Hello Family!
How's your week? Has school started yet?! Jack, you're in High School! And Danny, you have your toughest year ahead of you! you'll do great :)
I will be completely honest in telling you that I have been racking my brain trying to think back on the week and I'm drawing blanks. It's a usual phenomena come email time, so I'm hoping ideas start coming. This week we had zone training a week early, (happy surprise), so we were rushing in trying to plan it. So our area didn't see as much of us since it takes a while to travel down to Kowloon. But I am a big believer in the Law of Compensation, and nothing was completely neglected :)
For this 6 stakes goal to really happen, some wards need to see as many as 20 new people attending their ward by April, especially an increase of Priesthood holders. Which I'm really not sure how to compare that to other places, but seeing 4 or 5 convert baptisms a year in a ward here would be a good average I think. Some more, some less. So that's an incredible number to get in eight months. So we've been making a big push for less active work. Especially for Priesthood holders. Our stake right now has app. 650 active members and almost 1500 less active members, so there are lots of old friends to bring back. Another idea we've been praying about is home teaching. For the most part, we teach single adults and schedule them at the church because their families don't want much to do with Christianity at home. But a lot of the growing generations all went to catholic or christian schools, so I think that trend will start being a little more tolerant. And especially here in the New Territories where it's not super busy city, there are sooo many young families. And a couple paakmuhning areas, or places you can knock on doors. So, we are making a push to teach people, especially families, in the home. It's just been a custom of the mission to meet people on the street, show them a picture of our church, or give them our address and then schedule to meet them there. But now, we're just acting like it's a normal thing to go visit them in their home, and we give them our planners to write down their address and smile. They're pretty hesitant, but we're getting more and more. The culture here isn't huge on letting strangers come to your home, but it's been neat to see cool things happen from it. You meet so many of their family and friends, and they get to know missionaries for who we are. It's pretty cramped, so sometimes you know them too well. And you get to know the people at much better levels when you can look around their home and get a feel for their life. I know, it sounds like common sense for us to have been doing this the entire time, but it is quite strange. I've been pretty blessed to teach a couple of my investigators at their homes...Cherry, Jiu Jimuih, Awan. Oh I miss them. I love them. I haven't written about Cherry for awhile. I forgot how much I love her. Mom, you have to meet her someday.
We did a couple other things too, but I'm mostly just excited to be done planning those zone training meetings. That was my tenth one? I think it's because they know I wouldn't listen or get much out of it or ever do the plans or actions if I didn't study and prepare for it. Those tricksters :)
I'm quite the boring writer today! Sorry, I usually don't ever write about zone stuff or too much about people because I know that it's hard to really relate to things or people you've never seen. But it's all that has occupied my mind lately. We've made a huge push to visit less active priesthood holders, and let me just say that I have visited more men in their boxer shorts than any sister missionary ever should. It's hot, I get it, but pants are good. It's been interesting though, having so much more opportunities to teach men. They're much easier to teach than women. In my opinion. Women have a lot of distractions and excuses or drama that hold them back, and teaching doctrine or principles aren't as important to them as talking out feelings. So you walk up to a woman on the street and try to bring up the Book of Mormon, and the entire conversation turns into how they have never thought about God because that's what their husbands do. So, no thanks. You talk to them more, and help them understand, on a more emotional level, why god is important and can help them with their kids or their relationships. But it's hard to get them past the wall of not being open to what they actually think about things. Whereas, you walk up to a man who is reading a newspaper, and you bring up this book of ancient scripture and a little more logical doctrinal conversation about God, and they're willing to talk to you about it. And it's fun. No, I love teaching women, I don't mean that I don't. All of my favorite people I've taught are women, but the men sure are thinkers!
This week we met a man named Billy. He's awesome. He believes that God is like a cloud with different faces...Buddha, Allah, Jesus Christ, etc. He believes that God is an energy, and there have been many inspired leaders who have been in contact with that energy throughout history. Some elders taught him last year, and we found him in the formers. They wrote him off as a crazy guy, but he's made a ton of progress! We essentially agreed with him that eternal truth exists. Lots of people have different ways of interpreting what is true, and will call it different things. Just like math or science tries to explain universal truths, religion is the same. But then we took it back to foundation of the world and explained Prophets and priesthood, and the difference between inspired prophets of God who receive direct revelation through priesthood power and other inspired leaders throughout history. It was awesome to see how much he understood and accepted the idea of personal lines of communication with God and priesthood lines. you need both lines. And we worked our way through the patterns of apostasy up until Joseph Smith. Billy loved it! I loved it! it was fun. And the best part about it, was that it was exactly the lesson of the restoration, with a small twist for Billy. But the gospel and it's principles can be taught so simply and clearly, and can still give people with concepts of cloudy things to hold to. Don't worry, we cleared up with him that God literally has a body. It's sometimes hard to know when you are teaching people with very different views of God, or absolutely no view of God, if we should teach the restoration or plan of salvation. But Joseph Smith's first vision tells a lot about who God is.
I am so sorry to go off. I have written so much about not a lot. I hope you all are doing great! Hope school is awesome. I love it out here, and and doing well. Happy, tired, all that good stuff.
Have a good night!
Love hannah
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Pants are good
Monday, August 31, 2015
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Oh that list made me sad about my future. The people part of it is great! but the gre/job/ideas with professors part is discouraging. I have no idea what I am going to do, and I am stumped knowing that it is entirely up to me. And I'm tired of having the responsibility of things and people on my shoulders. But other people seem a whole lot more enjoyable than myself. Especially since those other people weren't really on my shoulders at all. People are so good. And it's incredibly fulfilling putting forth energy for others. And it's been interesting having to turn on a very extravert role - which is not my nature - and switch it on and off. It wears my brain out, I think. But it feels natural. As a missionary it's easy to feel like people's conversion entirely depends on your obedience and your preparation and your ability to teach by the spirit, and on and on about the missionary's self. I have loved listening and knowing President and Sister Lam. The greatest lesson they have taught me up to this point is that it has nothing to do with you. You better do all of that because that is expected, but it is in no way your work - so don't act like it is. And I know that. It reminds me of what Elder Oaks had said in the MTC "you aren't here to be thanked, you are here to serve." It really is a privilege to squeeze myself into other people's very personal and spiritual lives, and just watch things unfold. President and Sister Lam and their family all joined the church, and is now a mission president and wife, and the only interaction they had with missionaries was a baptismal interview by a zone leader called in that they had never met before. I love that. Today I was thinking about what it means to be a servant of the Lord, and I thought of a few places in the scriptures when it talks about servants. The first was Mosiah 2 when it explains that we could literally give everything we have, and we still would be unprofitable servants. So I have established that I am doing a decent job at the unprofitable part. I've never been humbled so much as I have out here. And then in the Parable of the Talents where the Lord calls him a good and faithful servant. In all reality,perhaps we are unprofitable, but I can be good and faithful. I have control of at least that. And miracles come and success is seen and progress is made,but it's nice to remember where that all comes from. Hong Kong is seeing some huge growth. we have 4 stakes right now, but they are planning a big ceremony Hong Kong wide party thing at the beginning of April where they will celebrate 6 stakes in Hong Kong. It's pretty exciting. Elder Gong came and presented it to us missionaries, and that was kind of the theme of it. Progress and success is coming, but we need to remember where it is coming from. The New T's don't have much part of it, especially Butterfly, so we'll surprise them with 7 stakes or something by April (just kidding) but the Kowloon stake was split into 3, and Sham shui Po is practically a stake of it's own, with some additions from the neighboring wards. no that's exaggerated. But there are alot of help from other wards, but it was right at the center of it. Made me excited for the people there. It's fun to see so much excitement. People work so hard, I am amazed at the veteran members here who just keep building. It was interesting to hear Elder Gong talk about temples and stakes. He is the area president over half of the world's population. Crazy, huh? But he said there were 138 operating temples for 3.5 billion people, and then 2 for the other 3.5 billion people in his area. But pulled up a map and showed us places around asia where the church is growing and stakes are being established, and perhaps possible future temples could be built. He said of course that it something that is inspired through the prophet, but where there are stakes, Temples are built. After seeing so many people travelling from india or other places and really sacrificing so much, I understood a little more how sweet it would be to see a temple built in India. how neat. The work is real.
It's been a fun and long week. We had a few sisters get pretty sick ini our zone, so we made several trips down to Kowloon Tong to pick stuff up. And it was so fun stepping back into my old area. And so different. Especially with the leadership being completely different. But it was nice. I found out that Ho Tin's mom, the one with multiple sclerosis is getting baptized this Sunday. I love their family, and I am so excited for them. Hot Tin gets his mission call any week now. Super excited to see where he gets called to,. There are only 3 native Hong Kong people here as missionaries now. Isn't that incredible? They are very valuable missionaries with the language and everything, its funny to watch wards fight over them. Actually, with transfers just happening, there could be more. I wasn't moved, so I will stay in Butterfly! I love it here. I'm very happy. I have a lot of pictures to send, so maybe I'll just give brief explanations of a few of them. Jacob, our not really investigator, is a boy in our ward. His mom asked us to teach him all the lessons to make sure it was his decision to be baptized, so we did, and we're pals. Cutest family. It's nice having an 8 year old best friend who brings snack for you after church. He sang "I'm trying to be like Jesus" at his baptism,and it reminded me of Tommy. I still remember that. So they're like the asian family version of us. kind of. They're great.
We also went to Tai o, a fishing village near Tuen Muen. We took a ferry over, and it was incredible. I love the ocean. Every time I go, I just get excited, and don't want to leave. We met a couple new friends, one of which was a 90 year old man who really wanted to show us around the town haha. The houses are all on stilts, and the have the best tofu around. Eating tofu at a Chinese fishing village with a 90 year old suhksuhk.
Doesn't get much better. I loved it. Alright, Hope you have a great week!
Love Hannah
It's been a fun and long week. We had a few sisters get pretty sick ini our zone, so we made several trips down to Kowloon Tong to pick stuff up. And it was so fun stepping back into my old area. And so different. Especially with the leadership being completely different. But it was nice. I found out that Ho Tin's mom, the one with multiple sclerosis is getting baptized this Sunday. I love their family, and I am so excited for them. Hot Tin gets his mission call any week now. Super excited to see where he gets called to,. There are only 3 native Hong Kong people here as missionaries now. Isn't that incredible? They are very valuable missionaries with the language and everything, its funny to watch wards fight over them. Actually, with transfers just happening, there could be more. I wasn't moved, so I will stay in Butterfly! I love it here. I'm very happy. I have a lot of pictures to send, so maybe I'll just give brief explanations of a few of them. Jacob, our not really investigator, is a boy in our ward. His mom asked us to teach him all the lessons to make sure it was his decision to be baptized, so we did, and we're pals. Cutest family. It's nice having an 8 year old best friend who brings snack for you after church. He sang "I'm trying to be like Jesus" at his baptism,and it reminded me of Tommy. I still remember that. So they're like the asian family version of us. kind of. They're great.
We also went to Tai o, a fishing village near Tuen Muen. We took a ferry over, and it was incredible. I love the ocean. Every time I go, I just get excited, and don't want to leave. We met a couple new friends, one of which was a 90 year old man who really wanted to show us around the town haha. The houses are all on stilts, and the have the best tofu around. Eating tofu at a Chinese fishing village with a 90 year old suhksuhk.
Love Hannah
My area in Butterfly
Monday, August 17, 2015
Hello!
We have an awesome family!!! I love hearing your updates! Tommy's life sounds like a dream. How cool is he? And Camilla, Happy Birthday!! Mom sent me a picture of you last week, and you look beautiful. Abbey, I am so impressed with what you are doing right now. You are a down to the bone hard worker, just like dad. I am so impressed with you. Maybe you can hire me when I come home to do your laundry or something :) Danny, I am a vote for the man bun. You would pull it off beautifully. And Jack! You are going to high school! I can't believe it!! What classes are you taking? Who are your teachers? Fill me in. I cant believe school is starting up again. That went by way too fast.
Well, Jack, actually you have been the center of a few conversations this week for me, actually. We started teaching this woman named A-Wan. She's a Hong Kong person equivalent to a black woman, and I looove her. She has a 13 year old son who is struggling with a few things, so when I was telling her about my family, we ended up talking about you quite a bit and showing a few pictures. She thinks you're awesome, and we're going to help her son. Her son is addicted to computer games. He hasn't left the computer chair for weeks on end, and hardly eats what she fixes him. Just headphones in and shooting things for days on end. A-Wan is a single mom, and has recently just lost her dish washing job. She is stressed and humble and willing to do anything to help her son. She heard of some people in her hometown in mainland talk about Jesus Christ when she was younger, but never gave it much thought. But when we met her on the street, she said she would be willing to give it a try. When we talk she gives everything she is to listen and learn more about the power of God to bless our lives. I've never had anyone listen to me so intently, and it makes me want to make every word I say well worth it. She is an incredible woman and mother, and it's been a blessing to become her friend. The guards at her chyun our incredibly unfriendly. The first time we went to visit her, we walked into the lobby thing to sign our names in, and then the guard just starts screaming at us to leave. We aren't welcome here. We try to explain that we were invited by a woman to visit her in her home, and we would be happy to call her and have her verify, but this lady just wont have it and is making a huge scene and calls security to take us out of the building. And that always just feels awful. You would think after the first few times, I would get used to that feeling of being publicly asked to leave, but it's still just as humiliating. But we call A-Wan and explained the situation and asked if we could see her at the park nearby. A-Wan says she'll take care of it, and to wait a few minutes. A-Wan trumps out of the elevator, and with her zebra diaper pants and green crocs, just starts giving it to this woman about how horrified she is that such persecution exists in her chyun. She had some finger snapping going on, and Sister Robinson and I are just standing outside this glass door looking in with pure amazement. A-Wan is a bigger woman with a lot of attitude, and the guard finally gave up and beeped us in....the guard still hates us, but we get to teach A-Wan in her home, which is such a rare thing here. But greatest miracle of it all, we got her son to talk to us. turns out he likes to hike a bit. Thinks lakes are cool. Never heard of computer programming before, but willing to give it a try! haha. thinks it sounds cool. When we come over, he takes off his headphones and will listen in. And the house is just a one room block, so we all just surround his computer haha. And he's started to take a break and say a closing prayer with us. it really is a miracle how he's changed and warmed up. We have no idea why, but it's been neat to see.
Well I love you all. Sorry I had a couple other fun stories, but I'll wait till next week! I type too
much. Sorry.
Love you! Happy Birthday, Camilla!
Hannah
We have an awesome family!!! I love hearing your updates! Tommy's life sounds like a dream. How cool is he? And Camilla, Happy Birthday!! Mom sent me a picture of you last week, and you look beautiful. Abbey, I am so impressed with what you are doing right now. You are a down to the bone hard worker, just like dad. I am so impressed with you. Maybe you can hire me when I come home to do your laundry or something :) Danny, I am a vote for the man bun. You would pull it off beautifully. And Jack! You are going to high school! I can't believe it!! What classes are you taking? Who are your teachers? Fill me in. I cant believe school is starting up again. That went by way too fast.
Well, Jack, actually you have been the center of a few conversations this week for me, actually. We started teaching this woman named A-Wan. She's a Hong Kong person equivalent to a black woman, and I looove her. She has a 13 year old son who is struggling with a few things, so when I was telling her about my family, we ended up talking about you quite a bit and showing a few pictures. She thinks you're awesome, and we're going to help her son. Her son is addicted to computer games. He hasn't left the computer chair for weeks on end, and hardly eats what she fixes him. Just headphones in and shooting things for days on end. A-Wan is a single mom, and has recently just lost her dish washing job. She is stressed and humble and willing to do anything to help her son. She heard of some people in her hometown in mainland talk about Jesus Christ when she was younger, but never gave it much thought. But when we met her on the street, she said she would be willing to give it a try. When we talk she gives everything she is to listen and learn more about the power of God to bless our lives. I've never had anyone listen to me so intently, and it makes me want to make every word I say well worth it. She is an incredible woman and mother, and it's been a blessing to become her friend. The guards at her chyun our incredibly unfriendly. The first time we went to visit her, we walked into the lobby thing to sign our names in, and then the guard just starts screaming at us to leave. We aren't welcome here. We try to explain that we were invited by a woman to visit her in her home, and we would be happy to call her and have her verify, but this lady just wont have it and is making a huge scene and calls security to take us out of the building. And that always just feels awful. You would think after the first few times, I would get used to that feeling of being publicly asked to leave, but it's still just as humiliating. But we call A-Wan and explained the situation and asked if we could see her at the park nearby. A-Wan says she'll take care of it, and to wait a few minutes. A-Wan trumps out of the elevator, and with her zebra diaper pants and green crocs, just starts giving it to this woman about how horrified she is that such persecution exists in her chyun. She had some finger snapping going on, and Sister Robinson and I are just standing outside this glass door looking in with pure amazement. A-Wan is a bigger woman with a lot of attitude, and the guard finally gave up and beeped us in....the guard still hates us, but we get to teach A-Wan in her home, which is such a rare thing here. But greatest miracle of it all, we got her son to talk to us. turns out he likes to hike a bit. Thinks lakes are cool. Never heard of computer programming before, but willing to give it a try! haha. thinks it sounds cool. When we come over, he takes off his headphones and will listen in. And the house is just a one room block, so we all just surround his computer haha. And he's started to take a break and say a closing prayer with us. it really is a miracle how he's changed and warmed up. We have no idea why, but it's been neat to see.
Well I love you all. Sorry I had a couple other fun stories, but I'll wait till next week! I type too
much. Sorry.
Love you! Happy Birthday, Camilla!
Hannah
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
hello!!!
This is going to be a short one. You're trip sounded incredible! Isn't our family so blessed to have parents like you? Please send me more pictures next week! I'll send a few. This week we got fed a lot, and for some reason, my stomach is now having a problem with the food in hong kong haha. It's been a fun week ha. And it has been incredibily hot. Just imagine laying down at l
Lake Tahoe, and you're on your towel for like 20 minutes under the direct sun just getting baked. you're dripping sweat, and about to jump into the water, but you feel like you can last 1 more minute before you get that super cold water to counterbalance it. It feels kind of like that, but there isn't any water to jump into ha. We drip. In all honesty, I love it. I'll never get it again. I love you guys. Camilla looks beautiful :)
Have a good week-
Hannah
This is going to be a short one. You're trip sounded incredible! Isn't our family so blessed to have parents like you? Please send me more pictures next week! I'll send a few. This week we got fed a lot, and for some reason, my stomach is now having a problem with the food in hong kong haha. It's been a fun week ha. And it has been incredibily hot. Just imagine laying down at l
Lake Tahoe, and you're on your towel for like 20 minutes under the direct sun just getting baked. you're dripping sweat, and about to jump into the water, but you feel like you can last 1 more minute before you get that super cold water to counterbalance it. It feels kind of like that, but there isn't any water to jump into ha. We drip. In all honesty, I love it. I'll never get it again. I love you guys. Camilla looks beautiful :)
Have a good week-
Hannah
Monday, August 3, 2015
Hello, hello!
Butterfly is getting hot. It's been an unusually not that hot summer I guess. And I believe it...last summer seemed way hotter. The trek thing sounds really fun! I cant imagine how much work that takes. You do so much for people.
A few weeks ago we were tracking down a name of a less active. There are 1000's of less actives here, so it's quite the project. but one at a time, right?! Actually not really, several usually live in the same chyun building, so we go place to place and do a sweep through. If we can get in. The guards really don't like us. But we had a miracle and got in! so we went up to Chung Chun Tak's room. gave it a pretty pathetic umbrella knock through the iron gate. And this shirtless 70 year old man in his leopard boxer shorts opens the door, and with a huge, 2 toothed smile says, "missionaries!! come in, come in!" What?! come in?! really?!? great! "Is your wife home?" Yea, she's in the toilet right now. come in! come in! The the only place to walk or sit is along their plywood bed/table. so we all take a seat, and wait for his wife to come out. His son was up in his bed, and didn't want much to do with us, so we just made small talk with Brother Chung. He didn't really remember when he got baptized. But remembered seeing us on the street a few days ago. He pulled out a flier we had given him. He waited all week for us to find him! haha. I don't know how he thought we could ever track him down in Hong Kong, but I guess he was quite certain we could. After about 3 minutes we quickly realized that there wasn't anybody in the bathroom, and we needed to leave. He's a sneaky one. So we scheduled him for Monday, and left. On Monday we came with a brother from our ward. We had a great lesson and they became quick friends. He really didn't remember anything, so we started from square one about who God is. On the walk home, the Brother who helped us said that we would just need to teach him from scratch, and help him remember everything. We visit him with another sweet old man from the ward, Gou Hingdaaih...I'll tell you more about him in a second. So we're pretty excited! A grandpa who we are teaching in his home! His wife will be there sometimes and can hear the lessons! His son didn't seem too interested, but his 2 grandkids could come to primary! We were pretty excited to tell the ward about it. So on Sunday in PEC we told them about this family. We didn't know when he was baptized, so they all pull out their phones and start looking through this record. Hmm, how does he have grandkids? he's only 37. ......? We start connecting all the dots, and realize that that punk in bed who was listening to everything we ever talked about to who wethought was Chung Chuk tak, was actually the person we were looking for haha. Can you believe that we went a few weeks teaching this man, without ever figuring that out?! I felt so dumb ha. But it was hilarious. And now we have an awesome investigator.
But for me, the best part of this entire story is actually coming to get to know a very sweet old man from our ward, Gou hingdaaih. He helped us teach "Chung Chuk ta," and as I have come to know more about him and watch his commitment to the Lord, I have been deeply impressed by the person he is. Gou Hingdaaih. The first Sunday I came to this ward, there was a basket on a table at the church filled with fruit and bread and crackers and food. It's for the missionaries amongst the 3 wards to split. I was shocked! The members here are amazing! The next Sunday,
we got their extra early to teach an investigator, and I saw Gou Hingdaaih, sneak through the foyer and pull out some fruit out of a red gaaisi bag and put it into the basket. Dragon Fruit, apples, oranges, bananas. He turned and saw me watching him, and then gave me the shush sign and sneaked away. He cleans the chapel every Friday night in his basketball shorts and high socks. We'll walk out of English class and he'll be mopping away as lively as ever. And every Sunday he blesses the Sacrament in his pressed suit and bowtie. One day on the hingtit train while we were finding, he stepped on with his cart and was wearing one of those paper thin tank tops and ratted shorts, and I realized how precious those church clothes were to him. My respect for him grew so much. And then, the other day when we went to the temple, guess who was conducting our session. Gou Hingdaaih. It was incredible to see him dressed in just a
magnificent white suit. That image of him conducting that session means a lot to me. So when we picked him up to go teach Chung Hingdaaih with us, we thanked him for his temple service. He was waiting for us at a McDonalds nearby, and he walks out in his pressed church clothes on a Monday night to teach Chung Hingdaaih. He has a severe limp, so we slowly walked with him and learned more about his life. He lives alone, and has a sad past. But he wakes up at 4 every morning and travels 2 hours to the temple to serve there. What an incredible man. Just serves the Lord in whatever way he can. In every way he can. He taught Chung Hingdaaih so matter of factly about the gospel. I wanted to teach like him. But my favorite thing was as we were walking up to Chung Hingdaaih's door, Brother Gou lagged behind a few steps. I turned to see if he was alright, and I see that he pulled out of his side pack a small water bottle that he was wetting his hands with to fix his hair before we walked into this cluttered cement cockroach filled apartment. The gospel is a sacred thing to him at every point. And I learned a lot from him.
I need to go. But I love you all. hope you are having a great week!
Hannah
Butterfly is getting hot. It's been an unusually not that hot summer I guess. And I believe it...last summer seemed way hotter. The trek thing sounds really fun! I cant imagine how much work that takes. You do so much for people.
A few weeks ago we were tracking down a name of a less active. There are 1000's of less actives here, so it's quite the project. but one at a time, right?! Actually not really, several usually live in the same chyun building, so we go place to place and do a sweep through. If we can get in. The guards really don't like us. But we had a miracle and got in! so we went up to Chung Chun Tak's room. gave it a pretty pathetic umbrella knock through the iron gate. And this shirtless 70 year old man in his leopard boxer shorts opens the door, and with a huge, 2 toothed smile says, "missionaries!! come in, come in!" What?! come in?! really?!? great! "Is your wife home?" Yea, she's in the toilet right now. come in! come in! The the only place to walk or sit is along their plywood bed/table. so we all take a seat, and wait for his wife to come out. His son was up in his bed, and didn't want much to do with us, so we just made small talk with Brother Chung. He didn't really remember when he got baptized. But remembered seeing us on the street a few days ago. He pulled out a flier we had given him. He waited all week for us to find him! haha. I don't know how he thought we could ever track him down in Hong Kong, but I guess he was quite certain we could. After about 3 minutes we quickly realized that there wasn't anybody in the bathroom, and we needed to leave. He's a sneaky one. So we scheduled him for Monday, and left. On Monday we came with a brother from our ward. We had a great lesson and they became quick friends. He really didn't remember anything, so we started from square one about who God is. On the walk home, the Brother who helped us said that we would just need to teach him from scratch, and help him remember everything. We visit him with another sweet old man from the ward, Gou Hingdaaih...I'll tell you more about him in a second. So we're pretty excited! A grandpa who we are teaching in his home! His wife will be there sometimes and can hear the lessons! His son didn't seem too interested, but his 2 grandkids could come to primary! We were pretty excited to tell the ward about it. So on Sunday in PEC we told them about this family. We didn't know when he was baptized, so they all pull out their phones and start looking through this record. Hmm, how does he have grandkids? he's only 37. ......? We start connecting all the dots, and realize that that punk in bed who was listening to everything we ever talked about to who wethought was Chung Chuk tak, was actually the person we were looking for haha. Can you believe that we went a few weeks teaching this man, without ever figuring that out?! I felt so dumb ha. But it was hilarious. And now we have an awesome investigator.
But for me, the best part of this entire story is actually coming to get to know a very sweet old man from our ward, Gou hingdaaih. He helped us teach "Chung Chuk ta," and as I have come to know more about him and watch his commitment to the Lord, I have been deeply impressed by the person he is. Gou Hingdaaih. The first Sunday I came to this ward, there was a basket on a table at the church filled with fruit and bread and crackers and food. It's for the missionaries amongst the 3 wards to split. I was shocked! The members here are amazing! The next Sunday,
we got their extra early to teach an investigator, and I saw Gou Hingdaaih, sneak through the foyer and pull out some fruit out of a red gaaisi bag and put it into the basket. Dragon Fruit, apples, oranges, bananas. He turned and saw me watching him, and then gave me the shush sign and sneaked away. He cleans the chapel every Friday night in his basketball shorts and high socks. We'll walk out of English class and he'll be mopping away as lively as ever. And every Sunday he blesses the Sacrament in his pressed suit and bowtie. One day on the hingtit train while we were finding, he stepped on with his cart and was wearing one of those paper thin tank tops and ratted shorts, and I realized how precious those church clothes were to him. My respect for him grew so much. And then, the other day when we went to the temple, guess who was conducting our session. Gou Hingdaaih. It was incredible to see him dressed in just a
magnificent white suit. That image of him conducting that session means a lot to me. So when we picked him up to go teach Chung Hingdaaih with us, we thanked him for his temple service. He was waiting for us at a McDonalds nearby, and he walks out in his pressed church clothes on a Monday night to teach Chung Hingdaaih. He has a severe limp, so we slowly walked with him and learned more about his life. He lives alone, and has a sad past. But he wakes up at 4 every morning and travels 2 hours to the temple to serve there. What an incredible man. Just serves the Lord in whatever way he can. In every way he can. He taught Chung Hingdaaih so matter of factly about the gospel. I wanted to teach like him. But my favorite thing was as we were walking up to Chung Hingdaaih's door, Brother Gou lagged behind a few steps. I turned to see if he was alright, and I see that he pulled out of his side pack a small water bottle that he was wetting his hands with to fix his hair before we walked into this cluttered cement cockroach filled apartment. The gospel is a sacred thing to him at every point. And I learned a lot from him.
I need to go. But I love you all. hope you are having a great week!
Hannah
Requested at the Door
Happy Birthday Jack! I cant believe you are 14! You are a teacher. That's so awesome. It sounds like you and Danny had a great high adventure trip. you all have so many great experiences. It's great to have so many great leaders. And thank you for the pictures! I need one of Camilla and C
Dad! You all look great. Who's wedding was Tommy at? He looks great! and you and Abbey look like you're having a really great summer together. It's fun to hear about all the adventures your doing.
We got to go to the Temple last week, and guess who I finally saw?!...Chan Jiumuih....Nana and Gump's friend from Canada. I walked past and sat down, and then another cute missionary sister from England comes in and tells me that I am "requested at the door" ha. So that was cool in itself to be requested at a door. But I walk back out and the temple worker quietly asks, "Are you Hannah?" I don't think I can write exactly how grateful I was to see her. It was just a flood of sweetness and warmth when I heard her say my name. So she gave me a big hug...cheek to cheek, and and we exchanged a few words before I sat back down again. But if you ever talk to her, please tell her how grateful I was to see her. It felt like a piece of home. And Canada isn't even my home. But I like to think I can claim it, at least. It completely made my month. Little experiences like those come every once in awhile and those feelings just keep you going. It made me so happy.
Later we had interviews with President Lam. It was so different! But so great! President Hawks is 15 minutes early for everything. President Lam was running an hour and a half behind schedule haha. He just couldn't get separated from talking to all the missionaries! So a lot of missionaries this week didn't have time to buy groceries, so that was kind of funny. But President and Sister Lam are so caring and down to earth and so humble. He just rambles. He'll stand up at the front and ramble for as long of time as he has...but it's amazing to see how led by the Spirit he is. He is a great example of having the word embedded into his heart. He just speaks whatever comes into his mind, which is usually scripture or quotes form prophets, and jumps from one subject to another, and somehow everything he says connects in the end. It's great! So our interview was about 12 minutes. I said the opening prayer, and then just listened ha. I think I got 30 words in toward the end about the area, but he just spewed out direction and instruction and it was great. So the mission is staying exciting!
Not much has happened since Thursday when I emailed you, but I'll think of some things. Sam! Sam passed the sacrament yesterday. And he was sustained as the Teachers Quorum President. It just made me feel so proud. He and all the Young Men had Youth Conference this past
weekend, they all wore khaki pants and these matching dark red ties. They also have these matching basketball uniforms they bought together for when they play at the park. They're hilarious. They're quite the group. I'm not sure what they call themselves...but anything containing Butterflies automatically elimantes any form of toughness, so it's fun to watch them try haha. (Because we're the Butterfly ward.) He has been asked to give a talk in sacrament, so he snuck up to us after church to see if we had time this week to help him write one. It's going to be an awesome talk.
And we also met a new friend named Molo. I should tell you about him. We were out on the pier and had about 10 minutes before we had to head to the church for a lesson. So we decided to to do some finding. We usually start with a prayer, but figured that by the time we finished praying, half the time would be gone so maybe it would be best not to. But then we did it anyway. I asked specifically in the prayer to help us recognize in the short time we had, someone prepared to learn about Jesus Christ. And then we started walking. Not far off was this man on the right, awkwardly posed in his really short running shorts overlooking the ocean. And then a more fully clothed man on the left walking towards us. hmm. ok, lets go for the guy on the left. We get to the two of them at about the same time, and then for some reason, foregoed our plan and said hello to the man in the short shorts. There was a wind surfer guy doing cool things in the ocean, so we made small talk about the ocean, and he had no idea what we were saying, so we just layed down that we wanted to teach him about Jesus Christ. He asked us to sit down a while, which we did, and shared about prayer and God. He was willing to reschedule. He ditched us a few times, but then last night gave us a call and met us at the church. We had more time to get to know him. He is a huge jockster. He chews gum like nobody's business. He's 30 and loves soccer and not much else. But he has things he wants to improve in his life, so when we told him the Savior has power to improve our lives, he was willing to find out how. He was fun to teach. He acts like he has absolutely no interest in anything we say, and just smacks his gum the whole time, but you can tell when he feels something or has interest in something because the gum smacking stops ha. It's a great indicator of what attention we have. We shared about the Book of Mormon, and explained it. He was willing to read it, and pretty excited too, especially considering he's not big into reading. It was a fun lesson. He especially liked Moroni. In Chinese, Moroni sounds like Mololai. So we're going to start calling him Mololai. He loved it haha. I admire the people who agree to come meet with us. Aside from Sister Jiu, everyone we are teaching is a man. It must take a decent amount of humility and desire to come to a church with huge windows and sit and talk about God with two white girls. So good for them ha.
This week is zone training and we've been planning like mad. nothing seems to stick. We have so many great thoughts and we're filling up our buckets with alot of great stuff, but nothing solid or backbone to it. But today we found this mormon message, called Lift. Have you seen it? It's so great. It's very easy in the mission field to always be evaluating and specifically pulling your skills or abilities or what ever you have, down. Especially when things don't work out, the finger always points inward, and you have some misconception that every other missionary or ward member is judging your performance and your quality of missionary self. And it's complete trash. I love that talk 2 conferences ago about confidence. Anyway, it's a real struggle in our zone right now, a lack of confidence. And we all now that we perform at our best when we have confidence. I kind of just want to show the sound of music, but I think that's mdak haha. I'm just kidding. But we're focusing on this idea that we have the right to call power from heaven to assist in this work. Especially in the form of Spiritual gifts. We have strengths, and they are different. and specific. And I love this Lift video - on Mormon Messages. It has a lot of principles we're working on...I'm working on. And it's good to know that the only opinion I should be seeking for is Heavenly Father's. Any other opinion that really matters would be in line with his. otherwise it probably doesn't matter all too much.
Alright, well, I love you all. Have a happy birthday Jack! I sent a package for the family a while ago. But I sent it by sea because it was cheaper, and they said it would take at least 2 months haha. ya, sketchy, I know. Hope you get it eventually.
Have a great week!
Hannah
Dad! You all look great. Who's wedding was Tommy at? He looks great! and you and Abbey look like you're having a really great summer together. It's fun to hear about all the adventures your doing.
We got to go to the Temple last week, and guess who I finally saw?!...Chan Jiumuih....Nana and Gump's friend from Canada. I walked past and sat down, and then another cute missionary sister from England comes in and tells me that I am "requested at the door" ha. So that was cool in itself to be requested at a door. But I walk back out and the temple worker quietly asks, "Are you Hannah?" I don't think I can write exactly how grateful I was to see her. It was just a flood of sweetness and warmth when I heard her say my name. So she gave me a big hug...cheek to cheek, and and we exchanged a few words before I sat back down again. But if you ever talk to her, please tell her how grateful I was to see her. It felt like a piece of home. And Canada isn't even my home. But I like to think I can claim it, at least. It completely made my month. Little experiences like those come every once in awhile and those feelings just keep you going. It made me so happy.
Later we had interviews with President Lam. It was so different! But so great! President Hawks is 15 minutes early for everything. President Lam was running an hour and a half behind schedule haha. He just couldn't get separated from talking to all the missionaries! So a lot of missionaries this week didn't have time to buy groceries, so that was kind of funny. But President and Sister Lam are so caring and down to earth and so humble. He just rambles. He'll stand up at the front and ramble for as long of time as he has...but it's amazing to see how led by the Spirit he is. He is a great example of having the word embedded into his heart. He just speaks whatever comes into his mind, which is usually scripture or quotes form prophets, and jumps from one subject to another, and somehow everything he says connects in the end. It's great! So our interview was about 12 minutes. I said the opening prayer, and then just listened ha. I think I got 30 words in toward the end about the area, but he just spewed out direction and instruction and it was great. So the mission is staying exciting!
Not much has happened since Thursday when I emailed you, but I'll think of some things. Sam! Sam passed the sacrament yesterday. And he was sustained as the Teachers Quorum President. It just made me feel so proud. He and all the Young Men had Youth Conference this past
weekend, they all wore khaki pants and these matching dark red ties. They also have these matching basketball uniforms they bought together for when they play at the park. They're hilarious. They're quite the group. I'm not sure what they call themselves...but anything containing Butterflies automatically elimantes any form of toughness, so it's fun to watch them try haha. (Because we're the Butterfly ward.) He has been asked to give a talk in sacrament, so he snuck up to us after church to see if we had time this week to help him write one. It's going to be an awesome talk.
And we also met a new friend named Molo. I should tell you about him. We were out on the pier and had about 10 minutes before we had to head to the church for a lesson. So we decided to to do some finding. We usually start with a prayer, but figured that by the time we finished praying, half the time would be gone so maybe it would be best not to. But then we did it anyway. I asked specifically in the prayer to help us recognize in the short time we had, someone prepared to learn about Jesus Christ. And then we started walking. Not far off was this man on the right, awkwardly posed in his really short running shorts overlooking the ocean. And then a more fully clothed man on the left walking towards us. hmm. ok, lets go for the guy on the left. We get to the two of them at about the same time, and then for some reason, foregoed our plan and said hello to the man in the short shorts. There was a wind surfer guy doing cool things in the ocean, so we made small talk about the ocean, and he had no idea what we were saying, so we just layed down that we wanted to teach him about Jesus Christ. He asked us to sit down a while, which we did, and shared about prayer and God. He was willing to reschedule. He ditched us a few times, but then last night gave us a call and met us at the church. We had more time to get to know him. He is a huge jockster. He chews gum like nobody's business. He's 30 and loves soccer and not much else. But he has things he wants to improve in his life, so when we told him the Savior has power to improve our lives, he was willing to find out how. He was fun to teach. He acts like he has absolutely no interest in anything we say, and just smacks his gum the whole time, but you can tell when he feels something or has interest in something because the gum smacking stops ha. It's a great indicator of what attention we have. We shared about the Book of Mormon, and explained it. He was willing to read it, and pretty excited too, especially considering he's not big into reading. It was a fun lesson. He especially liked Moroni. In Chinese, Moroni sounds like Mololai. So we're going to start calling him Mololai. He loved it haha. I admire the people who agree to come meet with us. Aside from Sister Jiu, everyone we are teaching is a man. It must take a decent amount of humility and desire to come to a church with huge windows and sit and talk about God with two white girls. So good for them ha.
This week is zone training and we've been planning like mad. nothing seems to stick. We have so many great thoughts and we're filling up our buckets with alot of great stuff, but nothing solid or backbone to it. But today we found this mormon message, called Lift. Have you seen it? It's so great. It's very easy in the mission field to always be evaluating and specifically pulling your skills or abilities or what ever you have, down. Especially when things don't work out, the finger always points inward, and you have some misconception that every other missionary or ward member is judging your performance and your quality of missionary self. And it's complete trash. I love that talk 2 conferences ago about confidence. Anyway, it's a real struggle in our zone right now, a lack of confidence. And we all now that we perform at our best when we have confidence. I kind of just want to show the sound of music, but I think that's mdak haha. I'm just kidding. But we're focusing on this idea that we have the right to call power from heaven to assist in this work. Especially in the form of Spiritual gifts. We have strengths, and they are different. and specific. And I love this Lift video - on Mormon Messages. It has a lot of principles we're working on...I'm working on. And it's good to know that the only opinion I should be seeking for is Heavenly Father's. Any other opinion that really matters would be in line with his. otherwise it probably doesn't matter all too much.
Alright, well, I love you all. Have a happy birthday Jack! I sent a package for the family a while ago. But I sent it by sea because it was cheaper, and they said it would take at least 2 months haha. ya, sketchy, I know. Hope you get it eventually.
Have a great week!
Hannah