I BAPTIZED HOHN POPO!!!

Okay, look at this picture. THIS is worth 1000 words:

Hahaha! Isn't that GREAT?! It totally looks like I baptized her :) So hilarious. We go to our correlation meeting and the ward mission leader says, "Gwok Jimuih, Bishop has asked if you can go into the water with her to make her feel more comfortable." I was like, "What?? Wear the white clothes and everything?" He goes, "Yep." HAHA oh man.... I felt so weird about it, I called the mission president. All okay! She's 82, after all! The ward members were freaking out. They were laughing so hard at me wearing a jumpsuit :) the elders were going to have a heart attack. It was so fun :) It was SUCH a good day!

Look at this little cutie! (And I mean little... she wore a child medium sized jumpsuit). She is the most humble, wonderful person in the world. You would all LOVE her. She had the most peaceful, blissful look on her face when she was going down into the water :) And right when she came back up, she started laughing. She loved it :) I wish you all could have been there SO BAD.

We did a musical number for the baptism -- me, Sister Hansen, Elder Beal, and Elder Anderson. I tried to sing alto and FAILED. It was "I Need Thee Every Hour." I practiced the alto part like crazy and had it down! But then we got up there and I forgot how to sing so I just sang the melody. Oops. Hohn Popo loved it, though. She was in the front row... hair all wet after baptism and just beaming and nodding her head to the beat of the music. Oh my GOODNESS she is the cutest!! We love her so much!!!

Basically yesterday was a wonderful day :) Hung Shui Kiu ward had a baptism (cutest little single mom named A-Goon, I love her to pieces) and we had one :) Happiest day. There was so much peace and joy in that little chapel at Chung Uk Tsuen. I feel so blessed to be working with such amazing people.

We found a new investigator last week named Florence and she actually came to church yesterday! We were so happy about that! The work rolls forward! I absolutely LOVE where we're at right now. Things are booming.... just booming. I'm going to be absolutely heartbroken to leave all this hard work behind. This is my home!!!

Mom, you asked about the other sisters we live with. I love them so much :) Sister Warner and Sister Adams. They're so fun. We are great friends! My companion, Sister Hansen, is doing great. She's getting REALLY REALLY nervous for me to leave, she doesn't think she can take the area/investigators/ward by herself. I keep reminding her that Heavenly Father makes up for where we fall short, and He magnifies us to do what we need to do. She is where I was about a year and 2 months ago. Crazy how fast time flies.. I keep telling her, too, that I have no idea what I'm doing. STILL! We do this work for so long and we get to know everything, but really, we're still babies. We still have no idea what we're doing. The coolest part is, that it works. The Lord truly does make our weak places strong and gives us the means to do His work.

Mom this is for you too: my eating habits lately: corn flakes with soy milk, herbal tea (I'm becoming a HUGE herbal tea drinker. HUGE!!), udon noodles (gwai, remember udon delight?? still make it), rice and veggies, stir fry, egg salad sandwiches, tuna sandwiches, any kind of vegetables, apples, asian pears, scrambled eggs with rice and veggies ..... ha. Yep. I only eat BROWN RICE these days! Thanks to my comp :) she's such a health nut.

I LOVE YOU GUYS! I am so blessed. I have the most amazing life in the world :) I have the best family and friends EVER! And the best mission experience anyone could ever hope for :) I love this mission. I'm making every SECOND count for the next four weeks. I'm loving every single part of everything that is happening right now. It's true what they say.... the last 6 months of the mission are the greatest. AHHH I can't express how much I love this. I love you all!!

Love forever,
Sister Gwok
xoxoxo

Hardest thing I ever LOVED to do

The hardest thing I ever loved to do
Was letting go of everything I ever knew
Nineteen years of dreams left in my room
As I buttoned up the jacket of my suit
The hardest word I've ever loved to say
Was goodbye to my mom and walk away
Choking on my tie and on my tears
As I walked down the hall into those years

The sweetest song I've ever loved to sing
Filled the MTC on angel's wings
The chorus filled my soul five thousand strong
And I wished it would just go on and on
The firmest hand I've ever loved to shake
Was my trainer's with that big grin on his face
He grabbed my bag and put his arm round me
And whispered,
"I'm gonna work those Mr. Macs right off your feet!"

The hardest words I've ever anguished for
Came just before some lady slammed her door
My trainer left me hanging out to dry
As a minute of painful silence rolled right by
But the hardest tears I've ever loved to cry
Fell as I opened up my mouth and testified
Between the tiny walls of a stranger's living room
The Spirit told their hearts my words were true

The most wonderful sound I've ever heard
Is the sound of water running in the church
As someone I'd come to love got dressed in white
My eyes saw their first glimpse of Heaven's light
The hardest thing I've ever come to see
Is a Man down on His knees in agony
A drop of blood falls down on olive leaves
And for a moment He suffers there for me

The hardest thing I've ever loved to do
Was getting on this plane and coming home to you
In a million ways completely torn apart
As a land so far away still owns my heart

In the most sincere prayer I've ever prayed
I thank my God for each and every day
For the blessing of the man I've come to be
As I run up and kiss my mama's cheek.

DID YOU JUST START CRYING???? Because I did when I heard this song this week. Actually, all four of us sisters did. There we were, eating lunch together and this song comes on and we just bawled. Missions are the most wonderful, amazing, emotional things in the world. I feel so privileged to serve my Father this way!! I feel EXACTLY like the words of this song. This is the hardest thing I've ever LOVED to do :) So glad I still have time left here.

Today is temple day and I have no time left! But I love you all with everything I have! Things are going SO GREAT here!! A-yan LOVED stake conference and can't wait for more, Hohn Popo is getting baptized this Sunday!!!, Tina and Christine and Christina are as good as ever, the Lord is pouring out His blessings upon this area, and I truly couldn't be happier. I am not perfect and sometimes it frustrates me, but I love what I'm doing and love that every single day I can improve. I love my Savior and my Father in Heaven.

I love you all! SOO MUCH! I hope you have the best week ever!

Love forever,
Gwok Jimuih
xoxoxo

READ MY SISTER'S MISSION BLOG!!

Everyone should read Whitney's mission blog!!  I love you, Whit!!!

http://sisterwhitneywilcox.blogspot.com/

Whit,  you sound SOOO good!  You will be an amazing missionary!!

Mid Autumn Festival and stuff

HELLLOOOOOOOO!!! oh man this week feels like 30 years. But at the same time, the blink of an eye. Time is the weirdest here.

okay, i LOVED how whit talked about dad blowing his nose and it sounded like a fog horn throughout the whole house. hahahaha i've had a stuffy nose lately and i blow it every morning and every morning i think, "wow, i am becoming my father." SOOOO funny that whit thinks of that too!! dad, i love you! i miss your fog horn nose! ;) hahahaha

Happy (late) mid autumn festival!! It's crazy that this was my second one in HK. Mid autumn festival means lanterns like the ones on tangled, and MOON CAKES galore. Moon cakes sound good, but they're gross. It's a bummer because a TON of people give them to us. This year on mid autumn festival they had a HK-wide activity! It was so much fun!! It was like a big track meet all day long. We got special permission to go and participate. Us and the zone leaders ran the 4x100 relay. HAHA in jeans. Haven't run so fast in.... a while..... we were just a little bit sore. Okay, a lot sore. So fun though! and SOOO HOT.

Also this week, I promised to tell you the story of how we met A-Yan, our new investigator. We were finding, saw her, stopped her, and only had time to talk for like 5 seconds. Exchanged phone numbers. Walked away, didn't think much of it. Until SHE texted US! Which never ever happens!! We scheduled her, taught her a great lesson, and she told us, "I stopped believing in Jesus when I was 12. That day I saw you on the street, I had just barely quit my job and I was really sad. But when I saw you, I felt peace and calm and wanted to believe again." THIS WORK IS SOOO REAAALLLL!!! Isn't that the coolest thing?! Heavenly Father truly does prepare people for us to teach!! It is the most amazing and humbling thing to be a part of this great work.

Welll...... a lot of other really great stuff is happening too. But I have absolutely no time to write about all of it. I love being a missionary! I love helping other people come closer to our Savior. I love coming unto Him myself.

Scripture of the week: 2 Corinthians 4:5-7:

5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.

6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
We are weak. We have weaknesses (earthen vessels). But if we didn't, God's light wouldn't be able to shine through. We are weak because only through Him are we made strong. I have so much I need to overcome, but I am thankful that through my Savior, I can be made strong. Not perfect, because He doesn't need me to be perfect right now. But better every day. I know that is true!

I love you all SO MUCH! so so much! hope you have the best week ever!

Love,
GWOK :)
xoxoxxoo

um... 10 minutes.....(from Sep 8, 2014)

AAAIIIYAAAA I only have 10 minutes to type this email because we had a special mission meeting today! We got a great SURPRISE and had Elder Rasband (Senior President of the Seventy), Elder Allen of the Seventy, and our Asia Area Presidency (Elder Gong, Elder Funk, Elder Wong) speak to us missionaries! SO SPECIAL! It was AMAZING!

Well... that's about all I have time for. We're doing SO good here in China! LOVING absolutely every single second of being a missionary and doing the Lord's work. Here's a question for all you returned missionaries:

"Is your testimony of Jesus Christ burning in your bosom the same as it did when you were a missionary?"

Elder Rasband told us that when he was called to be a general authority, President Hinckley asked him the same question. He told us this is the most important time to strengthen our testimonies of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I'm so thankful that I could come to know my Savior. This mission is blessing my life every single day... not only now but for eternity. I know He lives, and because He does, all of us do too. Every single day.

I love you all! Sorry so short this week. Next week will be better!!!!!!

Love love love,
Sister Gwok
xoxxoxo

this is a typhoon movin' in behind us... whoooo!

our new investigator A-Yan! STAY TUNED FOR THE STORY BECAUSE IT'S AMAZING!!!!!!!!!

TURTLE IS NASTY

LAY HOE!!! :)

I love seeing pictures of all of you peeps :) i miss you guys so much! it's so weird we haven't seen each other in SO LONG! I just gotta say, i have the best friends and family in the entire WORLD :) i looooooove you guys more than i could even say. Life is so good, isn't it?! Heavenly Father loves us so much!

So this week.. was so goooood :) It's amazing to see how many miracles Heavenly Father is giving us. Like this for example...

HELEN. Not our old investigator Helen. A NEW one. We were at the church and someone "fonged" us. Always hate that. So I pulled out a sheet of potential investigators that I keep in my bag and started calling through them. One of the names, Helen, hadn't been contacted by missionaries since 2005. I called her and she's GOLDEN. Seriously golden. We met with her a few days later and she had all kinds of questions about the Restoration and we just taught a great lesson!! She came to English class a few days later and LOVED it. So cool!! It's so amazing to see how the Lord prepares people. Almost 10 years!! And she finally gets to hear the gospel!

SISTER CHAN. She's a less active that Sister Aguilar and I found way back in the first few months we were together. When we first saw her, she said she couldn't come back to church and she couldn't meet with us because her husband disapproved. We were really sad but a few months later, tried again. Nothing. A few months later, we went back. The bishop had gone to visit her and told her she needed to stop putting off coming back to church. AMAZING. She started coming back!! We've been meeting with her every week since then and she is just doing so swell. Truly progressing, and bringing her husband and son back with her! I got teary eyed in the lesson and so did she, talking about the first time we'd met and how far she'd come since then. THE CONVERTING POWER IS SO REAL! It's so amazing to be a part of it.

HOHN POPO.
Look at her! SHE'S THE CUTEST!!! She's progressing so well! Slowly, because her memory is super bad, but progressing! We taught her the 10 commandments this last week, and she loved em. She was all over them, saying, "Wow, I can be a better person by following all of these!" We were so happy. AND she said a wonderful prayer. She's 82 but she's gonna get baptized here pretty soon and we couldn't be happier! Neither could she! We just love her!

TINA. Here's the Tina update! Tina wants to get baptized SO BAD. But her mom won't let her :( we had a really good lesson with her this week about baptism. She said if her mom would let her, she'd get baptized anytime. Our cute little YW fellowshipped suggested that we all fast about it on Sunday. We fasted and now we're waiting to hear the miracles that come. The thing I've learned the most from this process is, Heavenly Father is aware of us. All of us. Maybe we think that it's time for Tina to get baptized, but maybe she needs to wait a little bit longer. Not sure why. But it's all in Heavenly Father's hands. As long as we're exercising faith and doing everything in our power to have these things happen, they'll happen exactly the way they're supposed to. FAITH. It's all about faith.

Oh man we had the BEST ward activity the other night. It was basically a musical talent show. Anything to do with music. There were so many good talents... plus a TON of referrals and all around just the most fun in SO long. I love our ward :) I'm so happy I get to be in this area for 8 months!!!!! IT'S THE GREATEST!

We drank the NASTIEST turtle shell/juice/i don't even know what.....

All I know is that it was turtle and it was DISGUSTING. Never drink or eat turtle. Trust me.

I love you all so so so so so much! I can't wait to see you and talk to you and laugh with you, but right now, I absolutely lOVE Hong Kong. I love the Lord and the things that He's teaching me on this mission. I love what I'm doing. I love my mission. I love you all :)

Love,
Sister Gwok
xoxoxoxxoxo