Monday evening we had the opportunity to visit some members. I truly appreciate the willingness our members have to let us visit them in their homes and share with them how they can share the gospel. It was a really cool experience, because the member's non-member sister was also present and we had a great chance to really get to know her better. She's not interested in the gospel but she is really nice and kind towards us.
Tuesday was pretty crazy. We taught Grace in the morning and it was a really good lesson. We shared a talk from general conference which she seemed to really enjoy and she even committed to come to church! (Which she did- even came on time!) Then we had a really wonderful district meeting. Afterwards, we visited our less active Sister Chan who can never remember that we're coming to visit. It just so happened that she was home, and that a member was available to come with us. Afterwards, the member took us out to dinner and we talked about how we can better support the less actives in our ward, which was a blessing. WE have so many less actives in this ward that people are aware of but just don't really know how to help or support. So it was good to get her opinion on what more we can do.
Wednesday we taught a really, truly, terrible lesson to an investigator. It was a turnover from the elders of a 29 year old girl to us, and in my opinion they definitely didn't need to stay in the lesson, but they did. I think the poor girl was just so overwhelmed by there being four missionaries there and I was really frustrated as to why they didn't just leave after letting us get to know each other. So that was weird. We were teaching her the plan of salvation and we just felt like the elders were just staring us down the whole time. I found it kind of hard to concentrate, and I know my companion was really nervous because she just kept talking even though the investigator didn't understand what she was talking about (partly because of doctrine, but probably mostly because of her Chinese). She felt so bad after that lesson that we came home and did comp study and she just cried. I am amazed at how strong she is- it's the first time she's cried in front of me since she came to Hong Kong over a month ago. We took some time to really talk about it and made some goals to improve our teaching and unity. She is doing fine now.
Thursday was a blessing! Thanksgiving on the mission is so different from what it is at home, but it was fun to eat some of the same food and go around the table at our zone lunch and talk about our blessings. I think that's always such a fun thing to do. Even if Thanksgiving has literally no meaning to anyone from outside the US, I love it because it's just another reason to be grateful. I've really been focusing on gratitude this year and finding something in every day that I'm grateful for, even on hard days, and it's really made a difference in my life. So it was nice to get together with everyone and celebrate and remember our blessings. But really, we should be doing that every single day.
Friday was another good day. We finished up our weekly planning and then headed out to do some finding. We set a comp goal/companion sacrifice that that we're going to work on cleaning up our language- not that we say bad words or anything, but we both feel that we could be better examples for the sisters we live with who really struggle with slang and things. So we've been really working hard to not say anything that is slang and to not be sarcastic. It's been really, really hard. I know my sarcasm has toned down a ton since coming to Hong Kong but I still have so far to go! We've already seen so many miracles because of our decision to do this sacrifice. We took it to the Lord and he's blessed us so much. we called it "compsacrificeq?" (because my companion always says funny things in English and I always m are fun of them) and now that's our motto. Any time we mess up, we just say "comp sacrifice q question mark!" and it helps us remember that we are representatives of the Lord and need to be doing better.
Friday afternoon we took an adventure to a part of our area that we don't find much in and found a lady who was pretty willing to go to church for some missionaries in another area. That was such a blessing! We'll definitely go back there for finding, because we felt like it was a nice area. It's busy enough that there are people but slow enough that they'll stop and talk with us. then Friday evening one of our old investigators showed up to English class, so we taught her. Friday also had another crazy miracle- a white man approached us (usually I panic and freak out, because white people are so scary to talk to) but he was SO NICE. We talked with him just casually about his stay in Hong Kong and a little about religion for nearly thirty minutes. He was literally the nicest white person I've ever met. Mostly the foreigners that live in Hong Kong work here and have adapted to Hong Kong people's style of "mhdakhahn" and never want to talk to us. But this guy did. So that was awesome!
Saturday we had a HUGE miracle, because we taught our less active Sister Chu this week and for the first time in like, since i've ever met her that she paid attention through almost our entire lesson. She didn't even pull her phone out until the last few minutes. Thanks to my companion, we shared an awesome message that I wouldn't have thought to share with her and I think she really enjoyed it. The spirit was definitely there. Then we visited some more members and shared with them a really great message about how if our treasure is in heaven, our eyes will shine with the light of God and others will be able to see our example.
Yesterday was a pretty typical Sunday. We helped our ward plan for the Christmas party and then did our studies and some finding.
I think it's slowly starting to sink in that I'll be home before Christmas. More and more places are setting up trees and playing Christmas music and more and more people are planning activities. I love Christmas so much and am almost sad I don't get to spend another one here in Hong Kong. But on the other hand, I am pretty excited to return to my family. Everything happens so fast and I'm not ready to leave my friends here. I love these people so much. But I know the Lord has another plan for me and he'll help me through it.
Happy holidays everyone! Enjoy the snow, because it's starting to get hot again here. So weird. haha.
Attached- funniest chinglish thing ever. it's a lovely poem from our toilet paper that we bought today and a picture of me and my mission president and wife from Thanksgiving. love you all! (
-Kuk Jimuih
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