Week 2 in Hong Kong...and...some Chicken Feet...YUM!!!

Well it has been another crazy week in Hong Kong!  I have loved every minute of it.  I am still really adjusting to it, but so far so good!

I forgot to share some "odd" things about the mission.

1. Our schedule is 7am to 11pm because the people here work long hours and also prefer to stay out late, rather than wake up early.
2. We cannot knock on doors because everyone lives in apartments with a door man, so we mostly do things like go to a park and talk to people or go off referrals.
3. We teach 2 English classes a week in hopes of getting people interested and sharing the gospel that way.
4. There is no hot pot or sushi in Hong Kong :)

Well this week Thursday was Thanksgiving, as I am sure you all know, and it was actually a ton of fun.  They gave us the entire day to cook and have fun, so that is much of what we did – and study of course.  Surprisingly, we had a ton of food and it all tasted really good!  It was super fun and while it was different than the thanksgivings I am used too at home, it was a nice change and helped me not be so homesick.

This week I had CHICKEN FEET!  Second week here in Hong Kong and I already had to try it…  Next up is pigs blood or something like that.???  Am I a vampire now???  lol.

Well, we got taken out for dinner and in the soup was chicken feet.  So, of course the assistants knowing I have not tried it were like "she wants it".  To be quite honest it is not awful, but it is the thought of eating a foot that killed me.  But hey, I did, and I tried to do it with a smile :)

I would like to challenge all of you to make the time to do some personal study of the scriptures.  Start with a prayer, being specific, and it will change your whole experience!  Whether you have 10 minutes or an hour, any time is precious with absolutely no distractions.  I have found that I treasure this time and it really gives me the opportunity to strengthen my testimony and conversion to Christ.  I can also really feel Gods love and his comfort when I am feeling lonely.  I have just been going through and reading the Book of Mormon and it is amazing how much the scriptures can apply to our everyday lives!

Lastly, everyone here asks me where I am from and then when I reply America they go (in Mandarin…that I don’t quite yet understand), “but why your skin is so dark.”  I am like oh sorry to disappoint, but my parents are only half…hahaha.

Well Wo ai Nimen!  Until next time!

Sister Loo​

I made it to Hong Kong!!!

I made it to HK...

Well for starters the plain ride was soooo long.  And I also did not realize how exhausted I was!  I would sleep for an hour and then wake up for about 30 minutes and sleep some more.  Maybe that was because I just had nothing else to do haha.

Well Hong Kong is great and honestly nothing is too weird.  Everyone keeps asking me that and I just keep saying no nothing is out of the ordinary.  I have my Aunty Nica to thank for taking me to all different places so I am used to it.  Everything in Hong Kong is SUPER small.  Apartments cost like 2,000 per square foot so peoples apartments are so tiny.  Not to mention they are on like the 22 floor.  So many tall buildings and so many people! 

My companions names are Sister Chi and Sister Grover!  Sister Chis is my "actual" trainer she is from Taiwan, is super sweet and will go home in February.  Sister Grover has been in HK for 4 months and is from Lehi Utah.  They are both really sweet and super awesome.  In HK we also live with two other Filipino sisters.  There are a ton of Filipinos here that are called "helpers" and they just live in with families.  Almost everyone here has one, so they go and talk to them.  My area is Hong Kong island and it is a super nice area.  Our apartment is one of the biggest ones and one of the nicest ones.  I will have to show you guys pictures next week!  But it is super nice and I have not seen like any bugs!

I have already taught many lessons and went to church, done some finding and contacting.  Safe to say I don't know anything and can not understand anyone!  I am trying my hardest not to get discouraged and to push through it taking it day by day.  There is a surprising number of people who all speak Mandarin so that is not a big worry.  My first day here we had to go and get our HK ID's and we took the MTR (public transportation) and they handed us a BOM and some flyers and said this is an excellent place to contact so talk to people.  Got put right into the swing of things :)

Well that is all I have time to write.  Hong Kong is really awesome and there is much going on always.  A fun fact is that there is SO many nice cars.  Nice as in Jaguar, Maserati, Porsche, Mercedes, Bentley.  Everything you can think of there is lots of them here.  People who can afford a car only buy nice ones!

I also have not eaten anything weird so nothing much to say there :)

Wo ai Nimen!

Sister Loo

Last email in America...I'v Made It!!!

This is the last time you will be hearing from me in America.  From here time will be a lot more limited so I will go ahead and apologize in advance if I am not able to write you guys back! 

The emotions I feel are all over the place.  Nervous, excited, anxious, you name it.  I am worried I don't know enough Chinese and have been praying all week for comfort to be confident.  One thing I have realized and learned while here is that my best lessons are the ones where the spirit is undeniably there.  The Holy Ghost does the teaching, not me.  All I have to do is bear pure testimony.  Sounds pretty simple right? :)

We got our flight plans on Friday and we are all SO excited!  It finally seemed real.  Tomorrow we have infield training which I am not exactly sure what it means, but everyone says it gets you so pumped to go out!

This week Jenny Oaks Baker (Elder Oaks daughter) came and spoke to us.  She is a VERY good violinist so she shared her testimony through song.  One thing she said that her father told her was, "The only true faith is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ." Me and sister Clark were like wow! Its like her Dad is an apostle or something :) It reminds me of the scriptures that talk about if we are built upon a sure foundation (Christ) we will not fall, there is no way we will be destroyed.

Last nights devotional we heard from Joy Jones who is the general primary president.  She did an amazing job as well.  She talked about the importance of love and obedience.  We have the privilege of knowing that we are children of God.  He loves us endlessly.  People should be able to recognize and see this light within us.  Again this simple truth was mentioned, as well as the fact that we can not know who we are without knowing whose we are.  I invite all of you to dig a little deeper to find out your divine worth and potential as a son or daughter of God; really come to know that you are a Child of God.  He cares for you and He loves you more than you will ever know.

Funny quotes of the Week:

Some old senior missionary walks by us, "There goes the happiest two sisters I've ever seen."  Sister Clark then goes that's the first time you have gotten that huh?  I probably should remember to smile more.

Me: "What's your friends name? Fred? Frank?"

Elder Youse: "Peter"

Oops I better work on names haha.

*Standing in line getting my food*

Some elder I have never met before: "Sister every time I see you your hair is in french braids"

Me: "Oh... sorry?"

Elder: "Oh no its not bad.. I was just saying.. where you from"

Me "Oregon"

Elder: "Well I better go my companion is summoning me.. It was nice to meet you Sister Loo."

*I am just standing there so confused because I have never seen him before and still don't know his name*

Flight Plans!!!

Matching skirts with Sister Hansen.

Can you believe it...we finished the HUGE bag of pretzels!

Nimen Hao!

This week was amazing.  So many things happened and I will try my best to explain everything, but words will probably not do them justice!

So we got 10 new sisters on Wednesday and they really are all amazing.  They all have so many different background stories and are all so friendly.  You can tell that they all look up to sister Clark and I alot and think our Chinese is amazing which makes me feel good haha.  I have loved getting to know them just in this past week and being able to "serve" them as an STL has been honestly fun.

As this week was Halloween my companion and I decided to dress up as each other.  Which means she wore all black with her hair straight and I wore her Cinderella princess skirt.  She loved it.  She was like wow all these guys keep staring at me sister Loo hahaha. I was like I am telling you black is everyones color!  I felt like an idiot though and hope no one thinks I actually dress like that.

This Sunday I was called on to give a talk as well.  So just to frame this up, when we came in all the sisters said "Oh no worries about talks the STL never get called on" (I still wrote one super fast though) because we do interviews and stuff for our calling the whole time that they give us to write a talk.  Also, our branch president and all of his kids (who all speak fluent Chinese) were there because he was getting released :( AND because of that the President of the MTC and his wife were also there!  The presidency also gets to choose who gives a talk so we don't know until our name is announced over the pulpit that we are giving a talk.  They do this to force everyone to write a talk.  We give our talks in Mandarin if you did not catch on to that detail.  So here I am with an awful talk that I did not have time to look over giving in front of the MTC President, a big family who is fluent in chinese and all of my zone.  To be completely honest I have no clue how good the talk was or what I even said it is all a blurr.

But yeah our Branch President left us!  President and Sister Teng were their names and they were replaced by President and Sister Young.  They speak no Mandarin and were mission presidents in Ecuador and that is about all I know.  It is interesting and I wonder why out of all the times President Teng was released was it while I was still here in the MTC?

We have talked and we watched a MTC devotional by Elder Bednar titled "One by One" and how Christ does everything for the one.  If we want to better understand Christ's nature it is important to understand He focused on "the one". He purposely does something for the one.  I was called to serve in China for the one.  So as me and sister Clark were talking about this we were wondering for who or for what "one" was President Young called in for?

Yesterday me and sister Clark had the opportunity to teach a teacher who was playing the role of her sister who recently was experiencing and given some huge trials.  We taught her about the blessings of trials and how God knows that we are strong enough to endure and get through them and the importance of enduring it well rather than just enduring.  It was one of the most amazing experiences I have had here because I was filled with so much love for her and I knew that her Heavenly Father loved her.  We were all crying as the spirit was incredibly strong.  I realized that even though she wasn't the "real person" it is still so important that we teach with conviction and teach our members, investigators, whoever it may be while in the MTC as if they were "real".

Lastly, President Nelson came yesterday.  All I can say is.. what an amazing man.  So I have learned from my companion who really knows everything that he is fluent in Mandarin and he has the most connection with China.  We all think when he becomes prophet that is when China will open up and we are all SO excited!  How amazing would that be if I got transferred into mainland China!  Anyways as soon as he walked into the gym where we have our devotionals the spirit flooded the room.  One of my favorite things he said was "You are a successful missionary once your converts children and grandchildren are sealed in the temple"  Lasting conversion is so important.  It is not about the numbers it is about teaching people to truly come unto christ.

What a week it has been!  Thank you all for your prayers and support,

Wo ai Nimen

SIster Loo

Me and sister clark switching roles,
along with two other sisters who are companions.
They are complete opposites!​

Bye Bye President and Sister Teng we love you!