Big News!

As of 2 hours ago my 3 Natives have been taken away from me and I received a new American companion!!! Last Friday our Zone Leaders let us know that Sister Choi would be going to Macau. Macau is a special place. Natives and people from England can stay there as long as they want... but Americans have a max of 90 days on their Visa so people get kicked out of Macau at weird times. So Sister Wilcox, my new companion,'s Visa currently expired so she gets to come and serve good old Cheung Sha Wan with me!!! I am a bit nervous since the last week we have been doing enough work to keep four missionaries busy, and now I have to remember everything till I can caught Sister Wilcox up on things. It also doesnt help that I still cant speak and Sister Wilcox has been in Hong Kong 2 months less than me. Blast. But it's all good. The Lord is just going to have to work some amazing miracles through us. 

But Cheung Sha Wan is doing good! This last week we had EEFY which was super fun! A couple weeks ago we had contacted this lady that didnt have to much interest in the gospel so we told her about our free English class and she was like Yeah, call me. So we wrote down her number and then forgot about inviting her to English class the next week. Then Monday night I was looking through my planner for people to call when I remembered her. So I called and invited her to come to EEFY. She is a housewife so her and her son had time that they could come! I was super excited but a little bit nervous cause Mondays EEFY did not have very many people. But Tuesday they came and they loved it! Her son, King (he picked his English name himself), had so much fun so we snatched her after and taught her the restoration. She came the next day and the next day... by Friday we had set a date for Sept. 22as her baptismal date! She is just so humble and wanting to learn. She wants to be baptized and continue having the happiness that she has been feeling. She has seen King becoming better and is loving how happy he is. Yesterday they both came to church. When we went to check on King in Primary we looked through the window and saw him praying with the teacher. It was SO cute and awesome!!! Sister Yip was loving it. I didnt get a chance to talk to her after cause she had to leave early. I think that King has tutoring Sunday afternoons. But I will keep you all updated on how they are doing.

I am loving the work. Yeah it is extremely hard. But it is all so worth it just to see people progress. There is no better feeling in the world then when your investigators start progressing. "How great shall be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!" Missionary work is filled with hardships and happiness. It is just one giant rollar coaster we all are just trying to keep seated on. But Oh man... it is such a thrill ride. SO MUCH FUN! 

It sounds like everyone is doing good there. I am glad. I like hearing that you miss me, it makes me feel like you havent forgotten about me yet. :) Dont worry... I am not homesick. We are kept way to busy to be too homesick. Congrats to John and Jen! I hope they are happy! Send me some pictures! Hope everyone stays happy and healthy! Love you all!

Shea

 

1. Me and my 3 natives. I love them.

2. Sister Choi's farewell party. 

3. Dinner at Sister Yeung's house. She is like our Cheung Sha Wan mom. Super awesome. 

You are all party animals!

It sounds like everyone is having a great time partying all summer long. I am glad that you can all enjoy such a lovely little summer. Time really goes by so much faster than we all think. It is also summer holiday here for most of the students but they still have tutoring, piano lessons, tennis lessons, swimming lessons and any other thing you could possibly think of for an eight year old to learn. People here really are super busy all the time and if they have any time at all to rest all they want to do is watch TV in a room with AC. 

But anyway!!!! Having summer missionaries is awesome!!! My little companion is named Sister Tang and she just finished school so she decided to serve a summer mission before working to earn money to serve her own mission. Can I just tell you how awesome it is to have a native companion... and for the last week I have been surrounded by 3 at all times. They have to have SOOOOO much patients with me. My language is still the pits. I have learned a lot, but Cantonese has alot to learn. Alot of the time I just try saying a simple phrase to someone on the street and they just turn to my companion and say "What is she trying to say?" It is kinda frustrating. I just keep having to have patients with myself, and keep asking everyone else to have patients as well. Having a native is also super nice cause they can all read and write. Did you know that when people read Cantonese that it is different from when they speak Cantonese. Even just little words like "and" or "they". So it also makes understanding scriptures a pain in the butt. BUT. They are finally coming out with a Cantonese romanized pinyam Book of Mormon! I am so freakin excited! It is also super awesome to have a native companion cause they all also speak Mandarin. We run into alot of Mandarin speakers and I cant communicate with them at all. But whenever it happens I just turn and look at my companion and they explain everything. It is so nice. :) 

Last Friday Sister Tang and I were out finding. We were trying to knock some doors but werent having much success. Thinking that no one was home I only knocked half hearted, and within 2 sec the door whipped open and the lady said, "what do you want?" So I said that we are missionaries from our church and we want to share a message with her, she then starts closing the door and says in mandarin , "I dont know". Then my little companion speaks up in Mandarin and explains. The lady then lets us in. To me.... it looks like she is getting mad at us... I have no idea what she is saying but she is going off in Chinese. We went in and sat down and she said something about her mom, sick, cancer, and pulled out some papers that said social welfare on them. She still looks like she is getting mad at us. They she asks where I am from and when she hears America she puts up her pinky (like it is the bird) and closes one eye and sticks out her tongue at me. ....... I dont know if this is supposed to be an insult..... but I could help but laugh. All I could think was, how the heck did I get in this situation? She then gave us some bananas and they talked a bit more then Sister Tang turns to me and says "We can go now." 

She later explained that she just wanted to complain about the government to us and let us know all about her mom. The lady called us the next day and said that she has no interest in church but just wants to let people know about her mom. 

So... that was an adventure...

Finding is always an adventure. An extremely physically, mentally and spiritually tiring adventure. On Saturday we were walking through some parks. I had seen this man walking in front of us and felt like we should talk to him, but I shrugged it off cause I thought there would be some moms that we could contacted just around the corner. But he ended up going into the same park as us and sitting on a bench. We walked past him and looked at the Koy pond, and then I was like.... Eh... wait a sec. We need to go back. So we went back and started talking to him. He looked really said to me. I didnt know why... but I thought that the Plan of Salvation would be good to share with him. We then taught him the entire lesson and prayed with him and answered his questions about the 3 Kingdoms. We scheduled him for the next day. He is awesome. To bad he lives not anywhere even close to our area. We had to take an hour train ride to Tai Po to do a turnover lesson to the Elders up there. I was just really glad that we were able to find him. I think that he will really like learning this gospel and I know that it will make him happier. 

This week has been super fast and this next week will be even faster. This week the missionaries are doing EEFY (English Especially for Youth) so every day from 3-5 we do a bunch of activities together and everyone can only speak English. I think that it will be super fun I am excited!

As for my spiritual thought for the week....

I was reading in this months Liahona a talk by Elder Oaks called "In His own time, in His Own Way." It is a super good . It is all about how we can receive Revelation. One of my favorite parts was "We will get promptings of the Spirit when we have done everything we can, when we are out in the sun working rather than sitting back in the shade praying for direction on the first step to take. Revelation comes when the children of God are on the move." When I read that I was like... woah... that. is. my. life. I dont really receive clear cut answers from the Holy Ghost, it is more like I just go, and I know that he wont lead me astray. I think that more people need to realize this. We don't get to chose when he gives us an answer so we just need to keep going till he does. "He has his own timetable... one person however important - is in no position to put conditions upon or to impose personal timing upon a visit or communication from the Highest Authority in the universe." God knows what he is doing. We just got to keep trusting in him and striving our best. 

I know that God loves us. He really wants us to be happy. Through THIS gospel, I know we can be the happiest we could ever be. 

I love you all!

I will keep spreading happiness around HK!

Shea

JOU SAHN!!! (GOOD MORNING!)

Good morning family!!!!

We just picked up our new summer missionaries!!! Here in Hong Kong the Laurels and the Priests can do what they call a summer missionary. They come and spend two weeks with us and are full time missionaries for 2 whole weeks. So for the next two weeks we will have 4 sisters in Cheung Sha Wan! 3 natives and 1 white person. I think my Chinese is going to pick up alot in the next 2 weeks. Chinese 24/7. FINALLY!  i think that it will be fun and I am excited for the weeks work. Right now though... we are making them sit outside will we email. :) 

I love getting everyones emails... sometimes when the week feels really long it is nice to get something familiar and nice. It always makes me feel happy every time I read about how everyone is doing. 

Brother Hon died on Tuesday. It was awful. It make the rest of the week seem forever long. We were at the hospital for several hours with the family and were there for Hon Hingdaaihs last breath. The only thing that we could do was comfort the family. They didnt answer any of their phones for the rest of the week so we didnt get to see them again. Brother Hon's older brother and sister came to our ward on Sunday. The whole thing has been really hard on the entire family. We had met with a former investigator the same day after brother Hon died and had a super awesome lesson and rescheduled her. She then called us the next day and went off on how disrespectful we were to Chinese culture, coming over to her house after someone had died.... she talked to Sister Choi so I dont know everything that she said but I just know that it was really mean. So she doesnt like us at all anymore.... but it is ok... we are going to write her a note and tell her all about the plan of salvation and how death is not the end, but really the beginning. 

But this week we did alot of finding... like usual... :) 

Yesterday one of the Elders investigators along with her daughter got baptized! Emily, the daughter, invited a bunch of her friends and they all came along with their moms! As soon as a saw a bunch of kids come into the chapel along with their moms, I leeched onto them. The kids are awesome and super funny... I talked with all the moms about like what a baptism is... none of them had really been to church before so it was super good for them to come and watch a baptism. 3 of them seemed really interested in learning more about church and we actually taught one of them right after the baptism! It was so awesome! I went and started talking to them without even thinking. The spirit was helping me so much. I am still trying to overcome my social awkwardness with people and Chinese. But yesterday the spirit was truly guiding my words.  Hopefully we can continue to meet with them. :)

Things are still moving along. I cant believe I have already been on my mission for 6 months. Gross. I feel like I should be a much better missionary, but alas, I am not. I will just need to keep working on it. Sister Choi teaches me alot. I am happy that I will get to be with her for at least one more transfer, I still have so much to learn! 

Pictures:

1. Us, with Sister Choi's family and LA Sister Lam. Both sister Choi's mom and sister lam are from Indonesia. Sister Choi gets so see her family quite often... it cant really be helped since she is serving so close to home... but it does make me miss all of you a bit more. 

2. LA Brother Luk took us to yam chah and Sister Choi ordered SO MUCH FOOD!!! My skirt was extremely tight that day. Just a couple hours after the yam chah, sister Yeung from our ward also made dinner for us. Ah.... no wonder I am getting so fat. :)