Let's Try Photographs

Dear Each and Everyone,

Here is my latest attempt at photography and downloading.  One picture is with a little girl who fell in love with me while we were eating out with a part-member family.  She was so hilarious; she kept me too busy chatting and drawing and giggling to eat.  It was so fun.  I hope she comes to EEFY!

Which is gonna be AWESOME! The zone set it up in our planning sessions where we'll do the topics I can help most with (go figure: "service" where I'll teach card making, "dress and appearance" where I'll teach hair styling and how to sew and then "music and dance" where I'll teach how to read music and a little guitar... so weird...) (my last three days of missionary work in HK!) and then I'll just write out really carefully the rest of the weeks. They'll be awesome, of course, but I've found and developed lots of leadership and organization skills out here and they come in handy when we're planning girl's camp sized activities for non-members for two weeks of full-time crazy gospel fun on less than $100 US budget! :D I LOVE IT.

Life has been so good; I got my dying packet today (and THAT is what we like to call a misuse of a semi-colon, kids!) with my flight information. Those phrases have nothing to do with each other :P

Anyway.

We've been encouraged by our new mission president to start praying and finding FAMILIES and it's been really neat as we've started doing so. I talked to a cute family on the bus yesterday--almost didn't, since we usually go up onto the second level to leave street level seats for families and old people who can't climb the stairs, but then I decided the little girl was just too adorable to not be talked to--and they're super amazing! They're already Christian and named their kids the equivalent of "Grace" and "Mercy" in Chinese, so crazy! I've never come by a whole family that Christian (who wasn't totally scared off by the black nametag :( ) and the mom JUST called me during email time! And wants to come to Church! And I need to call her back in a minute, YAY.

We've also had lots of miracles with part member and less active families. SOOOOO often people just need to feel loved and accepted. It's not a ploy or a trick to get people to come to church or to "join us" --it's the way Christ taught to treat people and to love people, to challenge people to something greater than what they have now through treating them like their potential. I remember Mom teaching me "how to treat the deacons" --to expect more and treat them like they're already doing it. That's something I've learned about God's grace and the Atonement here--He gives me MORE than I deserve and expects more of me because he knows... just some ideas.

We're doing another Girl's Night tonight (making pudding cups! Finally!).... we have an activity or class almost every night of the week now. It feels slow sometimes because we spend lots of time planning, prepping and then just sitting in and building relationships in the classes, but it's a fabulous investment. These girls are really starting to trust us and come to us for help or for their problems.

On the other hand, we had a serious set back with an investigator this week. She finally talked to her parents about baptism on Saturday night after one of the most spirit-filled and led lessons I've ever sat in on (the member, the mom convert of a part member family who had to fight to get baptized, fight to go to church, fight to get her boys to come and then they went on missions and got crazy grades in school and now are famous all over HK and she's SO AMAZING--- pretty much taught the whole thing, it was simply miraculous listening to her stories and testimony) but then didn't come to church. And didn't pick up the phone. And ... our hearts just broke on Sunday. We saw her on Tuesday when she came for accounting class but she wouldn't even look at us. From what we can figure out from members contacting her mom, she got the OK for baptism--in August 2013. But ....why won't she talk to us now? Praying lots here...

I got to listen to the temple today in Cantonese--it was so clear and simple. I loved hearing it in, it FEELS like, now, my "2nd" native tongue. My brain translates all the English into Cantonese all the time, anyway, so to hear something I've heard so many times in the "original" (to me...?) language felt so right and happy. I can't really explain!

As an end note, I realized just how scary the thought of going back to white-people-land is to me this last Sunday night (headed to the Bishop's house for food! They were SO KIND TO US) when we got on a mini bus (seats just  16 people)--FULL OF CANADIANS!

They were full time volunteers teaching English and Christianity but just for 5 weeks... and I felt so, so awkward and out of place. They all looked exactly the same, it could've been a big family... like 12 white people in the same place, it was so terrifying. Blondes EVERYWHERE... SO weird.

Pray for us; I never even guessed how confusing and happy and horrible and sad and hard but good yet stressful and still exciting it'd be, this last month.
Love you all,

Sister D
P.S.  Great photo downloading, Mom?  Not So Much