General Update

Another week come and gone in the blink of an eye.

How was your week?

This week was great! We got to teach two of the part member families we have been trying to work with. We have had to have lots of patience scheduling them because of New Years. One is a less active members husband, they are both SUPER nice. The member has a great testimony, she just has to work alot. She wants us to teach her husband, but it just took her a while to find time for us to visit. Then the Leung Family have been busy the last couple of weeks because of New Years. But Leung Hingdaih, I think that I have told you about him before, the family all says that he has no interest in the church. He wont listen to his wife or three daughters when they bring up the gospel, but when we go over to visit "Leung Jimuih" we just invite him on over and he will listen to us. We have taught him now three times. He participates in the lessons, but anytime we invite him to pray with his wife he just laughs. But he came to sacrament meeting a couple of weeks ago to listen to one of his daughters give a talk. Sister Palmer and I were SO excited. It was his first time EVER coming to church. He said that his family doesnt like church. We think that is why he has been so against learning about it for so long. But this last week we had a great lesson about why we need Jesus Christ. The spirit was strong, and even though Leung Hingdaih still didnt have a large reaction to it, he is opening up more and more. :)

We had scheduled several new investigators this week, but called the day of our appointments and cancelled saying it was to cold. Which this last week it was. It was SUPER cold. We were wearing leggings and tights, two sweaters plus my raincoat and big coat. It is really only like 40 degrees F, but the humidity is like 97%, which = freezing. But it is already heating up again and is a really nice temperature. So all the new investigators that cancelled we will just see this week. I am excited to start teaching them. :)

Someone we gave a flyer to, called us last monday after emailing telling us that we left a good impression with him and thinks that we were really happy people and wanted to meet with us! I remembered him. He was an older dad who was pulling a 6 yr old son behind him. When we went up to contact him he said he was busy cause he had to take his son back to foster care. The little boy didnt want to go at all. He was crying and trying to run down into the train platform below. It was a really sad situation, and it broke my heart. We were only able to give him a flyer. But he called, wanting to change his life! So we did a turnover lesson to the Tuen Muen Elders and they were able to give him a baptismal date right there in the first lesson!!! I am so excited for him. :)

Erica and Vanessa are both progressing really well as of now. They are both reading and praying. They both have a large desire to develop their testimonies. Vanessa should be baptized March 23, and we are going to give Erica a date this week. She had a date before, but dropped off the face of the earth after they taught the Sabbeth day. But we were able to reschedule her and have been helping her re build the basics. Her testimony truly is growing, and she really wants to keep the Sabbath day holy.

We have been fortunate to work with a couple of LA's this week as well that said that they will come to church next week. :) Choi Lai Wah jimuih has changed SO much. We really cant believe how much she has softened. All that she has needed is someone to care about her and be her friend. The other LA Cheuk jimuih, we taught awhile back on Christmas with her non-member husband. Yesterday when we taught her, her husband had to work, but she came up with no excuses as to why she couldnt come to church next week. Before it was that her baby was to small, but he is six months old now, and she is ok to take him out. See that little baby made me think of the little nephews I havent met yet. I cant wait to meet them!

Our members have been playing a really big part this week. The ward is starting a 40 day family fast this week, where every family will fast a certain day for 40 days. We now have about 80 BOMs with our members testimonies written inside. They are communicating with our investigators without us asking them to. They are doing AWESOME! Our investigators know about activities that we dont even know about. Our members know how some of them are doing better than we do. For example with Mandy (the one we taught tithing to and she stopped meeting with us) we havent been able to call her. But our members can call her and chat like real pals. In fact one of our ward missionaries is going to go with Mandy to visit and help her little sister who is sick.

The work is really progressing. The Lord truly is doing great things in Butterfly. I love this area so much. Couldn't be happier I'd say.
:)

I love you all!

Oh don't be a baby

Oh papa,

 

You know I wont want to just hang out with all my roomies when I get back. come on now. Sorry my date is later. but I am actually REALLY happy about it. There is to much of this work that needs to get done, and I love doing it. :) You are all busy doing other things anyway. I am not sure if that means I will be home on the 22nd or leaving on the 22nd, I am sure the mission will send you more stuff on it later. I am not sure when everyone else is getting back, and also not sure about the apartment stuff. It is still all a long ways off.

 

I think that I can sign up for my classes over here. It might just be easier than trying to explain how to set everything up. But that wont be for another couple of months so I am not to worried about it right now. When the time comes I will talk to Pres. Hawks about how to figure everything out or talk to you. It is only February. Thank goodness. I love you all very very much, but the thought of going home earlier stresses me out big time.

 

did you know that Kelsie leaves Hong Kong this Friday? Crazy right?! I cant believe it. I feel like it was just yesterday I was writing her a letter telling her that I was following her out to HK.

 

That video that Ming Wai sent you was from our New Years party last Saturday. For some reason the ward convinced the missionaries to play this game where we listen to a Chinese pop song and try to sing along with it and then they have to try and figure out what the song is. It is flippin hard!!!! That is why it was just laughing. I dont think that I sang any Chinese at all. Sorry. Ming Wai is great. She just got back from her mission to California last April, so she has been helping us out alot.

 

Answers to some of your questions: 

We actually have quite a few investigators. We just havent seen them very often lately because of new years. I will be sure to give you a good update on all of them next week. I absolutely LOVE being companions with Sister Palmer. I couldnt ask for a better comp. We get along great and she is one of the hardest working people I have ever met. I would send you more pictures this week, but for some reason this computer wont read my camera card, and I dont want to waste time trying to figure it out. Next week for sure. i ate a duck foot and yam cha this last week. Then of course all the new years food. gotta love a good rice flour cake thing. :) 

 

Ok... I will write you a quick email of how the week went:

 

So another SUPER fast week! Crazy. I cant believe the transfer is already over.

 

This last week we had Mission Leadership Council, zone training, and 24 hr zone exchanges. But we didnt get to see to many of our investigators this week, cause it has still been new years and they are either still in Mainland or out visiting family.

 

Zone Training went great and MLC is always the best. I love getting to hear about all the other zones and how everything is going. Sometimes I forget what a big work we are doing, since we do it on such a small scale. We mixed up Zone Training and tried some new things, which I think worked out for the best. :)

 

Then I got to go to Tin Shui Wai for the day and work in a 3-some. 3-somes are pretty much the weirdest thing ever. It is so hard, you have to do everything differently, it is just so easy to scare people with three of you. that evening I started calling through some of their potential investigators from a couple of years ago and saw that one was a referral from Butterfly wards, ward coordinator, so I gave her a call and ended up scheduling her for the next day to take us out to Yam

Cha. So the next day we show up to the Yam Cha place and there is this nice looking lady sitting at the table wearing cheeta print leggingpants. When she saw that we were 3 Americans coming to sit down at her table her face lit up. She was SUPER friendly. she is originally from Beijing, but has lived in Hong Kong for like 20 years or something. But she just liked to speak English with us. She tried REALLY hard to have us join her in the Multi Level Marketing Business, but alas (thank goodness), us missionaries cannot work. She was really something else. We taught her how to pray and hopefully the TinShuiWai sisters will be able to turn her over to the Mandarin missionaries tomorrow. It was just a really cool miracle that came out of now where.

 

We get a chance to see miracles everyday. Even just yesterday, it was fast sunday so i was hungry, I hadnt been sleeping well because I was a wee bit stressed so I was tired and then we had this 12 year old investigator that was driving me crazy, I was pretty much at the end of my rope, but after church I cooled off and we were able to go out and have enough energy to go finding for a couple of hours. Another HUGE miracle.

 

I know I say it like every week, but I love this work. I feel like I was born to be doing what I am doing. There is something exhilarating about going about, being bold and telling people what I know is true and will bring them true lasting happiness. It is the best, cause it is true, and although alot of people say they dont need it now, one day they will realize that they really do. Cause if there is a group of people that need a taste of what REAL happiness is, it is the Hong Kong people. and thats why I will keep working and keep loving it. 

 

I love you all so very very much!

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