Ga tihng! (family!)

How are things going on the other side of the world? I like it so much that you can all read Sister Wilcox's blog. She is a much better writer than I am and I am sure hers are a much better read. But things are still doing pretty good here. Nothing to new has happened since the last time I wrote... just a painfully disappointing Sunday. 

During the week it seemed like things were going to turn out awesome on Sunday. I was thinking there was a possibility of having like 7 people come to church. Which would have been freakin awesome! Since we have only had a max of 2 investigators since I got here. I actually woke up last Thursday (which was our P-day) and the first thought in my head was... "Oh man... I cant wait till Sunday" So when Saturday night came around and we started calling everyone to remind them of church, there were at least 4 who cancelled on us. Boo. But I still had hope for 3 others coming to church! The time came for church and I was waiting anxiously. Tereace, a 14 year old that we contacted on the street came, but had to leave extra earlier for tutoring, so only got to go to Young Womens. and that was it. No one else came. at all. 

I was very disappointed to say the least. Our Elders have been rocking it. They had 7 investigators in sacrament meeting, and a baptism just yesterday.  It seems like we have been really good at finding investigators for other people to teach lately. Last week we did two turnovers, gave the Elders purple underwear man (Which I think that you know about from Sister Wilcox's blog), and taught a former investigator that at the end of our lesson we learned does not live in our area which means this week we will do yet another turn over lesson. 

So it has been rough... but what makes things worse is that this week Sister Yip has not answered any of our calls or texts. She answered one on Monday saying that King loves church and missed not going last Sunday, and then nothing the rest of the week. So after an awesome Zone Training on Friday, Sister Wilcox and I decided that we wanted to draw upon the powers of heaven. President Hawks as given us these 9 points that he got from a book Drawing on the Powers of Heaven. Each is supposed to increase our faith and help us become better missionaries. One of the points is choosing something to sacrifice to the Lord, and find joy in the sacrifice. So we brainstormed together eating our gummies we had just bought after zone training and decided that we were going to sacrifice sugar. So we put our gummies in a drawer in the fridge along with all the other treats and goodies that the members had given us and labeled it as Sister Yips baptismal celebration candy. We didn't realize how much sugary stuff we actually had till it was all piled up. There was alot! Sister Yip's baptism is planned for Sept. 22. We still have faith that she can make her date. We are not eating any sugar till she gets baptized. We want to help her sooooo badly. 

I know the Lord sees our sacrifice. I know that even though he didn't prove our faith this last Sunday. He soon will. Our faith just has to be tried first.  Sister Wilcox has been helping me out alot. Every time I get frustrated as to why I cant see the blessings flowing, she helps me see the bigger picture. I am so grateful that she is my companion. I am also so grateful that God allows our faith to be tried. It only makes us stronger. He knows we need to learn and grow. This mission is truly turning me into the person that he wants me to become. 

I love you all!

Shea

A few things Shea forgot to tell us

Shea's companion has a blog also. She wrote a story that was so funny I thought I should share on Shea's blog. This is from Sister Wilcox:

Sister Aldana and I are getting along great! We laugh A LOT, which is so good. I'm so happy that all of my companions and I can laugh together. We had the funniest thing happen. We were paak muhning (knocking doors... we have a few places where we can do that here!) and we knocked on this one door and this little bald Chinese man answered... wearing NOTHING but purple polka dotted panties. Panties. Not boxers. Panties. He saw us, screamed bloody murder and then yelled, "Dang a dang!" (wait a second!) and slammed the door. OH MY GOSH. Sis Aldana and I couldn't hold it in. We busted up laughing sooooo hard. It was so funny! We barely got it together by the time he answered the door wearing clothes. Anyway, he is so great! He came to ward FHE the other night, we turned him over to the elders to teach, and now he wants to get baptized! What a miracle! Yay! :)

Some things you should all know about Chinese culture:

1. Talking with your mouth full is TOTALLY appropriate. Everyone does it. And if you don't do it, you're weird. 

2. However acceptable talking with your mouth full is, picking your teeth with a toothpick without covering your mouth with your hand is NOT. I'm not really sure why, but it's very rude to just pick your teeth without covering it up.

3. Burping. ALL. THE. TIME. Like, in the middle of a conversation, when you're giving a talk in church, literally all the time. It's so gross. haha, I'm used to it now though. But at first I thought it was sick. 

4. You HAVE to eat what people give you. So if they make too much food, there's no saving it. Eat it. Even if it's nasty. 

5. Stand on the right side of the escalator if you just want to stand. If you want to run up the escalator, go up the left side. If you want to walk.... that's just not an option. Everyone is in too big a hurry.

Okay I can't think of anymore right now. There are some good ones :) 

Fam Fam Family

hey family!

It's me! I didn't die. Just like Sister Wilcox wrote on her blog, we got to go to the temple today. Sorry I forgot to tell you. I forgot myself. But the temple was  just as great as ever. Sometimes I never want to leave it. The new video hasn't reached Hong Kong just yet, but I still like the old one.
For not having a P-day for a good week and a half, it sure went fast. We didnt do as much finding this week, but the few times we did, everyone seemed alot meaner when we didnt have a P-day on Monday. P-day's are inspired. We neeeeeeed them.
GAH! Now so much has happened since the last time I wrote home, I dont know what to say/where to start....
Well.... Sister Yip is still doing good. King (her son) just started school this week so we havent been able to meet with her since Sunday, which is kinda a maahfaahn (annoyance) cause her baptismal date is coming up super fast. But we had a miracle just last night! We have been trying some train contacting lately, just riding the train back and forth in our area and talking to people. Usually it is not much success cause you dont have to much time to talk so you usually just give them a flyer as they are getting off the train. Which is what happened when I contacted Ada about English class. But then she called the office elders and asked for me and then she came to English class and brought her 7 year old daughter Queenie! I was so excited! We invited them to church on Sunday but we havent had a chance yet to teach them cause English class gets out too late. But they said that they will come if Queenie can wake up! Yeah!!! Within the last month I have met two 7 year olds and their names are Queenie and King. I thought it was really funny.
Oh! I need to tell you about Chiyoko! We decided to go LA finding one evening in Meih Foo. Meih Foo is just a bunch of rich people's apartments but we have like 5 or so LA's that live there. There was one named Chiyoko, we were like sweet a Japanese name, lets visit it. Sister Choi and I had actually called and talked to her on the phone a couple of times but could never schedule her, so I was excited to see if she was home. When we got up to the door, she was surprisingly home! She was there with her sister-in-law and her helper (everyone who has enough money, hires a Philippine, or Indonesian to take care of the house and cook food). Gloria her sister in law was just really confused as to why we were there, then Chiyoko just says "I am Mormon duh." and she let us in and had us sit down. Chiyoko is this little 4ft something, short affro ed, jewelry wearing and heavily make-uped asian. She is so cute. She has lived in Hong Kong for over 40 years so she is pretty much Hong Kongese. Her house is the quirky place I have ever seen in Hong Kong. It is filled with dollies, fake flowers, crowned moldings and 4 little rat dogs that run around. Anyway... it was something straight out of the movies. We start talking with her and then her husband comes in along with one of his friends. They were quite surprised to find two white girls sitting on their couch. :) But they of coursed jumped on the opportunity to speak English. Her husband actually has really good English and every time we would complement him on it, he would just say, "I am a translator duh. It is my job." And then run back to show us his plaque of graduation. He really is just a retired cop. But anyway the whole situation was just so awesome and funny and quirky. From the shrine of their daughter who used to be Miss Hong Kong, to the worst Chinese sausage that I have ever tasted in my entire life. eeewwwwwww... I shiver just thinking about it. I cant write the atmosphere of the situation well enough, I will just have to tell you all about it one day when we can talk in person. But anyway... come to find out that her husband is actually really unhappy with his life and it re-thinking about having religion in his life. I just happened to have that Finding Happiness clip that you sent me in my bag and we were able to watch it together with everyone. We taught everyone how to pray and committed them to pray. It was a night of miracles.
We see so many miracles. I am so grateful my eyes are open to them. No looking back at my life before there were so many little miracle even in just everyday life.
Ok! I love you all!
Keep smiling!
Shea
Pictures:
1. Kesie and I had a yam chah together. we have both been working with the Hoh family whose older brother just died.

 2. Hey we just barely got out of the temple! (me, Sister Pearl- I dont remember if I told you I get to live with her now..., Sister Tidwell and Sister Wilcox!)

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. :)

Well Helllllllooooo family!

Well Helllllllooooo family!

 

Another week as already come and gone. I have no idea where the time is going. The weeks just go by faster and faster. These last couple of weeks have been some of the hardest but the fastest weeks of my life. The transfer is already almost over. We are all starting to guess who is moving and who is staying. I think that Sister choi and I will stay at least one more transfer together... but at the same time you never know.

 

Cheung Sha Wan is doing great. We still dont have very many promising investigators, Kelsie is right. Opening a new area is extremely hard. But we have found some success in working with our Less Actives. We had three LA's come back to church this last week. Sister Ngai is almost considered active again. We found her several weeks ago, she had been LA for over 10 years and did remember anything at all, so we have been treating her like a new investigator and teaching her all the lessons. Sister Lam is still doing good... we were teaching her daughter Elizabeth and gave Elizabeth a baptismal date, but now she wont answer our calls or texts and Sister Lam said that Elizabeth thinks that church is boring and that we just bother her. She likes the other church she goes to with her friends. Her church is just a dance party with a band... of course it is less boring... but not like you learn anything. So we were kinda bummed out about that, but thats ok, life goes on, and we will still try and see her again.  

 

Spending an entire day finding is sometimes awesome. As hard as it is somedays and you just feel like there is no hope for the people of Hong Kong, some other days are filled with miracles. Finding can be a very spiritual experience, if you let the Lord guide you and you are doing your best. We just have to continue to have faith that the Lord will guide us to his prepared children. This last week we tried to knock some doors. Most of the time you cant knock doors cause there is either a code to get in or a guard that you have to get through, but if you are in the not so nice side of town the stairways are opening and we can get up to some doors. This week I learned a valuable lesson about the streets of Hong Kong. You should stay away from anything that says it is a foot massage or has ANY kind of pink paint or light. Lets just say.... we ran out of a couple of buildings and were very careful to take a good look at the outside of buildings for anything out of the ordinary before entering the rest of the day. But when you do find a good building, during the right time of day it is super nice! Besides the walking up 9 floors of stairs, people are home and you can usually get a lesson with them. Just last Saturday we were able to do 3 lessons in one afternoon. It is just a matter of turning those lessons into new investigators that we are working on.   

 

The Hon family, where the brother is dying of cancer has not been looking so good. After we taught him last Sunday we saw his older brother in the street 2x's while out finding. On thursday they took Hon Hingdaaih to get a checkup at the hospital and he passed out while we was there. He has been at the hospital ever since so we have gone to the hospital to visit him several times. Saturday he was not looking good at all. We thought for sure he would go that night. After we gave our message to him, we asked if he was ready and he said that he was. I think that he is ready to go, but his family is not. The family is so broken hearted over him. We talk with the family alot and tell them to have faith. We have done family prayers every night with them as well. We just need to prepare the family for it.

 

Like I said last email. I am so grateful that I get to live with all of you for eternity. I know that God's plan can give us peace in this world and happiness for eternity.

 

Love you all!

Shea