March 17, 1992
It happened! This is the kind of thing that I have been waiting for and hoping for my entire life! Tonight Tooj Khwb said that he would be baptized on the 22nd of this month. His wife and daughter are very excited! Also his brother is going to be baptized with his wife and daughter. Tuam Lis and Tsav Lis are also getting ready to be baptized the beginning of April, along with Amos Xyooj and her kids. I can't believe how much the Lord has blessed us here. I love to be a missionary. I can't even express in words how excited I am! This is the greatest! The Lord has really blessed us. I hope and pray that the Lord will continue to allow things to progress here. A love being a missionary!
Elder Reeser is doing well. He has really been successful at keeping his head in the game this close to the end of his mission. I'm really proud of him for that. Things are great!!!
March 19, 1992
We talked more discussions today than I have ever taught in my whole mission. I simply can't believe how much the Lord has blessed our work in this area. I am really tired tonight. Elder Clark, who is one of the new A. P.'s, went on team up with us. It was really fun. I think that things here will probably get moved back into a zebra with the lao elders as soon as Elder Reeser goes home. I wish that we could stay in a companionship here, but I don't think it will happen. We are just going to have to get by on what we have. For some reason, we just aren't getting enough hmong speaking elders. Salt Lake just isn't sending enough of them through the MTC. Anyway, I'm sure that the Lord knows what he is doing. I'll just have to trust in that. My mission is drawing ever closer to an end. Every time I realize that, it scares me more. I hate seeing the end come, but I also look forward to seeing my family and also being able to tell the Lord that I did my best. The church is true.
March 21, 1992
It just seems to get harder and harder for me to find the time to write in my journal.
Yesterday Npliaj Xab and his wife decided to wait for a while before they get baptized. That is alright, I guess, but I wish that they would have been baptized tomorrow with Tooj Khwb and his wife. Anyway, We did the baptismal interviews and stuff yesterday for Tooj and his wife, daughter and nephew. They will all be baptized tomorrow. I can't wait! I think it will be really cool for elder Reeser to see that family be baptized right before he goes home.
In conjunction with his going home, Elder Reeser went to the temple today. As a result, I teamed up with Elder Ehlert and Kester. It was a pretty good day.
We went and taught Mao Xiong and her kids today. It went really well. She said that she wants to be baptized on April 4, so I am excited about that too! I love teaching the gospel I really can't believe how much I enjoyed being a missionary. I always envisioned my mission as being a lot of work, but I never envisioned by mission be so much fun. I really love it. It is just awesome.
March 23, 1992
Yesterday was awesome. We had more people at church then we have had since I got here in Merced. At 6 PM Tooj and his wife, nephew and daughter got baptized. It was so awesome! I got to baptize him, after that we got out of the baptismal font, spread some towels on the ground, and gave him the Holy Ghost and the aaronic priesthood
And made him a priest. After we did that, he baptize the other members of his family. It was so awesome! It seems like every baptism that we have is special I love being a missionary!
Today was kind of a drag. We spent all day saying goodbye to people for elder Reeser. I just feel like we spent a lot of time accomplishing little. It also makes me realize how much I don't want to go home. I can't believe that I'm going to be going home so soon. I can't imagine what life would be like if I hadn't serve my mission.
March 26, 1992
Well, Elder Reeser is home by now an elder Badel is my companion again. He will be my companion until April 11. After that, I won't really have a companion for two weeks. I'll just spend most of my time teamed up with different missionaries and members. I am really excited to have Elder Badel as my companion again, but I am not very excited about sending two companions home only 2 1/2 weeks apart. Oh well, I will do whatever the Lord wants. One thing that is kind of interesting is that Elder Badel is now only working with the hmong people. It is really going to be fun. I love having companions that are go-getters. It always means the risk of more companion conflicts, but Elder the Dell and I have had a lot of success together. I love companionship's that are like that. (I find that very interesting, because your dad and I were like that. Most marriages both people aren't type a personalities because there are more potential conflicts, but at the same time I think there is more potential growth and more potential success when you yoke yourself to someone who wants to go as fast as you do.)
Things with our other investigators continue to go well. All of those families are very close to being ready for baptism. I can't wait. This area it will really be a good area to work in for a long time to come as long as we are obedient as missionaries. I really hope that the Lord will continue to lead these families to baptism.
March 29, 1992
Today was awesome! We scheduled Tooj'sBrother and his family for baptism on 4 April. I sincerely think that Mos Xyooj is the most spiritual investigator that I have ever had the chance to teach. She is so awesome! Space she has totally committed herself to living the Gospel. Today she totally describe the change of heart that is talked about in Messiah. She told us tonight that she has experienced a change of heart and that she doesn't want to do anything bad again. She is awesome!