July 28, 2014: P-Day Hong Kong Bring It On!

Just wow. I cannot even begin to comprehend the fact that I have like... 21 days left in the MTC. It's coming so fast. We spent Saturday evening playing with the interactive map on our mission portals and then we just got talking about how excited we are. Travel plans should be here in about 10 days and we're totally freaking out and so incredibly excited!! BRING IT ON, HONG KONG.

Okay, so starting with a story that I forgot last week! We went to the temple last P-Day and I ran into my oboe teacher from Snow! So that was basically the coolest thing ever. Totally love her. I knew she worked in the Provo temple early Monday mornings, so when we went to the 8:20 session I wondered if I'd see her, but I hadn't in past weeks so I kinda gave up hope that I would. but after our session I got to see her and we had a nice talk for a few minutes. It was awesome.

Tuesday was pretty good. The first few days of the week go by really really fast (probably because we only go to class once on those days) but it was good. Stanley G Ellis of the 70 came to speak to us. He actually had all of his 9 children speak to us about their testimony of a mission. One just emailed hers from her mission, and the other 8 were there with us. It was pretty cool and each one had a different really short message, so it was cool. I think it was Elder Ellis that spoke to us and told us a cool C.S. Lewis quote. "If you haven't chosen the kingdom of God, at the end of the day it will not matter what you have chosen instead." That's a pretty powerful reminder that in the end, we will be judged according to our works, whether they be good or bad. Why not do good? One of his daughters spoke about how we needed to have hope in Jesus Christ, and how he will never fail us. His wife spoke about how faith=power, obedience=price we pay, love=motive, the spirit=key, and Christ=the reason. All of that relates to our purpose as missionaries and I was touched by her testimony.

Wednesday was fun because we got to host again! I had the opportunity to host like... 4 more sisters. it's exhausting work and it is FREAKIN HOT. but it's worth it. I love being the person that stands on the curb and smiles and waves at all the new missionaries!!! All the sisters I hosted except one were going English speaking to the states. one sister was going to Taiwan so I told her everything she needs to know to survive this place for 9 weeks. Haha. It's definitely a skill. We've got it all down to a science for sure. Sometimes it seems like the stay will never end! Also on Wednesday, I auditioned for two musical numbers as an accompanist- one with Sister Nuttall from my district (she's got a beautiful voice- trained in opera, actually. way cool) and a cellist who I didn't know, but plays very well. Wednesday night I got a letter from Sister Nally saying she wanted this Elder and I to play at the departure devotional Sunday. I was super excited. Sister Nally is hard to impress. She has perfect pitch and is pretty critical of what you play, but she was amazing and I guess she liked Elder Jones' piece. We talked with one of our investigators about her baptism, and we helped her pick a date to prepare for. Jyu Jimuih is now on the calendar for her baptism on August 11th! We'll see if it really happens, but we are praying for her every day.

Thursday was pretty cool. Happy Pioneer Day! haha. I have such a love and respect for my pioneer ancestry. Actually, cool story about that. Because it was Pioneer Day and we couldn't actually do anything to celebrate, we decided to look up some pioneer stories about our ancestors on the interwebs during personal study. I knew the story of my grandmother Amanda Barnes Smith, so I wasn't really wanting to read that one again. I decided to read about my other grandmother, Drusilla Dorris Hendricks. I vaguely remember my mom telling me a little bit about her before, since she's buried in Richmond, Utah, but I couldn't remember exactly what she had said. So I looked her up. FamilySearch.org is the bomb, by the way. Use it. It's great. I found her entire life story, written by her, on that website, so I spent some time and read it all. Near the end, she bears her testimony on the Word of Wisdom. It just so happened that I was going to be teaching that to Jyu Jimuih the next day, so I took her testimony of the Word of Wisdom and translated it to Cantonese so I could share it. Chinese people are very into their ancestors, so I knew that sharing a story about mine would help her understand better. I did share that story in Friday's lesson and it was amazing. the spirit was so strong and she was happy to accept our invitation to live the Word of Wisdom. Also on Thursday, we invited Suki to be baptized. Her situation is really kind of a tough one and we were totally afraid to invite her to baptism. She lives with her boyfriend and she didn't want to kick him out because (in my words) he's a bum and plays video games all day and doesn't have a job. But they've lived together for 8 years... so we were just slowly working toward it. We taught her about the law of Chastity and she's doing her best to live it, but wanted some time to figure out what she was going to do about her boyfriend. She wanted to know what happens at baptism. Not like, the spiritual stuff. But literally what happens. She told us she didn't swim so she was wary, but she accepted! her biggest question was who was going to baptize her.

Okay. Friday. TOTALLY CRAZY. our district made a new goal to do "Fast Friday" where we fast from English. Literally. If you had something to say, you said it in Cantonese or you didn't say it at all. I have to admit we got a little lazy towards the end of the night, but everything before that was AWESOME. I didn't know how well it would go over, but it was way fun and I actually really enjoyed it. I learned a ton of new words and it helped with my grammar, and I was just really excited about it. Friday was also awesome because we gave a pretty powerful lesson with Suki. We started out explaining that she would be baptized by a "strong Elder" (so she won't drown! haha.) and she just laughed. Like really hard. Partly because our teacher who plays Suki told us that that was one of the real Suki's fears (The real Suki was one of our teachers' investigators in HK when she was there). Then we taught her about the Word of Wisdom as well. I again used my grandma Hendricks' story about the word of wisdom and Suki just looked at me. She got really quiet and said "Wow. That's really cool." She immediately accepted our invitation. She asked about if it was okay or not to drink tea with her boyfriend, and we told her it wasn't. She got a sad look on her face, but all three of us bore testimony to her about how sometimes the things God asks us to do are hard, but He'll bless us more in the end. We asked her to go to church and pray about her situation, and God will help her know what to do.

Saturday was pretty uneventful, except our Comp study. We went into the "hotbox" which is basically a 5 1/2x8 foot room with no windows, desks, or chairs. Sister Robinson pointed out the fact that "3 teenage girls are lying on the floor in here" and we were so tired that we just totally busted up. It was so funny. and it really wasn't, but it was funny to us, so whatever. we had some pretty funny conversations that are not allowed to leave the walls of that room...hahahaha. I guess it just makes us realize that we're still teenage girls that laugh over really stupid things and it's the best.

SUNDAY. I heart Sundays. SO MUCH. So Sheri Dew came to speak to us...yeah, that happened. Way awesome. She gave an incredible message to us in Relief Society about priesthood power, authority, and keys and what the difference between the three is. It was really fantastic. Then at the devotional, Stephen B Allen spoke to us about our purpose as a missionary. The film we watched after the devotional was a talk by President Uchtdorf before he was "president". He talked about how missionaries are what brought his wife to the church and he wouldn't be where he was without her. it was really sweet and definitely a testimony builder. I played in the departure devotional with Elder Jones and he did such a great job. I'm blessed to meet some seriously wonderful people while I'm here.

Today's been pretty uneventful. We went to the temple early early to do initiatories and I again saw Sister Reed (my oboe teacher) though this time it was just in passing super quick. love her. Now I'm emailing as I wait for my laundry to be done. It's weird to think that I have 3 more times of doing laundry here, and then I'M IN HONG KONG. BOOYAH. So excited. For shizzle.

Love you all!!!!!!!! Ngoh ngoi leih (: (:

-Kuk Jimuih

P.S.  Yeah, tell me about how time flies. The days are long but the weeks are short. Brother Penrod (of our branch presidency) told us that it's that way so we can learn more in the day. Cool thought.  Nothing exciting happens here. ever. haha. Except Sheri Dew came to speak to us in relief society, so I guess that was cool. Rumor has it Elder Perry will be here tomorrow, though nothing's been confirmed. LOVE THAT MAN.

P.P.S  If you haven't read this already, you should. It's way cool.
https://familysearch.org/photos/stories/1618122?returnLabel=Drusilla%20Dorris%20(KWJD-NMR)&returnUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffamilysearch.org%2Ftree%2F%23view%3Dancestor%26person%3DKWJD-NMR%26section%3Dmemories

 The sister missionaries ROCK!  Sisters Killpack, Robinson & Crook

July 21, 2014: Week 5 Happy Humpyaht!

So Humpyaht. Basically means hump day. Yaht = day... and nobody wants to look up "hump" in Chinese because it probably means like, the hump of a camel o something. anyways. HAPPY HUMP DAY. MTC hump day was Friday and oh dang, we partied hard. After tons and tons of studying, we feasted upon the food that our lovely families have been sending. it was great.

So Tuesday was a pretty tough day. All our Cambodian friends left and stuff, and MTC goodbyes are harder than saying goodbye to those I love at home. It is hard when you don't have even five minutes to cry out all your emotions, whether they're good or bad. so you kind of just hold it all in and explode. But it's getting better, and every day we start fresh.

Also on Tuesday, my trio got changed from a trio to a quad. basically the weirdest thing ever. Sister Christensen from the Cambodia group had to stay after her district left because of an injury, so she got put with us. So sometimes we're a quad, and sometimes we walk around in pairs. It's pretty crazy, but she's nice and fun so it's cool. That night we had a devotional and before, in choir practice,we were singing Faith of our Fathers. Our director changed some words and asked us to put in the country we will be serving in in the music, so one line said "Faith of our fathers, we will strive to win all of CHINA unto thee; and through the truth that comes from God, mankind shall then indeed be free." It was basically the coolest thing ever. Loved it. How true is that? If not for my pioneer ancestors, I wouldn't be here preparing to serve the saints o China.

Wednesday was pretty fun. I got a package from my very best friend in Alaska and it was the greatest thing ever. He's super thoughtful. We also taught a pretty great lesson and really brought the spirit to one of our investigators. So on Wednesday our teacher told us a pretty funny analogy. She said (note this is all in Cantonese, so I'm going to translate to English) "MTC is like the pre-earth life. The mission field is like birth. Being an RM is like the celestial kingdom!!" Haha. I just laughed. She's so cute. I'll try to get a picture with my teachers before we ship out, but that's still four weeks away.

I don't even remember what happened on Thursday... basically Thursday SUCKS because it's long. OH WAIT. but service. So we do service every week cleaning our residence hall. Sis Killpack and I got the lovely opportunity to clean the showers. They gave us a hose with a foam sprayer attachment on it, so we partied it up spraying foam literally ALL over the bathroom. it was way fun. Other than the hair in the drains, I'd totally volunteer to do that every week. it was the bomb. I got a package from my sweet YW leader at home full of a cute note and some treats to share with my companions. That totally made our day. I just really love hearing from people. It makes us realize that the real world does exist somewhere outside the walls of the MTC!

Speaking of showers. So the other night I walked into a shower and was hanging up my towel and stuff. (Please note, still totally in my church clothes.) It was pretty early so not many people were showering yet. I hear this "Hey, Sister? I see your feet like, every time I shower. Whats your name?" I just stood there like "umm. what the heck." so that was my awkward moment of the week. I felt super awkward, but it was funny.

Friday was pretty fabulous because it was hump day! We celebrated by eating tons of food. WE took pictures and sang songs and just had a great time. We probably stuffed 20 or so people into our tiny classroom, which was way fun. It was just a good time to get to know each other better. I seriously love every single one of these people SO MUCH. Like, I will cry when I have to leave and can't hug these cute Elders goodbye. They are the best. We're like one big family, and our district is even more close than that. I love these people like they were my own siblings and can't wait to come home and hear about how they're all doing.

That reminds me. The no Elders and Sisters touching besides handshakes rule is the funniest thing ever. LIke, I get it. totally. Makes total sense. Were representatives of the Lord and need to be focused on the gospel, its cool. But I just laugh every time someone accidentally touches somebody because the reaction is pretty funny. So if an Elder accidentally brushes up against a sister, or like last night Sister Robinson slapped (not hard!!) Elder Merrell (cant remember why but dang it was funny!) and she just freaked out. You know that line in finding nemo where they're like "GASP. he touched the butt." that's totally how it is. its so funny.

Not much happened on Saturday, but we had a really good time Sunday! T.C Christensen came to speak to us last night. it was AWESOME. he gave such a wonderful talk to us about our pioneer ancestry. loved it!! it was seriously the best. he has such a great testimony and I loved hearing about his adventures filming 17 miracles.

Well, I love you all! I hope all is going well at home and would love to hear from you (:

Ngoh ngoi leih!

-Kuk Jimuih

P.S.
Okay so I forgot to mention the Strangest Lightning story. and our lesson with Suki. feel free to throw this on my blog or forward it or whatevs.

Okay. So the song from Tarzan, "Strangers like me". You know it. So we have this elder, Elder Anderson. He's super smart and we just love him to death. We tease him and call him Elder Google because I swear he knows everything. Anyways, some of my district wanted to translate the lines from the chorus of the song so of course he volunteered. He wrote it all on the board and then he and Elder Merrell sang it. It was great. Sister Robinson asked what the literal translation is, since English doesn't translate exactly. He went on to quote basically the chorus, and then at the last line he said "I want to know about the strangest lightning. We just kinda looked at him like he was crazy. Sister Robinson was like "Umm, you know it's strangers like me...right?" I felt so bad, but the look on his face was 100% totally priceless. SO FUNNY. He totally had no idea and thought it said Strangest Lightning... so now we tease him about it all th time, but it's all in good fun. (:

So our lesson with Suki. Suki is our investigator that lives with her boyfriend and wants to learn English. We've been teaching her for the past two or so weeks and have progressed pretty far as far as doctrine is concerned. Anyways, we just felt like she didn't really feel that we loved her, so Friday (I think) we took a step back and just asked her about any questions she had. We walked into that lesson not knowing what to teach, and we walked away from it having just answered a couple questions and really hard core testifying of our knowledge of the gospel and that we seriously just love her so much and want her  to be happy. It was a pretty powerful lesson and I was really, really grateful we took that step. Our other investigator is going to have a baptismal date by the end of this week and I'm way excited!! LOVE THE GOSPEL.

ngoh jidou ligaan gauuwui haih jansaht ge. Ngoh jidou Yeuksaht Simaht haih sinji, tungmai Yehsou Geiduk saufuh bei ngohdeih. Ngoh ngoi Gwondungwa!! Ngoh ngoi chyuundo ge geiwuui!

-Sister Crook

 The whole Cantonese District.  (Mom's note: not sure if they are all going to Hong Kong or not).  Sis Nuttall, Cotton, Killpack, Hadley, Elder Copley
Elder Anderson, me, sis robinson, cochran, anderson, poulson, dunbar, hansen Elder Li, Merrell, Black, Sisters Cox and Brown

 Now in a companionship of 4...Sister Christensen is in the Cambodia group but staying back due to an injury.

 Really Really Bad Hair

 "I found a praying mantis!"

 Hump Day party!  So many treats!

 Many missionaries leaving the Marriott Center

 MTC Hump Day

 (Mom's Note: No explanation for this photo- Pictionary maybe?)

 Sister Crook and Sister Nuttal match!

 Hump Day party and loot! Sister Anderson

 Elders feasting on the Hump Day junk from home

 A light up CTR ring!

 Praying mantis.

A little package came all the way from Alaska (from BFF Elder Gilmore)

What my name means in Chinese!  Crooked and Music!  How perfectly fitting!

July 11, 2014: Handwritten Letter to Mom

Dear Mom,

This is the letter for me to tell you all the stuff I forgot/the things I didn't have time to write about.  My companions wanted to go lift weights and junk and I see no point so I brought my notebook.  I really hate gym time.  I'd much rather be studying or something.  But both my companions are really into sports.  I really wish we could swim so I could feel like I got a decent workout.  I play volleyball if we are inside, but the gym is closed for another week.

So Kayleigh Ingersoll is here.  We don't have any time to talk but we've acknowledged each others existence.  I think she is going to Indonesia or something like that.

I am so exhausted mentally, emotionally, and physically.  Every night I just crash and am usually asleep long before anyone else.  I have constant headaches and just really wish I had a day to rest.  But this is my life now I guess.  I really just can't wait for Hong Kong.  My favorite part of the day is preparing for/teaching lessons.  It is hard but it is how we learn.  I want to be out in the field so bad.  It's hard because I just want to go love those people but I know I don't have the means to truly communicate with them yet.  Elder Klein flew out Monday morning.  He's been here like 14 weeks because he tore his ACL, but I'm glad he finally made it to HK.

I've been talking to Landon a  little about my worries at home.  I didn't have a ton of time to email him yesterday so I printed off his emails so I could reread them.  This is what he told me, "One thing I think of quite often is something Elder Holland said once.  He said something along the lines of 'We often ask ourselves and our Heavenly Father if there is not an easier way, but something we often forget is that someone already asked that question.  He was better than any of us.  He was perfect, and there was no easier way.  Why should it be easier for us if it was never easier for Him?'"  How true.  We're going through some hard stuff, but nothing compares to the infinite atonement of our Savior.  I can't imagine how Heavenly Father must have felt when Christ asked him to "take the bitter cup" from  him.  He had to be 100% completely alone.  At least we have the knowledge that because of the atonement, we will not suffer alone.

I love this gospel so much and know that because of this gospel we don't have to do this alone.  I am so grateful for that.  Never forget that~

I love you guys a bunch.  Ngih ngoi leih!

Sister Crook

July 14, 2104: The Real World Smells Like Poop

Sometimes, the things we say in the MTC are pretty profound. LIke when we teach an amazing lesson or something. And other times, we say things like "The real world smells like poop!!" There is a story behind that one for sure. They are redoing the gym floor, so we have to walk down to the Marriot center to have our devotionals. It's nice to get out of our little confinement and leave campus for something other than the gym field or temple. But we had to go out the south gate, and that's where all the dumpsters are. Needless to say, as we walked past them and were expressing excitement for a few minutes in "the real world" cute little Sister Hadley said "The real world smells like poop!" because of the stinky dumpsters. It was great.

There is also a reason behind "The Plague". It's hit hard here.About two weeks after we got here, Sister Cox (in the other Canto district) got sick. She was worried it was strep so she went to the doctor. They said it was just a virus so they couldn't do anything. I felt pretty bad because she looked miserable. Well, about a week later Elder Klein got sick with it, and he's in my district. The other elders in the district got sick too. They all got better so we figured we were safe. Nope. the night of the 4th of July my nose started to get a little stuffy. By Monday night my throat was searing and I seriously couldn't eat anything. we took an adventure to the doctor Tuesday and he said again, it was an upper respiratory virus so they couldn't do anything. I've spent the last week trying not to die as I cough up internal organs (not literally) and take meds for the congestion that feels like someone is stepping on my face. It's definitely not been fun. Being sick in general sucks, but when you're sick and don't have the option to go lay down and sleep it off for a day, it seriously sucks. way bad. one of my companions also got it, so Friday night we just went back to our room early and studied there. Thank heavens I'm finally feeling like I can function again!

We had a pretty cool experience this week teaching one of our investigators. Actually, both, really. So Jyu Jimuih is one of our investigators. we spent some time teaching her about the plan of salvation. She seemed pretty excited. I really felt like we needed to invite her to baptism, so I did and she accepted! We still have a lot of lessons to teach, especially since lesson 5 now has to be taught before baptism (new mission rule as of this week!) but she's progressing and I'm excited. Our other investigator, Suki, is a little wary of what we have to say. She lives with her boyfriend and we're all terrified to address the law of chastity for fear that she'll be offended, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Anyways, we planned to teach Suki the first half of the plan of salvation one particular day.

Side story- one of my companions really struggles with the language. she just learns things at a different pace than every one else, which is expected. it's a hard language, what do you do? Anyways, this language is one where pronunciation is KEY. you MUST pronounce stuff right or you'll be saying things like Joseph Smith had pregnancy problems or that apostles kill people. So this sister was trying to read out of our Romanized Cantonese Preach My Gospel about the atonement, and the investigator just wasn't getting it. Suki jsut sat and looked confused and finally pretty firmly said "I just don't understand what you're speaking." my companion looked really frustrated. It actually looked like she was about to give up, and then out of nowhere she started to bear her testimony. It was powerful. It was the most simple testimony I've seen, but when she finished Suki had tears in her eyes and quietly thanked her. The spirit was so strong in that lesson. We have yet to feel the spirit that strongly in another lesson since then, but it was definitely amazing.

Tuesday night Niel L Anderson came to speak to us. He spoke about the importance of the Holy Ghost and talked about how we speak by the tongues of angels. That's a pretty cool promise to a bunch of greenie missionaries who struggle with their language. Last night the MTC administrative guy came and spoke with us about charity, and that too was an amazing devotional.

Sorry there isn't more to talk about this week...

OH. Hump week. So, this week is the very middle! After like... Thursday or so, I only have four more weeks here. As scary as that is because I am NOT ready as far as my language is concerned. But we spend Sundays watching mormon messages and stuff like that. This week we watched everything possible that had to do with Hong Kong- from native Cantonese speakers to things about the temple and an interview with Elder Holland and his visit to the saints of Hong Kong. I get so emotional because I love the people there already. I love their language and am SO exicted for this wonderful adventure!!!!!!!!!

Much love, ngoh ngoi leihdeih!

-Kuk Jimuih

P.S.
Totally forgot to mention my awesome hosting adventure. Basically when new missionaries come to the MTC, they're "hosted" by people who've been here a few weeks. This week we got the chance to host new missionaries. We went to a 30 minute training meeting and then stood on the curb and smiled and waved as we watched new missionaries drive past. Cool story though-

I knew I had a few friends coming in that day. So I stood at the top and waited. and waited. and waited. I saw my friend Sister Yardley (Headed to San Jose Costa Rica!) drive past so I frantically waved and almost ran down to be her host, when I saw none other than SISTER MERTENS drive past me. For anyone who doesn't know, that woman is my soul sister and we are the best of friends. I got such a wonderful opportunity to be able to greet her and be with her as she said goodbye to her family. I got to show her around and help her get her tag. I took her to her residence hall...literally lives on the floor below me. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful friend serving in the field and I am so glad i have the opportunity to see her so often! It's seriously the best.

I'm pretty sure we're going to host every week until we leave. They like us to be the hosts because we have cool name tags. Which is true. my name tag is legit. I seriously loved hosting and am so glad I got to see my best friend in the whole wide world!!!( :  There's a possibility I'll be here and able to host Aaron... how cool would that be!  I just can only take him to get his tag and books- then I have to hand him off to an elder to let him go to his room. but yeah, tell her to check it. I'm going to tell her to keep an eye out for me. we won't know till that week if we're hosting but I seriously hope I can. it'd be awesome.

 Guess who Sister Crook Found!  Her sister from another mother!  Sister Mertens just arrived at the MTC and is headed to Vancouver, WA in an ASL mission.

 The whole Hong Kong clan

 Loves being a host on Wednesdays!

 Sister Crook and her companions

 Sister Crook and Sister Mertens...

... and again

 Cute little Tessa made these adorable Sister Minionaries for her sister.  How amazing are they?   I think Sister Crook has the most beautiful happy eyes in this photo.

 Sundays are the day of rest, literally.

 Sister Mertens and Sister Crook again.

 P-Day #4 with the whole Hong Kong clan!

July 11, 2014: Handwritten Letter to Makynlee

Chen ngoi ge Makynlee,

When you remember who your new teacher is, tell me.  I'm glad you all had fun at Lagoon.  Did you make dad ride Wicked?   There are several wugwai in the lake by the tidal wave.  There are also lots of frogs and fish.  I'm also glad you had a good party.  I heard from mom that you one o your friends forgot her lunch and threw a fit about it.  That's definitely not cool.  I'm also glad you got to see Madeleine.  Cousins are fun.  I might get to be one of the missionaries waving on the curb when Aaron gets here in a couple of weeks.

I actually got to do that this week.  It was really run to see so many new missionaries.  It was kind of sad to watch the families dump their missionaries, but that's okay.  I got to be the missionary that helped my friend Emilee!  I took her to get her name tag and books.  Turns out she just lives on the floor below me so that's fun.

I very highly doubt you'll be able to speak Cantonese when I get back, because I honestly don't know if I will even be able to.  It is such a hard language.  But I'll keep trying to send you new words.  I just look most of them up in my dictionary.  I really only know gospel words and basic conversation.

Vocabulary:
watermelon:  saigwa (sigh-g-wah)
pineapple:  boloh (bo-lo)
orange: chaung (ch-ah-ng)
lemon: nihngmung (neng-moong)
grape: pouhtaihji (po-tie-gee)
grapefruit: saiyau (sigh-yow)
awkward: leuhngjeuhng (lung-jung)
Holy Ghost: Sihnglihng (sang-lang)
gospel: fukyam (f-oak-yum)

There is no Cantonese word for minion, sorry.  Also, practice volleyball, so we can play together when I get back.  I play almost every morning here.

Thanks so much for the package.  It was really cute!  Love you,

Kuk Jimuih

P.S. I miss you is ngoh seungnihm leih (no-sung-neem-lay)

P.P.S I liked that you wrote your letter in sparkly pen.  That's cool.

July 11, 2014: Handwritten Letter to Tessa

Chan ngoi ge Tessa,

I'm really glad you ahd fun at Lagoon.  Outrigger is way fun.  It was my favorite slide to work when I worked there because it was funny to watch people fall off all the time, but then I got to help pick them up and put them back on their tubes.  You should ride the pipeline slides and race Makynlee.  We rode them once and it was pretty fun.  I also like the slide on the tall tower that you can ride on a tube on.

What other rides at Lagoon did you go on?  Wicked and Samurai are my favorites.  Someday I want to go to Knott's Berry Farm in California and ride all the crazy roller coasters there.

Thank you so much for the picture.  It's very pretty.  I'll hang it up as soon as I clean off my desk then I will hang it up in Hong Kong.  Maybe I'll take it with me to the airport and have my companion take a picture of me and your picture in Hong Kong so you will know it made it.

Will you draw me another picture of the temple?  I packed the one you gave me in a box and forgot to take it out.  I'd love to have one to hang up!

Vocabulary
temple:  singdihn  (sing-deen)
gospel: fokyam (f-oak-yum)
animals: duhngmaht (dung-mah-t)
family: gatihng (gah-teng)
friends: pahngyuah (pan-g-yow)
missionaries: chyungaausih (ch-oon-gow-see)

I'm going to draw a picture and send it with this letter.  Love you!

Kuk Jimuih

July 9, 2014: Handwritten Letter to Mom

Dear Mom,

We had a pretty profound talk between the sisters in our district tonight.  For companion study we decided to all share what we read about.  I shared the story of how Korihor denied Christ, asked for a sign, was struck dumb, and then was squished and "trodden down."  Real profound ha ha.  But then we got talking about how many testimonies Korihor probably destroyed.  Just something to think about.

But the thing that really got us going was the thoughts of our sweet Sister Hadley.  Her grandpa passed away last night.  They called her out of class to tell her.  When she came back we all just knew what happened.  It was heart breaking.  Last night's devotional was all about the spirit.  Elder Neil L. Anderson spoke about how we will be surrounded by angels.  Anyway, we got talking about how WE will be surrounded by angels.  Then Sister Killpack told us about a boy in her ward who told his family he wanted to start his papers.  The day after he started them, he died in his sleep of an asthma attack.  Just before his funeral, the mom got a call from President Hinckley that her son's mission call was to the spirit world.  As soon as she told me that, I was totally overcome with emotion as I thought of your cousin Doug.  I know you probably already know this, but I truly believe that his mission in heaven was far greater than his mission on earth.  I want you to know that I have such a testimony of God's plan for us.  Everything we go through happens for a reason.

I also have a strong testimony of angels I have here by my side are real.  I know Doug is here.  I know that Grandma and Grandpa Hendricks are here.  Grandma is probably here as I practice piano.  I'm sure Grandpa Yancey is here too.  I know with all my heart that the angels walk these halls.  My family is here cheering me on as I bear a simple testimony, and they kneel with me as I pour my  heart in prayer in a language I barely understand.

I love this gospel.  I am so blessed to know that I have something stronger than Helaman's army behind me- my family, both living and from beyond the veil.  I am grateful for my love of my family history and I am very proud of my awesome ancestors.

Love,
Leui Crook (Daughter)

July 7, 2014

 The tree that truly smells like cream soda

 I love to see the temple

 Sister Nuttal (from Layton) and another girl that all went to Jr. High together.

Mom sent minion graham crackers and Nutella in a package...YUM!

Leih hou, pangyauh! Hello friends! This week has been a whirlwind. Everyone here says the days are long and the weeks are short. I cannot even begin to tell you how true that is. The days are SO long. I spend 9,10, 11 hours a day just studying the language. If we're lucky we have time to take a nap on P days.

So last Tuesday we got two new investigators, Jyu Jimuih (Sister Jyu) and Suki. I seriously love them. They aren't real- they're just our teachers, but they act like investigators and ask many questions that we'll have to know the answers to. I actually learn a ton from those experiences. Suki wanted to meet with the missionaries because she wanted to learn English. (This is the best, by the way. made my whole day.) we started to teach our lesson but ended up way off track because our Cantonese sucks and we ended up teaching prayer instead. Long story short, Suki asked "Well, if I pray will God help me learn English? He helped you with your Gwondung-Wa, right?" Sis Robinson was SO excited at that statement that all she could do was grin with this goofy look on her face and nod really fast. So we taught Suki how to pray and she asked God to help her learn English. I seriously felt so great about that lesson.

Another one of our investigators, Jyu Jimuih, wanted to meet with us because she heard we teach about eternal families and she wanted an eternal family. So our first lesson was....eh. It was okay, but we were kind up jumping around and could've done better. But she seemed to get it and asked us to come back. So we did. and I can't remember what day we taught her, but we taught her again later in the week and spoke about the Plan of Salvation. we hit a rough patch when explaining about the fall of Adam and Eve (Aadong and Hawaa, in case you were wondering) but we picked it up after that and she seemed to be excited. We felt prompted to challenge her to baptism. Now rewind to our last lesson with our very first investigator,Stellar. That lesson was so bad and crashed and burned...but we had challenged her to baptism and said no. So when Jyu Jimuih sat there contemplating, all of us had a silent prayer in our heart to have the Lord soften hers to our message. So we were terrified. BUT SHE SAID YES. We have successfully committed an investigator to baptism. I am so excited that we can finally move on from teaching the same two lessons and finally move on to help her come closer to Christ. I think the best part of that whole lesson was how we sang "I am a Child of God" in Cantonese, and she clearly felt the spirit and asked if she could read the words to our song. I was so excited!!! AH. Love her. I know what it's like to truly love our investigators, even though they're just our teachers.

So in case any of you wanted to know, minions speak Cantonese. I'm sure I've said that before. but if anyone wants to know what Cantonese sounds like, go watch Despicable Me. (They don't really, but some of their words sound like Cantonese). So Mom, when you send that Nutella with the minion crackers all of us ate some and were praying that the crackers would give us Cantonese speaking powers...haha just kidding. But they were cute and I love them! thanks! Also for all you chocolate lovers out there, the word for chocolate in Cantonese is "jyugalik".

I have to say that i am so grateful for the branch presidency down here. The wives of them come to our residence hall a couple times a week at bedtime just to hug us goodnight since our own moms aren't here. It really is the sweetest thing I've ever seen and I seriously appreciate their willingness to come sacrifice their time to take care of us. They're the great.

So here's the funny Chinglish of the week. Mihngbaak means to understand. We have an Elder who is seriously so smart. he's totally getting this language and we always ask him if we have questions. I can't remember the context of the comment (all my days run together) but we said something, and someone commented "Just because Elder Anderson is over there mihngbaaking everything..." and I just had to laugh. it's probably not funny to any of you who read this, but it makes me laugh just thinking about it, so roll with it.

So if anyone gets bored and really wants to hear Cantonese, there's a good video on Mormon.org called "I'm a Mormon, Supportive Sister, and grateful daughter" by a Hong Kong girl. it shows some cool shots of HK. way cool. Also, there's a video somewhere on LDS.org about the story of the very first sister missionaries. It was touching and really made my day.

Sundays here are pretty awesome. We usually have time to take a short nap, but it has to be in the classroom. so the 7 sisters in my district literally lay on the floor and just sleep. It is the funniest thing ever!! we took a nice nap for like an hour yesterday evening. We also have time to watch the LDS.org videos. Anything. We watch Mormon Messages (which sucks because they're so great that we just cry over them all) and really old seminary/church movies. Those are definitely pretty entertaining.

Yesterday was mission conference. We had the opportunity to listen to our mission president of the MTC speak. His wife shared a touching story about Amanda Barnes Smith, my sweet grandmother. I always get teary over her story, and all those that crossed the plains. I have such a love for my ancestors and really appreciate everything they did for me. I am excited to see them again after I die and give them all a great big hug. I definitely could not have crossed the plains. Anyways, she told us about the lyrics to How Firm A Foundation. If you get the chance, go read all of the verses. They're pretty powerful.

The best part of my week? DUHKLAAPYAHT!!!!! Independence Day! It really was the most amazing thing ever and I am really really glad I had the opportunity to be here for it. We had a really great devotional Friday night that was all about how Joseph Smith brought back true freedom- the knowledge of the gospel. And then we got to watch the fireworks from BYU stadium of fire. that was pretty cool. It made us all a little homesick, but it's okay.

I have such a strong testimony of this gospel, and the work that I'm out here to do. I know that Joseph Smith restored the gospel of Christ as it was when Christ walked the earth. I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father and I know he has a plan for me and for my family. I love the opportunity to be here preparing to serve the people of Hong Kong!

Ngoh ngoi leih!!

-Kuk Jimuih

PS. Thank you to everyone who sent me letters/dear elders this week. I love hearing from you! (:

P.P.S

So here's a funny story for you. I went in with my teacher Sister Heaton to sit down and do our "interview." Basically she asked me questions in Cantonese like how is the MTC, how is the language coming, how are my companions, what are my goals...etc. and then I answered in English. Anyways. The first thing she said when I walked in and sat down was "You know Paige Heninger." I was like. Umm............... yes. But because she was speaking in Cantonese I couldn't understand everything she was saying, so I was sort of REALLY confused as to how she knew that. Apparently her mom and Paige are really good friends/neighbors, and Paige said something about me to Sister Heaton's mom, and then she told Sister Heaton who then told me. So. Small world. Just in case you wanted to know.