S3:E13 The One Where We Celebrate Jesus

 

                                                  

                                                            

圣诞快乐! 

This week has been so fun! The whole mission was finally gathered together. Being a missionary during Christmas time is the best! But at the same time, this week was hard for us because none of our friends were responding to us and we were worried about them. But a miracle happened on Sunday!! As sacrament ended, we received a call from Srinija and she told us she was at church. We didn't know she attended sacrament meeting so it was such a Christmas miracle for Sister Stakkeland and I.

Another highlight of my week was our friend Chelsea. In one of our lessons she shares to us about her thoughts on repentance/change. She thinks that being stagnant is boring and that she wants to change. She even asked us to find a scripture verse specifically in the Book of Mormon about how she can change. I love witnessing people desire to change. It's so cool that we can guide them. 

Mormon 3:3, "And I did cry unto this people, but it was in vain; and they did not realize that it was the Lord that had spared them, and granted unto them a chance for repentance. And behold they did harden their hearts against the Lord their God."

As I ponder about the life of Jesus Christ, my gratitude for Him deepens. I am grateful for Jesus Christ! Because of Him, I have a chance for repentance. This is the greatest gift that one can ever receive. A chance for repentance. A chance to change. A chance to improve. A chance to progress. A chance to overcome weaknesses. These chances are possible because of Jesus Christ.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! 

耶稣基督爱你 ♡

                                                      

S3:E12 The One Where We Have a Choir Performance

 

你好!

                                                              

这个星期我们有很多圣诞的活动。我们有一个 choir performance 跟别的传教士！我也很开心因为这个星期我有机会联系我的普通话。我知道语言的恩赐是真实的！当我赖到香港，我真的不了解普通话。可是现在我明白了！

现在我在英文的工作但是这个星期我有机会用普通话。他们告诉我，我的普通话很好。哇塞！！请为我做祈祷所以我可以进步。我知道英文的工作很特别的。我很期待可以回到普通话的工作但是我知道住需要我帮这个分会 :)

昨天我们有一个课程跟我们的朋友们：Michelle & Chelsea! 他们从 Nigeria. 我们有一个课程关于耶稣基督的福音跟智慧与。他们有很的问题。。是。。“你们可以帮我寻找一个经文关于悔改在摩尔门经吗？” 我们很开心我们的朋友们有真诚的渴望跟随耶稣基督的榜样 

你们这个星期过得怎么样？

祝你们有美好的星期 ♡

薛姐妹

XUE JIEMEI

SISTER SY

                                                     

S3:E11 The One Where We Have a Christmas Party

 

大家好！

                                                 

Hello friends and family, I now have a new compy, Sister Stakkeland! She's from Washington State and she's an absolute cutie 💗 She's a theatre kid so I'm very lucky that I get to hear her sing everyday. She's so talented!

This week my heart broke as I said goodbye to sister Rucker. I was so sad to see her leave but I'm happy that I got to spend an amazing 2 months with the most fire missionary here in HK! 

I'm enjoying my 2nd area, it has been wonderful getting to know some of the friends that we have here in Victoria 1. This week we were able to talk to lots of interesting people. It's fun getting to call people who speak English because you get to understand the interesting things they share.

One of the people we called this week was Rachel. We think she's from UK because of her accent and we had the most interesting conversation with her. Rachel loves art and she shares about Mona Lisa and Da Vinci. The call gets more interesting as we talk about God and she believes that God is a woman and that Mona Lisa is God. Me and Sister Stakkeland start looking at each other haha then she starts to share about how when you look at Mona Lisa's painting carefully, you can see how her eyes are always looking at you wherever you go. It was so cool when Sister Stakkeland related this to how God is aware of His children and is always looking after us.

This week we had a branch Christmas party! It was so so fun and we got to listen to children singing and performing. The food was 很好吃! The members gave us all the leftover food and treats after haha, it was a lot of food and we had to carry it all the way home. While we were at the Christmas party, our friend Srinija, from India came!! Srinija is someone that the missionaries taught a long time ago and she likes talking with missionaries. I had a special experience of talking with her and getting to know her more. She shared to me how she thinks prayer and reading the scriptures make her happy and bring her warmth in her life. She also shared to me how she felt so lonely away from her family and that coming to the Christmas party made her so happy! 💗 She is so special and has such a sweet spirit.

This week was a great experience of learning. I have an awesome step momma sister Stakkey! One thing I learned this week was that we are all going through tough times and thinking of how others feel will help you lighten your own burden. "Forget yourself and go to work" is something they always say but so true!

薛姐妹

XUE JIE MEI

SISTER SY

                                     

S3:E10 The One Where There's Transfer Calls

 

Hello hello! 大家好！

                                                               

BIG NEWS: I'M GETTING TRANSFERRED and LEAVING THE MANDARIN WORK :(

This week we had transfer calls and we all knew changes were coming because of the big group of missionaries leaving us soon. Me and my roommates came up with theories about what was going to happen for this transfer and we did not expect all these changes to happen haha! We all thought we were going to become a trio for a bit but NOPE  I have been kicked out of the 普通话 work and will be serving in Victoria 1st International Branch.

Such a scary new assignment to be working with foreigners from all over the world and teaching in English! My teaching skills are very poor and foreigners intimidate me which is probably why God is sending me to the most uncomfortable place I can be in so I can uncomfortably grow haha. "There is no growth in comfort, and there is no comfort in growth."  I'm really sad to be leaving the Mandarin work, I hope I'll come back soon. I will miss working with our friends and members.

♡ Camille is still doing so well and is still progressing! It's beautiful to see how the Lord works in her life and it strengthens my testimony of how God really does listen to our prayers. She said, "whenever I pray, I feel like I'm getting a hug. It feels like my mom is hugging me, and my mom has never hugged me in years. It makes me feel a warm feeling." She's so special. Please pray for her to not lose her desire to get baptized and to continually exercise her faith.

I would love to hear about your week :)

薛姐妹

XUE JIEMEI

SISTER SY

                                                               

S2:E9 The One Where We Have a Lesson with Camille

 

Hello everyone! How has your week been? Mine went well~

                                                                        

♡ I just want to update you guys about our friend Camille. She's progressing so well and is learning a lot. I remember when we first met Camille, she was just such a happy person filled with so much light. She looked so happy when we talked to her and exchanged numbers. We met her when I first got here to Hong Kong and we've been teaching her the lessons. We taught her 3 of the lessons already and it's been great! She comes prepared to the lessons and always has great questions which I feel like is the reason why she is learning so much! We invited her to be baptized and she said YES!!  Hopefully things go well, she wants to learn more and right now is setting up her own schedule with us: she's basically the one doing missionary work haha. She said that she thinks she still has a long way to go and a lot more to learn. Her baptism date is on February 5th (hopefully!), she says that if ever she feels like she isn't prepared, she's going to push the date. I'm really excited for her and sooo happy for her, I already know she's going to be such a great friend and sister to the members of Wan Chai. One of the things Camille said was, "I want to take things seriously"

I love how she thinks of joining the church, and getting baptized as something very important. She believes that it is a choice she has to really think about and I love how she places so much importance on it. I'm so excited for her journey of learning! 

♡ One of the goals I set was to start reading the New Testament again. I remember when I first read the New Testament and it filled a hole in my heart because of the many answers I had received. I started reading Matthew this week and I learned about the beatitudes. It repeatedly said "blessed are the... for they shall..." the Lord is already willing to grant us blessings, we just need to act in faith! 

How was your week? 

XUE JIEMEI

薛姐妹

SISTER SY

                                             

S2:E8 The One Where We Have Zone Conference

大家好！你们最近过得怎么样？

                                                 

 This week has been crazy busy! We haven't had a chance to do a lot of finding this week since our schedule this week was filled with activities that took so much time. We had our zone conference which was so overwhelming haha there was so much information and trainings! President Chan was so funny, he shared a lot of fun stories and showed us a game that he used to play when he was little.

☆ We had an open house activity on Saturday from 10 to 6! We were all so tired that day because we were at the chapel the whole day. I went on an exchange with sister Scott, she's from Beijing but was adopted into an American family and she's doing Cantonese work. It was so fun to be her compy for the day and get to serve with her. It was so fun to see people inside the chapel with their children, families and friends. They were enjoying and socializing with each other! One of the cool things that happened was how we were handing out flyers outside and just asked people and pointed to the door and it was so surprising to us how a few people would immediately enter the chapel. We got to talk to a guy named Tony who was really interested in coming back and had so many questions! He asked how if he had to be a member in order to join activities, and he was really scared to tour around cause he thought he had to apply before entering the rooms. He was also surprised to know how we have a special daily sacrament meeting. He was asking us what time the church meetings were and was just so curious about everything. I wish people here knew more about how they are SO WELCOMED to come to church and visit anytime they want!! 

☆ This week I was so grateful that my comp left her wallet in our apartment. We were already at the MTR and had to go back because she can't get in without her card  but when we came back we saw a couple from our apartment bringing sooo many luggages. They were having a hard time moving their things and it was an opportunity for us to help them. We got to know them and be friends with them! They were visiting their children in New Zealand and won't be back for awhile, they were so happy that we helped them. The mom kept saying, "we are so lucky to meet you!" and the dad kept saying thank you, they were the nicest and sweetest people ever. I was so glad my comp left her wallet cause then it opened an opportunity for us to serve!! 

我爱香港！有好多机会可以服务我们的朋友。当我服务时候，我会感受到更多快乐！♡

How did you serve someone this week? :) let me know how your week went, I would love to know!!!

薛姐妹

XUE JIEMEI

SISTER SY

                                                   

      

S2:E7 The One Where a Lady Gives us a Bag

 

 Hey everyone!

How has your week been? Any updates from home or any interesting story that happened this week?

♡ Our friend Camille is progressing well, before we even invited her to church she already texted and asked if the meeting was at 10 am. So nice that she's making these decisions on her own now. We got to teach her the Restoration yesterday together with one of the recent converts and the friend of the other sisters working in the same branch. It's nice how they really have wonderful questions. Camille is still interested in getting baptized but thinks that 3 weeks is too quick for her to be taught everything. We learned yesterday that she was part of a communist party and when she said that we knew that it was going to be hard for us to get her baptized because I think there are some rules you have to follow like being neutral when it comes to religion. So we'll see how it goes! Yesterday she was asking us about what a "broken heart and contrite spirit" is. It's so cool to see how the Spirit is working in her life and that she's trying to understand things so she can really know for herself if there's a God and if everything we're teaching her is true.

♡ On Saturday, we went to HKU to go finding and we were so tired to even go finding. We were about to go home already but I told my trainer that we should wait for one of the girls to come back and then when she came back we were talking to her and she said she was from Yemen. It was so cool and she was nice! Her name is Win. Then at night time my trainer was prompted to get boba with her and we did. We got to know her a little bit more and she even invited us to join a service project with a Christian group on campus. While waiting for Win, we met this cute lady. A simple wave we gave her led to a super fun story. After we both waved at her, she asked us if we were Christian. Then she started talking to us and I think she was just shocked that we knew how to speak Mandarin. Then she told us to wait for her at the spot we were staying cause she was going to give us bags like hers. It was so fun and random. 

Simple acts of kindness like waving at someone, saying good morning to them, complimenting their outfits can lead to a really great friendship or a fun experience. It's a very happy feeling when we help make someone's day feel better and brighter! I know that if we share the light of Christ with those around us, they will feel and see that light and kindness that you have. Simple acts of kindness are a powerful testimony that you can share with others.

How did your week go?! I would love to know and listen! I'm just an email away

XUE JIEMEI

薛姐妹

SISTER SY

 

                                                

                                             

                                                    

                                          

S2:E6 The One Where We Meet an Italian Singer

 

你们好?

这个星期很忙。我们的地带有一个目标：给四百个人摩尔门经！(This week was busy. Our zone had a goal of giving the Book of Mormon to 400 people)

                                                                   

我的目标是努力练习我的普通话因为下个月我的同伴回家了。(My goal right now is to diligently practice my Mandarin because my trainer is ending her mission next month. And there will only be 3 sister missionaries left working in the Mandarin area, unless they send a local to be my companion.)

在星期二，我们在寻找人门所以我们可以给他们一本摩尔门经。我有一搞笑的经验哈哈。当我们在MTR时候，我跟一个Indonesian讲话。我们两个有不好的普通话但是我们一起了解each other。她是慕斯林。我告诉他我有一个免费的书，我告诉她我想要给她一个礼物。她说，“没有钱？” 她接受我给她的摩尔门惊经！她叫Lulu!  (Last Tuesday, we were going finding so we could reach our goal for the night to give away atleast 6 Books of Mormon. I had a funny experience. When we were at the MTR, I saw a person who looked Filipino but I spoke to her in Mandarin! We had a good conversation and she was shocked that I was from the Philippines and knew how to speak Mandarin. I didn't understand 70% of what she was saying and my companion left me alone so I couldn't ask her for help at all cause she was also talking to another person. She was actually Indonesian and she had broken Mandarin, so it was so nice to speak broken Mandarin with each other.  Even if our Chinese was so poor, we got to understand each other and we eventually got to learn about each other and introduced myself as a missionary and gave her a book of Mormon. She asked if it was free and said "thank you I'm Muslim, I believe in Allah but I will accept this book." Her name was Lulu! I was so happy to meet her.)

Another awesome miracle was that we met an Italian guy at the MTR, sister Rucker started talking to him and asked him what he was doing here at Hong Kong. He said he was working at an Italian Restaurant as a singer then he started to sing hahaha it was so fun cause he was so passionate about it and people started to look at him. We were pretty shocked too  in the middle of his singing, his stop arrived so he had to leave but sister Rucker threw a book of Mormon in his hand and asked if he was a Christian and he couldn't even answer and just took to the book of Mormon with him. When we arrived home, we said our prayers and were so excited to eat our dinner and before we could even eat someone starts calling us and tells us he found our book in one of the seats of the station (where the Italian guy stopped). We ate like 2 spoons of our meals and started running to the station because he said he wanted to give the book back but his voice was really unfamiliar and he just kept saying okay I'll meet you at this station. We were running really fast, and this was so hard for me because I have a really weak body. My calves started to hurt and burn and I thought I was gonna get cramps, my heart was beating really fast and I was sweating even if the weather was so cold!! All of it was so worth it because we met the person who called us and said, "I found your book at the seat in Sai Ying Pun. I asked the person who sat beside the book if it was his but he said no. I picked it up because this book looks really special. I know it's sacred because I saw the word Jesus Christ. I opened the book because I know there are numbers on this book so I called you." His name was Glen and he was Filipino, and we read a verse in 3 Nephi. We told him to keep it and he refused because he said he had a hard time reading scriptures because it was hard to understand and he didn't have a lot of time to read. We insisted that he keeps it and he did. Then he later said, "it's my second time to receive this book. There were also other missionaries who gave me a book like this." That was such a cool experience. Redirection! We gave a book of Mormon, we acted in faith by listening to promptings and God gave us an experience that helps us see His love for His children.

This week was so awesome, it was filled with great experiences. As I reflect on how I've already been here in Hong Kong for a month, I realized that as I serve and meet people, I get to experience living as the Savior lived. I wish I could comprehend Jesus Christ's love for all of us, but if I did, I would be overwhelmed.

This week I want to invite you all to read Alma 30:44. Go outside and sit down, just look at the skies and look at what God has created for you and I. We will be amazed at how God has created us and gave us wisdom to create beautiful things. "There is beauty all around."

你们呢？你们最近好吗？祝你有美好的兴起！(What about you guys? How have you been? I want to hear from you! Hope you have a wonderful week!)

♡

SISTER SY

XUE JIEMEI

薛姐妹

                                                 

S2:E5 The One Where We Teach People from Mainland

 

Hey everyone!

This week was a great teaching week. We got an opportunity to teach 2 people from Mainland who came to Macau so they could get baptized. This is so special because missionaries in Hong Kong aren't allowed to teach people who are in Mainland but they can teach them if they come to Hong Kong. We got to teach Li Baozhi and Coco, 68 year old and a 9 year old. We taught them all of the 5 lessons in 3 hours last Thursday and Friday. It was crazy busy!

☆ Li Baozhi doesn't know who Joseph Smith is, she has never read the Book of Mormon because information about the church is very limited in Mainland. We thought she knew everything already before coming since most of the people who come here already know most of the principles. It was her first time to touch a book of Mormon too. She said that she already believes in it when she received a book of Mormon. It's sad how people of Mainland don't have access to this information but they have a really great desire to be baptized and even come to Macau. It's a privilege to teach people from Mainland, I'm so excited for when the day comes when Mainland China opens its borders to missionaries. 

☆ We visited a family who are Buddhists but have a son who is a member and served a mission. His dad was so against his son going on a mission and going to BYU, he didn't support him but the mom secretly paid for his school and funds.  When we visited them, it was so evident how the dad wanted to learn so much and he felt kinda bad that he never tried praying in his 65 years. He was really thinking and pondering and listening so intently. We have a great feeling that he really wants to learn more and we know that the Spirit was really softening his heart.

One of the verses I read in the book of Mormon in Alma said something about "hushing your fears", it was a really lovely chapter. We can all hush our fears and listen to the Savior's calming voice.

                                                                

S2:E4 The One Where It's All Green

 

大家好!

                                  

                                                               

How has everyone's week been?

This week went by great! Many interesting things and cool stories happened. I just want to share a few experiences I had while doing missionary work.

☆ We were invited by one of the members to have dinner with her and her daughter. 李姐妹 and her daughter, Sunny! They have super cute dogs, Snooby and Ophelia, a bird named Mango and a gecko. Interesting home! I got to know them a little more and we were able to share a scripture about gratitude. After our visit, we had to take a bus going back home. We aren't really familiar with buses since we always take the MTR which led us to stopping somewhere in West Kowloon which isn't in the Hong Kong Island (my zone). We finally got to the MTR and was waiting for our train to arrive. While waiting, there was this Cantonese lady who was screaming at a guy. She was taking videos of him and I thought the guy did something bad to her. When our train arrived, we approached the guy and asked him if he was okay. He explained to us that this lady always stayed at the MTR and had always shouted at random people. He was super grateful that we asked him if he was okay and we got to introduce ourselves as missionaries and he asked how we do our work here! We stopped at the wrong stop but was able to help a person who needed comfort and a friend! 

☆ One of our train rides going home, I recognized a lady who sells fruit at a market in Wan Chai. I waved at her and she was so confused and even removed her earphones hahaha just to talk! She said sorry she doesn't know me  and I said you don't know me but I recognize you! And she didn't understand a thing I was saying and there was a person behind her who started translating for me. His name was Donald! We got to talk to him more and introduced ourselves as missionaries. He said he doesn't have any religious beliefs but asked us where our church was and we gave him a leaflet and he even said sorry that he couldn't come on Sunday cause he had an exhibition but that next Sunday he would be able to visit! It's nice to see and meet friendly people here at Hong Kong! I hope Donald would be interested in learning, I have a feeling he would really be :)

☆ Yesterday, Sunday, our friend Camille came to church!! We gave her a call and a few minutes later she messaged and said she overslept and was coming ASAP! She got to sacrament and relief society class and I love how the members just embraced her and didn't make her feel out of place. The relief society are really great member missionaries! When we finished the 2nd hour, she said she couldn't stay any longer but we walked with her to the train and she right away asked, "how do I recognize the Spirit? I'm so confused! Maybe the Spirit isn't in me". This question came from a person who doesn't have any religious background, it was her first time attending church but the Spirit was so strong with her. She was asking about how the Spirit speaks to us when we make choices. It really is true when they say that Heavenly Father has prepared people already, you just have to find them. We extended an invitation to be baptized and she said yes! We're so excited to be able to teach her the lessons and just guide her and help her learn more. We're so happy that she has the desire to be baptized! We hope we can help her grow her desire!

Please help us pray for our friends, Linzhi and Camille to do their daily prayers and scripture study so they will be able to recognize the Spirit in their lives!

   

                                                            

S2:E3 The One Where We Have Exchanges

 

Hey everyone!

                                              

This week we focused more on reactivation. We didn't get to do a lot of finding haha yay for the break from talking to college people!!!!  I don't even know what to talk about since I have no college experience and barely know anything about the courses they're taking.

On Tuesday we had a dinner appointment with a girl named Jessica Yuen. She's a model, so she's super tall! She was baptized during my trainers' trainee days and then she never went back to church after. We talked over food and she was talking about her boyfriend haha it was hard to talk to her about coming back to church since she just kinda wanted to share about other things. I know she just needed a friend to be with and talk to! We sent her a link to general conference about marriage since she talked about wanting to start a family too. Hope we can get her to come back and be interested in learning more about Jesus! I also ordered KFC on this day and I wanted chicken and fries and the cashier was Cantonese speaking and it did not go well. She was having a bad day and was just being mean so I only had fries for lunch which wasn't good 

On Wednesday we had companion exchanges! I did my exchanges with sister Bills. She is such a goofy person and she was so fun to be with! She is studying something like international studies. She's lived in different parts of the world! We also got to talk to some Filipinas at the Tamar Park and friended one on FaceBook! Hope that works well for the sisters doing English work. 

On Thursday we had free lunch and dinner YAY FOR THAT!! #savemoney #imalmostoutofmoney  We met with A-min, she's inactive because she has work on Sundays and can't attend the everyday branch since she doesn't speak English. She is very patient with our Mandarin and she's such a funny girl! She treated us to KFC and had the best egg tart EVER. We also tried Wasabi fried chicken and it wasn't good  we also read the Book of Mormon with her! She likes to read with us, her struggle is not being able to come to church on Sundays. Getting people to come to church is hard here, it would be such a miracle for them to come  We also had a dinner appointment with Camille and Hober, they treated us too and that was so nice of them. They are really interested in learning more and they have questions about it. Camille started praying and she said she feels better when she prays but is still confused and hasn't recognized that those feelings come from the Holy Ghost. We are planning to refer Hober to the elders because I noticed he's not only interested in learning about the gospel but also in my trainer hahaha lol 

This week wasn't easy! There is no growth in comfort, and there is no comfort in growth. It is hard but it is bearable. It doesn't go away right away, but the Lord sure does strengthen and give you more courage. 

I invite you all to read Jacob 2:8 and Jacob 3:2 from the Book of Mormon ♡ and listen to Michelle D. Craig's talk from general conference.

I know that each of us have a wounded soul, but I testify that the word of God will heal it. The scriptures are right in front of us, it is a gift! And we have the choice to unbox this gift and receive it. What choice will you make?

Sister Sy

薛姐妹

XUE JIEMEI