Hong Kong 12-12-08 to 12-18-08

I HAVE BEEN A MISSIONARY FOR 6 MONTHS TODAY!!!

Celebrate! :) The time goes by soo fast!

Once again, I'm in the computer game place to type my weekly email. It's hard to think of stuff to say while breathing in smoke fumes and with kids screaming in the background as they frantically defend their gaming status so hopefully this won't be too boring!

There has been plenty of Christmas activities going on lately, thanks to our awesome Yuen Long wards and their socialness! We took our investigator Boyi to the "Songs of the Heart" choir concert in Tai Po on Saturday. I loooovvee Christmas songs! Lots of wards choirs got up to sing, and the little kids are the best when they sing Primary songs. The First Noel is my favorite. :)

The missionary sacrament meeting went well on Sunday! It was good for the members to hear us speak and get to know us a little more. The Restoration message will never get old. I always feel the Spirit when I hear it! After, more members came up to talk to us! :) Now we just need more referrals! We got even more food than usual that day, too, haha!

After Church, the Yuen Long 2 ward went to visit an elderly home. When we arrived, the people were sitting outside waiting for us. We had so much fun singing Christmas songs, traditional Chinese songs, and giving them treats! The missionaries did a nativity skit together. I played the angel and wore a huge, white sheet. Someone said I looked like a ghost, though, so I made sure to look as angelic and smiley as possible haha! I think I might have been a little-too-dramatic of an angel heeeee but I had so much fun! I think we made a good impression on these brothers and sisters of ours, and I hope they will let us come back someday!

We've done more finding and knocking on doors than usual . . . more people are avoiding us, but thank goodness we still are able to teach some lessons! On Tuesday, we went knocking on doors for several hours in Mai Po with no success . . . till the LAST DOOR. Dun Dun Dun! We found a Chan SiuJe who is Catholic along with the rest of her family. Horray! We taught her the Restoration and she believed. She said she once prayed to God if he was really there and then this pot or something came crashing down in front of her so since then, she has never doubted. She will be moving soon so we'll have to contact her again!

Yesterday was the Hong Kong Mission Christmas party! Everyone came and we did zone skits, sang, listened to other people sing, Sister Kau did the hula, exchanged Secret Santa gifts, and watched the mission pictures slide show. It's always so fun to see everyone again, especially my MTC district! We have two new sisters who are super nice! The next district will have some and then the one after will have TEN sisters! Amazing!!! In February or something, the first African-American sister will enter the MTC to serve in Hong Kong! She taught English in Taiwan sometime ago so I have no clue if she already knows some Mandarin or not. A couple weeks ago, the mission set the record for teaching 1294 lessons in one week. My New Territories zone taught 171 of them. (We consider a lesson a lesson when we teach a couple principles and invite.) Halelujah!

It's amazing how because a baby named Jesus was born, I can now serve a mission. Our lives have all been so blessed because of His great love and atoning sacrifice. We must never forget!

Love,
Sister Chu :)

P.S. Mom and Dad: I got a coat last week so don't worry! Now that I have one, the weather has all of a sudden turned warm again LOL! Oh well.

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Hong Kong 12-5-08 to 12-11-08

Neeeeeee haaaooooo!

Yep things are definitely going downhill now . . . I tee hee on the phone because I don't know enough filler Canto words, drool on myself in mid-sentence, and can't say my "th"s anymore. "Something" came out like "somefing" last night LOL! Not to mention that I forget to use prepositions in English so I make no sense in English OR Cantonese hahaha! It's a good thing that missionaries can still understand each other at least because they're all doing the same thing. Yep. I'm gonna be a wreck when these months are up! It's so funny how lot's of people have no idea what it's like to be a missionary . . . even members have no idea! I didn't know either before. You really have to be one to know! Sometimes, we feel like aliens. Like yesterday at Crossroads (this volunteer organization . . . we go once a month to help out), this guy with a white beard kept saying stuff about "the Mormons" with his British English accent. He was like, "Yep! We have tons of people who like to help out! We have the English, Australians, . . . aaannnnd the Mormons! They insist on being called Elder and Sister, which is strange, but they sure work hard!" We later told him about some of the things we do day to day like when we wake up, study, and go to bed . . . I wonder what he would say if we told him that we had to get permission to watch Kung Fu Panda! Bwahahaha!

Sister Thompson hates writing in her journal so she draws these ingenious cartoons of weird/funny things that have happened to us during the week. Here's one . . . we were walking down the street on day when she saw this guy biking towards us. She waved and he screeched to a halt yelling to her, "Do you believe in Jesus? My name is Vincent! You are so beautiful! Do you have a boyfriend? Will you be my girlfriend?" in his Arnold Schwarzenager (or however you spell his name) voice. She gets this kind of reaction from a lot of the male species and each time gets funnier and funnier! Until one time last week when I just lost it and got super mad at them because I really wanted to share the gospel with someone who REALLY wanted to hear!

Don't worry though! I've had my share of awesomeness last week. On Sunday, I was sitting with our investigator Carmen when this member comes interrupts class to tell me that there's a person waiting outside. It's so funny to me that the members always have this panicked look when this happens, as if they can't handle a new-comer to the ward on their own LOL! Anyway, the lady's name is Helen and she randomly decided to come to church for the first time on her own. Halelujah! Bells were ring-a-ling-ing and angels were singing! And I was so excited! We taught her the Restoration. She is SO PREPARED! Yaya! Next week, we'll introduce her to the Mandarin missionaries because it's her native language. I hope things go well because she likes the sisters so much, and well, there are no Mandarin sister missionaries! Wah! As time goes on, I see more and more that there is a huge need for sister missionaries! They are just fabulous because they can talk to people as no one else can. Haha this one old Chinese man we met on the street was like, "Let's face it! People like to talk to girls! Those elders are tall and scary." It's so great.

Finding is lots of fun in Yuen Long because we almost always end up in a jungle. I'm not exaggerating either! The other day, we ended up in a place loaded with banana trees, starfruit trees, and this other tree with I think was durian (dun Dun DUN! Ack!). There was also walls of tall bamboo lining the street. We took some pictures and wow . . . I gained some weight with all the cheng-outs but all the flub always goes to my face! It's so weird and I think I look like a balloon. It's probably from an Asian gene I don't know about. So maybe I'll send pictures later!

This Sunday in the Yuen Long 2nd Ward is going to be a missionary meeting. All four missionaries are going to give talks and do a musical number. This will be my first talk! Elder Dixon and Jeppeson will talk about the Restoration, and I'm going to speak on how we can apply the missionary lessons to help others we know. If you have any ideas, just pray them my way cause next p-day will be too late! Oh that reminds me . . . Mom and Dad: what date did you get baptized? Thanks!

We love our guards. Most chyuns (apartment complex) nowadays have guards at each building to make sure people don't go wrecking havoc and disturb the peace. This makes it especially hard for missionaries to go knock on doors! Where we live, we have the best guards ever! They just love us and we always have a huge welcoming party everytime we go in or out. They are always super bored cause they aren't allowed to watch T.V. or read during their 12-hour shifts. My favorite is Wong Sinsaang! He always has the biggest smile and jumps up to open the door for us. Yesterday, he showed me a picture of him from four years ago winning a trophy in badminton. My second favorite is Chan Sinsaang . . . I think that's his last name! He always looks rediculously bored hahaha! What a mournful being. We give him stuff to eat every once in a while as we come home cause members give us way too much food anyway. He always asks us where we're going and says he'll invite us over to eat sometime. And then there's another . . . I can't remember his name, but he jumps up and down with excitement and a huge grin on his face when we see him haha! He's just this Chinese old man who has lots of energy! I don't think that's part of his job description but it's so awesome! They often have their guard trainings in the morning and they are told to smile more and stuff. Many of them aren't used to smiling so much so it's so funny when they have those smiles plastered to their faces. We are also friends with the cleaning crew, too. There are two brothers we always see . . . one around 22 and 24. Super nice! We just hope that they won't be stuck cleaning for the rest of their lives as so many people are.

Someday, we'll be able to share the gospel with all of them!

I love you all! Christmas is coming! !!!

Love,
Sister Chu :)

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Hong Kong 11-28-08 to 12-4-08

Hi Family! (and anyone else who's reading this!)

Hehehe thanks for the emails!

I just wrote this long email but then it disappeared! Wah!

So . . . what to get me for Christmas . . . I have no idea! Actually, things aren't so easy to find where I am because I live in Yuen Long, the country of the country. We have a ton on little stores with random clothing in only one size so it's super hard to find normal clothes without the frills and sparkles that missionaries can't wear! Sister Thompson and I usually wander around a lot trying to find normal clothes without much success haha! Oh well. I guess you must have to be Chinese or know how to say what you want in Chinese to know where it is! Being on a mission has simplified everything to the max. I just need to get a coat and some gloves since it's starting to get colder here. I haven't seen any gloves so far!

Hmm . . . still thinking! If you just send me a card, I'll be happy! AND give the missionaries in your ward REFERRALS so they can teach people! Yayaya! :) Oh and I can call home on Christmas! We have to set up a time and I'll buy a phone card! So start making a list of stuff you want to ask hehehe! I'm not sure if the mission gives a specific time or whatever so just tell me what time you'll all be home! And please send me your new phone numbers again. Thanks! Maybe some mousse! I don't think it will explode haha! Yeah, anything that Dar thinks will be good. :) Tell me if you want anything from here!

So sad . . . I've had to type this email like three times since it erased so it's not the best one ever.

The highlight of last week was when we taught Psyche and Sharon (the 14-year-old girls) on Saturday. We finally got them to come to the church. We usually meet them at the McDonald's (it's like the hang-out place for everyone and it's got three floors!) so it's too noisy to hear and feel the Spirit. We watched the Restoration with them and it was so awesome because they felt the Spirit, and they know it's true! They think it's so amazing that Joseph Smith worked so hard to find the truth so now they want to work harder to read the scriptures and pray to get their confirmation. Halelujah!

Gotta go!

Love,
Sister Chu :)

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