P-Day once again!

Hey guyzz!! It's just after 9 here on a beautiful (to be read: extremely hot and humid) monday morning, and I'm excited to give an update on this past week and some thoughts about whatever comes to mind as I type. First thing, this week is transfer week, which means as of Wednesday, I will not be the youngest missionary (in time in the mission) here! As far as I know though, we won't be getting any new Hmong speaking Elders, but we will be getting a new zone and district leader. This first transfer has flown by so extremely quick, and I can't believe I'm already 4 (ish) months into my mission... I know that everyone says not to count the days and things like that, but I can't help it when time goes by so quickly!! By the way... anybody want to try and figure out how many transfers I have in my mission?... I couldn't keep any of the numbers straight when I tried to do it in my head... Anyway, fun facts! Only 1 more birthday, 3 more general conferences, 24 ish byu football games, and 3 calls home left on my mission!!! As you can see, I obviously try not to look ahead........ I got my birthday package this past monday, 1 week after my birthday. The mission president suggests that families send packages through the mission home where they will forward it to us. This is just to make sure the package isn't stolen or anything like that, but our apartment and neighborhood is plenty safe, and I completely trust packages to be sent right to our door. Other than all of this... It was a rather slow week. We had a few lessons set up and ready to go only to be cancelled on the day of! (unfortunately 2 of them were lessons with food promised....) That kind of dampened our spirits, but we were able to find what we think is another new investigator through these cancellations, so we are still happy and I guess it happened for a reason. Then, yesterday, we had the world wide training broadcast that was all about missionary work, but not just for missionaries, for everyone!! A few times during the conference we heard the familiar phrase "every member a missionary". It was a really good conference and the "big" announcement for those who don't know, was that missionaries during less productive times during the day will be able to do internet proselyting through e-mail, blog, facebook, and other sites like that! We don't know when our mission will be allowed to do this, but we know that it will be somewhere in the next year. It really sounds like it'll be a blast!! That's all the time I have for now, so I'll love you and leave you. If you have questions, don't be afraid to ask!! With much love, Elder Meej Mom

Meej Mom MADNESS

So sorry about the subject title... But I couldn't think of anything else to write.

SO! This week has been pretty eventful (in a good way) and I guess it all started off with a fantastic birthday!! We went to the mall here in Appleton where I got myself two new pairs of sunglasses on the cheap!! After kind of browsing around for a little longer, we went to the foodcourt and I chose Panda for myself... It was pretty d'rn tasty after so many weeks of Cheerios for breakfast lunch and dinner! Then we went to the church where we get to play all our sports. We usually start with either basketball or volleyball and after we get tired of that, we play what's called chair soccer. BASICALLY everyone has a little primary chair and you run around trying to kick the soccer ball into other people's chairs while still protecting your own. You would not BELIEVE how sweaty and hot that game makes you... It's great!! Then we went grocery shopping where I treated myslef to a bottle of Pepsi! I felt like a king! But seriously though, I wanted to thank everyone who thought about me and for the cards and e-mails that I got. I can't tell you how much it lifts a missionary's spirit when they get something like that!

But other than that, this week has been work!! While on exchanges, I found a family who wants to become active again, and have their kids baptized, so I really believe that my prayers were answered. The work is hastening!! Even as slow as it seems now! We have an appointment set up with them this coming tuesday I believe, and we can't wait to share a spiritual message with them.

We had an all mission conference last Saturday that was absolutely AMAZING!! There were 4 70's and an apostle, Elder Oaks who came to talk to us... Added bonus, one of the 70's was Gifford Nielson and he talked a little about his experience playing football for BYU. He told us that recently Lavelle Edwards had heart surgery, and as he was being wheeled into the operating room, he lifted his head and said to his wife "Call the bishop and tell him we won't be making it to tithing settlement today... But tell him that I'm a full tithe payer!!" That got a hardy laugh from the audience (about 200 missionaries). Another funny story, Elder Oaks was talking to us about our call as missionaries. He said that there are very few times in your life when you are 100% dedicated to the Lord. He said one of the only other times is if you are called as an apostle. He told us that Elder Packer was addressing the rest of the quorom of the 12 and he said "Our call is to grow old and die on the stage!" That got another good round of laughter!! Overall though it was a fantastic experience, and to be able to sit at the feet of these wonderful men and have them speak to us is something that I will have chronicled in my mind for the rest of my life. Elder Oaks said that we are a "prophetic priority" which means that in every temple prayer that the prophet or his apostles have, they pray specifically for us. What a wonderful blessing that is!! I consider myself lucky to be a representative of the Lord in these last days to proclaim this glad message!

And finally, to wrap up my week, we had a Hmong Family Home Evening. Any Hmong Family who can attend comes to one person's house were a lesson is shared, 4 or 5 songs are sung, food is served, and great conversations are had. I truly felt the spirit and a love for these people last night. I was also blessed with the ability to share my lesson and my testimony in their language with such little trouble, that thinking back now, I know the only way that I could have said all of the things that I said is through the power of the holy ghost and through the spiritual gift of tongues. And the music only intensified my feelings! There is a selection of hymns that have been translated into Hmong, and we had a great time singing some of them! Afterwards, we had pho... MMM!!! It was really deliscious and for those of you who haven't tried it, I'm sorry, I can't describe the taste. Mostly because you get to add the flavors that YOU want... For example, my companion likes his sweet and with mint, but I like mine salty and spicy!! We also played catch with a football in our white shirts and ties... A great time was had by all!!

Duty calls, but I hope you all know that I miss you, and that I'm saving up hugs for each and every one of you!!

 

Elder Meej Mom!!

19 going on 19 1/365

That's right... It's me! This'll be another shorter one since my companion and I have some birthday activities (or birth-tivities as I like to call them... wait no...) This week has really flown by... We had 2 days of training, so I didn't have a whole lot of time to be out teaching the good word of God, but we were still able to sneak in a few lessons. We were walking the 2 miles from our appartment to the house of one of the new members in our ward. While on our way we were stopped... That doesn't do it justice... A man with a long white beard chased us down yelling "STOP, STOP!!!" When he finally flagged us down he told us his name was Tinker.... yes Tinker... And invited us over for dinner. We are told to try avoiding having dinner with English families so we referred him to the English elders... DANG!! I really want to know how that one turns out though... I'll give y'all the update.... I read my e-mail from my family this week and something really stuck out to me... Age is all relative. That is so true, but I think that I have found that here on my mission, I can apply that to a lot of the (so called) difficulties that I have... I had to walk 5 miles my first day out... That is only relatively far when compared to our ancestors who walked hundreds and hundreds of miles. We are having a hard time finding people to teach. But that is only a relative difficulty when I compare it to those who served their missions in England when the church was first being established. I have a small amount of money each month, but only a relatively small amount when I compare it to the saints who sold their homes for small percentages of what they were really worth just so they could pull up stakes and move west. This week I have found myself thanking my heavenly father more fervently for the trials that I have, in stead of asking him to remove them from me. This mission may be relatively hard, but I thank my heavenly father every day that he has called me to do his work here, now, and in the Hmong language. LOVE you all, and hope you know how much I think about'cha!! PLEASE be good!! Love Elder Meej Mom

Hello Again!!!

This week has been really hard for us Hmong elders... We are having such a hard time finding people to teach! We have a folder with names of people that could be Hmong (Lis, Vaj, Yaj etc) and we try to visit all of them, but we can never seem to find anybody that is interested, or that are even home when we knock!! We have tried so hard, and we are still looking forward to this week, but we won't be having very many lessons... We did however get referred to a family of 5 and we found somebody who might be interested, so we will see what we can do with these two... This week I had to translate testimonies in our ward testimony meeting. This was relatively easy because I know the structure of testimony and a lot of the words... BUT, right as I got up to give my testimony, a Hmong brother got up as well... I sat down to wait for him to speak (he speaks english) but he asked me if I would translate Hmong-English which is only like a million times harder!! I was able to translate his first sentence, "I am happy to share this testimony with you" but the rest I had no IDEA what was coming from him... Luckilly, my Ward mission leader came up behind me and translated the testimony and whispered what I should say into my ear... Probably the most embarrassing thing that has happened so far, but it was a very good experience!!

I'm so happy to be out serving the Lord. I want to let everyone know that everything here is going good. My dad shared with me a quote this week saying that my job may not be to harvest all of the low hanging fruit, but that I may be the one planting the seeds. I know that this is the hardest thing I could be doing right now. But I know that the people that the Lord hasn't prepared for me to teach, those are the people that I am preparing for other people. I now recognize why numbers arent the most important things, but that it is all about what good may come months, a year, or many years after any initial contact. I am extremely blessed to have family and friends as truely wonderful as all of you, and just know that just as you pray for me, I pray for you as well... LOVE YOU!!!

Pictures from Alex's SD Card

What a cool name tag!

 Alex with the Hmong speakers

 First meal in Wisconsin

 Alex and Elder Vang

Alex's desk in his apartment

 Elder-saurus Rex :)

 

Alex's letter/testimony

We have a long list of things to do today, so I'll have to keep this one exceptionally short. Sorry!!! I was reading in the scriptures the other day, and I came accross a scripture that my Mom used to always quote... D&C 101:16 "... Be still and know that I am God." How many times in our lives do we get so worked up, so active, so busy that we forget to "be still?" I related this quote in a lesson that we had the other day. We were teaching about how we all feel the spirit. We know that it is a "burning in your bosom" but what in the world does THAT feel like? I shared this experience. In the MTC I knew that I had the spirit. I knew that I had it all my life, and many times in my prayers I would ask God to help me have the spirit. But I didn't know how I felt it... The very day that I began to wonder how I felt the spirit, we had a devotional about the Holy Ghost. Sister Sheri Dew talked to us all about how she had the exact same question I did. I knew I had the spirit, I knew it comunicated with me, but how? She encouraged all the missionaries to go home and pray about it that night. I did, and sure enough, I felt a familiar feeling (the Holy Ghost) and I realized that I sensed it through feelings of peace. I looked back at my life at the times when I felt that I had the Spirit closest to me, and I realized that all these times were accompanied by this exact same feeling. I would encourage everyone who reads this to do the same. Don't ask to have the Holy Ghost, don't ask to have it guide you, give you comfort or peace, but in stead ask God, the one person who would REALLY know, "How does the Holy Ghost communicate with me?" I promise that it will bless your lives. I'll try to leave myself a little bit longer for letter writing next week!! In the meantime, ask my family... They'll love it ;) Sib Ntsib Dua!! (Shee njee dooa!! See you later!!) Tub Txib Meej Mom

...to the family

Nyob zizzle m'nizzles!!

TAYLOR
Things in Appleton are going really good... Except it smells like Tanner's dirty diapers sometimes... What does the tramp look like? did you help build it? What fun stuff are you doing? did you have fun at the party!! Tell me, are you getting so excited to go to kindergarden? You better be a big kid and be nice to everyone, okay? I LOVE YOU!!!

ZACH
Hey buuuuddy! Have you jumped a lot on that new tramp lately? I hope so, because when I get back, I'm going to bounce you right over the neighbor's fence! I loved when I was done with those dumb ol' CRT tests! They are so easy, and all I wanted to do was go outside and have it be summer already!! I hear that you went to mcdonalds on monday morning. How fun!! Did you like ghost? what was your favorite part? I think mine was when he was singing "I'm henry the 8th I am, henry the 8th I am I am..." over and over to that one lady... Hilarious!! Well, I love you, be safe, say your prayers, and try reading some of the scriptures every morning (it can only be for like 5 minutes if you want!) BYEE

ANNIE
I'm so glad that you're finally done with all of the hard parts of school... But come ON!!! Live it up, woman!! You get to watch movies, tv shows, and mind numbingly boring documentaries!! For crap sake, I LIVED for the last 2 weeks of school! Sometimes the only thing that got me up and showered in the morning is that the faster I got the 8 1/2 weeks over with, the sooner I could watch movies in school... Geez, the people of your generation.... ;) I remember we had a choice of doing that criminal minds thing or another project, and I chose the other one, but I don't remember what it was, which means I must not have done a very good job at it.... Whoopsie...I don't want to say my olympic team was stinkier than tanner's diaper... But it was way stinkier than tanner's diaper... I try to block out that memory... You've always been a sleeper in movies! They're like your sleeping pills or something! It's hard to watch a movie through closed eyelids Annie... ;)Have you not ever seen all of Ghost?! It's a classic!! It's a Larsen family quotable!! Good grief, you're just fallling apart when I'm not there arent you?... Let me know how the last couple weeks of school go! I said it to Zach but it goes for you too, Pray e'er day, and read your Book of Mormon every morning. I have an hour to do personal study and it takes me maybe 30 minutes to finish 10 pages. At this rate I'll finish the Book every 53 days! Try reading (maybe not that much...)

MEGAN
Don't you just love the last couple weeks of school? I just want those days sprinkled lovingly throughout the rest of the year so that it doesn't all come at the end! Uh... 40 hours is a lot (at abs) hopefully they'll get some new people for the summer so that the workload wont all fall on you! I remember how hard it was getting excited for work when I had already worked like 4 days that week! Tell Conner that I look back fondly on those times. Even when he and/or Parker put hot sauce... or vineager... or salt... or pickle juice in my drink... Fun times, fuuuuuun times... I'm really glad that everything is starting to work out for you, and that everything is going positively. I read mom's favorite scripture the other day. D&C 101:16 "... Be still and know that I am God" and I just thought how much just sitting down and giving myself some time to think and ponder has done for me. I have that personal study every single morning, and it's something that I wish I had given myself back home. Maybe try it! give yourself 30 minutes in the morning to "be still" and you will be able to work out things you are questioning. My appartment is... not dirty? I'm doing my best to keep it clean, and there should be pictures (and a video) coming this week! MAY the force be with you... (get it????) MMMMBUHBYE!!

MOM
I got your letter on Friday. Thank you so much for sending it!! I loved it, and it was my first letter here in Wisconsin! I did speak in church, and from what I heard some of the member's say, they really enjoyed it. The Hmong members couldn't believe that it was only the 9th week that I had ever spoken Hmong in my entire life!! Appleton is pretty beautiful in some parts, and just like any other city it has its... not so good parts. But on the whole it really is very leafy and almost quaint, I really love it! Transfers are every 6 weeks, but we don't know when we will be transferred... Like I could be transferred next transfer, or I could be here for 9 months worth of transfers. Just wherever they need Hmong speakers! Elder Vaj is from California and he has been out for over a year. He is a convert and only decided about a year before he left to go on a mission... He's been a good first companion, and I've had to grow in some areas, and let some things go, but we get along great. I told President about Gramps and sure enough he remembers him!! He asked a little about him, but nothing to important. No idea about sis shumway... I'm having a great time here, dont worry about me!! BYEEE!!!

DAD
I can't believe they will be the Hornets again... (like that'll actually help them be better or anything...) I think we should be like the Utah Fightin' Seagles.... bring that up to management would ya?.....
RILEY!!! Yeah, I knew my back was broken. It was so broken I could feel it moving around in there. But I wanted to play, so thanks coach. GOOD FLINGIN' FLANGIN' GRIEF!!! He really needed to take himself out of the game, but the coaches needed to be man enough to say, no, your spine is split, sit down... Gah...
This year's team shouldn't be too awful, but when I get back, they'll really start to be good, so I'm looking forward to it!
Does it have 6,549 pieces? *crunch!* uh 548!
LOVE!!

HOPE EVERYONE LIKES THE PICS I SENT TODAY!!! BE GOOD Y'ALL!! LOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEESSSSSS