From Jon 3/1/08

Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2008 10:01 AM
Subject: Greetings from the

That's the literal translation of "Sab Hnub Tuaj" (East) in Hmong, so saying Eastside is redundant and needlessly repetitive. ;)

Today is Josh's birthday, he's turning 18. He and Lynn still want to get baptized, and thus far are keeping commitments. They are praying to know if they should get married or live separately, and once that issue is settled, we can set a baptismal date.

I told you about Anthony, right? 10-year-old boy in a part-member, less-active family. His family wants to come back to church and he has tremendous faith in God. He is VERY sharp and understands everything very well. He reads on his own to learn more, and can apply it to his life. We will set a date after he comes to church this Sunday. His mom is very supportive.
Kou isn't progressing quite as well because he is waiting for his dad to convert first, but that isn't happening anytime soon. Kou wants to be baptized, he just needs to be the pioneer in his family.

Xub (like 'Sue') is a very nice less-active lady who lives on the outskirts of our area, and therefore, I had never met her before. She was thrilled to see us and had just been thinking that she really should go back to church. She only stopped because her husband didn't really approve, but now he doesn't care so much. We almost gave up trying to find her house, which was WAY out of the way. We got lost about 4 times, but at last we found it. She has been diligently reading and praying and is very excited to come back. We taught her 23-year-old son, Kong, who has never been to church in his life, and he's coming this week. He says he needs peace in his life. Xub also gave us two referrals. Good thing we didn't give up trying to find her.

There are just those 6 Elders currently assigned to Hmong areas, but there are 2 more Hmong-speaking Elders who are assigned to English areas right now. Elder Christiansen (Ywj Pheej) and Elder Larson (Tshaj Meem). Elder Ywj Pheej used to be our zone leader, so I've worked with him on a few exchanges. Elder Tshaj Meem used to be an office Elder so I got to know him as I called in updates for progressing investigators. Elder Tshaj Meem is now the Zone Leader, so I'll probably work with him on an exchange. The only Hmong Elder I haven't yet worked with is Elder Choua Vang, but I've lived in the same apartment with him for 3 transfers. In short, all 8 of the Hmong speakers in the mission know each other pretty well now.

Sand a cricket,
-Elder Muaj Yeej