Sister Reese Sy: S4:E9 The One Where We Meet a Man with a Goatee

大家好！你们这个星期过的怎么样？

Where do I even begin?

☆ This week we invited our friend Christina to come to the chapel. She can only speak Spanish so we watched The Christ Child video with her. We gave her a tour around our chapel and we talked with her using Google Translate yay! We were also able to get to know her more and what she likes. It's amazing how we have developed such a good friendship with her even if we literally have a language barrier. We ate ramen with her and literally had to wait for an hour cause while we waited she was asleep haha! But we gave her a Spanish Book of Mormon too! To our surprise, there are only 2 copies of the Book of Mormon in Spanish in the mission office. Isn't that crazy? Spanish might be one of the most spoken languages but we only have 2. And we have so much different copies in languages we don't even know of haha. We testified of the Book of Mormon in Google Translate too! We also finally connected her with members from Victoria 1st branch. When I opened my mission call, I only expected to be in a table with Mandarin speaking friends. If only I knew I was coming to Hong Kong to be sitting in a table with 4 people just speaking Spanish, I would've prepared myself haha. It was such an experience. The Latina culture is really cool too. They are all so sweet and fun to be with! We had lunch with Christina at sister Clark's house. Sister Clark is a convert to the church too! She shared her conversion story in Spanish and one of the girls translated for us from time to time. Sister Clark used to be Catholic but said when she met her husband for the first time she was lovestruck but found out he was from a weird church. She was very eager to convert him to Catholicism but then finding out about eternal marriage made her excited cause she wanted to be with him forever. Haha! The way she shared the story was so funny. She was an investigator for 9 months and said she was the worst investigator because of how hard her heart was but then when she had a testimony of Joseph Smith, she wanted to get baptized right away. It was such a lovely time with them! We ate really really good French food that sister Clark prepared. One of my best chengs! Another one added to the list haha

☆ We had Zone Conference this week and it was fun! We talked about positivity and faithfulness. Just like how negativity spreads so fast, positivity can be the same too. It was another needed zone conference to draw motivation to do the work. It was another boost and refreshment to remember our purpose as missionaries. The food was so good too! Sister Clements prepared lasagna for us, and garlic bread which I miss so much! I got to see some of my favorite missionaries during Zone Conference and it was such a great time to see them all again and just talk to them. I also had a very uplifting and emotional talk with my mission president. It was something I really needed and I felt closer to God. Something about him saying that I am a divine daughter of God just brings warmth and comfort to my heart. When we know our true nature, our divine potential, it really does change the way we see ourselves and how we act. That interview made me trust my mission president more and strengthen my relationship with him.

☆ We were doing our Visitor's Centre shift and we were just saying hi to everyone passing by and inviting a couple of people to come inside and see our chapel. As we were doing that, there was a guy who passed by us. But then I saw him turn again and he approached me! At first I was scared because of how he looked haha I thought he was gonna say something weird but then he asked me what time does our chapel close because he wants to come see it sometime. We explained that it was open 24/7 but we weren't in the chapel all the time so we asked for his contact but he was from Mainland and didn't have a Hong Kong number. Then he asked what was the difference of our church from other churches. So we shared about prophets and the priesthood authority of God. I testified of Prophet Nelson and he asked where he was and how old he was haha. And so he said he would come back in 2 hours. But we wouldn't be in the chapel by that time anymore. So we told all the missionaries in the chapel because we knew that guy needed a tour and we really needed to see him again. As we were going home, WE SAW HIM!! And so we walked back to the chapel with him, we gave him a tour. We started with the baptismal room, we showed him the Book of Mormon shelf and gave a simple introduction about it. Then he asked if we didn't read the Bible, and so we explained that we do believe in the Bible as long as it is translated correctly. We told him the Book of Mormon and Bible complement and support one another and he asked how it does. And so we gave him an example, that the Bible talks about 3 different glories being called the sun, moon and stars and we shared how the Book of Mormon explains clearly about these 3 glories. And then we talked about the plan of salvation which led to us talking about the judgement day and he was curious as to how one gets judged according to their works. Then we talked about the Spirit World how all of us would get the chance to receive the gospel. And he asked why would anyone not accept happiness. So we explained more! He had really good questions. He was searching for answers for such a long time and got almost all of them in an hour. I want to write more about this experience but I can't remember all of it. I can remember the Spirit so strongly though. I'm really grateful to be a Mandarin missionary here in Hong Kong because Hong Kong is the gateway to China and just having these opportunities of helping and teaching people from China is such a privilege. Another guy we met shared how he wanted to bring the Book of Mormon home to China but he knew the police would be at their doorstep if he did. It's so sad that people from Mainland don't have access to truth but this is why I'm here as a missionary in Hong Kong. I know everyone says their mission is the best, but really, my mission call is the coolest! no one can top it. Planting seeds and giving people from Mainland China a taste of the gospel is such a huge privilege.

☆ We finally had a lesson set up with Yan Gui Rong & her husband. They have a really thick Jiangshu accent that we can hardly understand. But we had a member present and it was awesome! We got to learn more about them and their background. They are the sweetest couple who come to church every Sunday but at the same time it's really hard to teach old people who think all churches are the same.

☆ We were doing a district find last Friday and we were walking around Wan Chai where we met an old guy wearing all red. So of course I couldn't not say anything! A simple, "is your favorite color red?" led us to getting to know him more. We thought he was a local cause he looked really local but we found out he was from the Philippines. He said he loves red so much and so we walked with him. We found out he has 100 cats in the Philippines and a couple of dogs hahaha. He said he was an entertainer and does radio thingies where he talks and shares stories. We told him we were missionaries and he asked us what our favorite song is. We started singing amazing grace with him and it was such a wholesome experience. He said he had a YouTube channel so EVERYONE GO AND SUBSCRIBE: TED PILA TV. As we were about to leave, he said "God brought us together here at this time and at this very moment", he was so cute and wholesome! He even said "my only wish for everyone is to be happy and healthy". Gotta love old people! ♡ they're the sweetest

How was y'alls week? I've been making a difference in the world by being bubbly and friendly and warm to other people. I invite you guys to make a difference in the world too by being more sensitive to your surroundings and finding unplanned opportunities to serve.

PICTURES:

• Last PDAY at Monkey Mountain

• Monkey Mountain with the West Point sisters

• I FOUND COCO ICHIBANYA HERE IN HONG KONG ♡♡♡♡

• Boat ride to Cheung Chau with other missionaries and friends

• Ramen with Christina!

• Cute little dog

• Baptismal font with Christina

• All red outfit, Teddy!

• Sister Diaz, my MTC compy. She got so chubby hahaha

• Zone conference pictures!!! And with Filipinas + poski pose with President and Sister Chan

• Megan and Jillian!!! My friends from Victoria 1st, they are the BEST ♡