P-Day 25

Nyob zoo,

It was awesome being able to skype with you on Christmas and I cannot wait until Mother's Day! It warmed up to 42 degrees here today and warming up!

Well since I just talked I don't have much to say besides about Saturday and Sunday! Well Saturday we went to Hmong New Years. It was a lot of fun. It was weird being the only white person in the whole dome. Everybody would walk by and say "Hello" to me so of course I would say "Nyob zoo'os, koj nyob li cas xwb'os"

Vue Yang, one of our members, is a leader in the Hmong community and was in charge of the the 3 day event. He was also Emceeing the event. He knew we were there but whenever we went anywhere near the stage we hid our faces from him. At all the Hmong New Years, they are famous for calling up the missionaries to sing Hmong songs. Maybe if the other Elder Vang was here we would go do it.

We had a few really cool less actives in the soccer tournament so we watched their Saturday game. They lost because Her Vang, the goalie and member, caught a kick and went to bring it down to his waist and it slipped out and went into the goal. We will go and give him grief at his house for throwing the ball into the goal ;-P

So at Hmong festivals they have this game where you literally stand and throw a tennis ball back and forth and it is a flirting game. Yes... To Hmong people playing catch is flirting. But anytime we walked the area I would get 3 or 4 balls thrown at me and they would tell me to come play. I can't I'm a missionary!

We are going back today with our district that is here in Anchorage.  If Vue Yang sees us all, I think he will call us all up.

Yesterday was our last day in the relief society room! We are meeting in the Chapel now! Yayayayay

Funny story. On Saturday we forgot it that the next day was Sunday and we were really really low on gas and we just said we would fill up tomorrow. Well.. We woke up and realized it was Sunday. We had just enough to get to church, dinner, and home. We ended up just staying at President Lee's from after church to 9 because we had no gas to go anywhere. We barely had enough to get gas this morning. It was a
definitely a miracle we could drive far enough to get some for sure.

Love you!
Hayden

Christmas 2015

 Elder Frey and Elder Vang spent Christmas morning with Joanna and her family-opening gifts and having breakfast.

Two moose put on quite a show for them.  In fact, they were there longer than anticipated because the moose prevented them from leaving.

Elder Frey was able to facetime with family.

 He is so HAPPY!

Elder Frey’s Hmong name tag

The gang’s all here!  So much fun to talk to Elder Frey with everyone there.  We laughed and joked almost the whole time.  He did bear his testimony in Hmong and things got a little emotional for me.  It was hard to say good-bye!

P-Day 24

Hi Mom,

It's not cold at all right now. It's been above freezing 2 this week and sits in the mid to high twenties. Dudley has a lower average temperature then Anchorage. Although, Christmas Eve is supposed to be -5 as  the high.

The Hmong people are awesome! I don't see much of anybody else. Mee Lee bought me a really neat book. It tells a story of a Hmong refugee which is basically the story of the Hmong. President Lee as a similar story, Sister Her has an amazing story. The Hmong people were running from their lives from the Laos communists and the North Vietnamese. They fought with the US and when they pulled out they ran from place to place and tried to escape in Thailand. They guy in the book paid his way across the Mekong but President Lee, along with most of the Hmong, floated across on trash bags, hiding from the soldiers, to go in Thailand. There they waited in horrid conditions until they could be sponsored into other cities.

Friday I can skype home with you all. I will call you on the phone and we will set a time and set it up. I will probably just use FaceTime because it is easier and both you and Dad have it. Can you send me your phone number and I will do so Friday.

What a wonderful week this was. Every week is good up here because guess what?! I'm still in Alaska. The greatest place on earth. I don’t think you can get tired of a place like this. There is something new almost every day.

It was my first week with my new companion. 6 months out and I have had 1 companion! He was my trainer and then I "killed" him off and he went home. Apparently I'm a serial killer or something because my next companion, Elder Vang, is going home after this transfer. We have no more Hmong speakers coming out as of right now. I will probably train
a brand new missionary and he will get the best surprise ever! Like I did.

Lately I have been asked a lot what speaking Hmong is like. It is a tonal language. Not only does a word depend on pronunciation, but also the tone and how you say it. In Thai and Laotian, there are 5 tones. In Hmong there is 8. It's a pretty interesting and fun language to speak. It is also an unusual language. How many people do you know can say they speak Hmong?!

This week we did a lot of service for the storehouse. We helped them load pallets with food and onto the trucks. Then we helped them unload and distribute. It was an amazing thing to do during this Christmas season. I hope it made the difference in many people's lives.

We also went "Carol Tracting." We got a few missionaries together and we went around Anchorage and knocked on people's doors and sang to them. It was awkward sometimes but as a missionary, nothing is ever awkward. A lot of people appreciated it and a lot of people.. Not so much but we had a lot of fun and enjoyed some hot chocolate and
volleyball afterwards!

Elder Vang, or "Elder Vaj Me" (Small Elder Vang) as the Hmong people call him, is awesome. I've known him for about 3 months now and we knew we would serve together a long time ago. He is a funny man. He is care free and doesn't stress. It makes me not stress about anything too! We have a lot of fun and work hard.

Sorry if my English is poor. Writing, and even sometimes, speaking in it is funky!! Have a good week! 
Love you, Sib ntsib dua
Hayden

Pics from Joanna

Regular smiles

 Hmong smiles

Getting ready to sing at the Christmas party

Trying to get back a “stolen” microphone

Taking the leftovers to the food bank

Pot luck after Elder Vang’s Last Sunday at church

“Look over there!"

Pics from the Week

Baptism of Jaynee, Anthony and Lauren

Pao, his wife, and her two sisters

#PriesthoodSquad 

(Most of them at least.  Some went home and some were sick.)

The Pao Xiong Boys

Pao Xiong’s family

minus Emily, who is in Cambodia on her mission

Mee Lee, her two sons, her daughter and her grandson

Paj Kub’s sons

Paj Kub, her sons, her granddaughters, as well as President Lampert

Sister Her and her son, “Her"

P-Day 23

Nyob Zoo!

Today is technically the first day of my 5th transfer in Alaska. What
a beautiful and remarkable state this is. There is no where else like
it and the pictures and videos you see of it do no justice to the
beauty of this place; and I am only in the Anchorage area.

This week we got our transfer calls. Unfortunately my companion for my
whole mission so far, Elder Ryan Vang, is going home. He was an
awesome companion and one of my best friends. I will be quoting him my
whole mission. He was one hard worker and faithful individual. I am
sad he is leaving but happy he can move on with the rest of his life
ahead of him.

My new companion will be... Elder Jamal Vang! This is his last
transfer in the mission field. He has previously served in the Hmong
branch for about a year. He is coming back for one last one. In
mission terms, I am killing him off. I have talked with him a few
times and I am excited to serve with him for one transfer.

After he leaves, I will be the only person with any sort of clue about
Hmong on the mission. We have no Hmong missionaries or Hmong speaking
missionaries coming out. So I will be here for a while. I will either
get an experienced missionary and he will stall until we can hopefully
get one, or I will train a Meskas and we will stay together for an
extended period of time.

One missionary in the mission office asked me: "Where do you think you
will go when you leave the Hmong branch?" I replied: "Home" because I
won't leave!  We had a large "Family gathering" with most of the
active members and I told them I will not leave this branch. At the
end, Grandmother Her, came up to me and talked to me in Hmong but then
said: "I love you" in English. It was the best thing ever! She must of
been practicing or something.

This week we had a baptism of 3 people. Jaynee and Anthony, as well as
Lori's daughter Lauren. It was a great way to finish off the transfer.
Me and Elder Vang finished with 21 baptisms together in 6 months.
Besides the baptism it was just visiting people all week for Elder
Vang and saying goodbye. I got to meet a lot of cool people in the
Klatt area of Anchorage.

Have a wonderful week, Sib Ntsib Dua!
Elder Hayden Frey

Pics from the week

P-Day 22

Nyob Zoo!

What a wonderful week this was as always. We get to go around and
teach a message about Christ and the new Christmas initiative found at
Christmas.mormon.org. The Church did a wonderful job creating the
website with many videos about the importance of Christ so make sure
that you check it out and share it on your social media accounts!

We had a funny yet amazing miracle. One of our "Golden" investigators,
Lori, turns out to be an member! She went to a baptism of ours and she
thought she was. We had her go to our branch clerk and it turns out
she was baptized!

We had a really busy week that included 9 lessons on Thursday. We
picked up a few new investigators. Our branch is growing and growing.
Good news, next year we are moving into the chapel! We currently meet
in the relief society room but we will be in the chapel in 2016. I
also got the opportunity to conduct this month again. And I did it all
in Hmong! That was fun.

We picked up another baptismal commitment. Elder Goodsell my ZL came
to the Hmong branch. We went around and visited some people. We were
driving to go in and we decided to visit one more person. We visited
this LA. He is a really cool dude who still has a testimony but he is
making the steps to come back. We talked sports, then taught a lesson
and then said a prayer. As we were leaving he said, "Hey my wife wants
to be baptized." It was awesome!

Little warmer this week. It's in the low 20s. A lot better than -10s!
We have a baptism this Saturday. 3 more are going into the water as we
say. So we will busy this week. We will also be busy because it's
Elder Vang's last week. We have to go around and see all the people he
wants to say goodbye too. I will miss him. He's been my comp for a
whole quarter of my mission. He is a stud missionary and he has made
his mark on this piece of the garden. I am thankful for him and the
influence he has had over me.

Have a wonderful week!
Elder Hayden Frey