S6:E3 The One Where Donna Sets a Baptismal Date

 

大家好！

Time is going by so slow... it did not occur to me that zone conference was last week.

☆ we took our friend Abigail to church with us last Tuesday! Yay! She loved it and said she wished she had more time to stay and join other activities. She even invited some of her day off buddies to join her next next Tuesday. Happy moment!

☆ our friend Donna set a goal to be baptized on October 15th and so that was a happy day for her

☆ we had our apartment home evening and we made home made pizza! after putting all the toppings on the pizza we put it on the oven and waited for it and then they pulled it and it fell flat on the floor  bahahah good moments

☆ it has been so fun going out to find Filipinas, they're the easiest ones to talk to and it's so easy to make friends with them and so our only challenge is distinguishing who among them are the elect because a lot of them are just willing.

☆ not much has happened this week but I've been reading a lot of talks that have helped me understand more about this work, allow me to share some of the things that have touched my heart!

• repentance is a principle of hope and healing, not of discouragement and despair. Repentance indeed is humbling but not frightening. Repentance is simultaneously demanding and comforting, rigorous and soothing. Repentance is a priceless gift made possible through the Atonement of Him whom we love, serve, and follow. As we exercise faith in the Savior and apply the principle of repentance in our own lives, we become new creatures in Christ, "have no more disposition to do evil", and are filled with a desire to "serve him with all our heart, might, mind and strength"

• "Could I suggest that we see gratitude as a disposition, a way of life that stands independent of our current situation?"

Missions are so interesting. I'm humbled by the Lord for "daring to send me where the Lord required rather than where I had deemed appropriate".

XUE JIEMEI

薛姐妹

SISTER SY

PICTURES:

• Abigail came to church yayyy

• we travelled an hour to teach Ann!

• we made homemade pizza and as they took the pizza out it fell flat on the floor 

• Jordan valley park

• gotta get some juice for the super hot weather

• egg wafflezzzz

                                                

S6:E2 The One Where I Get Soaked! 🥶

 

                                                     

                                                        

早安！可能今天我会开始用普通话写我的书信。

这个星期我们有地带大会！学了很多东西从不同的传教士。这个星期也有机会跟一些姐妹有交换。这是我第一个经验做STL的负责。

I honestly don't have a lot of experiences to write about this week, only a few come to mind. 

• We had our zone conference last Thursday and it was a SUPER rainy day. As we were preparing in the morning, I asked my companion what time the bus was going to arrive. She said 15 minutes until the next bus. I wasn't super worried because we live so close to the chapel. But a few minutes later I checked to see how many minutes more until it would arrive and it wasn't there anymore. So I immediately tried searching for another route and we saw another bus option and we started hurrying up and started running to the bus station. As we started running the rain started pouring so we had to be a little more careful incase we would slip. But we were going to be late for the bus!!! And so we started running  and then I saw a car coming from behind me and then got splashed by water. I was so drenched... my companion who was running behind me saw all of it and we just laughed haha the story doesn't end yet! We hop on the bus and I was shivering because my clothes were so wet and then we went down and saw a flood! So my companion and I start singing "A Great Work" keeping the enthusiasm and positivity despite the rain and flood and few seconds later we saw an old lady across the street and she was trying to cross the road but she was having a hard time and almost fell. She was using her crane to help herself cross but the flow of the flood was too strong and so my companion and I walked to her and crossed the flood to help her and she was still hesitant to cross but as I held her arm and put my foot in the flood she took courage and stepped into the flood and we crossed together. That experience taught me a lot but I'm going to leave it up to you on how you want to interpret my experience and connect it to a gospel principle. 

• i had exchanges with some sisters this week! First I had exchanges with Sister Summers. She's from Utah and she has really good Mandarin background. As we went on exchanges it was refreshing to see a greenie trying to figure out what she was doing. It's so cool to see new missionaries figure things out and continue to grow. I was reminded of the fire every greenie missionary has when they first start. They are so full of innocence and enthusiasm for the work. I also had exchanges with sister Yip and she's a cutie! She is so genuine and is so full of love ♡♡ I used to live with her back when I was still in training. And now it has been 9 months since. Time flies!

• i also had my first district coordination and we coordinated with the district president and updated him about our missionary efforts. So humbling to see how the church works and how much effort is put into missionary work. This really is the most important work!

• Sunday was a craaazy busy day. It's our busiest day cause all our friends have time to meet. As we were having our sacrament meeting I was called up to bear my testimony as a new missionary in the branch. I'VE NEVER DONE THAT IN MY 1 YEAR MISSIONARY EXPERIENCE HAHA I was so scared and my heart was pounding hahaha. Then we taught all of our friends who came to church and got to talk to some members. The Filipino work is so interesting and something I need to get used to. I'm definitely not used to just teaching a few lessons in the week because they all can't text or call at home because they're working. But it has been a different experience in which I know I will learn to develop a deeper love for people and increased testimony. 

PICTURES:

• DOG

• cute little boy ngai ngai

• sister summers exchange!

• soakkkked

• second language zone poskis

• Abigail ♡ invited her to be baptized

• sister yip exchange!

XUE JIEMEI

薛姐妹

SISTER SY

                                                              

 

S6:E1 The One Where I Hit My 1 Year Mark!

 

1 YEAR AS A MISSIONARY 哇塞！！

CRAZY HOW TIME HAS FLOWN.

Now allow me to begin my first week in my new area pewpewpew! Hello Ho Man Tin  My first full week of Filipino work has been a huge adjustment.

• Wednesday was full of meetings with the ZLs and STLs and we had our apartment home evening with our lovely Ho Man Tin sisters. It was a fun time getting to know my new apartment mates and we ended the night by calling sister Alvez' brother who opened his mission call! We missionaries were so excited to listen to him open his call and he was assigned to Thailand Bangkok. Opening mission calls are so fun! The thrill of not knowing where you'll be sent and putting your hands on a paper that will change your life forever. So much fun!

• On Thursday for who knows what reason we were at home until like 3 until our district find and we chose a place where Sister Cuyan hasn't been to yet. We had some miracles! In a park where almost all people were old and Cantonese, we found 1 Filipina. Her name is Abigail and she was so welcoming and we asked to share a message with her and she gladly accepted it. We taught her the restoration and she had some good questions and understanding. As we were about to leave she askes us when we were coming back to the park. So amazing~ after teaching and sharing we were walking a little more further to the park and we saw the exercise equipments. I wanted to go on it so I did and then as we were using the equipments, we met a son and a daughter at the park who are originally from Guangzhou but now live here in Hong Kong. They were speaking in Mandarin, of course I had to take the chance right? So I naturally talked to them and invited them to the art activity. The dad was sharing about how their helper is from the Philippines and is also a Christian. I'm so happy for the tender mercies I receive. Leaving Wan Chai is hard but I've been blessed each day with at least 1 Mandarin speaking person. 

• on Friday we had a Black Rain signal. We had to stay at home the whole day and that was driving me crazy. We were home the whole day and I just wanted to go out!!! And because everyone was inside we couldn't call any of the Filipinas since all of their employers were at home. The MTR flooded and our chapel is under repair. It was a crazy time seeing the videos and pictures of what was happening to Hong Kong. 

• we were finally able to go outside YUH and so we went finding laaaa it's been another adjustment from double covering. We were teaching all the time and now we're finding all the time haha something to get used to. We went to a park to visit a friend and teach her. As we were talking and getting to know each other, we were talking a lot about China since she worked there as a teacher and then out of nowhere this guy asks "你们是中国人吗？" and I reply to him and explained and he was wondering why we were talking about China. They were talking in Tagalog and I was replying in English so he said that could only understand me. It was a cool experience that we also got to share that we were missionaries in Hong Kong and he shared his learning Christianity in China is difficult. Tender mercies. Another big fat miracle was we went to another park Sister Cuyan hasn't been to, we were looking at the maps and I suggested we go there and again lo and behold we found 1 Filipina who was so welcoming and she was from Cebu!!! Her name is Lenie. So we talked and got to share our purpose and big miracle is that she was on sick leave so she had more than 1 day off. We invited her to church the next day and she came!!! And the members in peninsula did so good at fellowshipping her. After we taught her on Saturday we even walked home with her. She said she doesn't hang out with friends because she doesn't like spending money but then she was happy we talked to her cause she needed someone to talk to. Super neat miracle!

• on Sunday another tender mercy I received was that we were going to church in Wan Chai because Ho Man Tin is under repair. Although I still wasn't able to attend Candice's baptism, I was able to see her and had Sister Liu record her testimony. It was beautiful! I was so happy that I could still be there (kind of) and support her on her special day! I also finally got to meet the members. It felt like forever. Definitely another shock from a tiny branch to a bigger branch and definitely a shock with how welcoming they were. We got to teach our friend Heidi and it was so strange she talked about how she was baptized in a different church before and after her baptism she's been having visions. She then asked to include in our prayers about a virus that is coming soon... so  pray for that I guess!

The Lord knows you, your circumstance and how you feel. You also know yourself, your circumstance and how you feel. What we don't know is the picture that God has already painted for us. "If you could actually see the person you have the potential to become, it would be difficult for you to even believe it."

PICTURES:

• Abigail, so cute! (the one doing a heart with sister cuyan)

• apartment exercise at ho man tin before it broke down...

• Cheryl! (the one wearing glasses)

• Lennie!! ☆

• Candice's baptism ♡♡♡

• rainy Hong Kong

XUE JIEMEI

薛姐妹

SISTER SY

                                                   

S5:E7 The One Where We Ride A Car

 

Hey everyone! Magandang umaga! Haha I'm going to have to start practicing my Tagalog now that I got moved to Tagalog work.

This week was a thrill! Last pday we had our zone pday and went bowling. Our kind ZLs treated us all to shake shack haha. It was so fun!!

• on Tuesday we went to the temple and got to pick up our new apartment mates in KLT. We have Sister Baltazar and Sister Yip as our new Causeway Bay sisters. It was so fun getting to meet them and getting to live with them for 1 week together. We had the craziest week as an apartment! 

• I had my first MLC last Thursday and I learned so much :) first my testimony has been strengthened with the fact that our mission president receives revelation for the mission which helps all of the missionaries. When I heard what the zone conference topics were about I knew that it was really for me and the other leaders felt the same way for many different reasons. Our topic for this zone conference is about effective study and protecting our language study. Two things I really need work on because I've been slacking haha. It was a whole day full of meetings and I was so tired haha after our MLC we went to Scot Mo's and the trip to their apartment was just a little crazy. We left the chapel at 5 so we can arrive at 6 and so we were chilling but as soon as we arrived at our next stop I realized it was a mini bus stop and google maps lied... the bus wouldn't come in another 30 minutes so we were like... LATE! I started navigating our way to another route because no way was I going to allow us to be late for an appointment. We couldn't find the stop that google maps was showing us and we asked multiple people where the stop was and they didn't know. We decided to say a prayer that we would find a stop and lo and behold did google maps show us another option that wasn't there originally. On our way we were speed walking to the stop and told Scot we were going to be late. A small miracle was he replied saying he just left his office. Another miracle after that was we saw Max and Livia and they helped us feel more calm. We finally hopped on the bus and had to climb a flight of stairs. We were like SWEATING and we were tired. I was also super drained from the whole meeting so it was so crazy but we finally arrived and prepared ourselves to invite the Spirit into their home. We had a wonderful, fun and a little chaotic family home evening with the Mo's. Then he and Lin took us home... riding their Tesla.... 

• there was a typhoon that hit Hong Kong and we stayed inside for 2 days. I was going crazy inside I really wanted to go out. Our mission president gave us 2 hours of personal study and 2 hours of language study each day. When we were at home we ate so so so much food and our new apartment mate cooks so much good food! Then we celebrated Sister Hernandez' birthday and our 1 year mark during that time. 

• also Candice passed her interview and she will get baptized next Sunday but I won't be there!!! So sad!!! But she is doing so many amazing things ♡♡♡

• I transferred yesterday to Ho Man Tin. Feels so weird leaving causeway bay. My home for 10 months. A completely new chapel and branch. I'm so excited for the new experiences and challenges to face. Grateful for a transfer to stretch myself! My new companion sister Cuyan is from Batangas. She is so cute <3 she is so enthusiastic in the work! I'm excited to work together with her.

XUE JIEMEI

薛姐妹

SISTER SY

PICTURES:

• first mlc

• epic zone magazine pic

• sunny watching me clean and bossing me around after I volunteered to help him

• jessicaaaa

• mo fam!!

• happy birthday sistah hei

• causeway babes 1st pic

• LEAVING MY 10 MONTH HOME 

• mid autumn festival lanterns

• sister cuyan my new comp from batangas

• last temple pic