To Kowloon

What a WILD WEEK! I think that every week I say is the busiest week ever, but I'm serious about this one. 

Monday: Transfer calls. I was informed that I would be moving to KOWLOON and my new companion is Sister Law. Kowloon is one of the other two areas that Mandarin sisters can go and is actually still in my same branch. Our branch has 8 missionaries - a set of elders and sisters from Hong Kong Island and from Kowloon. And so I was informed that I would be jumping across the harbor into Kowloon (see map). 

Wednesday: All mission conference with Elder Ballard!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, Elder Ballard of the Twelve Apostles came for an all mission conference with us. Sooooo awesome! Along with him came Bishop Stevenson (presiding bishop of the church) and Elder (or president?? not sure which) Rasband (President of the Quorum of the 70). It was so awesome! They and their wives all talked to us. One thing that Elder Ballard emphasized was being bold. And I feel like he was directly speaking to me. There is so much more I can do to be a more bold missionary. I want to be a missionary that the Lord can trust to do his work. And something one of their wives said is to "be the missionary your mom thinks you are and tells all her friends that you are!!!"

Sister Law and Sister Sharp

Thursday: Transfers! Went to Kowloon!!!!!!!!! Sister Law is AWESOME! She is from Hong Kong and is fluent in Mandarin, English and Cantonese. We speak a lot of Mandarin together. It's great. She is also so fun and adorable. Thursday evening we had an all member devotional with Elder Ballard. And it too was really great. He talked a lot about understanding our true nature as sons and daughters of God. We were able to bring our investigator, Sara (she is in her 20s and getting her MBA at a school here in Hong Kong and is soooo nice), to see it and she loved it. She told me "I can really feel the Holy Spirit when he is speaking!" 

Friday: I don't really remember this day...but I'm sure it was good because everyday is good!

Saturday: Lunch with some YSA members and then branch CNY party! So fun! So much good food!!!!!!!!!! And lots of investigators - including Sara and Candy (from the island) came too.

Sunday: Awesome day! I know that God hears and answers our prayers, but there are few times when the prayer has come so directly and quickly. Since coming to Kowloon I have been really praying for Sara. I was really bummed about leaving Candy when she was so close to her baptism. It was making me so happy to see her learn and grow soooo much (she even bore her testimony in sacrament on Sunday....so awesome!). And, I just really wanted to help someone else like we had been able to help Candy. And then, after sacrament meeting on Sunday, Sara came up to me and said "So, on what day can I get baptized?" (She had said she wanted to get baptized before but had not been chosen a date yet) I was taken aback for a moment, but thankfully Sister Law and I had prayed earlier and decided on a date to give her but hadn't had a chance to do it (we wanted to do it either after Elder Ballard or after the CNY party, but never could). But I was just like "well actually....April 12?" and she said "yeah that is good. I am going to pray every single day so that God can help me be ready and then I need you and Sister Law to help me to prepare." And then Sister Law came up and we told her that we had prayed about it and felt like this was the day when she needed to get baptized. She is super excited and I am super excited to help her! 

The work is so great. I love helping people build a relationship with their Heavenly Father and am so grateful for the opportunities that I had in Hong Kong Island and am so excited for everything that awaits me here in Kowloon!

Church party - with Sister Law, Candy, and Sara