November 20, 2014

Wow, what a whirlwind of a couple of weeks. It's been so crazy busy and stuffed with miracles.

Cammy- Cammy is truly doing amazing. She exercises so much faith in all that she does. I've seen such an amazing change in her since we first met her. Sister Lubeck had the opportunity to start her baptismal practice interview this week. I know she is progressing so well. She's reading with her kids, and they are even starting to remind her to pray with them before bed each night. I'm amazed at their faith. Her mom won't let her be baptized on the 30th like we hoped, but that's okay because we still have some things we wanted to work through with her. We changed her date for December 28th. I'm grateful she still has such a strong desire to be baptized.

Cherry- Cherry will be baptized this week!! She passed her interview with flying colors. She experienced some anti Sunday night, so when we called her Monday she was really worried and had a ton of questions. She's willing to ask whatever is on her mind though, so I'm glad she has the courage to ask us about that stuff. We talked with her on the phone for a good thirty minutes and have kept close close daily contact. She is looking forward to her baptism so so so much and even goes to institute with two of the YSA girls in the ward. God really does give us prepared investigators! She's adorable. Cherry told us her favorite commandment is the Law of Chastity because it means she can go to the temple and have an eternal family someday... WOW. Amazing.

Janda- Janda came to church again last week! That's two times now, and she said she's planning to come on Sunday. What a miracle! We aren't sure if we'll have the chance to see her today or not, but when we told her that she said it'd be no problem since she will see us at church on Sunday. She said she has started to recognize God's hand in her life and is starting to see answers to her prayers. We are planning to give her a new baptismal date for December 28th- since she has started to come to church we know we can help her be prepared for that date.

Sister Hung (LA)- We went LA finding and visited a sister that wasn't home last time we tried. We had marked in our little LA book that her dad answered the door, but it turns out it was her husband...and she's like, 75. She's a really sweet old lady and when she opened the door to us, she said "Missionaries!!! come in, come in!!" We've met with her once more since then. She's really busy but still prays daily and reads sometimes. What a miracle.

Sister Tsang (LA)- We have been working with her for about a month now. She's really socially awkward, but we're finally starting to get her to open up to us. It's going to be a long process but so far we've reviewed the first three missionary lessons. She's progressing really well.

Kelly- Kelly taught us about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Having her reteach us the missionary lessons is really good and she seems to learn a lot from that. I hope that we can keep working closely with her to prepare her for her December 14th baptismal date. We really need to focus on getting her to church though since she hasn't been coming. This last week, her parents wouldn't let her come, so we'll continue to pray that the Lord will soften their hearts.

I'm so grateful to be a missionary. Despite our many challenges, we've had some amazing experiences. I've been on two exchanges this week (to Tsim Sha Tsui and Kwai Chung) and have witnessed miracles around every corner.

We also met this crazy guy out in Mawan... so that was fun. And this week I ate the NASTIEST thing ever. Grass Jelly. It's like...herbal jello in a sugar-water soup... yep, super disgusting. Last P-Day we went to Hong Kong's first baptismal site and took some pretty silly pictures. It was really pretty. We also taught A-Ting (RC) how to floss her teeth. totally hilarious. Also decided that being old in Hong Kong would rock. You look at a bench with a pohpo (old lady) on it, and you blink and all of a sudden there are ten of them sitting on the bench gossiping. So funny. and the SukSuks (old men) all go out and gamble in the parks... if you're old in Hong Kong, it wouldn't be hard to find friends. hahaha.

Love you all. Thanks for your prayers. Pray for Cherry! (:

-Sister Kuk

P.S.
Just outside of the train station is this MASSIVE Chinese temple, and across the street is this big, beautiful park. So it's all jsut up there in Diamond Hill. Asian missionary companion is Sister Yong (pronounced yerng, kind of) and she is from Malaysia. She's Sister Tu'Avao's companion. The little Asian lady with us is a member of their ward, Cheung Sha Wan. Her name is Sister Gwok. Super cute.

Diamond Hill:  Site of the first baptism in Hong Kong

Sister TuAveo

Adorable Sister Missionaries

Missionary Selfie

Nasty Grass Jelly

Learning to floss

Mastering flossing

Roasting marshmallows on a hot plate

SMORES!

At the temple

Crazies

Sisters TuAveo, Lubeck, Crook and Yong

Sister Gwok

November 10, 2014: Miracles

Miracles are real! This week we saw several miracles with our investigators. I am so grateful! This week, we had the jeui daaih keihjik- the biggest miracle.

The past couple of weeks we've been working with our recent convert, A-Ting, because she has a desire to serve a mission! She was baptized in July and told us she wants to serve a mission. We've taken her finding and less active finding with us and she is such a good missionary. The only struggle is sometimes (okay, almost always) she has a hard time getting up in time for church. We're going to find a way to encourage her to come to church because when she comes, Kelly comes too.

We've also been working with a less active, Sister Tsang. She's really shy and kind of awkward, so it's taken some time to build a relationship with her. I think she is doing a lot better. She even called us on Monday night because she read something in the scriptures that she didn't understand. I am so grateful she'd think to call us and try to understand, rather than just keep reading or skip the passage.

Our investigator Cammy is doing amazing. Before, she wasn't sure she wanted to be baptized. She felt like November 30th was too fast. Her main concern is that her mom wouldn't let her be baptized. Cammy is in her thirties so we thought that was kind of strange, but she explained that she just doesn't want to commit to something until she knows it's true. This week we invited her to pray about her baptismal date. We know that her learning about the gospel is going to help her kids. When we followed up with her a couple of days later, Cammy said that A) she has been reading the Book of Mormon Stories book with her kids and she understands the scriptures so much better now, and B) she prayed about her baptismal date and felt really peaceful. I had the chance to teach her on an exchange with Sister Cook, and the spirit was so strong. God really does give help to those who need it- both of us aren't very good at speaking Cantonese. But that's okay, because Cammy is patient and super nice. We're going to keep working with her to make it to her baptismal date. She is an excellent example of faith. She does have a problem with one of the commandments, so we will continue to help her through the repentance process and make sure she has her interview with the proper authority.

Cherry is also doing well. Her baptismal date is for November 23rd and when we asked her what her feelings were about it, she said she was really looking forward to it and just wants the date to come faster. From the day we started teaching her to now we have seen such a big change in her. She has so much faith. After one of our lessons this week, she started to cry because she was having a hard time with her job. Then she told us that she prayed about her job and felt that she needed to stay there, even though she didn't know why. Cherry is exercising such incredible faith! She continues to pray and read, and is even reading scriptures with a family in the ward over the phone every couple of nights. She's going to be such a strong member.

I had the opportunity to go with Sister Cook (TST) to visit the bishop on Saturday, and we took Kelly with us. She is so eager to learn the things of the gospel. She asked us what we were going to do while there, and I told her the bishop invited us over for lunch so she can have a better opportunity to get to know him and his wife. I think it was really good for her. She started out pretty quiet but she quickly opened up. We taught the bishop about missionary work and gave him a packet of things to give away to a non-member friend or family member, and then we challenged Kelly to do the same with her own packet. She was so excited. I hope this gives her an opportunity to share the love of God that she's beginning to understand. She also has a lot of faith. We're working towards December 14th for her baptism.

The jeui daaih keihjik, though is Janda. There's just something special about her. I cannot express how much I love every one of my investigators- God's investigators that I am pleasured to help bring unto Christ. Anyway, Janda was the very first investigator I taught in Hong Kong. She's adorable and has shown so much faith. She reads and prays almost every day. The missionaries have been teaching her since July. She's very busy with work, so sometimes we go two or three weeks without being able to meet with her, so phone calls have to suffice. That's kind of hard, but I know that God has a plan for her. The past month or so she's really been unhappy at work and wants to start her own business. We've encouraged her to pray about her decision and she said she would quit her job in May and start her own business, since she's going to school now to get more certificates to be able to help her be more qualified. Anyways, because she's been so busy, Janda hasn't been able to come to church. She is literally the nicest person I have ever met. She just loves everyone and wants every person to be happy- which means she doesn't want to tell her boss that she can't come in to work on Sundays. We've been working so so so hard to help her understand the importance of the Sabbath Day, and the importance of partaking of the sacrament.

Well, this week our zone sent out a text for a couple of days and asked every member of the zone to pray for her and her situation by name and pray that she will, specifically, have the opportunity Sunday to come to church for one hour. We prayed morning and night and all throughout the day for this miracle, and I was so grateful to have the entire zone to support us. Well, on Tuesday I called her and told her what we were doing. We invited her to pray with us for this opportunity to and she was so excited. She eagerly said she would. Then we called the Relief Society president who is one of her fellowshippers and invited her to do the same. She also accepted. Friday night I followed up with her and she said she still wasn't sure if she could come to church. Saturday night, she called us and said she had a job interview and asked if we would pray for her to do well. She also prayed and didn't feel nervous for her interview.

The real miracle came Sunday morning. Sister Lubeck called her ten or so minutes before church started just to see if she could come. Lo and behold Janda answered the phone and said she was on her way!! Wow. The Lord truly blesses us with such miracles. We immediately went to a corner where we could pray and thank God for his mercy and miracles. When Janda walked in the doors of the chapel, Sister Lubeck and I almost cried. it was the most amazing, truly happy feeling I've ever felt. I have never felt the spirit so strong as I did in that testimony meeting, where Sister Kwan (RS president and good friend of Janda) got up to bear her testimony about the power of prayer. I may not understand everything that is said in church because of the language, but I know when the Spirit is talking to me. I am just so incredibly grateful for the miracles God has blessed us with this week!

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57

Wow. what a week. love you all!

Also, I tried yam ice cream. that was fun.

-Kuk Jimuih

P.S.
(in regards to how good and fit Sister Crook is looking in her pictures):  we just eat vegetables for all our meals and walk a lot. We're going to see the first baptismal site in Hong Kong (some river in Diamond Hill) today, so cool pics next week. 
(Sister Crook wants physical mail): Seriously though, if you just sent me letters I'd be totally happy. letters, even when from totally random people, make my day.  Grandma Pro sends me a letter almost every week about whatever she did that week. One page. Super simple. But I look forward to them because they're just so cute. Letters are the best.

P.P.S
President Hawks is the mission president.

Here's the excerpt from President Hawks' email to us this week about Janda. So cool!!

"This week a special text was sent out to our zone to pray for an investigator named Janda to come to church. She has been investigating close to 5 months and has never been able to attend to church because of work. This week Janda, the missionaries, and even ward members prayed that a miracle would happen to allow her to come to church. Before Sunday morning one of her clients that was scheduled for the morning of church called her up and told her they had to change times. This allowed her to leave work and come to Sacrament meeting for the first time. Heavenly Father hears our prayers. Miracles are real."

I don't expect you to understand... but wow. that is a huge miracle. I love this woman like my family. such an amazing experience. She's gonna be dressed in white by December. It just has to happen!

Love you all. have a good week! I'm gonna party it up at the temple next week. woop woop!!!

Made yorkshire pudding, roasted potatoes, and veggies wtih Cherry (I) and Penny (M)

November 3, 2014: Happy Halloween

Mahnsinjit faailohk!! happy halloween! (: (direct translation is 10,000 holy festival happiness). Also learned how to say batman- pinfuhkhahp. Enjoy, Jaiden!

Monday we had the opportunity to meet with our less active member Sister Tsang. She's pretty busy with work but is really excited to be meeting with us. When we taught her the time before that, we gave her a new Book of Mormon and invited her to read the first chapter of first Nephi. When we followed up, she said she's been reading- and made it to first Nephi 4. When we first met her she said she really didn't like to read books, so the fact that she's continued to read and pray every day is absolutely incredible. I am so proud of her progress and hope she can continue to come back to the church. Her situation is kind of sad because she doesn't even remember when she was baptized- just that she was in high school. But that's okay. We've started to reteach the missionary lessons and will help her find her testimony. We know it's there- just buried!

Tuesday we had the opportunity to meet with Cammy. She's doing well. We only saw her with one of her kids, Natalie, so it was easier to teach just two of them. We're still facing challenges on how to teach kids because these two kids are a terror when you put them together. but the Lord is giving us strength and I think they're learning from our lessons. Tuesday we taught Follow the Prophet and sang Do As I'm Doing together and went over the role of a prophet again. Both Cammy and her daughter agreed to follow the prophet. Tuesday I also had the opportunity to go on exchanges again with Sister Cook (brand new!!) and it was wonderful. We didn't have any lessons planned that evening, so she and I went out and did some finding with our recent convert Sister Yeung. It was a good opportunity for both of them to practice their finding skills. We met Winnie, who is in her twenties and is busy with work. We gave her a Book of Mormon and Sisters Yeung and Cook both shared touching testimonies about the book. We'll hopefully have an opportunity to meet her again later this week.

Wednesday we went out and did some more finding before exchanging back, and met a woman from Guangdong. her sister lives here in Hong Kong so she's here to visit her often. We also gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to read and pray daily. Though we have no way to contact her again since her phone number is a Mainland number, I know she'll have a chance to meet missionaries again. She was so nice and so prepared! That evening after our exchange, we met with another less active that we've been working with- Sister Cheung. She is really sweet and I'm glad we get to work with her. We think she's worried about coming back to church because she hasn't been in so long. After our visits she always says she'll try to come on Sunday but never does. She's working closely with the Relief Society President though, so I think over time she'll gain the confidence that the ward loves and misses her. Sister Tsang (LA) came to Family Home Evening too which was really good. She's really shy and doesn't have many friends, so we're working on finding some people that will reach out to her. Right now, most everyone who meets her thinks she's an investigator... She's strong though, and we love her.

Thursday we had the opportunity to teach Janda. Our fellowshipper, Sister Hung, was in a similar situation before- working on Sundays was a hard thing for her. Sister Hung shared her testimony about how she talked to her boss and he let her have Sundays off, and she invited Janda to do the same thing. I think it was really good for Janda to see that she's not the only one in this situation. We still aren't sure what to do about her baptismal date, since it's for November 23rd and she still hasn't come to church. We're going to probably move it to December (because the Lord will bless us with a 65 in December miracle!!!) and continue to encourage her. She's just so nice that she doesn't want to offend anyone. We also taught Cherry! We shared about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Sabbath Day. At the end of our lesson, Cherry shared some of her feelings about how keeping the Sabbath Day will be hard for her because this month in work is the busiest. We had a short discussion about how real Satan's power is, and how he's trying to get her to move away from her baptismal date. She said she is aware of his influence. She's doing well though. She continues to pray and read. I killed the NASTIEST cockroach in the church kitchen this week though... almost 3 inches long. SO gross. Both me and Sister Lubeck saw it and screamed. they don't even bite or anything, so it's not like they're scary. they just run really fast and are nasty big. ew. be grateful you don't have them if you don't have them!

Friday we had a wonderful zone training meeting that really got us pumped for 65 in December. I can't wait to help bring people to Christ- what a wonderful Christmas gift that would be to give! I can't imagine a better gift to give someone than the gift of being baptized and confirmed. I expect to see some pretty incredible miracles and pray for them every day. The elders planned a really great halloween english class but nobody really came... so we felt really bad. oh well. next week.

Saturday was a miracle in and of itself. We taught two lessons back to back- something that never happens. We taught Cherry again- something that never happens! We shared with her about the ten commandments and she willingly accepted to keep them. I know she'll struggle with the Sabbath Day, but I also know that no matter what, God will help her. We shared Mormon 9:21 with her and helped her realize that if she asks God for strength and the opportunity to keep the commandments, she will be blessed with those blessings. Then we taught Cammy and her kids about the Word of Wisdom. We had a fun activity where we had lots of food and things drawn on paper and they got to cross out which things were not okay to eat. They really enjoyed it. Even though little Ivan had a meltdown about something, it was a good lesson. Our fellowshipper was a really good fit. We asked Cammy why she thinks we're asked to not drink tea, and she told us because it's because God said so. She did say she drinks tea, but she also said she's willing to keep this commandment. I have seen her faith in Christ grow so much over the past few weeks we've been teaching her. Stake conference was also good, because Penelope (member) was speaking and her non-member sister Trisha came with us to her Penny speak. I really think she enjoyed the talks and hopefully she felt the spirit.

Sunday was also a miracle. Stake conference was wonderful and though I didn't understand most of what was being spoken, I can testify that I can feel of it's truth. our investigator Mrs. Lau came with her two kids too. I was really impressed- her kids are really well behaved and sat through two straight hours of stake conference without so much as a peep. that really helped Mrs. Lau have the opportunity to feel the spirit. her story is kind of funny though- two weeks ago she came to church with her kids out of nowhere. Nobody knew who she was. She said her mom's friend was a member and referred her to our church, but couldn't remember who the friend was. Definitely wasn't anyone in our ward. I leaned over before the meeting to ask her if she found out who the friend was, and she said the friend was actually a member of a different church...oops. Haha. I'm just glad she still comes to ours! After conference, we taught them the Restoration. We gave her a Book of Mormon two weeks ago when we first met her. We followed up if she'd been reading with her kids (she didn't have much interest last time, just wanted her kids to have religion) but said that no, she'd been reading the book herself. She could feel of the truth in the words and we invited her to be baptized on December 14th. We got chenged out for dinner (members fed us) and the food was to die for. so good.

The book of Mormon is an incredible power. I know of its truth and I know it helps our investigators gain testimony. Bring on 65 in December!!

PS. I've discovered since being here that I really. really. REALLY love keijit... eggplant. learning how to cook it in tons of different ways! it's so great. everybody should eat it all the time. that good.

P.P.S.
(in response to mom's emails)
(BriAnna hit 1/4 way done with the mission last week): Umm, yeah. That's insane and I am 100% not counting. that freaks me out. I can't leave these people. ever. I may just never come home. (; haha just kidding.

When I first got here everything made me sick. not so much now unless we eat greasy food. Even pizza just goes straight through me, guess my insides have just jaapgwan to junggwok food. (adjusted to Chinese food)

Thank you so much for your testimony. I also know that these things are so so so true.

No daylight savings time here... all of mainland China is actually on the same time zone too. weird stuff. yeah, there's no point- no farmland in HK.

Seriously. pohpo pants are so great, all the pohpo wear them. If I didn't have to wear a dress I'd probably wear them everywhere too. Best investment EVER. I'll see if we can head up there in a couple weeks. Sister Lubeck leaves this transfer so I want to make sure she gets to do the things she wants to do before she "dies". I can look though. SSP has a massive store of just crazy colored Thai clothing. it's so great.

(in missionary terms, "dying" means going home-we asked her if Sister Lubeck wants to die): Naw. Nobody wants to die. Nobody. When you spend literally 24/7 serving these people, you don't ever want to leave. I mean sure you have bad days and are super super homesick and just end up crying and saying you want to, but then you wipe your face and get to work. it's just a thing.

(in regards to missionaries having to be able to work really hard): You have to be able to work. Missionary work isn't just go out and give people fliers. I run up and down streets chasing people. You get yelled at and people say crude things to you. If you're even the least bit fragile you won't survive out here unless you have your priorities straight. It's sad, and it's hard, but it's true.

(Funny name facts): Hey, it's better than half the stuff people name themselves here! I've heard Kinky, Purple (I actually think hers makes sense because her name in Chinese means purple, i think) Kelvin, Cherry, Yolanda... you name it, it's weird. hahaha.

Also. Funny thought. You know you're in China when you can eat:
yogurt
noodles
noodles in soup
fried rice
sticky rice
brown rice
hashbrowns
cheesecake
pizza

...with chopsticks.

Eating pizza in China

I heart eggplant

I love ice cream!

Sister Lubeck

Selfies through a mirror on the bus

A roller coaster in a mall?

More selfies in a mirror on a bus.