February 2, 2015: You Have Chosen Option E

Jan 26: Sister Lau invited us to her home to "give us a present". We showed up and she said "I went finding this morning for you, because I felt like I needed to give you a member referral." Wow. How cool. She literally went out and contacted people on the street. Her neighbor has interest in learning but we couldn't meet with her that night (she was busy) so hopefully this week we can meet her. Also got to go to Wan Chi to eat GIANT pizza and ride the Star Ferry. Super fun.

Jan 27: I tried to contact this lady and she literally ran up this massive hill to get away from me. Literally booked it up there. I felt kinda bad, but it was just too funny to not be grateful for. But in reality I'm grateful for when that doesn't happen, and we don't have to run after people cuz that makes my feet hurt. Haha.

Jan 28: Met a really nice lady on the streets named A-Sze. I love it when we meet nice people. Most people are jerks...haha.

Jan 29: WE COULD SEE STARS. The air is usually so bad that we can't see stars! But there were a few tiny little stars dotting the skies- and they were stars, not airplanes!!!

Jan 30: Did zone 24's. Zone 24's were the best. I just love doing exchanges, and having the opportunity to serve with Sister Dudley was wonderful. We went out finding where a man approached us and said (In English) "Hey. You're Mormons. I've never seen sister missionaries before, that's really cool! I have interest in your church." We were a little concerned that his interest wasn't in the right place, but he has real intent. We turned him over to the Tung Chung elders (because that's where he lives) and he's excited to learn of the truth. What a blessing.

Jan 31: Went to Tung Chung with sister Dudley and ate Subway for lunch. Mmmm, I miss American food. Too bad it make me kinda sick. Then we made hamburgers for dinner. Mmmmmm.

Feb 1: Cammy came to the last hour of church! WOOOOO. After many weeks of sick children, they're finally back on track. Woo.

We had this discussion yesterday about "things people do to get away from the missionaries in Hong Kong".

Option A: The "mhdaakhah (not available) hand wave"
Option B: Dive in front of a moving car. Happens almost daily.
Option C: Really obviously cross the sidewalk.
Option D: Fake a phone call or text
Option E: Totally ignore everything we say.

We decided that when people do option E to us, we say "Gam (well...) you have chosen Option E" and then walk away. Not really, probably won't ever do it to their faces. But we say it to each other and it's funny. Good times finding.
Today we're going up to 10,000 Buddhas so it should be fun. Thanks for all the love, support, and prayers! Love you all!

-Sister Kuk

P.S.

(In reference to last week's thousand year old egg photo): I really did eat it. I can make them for you someday. it's not as bad as it looks. pretty good. but it was soaking in a TON of vinegar and oil so my insides didn't feel too hot afterwards. but it was okay-la. not bad.  It's not really 1000 years old.... maybe 3 months, but not 1000 years. It;s just a preserved egg. Google it. I'm not going to come home with diseases and die! like, parasites maybe, but no diseases. They give us drugs at the end of the mission for that though, so I'll be fine. A Sister missionary made that for me, totally safe. (Mom told her she was going to die): I totally will not! I've eaten weirder things. Okay, maybe not. But like... grass jelly was gross. I found a can of it so I'm gonna buy some and bring it home with me. I'm excited to cook real Guangdong Chinese food for you!

P.P.S

(In reference to little sister Tessa's paper turtles she sent to BriAnna): We were out finding last week and found some lady out exercising with her turtles- two of them just wandering around outside. it was the funniest thing and we talked to the lady for a few minutes about them. Apparently they get about... a little over a foot in diameter. you should show up one day with a real turtle. if you don't, I will.

P.P.P.S.

(In reference to "real" Chinese food, is there anything in the U.S. that compares): Its not even close to the same. not even close. I mean, sweet and sour pork can be found here... but it's not the same. I can learn to make coconut bread (to DIE FOR) and cha siu faahn (......barbeque pork rice?) and that's pretty typical here. meals are like a massive bowl of rice with tons of weird side dishes. lots of squid. icky.

Tessa's little turtles are participating in language study

and eating a muffin?  These pictures are going to make a little 9 year old sister so so happy

P-Day adventure to Wan Chi

Pizza!

?

?

Sister missionaries on the loose!

Palm trees and blue skies!  What more can you ask for in January?

January 25, 2015: Because we are White

me, sister vivian choi (RM) sis killpack

Thousand year old egg

Hair is growing!

Flashback to the childhood...Kindermusik!

sour plum powder

What a week full of blessings and funny adventures.

Tuesday: Temple day. You all heard about it last week so I won't go over it again... but it was fun. Got to do a session on Cantonese. So that was fun.

Wednesday: We took the train out to Tung Chung to do a district find. We met Vivian Choi, an ngaam-ngaam (just barely) returned missionary! It was fun to see her again. She took me finding on my very first night in Hong Kong and I was so lost as to what she was doing or how. But now we totally got in the groove and taught some cool lessons. Funny story about that though. the chyun (estate, apartment complex, whatever you call it in English) was... sketchy. So in the first five or so minutes we passed a cat half out of a bag. (tons of stray cats here. really.) and Sister Choi walked up to see what was going on. She came back and was like "It's dying." great. So there's this group of men shoving this dying cat into a bag and it was super weird. So we moved on. Then we walked past a bunch of men and women singing around a giant metal...looked like a watering trough from a farm, kinda? and they were burning all sorts of stuff. Sister Killpack asked what was going on and Sister Choi said "Probably because somebody died there. They're releasing the spirit of the dead." So we walked past that. And then we were walking past a building and it was all caution taped off and there was red sticky stuff all out of the ground... and Sister Choi said someone probably died there too. Great. So we spent two hours finding in a chyun full of death. So that was fun.

Thursday: Our LA Sister Yeung called us and wanted to schedule us for that day- no problemo. We got into our lesson and taught and it was great. (please take note that this lady is...old. like really old. I mean not really but kind of.) She looks at Sister Killpack and asked why her hair was black, and if her parents were Chinese. Then proceeds to look at my blonde hair and admired it...and didn't ask if my parents were Chinese. It's funny- most Chinese people can't comprehend that people in America have so many different natural colors of hair- from blonde to black to red to whatever. Quite funny.

Friday: I passed my language pass off. Huzzah.

Saturday: Went to Kowloon City on an exchange and served with another Sister Choi (this one is still a missionary) and taught this crazy street lesson in which we taught almost the entire Restoration to a girl standing at a bus stop... only to have a random stranger lady also standing at the bus stop grab this girl's hand and drag her into a taxi. It was the weirdest thing. We stood there on the curb by the bus stop and just looked at each other for like thirty seconds just trying to process what the heck just happened.

Sunday: Read the story of Eglon and Ehud in my personal study... only my family understands why that's funny.

So that's my week. We didn't see any investigators this week because literally every single one of them cancelled their lessons... oh well. This coming week will be better. Today we're going out to the Island to Wan Chi (where the big church building is) to eat pizza, REAL pizza, so more good pics to come next week. Love you all and thanks for the support! (:

-曲姊妹

P.S.
Oh man, I forgot to explain the title........Everything happens here because we're white. When we try to stop people and they're either jerks, or they're nice, or they run away (made two people run away from us while trying to contact them yesterday) we decided it all boils down to the fact that we're both white, and my hair is blonde.
 Sorry about that... haha​.
 also:
 (About a Hank Smith fireside we went to a few years ago, the story of Eglun and Ehud):
15 But when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord‍ raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab.
 16 But Ehud made him a dagger which had two edges, of a cubit length; and he did gird it under his raiment upon his right thigh.

 17 And he brought the present unto Eglon king of Moab: and Eglon was‍ a very fat man.

 18 And when he had made an end to offer the present, he sent away the people that bare the present.

 19 But he himself turned again from the quarries that were‍ by Gilgal, and said, I have a secret errand‍ unto thee, O king: who said, Keep silence. And all that stood by him went out from him.

 20 And Ehud came unto him; and he was sitting in a summer parlour, which he had for himself alone. And Ehud said, I have a message from God unto thee. And he arose out of his‍ seat.

 21 And Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly:

 22 And the haft‍ also went in after the blade; and the fat closed upon the blade, so that he could not draw the dagger out of his belly; and the dirt came out.

P.P.S
​(In regards to the siblings starting a new semester of classes on Monday): in china we call that a jaapgwaan... an adjustment. it's rough but you get into a new normal again. Seriously though, if you can find him a place to do tai chi, do it. like... I don't know. I can learn from this old couple in my ward here or by watching pohpo do it every day, but I don't know about America.

Hey I found Kindermusik here. Apparently I live right by it and also Sister Robinson did Kindermusik when she was little too so we spend five minutes bonding and reminiscing over it. Good times.

Also tell jaiden he should go to usu.

P.P.P.S
(In regards to Sister Crook's potential return date conflicting with mom's BSU graduation): Mmmmm.... can't guarantee anything, but there's a possibility December 19th could still happen. Just depends on when the rest of transfers line up. Because of Chinese new Years this transfer is off by a  week (making it a 10 weeker rather than 9) so it's killer... but it's cool.

Wow. I'm so proud of Jaiden. Got a letter sent off to him this week about all the reaons why he should go to USU, mainly being:
 -Aggie Ice cream and a sister who will take him whenever he wants
- Fredrico's pizza
-Grandma's house (hopefully she'll let us come visit every once in a while)
-good school, good programs, etc
 -But mostly me. haha. Hopefully he enjoys it. should be there this week.​

P.P.P.P.S
(In regards to some little homemade turtles Tessa sent to Sister Crook for Christmas): Oh, also, tell Tessa I'm taking care of her turtles and that the other day we were finding by these apartments and there was some lady outside exercising and her pet turtles were walking around her feet. she had two that she just took outside to play with. Sorry, forgot to take a picture...​

January 20, 2015: Mark Fai, the Drunk Guy

The work's been good this week. Won't bore you all with the details, but Cammy and Kelly are doing well. Finding's been a little rough as we do like, a LOT. but it's alright.

This weeks blessings:

Monday: A former potential that fonged us (didn't show up) called and rescheduled!!! (and then proceeded to fong us again... but no worries, we'll see him again!)
Tuesday: Cammy has a new baptismal date! WOO! Working hard. Had district lunch of PANCAKES and vanilla syrup before district meeting. So great.
Wednesday: Cherry. We taught her her last ABL and then had a nice discussion where she said "When I think of America, I think of... tornadoes." Haha. Told her to go watch the Wizard of Oz and listen to Wicked. Gotta follow up on that one. Haha. She's so funny. I just love Cherry.
Thursday: I love weekly planning. Still. The other sisters did some of my family temple names on their temple day! What a blessing.
Friday: Mark Fai the Drunk Guy. Also visited the cutest pohpoh less active EVER, Sister Chau. She is like a grandma to us and gets mad when we're "not wearing enough coats because it's cold" and feeds us some kind of food every time we visit (even though we protest) because "we're not eating enough". Love her.
Saturday: Had a birthday party for A-Ting (RC) and she's still doing well, really wants to serve a mission!
Sunday: Love church.
Monday: Met TWO nice people on the streets. Woo. Neither had interest but at least they were nice to us.
Today: TEMPLE. I love temple day. We got to hear the session in Cantonese and it was about the coolest thing in the whole world.

Now for the subject of this email... Mark Fai the Drunk Guy. This story is you gauze (funny) so hold onto your pants.

To start off, the elders probably think we're a ding dong companionship that ONLY finds crazy people on the streets. Which is honestly probably true, but when you go out and talk to almost everyone, you're bound to find loads of wackos. Anyways, we were finding and almost about to go in for dinner before English class on Friday where this man approached us and said "Hey, you're Mormons! I used to go to the Mormon church." SO we obviously started asking him about his life and stuff. His name was Mark Fai. Anyways, we didn't really understand what he was saying because he talked really fast and was speaking in Japanese to us too, so we just invited him to English class........ mistake.  Haha. The guy shows up to the elder's AWESOME English class (played family feud!) and as soon as he sat down, he was like "BEJAU! BEJAU!" and then the word for throw up which I can't remember... anyways, he was super drunk and ran to the toilet to throw up. So that was fun. Then he came back and proceeded to make weird comments about the very good looking elders (his words, not mine!). Then when we asked about "expressions of love" as a family feud category, he said lots of stuff about "I love you verrrrrryyyyy uuuuchhhhh with a kiss!" it was so so so so so funny. So we finished English class and packed up to leave and he left... and then Martin, our 78year old English junkie man, said "He's drunk." It was so funny, just because of how blatantly he said it. Good times.

Moral of the story: Don't bring drunk men to English class.

Love you all!

Love, Sister Crook

P.S.
(In regards to mom's letter and college after the mission): Is Jaiden thinking of USU? I thought that would be the funnest thing ever if he went up there too. I think it'd be awesome awesome awesome. I was even gonna write him a letter and tell him he should go there. We have 6 temple names done (sorry, little chines people just can't pronounce italian names..... it's really, really funny) and I'll throw them in the mail for you tomorrow. Thanks!

Some really pretty sister missionaries.  Sisters Killpack, Crook, and Robinson (MTC companions and now roomies).

Fabulous Hong Kong missionary!

Temple Trip

Crook and Killpack: Temple Trip

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