Hi Niam
What a stressful but amazing week! By the way I am completely better now! I had to drink a case or two of Gatorade a day but I am better now!
Our roads are soooo bad..... They are all ice and snow. Good thing I don't drive... There were 92 accidents in Anchorage last night. We got 6 inches overnight! And look at these temps...... -2 next week already.....
This week was scary and extremely stressful. It started out with the normal baptismal preparation: Getting speakers picked, getting the building reserved, etc. etc. All of that went smoothly. Then Wednesday comes the baptismal interviews. Since Elder Vang is the DL, he cannot do the baptismal interview and our ZLs have to do them. All 6 of the ones being interviewed speak English pretty good but they prefer Hmong since they were all born in Thailand. So me and Elder Vang got to act as translators. Everyone passed with flying colors! I got to sit in on Bao's and translate and it was the most spiritual interview I have ever been able to sit on. On every question she answered it and bore her testimony on it and how she gained that testimony. I don't ever remember teaching her all that stuff but she took the initiative to learn more about every topic we discussed and I think she is almost done reading the BoM too... What a stud!
So everything went well there. Thursday we get a call from Bao.... She said she didn't feel comfortable being baptized with her cousins and wanted to move it. We thought that was weird because she hangs out with her cousins all the time. We said we would talk to her on Friday and get this all straightened out and to move her date.
Friday comes... Turns out her parents didn't know she was going to be baptized.... The day before we find this out! Not even the day before. After Hmong night at 9pm! When we are supposed to be packing up to go in.... So we promised her we would talk to them and that she would be baptized tomorrow. Well we went over there.... at 10pm.... Spirit of the law and letter of the law! (My ZL told me that one time so its approved :P) We talked with her parents. At first they were worried. Hmong people are way to superstitious.... They were like "Since we are old culture, if she gets baptized doesn't that mean she can't live with us.." Ugh! We told them that wasn't the case. Then after talking and talking and talking, finally the dad came up with this super crazy, totally incorrect theory but works for now. The dad said: "If her cousins get baptized then all the bad spirits will go to Bao if she isn't baptized" (Hmong people have this weird issues with bad vibes and bad spirits and their theories on them are completely wrong but hey it let her be baptized so we will correct that later.) So finally at 11pm, we got everything set for the baptism! And they were baptized!
There have been just wayyyy too many miracles these last few weeks. There have been lots of little things that just seem to be adding up to this giant picture. One day we were impressed to go to Lori Vue's house. We lost contact with them for a long time and we wanted to see how they were doing. We got there and then told them about the Building halloween party. She said she was actually looking for something for her 7 year old son to do that day and that she would bring her family. Well, she came. Turns out Mai Nhia, our super awesome RS second counselor who is just killing it right now, is her cousin in law. They knew each other and Mai Nhia invited them to church. So they came because they felt a little more comfortable now that they knew Mai Nhia. So when they come, it happens to be the week Sunday School is teaching "Eternal Marriage." So, everytime we did service for Lori in that past she would ask us questions about how families can be together forever. She really loves that topic and the week she comes is the week we happened to have that topic in Sunday School. It is also the Sunday before Bao and them are being baptized. We had all these new Young Women coming and they actually went and showed Lori's daughter Lauren around. Bao talked to her about Baptism and what it is.
We are sitting in district meeting, since it is the last one of the transfer we were talking about the miracles throughout the transfer. Me and Elder Vang talked about Bao and her cousins. When we finished we got a text and I opened it. Lauren texted us saying she wanted to be baptized. We were like "Well here is another miracle" and read the text. We just cracked jokes that we just sit around and wait for people to text us asking to be baptized.
We had never really talked to Lauren. We go over there and talked to her. She just said that Bao's words about baptism resonated inside of her and she had a feeling this is what she needed to do and she wanted to be baptized on December 12th and she didn't know what to do. We had never taught this girl anything and she felt like this is what she needed to do... Holy Ghost! So we are teaching her and preparing her for that.
Joanna was released from Primary that same week that Lori came. Lori is a single mother right now, Joanna felt prompted to go sit next to her in Sunday School and RS. They are about the same age and they just hit it off. Lori opened up about everything to her and they have become great friends.
The ward has seen how hard me and Elder Vang have worked. They have become really missionary minded. Anytime someone new is there now, they flock and fellowship. Everyone that comes feels comfortable now. Our number in attendance is growing rapidly every week. We have to bring in a lot of extra chairs into the RS room for sacrament meeting now. Less actives are coming, people I have never seen before, our investigators. It is crazy! The work is going by wayyyyy too fast right now. It is hectic. Lots and lots of miracles and things adding up.
Oh yeah and Saturday we are going to the temple with Bao and her cousins to do baptisms for the dead!
I am staying in the Hmong branch with Elder Vang. 6 months with one comp... I love it! Me and him have become best friends. This is his last transfer before he goes home too :/
I have to send the pictures in a second email but they are coming! Have a wonderful week!
Elder Frey
Bao and her mom
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