January 12, 2015

Last p-day we decided to hike around some little nature trails in Tsing Yi- just up behind some apartment complexes. Wow. I didn't realize how much of a jungle I lived in. This place is absolutely incredible. I am so blessed to serve here!!! Saw some big flies and wild dogs, but no monkeys, sorry!

Miracle of the week: Ms. Wan contacted us and told us she was out on the pier where we met her three months ago and asked if we could come out to see her. She's been super busy and hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon, but she says she has been praying and that it helps her feel more put together and at peace. What a miracle!​

Things I'm grateful for this week:

Monday: Piano music boxes. I bought a music box last p day from a dinky little stationery store. It's a grand piano. but it's a music box. COOLEST THING EVER. I'm seriously just super excited, and it was relatively cheap, so that was a plus. It's really really pretty and plays some kind of Chinese anime song, so it's pretty Asian. I love it.

Tuesday: POLLY. New investigator. She's seriously hilarious. We had an awkard start but Sister Killpack told some story about her friend's really bad date and it just broke the ice. We laughed and taught an awesome lesson. She's adorable. Love her! Cherry helped us fellowship, so that was cool too! We had a good district meeting too.

Wednesday: Smelly gel pens. I bought some gel pens for this photo book I'm making, and they smell. fruity. It's like, the best thing ever. Chinese people are totally into their stationery and pens and stuff. it's awesome. Also President Hawks. We were in Kowloon Tong Wednesday for a language evaluation and I asked if I could meet with our awesome mission president. he gave me some wonderful advice about how I can help my companionship work more in unity with the Lord and how to improve the work, and he said just what I needed to hear. It's like, he's inspired or something. haha. I'll be sad to see him go but I'm excited for our new mission president and his wife to come in on July 1st! WoO!

Thursday: Weekly planning! (: enough said. I love weekly planning.  A lot.

Friday: Sister Killpack's worst date story! Her friend was on this date, and they went horseback riding, and the horse just tipped over and died. And then the boy got sick and threw up everywhere, and then stepped on the girl's dress and tore it. It was way funnier when she told it in broken Chinese (or Chinglish, kinda) and Cherry and Polly were totally dying. it was the best thing ever.

Saturday: Tim Tam Slams: I love to slam. 'Nough said. (slam= bite off opposite corners of tim tams and use the cookie as a straw to drink hot chocolate)

Sunday: A-Ting, Church. A-Ting (RC) wants to go to BYU! How cute. we met with her after church and just talked and built her relationship with us. it was the best. And Church, I LOVE CHURCH. best day ever. Sundays are my favorite.

LOVE you all! (:

-Kuk Jimuih-

P.S.
(Mom asked how to teach people about God for next week's Sunday School lesson): How do I teach a Buddhist about God? I bear testimony. I know there is a God. I know he loves me, and he loves you. He is the father of our spirits. that's how I do it- super super simple. Rarely ever do I start out about "he created us and before earth we lived with him".  Just that there is one. Use the scriptures too: "Believe in God, believe that He is..."  As far as your lesson- it's hard. It is so so so hard to help people learn about Heavenly Father. Basically what they teach us here is that no matter how simply you put it, if you don't have the spirit with you as you teach you cannot teach!​ Ammon and Aaron are perfect examples of how to teach about God. The very first principle I teach as a missionary is "God is our Loving Heavenly Father". It's as simple as that. We have a father, a father of our spirits, and he loves us. He's given us blessings. The best way to teach is to ask questions. on the streets, I'll ask what people's view of God is. Do they believe we have a God, some kind? If so, what kind? Why? If you really want to know more about how to teach it, literally just consult Preach my Gospel. that book is insanely divinely inspired and seriously will answer all your questions. I am regretting not having ever studied it before my mission because it's just full of insanely incredible material.

P.P.S. 
(Responses to some random thoughts and questions from mom): Our Savior loves each and every one of us and desires for us to realize that. There is nothing we can't overcome. Doesn't mean it will be easy- it's gonna be dang hard- but God gives us just enough strength to endure.

I really love the idea of the new youth curriculum. I don't feel like I really got to know it very well, so I'm hoping I have more of an opportunity to learn it. I seriously want to come home and teach teenagers Sunday School. really really bad.

(In response to our new house): Weird. I can't believe all this house stuff is going on without me. Super weird. I still don't' know if I can take those family names to the temple, but we're gonna try.  It's hard cuz it's only me and Sis Killpack in our district who can do sisters' names though, so it may take a while to do them... TEMPLE DAY IS TUESDAY.  So Monday I won't have p day.  Heads up.

Escaping old lady from the nursing home (ha ha ha!)

Sister Crook in the Tsing Yi jungle

January 5, 2015

What a week. I can't believe it's 2015 already... weird.

Cammy is doing well. She couldn't come to church this week because it was her husband's day off, which was a pretty big bummer for us. But a ward member invited her and us over for dinner the other night, and I really feel like it was beneficial. The ward member is her fellowshipper that we use most of the time, and her husband is in the bishopric. It was such a good experience for her to better get to know them outside of church. We watched the Testaments together, and she really enjoyed it. We didn't stay for the end of the movie so we could be home on time, but I feel like Cammy really benefited from it. She still struggles remembering to read every day but she's doing a lot better than she was. She still prays. I'm excited to see her progress. She's still praying about a baptismal date.

Kelly is also doing well. This week we finished watching the Joseph Smith movie with her. We asked her a lot of questions about how she felt about it, and I think she really enjoyed it. She was amazed at how much he experienced for the church, and when we asked her why she thought that was, she told us it was because of his testimony of Christ. We want to help her have that same testimony of Christ. She still reads and prays. She reads in random places, so we want to try to get her reading from the beginning of the book of mormon again like when we first met her. She too is still praying about a baptismal date.

This week we have a new investigator, Dena. The Sha Tin sisters found her through a former potential, and turned her over to us. She has interest in English class and also wants to learn the piano. We're working to find a fellowshipper that maybe wouldn't mind teaching her a little piano after or before our lessons. We have some people in mind, just haven't talked to them yet. She has no religion but seems excited to meet with us, and she 's really nice. We have to teach really, really slow, but I think that's alright.​

This year, I decided not to make some stupid resolution that I'll never keep. Everybody tries to diet or quit things or start making new habits and I think it's silly. Why should we make a resolution we know we're not going to keep? So I decided to do something different.

Rather than tell myself I wil write in my journal every day (because I won't) I decided to take a small notebook and write down one small thing a day I'm grateful for.

January 1: Grateful for a new year, fresh starts, and Hong Kong
January 2: Dena! The patience of our district leader, because I'm clearly still learning how to be a missionary and a senior companion...haha.
January 3: Kenny Fong's love for meatloaf... He invited us to dinner with Cammy and went off about when he served a mission in Utah and people fed him meatloaf all the time. he tried to explain meatloaf to Cammy and said "It's like a loaf of bread...but it's MEAT. real MEAT!" so funny. grateful for nylons.
January 4: MY MOM! Happy birthday! (:

haven't gotten to today's yet since the miracles haven't ceased. (:

Love you all. it's been a good week.

-Kuk Jimuih (Sister Crook)

Sister Crook trimmed her own hair

December 29, 2015

This week has been amazing. It's such a blessing to be in the mission field at Christmastime, and I'm pretty sad I only get to experience it once. It was amazing to walk the streets and just ask people about how they celebrated Christmas and shared about the love of our Father in Heaven for giving us the greatest gift of all- His beloved Son.

Christmas Eve was just another proselyting day- nothing special. We saw Cherry and our lesson ran late (Cherry forgot and was late...) so we ended up needing to go out to eat. Sister Killpack ate McDonalds and I grabbed me some steamed bread and white grape juice. We took our food out to the pier and watched the boats drive by. There were carolers walking up and down the pier and it was just awesome. A little chilly, but awesome.

Christmas day here was insane! We got up that morning, got ready, and our sweet roomates made us breakfast- WAFFLES. Sister Robinson LOVES waffles and her aunt that lives here in HK gave her a waffle iron for Christmas, so she made us breakfast. Mmmmm. Been a LONG time since I've had good breakfast. We ate eggs and bacon and seriously just feasted. I was so full we didn't eat lunch. Phone calls home were also fantastic. It's so good to hear everyone's voices!

Cammy let us teach her Christmas day before our ward party. what a blessing! We read from the scriptures about Samuel the Lamanite's prophecies about Christ, and then Christ's birth. Afterwards, we all went to the ward Christmas party. They didn't stay the entire time, but she definitely came for a bit. At the party, the bishop got up and announced he had four special gifts to give away- and called us all up to the front. The ward so graciously gave us four missionaries four MASSIVE bags- garbage bags- full of treats, shampoo, noodles (macaroni!) ramen, popcorn, and all sorts of goodies. We seriously won't have to buy noodles fo rlike, the rest of forever. We are so grateful for such a wonderful ward that loves us so much!! They really are the best.

That night,  Brother and Sister Fong invited us over for Christmas dinner. We got there and just after, Brother Fong walked in with none other than KFC. What? Haha. He said (in perfect English, of course) "This is Kenny Fong's Chicken!" Mmm. We feasted on glorious American food, fruit salad, and of course some Chinese traditional stuff as well like sweet and sour pork and tofu. It was seriously so good. Purple and her son Nigel were there too, and we shared a message about Christmas and watched He is the Gift. We talked about how all of us celebrate Christmas and it was just fabulous.

Cammy's doing well. She doesn't feel prepared for baptism yet, so we invited her to pray about and pick her own baptismal date- all without us. She said she's willing to do that. then we'll make a plan with her on how to help her prepare.

Kelly is doing well. Last time we met with her she expressed interest in better understanding Joseph Smith. We decided to show the Joseph Smith movie to Kelly. We only watched the first part and will finish the second half tonight, but so far she seems to have really appreciated it. She said it helped her more clearly understand his background and what he did for the church. The spirit was really strong in that lesson. I'm excited to finish it tonight. We're also challenging her to pray about her own baptismal date, just like Cammy.

Still haven't been able to contact Janda, but we talked to the relief society president yesterday and she says she still Whats Apps her every couple of days. Janda is now working two full time jobs until she can find a replacement for her old job while she opens her new job in Tsuen Wan. We're hoping we can find a way to contact her, but at least for now we know she's okay- just really, really, really busy.
We've had a rough week with finding. I've taken note of some things that we need to change and sihfaan so we can better improve our finding efforts. We've talked with a lot of people- they just don't really want to hear the gospel. Again, it all boils down to agency. I guess we're just doing the best we can with what we've got, and the rest is up to them.

I am grateful for the faith building experience of 65 in December. Though we may not have reached our numerical goal, I think we reached the most important goal of all- building our faith and bringing others to Christ. What better way to celebrate Christmas than giving our all and loving the people of Hong Kong?

Singdaan faailohk!

曲姊妹

(Sister Crook)

Photos:
 Really awkward selfie with my GLORIOUS breakfast
The view from the pier on Christmas Eve
Chicken nuggets for Christmas Eve dinner
The fam is brainwashing me!

P.S.
(In Response to sweet little Sophie Fellows' update): Sounds like Christmas miracles are true all around the world. Crazy how that happens. Yeah, I've been praying for Sophie. I can see if my comp wants to help me out too.

(Mom is feeling some evil strangling thoughts after this comment):  Fun fact. I wasn't going to tell you this before Christmas, but skyping was just barely made okay in the mission. Only problem is we can't leave our area to skype, and since there's no place to do it, it just wasn't worth it to tell you. Sorry! Maybe my next area will have somewhere where that's okay. Happy Christmas!

Teaching English with pictures

Sister Killpack eats chicken nuggets for Christmas Eve dinner...ew

Sister Crook eats steamed bread for Christmas Eve dinner...YUM

Enjoying the peacefulness of Christmas Eve

Sister Robinson gets a wafflemaker for Christmas!  Making waffles on the floor though?

Clothed in great Boise State attire!

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Red Velvet Christmas peeps from home!

December 22, 2014

Hello everyone! Just wanted to let you all know I love you and wish you a very, merry Christmas!​ All the missionaries here appreciate your prayers in our behalf. This season is such a wonderful season to remember our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to serve the Chinese people and help teach them about Christ and his wonderful example. I love you all so much and wish you the very best Christmas ever!

Singdaan faailohk!
-Kuk Jimuih

Wow. I can hardly believe how much has changed in a week... Thursday morning I sent Sister Lubeck home and picked up my new companion- none other than Sister Killpack, my MTC companion. I had a feeling I'd end up with someone from my same MTC group, but I had no idea it'd be with my companion. I'm now senior companion over here, still serving in Tsing Yi. It's so weird to be full-time senior companion. It's such a different view of the work. So far nobody's crashed and burned, and we're still meeting with most of our investigators, so that's good. it'll be a weird adjustment, and we're both still learning so much every day, but I'm grateful for the challenge.

Cammy is doing alright. We met with her once this week to teach her about the Nativity. She doesn't really understand anything about Jesus Christ... I mean, she understands that he atoned for us, and she understands that through him we can repent and return to God's presence, but she doesn't really understand what that means. She doesn't understand really why he's so important, so this week we're going to try to figure out another way to teach that, since apparently the first few times we've tried it didn't click. God will guide our studies and lessons, and I'm grateful to have this learning experience. She still struggles coming to church on time, but made it with four kids in tow (two of which were...nephews, I think?) by relief society yesterday. She's a trooper.

Kelly is doing alright. She still prays daily and reads almost every day. I feel like she's better understanding the things she reads, so that's good. She came to sacrament meeting yesterday for the first time in a long time. She had somewhere to be afterwards, but I was glad she got up and came to church. We're planning to review the Restoration and Joseph Smith with her this week to hopefully help her more clearly understand.
I'm really worried about Janda. She hasn't answered our phone calls in about two weeks. We're going to try to stop by her house and leave a picture and testimony that Sister Lubeck left for her probably this week. She's still in contact with the members though. Her new business is opening this week so we hope that after this week, all goes well and she can meet with us again.

Cherry is doing wonderfully. She has such a clear objective- a temple marriage. What a blessing!

Singdaan faailohk, everybody! I'm so grateful to be sharing the wonderful message of Christmas with everyone this week. We have awesome Christmas flyers, and it's fun to ask people how they celebrate Christmas here. Most don't, but those that do have fun traditions. We have such a happy message to share and this time of the year is truly perfect. I'm grateful to have the opportunity to celebrate Christmas with my tuhnguk (...roomates? I can't remember English. sorry.) and our ward here in Tsing Yi. It's such a wonderful season of giving and sharing. I love you all! Thanks for all you do!!!

-Kuk Jimuih

P.S.
(In reference to mom's questions): Yes, still in Tsing Yi. I am the senior companion, probably because my Chinese is a lot better ... but President Hawks asked Sister Lubeck if she thought it was good enough to handle senior companion. She taught me a lot about the language and yeah, I can speak well enough. my vocabulary isn't massive, but I can speak the tones clearly and my accent isn't too bad. We're getting along alright. Since my last companion was Sister Training leader, I know the mission rules inside and out.

(Unlce Matthew is married!):  Haha. can't believe Matthew's married... and she's only two months older than me. That just...freaks me out. Oh well. Guess I'll get to know her next year. Weird. I know I'll be okay to handle my new comp, but I'm more worried about our area. All we did this weekend was like..... hours after hours of finding. By the end of the night both of us were so exhausted and my feet hurt super bad. So hopefully we can reschedule more people. It's hard because her Chinese is ma ma dei- okayish. she can understand a lot more than she can say, and her last companion didn't let her say anything, so it's going to be a rough time helping her to get up to my level. oh well. no matter, I guess. I'll probably leave next transfer so hopefully i can help her feel familiar enough with the area.

Elders Areanas, Hartwig, Osbourne, Koochin.  Sisters Yeung, Lubeck, Tu'Avao, Crook

Holiday decor

Saying Goodbye to Sister Lubeck

Investigator Brother and Sister Gai

Lau Wan Sau, Brother Poon, Annie Lie, Fei Fei