Last Monday night we had a wonderful lesson with Mai Yang,
John Her, their neighbor Nou Moua, and all of their children. Elder Ostler and I taught powerfully in
Hmong, from the scriptures. The Hmong
bible that we use is translated by a baptist church, so on occasion the
translation does not follow the King James translation our church uses. This leads to many conflicts of doctrine in
lessons. For example, the word
"prophet," which is so important to the message that we missionaries
share, is translated as "the pastors who carry God's words." A very accurate translation for a baptism
church, but not for the LDS understanding of what a prophet it. Using the Bible in a teaching situation is a
gamble if you have not read through the scriptures before. It was miraculous that as we were teaching we
were able to turn right to some scriptures that translated wonderfully, and
other verses that we realized later were not as clear we were not able to
find. Another evidence that God directs
his missionaries.
The lesson went wonderfully.
Mai started out the visit by telling us that she had dreamed a dream in
which Christ himself told her to stop her search, that the church he had led
her to would never lead her astray. She
then informed us, to her husband's surprise, that she had called her Mennonite
minister earlier that day to tell him that their family would no longer be
attending his congregation. We carefully
retaught the Restoration to ensure comprehension, and both families in
attendance committed to be baptized.
They were all so happy and near the end of the lesson and
showered Elder Ostler and I with gifts, trinkets and handmade little bags from
Thailand. Nou made me promise that I
would not forget her family. Her plea
proved to be prophetic as the next night we were called and told that the Hmong
language program would be transferring the next morning a week ahead of
schedule due to a new missionary coming in a week early from the MTC. I was informed I was going to Merced. So, without having time to say I single
goodbye, Wednesday morning I headed north.
I am now back with Elder Bagley. I was in a trio with him about five months
ago when he first came into the mission.
Being a Hmong speaking missionary it is common to have a companion more
than once, sometimes even more than one companion more than once. There are six of us in the mission now:
Elders Knapton, Gray, Biggs, Ostler, Bagley, and me.
Merced is a much different ball park. There is a branch
here, not a ward, that has weekly attendance around fifty. This branch covers the Hmong YSA, which is
where most of the current missionary work is focused. The apartment is one small attic room above a
members garage measuring about 20x25. I
love it! It is so cozy. I have always liked smaller homes.
More news:
Craig A. Cardon of the First Quorum of the Seventy came and
toured our mission Thursday and Friday.
He had many wonderful insights and gave many suggestions for
improvement. Thanks to Elder Bagley's
willingness of volunteer we were able to sit next to him and his wife at lunch
and talk to them. It is so wonderful to
learn from others. He truly taught us a
lot.
Elder Cunningham, now known as Riley, came back to the
mission to support a recent convert as she went to the temple for the first
time. He has a beard of four months
now. We knocked on the door of one of
our set appointments and were very surprised when he answered the door. It was good to see him again.
This has been an amazing week! I love this work and I love the Lord. I am so happy to be serving him now in the
Merced 5th Branch.
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