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

 

September 7, 2015: The Gecko

I think overall it's been a pretty successful week. For the first time in I think my whole mission, we're actually really, really busy- teaching people. That is so cool. Granted most of our teaching comes from our less active recent converts, but it's okay- we'll get them there. They'll come back.

Kelvin is still as solid as investigators can come. Wow, he's so amazing. We taught him the plan of salvation and the gospel of Jesus Christ this week and he just sat there taking it all in. He asks so many good questions- questions that made us turn to the scriptures and really search out the answers. I think the thing that amazes me most about him is that we'll say things like "Yeah, to get back to God's presence you've got to do some things like endure and read your scriptures (he's already read all of 1 Nephi.) and pray and keep the commandments..." and then he's like "Awesome, what are the commandments so I can start keeping them?" Who just says that?! prepared people. This week we plan to teach him the Sabbath Day and the Word of Wisdom, because those are the two commandments he probably has problems with. He promised that he'll change his schedule this coming Sunday so he can come to church- actually said it'd be really easy. We are going to keep praying for him to keep that commitment.

Sumi is our other investigator, and she is 13 years old. She really, really wants to be baptized and has such strong faith, but Sumi faces the challenges that most 13 year old Hong Kong kids do- they need to study. Because she's so young, study is still pushed really hard, and like every other Hong Kong kid, she's involved in a bajillion activities on Sundays.

Brother Chan is still doing awesome. He is making good progress and we're going to make sure he gets the priesthood here soon. They brought up a sign up about helping the young men do baptisms for the dead at the temple this week, and Brother Chan was asking about how he can get there. WOW. So awesome. We're going to get him to the temple as soon as possible! He has such an amazing desire to serve the Lord. I know he wants to serve a mission really bad, but his health isn't very good right now. We want to really help him understand the importance of resting and taking care of himself physically and spiritually.

We FINALLY scheuled Vicky this week. (RC/LA). She doesn't have anything but her own laziness keeping her from coming to church on Sundays... She heard the talk in conference in April about how a sister went less active for a long time and then came back later, and Vicky said she wanted to do that... and that's exactly what she's done. We just don't know how to help her get the motivation to come back to church...

We got to see Ding Ding this week (RC) and she's still doing well. She starts school this week so she's going to be even more busy, but she has expressed interest in going to BYU to study so we need to get her regularly coming to church so she can meet with the bishop to apply for BYU.

We had a miracle this week! When I first got here to West Point, we were meeting with a mom, Sister Chu, and her kids. Her kids were baptized before her but they all went less active after a little bit. The husband/dad of this family really, really does not like the church and sometimes keeps them from coming. Anyways, yesterday the Chu family (Sister Chu and her two kids) walked into church... 15 minutes EARLY! wow. What a miracle. When we met with them this week after a long, long time of no contact, we asked the family what their expectations are. The daughter, Ki Ching told us that she just wants her dad to be baptized. It's so sweet to see that an 11 year old girl already knows the happiness that the gospel can bring her family.

Kacey (LA) also came to church for the first time in like... probably over two months. She left after sacrament meeting, but I think we're making good progress with her. I think the more time she spends with the ward the more willing she will be to come back to church.

Our little popo Sister Chan (LA) is also doing okay, but she was sick yesterday so she couldn't make it to church. Because most of her problem is that she just forgets a lot (I mean, she's 83ish years old. it happens.) we're planning to turn her over to the Relief Society and have them help us get her to church.

Sister Lee (RC/LA) is also doing okay. She didn't come to church this week but she's making progress spiritually and that is what is important.

We had the opportunity to go back out to Peng Chau this week, and we took one of our less active ward missionaries with us to do some finding. Though we didn't really find anyone with new investigator status, we had some cool experiences. The day we went out was raining insanely hard as we traveled there. But I feel like almost as soon as we stepped foot on to the island, it cleared up. It was cloudy, but the weather was beautiful. We weren't even wet. We visited our less active Sister Siu that lives out there and again, we really just are still at a loss with her. She makes all these stupid excuses for why she can't come to church. After talking with an American member that also lives out there (goes to DB ward) we realized that it's possible her excuses stem from the fact that she really wanted her husband to receive the gospel when they were younger and he just never did. I think that shook her faith. This is another one that we are just going to turn over to the ward, because she gets really attached to missionaries and we don't really want that.

I am absolutely exhausted this week. But I take that as a sign that we worked hard and did good things. Though we didn't have hardly any finding time, there were people that were brought to Christ, and that is what is important. I am so grateful to be serving here in Hong Kong. It's been such a good week! Thanks for all your support.

So the funny story of the week- the gecko. Last night my companion was brushing her teeth and was about to spit into the kitchen sink when she saw a gecko just chilling in our sink. Which is fine. They come out sometimes, it's whatever. I picked one up in Tsing Yi chapel once. Anyways. Sister Adams (roommate) was like "Just be careful. If you pick it up only by it's tail the tail will fall off and it'll just run away." I was like "Oh really? that's weird. Okay." so I use this paper towel to try to pick up the gecko, just like lsat time, and as I caught him and picked it up, the tail fell off and was wiggling all over in the sink. So of course i freak out and drop the gecko and start freaking out without making too much noise because our other roommate Sister Escher is terrified of geckos. Oh it was so funny. So we managed to get the gecko thrown out the window of our 23rd floor apartment.... but the tail was still wiggling in our kitchen sink. Thats so disgusting. So in case anyone was wondering, it's real.

Love you all. thanks! (:

-Sister Kuk

P.S.
(In reference to mom's email): Be grateful for those weeks when you have nothing to do!!!!!!! I wish more than anything that I had the time to just curl up on my bed in my blanket while it's raining and read books. But alas, 1) it's wayyyyyy too hot to do that. and 2) I don't even have time for myself. ever. our less active told me my hair looks like a mad scientist, because the front pieces are really, really curly and really frizzy (my hair gets curlier by the day and it's so mahfaahn) and I just don't have the energy to even try to bother with it these days. it's too hot.

I think for your talk you can talk about the Atonement. If you just relate it back to Jesus Christ, it will work. There's a good talk from conference last april (2015) called "If you will be responsible" and there's a section under point three about how Jesus forgave a man of his sins- before the atonement had happened, and how perfect Jesus had to have known his purpose to be able to do that- because if he messed up all mankind would be doomed. it all goes back to the Savior and his willingness to suffer for us. 

As far as a package goes, I really think I'm okay. if you feel you must stuff it full, you can send us cupcakes or twinkles or something. you just can't get good stuff like that here...

Sister Tu'avao just loves that you fly a Hong Kong flag. also dad looks a lot like grandpa crook n that picture. weird.