Monday, December 15, 2014

Hmong New Year!!!

We had a super exciting weekend! So I'll give a brief overview of everything else and get right to it. So this week, we met with Joyce again. She is as funny as ever, and surely as talkative! We spent the lesson talking about the Plan of Salvation, which she has had the most questions about. She seemed to understand and like most of it, but we are still trying to break through that wall between knowledge and application. She cried at one point in the lesson and asked "Do you ever feel really sad for Jesus Christ and all he went through?" I had the opportunity to bear my witness of the reality and enabling power of the atonement. It wasn't for nothing, and it wasn't just so one Man would suffer, but so that all men wouldn't have to. Skipping to Saturday, we went to the Hmong new year event! We didn't think that we would be able to make it, there were no buses to the sports complex where they held it, but at the last second, we got a ride with 2 investigators! It was awesome! I was able to do a little souvenir hunting, and scored 3 English movies translated into Hmong: Cars (Tsheb) Monsters University (Tsev Kawm Ntawv Dab) and Despicable me (something like... Saib kuv khawb qhov muag) We had great food, and saw quite a few members and investigators there. Afterwards we had our branch Christmas party, with more food, more members, and more investigators! I may have even snuck a picture with the big jolly elf himself!
--Elder Larsen!

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Thanksgiving...and a LOT of it!

I'm still working off all of that food that I ate this last Thursday. I'll just give a little recap of what went down. It all started on Sunday. We still had no invites to Thanksgiving, so we were debating whether or not we should mention it to anyone. Of course we didn't because, c'mon, that's just something that you don't do as a missionary. Church started, and our Branch president mentioned it over the pulpit, so we felt confident that something would happen, but by the end of church, still nobody had signed up. We weren't too terribly bugged by it, so we planned to eat out at one of our favorite restaurants. We got a text later that night though, inviting us to a 3 family Thanksgiving meal. So Thursday came and we had our turkey bowl at 8 (bus riding that early on a holiday STINKS!!) but we got there. It was only 15 degrees or so for most of the game, but we played hard and each shed layers by the end of the game. We're all still sore too. We then went home for a quick repose, and then traveled to the Leakes house where we had everything that you would imagine that a normal Thanksgiving would have-- turkey, rolls, potatoes, pies, ciders, stuffing... MMM!!! I even had sweet potato casserole for the first time in my life! I ate myself sick, and had to take a little break to let it all settle. Thanksgiving and a LOT of it! Unfortunately there is NOTHING else to report. A very slow week. All but 1 of our set appointments cancelled, so we tracted pretty heavily.... Anyway, 25 days til Christmas!! LOVE YOU!

GRATITUDE

Hello to one and all!!
Elder Lor and I are having a GREAT time so far! We have had some things keeping us from doing a ton of work (cancellations, bus rides, missed appointments, bus rides, dinners, bus rides...) But, we're still having a blast! We've already decided that we're going to write a rap and put it to a music video of us just dinking around. It's weird to think how soon this Christmas is coming! Only a month from now what will I be doing? And along THAT train of thought, 4 months from now what will I be doing. There isn't much to report on other facets of the work, Tony is still reading the Book of Mormon, Eh Say and Say Paw are working towards a baptism date (I'll have to tell you more about them next week!) and Joyce rescheduled our appointment for next week. I'm gearing up for Thanksgiving with a list of gratitude, and here is a good little sample:
Family, friends, Hmong people, my warm coat, my warm apartment, my companion, my scriptures and studies, my education, my health... Gosh, the list goes on... But my time doesn't. LOVE YOU, have a good Thanksgiving!