Typhoooooooooon!!!

We had some exciting weather this week and had not one, but two different days where there was a typhoon!  This just meant that we had to stay inside until it was gone and moved away.  It was pretty crazy this time and very visible that there was a typhoon outside.  But we are all safe and I am happy for the Lords protection.

During personal study this week I studied a lot about what it means to serve and be a leader.  I feel that with this new opportunity I have been given it has forced me into a different side of missionary work.  A lot of time is spent administering to the sisters but I am grateful for it.

I read the talk Beware of Pride (highly recommend to look over and evaluate ourselves) and Elder Uchtdorf past priesthood session talk about service.  The most important thing about serving or any leadership position we have been blessed with is that we see "them" as our Heavenly Father sees them.  That we are not directing them, but are willing to be directed by God and that we are lifting others to a place higher than where we are at, but always being humble and submitting to Gods will.

In everything that we do, we really are representing our Saviour. That is what it means to be a true disciple of Christ because that is what He did.  How grateful I am for His perfect example and His ability to lift me up to where He stands. 

The mission is an amazing time.  There is no greater joy than the feeling of helping someone come unto Christ and really get to know their Savior.  That is something that brings us happiness and brings the Spirit more fully in our lives.  

I would say the best antidote to unhappiness is service and the best way to serve is inviting them to come unto Christ.  Someone smart probably said that once :)

Hope everyone has an amazing week.

Love,

Sister Loo

Short One This Week...

This week was spent visiting Less-actives so we walked around what felt like the whole island!  We baked cookies for them and wrote a little note in characters for them.  I add the in characters part because two foreigners trying to write characters took us a little while.  I have never been more jealous of languages that have an alphabet haha.

Anyways, more than half of the Less-actives we were trying to visit, because apartments are SUPER expensive here, had moved (and were not willing to give us their new address when calling them aka were not wanting to be visited) and the others were not home so we had to leave it with their Filipino helper.  While it was discouraging that no one was present it was a funny and good experience because I felt like a 'real' missionaries walking from house to house (I guess apartment to apartment in this case).  There were of course blessings in the fact that the Baoan (security guards) were all nice and the people who were now residents of the Less-actives we were trying to visit didn't yell at us, which is SUPER rare!

This week we had an interesting experience as we taught "visitors" who did not want to be baptized or are not ready.. yet.  It was two men whose wives both went through the temple the day before and they had A LOT of basic questions about the Godhead and Plan of Salvation that they didn't understand.  In the end it all came down to real intent.  If we are praying to God and asking for answers and are not willing to listen or are waiting for the answer that we want, we will never receive any sort of answer.

I also realized how important it is, again, to have a testimony of the basic truths of the restored gospel. For example, Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are three separate personages, but they are united in purpose.

What a blessing this gospel is in my life and what a privilege it is that I get to share it with those in Hong Kong, although sometimes they are not willing to listen, I love being here.  It is amazing the joy that I feel even after getting rejected, stood up, or even dropped and I realize it is because I know how big of a blessing this gospel is and I am trying and Heavenly Father is proud of me for it!

What else?  On Saturday, we got asked by a Fijian man (who more than likely was gay) invited us to go to the beach with him on Sunday to have grog (I had no idea this was alcohol until later) and eat food.  I mean hey at least he was offering free food :)

On the bus one day I was able to sit and chat with a lady who works across the street from the chapel and when talking about missionaries she says "oh yes they are usually American boys who are really handsome!"  I wish this was not the first time this has been said to me about the elders.  Another lady I talked with asked if the church sends handsome young men as a strategy to get more people to convert. Okay I get it the sisters just get fat and the elders get more handsome. 

Until next week!

Love,
Sister Loo

All the visitors that were taught wanted a picture with all the elders
because they are tai shui (really handsome) 

Out to eat for Sister Clarks birthday! 

I miss snapchat haha!!!

The Weeks are Now Flying By...

The weeks are now flying by!!!!  The best thing that happened this week was MARLO GOT BAPTIZED!  Yes.....

She has been investigating the church for 3 years now and finally got the approval from her husband to get baptized.  It was a wonderful small, service (she wanted it that way and also had it because 08/08 is her favourite number haha) but I was so grateful to be apart of it.  She was absolutely on cloud 9 and I loved seeing her so happy!  The perfect way to describe Marlo is the super plum ferry :)

This week sister Clark tried to kill me... we were cooking Kung Pao chicken together and I was trying to be helpful so I decided to cut the chilis (they are the red long finger looking ones).  Well apparently that was a bad idea or I just have a really low spice tolerance because 30 minutes later my hands were on fire!  I cant even describe the feeling but it was quite unique.  That burning feeling lasted for 10 hours before it went away no matter how many times I washed my hands or put lotion on, I tried just about everything.  Luckily sister Clark was saved from my anger because the chicken was SUPER good :)

And also yesterday we had move calls and nothing changed with me and sister Clark so I am safe once again.  Our mission is about to get interesting though because 27 people leave on Thursday and people who have been here less than 6 months are training!  That may not seem like a big deal, but Cantonese is a hard language and so their Cantonese is not the best, BUT luckily this is Heavenly Fathers work and not ours so it will move forward as long as we are humble  enough to really be His servants.

We had a surprise visitor yesterday who showed up at church because it was conveniently across the street from where she was taking her college test.  Anyways we had the opportunity to teach and talk with her and it was so amazing!   She was so sweet and has a desire to follow Jesus so much so that she picked up a flyer from a different church gave them a call and asked to be baptized and they said they had time that day so she went and got baptized (just waiting for that to happen to me haha).

She was telling us about her experiences and how sometimes she doesn't know what she is doing here on Earth like what her purpose is and if anyone would care if she died, had a lot of questions about the Law of Chastity and why those are "rules" specifically with Gay relationships and abstinence before marriage.

It was cool to testify to her about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and that if she can apply and use His power all these questions will be answered.  This gospel answers all those questions.  It even helps us know why we have commandments and the reasons behind them so we are not just aimlessly following them because, "He said so".

I am grateful for the knowledge that I have a loving Savior who is with me every step of the way and that I know why I am here and what I am doing here.  I am also grateful for the different commandments that help protect me and lead me to a happy life!

Last, this week unintended I have studied a lot about prayer!  It has been quite amazing because my gratitude for prayer and my testimony have both increased as I have studied this and realised how lucky we are to have this method of communication with God.  It really is not something we should take for granted.

I was reading Elder Uceda talk from the October General conference and in it he asks a series of questions pertaining to our personal prayers.  Things like, Are we praying from our lips or hearts?  When was the last time you prayed and felt the heavens open because of it?

I loved this last question because it really put into perspective for me the fact that every time we pray God is listening and the heavens are quite literally opened at that period of time.  I hope we all can either improve our prayers or start praying and developing a relationship with our father in Heaven.

I love you all and am so grateful for your examples,

Sister Loo

Marlos baptism!

Probably have gotten this text or this said to me at least 100 times in the last 9 months :(​​​​​​

The famous chicken I almost died making! 

People are sometimes so lazy...

The week where I spent half my time not in my area!

This week was SOOOOO busy!  This email probably won't make much sense to you guys, but let me explain why.  Almost everyday we went up to Kowloon Tong (which is where the mission office is) which is 45 minutes away.  It doesn't sound like a long time, but believe me time is precious and a lot of it was spent traveling :(

• Tuesday- Had district meeting up there since our district is split, half on the island and half in Kowloon.  We also met with a new investigator, and at one point in the lesson he was like, "Have you heard about this one church, the Mormons, I heard they like super reject the bible and they're a cult, and supposedly they're here in HK." Sister Clark and I just look at each other and I go, yup that is us.. we are also called mormons!  Sister Clark later told me she wanted to tell him, but as you can see, we just handed you a bible, and we're sitting in our very nice church building that a cult is legally not allowed to own in good ol' HK soooooo.... maybe it's another church?' ;) Haha oh the things people hear about the church!  We were able to tell him the truth and he ended up coming to church on Sunday so I think he believed us!

• Wednesday- We had MLC 

• Thursday- Visitors!

• Friday- Meet with the ZL to discuss about the upcoming zone conference

• Saturday- Teach Marlo and accompany her to her baptismal interview

Luckily these were all great reasons to be in Kowloon though!

Yesterday was also an exciting Sunday as a visitor we had taught previously came back and got baptized AND she brought 6 friends with her to learn more!  Along with that there was a member from Beijing who brought 20 or so "investigators" who were interested in learning more!  When I asked him how he did it, he gave a very simple response, "I just try to set a good example and share when I feel prompted".  Again, I would like to emphasize how important we as members really are!

So during the second hour of church we taught the Restoration and during the third hour we taught The Plan of Salvation in "little" groups of about 8-10!  It was so amazing to see that many people attend church especially with how small our branch is.  It was filled with people eager to learn and the spirit was SO strong during that meeting, it was an absolutely amazing experience!​​​​​​​​

The last couple visitors that I have had know almost nothing about the gospel, but what they do know and what they are certain of is that this church is different and that they are a child of a Heavenly Father who loves them.  This really pushes them to have a great desire.  I am always amazed by their faith and their desire to follow Christ!  Such humble people ahh so awesome!

​​​​​​​​​​​​What an amazing week it was to be a missionary!  Thank you for all your love and prayers!

Sister Loo

Yan JM baptism!

Yan JM and her friends 

If you look close enough transportation is spelled wrong.. this happens more often than not haha

P-Day with sister Clark friend! (this ice cream is SUPER expensive) 

7 visitors got baptized and a lot of their wards came to support!

Celebration of one week being together!

Jiang JM (our visitor on Thursday)

Fell asleep during sister Clark weekly planning prayer and woke up with drool on my face.. the joys!

Cantonese ward primary activity!  Homeade ice cream!