S6:E8 The One Where We Celebrate Halloween 🎃

 

Another week has passed :) 

This week was full of meetings and Christmas choirs + the district Halloween activity

Another week went by without appointments but we had some time to go out finding and share our purpose with other people. It'll probably be so in the next few weeks to come. The field is dry haha. Constantly trying to keep myself sane in this area, I'm grateful I get to be an STL so I could keep myself a little busy. 

On February 16, 1849, Brigham Young stated to the Twelve, “As God was, so are we now; as he is now, so shall we be.” (Manuscript History.) One of the greatest blessings of the restored gospel is the knowledge that we can become perfect, even as our Father in heaven is perfect. We know that through living certain principles we can approach perfection. In fact we are told that by taking the gospel to others and bringing them to repentance, by doing genealogy and temple work, and by living Christ-like lives, we can come to stand as saviors on Mount Zion. By freely giving his life, Christ, and Christ alone, atoned for all mankind. We have the opportunity of aiding others to accept his love and his sacrifice—the gift of the atonement—and thereby aid in the work of exalting the human family, becoming saviors on Mount Zion.

Becoming a savior for others is not an easy task. If we study the life of the Savior, it becomes apparent that he suffered to aid his brothers and sisters. His anguish was so great that he wept; he often sorrowed for the unrepentant sinner; he prayed for the human family. And can we doubt that as he suffered for us and with us, his Father also suffered? When Jesus grieved to the point of bleeding at every pore, there is little doubt that his Father, loving him, wept with him. For we believe in a God who is personally involved in the salvation and exaltation of his children. God is so involved that he was willing to give his Only Begotten Son as a sacrifice to suffer and die for us. The scriptures seem to show us that even God is bound by law—for while his work, his glory, his joy is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of his children, he can only accomplish this by granting us the freedom to reject that gift, the freedom to sin, hate, and die. God cannot force us to be exalted. He loves all his children but must allow them to reject the greatest of all gifts, the gift of eternal life and the joy that accompanies it. We must ask if to become as Christ is we must learn in some degree to suffer for others as he suffered for us.

XUE JIEMEI

薛姐妹

SISTER SY

PICTURES:

• sun view

• cute little Barbie girl

• Stephie

• Luke!! i miss luke 

• little buzz lightyear

• liaaaa i miss liaaaaa

                                                       

S6:E7 The One Where We Have A 4-Course Meal 🤑

 

Yeah yeah... from the title of my email itself. Sometimes I wonder why as a missionary I'm having these wild experiences.

• we were invited by a Wan Chai member to have lunch together since she needed help with a few documents. She needed us to translate a few things and so we met in the Ritz Carlton Hotel. Yeah yeah... CRAZY!!!! And so we went up to the 103rd floor. Yeah yeah... EVEN CRAZIER!!!! And then we arrived and it was so fancy. We had a 4-course meal and she paid $1,050 for each of us. Yeah yeah... WILD!!!! And then she only had 1 question about the document. It was a fun experience and opportunity to go to that hotel and have lunch in the sky! The view of Hong Kong was simply amazing. She even said she made sure we got the best seats especially for us 2. ♡♡♡ 

Anyway! This is probably the time where my emails turn a little more spiritual than usual. I have learned too much in this area to not write down my thoughts. Well... I have a lot of thoughts and it can be a little overwhelming but allow me to share some things I've been pondering about this week.

I love the Ricciardi Letter with my whole heart! It's such a good talk / letter:

That “One Soul” is Yours

"Every missionary goes through a drought period in their mission life. A period of time where they are fighting homesickness, praying harder than they ever have, are living more righteously than ever in their lives up to this point in time, and no one seems interested in hearing the gospel. It is at this time that the Lord tests you as a missionary. The reason, I have always believed, is to see if you can be trusted. Father in Heaven has an incredible work to do to prepare the earth for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The mission field has a dual purpose to bring souls unto Christ, and to sift us as missionaries into the parts we will play throughout our lifetime in building the Lord’s kingdom – to prepare us for “leading” OR prepare us for “following”, both are important, but what are followers without leaders? The missionaries who recognize the drought and remain strong to the higher law of missionary work (absolute obedience) end up converting the most critical investigator of all… themselves. You will be your greatest conversion in the mission field. In D&C 18:15-16 it says: 

And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father! And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!

I contend that the “one soul” is you. Imagine the insanity of sending 19 to 21 year old young people all over the world to be the ambassadors of something as critical as the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Frankly, it sounds crazy. But factor in a couple of things. Do most missionaries enter the mission field converted? I can only speak for me. I wasn’t. I had good feelings about the church, seminary, Joseph Smith, the Gospel, etc., but converted? Not to the degree the Lord desires. That is the beauty of the mission experience, the Lord entrusts us to dispense his critically important message, knowing full well that in the process of delivering that message an unusual process occurs where the teacher of the message and the hearer of the message are both becoming converted AT THE SAME TIME. Not every hearer will be baptized, even though they feel the spirit. Not every teacher will become converted. But here is what I do know, if you are absolutely obedient to the mission rules, YOU will become converted, and at that point you have accomplished what should be the greatest result of your missionary service. At the same time you have the opportunity to bring others along the conversion path smack in the middle of your own conversion. That is why mission success CAN ONLY HAVE ONE GUAGE, YOUR PERSONAL CONVERSION. This only comes from one attitude, that of absolute obedience. Baptisms happen or don’t happen. Teaching opportunities can happen or don’t happen. The blessings of the converted missionary last far beyond the mission experience. Learn this critical principle, all you need to do for 2 years is make sure that nothing but the truth comes out of your mouth to every single person you can possibly speak to (in golfing terms, just swing). Leave the conversion part to the spirit, but your own conversion comes from that type of focus, baptisms or not. “How great shall be your joy when you bring save it be one soul” unto the Lord, and that soul is yours. That is the answer to what in my mind (and experience) constitutes a successful mission. Ricciardi did not let the statistics keep him from becoming a powerful missionary. But his effectiveness came from his own conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the mission field.

You will find that 80% of the missionaries do 20% of the work, and 20% of the missionaries do 80% of the work. It is unfortunate but true. That is why the greatest conversion that should take place in the mission field is your own! That is what is so incredible about missionary work, the closer you bring others to Christ, the closer you get to Christ yourself. I am not just talking about when you teach investigators and less actives, the missionary work you will do to help your companions come closer to Christ, and they for you, is a powerful work in and of itself, let alone the work to those who do not have the gospel. Ricciardi would say “All you have to do is open your mouth Elder Humphrey, that’s all”. Ricciardi and I would challenge each other that once we walked out the apartment door we would not let one person walk by without telling them who we are. I remember many mornings where we never left our street because there were so many people to stop. Ricciardi taught me to work smart. Every weekday at 3:30pm we stopped whatever we were doing and would never schedule appointments at that time of day. Why? Because we would go to the local elementary schools and greet parents as they were picking up their school children. In England, parents walk to school to pick up their kids. We would find a few families and walk them home as we discussed who we were and what we taught."

I've been experiencing that drought in my mission. We've been talking to SO many people everyday. We've been meeting people who have the potential to become a relief society, or a priesthood holder or a future family that can be sealed in the temple someday but they are not yet the people who God has prepared for us. Someone else in the future will harvest them. I've been asking Heavenly Father "why? We're obedient, we are living the rules and we love the people, we are united in the right reasons. Where are the blessings? Where are the progressing people? Where are the elect?" And then I changed the way I spoke to God, "I promise to be obedient and see the small miracles everyday. Please trust me." This area has helped me develop a lot of Christlike traits and a more deeper understanding of the work. I am still doing the Lord's work even if the results are not immediate. I'm still doing the Lord's work even if there aren't people who want to continue learning. I'm still doing the Lord's work because I am helping myself better understand the role of God and Christ in my life and the role of the Spirit in this work. Just like the prophet said in his recent talk, did the church change because he gave his $1.50 tithes? No but it changed him. My experiences of this "missionary drought" have also changed me. But I have been filled spiritually! 

我热切的祈求圣灵会将我的见证带你们心中。我知道天父爱你们。 耶稣基督时我们的救主，他有能力拯救和医治我们。我们没有办法领悟他们对我们的爱，但是我们每天一步一步点点滴滴可以感受到他们的爱。我爱你们！♡

XUE JIEMEI

薛姐妹

SISTER SY

                                                       

S6:E6 The One Where I Pray in Tagalog 😌🙏

 

大家早安!

• a really cool experience we had this week was finding a former friend. We had originally planned to go finding around our chapel at night. We went as the spirit directed us and as we were walking Sister Cuyan and I were talking about our experiences as missionaries and as a companionship. We talked about how we've been striving our best to be obedient to all the rules but we haven't been blessed in terms of finding more new people to teach. We have been finding and exposing ourselves outside and asking people if they would be interested in learning more about our church but we have not been blessed yet. We understand that this is the Lord's work and we are doing everything that's in our control. We also trust that there's a perfect timing. We have been meeting people everyday but we have not found the elect or even the willing. So our area has been pretty dry. As we were finding during that night we also discussed what it meant to teach by the spirit. Our conversation led us to a deeper feeling of gratitude for our parents and leaders in the church who have continuously nurtured our spiritual growth and have played an important role in our conversion. We are mere spokespeople for the holy ghost, it is wonderful to see when the spirit works in the lives of our friends. Especially when they recognize it without realising they are. And then sister Cuyan had a question she wanted to ask but forgot and so I suggested that we walk back so she could remember cause that usually helps hahaha and so we did and she remembered her question. It is interesting to note that we needed to take those few steps backward because it allowed for God's perfect timing to take place. Our little weird ideas led us to meeting Romana who was a former friend! We arrived at a stoplight that was red and we were praying and hoping that it would stay red so we could talk to her in a normal and natural way. We found out that she knew about us! She knew about all the activities in the church and had been attending but stopped because her friends have left Hong Kong and she didn't know anyone in church. It was a cool experience meeting her and finding someone who was found but was lost again. 

• we had MLC this week and it was sō goōd! President Chan gave a training about the secrets of finding. I loved the emphasis on how finding depends on the timing of all of it. Sometimes it doesn't lead to anything but a simple seed that could be planted for future missionaries to nurture. 

• on Sunday I was asked to give a prayer so I read it in Tagalog and lots of the members were so happy and said thank you for praying in their language. I feel like I've finally earned the trust of the members AT LONG LAST. 

• oh also... Abigael is on date WOHOO! 

XUE JIEMEI

薛姐妹

SISTER SY

PICTURES:

• Elder and Sister Teh devotional

• the new nephi district

• new ZLC

• the everyday branch + missionaries haha

• night finding

• meeting romana and her shiba dog cookie

• exchanges with sister bigtas!

• SLURPEE 

                                                       

S6:E5 The One Where We Have General Conference Woohoo!

 

大家早上好 !

Rainy Monday here in Hong Kong. We were stuck in the apartment again for a day because of the typhoon and black rain. I would say it was kind of a blessing in disguise for the us missionaries, we were instructed by our mission president to stay home and watch all 10 hours of general conference. It was a spiritual time and also a spiritual battle trying to stay awake and sane at home. 

• on Wednesday we had exchanges. I exchanged with Sister Sevilla and we got to teach Abigail! When she arrived I introduced sister Sevilla to her and we started talking and catching up and also following her up with her Book of Mormon reading. She said she listened to 4 chapters! We were so happy and excited when we heard that. I was trying to stop the conversation so we could start and say a prayer but instead she stopped us and realized we didn't say a prayer. So that day she finally offered and agreed to say the prayer. Wohoo! Change! Progress! So good! As we walked to the bus stop we saw this man and I saw he had a picture keychain of a little girl so I asked if it was his daughter and it turned out that he was Filipino. He said his wife was also working here. He's a driver and is very familiar with our church so we invited him. Wohoo! Families!

• on Thursday we had our transfer interview and no changes for me so another transfer here in Peninsula branch, I have a feeling I'm going to end my mission in this branch haha. It's still been a struggle trying to love the people and trying to get along with them. A sudden shift was very unexpected. A different culture, different concerns and questions but wherever the Lord needs me I will be there even if it's hard. President Chan was super chill during my interview and just spilled all the information about my zone to me so it was nice to see that it was kind of more like a friend to friend talk.

• on Saturday we were warned about the incoming typhoon no. 8 that was going to take place for 2 days so we had an excuse to go to the grocery yay and then our friend had time to go to church so we went together and we watched general conference. She had questions which was so good, she asked us what our church believes in in terms of the Doctrine of Christ. We got to share the truths with her and she shared what she believed in. I would say this was probably the best lesson I've had yet in this area. She knew a lot and she understood the gospel well. She wasn't someone who believed just because everyone else believes. It was so fulfilling to have help teach and share truths again with someone who was willing to learn. They're so fun to teach! On the way home, we didn't take our usual bus since we would have to wait 30 minutes for the next one so I start navigating our way to a different bus stop. We were running and we were tired haha and then we saw so many stairs we had to climb but when we got to the bus we met a really friendly Filipina who we invited to church. Yay! Redirection!

• we watched all of the general conference sessions yesterday. There were so many good talks I feel overwhelmed! I'm excited for the revelations and learnings I will receive as I study the talks for the next 6 months. "If you have felt the influence of the Holy Ghost today, you may take it as a sweet evidence that the Atonement is working in your life." I really want to learn more in depth about the character of Christ, I've been writing some of the characteristics I've learned about Christ in a notebook I've kept. I'm really grateful for this mission, especially for my mission president and my companions. I've experienced the sweet gift of the Atonement. I've experienced a powerful and wonderful change and transformation that would have not occurred had I not been called to this very mission at this very time.

PICTURES:

• Abigail + sister sevilla

• apartment home evening

• the clements are going home! :(

• last ZLC together

• byebye sister yip

• jhen :))

• after dc + sister olongayo + sister iranga

• kbbq with the apartment

• last zone pic with elder Jessop BYEBYE

XUE JIEMEI

薛姐妹

SISTER SY

                                                         

                                                    

S6:E4 The One Where We Go Ukulele Finding

 

                                                        

Oh how we love Tuesday PDAYS! I'm going to have more and more Tuesday PDAYS because of all the upcoming holidays and activities.

This week our friends enjoyed a 3 day break and none of them confirmed to have an appointment because they were all busy enjoying their day off which I totally understand because they work SO HARD and deserve this long break to talk to their families and enjoy ♡

• We went to the temple on Tuesday and my thoughts were very clouded. I had so many things in mind and being inside the temple allowed me to think more about those things and receive personal revelation. I love the quietness of the temple which allows me to hear the voice of the Lord more.

• We went to Sai Kung and went music finding! We played the ukulele for people around the area and lots of people were busy because of the mid autumn festival. But we had fun! We decided to create a short music video while finding so we could share it with our friends. On our way home from finding it was super traffic and we met this cute little girl who was wearing her lantern inspired outfit and then her dad started chatting her up and it felt like he wanted us to talk to him! He had such a good relationship with her dad and then we started talking to him in the bus and we found out he was Catholic and studied in Canada which was why he had perfect English. We pointed out his relationship with his 3 year old and he said it used to be better until her little girl kissed a boy the same morning haha and she was so cute about it saying she would marry him. I love kids! He asked us about church and our work here as missionaries which we were so excited to share with him! We tried getting his number because mannnn he reminded me of dad and he seemed like a potential member! You could just feel that he was ready and then he couldn't find his WhatsApp number and we skipped our stop but he still couldn't find it! I was so devastated. He said he would text us but we haven't received a text yet. We are SOOOO hoping that he will. It was a very special experience to feel and see that this dad seemed so ready to be with her daughter forever! Please help me pray that he texts back!

• during our weekly planning we also planned to go finding in different places and when we went to a tiny park this week, there was 1 Filipina who was there! Just 1! She said she just had found the park and liked it so she came back the second time. She listened to our message. The Lord will really direct both the missionaries and the people he has prepared whether or not they are elect.

• yesterday we had our well being district activity! All the domestic helpers prepared a cheer dance and all the missionaries were assigned to the games. It was super fun! It was like a PDAY but with members hahaha but it was so nice to have spent the day with the sisters and be able to serve all of them

• general conference week!! I've listened to a couple of the talks and have been preparing my own questions, I hope each one of you start preparing questions of your own too. I've listened to President Nelson's address. Think celestial! Two words that answered all my questions haha.

XUE JIEMEI

薛姐妹

SISTER SY

PICTURES:

• the closest we got to the moon haha

• mid autumn moon watching

• carabao!

• wonton breakfast 

• peninsula branch ft sunny funny boy

• DISNEYLAND HYPERSPACE !!

• antman bam bam bam

• sl sisters zone