June? Where did it go?

Hey everyone!

Butterfly is doing fantastic!

this last week with the four of us we are seeing miracles happen!

This week we saw Tammy Tam, who we havent been able to see for the past few weeks. Apparently she was traveling. who knew! But she still has amazing faith. She really wants to be baptized. So we went over some of the baptismal questions with her and went over the word of wisdom again. She is just working on getting rid of her tea and her coffee. oh... and her gianormous jar of red wine with onions that she drinks each night to help her knees. That is one we are going to need to go over again. Be praying for her to have faith. :)

For the first time ever on my mission, we found a very pregnant new investigator. She came to church and the sisters loved her. During sacrament meeting she just kept re-adjusting and saying how painful it was to sit there. I was just thinking the entire time, "Oh man, she is never going to want to come back." Then afterwards she was talking with more of the sisters, and she was like, I think that I will bring my daughter next time. ...... what?! awesome great! I love it. miracles!

Anna is also doing really well. I didnt get chance to see her because sister shoemaker and her summer were teaching her, but I hear she is great. :)

Having summers is great but it makes the work a bit difficult. They are really just kids and they are expected to be full grown missionaries, but they dont get any mtc or training. So it is rough for them and a bit rough for us missionaries, but it brings so many miracles! :)

1. birthday celebration

2. Tammi's

3. offices

4. kitchen

5. bedroom

badminton with the YM and YW

從三星手機發送

Rain + summer missionaries

FAMILY!!!!

Thanks for the birthday wishes! I am sure tomorrow is going to be a great day. 

We just got summer missionaries less than 30 min ago!!!! I now get to be comps with Shek jimuih for the next 2 weeks. Sister Shoemaker and I will be on splits working with our summers, but still working in the same area. 

Oh yeah. Move calls came... I am staying here in Butterfly! Best ward ever! 8 months here we come! I wouldnt have it any other way. 

Sister Mckown went home (picture #3). We had some nice Indian curry for her last lunch together. 

I am so happy to stay here for the next month. July is almost upon us. We are seeing so many miracles everyday!

Sister Shoemaker and I have decided that in July we are going to have four baptisms. It is totally possible. But we need to develop more and more faith. It is going to take some serious miracles for it to happen. In my 6 months here so far we have yet to have a baptism. But 4 of them are right around the corner.

We haven't had to much contact with Tammy lately. I think her phone broke for a bit, but we were finally able to schedule her for tomorrow. 

Our new investigator Anna is SOOOOO good! She is the sweetest mom you will ever meet. Both of her sons have special needs. Her husband still thinks that church is a waste of time, but Anna thinks it is good. When we met with her last week she had downloaded the LDS library on her own. Yesterday she brought out a notebook during gospel class and took notes. SHE TOOK NOTES! that is the first time I have ever seen that. She is awesome. We haven't been able to extend a date to her yet. But hopefully we will be able to see her tomorrow and give her a date for july. :)

This last week we received a referral from Mormon.org. Weirdest thing ever. We don't ever get referrals. So when a text came in with an address, name, and numbers I freaked out just a bit. I called is right away. But the thing is. British Pinyam. I hate it. It takes all the tones out of a name to make it english, so we never really know how to say peoples names if we just read them. We need the characters. But that wasn't included in the text. So when I asked for Ms. Siu, no one was there with that name. British pin yam. worst thing ever. So we went to the address the next day and a man in some boxers answers the door. We still don't really know who to ask for, so we just said, hey do you have a son or daughter in America who goes to this church? They said your wife had interest to learn more. So the wife comes to the door and who is it...... none other that Doctor Lam's friend. Remember her? She was there when Doctor Lam tried to enter into our bodies. I remember her friend saying that she had a kid who went to our church, but no one really knows that there are different christian churches, so i didn't really believe her. But it was her! Mrs. Chan! I was so excited!!!! That day we first met her  at doctor lams we left and said to each other, "man I wish we could teach her friend" and now we get to teach her!!! I am so excited! 

We met with her a couple days latter and taught her the restoration. She has been anti-ed a lot. She goes to another church. She mostly just wanted to make sure that her son wasn't part of an evil church. I am excited for her to find out that it is true. :) .... yesterday I called her to asked why she missed church and if she had read yet. She said she wanted to give us back our book, but I ended up scheduling her for tomorrow. Hopefully we will be able to help her see the truth. She will. I know.

I am so excited for the coming weeks! They are going to be awesome! Miracles every day!

I love you all!

Shea

Picture # 1 Summers! Me and Shek jimuih

Picture # 2 We like lychee. and the ward likes to give them to us. :)

Picture # 3 Indian curry

Mandarin Almight God members, mango pudding and pizza at the pier...

Hello everyone!!!!

 

how is everyone doing! This week has been great!

Last Monday after emailing we got some pizza on the island and was able to eat it over the water. We met a man named "Jesus" he is awesome. (I will send you a picture in a sec.)

 

Somehow on Tuesday we ended up in this random lady's house who we had contacted a few weeks ago. She introduced us to her mom who only speaks Mandarin and kept trying to tell us to speak Mandarin to her. The problem is.... I know about 4 words in mandarin. Her mom kept going off about the Church of the Almighty God. She tried to have us read their book, listen to their songs and watch a video... but we really cant understand anything. She was trying to preach their gospel to us, but there was no way for us to understand her. In the end we just ended up telling them that we would have the Mandarin Elders call them and we booked it out of there.

 

Wednesday we were able to see Queen on her birthday. She didnt let us know that it was birthday till we sat down and asked how her day was. So we went out right then and got her a piece of mango cake. Happy birthday to Queen. :)

 

On Wednesday we were doing some service and I pallet of heavy carpet pinched my toe. We thought that I might have broken my toe so we went home to rest and eat some lunch...  but about an hour later there was nothing wrong with it. It was awesome. Now there isnt even a bruise! I think that the spirit protected my toe. :)

 

Friday we got to go on exchanges again and I got to go with Sister Wilcox yet again. I love being companions with that girl. She is so good!

 

Saturday we played volleyball with one of our LA's and with some of the YW in our ward. We then talked about how volleyball is like the gospel. We have our team and then we have Christ as our coach. :)

 

This morning we got to go on a hike with Brother Cheung, Tuen Mun Wards recent convert. He is just the cutest little hobbit man that just hikes everyday. He is awesome. We hiked around Tuen Mun. HK is a really cool place to hike because when you hike up all you see are tall buildings and green mountains.

 

Where the poop do I live? This place is awesome!!! I love it here! I love you all too!

It isnt a farmers tan, it is a fishers tan

Hey everyone!

How is it going on the other side of the world? Things are great over here! Still super hot and humid, but all weather is good weather when you are a missionary. :)

Last night is started raining right before we were going to go to bed, so we decided to try sleeping in the main room because when it rains at night it pounds on the AC unit. So we all slept on pads on the floor last night. It was fun. :)

This last week I got to go on exchanges again with Sister Choi. It is the third time that I have gotten to be companions with her. It is fun to see how we grow over time.

We also had Zone Training this week. Can I just tell you all how awesome the missionaries in Hong Kong are? They are the best. As you all know, we have been working towards getting 65 baptisms in July. Last month the mission got around 25. But the missionaries here have so much faith! President Hawks was so touched when he saw the results of a survey he took asking how excited we were for July and how optimistic we were. On a scale from one to seven the lowest score was a 5. It is amazing!!! Miracles truly are happening everyday!

Wednesday I got sunburned for I think the first time since I have been in HK. I dont know if it is the humidity, or the pollution or what, but usually no matter how long I am outside or what the weather is I dont get burned. But on Wednesday we were doing some service where we were sweeping a roof. After only about 2 hours I got a nice burn/tan. I love a good old farmers tan. Then sister mckown said, "we dont call it a farmers tan, we call it a fishers tan. I fishers of men tan." I got a good laugh at that. :)

Tuesday we met up with Doctor Lam to try and teach her a lesson.... how do I explain Doctor Lam.... she thinks she is a prophet. a healer. she donates her skin. lover of the bible. all other books are "spiritual books". she is SUPER nice. Offered us all kinds of different teas. We met her a while back and she said we could stop by her shop and chat with her sometime. So we went over and one of her friends was with her. We had some nice chats about what prophets really were. She thinks there are seven prophets... I dont really know... and I dont know how much I should say. But at one point she turned to her friend and said, "Look, you see, I want to heal them but they have to many doubts. I cant enter into their body because they have to many doubts." ..... of course we have some doubts! So I said that is funny cause we have a message that we really want to share with you that we KNOW will help you, but you have to many doubts. her friend then was kind of on our side saying like yeah, you need to believe what they say. I had a good laugh from them as well. I am just really grateful that the spirit protects us from Chinese doctors trying to enter into our bodies.

Being a missionary we get a chance to talk with allot of people. I have learned so many things from the people on the streets. There are so many different religions. They all have a portion of truth. Even Buddhism has some truth. Allot actually. At one point we were talking to this lady who says that she finds so much peace in their temples, she is just trying to figure out how to apply it into her everyday life. I am so grateful that we have a gospel that we can apply into our everyday lives. It is what we do, how we live and how we choose our futures. If there has been one thing that I have learned up to now is that this complete. I know it.

I love you all!

Shea

Dragon Boats

Family!!!!

I am sorry to here about Caleb's mom. But I am really happy to see everyone together. :) 

This morning we got to watch the dragon boat races! I dont really know the history of why they have them, but we watched a couple of them and called it good. They have about 40 people on one long boat and they race a few hundred meters.  We are all sweating like pigs over here. Everyday is like a rice cooker outside. It is great! 

I dont even know what to write about anymore.... sorry....

We went over the Sabbath day again with Tammy because she is getting so close to baptism but has to leave right before our sacrament meeting to go to work. We were getting a bit scared because we had taught it last week, but nothing changed, so we went over it again with her a bit more in detail and she said that she would be able to stay for half of sacrament meeting. Sundays are really truly impossible for her to get off. She sells furniture. But even when she gets vacation time she still has to work on Sundays. Everyone does. Hong Kong work life is crazy. I dont know how people can do it.

We taught Sister Lee, but we didnt have a place to teach her cause her family didnt want us in their house and our members mom had physical therapy in her house. So our member pulled out her living room table and stuck in it the hallways and thats where we taught her. haha the member even made dumplings, so it was like we were having a picnic in the middle of some government housing. :)

We got to cook with one of our LAs. This LA is one of the sassiest HK people I have ever met. She is SUPER funny. I love her, but she is a punk when it comes to coming to church. SO many excuses that are so not good excuses. I really like to keep digging till they have no excuse left so this is how our conversations go...

me: have you read the book of Mormon lately?

LA: oh I have been so busy lately

me: what are you doing to make you so busy?

LA: taking care of my grandkids

me: how old is he again?

LA: 12

me: so he goes to school right? what do you do during that time?

LA: I gotta buy groceries and cook food

me: hmmmmm... well you should still have you know like 2 min or so you can read a verse or two right?

LA: But then I have been whatsapping (do they have whatsapp in America?) one of my old classmates. 

Man. she is so good at changing the subject. But the good thing about sassy straight up people is the fact that you can do it right back. I love it. It is probably something I should do less of. I will work on it. 

But this week has been great! Filled with pizza with chopstix, basses on bicycles and sweat marks all around. 

I love you all!

Shea

cheung faahn, best noodles ever (they have soy sauce, peanut butter sauce and some sweet sauce plus sesame sauce.)

 me plus the dragon boats

 dragon boats

Apparently the law of chastity is against the declaration of independence...

FAMILY! how is everyone doing? I love all the videos and pictures. Thomas really is getting cute! I keep seeing little Chinese babies around here with our LA's and this of Thomas every time. But he is a bit younger than the babies around here. In my head I keep picturing Thomas Asian. So to see those blue eyes it kinda threw me off guard.

But this week has been great! So fast. I really dont understand where the time goes... I feel like I email you everyday.

Last Monday night we were out finding. We have been doing this finding everyday where we show people a picture of baptism and teach them about it. We also pick a date everyday that we could possibly give someone out on the street. As we started finding Monday, as soon as we got to the area we were going to focus on it started raining like crazy. No big deal. We just tried to stay under the coverings, thats where most of the people are anyway. Personally I kinda like finding in the rain. Only the truly prepared people come out. :) So we went for an hour or so without any luck. Then within the last 3 min of finding we start walking next to this lady who is giving us the "What the heck are you" look. So we start talking to her about baptism. She said she had already been baptized but that she is really dirty right now. We promised that she could have a fresh start through this baptism with proper authority. She was so excited! You could just tell she was so un happy with her life right now. So we gave her a date for July 27th! :) As she said a prayer with us she said 3 or 4 times how grateful she was able to run into two angels to help her change herself. She had tears running down her face. All she could say was thank you.

This week we also contacted a lady Chinese doctor who said that she died and spent a few days in heaven and hell. She then tried to teach us about everything she knew. She made sure that I knew the BOM was just a "spiritual book" not comparable to the bible... that was all I really got. She talked really fast and about things I had never heard of before. She said alot of really good and correct things, but then she was way off on others. But in the end she took a bom. Maybe sometime next week we can explain a bit more.

We also ran into Peter, a catholic old man that speaks perfect English that is ALWAYS rolling around Tuen Mun park in his little wheelchair. He made sure to let us know that the Law of Chastity goes against the Declaration of Independence. How? I am not sure... but I am sure he will get it sometime... he always just says... "Save me the conversion!" Then we say, "come on peter, only you can convert yourself. Just try coming to church." but he doesnt. He will get it sometime. :)

Sorry this is a weird email... these were just some of the first things that came to my mind when i thought over this last week. but long story short... there are prepared people and there are some not yet prepared people.... we are just working on finding those prepared ones. :)

I love you all!

Shea

                                             we're kind of a big deal

Swimming everyday :)

Hey everyone! How are things on the other side of the world? HK is great! We are currently swimming in the humidity everyday. I wish you could all just see how much we sweat daily. It is gross.

 

But the last couple of days has been GREAT! I cant believe I called home a week ago. It feels like ages ago. Friday andSaturday we got to teach 2 new families!

 

On Friday as we were riding the light rail to the chapel I was calling through some old numbers to invite people to English class. No one really answered, but you know, what else is new... then as we were buying some dau fu fa (watery tofu that they scoop out of a wooden bucket and put some sugar on top) to go along with our dinner when a random number called back. I had no idea who it was, but tried to schedule them anyway. ... she said she could see us the next day at 2. GREAT! scheduled someone I have no idea who it was. Looking back through my planner I match the number up with a Mrs. Leung, but the only notes I have are "no church, Tony, English". great. that is not much help. I still couldnt remember for the life of me who this lady is.

 

The next day we wait for her at the light rail station (hing tit stop) and a cute lady shows up with her 7 year old daughter, Tony, and her husband! The entire family! WHAT?! We were so excited! I have never taught a family where both the husband and the wife are investigators. So we took them over to the chapel and gave them a good tour. Mr. Leung is a sassy little man. I like him. He made me a bit stressed, but he was super funny. Both him and his wife had wondered why are there so many different churches and what the differences are. Mrs. Leung is originally from mainland so doesnt have any background on anything, but Mr. Leung went to a christian school growing up. We ended up teaching them the restoration and trying to answer their questions as best as we could. When they left sister shoemaker and I just looked at each other and said, "what just happened? did we just teach a family?" I couldnt believe what actually just happened!

 

We have been praying to teach more families. If there is one thing this gospel can help it is a family. There are FAR to many broken families in HK. Just yesterday one of our younger investigators was telling us how she is currently living with her grandmother and how her parents got divorced when she was just 3 years old and now they have other families. She hardly ever gets to see her parents because they are working all the time in order to support her. She wants to help her family. It is so hard to patch together a broken family. It is so much easier to just keep it strong from the beginning.

 

All I want to do is teach these people how they can have a strong family. Family truly is the strongest most important unit in all of the universe.

Thanks family for being the best ever.

I love you!