Thursday, February 23, 2012

SUPER Comfy!

This was taken after the My Conversion Story Fireside on Sunday. All of these
people live in or have served in my area.


Sister L. gave me this sweater. It's huge and so Asian and SUPER comfy!!!! I love it!
Sister C. and I were starving on Sunday because we didn't have a chance to eat at Sister C.'s farewell party (everyone wanted pictures) I had some Jello and Go (this gooey Chniese dessert, like Jello only thicker) We went up to the kitchen to find this food! A member brought it for the party, but since there wasn't enough for the whole ward, it didn't get eaten! SOooooooooo delicious!!!

Hello Everyone!!!
I was just in the mission office in Kowloon and Elder K. (one of the senior missionaries) was showing us the list of incoming missionaries until August. I was looking at the names and said, "Wouldn't it be funny if I knew one of these people?" Then I screamed!! Hahaha!!!  I know one of the sisters coming in May!  She is going into the MTC next week!! She was in my freshman ward and Is AWESOME!!!   I'm freaking out!!!! I'm soooooo excited!! Maybe I'll be old enough to step train her? Not likely, but it would be awesome!
Second news of note. . . my new companion is... Sister H., one of my roommates!!!! She just moved next door from the other desks to the desks that Sister C. and I have been using!!! I'm so excited!!! Sister K's new companion is Sister N's (one of my MTC companions) mission mom.  Sister K and I are both from the US and our companions are both from Hong Kong.  I'm so excited!  Sister H. is an awesome missionary, plus, my Cantonese is going to be able to improve A LOT!!!!
Thank you for sending me the updates of newly called Sister Missionaries. I am sooooooooooooo excited for all of them!!!
I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to run.  I don't know what kind of system we will work out with the new Sister in the apartment.  Unfortunately we might not be able to run as long or as often as I've been blessed with this past move, but it's ok it will all work out.
Sister C. had to go to a Career Workshop on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I just got to hang out outside the room for 3 hours each day.  While I was sitting this sweet girl started talking to me. She was waiting for her husband who was at an Interpreter training.  She's from Mongolia!!!!  I immediately thought of Sodo!  She was super sweet!  While they're in Hong Kong, she and her husband our getting sealed in the Temple  this Saturday.  She was so cute and excited! Really truly happy to be a member of this church, married and getting sealed. It freaked me out a bit when she told me she was also 21, but it's all good.
Y., the young woman we are teaching is doing amazing!  We taught her about the Plan of Salvation yesterday.  She is totally eating up everything.  She asks so many questions and is so ready to apply everything we teach.  She said after learning about the Plan of Salvation she was no longer afraid of death, and I could really see how happy and excited it made her to know she can live with her Heavenly Father and her family after this life. She is soooo amazing! She is so happy and cheerful and totally makes my day every time I see her! I am so excited that we can keep teaching her!
Aside from Y., we have 8 other people who have goals to be baptized.  All of them are students!!! We actually have 19 investigators right now and only 3 of them are not students.  It is really amazing how ready these girls are to hear and accept the gospel and there are so many miracles happening so that they have the opportunity to accept it.
Our ward had the sweetest going away party for Sister C. on Sunday. She's been in this ward for 9 months!!! (half her mission!) and will definitely be missed.
We are working with 4 of the women in our ward right now to help them prepare for the temple, they have all recently been baptized or started coming back to church.  There fire and desire to go to the temple is incredible. One of them has some challenges and she was even thinking about going back to her own church because she's from Thailand and has trouble understanding at church. She told us that as she was praying about her decision and realized if she changed churches she wouldn't be able to go to the temple.  It is really truly one of her greatest desires and she is working so hard to get there.  Another is from Mainland and can't go to church while she is in Mainland because it is too far away.  So she will come down to Hong Kong every few weeks just so she can go to church.  There are tons of amazing stories about people from mainland coming down to get baptized, even if China is not open for missionaries, the gospel is still spreading to that corner of the Earth!
I will send the pictures from this week and that should sum up everything else.
I love you all soooooooo much!!!
Sister Nelson

Thursday, February 16, 2012

It tasted like chicken!!!

Hi Everyone!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and happy Kasey's-been-on-a-mission-for-5-months-already-holy-cow-Day!!!  I'm not sure which was more exciting!  How did you celebrate?  Dad said he had to work a super long day, I'm really sorry to hear that.  I hope his hours clear up this week.   Valentine's Day here was great, I seriously was soooooo happy, I seriously thought I might explode!  It really is such a blessing to start to feel even a glimpse of Heavenly Father's love for these people and know that the best way I can show that love is by teaching them the gospel.  It really is a learned thing, I have to work each day to forget myself and really love and serve these people, but when it clicks, it is seriously the best thing ever.  I know I am exactly where I need to be and I wouldn't exchange this experience for anything!  We did some finding during the day, and then Sister C. and I went to Pizza Hut for dinner.  After that we went to the chapel so I could do a pass-off.  On the way she said she needed something from the grocery store and ended up buying flowers for me and the other sisters in the apartment!!!  Hahaha it totally made my day!!!  She's so cute!

Questions:
1 – What language is spoken when you go to the temple?

English

2 – When does Sister C. go home?  Is she getting excited?
Next week!!  She is so excited!!  Next week I finish my second move in Hong Kong and I get a new companion!!  Yikes!!  I'll no longer be a baby!!!  I'm a little nervous because I'm going to have to show my new companion around the area, I really hope I know the area and the ward well enough!!

I heard about Whitney Houston from a member at church on Sunday. I was pretty excited to #1 hear news, and #2 understand it in Cantonese!!!
On Monday I ate chicken feet!!!  It was honestly not as traumatic as I had expected or honestly hoped it would be, but that's ok. Elder H. was sitting across from me at dinner at a family's house on Monday night.  He was eating a chicken foot and asked if I had ever tried one.  He convinced me it was probably the best one I would ever try (curry and very tender).  After consulting his companion and mine, I decided I needed the experience.  It tasted like chicken!!!  Hahaha!!!  It really wasn’t too bad!

Our investigators are doing AMAZING!!!!!  We had 4 people at church on Sunday!  One was Y., she is doing amazing!!  She is seriously just drinking things in, she asks so many good questions and is excited to learn!!  The other 2 were girls the Elders contacted and introduced us to them at church.  They were super cute!  I didn't get a chance to teach them since we split and I taught Y. with another member while Sister C. taught them.  We hope they'll keep coming.  The Chinese New Year is always hard as far as teaching goes, so we've been doing a lot of finding lately and Heavenly Father has really blessed us.  Last week we met 5 girls as they were walking home from school, we taught them about prayer and then on Saturday they came to the church and we taught them again.  Some of them have been praying and reading the Book of Mormon, and they said they would come to church this Sunday.  They are all so sweet.  Actually all of the people we are teaching are so sweet!!  I just hope we can continue teaching them and help them progress.

I better go so I can send you pictures! I love you so much!!! I am praying for all of you everyday!!!

Love,

Sister Nelson
 The view from a member's house, sometimes she invites our district for dinner. She is Thai and makes AMAZING Thai food.
 Sister C. and I in the Lift on the way to big Buddah. Apparently it broke down the day after we went and people were stuck there for several hours!!! Yikes!!! It was super foggy which made the ride a bit eerie.


 
 The Big Buddah Statue
 This is a door underneath the Big Buddah statue (the inside is a museum and a shrine to Buddah)

                                                                         Since Sister C. is french, we had to take a picture next to the french cart



  This big blue cement thing is the shape of the blocks they used to build a dam that looked really cool!!!
 Valantine flowers from Sister C.

                                     

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Miracles happen every single day!!!

Hello Everyone!

Last week, we had exchanges so I went to Wan Chi for the night.  We went to get burritos at a place that has a special deal only on Tuesdays.  It's a bunch of Philipinas that run it.  While we were there, one of them handed us a scripture case and said, "One of your fellow brothers left this."  We were looking at the family pictures inside to figure out whose it was, and the sweet lady said, "His name is Elder, Elder. . . Goodwin or something like that, but I just know his name is Elder!"
Sister C. has given me phone duty this week, meaning I have to carry the phone and answer it when it rings, I really don't like it, but that means it's good for me, I'm having so many more opportunities to try my hand at telephone conversations, some are ok, some. . . well I'm learning.
Last Saturday, we went on splits to do finding. I went with one of the sisters in the ward.  I was praying sooooooooooo hard that we would be able to have a lesson.  I really wanted the sister I was with to have a good finding experience, but I also knew my Cantonese and finding skills were not that good.  It happened!!  We taught a lesson to a really nice lady named M.!  When we started talking to her, she didn't seem that interested, next thing I knew she was inviting us to sit next to her!  The sister I was with was amazing!  She is such a great missionary, she practically taught the entire lesson! 

One of the girls we recently started teaching, Y, now has a baptismal date!!! Yay!! We met with her on Saturday and taught her about the Restoration.  She's been reading the Book of Mormon and praying.  She also asked TONS of good questions!  Sister C. and I practiced how to invite someone to be baptized during our comp study earlier that day, and the concern Sister C. brought up was the exact question Y.  had, so I already knew how to approach it!  Wow!!! Heavenly Father is just amazing isn't he?  I am so excited for her!  I really, really hope that she can keep progressing!!!) 
Monday we taught two adorable girls that we met last month while we were contacting.  The lesson went so well.  One of them really likes art so we were able to teach about the Restoration, the Book of Mormon and prayer while we looked at different paintings in the chapel as we were giving them a tour.  We talked about baptism when we showed them the baptismal font.  In the chapel, the other one, who really likes singing, asked about the hymn books.  I just happened to actually bring my pinyam hymnbook with me for district meeting (I usually just try to fake read the real Chinese) so we were able to sing “I am a Child of God” for them and teach them about their relationship with their Heavenly Father.  We asked them how they felt after and they said, "Very Comfortable" (best translation I have) so we were able to teach them about the Holy Ghost!!! It really made our lesson after so easy to teach because we could draw on the things we had already talked about!  I'm telling you Miracles happen every single day!!! Heavenly Father's hand is so involved in every one of our lives, we just need to recognize it.  When we do it is such a blessing to understand His love!
Questions:

1 - How long do Chinese New Year Celebrations last?
Pretty much just the week of the New Year, but people spent most of January preparing and somehow a lot of people dropped us over the holiday.  The past few weeks have been a bit slow, but lately Heavenly Father has been blessing us with TONS of miracles!! We are booked all-day tomorrow and Saturday!  I'm sooooooooooooooooo excited!!!
2 – Have you been asked to give a talk in church yet or born your testimony in Testimony meeting?  Just my first Sunday and that's it!  We're teaching a missionary class for members now, so that should be a good opportunity to talk more! 

I love you all soooooooooo much!!!!
Sister Nelson 

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Snail Mail!!!!

Here is a little bit of Chinese New Year Tradition!  It's good luck to give red pockets with a bit of money.  It's like Valentine's Day, only better and the members of our ward were very generous!  They gave us almost 300 HK!  (almost $38)  Yikes!  Sorry I had to send the lightest coins...I'll try to take pics of the bills to send you, they're beautiful!

I Love You!
Kasey
 Barbara's note:  There is a little shop here in town that sells their own line of lip balms.  Several people have sent the store owner pictures of themselves in foreign countries, holding lip balms.  This is Kasey's contribution to their collection.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

The Best Two Years

Hello Everyone!!!!

Happy February! Can you believe it?!!! I've been in Hong Kong for 2 months!!! Yikes!!!! I had a bit of a crisis the other day when I realized next month I'll hit my 6 month mark. . .WHAT?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm already almost a third of the way through my mission! Sometimes I feel like 18 months is super long and that I'm going to be a missionary forever! Then I have moments like this where I realize how ridiculously fast time is flying and I realize that I'm not going to be a baby for much longer and sooner than I realize.  I'll have to be "daih tuhngbuhn" (senior companion) or even training a baby of my own!!!! Yikes!!!

So remember that part of The Best Two Years when the mission president comes to visit and the Elders scurry around cleaning, turning over pictures and looking decent? That totally happened to us on Monday (minus the part about hiding pictures.) We were doing our language study when the phone rang and I heard Sister H. (in Cantonese, of course.) "Good Morning President Chan!. . . Yes, that’s where we live. . . oh you're here right now. . . sure!!...That’s the right floor. . . Sister K. looked at me, with huge eyes and then we darted every direction clearing off the couch, putting dishes back in the kitchen, putting dresses on (we usually get ready in the morning, but if we're just doing our studies at home we'll stay in our PJs).  Sister C. just threw on a skirt and zipped a coat over her t-shirt. When we heard the knock at the door, we all gathered at the front and smiled big. . . wow!!  He just wanted to do interviews with us so Sister C. and I had to hurry into our office and clear our scriptures and notebooks off of our desks!!  hahaha too funny!!! It was nice to have the chance to talk to both President and Sister C. and to have our apartment re-organized!!! Haha!!

President Chan also came to our district meeting. Elder H. asked me to do a sharing about the importance of receiving revelation through the Book of Mormon. Except for the word for "Keystone" I did it all in Cantonese.  I am so grateful I got to do this sharing because it really helped me remember how powerful the Book of Mormon is. Every concern can be resolved through the Book of Mormon. It is the keystone of our Witness of Christ, our doctrine and our testimony (President Benson.) I realize how much I need to be using it more as I teach.  It is an amazing book!!!!

Speaking about the Book of Mormon, we are starting to meet with Y., a young woman we contacted in December. We met with her on Friday and taught her about prayer and the Book of Mormon. We called her on Monday to follow-up.  She said she prayed about the Book of Mormon and knows it's true!!!!!! She's also teaching her little sister to pray. Ahhhh!! This is one of the best feelings in the world!! It is so amazing when someone can get a testimony for themselves of the Book of Mormon! I am still sooooo happy about that!

I've been working toward doing a pass-off for the Plan of Salvation (Tomorrow at 1:30!!!) I've been struggling to know how to teach it well. I've been studying a lot in the Book of Mormon about the Plan of Salvation and praying a lot about it this week. It finally clicked for me yesterday while we were talking with two students.  We asked them what their purpose in life was and one wasn't sure other than going to school so he could get a job and support a family. I realized how grateful I am to have a bigger picture. I know that Heavenly Father sent me here to learn and grow and that each day my purpose is to learn repent and change so that after I die I can live with Him again. I take this knowledge for granted way too often, it is such a blessing!

We were able to go to the temple today, and that really just solidified my testimony and excitement for God's plan for us, He has pretty much told us exactly what we need to do to return to His presence. He has also told us what our reward can be!!! His plan is absolutely amazing!

On Sunday we're starting a member missionary class! During Sunday school, 10 members will come to the class. It is 4 weeks long, so in March we'll have a new set of members. I am so excited! We've got some fun activities planned and I think it will be really good.

In
English class yesterday we read an article about self-portraits and why artists draw them.  Then we had the class draw portraits and tell why they drew themselves that way. I drew Sister C. and I stepping on crunchy leaves in Hong Kong!!!  I drew it to express how happy I am in Hong Kong! :) (I don't know if I've mentioned this, but the leaves here are AWESOME!!!  Some are as long as 7 inches!! yikes!!)

I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!!

Love,

Sister Nelson

PS I have my brown shoe back!!!!!!!!