Christmas

Merry Christmas! I know it is a wee bit late... but it doesnt matter cause in Hong Kong everything is still Christmas. From the decorations to the songs in church to people still saying Singdaan faailohk in the streets. It is still Christmas. So that is cool.

 

The week has been great! I loved talking with all of you, it was the best thing ever. It is funny how far away you all are and yet so close at the same time. Everyone still sounds about the same. I am glad. I feel like the only thing that I really miss out on is playing with Luna. But she is going to be even funner when I get there. I know it. I will be home before anyone even knows it. But I am loving being a missionary. It is really the best thing EVER. No joke. I wish it could be a full time job, not just a volunteer thing. I would take that job in a heart beat. But I think that alot of people would.

 

After I talked with you we went out to our stake Christmas activity and set up a workshop. All the zone missionaries were supposed to come to the activity and be doing different things. The days before we had called loads of our LAs and potential investigators to try and get them to come. We were blessed to have a LA come and bring her 4month old son and her nonmember husband! We got to teach them during dinner and find out that her husband actually has alotalot of questions. We have just been so blessed lately. We have so many potential families! We are really trying to meet with and teach families, cause we want them to be able to get to the temple. It is just that Hong Kong people love to get busy and stay busy, so we are having to exercise patients and wait for them to have some time.

 

But Isis and Mandy are doing fantastic!!! Mandy has now been to church 3 times and is getting more and more involved with the ward. She came to the ward travel/bbq and brought her daughter and sisters family. She wants her little sister to go to church too.:) We havent had a chance to give Mandy her baptismal date yet, since we havent been able to have a real lesson for a while. But she will get one soon. Dont worry. She also came to the other wards baptism, where the person getting baptized had to be dunked 5 times to make it acceptable. hahaha! His little legs just kept popping up like leafs. Isis on the other hand is 22 and is just awesome. We met her a couple weeks ago and this last Friday taught her the Plan of Salvation and gave her a baptismal date for March 16th. She really wants to know if these things are true and is willing to read and find out for herself. I know she will quickly find an answer to her prayers.

 

I dont really know what to write about today... sorry. I keep getting distracted by the man in front of me watching bad 70's Chinese music videos. But you can read Sister Palmers blog. :) She is studying journalism, so it must be good. I think the Lord is looking out for me, since my last 2 companions have had blogs and have fantastic writing skills. The Lord must love me. He must love all of you as well. :)

 Being a missionary is great! I love you all so much!

Shea 

Oh man! I love you guys.

I am so excited for everyone over there. Sounds like everything is great! Congrats to Ben for getting into New York Law School. It doesnt get more legit than that! That is awesome!!! I love listening to Lunas laugh, it is so funny. She has grown so much! We were all looking at each others family photos a couple nights ago and I realized just how much Luna has grown. Time passes far to quickly. It is crazy.

So we decided that I would call home at 8:30am here so it should be around 5:30 there on Christmas eve. I hope that is alright. We should have 40 min to talk. :) I am excited. It feels like I just talked to you all like last week, but at the same time like 10 years ago. Sister Palmer and I decided that it feels more like September, not December. I am excited that she has a blog as well. Read hers. She is a writer too, just like Sister Wilcox, so it should be more entertaining. :) Sister Palmer is great. She has been in Hong Kong 4 months longer than I have, so for the first time since I was trained I get to be the Junior companion!!! Yeah! Not that it really makes any difference since we are both Sister Trainer Leaders. But her Cantonese is Fantastic and I learn so much from her.

Butterfly is doing great. Like I said last week it has just been waiting for miracles. In the last week we found 5 new investigators! FIVE!!!!!!!!! It is amazing! They are all so great! All but one were just street contacts that we were able to schedule and teach them a lesson! Linda we met on the light rail traveling to the pier to go finding. Lisa we met mine and sister Palmer's first day together in the park on her way home. Isis we met in her chyun walking to class. Have I ever explained what chyuns are before? I dont know what to call them besides chyuns. Like apartment estates? idk but she was in a hurry so we just asked for her number and then we were able to see her after English class and had an awesome restoration discussion. Then Mak Mak who is 16 and supposed to get baptized next week was finally brought one of her friends she has been wanting to bring for the last couple of months but couldnt ever get her to wake up on time to church. The week was just fantastic!!! Everyday is just fantastic. I love life. Being a missionary is the best thing ever. 

Ok! I love you! Dont forget. Christmas Eve 5:30 be there. or be square. 

Cant wait to talk!

 Goverment complexes. this is all you can see looking up and looking down. Extremely dangerous houseing. Way to easy to commit suicide.

                                             
                                            Finding

                           Finding at the ferry pier. It is one of the prettiest places ever

Family

FAMILY!

Those videos are fantastic. I cant believe how much Brayden has changed! I didnt even realize that it was him until he started talking. His face has changed alot and it looks like he has gotten alot taller. Michelle looks GIGANTIC. She did not look that big in the pictures. That thing needs to get out of there. Decided on a name yet? I hope that Christmas will be great! I am working on send a small package to you all from here, but I am not sure if it will get there in time. I havent gotten the package you sent yet, but I am sure I will real soon.

 

So remember how Sister Wilcox and I thought that we were staying in our lovely little Cheung Sha Wan? well.... move calls came and PSYCH I got kicked out. I have now moved up into the New Territories, to Butterfly ward.

 

When they first told us that I was moving I balled like a little baby. I really fell in love with everything in that area. Especially the investigators. It is just really sad, cause when you move from an area, you never know if you will ever see these investigators again. I was really torn up that I wouldnt get a chance to see Sister Yip again. She should have been back from Mainland by then, but hadnt been answering her phone and everytime we went to stalk her and King, she didnt come by. As soon as District meeting was over, we decided to go out and stalk them one last time in hopes that she would come by. 3:30 came and passed. I was super bummed. I had been praying in my heart with all my might that I might be able to see her one last time. We sat down for a second and Sister Wilcox made some calls while I just sat there for a sec.   ...... and then......

 

there she was. with King. walking down the path. I jumped up and ran over and gave her a gigantic bear huge. She was so surprised! I was crying again. This time out of happiness that my prayers were answered. She was like, "Why are you crying?!" I just said how much I missed her and how I was afraid that I wouldnt ever see her again. She was so touched. She said no one has ever missed her so much. Apparently her phone had gotten stolen and she hasnt felt like calling us cause she has been really sad lately. She looked sad. Her hair got darker and longer. Before she was quick to smile and laugh. But by the time we left she was happier and we were able to schedule her to see her the next day.

 

It was one of the BIGGEST miracles of my life. Heavenly father MUST hear and answer our prayers. I dont think that I will ever forget that day. It made me feel SO much better about leaving the area. Now that I know she wont be forgotten about I feel so much better.

 

But Butterfly is great. I might have ripped out my heart and left it in Cheung Sha Wan, but I am growing a new heart here in Butterfly. The area is tiny, but the ward is huge! It is filled to the brim with families! I was just amazed on Sunday at how many families were sitting in our little chapel (Which is situated above Welcome the grocery store ^-^). The area just opened to sisters last transfer so it is still building. 

 

I am now companions with Sister Palmer who has been out 4 months longer than I have so I finally get to be the junior companion. :) But we are both the Sister trainer leaders of the New Territories Zone. So that should be fun. 

 

Missions are great. I cant believe how fast the time is going. It is SO crazy. 

 

I love you all!

Shea

                                           Last Pday together at the museum

                                         Sister Yip, the one closer to me

                                          Fantasy the fantasy

                                Apartment view of our area. We live on the 34th floor! CRAZY!

Buddhist or J-Dub?

Hey ya family!!!!

This week has been C R A Z Y CRAZY! Our investigators are still doing great... we didnt get to see them as often as we wanted, but nothing to big has happened. But this week as still been crazy! 

Last Monday night we had a miracle. Remember that former investigator Flora that Sister Wilcox was so persistent about finding? Well.... we found her. We thought we had just scheduled a different less active named Sister Wong. There are just so many sister Wongs that we got all confused... but then it ended up being Flora's mom and we were able to teach both Flora and her mom together! They are both so nice! 

Tuesday was a day of finding. We got to teach Winnie and we think we had a bit of a breakthrough with her. She said at one point that even when we go back to America that she will continue going to church.:) So that was exciting...

Wednesday we had a freaking awesome meeting. So.... since we got called has Sister Trainer Leaders of the Kowloon West Zone, we got to go to the Missionary Leadership Council on Wednesday. It is a meeting where all the zone leaders, sister trainer leaders, APs, and President Hawks gather around together and discuss the goals and actions for each zone. The meeting was SUPER good. 

Thursday was kinda a not very fun day. We had 3 people cancel right as we were heading out to their lessons... so we ended up just doing our weekly planning all day. In the evening we taught the best Restoration lesson that Sister Wilcox and I have ever taught, but our SUPER catholic investigator said flat out in English, No. to taking the book of Mormon. She said that she felt like she would betray her church if she took it. But we ended up getting her to say that she would pray about Joseph Smith. We were happy with that. The spirit was really strong in the lesson and I know that God will answer her prayer. 

Friday we had Zone Training where we got to split up with the sisters in our zone and talk about the Mission leadership council meeting. We have awesome sisters in our Zone. They are SO wise. They are going to teach me so much. In the evening we did FHE at Carol's house again with Sister Jeung. This week we did a cool object lesson to explain baptism and the holy ghost. The kids all loved it. I will tell you more about it another time...

This week was just great! I cant believe how fast time is going.... before I know it I am going to be headed home. Gross. The bishops son just got back from his mission this week so he gave a talk on Sunday. He pulled out his name tag at one point and started crying. Sister Wilcox and I were balling as well. I dont ever want to think about removing this tag. It means the world to me. 

I think that I have hit a changing point in my mission. This last week something just kinda clicked. There are so many things that I have been doing with only half of my heart. I have learned what true obedience means. I have learned what a big part the Atonement must be in a missionaries life. I couldnt believe that I was JUST barely figuring things out. You would think that after being a missionary for almost a year that I would have things kinda figured out. not. There is SO much I still need to learn. It is kinda overwhelming sometimes, but luckily I am not doing this alone. He is with me. 

I love you all!

till next week!


             Lauh jimuihs birthday at our recent converts house. 

                     Christmas decorations in our building! 

                                    We found the coolest knocking door area!

                        the zone sisters!

Thanksgiving

Those videos were SOOOOOO great!!!! For Christmas you have to send me just a bunch of videos of everyone opening their presents and eating Christmas eve dinner. Seeing everyone in almost real life is totally different from just reading a letter. I would send you all a video if I could, but I dont really know if there is anyway possible besides through the mail.

I am glad that Landon got the letter and the present. I am not sure exactly what it is either. (some sort of dried fish jerky) One day during Relief Society they were just passing them out like candy, and of course as missionaries we left with like 3 in each hand, so I thought I might as well try and send it home.:)

Well Thanksgiving has come and gone. It sounds like everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving and ate lots of pie. Our Thanksgiving day went like this:

7 wake up and run

7:30 prep and leave

9 go to yam chah with Winnie. yam chah (drink tea) is really just like a restaurant, but they just order alot of small dishes and drink tea or like us hot water. It is very very popular here. Someone told me that there is a yam chah place is Salt Lake City somewhere... but I have no idea. They are all over the place here. The dishes range from dumplings to veggies to mochi to fish heads. Winnie ordered as the best and last what was apparently a rare dish that consists of a fried rotten orange peel, a fungus of some sort and chicken feet. Luckily by that time we really had to go to make it to the lesson we had at the church. (There is just a little bit about the food for you dad.)

11:00 we had a lesson with Sister Chan. She and our member were running a bit late so we thought we might as well start watching the new Mormon messages dvd our chapel just got. We started the first one, "Mountains to Climb" which just made us start balling like little babies. We just turned to each other and said "Why are we watching this?" and started laughing really hard. That video is SUPER good. watch it. it will make you cry. But we just barely managed to put ourselves back together by the time they showed up for the lesson. We watched Finding Faith in Christ together because Sister Chan has no background of Christ at all, so that movie really helps people to have a little bit more of an idea of who Christ is. Afterwards she said it would be so good to live in the times of Jesus Christ because he could heal us and help us. So I thought we should just pop in Mountains to Climb because it is all about how the Savior can heal us in our troubles and trials now. Afterwards we learned that Sister Chan has cancer. She is in the second stages of breast cancer. Her husband is in Mainland working so she takes care of her 2 daughters and going through therapy. She is in the middle of chemo therapy. At this point I had a rough idea of what was going on, but i didnt really know. Luckily we have really great members. Our member told her about priesthood blessings. In fact our members mother also has cancer and before she became a member she got a blessing and it really helped her to have less pain. Our member, Erica, told her that the Relief Society can help her watch her kids when she has to go to the doctor and so many other things.

After the lesson I was just kinda in shock. I had no idea. I thought something might be off with her, but I didnt think it was THIS big of a trial. She is just so humble. She has said so many times. "I dont know why you two were in that garden that day or why you talked to me" Everything was just so planned by God. His plan is amazing. We are just such a small part in it. ... Yesterday Sister Chan got a blessing. :)

anyway....

thanksgiving. After the lesson with Sister Chan we did our studies and then had a zone Thanksgiving dinner!!!! It was SO good! We had all the usual turkey, stuffing, gravy, a bathtub of mashed potatoes, corn, even some jelly. It was fantastic. While we were waiting for some of the food to cook we all played knock out in the gym. It was like a real Thanksgiving. :) just basketball instead of football and a bunch of missionaries instead of real family. :)

Well... Hong Kong is great. Everyone is slowly progressing. Sister Yip as still not answered her phone and has been picking up King from school so we are pretty sure she is still in Mainland.

Cheung Sha Wan is great!

I love you all and miss you!