Hong Kong 10-18-08 to 10-30-08

Hey!

This week has honestly been so weird that I don't even remember what I've done!

Last Tuesday, we had mission tour, which is like mission conference except that only half the mission was there and Elder Watson (the second counselor to the Asia area presidency) came to speak. The other half of the mission met the next day. I always love when all the missionaries can gather together and we can talk about all we've done in the past six weeks! Sister Thompson and I played a piano duet called My Heavenly Father Loves Me (the one Dar and I used to play!). I played the bottom part and it was seriously a miracle that we survived the song! Being missionaries, it's not like we have hours and hours to practice or anything! Anyway, it was good and I also said the closing prayer. I'm glad I wasn't called up to give a talk, too, cause then it would've been like the Sister Chu show. Everyone was assigned earlier to prepare a talk on a Christlike attribute (Preach My Gospel chapter 6!) and then some of us were chosen to give them. I decided to do mine on patience, since I apparently have none yet. Anyway, Sister Thompson and I had no time to do anything extra this week! We've been making calls and scheduling till nearly bedtime so there's not much time to do other things! It feels good to go to bed super tired, especially when you know that you've done everything you could that day for the Lord.

Elder Watson has just been called to be the second counselor. He is originally from the U.S., but he and his wife have been surrounded by Chinese people for a looonng time having lived in Beijing for around 40 years or so. He tried speaking Mandarin to me and that didn't really work very well hahaha! He spoke a lot on the Atonement and how to relate it to ourselves personally. He said that we could think of it like this:

"When Jesus suffered for my sins in Gethsame, I was there too. He felt my every pain and sadness . . . "

We all felt the Spirit so strongly as we heard other missionaries bear testimony of Jesus Christ as our Savior and Redeemer. Great day!

We had a frustrating day last Saturday because two of our investigators, JanJeh and Wuh Jimuih are totally regressing. They are also listening to Jehovah's witnesses along with our lessons. They really want to know which church is true, but they refuse to pray! Eeepp! Anyway, there is only so much we can do! That night, we went to the Yuen Long 1 and 2 ward activity. They had dinner and scripture story skits! So fun! I just LOVE the wards here because they are all so involved and happy. :)

Today, my district went to the Wetlands park in Tin Seui Wai. It's fun to watch birds for a change instead of people! We took a bunch of pictures, and then Sister Thompson and I left the elders because we were super hungry! We ate lunch at this fabulous Indian restaurant. I tried to eat the curry and nan bread stuff the right way (you have to scoop the curry from the curry bowl to your plate and then use the nan bread to soak up the curry and pick up the meat), and I was so messy! Haha it was really fun though, and it was nice to eat something other than noodles.

Some days, it's so weird to think I'm a missionary. By the time I get used to it, it'll be over! All the dying elders say that the time to go home comes all too soon so just give it your all every day. Then you have the rest of your life to think about it. Horray! I love this work!

Happy Halloween!

I love you all!

Sister Chu :)

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Hong Kong 10-17-08 to 10-23-08

Hallo from Hong Kong!

This week has gone by super fast! Almost every night, Sister Thompson and I have been making calls and scheduling till our bedtime at 11. I still have phone anxiety, not because of speaking Cantonese, but because I don't like talking on the phone in the first place! Sister Thompson laughs at me everytime because I pretty much slam the phone down in relief as soon as the conversation is over LOL! I'm doing better though hehehe. If we don't make phone calls, then we don't have appointments for the next day, and if we don't have appointments, we're going finding ALL DAY LOOONNNGG!!! So. That's pretty good motivation to like the phone. We are going to get a new phone today!

I've learned that I need more patience. We teach an English class every Friday night as you know, and since it's in the evening when I'm pretty much tired and some of the kids are kind-of rowdy, I pretty much almost lose my temper. Pretty much like that! I really love the kids though! Next time, I'm going to teach them about Halloween and bring candy!

Last Sunday, Yuen Long 2 Ward had a sihk pun choi activity for all the new members of the ward. Pun choi is like this humongous bowl full of all sorts of yummy stuff like chicken, tofu, fish balls, and all sorts of yummy stuff I don't know the name of layered together. They told me that they eat this at huge gatherings and everyone just crowds around the table with their rice bowls. Then we just eat and eat and eat till it's all gone! Love it! Our one investigator So Fanny (pronounced So Funny heee) came with her blind husband. She is quite the character! Her parents are from Hong Kong but she grew up in Brazil so her first language is Portuguese, second is English, and third is Cantonese. Amazing!!! We found her in the "past investigator" section of our area book. So far, she's been telling us her super long life story, and we hope that after the story is out, we can continue teaching her. She really wants to come to church so she is figuring out a plan to get her husband interested so that they both can come. Yaya!

Yesterday, we visited a lady named Dang Tai and her son. The elders came with us to get to know the son. Dang Tai is such a trooper! She has so many health problems and has to wash her kidneys four times a day. She just connects these two bags in an opening in her side and waits for all the fluid to flush out. All of her treatments has caused her voice to become super deep. Still, she never complains and has a strong testimony and prays and wants to come to church! We are all praying that she can overcome her health issues so that she can come with her son. Whenever we come, she always asks us to sing hymns to her and read scriptures. We're still working on reading characters so eheheh that doesn't go so well! She cried because she was so happy to see us. She is very lonely. I am discovering more and more every day that there are many many lonely people in this world.

Last week, Sister Thompson and I walked through this park by Yuen Long Theater, and we saw the saddest scene I've ever seen in Hong Kong so far. There were a huge group of students drinking, smoking, and just romping around wasting their lives away. It made me feel so sad that there were so many adults around walking by and none of them said anything to stop them! If my kids were with them, I would hope that someone would say something. We felt so sorrowful and Sister Thompson tried to talk with them. Later, we talked to a couple who has three grown sons. They had been watching us in the park with the kids and we bore testimony and explained to them why we would even take the time to talk to those students. The Spirit was so strong as we shared with them. I hope they will come to Church someday!

Time's up!

I love you all!

Sister Chu :)

P.S. Thank you HK Club for the letter! I just got it a couple minutes ago! :)

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Hong Kong 10-10-08 to 10-16-08

Hi again!

Greetings from the mosquito-infested suburbs of Yuen Long! Everyday, Sister Thompson and I look at our legs in mourning. We each have so many bites that our legs look diseased. We are buying mosquito repellent today or something.

We're so happy because we got to watch General Conference last weekend! It was so good to hear the choir sing and listen to the talks by our prophet and apostles . . . in ENGLISH! All the missionaries from my zone in New Territories gathered in a room in the Yuen Long chapel to watch it together. We had four investigators come to watch too! They were Heui Siu Je (who loved it!), Psyche (14 years old with LOTS of questions), Psyche's friend Karen (also 14 and very humble), and Amy (lived in England for a long time and I'm afraid was scared away by Conference). I loved Elder Anderson's talk. He said something like, "You don't know everything, but you know enough!" That just gave me encouragement and reminded me that I already have come a long way since I've arrived in HK! Oh and before one of the sessions, I randomly met Claire Chow's (well now Bertin!) mom who went to school with Dad and Mom. She said that my smile is like Mom's so that's how she recognized me. I have no idea haha!

I had a miracle last Monday because I'd been coughing a lot and that morning, I had no pain at all! I still coughed some but it made the day a lot easier. One of Dad's older brother's wife called me the night before. It was so nice that she thought of me! She talked super fast, though, so I didn't quite know what to say to her. And I was coughing a lot. And, I couldn't really tell who she was because I haven't memorized family relationship vocabulary yet! Oh well! Hopefully I will have more to say the next time she calls! And no worries . . . my cough is now nearly gone.

We have a member in Yuen Long 2 Ward named Michael who is AMAZING! He just got baptized last July, but is one of the best members I've ever met! He has such dedication and enthusiasm in doing the Lord's work, and he just radiates happiness to everyone he meets! He invited us over for dinner to meet his friend, whom he hoped we could share a message with but then she didn't want to listen. Still, he has great hopes for her and such a huge testimony. He is 27 and single so he goes with the elders all the time to go street contacting and knock on doors. He says he wishes he could serve full-time mission but since he can't, he likes serving as a member missionary. How awesome! He makes me want to do better. I just wonder how to help the other ward members be like him.

As I said last week, I went over to Amanda Chan's home last night for dinner. She used to live in Tsuen Wan and said she used to be good friends with Mom because they're about the same age and joined the Church around the same age (she was 15, I think?). Amanda also invited Szeto Wai Ling and her husband because she knew that they also knew Mom and Dad back in the day. Apparently, they haven't kept in contact with Mom and Dad very well, but they all have good memories of them! Sister Szeto has a 16 year old daughter now studying in mainland China. As soon as I walked in the door, she was so happy and kept patting my face, saying that I looked a lot like Dad, which is funny because other people say I look like Mom. Whatever makes them happy! Amanda and Sister Szeto said that Dad was like their older brother, and I can tell that they looked up to him when they knew him. They also said that they used to have a nickname for Dad, something with our last name cause it means "pig" in Canto! Haha! I gave her Mom and Dad's email addresses so hopefully you can email or something.

This afternoon, we are going with an investigator Sister Dahng to go to the hospital. I'm not sure what we're going to do for about 2 hours, but I hope we can help her!

I love you all!

Sister Chu :)

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