Double Baptisms-The Perfect End to the Transfer

Did this week even exist? So much happened, but it seems like the week
went by so quick the days weren't real. First of all, the biggest
miracle of the week- Tais Ci and Kimberly got baptized!!! I think it
was the most rewarding moment of my entire mission so far. Especially
when President Ertel cut off Ci's Shaman bracelet right before she got
in the water...watching someone literally change their entire life in
the course of a few minutes was pretty surreal. The second biggest
miracle was filling the baptismal font up in 1 hour instead of
3...there was a minor hiccup with finding someone who had keys to the
font, but it all worked out! The irony was that it was pouring rain
outside all morning, which perfectly matched the song we sang for the
baptism- "I want my life to be as clean as earth
right after rain." God has a sense of humor for sure :)

We had a branch pot-luck and talent show after the baptism. Everyone
is SO talented, it's insane! God allowed me the tender mercy of having
a guitar for a few days! A member asked me to accompany her on a song
(note: my FAVORITE song by Pink) and loaned me her guitar for the week
to practice, so I was in literal heaven. My callouses had faded after
9 months of not playing, so I was finally getting them back when it
was time to say goodbye...parting is such sweet sorrow. The
missionaries did a Book of Mormon rap in Hmong which was super fun. I
think the elders all secretly want to be K-pop stars...it was
definitely fun to pretend for the night. I'd never rapped in Hmong
before- first time for everything!

Our eternal investigator Phanida is an angel and has become my Hmong
mom while I've been serving here. She insisted on buying me an entire
traditional Hmong outfit. I don't know where else I'll ever wear it, but I'm prepared for Hmong New Years! 

Mini-update: Gabby is getting baptized Sept. 24th! We have to pass her off to the English elders so she can go to an English speaking ward, but she's golden! 

***Tender mercies: Korean BBQ, steak from a member, and getting fed
dinner every night. #foodislife

Quotes of the week:

 

Yer: "President Ertel, can I have your jacket since my boyfriend won't
give me one?"
Brandon: "I don't have one! What do you want me to do, Yer, take off my shirt?"

Sister Ertel: "Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and look at look over at him sleeping, and my heart starts racing because I still can't believe I'm so lucky to have him."

President Ertel: "If it were up to me we'd never spend any money or have any fun. I don't like her excessive shopping per se, but it makes her happy, so it makes me happy. I've learned to just pick your battles. She usually wins anyway."

Love y'all! -Sister Brett

"More Sweat, More Spirit !"

How is it Monday again? This time next week will be transfers! I feel
like this transfer has gone by SO FAST! But it's not over yet...there
are still miracles that need to happen! Speaking of miracles...our
investigator Kimberly is getting baptized this Saturday! She is cuter
than any 10 year old you'll ever meet- guaranteed. We've been teaching
her for a while and finally got the parental OK to go through with it!
We didn't think that would be happening for a while, and all of a
sudden she got the green light- so we're throwing together a service
and making it happen with a week's notice...thov Vajtswv rau peb.
Sonny is actually really progressing! He agreed to be baptized!!! We
had a rap battle lesson with the elders where we chose random verses
from the Book of Mormon and rapped them- it was pretty legit. We
talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (or in Sonny's words, "the 5
guidelines to swag-tactic living") aka faith, repentance, baptism,
receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. This
week we picked up 3 new investigators, found a less-active family from
California who wasn't on our church records, and started up a new YSA
scripture study class! Definitely a week of miracles- obedience brings
blessings!

We had an awesome zone conference where our mission president gave us
a training on doctrine. He said something so cool! "Everything starts
with a belief in God the Eternal Father, His son Jesus Christ, and in
the Holy Ghost. The rest of the beliefs of the gospel fall into place
after that. Our testimonies are based off of our personal relationship
with Heavenly Father. How can we know, trust, and love God if we don't
get to know Him?" It rang so true. Our testimonies are based first and
foremost on Heavenly Father, but how can we believe in Him if we don't
have a relationship with Him? A habit you develop as a missionary is
constantly talking with God, whether it be praying for literally
everything, or talking to Him in your heart about the little random
things that come up throughout the day. I've come to cherish our
relationship so much, and I wouldn't trade it for the world! I don't
think I would have ever learned that lesson to the extent I have
without serving a mission.

On a different and slightly less spiritual note...our AC unit broke.
So while it's already baking hot inside the apartment with the
humidity coming in from the outside, now we have nothing to circulate
it. We dragged our mattresses to the living room and are currently
sleeping there where it seems to be the coolest. The elders always
say, "No sweat, no Spirit!" I think they're referring to working out,
but I'm hoping it applies to us too. #refinersfire #literally

Fun moments of the week: zone service at Feed My Starving Children
(hairnets for life), BBQ at a member's, and an egg roll extravaganza
at Tais Kia's.

Quotes of the week:

Elder Sele: "Sister Xiong, you look tired."
Sis Xiong: "That doesn't sound like a compliment."
Elder Sele: "It's not."

Me: "I think I spend 80% of our lessons hoping I don't accidentally
teach false doctrine. I really should have gone to seminary."
Sister Xiong: "After a whole year of seminary my bishop asked me what
I learned about Jesus Christ. You know what I said? That he had a
half-brother. That's IT! That's all I remembered. You didn't miss
anything."

President Forbes: "There's no one in this whole mission, actually
probably even in the state of Minnesota, who has less musical talent
than I do. So you know it's bad when I'm telling you elders you really
sang that song weak...I've heard CTRs come in with more power than
that. Do it again.

"I'm Moving Out" dedicated to Billy Joel and Sister Xiong and me (HumpDay#halfwaythroughthemission)

All last week I was ignoring the fact that my half-way mark was coming up because I refuse to acknowledge that eventually I have to go back to the real world. As we're walking to check the mail, Sister Xiong says, "Isn't our halfway mark tomorrow?" As I'm reaching in to grab our packages I say, "No, that's definitely not for another several weeks," (or months, or years, or never). At the same time I pull out a giant box that says "Happy Hump Day! You're Halfway Done!" It was a harsh (but super sweet and loving and wonderful and AWESOME parental) reminder that my mission is going by so much faster than I want it to. But if all it takes to get a big box of cookies and treats is do what I love everyday, bring on the mile-marker celebrations! The not so great surprise for the day included getting a call from the APs telling us we had to pack up our whole apartment and move out by the next day. So we moved with a one day notice into a ratchet elders ghetto apartment in Frogtown. The smell is pretty rank, and we tried to do our best to give it the sister's touch and douse it in Febreeze, but it's not much of an improvement. The elders technically didn't live in their area boundaries, and since we don't have any, they thought it would be more mile effective if we switched. It's SO QUIET without roommates...I forgot how boring living alone was! Except it's literally impossible to be bored with Sister Xiong, so we're making the most of it...who knew cleaning out 4 years worth of dirty fridge leftovers and elder's toilets could be an adventure? 

Remember when I was left alone in Hmong work and had to teach people relying solely on the gift of tongues? One of those people was an investigator named Tais Ci. Last week we went by to visit her again, only this time with Sister Xiong, and the first thing she said was "I've decided I want to be baptized." It was so cool! She said she'd been praying and thinking about our last lesson, and she knew it was the right thing to do. She had her baptismal interview yesterday, and she's set to be baptized next Saturday! Woohoo! Fun fact: she's a Shaman ritual leader, so in order to leave her religion, her new ecclesiastical leader (aka the branch president, President Ertel) has to come take down her relics and do some ritual thing. Kuv tsis paub, kuv tsis yog Hmoob. He's so adorable, he got really giddy and said "So what do I do, I just go rip it down? Is that not rude? I don't want to do it wrong! But this is exciting!" He's Mikas too...us white people get excited about stuff like this. #missionhighlights 

We spent all of last Thursday with Tais Kia, one of my favorite grandmas in the branch. Saying she's blunt would be the understatement of the century, but lemme tell you, that G-ma is EFFECTIVE. We took her with us to see some investigators and less-actives, and her motto in life is: "Have your crap together". So she fire and brimstone preacher-ed them into getting their lives back in order and making God a priority. Backstory on Tais Kia: she was one of the first Hmong people baptized into the church back in the 80's when the first flood of Hmong refugees came from Thailand. She is the most dedicated member I know, and will do all she can to help you get on her level. She's F-A-I-T-H-F-U-L. 

Yesterday at church we taught the Young Women alllll about dating! The YW teacher called us the day before and said she couldn't make it, so she told us the lesson outline and gave us free reign! It was super trunky, but it was really fun to go over the dating standards we have and why we follow them. Commandments are there to protect us, not limit our fun! All the YW are pretty blunt (mini-Tais Kia's) so the lesson turned into a full-blown conversation on chastity. I think the problem with asking "What are the limits?" is that it implies wanting to get as close to the edge as possible without falling over. Which is dangerous, because when we teeter on the line of sin, all it takes is a little nudge for us to fall over. Remembering to be a disciple of Christ, even while dating, is a big protection that blesses not only us, but our future marriage and families. 

Alrighty, this is getting a little long, so I'll wrap up. But I love you all! Shoutout to my family: you guys are the best, I love you more than anything!!!! Love, Sister Bret

The gift of tongues is so real!

How is it already P-day again? I swear I was sitting here typing out an email  three days ago.  This week was definitely a proving ground for me! We had exchanges, and Sister Xiong was sent to another area and I stayed in Hmongland. There haven't been too many times on my mission I wanted to crawl into a hole and not come out for the day, but the day of exchanges was one of those days. I was terrified of teaching people in a language I'm hardly even close to fluent in, and I was freaking out I would say something (or everything) wrong and offend our investigators. Sister Xiong assured me she wouldn't have let me stay if she thought I'd screw it all up, so it gave me a little more confidence haha! In the end everything turned out fine! My Hmong was far from perfect, but the gift of tongues is SO REAL. I could understand for the most part what they were saying, I could respond without having to take ten minutes to form my thoughts into English and then Hmong, and I was able to translate for the other sister who was with me without too much getting lost in translation. It was so apparent that God truly cared about not only me, but our investigators who needed to hear the message we prepared. It was awesome!  Exact obedience brings miracles! We've seen so many blessings this week, including 2 new solid investigators! They're both new mothers, Hnub and Mao, and are extremely appreciative of the church's family aspect. One is Christian and the other is Shaman, but even though they're from two completely different religions, it's clear that family is the universal equalizer for everybody, regardless of race, religion, economic status, etc. We had an AWESOME lesson with Sonny! He was talking about finding a girl who would love him for eternity, and Sister Xiong and I looked at each other at the same time and said in sync, "This is the right place for that." We showed him photos of the temple and talked about the sacred sealings and covenants that take place there. I love getting to talk about the holy temple- it truly is our connection to heaven on earth! Tender Mercy: We were walking through these town-home complexes and started talking to this adorable older couple. They invited us over for dinner and wouldn't take no for an answer, so we had the BEST kabooj I've ever had! During the conversation they look at me and say "Vi lis cas koj mikas?" which basically translates to "Why are you white?". Sister Xiong choked on her food and I tried to answer seriously, but there's not much of an answer for that. They said if I married their son I would truly be Hmong...kuv tsi paub!  Also, we have a new baptismal date-set! Houa for August 20th!!  I don't have too much time, so I'm gonna hop off! This work is true, I love the gospel!  -Sister Brett