December 15, 2014

(Mom's Note: Sorry friends and family but Sister Crook is losing her ability to think and speak English and often forgets that none of us know Cantonese.  Good luck!)

Sih ching sih je yeung dik: Chinese Motab

...and it came to pass: Chinese MOTAB. Christmas fireside in Kowloon Tong yesterday was awesome!

We had a pretty big focus on finding this week- we are definitely in need of some new investigators. As our investigators progress towards baptism, we have been wanting to have some new investigators too.

Monday night, we taught Tiger. The Elders met her on the street the night of our open house and we were finally able to reschedule her. She comes from a really hard life... her dad lives on the Island and her mom lives in Mainland. She is 18, studying in form 4, and lives by herself. Two years ago she dropped out of school to work. Now she's going back to school and working. She's super busy and definitely needs the gospel in her life. I'm excited to watch her progress. She was very receptive to the message of the Restoration and I was really grateful to have the opportunity to teach her.

Tuesday we went to a member's house for dinner and taught Cherry Lesson 2 again. Cherry has such a strong testimony and I admire her love for the temple. Everything she says goes back to the temple and how bad she wants to go there. We had a little time to really crack down and find and taught three lessons. We met three really nice people and hopefully will have the opportunity to meet them again. That evening, we went to our lesson with Mrs. Tung (the grandma we started teaching last week) and when we got there, Sister Lubeck called her to tell her we were just waiting for our member. Mrs. Tung told us not to come back. She wasn't ready to accept that our churches were different and we think she may have experienced some anti from her church, because last week she was so happy to meet with us. Oh well. I guess someday she'll be prepared to meet the missionaries again someday.

Wednesday we had a big block of finding, and we made it a goal to do a gauntlet find and teach six lessons. By the end of the day, we had made it to all six areas and taught six lessons. Though none of the people were able to reschedule, we have since contacted some of them and hopefully will be able to continue meeting with them. We were so blessed with so many miracles on Wednesday. We even found a way of finding that makes five hours of straight finding pretty exciting. The weather was nice too! Blessings all around.

Thursday was good. We taught less active Sister Yeung and found a member that may be able to better help her son. We're also working on a way to get her and her son to church. Then we taught Sister Tsang (LA). She's doing well. She hasn't read that much this week because she's super tired from work, but her love for the scriptures is still the same.

Friday Sister Lubeck taught Cammy while I helped teach her kids. She's progressing okay, but still hasn't come to church. We're not sure how to better get Cammy to understand the importance of the Sabbath Day. We've tried teaching it in so many different ways but I am at a loss. If you have any suggestions, let me know. It's hard, because we can only bring this commandment unto her heart...she has to bring it into her heart. She's not ready to be baptized just yet, but I know she will be soon. She's great. WE taught our recent convert A-Ting as well. She also has an issue getting up on time coming to church.

Saturday we taught Sister Lui, a less active. She realizes that if she doesn't come to church or read scriptures its harder to do it the next time. We taught Kelly. She still doesn't feel prepared to be baptized. We are planning to review the lessons again with her to help her understand it.

Sunday we went to the fireside with A-Ting and Cherry (RC's). Both of them felt the spirit so strong, and I hope that that was a wake up call for A-Ting. She has a testimony but has a hard time not being lazy. We hoped helping her feel that spirit will help her remember why she decided to be baptized in the first place.

Week full of miracles! Bring on 65 in December!
Love, Sister Crook

P.S.
(In regards to her thoughts on missionary work and her companion leaving this week): this week has been insanely awesome. definitely rewarding. We've had some setbacks with all three of our investigators we're working with right now, so it's sad to see them do that... but setbacks are a real part of life. I go to bed and the very next second I'm up again. time flies. it's weird. I'm always exhausted, but it's good. means we're working hard.

Panicking that tomorrow I find out who my new companion is. I know I'm not training but I could be senior companion, or I could not be. either way I'm staying in Tsing Yi which is good.  Bahaha. yeah... greenies. they're the best. I know Sister Stromberg coming in, so that'll be fun to hopefully see her. I don't mind the new companions, it's the responsibility that may be a thing.  Yeah, kinda sad to see her (Sister Lubeck) go. But it's her time. Mine will come too. she dies, others are born. It's just the circle of life.

(Christmas packing being mailed home): Mailed your Christmas package today... sorry, it may be late. long story. mail here is mahfaan.

(We asked what Mahfaan meant): sorry... umm, the closest English translation is... inconvenient? I can't speak English anymore.

(We don't speak Chinese): mhaih wo! kesaht, hou fongbihn! baha. Your phone call home is gonna be in Chinese... be prepared!

Funny, how I can't remember any Spanish anymore. Lots of Cantonese is just like really bad Chinglish. Gotta run, though. hope you enjoy those pictures! we made gingerbread (wafer?) houses with Kelly, Lam Lam (member) and A-Ting (RC).

Making wafer-cookie "gingerbread" houses with the sisters.

Making Christmas cards: Sister Lubeck

Ingredients for wafer cookie houses

Christmas card activity

Sister Robinson and a pizza

PIZZA!

City at night

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A miniature Christmas tree

December 8, 2014: Exact Obedience

*PHOTOS COMING SOON

I know I say this every week, but miracles are real. Also, exact obedience BRINGS BLESSINGS. I mean, I haven't had a problem being obedient. Really. It's not hard to follow the rules. But this week we encountered a challenge and were insanely blessed for it.

Monday we visited a less active. It was her birthday and she invited us (being Sister Cook and I on exchanges) to dinner. We prepared a short lesson about how God loves her (since it's her birthday, why not make her feel special!) and wow. We got there, and there were probably 15 people there... yep, wasn't planning to teach that many. Me and Sister Cook had to adapt our lesson plan really fast, but we were still able to share our message, even though it felt like half the ward was there watching us struggle with Cantonese. No worries though. It was fun and I like the challenge of having to adapt lessons like that every once in a while.

Tuesday we did a turnover lesson with a lady who walked into our open house last week! She's from Mainland and understands Cantonese but we can't really understand her, so we sent her to the Mandarin speaking sisters. She has some major interest in the Church's new self reliance program, so I'm excited to see how she progresses.

Wednesday we visited a less active, Sister Cheung, who is afraid to come back to church because people will judge her. We brought a fellowshipper with us that hadn't met her before, and it was...interesting. Bless her heart, sweet Sister Law went off about how if you don't take the sacrament, you're going to go to a "place you don't want to go", as she put it. Sometimes, you just can't control what the members say... it's funny. Sister Cheung is close to the relief society president, so I know she'll come back when she's ready. We'll just keep working with her. She's really sweet and is starting to read and pray more often! We did a lot of finding on Wednesday and literally ran into this grandma on the street. Like, we were walking and she walked right into us. We started talking and she invited us up to her house to teach her! That's a first for me.

Thursday we tried something new with Cammy- having two fellowshippers. We had one for her kids and one for her, and then we split up. I taught Cammy and Sister Lubeck taught the kids. We were in the same room teaching the same thing (1 Nephi 1) but it was really good because Cammy didn't have to worry about her kids being naughty. I think it helped her, because now she understands the scriptures a little better. Maybe she'll be more willing to read them. Our biggest problem with her right now is she doesn't keep the Sabbath Day Holy- she ends up going to yam chah with her mom. I think it's more of a "wanting to respect her mom" thing than not wanting to keep the commandments, but we're sort of at a loss of what to do. Thursday night we also had a miracle- Mrs. Wan, a newish investigator, actually called us and scheduled to meet with us! Very rarely does that happen, so that was really cool. She hasn't ever felt the spirit so she's struggling with that, but we're going to work through it.

Friday was crazy. After an amazing zone conference we taught English class and then did splits. I taught Cammy and her kids really simply about prayer and the Godhead, and Sister Lubeck went out to meet Janda while I waited with my temporary companion for Kelly to come for her baptismal interview. We need to keep working with her as there are some things that she doesn't fully understand, but she's doing really well. For being only 14, I am impressed with her faith. When I was 14 I went to church because my mom told me to- not because I really wanted to or understood why. Now that I do though, I'm thankful she was there to push me. Kelly doesn't really have that support system though, so we're trying to get her to know more members so she can. We taught Janda the rest of the commandments and she's excited to start keeping them. She still doesn't know about her baptismal date though since this month is really, really busy. But we're praying for a miracle!

Saturday we taught Tung Pohpo again. She and her husband are really catholic and it's hard because I understand nothing about the Catholic religion to be able to know how to help her... but we're working on it. We'll work with them together and just teach really simply. Both of them are so nice though, and very willing to let us visit them in their home- what a blessing. Cammy came to our relief society activity but none of the members really included her, so that was pretty sad... she's so cute. We also taught our less active Sister Tsang. She just LOVES the scriptures, so I'm really excited about that. We also had the opportunity to visit Sister Chan, another less active. She really doesn't want to come back to church (we're not sure why) but she likes having the missionaries reteach her the lessons.

Sunday we taught a less active with the saddest story. She's almost 70 now and hasn't been to church in a long long time because her son is disabled. Turns out when he was 7 years old, he and his older sisters were at a primary activity at a pool and there was some sort of accident that made him disabled like he is now, and his sisters blame the church. They're all inactive now. Sister Yeung still has a strong belief in God and Jesus Christ though and loves to have us visit her. We're going to reteach lessons and hopefully find a way for her to be more involved in the ward. That evening we had a less active and former investigator teach us how to make sushi- then we shared a message about God's love for us. So cool!

So my obedience miracle: Missionaries have the rule to not eat hotpot. No worries. Until now, I've never encountered it. We scheduled to eat with a member this week, and when we showed up to her house there was a boiling pot of vegetables on the table. We figured it'd be alright if it was just vegetables. But when she pulled out the raw meat and told us there was meat in the soup as well, we immediately knew it wasn't okay to eat. She's super smart cooking wise and her food is always always delicious, so we weren't expecting hotpot. We shared our message first (thankfully!) and tried to leave before she fed us. Long story short, we kept denying and explained that it's a mission rule that we can't eat hotpot. She assured us the meat was cooked all the way through and we won't get sick. After about five minutes of useless denying, we were frustrated because she wouldn't respect mission rules. We literally just walked out. Of course, we were polite about it. But we left. On the way home, our investigator that we haven't seen or been able to contact in about two months came up behind us and stopped us- said she wanted to reschedule us. WOW. God blesses obedient missionaries! I love obedience!
Miracles are real. Bring on 65 in December!!!​

MTC Companions!

Tessa sent her sister some of her magical turtles and asked her to take good care of them.  It appears that they are studying.

Mini mini Christmas tree mom sent

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Cooking together

Shopping?

December 1, 2014

*PHOTOS COMING SOON

Our lesson with Mrs. Wan fell through not once but twice this week. She's going through some personal things and hasn't had a chance to meet us. Since then, she's also not been answering our phone calls. We pray that we can have the opportunity to meet with her and her cute baby Yolanda here sometime soon. Monday night we met Winnie, who doesn't have religion but believes in Jesus Christ... wow, what a miracle. Hopefully we'll have the chance to see her this week.
Tuesday was a day crammed full of adventure. We met a crazy guy in Mawan a few weeks ago who had three life questions he *needed* answers to. We gave him a Book of Mormon and got out of there as fast as we could. Well, he had one request- asked us to find answers to his questions and give him a new copy all marked up. We spent a little bit of our prep time marking scriptures with answers to his problems. Tuesday we finally had the chance to give him the book- only to have him say "Wait. Are these answers from a philosophical point of view or a religious point of view?" That was a smack your palm to your face moment, for sure. His heart definitely isn't open to the gospel right now, so the most we can do is pray that someday it will be ready to receive the gospel. Right now we can only bring the things unto his heart- and there's nothing more to it. That evening we went with Cherry (RC) to the Joseph Smith movie in Kowloon Tong. It was a great experience and very eye-opening to her about all the things that he went through. Afterwards she went to about half an hour of institute!
Wednesday. We taught Cammy. I seriously have never been so disappointed in my whole life. That lesson was so hard. It is absolutely impossible to teach without the spirit. We got there and both of her kids were with her and were whining and crying like tired 5 and 6 years olds do after school sometimes. Cammy was exhausted since she's been in the hospital with her sister who just had a baby for the past week or so. She had little patience with her kids. Sister Lubeck had planned an activity that I didn't really understand and it was hard for me to follow the lesson. Anyways, needless to say it crashed and burned. I don't think they learned hardly anything... we'll keep trying though. I know the Lord wants her to be baptized in December so He will give us a way!
Thursday was great. Going to Kowloon Tong for Thanksgiving dinner was such a great experience. We had a couple visiting from Michigan come in and eat some of our pie and they took pictures with us and everything. It was really fun. We taught our less active Sister Tsang that night too. She's coming around and is less and less awkward (but still extremely awkward!) every time we meet with her. She's remembering about some of the things she learned 10 or so years ago. She LOVES the scriptures and marks them up and asks us tons of questions. So great!
Friday was also insanely crazy. Love it. Sister Cook and I did exchanges and I learned one thing- dang, I stink at being senior companion! No worries though. My Chinese is just....pretty bad. But it'll come. someday. After doing some finding and teaching a street lesson, we came back to the church for a family history activity that no one came to...so we did more finding. Then we taught Kelly during English class (elders taught this week). She was still pretty sick but I'm glad she came. Our fellowshipper called five minutes before and cancelled so it ended up just being us, but we read the scriptures together. She struggles having a desire to read them because she doesn't really understand them. but that's okay, we read with her and I know her scripture understanding will come over time- I still don't understand what I read sometimes and I've been reading them for many, many years. We had planned to do splits after that lesson and teach a new investigator and Cammy. Cammy ended up leaving and not giving us a chance to even follow up with her about anything. We taught our new investigator and I guess somewhere she missed the memo of why we wanted to meet with her... so that was awkward. We ended up just explaining the Book of Mormon with her and then together reading 1 Nephi 1.
Saturday we had the Tsing Yi Chapel Open House. It was a success and lots of people came. We taught a lesson to a guy who just walked in from the street. he had lots of questions. Sunday was also good- we found a LA from previous missionaries in the area who hadn't been contacted in... 6 or so months. Her son is really disabled so she can't come to church, but hopefully we can help her feel God's love for her.

This morning we had the opportunity to go to Tsuen Wan to see this 200 year old chinese "uk", house! it ws so cool. Sister Lau (ward coordinator's wife [the one who doesn't drink blue] came wtih us)

love you all! (:

-Kuk Jimuih

Cooking muffins on Thanksgiving with Sister Hawks

Thanksgiving Dinner

Smelling the fruits of their labors

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Hong Kong

Add caption

Festive mall decor

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

Goal of 65 baptisms in December for the entire mission

Turkey Day Dinner

Cute photos sent from Sister Stewart (bottom left corner).  Sister Penny Stewart is a convert member in the Tsing Yi ward where Sister Crook serves.  Sister Stewart recently returned home from a mission to London.

November 24, 2014

It's only been a couple of days since my last email, but miracles have happened. I hope that as I continue to rely on the Savior we can be better focused as a companionship and continue to work towards 65 in December.

After English class on Friday, we had the opportunity to do splits. Sister Lubeck taught Cammy the second half of her practice baptismal interview. Cammy is doing wonderfully and is working quickly towards her December baptismal date. I had the opportunity to teach Cherry one last time before her baptism. Sister Lai (member) and I shared about the Book of Mormon. The spirit was really strong in that lesson and I was really grateful to share my testimony about the Book of Mormon with her. We watched a Mormon Message about it with her from Elder Holland. One can never go wrong with Elder Holland. We taught Sister Ng, a "less active". Apparently she just goes to the wrong ward. She was grateful we stopped by to get to know her but was really defensive about her going to the Tsuen Wan ward... guess she feels a little bit guilty? We didn't say anything about it- just that we wanted to meet her. We're hoping when Tsuen Wan ward moves over to Tsing Yi in a couple of weeks she'll have the faith and desire to come back.

And now for the subject- daaih yatchi sailaihwuih... The First baptismal service!! (: Cherry was baptized on Saturday! It was such a miracle and such a wonderful meeting. She brought her friend from Mainland with her. He came with us as we showed Cherry a baptism from the Preach My Gospel DVDs. Then Cherry was baptized. She shared a beautiful testimony afterwards about her experience. She said that she felt like God was knocking on her door for a long time, and she finally decided to open it to him. We decided we're going to buy her a copy of the picture of Christ knocking on the door with no handle, because that's exactly how she felt. She's so cute- as we were walking home together after her baptism, she turned to me and asked if she was a member yet, and if she had a "member card". She's really excited to be able to go to the temple. I mean, really really excited. When we asked her about her friend that she brought to her baptism, she was kind of sad and said something along the lines of he's nice, but she can't marry him in the temple. I am so glad that she has such a wonderful, eternal perspective. She wants to have an eternal family and is willing to do everything she can so she can be worthy to go to the temple. She's even taking the marriage and family prep class at Institute!

Sunday Cherry was confirmed a member of the church. I am so privileged to have been one of the missionaries to help her come closer to Christ. She has such a wonderful spirit and is so prepared. I know she has such a strong testimony already of the love her Savior has for her and I am excited to see her progress towards the temple. A family in the ward, the Lau family, invited her to come to Family Home Evening. She has a good support system in the ward. We had a woman we met on the street about a month ago come to church with her kids too. She found out that one of her son's schoolmates is also a member of our ward, so she was more willing to bring them. She's had some good exposure to the church and has a lot of interest. We rescheduled to teach her this coming Friday.

This week (or four days, I guess?) has been short but crammed full of miracles. God is mindful of his missionaries, and I'm glad to be one of them.

Brother Lau and Li On Ki (Cherry)

Cherry, Penelope, Victor, Sister Lai

Cherry

Fong Gwok Wai Cammy and kids Ivan and Natalie

Special day for Cherry

Looking up from bottom of Cheung Ching Tsuen (apartment building)

Penelope Stewart and Cherry

view from the top of cheung ching tsuen, apartment building