October 27, 2014

Monday was pretty fun. I got the opportunity to go to Sham Shui Po and go shopping with my companion, and we tried Pakistan food. Mmm. Holy goodness inside deep fried bread. It was an adventure, AND I found the Thai pants I've been looking for... $39 HK, which means like... $6 American dollars. YES! so happy. I love how cheap things are here. Taught my first family on the street too- a lady named Maria and her husband. also met Miss Lee, who we rescheduled. Monday miracle- we did LA (less active) finding Sunday night and just left a sticky note on a sister's door that said "Hey, sorry we missed you but we just wanted to check in and see how you are" and left our phone number. She called us Monday and asked to meet with us. Whhhatt??! Tsing Yi is awesome because our less active members actually sometimes want to meet with us.

Tuesday we taught Miss Lee at the church. We were afraid she wouldn't show up because she didn't give us her phone number so we could call her... so it was all based on her word when she said she'd be there. But sure enough, she turned up right on time and we taught her about God. What a blessing! Tuesday was also transfer calls day... dun dun dun. Not really. Our district literally didn't change except one sister went home since her time is done. It was sad to see her go, but I was definitely grateful for this transfer I get to stay in Tsing Yi. Elders in the picture are Elders Hartwig, Arenas, Koochin, and Goronson. Sisters Tu'Avao, Yong, Tidwell, Crook, and Lubeck.

Wednesday we had the opportunity to teach Cammy (and her insanely wild children... I swear they get worse every day) and Cherry. Both are progressing (slowly, but progressing) and I'm excited to work towards their baptismal dates next month.

Thursday, Sister Tidwell left for the Meihgwok (America). I hope she's doing alright and adjusting well. It's been weird to see people leave and can't believe I've already been here for a transfer... Met with Sister Tsang, the less active. She was incredibly awkward, but oh well. We're meeting her again tonight.

Friday was super fun. Thursday we got a new batch of chyungaausih (missionaries) and since my companion is the sister training leader, I get to do splits with the other STL's comp, and she happens to be green! yay. Someone more green than me! (: We did splits while our comps were in a meeting and did finding in Kwai Fong. It was super cool because neither of us can speak squat to people, so it was really a test of faith and patience. Sister Cook is a wonderful missionary and she'll do great. I'll see her again longer tomorrow, so I'll get some pictures. She's awesome. We got a girl's phone number and the Kwai Fong sisters have already rescheduled her- what a miracle.

Saturday we tried something new- morning finding! There were seriously soooo many families out! it was insane. We taught one that we may see tomorrow, and taught a few other people. It was really pretty cool and I was grateful for the opportunity. We did some LA finding and met Sister Leung- turns out she's legitly the most awesome person I've ever met. She swam on China's national team in the 1980's and now teaches and coaches like... amazing, incredible swimmers over here. Whoa. She's got medals and trophies and someone wrote a book about her. Way cool. She's too busy to come to church, and it was heartbreaking to see that she's put her career above her family (who doesn't live with her... too inconvenient) and church and God, but hopefully we can work with her and help her see how much god loves her and wants her to come back to church.

Sunday. Dang I love Sundays! We went to church and Kelly came too! Yay. Also said she's talked to her parents and she said she thinks they'll give her permission to be baptized in December. We are so excited!! She and A-Ting (our recent convert) taught us the plan of salvation and they wore our tags and everything and it was really cute.  Then we visited Sister Chiu, a less active who's in her twenties. She's really busy so it was a miracle that we had the opportunity to see her. Also, a member gave us a referral a week ago and we haven't been able to contact her since the number was temporarily out of use... but we got a hold of her last night and might see her today. Woo!

I love China. It's FINALLY starting to cool off (still had some nasty hot days this week) so maybe the weather will be beaerable in November. I can't get over how October is almost gone... seems like it just started. Time flies. Love you all! Ga yauh!

-曲姊妹

Sister Crook

 More homemade pretzels.  Desperate times call for desperate measures.

 Pakistan food

 Except for looking a little like a drowned rat, Sister Crook looks amazing!

 Elders in the picture are Elders Hartwig, Arenas, Koochin, and Goronson. Sisters Tu'Avao, Yong, Tidwell, Crook, and Lubeck.

 Steamed bun yumminess

 $6 Thai pants

 Oh PS:  That email from president Gwok (mission presidency) is about last Saturday. He ran into us at the church as we were getting ready for a lesson. We talked for a few, said hi and bye, and then went to leave to buy some food to bring to a LA's house for lunch. She called and cancelled last minute so we decided to hit up the mall for lunch and President Gwok ran into us again and offered to take us to lunch with his son who is an RM too. it was really fun to talk to them and the food was so good- Udon noodles in tomato soup. mmm. so good. so yep, I'm super rgrateful for people here who love the missonaries! (:

Email from President Gwok to Sister Crook which also included the photo above:

Dear Sister Crook,

 Sorry for being later sending this picture to you.  You and Sister Lubeck are wonderful missionaries.  When we saw the two of you are the mall, we felt like we have met two angels from Heaven.  Thank you for letting us take you to lunch.  It was a great experience for us!

 If there is anything we can do for you and your investigators, please feel free to let us know!

 Sincerely,

Kam Tim Kwok

October 20, 2014: Gung Gung

This week was pretty uneventful. Most of our investigators were busy, so we didn't teach a lot of lessons. We did teach one really special lesson though.

About a month ago (3 weeks maybe) we met Tammy on the street. She was really nice and we honestly weren't really going to talk to her since we were on the way back home, but we did. Anyways, her dad had been in the hospital for a heart problem for a little bit by then and we couldn't reschedule her because she was always busy. Anyway, we were calling potentials one night and I just had the thought to have my companion call her. We ended up scheduling to meet her in Jordan and go with her to visit her dad. So everybody here calls old ladies pohpo, meaning grandma on your mom's side. Gung Gung is grandpa. So we got the chance to hang out with this cute old man for a little over an hour. He was the sweetest thing, and though he couldn't hear much, we taught the Plan of Salvation. He kept saying over and over that his favorite part was the "lihng dik saigai" meaning spirit world, since we taught him that he could be with his deceased wife again, and that's where she is right now. He was so cute. We don't know how much he'll retain, but he loved it. He mimicked the picture on the front of the pamphlet of Jesus coming out of the tomb and it was just adorable. So cute. We taught Tammy too since she was there. It was such a blessing. (pictures are us with her dad and then us afterwards in Jordan).

This experience has taught me one thing though. I've never really had fears. I mean, little ones... but this... Chinese hospitals TERRIFY me. Holy crap. We walked off the elevator and almost immediately there are gurneys. Everywhere. And bloody gauze, and we had to practically climb over a billion and a half people to get to Tammy's dad. It was so sketchy. Looked so dark and dreary and lonely and..... maybe not the cleanest place on earth. So I don't recommend needing a hospital if at all possible while in China. Haha. That's okay though. We were happy to have that experience.

Our investigators are doing well. We gave Kelly a new baptismal date and everyone seems to be progressing well. I am really proud of all their hard work and their faith!

Keep working hard, everybody. Ga yauh!

P.S.
Hou faai means real fast. Umm. there's a chance Sister Lubeck and I (if we don't get transferred this week) will get to sing in sacrament for Christmas.

(In reference to Sister Crook's brother getting a personal trainer):  Tell Jaiden I say Ga Yauh! (gai-yow), means add oil... meaning good luck. I have lost a ton of weight here actually. Part of it is due to being sick the first few weeks and not wanting to eat anything, and honestly part of it is we just don't have time to eat other than meal time. Cut out the snacking and eating after 6 pm and you lose weight super fast. We also do a lot of walking, but nothing too crazy. one foot is getting a lot better, and the other one fluctuates from being the same to getting worse, but I keep it under control. my companion thinks I should try acupuncture but there's  no way in crap you could get me to try that. Crazy stuff goes on here...haha. Mostly I just decided that I'm going to have to just deal with my foot hurting sometimes, because the alternative options aren't good. So no worries! It's fine. If it gets to be a problem I'll tell Sister Hawks, but otherwise I just use Sister Lubeck's rice bags and ice it every night and roll it with my golf ball. I'm getting to the point where I can run a little bit in the morning without hurting too bad, so it's all good.

(In reference to a question about celebrating Christmas in China): Nobody here really celebrates Christmas. The ward does a party but that's about it, since most people are Buddhist no one celebrates.

(In reference to a package I sent a few weeks ago): Thank you for the socks!!!!! Holy crap I was so excited. I also made cheesecake! Mmm. So good. And the Koolaid. We tried to feed some to Sister Lau (member) yesterday but she said in English, "I do not eat blue. I can eat purple, or other colors. But I do not eat blue." it was so funny.  Bahaha Sister Lau is too funny. She's our coordinator's wife and she's adorable. I think she's just afraid of blue koolaid. One of our YSA's asked if my koolaid was a "party drink" and another rmember A-Au just looked at it, poured some in a cup, and totally downed it. So funny. They don't really eat a lot of sweet stuff here. Like at all, so it's weird and foreign to them but no worries.

Transfers are this week. Sorry I forgot to write that. Pray that I don't go anywhere! Just kidding. But seriously, I  hope I don't leave.  I'm just finally starting to get to know the members so I'm  not ready to leave... Just come pick me up from my mission next december, and I can show you all these cool places. (;

(After a question about weather in December): Hahaha umm, yeah December here will be pretty chilly. But I don't know that June is the best idea either. Right now the weather is absolutely beautiful though. Perfect. I know some missionaries don't want to be picked up but I'd totally support it. The temple here is incredible and the cities are just insane. guess we'll see how cold December gets. Definitely need a coat! Haha.

Hug the doggie for me... sorry she got sick! Love you all!  My time is up so peace out!! *holds up peace sign because that's what all Chinese people do*

Love you all!

-Sister Crook

Gung Gung

In Jordan

 Mom sent a Jell-O Cheesecake mix   YUMMMY

Planner

 Decorated Planner

October 13, 2014: General Conference

Whoa. So this week I have a ton of stuff to do, but I'd like to send out a short little blip about Conference (the BOMB- So good!) and a thing about all of my investigators right now.

So conference in China is different because we have to wait a week for it to be translated into Chinese (and since we're a day ahead). We went to Kowloon Tong (where the temple is) on Saturday and listened in English... until Elder Wong's talk. Whoa. K, so if you have a chance, go listen to his talk in Cantonese. SO powerful. All the missionaries in the English broadcast ran downstairs to the Chinese broadcast as fast as we could to listen to his talk. What a miracle that these general authorities now get to share their testimonies in their native tongues. All of the translated talks were amazing and I am so glad they have that opportunity. (But the Cantonese one was the best....not biased at all.) Cherry came to the Saturday afternoon session and Trisha came to the women's Relief Society session! Sunday we went to Ho Man Tin and in between sessions the ward fed us. Our ward is so wonderful and I seriously would do anything for them. They're incredible. All the talks in conference was amazing and they answered so many questions for me about the wonderful people I'm teaching.

So last P-Day I went to Kwai Fong to the dirty mall... dirty, for dirty cheap. I bought these cool socks.  I found some piano socks, some zebra socks, and some dog socks. For anyone who knows me, they will know that I am totally obsessed with crazy socks and was SO excited to find those. Crazy socks are a thing here... so I fit right in! Woo! We also ate pizza. Sad thing is, because we haven't eaten greasy food in a long long time, I got super sick to my stomach. Once upon a time I'd do anything for pizza, but now I'm just afraid I'll get sick again... so no more pizza for Kuk Jimuih. No worries though! Vegetables are way better for you anyways. Also, eggplant is now my favorite. Good stuff.

Cammy- A couple weeks ago Sister Lubeck and her companion (on exchanges) found Cammy on the street. She is amazing. She's already come to church twice. She has two little kids and a scheduled baptismal date for November 30th. She's progressing really well and her kids come with her to hear the lessons. She's super quiet but so so nice and her kids are just the cutest things ever- Natalie is 6 and Ivan is 5.

Trisha- Penny (member)'s little sister. Doesn't have much interest in the church but loves loves loves the missionaries. She's 16 and is super cute. She's in her last year of high school and is working her tail off to get into college. We've taught her a couple times, kinda, but we're hoping someday the Lord will soften her heart. She doesn't have a problem with church- just doesn't think it's for her.

Janda- Janda. Love this lady. (See picture) She's from Sri Lanka but married a Chinese man 20+ years ago. She's progressing slowly. She's struggling knowing that God is real. She still hasn't had the opportunity to come to church on Sundays which is pretty sad, but we're praying for her. She's thinking about changing jobs, which would give her the opportunity to come to church. We know if she makes that decision the Lord will bless her. Her baptismal date is November 23rd.

Cherry- Cherry met sisters in June on the street but only gave them her email address. A couple weeks ago, she submitted her name on Mormon.org saying she wanted to know more. I called her up and scheduled her and she's amazing. She has SO many questions about everything. We've taught her the Restoration and fasting (she came to church on fast Sunday and wondered what it was). She came to two sessions of General Conference! Her baptismal date is November 30th.

Sister Gwok- We met Sister Ding on the street a month or so ago and when we rescheduled to meet her, she brought Sister Gwok with her! Sister Ding's husband won't let her hear the missionary lessons anymore, but Sister Gwok is so prepared. She'll do just about anything if she knows it will bless her family. She's such a good mom and we've taught her twice. She's pretty busy because she has a little baby, but we're working with her. Her baptismal date is scheduled for December 14th.

Sister and Brother Gai- Sister Gai is so cute. She talks about a million miles a minute and has a Daaihluhk (Mainland China) accent that makes her even harder to understand, but she's so sweet. She's insanely busy and spends a ton of time in Mainland, but that's okay. We're working to reschedule her baptismal date for December 7th.

Kelly- Kelly had a baptismal date in October but doesn't feel like she's ready. She's still reading and praying and we're still meeting with her, but she doesn't feel like she has a testimony yet and is struggling to feel that God is answering her prayers. We're goign to just keep working with her.


All of these people are wonderful and I just love them dearly. I would do anything for these investigators. I love them with all my heart and pray for them night and day and all the time in between.

Hope you all had a wonderful week! Today we got to go eat some Thai food... mmmmmm. Good stuff. (Look Mom! I can use chopsticks!!) love you all! have a wonderful week!

曲姊妹
Kuk Jimuih

P.S. We get to decorate our planners... this month's zone theme is "My Hero". we had to pick a hero and decide on their attributes that we want to develop. Jaiden is my hero because of everything he's been through. Show him this picture- going on the back of my new planner. he'll get a letter more about it next week or so.

The back of the planner (makes the momma's heart SING!)

Chopstick proficiency

Crazy happy socks

Waffles!

 ???

 Our missionary looks so happy!

 Sister Lubeck likes crazy selfies

 These girls are NOT starving!

 Chopstick mastery

A-kay, A-kay's older brother, and Sam Gwok

October 6, 2014: People Pay a lot of Money for Cockroach Covered Pants

To say this week has been a miracle/whirlwind of a week would be an understatement!! So many miracles. And cockroaches.

Tuesday was pretty good. We had the opportunity to drop by Kelly's house and leave her with some brownies. She did not end up getting baptized this week, but that's okay. She doesn't think she's ready. We'll just keep her in our prayers and help her gain her own testimony. She's super cute and so willing to learn. Love her! Tuesday we did splits again so I ended up in CSW with the other sisters I live with. We visited Lam Pohpo again... so cute. I love that old lady. We gave her a baptismal date! She's so funny and could talk your ear off for ages. But the true miracle was the phone call I got. So Monday, the other sisters lost their phone and had been using ours to contact the office about getting their new phone. So when the phone rang with the office, I answered hesitantly- then they said they wanted to talk to us, because they had a church headquarters referral for us. WOW. WHAT a miracle! They said her name was Cherry, and she had met the sisters in June, but wasn't interested and only gave them her email. turns out she was looking at Mormon.org (since we sent in her email and they sent her Mormon messages and things) and decided she wanted to learn more. I called her as soon as I got her number and scheduled her for the next day.

Wednesday, we met Cherry. WOW. She had a billion and a half questions and was so prepared. She's so cute. She's in her late twenties and works for an insurance company. We taught her about the Godhead and were just amazed that God blessed us with such a miracle.

Thursday I found a cool scripture- Romans 8:35-39. If you get a chance, you all should read it. It's good. We had the opportunity to visit Janda! FINALLY. After a month of her being super busy. She called 5 minutes before our lesson at 11 that morning and cancelled- but said she wanted us to come over to her house to meet her husband (INSANE miracle.) and she'd buy pizza. Pizza here is different- we had one with sweet and sour sauce and chicken and vegetables on it, and then one with thousand island dressing and seafood (squid, shrimp, something else...) but both were really good. We rescheduled her baptismal date for November since she still hasn't come to church yet.

Friday was such an adventure. After zone training, we ate crepes. My crepe was filled with mango ice cream and kiwi. Mmmmm. so good. Before English class we taught Cammie and her two kids the Restoration. So awesome! Then we went to English class. Elder Hartwig taught about travel, and I have to say he's really good with Cammie's kids. They're both totally crazy (what 5 and 6 year old isn't?) but he kept them super entertained the whole time. So good.

Saturday we had another lesson with Cherry and taught the Restoration. Afterwards we planned to make pretzels with Kelly. My companion invited Cherry to come along with us to make said pretzels- and she agreed! And Penny, Cherry's fellow-shipper (recent RM) brought her younger sister Trisha, who is kind of an investigator.  The picture is Trisha, then Penny, then Cherry. Kelly was there too but she was talking with her fellow-shipper, Jaime, so they didn't want to help make pretzels. But we all enjoyed them and it was awesome. Afterwards there was a CES fireside broadcast and all three of them stayed! Another miracle!

Sunday, Cherry came to church! Afterwards we taught her about fasting, since she asked. Cammie also came to church but she was late, so she didn't want to interrupt sacrament meeting, so she took her kids up to the primary room and waited up there. Sister Gwok (Sister Ding's friend- met once like a month ago) actually came too. She said she didn't want to come because she was embarrassed because last time her baby cried in sacrament, so she didn't want to bother people. But her fellow-shipper, Sister Hung, called her and Sister Gwok promised she'd come. Well, she never showed up. Turns out she came...and brought her husband, AND a friend, and her two kids. but for whatever reason, the downstairs door was locked...so she couldn't get in. She rang the doorbell and said she waited forever, but no one came... I felt so sad. We were so sad. We're meeting her again tomorrow though so hopefully we can convince her to come back next week. We taught a less active sister who is busy with school last night.

So that's my week in a nutshell.

Oh wait. Cockroaches. yeah, opened my closet last night and there was this cockroach about an inch long chillin' on the wall. So of course I freaked out because I wasn't expecting him to be in there. And then Sister Tu'Avao grabbed my shoe and started smashing him to pieces... and then it fell on my pants and she continued to smash it till its guts were everywhere and it was just an adventure. I mentioned that I now have gross cockroach covered pants, and sister Lubeck so gladly informed me "Don't you know that people pay a lot of money for cockroach covered pants?" Yep, funny moment of my week.

Love you all. Thanks for the prayers- we can really feel them. Pray for more miracles and pray for the China Mission to reach 65 baptisms and 65 reactivations in December! it's a big goal but it's totally possible. Miracles are real, and so is God's love!

Ngoh ngoi leihdeih!
-Kuk Jimuih

P.S. (Sister Crook answers many of mom's questions)
(In reference to the package we sent her a week ago): No package yet, but that's typical. usually takes two weeks-ish. And it's hard because the mail goes to the mission office and I almost NEVER go up there... but the CSW sisters I live with do so hopefully they'll pick it up for me when it does come. I'm excited for the cheesecake! Brilliant.

(In reference to sending family names for the temple): Temple names will be hard. Idk where to pick them up and stuff... we have 5 sisters that go once every nine weeks. No initiatories- you do those. I can take a few, but I don't know if they'll let us do them. I can try  though. all else fails I'll mail them home. Next temple trip is sometime in November... we don't know yet though. Transfers are October 23, so it'll be a few weeks after that.

(In reference to Elder Wong's talk in conference spoken in Cantonese): Yes, we actually knew about the Cantonese talk since when Elder Rasband came a month ago... but were asked not to spill the secret. We are all so excited and we get to see it this Saturday/Sunday. Elder Wong spoke to us at that same meeting with elder Rasband, and I have a hard copy of a picture of all of the missionaries with all those general authorities. It's really cool. I can't believe i can speak that language either... pretty nuts. Cantonese really is beautiful though, and sounds WAY better than Mandarin. mandarin is gross. Haha.

(In reference to our new house we are building): I'm excited to see pictures of the house, so keep them coming! tell everybody I say hi.

(In reference to Jaiden's graduation from treatment this week): Tell Jaiden I'm so proud of him. His experience would make him an incredible missionary, but he may need time to learn that one on his own someday.

I too am so grateful for my savior. Without Him, I would've come home a long time ago. His love is what keeps me looking up each day, even when things get so hard that I literally want to jump on a plane to come home. I can't deny these people that love. God sent me to Tsing Yi to serve these people, at this time, because he knows I'm the only one that can help them.

(In reference to a question about what language do they use most):  At home, we speak Chinglish. There are a few words every day that sneak into my vocabulary, like... geiwuih- opportunity. I'm still struggling to understand, but it's coming slowly. Speaking is slower, uh it's coming too.

(In reference to the language most people speak): Cantonese is the main language, but almost everyone also speaks Mandarin and English. The younger generation especially speaks English. Cherry, for instance, has almost perfect English. She's cute. We just assume people speak Cantonese. We have a lot of Filipino women and Indonesian women here working, so we if they look totally lost when we approach them we speak English and usually it's pretty rough, but it's good. It'll come someday!

Love you all! Thanks for the food that's coming, too!

Mango ice cream and kiwi in a crepe

Heavenly!

Fruit salad

Making homemade pretzels (Sister Crook loves Chinese food but is hungry for some American food too)

Cooking is always a good missionary tool

Banana phones

Kill the cockroach!!!!!