The Flat Tire

Want to know the biggest joke of the year, this week someone told me that the average life expectancy of a snowman in Minnesota is 6 months. Crazy right? Yes the snow is here and yes it is cold but honestly it isn't even bad. You just have to wear like thirty coats and everything is fine.

     Last night I learned a great lesson on making lemons out of lemonade. We were driving down to Bloomington for a fireside that they have at the mission home where recent converts share their experiences and how they came into the church. While we were driving down there (in one of the members cars) our tire blewout on the freeway and we had to pullover. We just changed it so it was fine but since we were late to the meeting we decided to have our own fireside in the car and have everyone in the car share their conversion experience. It was amazing. All of them were recent converts except for our investigator and so their stories were so powerful. At the end of it we asked our investigator (whose name is K) to share her experience with meeting with us and also the first time that she felt the Spirit. At first she was a little hesitant but as she told her story the Spirit was so strong and everyone in the car knew that K could feel it. It was super sweet. She is P's daughter and has a lot of doubts about if this is the right path for her but when she bore her testimony she answered a lot of her own questions and it really helped out. So it turns out the flat tire was really a pretty huge blessing in disguise.

     The family of 6 that we are teaching is doing great. We taught the Law of Chastity on Saturday and it went way well. They are culturally married (of course) and the wife K has been divorced in the past. When we committed them to be married legally and live the Law of Chastity she brought up a fake excuse and my companion and I just sat there and stared at her. After a little bit she admitted that it was actually just her fear since she has been divorced once before that she would have to go through that again. We fasted with her on Sunday and are going back tomorrow night to see what's up. Pray for her.

      But yeah everything is A+ up here in the land of the frozen chozen and I absolutely love. Elder Hardy and I have been focusing a lot on The Book of Mormon lately in our studies and with our investigators and it is amazing to see the power that it has to change people's lives. So if you haven't read it... you should. Love you all and have a great week.

Also forgot one other thing. Shoutout to my older smaller brother Tanner who is one of 3 coolest older brother you could have for getting hitched. I wish you and Misa the best and have just one piece advice , happy wife= happy life. Goodluck you crazy cats and I can't wait to see pics of the wedding. I really hope you put a cardboard cutout of me there.

To Misa: Welcome to the fam. There are only two requirements and if you pass these you should be good. #1. Love the Utes #2. You have to know a bunch of quotes from Heavyweights and Rocketman. If you don't fulfill one of those requirements it's totally cool, there is still time.

So mom I don't know if you can help me with this but I lost my retainer last week and I'm wondering if there is anything I can do to get a new one. Also my trainer A.K.A. my father Elder Xiong is standing right next to me and he says hi to the fam.

The Good News Is...

     IT'S BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah so there is a ginourmous blizzard and all of the cars are grounded and they shut down school so winter is definitely back and it is a mean one. It's all good though because this morning for our workout me and the other 3 elders I stayed with went out side and had a snowball fight and snow wrestling match. When life gives you lemons right? Things took a pretty hard turn this last week with some of our investigators but there was still some silver lining too.

     Elder Hardy and I met with P's husband and we asked him to tell about what life was like when he was in the war back in Laos to help open him up and he told us one of the saddest stories that I have ever heard. His own mother literally died on his back while he was carrying her across the border of Laos to Thailand. But in the end when we asked him about baptism for his wife and kids he said that his kids can get baptized but then he said, "my wife won't get baptized until the day I die." So that was really sad but his kids at least will be baptized this December. P was so cool though. After he left the room she just smiled and said," Don't worry, that's only the first time, we'll try again in a couple weeks." Her husband said that she can't come to church anymore either but this Sunday she showed up anyways. She really does have such great faith.

     That was to bad but the good news is that the family that we have been teaching committed to Dec. 13th for baptism and we have another lesson set up with them tonight. The biggest miracle was that the father is all for it. In Hmong culture the father is basically like a god to them and whatever he says goes. The good news is that he is the most interested out of the whole family and keeps every commitment that we give him which is really cool.

     But yeah all is well and keep up the sweet goodness everybody.

Global Warming... Don't Think So

So yeah this week I will be writing today and yall wont get an email on saturday. And the reason for that is because on Monday which is our P-Day it will be a high of -18. Thats right a high of -18. Our mission president told us that we are not allowed to go outside at all because apparently it is suppose to get under -40 with the wind chill at night. Global Warming... Dont think so. Im not sure if any of the tree huggers have ever been to Minnesota because it's literally so cold here that if you hug a tree, it just snaps.

     But besides the cold everything is going really well this week. One of the favorite people that I have met on my mission so far is a younger girl that we have been teaching for about three weeks now. She lives with her grandma and her aunt and her mom and dad have basically abandoned her. She told us that since she has been coming to church with us, she feels like she is happy for the first time in her life. I wanted to tell you all the story of her first prayer. As my companion and I sat in her basement with one of the young single adults we invited her to pray with us and at first she was pretty scared. The YSA with us told her if she wanted she could write out her prayer and say it out loud so that it would be a little less scary.(Way good idea) She said she would do it and this is basically what she said in her prayer, "Heavenly Father, thanks for my boots, thanks for my house, please tell me if I'm a child of God, in Jesus' name amen." When she closed her prayer that was one of the strongest times that I have felt the Spirit. This little girl had so much hard times and so much trials in her life but when she finished that prayer her face lit up like San-D! on the 4th of July. It was the coolest experience. She told us that she used to be scared every night because she thought her parents might come back and now she says she feels like God is her dad. SOCOOL! She also is quite the missionary. She has been teaching her grandma, her aunt, and all her younger cousins about the things we teach her and the things she learns at church. I think God has truly prepared this girl and he really put her in our path.

      So update for the less active and his investigator wife that came to church with us last week. We had a lesson with them a few days ago and we taught them the word of wisdom. We werent sure if they had problems with it or not but we felt like they might. At the end of the lesson we asked them if there was anything in their house that would keep them from living the word of wisdom and the mom said hold on a second. She walked out of the room, came back in, handed us all of her tea and said I promise I'll never touch it again. That was a really fun lesson. I love how as a missionary you can walk into someones house and tell them to stop doing something that they have been doing everyday since they were a little kid and they promise you that they will stop for life. The Spirit really is so amazing and it can change people's hearts so quickly.

     My companion and I have been doing really well and have seen many miracles this week. One of the things that I have realized is that God speaks to the Hmong people through their dreams. We had a lady tell us that she had a dream that she was sitting in a dark room and she felt really sad. She said that she couldn't see anything and she didn't know where to go. Then in her dream to young men dressed in white showed up at her door and the whole room lit up. We had another young girl who said that she had a dream where she was standing in between two roads and one of them one super dark and dirty and had really tall grass so she couldn't really see to far down the road. the other road was crystal clear and bright and she could see far ahead of her. She had that dream three days before we found her and she said she feels like this church is the clear road. God really does work in mysterious way to bring about the salvation of this people and I think it is so cool as a missionary to get to be a part of it. Love you all and I hope you have a super duper alliooper looptie luper jumpin week. (Only JW will get that reference)

                                    Love Elder Muaj Zoo

P.S. Mom please tell Grandma Carolyn that she is the bomb.com. Also tell Grammy that I hope her carmelitas will be in heaven because they really are the greatest thing ever.