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