Nul Bliam

O some other random stuff I remembered. That Scott guy bore his testimony in church yesterday, which was cool. I also got a Hmong name from one of the members in Apppleton. I'm named Nul Bliam, its the name of a character in Hmong mythology that symbolized Youthfulness, thought that was cool.k by

Almost two weeks in Oneida

Haha thats pretty funny you found our libary (note from Karen:  I googled Oneida and the library was the only building I saw). Im pretty sure it and the post office are the only real buildings (besides houses) around her. There are some weird posters out there, inside there are a lot more Indian things, dream catchers and such. There is only one other person here, so that gives you some idea of how popular this place is. That's pretty cool you got to read Sis Black's blog. She and Sis Behrends(half German) were serving in Racine/Kenosha for pretty much the whole time we were. They are good missionaries and fun to teach with. They came with us to Jannelles house a couple of times, mostly to help control her siblings (they usually let us teach because she was our investigator). Its nice to hear we did a good job, whenever I think about lessons I taught I always concentrate on what I did wrong or could have done better and what I'll do differently next time. As to the picture, I don't even remember being in it, must have been last zone conference. Its wierd on your mission, time flys, but when you think of past events they seem like dreams. As to the work in Oneida, things are going good. Things aren't as fast-paced here, which is a complete change from Racine. ....there are lots of less-active members, but they aren't converts.... We've been going around to a lot of such families and 2 of them came to church on Sunday. We also set a baptismal date with a man named Scott. He's been searching for the true church for 6 years and said that none of the ones he had been to seemed right. A couple weeks ago he was driving around the area looking for a stable for his horse. He said that every time he passed a certain one he felt something pulling him towards it, unlike any other time he passed other stables. After about the third time he felt this he finally pulled in and decided to keep his horse there. The owner of the stable 'just happened' to be a member of the church who invited him to church and to learn from the missionaries. He says he gets that same feeling he had to go to the stable every time he reads the Book of Mormon (he started reading from the beginning before we even asked him to) or hears us teach. He is now on the 3rd lesson and has a baptismal date for couple weeks from now. Tell Abby happy birthday again, the package should get there sooner or later.  ............... Those rice crispies were really good, me and my companion already devoured them, they're already gone. So the weather here is getting colder, right as we decided to start jogging in the morning. Today its really windy/cloudy, about 50 degrees. So still short sleeve weather. Apparently it got down to about -30 one day. One stupid missionary decided to go out and get the mail in a t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops. When he got back inside his skin was chapped and half-frozen. I'll have to test it...Well have a great week Love Elder Julian

Thanks for that mom. The last scripture is also one of my favorites, I first read it in the MTC and it helped me. This verse has also meant a lot on my misson: Ether 12:27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them. This scripture has been proven true especially so far on my mission. If we are humble the Lord will build us up to where we should be. Love Elder Julian

We got the email! Oneida!

Hey Mom/family,So yes I am in Oneida. It has about 4000 people in the area, but the actual town boundaries only have about a thousand, so basically I’m living in a farm town. It is on the Oneida Nation Reservation, which is pretty cool. The branch here is pretty cool, everyone is nice and friendly. Anywhere from 50 to 100 people come to church every week I’m told. Our area is fairly large, it encompasses about 10 towns, all of which are pretty small, except Green Bay of course. I realized yesterday this is the most rural area I have every lived in. We live with this old couple about a mile from the church. They have a huge backyard and there’s a farm next to us with chickens and goats. As for being busy…not so much so far. The situation here is different than it was in Racine. There we had tons of investigators and people to help find the Gospel, whereas here we have TONS of less and inactives to help. What’s been happening in the past is that the missionaries here baptize people into the branch, but they have no member support so they usually fall away. So basically our job is to strengthen the ward and activate people mainly.That’s pretty funny what sis Birch said about my companion about the 20 lesson thing. The real story is that a missionary met Elder Perry in the temple and was promised that if he tried his best he could get 20 lessons a week. That missionary wasn’t my companion, but Pres Barrett made it a mission goal, so we should be getting it anyways. As for investigators, I think we have 3 progressing right now, so I’ll fill you in on them next week after I meet them all. Weather here is really nice, like you said high 60s low 70s. The whole 90% humidity is pretty close, it feels like a sauna sometimes and anytime you go outside when its that bad the car is wet, like it rained.O another good thing about Oneida, nobody uses this library so the bandwidth is open (unlike Racine where every hobo off the street used the library’s computers, it’s true we met one) enough that I shouldn’t have anymore problems while I’m here.Well I’m doing great, hope you’re all doing great! Love Elder Julian

Transferred!

I just read the email from Sister Birch saying that Alex has been sent to Oneida,
WI. She says she took goodies and supplies for the journey (2 hours :) to the Elders.
She also says that he's getting a wonderful companion who was challenged by a general
authority to have 20 lessons/week, and has met that goal so far! So Alex will be very
busy. Apparently he's getting our emails, but has been unable to send his. I'm feeling
very blessed to have Sister Birch watching out for Alex like that. :)

last week's post from Sister Birch

Dear Karen,
I saw your e-mail and called Elder Julian just a minute ago. The server was down last week and this wek since p-day was on the holiday he and his companion haeven't found a break in plans to get to the library to e-mail. They are super busy he says, they me an awesome guy through a media referral named Cramon(no last name) who is "solid" this is good and starting to read the Book of Mormon, they are setting up his next appointment as I am talking to your son!
He reports that Norman is finally off probation and that is "sweet" and now he expects he will really progress. Norman also dumped his girlfriend, apparently she needed to go.
I asked if this would make sense to you, he said yes.
He attended the Ward Summer Corn Roast at the Davis' last Saturday. I can attest to it being the best shindig of the summer in the ward. The Davis' have a large Victorian home on a huge lot and lots of fun outdoor things set up. Volleyball, basketball, a trampoline, rope swings, shady trees, a horse breeder whose fence backs up to thier property , kitties and doggies and foood food food for days!! The roasted corn keeps coming the entire time, it's not uncommon to eat 3 pieces each before the event is through and THEN the watermelon bust ensues! This used to be a joint party between Kenosha and Racine when I attended, but the ward split several years ago and after trying to hold it all together for a few years it got just too unmanagebale to have 500 people roaming the property and blocking the street with cars all afternoon so it had to be limited to Racine only.
He tells me he has plenty of dinner appointments and will be with the Costable family tonight. Jeannie is a great cook and will spoil them for sure!(I called to clarify)
He seems so happy and very busy- and still has his smarty pants sense of humor- (tied to tell me all of Racine had been translated including the librarian with the key )so I know it's hard mom, but he is okay. he loves you all and PROMISES to get an email to you next week. I told him not to feel bad if it meant sending it through g-mail or another account just to be SURE you get one. I also told him some moms have theier son's dearelder passwords so they can check to see if something was written but returned by mailerdeamon or just failed to send and saved as a draft because myldsmai is NOT all it's touted to be. Please email back if I can pass anything on you your son.
My best,
Teresa Birch

ldsmail - a fail

This is an email from a wonderful sister in the area next to Alex's. She takes care of the missionaries like no one I've ever heard of (lucky us - rather, blessed). We didn't get an email last week because of the holiday on Monday (being his P-day).
My lds mail is stoop-that's a direct quite from your boy who still refuses to open a gmail account or give up his myldsmail password so his mommie can hack his account for letters he may have written but were not sent due to loading errors. Something about wanting to remain on his mission and obey rules, maintain a temple recommend...stuff like that. So good for him, he at least called me this evening to have me hit the highlights of his week for you. Here goes..."hi, I love you, there's no place like home(sis Birch added the last one but it's TRUE and your son agrees) Well transfers are this week and it looks like I'm moving on . Loud "Noooooooo" from sister Birch, that can be heard clear from Kenosha to Racine. They won't tell me where I go until Tuesday, Elder Stribling will be training again, I'm going to miss him.Now Racine stuff. We found an amazing guy who we had a lesson on the restoration with, his name is Hubert, he had two friends over who we taught too. We had an inactive sister,Sis Brooks return to church after 11 years on Sunday, she came with her daughter who is real active. (Sis Birch knows them from when the Kenosha-Racine Wards were one!Waaaay cool!! GoElderJulian!!!) George is doing real good, he's up to Mosiah in his reading now! Norman is doing ok with out the girlfriend. I'm happy Molly is doing good.(Woof and a headrub from sis.Birch who LOVES doggies) I'm sending Abby's Birthday-slash-souveniers package for her birthday.My dad and my brother will think it's neat we met 4 schizophrenics and a bi-polar this week! (I told him this reporting is lost on moms, but he insisted)At this point the conversation turned to me suggesting he write something about the people he's met in Racine ward so he can look back, read this and remember them. He said you would'nt know these people but I said it is still a good idea. He decided to write it in his journal, good boy!! I also quizzed him on any mending he may need done so he can put his best foot forward in his new area, he declined. He had a fun p-day plaiyng disc-golf, watching a church movie and being bossed around by the sister missionaries who wanted to go to the beach to run around in the sand. It was a beautiful day, one of the last we will be seeing for many a month so it is probably good that the sister missionaries won that descision, they are fairly mothering, so they are in good hands with our sister missionaries at the helm of p-day plans.I wish he would stay another transfer, but this is great news too, it means he's done training, moves on to his "buster" companion, and has learned the ropes fast! I will find out from his DL where he goes tomorrow evening and let you know so you don't have to wait for next weeks e-mail which at this point isn't exactly a solid way to communicate. Elder Julian knows he is welcomed(encouraged) to call me if there is another week of failed emails with mylds.com. I will see him on Weds to bring him some treats for the journey to his next destination. Banana bread is defenitely on the travel-goodie box menu! I am beat, long day at work, but I'm glad I could help Elder Julian get a letter to home today, even though it is heavily para-phrased by me. It feel like iv'e made my mini-contribution to missionary work in the world today! Have a great week. Talk to you soon!love, Sis Birch

2nd installment, Sept. 1, 2009

So I have a few minutes to write , the Spanish Elders aren't quite done yet. So basically the jist of the last email was that we set 2 baptismal dates with Sarah (formaly known as Diara) and her fiance Jeremy. The Sarah stroy is funny, I had explained it all, but basically a media referal for a woman named Diara had Sarah's number on it. We were actually at Sarah's aunt's house teahing her while Sarah was there. We actually dropped her aunt ( kinda crazy and not really interested in the Gospel) but Sarah and her fiance were interested in what we had to say but never got to invite us over because we dropped her aunt. So by divine help we got in contact with Sarah through an incorrect media referal and now they have dates! They even saw a picture of the Salt Lake temple and said they want to get married there!All other investigators are doing great and so am I. Thanks for the love and support!Love Elder Julian

September 1, 2009

Hey family,So I just spent 30 minutes writing an awesome email that was filled with amazing spiritual experiences, BUT this stinking email service just spazed and I lost the email. So I'll send you a REALLY good one next week. SorryLOVE YOU A LOT Elder Julian