You sound so great! I love the sign danny. you're awesome. And if I were jack, I would enjoy every minute I could get with just mom and dad. especially at chipotles. That makes me so happy you and Abbey help the Sisters so much. You are forces for good. It makes me wonder what we can do to have people in our ward admire us the way you admire them. What do they do? We have a fine relationship with our ward, but we can always strengthen that bond. And Happy Birthday Tommy!!! Lot's of people here have a light obsession with Tommy, and all wish him happy birthday. Obsession's too strong of a word haha. Girls here just really like american boys, and want to meet him if they ever go to America haha. So know you are well loved on this side of the world :) Really though, I hope you had a great day. I know things will never be the way they were before I left, but I wish I had spent more time with you.
Things here are pretty good! Fiona got baptized yesterday, and it was so happy! She's integrated into the ward so well, and into the single adult programs that we didn't have to take much part in anything. Which is amazing and exactly the way things should be. But I feel like our child grew up so fast and moved out or something haha. Not really. But a little. Investigators never get baptized so fast here. We couldn't be more happy for her, but we have an ounce of feeling cheated that we don't get more time with her haha. But she was ready. She was so excited to finally get an opportunity to give a talk haha. Usually at the end of the baptismal service, they will bear their testimony. Some last maybe 3 minutes. She took a solid 20 minutes giving an amazing talk about really just about everything haha. She starts quoting Helaman and Mosiah and a few other scriptures that answered different questions or doubts she had throughout this past month- from terrorist activity, to the importance of work ethic and diligence in her program, to science and the need for religion. I was super impressed. Fiona's a real go-getter. Elder Barker, our district leader, described her baptismal interview and said it was hilarious because he could tell she had very specific and planned answers, although he could tell it was completely sincere. You knew she had planned for that interview all week haha. And the entire interview she had gripped both sides of the table, just leaning across almost like an interrogating setting, just bearing testimony at him haha. She is this cute, small, high pitched sweetheart, so this image of her just going at Elder Barker, this 6 foot something sports star, just makes me smile. I love her. Oh! and we occasionally see President Hawks around the chapel sometimes since the mission office is inside the church, so she has become familiar with President and Sister Hawks a little. She understands he has a great responsibility and is busy and made it clear she didn't expect him to be able to come to her baptism, but she made it just as clear that if he had time, she would like him there. And this is where my admiration and respect for President just continues to grow... President Hawks pushed back a meeting by a half hour and made it work. Isn't that incredible?! And it's not uncommon. He cares about the one, and is so down to earth. We are so blessed to have him as our President.
Anyway, that's that about Fiona. After the service, we once again hit the streets and got back to finding. Got to love finding.
Good news! I'm going back to Kwun Tong! Kind of. Do you remember how much I love Kwun Tong?! I love it. My favorite place in Hong Kong. Lam Jimuih went home today (the natives went home early for new years), so me and Sister Takahashi will add Sister Brown to our companionship and cover both Sham Shui Po and Kwun Tong for the next month, kind of like what I did back in August. So we're excited for that. What else, Elder Ballard and Elder Raspband and Bishop Stevenson are visiting Hong Kong Feb. 25 and 26, so we're so excited for that! I can't wait.
I want to tell you about Cherry. We had an interesting experience with her. Actually, we've had several similar discussions with a disturbingly large amount of people. We are teaching her about the Savior. And she is having a difficult time getting it. We have come from just about every angle we could to help her understand who He is, what His life consisted of, why He is important. We've tried everything. And she's learned a lot, but she still doesn't get it. We know that the main purpose of the Book of Mormon is to testify of the Savior, so we decided to pick a specific chapter to read with her about the Savior to help her better understand his character, and we decided 3 Nephi 17 would be perfect for her. The Savior is visiting the ancient american people, and he teaches them. He blesses him. He tells them that he needs to return to His Father, but will come again tomorrow. He recognizes that they don't understand perfectly all of his teachings and instructs them to go home and think about it. Pray about it. But the Nephites don't want him to leave. They desire them to stay. Cherry was so painfully confused at why they would want someone who taught them things they didn't really understand to stay. The savior then stays and does miracles. He heals them and blesses them, and weeps with them. I think it's a very touching chapter that helps us understand the Savior better. And Cherry didn't get it. We showed her that Reflections of Christ video. We have taught her the atonement. She knows that Christ loves us. She doesn't have, or at least recognize, her love for Him, and doesn't understand why we would should have love for Him. I have seen it time and time again. Even Fiona who clicked with the gospel had a difficult time understanding why she could have love for the Savior. I think it's interesting that family relationships can be so different here. Cherry has a great family and has good family relationships with them. We asked her in the presence of her entire family about what she thinks about eternal families, and point blank, she didn't care for it. In front of all of them. And it didn't bother them. I am trying to understand and peek into this thinking more, because I think it's crucial. And the thing is, they are amazing good people. But interesting, eh? I have realized and I have been grateful for the love I have for my Savior. I had never viewed it as such a gift before. My time is up, so i need to go. I wish I could wrap up my thoughts, but maybe next time. I love you! I miss you!
Love Hannah
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