From Jon 7/10/08

Subject: Kuv zoo siab kawg!

Nyob zoo!

Congrats to Liz on the Super-Cake! Brilliant. It looks like the competition was daunting. Those were all masterful caketures!

Krisse passed her interview! Elder Nielson and I pulled weeds in her garden with Rick, her husband, while she was being interviewed inside. I wish I had my camera when she came outside when it was over. She was glowing. The gospel has transformed her. It's like there is a balloon inside her that has been slowly inflating with light. She has some kind of social anxiety disorder and used to be terribly shy and avoided any encounter with people. This led to depression and feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness, and general darkness. She has been devouring the Book of Mormon and researching doctrine on all of the church web sites and some non-church sites. She has been happier each time we have met her. She is taking brave steps socially and is not so nervous around the ward members. She recently prayed in front of us and two members who have been fellowshipping her, which is an enormous step for her. She is so excited, and has such a strong testimony, it gets me really fired up about the work. Rick has started investigating because he trusts Krisse, but he has trouble discerning whether the thoughts and feelings he gets come from God or from himself, so he's running off of Krisse's testimony right now. I think I overheard Krisse say she wants Elder Nielson to baptize her, which is great because he is the one who found her.

We had an incredible zone conference. Probably the best I've had. We had to drive over to Rochester the night before and sleep over at the Zone Leaders' house (they live with a member) so we could be there early in the morning. Elder Veit also had to sleep over because his area is so far away, so it was fun to be with him and about 9 other Elders for a night.

The Howells are awesome! They are very different from President and Sister Smith, but it's not like there are pros and cons...they're just different. The Howells are on fire. They are bursting with love and enthusiasm. I actually teared up a little during Sister Howell's talk.

I was asked to speak in zone conference this week, for the first time in my mission. In the cities, we combine 2 or 3 zones for zone conference, so there are far more missionaries to choose from, and the odds of being chosen are smaller. Here it was just our zone, and it's a pretty small one. I was glad to be chosen this time because I was able to speak on Charity and Love. My trainer had great love, and I learned a lot from him. He taught me that love can help with speaking the language, and that helped a lot.

I'm out of time, but I love you all and thank you for your prayers! Miracles are tumbling all over the place here!

-Elder Moua Ying