Sixty Five

Dearest fam and friends,

I have to apologize. The last few weeks my emails have been weak sauce. But hey, it just means I'm loving where I'm at and loving the work SO much. You can look at it as a good thing :) But I'll try to write more from this week because it's been an AWESOME one!

But first of all.... I feel like a DUMMY because I haven't written you about this yet! So this year marks 65 years of the church in Hong Kong. Every stake, every ward, everyone is making new goals and celebrating somehow. President Hawks felt like our mission should do the same, so he received revelation to make a new goal for the mission:

65 IN JULY!!

65 whats, you might ask? 65 baptisms. Want to know how many baptisms we got in February? 19. Want to know how many of us think we can make this goal? ALL of us :) It really was cool to hear about it and think, wow, this is going to take a lot of faith. I've never been part of something like this. It takes great faith to put a specific number on baptisms in the future. But all of our faith, combined, makes this great goal possible. It's like this quote from President Packer:

"There are two kinds of faith. One of them functions ordinarily in the life of every soul. It is the kind of faith born by experience; it gives us certainty that a new day will dawn, that spring will come, that growth will take place...

There is another kind of faith, rare indeed. This is the kind of faith that causes things to happen. It is the kind of faith that is worthy and prepared and unyielding, and it calls forth things that otherwise would not be. It is the kind of faith that moves people. It is the kind of faith that sometimes moves things... It comes by gradual growth. It is a marvelous, even a transcendent power, a power as real and as invisible as electricity. Directed and channeled, it as great effect."

Isn't that cool?! We're using the second, rarer, kind of faith to put into action the desires of our hearts. I've never been a part of something so incredible and so.... life-changing, to be completely honest. It's changed the way I've thought about EVERYTHING. President Hawks told us, "If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got." Well, I don't want to get what I always got. I want to become NEW, changed, shaped, yielding to the Lord's will, worthy to wear His name and baptize all of Hong Kong :) Faith is incredible and real and powerful.

Props to faith....

We met with Mrs. Cheui (it feels weird to call her Mrs. Cheui because "mrs" in canto is "tai", so I'm gonna call her Cheui Tai from now on, okay?) this past week -- she's not listening to anything her friends say :) AND she accepted a baptismal date. TAKE THAT, ANTI!!!!

We saw a LA, Sister Yu, and her daughter Christy on Saturday. We taught them about the Atonement and the importance of the sacrament. It was a really good, powerful lesson that reminded me too, why we go to church. Anyway, Christy the whole time was sitting there with her headphones in. We thought she wasn't listening at all. At the end, we asked her to say the closing prayer. She said an incredible prayer :) in her prayer, she promised Heavenly Father that she and her mom would come to church on Sunday. And then they came :) Ah, just writing about it makes me smile. They haven't been to church in a long, long time.
Our apartment flooded. Yep, flooded. Like an inch and a half of water ALL OVER the floor. Under the beds (where our suitcases are stored), everywhere. We were just sitting there in personal study one morning when Sister Aguilar screamed. Yep, water, flooding in. The washer broke. So luckily (i mean, because of faith)... nothing got ruined! :) Yay for faith.
ALSO! I ate squid at a church activity! This is how I felt about it:

Everyone was laughing at me so hard. But that stuff was SICK NASTY.

I love you all! Keep smiling! Have a wonderful week! :)

Love,
Shay
Gwok
xoxoxxoxo

Happiness :)

Hello fam and friends! Leih hou!

First of all -- PARKSTER! I'm so proud of you! Congrats!! :) You're gonna be the best student body pres Wasatch High School ever had! EVER! I'm seriously thrilled for you. You're awesome :) Love you so much bro! I will be home to see you in action! Woo hoo!

Also, Twit...... you're turning your papers in on Tuesday?! I COULDN'T BE MORE EXCITED! If you come to Hong Kong i will just DIE :) wouldn't that be the best thing ever??

Well this week was a great one! I'm loving everything about Tin Shui Wai and Sister Aguilar. We laugh all day and work our buns off and love every second. Ah, this crazy adventure... I don't ever want it to end!

Highlights of this week:

We were walking home from the church on Friday and passed this restaurant called "Man Kitchen" that we pass every single day. Sister Aguilar says, "hey, we should go look at the menu" so we go and guess who's in there? The stake president and his wife. They ended up chenging us out and so we ate dinner with them. It was fun! They're cute and they remind me of you, mom and dad :) I hope if you saw the missionaries you would cheng them out because it makes their weekly emails home, they're that happy about it ;)

Last night we were LA finding. LA finding is rough here because everyone lives in apartment buildings with guards, so sometimes it's hard to get up to their door.  We were finding last night with no luck. Every single guard wouldn't let us up to see the less actives. We were feeling pretty discouraged but we went to the last house anyway. The last building was really hard to find but eventually, through a miracle, we found it. When we walked in, the guard let us up mouh mahntaih. Miracle. When we got up to her house, we rang the doorbell and she was actually home! Miracle. She let us in! Miracle. They were right in the middle of eating dinner, so we told them we didn't want to bother them and asked if we could come back tomorrow. She said yes. Miracle. She asked us if we wanted to eat at her house tomorrow night. Miracle. The miracles come, always at the last house. Heavenly Father is so good to us.

Kami is AMAZING. Kami is our 17-year-old investigator that is totally amazing. She reads the BOM way better and more than I ever did in high school and she understands it so well! AND she always asks us questions about what she's reading. We have so few investigators that will actually do this, it's so amazing having one like her. She has a baptismal date for May 4 and she's totally on track to make it!

Mrs. Cheui, another one of our investigators, ran into some anti. (There's SO MUCH anti here, it's so sad.) She met with us and told us that all her friends told her this is an evil church. We did our best to testify of the truthfulness of our message and told her she needs to pray to find her answers from God. We were afraid she wouldn't meet with us anymore. Then she and her cute 5-year-old son, Gary, showed up to English class! Miracle!

I read a quote this week from President Uchtdorf: "Happiness is the destination, but it's also the path." I LOVE it. I think it'll be my new life motto. Sometimes I get caught up in thinking about what's ahead for me and how happy I'll be when I get to _____ point in my life, but really we need to be happy about every single day and what we're doing. I LOVE THIS MISSION!!

I love you all so much. Have a wonderful week!! :)

Love forever,
Shay
xoxoxxoxo

1 in 200,000

I would like you all to imagine Heber North Stake boundaries. Plus add Red Ledges. Okay, got it in your head? That is Tin Shui Wai. Now, put 200,000 people in there. Yep. That's where I'm at. It's CRAZY. There are TONS of people here. But it feels like not that many because I was just in Kowloon which has so many more. Hong Kong is a teeny tiny little place with SO MANY PEOPLE. Here I am, one in so many! And I'm loving every single second! :)

But hey! I hope you had a wonderful week! Today we get to go to the temple, I couldn't be more excited! These weeks are always crazy long when we don't have a P-day for a week and a half... but goodness we saw so many miracles. Starting with last Monday, the coolest thing happened.....

P-day ends at 6:30. We had an appointment with a LA for 7:00. She calls at 6:30 and says she can't make it. So we're bummed.... we go out and start finding in Tin Shui Wai park. We run into these two cute teenage girls and start talking to them. They were super nice and willing to listen. We started talking to them about the church and about Jesus Christ and asking them if they believed in Him. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this middle-aged lady comes up and pulls the girls aside and whispers something in their ears and GLARES at us. The girls look at us and say, "Oh, uh, sorry, we have to go.... do some stuff." And run away. Sister Aguilar and I were like, what the heck? The lady glares at us again and then walks off. We were so frustrated and, I'll admit, furious. Who does she think she is?! She doesn't know us! She doesn't know our church! We said, "What do we do?" Sister Aguilar thought it would be good if we went and contacted her just like we would anyone else. So we go after her:

Us: "Hello! We're missionaries! Have you ever heard of our church before?"
Lady: "Oh yes, I've heard of it. I know who you are. I don't need you or your church."
Us: "Okay... do you go to church?"
Lady (she stops and glares at us): "Yes, I do. And I'm VERY clear about what your church is. {at this point, she's yeling and people are starting to stop and stare} Go away! Your church ISN'T TRUE!!!" She gives us one more glare and then walks away.

Sister Aguilar and I just stood there, in the middle of this square, with a ton of other people looking at us. We both started to cry. I haven't had that happen to me for a really long time... probably since Macau. It was really hard. We walked slowly away, both of us silent, not wanting to talk. It was really sad. We walked for a little while and I was silently praying, "Heavenly Father, please bless that this night will be worth it. Help us find a prepared person to teach." We rounded a corner, and BOOM! Found an amazingly nice girl that talked to us and has interest :) Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers!!!

But that's not even the coolest part. The second we walked away from Kate, both of us were grinning from ear to ear, so happy about Heavenly Father giving us a miracle after such hard rejection. Then, we got a text. We look at the phone and immediately both of us started crying again because the text was from President Hawks and said:

"Sisters: thank you for being obedient and hard-working missionaries. I'm grateful for the example you are and will be to others."

President Hawks NEVER texts us personally. It was a straight up tender mercy from the Lord. I have never felt so loved and never felt that a prayer has been answered in such an immediate, tangible way. I know with all of my heart that Heavenly Father is real and that He loves us more than we can comprehend. He wants us to succeed! He wants our happiness! If we will trust Him and talk to Him and be close to Him, he will trust us and talk to us and be close to us. :)

I'm so sorry that was such a long winded story. But I just loved it.

I have billions of other miracle stories but I'm totally out of time. I love you all SO much. You are what keeps me going. Thanks for praying for me. I feel your prayers. They strengthen me every single day. I LOVE YOU!

Have the most wonderful week :)

Love always,
Shay - Gwok Jimuih
xoxo

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!!

I am an awful daughter for not writing anything about your birthday last week. But I DEFINITELY remembered! I love you so much! I hope your day was great. You are the best mother in the world. I couldn't put into words how much you mean to me. Thanks for being my best friend. :) I can't wait to see you in....... a little while! ;)

I love you all so much! I love hearing from you and feeling of your love and encouragement. I have the best family on the earth! Do you all know that?!

This week... I don't even know where to start. So many wonderful miracles! I LOVE THIS AREA!

Monday: We saw Sister Yeung's mom! It was awesome! I was so nervous because I just want to help her SO much. She is so sweet. She chenged us to dinner and gave us a big bag of food to give Sister Yeung and a big bag of food to keep for ourselves! She has a really strong Mandarin accent that made it really hard for me to understand her.... for instance, she told us that her mom had died, but I didn't know what she said, so I said, "Hou hou." (very good!) It was humiliating. But, it was fine. We're working on how to help her have more gospel interest because right now, she just doesn't understand. It'll come, though. Miracles are given to those who seek and expect them.

Tuesday AKA ELDER HOLLAND DAY!!! Elder Holland. He CAME to THIS mission to speak to ME! I feel incredibly blessed. It was the most wonderful meeting. We got a big group picture with him! So I'll forever have proof that I met him in person (besides at the Store in Midway, of course haha). I know you want all the details, so here they are:

We rode a $35 bus down to Wan Chai from the New T's. I love riding buses in HK. Everything is so beautiful. When we got to the Wan Chai chapel, all the missionaries were there! Like 45 minutes early. I loved seeing everyone from our mission. I love these people SO much. It's weird I've only known them this long, I feel like I've known them forever and we've been best friends forever. I got to see all my MTC groupies which was a blast. Man I miss and love them :)

Elder and Sister Hallstrom spoke to us first. I was looking so forward to Elder Holland, I forgot that I would enjoy their talks as well! They were amazing. I learned a lot about pondering. Sister Hallstrom said, "Entrances to holiness are everywhere." I've thought about that a lot since then and realized that it's so true. Entrances to holiness for me include the MTC, personal study every morning, a classroom in the church where the sun pours in, every night before bed when I'm on my knees..... I could go on. I love finding these holy places and feeling the Spirit. I'm growing like I never would have believed.

Then, Sister Holland spoke to us. What a lady. Her talk was INCREDIBLE. I loved it as much as I loved Elder Holland's. She spoke about prayer and when Christ visited the Nephites in 3 Nephi 19. She spoke of how they prayed to Him, and how they never stopped praying. She told of how Christ felt when He prayed to the Father for them, and how His countenance shown upon them. He was so proud of them and loved them so much. Sister Holland brought that experience to life for me. What a magnificent privilege it is for us to pray to our Father. He's our FATHER. I was thinking, if I called up my dad right now, I'd have 70 billion things I'd want to talk to him about. I'd never want to get off the phone. Am I like that when I pray? Do I have 70 billion things to talk to my Father in Heaven about? Do I never want to get off my knees? Sometimes. But I want that feeling more often.

Okay. Now. Elder Holland. His talk was incredible. He told us that he loved us. He told us how much our missions should mean to each of us. He said, VERY emphatically: "The Lord has already lost enough sheep. Don't you EVER let Him lose the shepherds." He talked about how all of us need to make sure that we are forever changed and converted by this mission experience. I sat there thinking, how am I going to do that? How am I going to make SURE that I never change back to the person I once was? I never want to be that Shaylee again. I want to come home a completely new person -- changed from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet (and not just fatter). I want to be able to say, like Elder Holland said to us, "I know this gospel is true more than I know you sit there and I stand here." I want to be converted with everything I am and everything I have. I love Elder Holland. He is such a powerful speaker. When the meeting was over , I never wanted to leave. I never wanted him to leave. I could have sat there for days, eating up his words and feeling the Spirit stronger than ever.

Wow, this email is already super long and I'm only on Tuesday....

Skipping to Sunday:

Connie got BAPTIZED! She is converted, man. Her testimony was INCREDIBLE. She is so much better of a person than I am. She wants to do what's right! Later she was telling us about her sister. She said she's been trying to share the gospel with her. She said, "it's not that I want to persuade her to join the church, it's that I want THIS happiness for her." It was such a sweet and tender testimony. You can tell she has truly been changed.

 
Okay I'm out of time. Gahhhhh!!!!! I love you all! Most of all, I love the Lord. I LOVE this work. There is so much to be done and I'm so glad I can assist in the doing. I am changing every single day and I love it. I couldn't be in a better place.

I love you all SO much! You're my inspiration! :) "You bring meaning to my life... you're my inspiration!" Okay wow enough worldly songs. ;)

Love always and forever,
Sister Shay
xoxoxxoxo