Oct 24, 1991
Well, transfer calls came yesterday and I got transferred. I am now in Merced, California. There is a large number of Hmong people here. my companion, Elder Jepson, speaks Lao. I’m not real excited to be in a zebra companionship again, but if that is what the Lord wants, that is what I will do.
Kia Her called me on the phone this morning before I left. She told me that she had been praying for 3 years that her husband would decide to get baptized. She told me that she had been praying for 3 years that her husband would decide to get baptized. She told me how grateful she was that the Lord had sent me to Stockton to baptize them. You know, having her say that makes all of it worthwhile, all of the problems frustrations, and difficulties just fade in comparison to the joy that had come into my life by teaching the gospel to the Hmong people. How could anything ever compare to that?! My time in Stockton was well spent.
Merced seems to look pretty good. Elder Baker was here tight before me & he seems to have quite a bit going. I met with that branch president today. He seems to have a very good understanding of the hmong people and is excited to be working with them.
I am excited to get a fresh start again here in Merced. it has been will over a year since there were Hmong baptisms here, so I’ll just have to find the ones that are ready now. Surely in over a year someone had been prepared.
Oct 25, 1991
I can not believe that it is Friday all ready! This week has absolutely flow by! Today went really well. i can’t help but feel like we just don’t have enough time to devote to the Hmong program. I am sure that as I get used to things I will feel less urgency. It had been a long, long time since anything at all happened in the Hmong program here. I really hope that I will be able to act as an instrument in the Lord’s hands so that things can get going the right direction here.
We spent a few hours today with President Davies, the pres. of the hmong branch here. He took us around to see some of the members here and to help me get to know the area a little. He seems to be a pretty good dug. I am looking forward to working with him. It should be a good experience.
I still haven’t heard from Kristin. i guess that maybe she has decided that she doesn’t want to ever talk to me again. I wish that she would at least write to me so I knew how she was doing. Even though she has done things that probably make it impossible for us to ever get back together, I would still like to be able to be her friend. I don’t know what will ever come of this whole mess that she’s created, but I hope she can pull out of it and get on with working out her salvation and exaltation.
Oct 27, 1991
today has been a pretty good day. Church attendance in our branch is not very good. I’m not too sure about what we can do to get that squared around. Apparently there are a large number of members in our branch that attend other churches. That is definitely not a good sign. I certainly don’t know for sure what to to do about it. Right now we meet on our own for sacrament meeting and all that, but the primary and mutual all meet in conduction with an American ward. They have only bee doing it this way for about 2 months. I think that it is definitely hard on the Hmong youth to be around the Americans. The Americans are just a lot more forward with members of the opposite sex than the Hmong kids are.
Yesterday, we were able to teach quite a few discussions. It was a good day. I was able to find a couple of really good Hmong families. I really have a good time when I get to teach people about Jesus Christ. Teaching the gospel is great. There are a lot of really good families that we are working with here. I really hope and pray that we will be able to act in a way that will enable them to be baptized.
October 29, 1991
Well, we had out first Z.D.M. in Merced today since I got here. They told us some things about the mission that were not very food at all. For instance, there were only 43 baptisms last month in the whole mission. That is not very food at all. That is by far the lowest it has been for years. I’m not sure what the problem is, but I am sure that President will help us figure it out on November 7th at Zone Conference.
After Zone Meeting, we went and saw quite a few people. It was pretty fun. I went on team-ups tonight with Veny Lee(Vwj Lis). It went pretty well, We taught a discussion to an inactive family. After the discussion, their boy, 18, brought out an old hymn book and asked me to find “that song that the missionaries always sing.” He wanted to sing “Called to Serve.” It turns out that he wants to go on a mission, but he isn’t sure if he could don it or not. I had a really long talk with him and told him what a wonderful thing my mission had been for me. I hope that the will be able to go on a mission. It makes me so happy to see Hmong boys trying to prepare themselves to serve missions.
We ended up teaching 4 discussions today, so that was a pretty good day for having Z.D.M. all morning long.
Oct 30, 1991
Things are still going quite well here in Merced. We taught 3 more discussions today. The biggest problem that we are having is our inability to follow-up on the commitments that people here are making. I have been scheduling follow-up appointments, but the families keep missing them. i’, not to sure as to what we can do to improve that situation. Maybe I’ll have to sit down with each of them and explain the importance of follow-up visits. i’m still trying to get a grip on just exactly how things work around here, but I’m doing pretty well, I think I hate the felling of not knowing what’s going on when I get transferred. It always seems to take me longer to get adjusted than I would like.
The weather here had taken a definite turn for the worse over the past week. Today the high was only 65 F. i hate cold weather. Especially when I’m riding my bike. What I ought to do is to go get some warm gloves. maybe I’ll do that next month.
i still haven’t received any mail from home since my last transfer. I hope that everything there is all right. Kristin hasn’t written for a long time either. I wish I knew how she was getting along.
Oct 31, 1991
Well, as can be imagined Halloween is not the very most productive day of the year for missionaries. In fact, after about 5:00 pm it proved to be just about worthless. We spent the evening over at one of the Spanish member’s houses doing basically nothing. Our zone- leaders told us that from 5:00 on it was P-day tonight, so we just kind of took it easy for the night.
We only managed to teach one discussion to a Hmong family today. i am still feeling somewhat frustrated at out inability to follow-up effectively. i still don’t know what to do to change that I guess. I’ll just keep praying for help. i am feeling some of the same frustrations that I felt at the beginning of mission. i don’t feel like we are reaching enough people. how can we reach more people? There are people all around who are hurting. They don’t have the gospel and we are not being effective in taking it to them. I need to have more faith. I need to challenge more effectively. My confidence has really been shaken over the last few months. i need to challenge people to be baptized. I need to set dates and do it.
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