October 19, 2015: The Drop

This week has been pretty interesting. Its always interesting to serve with a missionary that is going home soon. We've been able to see some cool miracles because of it.

last Monday night we went out less active finding. After successfully contacting one sister who hasn't been to church in years, we hit the streets to do some finding. We met a nice mom and I just have this feeling that someday she'll be baptized. She had two cute little girls and was so interested in coming to church. Though we haven't been able to contact her yet, I know that she'll become a new investigator soon. I just had this impression that someday, she will accept the gospel.

Tuesday we had a pretty good day. We were fasting for our ward's 40 day fast that our relief society president was super excited about before she left on vacation a few weeks ago. We went to district meeting where we always learn so much, and then came home and worked on cleaning up our records. We are hoping that someday we'll get elders back in our area, so we figured we may as well take the time to update the records since both of our area and member books needed some work. Then we went to ward council, where the ward proceeded to say... "Just kidding. don't start the 40 day fast yet. the members aren't on board yet." Well, oh well. we get the blessings then! I really have a testimony of the power of fasting, so it's totally fine. We definitely didn't fast for no reason.

We did the Welcome Center on Wednesday and though it was one of those days where it just seemed like nobody wanted to come in I still feel good about it. We still did our best to invite people to come in and look. I think the Welcome Center has taught me quite a few things about patience with other peoples' agency. I really wish I could act upon them and just make them come in and feel the spirit sometimes. But that's not how it's supposed to be. It ends up meaning so much more if they come take a look just because they want to rather than because someone is forcing them.

Thursday was a pretty good day. We got a good chunk of our weekly planning done before going on zone 24s. I went to Pok Fu Lam again with Sister Escher this time. After doing Welcome Center (another rough shift) we came home and made some potential calls. I think it's so good that they set time aside to do that for English class, and I think that is something that I want to set time aside for for our own English class as well. I think it could be really beneficial for helping get our English class more stable. then Friday morning Sister Escher and I went to teach a turnover lesson in Wan Chai which also went really well. The woman was very nice and I was glad that we could help her answer her questions.

Friday evening we exchanged back and went to English class, where we taught Sumi. She was really antsy and wanted to jump around like crazy. I guess sometimes we just forget that she's just a 13 year old kid... We really tried to explain that we need the permission slip back from her or we can't keep seeing her and I think she's just scared that we will force her into being baptized, which is totally not what our purpose is. BUT. We invited her to come to church this week and she CAME! What a miracle. I don't know if it is just because it was Sister Tu'avao's last Sunday or if it was because she wanted to come, but I'm glad she came. She didn't seem to enjoy the young women much... I think they just didn't know what to do with an investigator. We want to have an activity with them where we can help them get to know her better without such a formal setting. I think that would be best. She is keeping her commitments and though she's progressing slowly, she is making progress.

Saturday was a really cool experience. We did some more planning before going to do Welcome Center again. When we left, Sister Tu'avao wasn't feeling very well (which, sadly, is pretty normal). We started the Welcome Center and pretty soon we had to run in to the bathroom. Before we knew it, the poor thing was throwing up every five-ten minutes. I felt so bad for her, but I really just didn't know what to do. it's not like I could leave her to go to buy her some crackers and sprite or anything. So I said a silent prayer in my heart that I would know what to do to help her. I had the impression to ask some elders to give her a blessing. So when she came out of the bathroom again, I mentioned that that was an option. She said "ohhh, yeah!" So the next time I saw some elders come into the Wan Chai Chapel I asked them if they'd be willing to give her a blessing.

The blessing was the cool part. As we sat in the room, she was given a blessing in which she was told that because she had duties to do, she would be healed and be able to finish the day's work. Though it wasn't immediate, she started to feel better pretty quickly. I think the coolest part though, was the fact that it seemed as if those two elders had never given a priesthood blessing before- which is quite possible. They both were a little nervous. But the second one started to speak, the spirit immediately filled the room. It was amazing. I just think it is so cool that no matter who gives the blessing, as long as they have the priesthood power of God, miracles can happen. So cool.

Saturday night's testimony meeting was amazing! I was touched by the spirit of those missionaries and I think that others were as well. I really hope that you continue to do that. I think it would be really good, especially for those missionaries that are struggling with their testimonies or having a hard time. i really really enjoyed it.

love you all so much! Keep me in your prayers as I hit up my last transfer as a missionary! so crazy. (:

-Kuk Jimuih

Photos: Monkey Mountain and the new companion, Sister Nettles

October 12, 2015

This week was pretty good. Actually, it was amazing. General Conference is always so wonderful and uplifting. I cannot even start to tell you how much I learned at conference. I walked in with some questions, a few particularly specific to my own personal life. I received so many answers as well- some specific, some more general. But all in all I wish we had twelve million more days to watch conference! After listening to three conferences on my mission, I've realized something. I seriously, seriously took it all for granted before. I have a new goal to be more focused at home in everything I do- reading scriptures, praying, family home evening, and of course General Conference. It was amazing to see the church's support in sustaining three new apostles- two of which just visited us here in the Hong Kong mission just a few short months ago. So amazing. We are so blessed. I love the leaders of the church and am so grateful for their inspired counsel.

This week we had a wonderful lesson with Joe (LA). He has a desire to come to church but just can't seem to pull himself out of bed. His home teacher helped us teach our lesson on being more self reliant and more dedicated. We read the talk "Your 4 minutes" from a few conferences ago and shared some personal goals on how we all wanted to improve. The spirit really led our discussion and I think it helped Joe have a little more focus in his life.

We saw Kacey as well this week. We finished watching The Mountain of the Lord with her and she loved it. She really felt the spirit. We just still can't figure out why if everything else in her life is in order, what is keeping her from coming to church. I think it's just going to take more time and patience. We'll just keep loving her.

Chan Suet Ping (our 80+ year old LA) is doing alright. We still haven't gotten the ward support we need with sisters visiting her. As much as we'd love to just come and chat with her (which is what she wants and needs) we just can't do that all the time. We need the support of the relief society and it just hasn't happened yet. It doesn't help that due to conference we haven't had correlation this week... It'll be okay though. Our ward is amazing and they're already doing so much for us.

We did some LA finding this week as well and though we weren't able to teach any lessons, we were able to confirm that almost all the visited ge LA's still live at their address. We also taught two of our investigators that we dropped from before just to check up on how they're doing. Elizabeth is still...jsut as weird as ever but doing alright. She has a pretty strong testimony of prayer and knows that it will help her. Grace is still the same as well. She finally found a job that she loves, but just forgets to rely on the Savior. We haven't decided if we will try to continue to teach them or not yet.

Sumi is still doing alright as well. Her mom signed the permission slip for us to teach her- with one problem. Sumi said that she herself wants to sign it. I think she thinks it's just for baptism, which it isn't. She wants to be baptized and knows how important of a decision it is. She knows that  baptism means a change of her lifestyle and she's just figuring out how to do that. I'm really proud of her. For being 13 years old, she is really, really mature and knows the consequences of the decisions she makes.

I think overall this week has been really good. Though we didn't teach a ton of lessons because we were busy with trainings and conference, I feel like we had good success. Conference obviously was amazing and made me so happy. I'm so grateful for the testimonies of living prophets and for the opportunity to be able to serve in Hong Kong.

The biggest miracle is the DROP IN TEMPERATURE. It literally went from 32 degrees C (around 90 F) to 20 degrees C (68 F) in 24 hours. HUGE drop. We were all freezing. I'm literally standing in the apple store in a sweater and tights because it's a bit nippy outside compared to what it was earlier. So crazy how that works. It won't last though, should warm up by next week. But it's been great!

Also, curled my hair for conference... took pictures (one is "e're SO EXCITED FOR CONFERENCE" and one is just us while we look good) while it lasted (rained on us so it died... but dang, it looked good while it looked good! I felt like an American missionary for once! Haha.) Love you all! thanks for the support (:

-Kuk Jimuih

October 5, 2015: The yihm seh

*Mom's note: Sister Crook's homecoming will be either December 27 or January 10th at 1:00 p.m.  Our ward has three missionaries returning the same week so we will take whatever date we are assigned.  Mark your calendar, we'd love to have anyone and everyone come!

This week has been a little bit less busy due to planning for Mission Leadership Council and zone training meeting, but I still feel good about it. I have to say that I am so grateful for the rain the Lord has blessed us with. It makes being outside a lot less miserable! Love it.

Monday evening we had a really great activity with our ward. It was a family home evening held with special permission at the church especially for our less active members. One LA that hasn't come to church in ages (Vicky, also an RC) came. She told us she almost didn't come because she figured FHE is just a bunch of reading scriptures. But she showed up and we ate food and played games and shared a simple spiritual message and really seemed to enjoy it. She told us her original idea of FHE was wrong and was pretty happy that she came.

Lee Wing Yan (RC/LA) is also doing alright. We read the story of the tree of life with her and she really applied it to herself. I think her understanding of the scriptures is actually pretty good, and she really takes in what she reads and applies it to herself, which is a really good quality that a lot of the RC's and LA's that we teach just don't get. She still hasn't come to church since I've been in West Point though, which is really sad. She always tells us she'll come and then never does show up. We're not really sure what's keeping her from coming to church.

We saw Kenson (LA) again this week for the last time before he goes to America. The ward is really worried about him going back, because they know he'll just go back to his church he was in before he came back to Hong Kong. He openly admitted that when he goes back to California, he's going to hang out with his old church friends. It's really sad to see that his testimony about the restored gospel just isn't there anymore. We'll keep praying for him and hope that he makes it to and from safely, and hopefully in December we can start teaching him again.

We saw Vicky (RC/LA) this week and finished watching the Joseph Smith movie with her. She was really touched and it really opened up her eyes to how much he suffered for the restoration of the gospel. We really bore testimony that if we don't keep our commitments, then his suffering is in vain. She seemed to get that pretty well. She even came to church! ...at 12, after the meeting ended. BUT. That is huge progress to her not coming at all! We're going to keep working with her to get her into a better habit of coming earlier and earlier.

We saw Sister Chu (LA) and her two less active kids this week. She's doing alright- they're all reading and praying on their own. But she still hasn't come to church and though she says that it's because her husband gets mad at her in the mornings, we think it's partly her desire as well. We're really working with the ward for next week to be able to have an activity with her and some relief society members to really talk about the role of motherhood. We also plan to teach her kids by themselves too and talk about the role of a son and daughter in the family. We really want to help them have that love and unity that should be in a family, and I think it can happen if they all do their part. The only problem is, I don't think they know what "their part" is. So we'll get there. She's making progress, but I think it'll be some time before she will  be fully active again.

We FINALLY saw Pon Ka Man (LA) this week. I think the only thing holding her back from being reactivated is the fact that she doesn't really want to accept a calling. She's come to church almost every week for the last two months and we hope to keep her that way. She has plenty of friends in the ward as well, which is also good.

We started teaching our member's son Daniel this week the missionary lessons. He is turning 8 in December. It's been good practice for us to teach little children- it really makes you focus on speaking and teaching clearly and simply. I loved it! We also did some less active finding this week and actually had success! We plan to go back and visit that sister again when she's actually home (her mom answered the door) and let her know we are here for her.

Zone Training this week went really well. We did some fun activities (raced to see whose district could dress their district leader up like a mummy using toilet paper the fastest) to break the ice and do our numbers, and then everyone was really willing to participate in our discussions. I think between last month and this month's zone training meetings, we've learned how to balance the trainings out so that the zone gets the best of it. I am really excited about starting to plan for next month in the coming weeks, because we had a really good training and hope that we can continue to build off of it.

I had some really good studies this week in personal study and am just loving being a missionary. The closer it comes for my companion to go home the more I realize that my time here is also short. I'm doing my best just to keep focused and loving the people here. That's the most important part. On a sadder note, the more time I spend in Hong Kong the more I realize that my English is getting really, really bad. But that's okay. I'm not too worried about it these days.

HAHA so the yihm seh. that's chinese for GECKO. Sister Escher (roommate) is absolutely 100% TERRIFIED of them. So we came home after a long day tuesday night to eat dinner and she just SCREAMS. Lo and behold there is this lovely, 4-5 inch long gecko just chilling on the ceiling. So she just stands there panicking and me, my comp, and her comp just did our best to catch it. But then it fell off the ceiling and onto sister Tu'avao's bed, which sent Sister Escher into even more of a panic. So what did we do? Shove her into our office. literally. Sister Adams was like "nobody wants to talk to you." shoves her into my office. So she was just siting on my desk in a ball freaking out. Well, after probably 15 minutes of chasing the stupid thing around our apartment, it disappeared and we couldn't find it anywhere......... so we lied (ssssh!) and told Sister Escher we found it just so she would stop freaking out. literally the funniest thing ever. And then another one appeared last night but disappeared under the other sisters' fridge..... yeah, didn't tell her about that one either. so funny. gotta love a gecko infested apartment. poor things are just trying to get out of the rain!

Love you all. thanks for the support! you're all great.

-Kuk Jimuih

September 28, 2015: Tortillas and Mooncake

It's been a pretty busy week, just as usual.

Monday evening we visited with Kenson (LA) and he's doing okay. He hasn't come to church in a few weeks though, because he's "mhdakhahn" which I think is not 100% true. I think he's just getting too excited to go to America next week. We're hoping to get some members to keep track of him while he's in America and encourage him to find the nearest wards and attend church there. Once he leaves, there isn't much we can do to help him for the next two months or so, so we hope we can get the ward on top of that.

Pon Ka Man (LA) is also doing alright. We FINALLY got to see her, but she only came to Family Home Evening. She has been coming to church pretty regularly for the last two or so months. We think she's on track for a reactivation, but according to the ward she is unwilling to accept a calling, so we're not really sure how to go about helping her to progress.

We had the opportunity to meet with Kacey this week as well (LA) and start sharing with her the video "Mountain of the Lord". The last few times we've seen her we've been focusing on the blessings of enduring to the end, and wanted to show her that video to help put into perspective the people who sacrificed so we could have the blessings on the gospel in our lives. We only watched about 25 or so minutes, but she enjoyed it a lot and had some really good, spiritual insights on how to relate what we watched to our lives. She didn't come to church this week do to an art exhibition but she plans to come next week.

Wednesday we saw Lee Wing Yan (RC/LA) at the chapel and baked some cookies with her (the ones we gave to you!) and she loved it. She really enjoys one on one activities and opens up a lot more. We were with our Relief Society President which was good, because Yan just turned 18 and needs some ward support on going into relief society. We saw her again by herself later in the week and she opened up and said that she feels really uncomfortable around lots of people that she doesn't know, which could be a factor in why she won't come to church after having been less active for so long. It's okay. She still meets regularly with her home teachers, so that's good.

We saw Brother Chan (RC) this week and reviewed the Law of Chastity and eternal marriage. He's really excited to be able to be sealed to his family some day. We hope to help keep preparing him to go to the temple. he had some confusion on the auxiliaries, so we reviewed those as well and I think it was really good.

Chu Iu Mau Tan (LA) is still doing well. We had a really long discussion about her family situation. Her husband hits her kids sometimes and she just is so sad. She doesn't know what to do. He keeps them from coming to church. The other problem they have is that they all are pretty addicted to their phones. Even during the lessons they all have their phones out. We've come up with a plan with the ward members and some of the leaders to have a special lesson with Sister Chu about her responsibility as a mother in the church and hope to help her to better understand how to help her family.

We made muffins with a member and Ding Mei Kwan (RC) and Kacey (LA) and then brought them with us to scripture class. It was really good and I am so grateful the members thought to organize an activity like that right before scripture class- I think they both enjoyed it and learned a lot.

So this week is the week of the Mid Autumn Festival. It actually happened yesterday but the public holiday is today. So Happy Mid Autumn Festival, everyone! Tis the season of people giving us mooncakes again. I have a theory about the mooncakes. Nobody here *really* likes them. They will eat them, but nobody really wants to. My theory is that they all just do it because it's tradition and feel bad about themselves not liking mooncake because they think they're the only one that doesn't like it....but in reality everybody thinks they're gross.

Okay, but really, they're not THAT gross. Just... really rich. So. News. I have some mooncake sitting at my house that we're probably not going to eat because we have SO MANY. I'm thinking of sending some home to the states. If anyone is interested in receiving a mooncake, please tell and I'll be happy to send it to you. (Mom: I'm sending you a mooncake. you all MUST try it.)

So tortillas. Not much to do with the mooncakes... but tonight for the mid autumn festival we have a ward party and I am in charge of making mexican food. (it doesn't make sense, I know. ut a member LOVES mexican food and doesn't know how to make it so I promised I would teach her.) so sister Tu'avao and I literally have been spending hours and hours making 30 hand-made flour tortillas. SUCH a pain. But hey. they're really good. hopefully our tiny tacos that we make tonight will be equally as good.

Last p day we went out to Hong Kong's first baptismal site and some big buddhist temple. Took some pretty pictures and got tons of free buddhist prayer books in Chinese. so that's cool. It was fun. if we can find it, we're going up to Monkey Mountain today!

Well, it's still hotter than heck out here but supposedly should be cooling down in the next month or so. So keep praying that we don't melt. Love you all!

-Kuk Jimuih

PS Funniest story EVER. So Sister Adams and I were on exchanges (we're roommates so even though we exchanged we all were still in the same apartment). We got back before the other sisters and she had the brilliant idea to jump up on the bunk bed and scare Sisters Tu'avao and Escher. SUCH a good idea. we literally crouched down on the top bunk and hid behind some blankets and planned in the dark. The other sisters came home, had a 3 minute conversation about the lesson they just finished, and then prayed.... and then we jumped out at them from on top of the bunk bed and scared the CRAP out of them. SO funny. Sister Tu'avao literally fell over backwards onto a chair and screamed SO loud. and then apparently Sister Escher had a great look on her face, but I missed it. But DANG it was funny. and then we scared Sister Tu'avao again the other day and videoed it. SO funny. When life gets hot, you know what you gotta do? Just keep scaring, just keep scaring... bwuahahaha.