September 28, 2015: Tortillas and Mooncake

It's been a pretty busy week, just as usual.

Monday evening we visited with Kenson (LA) and he's doing okay. He hasn't come to church in a few weeks though, because he's "mhdakhahn" which I think is not 100% true. I think he's just getting too excited to go to America next week. We're hoping to get some members to keep track of him while he's in America and encourage him to find the nearest wards and attend church there. Once he leaves, there isn't much we can do to help him for the next two months or so, so we hope we can get the ward on top of that.

Pon Ka Man (LA) is also doing alright. We FINALLY got to see her, but she only came to Family Home Evening. She has been coming to church pretty regularly for the last two or so months. We think she's on track for a reactivation, but according to the ward she is unwilling to accept a calling, so we're not really sure how to go about helping her to progress.

We had the opportunity to meet with Kacey this week as well (LA) and start sharing with her the video "Mountain of the Lord". The last few times we've seen her we've been focusing on the blessings of enduring to the end, and wanted to show her that video to help put into perspective the people who sacrificed so we could have the blessings on the gospel in our lives. We only watched about 25 or so minutes, but she enjoyed it a lot and had some really good, spiritual insights on how to relate what we watched to our lives. She didn't come to church this week do to an art exhibition but she plans to come next week.

Wednesday we saw Lee Wing Yan (RC/LA) at the chapel and baked some cookies with her (the ones we gave to you!) and she loved it. She really enjoys one on one activities and opens up a lot more. We were with our Relief Society President which was good, because Yan just turned 18 and needs some ward support on going into relief society. We saw her again by herself later in the week and she opened up and said that she feels really uncomfortable around lots of people that she doesn't know, which could be a factor in why she won't come to church after having been less active for so long. It's okay. She still meets regularly with her home teachers, so that's good.

We saw Brother Chan (RC) this week and reviewed the Law of Chastity and eternal marriage. He's really excited to be able to be sealed to his family some day. We hope to help keep preparing him to go to the temple. he had some confusion on the auxiliaries, so we reviewed those as well and I think it was really good.

Chu Iu Mau Tan (LA) is still doing well. We had a really long discussion about her family situation. Her husband hits her kids sometimes and she just is so sad. She doesn't know what to do. He keeps them from coming to church. The other problem they have is that they all are pretty addicted to their phones. Even during the lessons they all have their phones out. We've come up with a plan with the ward members and some of the leaders to have a special lesson with Sister Chu about her responsibility as a mother in the church and hope to help her to better understand how to help her family.

We made muffins with a member and Ding Mei Kwan (RC) and Kacey (LA) and then brought them with us to scripture class. It was really good and I am so grateful the members thought to organize an activity like that right before scripture class- I think they both enjoyed it and learned a lot.

So this week is the week of the Mid Autumn Festival. It actually happened yesterday but the public holiday is today. So Happy Mid Autumn Festival, everyone! Tis the season of people giving us mooncakes again. I have a theory about the mooncakes. Nobody here *really* likes them. They will eat them, but nobody really wants to. My theory is that they all just do it because it's tradition and feel bad about themselves not liking mooncake because they think they're the only one that doesn't like it....but in reality everybody thinks they're gross.

Okay, but really, they're not THAT gross. Just... really rich. So. News. I have some mooncake sitting at my house that we're probably not going to eat because we have SO MANY. I'm thinking of sending some home to the states. If anyone is interested in receiving a mooncake, please tell and I'll be happy to send it to you. (Mom: I'm sending you a mooncake. you all MUST try it.)

So tortillas. Not much to do with the mooncakes... but tonight for the mid autumn festival we have a ward party and I am in charge of making mexican food. (it doesn't make sense, I know. ut a member LOVES mexican food and doesn't know how to make it so I promised I would teach her.) so sister Tu'avao and I literally have been spending hours and hours making 30 hand-made flour tortillas. SUCH a pain. But hey. they're really good. hopefully our tiny tacos that we make tonight will be equally as good.

Last p day we went out to Hong Kong's first baptismal site and some big buddhist temple. Took some pretty pictures and got tons of free buddhist prayer books in Chinese. so that's cool. It was fun. if we can find it, we're going up to Monkey Mountain today!

Well, it's still hotter than heck out here but supposedly should be cooling down in the next month or so. So keep praying that we don't melt. Love you all!

-Kuk Jimuih

PS Funniest story EVER. So Sister Adams and I were on exchanges (we're roommates so even though we exchanged we all were still in the same apartment). We got back before the other sisters and she had the brilliant idea to jump up on the bunk bed and scare Sisters Tu'avao and Escher. SUCH a good idea. we literally crouched down on the top bunk and hid behind some blankets and planned in the dark. The other sisters came home, had a 3 minute conversation about the lesson they just finished, and then prayed.... and then we jumped out at them from on top of the bunk bed and scared the CRAP out of them. SO funny. Sister Tu'avao literally fell over backwards onto a chair and screamed SO loud. and then apparently Sister Escher had a great look on her face, but I missed it. But DANG it was funny. and then we scared Sister Tu'avao again the other day and videoed it. SO funny. When life gets hot, you know what you gotta do? Just keep scaring, just keep scaring... bwuahahaha.

September 21, 2015: Hangfuk (blessed)

Well, not much has happened since my report from last week. Wednesday night after P-day, we went out finding and tried to find a full lesson, which resulted in us scheduling Brother Chan. He ended up taking us to dinner (which we had already eaten...) so it was pretty awkward. But after we got over that and could share our message, it was good. We did a really simple follow up lesson about the temple. He was a little confused about when he could go to the temple, but after we explained that he can go do baptisms and confirmations for the dead he was really excited. He wants to meet with the bishop to get a recommend. We plan to help him get started on his family history soon. The best part is that Brother Chan received the Aaronic priesthood yesterday! So cool. He is really excited and said it's an honor to have the priesthood. I am sure the ward will continue to support him in fulfilling his priesthood duties.

Thursday we had scheduled to see Kelvin, our progressing investigator from last week but he needed to cancel. He didn't come to church this week and hasn't answered his phone for a couple of days. We are just going to keep praying that we can get a hold of him soon. He really is so prepared to hear the gospel, but he's also studying at City-U in Kowloon (so he travels forever to go to and from school) and he works, so he is super busy. We hope that he will have the time to continue to meet with us.

We had the opportunity to see Vicky this week (RC/LA). I personally think she's doing okay, but she really needs an antidote for LAZY. She readily admits that it's nothing but her laziness that keeps her from coming to church- she just wants to sleep all day. We have been watching the Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration movie with her for the last two times and it is really helping her to better understand Joseph Smith and his experiences. We really had a pretty good discussion this week with her about how if we don't keep our baptismal covenants, all of the things he experienced are in vain. And not just him, but our Savior's suffering as well. I think she is starting to understand that concept, but I don't know that it's truly sunk in just yet.

Sumi (I) is doing well too. She's still really interested in being baptized. We got the permission form to her to give to her mom and hope to have it back when we see her again later this week. She asked us a lot of questions about how baptism is performed. For being only 13 years old, she sure thinks a lot about things. She has some really deep questions that I never thought of before. For example, this week she asked us "If me and a group of friends are all praying at the same time, how does God hear all of our prayers? I believe he does, but I just don't understand how He does it." It's pretty amazing. I think teaching her will be a slower process as she still hasn't come to church yet, but I think she'll be baptized someday. Actually, take that back. I know she will.

We visited Sister Chu (LA) again this week and though it wasn't the best lesson with her, it was alright. We just picked up reading scriptures where she's been reading, 2 Nephi. we read a chapter about pride and how we need to humble ourselves to be able to return to God's presence. It was good to help her better understand the scriptures. I think the biggest problem with her is that she really, really loves her cell phone. And her kids are that way too. So even during church or lessons she keeps her phone out and is always texting or WhatsApp-ing people. I'm just not really sure how to address the fact that she needs to pay attention in our lessons without offending her. She didn't come to church this Sunday, but we're not really sure why. There's a possibility that her husband didn't let her out again, but it's more likely that she was just lazy.

Visited Sister Chan (LA) with he bishop. Since she's pretty new to the ward, it was good to have the bishop there. He's awesome, and has already arranged for some people to start helping her get to church since she's 80 and walks super slow and her memory is not the best. She still remembers a lot about Joseph Smith though, which was really good. That was our focus this week- to get a feel for how much she really remembers from when she was  baptized. Poor thing can't even remember when she was baptized- just that it happened in Canada.

This week we are feeling really blessed (hangfuk, hence the subject) as we've met with our members. Though they were already amazing before I even got here to West Point a few months ago, they are really starting to warm up to us. A family invited us over for dinner last night which was SO GOOD. They made one of my favorite Chinese dishes- fried spic garlic eggplant with minced pork. So so so so good. I literally ate like...half the plate. And it was a HUGE plate. Another family gave us a huge bag of fruit (which I proceeded to freeze and turn into a breakfast smoothie today) and they're more willing to let us visit and share messages with them. It's definitely the start of a solid ward/missionary relationship.

Also, fun moment of this week. My recent convert Cherry from my first area just happens to work right down the street from where we live!!!!! So crazy. She's been here for like 2 months and I had no idea. so we scheduled time to go to lunch with her and it was so fun! it was so good to see that she's still super active and is doing so well. Love her so much!

Thank you all for the wonderful support and love and prayers you send this way. I truly appreciate it! love you! (:

-Sister Kuk

September 16, 2015: Mongolian Temple Day

West Point is still doing well! It's been yet another busy week, and we don't have much time for finding (which is a blessing and a curse at the same time). And thank the sweet heavens it's starting to cool down. We're definitely grateful to live in Kennedy Town though, because it's so much cooler than up in Kowloon. Ga yauh!

This week we saw Kelvin twice. He is doing amazing. He'd asked us before about what our church believes about drinking coffee and tea, and we said "We'll address it later, but you're right- we don't drink it." So we planned to teach Kelvin about the Sabbath Day and about the Word of Wisdom. He said he'd already changed his schedule so he can come to church on Sunday. He can't not work on Sunday because it's just him and one other guy, but he said he's thinking about changing jobs by the end of the year, so that will help him to not work on Sundays at all. When we taught about the word of wisdom, he had a lot of questions about why tea is bad- said he understood everything else really clearly. So after doing the best we could to testify of the truthfulness of the restored gospel through Joseph Smith and the importance of modern day revelation, we invited him to quit drinking all coffee and tea. He agreed. Didn't even think about it for a second. It just goes to show that there truly are prepared people out there! This man is truly willing to change everything in his life for a church he's only learned about for a few weeks. it's truly such a miracle.

Brother Chan (RC) is still doing awesome. We had family home evening this week with him and a member's family and we talked about temples. He has a real desire to go to the temple. We hope to get him started on some family history soon so he can take his own family's names to the temple.

Met with Ting Ting (RC) again and though we had a good lesson, it seems that her desire to come to church is less and less... Right now we're working to visit her with her visiting teachers to help keep the good relationship between her and the ward going.

We met with Kacey (LA) as well and baked brownies with her and taught her about how brownies and enduring to the end have a relationship. It was a fun, more laid back lesson which is what I think she needed. She knows that being less active is bad, and wants to come back. It's just a matter of helping her build up that motivation without forcing her. I think she's on her way back, even though it takes some more time.

One of our less actives, Kenson, is going to America to visit for two months so he promised to keep seeing us until then. He'll be traveling to several different states to see family and friends, but we're hoping to find a way to keep him going to church even while on vacation.

Yan (RC/LA) is doing okay. We watched Finding Faith in Christ with her, which she really enjoyed. She did mention that she doesn't think she has very strong faith right now, so our plan is to help her learn to build up more faith- in God, Jesus Christ, and of course herself. The fact that she's even willing to meet with us right now is truly a miracle and we'll take what she gives us and run with it.

We saw Sister Chu and her family last week (LA). We taught the importance of family prayer and I think she really enjoyed it. I think it helped her see more of an eternal perspective for her family. I know helping keep her and her kids strong in the church even with s strong opposition from her husband will be a challenge, but I know that she can overcome it. It's all a matter of faith.

So last  P-Day we took a FOREVER long train trip up to the north part of Hong Kong... SO DIFFERENT. we went biking out onto a road in the middle of a lake and it was beautiful. Absolutely amazing, and so incredibly different from where I live. SO fun! And then today we went to the temple (HUZZZAH) and our temple session was in...none other than Mongolian! There was a Mongolian family that came to Hong Kong to receive their endowments. So cool! What a blessing to have a temple in our mission. its so cool to see saints from all over the world come to Hong Kong to receive the blessings of the restored Gospel. It's real! I love you all som much and thank you all for the prayers and support!

-Sister Crook