August 24, 2015: HK Transfers...dun dun dun!

I think moves calls this time came as such a surprise to me. Mostly because literally NOTHING HAPPENED. Haha. Basically, it's almost guaranteed that I'll stay here until I finish my mission because my companion goes home at the end of this transfer in October. Which means unless I move somewhere in the middle of this transfer (which is possible but not likely) I'll be here till December. I was given a bit more responsibility. Sister Tu'avao and I have been assigned to be our zone's sister training leaders, so we're in charge of making sure our sisters are taken care of and we plan zone training meetings and things with the zone leaders. It's a privilege to be called to serve in a leadership position. I certainly wasn't expecting it.

I feel like last transfer went by way too fast, and I certainly wasn't expecting to be able to stay in my area, let alone be a sister training leader. I'll be completely honest with everyone, at first I wasn't sure I could do it. I mean, I know that the calling came from the Lord, but I was definitely a little afraid that I wasn't going to be able to handle it. After a few days of processing, lots of prayers, and a few planning sessions with the zone leaders I feel a lot more comfortable with my calling. I know that I have a lot to learn and I am grateful for this opportunity to learn how to be a better, more humble leader. I already know I have a lot to learn and have already learned so much, so I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve and will continue to pray that the Lord will give me the strength and skills needed to fulfill my calling to the best of my ability.

We had a miracle this week! When I first got to West Point (in May) we were given the information of an older less active woman who had just moved back from Canada. We tried so many times to call her and tried to visit her house, but it was no use. No one ever answered the phone and no one was ever home. After a while, we just tried to call every once in a while, still with no success. Well, Tuesday afternoon I was pretty sick with some kind of stomach bug and really just didn't feel like doing much. After trying to eat a tiny dinner we went to the chapel to wait for a lesson. We were a little early so I just laid down on the floor and prayed that I could be feeling better by the time she came. She never did show up- but bless my companion's heart she just did phone calls while I just laid on the floor. For whatever reason, she called Sister Chan (this lost sheep less active we've been trying to find) and a) she answered! and b) she scheduled us! Had I not been sick at that very moment, we probably wouldn't have called her and probably wouldn't have scheduled her.

Turns out, this less active woman has a non-member daughter, son, and a husband! She lives with the daughter and husband and lo and behold- they're willing to let us visit them in their home! Together! WE've been really struggling to teach part member families- even though we really want to. We have such a miracle in our hands. We are going to see her tomorrow and then schedule a time we can visit her and her husband together. I've talked with him several times on the phone and he is so so so nice. It's so hard to find part member families in which the family members are willing to listen to the missionaries. What miracles and blessings!

Brother Chan (our RC) is still doing awesome. He came to both sessions of stake conference and seemed to enjoy it. He just loves the gospel. He even called us yesterday and asked us to bring more flyers to our next lesson, because he's already given out the stack that we gave him the first time. The man is the best missionary I've ever seen! I'm so excited to help him get to the temple and start doing family history work. I know that is yet another wonderful way he can learn to be a missionary.

We finally got ahold of Kacey Chan (LA) and read scriptures with her. I think she's doing okay, but there's clearly something that holds her back from coming to church. She always promises that she'll come but then she never does. We really need to figure out what is keeping her from coming back. The ward council suspects it's because she doesn't feel like she has any friends. But we just found out a recently returned sister fellowshipped her when she was an investigator, so we are going to try to see if that helps her at all.

We had two amazing new investigator miracles this week. The first is Ivy. She's actually a former from about a year ago and her record says absolutely nothing as to why the missionaries stopped contact. We suspect she got forgotten as missionaries moved and went home and stuff, but we're not sure. She was so nice and is willing to continue to meet with us. I'm so excited. She's a 19 year old girl who really has some amazing hopes and dreams for her life, and I know without a doubt that God can help her achieve them.

The second came after a long, long hot day of finding. Sister Tu'avao and I were pretty discouraged after about 4.5 hours of finding with literally no success. We met nice people but none of them stayed around long enough to talk about gospel principles. We finally decided to take a few minutes to sit down, eat ice cream, and then restart our finding. As we were eating our ice cream, the Mandarin elders called and asked if we were in the area, because they found a Cantonese speaking man who had a ton of interest. We hurried to finish and went out to meet them. His name is Kelvin. We gave him a tour of the chapel and found out that he's already downloaded basically every app our church has to offer. He's already looked at the church websites and everything. WOW. He already downloaded the Book of Mormon and had started to read it a little. We're seeing him again tomorrow and are so excited. He truly has been prepared!

Stake conference this week was amazing. Though I obviously didn't understand 100% of the things that were said, the messages the spirit taught me were strong. Each and every one of us, no matter whether we're missionaries, members, or whatever definitely needs to make a renewed commitment to be at church early and to really try to get the most out of sacrament meeting. Especially as we've been preparing a sharing for zone meeting on keeping our covenants, it just really hit me how important our baptismal covenants are and how we really need to be better at showing the Lord our commitment to keep them.

Thanks for all your support! love you all! (:

-Sister Kuk

August 17, 2015: Different

AS far as finding this week, we had a rough time. With the past few days of crazy rain, people just weren't wanting to stop. But we taught a full lesson in the Welcome Center of a really great lady from Mainland, China who is really prepared to hear the gospel. She's heard all of the bad things about our church from her older sister but she just doesn't seem to care. She said "I don't really care what the people say about the Mormon church. I feel good there, and I think that's what matters." Sometimes it's really hard to be out there 24/7 in the real world, talking with people who have access to the internet, and thus have access to every bad thing that anyone has ever said about our church. This woman's simple testimony reminded me that that's true- it doesn't matter what other people think. If we feel good about it, then it's true. It's all a personal testimony- which is not something other people can change.

We got to see Brother Chan twice! Ah. He is the cutest old man ever. It's a little frustrating because he likes to recount the stories he's already told us like, a bajillion times, but it's fine. He's lonely and doesn't have anyone but his church friends to talk to these days. He's so cute. He really wants his entire family to have the opportunity to hear the gospel. I know without a doubt that if he continues to live the standards that he is living now, his family will accept the gospel someday- even if it's in the spirit world.

Last night our correlator invited us over for dinner. We were talking about people and their problems, and Sister Tu'avao just joked "I have something that can solve your problem- if you just pray and read about the Book of Mormon you'll know _________. (insert concern here)." She said it several times in regards to different peoples' concerns, but it's true. I know without a doubt that our testimonies just go back to the basics- the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and of course most importantly Jesus Christ. If we have a testimony of Jesus Christ, everything else will come in its own due time.

We met with Brother Fung again and the entire lesson was really...just not that good. He consistently laughs at us because he thinks that it's funny that our church sends out 20 year olds to teach about our church. Though I don't really think that's all that weird, I am a little annoyed that he doesn't respect our time. We are very seriously considering dropping him because he wants the whole world to revolve around him and he wants God to change his life, but he isn't doing anything in his life to show God that he wants those changes. It's a little frustrating, because he just has no motivation to change. We're probably going to give him some more time to himself to take care of his problems and figure out if he really wants to change his life or not.

We had a really cool experience in our lesson with one of our RC/LA's, Vicky. She's a recent convert of almost a year but the last few months she's been pretty inactive. It's so sad to see how fast that can happen. We met with her last week and were thinking of watching the Testaments with her to help bring the stories of the Book of Mormon to life. But when we got to our lesson, we found out she'd already  seen it. So we invited her to look through the chapel movie selection and find something  she hasn't seen before and we'll teach a lesson from it. She picked out "The Mountain of the Lord". As we watched the story of the Salt Lake City temple unfold in front of us, we were amazed at how much we didn't know. Of course, we watched the movie in Chinese so I probably only understood 60% of the details, but I knew the outline of the events pretty well. At the end of the movie, all four of us (missionaries, Vicky, and fellowship) sat for a few moments in total silence. The spirit was so strong. None of us even knew what to say. I have never seen that movie before, and neither had anyone else, and it was truly amazing. I was so surprised at how moving it was, despite the fact that I didn't completely understand it. Though it wasn't the lesson we planned, I think Vicky really needed to feel the spirit that was there. I was so grateful for that experience and learned so much about teaching by the spirit.

I think overall its been a really good week. I've definitely learned a lot and I know my summer missionary has as well. It was sad to drop her off at the office this morning, but it was partly a relief. I love her so much and it has been a fun experience, but I'm exhausted. it's all good though- I learned a lot and I am so grateful for the opportunity that I had to help her learn how to be an obedient missionary. I hope if there's anything she learned, it's obedience. It's such a huge part of my mission and hope others will be able to see that as well.

Also, this week marks 1 year in Hong Kong! I can't believe it. One year ago tomorrow, I landed in Hong Kong. 1 year ago Thursday I met my trainer and went to my first area. It all goes way too fast. I remember thinking the days and weeks were dragging on forever and I just wanted to go home so bad. But now, everything is different. I look different. I feel different. My testimony and attitude is different. My college plans are different. I am a completely different person, and I know it is because I have allowed the Lord to change me. I've served in some different areas and met some different people. But you know what- the gospel is the same. No matter what language you preach and teach in, no matter what race of people you serve- it is the same. I ams o grateful for this experience till now, and am excited to make the next four months count as much as they can because I know it's going to be gone way too fast. Love you all!

-Kuk Jimuih

P.S.
(note to mom):I seriously cannot tell you how excited I am to come home and help Jaiden prepare for a mission. My preparation was CRAP and I had a pretty hard adjustment once i hit the MtC. if I could even help him prepare a tiny bit better than I did, it'd be worth it. I have so many amazing miracles and stories and cool things and I wish I had time to just tell him all the things that happen in the week.


There is a 50-50 percent chance I'll move this week. I really don't know yet. Because Sister Tu'avao goes home next transfer, it's possible I'll leave and they'll bring in a new missionary to take my place. It's also possible that I'll stay here until I go home (this option is the best and I'm praying for it but it's the Lord's will, not mine...) Sister Killpack lives really close to Monkey Mountain. I really want to go but because of where I live, getting there on a p-day is really hard. It's pretty far- 40 mins on a  train to Sha Tin and then even farther on a bus and then a  hike- which my feet do not exactly enjoy. I want to make sure I get there before I leave Hong Kong though. I'll make it happen sometime.

Well, tell everyone (grandma and grandpa Profaizer) I say hi and that I love them! and give the stinky pet a hug for me. thanks! love ya.

August 10, 2015: More Miracles

Its been another week full of miracles.

Mission Tour and Zone Conference were SO GOOD. I cannot even begin to describe how much I learned from Elder Gong in those few short hours of training. I especially loved Thursday night's trainings about how to include the Savior in our teaching. It answered some questions I didn't even realize I had. I now have a renewed energy and desire to focus my teaching even more on the Savior than I have been. Someone said something to me once- that if our investigators don't understand God or Jesus Christ, they'll definitely not understand anything else we teach. I feel like it's so true- we taught an investigator a few weeks ago who we'd tried to teach the Restoration...only to find out he just doesn't really even understand God. I think he understands it on the surface, but not really internally. So we had to backtrack. And I think that's the best thing to do. I know that a better focus on teaching with a stronger focus on the Savior will truly help our investigators come unto Christ.

I had the wonderful opportunity to meet with Elder Gong (in the Asia Area Presidency) one on one for a few minutes after our mission tour. He wanted to speak with one sister and one elder and just get to know us better. It was such a wonderful opportunity and I'm so grateful I got to counsel with a general authority of the Lord. It just strengthened my testimony that he is called with the same power and authority I am and he knows, he truly knows, what is best for our mission. So cool! I had a panic attack at first, because as we were eating dinner President Lam came behind me and bent down and said "Sister Crook, would you like an opportunity to speak with Elder Gong?" For a second I panicked that I'd be in trouble- but then I was like "That's so stupid. I'm an exactly obedient missionary. I'll be fine." Turns out he just wanted to chat for a second. So good. haha.

We met with Kacey (LA) this week. We had an amazing lesson. We watched Finding Faith in Christ with her and all throughout the movie and the discussion that followed, the spirit was so strong it was almost tangible. I am so grateful for that lesson. It helped her feel the spirit that I don't know she's felt in a while. She still didn't come to church yesterday, so there's clearly still something holding her back, but we can't seem to figure out what it is.

We taught a really good lesson in the Welcome Center this week as well. We weren't having much success- it seemed like everyone was just running to and from work and nobody seemed to want to talk. But just when we were thinking we needed a water break and some time to think, a man approached our table. I said hi to him and it turns out that he's met missionaries before a few times and wants to learn more. He had so many questions that were answered by the message of the Restoration. Turns out, he even lives in our area! ...sometimes. he's actually homeless. He really wants to learn the gospel but knows that his lack of a home right now is a little bit of a challenge. We gave him our number and he said as soon as he finds stable housing, he's happy to contact us again. That was a little miracle that we were grateful for.

Summer missionaries are challenging and wonderful at the same time. I've never been a trainer, so I don't know really who to train a new missionary. But so far it's been going really well. Sister Kong is working really hard. I won't say she's fearless- she does get afraid- but she's strong and doesn't let that fear get in the way of the work that needs to be done. She is already such an example to me and I am learning so much from her. We've had a couple days where our coordination with the other set of sisters (my normal companion and her summer missionary) has caused some stress (one phone, one set of house/church keys, two companionships!) but I think we're coping pretty well. I know that Sister Kong has already learned a lot as well. We were out finding one day and I challenged her to approach the next person, which she agreed to. She did, and the woman invited us to sit on the bench with her and teach a lesson. After teaching a bit about our purpose and prayer, we invited her to church- and Sister Kong was so so so happy when that woman walked into church yesterday morning!

The highlight of my week was when Brother Chan was baptized!! He was so excited and we are so happy for him. He truly knows that baptism is a change of life and he was so excited. The poor guy was so tired because he worked all night Saturday night and came to church without having slept, but he was great. After he was baptized, we sang "I Stand All Amazed" in Chinese and it was wonderful. Then they invited Brother Chan to share his testimony, and both companionships of sister missionaries just panicked. In the madness of coordinating two different companionships teaching him, we missed teaching him how to bear his testimony. OOPS. Totally our bad. So he got up and shared his testimony...... for 20 minutes. I think he literally told his whole life story and then some. And then at the end, he wasn't sure how to end it (at this point we are feeling really, really stupid because the whole ward is looking around like "what is this guy doing?") and so several people are trying to whisper that he needs to close in the name of Jesus Christ. But for him, that was a cue to pray. So at the end of his testimony, instead of just closing it, he starts to pray and says this great, long prayer about how he wants God to help his family receive the gospel. At the end, he said "Fung Yehsou Geiduk dik mihng, amuhn." and the whole ward was so relieved. It was quite funny, but at the same time it was really sweet. He knows this church is true. He knows it. and he wants EVERYONE to have it. I love that, so much. His testimony is such an example to me.

It's been a really good week. I'm grateful for the experiences we've had- the ups, the downs, the amazing spiritual moments and the moments you want to cry. I've learned so much from every second of it. Thanks for the wonderful trainings this week. I know I learned a lot and I am sure the other missionaries did as well.
Love, Sister Crook

August 3, 2015: Inspirational tacos and syukeihs

This week has been full of miracles. I feel like a robot when I say that, but it's true- every week we see miracles around every corner and in different ways. It's been a kind of rough week as far as numbers go, but those don't really matter- we helped lots of people come unto Christ this week and that is what is important.

Brother Chan is doing awesome. He passed his baptismal interview and he is truly so so so excited for his baptism. The members were really supportive on Sunday when they announced it and they are all so excited. He's scheduled to be baptized on Sunday right after church. We are going to review Joseph Smith with him this week and keep helping prepare him to share his testimony. We're even preparing a musical number with some ward members to sing at his baptism. It'll be really good.

We didn't get to see Elizabeth last week. Her mom is having some health problems and I think she's really stressed about it, and she has a niece preparing to get married this weekend so she's just really busy. But we're seeing her tonight and hopefully can keep teaching her. She is really willing to learn, just really busy.

We taught our less active Kasey this week, and she says she wants to come back to church. She promised she'd come, but didn't come to church this Sunday. We are going to keep working with her and support her in her decision to start coming back to church. She's been really, really good at reading her scriptures and praying though, which is good because she used to not really read her scriptures hardly at all. We're so proud of the progress she made.

We're working with a couple of less active brothers, Joe and Kenson. (They are not related.) They both have the same problem- they're less active and they know it and they know it's not the best choice for their lives. Both feel awkward during lessons when we share with them messages that are tailored to their needs. If you have any suggestions about how maybe we can help them feel a little less awkward about meeting with us, that'd be great.  They're willing to meet, our lessons are just awkward.

We decided to give Brother Kwok a little bit more time. He told us that even though his desire is there, he wants to wait until he's really old to be baptized- probably because he wants to wait for his mom to die first so he doesn't disappoint her. Someday some missionaries will pick him up agian- that's what they do with an eternigator. Its definitely an interesting process. I know he'll be prepared to heat the gospel again someday.

We spent some time out on one of our outlying islands, Cheung Chau this week. SO dumb. There are so many tourists and the island is so complicated to find your way around. I am glad we went out there, because it helped us know that it's not really worth it to go out there very often. Past missionaries have told me that but no one has been out there in months. We tried to track down some lost sheep but didn't have too much success. We probably won't go out there again for a few more months, at least.

So for the title. First of all: A syukeih is a summer missionary! These next two weeks I'm on permanent splits with an 18 year old member of the Tung Chung ward named Sister Kong. She's super cute and I'm way excited to be serving with her. It gives members a chance to get out and experience missionary work in the real world. Pictures to come later or maybe next week. (This dumb MAC is too small and has no usb plug. SO LAME. macs are SO LAME.)

So inspirational tacos. Last week I lost the ring that my parents gave me for graduation/Christmas my senior year and I was absolutely devastated. I don't EVER take it off so it literally fell off my finger and I can't comprehend how.I was so sad. It happened right as I started really working to pray for patience, so I figured it was a trial of my faith. I prayed or the strength to not be distracted by it and just let it go, and prayed that I'd find it in the Lord's time. Well, I had the thought to make lettuce wraps for lunch one day and started cooking the stuff and had the inspiration to use some taco seasoning my mom sent me to make taco lettuce wraps. As I was pulling out the taco seasoning, my ring fell off the top shelf of our cupboard. I don't have the slightest clue how it got there, but I know that I found that ring as soon as I gave my entire will to the Lord and wanted to forget about world things. I am so grateful for the lessons we learn as missionaries, no matter how small and simple they may be.

Thanks for all the love and support. You're all the best! Love you all!

-Kuk Jimuih (:

July 27, 2015: Cheesecake

Well, not too much different has happened since I reported last. Well, a little bit.

Brother Chan is still doing well. We finished teaching his lessons and tonight plan to do a practice interview with him to prepare him for an interview later in the week and a baptism next week. He drives a taxi for work and talks to almost everyone that gets into his taxi about how the gospel is amazing and has changed his life. He mentioned that once, a while ago, in a lesson. Well, he showed up to church yesterday with a guy who's probably a third his age (Mr. Chan is 69, this guy was like... maybe 30. if even.) He told us that this kid got in his taxi and was interested in hearing the gospel. Talk about awesome referral! He lives in Ngau Tau Kok's area though, so we got his information and scheduled a turnover for this coming week. Mr. Chan has the most amazing desire to share how the gospel has changed his life. It is really the coolest thing ever. He is so excited to be baptized, even though he knows he still has so much to learn in the church.

Elizabeth is doing well as well. We really struggled to keep her focused long enough to teach her the first lesson (took us fourish times of meeting her before we could teach it all) and we were really stumped at what to do. We realized we can't drop her if we haven't even told her about baptism yet. So we had a whole lesson just on baptism. Elizabeth really wants to join the church and said she'd be willing to be baptized to do so- but she feels a little guilty because her daily scripture reading has been kind of bad. She said she wants to understand more first, and then she'll be ready. We agree completely- she has a LOT to learn before she'll be ready. But we talked about the sacredness of the opportunity to be baptized and invited her to prepare for October 25th. She said she can't 100% promise us that she will absolutely be baptized on that date, but said for now she's willing to work toward that date as a goal. That is HUGE progress for her. She's a little older and has some memory problems (and she's a little...she has some attention problems) but it's okay. She knows the basics: that God loves her and that if she wants to know the truth and really feel it, she has to read the Book of Mormon. I think it'll be a slow process, but we're going to keep working with her for now.

We met with our LA Kacey this week, after about a month of not being able to contact her at all. Turns out she's been working on an art portfolio (she's very talented) and just finished this week. After we saw her she said she's willing to work to coming back to church. She passed her 1 year- RC mark this week and is now no longer a recent convert- just less active. But she has the desire to come back to church and we're going to get her there. Our member pushed having her get her patriarchal blessing a little too hard in that lesson (Kacey doesn't feel prepared yet) but I think it's a good idea, if we can help her understand a little more about what it is and how to prepare for it. I think if she has real intent, she'll progress really quickly.

We met with Kenson, another less active. The elders had long lost track of him before they closed the area, so it was a miracle that we could meet with him. We had a pretty good discussion about faith in Jesus Christ. He committed to come to church but he didn't show up yesterday and we don't really know why. So we'll get ahold of him again and figure out what is going on.

After English class we taught two younger girls, Chloe and Sum Yin. Chloe was a random number we just called that was in our phone from ages ago and we suspect she is a former but aren't really sure. She came to two hours of church yesterday though and though she was overwhelmed by how many people greeted her and invited her to do stuff (go to class with them, activities, etc) I think she'll stick around. She seemed to enjoy it. She's only 14 so we'll have to get permission from her parents to keep teaching her and help her progress towards baptism. She has a lot of really good questions, so we'll answer them bit by bit. Sum Yin's whole family are actually formers, so we hope to keep building the relationship with her as well and start teaching her family soon.

We met with Brother Kwok yesterday and were just as frustrated at the end of his lesson. He says he knows the church is true and that he wants to return to God's presence and that if he really wants that he has to be baptized. but every time we invite him, he always says "I'll think about it" or "maybe later" and won't really give us a specific answer. We're to the point now where we are considering stopping teaching him because he just doesn't progress. (I guess that's what we get for trying to pick up an eternigator, right?) Someday he'll accept the restored gospel. I know he will. I just don't know if it'll be in this life or the next.

Overall it's been a pretty good week (I mean... a pretty good few days) and we have a good week planned out with lots of lessons. Tomorrow we'll be going out to see how Cheung Chau is, since we have several less actives that live out there and missionaries haven't been out to that island in months. We're taking one of our young women and her recently returned missionary sister with us to do some finding, so it'll be good. I'm excited to see what people the Lord is preparing for us to find tomorrow.

So in English class this week we learned about body parts, and afterwards we all sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and drew bodies part by part on the white board and it was just about the funniest English class I've ever experienced. I just about peed my pants for like an hour straight. So funny. the pictures turned out quite special. I love English class because we always have such a wide variety for people that come. We have Lai Yi, who's like a billion years old but wants to learn English so she can communicate with her family in Canada, and then there's a lot of tiny little kids and it's just fun.

I feel like there have been several moments that I just look around and it just hits me, so overwhelmingly hard, that I live in Hong Kong. I speak Cantonese better than most of the Mainlanders that come to live here, and I know where the best place to find barbecue pork and coconut filled pineapple bread is. I know the train stations like the back of my hands and the ward members truly treat us like family. It's so amazing. Sister Chun walked into church this week with a bag of chocolate (she knows how much me and Sister Tu'Avao love chocolate) and a thing for butter masala (indian food) and spam... haha. She said "I know it's the end of the month." We are really blessed and don't ever have to worry about money because we live in our area, but some missionaries spend up to $500-800 in traveling because they don't, so by the end of the month they're tight on money. But we're good. Then at the end of sacrament the sister sitting in front of us turned around and said "Would you like a cheesecake?" (in english.) us: "huh? umm....... sure?" Yeah, she went home yesterday and baked us a homemade cheesecake. We ate some of it for breakfast today- TO DIE FOR. except there's no crust. just cheesecake in a pan. but it's dang good. We're so blessed! I love this ward.

Well. That's enough rambling for today. Love you all so much! Thanks for the love and support and the prayers. (:

-Love,
Kuk Jimuih

July 23, 2015: Temple Week

It's been a busy week (or I guess like.... 10 days since I reported last) for us in West Point. We have several investigators now and each of them have their own special problems that we've really been struggling to resolve. (or rather help them resolve).

Mr. Chan is doing awesome. He's still on track for baptism on August 9th and he is really excited. We just finished teaching the commandments and have started with lesson five. This week we'll do a practice interview with him and he should be right on track for his baptism. We realized we need to review a little bit about the first and second lessons, but he is doing really well. He has good relationships with the ward members and we're really proud of his progress.

Mr. Fung is recovering from a recent stroke that has led him to believe that maybe there is a God in his life. He still isn't sure. We taught the Plan of Salvation to him last week and he seemed to enjoy it and seemed to understand it, basically. We started to teach the restoration last night though and he was very distracted. We have a goal to give every investigator a baptismal date and so we brought up baptism and talked about it, but every time we said it he just laughed. Then he'd regain his face and say "Oh, sorry, I was just thinking something funny." but then he'd do it again and again. We think he's probably not ready to hear about baptism. At the end, he told us he thinks we're too young to teach him anything. I was so frustrated at that point. Sometimes (like President Lam told me in interviews today) you just want to shake them till they get it! This is their eternal salvation! Its so important! But most of the time they just don't understand that right away... WE'll try and teach him after church with a member that is closer to his age and see if that helps. All I could do in that moment is just bear testimony that yes, I haven't experienced certain things in my life, but I know by experience that the Atonement is real and that we are called of God.

Mr. Kwok is literally an eternigator. He's been investigating for 10+ years. He wants to be baptized but is afraid his 90+ year old mother will be angry at him for not following the typical chinese tradition and worshipping idols. We gave him a baptismal date and invited him to pray about it, which he willingly agreed to do.

Grace is another struggle we're experiencing these days. Our member helped us fellowship one day and seems to think that Grace only wants to see us because we're friends to her and she doesn't have many. We are actually planning to let her go for some time and hope that she'll realize she misses the spirit she feels when she meets with us. It was a hard decision and I feel sad, but we just don't know what else to do to help her since she's so unwilling to come to church.

Elizabeth is another special case (I feel like that's all we're teaching) and yet another that we are considering dropping and letting her have some time. We haven't brought up baptism with her yet though, so we're going to give her one last chance to accept our invitations to act to improve her life. If she agrees we'll keep teaching her. She does have a real desire to learn the gospel, but seems it isn't too high on her priority list.

I am so grateful for the opportunity we had today to go to the temple. Sister Lam reminded me in our interviews today of the true blessings of the temple. I feel like I often take it far too much too granted. We are so blessed to have a temple in our area and I'm so grateful that it serves so many different countries. That is such a miracle. We always meet such cool people in the temple from all over the world.

So this week has been a little wet. The weather has been more bipolar than Utah's weather. One day it's totally sunny and down pouring at the same time. Another day it's cloudy and hot. But mostly it's been rainy. Actually, on the way back to the mission office after lunch today we got stuck in a downpour that literally was flooding the streets of Kowloon Tong. TONS of water was just rushing everywhere. Several inches just flowing down hills and stairs. It's been fun. This week we've had a couple of days of monsoons. I'm not really sure the difference between monsoon, typhoon, and black rain but I'm pretty sure it's just the level of wind. It's been fun and we've been wet for a long, long time.

Last week we learned how to do crazy animal tai-chi for a relief society activity, and then this week we got to learn how to do really basic massage. Wow, was that a brilliant idea or what.

Well, we don't have a ton of time today (interviews ran late and it was temple day) so that's all for today. I love you all! Thanks for the prayers and the support. (:

-Sister Kuk

P.S.
(About a prompting mom had): Hmm, definitely don't know what to tell you about your promptings, other than I know we just have to follow them. I've seen too many times to count where we get weird promptings to walk somewhere we hadn't planned and it ends up in miracles. That happened this week- we were out finding before a lesson and hd the thought to go walk down the ugly pier. We found a 13 year old girl who is SO prepared to hear the gospel. We're turning her over to the Sham Shui Po sisters since that's where she lives. So cool.

PS. Mom- put that video of the giant bug we found on my blog for all to see. It was DISGUSTING and that video was so funny. All the sisters in the apartment were FREAKING out. I love when Sister Tu'avao says "It's so gwai now!" (gwai- well behaved) so that was just really funny. that was a DISGUSTINGLY huge bug of an unknown source. good times.

Photos:
Sister T. an Sister Crook
Plan of Salvation: Cantonese style

July 13, 2015: Awkward Missionaries are Real

Things are looking good in West Point for this week. We saw some pretty cool miracles and had a busy week , as always.

Mr. Chan is doing well. We are going with him next week out to Ap Lei Chau to visit his daughter in a mental hospital. When we asked if he'd like us to go with him he was so excited and said "Of course!!" This man. He is just so cute. he's like my own little Chinese grandpa, and I want him to receive this gospel so bad! He is still looking good for his baptismal date on August 9th, so we'll keep working with him. WE think his biggest problem may be about tithing (he heard about it before and wasn't too excited) but a member gave an excellent talk yesterday in church about the blessings of tithing and he was listening intently. We're seeing him tomorrow and reteaching tithing, so I think we'll know more after tomorrow's lesson. He just wants the whole world to meet us missionaries and receive the gospel. He always tells everyone "You need to listen to what they say! It's good stuff! The scriptures are good stuff!" It's so funny.

Elizabeth is a different story. The more we meet with her the weirder she seems. This week she walked into our lesson just fine, but about 20 minutes in, she was suddenly insanely tired so we tried to get up and walk around with her as we taught the lesson. We made it through the first lesson (after four times meeting with her) and just aren't sure how much she's retaining. She's keeping her commitments and coming to church though. We didn't think she was ready to hear about baptism yet earlier, but we think that now is the time to invite her to be baptized. If she isn't wiling to commit, I don't know how much longer we will teach her. She's definitely got an interesting personality.

Grace is still doing alright, though she still doesn't want to commit to coming to church. I think it's because she has no friends there, but the ward is  little hard to convince to come help us teach her because she is very defensive and abrupt and many of them remember her from before. We have a plan to ask members when they're available first and then schedule Grace. She's doing really well in her Book of Mormon reading. I am amazed at how much she understands and reads, and she look forward to reading the new assignment we give her each time we see her.

Friday evening we had a wonderful activity. With the help of the ward members, we were able to show the Joseph Smith movie to the missionaries and their investigators from our stake. Kowloon Zone did something like that in December last year and we brought our 1-week RC Cherry with us and it was a HUGE success. So after prayerfully considering it, we decided to give it a shot out here too. I really think it was a success. Though there was some  miscommunications and things about minor details, all in all it turned out well and I know that everyone's investigators and less actives really enjoyed it. The spirit in the room that night was tangible.

Saturday we had a pretty fun day full of strange little miracles. We were planning out a 2 hour block of consecrated finding and both of us had the prompting to go out to Peng Chau- a $50 trip in travel and something you definitely need all day for. We both felt good about it, so after rearranging some lessons we found a way to get out there and stay the whole day. We literally spent the entire day knocking on doors- something I haven't done very much of on my mission. It was a new and different experience. We met some really nice people, including a man that agreed to let us come back and teach him and his wife together (she wasn't home at the time so we couldn't go in) and even found a guy who said he was looking for religion and found us. It was pretty amazing. We were able to place five copies of the Book of Mormon. What a blessing to have so many people on that little island with a copy of the book that will change their lives!

Funny story about that adventure out there. We stopped a guy (the above, looking-for-religion guy) on the street on the way to visit a less active and we had a nice conversation. Suddenly, he just stopped, looked at me, and said "You must be really nearsighted. Your glasses are really thick." (thats a basic translation from Chinese.)I was like "Um, yeah, my vision is pretty bad." Then he proceeds to look at me and says "Hmm. Oh well. They make you look smart." me: "Thanks." "And you're still pretty, so it's okay." Me: "...... so the Gospel of Jesus Christ..." Haha. So awkward. It's hard being a white person in China! And then after we taught him how to pray, he reached out to shake our hands and then goes to awkwardly side hug Sister Tu'avao, but it turns into an awkward tap on the shoulder. Then he turns and goes to hug me but must have seen the absolute panic on my face ( I mean, I just don't even remember how to react to that, and it's mdak [not able? English is hard]) because it turned into this weird wannabe side hug thing that was just so awkward. Wow. I think I understand why missionaries are so awkward when they come home from their missions!

That same day it was SO HOT and I was so tired that at lunch we sat on a  bench and ate peanut butter jelly sandwiches and I curled up in the corner and fell asleep on my bag and a bag of copies of the Book of Mormon. My legs were crossed and when I woke up both of them were dead asleep from the waist down. So that was fun. And apparently some dog was trying to lick my legs while I was asleep and my companion just watched it happen... but I was out cold, so who knows what really happened. Missionary work just DRAINS you!
It's been a busy week and I am beyond exhausted, but I'm so excited to be able to be serving a mission in Hong Kong. I know that the Lord keeps continually preparing people for us to find every day and it is truly such a miracle when we find them.

We got to bake cookies with the young women this week (they made the cookies for our activity friday) and it was SO FUN. There are only 2 girls in town right now and they're sisters, and they are SO cute. They took over my camera and just filled it with goofy pictures and dang, we had so much fun. I love these girls and their leaders! The young women are awesome and just love helping us out.  I wish I had been more of a help to the missionaries before my mission.

Wow. That's a crazy week. love you all! thanks for the support and prayers and stuff! (:

-Kuk Jimuih

pictures: us and our weirdo ward mission leader, Brother Chu (Crook family just imagine Grandpa Crook's goofiness, but worse, haha) who apparently can't smile normal for a picture.
Me, Sister Tu'avao, and the Lock girls, Menorah and Jennifer baking cookies and looking cartoonified because they insisted. So fun!