Happy Chinese New Year!!!

Wow, what a fast week. Like seriously, the fastest week so far. Every single day was so busy!

Tuesday we started zone exchanges! I went into a tripanionship with two of our Tagalog sisters and got to work in Victoria 2, the everyday branch. It is super cool! In this branch they have church everyday for the domestic helpers (mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia) who only get one day off of work. And so, those sisters who do not get off work on Sunday can go to church during any other day of the week. So cool! Anyways, so while on exchanges I got to go to church on Tuesday. The Sisters in that branch are all so nice and sweet! It was so fun being with them. And I feel like I learned so much while working with the two other sister missionaries. Maganda ka!

Thursday was Chinese New Year! As a China Hong Kong Mission we spend the entire day deep cleaning our apartments ... literally cleaning every single inch. By the end of the night we were all so exhausted, but our apartment was so clean I would have been willing to eat off of the floor.

We took a break during our deep cleans to go with the Elders to visit a family for Chinese New Year! What an awesome family! The Husband is the most humble and awesome man ever! And his wife is so great! And their kids are nice too! Unfortunately, their 12 year old daughter is a bit less committed to church, so Sister Tse and I are getting to work with her. But I'm excited for it. She is awesome.

On Saturday we took Candy to see the Temple. She really wants to be able to go in one day. She told us that she wants to be like us one day. She is so awesome! Sunday after church we had a lesson with her about faith. I think it really helped her. She is preparing to be baptized on March 15!

This morning we went to Victoria Peak with some of our roommates. It is supposed to have like the best view of Hong Kong....unfortunately it was sooooo foggy! So the view wasn't really the best, but it was still really fun!

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have here as a missionary. I cannot believe it has already been 6 months. Time is going by too fast (I know my family probably thinks otherwise). I am so grateful to have been called here. The Lord's work is moving forward and I am happy to be a part of building up His kingdom in Hong Kong!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Foggy Victoria Peak!

The fog cleared a bit and we had a view of the city

Hiking up to the peak

(Dad here)  And now we have some Q&A from the kids that Hannah answered:

From Hazel

Did you have fun at Chinese New Year?
     YES, CNY was FUN!!!  We cleaned and ate yummy food.

What is the hardest part of being a missionary?
     Sometimes the people are difficult.

What is the best part?
     Helping people!!!


From Lilly

Do you get to eat those yummy Chinese candies a lot?

     Sometimes...

Hannah's CNY shirt - it's the Year of the Sheep (Dad's year)

What kind of hair accessories do you get in China?

     There are lots of hair ties and scrunchies and stuff.

Do you ever eat American food?
     We really only eat American food when we have no time to eat and have to run to McDonald's.

From Emmett

How often do you speak English?
     I speak English with my companion and most of the other missionaries.

What does the weather feel like?

     The weather right now is great! It is like 50-60-70 so it's perfect ... but I think it will get hot pretty soon.

Do you celebrate other holidays besides CNY?
     Yes! We celebrate Christmas! And we did a big missionary dinner for Thanksgiving!

Chinese New Year

Hello Everyone! This has been a great week! Hong Kong is really beautiful right now! Everyone is gearing up for Chinese New Year this week! Even the security guard for our apartement building has been putting up decorations everywhere. I am excited! It will be my first Chinese New Year actually in China! So fun!

Chinese New Year decorations

Chinese new year is great! But, it means that everyone is out of school and work. So yes, nobody wants to meet with us this next week because they are all going back home to mainland for the holidays. But that's alright. We have been so busy teaching lessons recently (don't get me wrong I am not complaining at all) that we haven't really been able to go finding. But, it looks like this week will be different! 

This last week we met lots of new investigators (though they are all in mainland now). We also continued to meet with our other investigators. Candy in particular is doing SO GREAT! I am so excited for her!

On Saturday Sister Tse and I taught English class (it was Valentine's Day so of course our class was Valentine's Day themed). We asked Candy to make a sentence using the word "husband" and she said "I hope I can have an eternal husband." We (and all the other missionaries) were like YES! Best sentence ever!

For P-day today Candy wanted to hang out with us, so we went to Korean BBQ (sooooo yummy) and shopping because she wanted us to help her find skirts that she can wear to church and then we went to the Chinese New Year fair! It has been a long, but very fun day.

Basically, everything is going great! I hope everyone has a very happy Chinese New year! Xinnian Kuaile! 

Krispy Kremes

Another great and super duper busy week!

We had some awesome opportunities like zone conference this week! It was so good! I love getting to listen to President and Sister Hawks. They are both so inspired and you can really feel that they love us. President Hawks talked a lot about how when we understand our purpose as missionaries there should be no contention among us. Which is so true! If all we want to do is bring people unto Christ then we should be able to overcome all our little differences and stuff. 

We had some great lessons this week! Candy and Emily are doing great! They are both set to be baptized on March 15! Though, Emily is a bit lazy and didn't want to wake up for church this week :( But, Candy came and was so happy to be there. She was very proud to show us the skirt that she had borrowed from her mother. haha 

We also met some new investigators this week, Jenny and Lola and they both came to church too! Yay! We were actually really blessed to have five people at sacrament meeting this week. So awesome! 

Being a missionary is great! It is flying by so fast. I feel like I am gonna blink and I will already be home. But, I am so grateful to be here. I know that the Lord has called me to serve these people. It is amazing. 

Someone brought Krispy Kreme donuts all the way from the Philippines (you can't get them here) :( and gave it to Sis Aro and Posadas and then they shared with us! So this is us 6 roommates!

Emily and Candy

Hello! I have had a great week! Though, my family has been in Disney World for the last week so yes, I am a tad bit jealous. But, no worries, I am very, very, very happy to be on a mission and my jealousy has not distracted me at all!

We have been so busy this week. Sister Tse and I had extra meetings almost every day as well as the usual missionary work. But, that's alright, it has been very rewarding to be so busy!

Zone Training Meeting

Our zone training meeting this week went really well. It was so fun and also so spiritual. I think that everyone enjoyed it!

Our lessons this week have gone really well. We met with both Candy and Emily again! And they are both doing soooo awesome! We met with Emily on Thursday and then she also came to church on Sunday. It is crazy. She has already changed so much. She used to be very shy and a tiny bit awkward, but you can already see how much the gospel is blessing her. She has a new pep in her step which I believe comes from her knowledge that she really is a daughter of our Heavenly Father. She is learning so much and Sister Tse and I are so happy to work with her.

Candy is also doing so great! We met with her on Saturday before English class. It went really well. We asked one of the Young Women's advisers to help us teach and she was able to answer all of Candy's little questions. After her lesson we went to English class. English class is always so fun! At the end the missionaries teaching asked Candy if she could give the closing prayer. She did and it was the sweetest prayer! She thanked God for the opportunity to learn English and also for the opportunity to learn about the gospel and for the two Sisters who are helping her do it! It was so cute!

It was a good week. Every week is a good week!

English Class