CHKM 18 Months Bits & Pieces

03-26-2024

03-31-2024 HOMECOMING

 

She's Back!

 

                                               

S8:E6 The One Where I Send My Last Email

I can't sleep! I was trying to go to bed but so many thoughts were running in my head and so much excitement and nervousness, just ALL THE MIXED FEELINGS. I woke up every 30 minutes last night and just wanted to fall asleep haha. Every time I woke up I thought it was close to 7:00am waiting for the alarm to ring. It felt like years waiting for the alarm to go on.

早

Everyday this past transfer has been a miracle. This week I've witnessed a sweet miracle that has helped me say "my work in Hong Kong has come to a close and I have met everyone the Lord has prepared me to meet here"

We were walking down this park in To Kwa Wan and said a prayer to kick off my last REAL find. The only Filipinas in the park that day and we went up to them and they lovingly and warmly welcomed us to sit with them and chat with them. That was already a miracle of itself. That group was kind of the talker! They chatted off our ears until they started asking us about us, in return we probably chatted off their ears haha. They started asking all these different kinds of questions about religion and it was a very open and meaningful conversation we had for an hour, answering the questions of the soul, clarifying misunderstandings they had about our church, them sharing more about their religion and all of us feeling the spirit because of the exchange of thoughts and beliefs we had. Among the 3 of them were 2 who were greatly interested and among the 2 was 1 whose husband was a member of the church. It was an amazing finding, teaching, and learning moment. My heart was full of joy remembering that I had 18 months representing the one I wear on my chest everyday, my Savior Jesus Christ. And soon I will need to take off my tag that I have worn everyday. After 18 months of wearing His name, I have His name engraved in my heart. 

In a few days from now I will be reunited with all of you. 18 months have definitely gone by way too fast but my mind and heart have been prepared to step onto the next phase of my life. I have been reflecting on a few things...

When I left home, I was so excited and curious to live in Hong Kong and try new things! I was also confident knowing I would be able to help myself live on my own and not have to depend on my parents. In Hong Kong, I've had invaluable lessons, I've shed a lot of tears, shared many laughter with others, had difficult but needed challenges and had many humbling accomplishments. Now that I'm coming home, I am even more excited to be reunited with my family again, to give you all the biggest hug and share with you everything I've learned that will show in what I have become. I feel like this is a very Deja vu moment. I think it is right to say that when I left my heavenly home, I was excited and curious to know what it would be like to live on earth and try to new things! I was also probably confident knowing I would be able to help myself live on my own and not have to depend on my Heavenly parents. In the world, I've had invaluable lessons, I've shed a lot of tears, shared many laughter with others, had difficult but needed challenges and had many humbling accomplishments. Someday I will return to my heavenly home, I am excited to be reunited with my earthly family together with my heavenly family, to give everyone the biggest hug and share with everyone everything I've learned that will show in what I have become.

See you soon!!!!

薛姐妹

XUE JIEMEI

SISTER SY

PICTURES:

• my last zone conference

• departing missionaries

• sister recoy cooked these amazing dishes for my last night 

                                                

S8:E5 The One Where We Have Our Last Choir Performance

 

I don't know but wow the miracles are everywhere! 

早

Some of the awesomeness' stuff happened this last week, super sweet and tender mercies!!

First, this lady named Marissa came to church together with us this week and she was warmly welcomed by everyone but was particularly moved by this one other lady who gave her the sweetest hug ever which moved her to tears. I felt like that hug meant so much to her. It is after all an expression of love and care! So definitely hug a few people you think who needs it or not! 

I had a 2 hour long interview with the church historian, I'll definitely show you guys the recorded video when I go home. I kept talking and didn't know I was already going on for 2 hours. It was a good time to reflect on what has happened in my mission.

We met this awesome lady named Sam and she recently got married to her husband whose a member of the church and expressed her desire to learn more about the church. I think it's so sweet when people want to be with their families. She said "I want to go to church together with my family every Sunday" and so that was soooo special. I'm grateful that through Heavenly Father's plan we can be with our families forever.

See you next week! 

PICTURES:

☆ kai tak!!

☆ last choir performance

☆ mom, i know you're excited to try my cooking

☆ with sister sam!

                                            

S8:E4 The One Where I Start to Have My Lasts

早

On March 8th, I hit my 18 month as a missionary! 

Got to go to the temple for one last time in Hong Kong! The gospel of Christ really is the same in every language.

I had my last MLC  again, another great training received. I'm ever grateful for continuing revelation and assignments given to us for our gain. So much meetings happened this week, I feel overwhelmed but excited for the next missionaries who will take lead in helping the zone to success! I feel at peace leaving and knowing my zone will continue to help the people of Hong Kong.

One thing I've learned this week is to beware of pride: be quick to forgive and forget, be quick to be humble and do not wait to be compelled to be humble. Overcoming pride is not easy but with the help of the Lord and humility, it is easier to overcome. 

I've been packing slowly, my luggage's handle broke, lost my octopus card, everything's falling apart! Right when I'm about to leave haha but its been fun  if I'm being honest, I have been counting down the days. I'm so excited to go home! I know I've done my very best and have given it my all and I will definitely continue to do so with the amount of time left. Miracles are happening everyday. I've never been so tired waking up in the morning but I've still managed to get out of bed. 

两个星期后见！

PICTURES:

☆ brother tsang!

☆ second language zoneee

☆ mission choir

☆ happy easter !

☆ last mlc with the zlc 

薛姐妹

XUE JIEMEI

SISTER SY

                                               

                                                

S8:E3 The One Where Judith Gets Baptized!

 

早上好！

The temperature has dropped once again, it's freeeezing. It's hard to get out of bed because of how cold it is haha

☆ We had a boodle fight with some of the members in the peninsula branch and it was so fun! It definitely brought Philippines vibes

☆ I was able to do exchanges with sister Diaz and we got to reminisce about all that's happened in our mission. We're hitting our 18 months soon and I think that's pretty wild to think that we've been missionaries for that long! So many miracles have happened and so many things have changed about us, that's the biggest miracle of all.

☆ Yesterday we woke up earlier than usual and prepared the font for Judith's baptism! Her testimony was so sweet. She's had a mighty change of heart which led her to come back to church and has desired nothing but to receive the gospel more into her life and integrate all of the principles she's learned. I'm grateful for the miracle of a mission: getting to see people change and maybe even help that change happen in their lives. There's no greater joy I've felt than being a witness to one's life change.

☆ One thing I've learned on my mission was controlling my stress level. I've been put with people and places that helped me stretch and adapt and adjust. Had I not served a mission I wouldn't have quickly learned patience. Many times I've felt lonely and pressured with all the tasks and assignments a missionary needs to attend but over time I was able to endure things with joy! 

See you in 3 weeks! 

PICTURES:

• boodle fight!

• nephi district!

• boba with sister cuyan

• cleanin the font

• COLD

• posterity continues

• districttt

• sister chan 

• judith's baptism!

薛姐妹

XUE JIEMEI

SISTER SY

                                                

S8:E2 The One Where We Play Dress Up

                                                      

                                             

早

This week we met a Filipino couple. It makes me super excited, I badly want to teach a family haha :) 

Not a lot of things happened this week but there's one thing that I've learned!

As my time as a missionary is wrapping up, I've gained more confidence and strength in facing rejections. There has been something so sweet and powerful in getting to say thank you to every person on the street who rejects us. There's power in knowing those no's that we receive to a sweet yes.

I'm grateful I got to learn that here on my mission.

I wasn't expecting to have a sit-in family home evening with the Hydes. They are so sweet and wonderful. We got to play dress up with them, this is a tradition they do with missionaries that come over. But only with the missionaries that they like haha. It's been a great week!

See you in 4 weeks! 

PICTURES:

♡ family home evening with the hyde

♡ 摩尔门经

♡ hong kong skies

♡ sister santos and meee

♡ sister sevilla and me

♡ more hong kong pics

薛姐妹

XUE JIEMEI

SISTER SY

    

                                                  

S8:E1 The One Where I Start My Last Transfer

 

早

I only have to make 5 more emails!!!! WOHOO!!!!  I'm joking. I'm going to change the theme of my emails now. I'll share 1 miracle and 1 important thing I learned. 

They say your last transfer is the hardest but also the most fulfilling. It has only been a few days and it has already been hard, sorry not hard, but challenging! Not a lot of people want to talk but one miracle I want to share with everyone is when we were walking to the chapel on Sunday, I started greeting everyone in Cantonese of course. So many people smiled back. I want to have more enthusiasm as my mission ends soon. And then one particular lady stopped us, she walked a little slow but said 早安 and then in Cantonese she called us beautiful. So we stopped and talked to her, she had a cute smile. And then she asked if we were Christians so we asked her if she was too! We had a short conversation about who we were and what we were doing in Hong Kong. We asked her phone number but she didn't have one but then she gave us her address instead. I know.... its a little suspicious, I would never give my address to someone I just met 3 minutes ago but hahaha hey! It might lead somewhere! 

One thing I learned this week: we invited this lady named Margaret. She lives right next to the border so she lives FAR. She's also Nigerian. We invited her to church and the self reliance class which made her more interested to come. She kept saying "okay, I'm not gonna promise you that I'll go but I'm determined to go. I have no money, I don't have a job right now but if there's a will there's a way" lol I love talking to her, her accent is so fun. Anyway we told her very clearly which station to exit but she's not very good with directions so she called and sounded a little angry. And then she arrived a few minutes late to the chapel and did not look happy. I felt SO bad, she traveled at least 2 hours and then chose to take a taxi because she was lost. The next half of the sacrament meeting I felt so bad and I didn't know how to face her after that. Goodness, it was my first time meeting her and now it'll be hard to build trust and friendship. As I was reflecting the whole sacrament meeting, Elder Teh got up and shared his talk. He talked about making sacrifices, he said "it's all about making sacrifices" and then I remembered what one missionary shared how as missionaries we need not to be so hard on ourselves when we make a mistake. We don't need to be so hard on ourselves when we say something not right during a lesson or forgetting to invite someone to something when we find them on the street, or other human mistakes that we make. When we beat ourselves too much, we forget the Atonement of Christ. We forget that Christ makes up the difference. He will finish what we have lacked to do or accomplish and so I wrote myself a word of encouragement on a piece of paper saying "Jesus Christ will thank you for the sacrifice it took for you to come all the way here. Don't feel bad that it took a journey for her to get here instead be happy she made the sacrifice to be here. Your sacrifice and her sacrifice is so little compared to what Christ has offered & done for you". So next time you are too hard on yourself, remember why we have the Atonement. He will make up the difference, always.

See you in 5 weeks :)

PICTURES:

• my new compy, my last compy!! sister helen joy santos

• glad i have a bike accident story to share from my mission lol + i couldn't walk for 2 days without it haha my knees are so bruised and dry!!

薛姐妹

XUE JIEMEI

SISTER SY

                                                    

                                                

S7:E12 The One Where I Say See You Soon to 文

 

From the title.... yes! Sister Wright just left  we ended the transfer and her mission strong. She was so busy these last 2 weeks and I was happy to see her lose herself in the service of others. I'm so so so grateful I had the wonderful opportunity to be her last companion, I learned a lot from her and have seen all of the miracles happen because she chose to come on a mission and chose to be a missionary. The mission and the people of Hong Kong have been blessed including my own life because of a single decision she made. It was a bittersweet goodbye, I was crying during the sacrament yesterday as she bore her powerful testimony both in English and in Mandarin. As we prayed to end the meeting, I cried even harder because I realized it wasn't just her saying goodbye to people but me too.

I'm approaching the end of my mission, this is my last transfer. I only have 6 weeks more! I will still be STL but I will be leaving the Mandarin work once again haha. Every time a new mandarin missionary comes, I always get kicked out  but no worries! I'm going back to my old area again haha, Peninsula. My last area. I'm thrilled and have been thinking of many different ideas on how to strengthen the ward and area. AH!!!!! My last area!!!!! The time is coming so soon. 

Some things that happened this week:

♡ We had a member meal with Huang Jingjing. We started talking about her experience as a mother. I love how she shared that at first it was hard to raise kids and love them but she shared how through time she's developed more love for her kids and said "I think my children's love for me surpasses my love for them". I love that! Mom and dad, I probably love both of you more than you love me. I am grateful for you both everyday :)

♡ We also had a Cantonese cheng and we tried some interesting food. They wanted to feed us pig skin and pig feet. No, I didn't try it, I was too scared!! The whole time they were speaking in Cantonese and we didn't understand a whole lot but it was fun hahaha felt like I was in training all over again.

♡ We had a Cantonese lesson and we tried sharing our testimonies in Cantonese. It wasn't too bad! It was super fun and our temporary companion sister Davis gave us a wonderful opportunity to try bearing our testimony in Cantonese. SO FUN!! So lost and confused but so FUN!!

♡ Sunday morning, sister Wright's mom and dad were at church and it was so fun seeing her seeing her family after so long. She was SOOOO happy!!

Ahhh. My last Sunday in Mandarin. So bittersweet, I couldn't control my tears saying goodbye to some members. I hadn't told anyone I was leaving the branch for my last transfer so that was so hard for me. I wish I stayed for my last transfer but I don't feel bad! I felt peace when I found out I was going back. But my heart belongs to Wanchai forever ♡ there's no going back anymore haha.

Oh also..... I have a fun experience to share on my mission now. I fell really hard while biking in Tai Po haha

薛姐妹

XUE JIEMEI

SISTER SY

PICTURES: 

♡ Sister Xiong's parents

♡ Averie, ahhh I will miss her!

♡ Zhu Mei Zhen + Judy

♡ Comps/trio for a week!

♡ Cutest pohpoh ever, she grabs on to our arms so tight lol

♡ Might be my last meet with the Huang family

♡ Huang Jingjing

♡ Kiko + Kathy 

♡ Near to death experience