Happy Martin Luther King Day!!
What a great day. The weather here is so beautiful, and I get to email you all! Couldn't be happier. I'm so glad you read that dedicatory prayer. Isn't it incredible? http://www.ldschinese.com/library/dedications/CD.html
Absolutely, no questions asked, I couldn't be more blessed than to serve these people. It is so unique to come into contact with people who have been prepared in incredible ways to pioneer the gospel here. China has such unique beliefs and traditions, with such powerful potential and expectation for the gospel to come forth. The concept of small and simple things has changed for me, because I know that little by little, the gospel catches hold of hearts here. The process is slow and steady. Most investigators take months to finally receive baptism. But the feeling of this flood of truth and light is right on the edge. Powerful miracles take place everyday, and will do nothing but increase. The overwhelming feeling I've had since I've arrived, is this necessity of being worthy and ready in every way possible to help these people accept this message. Which in turns yields a lot of room for correction, giving me another reason why I can say this is - hands down - the most humbling thing I have ever done. It's an interesting attitude we have in this mission, though - striving to seek correction and improvement. Because I believe we all have this urgent desire to see the work roll forth here, and we can feel it happening. President Hawks spoke at last Zone conference, and I remember him saying something to the effect of, "Years down the road when you talk to your children or grandchildren about your mission experience, they will ask you when you had served. And the only answer necessary to give is when the hastening of the work took place. 'I served in the China Hong Kong Mission during the hastening of the work,' and they will know exactly when you are talking about." And I know that applies more than to just the China mission. The hastening of the work is happening, and the message is true. It is an incredible experience to teach someone with no real prior knowledge about the atonement of the Savior. More often than not the idea is so foreign and strange and almost, in their view, unnecessary. They don't understand it and can't comprehend it. But the Spirit without fail bears testimony to them, and there is a sacred and precious peace that enters the conversation. Some continue, many don't. But as we continue to go on with Joseph Smith, or the Book of Mormon, that same witness again makes it's presence. And it has strengthened my testimony that the fulness of the gospel is restored. I have always felt a special spirit and had a special testimony of the Savior. But I have felt those same feelings towards the message of the restoration, and that is why I know that this church is true. And it is such a blessing to share that with these prepared, unique, and special people. I love it. So yes, I am more than blessed. :)
Well, I love you all. That was a long testimony! haha. But you unlocked my deep awe for these people. Just like Les Mis, or apple pies, or math...once I get going, it's hard to stop me. Thanks for bearing with me :)
Love you!
Hannah
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Like Les Mis, apple pies, & math...
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Hey there everyone! Thanks for those pictures!! I can't wait to come home and be able to join you in those kind of seafood/ chopstick festivities. I'm stepping outside the world of bagel bites for new years haha. who would have thought?!
I am learning to appreciate your love for schedules and patterns, mom. Slowly. Still learning. But wow, are you brilliant. It takes multiple people beating these concepts into my head until I realize these simple principles you've lived so easily raising me. It's because you make everything look too easy that I don't understand their importance. right? That's my excuse.
Sham Shui Po is doing great. still finding, and teaching and praying and walking. This week was cold! The first time in a long time I was excited to put on extra socks! Loved it.
We eat dinner at the universities a lot, because they're cheap. And the other day on our way out, we taught a girl about the restoration. Great lesson. But then we realized we were in the middle of this baptist university campus....mhdaat?! ya, probably. They really don't like us there. We don't proselyte in any air conditioned areas because those areas are usually inappropriate for us to do that, but she approached us. and she really needed a book of mormon. It was just funny thinking back on it. Shoot, don't think I'm an inconsiderate missionary. We're pretty good at that kind of thing haha. And I already typed the story...!
But thank you so much for sending that about the temple! That's actually why we didn't email until today, because today was our district's temple day. I love the Hong Kong temple. I feel like their is so much heritage connected to it and the history of the people here, and at the same time, so much potential and possibility for what's to come. Every week we see people from all over this side of the world coming to the temple. I love hearing their stories. Last week we met this family from the Philippines. The mom was the Stake Relief Society president, and her 18 and 19 year old daughters were her counsellors. Incredible, huh? This morning when I was prepping I actually read over the dedicatory prayer for the land of China. President McKay ( I think gave it, I can't remember) specifically asked to bless the missionaries with a keen knowledge and understanding of the way these people thought and how to present truth and light in a way that would be appealing to these people of such ancient traditions. Which gave me hope, because that's my biggest struggle here...understanding how these people will understand the gospel. But it was great. I loved it.
here are the quotes:
President Gordon B. Hinckley made this statement to the Ensign just prior to the dedication of the temple in Hong Kong. 'I almost weep every time I think of having a temple in the great Chinese realm [wherein live one-fourth of the inhabitants of the earth]. It will be a different kind of temple. I want to say that if I ever felt the inspiration of the Lord in my life, it was on the occasion of going over there to find a place to build a temple." Ensign, June 1996, pg 47
Excerpt from The China Dedicatory Prayer, by David O. McKay, January 9, 1921, Forbidden City, Peking
"...May the Elders and Sisters whom thou shalt call to this land as missionaries have keen insight into the mental and spiritual state of the Chinese mind. Give them special power and ability to approach this people in such a manner as will make the proper appeal to them. We beseech thee, O God, to reveal to thy servants the best methods to adopt, and the best plans to follow in establish thy work among this ancient, tradition-steeped people. May the work prove joyous, and a rich harvest of honest souls bring that peace the the workers' heart which surpasseth all understanding....Hear us, O kind and Heavenly Father, we implore thee, and open the door for the preaching of thy Gospel from one end of this realm to the other, and may thy servants who declare this message be especially blest and directed by thee...."
Good luck with everything back home. Abbey looks gorgeous, as always. And danny and Jack are awesome. Gai yauh. Alright Jack, Katy Perry just came on here at the apple store. I'm trying to tune it out, but thought I would give you a shout out :) Love you guys!
hannah
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I am learning to appreciate your love for schedules and patterns, mom. Slowly. Still learning. But wow, are you brilliant. It takes multiple people beating these concepts into my head until I realize these simple principles you've lived so easily raising me. It's because you make everything look too easy that I don't understand their importance. right? That's my excuse.
Sham Shui Po is doing great. still finding, and teaching and praying and walking. This week was cold! The first time in a long time I was excited to put on extra socks! Loved it.
We eat dinner at the universities a lot, because they're cheap. And the other day on our way out, we taught a girl about the restoration. Great lesson. But then we realized we were in the middle of this baptist university campus....mhdaat?! ya, probably. They really don't like us there. We don't proselyte in any air conditioned areas because those areas are usually inappropriate for us to do that, but she approached us. and she really needed a book of mormon. It was just funny thinking back on it. Shoot, don't think I'm an inconsiderate missionary. We're pretty good at that kind of thing haha. And I already typed the story...!
But thank you so much for sending that about the temple! That's actually why we didn't email until today, because today was our district's temple day. I love the Hong Kong temple. I feel like their is so much heritage connected to it and the history of the people here, and at the same time, so much potential and possibility for what's to come. Every week we see people from all over this side of the world coming to the temple. I love hearing their stories. Last week we met this family from the Philippines. The mom was the Stake Relief Society president, and her 18 and 19 year old daughters were her counsellors. Incredible, huh? This morning when I was prepping I actually read over the dedicatory prayer for the land of China. President McKay ( I think gave it, I can't remember) specifically asked to bless the missionaries with a keen knowledge and understanding of the way these people thought and how to present truth and light in a way that would be appealing to these people of such ancient traditions. Which gave me hope, because that's my biggest struggle here...understanding how these people will understand the gospel. But it was great. I loved it.
here are the quotes:
President Gordon B. Hinckley made this statement to the Ensign just prior to the dedication of the temple in Hong Kong. 'I almost weep every time I think of having a temple in the great Chinese realm [wherein live one-fourth of the inhabitants of the earth]. It will be a different kind of temple. I want to say that if I ever felt the inspiration of the Lord in my life, it was on the occasion of going over there to find a place to build a temple." Ensign, June 1996, pg 47
Excerpt from The China Dedicatory Prayer, by David O. McKay, January 9, 1921, Forbidden City, Peking
"...May the Elders and Sisters whom thou shalt call to this land as missionaries have keen insight into the mental and spiritual state of the Chinese mind. Give them special power and ability to approach this people in such a manner as will make the proper appeal to them. We beseech thee, O God, to reveal to thy servants the best methods to adopt, and the best plans to follow in establish thy work among this ancient, tradition-steeped people. May the work prove joyous, and a rich harvest of honest souls bring that peace the the workers' heart which surpasseth all understanding....Hear us, O kind and Heavenly Father, we implore thee, and open the door for the preaching of thy Gospel from one end of this realm to the other, and may thy servants who declare this message be especially blest and directed by thee...."
Good luck with everything back home. Abbey looks gorgeous, as always. And danny and Jack are awesome. Gai yauh. Alright Jack, Katy Perry just came on here at the apple store. I'm trying to tune it out, but thought I would give you a shout out :) Love you guys!
hannah
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Mom! Dad! hello!
I love reading these letters. I read it over a couple times...which takes time away from writing back, but just makes me happy! What a fun new years! You know, I don't eat Singapore noodles much...but I'll keep an eye out for them now. Kowloon Tong doesn't have much street food...too poshy. And Cha siu faan was the big hit in Kwun tong (barbequed pork and rice). But I'll find it, no worries :) That sounds like such a fun skiing day! you all look so good! And I love that horoscope haha. especially the...Though you’re a loving person, you are absolutely not to be crossed and you genuinely enjoy arguing your point for hours. ...It's so true! that's embarassing. Slow progression, right?! I can do better with that eventually. This mission's already working wonders :) And please keep that Austin City Limits for the next year so I can watch it when I come home. Avett Brothers AND Nickel Creek?! what a present.
Things are going well. I just love the few people we're meeting with. We met Fiona yesterday, and she is the most incredible person. She's been researching a lot about our church, and ran across the word of wisdom. so she gave up tea and coffee over the weekend and told us about it at church yesterday. she say's it's hard, because she's so busy and tired. But she said she knows God can help her...even if it's through a nap haha. I love that girl. We had a few other new investigators at church with us, and she was so excited for us to find more new friends to join the church. Whenever we talk to her, she asks how our "new friends" are, if we have found any more new friends, where went missionarying that day, and what she can do to help our new friends learn more about the gospel and join the church haha. We taught her the plan of Salvation yesterday, and it really turned into her teaching the lesson herself. We had given her the pamphlet to read in preparation for it, and she came back to lesson pulling out scriptures she had found about it, and in full depth talking about deeper principles we usually don't go over with brand new investigators...so that was testing our cantonese a little bit haha. But she's amazing. She wants to be a linguistics professor iin America after she finishes her PhD. Has some PhD friends over at BYU right now....so who knows?!
I wish I could go over all the people we're working with right now. Seriously, you guys would fall in love with every one of them. We met an Asian Beyonce the other day - wish she would have been interested, because she would have been fun to teach. She looked exactly like what an asian version of Beyonce would look like. And she had on this huge white fur coat, and a tiny mini skirt with huge heels. Long straight beyonce colored hair parted in the middle...do you see it?! It was so her. she smelled like shaving cream. I'm sure we'll run into her again. Odds are totally in our favor, right?
Actually, we very well might have run into her again when we went out finding yesterday. We were out at Morse Park, and a concert started going on. thousands of people started flooding the park over the course of 2 hours. And some fancy Chinese opera took over. Beyonce gone opera? It could happen. You could hear it throughout several neighboring chyuns. Chinese opera is interesting...it's like this super high pitch squeaky nasally woman's voice,and usually a nice sounding deep man's voice. It's gets your attention pretty harshly, but then it grows on you. I don't mind it haha. Old yeh-yeh's (grandpa's) are always carrying around with them little portable radios, so on our long finding days, we are in constant nourishment of our chinese opera. And usually they're all on the same wave or something, because as we walk around, the song connects from yeh-yeh to yeh-yeh. The simple things in life...
Speaking of which, thanks mom for sending that article. I love that idea of long obedience. I must be your daughter because I've been studying a similar thing myself lately...this idea of spiritual patterns. It's when we make those day by day, small righteous decisions that we can accomplish great, excellent goals. It's more of a habit than a one time event. I love President Monson's instruction that decisions determine destiny. I need to be better at establishing spiritual patterns. I feel like sometimes I have these spiritual spikes that I ride on for awhile until I get my next charge, and I want to change that. And when I think of other "spiritual spikes" or huge events that lead to conversion, such as Alma the Younger, I can't help but think of the steady constant counsel and teaching and firm correction from his father all those years. I think that was a crucial spiritual pattern that prepared Alma to grow and change from that huge experience that he had. Anyway, I too want to be better at long obedience. Having more constant firm growth. the discipline to do that is another story haha. We'll figure it out :)
I love you all! I miss you so much! Sorry to write you so much haha. I just get going.
Thanks for everything
Love hannah
I love reading these letters. I read it over a couple times...which takes time away from writing back, but just makes me happy! What a fun new years! You know, I don't eat Singapore noodles much...but I'll keep an eye out for them now. Kowloon Tong doesn't have much street food...too poshy. And Cha siu faan was the big hit in Kwun tong (barbequed pork and rice). But I'll find it, no worries :) That sounds like such a fun skiing day! you all look so good! And I love that horoscope haha. especially the...Though you’re a loving person, you are absolutely not to be crossed and you genuinely enjoy arguing your point for hours. ...It's so true! that's embarassing. Slow progression, right?! I can do better with that eventually. This mission's already working wonders :) And please keep that Austin City Limits for the next year so I can watch it when I come home. Avett Brothers AND Nickel Creek?! what a present.
Things are going well. I just love the few people we're meeting with. We met Fiona yesterday, and she is the most incredible person. She's been researching a lot about our church, and ran across the word of wisdom. so she gave up tea and coffee over the weekend and told us about it at church yesterday. she say's it's hard, because she's so busy and tired. But she said she knows God can help her...even if it's through a nap haha. I love that girl. We had a few other new investigators at church with us, and she was so excited for us to find more new friends to join the church. Whenever we talk to her, she asks how our "new friends" are, if we have found any more new friends, where went missionarying that day, and what she can do to help our new friends learn more about the gospel and join the church haha. We taught her the plan of Salvation yesterday, and it really turned into her teaching the lesson herself. We had given her the pamphlet to read in preparation for it, and she came back to lesson pulling out scriptures she had found about it, and in full depth talking about deeper principles we usually don't go over with brand new investigators...so that was testing our cantonese a little bit haha. But she's amazing. She wants to be a linguistics professor iin America after she finishes her PhD. Has some PhD friends over at BYU right now....so who knows?!
I wish I could go over all the people we're working with right now. Seriously, you guys would fall in love with every one of them. We met an Asian Beyonce the other day - wish she would have been interested, because she would have been fun to teach. She looked exactly like what an asian version of Beyonce would look like. And she had on this huge white fur coat, and a tiny mini skirt with huge heels. Long straight beyonce colored hair parted in the middle...do you see it?! It was so her. she smelled like shaving cream. I'm sure we'll run into her again. Odds are totally in our favor, right?
Actually, we very well might have run into her again when we went out finding yesterday. We were out at Morse Park, and a concert started going on. thousands of people started flooding the park over the course of 2 hours. And some fancy Chinese opera took over. Beyonce gone opera? It could happen. You could hear it throughout several neighboring chyuns. Chinese opera is interesting...it's like this super high pitch squeaky nasally woman's voice,and usually a nice sounding deep man's voice. It's gets your attention pretty harshly, but then it grows on you. I don't mind it haha. Old yeh-yeh's (grandpa's) are always carrying around with them little portable radios, so on our long finding days, we are in constant nourishment of our chinese opera. And usually they're all on the same wave or something, because as we walk around, the song connects from yeh-yeh to yeh-yeh. The simple things in life...
Speaking of which, thanks mom for sending that article. I love that idea of long obedience. I must be your daughter because I've been studying a similar thing myself lately...this idea of spiritual patterns. It's when we make those day by day, small righteous decisions that we can accomplish great, excellent goals. It's more of a habit than a one time event. I love President Monson's instruction that decisions determine destiny. I need to be better at establishing spiritual patterns. I feel like sometimes I have these spiritual spikes that I ride on for awhile until I get my next charge, and I want to change that. And when I think of other "spiritual spikes" or huge events that lead to conversion, such as Alma the Younger, I can't help but think of the steady constant counsel and teaching and firm correction from his father all those years. I think that was a crucial spiritual pattern that prepared Alma to grow and change from that huge experience that he had. Anyway, I too want to be better at long obedience. Having more constant firm growth. the discipline to do that is another story haha. We'll figure it out :)
I love you all! I miss you so much! Sorry to write you so much haha. I just get going.
Thanks for everything
Love hannah