Xyoo Tshiab Zoo (Happy New Year)!

NYOB  ZOO!!! (Hello Family)

Thov txim (I'm sorry). I know its Wednesday and you're just getting this...  With Hmong New Year, the Hmong elders got permission to move preparation day to Wednesday so that's why you’re getting a late letter. 

HMONG NEW YEARS: 

SUCCESS! It lasted from the Dec 26th-Jan 1st. We went everyday from about 8ish-5pm. We had a booth set up and we were talking to everyone... literally thousands of people. I got sick and lost my voice because it was freezing cold out there but it was all good. We have a few hundred names of people were going to go visit so that is super exciting as well. There was a lot of food there...but we stuck with our Hmong "roots" (Hmong sausage, sticky rice, pepper etc.). I bought some stuff so I’ll be getting a package off soon. 

Otherwise, Hmong New Year’s was really exhausting. You are on your feet all day so it gets tiring. However at the end of the day, it’s SUPER rewarding to see how many people you talked to and were able to teach. 

 Scott says that this is his 'Hmong pose'

JANUARY 31st: 

We had to have our car parked at the apartment at 6 pm so a member drove us out to dinner. We went to a Korean restaurant with some Young Single Adults that are home for the holidays. Then, we had a very uneventful "in bed at 10:30" evening...so HAPPY 2013!!!!! Hahaha

Also, I forgot to let you know but on Christmas we watched "Brave" so that was amazing! (Really good movie, and I loved the Scottish accents.) 

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT: 

I read this quote is Spencer W. Kimball's book; Miracle of Forgiveness. "The real tragedy is the tragedy of the man who never in his life braces himself for his one supreme effort, who never stretches to his full capacity, never stands up to his full stature." -Arnold Bennett 

I thought about this and I realized that we have so much divine potential. We have so much we can achieve. But we must make the decision to achieve it. To really just go and do it. It is the same in the gospel. We just have to do it! Not merely try. Not just try our best. But really do it. I know that we can do it through the strength and power of the atonement of Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father is simply waiting on us to realize it.

LOVE YA ALL SOO MUCH! Hope everything is going well. Keep asking me questions! 

Elder Tseem Fwv Leem 'Xai Yob' Vaj 

Another Shorty

December 10th, 2012

 

Tsev neeg, 

So I'm so sorry that this letter is so short, but I have no time right now to get everything done.  I did send the calling instructions for Christmas day! 

Here's my spiritual thought for the week: 

"Work will win when wishy washy wishing won't" 

-President Thomas S. Monson 

Sorry that I don't have time to expound but it's an awesome quote.  I love you all so much! Let me know if you have any questions or anything and I'll be happy to answer them. 

LOVE, 

 

Elder Tseem Fwv Leem 

XOXOXO

Fresno Days (Lost in Translation...)

December 3rd, 2012

NYOB ZOO TSEV NEEG UAS KUV HLUB TIAG TIAG! [Dear Family I Love You Truly!]

Things are going really well here in Fresno, Pioneer Park East. We just had president interviews this last week and they were awesome. Its great getting 1-on-1 time with President. You get correction, inspiration, love, everything...just in one big package! He's the best! Our area is doing really well too! We've been finding a lot of people to teach and just getting ready for baptisms so its REAL good. 

We have been teaching the Hmong class and we've been doing a lot more tracting. We haven't seen the results from the Hmong class yet, but we have been working hard in our finding efforts. 

This last Sunday, we had epic fail translating moments! It was pretty funny. We were translating for Sunday School and it was just bad. The teacher kept asking us (missionaries) questions and I'm translating...."So she's now asking us a question and we don't really understand her." (Note: questions about Zedekiah and Brother of Jared's name.....I'm saying WHAT?! right?) Hahaha. Yeah, still working on the Hmong. 

Answers to Mom's Questions:

So yeah, we run every day still. Nope Hmong is still hard to learn even with a native speaker. Also, we didn't get to see the devotional. The stake decided not to broadcast :(  Also, I'll let you know about the calling at Christmas stuff. We will be receiving instructions in the next 2 weeks.

Spiritual Thought

Also, I had a really cool experience this week. We had just got done teaching a family and it was dark outside. As we were walking to the car, I got chastised by the spirit about "TALKING TO EVERYONE." As missionaries, God prepares people for us to find and teach. However, because we don't always know who those people are we have to talk to everyone. By talking to everyone you can find the prepared people. However, as Hmong missionaries we sometimes shy away from talking to people other than Hmong. In my heart I realized, I was wrong for not talking to ALL PEOPLE that crossed our paths. Therefore, I said in my heart: "Father, I'm sorry I haven't been talking to everyone. Please forgive me for this. Please give me someone right now and I will talk to them, NO MATTER WHAT." Now remember its dark outside and nobody is around. But right when I said this silent prayer in my heart, a garage door opened and a man walked out. Then, as I had promised, I went and talked with him. He was willing to let missionaries come back and I knew that it was no coincidence he came outside at that very moment. I know that God answers our prayers. He hears us! He loves us! He is literally our Father and He is concerned with the details of our lives. So for anyone that may not know this or may have forgotten; GO TRY IT! Ask Him if He's really there. Promise Him you will act when He gives you an answer. Then JUST DO IT (NIKE)! 

Love you all! Hope you are all doing well. 

LOVE 

ELDER TSEEM FWV LEEM XAI YOB VAJ

Fresno Days (Of Companions & Volleyball)

November 26, 2012

Hey Family, 

 

Glad to hear everyone is doing well. That's pretty great Dad went up to NY for Helping Hands. Hopefully I'll hear about it when I get his letter. Glad you liked Black Friday shopping, Mom. For us, we did weekly planning for 3 hours so that was good.

 

Sorry that I haven't let you know about my  companion. His name is Chenou Xiong. He is native Hmong and he is from Colorado. He is super funny! He is really good at Hmong because he is Hmong. He is a little shorter and is pretty athletic though....VOLLEYBALL! It's like all Hmong people are pros at volleyball. Also, it's just our companionship at our apartment. However, when the Hmong New Years celebrations start, we will have other elders staying with us because they will be coming down from Merced and Atwater for the proselyting/celebration opportunity.

 

Also, right now we have a ton of people getting ready for baptism. We have some part-member families that are preparing their kids for baptism and some young single adults as well. We are super excited for them. I think there will be at least 2 baptismal services in December so the work is going really well right now! 

THANKSGIVING: 

It was so awesome. We went and played at the turkey bowl with our members and it was fabulous. I never realized flag football could be so rough. I was so sore these last few days. We had 2 dinners to go to but we missed one for the other. We were going to go eat with President Gelwix at a member's home, but we ended up going to dinner with a potential contact at another member's house. We also watch two movies that were approved for thanksgiving; Forever Strong and 17 Miracles. 

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT: 

"Knowledge of the gospel is the essence of a testimony. Consistently being true to that knowledge is the essence of conversion." We all know about the right things, but doing them is a different story. I think a lot of people have a testimony but not everyone is converted to the gospel. We all have a lot of work to do to become 100% converted. So let us all take the time to go and strengthen our testimony by living it and therefore become more converted unto Christ. 

Love you all so much! Sorry that I haven't been able to write back to everyone yet. I'm getting around to it. Continue to ask me questions about everything and I'll be sure to answer them. LOVE YA

Kev Hlub,

Es Daws Fwv Leem 

Shortest Letter Ever...

November 19th, 2012

 

Dear Family,

 

I apologize I don't have any time to email because we played flag rugby as a zone activity. So, I will be happy to relay all of the thanksgiving festivities next week. But it looks like we will have 7+ dinners so should be good :)

 

Spiritual message is this:

 

"Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

President told us that so...let's go do all our work with enthusiasm.

 

Love ya all! So sorry I didn't write more this week!

 

LOVE,

Tseem Fwv Leem

Fresno Days (The Doghouse Grill)

November 12th, 2012

 

Family-

 

How's it going back home? Glad to here everyone had a good birthday with Regan.  It sounds like you did NY big!

Anyways, our mission is on fire right now. We have a goal of 1200 baptisms this year and we have a lot of work to do but I know that we will get it. We have set 5 baptismal dates in one week...CrAzY!! Elder Xiong is awesome. He is from Colorado and is Native Hmong so its really great to have his language skills. Our ward just recently downsized. The Hmong YSA is being moved to combine with the English YSA so that's drama.

Some good news is that the Fresno North Stake put on a musical about the founding of the country and God's hand in raising up this nation. Super cool! All the youth were involved and there was some dancing, singing, patriotic stuff...! Real Good. Sorry to hear that your boy 'Mitt' didn't win. Don't worry, its not the end of the world....yet. Hahaha. My favorite thing to say is: "e'ryone just need to calm down." 

 

I don't know if you've ever heard of it but there is this thing called a tri-tip...its slamming! Its some sort of cut of meat that just blows my mind. You should look it up: Doghouse Grill...they are look a one-time sandwich place here in Fresno that specialize in tri-tip. Amazing! 

We also had special training from a former Assistant that extended his mission for 3 weeks. He tours around and gives training to different companions around the mission. So we were able to be with him for 4 days. His name is Elder Owens and he is the best missionary I've ever met. Me and Elder Xiong have learned so much from him. It was awesome. 

Costco has been treating us well. I have to go get a flu shot and I'm kinda nervous about that but we'll see. We also have a zone conference coming up tomorrow so that'll be good. Looking forward to getting some training from President Gelwix. 

Well I've got to get going! So my message for the week is this:

 

 “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” - Benjamin Franklin

I know that it is through effective planning that we achieve our goals. If we want to reach our full potential, we have to plan and then go do it. Therefore, when we plan with the Lord, then we can truly become what He intended us to become.

Well, I love you all! Good luck with everything and keep me posted.

LOVE
TSEEM FWV LEEM

Crazy Fresno Days!

November 5th, 2012

NYOB ZOO! 

So glad to hear you survived the hurricane.

Me and my new companion are doing some great work here in Fresno. We have found new investigators and have been working extremely hard.

We went and got a Costco card together so now we are hoping to save a little bit of money that way.

I got the package as well but it was after Halloween. Super Sad but I appreciate all the candy and the awesome scriptures with it. They don't send packages from the mission home during transfers because they don't know where the missionaries addresses are and when mail will get there so they wait until they know the right packages will get to the right missionaries so I got it late but no big deal.

Super excited for Ray Ray's b-day! Can't believe she will be 18!!!! Time be a flyin'!

Driving has been really fun. I'm learning the area really well. The members are continuing to be awesome. They feed us super well! 

Last Saturday, our schedule was crazy! We woke up at 6 and went farming as service for a member. We took huge (I mean huge) tarps and covered lemon grass for the winter so that was fun... After, we had to go teach Hmong class which has been awesome but we were super rushed all morning. Then we had a ton of appointments so cRaZy! 

Also, we had the ward Halloween party which was adorable. A ton of little kids dressed up...hilarious hahaha! We set up our car for the trunk r' treat and it looked like a shark so it was pretty awesome. 

We have been tracting more and its super scary when we think a house is Hmong and it turns out to be English. Definitely give English elders props for dealing with white people :) 

Everyone in the church is flipping out about Mitt so that'll be interesting to see what happens. 

Also, today we played ultimate and rugby (two hand touch missionary style) outside the church and it was sooo much fun. 

Well here is my spiritual message for the week: 

"JUST DO IT!" -Nike 

Sometimes we just need to go do the right thing. I noticed that a lot of people sometimes just are lazy or hesitate doing the thing that they know they need to do. It’s super frustrating for missionaries especially because we just want everyone to do the right thing! So, I invite you to "just do it!" It may be hard, but always worth it in the end. Love you all!

Love, 

Elder Tseem Fwv Leem Vaj