I'm Coming to Minnesota With the Fire of the Gospel

UPDATE:  Marshall called from the airport today!  He spoke Hmong, and it was sooooo fun to hear!  He is so excited to get to Minnesota. His friends were at the airport flying out to  play in a UVU soccer game, and sent this photo:

Dear Everybody,

     HEYYYYYYYYYYY. So I have one hour left in the MTC and Im getting so excited to head out and preach the gospel.

Im finally going to meet the amazing people who I know absolutely nothing about. I hope their ready for me because Im coming to Minnesota with the fire of the gospel and the strength of all of your prayers. I don't know if I've learned a lot at the MTC or nothing at all I guess we'll find out in the next couple hours. But if there's one thing that I've learned here it's really not about how much you know, it's about how hard you try and how strong the Spirit is with you. When you have the Spirit amazing things start to happen and I see it every day. As all of you know Im definitely not the brightest guy in the world but somehow God has allowed me to pickup this language(I'm sure I really don't know it but right now I think I do) and Im so grateful for it. I took two years of high school spanish and Im pretty sure that I only know how to say hello and goodbye. Queso and Buenos noches right? haha jk but really the Gift of Tongues is real and I see it every day.

       I dont have any more time but I just want to tell all of you that I love you and thank you so much for everything you've done for me and all the awesome times that we have had which have prepared me to go and teach my people in Minnesota. I know God lives and that he loves us and that through Him all is possible. Through His power we can truly do miracles. I know without a shadow of a doubt that the Book of Mormon is true and that when we read it daily we cannot go astray. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that he translated the Book of Mormon. I have serious respect for that man and no matter how many times someone tells me Joseph Smith is a liar or that he is an evil man, I will have no problem politely replying that Joseph Smith has done more for them than they could ever imagine and that when he was just 14 years old the God of the universe and His Son Jesus Christ really did appear to him. I know that to be true and no one will ever take that from me. I know this church is true and I love it with all my heart. I think the reason that I know it's true is that it makes me happy. Take away all the awesome stuff like through the priesthood you can split the Red Sea or that you can live in heaven with your family and friends FOREVER(which is pretty awesome) or that through God and this church we can perform daily miracles, and I would still be a member of this church because it truly does make me happy. Anyways its time to head out. Love yall and I'll sure to send some pics of me and the Hmong Clan Leader when I meet him. Peace Out.

 Me and my tus khub halloween costume. He's the baseball player and I'm the scuba diver

Ghost bustin at the MTC:  ME and my teacher brother Koob Meej

Cool clouds and whatnot

 Me and my district doin the Hmong pose with our tus nais khus tij laug Lor

 Elder Henrie & his HS pal, Elder  Johnson

SNOOWWWWWWWW

The Most Growth of My Life

Hello everyone I hope that you are all doing well.

     This week has been by far the week of the most growth in my life. I have never felt the Spirit stronger and I have never felt God's hand in my life more. I'll be honest a few weeks ago I was getting pretty nervous to go to Minnesota just like everyone else in my district but after this week I know without a doubt that with God I can do this. I've been here for almost nine weeks and it's so weird because I still feel like I don't know anything but at the same time I feel like it doesn't really matter how much you know it's how hard you try. I finally realized this past week that missions are actually kind of hard work and if your willing to work hard then the Lord blesses you. 

     My companion and I have done so much better this past week in our teaching and finally have all four of our fake investigators committed to baptism. I'm not sure if they just started going easy on us because we're about to head out and they wanted us to feel good about ourselves but even if they did it doesn't matter to me because I have never felt the Spirit testify to me stronger than when I testified to those investigators that Jesus Christ lives and that His church is again restored today. I thought that I had a pretty strong testimony when I began my mission but I wasn't even close to what I am now. I have seen true miracles every day in the MTC and everyone here agrees that there are truly angels walking around. I can finally say that I know the things that I am teaching are true and that you will never find more joy on this earth than you will find as you serve the Lord. I feel like I now finally know a tiny bit more about the sacrifice that Christ has made for all of us. It's true that he suffered for our sins, but he did so much more than that, He made it possible so that He can literally carry each of us in His arms when we need Him most. I heard a story hear that I think illustrates that really well.

"There was a man once who lived a very hard life. His parents died when he was young and he never knew what it was like to have a happy family. He grows up and is married and has three beautiful children. One month after his last child is born his wife divorces him and she takes all the children with her never to be seen again. The day after his divorce he loses his job and ends up homeless. He then gets cancer and dies four months later. The man dies and walks up to the pearly gates of heaven and Christ is standing there to great him. The man looks at Christ with tears in his eyes and says where were you and Christs responds by saying look back. So the man turns around and watches his life and in each scene he sees one set of bleeding footprints. The man then turns to Christ and says see you weren't there. He then looks down at their feet and sees that it is not his feet that is bleeding but the Savior's. Then Christ says to the man see, I was walking beside you because I was carrying you every step of the way."

     I know that without any doubt the Savior is with us through every second of our lives. Even when we feel like we can take another step somehow our feet keep on moving. In our most difficult times the Savior will comes to us pick us up off the ground dust us off hand us a candy bar and say "I know this is hard but through me all things are possible."

     I am nervous to go and teach the Hmong people in Minnesota but I am not scared. They need to know that even though they are in darkness right now, if they turn to the Savior He will show them a brighter light than can be seen on the whole earth. I love them all so much and I feel like they are literally my brothers and sisters and I haven't even met them. I can't wait to see the happiness and joy on their face when they come to know as I now know that through Christ we will live not just our family but all those we love again. I know that if I have faith the Lord will not let me fail.

     Thank you all so much for your prayers this week and I love you all. Keep the faith and Christ will lead us through.

                                                         Love Elder Huaj Vam

Hmong Ninja Moves

Hey yallllll,

     I hope that everything is going well back in the 801 and that youre all having a jolly old time. So i have some awesome news. My companion gets to stay and he is so happy. We have been having so much fun and working so hard. He has been completely changed by the experience and is now so optimistic about the Mish. So the Hmong is coming really well and I have been progressing way faster this week than I have in the past. It's so amazing to see how much the Lord loves missionaries and wants to help them out. Each day when I'm studying I can feel the Lord helping me and guiding what I do. There is no way in the world that I would be able to learn this language without His help. I really don't even know how I've learned anything. The teacher just gets up in front of the class and starts going off in Hmong and somehow we all just understand what he says.

     I'm getting really excited to get out in the field and try and use everything that I learned in the field and bring my Hmong brothers and sisters to the gospel but one thing that makes me pretty nervous is that my teacher said when he went to the mission field he had to teach one or two lessons both in Hmong. YIKES! But the thing that I think I have learned the best from all of our practice teaching appointments is that it doesn't really matter what you say as long as the Spirit is there. All you have to do is work really hard to prepare a lesson and do your best at studying the language and if you have faith that the Lord will help you, He never leaves you hanging.

     We had a really cool devotional last night that I thought was so inspiring. The speaker was talking about how if we never open our mouths then we will never teach anyone. He talked about how as a missionary you will get rejected a lot but the most important thing to remember is that God is on your side and he wants us to succeed. Then he read a quote from Winston Churchill that is now one of my all time favorite quotes, "Our success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." That is something that I am going to try and remember every time a person rejects me. But I'm sure that the Hmong people are so nice that none of them will ever reject me. I still can't believe that I'm leaving in two weeks from today. It seems like I've been in here forever and also for like one second. It's so weird. The days seem to go pretty long but then all of a sudden you wake up and your like oh dear I've already been out on a mission for two months. I really feel like I'm prepared to go out and teach and I'm sure that I'll get one big ole piece of humble pie in that first lesson but I feel like there's just something awesome about the MTC that makes you feel like you can do anything. Or maybe that's the Spirit I'm not sure but either way I feel like God won't let me fail.

       We get our travel plans tomorrow and I'm so excited. I'm pretty sure that I fly to Denver first and then to Minnesota but I'll just have to wait and see. One thing that is kind of sad is that my whole district leaves one day before me and my companion because our flights are different so that will be pretty lonely but at the same time we'll have all of their left over candy and stuff so maybe we'll just have an early thanksgiving with all the other Elders on our floor or something. It's crazy how God puts all these random people in your life that bless you so much. I have really become best friends with all the other elders in my district and I'm gonna miss them when they head out but I'm sure they'll all do a great job on their mission so I'm not to worried about them.

     Anyways that's all for now and I love you guys a bunch. I hope that you're all safe and loving life. 

                                                      Peace out 

                                                           Elder Henrie

Sib Ntsib dua kuv tsev neeg

Apparently once you become a missionary you get some pretty awesome powers. Also the Hmong ninja moves that they taught us in class ripped my pants :(

Best Week of My Life

     Alright so to start this letter I have a couple shoutouts to my homeys. First to The Utes for takin down supposedly 5th ranked stanford in the game of the century. 2nd to my main man the Chan-meister for starting his mission papers. I'm so proud of you and God just got a great missionary so I know that He's smiling right now to. Shout out to Brandy for pulling one of the greatest Gracie pranks yet with the whole October 2nd move. That was great I laughed so hard. Shoutout to my Pops for being a stud and my mom for being perfect. Shoutout to Sam Hoole in Cali cuz I like him

      So anyways this week has been by far the best week of my life. I if you all have been praying for me like ten times more or what but this week has gone so well. One thing that was really cool was that finally two of our fake investigators got baptized. I know that it's fake but I have never felt the Spirit like I did when they told us that they were willing to be baptized. Something else that I never really thought about before my mission but I now realize happens quite a bit is priesthood blessings. I have had the chance to give a couple of them while at the MTC and it is awesome. Neither of my blessings were very impressive but I could feel the Spirit guiding my words it was really cool. The first was an Elder who was feeling homesick in my district and after that day he hasn't even talked to me about home once.(Which I think is a good thing.) The second was a sister who was really sick and then she hurt her ribs or something like that and asked for a blessing. I just blessed her that her sickness and her injury would not slow down her work and that she would have a good nights rest and the next day she said she still hurt but she felt good and was ready for class so that was pretty awesome.

     My companion is an amazing guy and a really hard worker and were pretty much best friends. He really has so much courage and I look up to him a ton. He's like a brother to me We do so well together and I have come to love him so much.

     
     Last night was one of the coolest nights of my life. We had a devotional by ELDER DALLIN H. OAKS!!!!!! It was so amazing. When he walked into the room the Spirit testified to me so powerfully that he is truly a man of God. It was super weird to hear him talk in conference though because he wasn't as serious and he even threw in a couple of jokes. He talked a lot about how on your mission you will learn the mission language naturally and you will come to know that the doctrines of the gospel are true but one thing that you will never learn unless you put forth all your effort is learning how to love. It was really good for our district to hear and we've been working really hard to serve and become friends with others in the MTC. One thing that I've noticed on my mission is that when you serve other people you grow 100000000000 X faster than when you serve yourself. So that's something that I've been working on this last week and it's been awesome to see how the language comes faster when I help other Elders learn it and I know more about the doctrine when I try and help other Elders plan their lesson.

    
 The language is going really well and I finally feel like I can comfortably teach a lesson to an investigator without having to think to much about what I want to say. But I'm sure that will change the first day that I'm in Minnesota. The hard thing is understanding people when they speak fast because one word can mean so many different things depending on what tone you use. I guess it could mean eight things if you want to be exact. But yeah I love Hmong and the Hmong people. Something that will definitely be difficult is breaking the barrier of their religion because it is quite a bit different than ours. It's actually really sad because they do animal sacrifice and torture their bodies and stuff like that so that they can talk to Spirits. I guess it's just their way of trying to grow closer to God with the truths that they have.  We actually heard this funny story from our teacher about a female shaman in Minnesota. After she received the gift of the Holy Ghost she came up to my teacher and said, "I really like this Spirit, it's a lot nicer than the other ones and I don't even have to kill a chicken to talk to it." I laughed so hard. I can't wait to help them feel the Spirit the right way and to bring them to a knowledge of the gospel.Learning about the darkness that they are stuck in and how blessed they will be when they have the truth has given me so much motivation to go and serve them.

      And it's kind of crazy but that's only three weeks from now. In fact we get our travel plans next week sometime and I'm so excited. I love the MTC and I've grown so much here but I feel like my family is in Minnesota and I can't wait to meet them. I hope all of you are super-dee-duper back home and having a grand ole time. I hope youre having fun in Cali and dad don't tell Tanner the cheats for the Toy Story ride because I don't want him to beat my high score. And tell Marianne and Devin congrats from me.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  -Love Es Daws Huaj Vam\

P.S. Mom could you send this part to Lexi

SISTER GOFF how are you. I hope that you're being a boss on your mission. JK I know you are. And that's so funny that you ran into Sam Hoole. Tell him hi for me and tell him that I think that he's a stud. Also the language is going so well. I am still in the MTC but I head out in three weeks. You gotta send me some investigator stories. But yeah im doing really well and Im sure you are too since youre my couzzz and what not. Love you tons and I'll see you soon

Elder Huaj Vam (that's my Hmong name)

                                                                   

I'm Lovin' Life

Dear erebody,

     So this week was probably the best week so far at the MTC. I'm sure all of you watched conference and loved it as much as I did. No doubt that the Sunday morning session of conference was the best session of conference I have ever seen. Every single one of the talks was so inspiring. That session of conference literally changed my companions life. Unfortunately I can't tell you that story because it is still unfolding but I'll have an update on that next week. I especially liked Thomas S. Monson's talk. He always tell awesome stories that get me excited about life. I especially loved the story about the blind and deaf man who was like 1000 years old. It was so cool to hear about how he would deliver some type of spiritual message to his family in spite of his physical state. But really what I liked most about the story was the joy  that the man found in his life despite his difficult circumstances. It really motivated me to be more upbeat during the day and to appreciate the little tender mercies throughout the day.

     So the Hmong is going really well and our fake investigators are coming along. Still nobody in our district has committed any of our investigators to baptism. Everyone in our zone says that we have the hardest investigators ever because most people baptize their mock investigators within the first three weeks. I think are teacher is being really difficult to us on purpose because he knows how hard it is and he really wants us to be great. (Our teacher is one of our mock investigators.) The best way that I can describe him is by saying he's like Professor Snape... You really find it hard to like him but it the end he turns out to be a good guy. But the one good thing about him being a difficult investigator is that I feel like my companion and I are really learning to follow the Spirit when we teach which will be a huge help in Minnesota because Hmong people speak three times faster than english people do. 

     Another talk that really stuck out to me was the talk by Edward Dube. I loved the story that he told about when he was working in the field with his mom and he kept calling to her but she didn't respond for a few times and then when she looked at him he said, "Mom look at all the work we've done" and then his mom said, "Look at all the work we have left to do." That talk was really good for the rest of the Elders in my district too. A lot of times after we have a hard class or a really long study time they will want to take a break and relax. There's no doubt that we work hard a lot of the time but after that talk we made it a goal to be constantly working as hard as we can and I've noticed a huge change in our district. Everybody is a lot happier and upbeat and they are actually excited about the prospect of serving for two years. One of the Elders came up to me last night and asked if he could talk to me. He told me that he was really sorry for the way that him and his companion had been wasting so much time and he told me he felt so much happier now that he was working hard and engaged in his mission. (He's a stud.) I was really scared for him because earlier he was wanting to go home but now he's doing great and he laughs all the time and is more engaged in class and it's been really cool to see that change in him.

     Something that I'm super excited for is that on Tuesday we are having some super huge devotional that is being broadcast to all the other MTC's. I'm hoping that we get to here from an apostle. I can't even imagine how awesome that would be. We were hoping for one to come this tuesday but unfortunately there wasn't one. When I walked in and saw his name on the screen I feel kind of bad because I felt really disappointed but it ended up being a really good talk about the Atonement and how the Atonement is basically the entire reason we're on a mission. It got me so pumped up to bring that message to the Hmong's in Minnesota and see the joy they have when they find out that they can live with the people they love forever. It's crazy how those people are on my mind pretty much twenty four seven and I've never even met them. Literally twenty four seven. Just last night I had a dream that I was working at a gas station and one of the other guys I worked with was Hmong and he was telling me about their culture it was awesome. Also two of the Elders in my room talk in their sleep and two or three nights ago I started talking back to one of them in Hmong and he said he knows grace is good or something like that back to me. It was so funny. I can't wait until I actually get to meet my second family out in Minnesota

     So anyways that's about all to report this week. Things are pretty good here and Im lovin life. Hope all of you are feeling the same.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Elder Huaj Vam

P.S.Dad I know you wanted an update on my schedule so here it is.

630 wake up and get ready

730 breakfast

800 class

11-1220 study time

1-2 language study 

2- 3 gym

3-4 additional study time

4-520 language study time

520-6 dinner

6-9 class 

9-930 plan for tomorrow

930-1010 get ready for bed/party

1010 district prayer

1015 personal devotional

1030 go to bed 

   

P.P.S.  Dad thanks so much for the update on the Utah vs UCLA game it's sad to hear about the lost but I'm glad they played ok. Mom tell everyone thank you for the letters that was really cool to hear from everyone. Also tell grammy that she is everyone's favorite grammy at the MTC because of her carmelitas. Mom I need size eleven boots. and I have no idea what size coat I am either a M or a S. And no matter what the lady at the store says don't get me a trench coat because nobody wants to be THAT Elder if you know what I mean. Also one thing that I would like is if you could send me a really small picture of Moose in his superman outfit. That would be cool.

 The Districts Hmong tags :)

I heard the government is falling apart and there's a world war or somethin like that but I guess if twinkies are back then it can't be to bad.

My Doctrine is Christ's Doctrine

Hey everyone,
So first things first congratulations to JW and Jess for the new member of their family. I heard that you named him Charles John and you're calling him Charlie but he will forever be Moose to me. He looks so much like James it's crazy. Since I can't be there to impart my wisdom to him for the next two years I request that you teach him only two things. 1. Teach him to love the UTES! 2. Teach him to love Panda Express. If you can teach him those two things he'll be successful in life. Mom that is such an amazing experience that you had and I would love if you wrote me about it in more detail because that is so awesome. Dad it turns out that I have been spelling my name wrong this whole time. It's actually spelled Huaj Vam and it means Hope. I'll try and get Hmong names for the rest of you sometime soon. Mom I have to tell you a way funny story that happened with me and my companion. I was showing him pictures of our family and I showed him the one of when me and you were standing next to each other outside the Englands house at Junior Prom and he asked if you were my girlfriend. I laughed so hard and when he asked me why I was laughing I told him that it was my mom. 

   This week was so awesome and I had a lot of really cool experiences that have been a huge blessing. During one of my classes we had two native Hmong elders who were leaving to serve in Wisconsin the next day but they wanted to come talk to us. They testified to us about the importance of missions and it was really cool but even cooler than that, they talked about how grateful they were to all of us for going to teach their people. Then one of the elders got in our districts faces a little bit and told us that we needed to learn more and work harder. It was really good for our district to hear and we have been working a lot harder ever since. Also we had two devotionals, one on Sunday and one Tuesday and both of them were crazy awesome. The speaker Sunday said something that I don't think I will ever forget. He told us a quote from Bruce R. McConkie(pretty sure I spelled that wrong) and he says this, "My acts are Christ's acts, My voice is Christ's voice, and my doctrine is Christ's doctrine." During our district review after our devotional things were going well but not quite as well as they were in past reviews. I stood up and promised the elders 3 things. I told them they would learn the language faster, feel the Spirit more strongly, and serve a successful full time mission if they could tell themselves each night when they went to sleep that, "Today my acts were His acts, My voice was His voice, and His doctrine was my doctrine." After my testimony one of the elders stood up and bore one of the most powerful testimonies I have ever heard and he promised all of us that he was oing to work hard to learn the language

and be a good missionary. It has been amazing to see the change in him since that night.

     Something pretty scary happened last night. I was talking to one of the Elders in my district and he told me how he had been crying himself to sleep like every night and that he had been thinking of going home. I was absolutely terrified because I love him so much. I told him that before we said anything else we should say a prayer. After the prayer we talked for a little bit and he's doing a lot better now and he's working hard to learn the language. It really has been a miracle to see how much God looks out for His missionaries and wants them to succeed.

     So yeah things are going really well here now and this week has been amazing. I hope Jameser gets feeling better and that Moose does well. I love you all.

Elder Huaj Vam

Me and my Hmong brothers Elder Lee on the right and Elder Vang on the far left My companion Elder Pratt in the middle

Just takin' out the trash

Me and Elder Pratt bein downright fabulous

P.S. Shoutout to Liggy for his killer farewell talk. Even though I wasn't there I'm sure it was stellar because I'm pretty sure he used quotes from my talk(at least he told me he would.) Shoutout to K. Amachur for gettin his call to serve the people of Compton. Shoutout to Hessman for being to legit. Shoutout to RJ for representin SAN D until at least October 30 and being a boss at Smash Bros

I Finally Got to See Some Hard Work Pay Off

Hello Everybody!!!

         This week was crazy awesome and it's going really well. I don't know if I've said this in any other emails but we write a talk each sunday and they pick two people from the congregation to come up and talk at random. This week I was lucky enough to get picked. As I was walking up for some reason all I could think about was James. So as I was giving my talk I got this feeling to stop reading my talk and just tell his story. As I started telling his story the Spirit in the room was so strong and the talk went really well. Right after my talk the first counselor's wife got up and talked about her son who was a heroine addict and was just about to finish his 3 year jail sentence and how she has learned so much about enduring through trials. After the meeting she came up to me and thanked me like three hundred times for my talk. I don't know what it was in my talk that I said that helped her but I guess hearing about James helped her so that was pretty cool to see a blessing from listening to the promptings of the Spirit.

         Another really cool experience that I had was on thursday or friday i can't remember which one; but anyways we were teaching one of our investigators and I finally got to see some hard work pay off. We were teaching our investigator about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and it felt like the lesson was going really well but for some reason our investigator just kept saying that he didn't think it was true and that he didn't want to pray about it. I started bearing my testimony to him that Joseph Smith really did see God and Jesus Christ and that if he read the Book of Mormon his family would be blessed (He has a fake sick wife and two fake kids.) And all of a sudden I just started saying all this stuff that I didn't even know what it was and I was speaking way fast it was so cool. Right after I said amen I just looked at my companion and we both were like "What did I/you just say" But my companion then bore his testimony and right after we were done he agreed to pray. I know that it was just a fake investigator but that was one of the strongest spiritual experiences I've had in my life listening to someone pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon was true. I'm 1000000% sure that if that was a real lesson in the field we would have baptized that man and his family. J.K. I guess it just depends on if it's there time or not but it was an awesome lesson. Another little tender mercy with that lesson was that I got the letter from you mom about Steve's death about five minutes before I was supposed to go in to my lesson and usually I open letters right when I get them but for some reason I just decided not to open it until after and I definitely wouldn't have been able to focus if had read that before I taught.

        One thing that was really fun on Saturday was we had a birthday party for one of the Elders in our district (I'll try and send a picture) but his mom sent us all a bunch of party hats and kazoo's so we went pretty crazy. Also he was struggling pretty bad but after his birthday he has been doing so much better and has been working really hard and the language is going a lot better for him.

        Yesterday we had a devotional at the Marriot Center and they told us that it was the last devotional that they were doing for missionaries there because they are building another building for devotionals and it is almost finished. So I guess I'll go down in history as one of the last missionaries to be in there which is cool I guess. But the speaker that talked to us that night gave us an amazing talk. He talked all about the blessings that we get from serving a mission and he told a story that really inspired me. He talked about a man named Mitch Davis who was married and had two or three kids. One night he decided to take one of his kids and a couple of the kids friends on a camping trip up the canyon. It started to rain and thunder so they quickly set up there tent. The man was standing in the tent when all of a sudden a lightning bolt hit the man directly in the head and traveled through his body and shot out of the tent. He was laying on the ground unconscious when he started to come to. He heard one of the boys in the corner praying, another was silent, and his son was telling him to wake up. He started to black out again and before he did he thought to himself I'm going to die. And before he could even pray a voice came into his head and said this "You have served a valiant mission, ask me whatever you want and I'll give it to you." So he prayed in his mind and in the next three minutes he was walking back to the car with the three boys feeling just fine. I think it's so amazing that the thing the Lord cared about above him getting married, having kids, and everything else he did in his life was the fact that he served a full time mission. I have already seen the blessings of serving a three week mission and I can't even imaging how blessed I will be for serving for two years.

        Anyways I love you all and I hope things are going well.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Elder Huav Vam

P.S. Mom thanks for the package my whole district plays that dice game every night and it has been fun having some crazy nerf gun wars. Also tell grammy that she's the MTC's favorite grammy because of her carmelitas.

And Libby you gotta tell me all about the third grade and your teachers and stuff.

I don't know if I've sent these pictures or not yet last time the computer i used froze when i sent my email.

I Thought My Tongue Was Going to Catch on Fire

Dear peeps,

     So this week has been really sad but also really great. (my shift button is broken so im not capitalizing anything by the way.) it has been pretty sad because brother brewster has been on my mind a lot. i respect him and love him so much. he was one of the reasons that i got my eagle and also that i am here right now. ive been praying a lot for him and even though it is sad i know without a shadow of a doubt that he will be with God. i have come really far in the language this week and it has been a huge boost for me. i teach a pretend investigator about four times a week now and my compaion and i can teach about a fifteen to twenty minute lesson which is crazy. there are defintely some awkward pauses here and there but it's so cool to feel the Spirit when im testifying in a language that just six months ago i never even knew existed. i have had a few classes on the hmong (or hmoob whichever you prefer) culture and i am starting to really love them. they've had such a hard life and have been so humbled by the challenges they've faced (according to my teachers who i completely trust.) But one thing that will be pretty difficult for me is their food. its the hottest thing on the planet. they had us try one of the peppers that they sprinkle on top of pretty much everything and i thought my tounge was going to catch on fire but hopefully ill get used to it.

     one funny thing that happened this week was during the sunday night devotional they showed a short clip from this movie called ephraims rescue. in one of the scenes two people kiss and all the elders went crazy. one of the kids in my district covered his eyes and he's one of those kids where he might be serious but i couldnt tell so i started laughing for like ten minutes but he didnt know that i was laughing about him so its all good. on tuesday night i had the chance to sing in the choir at the devotional. there was so many missionaries that we had to go to the marriot center (byu's basketball arena) for it. we sang Joseph Smith's first prayer and i don't know if all of you know this or not but it turns out that angels sing with you at the MTC whenever a hymn is sung. the spirit was so strong and im pretty sure every single person in the whole room knew that Joseph Smith really did see God and Jesus Christ in the sacred grove at fourteen. it truly is amazing when you stop and think about the fact that God, the Creator of absolutely everything, chose to show Himself to a teenage boy. That must have been pretty suprising for Joseph. 

     At the devotional the speaker talked about how he served as a mission president in russia and how he was watching two missionaries in a chapel one day. one of the missionaries was on his last week on the mission and all of the members in the ward were giving him letters and saying goodbye to him because the elder had become part of their family. the other elder was sitting on the side reading his scriptures by himself. he then talked about how studying the scriptures and your language is awesome. the best thing that you can do as a missionary is to serve and love the people. when he said that i got so pumped up to go see the Hmong people (even though I can't talk to them.) that i just wanted to run all the way to minnesota to meet them.

     As his wife was speaking she read us a quote that got me thinking a little bit. an elder she knew once said "you'll spend every day of your mission thinking at least for a second about your home. but when you get back you'll spend the rest of your life thinking about your mission." that made me realize that the best way to serve is with everything i have because ill miss it when it's over. i definitely miss all you guys but it hasn't been to much of a distraction for me. however one or two of the elders in my district can't do anything because all they do is think about the people back home and it's really sad. i've told them that the best way to be happy isn't to worry about the things you can't have but to work hard to show God that your grateful for the things that you do.

     I'm glad that uncle Tom got to hangout this week he's such a great guy and I've learned a lot from him. also tell james that i think stump grinders are pretty awesome too. Libby tell your turtle squeak hi for me and also keep up the good work on making those messes i never liked it when are house was clean it just didn't feel right. Also it would be cool if i got an update on baby Moose. please tell bishop brewster that i love him and that ill miss him. i love you all and ill see you soon.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    -Elder Huav Vam

P.S. mom everybody loves the nerf guns and the football game we had a huge tournament today so thanks for the package.

Pretty Much The Greatest Place Ever

Dear Mom and Everyone else,

     What up yall? So yeah there's three things that I learned the first day really quickly at the MTC 1 work hard or youll be bored. 2 Don't drink the orange juice... Lets just say it's basically like swallowing a hand grenade. 3 If one of the Elders in your district wants to give you a live demonstration of how to waterbend you let him because youll laugh about it for the next week. I hope all is going well, So the MTC is pretty much the greatest place ever. I learn so much every day that I'll probably be smarter than Einstein ever was by the end of my mission. The Spirit taught me Hmoob in 7 days so that was pretty cool. I guess you could say that I'm actually smarter than Einstein already because God is on my side and He knows everything. For real though, if I work hard and am obedient the Lord helps me out so much. I've learned more Hmoob in the MTC in seven days than I did from taking two years of Spanish but I guess that's because the Spirit is a lot better teacher than Mr.Long(no offense to him) These past couple days have been amazing and I have felt the Spirit so strongly. My companion and I work hard everyday and we're progressing really fast. I got really lucky when they assigned me Elder Pratt as a companion we get along really well and we have a lot in common. It's nice because most of the guys in my district are a little different than me and so sometimes it can be hard to have a conversation with them... (Lets just say that they could easily tell you every rule in Dungeons and Dragons and that tells you all you need to know.) But I actually do like all of them and we all get along pretty well. We all help each other out with the language and with all the other stuff so that's good. We had a district meeting last night(there's ten of us in my district) and we all bore our testimonies and the Spirit was so strong. We all laugh a ton and these guys are starting to become some of my best friends. In our meeting we talked about hard work and it really inspired me to work harder and to give it all I've got. I stood up when it was my turn to bear my testimony and I talked about how sometimes I'm afraid to work as hard as I can. It's kind of a scary thought that I have to study the language for 6-7 hours a day study my scrips for 2 hours a day and class and meetings the rest of the time. I told them a quote I heard which says "You'll never know the edge of your limits until you've gone there." so I'm excited to see how hard I can truly work. I can't wait to put my faith in the Lord and trust that if I do my best He will give me strength and make up the rest.This morning we got to go to the temple and it was seriously awesome. There's something about going through with a group of missionaries that just multiplies the strength of the Spirit by like a thousand. Also I saw one of the Elders that I went through with my first time so that was super duper neat. Also as I was walking out of the temple there was this lady who thanked us like a billion times for serving the Lord and just how grateful she was for the missionaries. But anyways so it turns out the Hmoob language is like the coolest hardest thing ever. There's nine tones but you really only use eight and so far that's been the hardest part for me is just pronouncing the words right. I feel like things are going well though I can already say a pretty long prayer and bear my testimony and also teach a short lesson. My teacher didn't say one word of English to us until Monday and even then he didn't say a full sentence. It's crazy because half the time he'll be talking and I have no idea what he's saying and then all of a sudden the Spirit just explodes into my brain and I can understand everything that he is saying. One piece of advice to everyone about to go on a mission, be prepared to be tired all the time. I feel like I never sleep here. My eyes close and then the next second the alarm goes off and it's time to get right back to work. But I'm adjusted to the schedule now so it's definitely a lot easier. Today a bunch of new elders came in and it was so weird to look back and say wow that was me a week ago it seems so much longer than a week that I've been here but in a good way. The time goes by so fast when I work hard and am obedient. I love it here and I seriously love my mission. It's the bomb.com. Mom and dad and j dub thanks for the letters they were great also tanner still hasn't written me so tell him to get on that. The church is true and I love you all, TTFN(ta ta for now)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Elder Henrie

P.S. Here's a little Hmoob for you

tus neeg uas raug xa mus tshej kev ntseeg ntuj nyob txawv teb chaws los yog nyob lwm qhov chaw xyaum hauv plawv ua ob txoj kab lig ntiaj teb uas yog txoj 23degrees 27minutesnyob sab quam teb thiab txoj 23 degrees 27 minutes noyb sab qab teb ntawm txoj kab lig ntiaj teb hauv plawv uas nyob rau cheeg tsam ntawm ob txoj kab no ces lub haub ziab tau ncaj qha ntseg ntseg los ib thooj au hu ua phleb nem nyob hauv lub qab ntuj no. kws tshawb fawb nrhiav pom tias nws muaj cuaj thooj aw plheb nem nyob rau hauv lub qab ntuj khwb no. lub ntiaj teb earth uas peb nyob no yog ib lub ntawm cuaj lub no cuaj thooj au no muaj npe As Kiv li no.

You might not believe me but I promise that means ( The MTC is a tropical planet.) Yeah I know.

Also here are some pictures but I might have accidentally put a couple on from home.

P.P.S. For everyone besides my family letters work best but I'll try and send you a short email if I have time.e is