Its Time to Decide...

This week sister Colombel and I got settled in and set goals for what we want to do and how we want the area to progress and grow!  I am excited to get to work and I know the Lord will give us lots of miracles if we are willing to work!  Everybody keeps telling us that this is the time for the both of us to decide what kind of missionary we want to be and I think that is definitely true.  We have talked a lot about faith.

We are praying everyday for Marlo (Eternigators = eternal investigators) and Michelle that they will have enough faith in Jesus Christ to believe he will soften their husbands hearts so that they will be able to get baptized.  I am excited and feel like a miracle is going to take place.

I was reading a book this week and I thought it was super interesting because it talked about how expecting the Lord to bless you is an act of faith. For example, with the law of tithing if we are simply paying our tithing that is not enough we are not excreting enough faith.  We must have faith that because we are keeping His commandments and paying our tithing, He will bless us.  Sooo expect and pray for blessings and Heavenly Father will bless you!

Last, we had kind of a different experience this week. Every morning we go to a huge park with lots of fields to exercise.  On Wednesday while we were exercising I noticed a man taking pictures of us and asked him what he was doing.  He said the field and us exercising was beautiful (And here I am dripping sweat.. I don't know what is pretty about that haha).  We explained to him why we are here and asked for his number to maybe meet up and give him a tour of the chapel.  Well long story short, we gave him a tour and he loved it!  We are meeting with him again this week!  Miracles!

I hope everyone has a great week this week and spoils their moms!  I am so grateful for the wonderful example my mother is to me.  Mothers truly have a divine role and their influence is irreplaceable!

Sister Loo

J. Co. The most american donuts found in Hong Kong..
...and they still were not very good.  I miss my BYU donuts​​​​​​​​​!

My eyeball...cool picture huh!?!?!?

Our district before we all moved for transfers

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