It's Me!

Family!

I love getting your emails! They make me laugh and feel like I am right at home. Dont worry. They dont make me home sick. Yes I do miss all of you very very much, but I love it here and i love the work we are doing.

 

The work as picked up again this last week! We had 12 investigators at church on Sunday between the Elders and the Sisters! It was freakin AWESOME!!!!! Remember that Ms Chan, who me and the other new missionary prayed for their friend who is in prison? ... well she is completely golden! She just hadn't been answering our calls because she was in Mainland. The Mainland border is such a bother. I like to call it Mordor, cause no one just walks in there! Just kidding... locals do it all the time! Alot of locals work over in Mainland and come back home to Hong Kong. But anyway... she came to the Relief Society activity on Saturday and brought her 2 daughters and absolutely loved it! We showed her around our chapel and she was just like, "I dont know why, but I feel so happy and warm!" She couldnt stop smiling, which made us not be able to stop smiling. :) She made friends, and her daughters made friends with the other little girls in the ward. They came to church yesterday as well and really really liked it! Ms Chan said that she had been looking for a church to go to. She was actually going to go clear down to central to try a Christian church down there the day before we found her. She has been looking for some way to find good friends and help her daughters to have good standards. We havent even taught her the full first lesson and she loves everything about church! She is awesome! I love her so much. She also was on the phone with her sister and telling her sister how much she loved this church and how everyone is so happy and how she has to try and come. :) I love it when investigators give us referrals. It is the best! The only problem is that ms Chan's husband has zero interest in religion, and they are already having some marriage problems. She doesnt want us to teach her and her daughters at her house if her husband is home. But not to worry. This will smooth out, they just might take some time. (OMG LANDON. The guy sitting next to me is watching Naruto. I might die.)

 

We also got hold of Kirsten again! We just had to block our number and she answered right away. :) We met with her and taught her about the Sabbath Day and tried to commit her to keep it holy. Which includes coming to church. She said it is too hard to wake up. Her and her friends go out partying till 4 in the morning every single Saturday night. Bah. 15 year olds. So she didnt come to church yesterday. So we are meeting her today and we are going to see how much she really wants to be baptized.

 

We also met and taught a new family! Mr. Jehng and is daughter Sun Sun! He is a single dad that works as a bus driver. Sun Sun is five years old and pretty much one of the cutest little kids I have every met in my entire life. We actually met them a couple weeks ago when we were knocking doors. They live down this dark alleyway in pretty much a 2 story closet. It is tiny. just enough room for 3 chairs and for Sunsun to sit on Mr. Jehng's lap. But he cares about his daughter soooo much it is awesome. But after we first contacted them we couldnt get ahold of them on the phone. So we were over in their neighborhood knocking other peoples doors around 8:00pm(thats the best time cause everyone is home). When we were like Lets just see if they are even home. Somehow we found our way back to his house and they were home! So we taught them the first lesson and rescheduled them forWednesday. I am excited to go see them again to say the least.

 

Well... the work is awesome! Oh! Elder Anderson of the 12 came and talked to all of us missionaries! That was cool. I shook his hand.

 

Oh, we also almost got attacked by a dog the other night. It chased after us, but Sister Clements slapped it really hard with a Plan of Salvation pamphlet. Gods plan..... saved us once again. To bad Deson didnt have one of those in his back pocket.

 

Glad to here everyone is doing good! Keep sending me emails!

Love you all!

Shea

1st Baptism - Letter from Shea's Bishop

Dear Aldana Family,

Sister Aldana first baptism in Hong Kong, Sheung Shui Ward. This Sister Lam was investigator for 10 years, when Sister Aldana and her companion went to visit her 1^st time, she told them she is ready to join the church. Please enjoy the pictures.

Brother Choi

Sister Lam (centre), her husband (right), her mother (left)

Oh the Hong Kong people....

Hey family!!!!

 

I am still alive and doing well. The work has slowed down alot this week. We have been out finding some days for 5 to 6 hours. Our main investigators Kirsten and Sister Chan havent answered any of our calls or texts the last couple of days which makes me extremely nervous. But I think it is just cause I am a missionary and I forget that they have normal lives where a couple days without talking with someone is completely normal. but still.... I know at least Kirsten always sees our texts and calls cause she lives on her phone. I dont know though.... I am still nervous for her. But!

 

LAM JImuih got BAPTIZED!!!!!!!! I dont really feel like she is our baptism cause we didnt really do anything. We knew she wanted to be baptized before we even met her. She was so ready. I wish you could have seen how happy her sister, mom and husband were. Everyone was just glowing. So that was super fun. But we didnt really work for it. It was her family and a bunch of other missionaries who have taught her the lessons 6 times before we showed up. It was all about timing.

 

So like I said we have been finding alot alot alot lately. Usually it is not so bad, but summer is soon on its way and it is turning into a rice cooker here. Thank goodness I bought some short sleeved shirts last week cause I am sweating like a little piglet. and it is only May. I am going to die. Oh well.... at least I will have gone out working hard. :) Just kidding I wont die, just be soaking wet all the time.

 

While we are out finding I have been learning alot about Buddhism. Since usually when we say we are missionaries and have a message about Jesus Christ, they say "Oh I am Buddhist" and walk away. So usually I like to ask them questions like: "Why are you Buddhist?" "So... what do you think the purpose of life is?" "Where do you think we go after this life?" Most of them have no idea. They just say, "I am Chinese. So I am Buddhist." .......... ? ..... wha? So usually I just ask why that makes them Buddhist. Most people here are only Buddhist because their family is Buddhist and it is tradition, but they have no idea what they believe. Sometimes it is quite fun. Other times it is just frustrating how close minded they are. But that is OK! Cause they just arent ready right now. They will have another chance when they are ready.

 

That sounds awesome what the New York missionaries are doing! It is great to get some publicity out there. And I also think that laughing at yourself is great medicine.

(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/danielle-tumminio/dont-judge-a-book-of-mormon-by-its-cover-how-mormons-are-discovering-the-musical-as-a-conversion-tool_b_3267252.html)

 

I am happy that you guys are working hard to full fill your role as ward missionaries. Your activities sound great! I want to hear how everything goes! It also sounds like prayers are being answered with that kind of a sacrament meeting. Tamarra sounds like she is doing great! Keep working with her! I am excited to meet her sometime!

 

It is really good to hear about everyone! I love you so much!

Shea

 

 Pictures:

 

 My Favorite LA family. They are so great. We help Hillary with English and I play with June the 5 year old. :)

On the way to district meeting we ran into these Mainlanders on the train. Mainlanders are awesome. Because there are no missionaries in china, but there are churches and members, the members share the BOM and people read it and come down to Hong Kong, hear the lessons in 2 or 3 days and get baptized. Just like that. This is a family. Some of them were going to the temple for the first time and the son who was like 16 was going to get baptized. :)

                                         our hike

                                Lam jimuihs baptism!

I will tell you about my week

Saturday was pretty much the funnest day of my mission. AAAAH IT WAS SO AWESOME!!! Sometimes I really just can not believe that I am a missionary and that I am in China. Saturday was the day of our exchanges so it was Sister Aguilar and me. Sister Aguilar is super funny. She reminds me alot of my friends back in Utah so we got along rather swimmingly. But neither one of us really knew what we were doing. We had planned on visiting a LA, Kirsten and have dinner with a part member family. But our LA cancelled on us and we couldnt get a hold of Kirsten, so for the whole afternoon we went finding.

 

So.... both of us hardly speak Cantonese. But for some reason, this put more people at ease. Instead of when we normally go up to people and say "Hello, How are you today" and they just shake us off and say "I am in a hurry" or " I dont need" (that sounds better in Chinese.) but anyway... they would just smile at us and be so nice, because we couldnt speak very well! So then that would give us an opportunity to tell them why we are trying to speak Cantonese and share this awesome message. It was actually working wonders! So we contacted quite a few people on the street. We were originally walking over to this neighborhood we could knock some doors, because in Sister Aguilars area there isnt any places that she can so we thought it would be fun.

 

But when got to the neighborhood, no one was really home and we didnt feel like we should knock doors, but next to the houses there was this area of people sitting on benches while their kids ran around. So we said to each other, Let's go talk to them. We walked over slowly, cause we are still nervous new missionaries, and said Hello. Then the two ladies said "Come over here! Sit down! We need you to pray for our friend!!!" We just looked at each other like ..... wha...? So we went over and I sat in between the ladies while one proceeds to tell me in Cantonese that her friend got taken by the police but did nothing wrong, at the same time the lady on the other side of me is trying to translate everything into English. Anyway there was something about her friend who lost his job and was depressed, he took some bags for some reason, but not to steal them, but then the police took him and beat him and now he is waiting for trial somewhere in Kowloon. But he has no money for a lawyer. something like that. I dont really know. But they insisted that we pray for him. So we were trying to explain how our prayers and their prayers are the same cause we are all God's children and he hears all of us. They had loads of excuses to have us pray instead of them. Ranging from "My heart is too hard, I havent been to church in years" to "God speaks English so he will hear your prayers better." So we explained everything and countered all of their excuses and got them to pray for their friend. We said Amen at the end of their prayer, then they said now you do it! I looked at sister Aguilar and said "What the heck. Go for it!" So she said the prayer in English and made sure to include "Patrick" their friend. Afterwards one of the ladies was asking about our church and so I got to explain about the Book of Mormon and about how church works and she said that she really wanted to come to our church. Alas... her daughters were still sleeping yesterday so she didnt want to wake them up in order to come to church.

 

When Sister Aguilar and I walked away from the two ladies on the bench we really just couldnt believe what just happened. I think because we are both just so new to the whole missionary thing, everything we did that day was just awesome. After the lesson on the bench we then found another lady sitting by herself in the park. We taught her the entire plan of salvation. What?! That never happens in Hong Kong!!!!!!!! At least that is what my trainer tells me! We are told that it is extremely hard to teach lessons on the street. But I am not going to believe that. It's only true if you believe it is! OK well.... Well I will for sure talk to you and tell you more about our awesome mission. I am so excited to talk to you all!

Love you lots!

Shea

Pictures!

family Shea is working with

apartment

Chan Poh Poh

In front of Temple

apartment

poop on a leaf!

I am Still Alive!

I am still alive. I am not sure about you all. Bishop Choi showed me a picture of mom dad and Landon with Samuel and Sister Choi so I am guessing that you are are still alive and hopefully well. Well here are a few of my own pictures. I don't know if I am allowed to send a video but I thought that I would try anyway. I hope it works so you can get a feel for what knocking doors is sometimes like. :) It has been raining alot alot lately. Which makes finding kinda of difficult. We didn't keep knocking doors for to much longer after it started raining that hard, cause even when we do knock, most of the time I don't think they can hear us because the rain is so loud on the roof. So usually we go find a tunnel or bridge to find people on. We found one sweet spot next to our house that is a tunnel. So we just stay under there for a couple of hours. Sometimes I feel like the troll under the bridge just waiting for my next victim. Except I am a happy troll with a good message, not an angry troll that wants to eat them. :)

This week as gone by really really fast. It was another week of planning and getting organized an entire day and then the next day being awesome. Sometimes our days are so packed that we have to eat on the run cause we forgot to schedule in meal times. I love those days. It only usually happens once a week. On those nights I sleep like a rock. Actually I always sleep like a rock.

I freakin love being a missionary! I love it when we find ways that we can serve people. We had like 4 or 5 investigators at church on Sunday along with 2 Less Active families. When I watched them come in and sit down I couldnt help but smile. Our chapel was the fullest I have ever seen it! I couldnt stop smiling for the entire Sacrament meeting. Then there were some really good testimonies born. I can understand alot of it when my mind is focused 100% on the speaker. So usually I can get the jist of what is going on. But by the time relief society comes, my brain is toast. But my Cantonese is getting better and better every day. It is kinda crazy how the first day at the MTC I couldnt even say Hello properly and yet now I can understand an entire conversation. I Gift of Tongues is definetly a real gift.

The reality of training sooner than I thought has started to hit me. Not that I have already been told that I am going to start training, but we have been warned that we will have to start training new sisters alot earlier than past sister missionaries had to. I did the math and realized that I have one of the most experienced trainers in the mission. That means that the President wants me to learn as much as I can from her so that I can pass it on to a newer missionary. My trainer , Sister Clements has also been called as the Zone Sister Trainer Leader, so she will be going on exchanges with the 3 other sets of sisters in our zone. But the thing is that she has to work with both the new trainers, and the trainees. Because 2 of the trainers have only been here 2 months, so she wants to work with them as well. That means that me and another baby(another sister who came at the same time as me) will have an entire regular day as companions. That means visiting LAs visitng members, finding, teacher, everything. With 2 missionaries who have been in Hong Kong 1 month. AGH! I am nervous, but kinda excited. We wil get to see how good/bad our Cantonese really is. Good thing the Lord wont let us destroy the area. :) Nothing too bad can happen. Pictures to follow!

 

 

Ok I love you all! talk to you in a week!

Shea