Dearest Fam that I love more than anything in the entire world, EVER,
How are you doing?? You're on vacation right now! I've been thinking of/praying for you ever since you left on Wednesday. I hope you're having a blast. I think it's so cool that you get to go to Philmont and have a "spiritual vacation." What could be better than that? I hope you have fun and I expect next Monday to have DETAILED letters from EVERY ONE OF YOU (sibs. you're falling behind on keeping me updated. what's up with that. it's summer. you have loads of free time. every free second you have should be spent on the computer writing long letters of your lives to your sister in china. okay? okay.) I LOVE you sooo much!
This week has been CRAZY busy. I can't believe we have so much to do and so many investigators! It's been amazing! I have so much to say, I don't even know where to start!! I did make notes in my planner though, of everything I wanted to tell you about. Most times I get to the email place, sit down, and try to remember what happened in the week. And I don't remember anything. haha.
Oh, first of all, Gigi, thank you so much for your letters! You are BY FAR the best pen pal I've ever had! Your letters are so supportive and I love reading them! You are amazing. I love you sooo much! I sent a letter last week, so sometime this week you should get it! I love you!
This week the Mandarin elders gave us a new investigator, HJ. She has no Christian background at all but she is VERY interested in the church! She has the best questions and she's just awesome!! In our second lesson with her this week, Sister Lau said the opening prayer and blessed her and her family. She was very teary after the prayer and so we asked her if she was alright. She opened up and told us that her husband had left her :( She really started getting emotional about it, and all of a sudden, I was getting REALLY emotional too. I started sobbing with her. I just looked at her and said in Cantonese, "I'm so sorry, I just feel your feelings" (which, I don't, because I'm not married and I can't imagine how hard that is, but I didn't know how to adequately express my feelings in Cantonese). I was crying so hard my voice was shaky. It was kind of embarrassing but I just felt so much compassion for her, I didn't even care. I told her how much Heavenly Father loves her and how I know that He will help her through her hard times. Then Sister Lau shared Jacob 2:35 (is it 35? i think..) about the Lamanites "breaking the hearts of their tender wives". It was really touching. We bore testimony to her of how much Heavenly Father cares and loves her. She said that she has felt so angry this week, but the many times she has knelt to pray, she has felt calm. Wow. Prayer is awesome. She is awesome. We call her "Golden HJ" because we feel like she is so golden! It's these kind of investigators that you pray for!
Also this week we nailed down a baptismal date for D! D is 15 years old and she is incredible. She has an amazing desire to learn and to be baptized. She understands things that I'm pretty sure I didn't understand when I was 15. Ahh, she's just so great! The plan is for her to be baptized August 18th... a few weeks after I leave Macau :( so sad. But so happy for her. She is really awesome. I love teaching her because her English is so great and she helps me a LOT with my Cantonese :)
On the 4th of July, we had no free time until 10:00 at night (as usual). So at 10:00 after we'd planned, we all dressed up in red, white, and blue and made hot dogs! And sang the Star Spangled Banner. Hahaha it was hilarious and SO much fun. Earlier in the day I even called the other sisters to make sure they'd bring home an English hymn book from the church so we could get the words right to the song :) it was so fun. America, i love you! From clear over here in China! We are so blessed to live in America! I feel more and more blessed the longer I am here. God bless the USA!
On Friday, we had a branch activity - Less Active Finding. Apparently in the past almost no one has shown up, so Thursday night I spent calling through all the RS sisters, asking them to come to the activity while Sis Lau called our investigators. And we actually had 4 sisters come! It was a miracle! Sister Lau said there has never been that many sisters come. So how it worked: the Branch Mission Leader split us all up, one member with one missionary, and he gave us all two or three LA to find. I was put with JJ, and let me tell you, I was more than just a little bit nervous. I can teach full lessons in Cantonese, but trying to make conversation is still pretty much "Leih hou! Leih gamyaht hou ma? Leih sihkjo faahn meih? Leih jichihn yauh mouh gingwo ngohdeih chyungaausih?" (Hello. Is today good? Have you eaten yet? Have you ever seen us missionaries before?) So I was thinking, oh great. I'm going to be put with a member and we're going to do this in silence. FUN. But I tried to have a good attitude about it! And I loved it!! JJ was so awesome! She served her mission in Singapore and with her little bit of English and my little bit of Cantonese, we had a great time! We actually got to talk to a LA! (hardly ever happens -- the other Canto sisters have been going LA finding for weeks and they haven't spoken to a LA yet) She was a little popo (that's what old ladies are called, it's like "grandma" in English but it's also like a title. Like Mrs. or something. Like the old lady investigators that we have are W Popo, C Popo, etc.) Her name was S Popo and she was so sweet and nice. Her house was TINY. You walk in -- did I mention that every door here has a gate in front of it? it was way weird at first, it felt like prison, but i'm used to it now -- so anyway, you walk in and there is her tiny kitchen table, bed, and fridge all right there. There was a door that I'm assuming went to a bathroom. I hope. Anyway, it was so small! She doesn't want to come to church because she's too tired in the mornings, but we had a nice visit with her anyway. I always remember Jeffrey R. Holland's words. We're here to spread the gospel, yes. But we're also here to "go about doing good", and maybe sometimes that doesn't mean sharing the gospel. Just being a nice person and being willing to serve is also part of missionary work.
The EXHIBITION! Wow. It was crazy. Saturday was spent allllllllll day long doing exhibition stuff. From 8 in the morning till 6 at night we were crazy busy! In the morning it was pouring rain. You don't even know the meaning of pouring rain in Utah. Here the streets flood, you can't see in front of your face, your umbrella is useless type of rain. But by 11:30 the rain went away. MIRACLE!!! The exhibition was good. We got a lot of numbers! The best part was seeing all the members doing missionary work. Here we are in the middle of this park, this big square, and all the members are going around with pamphlets and talking to people. So cool to see them being missionaries! This work is real and the Lord is hastening it! It's so exciting to be a part of!
Well, it's time for me to go. I'll send pictures of this week too. I love you so much! You get me through the hard days. I LOVE hearing from you. Thank you so much for being such great support and examples for me! I count my blessings that I was born into THIS family with all of you. I love you I love you I love you!!!!!!
Parker, I want to hear about Africa dudE! I'm dying to hear about it!
LOVE always,
Shay
Gwok
xoxoxoxo
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