the last!

Hey everyone!

How is it going? It sounds like everyone is fantastic. For some reason everyone keeps saying this is my last email. I am not sure what you are all talking about. :) Just kidding. My next transfer is going to be an awesome transfer. I really am super excited to see everyone. I am just really really sad to leave everything here. I dont really know what I feel anymore. Everyone keeps asking and I have no idea. SUPER conflicting.

But there is no point in writing to long of an email.... since sooner or latter I can just tell you to your face....

But this last week has been AWESOME!!!!

I think the Lord knew that I wanted to go out with a bang so he sent miracles right and left! Yesterday alone we were able to have 7 investigators attend church. That doesnt even include the elders investigators or the lady that came on her own! Butterfly really is just exploding and with Sister Shoemaker training next transfer amazing things are going to happen.

This last week we had scheduled our new investigator a-young, then right has we got to the chapel she called us to say that she wasnt going to come because it was going to rain, but that she was just able to change her job so that now she can come to church Sunday mornings. Great! But also poopy for not coming. Then right has I hung up the phone, her two sons run up to the chapel doors. Eh?! So I call A-young back and say, hey do you know your kids are here? What? she said, I didnt think they would have enough guts to go on their own!, well I guess I will come then. So then after waiting an hour, she finally showed up and we were able to teach the three of them together. her sons are SUPER funny. We invited them to be baptized on October 5th. A-young said yes. Jackie said, heads is yes, tails is no and flipped a coin. It was a yes. :) Jimmy just follows big brother. :)

Everyone else has been doing pretty good. I have been saying goodbye to alot of people but it doesnt really feel real. Nothing feels real. I dont know what to think anymore.

I think I might be going crazy.

Hopefully you will still all love me anyway.

well.....

I guess I will see you all soon!

love you

東姊妹

What??

mother this is not my last letter. I will be sending one next week as well. :)

Man none of you have any mercy. I am excited to see you all as well! But. Just know that I am considering what is coming ahead as just another transfer, and then I will be right back to Hong Kong. PS I have possibly been telling people I will be coming back next summer... I hope that is ok. :) 

But this last week as come and gone in the blink of an eye! SO fast. We had Mission Tour on Wednesday and Elder Funk and Elder Wong were able to come and train us missionaries. It was really really good. We learned all about how to teach according to our investigators needs, teaching the Restoration with the spirit and how to get our investigators into the BOM. So Sister Shoemaker and I have been trying to apply what we have learned. We decided that we were going to take some time to read with everyone we are teaching for 5 min EVERY time we see them.

 

So on Friday we got to go over to Anna's house for the first time and teach her another after baptism lessons. Do you remember she has 2 sons with autism? Well she does. Wing Yiu's isnt as bad but Wing Lok's is pretty bad. Wing Yiu was playing on the computer and making his own cartoon. He would type some English and then the computer would read it. Wing Yiu's english is SUPER funny. He watches alot of youtube videos so he really only knows alot of slang. So the whole time we were trying to have a lesson the computer kept saying "How dare you speak smack to Terrance Brown, you are grounded for 5,345,458 years." or "You are creepy." I couldnt help but laugh. This is all coming from an autistic, Chinese, 10 year old little boy. He really is amazing. Wing Lok would have some fit because the internet stopped working on the phone he was playing with so Anna would have to calm him down and help him out. Anna is such an amazing person. She must have SO much patients. But anyway, we had originally planned to review the Plan of Salvation and Temples, but because it took her a while to calm down her sons, we ended up just reading a bit with her. Which was PERFECT since she was on 2 Nephi 4. Anyone know it? It is a great chapter. It is Nephi going off about how he trusts in God. It ended up being a really good lesson. 

This week we were also able to find 3 new investigators! A-yung and her 2 sons! A-yung is originally from Vietnam but has lived in Hong Kong for a really really long time. She speaks, understands, reads and writes Chinese. We met her in the park walking home from work. We were able to teach her about prayer in the park and then we met with her and her sons on Thursday at the chapel where we taught them the Restoration. Her sons, who are 8 and 10 had SO many questions. Sometimes I think that kids are better at coming up with questions than adults. They asked questions from, "What do prophets do?" to "When will Christ come again?" to "Why does God allow there to be diseases in the world?" So many questions. Way more than the average Chinese. I used to think that everyone in the world thought of life questions and wondered if there really was a God, but the Chinese don't. I used to think that it would be a great finding technique to ask people the purpose of life, but no one has ever even thought of those questions.

China really is an amazing place. I have been trying extra hard these days to learn everything I can about this place. I love it here. It is so different and yet it is my home away from home. So even if I leave I have to come back. :)

Right now is an amazing time to be a missionary and I am soaking in every second of it that I can. 

I love you all! 

Shea 

Pictures:

 Yuki, a past mandarin recent convert with our member Wong jimiuh.

 Dinner with the Chan's and our investigator Sister Lok and her daughter Katie

wrestling cockroaches

Hey Family!!!!!

How is everyone! We are doing fantastic over here it is hot and humid and there are prepared souls everywhere. :)

 

First I have to go back to the title of today's email.... wrestling cockroaches. So in Hong Kong people dont really have rodent problems in their houses usually they just have some cockroach problems. Even when your house is really clean and on the 34th floor you can still get cockroaches. The little suckers are everywhere!

 

So we have been fighting this battle with them in our apartment over the last couple of weeks. A couple weeks ago we finally bought some bug killing spray and sprayed everywhere is our apartment, of course that just made all the rest that we couldnt get to come out so for the rest of the week we were killing little cockroaches everywhere. Now before you freak out (mom), they were just little ones. Nothing to crazy. But last night I got up to go to the bathroom, half asleep of course, and I heard some rustling. I automatically thought it was the clothe line that is just outside of our bathroom window. but then... I see it. A GINORMOUS cockroach crawling up and above the door. Seriously the BIGGEST THING I HAD EVER SEEN! I dont know what is worse, rodents or cockroaches the size of rodents. Either way, I freaked out. I threw up my pants as fast as I could and tried to figure out what to do. By this time the cockroach is trying to fly around the bathroom. It was really the size of a small bird. I had no idea they could fly! So I grabbed my towel and tried to cover the cockroach to catch it, but it was a sneaky little sucker. It took me a good 4 tries before I could catch it, when I finally had it all wrapped up in my towel I stood there for a good 2 min trying to figure out how to kill the thing. I finally came to the thought to stick it out the bathroom window. So I stuck my towel out the window and tried to shake it hard enough that it would fall. When I brought my towel back it, it only brought the bloody cockroach with it! So I freaked out again and tried to catch it again and stuck my towel out the window and shut the window on my towel. Only then did it get off my towel.

 

By this time I have my adrenaline pumping through my body than I have had in a really long time. I tried to go back to sleep but ended up just laying there for a half hour only to here the tuen mun sister's summer missionary start speaking Korean in her sleep. So I tried to speak some back to her, but then she woke up and said what are you doing, since I was looking right at her in the middle of the night of course. Then I just really could help but laugh for the longest time.

 

Last night was a weird night. It is just still all on my mind so I thought I would share with you. :) But the work this last week has been great! We have been doing lots and lots of finding and if it wasnt for slurpees I think that I would have gotten heat stroke a long time ago.

But Anna got confirmed!

Our ward had an awesome and super fun water fight activity!

A potential family came to english class! We are SO close to teaching a family! Pray for it please!

July's baptisms came to a total of 51 for the mission!!! Not quite the 65 we planned but it has been the China Hong Kong mission's Zions camp. Look up the story and you will know what I am talking about. It has been awesome.

I had my last Zone Training and it was the most spiritual one I have ever been to. Our mission is not stopping with just July. We are reaching for high things. Us missionaries are changing this mission. We have all set a new goal for 65 in December. I am SOOOOOOOOO excited!!! It is going to be awesome.

But that is all for this week!

I love you all!

The BEST day of my life!!!!

Todays email is dedicated to two amazing souls that stepped into the waters of baptism yesterday. 

Sister Wu- I first met sister wu almost 8 months ago as she was walking through the park on her way home with her daughter. Sister Palmer and I were able to get them to stop and we were talking all about her daughter, Dora's, performance in school she had the next day where she was going to be an angel. They had no religious background, but were super funny and slightly crazy. :) We were able to get Sister Wu's number and they went on their way. A couple weeks later and several phone calls later we were finally able to schedule them for a chapel tour. The chapel tour was a mess. We tried to teach them about prayer, but the conversation was all over the place and we didn't really have control of the lesson, but she felt the spirit and said that she would try coming to church the next Sunday. Saturday came around and we called to remind her, but she had to go back to mainland. She then stayed in mainland for several months having problems with her passport and was sick in the hospital. I think it was almost three months. Then one day we ran into her again next to our apartment. We talked to her tried to schedule but she was busy. A week later we ran into her again. and again and again. We then were FINALLY able to schedule her and have her meet the mandarin missionaries, where they took it from there. We still ran into her occasionally while we were out and about. Her daughter would always run up to us and want to take pictures with us. They were funny. I was happy when we saw them come to church. Sister Wu's testimony grew, she kept her commitments and had a desire to be baptized. Yesterday she was baptized!!!!!

Anna- The day we met Anna, we had just had an appointment cancel, so we had prayed about where we should go finding. Sister Shoemaker felt strongly about the Ferry Pier. I didn't have any strong feelings so we went to the Ferry Pier, where we saw a nice mother walking with her son heading to the beach. We talked to her as we walked beside her. She used to go to church when she was younger but hadnt been in years. We chatted a bit more and was able to say a prayer with her and invited her to church the next day. She said she might come. Later that night we called her up and she said she would come! The next day we met her at the light rail and she came to church. She told the Relief Society that we had caught her and brought her to church. haha. We taught her the Restoration after church where she called the Book of Mormon precious. She grew from there, loving everything we taught her. She ate it up. Yesterday she was baptized!!!! 

Come to hear their sides of the stories yesterday we learned....

Sister Wu- those SEVERAL contacts with sister wu were vital. She felt like God was reminding her and helping her see what she could become. Ever though we were not the ones who taught her everything, she still feels connected with us.

Anna- Anna said that we had caught her, because at the time we had met her, she was having a really hard time. She couldn't find happiness in her life. She had tried so many things, but she felt like she was in the lowest of the lows. She tried turning to other sources to find happiness, she was even just about to turn to a Thai religion she had been looking into, and right has she was in this low of lows she met us and started to learn about this Restored and perfect gospel. She felt like God heard her and answered her prayers. After she had been to church, her sister told her that our church was evil and Anna was worried, so she prayed to find out for herself. She got an answer. She knows it is good. It is true. Everything after that was so easy. 

Yesterday I think was one of the happiest days of my life. It is so amazing to see someone have enough faith to be baptized. It is amazing to be part of such an amazing thing. 

I love this work.

I love you all!

Shea

photos;

1. Anna

2. Sister Wu and her family

it is ALIVE!!!

For real!

Hey everyone!!!! This week has been amazing!!! Can I just tell you how much I love to be a missionary? It is the very best thing ever. Ever ever.

 

So last week we had a bit of a rough time... I was told by someone that I havent really had a very successful mission because I havent been able to see someone be baptized. I was pointed out many of my flaws and felt a bit like I had been punched in the face. No big deal. I blew it off, considering they had no idea what they were talking about. But it still hurt.

 

But this work is SOOOOO ALIVE! So unbelievably ALIVE! Things move on, every little thing we do as missionaries is not wasted. Anna is getting baptized this coming sunday. :) Wu jimuih, who sister Palmer and I found on our first day together, has been being taught by the mandarins and is also getting baptized on sunday. :) Yesterday the Cheung Sha Wan sisters called me to ask a question and I found out that Sister Chan (the one who had cancer) and her daughter got baptized yesterday!!!!! MIRACLES!!!!!

 

Not only that... but Choi Lai Wah, the LA who has changed SO much... She has now been to sacrament meeting twice in a row!!! Last Sunday was the first time she has taken the sacrament in over 20 years! I was so proud of her!!!

 

Our Heavenly Father really truly is a merciful being. He loves us so much. I was so happy yesterday I wanted to cry. I might have just a bit. But miracles really are happening every day. Our investigators are becoming more and more prepared everyday.

 

I used to think that it was almost impossible for us to be able to find a random stranger on the street and work with them enough that they are ready for the waters of baptism. But the Lord really is leading the work, and he can do amazing things!

 

I love you all!

Shea

 

1. Dinner with Anna, her son Wing yiu and the Tsang family

2. After morning exercise. I didnt even go swimming

3. Our new experimental English class

Happy family reunion!!!

It is nice getting a chance to see everyone just a bit. :) I love the videos. Everyone is so different it is weird. Can we have another family reunion sometime in December? Then we can have a summer one and a winter one. good mh good? (oh that is Chinese... ) PLEASE!!!! I want to be there. 

I hope you all have lots of fun for me. 

Hong Kong is also great. i have an idea! Next family reunion lets have it in HK! Yeah?! Perfect! We have lots of places to go and people to see. :) We can do some finding along the way. :) But really though. 

Our investigators are also doing great! Well at least Anna is. Anna is one of the most prepared people I have ever met. We only met her a month ago and she is already ready to be baptized. She should be having her interview this Thursday. :) I keep forgetting to get a picture with her but I will this week for sure. 
Tammy on the other hand has not been answering our calls for the last 2 weeks. Last time she didnt answer was because she was traveling. I just pray that she is keeping the WOW, reading and praying. We HAVE to see her this week in order for her to make her date. 
Sister Luk is also really good. She already wants to share the gospel with her friends. We thought she would progress faster than she is, but she is still progressing. Hopefully she can be another July miracle.

I still truely believe we can have 4 people be baptized in July. It is just going to take a major miracle. 

Over the last couple of days I have been thinking back to a video President Hawks showed a while back at a Mission Leadership Council. It is the story about Elijah and the widow. You will all need to read it. But have you ever kept reading after she finds the meal and the oil? .... so she see all of these miracles. They have enough food! Amazing! They wont die of hunger! then all of the sudden her son gets really sick and he dies. So she turns to Elijah and asks why have you come here? Just to make me feel guilty of my sins and to kill my son? She forgot the miracles he just barely preformed! Where is her faith? He just saved them from hunger and yet now she is mad at him. So Elijah works and prays and is able to bring her son back to life, preforming, what I think is one of the biggest miracles of all, only then does the widow admit that Elijah is a prophet of God and her faith is confirmed. It is kinda like us heading towards our goal of 65. We see all of these little miracles along the way, but then we face a hard time. Our son dies, our investigators stop answering the phone, it just isnt looking like they are ever going to make their date... and then... we call upon the powers of heaven. We ask the Lord, and work, Elijah had to work to bring the son back to life, only then will we be able to see the real miracle. 

Just a little bit from my personal study I thought that I would share....

We are still working hard over here. I have the best job in the world right now! I love you all and miss you! 

Shea 

Picture 1. Look I am here at the family reunion! I brought some octopus balls! They are SOOOO good!!!!! really though

Picture 2. Crocs and socks. every day man. Thats how we HK sisters roll

FANTASTIC Fourth of July

Hey everyone! Hope your fourth of July was off the hook!

Over here we had a FANTASTIC Fourth of July, complete with a trip to the temple. The new video is SO good, and also SO weird. I still have mixed feelings about it. But it was so nice to be able to go to the temple and get refreshed for July. It is a BIG BIG month. 

We also had Zone Training this week where we all got pumped up for July. It really is going to be a month of miracles! We are already seeing so many. 

So far we now have 2 baptismal dates set for July. Anna is doing so good, yesterday during church she said that she just woke up and the first thought in her head was, "I need to go to church". She said she thinks it was the spirit. I think it was as well. :) Tammy on the other hand has a date set, but we haven't been able to see her this week. So I am not exactly sure how she is doing. 

Yeuk Sen sometimes makes me feel like she is going to get baptized in July and then other times I don't know what she is thinking. She currently doesn't have a date. There are just a lot of other things competing for her attention. But I have faith she will receive an answer.

Then this week our mission coordinator, somehow met this former investigator that actually has a lot of interest in coming back to church. 

The work really is moving forward! I love it! Our summer missionaries went home today but they boosted us into July! We are just hitting the pavement running!

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!

stretching hearts

wow it was so good to talk to everyone on mothers day! I can't believe I already called you. Time is weird. It feels like that call never really even happened. I miss you all so much and am so excited to see you all again. 

But don't worry I am still fully enjoying the time here in Hong Kong! The weather is getting more and more humid by the min, and hotter and hotter by the day, but the miracles still are coming in. 

This morning I actually went back in time and went back to Cheung Sha Wan and my last area. I knew that Sister Yip hadn't seen the missionaries in a long time and last week I felt like I should call her, so last night I called her to her surprise and scheduled to see her on our P-day. :) 

She is still so good. I love her so much! She just thinks that the commandments are to hard so hasn't been going to church because she feels guilty. But she has seen how much the gospel has changed her son and wants him to keep going to church. Actually King, her son, wants to keep going to church. :) We had a good long chat and she said that this sunday she will go to church. :)

When I called the Cheung Sha Wan sisters to let them know, they also were able to give me some updates on how everyone is doing. Sister Chan, with cancer, (do you remember her?) anyway is getting baptized in June also Wannie Ng, who had disappeared because she got offended by someone has come back and is also getting baptized really soon. I had thought that both of these people had lost any sort of contact with the missionaries, but they are here! And they are progressing!!!! It makes me so happy to know they are still around. :)

It is weird to feel so much love for so many people. I literally feel like my heart is in so many different places and with so many different people. Cheung Sha Wan, Butterfly, Home, Sham Shui Po, Sheung Shui, Tai Kok Tsui... not only in different places, but with different people. If there is one thing a missionary learns, it is how to stretch and grow a heart. It is a painful process but it is so worth it and brings amazing blessings. I am so grateful for everyones love. I can honestly say that I love everyone as well. I love you all!