Email #7

Nyob Zoo! Kuv hlub nej!

Hello! I'm still slightly in shock it is another P-day again. The days are flying by so quickly, it is so strange! I feel like at this rate, I'm going to be home in what feels like a week! No offense, but I really don't want it to feel that way :) This past week has been amazing! Even though it was slightly sad to think that you guys were literally a couple blocks away from me on the 4th of July, I had such a good time here! They ended up having this big devotional thing where they celebrated the rights of all the countries around the world, and then after we got Ice Cream and got to go watch the fireworks go off out in the grass around the MTC. I was weird because we were out there until 11, which I've NEVER stayed up that late since being here! It was awesome to be able to see the fireworks though, made me feel like I was with you guys.

The language is coming along. At moments, it's daunting, and at other times, it feels like I'm on top of the world. It's crazy how much of not just Hmong, but Thai and Laotian words were are learning as well, since they are so incorporated into American Hmong. I think I also now know how to say hi in at least 10 different languages! I'm also finding that I really like Green Hmong more than White Hmong, even though we've only been learning about it for a little while. It sounds so crazy to speak it! It kind of sounds like Chinese, just really off. I LOVE IT!

My teacher, Brother Luke, said something really interesting this week that has really stuck a cord. It was on a day that as a companionship we were getting frustrated with the language, and he talked with us about how 'we are all prodigies in Hmong in a sense because we were all preordained before this life to learn Hmong.' Whoa! I never thought about my mission in that eternal of a perspective of before, but now that I think about it, I am sure that it is so true. With that perspective in mind, it helps me to be more patient at myself when I may be feeling frustrated or like I am not learning fast enough.

 

I really CAN NOT wait to get out into Fresno. I really do love it here in the MTC, but we've been here so long now that we've been here longer than almost everyone here. It's weird because we always have some English missionaries in our zone, but they are only here for 3 weeks (JEALOUS!), so we've gone through 4 sets of them already I think. It makes me so excited to actually get out there! I know that I'm probably not going to understand what is going on for months, but I'm ready to just trust in the Lord and throw myself in the Lord's work. It's so rewarding to work completely and singly for the Lord. I go to bed utterly exhausted, but utterly satisfied as well, knowing that I'm consecrating my time to helping God's children return to Him through Jesus Christ.

As a companionship, we have made a huge improvement this week in teaching in unity and, more more importantly, teaching with the Spirit. Yesterday we had an 'appointment,' and our investigator was having a hard time understanding why he needed to 'luam dab', or end ancestral worship if he wanted to be baptized. The three of us completely ditched our original lesson plan and taught what seemed to be a powerful lesson, and I could feel the Spirit so strongly. The 3 of us work really well together. I think that 3-way companionships usually have a bad wrap here in the MTC because it almost always turns out that two of the companions grow close or are similar, and one is left out. It is completely opposite for us! We all get along really well! I've already convinced the other two they really need to transfer to BYU after their missions. And (I don't know if I'm not supposed to be saying this or not...) just saying, I am already planning on one day going to Harry Potter world with Elder Lowry, he lives an hour away from it! Haha had to say it...

 

I sent that SD card in the mail, so hopefully you guys will have some pictures soon!

I love you guys so much! I really do feel so blessed for this life that I have been given. How many people in the world, in all-time, have the means and the opportunity to be able to serve the Lord for two years and help His children? I know it's not many, and I'm so blessed for this opportunity I have been given. I hope to make the most of it, and become the servant that the lord would have me be. It's hard. Every day. It never gets easier. But you get stronger, because Christ is right by your side helping you.

KUV HLUB NEJ!

- Es Daws Tooj

Email #6

Well it's official, I'm passed my half-way point here at the MTC! I'm feeling kind of bipolar because I'm both EXTREMELY happy that I am that much closer to actually being out in the field serving God's children, yet also worried because that means I actually need to be able to speak Hmong. Regardless, this week has been a big week in our tri-companionship. We're really revamping our efforts to work as hard as we possibly can these last few weeks here at the MTC. Like I said last week, all classroom instruction is now done in Hmong, and we're supposed to be speaking Hmong outside of class 24/7. It's really challenging, but I can totally see the benefit of trying to speak Hmong 24/7 now as compared to when I actually get out into the field. I'm learning little conversational things that are essential if I'm going to be able to, you know, have a basic conversation.

I left some stuff out of last week's e-mail that I wanted to talk about, so I'm actually going to go all the way back to last Monday. It was so great! So like I think I said in my last e-mail, there were 150 new mission presidents and their wives here in the MTC getting training before they headed out to their fields. On Monday, all the presidents had meetings with the missionaries that would be going to their respective missions. Because us Hmong's and lots of other people here in the MTC aren't getting new mission presidents this time around, we went to the big auditorium for a 'surprise' movie. We thought that it was going to be some really lame movie to be honest and had low expectations going in (I know that is a terrible thing to say, but it's the truth!), but it turned out we watched The Other Side of Heaven! Definitely not something I thought they would let us watch in the MTC. When the movie started and movie title appeared on the screen, the place literally errupted into cheering. It was great just to sit back and relax for a couple hours, definitely not something we get all the time! In some ways it kind of made me feel like I was back home with you guys, watching a movie together as a family.

Then Tuesday night's devotional. Oh my goodness. So, no biggie, but Elder L. Tom Perry spoke to us. Oh, and up on the stand with him were Elders Cook, Bednar, Holland, Perry, Oaks, Nelson, Christofferson, Anderson, Ballard, and Scott. And I sat only a few rows from the front. It was such an amazing experience. When they entered the auditorium, we all stood up and you could feel the spirit so strongly just with their presence. Elder L. Tom Perry spoke to us about the benefits that come from being members of the church, and how we need to go forth and take advantage of this time in the world when there is extra attention on our religion. It made me even more excited to just get out into the field and help God's children that I have been called to serve return to Him through our Savior Jesus Christ. I can't wait! Seriously!

Our 'investigators' this week (aka our teachers that flawlessly act like investigators) have been really tough this week. One just fell through on his baptismal commitment, one just told us he smokes Opium and that there is nothing wrong with that, and another one speaks Green Hmong. It's frustrating because he can understand us speaking White Hmong, but we have a harder time understanding him because there are lots of changes between White and Green Hmong. But with all of these challenges, it has been a monumental week in that I feel like I'm finally starting to learn how to really teach by the Spirit. Like it says in D&C 4, the Spirit testifies to us through simple thoughts of the mind and feelings of the heart. As we as a companionship are getting better at inviting the spirit, recognizing it, and following it's promptings, we have become so much more passionate and wanting to help our investigators, even if they are just being acted by our teachers. Teaching appointments (which we usually have 2 a day) are transforming from something we dread because we don't language-wise feel prepared, to something that we eagerly look forward to in helping our investigators come unto Christ. 

So, I know that this isn't what you wanted to hear, but I'm 99% sure that I'm not going to be in the Provo parade tomorrow :( I think that it is just for the missionaries that are actually serving in the Provo Utah mission. Last time, I don't recall literally thousands of missionaries, which is what it would have to be if we were all going. I'm definitely going to be thinking of you guys at the parade though come tomorrow morning. But, hey, I just thought of this, just think that I'm literally going to be up a couple blocks from you guys and that I'll see that same balloons up in the air! We saw some of them today even! Us Hmong's were kind of bummed out because we thought that we weren't going to be able to watch the firworks, but talking to an MTC employee today we got the D-L that they we are going to have a special devotional tomorrow night (which, rumor has is, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf is going to be at) and then we're going to be able to go out to the big missionary field tomorrow night and eat ice cream while we watch the fireworks - I'm pumped!

Oh, and on a more random note, I got evicted. Just kidding. Kind of. We had to move buildings because they are turning our building into a Sister's only building, but it has actually turned out really nice because we moved into a newly rennovated building! New more-comfortable beds, new bathrooms, more colorful room - definitely no complaints on my part. I'm planning on sending my camera SD card home next week, so you guys will be able to see for yourself!

Well, I really do love you guys so much. I pray for you every night. Stay close to the Lord in all the ways you can, and His Spirit will always be with you. And when you have His Spirit with you, there is nothing you can't accomplish.

Happy 4th of July!

Your's Truly,
Es Daws Tooj

+ P.S. - THANK YOU FOR THE CARE PACKAGES THIS WEEK!

Email #5

Nyob Zoo (Hello) Kuv Tsev Neeg (my family) thaib (and) kuv tej phooj ywg (my friends)!

 

It's into Week 6 now, it really feels like five minutes ago that I was writing my last e-mail to you guys! The time really is just FLYING by which Hey, no complaints here, I can't wait to actually be out in the field. Not that I'm not enjoying it here, but I'm excited to finally be doing what we've been preparing to do for the last six weeks - help God's children come unto Christ! I really am so excited!

The language is going really well! Yesterday we had an 'appointment' with one of our investigators, and we understood almost everything he said and answered his questions so well, it was such a cool experience! The scary thing is that the teachers keep telling us, "we're not here to help you learn the language before you go out into the field, because that isn't possible. We just want to give you to tools to be able to learn the language once you are out in the field." No pressure there! I really am so excited though, I can just imagine it now, when I first go to Fresno to a member's house and maybe understand 5 words they say! That's the thing with Hmong is that it isn't a very documented language, so truly learning it is only possible through actually being with the people.

 

Ocassionally in class we will have 'cultural' lessons where we will just learn about different aspects of the Hmong people. This last Saturday (I think.... like I said, the days are a blur) we had one of these, and we learned about different social aspects of the poeple. One part in particular stood out, which was one of the three ways you can become engaged to a woman. To paraphrase, our teacher said that the man who want's to engage to a girl 'steals her' from her house. This is usually done voluntarily, but there have been stories of it being involuntary.... anyways, the man takes her back to her parents house, where the man's parents then hold a chicken over the girl's head. Once this happens, she becomes part of their 'coj neej tsa', or certain of form of ancestoral worship. She's become a part of the family, and it's a done deal - the two are engaged to be married. They're culture really is so different then ours, it's definitely going to take some adjusting to once I get there!

 

This week, our whole hallway (which includes us, the 3 Thai classes, the Cambodian class, and the Vietnamese class) all are doing SYL, or Speak Your Language. This means we're now talking in our mission language 24/7 unless we absolutely have to say something. At first it was really frustrating because we all basically couldn't say anything. But even after just doing it for a few days, we've all already learned so much and am really improving! It basically forces you to learn all the little conversational things you don't think of, which has helped a lot with our teaching appointments.

 

A talk I heard this week that really impacted me was a past MTC Christmas Devotional given by Elder Bednar called 'The Character of Christ.' Bednar is definitely to the point, and at one moment he looked straight into the camera and said "This mission is not about you. Get over yourself." He continued on to talk about how we need to be relying on the Lord's strength and knowledge, not our own, and that we are consecrating the these two years of our lives to serve the Lord's will, not our own. It really hit home for me because it's sometimes easy to get distracted on lose focus onw what we are doing all this work for, especially while here in the MTC while we are preparing to leave. But I know that as I continue to align my will with the will of our Father's, I will soon have success in helping His children return unto Him through Jesus Christ.

Sorry that this e-mail is kinda short, to be honest I am feeling sick and am probably going to go lay down in the residense hall for a while. I'll make sure I send something more beefy next week. I want to be good for tonight because there is a member of the Quorom of the 12 coming tonight to talk at the devotional!! I'm really excited, I'll definitely let you guys know on what he says!

I love you guys so much. As hard as it is being away, I know I am doing the right thing by serving the Lord. Your support and letters really do just make my life. Until next week - Sib Ntjib Dua!

- Yours Truly

   Es Daw Tooj / Elder Doane