Transfers are in!

So luckily (or not so lucky) move calls came in today and Sister Grover will be heading back up to Kowloon!  Sister Colombel (who has only been out 6 months) and I will become companions on the island.  I am excited for the change and believe this will be a great opportunity for us both to really improve our language and not have to rely on our "senior" companion, I will miss sister grover though!

So this week flew by, well this month flew by, but I have no idea where all the time went.  I will quickly share a thought.

Every Sunday we, with about 10 other missionaries, sing in a very public place. It is quite amazing the reactions and the amount of stares we get.  I like to think they are not staring at us because there are 12 foreigners, but because for a quick second they can feel the spirit.

Music is such an amazing way to invite the spirit and even if you don't understand the words you can still feel the spirit.  It is an amazing tool to contact and find and I have loved being able to do this every Sunday.

Yesterday we as an apartment were able to watch Elder Bednars talk from this past April Priesthood Session.  It was super powerful and just made me want to work that much harder.  I am called and set apart to the work.  Hong Kong is secondary to the call to work and to labor among His children.  It just really hit me that I have a very special calling as a missionary and it is so important that I utilize all the time that I have been given to wear this name tag and represent my Savior.

Fun fact:  The church is the same everywhere you go.  Just like home teaching; missionaries wait to do their exchanges until the end of the month as well.​​​​​​​​​​​​  This past Friday, every companionship we saw were on exchanges haha.

We met with Jimmy this week who is a golden investigator and we asked him if he prayed to know that Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God.  He replied in English (as he loves learning and speaking English) and says, "I usually pray in the name of Jesus Christ.  I haven't had the opportunity to do it in Josephs Smiths name." ...Boy do I love people who speak English as their second language :)

Well I think that is it for the week.

I love you all!
Sister Loo

Last week when we were moving and had to take apart beds!

Laiye (pronounced like Lai..kind of).  No one knows her real age as she will tell you she is 99, but people think she is 103.  She is still amazingly healthy and chooses to walk up stairs instead of use the elevator!  The culture fact is that people HATE to tell you their age and she always says 99 because they believe once you are 100 and admit to it you turn into a ghost. 

Miracles and Optimism

Unfortunately, not a lot of this week to report as we spent time moving.  Yes...we are now living in a safer place that is farther away from the chapel, but probably much safer.

We spent almost all day Wednesday packing, and then moving Thursday, and then Friday was P-day and we went to the temple.

So, just a spiritual thought for this week.  We were running late for an appointment because we had just spent most of the morning and afternoon moving; and as we were walking to the bus stop we see the bus we needed to catch stopped at the stop light about 50 yards from the actual bus stop.  So, we start sprinting.  We catch the bus and miraculously make the appointment on time!

I believe this was a big miracle/blessing. From this funny little experience I learned that before you "see" the miracle Heavenly Father gives us the opportunity to work or do something; in this case running.

Second, we can choose to see things as miracles or we can choose to see things as a trial. It would have been easier to look at that situation and be angry at the fact that I was clean from showering and didn't want to get all sweaty again.  Why could the bus not have come just 2 minutes later when we were there waiting?  But instead thanking Heavenly Father for the miracle of not having to wait at all for the bus to come and being on time to the appointment.

I have learned on my mission that a positive attitude is very important.  When you are positive you see blessings, you see miracles, and it is much easier to be happy :)

So that is it for this week!

He lives and has created a beautiful plan for us to not only know our purpose in this life, but have happiness while living life!  Hopefully this week we can all look for the good, look with optimism, instead of negativity.

我爱你们Sister Loo

The Mainland Monster

Well once again because it is a holiday weekend, the Mainland Monster ate almost half of our investigators!  BUT there were still plenty of miracles that the Lord blessed us with :)

Between Friday and Saturday we attend 4 english classes.  They are a great service opportunity, don't get me wrong, but sometimes I would rather be out working and finding people who are ready to listen to this gospel!

So every day before we went to our English classes, we would pray that we could find a prepared investigator from English!  Well last week we walk in and there is a father with His two kids who speak Mandarin!  We get his number and set up an appointment.  Well our first meeting with him he asks two questions.

1. How do I join your church?

2. How do I keep in contact with you guys as you will become my friends.

We could not believe it!!!  Does the Lord answer prayers or what???  

We had another miracle when an investigator who works as a security guard from 6p.m. to 6 a.m. came to church and stayed for two hours!  She was running on no sleep and came to church instead of using that time to sleep for work before she had to go back to work.  When we asked her why she came she said "God told me I needed to come and I feel good here."  

That reminded me of the quote in conference from the young women who said "well church is the right choice isn't it?"  What an amazing example she is of her desire to come to church and feel of the spirit that exists here.

Last, our Mandarin branch just split into two different branches and we had a whopping total of 15 people in sacrament meeting including missionaries and investigators.  To say there is a lot of work ahead is an understatement, but I am excited to see how much the branch will grow and I know it is possible!

Something funny this week.  We have an investigator named Sally who has a very childlike mindset. So we had to teach REALLY simply and it has definitely been a good experience to learn how to teach to people and not just teach the first lesson.  At the end of the lesson we give her a specific invitation, "Sally, will you pray to know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God?" "Yes I can do that!"  "Okay great!  So what are we asking you to pray about?" Her reply, "The gospel of Jesus Christ."  And that basically sums up how teaching her goes, but hey you know what?  She is super cute and loves pray, so that is okay!  I have learned that we have to love people for who they are and meet them where they are at! 

I think that is it for the week!  I get to go to the temple this week and I am so excited! More revelation!

I hope everyone had the best Easter and got to watch the Prince of Peace video.  I love that we can turn to Him and immediately find peace and comfort.  Not only that, but we can find peace in knowing that death is not the end, only the beginning!

I love my Savior and am so grateful to be able to serve a mission and start to better understand the Atonement and His selfless, unwavering love for me.

我爱你们

Sister Loo

Pictures Below:

Elder Bennihit and Elder Huang.  I am just obsessed with their companionship as they are the nicest guys you will ever meet.  (not to mention elder bennihit is probably 4'10 and that is being very generous)  Plus we were going to English class finding and it started raining so Elder Huang just went and hid in the bathroom entrance and talked to the people trying to pee haha

Conference!!!...YES!!!

So no complaints this week as we ended the note with conference and how can you complain!  I have already started counting down the days until October :)

Words can not express how grateful I am to have a prophet direct this church.  He gave a short talk, but how powerful was his words and reminder of the Book of Mormon!  I noticed a lot of the General Authorities also talked about the Holy Ghost and how special a gift this is.  

Through the Holy Ghost we can receive guidance, comfort and be warned.  On the mission this is always a big turning point for investigators as they realize that this gift can only be received once they are baptized and make that sacred, holy covenant with God.

I must say the talk by Joaquin A. Costa needs to be printed out and handed to every investigator on this earth.  I know me and sister Grover plan on giving it to all of ours :)

We saw lots of little miracles this week that happened as a result of us being at the right place at the right time!

First one..  We were praying on where to go finding and decided on North Point.  As we were finding, no one was willing to listen at all so we began to be confused as to why the Lord had made us both feel the need to go to North Point.  Well as we were walking to the MTR, we hear a couple behind us speaking Mandarin so what do we do.. start speaking (well really we were shouting) in mandarin so they could hear us also speak.  They of course, started talking to us and asking us why we spoke Mandarin, which led to the perfect opportunity to start a conversation about the gospel!  We ended up walking all the way to Causeway Bay with them (about an hour walk) just talking to them about the gospel and getting to know them.  We were able to get their number as the girl seemed very interested in learning more!

The next one, we again were deciding where to go finding and the first spot was not succesfull as there was only Popo who could not speak Mandarin.  So we went to a different park and we run into a member from the English branch and his gf.  When we saw him he says, "Sisters do you have time to talk?" Anyways, he and his girlfriend (who is not a member who he very obviously wants to convert) were literally JUST talking about sister missionaries when they saw us.  We talked about the gospel for a little bit then bore our testimonies of the book of Mormon and then left as he wanted to talk to her about what she thought alone and then would talk to us if she wanted to start taking the lessons!

Two miracles that we are not sure if they will go anywhere, but cool experiences and blessings even if they don't.  When we are following the promptings of the spirit and not second guessing ourselves (as was mentioned in conference) we will not be led astray!

Lastly, as we were watching the second session of Saturday conference the Assistants came up to us and was like "what are you doing today?" Our reply: "Watching conference..?" He goes, "Well do you want to teach a visitor?"  Of course we said yes!  So we taught this surprise visitor all the lessons Saturday night in 3 and a half hours (that goes to show how prepared she was).  On Sunday, we watched all sessions of conference plus women's session and her baptism immediately followed.  It was a very busy past couple of days, but I would not trade them for the world.

Every time I have the privilege to teach a visitor my testimony grows so much as their faith, dedication, and desire to this gospel is unbelievable!  I wish I could share more facts about what is happening up there, but unfortunately we are not allowed too for safety reasons.  Just know this is the Lords work and he is hastening it! :)

This week I would challenge us all to, as Elder Yoon Hwan Choi says, "Look up".  It is hard to feel satisfied and feel of our Heavenly Father's love for us when we are looking around us at others.  May we all be able to look up and feel of the perfect love our Savior and Heavenly father have for us.  I know that He lives and I know that He has a perfect, unconditional love!

我愛你們Sister Loo

Pictures from her baptism!p.s. I promise I have not gained that much weight.. its the horizontal stripes lol

The Miracle of Conversion

Well I am sending this blog, but my whole family is together on a cruise...!

Yes that is right...without me.. I can not believe it either!  So, this may go up a week late... chahm :(

This week we had one day that was super exciting and then it just went blehhh.

On Tuesday we had a family of visitors!  I don't know if it is because my language is better than the first time I had visitors or if I just connected with them better, but this experience was one I will never forget!

So the husband and his wife walked into the church about a month ago looking for the temple and thought the Wan Chai chapel was it.  It was really lucky because the night before one of the senior missionary couples (who teaches all the walk-ins) were praying to help harvest the elect and a month later these same walk ins came back to get baptized!  This senior missionary elder and the husband exchanged numbers and the week before he texted him saying they were coming to HK to get baptized so sister Grover was able to arrange for us to teach them and for this elder to baptize and confirm them!  They were such a sweet family and SO prepared.

The husband, when we were teaching the commandments, had already set aside money for tithing, told his wife and daughter that they were all fasting this Sunday because "if the rest of the world does it this Sunday than we can do it also".

It was interesting to see just how open their hearts were to the gospel and how much they knew this to be true.  The wife in the morning seemed to very much just "be there" and then at the end after she got baptized she could not hold back her tears and could not express the joy and happiness they felt.

I truly was able to feel Christ like love for them and was so happy to be able to participate on their special day!  That day reminded me again how big of a blessing this gospel is and that I need to not take advantage of this knowlege that I have!

The funny thing is that after an amazing day on Tuesday, Wednesday was a struggle.  I felt so inadequate as a missionary and felt as if I was doing nothing right, could not communicate with anyone, and was just, in a sense, taking up space.

It was interesting though because that day in personal I was reading about Joseph Smith in liberty jail and in D&C 122:9 it reads, "Hold on thy way.. fear not... for God shall be with you forever and ever."

That was just a huge comfort to me.  If I can carry on throughout the day,cheerfully and with a smile on my face I have the assurance that God will be with me.  He never leaves!

In a talk I read this week it says something along the lines of, "Do it, do it cheerfully and then we can justifiably wait on the Lords Mercy".  What a great thought for me to reflect on as I was feeling down in the dumps.  If I do all things cheerfully I will receive the Lords mercy.  I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father!

I hope that everyone had a great weekend hearing our living prophet and His chosen apostles.  What a great opportunity to receive revelation and guidance!  I can not wait to watch conference this week!

Sister Loo

我愛你們!