Another Week!

HELLO!!! Leih hou!

I just went back to some emails that I wrote you in June/July.... wow. I wrote a lot. My emails lately (for like the past 6 months) have been really lame. I'm sorry. Ha. I guess I'm just busier now and more used to only talking to you once a week! Last summer I almost died every P-day, I was so excited to talk to you all.

I just want to start and say, thank you. I haven't said that enough, Mom and Dad. You guys are sacrificing a lot for me to be here in Hong Kong right now. I'm SO happy to have this opportunity. And I love it. I love it, I love it, I love it. It's flying right by, which is crazy, but I've never cared more about anything in the world. Sister Aguilar and I were talking about that last night while we were making dinner. I've never made so many goals in my entire life. Every single day, every single week, every single hour, we make new goals. And we care about them SO much! It's really comforting to know that I'm not apathetic about this, because it's not mine. It's the Lord's work. 100% His. I LOVE IT! I don't know how to say it better/more than that!

Well, the past 4 days have been great. Our companionship is working together better and better every day, which is a blessing. We're seeing a lot of really great things. Despite some setbacks and some heartbreaks (some investigators that aren't progressing/don't want to see us again -- which breaks my heart!! so sad), life is looking good here in Tin Shui Wai and Hung Shui Kiu!

ps: have you google mapped those areas yet?? you should check em out!!

On Friday we went to visit a LA named Mok Jimuih. She was the cuuuuutest. She was actually born in Germany, so her first language is German (but she's Chinese), and she spoke to us the cutest accented English. We sat down and started asking get-to-know-you-questions, but she cut us off and said, "Can we please talk about the gospel? It's more interesting." We were like "sure!!" haha. She was adorable. The best part was at the end. We shared 3 Nephi 11 about when Christ came to the Americas and talked about the Atonement. At the end, I asked her to share her testimony of Jesus Christ. A lot of times (most of the time, actually) when I do this, they share an experience or share the reason why they chose to get baptized. But cute Mok Jimuih shared the most pure, sweet testimony of Jesus Christ I have heard in a long time. She said, "I just can't even imagine how much He loves us. He died for us. He suffered for us. He died for ME! He loves me so much." It was the spiritual highlight of my week. I was so grateful to hear of someone testify of Christ. He truly is the reason for every good thing in our lives. I am so incredibly thankful to Him. Because of Him, I can be clean. Because of Him, I have the best message in the world to share with these Hong Kongians. I, like Mok Jimuih, just can't even imagine how much He loves us. But I know He does.

Here's some pics:

We do these things called cup wars. Every church in HK has a water machine with those little paper cups. So cup wars is this: you fill up a cup and drink it with no hands, then eat it. The first one with the whole cup in their mouth wins. Haha

A sweet frog we saw one night while finding!!

I gotta run. I love you all SO much! Thank you for your continued love and support. I really, really, really love you!

Love,
Sister Gwok
xoxoxo

BOGO Time (From May 14, 2014)

I am SO sorry... there were a lot of emails in my inbox because i haven't had a p-day in a week and a half. So today's will also be short and kind of pathetic :) but it's okay, you get to hear from me again in 4 days!!

Actually... I have no time at all. I'll just send you some snippets from my bogo (that's report in Chinese) to President Hawks this week:

Thank you so much for your advice during our interview. I've been praying to know how i can keep improving and the answer came during district meeting this week! (As well as what you told me in our interview). I need to be a better teacher! Sister Aguilar gave a training in District meeting about asking questions. I realized that I'm not very good at asking good questions. It was a little bit hard for me to admit that to myself, as well as admit it to my companions, but I'm really glad I'm with Sister Aguilar right now. She's a really good teacher. I feel like I'm learning a lot from her about how to ask questions and connect with our investigators. She teaches really clearly. So, I am taking your challenge! I am going to focus on my teaching skills. Ever since that district meeting, my personal studies have been focused on how i can improve and i've found a lot of ways! I'm excited to keep progressing and learning. Maybe all I needed was to ask Heavenly Father, "how can I improve?" and He probably laughed and thought, "Oh, you are so far from perfect. Here's one way."

We had an interesting thing happen last week.... Hung Shui Kiu, as you know, has been suffering low numbers for a while now. We were thinking during weekly planning about how to improve and increase our investigator pool. We said, "Sister Choi, where's your area book? Can we look at it?" Turns out the HSK area book was STUFFED full of former investigators. Why were they formers, you might ask? Only because they hadn't been contacted in so long. We called through maybe 10 and scheduled 3 for the very next day. A lot of people's responses on the phone were, "Oh, missionaries, yes, hi! Where have you been? I haven't been contacted for a long time!!" I'm glad we were inspired to look through the area book. We're hoping to build up HSK fast and furiously!!

Our investigators are doing well, but we feel like Satan is hitting them so hard from every side. It's sad to watch them struggle and heartbreaking when they don't realize that they have SO much potential. Like Kami, for instance. Her entire family is against her going to church. She's only 17 but I'm so proud of her. Whenever they say, "That church is evil!" or give her an anti website, she sticks up for the church! She's brought a lot of her questions to us. We always encourage her to find her own answers through prayer and scripture study. She's a strong spirit. I feel like she's my daughter, in a way. I look at her and see a vision of her future, a future with a family and the gospel and so much happiness..... I want that for her SO bad. Like PMG says, "ONLY the gospel" can give us that future. I'm so thankful that I have a testimony of the happiness and peace the gospel brings.

Did I tell you about Christina? She told us the reason she doesn't want to get baptized is because her parents are opposed because of tithing. Ah, tithing! It's such a problem for so many people! I talked to my parents about it on the phone when I called them for Mother's Day and they reminded me to get the members involved! If we have a member with a really strong testimony of tithing help Christina understand why it's important, it'll help her progress so much. We took her over to a member's house, the Fife's, on Monday night for FHE and taught tithing. I thought they did a good job of testifying how many miracles and blessings tithing has brought to them. Members really are the key to helping our investigators progress!! After the lesson we asked Christina what she thought and she said, "Tithing seems pretty incredible." We've been hoping and praying she'll keep progressing and gain her own testimony of the principle of tithing. And the principles of other things!

I love the time I have here. I know that God lives. I know that this is His church, and He wants us to spread the happiness and peace of the gospel to everyone on earth. I love this little piece of heaven -- Hong Kong -- and the fact that I'm here, spreading this message. It's hard work, but it's so worth it.

Family, I love you so much! it was the most wonderful thing to talk to you on Monday morning :) We have the best family in the world. I can't believe we're all growing up so fast. Ah, it's weird and scary, but at the same time, we're blessed to have so much knowledge and happiness. The church is true! It truly gives us so much happiness!!

I love you! I love you! I love you!!!

Love,
Sister Gwok

It's May?!?!

Hi all of you people I love so much :) I'll try to write a much better email this week than that of weeks past...

It was one of the craziest weeks in a long time. There was so much going on and the stress levels were higher than normal. But I've reflected a lot and been able to learn so much. The time just keeps slipping by...

Tuesday we got to go over and teach a family from Syria! Gaz and Lama and their adorable 2-year-old daughter, Tala. It was so much fun! Usually we have to turn people that speak English over to the international elders (and we still have to do that this week), but because we live so far away we went and taught them first. They were SO nice. We absolutely loved teaching them, especially because they were the ones asking for us to share more about our church! I haven't taught the Restoration in English for so long. It was cool to quote the First Vision in English..

"I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!"

I just got the chills. A 14-year-old boy (Jaren's age!) really did see God the Father and His Son in the Sacred Grove that day. And because of his courage and his faith, we have this! 15 million and growing fast... 80,000+ missionaries... stakes and wards and branches and the priesthood all over this earth... I just can't even take it in sometimes. This work is REAL. It's not a story, or a good service I'm doing. I'm not in Hong Kong to "gain experience" or do anything for myself. I'm here to spread the good news of the gospel to everyone here. Sometimes when I stop and think about it, it takes my breath away. There isn't anything more important in the world!!

Wednesday we went to Mission Leadership Council, something I've missed for the past few months. I absolutely love sitting at the feet of President and Sister Hawks and listening to their council. We in the China Hong Kong mission are putting our faith to the test these next few months. I've never been part of something like this -- I've learned so much about faith. Faith can move mountains, can change people's hearts, can bring down the powers of heaven upon us who want it the most, can answer our silent prayers, can do all things. President Hawks is the wisest man. I love him. I love learning from him.

Thursday and Friday we had to do all our weeks' worth of work in 2 days because we had to move on Saturday. Remember when our apartment flooded? It got underneath our wood floor and caused it to bubble up and then break. It's been AWFUL. So Saturday was spent moving from our very old and crappy apartment to a BEAUTIFUL new posh one down the street. It's called "Uptown". So now we're the uptown girls :) it's been fun but kind of weird, moving as a missionary. It took us almost the entire day, so we're excited for this week to be normal and back to being super focused on missionary work!!

Sister Aguilar and I -- along with the Zone Leaders -- had to make new zone goals for this month. We came up with "F.I.G.H.T!!" because, as Elder Holland told us when he came, "We're not going to flee Babylon anymore. Our dispensation is the one that will stand and FIGHT! We will conquer Babylon!!" We're hoping to get our zone pumped up to accomplish bigger and better things. The church is growing in Hong Kong! It's doing so well!!!

What do you know I'm out of time again. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH. I love the work that I've been commissioned to do. I only have a year and a half -- I love giving my whole heart to the Lord. I'm working on giving more and more every day because I love Him. I love this gospel. I love my Savior. I know He lives.

Love always,
Sister Gwok