Xin Nian Kuaile

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

I know most people do not celebrate the Chinese New Year in the states, but here it is a huge holiday, almost like Christmas.  So everything shuts down and the only things that are open are the big grocery stores and fast food like McDonalds (of course!).

It is tradition to give "kids" red envelopes with money in them, but as missionaries we give all the money we receive to fast offerning as it is extremely rude to reject their gift.  As missionaries Chinese New Year is nothing special for us besides the fact that it is super hard to go "finding" because there are so few people out.  It is a big family centered holiday, which is great.

We were able to find and pray with a few people.  Most of them were from Mainland visiting.  I have found that we do a lot of seed planting and just have to pray and hope they will become part of the visitors program later on, as preach my gospel says "no effort is wasted" and I constantly have to remind myself of that.  Although I may not be seeing the fruits of my labor I am opening my mouth and sharing the gospel, which is what I am asked.

I have realized how special it is to be in Hong Kong because I live with 2 other sister missionary companionships.  It has taught me the importance of making good friends.  The spirit that exists in our apartment is just different because we are all united in purpose and all love our savior.  Sometimes when I finish praying and look around to see 5 other sisters also praying to end the night, it just reminds me how it is so cool to know and to see!

Now with that being said, this week we had the opportunity to go with the Filipino sisters we live with to their branch presidents home.  This is probably like our 3rd time at their house, but each time I am continually surprised and amazed by the spirit in that house.  They are amazing examples of selfless service and humility.  They give and give and give.

After cooking us dinner, giving us all the leftovers, they offered to pay for our bus fare home.  Why?  Because they are humble enough to know and see the blessings in their very simple life because of their service.  They are one of the most amazing families, and I have learned so much from their dedicated service.

Well that is about it!  Sorry, Chinese New Year means there are not a lot of things that happened, but I sure did learn a lot.  Like rejection is a good sign.  The more you are rejected, the closer you are to finding that one person the Lord has prepared.  May we all have a goal this new year to share the gospel with our friends!

Wo ai nimen.. I am extremely grateful for all the love and support you send my way :)

Sister Loo

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P.S. Fun fact, in Hong Kong there is like no concrete.  The sidewalls are made of bricks put together, which lots of time means it is uneven.

Oh and on Monday someone asked sister Chi if I was pregnant hahahaha.  I am going to say they asked because I was wearing a lot of layers and not because I look pregnant haha.

Tina and her little siblings.
We met her at a different park and shared the restoration with her. 

This was just randomly in a park we went finding out.  SO many buddhas! 

Nash family (they both served in Taiwan)

Tradition to wear these red things on New Years.. how cute are they!

Temples!!!

So this week was so awesome because we were able to go to the temple.  I was so excited and have truly come to love the temple and the special spirit that is there.

Well the Hong Kong temple is.. uhh small, but still super pretty.  The temple is truly the house of the Lord.  I love that the gospel is the same everywhere you go!  

After we went to a Korean BBQ and it was $138. Now in American dollars that is super cheap but you have to remember that we are ballin' on a budget on the mission so it was a treat for us.  We went as an apartment and it was so good.  I hope they have a place like that in Oregon!

Today because Chinese New Year is this week is deep clean day.  So we basically spend all day and I mean all day cleaning our apartment.  It is tradition that the Chinese people do this right before Chinese New Year so we do the same haha.  I am happy though because it needs to be done.. a house of order is a house of God :)

We have a new investigator this week whose name is Lin Nan.  She is studying at HKU and is only here for one semester, but has so much potential!  We have taught her the restoration and she said she believes it and feels it sounds "more right" than her current Buddhism beliefs.  She even came to church and loved it!

One of our newer investigators Michelle also came to church yesterday and it was truly a miracle!  Her husband is in town and she was afraid and also did not know how to tell him that she and her son have started taking lessons and if he would allow them to continue because he is CEO of some company and likes to control things.  We were SO excited and I am so thankful that she had enough faith to ask and to have the desire to come to church!

I know lots of times with us (those of us who are active members) we go to church and it is super repetitive and often times we arent paying attention, are not applying ourselves.  She comes and really feels of the spirit that is there and pays attention to all the speakers so that she truly is being spiritually rejuvenated.

I would hope that we all can make a more concscious effort to make the Sabbath a Holy day, a "different" day. A day where we rest from our labors and focus on spiritually re-charging as church and partaking of the sacrament allows us to do this.

Wo ai nimen!

Sister Loo

P.S. English class this week a different girl said to me "your skin looks 16".  Not sure if that is a compliment or not, but at least it only my skin that looks 16 this week and not me!  Hahaha :)

Oh...my Chinese friends...

Next week is Chinese New Year so kids are finishing up school.  That means they are about to have a big test and as a result lots of families and parents don't have time to meet with us because they want their kids to study.  The people here take school very seriously.  It is also rough because school will get off so everyone goes back to Mainland and won't come back until February!  It is such a bummer.

On Wednesday we had a lesson with Huang Jiemei who is a potential (now an investigator).  We taught her the restoration and the spirit was so strong!  I invited her at the end of the lesson to get baptized!  I was so nervous because it was my first time ever inviting someone, but she said yes!  It was crazy the immense happiness I felt!  She is experiencing a lot of challenges in her life right now, but still has lots of faith that God exists and hears her prayers.  She is really someone that God has really prepared!  She will unfortunately be one of the ones who heads back to China and will not be back until February.  We are hoping she continues to pray and read her scriptures as I guess it is really common to get anti'ed while in china.

Yesterday we had 10 (+3 kids) investigators/potentials show up to church!  In gospel principles class it was just like 4 other members, missionaries and all our investigators!  It was such a cool feeling!  We were so excited and it was a great sacrament meeting for them to attend.  They all really loved church and the spirit that can be felt there.  We are so lucky to be able to renew our baptismal covenants every Sunday and remember our Saviors personal sacrifice for us.

Well, lastly, as we provide service by teaching English class, an attendee, in really bad English, told me that I have gained weight, but in the same sentence said my eyelashes are long and make my eyes look gorgeous.  Then a different lady told me that I look like I am 16.  LOL!!!

So there is my week.  Lots of miracles and excited for the work that lays ahead this week! 

Wo ai Nimen,

Sister Loo

(The missionary who has gained weight, has pretty eyelashes, and looks 16 haha)

Dui Buqi family.  I am on a computer with nowhere I can plug in my camera so next time!

Hanging with our friend Huang Jiemei

Some fun and candy at the apartment with the Filipino sisters

We treated ourselves to a burger.

It was $100HK which is super expensive

But, it was SO good.

So Much "Potential"

This week was what I will call a "potential" week.  We had a lot of potential for this week to be awesome.  I dont know if that makes sense but lets roll with it!

So, on Thursday we were supposed to teach another pair of "visitors", but something happened with their passports and they could not come.  Since we had no way of communicating with them we had to sit there and wait for 4 hours just hoping they would show up!  It is super sad, but we are very glad that they didn't show because of travel reasons and not because of Faith.

Visitors are taught by members and "found" by members in Mainland China.  They then take all the lessons from members and decide there if they want to be baptized.  So teaching them is super easy because they know all the answers, but we have to teach in a new way that strengthens their testimony and furthers their conversion.  The people who want to receive baptism are interviewed by a stake president and then some head of the church up there to see if it is a real desire.  So these people are really really prepared and ready.  Church is usually held in a leaders home in Mainland.  Basically the members that we have in Mainland are amazing!

We also made calls from the people on our potential list.  Usually we call about 20 people and they hang up on us, but one women talked with us and we met with her this week!  Her name is Wang Jiemei and she has a lot of potential so we are super excited!  We also met with another family (Mom and son) who were a referral from the Cantonese ward.

They moved from Mainland because schooling is better here in Hong Kong. So because they can not speak Cantonese, Benny has a hard time making friends so we think Young Mens will be a great opportunity for him; and his Mom has interest in just finding out more about our church.  We also might have a potential from the English class we teach so we are super excited and hope to have new investigators this coming week!

We had zone conference this week and one training was on reaching out to the one.  Christ always was worried about the one.  It did not matter who He was with or what he was doing, one person means the world to him.  So we were invited to pray and then reach out to one of the missionaries in our zone that we felt inspired to talk too.  It was crazy the experiences and help myself as well as other missionaries received.  The Lord will truly help us especially when we are trying to help His children feel comforted.

Well that is it.  I would invite you all to work on developing your faith.  From our faith in Christ stems a lot of different concepts like desire and goals.  If we can increase our faith in Christ we will have a desire to follow Him and serve those around us.

I love you all!  Thank you for your support!

Sister Loo

Happy New Year!

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​So not much to say this week except for... WE TAUGHT OUR FIRST VISITORS!  I was so excited and nervous.  Visitors are the people that come from Mainland China.  Since you cannot be baptized there, they come to Hong Kong to learn the lessons and be baptized.

So we started teaching at 10am, have a break only for lunch, and then the baptismal service is held at 6pm!  It was a surprisingly fun and exhausting day, but it is such a huge blessing.  These people are so prepared and ready to receive the gospel and enter into a covenant with our Heavenly Father.  They are such great examples of having faith no matter the circumstances. It was such a cool experience and a great "Christmas present"!

We also had 2 new Mandarin speaking sisters arrive.  That means sister Grover and sister Tang are now rooming with us.  So right there, we now have 6 in this tiny apartment.  So it is a little bit of an adjustment trying to figure everything out and how to do studies and clean and cook and put all our "stuff" where we can.  But, I am excited because this means we will be speaking a lot more Mandarin in the apartment :)  So although it got a lot more crowded, I learned there is always blessings in challenges if we look for them!

We also visited a member in Mei Wo, which is an island somewhere around Hong Kong - I am not sure where I just hopped on the Ferry hahaha!  It is a really cute, small, peaceful island with not many people so it was a nice change.  We got to ride bikes around the whole island - which was a struggle I don't know the last time I have ridden a bike.  We visited a single lady who is pretty lonely and was just so excited we came to visit her.  In our branch there are a pretty big number of single mothers and just single ladies so sometimes I feel like visiting our members is just as important as teaching investigators.  Hopefully they are able to feel the Saviors love through us.

Last, I just want to testify that prayer works and is so real!  So, first off everyone who knows me knows I am a pretty open book.  With that said, I have had to pee in the middle of the night every single night I have gotten here.  This is a little bit of a hassle since I am on the top bunk and I just dont like waking up and doing that in the middle of the night.  So, the very first night (and ever since then) I have prayed not to wake up and have to pee and GUESS WHAT?  I dont wake up in the middle of the night and go to the bathroom.  So moral of the story, God really hears our prayers and cares even about the little things :)

Wo ai Nimen,

Sister Loo

Mei Wo... 

Apparently in the summer this thing is just full of water.

Our visitors and other members.

The fed us for lunch and dinner after the baptism.

It was a feast!