Kwun Tong 9-18-09 to 9-24-09 . . . Part 2

Hey again!

Ahhhh! This week has been one of the most craziest, busiest weeks of my life! So Sister Lau left for the Provo MTC last Monday, leaving me to combine Kwun Tong and Cheung Kwan O areas together with Sisters Bird and Hougaard. They both were in the same MTC district and have been out in the field for about 7 months.

Our apartment looks like a tornado hit and that's what we pretty much look like too haha! We have pretty much no time to do anything extra like eating and sleeping. I feel so bad because I was supposed to call Mom's sister and Uncle Tim yesterday, but there was really no time at all! Sigh! I hope they don't get too impatient with me for not calling, but I will call them today!

It's SO INTERESTING working with a threesome. Everyday, we've had some small catastrophies, but now that we're all communicating more, things are going more smoothly, I think. Good grief! We just had yet another "meeting" today to discuss our companionship this morning. I am the only one who knows anything about Kwun Tong so I'm pretty much in charge until there is more time to figure things out. I haven't had language study for the past couple of weeks anyway so it's ok! It's a miracle that I can still speak any Cantonese at all! It's a miracle that I'm still alive!

With huge challenges, we're also having a lot of miracles to keep us sane. There must be opposition in all things, right? Heavenly Father really loves us, and I think as long as we're doing all we can, He will make up for the rest. We just have to really have faith that He really will make up for the rest! I am grateful that if anything, Heavenly Father has given me two companions who at least have the strong desire to serve God and do missionary work.

One of the miracles is that we have two investigators (Sabrina and Jean!) who will be baptized next month! Sabrina is a referral from Laura in Ching Yi and then Sabrina brought her friend Jean, who brought another friend Christy. Amazing! They are just so humble and willing to learn! The lesson wasn't the best, but Heavenly Father makes up for where we lack. Sabrina practically told us that she wanted to prepare herself to be baptized during the lesson so I was just like, let's do it then!

Dad . . . I am praying for your health goals and for the GA house to sell everyday! Are you still doing the one pound a week goal?

Mom . . . I sent you a birthday card yesterday so I hope you get it on time! Have a Happy Birthday! :)

Dar . . . I hope you're happy out there in Utah being married and all and making cakes!

Tiff . . . thank you for telling me the continuing, day-by-day story of Dar's wedding week! You are the best storyteller and always tell me all the details of what's going on!

Justin . . . thanks for finally emailing! I love you!

That's all!

Love,
Sister Chu :)

P.S. Thank you Brother and Sister Lloyd for the letter you left in the mission home for me! I hope you had a fabulous time in Hong Kong! I miss you both!

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Kwun Tong 9-18-09 to 9-24-09 . . . Part 1

Hi Everyone!

WOW!!! THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE NEW PLAN!!! I CAN'T WAIT TO COME HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!!! When is Dar and Jonathan going to arrive in NC? I AM SOOO EXCITED!!!

I only have about 5 minutes to email cause I need to go to an appointment, but I will have special permission to email again tomorrow! So you can all email me again if you want to this week so I can read it tomorrow hehehe! :)

As for housing, could you please contact Peter Chan for me (peterchanbyuh@gmail.com) and ask him if he knows anyone who lives in faculty housing who could rent a room to me? I don't mind sharing a room or anything cause it's cheaper anyway! I know he probably can't let me live in his home anymore since his wife and kids moved to Utah . . . he'll join them soon! Other than that, BYUH has a housing website where they post off-campus housing. I forgot the website name so I'm so sorry I can't be of more help! I will just have to have faith that God will provide the perfect place like He did before when I first moved to Hawaii. :)

Ok gotta go! I will email again tomorrow!

I love you all!

Love,
Sister Chu :)

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Kwun Tong 9-11-09 to 9-17-09

Hello Everyone!

Thanks everyone (Dar, Tiff, Melissa Trujillo (Hurtle!), Peter Chan, Michelle Fuluvaka) for the happy birthday emails! I've been kind of celebrating my birthday all week because Sister Harding bought a fruit cake (the kind with cream and fruit on top!) to moves calls on Monday, and our district went to a Korean BBQ yesterday for lunch. So fun! Winnie gave me a little pink bear in English class, and I named it Winnie. :)

Besides all that, last Tuesday was the wettest birthday EVER! There was a typhoon 8 (named Copu or something like that) the night before, and it kept on going till around 10 a.m. the next morning. So fun! But then we had to go out in the drenching rain as soon as it dropped to signal 3 to visit Abe, Brother Ng in the hospital, and go to a dinner appointment. We had to go through ankle-deep rivers to cross the street and got hit by a couple of waves from passing buses and taxis haha! I love being a missionary! :)

Moves calls were last Monday . . . I am going to stay in Kwun Tong! But now, I am also going to serve Cheung Kwan O (TKO) in yet another threesome with Sisters Hougaard and Bird! This will be my third threesome! Oh boy. I was completely surprised, but I know Heavenly Father knows exactly what He is doing! Sister Lau will fly out to the Provo MTC next Monday. Crazy! There is so much do to now to serve two huge areas!

One thing I am grateful for is the chance I have to stay with my investigators in Kwun Tong. Another thing is to visit Mom's sister! She lives in TKO, right?! I am so excited! I am going to try to stop by every week, even if it's only for a few minutes to see how she's all doing and to sing a song to her. The church is RIGHT NEXT TO HER APARTMENT!!! Yayaya!

For Dad, here are the answers to your three questions!
1. I emailed Uncle Tim last week . . . he hasn't responded yet so I'll call him this week now that I know where I'll be serving for the next 6 weeks!
2. I am going to reapply to BYUH today. I just have to call President Chan today to make sure it's ok . . . I'm pretty sure it is since I have to do it!
3. For my return trip, I pick . . . OPTION 1! You can come pick me up on December 14 and then we'll go home on December 27 to see everyone at home and have an extended Christmas!!! :) Then you can see Grandma, too! Could you please ask Sister Kau if this is ok for you to come on December 14? Thank you so much!

I love you all!

Love,
Sister Chu :)

P.S. Here's my address and email again (till around December 11) since people are asking!

China Hong Kong Mission
2 Cornwall Street
Kowloon Tong, Kowloon
HONG KONG

Email: alohasister@myldsmail.net

P.P.S. For Sister Diane Lloyd: Kwun Tong is the eastern part of Hong Kong! The Goo's can tell you where to go for church! :) I would LOVE to see you and Brother Lloyd on Sunday if you can come!!!

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Kwun Tong 9-4-09 to 9-10-09

Helloooooo!!!

Thanks Dad, Mom, Tiffany, and Justin for the birthday card and all the pictures of the wedding!!! I was so happy to see them! The only one I didn't see in the pictures was Justin . . . where did he go?! I will apply for my HK residency soon, but it'll probably need to be next week.

Speaking of which, there is only ONE MORE WEEK of this moves left! ARG! Time is going by so fast! I only have TWO more moves after so it's kind of weird. Oh well! I'll just pretend it's not coming! I think fall is finally coming to HK! I see leaves on the sidewalk, and I don't really know where they came from since this part of Kwun Tong has just a couple of trees. Oh wait. I just looked out the window and there are actually a lot of trees here compared to other places in HK! Thank goodness! I was telling Sister Lau about our old house in Rhode Island and how we had a forest in the back with deer, frogs, fireflies, and wild, flying turkeys! She was amazed hehehe!

So this week, we finally figured out our 150 names, but after going through the list and calling them, we found out that most of the numbers were dial tones. Sad! We have scheduled some people so far, though!

Sister Lau finally kind-of has her visa now to go to the U.S. of A.! We stood in a two-hour line to get it. There's still a little missing information, but I'm pretty sure she'll get to leave this month! I think she is excited to go!

We had a huge miracle this last Saturday! Remember Abe? The one we had to call the police on a month or so ago? Well, we finally got to see her again because she's been calling us and sounds so humble now. She really wants to change her life around. When we went over, she talked about how when she does drugs, Satan is definitely there, and she knows that Christ can cast him out. We set a baptismal date with her, and she's going to start quitting smoking! Sister Lau talked to her last night and she is already smoking less than before! Halelujah!

Winnie received the Gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday. I asked her how she felt after and she said she felt happy! :) She is just so good!

There is another really awesome recent convert of the elders named Jeffrey. He's 20 and we finally met with his sister Cherry to teach her the gospel. I am so glad Jeffrey came to the lesson even though I didn't know he was going to come! Their whole family is very close so she paid close attention to everything he said. At first, she was not really open to believing God, but by the end of the lesson, she said she'd be happy to pray and ask God if He exists and if Joseph Smith really saw God and Jesus Christ!

We have another cute cute investigator named Chirry (but pronounced Cherry)! She is from mainland China so we're not sure . . . we might need to turn her over to the Mandarin elders! Still, she is super humble and is so willing to listen! When she watched The Restoration DVD in English, she told us that she wanted to know more about it!

We've been going to seminary a lot lately. It starts at 6:30 a.m., which is still later than when I went to seminary at 6 a.m.! I don't know how I survived those four years hahaha! I could barely keep awake, so I just existed for the first few times. I'm just so used to waking up at 7 a.m. now. We're trying to encourage more Young Men and Women to come and so far, we've had success in bringing Elise! She's a recent convert from the past year, and she's 17! Now, for her friend Beverly, who is also 17 and joined the church in the past year. :) We've made Beverly a special invitation card to come to seminary and we will give it to her soon!

I love you all!

Love,
Sister Chu :)

P.S. Dar . . . my companion wants to know if you can send the Mrs. Field's chocolate chip cookie recipe . . . thanks!
P.P.S. I'll be online for the next 20 minutes so someone email me! :)

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Kwun Tong 8-28-09 to 9-3-09

Hey Everyone!

I just realized that today is September 3! This is my year mark from the very first day as a missionary in HK!!!

Winnie got baptized last Sunday!!! It was kind of crazy with lots of screaming little kids, and then the one who baptized her didn't know quite how to put Winnie under the water so I think Winnie got a little scared LOL! Oh well the deed is done and she will get the Gift of the Holy Ghost next Sunday!!! :)

This week has been super busy! On Sunday, we had so many meetings that we're only home for 1 hour between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. The busier the better and happier! Our English "class" (or the gospel taught in English!) has been working miracles! We've found 3 more investigators through the class. Last night, we showed The Restoration DVD in English with English subtitles and Ivy, the cute lady I always sit next to who is originally from mainland China, said something that stunned us all! Elder Crowder was like, "So! What did you all learn from this movie?" and Ivy said in Chinese, "I know that this church is true!" I scheduled her for tomorrow evening, and I am so excited to talk with her again!

Today we're able to go to the temple! Sister Lau is super lucky because her mom happened to be there to do an endowment session, and then she saw her aunt (who gave us soup in the hidden kitchen place of the temple hehehe) and dad (who is the temple engineer)! I think Sister Lau's aunt is going to give us some homemade mooncakes soon! Yum!

Well, we finally got the 150 names for our 100% hometeaching plan thing! We still have to organize all the names but we're working on it! I am so excited to work with the members! In my last interview with President Chan, he said that our goal is to baptize 1 out of every 13 new investigators. We can do it! We're teaching Grandma Wong again now that she's finally back from the mainland visiting her grandkids. She knows it's true! We just need to get her to church and baptized!

More details later!

I love you all!

Love,
Sister Chu :)

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