Karen Temple Trip and Sacrament Meeting!

This week was super cool! On Saturday we took a group of Karen people to the temple! The temple president has given the elders permission to come into the temple and translate the ordinances into Karen because the church doesn’t have anything translated into Karen yet. So for the first time, some of our Karen members were able to hear the ordinances in Karen. Because the translations aren’t official, the person performing the ordinances still had to say them in English, but then someone else would read it simultaneously in Karen. So when they were doing baptisms for the dead, one of the elders read it in Karen. But for the confirmations, I was able to read it in Karen while another Elder actually performed the ordinance in English. It was such a neat experience and the spirit was so strong.

Yesterday we had another all-Karen sacrament/testimony meeting! Just like last time, it was super cool. Seeing these people have the opportunity to share their testimonies to their own people is so cool. I’m sure they also really appreciate being able to understand the things being said without needing to wear headphones with someone translating. 

Funny story of the week. We found this house with 6 different apartments in it, and they all are Karen people. We decided to knock on the doors, so we started with the first door we saw. We knock on it, this 18 year old kinda gangster lookin’ kid answers and says “hey what’s up?” We tell him we’re missionaries and ask if we can teach his family, he says, “Oh yeah for sure. We’re Christian. Come in!” We go into his family room, and he tells us he’s going to go ask his friend if he wants to come too. So we’re just sitting there and it’s super dark because it’s about 5 pm and their electricity isn’t working. He comes back and says his friend doesn’t want to come. So we decide to just teach him the shortest lesson we can. We start reading a scripture in the Bible about prophets and this kid just keeps changing the subject asking us random questions about ourselves. We finally get back to the lesson and he just starts hysterically laughing and gets up and goes back to the room his friend is in. Comes back and says, “Man my buddy really doesn’t want to come. He’s a little sick. He just had surgery because he got stabbed.” I go, “He got stabbed?!” Calmly he says, “Yep” alllllrighty... so we finish the lesson, tell him to pray and ask god for guidance in his life and he says, “I pray all the time. Except sometimes when I’m tired or do drugs, I forget. Man I must’ve forgotten to say my prayers last night so god sent you. Wow that’s cool.” We told him to stop doing drugs, then got out of there pretty quickly. (Sorry mom. You probably won’t think this story is funny) Needless to say, we probably won’t be going back to see our bud Kwy Shee. 

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well! Remember, don’t do drugs. They’ll make you forget to say your prayers. And if you’re not already saying your prayers, start! God wants to hear from you. :)

Sister Brooklyn Hermansen

We became ponies this week!

Since Brooklyn didn't send any other pictures of her this week, enjoy her thumb!

She used a sticker! haha

Mom notes: I'm so grateful for prayers of safety for our missionaries and the angels that surround them in sketchy situations! I told her they'd better be more careful!