A couple of things learned this week...

A  couple of things learned this week...

The most important one; although it is frustrating, agency is a gift given to everyone and we can not do anything, but encourage people to make right choices with their agency.  This week we had a goal to get 8 of our investigators to church.  Throughout the week we reminded them, followed up and they all said they would be coming.  The day came and only 3 of them showed up.  Although we did all we could, the choice was still ultimately up to them and that is what is frustrating. Sometimes I wish we didn't have agency.. well at least the investigators ;) 

I said a couple of weeks back about how our zone had set some pretty lofty goals for the month of September.  Well, the last week of September (in missionary terms) was yesterday and we did so awesome!  None of the goals were necessarily hit, but we came close to it in all of them and goals are meant to make us stretch.  We saw SO many miracles and blessings!  It was so fun to see our progress throughout the weeks.  It is so true that if we work our hardest, we will not be disappointed with the results and will have a peaceful conscience!

This week was also exciting as two more Vietnamese sisters had troubles with their visas and were living with us.  There is something cool and special about living in an apartment or interacting with people who have the same purpose as you do but are from different parts of the world.  It just confirms to me that the church is the same everywhere you go and it is spreading everywhere!

Another thing that happened this week that made me feel not like a lopsaahp (garbage in Cantonese.. don't know the pinyin) missionary.  Often the filipino sisters will need our help on sunday teaching lessons because they have too many people at church.. yeah I know I wish I had this problem haha, but we have taught a sister two weeks in a row and get a text yesterday night from her sister who is a member and fellowshipping the lessons that she feels more comfortable with us and would like us to teach her from now on.  We are not sure how to handle the situation yet, but it was weird because we both felt the last lesson we had with her she wasn't totally engaged or listening so to get that text was a surprise.. You just never know when or how the spirit is working within someone!

The life of a Hong Kong person is VERY busy.  They work about 12 hours a day at least and don't have or make time for much else.  We were talking about Family Home Evening yesterday and I realised that if our family is our greatest (which it should be) priority we will make time for it.  If we have no time for Family Home Evening then we really are TOO busy and need to reprioritise. His gospel is perfect and there is an unbelievable amount of benefits to having a time where we can develop relationships with each other and have a safe place to strengthen our testimonies!  SO I hope everyone can put aside a time to do so AND has made time this week for general conference.. it is the greatest time of the year!!!! Plus who wouldn't want to hear what men called of God have to say?? 

Love,

Sister Loo

Just some random and fun pictures from Hong Kong... (me sleeping of course...missionary work is exhausting!  LOL...)

Ups and Downs...So Goes Missionary Work

This week had its ups and downs as every week does.  For starters we met with our investigator named Frank who was a self-refferal (he walked into the church).  We had an amazing lesson with him and he is one of the very few who has real intent and a sincere desire to know!  He told us this week he now really enjoys meeting with us and going to church, that before he used to tell us he was busy but really was just ignoring us or made up excuses as to why he couldn't come to church.  Haha he thought we were oblivious to that, we told him we know and we are pretty used to it because it happens all the time haha he thought he was being sneaky :)

This past week we also hit our one year mark!  That was exciting because that day pretty much summed up how my mission has gone!  We got Chang to Dim Sum and then taught a lesson in which the sister started crying because she was starting to understand Christ Atonement and why she should care about it/what relationship it has to her.  It was so awesome to see!  And then later that night we got fang by our investigator.  After a year we still can't figure out how to get people to not flake on us haha! We just respect their agency a little too much ;)

It has been quite a wonderful year!  I can not imagine doing anything else with my time.  I am so happy to be here in Hong Kong and have been/continue to be blessed!  If nothing else I am grateful for what I have personally learned and how much my own personal testimony has been strengthened!

As I have again started to re-read the Book of Mormon I was impressed by how Lehi comforted his wife Sariah when her faith was lacking.  In 1 Nephi 5:6 it says that she was comforted after hearing his testimony!  I thought about the power that a pure testimony brings and that is something easy that we can do for anyone who may need to be comforted.

One more quick thing, as I have been studying about faith and as we talked about it for all of zone conference this last Tuesday.  In Mathew 17:20 it says, "And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you."  All the faith that is required to move a MOUNTAIN is just a little amount.  So how much faith do we have?  Is our faith being (can't think of the word) by our unbelief?  What things are getting in the way of our faith?

Faith is the first principle of the Gospel. Without understanding or having faith so many blessings are not available.  Continually developing our faith in our Savior is SO important!

Blonde moments of the week:

"he goes to the u of M"
me: "Oh the university of Mexico?"

Me: "Is there an underground bridge that goes from Kennedy Town to Tong Chung?"
Sister Clark: "You mean a tunnel?"

This last one isn't a blonde moment but me fully embracing the culture because this is exactly how Chinese people talk when speaking english

*I have a cold*
me: "How does heat make you able to breathe."

So there you go still the same!  Still saying some funny stuff haha

I love you all and am so thankful for the many prayers that have been sent my way!

Love,
Sister Loo

Pictures below:
Beach day!
Playing minute to win it with the elders and the Lis

A very tiring week

This week I had a pretty "missionary" frustrated week.  So I sent an email to my parents asking for their help as they both served missions and could hopefully offer some great advice.  And for my blog, well instead I just sent some pictures.  Enjoy!!!

Out to dim sum with our RC and the branch presidents wife!

Out bowling.. I am ashamed to admit it, but I tied for the win with an 87...

Activity!

Tessa and Bella, the cutest twins you will ever meet!

Who said missionaries didn't know how to throw an awesome party with even better food :) 

Oops I think at this point in time I was supposed to be studying haha

It has been quite an amazing week!

We taught visitors on Tuesday.  I am still so amazed by the faith of these people and their desire to follow Christ.  These visitors (mom and son) had been introduced by a friend who is a recent convert of only 3 months!  How amazing is she, so excited to share the truth with others!

One thing that was neat about the mom was that she was intrigued and her testimony started when hearing about the Word of Wisdom!  She thought it was amazing that God cares about our physical health as well as our spiritual health and that was the foundation of her testimony.  I know as missionaries (especially in the Chinese culture where smoking and tea are so normal) we are often scared to share about the Word of Wisdom, but she was ecstatic to hear about it!  It gave me a new perspective on commandments and how blessed we are to have them!

As a zone we set our goals for September and they are pretty high.  WE know that if we rely on the Lord, have faith and work hard that they are more than achievable!  I am excited as we set them together and it wasn't just a couple of people so we are all committed to this goal.  It will be amazing to see how much the Lord blesses us for our hard work.  I am excited to see what this zone can do and hopefully how these goals will push us to become better, more effective missionaries!

This week our branch has committed and we have made for them a week long promise to help them get in the mindset of member missionary work.  They have all graciously accepted and I am SO excited!  Coincidentally the second hour gospel principles lesson was on missionary work.  Elder Evans (of the quorum of the 70) was also in attendance.  Our original idea was to take the members out finding on the street and show them how ineffective that is, but time was limited so we were not able to do so.  But, Elder Evans did amazing explaining to our members that following a prompting to share the gospel with a friend is a million times more effective than street finding!

We were also able to watch the work of salvation video before starting the class and it touched a lot of people!  It was a lesson/discussion filled with the Spirit.  Member missionary work is important, I can not stress that enough :)  I know I want to be better when I get home.

Elder Evans also pointed out that it should be natural and not stressful.  I would invite everyone to watch this video.  There are no words, just music, but it is AMAZING (sorry I feel like I have used that word a lot, but I can not explain my feelings.. just watch the video)!  No greater joy is felt than when sharing the gospel.. I can truly testify to that :)

Last but not least, our investigator Michael was baptised yesterday!  It was such a treat to be able to attend his service! Although he is a teenage boy and did not want to show his emotions you could tell in his countenance how happy he was and it was truly a treat to see.  Along with that we sang at his baptism a beautiful arrangement of Come Thou Fount and If You Could Hie To Kolob and the spirit was so strong!  A couple of sisters were crying and it really testified to me again that music is just another way to invite the spirit.  The crazy thing is that we sang in English and the sisters who were crying did not speak any English!  It was amazing.

Well, gotta go.

Love, Sis. Loo

Michael's baptism

Our investigator Sasa

My roommates and companion are so amazing!

Made my birthday so special.. 21... YIKES!