safe so it's cool.
Sandy got baptized on Christmas! She's so awesome. Even though she wasn't a member yet she's already been out teaching with us, visiting recent converts and less actives too. She bore her testimony at her baptism and it was so spiritual, she was like before the gospel I honestly had no emotions, I was a robot. But now I feel home, and I feel love and this means the world to me,I can't even explain how it feels. Yeahhhhh! That's right!
We made ginger bread houses with an investigator and their family. Well they made gingerbread houses, we made a ginger bread temple and then proceeded to teach a lesson on the temple, hahaha you thought we were just playing around!
Met with some less actives who reminisced on when they went to the temple and allegedly "gobbled up some holy water" apparently in the baptismal font one of the girls had swallowed a bunch of water because she didn't cover her nose. She was scared she would get in trouble for drinking it. Man Hmong people are funny.
For Christmas we went to a few members houses. My family sent me a deer John. My own family! Dang. It's actually this deer you put in the bathroom and it's motioned sensored and says things when it senses you. Creepy. Also now I think I have enough socks to last a lifetime.
Thanks everyone, I'm grateful for everything you do. Until next week
Hwj Chim lauj
Found this section in the bookstore. False advertising at it again,
these are most definitely not church approved.
Found da twist master, unfortunately I did not get my #manetamed
because it wasn't opened otherwise you know I would've.
Made some homemade spice sauce, definitely spicy.
The beloved gingerbread temple
A funny looking Hmong video
When the missionaries went caroling to a senior home
Two nails stuck in our tire
Sandy at her baptism
Note: having trouble uploading the photos--will check back at a later date...
Well that was awkward. Skyped the fam this week. Cried. Pretty embarrassing if I say so myself. Crying is the worst, why does the spirit got to work like that?
Real quick
This week we got a flat tire, apparently we ran over nails. Whoops. Tried to get the tire off but the bolts were too tight. A nice guy named Greg stopped by to help us. He was missing a piece of his power tools so he went to buy it. In the meantime we put the wrench on the bolts and jumped on it to loosen them enough to fix it. Then Greg came back and helped tighten the bolts after we got the spare on. Had a nice conversation with him and shared a BOM, it was Christmas Eve after all.
We got a bag of rice for Christmas, it was much needed. We basically eat rice with everything and we had just run out.
It actually got warm outside, like 38 degrees, felt like summer after -20, unfortunately that meant the snow melted enough to freeze over on the roads the next morning. Driving out of the garage and around the corner we felt like professional drivers drifting with the back swinging out behind us before getting straight and driving on. It was crazy, but we're safe so it's cool.
Sandy got baptized on Christmas! She's so awesome. Even though she wasn't a member yet she's already been out teaching with us, visiting recent converts and less actives too. She bore her testimony at her baptism and it was so spiritual, she was like before the gospel I honestly had no emotions, I was a robot. But now I feel home, and I feel love and this means the world to me,I can't even explain how it feels. Yeahhhhh! That's right!
We made ginger bread houses with an investigator and their family. Well they made gingerbread houses, we made a ginger bread temple and then proceeded to teach a lesson on the temple, hahaha you thought we were just playing around!
Met with some less actives who reminisced on when they went to the temple and allegedly "gobbled up some holy water" apparently in the baptismal font one of the girls had swallowed a bunch of water because she didn't cover her nose. She was scared she would get in trouble for drinking it. Man Hmong people are funny.
For Christmas we went to a few members houses. My family sent me a deer John. My own family! Dang. It's actually this deer you put in the bathroom and it's motioned sensored and says things when it senses you. Creepy. Also now I think I have enough socks to last a lifetime.
Thanks everyone, I'm grateful for everything you do. Until next week
Hwj Chim lauj
Found this section in the bookstore. False advertising at it again,
these are most definitely not church approved.
Found da twist master, unfortunately I did not get my #manetamed
because it wasn't opened otherwise you know I would've.
Made some homemade spice sauce, definitely spicy.
The beloved gingerbread temple
A funny looking Hmong video
When the missionaries went caroling to a senior home
Two nails stuck in our tire
Sandy at her baptism
Note: having trouble uploading the photos--will check back at a later date...
Many are Cold, But Few are Frozen
December 19, 2016
Well. Interesting week indeed.
Went on exchanges Saturday with the Spanish speaking zone leader. Thank heavens I took Spanish for 2 years, so instead of understanding ABSOLUTELY nothing, I understood ALMOST absolutely nothing, shoutout to LHS and my great Spanish teacher who got fired, because she was so bad. She even showed us a step by step video of how to make cocaine...if you ever need my skills you know where I am. I digress, the exchange was nice and while I couldn't understand all the words that were said, i could feel the spirit.
The next day my normal companion got emergency transferred to an English area because one of the elders there is going home for shoulder replacement surgery...this elder is 18 and needs a new shoulder...scary stuff. So elder vang is gone, now my companion is elder vang ( native Hmong names are so creative am I right?) he'sgreat.
In teaching this week, we had a few awesome experiences. There was a street that we had felt impressed to go finding on a few weeks in a row, but never got the chance, because we were so busy, we finally did and it turns out there are 2 Hmong families who have definitely been prepared to receive the gospel.
Our date set for the 24 didn't come to church and so hasn't met the 3 week attendance requirement. She texted
us saying, hey I can't make it today I have some family matters that came up, since I didn't make the 3 week rule, can I be baptized on Christmas after church. Well she can, and is being baptized next Sunday. Just a blessing and really cool to see how much her faith has grown, to the point where she knows what she needs to do, and wants to do it as soon as possible.
Some funny things that happened this week. We saw a Hmong lady well tracting, but every 10 minutes or so during the lesson she'd just get up and walk out, then come back a little later. Turns out she was making a giant pot of moonshine in the garage, like the whole get up and everything and she was making sure everything was going smoothly. So that was pretty funny.
We tried to make a snowman. Unfortunately it is too cold, so the snow is super dry and can't be packed. It got down
to -22 degrees the other day so not many people were in church. One of our favorite less active families is moving. We're sad because they haven't started coming back to church yet, but they did get robbed two times in the last week, and the daughters car just died, she tried to sell it, apparently it's worth only $25, I thought that was hilarious. She ended up donating it to a charity.
And lastly a little miracle, one of our date sets was busy so we couldn't teach them, but we went over anyways, we could only stay for 5 minutes because after that she needed to go. But, miraculously her thing got canceled and so
we got to teach her a lesson. Tender mercies.
One of our recent converts had her father pass away, so went to the funeral for a little bit with some members from our ward which really cheered her up. While there one of the members convinced me I should go to Laos after my mission during Christmas break in college. That's when the weather is perfect, when the Hmong people are having their New Years parties, everything is even cheaper, and there's lots of food. He also said its cultural law that you don't touch or mess with
white people or you can get in big trouble. So I'd be pretty safe, plus I can speak Hmong alright, hopefully better after my mission, but basically it would be an awesome experience. He said living there for two weeks you wouldn't spend more than $700 the only expensive thing is the airplane tickets. We tried to make a snowman here but the snow is too dry and powdery, so we poured a bunch of water in the snow, which helped a little, but we could only make a tiny little dude.
Well. Interesting week indeed.
Went on exchanges Saturday with the Spanish speaking zone leader. Thank heavens I took Spanish for 2 years, so instead of understanding ABSOLUTELY nothing, I understood ALMOST absolutely nothing, shoutout to LHS and my great Spanish teacher who got fired, because she was so bad. She even showed us a step by step video of how to make cocaine...if you ever need my skills you know where I am. I digress, the exchange was nice and while I couldn't understand all the words that were said, i could feel the spirit.
The next day my normal companion got emergency transferred to an English area because one of the elders there is going home for shoulder replacement surgery...this elder is 18 and needs a new shoulder...scary stuff. So elder vang is gone, now my companion is elder vang ( native Hmong names are so creative am I right?) he'sgreat.
In teaching this week, we had a few awesome experiences. There was a street that we had felt impressed to go finding on a few weeks in a row, but never got the chance, because we were so busy, we finally did and it turns out there are 2 Hmong families who have definitely been prepared to receive the gospel.
Our date set for the 24 didn't come to church and so hasn't met the 3 week attendance requirement. She texted
us saying, hey I can't make it today I have some family matters that came up, since I didn't make the 3 week rule, can I be baptized on Christmas after church. Well she can, and is being baptized next Sunday. Just a blessing and really cool to see how much her faith has grown, to the point where she knows what she needs to do, and wants to do it as soon as possible.
Some funny things that happened this week. We saw a Hmong lady well tracting, but every 10 minutes or so during the lesson she'd just get up and walk out, then come back a little later. Turns out she was making a giant pot of moonshine in the garage, like the whole get up and everything and she was making sure everything was going smoothly. So that was pretty funny.
We tried to make a snowman. Unfortunately it is too cold, so the snow is super dry and can't be packed. It got down
to -22 degrees the other day so not many people were in church. One of our favorite less active families is moving. We're sad because they haven't started coming back to church yet, but they did get robbed two times in the last week, and the daughters car just died, she tried to sell it, apparently it's worth only $25, I thought that was hilarious. She ended up donating it to a charity.
And lastly a little miracle, one of our date sets was busy so we couldn't teach them, but we went over anyways, we could only stay for 5 minutes because after that she needed to go. But, miraculously her thing got canceled and so
we got to teach her a lesson. Tender mercies.
One of our recent converts had her father pass away, so went to the funeral for a little bit with some members from our ward which really cheered her up. While there one of the members convinced me I should go to Laos after my mission during Christmas break in college. That's when the weather is perfect, when the Hmong people are having their New Years parties, everything is even cheaper, and there's lots of food. He also said its cultural law that you don't touch or mess with
white people or you can get in big trouble. So I'd be pretty safe, plus I can speak Hmong alright, hopefully better after my mission, but basically it would be an awesome experience. He said living there for two weeks you wouldn't spend more than $700 the only expensive thing is the airplane tickets. We tried to make a snowman here but the snow is too dry and powdery, so we poured a bunch of water in the snow, which helped a little, but we could only make a tiny little dude.
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