HAPPY NEW YEARS!!

Wow, where has the time gone?! Time really is SO crazy. But HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE!!!!!!

That means a happy new years for everyone but missionaries really. New years is great, but that means everyone and their dog go to mainland or are just SUPER busy. I mean it is a good travel and a good busy. New Years is a holiday all about family. Usually it is like 5 days long, but people can really only afford 3 days off from work. The first day they visit the husbands side of the family, the second they visit the wives side of the family and the third day/ rest of the time they visit other random family. Thats why so many of them need to go to mainland. To Baailihn (visit family). 

People who are married have to pass out red pocket filled with money to people. Missionaries are not really supposed to take them, but when we do (cause sometimes you will offend people if you don't) we just take the money and donate it to the mission fund. But it is still fun to get them. :) 

There is some very special unique New Years food. Raddish cake for example. Most of the new years food is cake, but not like cake cake. It is more like a mashed potato bar, like the texture of a brownie. Then they have all kinds of other unique cake dishes. They are very....... unique. We haven't eaten to many of them since the new rule that we have to have an investigator or LA in order to eat with any of our members. 

New years is BEAUTIFUL. Everyone cleans their houses and buys flowers. Each kind of flower has a different meaning. Some bring good fortune, some bring love. all different kinds! 

Everyone as we go through the streets when we say "San lihn faai lohk!" (Happy new years!)  They say "San tai gihn hong!" (Healthy Body!) or "Gung hei faat choi!" (Good Fortune!) I think that I am going to start saying that in America when people say happy new years. HEALTHY BODY! hahaha. It might not work in English, but it is perfect in Chinese. 

So we haven't been able to see many of our investigators this week since they were all gone, so we spent some time Ding dong ditching our LAs. .....

But we left gifts of fruit with some notes that we tried to write in Chinese. Ding dong ditching in Hong Kong is kinda hard. It goes down like this. : We are on the 24th floor. The door is open, but the gate (cause every house in HK has a gate) is closed, we can hear the TV on,   the people are right on the inside, so what do we do?.... slip the bag of fruit on the gate handle, yell "WAIH! LEIH HOU!" and then we book it out of there. we were to scared to wait for the elevator a couple of times  so we took the stairs down a couple flights. 

We don't do this for to many of our LAs. These were just a couple that last time we tried to visit, the response wasn't to warm. So we thought they could use a wee bit of New Years love. Hopefully next time we visit they will be a bit warmer. :)  

Ok... well I love you all SO much!

Hong Kong is great! Missionary work is still the best thing in the world!

We found some Turkish Delights in the grocery store last Monday. We had to try them and have a Narnia Party. :)

We finally got our NEW TAGS!!!! I almost peed my skirt of excitement when I saw them. 

the market of flowers that we had no idea was going on till it was to late. I could only snap one picture on our way home. so sad

Vanessa (our investigator, who is AWESOME!) as a child around New Years. ALL the kids around here wear cute traditional things for new years. They are so cute I am tempted to get some for my future kids.

  

Ma & Pa!

Hey family!

Thanks for always writing letters to me, even though my letters home are never to great. I love hearing about how everything is going. The last 3 days have been great! Everyday is great as a missionary.

The temple was great, like always, I love that place so much. Sometimes I start to get just a wee bit homesick when the session starts, cause usually it is with my family and friends, but this time, right as it was starting someone behind me burped really loud, and I remembered I was still in Hong Kong. A blessing and a curse. :)

Friday was a super busy day. We went on exchanges again, so Sister Morgan and I were left to run Butterfly. We had a really busy day. We got to teach a lesson/ have lunch with Isis down at the Ferry Pier. She is so good. She hasnt quite gained her testimony yet, but she asked her boss if she could have Sundays off so that she could come to church. Unfortunately her boss said that she could have Sundays off when he finds someone to hire in her place. As in... when she is fired. So... Isis said hopefully she can save up enough money really quickly and will be able to quit her job.

We also got to teach Vanessa before English class. She is also doing really good. She wants to know if these things are true, and loves everything so far. The only problem with Vanessa is that she is only 15 and her parents are very traditional Buddhists. So we cant give Vanessa a date until she talks with her parents.

Saturday we did the Family Display again. We took over an entire bridge. With 6 missionaries, we took over both ends of the bridge between the park and the mall over the train station. We talked to alot of people. I dont think anyone got through that bridge without talking to at least one missionary. :)

Sister Palmer and I did some more finding after that. Right after we said our closing prayer, this lady come up to us and started talking to us. The next thing we knew she was singing "Total Eclipse of the Heart" to us... She was SUPER funny. She ran off before we could get her number. we were sad.

Last night we ate dinner over at the Au families. They cooked a huge traditional Chinese dinner. (You will have to look at all of sister Palmers pictures. I hope that you copy and paste them onto the blog...  I just feel like there is never a real reason to get out everyones cameras....) But the dinner was fantastic. Their kids are the cutest kids I have ever met in my entire life. I did the magic trick that Uncle Mark used to do where you rub the coin into your arm, and the entire family was loving it. So I taught it to their kids so they could do it later. :)

Things are still great over here. I love it SO much!!!!

Sister Wilcox just sent me a picture of Fantasy's baptism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am SO excited for her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The work is great!

Love you all!

Good old Butterfly...

Hey fam!

How is everyone? Everything here is still going great! Still having the best time of my life. This last week was exhausting. Because we are the Sister Trainer Leaders we had to go on exchanges twice this week. When I was a new missionary I thought that exchanges were the best thing ever. Now they are just kinda a maahfaahn (Bother). Sister Palmer left to go to the other areas both times this last week, leaving me to run the ship over here in Butterfly. I didn't realize how much I really depended on her. There is a reason that missionary work is done in companionship's. There is to much stuff that goes on for one brain to handle. But we pushed through the exhaustion and made it to lovely temple thursday! 

The area is still doing pretty good. I didn't mess things up to much with Sister Palmer gone. :) Here is just a rundown of what we did this week, or I guess last week as well:

Last Tuesday: Had a fantastic and busy day. Taught Mandy about tithing, which she actually didn't take to well, was then able to teach an investigator that hasn't answered her phone in at least 3 months, and then went to a members for dinner where they invited their friend who actually has a pretty good amount of interest. :)

Last Wednesday: Went on exchanges with Sister Ho, who is actually going to serve at temple square next week! Go look for her! She is the best! :) Did some finding and taught our other young investigator Vanessa before games night

Last Thursday: Interviews with President Hawks. Guess what. I didn't cry. :)

Friday: Exchanges with Sister Probst. We went finding for a bit and met A-Yan! She was just walking on her way home. When we first went up to us she just kept shaking her head, which usually means like "go away" but for some reason we kept trying to talk to her, and the next thing we know we sat down on a bench down the way and taught her the Restoration! Then we went to teach Mandy again. She is still not so happy about tithing. boo. She will get over it. She just needs some time.

Saturday: Did a district display about family. We have 5 different banners that have like mom, dad, kids, marriage and family written on them. Because Chinese New Years is a time for families to be together, we will be doing a family display every saturday till the end of February. We were afraid that the cops were going to come over and tell us that we had to move from the spot we were in the market, but instead they just protected us from a random man that was shouting we were evil. So that was cool. The cops in Hong Kong got our back.

Sunday: I made that brownie mix you sent me in the rice cooker. They tasted good.

Monday: Ate lunch with Isis and then got fonged(stood up) by two new investigators. Did some good finding in a little village on the side of our area. Met a nice new mom named Ms. Jung

Tuesday: Taught Sister Wong, who was a potential investigator that Sister Palmer had met like 3 months ago but wasn't ever able to reschedule. We were able to teach her a fantastic Restoration message in her home and will see her againtomorrow. Then in the afternoon we did some finding by just showing a picture of a baptism and asking people if they knew what is was. That was interesting.

Yesterday: Did a couple hours of service folding some clothes and some more finding, but this time we showed pictures of prophets. Yesterday was a miracle finding day. We felt the spirit guiding us, and even though we didn't teach any street lessons we met a lot of really great people that I am sure will one day soon become new investigators. :)

Then today we get to go to the temple as soon as we are done emailing. So that is just a little taste of what has been going on the last week and a half. Sorry I don't write some great stories anything. I am just really lazy.  :) The weather has been fantastic! I couldn't tell you exactly what the temperature is, but it is very comfortable. Perfect cardigan weather. Sometimes just a little bit colder. It is great. The language is still coming along. Sister Palmer and I are currently doing a week long English Fast. It is kinda hard, but it is helping us realize words that we don't know and focus more on things that are the most important. 

OK.... well I love you all!

Talk to you real soon!

hello!

Wellllll! Hello family!!!

Another week come and gone in the blink of an eye. crazy. Every week as a missionary is the best week ever.

The highlights of the week:

1st. On Tuesday we taught Mandy the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She is doing SO good! She is excited for her baptismal date in February and at the rate she is progressing is definitely going to make her date. But after the lesson as we were cleaning up our object lesson, we hear Mandy talking on the phone to someone asking what she is doing. She says she is learning about a church, and about the BOM. The man on the phone starts asking her all sorts of questions about the church. I am not sure if I have told you before or not, but in Hong Kong it is really common for people to get Anti-ed and then we don't ever see them again. It is really sad and frustrating. We didn't get a chance to talk to her about it at all since she left still talking on the phone. So we were REALLY worried that she was going to get Anti-ed. We called and talked to her later that night to schedule her later that week, but she was busy with work. We were just praying that she would be protected and know for herself whether or not the church is evil. Sunday comes... she comes! She is still the same as ever. So great. Then after church we were talking to her and told her we heard her talking on the phone. She then goes on to tell us that her friend said that we were an evil church and that she needs to stop affiliating with the church. She told him that she thinks that it is a good thing and that it is true. She surprised herself saying those words. So she went home and prayed to ask Father in Heaven if this church was true. and guess what.     ....    She had a warm and very peaceful feeling come over her. She knows the church is true!!!!!! We were so excited! We were like "WOW Mandy! You have a testimony!" She was so happy! I can't believe how good she is.

2nd highlight of the week. I went Mandarin for a day! Since Sister Palmer and I are the Sister Trainer leaders we get to go on exchanges with all the sisters in our zone. Since not as many sisters came in this last transfer as went home, President Hawks combined both the Hung Shui Kiu area and the New Territories Mandarin work. So we were super busy. I was with Sister Chou, who doesn't speak much english besides "Oh man" and "come on baby". She is the funniest little Hong Kongese you will ever meet. But 1 of the lessons that we were teaching were all in Mandarin. I can understand a little bit, but I can't speak worth poop. So I just spoke in Cantonese and luckily their investigator can understand Cantonese alright. So parts needed to be translated into Cantonese, but overall the lesson was great. Mandarin work is fantastic! People from mainland are unbelievably humble. They just soak everything in. The investigator we taught together is getting baptized in just a week in a half. :)

3rd. We taught 2 part member families this week! :) They are the cutest old couples you will ever see. Leung Hingdaaih(brother) just stays at home and takes care of his cute little wife who is a member but has been pretty sick so hasn't been able to come to church lately. We have talked with their whole family about sharing the gospel with Leung Hingdaaih, but they all say that whenever they say anything about the gospel he just says "Get that stuff out of my face." (like Nacho Libre) :) But when sister Palmer and Sister Tidwell went to visit Leung Jimuih, they just invited him over and he was totally listening to their lesson. So we went over again visiting "Leung Jimih" but really meaning to teach Leung Hingdaaih. The family is amazed that he will listen to us. Sister Palmer and I have faith that the spirit is going to touch him. He is going to change sooner that they think. :)

UPDATE on Cheung Sha Wan!: I called sister Wilcox last night, cause the sisters are going to have a little birthday party after we email at the chapel. and she updated me on how everyone is doing. Fantasy is FANTASTIC! She had a little of a rough time, but things are now going smoothly. She is loving everything. Then Sister Jeung! She came to church for the first time yesterday! I guess that Ho Yee her daughter doesn't have to go to dance on Sundays anymore so she can come to church from now on!!!! I was so happy I almost cried yesterday! We were working with her for the longest time! She is already so in with all the ward members. Oh man... she is going to be a fantastic ward member. :) and will soon be able to be sealed to her husband who passed away last year. 

Long story short. Being a missionary is the best thing in the world. 

Also my name is Dung Jimuih, or in british pin yam Sister Tung. Or if you directly translate it. Sister East. So I get called Sister East a lot of the time. Everyone thinks my last name is the funniest thing they have ever heard since their are really only like 15 real last names in Hong Kong, and NO one has EVER heard of a Dung. It is great. But we are supposed to be getting new half and half name tags. That have our names and the churches name in both Chinese and English. I am super excited!

I love you all so much!!!

Happy new years!

Hey Gatihng!!!

Happy American new years! No one really celebrates it to much here as far as I know. Some people do a count down thing, but nothing to special. We have been given like over 10 calendars of different sizes to start off the new year. I dont even know what we are going to do with them all. But The real holiday is Chinese New Year coming up Feb. 1st. I am so excited! They are already starting to put up lanterns and pass out red envelopes. Apparently there are all kinds of foods that only come out around New Years, and everyone just stays with their family and eats food. But I dont really know since this will be my first New Years. :)

aaahhhhhh, I am sorry, I hate emailing these days. I never know where to even start. SO much happens.

Last Thursday we had Mission Leadership Council (MLC), where all the zone leaders and sister trainer leaders get together along with President Hawks and present the months goals and actions. I love these MLCs. They are SO good. Then we are able to listen to what President Hawks wants the mission to be working on. Then everyone from MLC takes what we learn and present it during Zone Training meetings. I love it, cause as sister trainer leaders we REALLY have to pay attention and apply what we learn so that we can help the other missionaries do the same. There are some really wise and fantastic missionaries in Hong Kong and I get to learn from all of them! :)

Our ward for the new year had to make some mission goals. Because Butterfly ward hasnt had any baptisms in over 2 years, no one has much hope for the work to light on fire. Sister Palmer and I think otherwise. When the ward told the stake that they just wanted two baptisms for the first 6 months, the stake and President Hawks said, "That is not good enough." and then they assigned our ward 6 baptisms in 6 months!!! YEAH!!!!! AOPWEIRJALSJKD!!!!!! When I heard that I couldnt contain myself! This last week we also got to meet with our new ward coordinator as well, and he is FANTASTIC! He invited all of our ward missionaries to come so that everyone could know about all of our investigators and know how to help them. We had a coordination meeting that could have been straight from The District (Family if you dont know what that is... look it up on LDS.org. We watch it all the time here for training. It is great.) Butterfly is changing. Things truely are exploding. Not only is our ward starting to get on board but we are being blessed with investigators!

Mandy is still doing fantastic! She will be baptized on Febuary 23. When we gave her the date the only concern she had was if someone gets sick and she has to go take care of them. Mandy is SO good. She is truely so prepared. She hasnt missed a Sunday since we met her.

Isis is also still doing great! Although we didnt get a chance to meet with her because school started again and she started a new job, she is still reading and has already scheduled time for us to meet her tomorrow. She said that she should be able to get Sundays off of work soon as well. :)

Yesterday at church we had 2 new investigators randomly come to church. We hadnt taught them anything yet, and they still came to church. We shared a brief message after church and they are both great! A-queen is 16, likes to play with her pet snake and watch TV, wants to know and believe in Jesus Christ. Then the Elders found Yuki and invited her to church and she came and loved it. She has tried so many other churches but just hasnt found one that feels right yet. :)

Then we also have so many other families that we are just starting to work with! So many less active part member families that we want to teach SO bad. But they all have to work. But I know they will soon have time and a desire to see us. So we will keep calling them. :)

So that is just a bit of the update this week. Hong Kong is still SUPER great. I love this place SO much. I wouldnt rather be anywhere else in the world. I feel like I am just barely tapping into my potential as a missionary and as God's tool. I can feel him working through me everyday. It is the best feeling in the world.

I love you all so much!

Shea

東姊妹

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