Merry Christmas Eve!

So I am too lazy to write a blog today!  I loved talking with all my family.  I am grateful for them and there love and support.  I sent a bunch of pictures (this week) in place of my blog post.

Merry CHRISTmas! :)

Love, Sister Loo

Random picture stuff: Pictures from our Christmas party!  Breakfast for dinner.

P.S. Mom that mapeline you sent me a long time ago came in clutch!

Home made syrup :) 

Sister Rodriguez opening Moms stocking!

Our Christmas table..

Someone snuck a picture of us in our natural habitat haha

I Love Zone Conference

This week I really loved zone conference! One of the senior missionaries gave a training called "sensing the Savior" it is an activity where you blindfold your eyes as different things that represent the Saviors life are placed in your hand and music plays.  I had done the activity before and I remember loving it the first time as it gave me the opportunity to think about Him in ways other than using my eyes.

At one particular moment a block of wood was placed in our hand as music played about the Savior as a Carpenter. The lyrics of the music talked about how the same wood that he carved ultimately would also be used in His crucifixion.  That brought tears to my eyes as I had the opportunity to reflect on the Savior and the drops of blood, the moments he spent in pain for me in the Garden. I am so grateful for Him and His selfless sacrifice!

An Elder also brought up a cool analogy to opening our mouths about a experiment done at Stanford.  A scientist caught a fly and put it in a cup, but everytime it would jump out (of course).  Well he stuck the fly in there but with a lid and the fly continued to jump, each time hitting the lid and falling down.  Slowly the time between his jumps to 'try again' became longer and longer until finally the fly didnt jump at all even when the lid was taken off.

I really loved this because I often come out of MLC, zone conference, district meetings super pumped and ready to convert the world and I am jumping, but slowly that starts to go away as people reject the message, ignore us or shrug us off. It really hit me that I dont want to miss the opportunity that once 'the lid comes off' and that person who is prepared is placed in my path that I dont jump and miss that opportunity.  I think this analogy can relate to all of us and be used differently, but we must remember to keep jumping! :)

On our way out of zone conference we also met a man who was from Tenessee and was lost (defintiely very Southern).  We helped get him to the MTR and find his way from there while of course talking about the gospel.  But, the interesting thing was he was completely uninterested in learning more, but often drives down a freeway in DC where our temple is in clear sight and often when he has a bad day he will drive down that freeway just so he can see the temple and it can "light" up his day!  This man who doesnt even know what the temple is or that it was even called a temple (he called it a tabernacle) finds peace, joy, and light from the temple, the house of the Lord, the source of our Light! I hope that we can all  let the light of Christ within us shine this christmas season and for the rest of our life even if others may not understand 'why'!

As we were meeting with one of our investigators who is Buddhist and talking about the different religions in the world she said, " We all have the same goal and that is to return to our Heavenly Father. You might take a train there, I might take a car, she might take a plane, but ultimately we all end up at the same place." So, that was fun trying to respect her views but re-explaining the restoration and that there is only one way.  It reminded me of the classic 2 Nephi 31 which says, And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. Amen."  How lucky we are to have the Book of Mormon and to know of these truths through it!  Her analogies did remind me of my dad though haha!!!

Funny things that happened this week:

One of the YM in the ward when passing the sacrament forgot to give the water to my companion so instead of bringing the tray back to her (because that would be too much work) he picks up a single cup hands it to her and then puts his hand out to take it after she is finished. hahaha

During second hour we talked about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, which was quite the topic for a lot of our recent converts and they were pretty confused.  I shared about how we will all be ressurected no matter if we are members or not and one of our RC's came up to me after and asked if that was my own opinion. haha

Love,Sister Loo

Caroling at Christmas!

The opportunity to #LighttheWorld is in each of our hands. 

Christmas love from home...

Obedience leads to faith...

This week in personal study as well as at MLC we talked a lot about obedience and the huge role that faith plays in that.  As I have just restarted the Book of Mormon I realized how much Nephi says (paraphrasing), I had faith that if I kept the commandments I would be blessed.

I have learned and seen with my investigators that if they dont have the faith to believe the Lord will bless them, then they will not do it!  But one of the best way to find out if the Lord will bless you is if we do test Him.  We must have the faith that he will keep His end of the promise and it is a deal that will always come out in our favor!

This week was our branch combined with Kowloon temple day!  On saturday they all went to the temple and some of which for the first time.  The kowloon branch had 4 people receive their endowments and we had 2 recent converts (Michael and his mom) do baptisms for the first time.

Michael did not want to show how much he enjoyed the temple, but when you saw his mom she was on cloud 9 getting to have this experience together.  She is already looking forward to when she can receive her endowments!

Zhao JM is such a great example to all of us.  The scripture in 1 Nephi 8 perfectly describes her, And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy; wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other fruit."  I love seeing the changes that have come about her as she really strives to live the gospel to its fullest and share with everyone she meets!

I hope everyone has had the opportunity to Light the World and share the light that is within each of us! #lighttheworld

Love,

Sister Loo

A quote from my fellow Tahitian companion she is so funny and reminds me of home.. we wont talk about who or what the background of this story is haha! ... "If I had something in my hand, he would receive it in his face!  I was so mad"

Did you know you can eat bread with chopsticks?

I love my filipinas!

Comp unity!

It's a dull dull week...

So when I say this week was a doozy it really was so I have nothing for my blog.. there was a lot of meetings as we have 2 new zone leaders and 2 new elders replacing the ones that were here before, but that is all that really happened!

We had the opportunity to go to everyday branch this week as different sisters were leaving to Macau and with sister Bolcolcol heading home so that was always nice to partake of the sacrament in the middle of the week!

We had the opportunity to see how the new RS and Elders quorum teaching is going to work and it is amazing!  So inspired and I am excited to see how it will be utilised in my branch!  It will be great for everyone to share their own thoughts!

Yup that is it.. I guess I can share some spiritual quotes that would probably be good.

"Life is unfair to you, life is unfair to me therefore life is FAIR" :)

As I have been studying about hope this week, a senior missionary talked on this topic as well.. she said, "Hope is a virtue for all seasons AND hope is the portal to peace!"

Love,Sister Loo

We love our senior missionaries haha!