tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55984215260199364912024-02-18T19:51:51.330-08:00Dia's Mission Adventures 白真希Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.comBlogger138125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-52038806331179190492012-08-09T06:10:00.000-07:002014-11-10T09:36:29.311-08:00The End -- One Last Look<div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
Dearest Everyone, </div>
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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!</div>
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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.</div>
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Love to you all,</div>
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The End<br />
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These are just a random sampling of all the joy I've felt in HK. <br />
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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! </div>
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They're full time volunteers teaching English and Christianity but just for 5 weeks... and I felt so, so awkward and out of place. It could've been a big family... like 12 white people in the same place, it was so terrifying. </div>
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Blondes EVERYWHERE... SO weird. They all looked exactly the same.</div>
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Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-35102604988953270362012-08-02T13:19:00.003-07:002014-11-10T09:37:05.029-08:00Mighty, Mighty Miracles<br />
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Dear All and Sundry:</div>
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Last week at ward FHE the game consisted of pulling a TOTALLY-had-no-idea ge Sister Darcey up to the front of the cultural hall (full of 100+ people and one billion+ calories of delicious Chinese goodness), then sticking headphones in her ears and a microphone in her hand and making her SING ALONG to several MANDARIN pop songs that she'd NEVER HEARD IN HER LIFE and then having everyone there guess what song it was. It was like a bad dream. </div>
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But painfully, hilariously real. People were on the FLOOR laughing at my horrible jabbered fake Mandarin lyrics... It was so bad. But the ward had a good time...</div>
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Sunday was hard because everyone thought I was leaving THIS Thursday instead of next--so they wanted pictures and gave me presents and thanked me for my service and the whole time it was finally sinking in that I was LEAVING and this is NOT OKAY and you get the picture.</div>
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I came home from a 3 hour find that night with my summer missionary, made all the sisters dinner out of leftovers and wilted stuff as fast as possible (end of the month is rough for groceries situation, but God does provide!) and then I went in the other room to take a phone call from the zone leaders, so pulled my study door shut... hung up, sat on the floor and cried and cried. </div>
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Sweat and tears just rolling along together... seriously, but it IS Devilishly HOT here. It hurts to be outside. We drink ... probably... checking my Batman water bottle... 750 ml x 7= ? Dad? How many liters is that? A LOT of water a day. 4900 + 350 = 5250 maybe, then liters? 5 liters? maybe? A LOT, ok? (um... please don't put my math online).</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBcJwnysNGZkeznq9mEfeLQQefB6Tl8ca7utYHf7_FaO_eO4soFJXnJrGN0Lsf2v4imWfHXTf96sIBQXY0Pd37bukTh2hsZ2hq-i8YU6KHpCxg07QNtEFfPl3KKoaNgkW48yFLB5-eVGg/s1600/dia+ching+yan+lee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBcJwnysNGZkeznq9mEfeLQQefB6Tl8ca7utYHf7_FaO_eO4soFJXnJrGN0Lsf2v4imWfHXTf96sIBQXY0Pd37bukTh2hsZ2hq-i8YU6KHpCxg07QNtEFfPl3KKoaNgkW48yFLB5-eVGg/s320/dia+ching+yan+lee.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a>Anyway. Monday night we had an amazing miracle: Y. came BACK! I texted her on Sunday night (for the billionth time, all unanswered,) to ask if we could teach her about the gospel this week, and she FINALLY texted back saying Tuesday might be ok!!! So on Monday we prayed with our summers and then I called her. She ANSWERED... but didn't say much. I chattered to her (myself...) in Chinglish about weather, church, her school, family, scriptures, clothes, food, Hong Kong, finally about how I was going to go home and was really sad. I asked her what to do--she said, "Pray." hardy har har, but then she shared a neat experience with prayer! </div>
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And THEN--Sister C was pretty much praying the whole time, and I was just trying to feel out what I should say or share to help her come back-- I finally kinda let it go and said, "well, don't wanna keep you too late" and she started sniffling, then crying, then BAWLING. Oh man, it was crazy.... drama. WE GIRLS! </div>
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(Imagine the same tone as Derick used to say when we complained about how dumb men are: "YEAH, I agree! But <u>I </u>don't have to marry one! YES!") </div>
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But long story short I mentioned something she'd told me about cheung fan (this chinese noodle thing made of glutinous rice that is so delicious)--I'd told her I was going to miss it and she told me how to NOT miss it: "Just eat it every day until you leave la, then you not miss at all la!" I told her that even if I saw her EVERY DAY until I left, I would still not get sick of her :) </div>
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And we were forgiven... and came to church Tuesday for 3 hours and Wednesday three times to see us, and it's just so good. It seemed like that episode of loss was so scary and sad for so long (actually... only 9 days. but it FELT long!) How must the Lord feel about us when we are lost. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPzM0B4AejwoI85uXE3ylKEX0hqPIhScBN3hFPvhHPGb5AW3hdjQDOzBAzmFVL1kVYXgAo19F9cEM_0V18yZPEoLOZoap2R4Wlwhb2AOADKud1ec92REwB4B_9UVL2BUBYOQPfcz9e5g4/s1600/Dia+happy+end+days" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPzM0B4AejwoI85uXE3ylKEX0hqPIhScBN3hFPvhHPGb5AW3hdjQDOzBAzmFVL1kVYXgAo19F9cEM_0V18yZPEoLOZoap2R4Wlwhb2AOADKud1ec92REwB4B_9UVL2BUBYOQPfcz9e5g4/s320/Dia+happy+end+days" height="240" width="320" /></a>People are so funny. Our mission experience revolves around and delves so deep in people's lives, which makes it hard to see your work's "results". </div>
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People are not numbers, and their process of developing faith and learning to sacrifice, to change themselves into something better, is so hard to write down or record or measure or understand. </div>
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I am just grateful for the people and the relationships I've made here. I've loved and learned to love so much better and so much more, and I've sacrificed a lot to try to love people like God does. Most of the time I'm still at a selfish or prideful or in some way wordly level in my relationships, but many times here we get a glimpse of the purity of God's love.</div>
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The ward is so good to me and I've only been here for 11 weeks; I couldn't help feeling (when we took this picture) [NO PICTURE CAME] that I totally didn't deserve this much love. I didn't help anyone get baptized here, and even though I did my best and worked my tail off and served as well as I could--or at least TRIED to--did I really HELP anyone or support this ward or build up people's faith or anything? </div>
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But I think that's what God's love is like. Undeserved, unmerited, but overwhelming and supporting and really does light a fire under you to serve more and be better and stand taller. </div>
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As I get to know and refine my relationship with God (and people!) more, I realize how small my faith is, and how little I deserve the love and attention and aid I'm given--but it isn't depressing or demeaning. It's enlightening and encouraging, calling me to a higher standard with the constant call, "I am with you all the way." </div>
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And I know that I am nothing-- As to my strength, I am weak, therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strenth I can do all things! Many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever. Or something close to that :)</div>
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Man, I couldn't find the picture of the ward taking a picture with me. Oh well, I'll show you in a week... (except for Elder D and Hermana A, I better not see you in a week!)</div>
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Love you lots,</div>
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Sister d</div>
Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-71375705984796773452012-07-27T09:10:00.001-07:002014-11-10T09:39:48.499-08:00When You Jog In A Typhoon<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">... every direction is a headwind!" </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Dear All:</span></div>
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I sang a hymn this week and burst out laughing in the last verse--but it's kinda not funny. I seriously need and am considering praying for, "More Longing for Home"--BECAUSE MY AREA AND MISSIONARIES AND INVESTIGATORS AND SPIRIT AND LIFE ARE SO AWESOME!!!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZrWlhDONqBjjHj6NKqfhCW0iyPuEPXJsjhihaAZkoBevIFxXqTQojSCvz9jtOPxzHV1f1uHOZ6UfjrGL_b5skwxPBPPBAWNk7_53Fwju3gX7XP40Sp5BTOtfQIpKjMtcunzNwYCpBjwI/s1600/hk+typhoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZrWlhDONqBjjHj6NKqfhCW0iyPuEPXJsjhihaAZkoBevIFxXqTQojSCvz9jtOPxzHV1f1uHOZ6UfjrGL_b5skwxPBPPBAWNk7_53Fwju3gX7XP40Sp5BTOtfQIpKjMtcunzNwYCpBjwI/s320/hk+typhoon.jpg" height="239" width="320" /></a>I got to experience Hong Kong's first Level 10 Typhoon in 13 years this week, but my own personal<span style="background-color: white;"> whirlwind began Friday with a big surprise from our dearly beloved Assistant to the President, Elder Cheung. He's a CHARACTER--a accomplished architect already, born and raised in England but 100% Hong Kong parents--so his Chinese is perfect and his English is British. He was my zone leader back in the New T's so we go way back... we lost our hair together in October-March... and he's dying (=ending his missionary service) with me! </span></div>
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He's a PLANNER and likes things just so, and is a really great leader and designer. And I hope I get to see him after we get released some day--<span style="background-color: white;">so I can punch him in the face!</span></div>
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I just gave all this background so you could picture more perfectly my shock when he texted me on Friday morning to ask, "Are you on your way yet?"</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPshXlhXuHlnXNvD0rWH-OHsRJdzlXpH1aPsvEPXLohcuqduXBP66umQp9GvODuuZCwagCFHnSTAQW3LXsgAQAJrPvkQacQNv9Hy3t_d19JgOVDWNHzuYt0_3bxR7UKHd8yoUgFFcuWJc/s1600/hk+typhoon2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPshXlhXuHlnXNvD0rWH-OHsRJdzlXpH1aPsvEPXLohcuqduXBP66umQp9GvODuuZCwagCFHnSTAQW3LXsgAQAJrPvkQacQNv9Hy3t_d19JgOVDWNHzuYt0_3bxR7UKHd8yoUgFFcuWJc/s320/hk+typhoon2.JPG" height="230" width="320" /></a>I texted back "Being on the way involves knowing where I'm GOING, Elder Cheung, WHAT DID YOU NOT TELL ME???" </div>
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Just kidding, I texted back, "Where?"</div>
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And then he told me we were getting TWO summer missionaries (= with whom we will split ALL DAY LONG EVERY DAY) AND he would bring them to me in 10 minutes, since he might have overlooked the little detail that he needed to TELL ME about them!!!!!!!!!!! </div>
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It was a pretty stressful 10 minutes; Picture Sister C and I alternately moaning, flipping through planners and worrying out loud, but when they got out of the AP's van---we just fell in love with them. </div>
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Our worries were that Sister C would have a lot of trouble, because so far we've been unable to move past "baby" mode and recognize we are a more responsible, confident, capable missionary (which she already IS, she just didn't NEED to be)--she relied on me way too much, and I was exhausted from having to be "super" senior companion. (This is all what she told me herself last night) . </div>
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The amazing thing about summer missionaries is that now Sister C is SENIOR and, technically, TRAINING because our summers have never been missionaries before! IT'S AMAZING and teaching her SO MUCH through experience. It's... so awesome. I'm so much happier, she's so much happier, we're SO HAPPY. </div>
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Principle: The Lord provides (=forces) experiences to prove to ourselves that indeed, we are capable.</div>
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My summer mish. is amazing. She's super quiet, a little shy, just 1000% adorable HK young woman packed up into 80 pounds of cuteness and she has the CUTEST SMILE in the whole world so I spend all my time trying to make her laugh. </div>
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[The typhoon begins here and so grab on and just whirl with her while we struggle to stay upright.]</div>
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We had the BEST EXPERIENCES EVER yesterday and the day before-- went LA finding after a typhoon morning (it got to a level 10~ =4 sister missionaries at 4 am NOT sleeping because the windows are screaming, it was SO COOL) (so tiring tho!) and met a golden, sweet and SMART 50's lady named Betty (who came the next day and totally understood the first lesson and I've only ever had to explain where the BOM starts in the Bible chronology ONE other time in my mission so I still don't know the Chinese name for King Zedekiah and that just totally describes her lesson--she was asking questions so fast we just couldn't even explain fast enough to suit her!!! and she's coming again tonight and wants to come to church and is SO PREPARED FOR THIS) on the bus on the way there, and THEN the lady was home and let us IN and I don't have enough time to explain it, but the story includes:</div>
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<li><span style="background-color: white;">a really angry, REALLY large man wearing too little clothing in a wheelchair smoking, </span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">several cages of hamsters, </span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">one boy playing a loud kill-everyone video game, </span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">one summer missionary who, turns out, is scared to DEATH of cats, </span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">one (of course) of the evilest cats I've ever met in my life,</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">one sweet less active lady who hasn't come to church for years because her husband was confined to a wheelchair who REALLY needed our visit and </span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">one of Sister Darcey's arms mauled by above-mentioned cat. </span></li>
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<span style="background-color: white;">IT WAS SO AWESOME. As we went in (yes!! she let us in!!!) my summer froze and said, "Baahk Ji Muih! I'm scared of cats!" and I said, "...Pray!!" We ended up squatting on typical very-very low plastic stools with the TV turned off, the fan turned on (so we weren't breaking the word of wisdom, cough, cough!!) and singing them all three verses of "I am a Child of God" and sharing a great message. The whole time I was trying to corral this evil weird Chinese stub-toed-snake-patterned cat so it wouldn't kill my summer missionary but I totally forgot that my cat at home is DECLAWED. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">OUCH! It was hilarious and awesome and my summer missionary will be scarred for life. My right arm will only be scarred for a couple days :D</span></div>
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Love always, pray for us!</div>
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SIster D</div>
Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-20768111865189479022012-07-27T08:11:00.000-07:002014-11-10T10:06:54.062-08:00Typhoon II<br />
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[...continuation]</div>
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Yet dear ones,</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiriskO6c9Wtt7eZQbbmBDTWEvuc2TUL8PQvCNgZwhjk923MG4182bQ-CthDywV25Ml4Ml_mUqLmTM7I_O6VfBaOz1S6NTVQMfnY-MZXrKTXgH46Ylx6zv0Z9Acr_wS-1n9LQ3iKdDdCAw/s1600/hong-kong-typhoon-fengshen-afp-bg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiriskO6c9Wtt7eZQbbmBDTWEvuc2TUL8PQvCNgZwhjk923MG4182bQ-CthDywV25Ml4Ml_mUqLmTM7I_O6VfBaOz1S6NTVQMfnY-MZXrKTXgH46Ylx6zv0Z9Acr_wS-1n9LQ3iKdDdCAw/s1600/hong-kong-typhoon-fengshen-afp-bg.jpg" /></a>It hasn't all been roses, though. We've had to drop some investigators who need the gospel so bad because they yell, and I cry and it was so rough, but the members are so kind and tell me to stop worrying, that I am not a psychiatrist or a social worker, I'm a missionary. But I still feel bad about people who need the gospel and Jesus Christ so much, but won't let Him into their lives.</div>
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In other news, another investigator has been giving us the cold shoulder and we finally figured out why. In an odd twist, it has NOTHING to do with baptism, but it may be all about our attention to other teen investigators!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??! </div>
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Last night's conversation about it.... so funny--Sis. C explaining to me the twists and turns of teen social persona.</div>
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Sister Darcey: "I never understood this in High School 101. How does this dumb relationship stuff work???"</div>
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Sister C: "So I make you jealous which makes you upset, so now you try to make me upset, no, jealous, so that I'll give you more attention."</div>
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Sister Darcey "This sounds like a Shakespearean comedy. How do they fix it in the plays... let see, if it's a comedy, somebody dies, and then somebody gets married..."</div>
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...ten seconds of silence...</div>
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Both of us: screaming and laughing. <span style="background-color: white;">If you can figure it out, you can laugh, if you can't, I'm NOT saying anything more...</span></div>
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But on Sunday after spinning through a ROUGH gospel principles class (the persons yelling at me and persons ignoring me and my weepy through the whole lesson, wondering if I'm making things WORSE or better here,) I had a miraculous twist during the Relief Society lesson that helped me recognize the Lord's plan is bigger than any <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443437504577545632678264136.html">Level 10 typhoon </a>in my life. </div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: #f9f6ed; color: #2f393a; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">"For behold, this is </span><span class="highlight" style="background-color: #f6f2c3; border: 0px; color: #2f393a; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">my</span><span style="background-color: #f9f6ed; color: #2f393a; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="highlight" style="background-color: #f6f2c3; border: 0px; color: #2f393a; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">work</span><span style="background-color: #f9f6ed; color: #2f393a; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> and </span><span class="highlight" style="background-color: #f6f2c3; border: 0px; color: #2f393a; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">my</span><span style="background-color: #f9f6ed; color: #2f393a; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." Moses 1:39</span> </span></div>
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The teacher stood up and bore testimony of missionary work, as her big sister (whom I met at a party and made friends with, then invited to English class in Tuen Mun and then put her in contact with the sisters there) is now meeting with missionaries and progressing and coming to church and her friend (whom we only taught once and it didn't go well, then passed her off to the island sisters) is also progressing. She has had the second lesson and is coming to church. WOW. </div>
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I heard of whirls of miracles in other areas with people I first contacted and then passed to other missionaries-- C., T., and R., all coming to church and getting baptized now!!! Just seeing it all come together at the end--in THIS last whirlwind of a week. </div>
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Even an investigator in Yuen Long who started meeting with us because of our (what we thought was almost total waste of time) St Patrick's Day activity is now baptized! God Is SO AMAZING.</div>
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I'm so spiraling happy that I'm never coming home. Seriously. It just keeps getting better, every day is the BEST DAY EVER and I don't know how I can bear to end this rush. </div>
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My calling, my people, my city, my ward, my summer, my missionaries, my heart aches as I feel that I can't leave this; it's a little death. </div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">But Sister Cook did testify that just like when I came out here and prayed to love the people, I'm gonna need to pray that God will lend me the courage and faith that I can go home and learn to love my life with this much joy when I get back--it's so hard. </span></div>
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Like my heart is just breaking. </div>
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Love always, and as always: Pray for us!<br />
Sister D.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">P.S. Mom, you are NOT allowed to pray that the work won't progress so I'll come home!!! OR that I'll get fleas (already have em!), constipation (that too...) or worms of some kind (none!... so far). </span></div>
Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-36644167585616972092012-07-25T08:31:00.000-07:002014-11-10T09:40:38.602-08:00To My Awesome Rabbit-killing Sai Lou (lil brudder)<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">I never wished you happy birthday!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggqp3Rl3xQ89Mb4rFjTqX50GJirrBW2iprZz0cVcZl04keZwdwv9m0mMzLtFFxbi6Fz0GJpDb1rDfRWYdor7vb1HPZ3Il2QRJCHVgrnHExhGn4GAgkDphAd8wnA11tSFCKuwB-iuzTpk8/s1600/7-12+dead+rabbit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggqp3Rl3xQ89Mb4rFjTqX50GJirrBW2iprZz0cVcZl04keZwdwv9m0mMzLtFFxbi6Fz0GJpDb1rDfRWYdor7vb1HPZ3Il2QRJCHVgrnHExhGn4GAgkDphAd8wnA11tSFCKuwB-iuzTpk8/s320/7-12+dead+rabbit.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBDlo2Z0HIr9J-b8hQ3TmebmVfTP6o4F3zrA2TV0lhBb2BWXF5p_XjU1hnodixJ2zf40Ko-caTSbTmrhBkMA2dYu7C6dFimbGwWXlsBeI_GOS4N85Ab001QhFs4Jer4JyP_gtmyTXNnoI/s1600/First+Baptism!!!.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBDlo2Z0HIr9J-b8hQ3TmebmVfTP6o4F3zrA2TV0lhBb2BWXF5p_XjU1hnodixJ2zf40Ko-caTSbTmrhBkMA2dYu7C6dFimbGwWXlsBeI_GOS4N85Ab001QhFs4Jer4JyP_gtmyTXNnoI/s320/First+Baptism!!!.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">BUT </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">I sent you a package! And because God is so awesome and merciful, I sent it about 2 weeks before your birthday!!! BUT... I don't think it got there yet. BUT WHEN IT DOES it's gonna be so awesome. I think you will love it!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">So, happiest returns, my awesome rabbit-killing sai lou (lil brudder). I am so proud of you and I tell people about you every day. I know you're doing the right thing, keep serving your companion and smiling and glowing because you are SUCH a blessed child of God. Your humor and good attitude always remind me to smile more. I'm working on laughing more with my companion--And I'm trying to take myself less seriously and just laugh more. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">For example, one day when Sis C. was complaining that China doesn't have any American food she misses (I think she was talking about pickles) and trying to think of how she could find or get some American food, I started belting out Phantom's "Music of the Night" but changed all the words-- "Let your mind start a journey to a strange new world, leave all thoughts of the life you knew before-----Just forget all about your cheddar CHEEEESE--Only then, can you become Chinese."</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Etc, etc, it was hilarious. Good way to get across the point AND to laugh and feel happy about it :D</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">So laugh more. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">LOVE ya lots</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Sister D</span>Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-79196340028966095062012-07-19T06:11:00.000-07:002014-11-10T09:41:22.841-08:00Let's Try PhotographsDear Each and Everyone,<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA1-susZbAdAf_3PMzjQII0P3o9kVupj2lpH32JE9nPY5TremawGeSsc8t9hZtsGNKrFnIKyIThgi0NpJ0EDDDAw8QM89FwT9daZIGU_NkjQFtxUXEkn4JeQ0v72_G8RoOU2kVrGDJBr4/s1600/IMG_0365%5B1%5D+(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA1-susZbAdAf_3PMzjQII0P3o9kVupj2lpH32JE9nPY5TremawGeSsc8t9hZtsGNKrFnIKyIThgi0NpJ0EDDDAw8QM89FwT9daZIGU_NkjQFtxUXEkn4JeQ0v72_G8RoOU2kVrGDJBr4/s1600/IMG_0365%5B1%5D+(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA1-susZbAdAf_3PMzjQII0P3o9kVupj2lpH32JE9nPY5TremawGeSsc8t9hZtsGNKrFnIKyIThgi0NpJ0EDDDAw8QM89FwT9daZIGU_NkjQFtxUXEkn4JeQ0v72_G8RoOU2kVrGDJBr4/s320/IMG_0365%5B1%5D+(1).JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUE0hsIsN7xFHMXlGqeCD28ZKCGOZ9S_9YLZYtDY7BXDyg1Fjecya-dZUXkgCn5NJzH3ReZPwSdEYyQsdy0YctCgm_FtcoNNkbpmqwbSsisPOOQTDzRyKS40hGK3KtHnrffmR3QEY3ft0/s1600/IMG_0368%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUE0hsIsN7xFHMXlGqeCD28ZKCGOZ9S_9YLZYtDY7BXDyg1Fjecya-dZUXkgCn5NJzH3ReZPwSdEYyQsdy0YctCgm_FtcoNNkbpmqwbSsisPOOQTDzRyKS40hGK3KtHnrffmR3QEY3ft0/s320/IMG_0368%5B1%5D.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>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!<br />
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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.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTV7W5lQwdBsoQPhpc1heucIjAbSbsqbvRzeZX3zzD6s90LeFUBXiZMolHYWv_yc-388NQY569pNndDCyPyCmOkM0bguj2QZVIdgkIgjW49NMGy9kTktEwPTT0QgvlbhamRuXqmBzOtB4/s1600/IMG_0332%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTV7W5lQwdBsoQPhpc1heucIjAbSbsqbvRzeZX3zzD6s90LeFUBXiZMolHYWv_yc-388NQY569pNndDCyPyCmOkM0bguj2QZVIdgkIgjW49NMGy9kTktEwPTT0QgvlbhamRuXqmBzOtB4/s320/IMG_0332%5B1%5D.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>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</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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...</div>
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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!</div>
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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!<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
Love you all,</div>
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Sister D<br />
P.S. Great photo downloading, Mom? Not So Much</div>
Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-6874031146738915392012-07-11T08:20:00.000-07:002014-11-10T10:08:07.841-08:00Sister Darcey, You Look Like:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVExuFijJE3Sf4jHt6WMeplPwT001ZryPN7ygwdDcs_ZFXScQSa_1R49haeChrl_JmMljPqHKqD55vAcWFU2h1UWaPxbvJd5VOgYmTlBzSfRy_7yuOTTNC_fjN-7gc3jGdY4q9SDiOlxM/s1600/sideways.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVExuFijJE3Sf4jHt6WMeplPwT001ZryPN7ygwdDcs_ZFXScQSa_1R49haeChrl_JmMljPqHKqD55vAcWFU2h1UWaPxbvJd5VOgYmTlBzSfRy_7yuOTTNC_fjN-7gc3jGdY4q9SDiOlxM/s320/sideways.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Things I've </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">literally </i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">heard this week (Chinese people are blunt; gotta love it. Love it and laugh, or cry! ):</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Sister Darcey, you look like...</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">"a flower that hasn't been watered in a long time,"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">"you need a nap,"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">"40 years old,"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;"> "sick,"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;"> "dead." </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">All of these (except in Chinese).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Bwahaha! I feel alternately super stressed/ anxious/hurried/out of time/ rushing/ wanting to do everything and super soul-weary/apathetic/bleary/old/grumpy/impatient--but no worries, </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">usually </i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">I am happy and not trunky. The problem isn't me--it's EVERYONE ELSE! (mmm, THAT sounds like a healthy coping technique... I've moved from denial to blame, what's next?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;"> Am I making up my own grieving process? Is one of the stages "hoarding large amounts of Chinese food in my suitcase"? Can someone write me one where that IS a step? </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;"> Derick, I pick you. ) </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUfIkpoYNeDCW_wDAf7MN3R9TuVLAE6i4NDqj1_1x9NN2wIx_iHCQZ4rJUc3FOL2uV4W8tL_Pggy679L00Zg1prxI0YhUi2D9GdBC-K2ve09HkhM2YAq4Q_uLuP776YwINTWYHJG2oSkQ/s1600/dragon+back+hk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Anyway. Seriously! Not my fault! Everytime I TALK to ANYONE it sounds like this, "Hi, how are you?" "Hi---OH! When do you finish?! What are you going to do when you get home?? Is it weird??? Are you trunky?? Do you have anyone waiting?? Where does your family live??? Are you going back to school??" ARRrrgrrh. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Anyway! BACK TO THE WORK! We have some great goals and plans, we ARE going to keep working really hard to help our investigators get baptized AND summer is the busiest, best, most amazing and simultaneously most sanfu (body bitter... kinda means hard) time. We have a great member who basically never got off his mission in his head (he has 4 busy crazy kids, is a PhD in some kind of math something, works from home and two other offices and has helped two of our investigators get jobs and another totally improve her grades to help her get baptized) and is now starting a free math and accounting camp every Tuesday and Friday for our YW aged investigators and members AND new referrals. It's already bringing so many miracles! I'm so thankful, and it makes me want to pursue something in college that will give me more opportunities to serve the community and build up the church. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">We're hiking Dragon's Back today; pray we don't get heatstroke.</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUfIkpoYNeDCW_wDAf7MN3R9TuVLAE6i4NDqj1_1x9NN2wIx_iHCQZ4rJUc3FOL2uV4W8tL_Pggy679L00Zg1prxI0YhUi2D9GdBC-K2ve09HkhM2YAq4Q_uLuP776YwINTWYHJG2oSkQ/s1600/dragon+back+hk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUfIkpoYNeDCW_wDAf7MN3R9TuVLAE6i4NDqj1_1x9NN2wIx_iHCQZ4rJUc3FOL2uV4W8tL_Pggy679L00Zg1prxI0YhUi2D9GdBC-K2ve09HkhM2YAq4Q_uLuP776YwINTWYHJG2oSkQ/s320/dragon+back+hk.jpg" height="160" width="320" /></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;"> I'm doing it to see if it's fun or not for Dad, Aidan, Song Daaih Hing and anyone else who wants to hike it with me in December. Also Sister Cs has been dying to go hike for like ... since she started her mission :) We're taking a LOT of water.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">We're also doing ANOTHER girl's hair for graduation in 5 minutes (this is the fourth this week! Who knew I'd be able to serve in this weird way??? Someone tell Kathleen, Mati and Genelle Anderson I mean ...Powell? for me ha) and having a Girl's Night tonight--I'm going to teach hair braiding and to make those flower hair clips and the Kwun Tong sisters will make cookies with the thousands of people who said they'd come... we're so excited. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Busy and HAPPY and keep praying I won't get trunky I love you people!!</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Sister D</span>Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-71522166997514923772012-07-10T16:10:00.000-07:002014-11-10T10:12:04.791-08:00Dear Dad, the only one who doesn't ignore me.<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Dearest DAD and Everyone! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Thanks so much for taking time from your watching the cats sleep, watching the cement dry, watching the weather reports, watching webcams of Utah and Alaska, and watching the bike tire fill up. You truly have a full life ;) but you took time out of it for ME!!! AND MOM DIDN'T!!! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">That turncoat trunky Terina-lady mother of mine, too busy playing with cousins and aunties and gramies and Utah houses and tent trailers and GF goodies and who knows what else to email her little snookums in HK. I'm not even gonna talk to her for the first 2 minutes I get home :) Seriously, for two WHOLE minutes. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Our new mission president was asked, "What do you like to do when you're free?" and he replied, in SPITTING IMAGE OF MY DAD, "Work." (He's an "engi-nerd" according to his wife, and the director of technology at BYU according to his resume). "I like yard work, housework, fixing things... when we have a holiday at my house and all the other kids in the neighborhood are going off to play at the lake or something, I would tell my kids, KIDS, we're painting the deck today! Labor day is the day we celebrate WORK! And Memorial Day? RESHINGLING! The day we celebrate the hard work of our ancestors! And Christmas? chopping wood! LABOR is what got Jesus into the world!" BWHAHAHA. So ... sounds just like my family. I love it. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Feed The Missionaries!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">I don't need money (NOW...), but I would love you to wait until the last week of the month to invite the missionaries over for dinner. When I go back to the states and get into a ward, I will always invite the missionaries for food on the 30th. It's the "starving week" ... No worries here, I can start playing the "I'm leaving soon" card so members will chang me out (chang means "invite" or "please" in Chinese, but it's used universally in missionary chinglish to mean buy someone food) and then I can gain back the 20 pounds I've lost the last 6 months [running every morning and only eating ONE (or two...) dessert(s) a day]. I'm back down to normal, and I'm worried I'll disappoint everyone who was all excited to see fat Sister D ;)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">I have lots of pictures but no USB plug in at this computer ;P so they'll have to wait. They include such thrillers as, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">"Sister Darcey uses hair braiding to win the hearts and referrals of previously clique-y young women,"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;"> "trying to celebrate the Fourth of July in China at English class" and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;"> "various exciting and mysterious escapades on the way to hong kong history museum which the man on the phone tried to convince me to take a TAXI to instead of walking."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">I think it's because he's a wuss.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">"The photos include but are not limited to Australians celebrating Dragon Boat Festival WAY late, Jackie Chan's handprints and Jet Li's challenge to a duel". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">And our most GORGEOUS Salmon lunches (Sister C was a bus driver in Alaska last summer so she feels very strongly about eating Salmon. Which is fine with me!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">In that same (last night's) English class, I got stuck with the rowdy bunch of 15 year old boys who were LITERALLY punching each other so loudly they couldn't hear the lesson. I pulled them off the other group of "advanced" English learners so they, at least, could learn the awesome ancestor/culture/countries/family history lesson we'd prepped for English class and then I </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">COMMANDED their attention by </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">a) being female, blond and blue eyed AND able to speak chinese and </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">b)by teaching them the difference between punch, hit, slap and kick in English. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">It was HILARIOUS--they went from [un] im-managable (is that a word?) to totally interested in 2 minutes--even raising their hands ("Baahk Ji Muih, would THIS** be considered a hit or a slap?") Everyone ended up bruised but happy, and they even let me teach about family trees after that. One even asked for a good night kiss at the end of the lesson (groan.......).</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Hilarious incident in Thailand relayed to us via Sister Cook's "friend" who's there on his mission: He just met a golden elderly couple who met the missionaries years ago and liked the church so much they named their two boys "Mor" and "Mon" (Mormon). However, they wouldn't commit to baptism because they got hung up on tithing. After hearing the story Sister Cook read, it only took a couple seconds for me to think of the pun it was begging for...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;"> "So... did they have a third kid named, 'Ee'? As in "Mor + Mon+ Ey?" </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">bwahahaaAHAHAHAHAAA.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">This week an investigator--bless her soul--invited us to her home to sit down with us. Very seriously, very carefully, she told us she had something she wanted to ask us. I was on pins and needles waiting for either her total dismissal or acceptance of the church and the gospel... but then she asked us if we wanted to MOVE IN WITH HER. NOT KIDDING. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Oh... I just don't have enough time or words to express the sanctity of the moment... Oh, man. Dear little soul. She's in her fifties, totally alone and SO LONELY. Poor little thing. But.. at the same time... later it was RIDICULOUS.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">We're going to dissect a pig heart next week to get a less-active and a recent-convert to bond with us. I'm so psyched I can hardly stand it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">TIme's gone! I love you! AND I LOVE OUR NEW MISSION PRESIDENT! In my interview he said three things: "Well done" "thank you--I can see you've given up a lot, and given your heart to God" and "Lucky is the man who marries you. If I still had a son..." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">I love this! And I love you! Be happy! And if you miss Mom and Aidan so much... go to church and hang with those people? ;) Too much time in just the company of our cats can do some strange things to people...</span><br />
<br />Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-9154134762226774362012-06-29T15:13:00.000-07:002013-02-19T16:59:58.979-08:00You Know, I Think Of The Funniest Subject Lines All Week...<br />
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And then I walk in the Internet Cafe and the brain-sucking, wind-knocking-out Indonesian spices (IF WE EVER GET INTO A WAR WITH INDONESIAN WE WILL LOSE! They can just drop a barrel of WHATEVER they're cooking back there into the middle of Kansas and the East to West coast will ALL DIE from BLISTERED LUNGS) and ....gone.</div>
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I'm posting a video of the preparation area, that is not behind a wall, just out in the center of the cafe... imagine this: </div>
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Dearest Everyones, </div>
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It's probably a good thing (the crazy spices) this week, actually--- because yesterday I lost my voice. Totally randomly... we chased down a TON of records and finding less-active members and following up on families that bishop wants us to visit and playing with my recently acquired NEW TOY, an updated member list.</div>
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(Missionaries have WAY different ideas of "fun" than normal people... yup), then I opened my mouth at 4:30 to tell Sister C we needed to finish up and head out soon--and nothing came out. My voice has been squeaky, super quiet, smothered-sounding and screechy since ---??? I seriously have no idea why or how to help it get better---BUT it IS forcing me to shut my mouth more and let/force Sister C to talk! </div>
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Does anyone really realize how important a missionary's VOICE is? "The sound of a trump" aside, it's my instrument to get into the hearts of people!!So it's really, really rough when it's broken. BUT everyone's been praying for me (seriously, a RC [recent convert] today who came to the Kwun Tong church to help us teach Yani right after we all watched Lion King prayed for my voice about 4 seconds after she heard me say "leih hou" ) and it's seriously making me aware of a) how much I talk b) how important talking is and c) how often sometimes I need to STOP talking! </div>
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We have some kind of biting bug or spider in our room or maybe in my bed? I wake up each and every morning with between 4 to 8 bites spread all over (and I MEAN all over ) ... I've tried washing and ironing bedclothes, curtains, clothes, and spraying "BIO KILL" under my mattress... any other ideas? It's not that big of a deal because these bite sites don't get infected and disappear after a day or so. And hey, spiders have to eat, too. [Buddist leanings?]</div>
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We have a new best friend in our shower! A lizard! Named Ji Ji. I wrote Sister Cami in Peru, I mean Hermana Cami with more details, tee hee.</div>
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Our beloved President Chan is finishing his mission TOMORROW!!! I don't even know what to think about that. I adore him and Sister Chan so much. I have more to say on that...</div>
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but no time... so I'll fill my journal.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvv9rYlyDVbSPu8mQTT-phNlwUg3IQ6rNa3CvAwwApi88xP_zUBv6pVe5ip0HYNJDr-f4Zp9HKcaMll9GNlFeCL0YcTGKv2ySLCMUvukNDEKey6gigZhVVdaLpLTPIwbKZMYIdyGD8tfY/s1600/dia+braiding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvv9rYlyDVbSPu8mQTT-phNlwUg3IQ6rNa3CvAwwApi88xP_zUBv6pVe5ip0HYNJDr-f4Zp9HKcaMll9GNlFeCL0YcTGKv2ySLCMUvukNDEKey6gigZhVVdaLpLTPIwbKZMYIdyGD8tfY/s320/dia+braiding.jpg" width="178" /></a>We're planning EEFY (which means that the entire zone sits in a room for 10 minutes and thinks up ideas and shouts them out randomly, then Sister Darcey tells everyone what the syllabus, activity and schedule of each day is.) I'm not exaggerating, it was hilarious. Planning Girl's Camp with Sister Ramsey back in 2008 really prepped me well!!!) I am so sorry that I will miss it by weeks that it's like planning my own funeral. YET, A Fiesta! </div>
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I saw God's most amazing miracles this week.</div>
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1. M. will only be in mainland for 1 week instead of a month because a church member got her a job, </div>
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2. Two members sent us home with Dragon Boat Festival "jung" rice cake (=we got dinner that day!!!),</div>
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3. And milllions more but the most amazing was with A., my sweet RC [recent convert] from Shatin. She has had such a hard time and there's no time to explain but BASICALLY I called THE DAY AFTER a big misunderstanding with missionaries who didn't know her situation and couldn't read the Chinese texts they were forwarding to her everyday for 6 months. For this entire time, SHE thought the notes were specifically written to HER and the situation finally blew up---and the miracle was that through the Lord's intervention, I was able to figure out the whole situation and fix both sides and it was so, so, so amazing. </div>
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God is so aware of us, and I just stand ALL amazed. I'll tell more of this story later--WHEN I AM ON THE NEXT PHASE of my life mission. In NEARLY ONE MONTH!!!!!! </div>
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It's getting hotter and hotter and I'm getting HAPPIER AND HAPPIER.</div>
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I love you people.</div>
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Sister D</div>
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Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-84542796111204522952012-06-21T04:35:00.002-07:002014-11-10T11:21:01.292-08:00A MAY ZING!<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">My people,</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGeGEMx7IRMGb7UNr3uNbvGsM5OvOZKNnAUa8KNt6J9Mnp_xwaD6euNSPvjNYKK_FVfNoKCthKMfAfTYfTlYWCB2JbeYX44icJIQUiL7s75whEoI0x2riR8iCv5sJe-e8Gue-DbDOEmE4/s1600/big+group+6-12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGeGEMx7IRMGb7UNr3uNbvGsM5OvOZKNnAUa8KNt6J9Mnp_xwaD6euNSPvjNYKK_FVfNoKCthKMfAfTYfTlYWCB2JbeYX44icJIQUiL7s75whEoI0x2riR8iCv5sJe-e8Gue-DbDOEmE4/s400/big+group+6-12.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">The most amazing experience this week was getting to share the entire message of the Restoration--direct line of authority, Book of Mormon to support the Bible's testimony of Christ, even the reality of continued revelation to the apostles in the New Testament and the widespread apostasy already happening in the early church--with a new friend, Joanne, on Monday evening at a miracle place named Tiu Keng Leng. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Her whole family is Catholic, and after we shared together, then realized we'd been standing, talking for 45 minutes I apologized for keeping her from going home and she said, "No--thank you. I have learned so much about you Mormons. I have always just heard things about you, but now I know---and I'm so glad I met you today." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">We both felt so much Spirit and joy as we talked, and she took the Book of Mormon to find out for herself if what I told her about God's plan and God's church is true or false. I was inspired that day to really, really dig deep and share from my heart by reading a couple Conference talks that morning--Elder Christofferson's "The Doctrine of Christ," Elder Anderson's and one more... I don't remember... but it was just amazing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Sometimes my heart just opens up and the Spirit can testify unrestrained. I love this work. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">We're healthy and happy and out of time! Sorry! </span>
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Love, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Yours in the saving redemption of Jesus Christ,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;">Sister Dia Darcey</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;">**Picture is from a dawn hike back in Tuen Mun**</span>Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-27819376716972211182012-06-21T04:33:00.000-07:002014-11-10T11:20:15.059-08:00Water the Crocs! ! ! ! ! It's HOT!<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">Hi DAD! Happy Father's Day again! A little after the fact. </span></span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;"> I wanted to put my note it a cute color, too... I love blue. </span></span></blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLWwSb8JKh2K_-WfGeNIG1u0nxrCSekpUsvQ87ziOkx3OV-2SzczVscWMKBgtLYAL-UnqhHtKowaXesCmK2sZs_KmPU-4Ck0fkYuB30OUAPxCDG3sfYFI0pscooiol8CgX9wDfKe_tKYg/s1600/dia+buddist+temple.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLWwSb8JKh2K_-WfGeNIG1u0nxrCSekpUsvQ87ziOkx3OV-2SzczVscWMKBgtLYAL-UnqhHtKowaXesCmK2sZs_KmPU-4Ck0fkYuB30OUAPxCDG3sfYFI0pscooiol8CgX9wDfKe_tKYg/s320/dia+buddist+temple.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">It's straight up hot here. Sometimes I pour some of my water bottle into my crocs to cool everything off a little (it's amazing; if your feet are wet, your whole body cools down--I guess you taught me that back when you taught me to wear wool socks skiing... and dry socks camping), and I have an old fashioned fan that my last companion Sister Wong taught me to open real-Chinese-SNAP style. It's so cool. BUT STILL HOT.</span></span></blockquote>
Thanks for the photographs, Sister Mercado!<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">We had a couple new miracle students (one was just walking along and I said HEY! DO YOU WANT TO LEARN ENGLISH? and she said... really? and then CAME ALL BY HERSELF to where we said we'd meet the next day. </span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">Two others saw our English class poster and called US looking for "Baahk Siu Je" which means "Miss White"--we made an appointment, but then the girl telephoned us in the train station even though she was LOOKING right at us because, ---</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">--her words not mine, "I thought you were Chinese on the phone" YES!)</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">One of them is only 9 and long limbed, skinny, super energetic but still pretty quiet--and I realized fondly that he reminds me of Aidan. THEN I realized... oh no. Aidan doesn't look like that anymore! ;)</span></span></blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijT0AGo6pVS3JkRQEUU-JFddLoCh5l5tGLRKvnNz2kGVuja7lXxi82-PAecwULzdX4DZNgPKERsCf-8NiUSZlx2pwBwSoN0L0leJ7v_xpEUbJsQq4PcoJWKXmFrujiKg4JFelJISpI5uw/s1600/dia+zone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijT0AGo6pVS3JkRQEUU-JFddLoCh5l5tGLRKvnNz2kGVuja7lXxi82-PAecwULzdX4DZNgPKERsCf-8NiUSZlx2pwBwSoN0L0leJ7v_xpEUbJsQq4PcoJWKXmFrujiKg4JFelJISpI5uw/s320/dia+zone.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;"> I'm so thankful for the opportunities the church gives me to serve and help and give to others. You always taught me how important that was... and the church has given me the time and place and opportunity to put that concept to work. The gospel part of the church has taught me to have patience and love for others--I think that knowledge comes from sacrificing for them, I think... It's funny how connected the gospel is to "family values" ... and sad how selfishness and vanity can just empty people out. </span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">I see that all the time here... people just emptied from being too worried about image and wealth and status and angry birds and blah blah blah. </span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">Thank you for teaching us the value of pure goodness for its own sake.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">I love you! And I took a video for you... mb it will work?</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">Sister D<br /><br />Okay, it didn't work :P</span></span></blockquote>
Second part: <span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> AT THE PARK YESTERDAY--We prayed on Friday for confirmation about where and when to schedule to go find. We got to the park and it was BLAZING HOT (4 to 6 times hot is pretty hot now, starting at 5:30 it cools down a lot) and no one was out. But we met O., a really quiet kid just sitting studying on a bench--form 1, means he's only like 13, usually we don't talk to kids and especially not boy-kids, but the park was EMPTY of human life and we're "talk to everyone" missionaries. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">It all started out with "No, no thanks, I don't believe in anything, fine, you can sit down, but I have no interest" but then --as we kept testifying and talking and smiling--he eventually opened up enough to let one little sentence of his soul peek out:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">"Do you think God could help me find friends?"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I JUST ABOUT STARTED CRYING. It was so ...stinking amazing. Here we are thinking we're just bugging people sitting next to this kid who doesn't want us there in the I WANNA DIE heat and sweat is running down everything, but then he just shares this one little sentence.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> And I know that God sent me here to find O and assure him that God can be his bestest friend EVAH!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> I'll follow up on that story when more story happens. ----------</span>Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-35927887725335316382012-06-14T05:53:00.002-07:002014-11-10T10:46:52.306-08:00Happy Father's Day! Fu Chan Ji Faai Lohk!<br />
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Dear Family,</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxLi-80KbVeyYJ84cwYq-ImpiNiV4-JYUsqZGa12RhLgmk7-Lznf-Kbdo6cTXet-uOgbrYQWdukOK5zDlvR0TGEsJXL_mvPPkdEH2djANqUrKIQwVToYA1hHZEdoOWdv1tVHQdWgXTOcU/s1600/English+class+5-12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxLi-80KbVeyYJ84cwYq-ImpiNiV4-JYUsqZGa12RhLgmk7-Lznf-Kbdo6cTXet-uOgbrYQWdukOK5zDlvR0TGEsJXL_mvPPkdEH2djANqUrKIQwVToYA1hHZEdoOWdv1tVHQdWgXTOcU/s320/English+class+5-12.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a>I'm thinking I'm gonna sell my ipod touch to Sister C when I "move to my new area" in August (the area where I won't need any missionary clothes... where they won't have mango pudding packets so I'm packing 100... where I won't need an Ipod ...where it's OK to swim and hold babies). </div>
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This deluded idea of going to a new area is to help me wrap my brain around the fact that "I'm not dying, I'm just moving to a weird new area". The thought that "It's not June right now, it's May" mentalities so far have saved my mental stress so much! Denial: everybody's NOT doing it! ha ha, I joke. Oh, so let me know if that's OK if I sell it to her.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1f8guvMW9aacIczvnMFJ5Tv0HJ4LpXsN6Suy6RqkDycNPfUCpTCoocZPV-TnyLrqx0e8wULdUuyD16g6eZqkKA_dU6DKxDOCHDnklGxuIV6N8wMRedRBpf-ZkOCCm2AHl7gUfJ6x4V5Q/s1600/Fat+lau+&+fam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1f8guvMW9aacIczvnMFJ5Tv0HJ4LpXsN6Suy6RqkDycNPfUCpTCoocZPV-TnyLrqx0e8wULdUuyD16g6eZqkKA_dU6DKxDOCHDnklGxuIV6N8wMRedRBpf-ZkOCCm2AHl7gUfJ6x4V5Q/s1600/Fat+lau+&+fam.jpg" /></a>Anyway. Good afternoon from the Far, Far, Far East or Maybe It's Just Even Further West Orient. We're loving, loving the work and the area and seeing tons of miracles. You've probably heard that my extension request was denied... phooey... so I guess I'll just ...<em> refuse to pack until the very last minute and then take off on the fastest bike I can find to mainland! ha haaaa! Renegade RMs, not a pretty image.</em></div>
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oR... I'll come quietly. I guess. I don't know how so I won't think about it.</div>
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[Mom is getting first indicators of the return of Dia from Sister Darcey-dom with the next paragraphs.]</div>
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Sunday I did have a battle of wills with the member in the pew ahead of us. Brother Dang---He actually used to live in Yuen Long--he was the 2nd counselor and made me eat ginger pig's foot at his house when his wife just barely had her baby (my companion was a native and able to politely refuse and it's especially good for WOMEN so the Elders were off the hook. SO, it was basically just an evening of everyone else sniggering while the poh poh (grandmother) forced Sister Darcey to suck down pig's foot after pig's foot).</div>
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As pay back I asked him EVERY SUNDAY after that if he had prayed for missionary work that week... so we go way back. He's so awesome, served his mission in HK and really has tons of advice and wisdom about the area. But also thinks it's funny to place his UNFAIRLY ADORABLE BABY at EXACTLY THE RIGHT POSITION where bb's gorgeous ALMOND EYES are just gazing into mine and his little toothless mouth is chewing on his little toys and he's GIGGLING through the talk and I'm trying simultaneously to focus on the speaker and translate hard words for my companion while impossible-to-deny Asian baby power is melting my frozen Sister missionary locked heart... and... my... focus.. is... failing... noooo! </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTPOq8ULNFqNdSewnMiwnfpN4Ca6sIk6KOolBGNBOQgWZiUIluAENAdFSXNnDzPgLq_A97RlVhVsObFar8RTvGfKh9p3kxIZxDBseSrZeTi5j7oAldHX6_7NUuXrod5f8r9-sBYkoXDyc/s1600/DSCN6856_5134.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTPOq8ULNFqNdSewnMiwnfpN4Ca6sIk6KOolBGNBOQgWZiUIluAENAdFSXNnDzPgLq_A97RlVhVsObFar8RTvGfKh9p3kxIZxDBseSrZeTi5j7oAldHX6_7NUuXrod5f8r9-sBYkoXDyc/s320/DSCN6856_5134.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fei Fei, A's daughter back in Yuen Long</td></tr>
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Fingers... itching... to hold... baby... DON'T coo at the baby, Sister Darcey! (The ward members behind us are starting to snigger, too, they've totally figured out Brother D's plan) :D The speaker eventually saved me by quoting D&C 4:2--see that ye serve him with ALL YOUR HEART, MIGHT, MIND AND STRENGTH and I came back to sister missionary-dom. It was a close call! ;)</div>
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Anyway. Happy Father's Day, all! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpWnZnA9ZCov24SF76jKMAkP5ImgZTtBOQWLKYQE0v1z7SG2SwCUQAkdwD46tWlHC30Qf9tc90T4A_4dqgreUua7o7xRW_1Dsb7WDgs6B5WQypobm2_oxd_MGbFawk_quQ0T_GZ69HMBQ/s1600/group+pict..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpWnZnA9ZCov24SF76jKMAkP5ImgZTtBOQWLKYQE0v1z7SG2SwCUQAkdwD46tWlHC30Qf9tc90T4A_4dqgreUua7o7xRW_1Dsb7WDgs6B5WQypobm2_oxd_MGbFawk_quQ0T_GZ69HMBQ/s320/group+pict..jpg" height="239" width="320" /></a>I realized how I could get Dad's card to him in time when I was taking a group up to the YSA FHE at a member's apartment on Sunday night--someone said, "It's Father's Day next week! You missionaries aren't going to be able to get mail home in time!" and then I realized the beauty of email and ipods! Ha ha! So here's my awesome card, Dad. Please don't have anyone who speaks Chinese read it... ;) The inside is going to be even more awesome. But it's not done yet!</div>
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We've had neat miraculous referrals--one of our "conscripted ward missionaries/mercenaries" (our 2 ward missionaries are both MIA--in Utah and China--and we need help, so we found those awesome no-job quirky people in the ward and call them all ALL the time--and I pay for their help in mochi!) </div>
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A. brought her friend S. to church (you're still changing names to initials, right mom?) and she turned out to have such great desire. She needs the gospel so much! Her English is almost perfect and she's had lots of hard, hard experiences in life, but you can see the glimmer of a really happy, beautiful woman underneath all the worry and pain she's gone through. I hope we can help her find Christ, and find herself again.</div>
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A's also been helping us with T, who is showing great signs of emotional and spiritual healing, too! She's stopped telling the same three stories over and over (she was just too lonely before.. and too heart hurt). One day, walking from our appointment with her back to church I told Sis C. the storyline of "Lars and the Real Girl". It reminds me of Tracy and what can happen to us when we are just too lonely... but she's doing so much better! and she smiles and even BEAMS sometimes when she sees us. I hope we can help her get a testimony, too, but I really believe it will come. (so far she just doesn't understand the RESTORED part of the restored gospel--she thinks she already learned it all in Sunday School when she was little). </div>
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Another "ward mercenary" F. is on FIRE for missionary work. She took the mochi we made together last Thursday home to her mom and her mom liked it so much she invited us over for dinner! (F.--super dramatic, super hilarious, almost 20, used to be a PUNK before she was baptized and is now somewhat of a... righteous punk--was like, "LOOK! Sacrificing my beloved mochi actually brought blessings!!! But now I have a big problem... no mochi" :). She also went to Y. (another sweet investigator)'s school and put right the teacher who was teaching scary lies about our church to the classes---just by sharing "For the Strength of Youth" pamphlet. SO amazing.</div>
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Please pray for me to have patience, I need it so so so much. God really is so merciful to us and gives us so much help.</div>
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I love you all my sweet family! Be safe and happy and smile. And seriously pray for me and Sister C.</div>
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Love Sister Darcey</div>
Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-20723411896072900272012-06-07T06:13:00.000-07:002012-06-14T06:17:59.839-07:00Happy 30th Anniversary!<br />
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Hi my wonderful family! Leih deih hou ma?</div>
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I'm doing wonderfully and loving my mission. I see Heavenly Father's help and guidance and hand every day! Everytime we--two totally white girls who, only five years ago, were still in high school worrying about tests and zits and boys and cars--find an address in a Chinese town in the middle of nowhere in HK, or open some complete stranger's heart and eyes to the warmth and joy Jesus Christ wants to offer them, or even find something sorta GF and cheap to eat on the run from the church to the train to the bus to the church as we're picking up people, meeting others, helping and serving and running around crazy. </div>
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I love this time, and I'm also learning that it doesn't have to be a crazy, senseless and frantic stressed-out rush to be "successful"--sometimes busy doesn't necessarily mean "anxiously engaged in a good cause". </div>
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This week my companion's been even sicker, and for the past 2 days we've been almost entirely at home (or in zone conference in Kowloon Tong). Pray for her health. BUT we've still seen so many blessings--one miracle should be included on this picture of a letter I will send a friend today (Mom, you can transcribe it--I hope--and put it on the blog). I know God helps us in every moment and is infinitely concerned with our lives troubles and cares. We can do so much good in the world!</div>
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Oops, wasn't finished.<br />No worries about forgetting to write letters, I didn't even notice. Everyone should prob stop writing within the next ...6 weeks or so, anyway, or I won't get the letters before I go home! Tee hee. Although I guess I did subconsciously wish that someone was caring about what I wrote YOU, because this week I was happy to realize I have big news that SHOULD get a big reaction: I'M asking to extend but Pres Chan will probably say no as everyone has purchased tickets. </div>
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If there's one thing I've learned here it's that God works in ALL good ways. The call to serve is not a 'WRONG' reason to get baptized---or to serve a mission, or even to get married. Sure, the feeling and the drive and the "testimony" is essential--but baptism is the first step, not the final. We can't progress without it, and lots of times investigators get STUCK waiting. please read Pres. Uchdorf's talk, "<a href="http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/04/waiting-on-the-road-to-damascus?lang=eng&query=waiting+road+damascus">Waiting on the Road to Damascus,"</a> with Aidan?</div>
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I love you and I"m thankful for you. SOrry you're going to have to piece together a blog post this week from the letters I've sent to you, dad and Ian. Thanks for doing that for me.</div>
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SMILE! (To be Spiritually Minded is Life Eternal)</div>
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Sister Darcey</div>Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-17939734357913146172012-05-31T12:55:00.000-07:002014-11-10T10:45:34.923-08:00Aggggghhhh My Computer is Melting -- I'm Hot Here!<br />
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Family and everyone, </div>
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Every time I click on this computer the email melts off the screen and onto the floor... so... let's just say I only have a couple minutes left of emailing time and then I'm gonna need a mop over here. </div>
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Your Chinese Lesson for the day: M'goi! (the call for, "Hey, waiter!" or "excuse me!" or "please" or "thank you"...) This is for my little group of white people Christmas time touristers who are coming to Hong Kong for Christmas! YAY, but who had better get to polishing up their 101 simple Cantonese phrases!! Use my Pimsler tape. #1 is "m-goi").</div>
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Anyway. I'm still plugging away, and shining away off here in smogland China. My favorite Primary song (besides "A Child's Prayer," which I STILL sing to myself when I'm tired, wet, hungry, sad or all of the above... but in Chinese...) when I was little was "I am like a star shining brightly! Shining for the whole world to see--I can do and say happy things each day, for I know Heavenly Father loves me." </div>
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I know that realizing someone loves you has more power than any other motivation--that's why we do so much for the love and acceptance of other people, and that's why the MOST significant service you can provide someone is to really, really love them. This is not just treat them nice or overlook their mistakes, but LOVE them and want the best for them and keep your own prideful jerky self from wincing when they succeed or celebrating when they fail but REALLY, REALLY, loving them. </div>
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Mormon was so right to ask us to pray for this kind of love!!! It would fix the whole world --I know because it's fixed MY whole world before :) ) AND isn't that the basis of Christianity. 1 John 4, right? We love him because He first loved us, just like our parents. </div>
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Thank you mom and dad for loving me first; it has meant everything to me--and to the estimated 17 million people so far that I've been blessed to have the opportunity to lift, bless, minister to and serve. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwWUy5wrxqx18Ak5rFaVlGKd8dI7nndx7XrWSswH-Hb1rBW0PWeGdxhyphenhyphenAkCvM-Xhkb6k66d1BWHO6xicl1_dsd-ehwM3pFhn4S4Nc7kdipFnp9Bu9mUNIwE5Y3aRLAqRQoAXwygGbqqps/s1600/dia+lau+may+14+12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwWUy5wrxqx18Ak5rFaVlGKd8dI7nndx7XrWSswH-Hb1rBW0PWeGdxhyphenhyphenAkCvM-Xhkb6k66d1BWHO6xicl1_dsd-ehwM3pFhn4S4Nc7kdipFnp9Bu9mUNIwE5Y3aRLAqRQoAXwygGbqqps/s320/dia+lau+may+14+12.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a>Seriously, there are days when I think that it might just be about 17 million people. I remember sometime in the middle of the winter of my mission (figuratively and spiritually...) worrying that I would be one of those missionaries who would look back on my mission with regret and bitterness. My greatest concern then was that I would never be able to say, as did my Chinese namesake Sister Blair (Lisa Sabey) at the end of her mission, Ammon-like, "that God has used the glory of His power and His grace and His goodness to work miracles through me. I could not see how my efforts were helping anyone at all---</div>
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But, in retrospect, these past couple weeks I've been really thinking about the people I've met and loved on my mission. I've pictured their faces and names in my mind--I spent one whole night before I fell asleep imagining the faces of just the MISSIONARIES I'd worked with and loved here, and I fell asleep before I finished. Every day we have so many opportunities to bless and to give.</div>
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I am so happy!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">again, this picture is from way back on Monkey Mountain with<br />Sister Cheung. Back when I was a fat Sister missionary.</td></tr>
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(even when RANDOM THINGS KEEP POPPING UP ON MY SCREEEN AYIYAAA I don't want to go to Bejiing for $1888! I just want to write an email with my 18 more minutes!!!) seriously though. </div>
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SO HAPPY. I don't know if it's just been a blessing or a habit learned over the months and months and months of smiling through pain/fatigue/fear/worry/stress/heat/SWEAT etc --but probably both as I think of <a href="http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/04/adversity?lang=eng&query=can+do+hard+things">Elder Eyring's talk on Adversity</a>. </div>
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"It is clear that for us to have that gift and to be given that trust, we must be transformed through making righteous choices where that is hard to do. We are prepared for so great a trust by passing through trying and testing experiences in mortality. That education can come only as we are subject to trials while serving God and others for Him.</div>
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In this education we experience misery and happiness, sickness and health, the sadness from sin and the joy of <a class="no-link-style" href="http://lds.org/general-conference/2005/10/forgiveness?lang=eng" style="background-color: transparent; border: none !important; color: #2f393a; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none !important; vertical-align: baseline;">forgiveness</a>. That forgiveness can come only through the infinite Atonement of the Savior, which He worked out through pain we could not bear and which we can only faintly comprehend."</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzJIwB589JcWwHfIc51VOqzK9QgpEX8CVGso1bgVc72ZJWsSBzwv7pDnNFoX3ss6LGhnE0l7M30o-kL6QBJI9gsDJs0it8jvX6n2jVYxok6SNWvzV8ig-S-M1psbvUBO9ny4dIqwP9CKw/s1600/Picture+199.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzJIwB589JcWwHfIc51VOqzK9QgpEX8CVGso1bgVc72ZJWsSBzwv7pDnNFoX3ss6LGhnE0l7M30o-kL6QBJI9gsDJs0it8jvX6n2jVYxok6SNWvzV8ig-S-M1psbvUBO9ny4dIqwP9CKw/s320/Picture+199.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a>It is now clearer to me how God's grace complements and enables our efforts as we go, and I've been so blessed to be so happy lately. Apart from the sweat, I just feel like I am glowing. It really has been wonderful--nearly every single time we step outside, I've taken the opportunities to share. </div>
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I just feel so grateful and happy and I'm so blessed that I have the opportunity to serve here right now, in TKO with Sister Clements, who is doing so well. She has so, so, so many challenges--normal new missionary ones, hard hard hard health ones, family and childhood. So much, just like mine and all kinds--and she's doing remarkably well with them. We're working together so, so hard. I can see her becoming such a powerful, mature missionary. I have so much faith in her.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidaw4ez5QKn-4z13XJ2u_fFakZMmBZuOcMy4C1-faNRkht5lD_vHWtfJix2R9BY9ufEGZrkWKwwIvbE6NwYosvMccjB5ywa7cPPjoFP_5UJdFre9ab3hyphenhyphenRB0hfGElUZWn3g0E7Rrlip0s/s1600/dia+beach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidaw4ez5QKn-4z13XJ2u_fFakZMmBZuOcMy4C1-faNRkht5lD_vHWtfJix2R9BY9ufEGZrkWKwwIvbE6NwYosvMccjB5ywa7cPPjoFP_5UJdFre9ab3hyphenhyphenRB0hfGElUZWn3g0E7Rrlip0s/s320/dia+beach.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a><br />
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Psalm 40: 1-5 I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. Many, O Lord, my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. <br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">And I made mango pudding yesterday; SO HAPPY :)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Love you so much,</span></div>
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Sister Darcey<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Even when people guess that I'm THIRTY YEARS OLD are you KIDDING ME... real experience this week :P phooey <---sister cook pointed out that at least they thought I'm a HOT thirty year old... bleeeeh ;)</span></div>
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Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-15740599448568175002012-05-30T13:30:00.000-07:002012-05-31T13:49:44.228-07:00The Little Glow Worm Continued<br />
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And so it continues...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzfN9dWcwDqe3A1mkURo4rfMwtxEgFcIZ9XGNpDIObEDIU-CvnUuD6WjMJHta0axvfBbaQRBV0hkNb4ADJLdHjegg5YchQVtX3Hil1WLMQ_Pfti7ICKMBU-8bZqiwpcGW51uL1UaKXx54/s1600/Fat+lau+&+fam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzfN9dWcwDqe3A1mkURo4rfMwtxEgFcIZ9XGNpDIObEDIU-CvnUuD6WjMJHta0axvfBbaQRBV0hkNb4ADJLdHjegg5YchQVtX3Hil1WLMQ_Pfti7ICKMBU-8bZqiwpcGW51uL1UaKXx54/s1600/Fat+lau+&+fam.jpg" /></a>Tuesday we went finding--and we ran into a member whose phone number we'd just tried and that had been CANCELLED. The Lord is mysterious right? But she gave us her new number--and then the member came with us--and then we found four new investigators and two of them came back the next day to English class and brought another friend and they're coming again today with ANOTHER friend! <br />
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Miracles!!!</div>
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Yesterday I made a call, just so I could purge our telephone of old former investigator's numbers and it was answered by an individual who came to English class-with another friend. Miracle, yay!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha6lqobn-ZdXO0Ra6HFZOFfhxRcw5leMEdH4-JETZwh3bPsXBr9W2gtEou78bRXIqb-FQByEsTxKadxUda9DBg0Ue4vLFZtM3pCo3LSfpUBaYhyphenhyphenwaftjw_Y_RqpcE8wA4Rw7yYAB-jNv0/s1600/crocs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha6lqobn-ZdXO0Ra6HFZOFfhxRcw5leMEdH4-JETZwh3bPsXBr9W2gtEou78bRXIqb-FQByEsTxKadxUda9DBg0Ue4vLFZtM3pCo3LSfpUBaYhyphenhyphenwaftjw_Y_RqpcE8wA4Rw7yYAB-jNv0/s200/crocs.jpg" width="200" /></a>Today we navigated Mong Kok to the Crocs store and back to the library in 15 short minutes to make our appointment to email--miracle! (We seriously prayed that I'd be able to find it, because Mong Kok is TERRIFYING). These are the happiest missionary shoes, cheap, comfy and waterproof!!!! </div>
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But then the miracles end and my computer was dumb for 40 minutes... Eh, whatever, at least Sis Clements got to email her family on time.<br />
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I'm kinda whitewashing my world right here... trying to convince myself that it's all happy. Truthfully, I'm weighted with the responsibility of a very new companion in an area totally new to me--but the members are great (even if I don't know them well yet) and we're having patience and working hard and being obedient and PATIENT and focusing on individual people. And I'm focusing on my companion.<br />
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Sorry, I know this is all so random--but I'm just walking on clouds lately (not because everything's been easy! But because God is so good anyway!) and particularly after the blessings of yesterday. </div>
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Everyone in our zone was called to WanChai--A "just drop everything and come" kind of call. So weird. When we got there it was a meeting for a Pres-Chan's-leaving-and-wants-to-do-one-last-interview kinda thing. </div>
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I went into my conference with him and was floored. Pres Chan is really, really grateful for MY service. And said that he called me to TKO right now because he needed a strong sister in the mission. He said I support and renew every area I go to and every companion and roommate I contact. </div>
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AND, And, and, for some reason he thinks my Chinese is ...the best in the mission. He SAID that!?!??!!! </div>
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And he thinks I GLOW! That was the only part where I didn't turn around in my chair to look for the person of whom he might be speaking.... because I DO feel like I'm glowing :D </div>
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I am so, so happy, and I want to hold up Christ's light for others to follow home. <span style="background-color: white;"> It's a hard area and people in hard, hard situations but I can't help but smile. Seriously.</span></div>
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So keep smiling, everyone. And hold up the light... Matthew 5: 14-16 "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. <br />
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Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." </div>
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Love you so much,</div>
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Sister Darcey</div>
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</div>Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-84413475617947891052012-05-24T10:56:00.000-07:002014-11-10T10:39:11.004-08:00I Finally Tasted Durian -- It Tastes Like Lemons!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmuHFKJzr9vpk686VAMdgrSYNiD7u51cDgi98Jf51nRtREKqOB1OTWXjz5w0KAs9_s9hrQaCct9kLI6P8etVIlI3J4crpSsjahEufMQ3p7Q215bZdxgeemFqTUSuBzYr8jlB9FbrYrQrQ/s1600/IMG_0044.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmuHFKJzr9vpk686VAMdgrSYNiD7u51cDgi98Jf51nRtREKqOB1OTWXjz5w0KAs9_s9hrQaCct9kLI6P8etVIlI3J4crpSsjahEufMQ3p7Q215bZdxgeemFqTUSuBzYr8jlB9FbrYrQrQ/s400/IMG_0044.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbFc7xqQbZUx26_JMl8T-JlEIgl2EZVYj6qBZvDT7qY9unzECn-mcfEm_xlGEjHLn6bTs73Gw7lqqVI6CLKDfY5238XXy2MV5TKNrvRHVGWft6d0IMguFb9ZGt5LW0wwC2U53GWDgfl3k/s1600/open+durian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbFc7xqQbZUx26_JMl8T-JlEIgl2EZVYj6qBZvDT7qY9unzECn-mcfEm_xlGEjHLn6bTs73Gw7lqqVI6CLKDfY5238XXy2MV5TKNrvRHVGWft6d0IMguFb9ZGt5LW0wwC2U53GWDgfl3k/s320/open+durian.jpg" height="242" width="320" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgq_mULbwTM-oKRREgmr56utMln6KB8SE6vqIEYlOqc3QeZzVXst7CVwhkPUgcQ9ZW7GKVtB5oSR_1Pk9hYnl8FLRpjsnY3v0GVDqOl5pFLAexNVnlUTppwwAtqSw6OlCMFixIwASwsNs/s1600/Durian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgq_mULbwTM-oKRREgmr56utMln6KB8SE6vqIEYlOqc3QeZzVXst7CVwhkPUgcQ9ZW7GKVtB5oSR_1Pk9hYnl8FLRpjsnY3v0GVDqOl5pFLAexNVnlUTppwwAtqSw6OlCMFixIwASwsNs/s320/Durian.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a>But it still smells like death!<br />
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[here, on the email Dia has a pile of dung animated with flies flitting around it]<br />
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hee, hee, hee. <br />
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[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian">Durian </a>is called the King Fruit of the Orient and is banned from major hotels and restaurants due to its odour.]<br />
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Dear Family, friends, and beloved,</div>
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It was a great, hard emotionally, but great and miraculous week. It was such a weird experience staying in my "old" area for such a long time until the next Tuesday (usually we transfer on P-day right after moves/calls CALLS--so we typically only have one full day in our area knowing that we're moving).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZKkjM34BQh3axGm1kDfDsZdhfyyQPglnBtedTeWK7URUFl1kl572XzE2fl_aCfgBeMbFvZ7hn5gpimZytL-oEl0d-uMlqnApUdTCEyVUDdhCM18fAnFwLLQ7cVX8JxsF2_3ydiPDL4Zg/s1600/Macau+cable+car+ride.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZKkjM34BQh3axGm1kDfDsZdhfyyQPglnBtedTeWK7URUFl1kl572XzE2fl_aCfgBeMbFvZ7hn5gpimZytL-oEl0d-uMlqnApUdTCEyVUDdhCM18fAnFwLLQ7cVX8JxsF2_3ydiPDL4Zg/s400/Macau+cable+car+ride.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a>I had a week! I was able to polish up all my records and really see how much we built up and worked on and accomplished in that miraculous Macau 42 or so days :) It was an amazing time. I'm really missing Sister Wong, older Sister Wong, Sister Hsien and Salenga and especially Sister Mercado, whose name I've been spelling wrong (but I write the chinese character right... go figure) for 5 moves (EIGHT MONTHS!!) (I just found out like last week, that I'd been spelling it wrong in English! ha ha!<br />
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[Here she has inserted a blushing icon--where does she get these--ah, Hong Kong].<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6nUBCHD66VPleQ8Punz7_ZD5Yl-5EovyI6Z0fSdPK5vqnWD2OmZFhevzno8XbT34ubatLQrJvahJQOr4VsGBAiSQAKI0vSjk_iuNf_dl5bZenqpWpkW9lPLIPMhCXfayombKPBkDERYQ/s1600/macau+face+closeup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6nUBCHD66VPleQ8Punz7_ZD5Yl-5EovyI6Z0fSdPK5vqnWD2OmZFhevzno8XbT34ubatLQrJvahJQOr4VsGBAiSQAKI0vSjk_iuNf_dl5bZenqpWpkW9lPLIPMhCXfayombKPBkDERYQ/s320/macau+face+closeup.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a><br />
We had one miracle in particular where V., our landlord's daughter who was the sole attendant at the new Saturday English class last week, brought two awesome friends to this week's AND a street contact of Sister Mercado came, too! SO I invited them all to church the next day and they ALL came! No problems at all, I didn't even hear one "but it's so early"??!?!?!?!! Four girls at church after 5 weeks of no one in that ward was just TIU HOI SAM!<br />
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(so happy!)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5V3NsUCld4Klbug2NtdfkPSr3uylxOy-Vza2x9K2CkZcdhJ9LLT-vGejJR1kt7d2QEuqNzfTYcilwvCu9f6pKxxeE5nCepWIcoBMAgRiTP3Zd2E_6-S_9f5A4hqka2dP1T8-LxkM7Yi0/s1600/macau+unity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5V3NsUCld4Klbug2NtdfkPSr3uylxOy-Vza2x9K2CkZcdhJ9LLT-vGejJR1kt7d2QEuqNzfTYcilwvCu9f6pKxxeE5nCepWIcoBMAgRiTP3Zd2E_6-S_9f5A4hqka2dP1T8-LxkM7Yi0/s320/macau+unity.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a>It was an amazing Sunday. I also was surprised to find out that a couple people I've only had some contact with--a less active, HILARIOUS poh poh just coming back to church, a spunky LA girl and two sweet Indonesian ladies at whose baptism I was invited to speak--were really, really sad I was leaving. They sent me off with notes and hugs and little weird trinkets and we took about 1000 pictures... who knew that in so short a time your heart could grow to include so many people??? Our hearts are on growth spurts in this weird, insanely fast mission life... so no wonder they ache so often. Growing pains.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQr4ubX3Aazj5pwvUwJhnO-BHIB-MurGd0aaL6M9pXQ9FpAQMv2cG6aDuctXW5MaKwfCM_Aqf0VTrfcKQrtNzSoAYTmjbjhQwy6wPRqYjvetwCU4aPggmHAMch4aOhTSdw2EBhj0X2kvw/s1600/5-20-12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQr4ubX3Aazj5pwvUwJhnO-BHIB-MurGd0aaL6M9pXQ9FpAQMv2cG6aDuctXW5MaKwfCM_Aqf0VTrfcKQrtNzSoAYTmjbjhQwy6wPRqYjvetwCU4aPggmHAMch4aOhTSdw2EBhj0X2kvw/s320/5-20-12.jpg" height="239" width="320" /></a> </div>
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Ways to know you're from Macau and just coming back to HK:<span style="background-color: white;"> </span></div>
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<li><span style="background-color: white;">You walk out into oncoming traffic ... every time you cross the street.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">You are so excited that fruit and veggies are so cheap ....you buy out all the street vendors.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">You get hit by a handbag or shoulder... every time you walk outside (PEOPLE WALK SO FAST HERE!)</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">You get confused at the early schedule... every night!</span></li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCRZesVKTojxBmKd_j2h_fLaa2R8Fk6F97D4BZP1Sll20LbPjePRofJxSr4kHmN0oStJePzIbWDP7MYpTFK3hCt2161FoKGywPGbIzPVi2joTAK-LfkXcbQ5qQvOSnuFvNDUQlBMwchMg/s1600/macau+church+wall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCRZesVKTojxBmKd_j2h_fLaa2R8Fk6F97D4BZP1Sll20LbPjePRofJxSr4kHmN0oStJePzIbWDP7MYpTFK3hCt2161FoKGywPGbIzPVi2joTAK-LfkXcbQ5qQvOSnuFvNDUQlBMwchMg/s320/macau+church+wall.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a>It's weird coming back to the city life. My new area reminds me a lot of my bb area--Sha Tin and Tai Wai, especially, even up into Tai Po. There's plenty of trees and hills (yay hills like Macau!) and it's basically a suburby, typical HK... thing. I like it a lot; the best part is how the church is HUMONGEOUS and gorgeous. When Sister Clements opened the doors to the chapel I GASPED! It's so big! It's THREE HUGE FLOORS tall and has it's own room for the chapel and cultural hall... it's huge. It's the biggest I've been in except for Wan Chai, for sure.</div>
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Well, I still need prayers! I'm getting more and more excited to be here but I need a lot more patience and love than I have now. No worries, God will provide as I do all I can.<br />
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Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-82965219839604214582012-05-17T13:04:00.003-07:002012-05-31T13:53:40.808-07:00Relief Society - My Substitute Mommy<br />
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Please thank Sister Rinda Myers for me. She's so sweet to keep me updated on the ward's growth and news, and I love that she's my visiting teacher. What a blessing she has been in her support; there is such peace in knowing that my efforts are not forgotten by the world there. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhItWO_yUCaTL9fg7Y0moxWshgOb1A-ejNeQwYLOyoL7hMLpBjS3UEeVxG40fUihyZ88gH3BbJSqCz3F24RTcMCjNQ6_8B99PaIaboPmdDZtWgJiT2Rz2SdWe5E6QHaRDNeqMLxxq5eqKM/s1600/dia+lau+macau2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhItWO_yUCaTL9fg7Y0moxWshgOb1A-ejNeQwYLOyoL7hMLpBjS3UEeVxG40fUihyZ88gH3BbJSqCz3F24RTcMCjNQ6_8B99PaIaboPmdDZtWgJiT2Rz2SdWe5E6QHaRDNeqMLxxq5eqKM/s320/dia+lau+macau2.jpg" width="320" /></a>There's a neat quote I'd love you to look up in the "Daughters in My Kingdom" book and put on the blog about RS--a mom who is moving far away and her daughter with a brand new family asks, "What will I do? Who will be my mother?" (This was before Skype and facebook and tweets and texts etc) Her mother said something amazing about RS--it was "Bind yourself to RS. Relief Society and it will become a mother to you" . Look it up yay, thanks. </div>
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It made me just catch my breath---there is such a power in a society of woman to do good and to teach, to uplift and even be a mother to those who have no one to go to or to learn from. I'm still reeling from the state of that [person that I talked about on our telephone call] individual's home--"Wow, I didn't know our church helps people like this!" (please insert a description, ma?) </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWsr14_UCmGOufrOrvYNcH-PA3_X8geW8ing1IB_YUZ1z0hnCn7ZjSVyptyCAJdEBpj7LCl-BKLldEMR12t1ZW0iq2j40ZxPaiwpSRsiNCuR92E7k90EzjgPRrsCF8Q6cBh1_Xwd00BUA/s1600/dia+lau+mom's+day+macau.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWsr14_UCmGOufrOrvYNcH-PA3_X8geW8ing1IB_YUZ1z0hnCn7ZjSVyptyCAJdEBpj7LCl-BKLldEMR12t1ZW0iq2j40ZxPaiwpSRsiNCuR92E7k90EzjgPRrsCF8Q6cBh1_Xwd00BUA/s320/dia+lau+mom's+day+macau.jpg" width="239" /></a>[Dia went into detail in her Mother's Day telephone call about some service she was able to perform for an individual who was struggling with the chaos of her life that had overspilt into her home environment. She was so shocked as she had to call on the services of the priesthood for help excavating some of the worst-- and for Dia, who is accustomed to some pretty bad stuff, this was life-alteringly memorable. Back to her letter.]</div>
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Our job as missionaries is often to wake up the ward or the branch--or just to refocus their efforts in the areas they need to focus on. </div>
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When another person I admire wrote last -- Sister Lisa S.-- she said that as a RS president she's learning that unity (Zion!) is only accomplished when everyone is invited to work together, NOT when everything runs smoothly and only 3 people prepare everything while everyone else just shows up and sits through it. </div>
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I learned while reading the white handbook on leadership the other day that a leader is NOT someone who does everything themselves. A leader's job is to inspire, uplift and help others find in themselves the motivation and ability to put their shoulder to the wheel in the aid of others to learn pure Charity--the true love of Christ as He would practice it.</div>
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Wow! Strong Stuff,</div>
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Working to become stronger in faith,</div>
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Sister Dia D</div>
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</div>Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-84920662038379880702012-05-08T19:59:00.000-07:002014-11-10T10:40:46.196-08:00BEST MAIL EVER!!!!!<br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">A Great Day In The Morning! I received the mail and in it was a note from my dear Sister Cook, who wrote on the outside, "Happy Mother's Day!" and included just one thing: a picture of J's baptism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHJ4RTuYP8Q_qsFFFuOr4y8bilo8hCkRt2X-_1inL75Q3xJS27XayMESwGz2CIaXvFTlxME74CDUBKFAUTBwsYbRxijLmRFH7NO2B02Xw_AVBBOcqSPfWnw7lkZFLvvAFtqQe-PGDSetI/s1600/DSCN0044_5226.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHJ4RTuYP8Q_qsFFFuOr4y8bilo8hCkRt2X-_1inL75Q3xJS27XayMESwGz2CIaXvFTlxME74CDUBKFAUTBwsYbRxijLmRFH7NO2B02Xw_AVBBOcqSPfWnw7lkZFLvvAFtqQe-PGDSetI/s320/DSCN0044_5226.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia;">I was just overcome and pretty much just sat right down on the empty floor of the new senior missionary couple's apartment (I love them, they're the "Wellings" and the mom reminds me of Margaret Young) and cried. It even had a photo of S in it--in a gorgeous pink dress! She <u>doesn't</u> wear dresses--she was always too shy so she'd wear her school uniform (her baptism date is for mother's day!!! and she HAS PERMISSSION!). They looked so beautiful, I almost couldn't believe it. It was like mail straight from heaven. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">J MADE HER DATE that we set with her almost 2 months ago. I'm so sad I didn't get to see it, but I'm so grateful, so grateful. On TOP of that, J's DAD was in the picture... I can't even explain. They've had such a hard family life--Which MAKES for Strong People! I have a testimony that hard lives make us STRONGER. Yuen Long District is doing amazing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Macau is doing amazing, too! We've seen so many miracles and tender mercies. OH, and it's my one year mark in China TODAY! One year of water filters, three-hole British plugs, sleeping in the same room as an Asian, not a taste of bread but daily sharing the bread of life with these beloved people. I can't believe it and at the same time I can't believe it's only been a YEAR! I feel so at home here. And I've learned I Can Do Hard Things. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">This Week's "E" Miracle--was amazing. Let me tell you the story. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">First, we ended up at TWO BBQ's here in Macau in the last week! Chinese and Phillapina flavors, and both were at "Black Sand Beach" up on Taipa (or maybe down? My directions are all mixed up). The first was maybe just a warm up for the second-- although we DID have an amazing miracle--no rain on a thunderstorm warning Saturday. The zone prayed together in the morning because it was POURING when we woke up. Then, at 9, nothing. NO RAIN! No rain, that is, until EVERYTHING was totally packed up and the bus was pulling up to take everyone home! PERFECT!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Anyway, the second bbq was even more eventful. We met four referrals and pulled together a ton of beach games and ate until we died and met less actives and new members and probably had more than 100 people we were NOT PLANNING ON there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">AND I got sunburned AND stung by a bee the size of an eagle on my hand and when I was done screaming CRAP (in front of the entire branch... great....) and flapping my hand around the stinger was still attached to its HUMOUNGEOUS EAGLE SIZED behind anyway. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">It hurt really bad, but the awesome part is that I had to leave to go bandage the throbbing crater in my now hotdog sized index finger (I may be exaggerating just a tad) and we saw E-Gem--who hasn't been answering our calls because her phone's out of money but must be the sweetest, goldenest Phillippina ever. Miracle!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">this picture is from when I was Sis Cheung's companion and was<br /> taken on Chinese New Year</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Actually, all our investigators are pretty sweet and SHINY GOLDEN because we had two other amazing experiences this week-- one where the person was just standing outside the church, I opened my mouth and she (said later in the lesson) felt like her feet were PULLING her inside.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I'll end with the other (named E. hence the title of the miracle week) who started bawling and threw her arms around me when I casually pulled her aside and gave her a Book of Mormon after the activity Saturday night and for pretty much no reason opened up to 1 <a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/1?lang=eng">Nephi 1:1</a> and testified that she, too, could teach her family about God even though her four kids were so far away in the Philippines and now she has a baptismal date and (later found out) she was a hard-core 7th Day Adventist before. Wow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">God's Work is so amazing! Thanks family and friends for your support.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I found a Mandarin hymnbook this week so now I'm forcing Sister Wong to sing in Mand, Canto and English every day... gotta love it :D</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Love ya'll,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Sister D</span></div>
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Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-68357671626652174232012-04-27T04:50:00.003-07:002014-11-10T10:37:00.336-08:00Serving Where I Can -- An Eternal Mission Doctrine<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Dear Sweet People, </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5YHThbJ6Fa-lGFh-SQurDUS_Ij6AhsdSawLpxaSTb33GuvAUMW4_LP38Sn2uzy8_KcJfEbdCARD-B_-xmxd6-_uy10ZWe3n_0Uuu7oGng0II-dVMlwcO-Cn6hW-9LCz3XHelVYkvXXjE/s1600/panda2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5YHThbJ6Fa-lGFh-SQurDUS_Ij6AhsdSawLpxaSTb33GuvAUMW4_LP38Sn2uzy8_KcJfEbdCARD-B_-xmxd6-_uy10ZWe3n_0Uuu7oGng0II-dVMlwcO-Cn6hW-9LCz3XHelVYkvXXjE/s320/panda2.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a>It was Sunday and I felt so needed by our branch. I translated three meetings (Sister Wong and I switched off speakers) (we have a nifty headphone/microphone set where everyone who needs it in Cantonese or English grabs a headset and we just talk into the mike), accompanied all the singing, including choir practice (in which we're singing a devilishly hard piece, "Because He Lives" and an easier but sappy, "My Mother, My Daughter" or something) AND conducted choir (from the piano bench....).</div>
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I was assisted by Sister S. and randomly taught Young Women's class (...to the sole YW there) with Sister M. I love serving and helping and I think one of the worst feelings in the world is not feeling needed or not feeling helpful. It's also a sensitive and subtle art to help others develop more skills, responsibility and awareness of the need for them--I'm thinking of younger missionaries, children, or members of quorums or class--without just getting impatient, frustrated OR too worried about their lack of ability and just doing it for them. ...reminds me of Elder Eyring's talk in priesthood last last Conference where he told about his bishop telling him "I NEED YOU" and actually believing it.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheEjTZMWvpBrSeDUfzz326ZKDEmrmAqSzWa4JbBTUI-N1B4zJ6rGjgztLze0C3ETinzxbJLDaKOsPOBOVYbawl2Ma3Qd6sDgBznwcQp8_YESP0qbKn1ZNPB6Py_GAtOrvqL_PBOlzPkwI/s1600/macau+panda.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheEjTZMWvpBrSeDUfzz326ZKDEmrmAqSzWa4JbBTUI-N1B4zJ6rGjgztLze0C3ETinzxbJLDaKOsPOBOVYbawl2Ma3Qd6sDgBznwcQp8_YESP0qbKn1ZNPB6Py_GAtOrvqL_PBOlzPkwI/s320/macau+panda.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a>I want to ask myself more often how I can not only serve, but help others around me feel--not just included but NECESSARY--Essential to the work, and how to become humble and Christlike enough to really believe that they are needed. Like Lisa S. has mentioned once before in a letter, wards and families and classes and districts come together in unity as work is shared and lives are strengthened, NOT as everything moves smoothly along without a finger lifted by anyone but the presidency. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbHkui6iQdZwDsoP15A3YrNPl_C4OtoFY8_HAo8VYB3exlDV86vrb9imlgudqjyAVr-C86E6m49dnI9hK0KIxQbYRddy-xdKI1qF6UPaiK_AVYNQCxLKH065pZ5ciIoaLj2um64C4dcmw/s1600/DSCN0566.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbHkui6iQdZwDsoP15A3YrNPl_C4OtoFY8_HAo8VYB3exlDV86vrb9imlgudqjyAVr-C86E6m49dnI9hK0KIxQbYRddy-xdKI1qF6UPaiK_AVYNQCxLKH065pZ5ciIoaLj2um64C4dcmw/s320/DSCN0566.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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On this topic, I recall feeling so needed when I was preparing with Sister Ramsey for Girl's Camp after my senior year that summer, <em>and</em> remembering that when I made a girl aware of her responsibility and that we <em>needed </em>her, how everything changed. </div>
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Mind you, it did not work with all of them: One of the girls we just had to Benadryl, actually, but <em>usually</em> making them feel needed really worked :P ha ha. </div>
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I pondered about the moments when Mom also made me do hard things and the realization that her insistance of my learning and doing these tasks went beyond making life easier on her... I don't know, I was just thinking about service and how community AND how individual oriented it can be at the same time. In whatever stage of life YOU're at, you can feel needed, help others feel needed or accept the help from someone else that will make Him/HER feel needed (like our Women's Chorus song, "May God grant me the grace I need for me to let you be my servant, too"). </div>
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And that's my thoughts on that. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCiIGldadv-wEII7Ll4ZSXtV0ATJgf1nt-1BLq7evC11Ivy6MNRRqYhHBhv55RLL_ub71xY8FMF6fK6vLXqjpxA24Yj702_fHmVNDrkE3tuWEkERF9YUuAz7S81N_HNquhcaQkmpjR894/s1600/Panda.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCiIGldadv-wEII7Ll4ZSXtV0ATJgf1nt-1BLq7evC11Ivy6MNRRqYhHBhv55RLL_ub71xY8FMF6fK6vLXqjpxA24Yj702_fHmVNDrkE3tuWEkERF9YUuAz7S81N_HNquhcaQkmpjR894/s320/Panda.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a>I was so grateful to read about Grandma Bezzant's testimony and sharing in her church about her life. I am so unaware and so ignorant about my loved ones lives and stories; it's so sad. I'm so, so grateful to have read about her service and the service she's seen rendered. I love that she is so aware of God's grace and mercy that makes that love and selflessness possible--that instilled in each human breast the urge to love and take care of the others around us. She still serves so much, even at 93!! I remember always feeling SO needed, loved, important and filled every time I left after visiting with her. I remember, too, after she got out of the hospital the last time, that Brian and I went to sing for her at the recovery center. I can't believe how long ago that was now... but singing, "serving", for her still felt like it was healing MY soul. I love you Grandma.</div>
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The Kessler senior missionaries will be coming for the LAST time this coming up Sunday, so that's the end of quick mail from the mission home. No problem, because we're heading up to HK on May 22nd to see Elder Oaks! AND they Kessler's not coming back BECAUSE Macao is getting a pair of its OWN senior missionaries! YAY! Senior missionaries are SO AMAZING. They are like the tenth-black-belt-star-stripe-ninja-power-etc missionaries--<em>a </em>lifetime of service, experiences, testimony and family power backing them up. They are the treasure of the mission and they are amazing for reactivating entire stakes, from what I've heard about Sister Bishop's parents. My English is questionable, sorry.</div>
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I loved seeing that Aidan won hottest chili. We had the funniest experience the other day where it was pouring rain, wait a second did I already tell this story? Whatever, I 'll tell a super short version---Sis Wong and I were cooking right before we'd planned on going out for scripture class, it'd been pouring all day, she cooked up some garlic, onion and then sliced 3 TINY red chilis and threw them in. Just as I was picking up the phone to talk to our miracle (except we didn't know she was a miracle yet, she was just a contact) investigator whom I'll call Jewel, she threw in the chilis and I went in and stuck my face in the wok and BREEEAAAATHED IN. And then my lungs shriveled up and died, and I laid on the floor and coughed and then went out on the porch and got soaked and coughed and then sat in front of the fan and coughed and wheezed all while Sis Wong was trying to talk in English to the contact (who wanted to see us RIGHT THEN, wheeee!) on the phone and make sure the food didn't burn AND not breath in at all AND laugh really hard at me... it was so funny.</div>
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;">We are blessed to be here and spending every last second of the short time left in service. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;">Love, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;">Sister Darcey</span></div>
Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-13036870285008440492012-04-18T08:09:00.000-07:002014-11-10T10:44:20.885-08:00When Is Mother's Day?<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Dear Everyone, </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9r8iNUhK43TPar9-2jE7uGTrT0iY8SIDuvXIiYUn8FJ9wnbBwmrmr9jGCS5MZZFRJ0grH15s_u1FCzKoTCw5CzRE6rbq2_gYpuwLh5_j2SmqJJhhcV2TeMpGVvkfwCSYtd_tUTQjs7l8/s1600/IMG_0032.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9r8iNUhK43TPar9-2jE7uGTrT0iY8SIDuvXIiYUn8FJ9wnbBwmrmr9jGCS5MZZFRJ0grH15s_u1FCzKoTCw5CzRE6rbq2_gYpuwLh5_j2SmqJJhhcV2TeMpGVvkfwCSYtd_tUTQjs7l8/s320/IMG_0032.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a>Seriously, no one knows in the whole mission when the big day is. We've asked and asked around and around and no one knows. Like Easter, it's not really a big deal here in Hong Kong I mean Macao. Even with members. So the whole zone would like to know when Mother's Day is. We're pretty sure it's in May? On a ...Sunday? Maybe the second or first Sunday in May?</div>
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Do Jeh.</div>
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We had a great week of miraculous miracles and weird Macau laid-back-ness AND crazy international emotional rollercoasters.</div>
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I'll start with the last thing first: I've been so overwhelmed by the amount of emotion that Fillipinos and Indonesians/the international branch has. I'm realizing how Chinese (ie, who don't show emotion, uncomfortable describing or expressing feeling. They are generally really chill,) I've become. So the first time one sister from Indonesia (Sister Josephine) met me, I stuck out my hand and said (translating every word in my head from Chinese to English), "Hello, I'm Sister Darcey. I'm so happy to meet you," and she gasped and said, "I LOVE YOU!" and threw her arms around my stomach (they're all like 3 feet tall) and wouldn't let go. It was HILARIOUS.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHG9ufBC-F7Ixq314zmz03x99hDiBAb_szSST2hoJ8KS4QUwaZH-aTdpoBapQxLMch8_wEBLKp3LjRTJcVAEyh7GP8NAAVFAAgp7t1NgAXNNYyGTm1eBYPJyMudkKYCj3mxZDO_f_nrgM/s1600/badmitton2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHG9ufBC-F7Ixq314zmz03x99hDiBAb_szSST2hoJ8KS4QUwaZH-aTdpoBapQxLMch8_wEBLKp3LjRTJcVAEyh7GP8NAAVFAAgp7t1NgAXNNYyGTm1eBYPJyMudkKYCj3mxZDO_f_nrgM/s320/badmitton2.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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Another sister, a Filipina, Sister Teresa, met me for the first time and asked when I needed to leave Macao. I told her in June, and she started crying. I'm serious. They have such big hearts, it's crazy! Especially since Macau is such a transitive (is that a word?) place with both missionaries and members coming and leaving all the time because of visa issues. There is at least one baptism each week in the international branch, but it stays about the same size! since members are constantly getting or losing jobs or going home or getting sent home. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_H7wK-PaKoYgIawyJg-yOWFcibfWBv6n_m7RQGVVMAFQ7GuEZ3OmbPPOWVzXb101TlfE8Qea-WhQx-Y8YskLiChyF3JXg6nWcSLfHe5VwyRj1zOp25Ld9LLAIFJD2pn_M6iwCoRqdvFY/s1600/badmitton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_H7wK-PaKoYgIawyJg-yOWFcibfWBv6n_m7RQGVVMAFQ7GuEZ3OmbPPOWVzXb101TlfE8Qea-WhQx-Y8YskLiChyF3JXg6nWcSLfHe5VwyRj1zOp25Ld9LLAIFJD2pn_M6iwCoRqdvFY/s320/badmitton.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a>A big problem in missionary work in international is "overstaying" when want-to-be-workers come and overstay their visitor's visa trying to find a job. It's so sad when they call us and ask for help, since when they overstay they become illegal immigrants and can't find a place to sleep. Missionaries, of course, can't do anything about it--but it's horrible to have to step back and not be involved at all in lifting the weary and comforting the comfortless...<br />
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The weird Macau laidbackness has been good and... well, weird. Last night we played went badminton finding! It was hilarious. At the beginning I thought it was a pretty girly sport. The raquet's tiny, the ball looks like a snitch, you exert all of like 3 calories for three hours of "exercise"... I also thought I was pretty good, despite it only being my second time playing, until I saw the person I was playing against start playing a real badminton player. It reminded me of when I played raquetball with Brian or wrestled with Dad or tried to beat up on Ian... He totally took it easy on me and I didn't even realize until he started pounding that whifflewhateverit'scalledbirdything into the court floor. It was crazy! BUT I still think it's a girly sport. </div>
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Anyway, we played badminton last night and we're making mochi tonight with the Young Women. We're trying to build up the branch members' fire, faith and willingness to fellowship and friendship new people. Macau actually has plenty of baptisms, apparently, but can't retain them at all. It is the season, so rain has put a damper on finding, but it's actually cleared up everytime we really need to get out and talk to people.</div>
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I named my first CHinese person yesterday! I named her Francine (because her name in Chinese begins with F C). Why didn't I name her Funky... I know. It's Ok. I had just met her (she LOOKED funky, too, but I thought, hey, why not open my mouth and then she turned out to be AWESOME) and she's a DRUMMER and a mom of a 30 year old and she's so hilarious and awesome. Anyway. Just one of many miracle contacts that have made Macau so amazing and fun. </div>
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We get to meet SO MANY PEOPLE. We pulled 9 people back to the church on Tuesday--didn't get to sit down and teach any of them (noooo!) but they all were so different and fun to meet. One special one was named S, a 50's something (different for me--usually my "style" is 16 to 20 year olds--not on purpose, that's just usually who talks to me most) beautiful and refined lady who was touched by the kindness of a Christian professor in America to her child at the university a few years ago and has been softening toward the gospel ever since. She even told us, "I can just tell you are good people, talking to you is so comfortable," and "You know, before I used to be so *weirded out* (not a direct translation...) by black name tag wearing missionaries, but lately I've really wanted to talk to you all more and more" and then we talked to her. Opening my mouth has had all kinds of blessings this week. Another woman named Van, a cute 20's who has always wondered about those Christian churches and was so happy to talk to us...</div>
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So, I'm recommitting to 100% obedience and I'm super happy to be here. The sisters in Macau are all awesome, especially my companion! Sister Wong and I really get along.</div>
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Oh, I can share something Sister Wong and I learned that's neat to end--it's about why the Book of Mormon is called the Book of Mormon. Actually, you'll have to mostly look it up yourself because I don't have time--but like this: Check out Mormon 1 through Mormon 6. Mormon is -without faith and -without hope. He stands as an "idle witness" of the truth and calls his own labor "in vain" like three times. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrP2ajAC4rWWJaJIXKwOt1_6IsRVsYsy27buGW0QPNes88BNW6AU3iE4LH7Zw0aQPti3SzzuqX2_cSSRLkvUwPg9wI_WmGvfef1TLXJ0oqBJJknHLuO27EUuRX08qKzr6B4n6VJpRiSKQ/s1600/lds+church+portuguese.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrP2ajAC4rWWJaJIXKwOt1_6IsRVsYsy27buGW0QPNes88BNW6AU3iE4LH7Zw0aQPti3SzzuqX2_cSSRLkvUwPg9wI_WmGvfef1TLXJ0oqBJJknHLuO27EUuRX08qKzr6B4n6VJpRiSKQ/s1600/lds+church+portuguese.jpg" /></a>However, this is the same man who wrote the FANTASTIC treatise on faith, hope and charity in Moroni 7-9 and, really despite EVERYTHING and the WORLD falling around him, continues to love the people around him and believes that God will save his people. It's really an amazing paradox, and the beautiful thing is that THIS tragic prophet is the name in which we missionaries take the restored gospel of Jesus Christ to the world.</div>
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Love ya'll</div>
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Sister D!</div>
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P.S. My name's everywhere! In Indonesian it means something (because it's everywhere in the Restoration pamphlet!) and it's even on the outside of our church (insert church's name in Portuguese here, thanks ma).</div>
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Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-21343614413168940812012-04-14T10:43:00.000-07:002012-05-31T13:16:26.668-07:00A New Day Filled With The Joy Of Mudd<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Dear Family,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">There should be NO worries on mail getting to us, the senior missionary couple reportedly comes</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">every Sunday now so they bring our mail (...haven't seen them yet, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">though).</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivlhpHVxd0Pa5ingDKSGmD8xLFY5jV7jkNK75aCH61GZLlZ35Iyq8Jvht9HZGC83vrSmZVeQqgeH-Z0XDkQsCsrF4arlOdxxBnrzs8EPmUI5hqms7N6NLLz8ugupToYIad2H5RbR8vQvQ/s1600/d+chi+kuok+tiffany+iong.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivlhpHVxd0Pa5ingDKSGmD8xLFY5jV7jkNK75aCH61GZLlZ35Iyq8Jvht9HZGC83vrSmZVeQqgeH-Z0XDkQsCsrF4arlOdxxBnrzs8EPmUI5hqms7N6NLLz8ugupToYIad2H5RbR8vQvQ/s320/d+chi+kuok+tiffany+iong.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">MACAU IS AMAZING I feel blessed in 1000 ways.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Ahhh, today I'm praying for Daegon! He has such hard things--that means that he is a strong strong</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">spirit! He will do great things. His family is amazing. I ask the Lord to bless DawnL a </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">bunch. She's so strong.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I have a new mattress in this Macaus apartment bc now there're 6 </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">sisters in the same apartment (our bedroom is wall to wall bunkbeds, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">so awesome!) and it seriously makes me SO INCREDIBLY HAPPY. Like every</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">time I crawl into bed at night I have a laughing/crying with joy fit </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">that ends in salty sighs and shivering until I fall asleep. My next to </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">me bunkmate (she's Philappina, named sister Salenga) is pretty creeped</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">out I think ;) [Grammar suggested fix: My bunkmate nearest me...]</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY3wByOMZTkWNsXFk1bliS-eZgUZkxF3qd5nM4Pk9IDjOLEB5Mzu_EnF_ea_I09SLywBKWIbP8Q4-xr7jsPuwC8y3TNN14ImDpUx3ygLEljPZm-y_CyKxFvxp1w5KRF2kAs_cqiWplPkU/s1600/Picture+134.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY3wByOMZTkWNsXFk1bliS-eZgUZkxF3qd5nM4Pk9IDjOLEB5Mzu_EnF_ea_I09SLywBKWIbP8Q4-xr7jsPuwC8y3TNN14ImDpUx3ygLEljPZm-y_CyKxFvxp1w5KRF2kAs_cqiWplPkU/s320/Picture+134.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">We're doing a SCIENCE PROJECT NIGHT for a church activity soon! I'm </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">fresh meat in the zone so they sat me down in a room by myself (with a </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">single bare lightbulb...) and didn't let me go finding until I came up</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">with a good activity idea. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">We're going to make dirt pudding (with the </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">choc pudding Mom sent me), that cornstarch/water stuff and of course a </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">hydrogen peroxide and baking soda (...or was it vinegar. wait, oh no, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">we need to test this out) volcano. Super stoked.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjryVlghhL9HpvVBEeK4UGD9GgodKg0ForHBXDHFrWFf_wiuZn5Nt5gB5Aqrxp2yIJaGkrc9rDagQwWrakAvm9LGw7YjSW1V08v8fv9OOnmKL9ytzozYPlspYUxctYfATOFa4wAYMaE1-o/s1600/IMG_0052.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjryVlghhL9HpvVBEeK4UGD9GgodKg0ForHBXDHFrWFf_wiuZn5Nt5gB5Aqrxp2yIJaGkrc9rDagQwWrakAvm9LGw7YjSW1V08v8fv9OOnmKL9ytzozYPlspYUxctYfATOFa4wAYMaE1-o/s320/IMG_0052.jpg" width="240" /></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I love cooking. It is a great joy of my life here to cook for </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">everyone. Everyone always calls me Mama Darcey (baahk mama) in the </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">apartment because I make sure everyone's fed. I'm doomed to be very </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">poor in my life because I don't care if anyone pays me back or how </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">many groceries I need to buy--I just love cooking for everybody and </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">with everyone. </span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYCxg073-GYVE63biPOVlocuCcoCEpYWrHPmXyzCvoAzuS_JAD9JjX8B-DaK1AgSB6ob9Y7X8g0AXIXr8TNCm8q5ETZmWlDcG4SXlj0UgT3WMbplG6lzN0MFTOGeqE4zKzW3nHhfV6bgE/s1600/IMG_0053.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYCxg073-GYVE63biPOVlocuCcoCEpYWrHPmXyzCvoAzuS_JAD9JjX8B-DaK1AgSB6ob9Y7X8g0AXIXr8TNCm8q5ETZmWlDcG4SXlj0UgT3WMbplG6lzN0MFTOGeqE4zKzW3nHhfV6bgE/s320/IMG_0053.jpg" width="240" /></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">It's such a joy to be able to add back in the things </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">you love on your mission. That's probably why couples missions are the </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">best thing in the world, right? You get your family, TOO! :D</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Tell Dad I will write him!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Love always,</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Sis. D.</span>Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-58179152196007967742012-04-12T05:47:00.004-07:002014-11-10T10:58:06.394-08:00Macau Miracles ! ! ! AAAAhhhhh I Love It Here! <span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px;">So </span><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1334232818_0" style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Macau</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px;"> is ok. I guess.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV2zbxYt1Ei-n34YL5DniIFAc-UW40-lh1UoGebGIUzfTq9C1wf6lOdFwEYw1RXmkBXQAf_bhFd8J0v68H9y0nrSdOpuHVnAVQRdaHIbPRtu_WxnLqnqUQPbhhGqtm9fRP_dQD0Hf_ojw/s1600/macau+bridge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV2zbxYt1Ei-n34YL5DniIFAc-UW40-lh1UoGebGIUzfTq9C1wf6lOdFwEYw1RXmkBXQAf_bhFd8J0v68H9y0nrSdOpuHVnAVQRdaHIbPRtu_WxnLqnqUQPbhhGqtm9fRP_dQD0Hf_ojw/s320/macau+bridge.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tuen Mun</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">No, it really is AMAZING!!! Sister Wong is hilarious, super confident,</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">funny, cute, short, fiery, Chinese and talks SO FAST. Her English is </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">almost perfect (but still super funny) and I ADORE her. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZAg_jhOa6jxdrqYxGPYxZATAUia7jahlT6nJgUM1tRkg5jH1-AqJo1x-aawtE8l8gHqxGoD-DY_vIV4iq9qJWNBloLwo1KE0LIw8NqPr9nM31JfeJ4CsH1qwWktYRcxkEvl3s1WXoKtA/s1600/DSCN0265.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZAg_jhOa6jxdrqYxGPYxZATAUia7jahlT6nJgUM1tRkg5jH1-AqJo1x-aawtE8l8gHqxGoD-DY_vIV4iq9qJWNBloLwo1KE0LIw8NqPr9nM31JfeJ4CsH1qwWktYRcxkEvl3s1WXoKtA/s320/DSCN0265.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sister Cheung's bday in Tuen Mun</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">I'm loving reverting </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">back to dumb, happy baby stage--following her around and not</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">understanding what other people are saying, not knowing where we're </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">going, not knowing who people are and it's MARVELOUS! Seriously, I </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">forget I'm senior companion most of the time.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Ahhhh, Macau is so weird. It's like a different mission </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">completely--not least because we're actually in a different 'country'</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">(SAY IT WITH ME! CHINA!!!!!!!!!!! YOU CAN WALK TO MAINLAND FROM HERE!) </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">(wait a second, you could do that in HK, too...it just feels more </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">mainlandy here, OK?) AND we're in charge of both the Chinese and the</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">English/international branches!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0s77DRReD97o0-pphTHoEfR8_QEsMoMkIz7JXLKQ1HQRrlEdyU62AuU0yai6T5pHHKs8Sc0pzAAKocq00Dawr4RI181MfZtQJRHEqL69bSL32uBVWkp_dGKmikig5eRpLa1zIss2YV8U/s1600/Dia+bridge+macau.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0s77DRReD97o0-pphTHoEfR8_QEsMoMkIz7JXLKQ1HQRrlEdyU62AuU0yai6T5pHHKs8Sc0pzAAKocq00Dawr4RI181MfZtQJRHEqL69bSL32uBVWkp_dGKmikig5eRpLa1zIss2YV8U/s320/Dia+bridge+macau.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tuen Mun</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">We're a funny companionship-- it's a big change for me, coming from the </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">queens of Yuen Long where we gallavanted around an entire HUGEST AREA </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">EVER and two wards on our bikes and knew everyone to adding on to the </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">SEVEN COMPANIONSHIPS in only 2 little branches here where the </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">missionaries almost outnumber the branch members...</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEdStrJZhWAwgjMgmMAFS0Gv8s6m4qrxTjcDcwjPu1eoaJfzrIzB-2McP66c7jKE-QQRHPGHCbBeMGROLXNkdWVwMIIp37De_hQoJIiS3cBXrdwBYLJxuGlUrdGG-_fQNqrzQsWk11vHg/s1600/DSCN0317.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEdStrJZhWAwgjMgmMAFS0Gv8s6m4qrxTjcDcwjPu1eoaJfzrIzB-2McP66c7jKE-QQRHPGHCbBeMGROLXNkdWVwMIIp37De_hQoJIiS3cBXrdwBYLJxuGlUrdGG-_fQNqrzQsWk11vHg/s320/DSCN0317.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tuen Mun</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjapR5pJ5PV8Dde2lcG8EuB0pENCPi7UoQ5gjqXLS2lhgpPi0aUr62mmZKAvNi_I_4UvjQs-P5Lk49iYN9d6KIfbAxGbzq4SbV04-NqHAZhZaSs0tmwBu-xTWIbY7ZEgH1M1X39uAoCurk/s1600/Macau+streets.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjapR5pJ5PV8Dde2lcG8EuB0pENCPi7UoQ5gjqXLS2lhgpPi0aUr62mmZKAvNi_I_4UvjQs-P5Lk49iYN9d6KIfbAxGbzq4SbV04-NqHAZhZaSs0tmwBu-xTWIbY7ZEgH1M1X39uAoCurk/s320/Macau+streets.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">MACAU</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Everything is slower here--the people, the zone, the food, the </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">lifestyle. I didn't realize how go-go-go I had become being a city </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">girl until I came to the City of Cities waaaaait. I was just in Yuen </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Long, the country? I don't know why.... maybe it's because of the </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">European flavor here. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Besides fighting my basic gut instinct to whip </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">everyone back into city frenzy, I'm really loving it. The best part is </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">finding, and the best part of THAT is we get to find A LOT. We're </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">"opening" a companionship, so we started with exactly one</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">investigator--an Indonesian, because Indonesian's usually only speak </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Bahasa and Cantonese, no English--and then he went back to HK. BUT we've </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">already added 8 new investigators this week and we're planning on </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">more. Every time we go finding it's miraculous--the Spirit is truly a </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">fire and it's blazing. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh0IKO92PiZ85wpge2sflqmBNp0ZEeY2ycKu-V1mW5rk28TROU_J5WG5cf_suasvXcxmHIWs3JqhrcSD7IhjBAgItoJuizOF1wLq68j5q6VWvQm_wpvTh4R2YmhJIK7zz3lxa5RQkYr30/s1600/inside+bridge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh0IKO92PiZ85wpge2sflqmBNp0ZEeY2ycKu-V1mW5rk28TROU_J5WG5cf_suasvXcxmHIWs3JqhrcSD7IhjBAgItoJuizOF1wLq68j5q6VWvQm_wpvTh4R2YmhJIK7zz3lxa5RQkYr30/s320/inside+bridge.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">this picture's actually from the bridge in Tuen Mun <br />with Sis Chan</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">The weather too, is following suit, and while we're </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">able to stay out until 10:30 here in Macau, we find all night long </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">and return to the apartment to lay on our floor as stinky/sweaty messes when we get home. I LOVE IT!!!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Tell Brian I'm so sorry I haven't sent anything for 3 weeks now, the </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">mail in Macau is funny so we have to wait until Sundays to send it </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">with the senior couple and then the senior couple didn't come for </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Conference. Did I tell you I got to watch SIXTEEN HOURS OF </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">CONFERENCE?! And By That I Mean: Sixteen Hours!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Anyway, I love it here and I seriously tried to send pictures four </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">times now--and I failed. It took so long and so that is the Last time.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Love you all, keep praying and thanking God for his grace,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">My blessings from Him? It's amazing!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Love, Sister D</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">[internet photos from chinaphotos.org]</span></div>
Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-78828620626750900682012-04-09T06:43:00.007-07:002014-11-10T10:38:05.060-08:00SURPLISE! Surplise, Surprise?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge9nBCnkqrmjIjykqLbOa-mguAkLGjJE7-ighdIQ7IM6NspDkrlOMlulun3i7WzT3GV3OaBDxwkP_SAaopUBHxgBcBbYHClmsZ0AhQx4RPBg03d4Um4KXs64GodHsy9V9rMqLGIG3IZj8/s1600/fw9.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge9nBCnkqrmjIjykqLbOa-mguAkLGjJE7-ighdIQ7IM6NspDkrlOMlulun3i7WzT3GV3OaBDxwkP_SAaopUBHxgBcBbYHClmsZ0AhQx4RPBg03d4Um4KXs64GodHsy9V9rMqLGIG3IZj8/s320/fw9.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729409218830519202" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 214px; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Sorry Familia, </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;">I</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">t's been a long time since I've been able to email Thursday morning. And I think I missed your EMAIL?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">I'm so glad I got Ian, Dad's and Cami's email--and Sister Rinda, my visiting teacher, too!--and miss you all. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">I have big news--I'm moving to MACAU! It's a really special, weird area. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Haaa, I actually just remembered before moves calls responding to some sister who was worried her family wouldn't know she's moving, "Eh, I'm not worried about letting my family know; they probably wouldn't even notice unless I went somewhere crazy like Macau or something." </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">It's NOT EVEN PART OF HONG KONG. I have to have my passport and take a 3 hour boat to get there, and we don't come back for ANYTHING in the normal HK mission schedule--activities, conferences, temple visits, nothing (except ELDER OAKS IS COMING ON MAY 22 YES!).</span></div>
<img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUrdNuHvMHaUvSyMLIZo_ajP6ggL-8yj1wEZBVFt6ycKiNPKiK7rWw0vPOeOcpkJYRovdu-rvp7w79eNby1BIwxbrGh8Uav2jI33nTPZyz0u_MtmG66zHrEJIm3MnoNJyKEusXwVsrWgI/s320/dia+YL+fwell.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729407257379468866" style="color: #0000ee; cursor: pointer; float: right; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; height: 239px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; width: 320px;" /><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Sister Cook was extremely ...english word... shocked? The words she used were "it's like they're ripping the umbilical cord out!" so... however that translates ;) That poor, poor baby.</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghckbc0CfGunCT_orTqOOfB2xZk_ANjUMrYDFiY7hlzgWIYOM324tzCPRy14KJW2DzOEMZqpd6gOVYanDq_-1ifDIrnpZ09D4QZiWSezjoRI1WMZ9xRIiYgBaDnHsZ-_jfjA7y5j_YkM0/s1600/fw2.jpg" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghckbc0CfGunCT_orTqOOfB2xZk_ANjUMrYDFiY7hlzgWIYOM324tzCPRy14KJW2DzOEMZqpd6gOVYanDq_-1ifDIrnpZ09D4QZiWSezjoRI1WMZ9xRIiYgBaDnHsZ-_jfjA7y5j_YkM0/s320/fw2.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729407271035690610" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 239px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">If only you could see how much chocolate and ice cream we consumed on Tuesday night trying to deal with the news I think it'd also help communicate the depth of emotion going on here. </span></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGeEm2yIUfIkZO3EAUyd26CK0k4kICUW5tXpIPcrN-qOnJ9Tg1boAMvinenLbiXK9pKTaGC5xIGJLcZr-08QmKTsJZmBq3OZ9Pr8HPfPFaITcg_A9IW8wLN7kfEOHb6sxsJ7eq2QpBwkI/s1600/fw4.jpg" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGeEm2yIUfIkZO3EAUyd26CK0k4kICUW5tXpIPcrN-qOnJ9Tg1boAMvinenLbiXK9pKTaGC5xIGJLcZr-08QmKTsJZmBq3OZ9Pr8HPfPFaITcg_A9IW8wLN7kfEOHb6sxsJ7eq2QpBwkI/s320/fw4.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729407276604249602" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 239px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
<div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Sister Cook will be absolutely fantastic here in Yuen Long with Sister Nielson, and though I"ll miss it TOO MUCH I know they'll be exactly what the area needs. She'll have such a great opportunity to spread her wings, get her feet under her, shake off her momma's yoke that had her bound etc etc all those other turning of age analogies. See </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Where the Red Fern Grows</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">.</span> <br />
<img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjykI0VBVt7G1-7GRm8YzGucha1lllblXnJHzLoejQnmxjF1fXROweXijbbbCcNMrqa78_S1RbhEeh2Mnq65AMBgRRqEnOzFuC17SiTsnjpCxFZ-kU2u9I1ysXB0hOHu2Edz5oPuGEu26E/s320/fw7.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729409212412563266" style="color: #0000ee; cursor: pointer; float: right; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; height: 214px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; width: 320px;" /><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Anyway. I'm sUPER excited for O-Muhn (its Chinese name is weird because it was owned by Portugal for a while)... I don't know why I'm telling you random facts because you can all just look it up on Wiki and be DONE. Here we wallow in ignorance and half-truths and I'm-not-sures... but it's kinda cool that way because I just go and LIVE it and make my own connections, I don't get to learn about an area before I move there first (kinda like learning Chinese--after a couple moves HERE you open up your grammar book again and go "OOOOoooooh, that's totally what they say...." Learning like a native!). So I'll be writing on a totally new slate. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Speaking of a new slate, I'm gonna get to open up a new companionship! No investigators, no reputation, no area book, no phone even. WOOT! I'll be with a BUN DEIH (sounds like boon-day and means NATIVE) named Sister Wong. She's renowned in the mission for being tho very young, having a lot of previous trainining on how to work with wards because her dad was bishop for TEN YEARS. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Excuse That English grammar sentence structure bleh. Anyway. I'm SO EXCITED. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Generally bun deihs get to stay in Macau for a long time and Americans for VERY SHORT. There is a competition in fact because there are many missionaries-tried-not-quite-true-but-we're-still-trying to get "more time" in Macau because it's basically entirely up to the visa person who stamps your card as you go in.</span></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzUNOQJgbB-_vGcILnNkvnQCBCl6dL7lnwTx_KteNiQlgWDrruEhLFeNw2ZANNPpFlZN7kZtD-jb1lk_k0Y4YLRBR9KSUKIWVDbfPMy8OrHfOMd2RxNjMvp6iItRalNiHKQNgtNn-Mo_c/s1600/fw+8.jpg"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzUNOQJgbB-_vGcILnNkvnQCBCl6dL7lnwTx_KteNiQlgWDrruEhLFeNw2ZANNPpFlZN7kZtD-jb1lk_k0Y4YLRBR9KSUKIWVDbfPMy8OrHfOMd2RxNjMvp6iItRalNiHKQNgtNn-Mo_c/s320/fw+8.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729409209004485330" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 214px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdLsL3dfyP7hVRKGLF3yoWHmWOQw28CMueEoGwCK9Mo-TH2HZYKpHZM_xFYRAoJbpEK9xaTfuqISIQWO1y1VRSwtfWwMluXntgNnPxzW_8ZW89hoXbzzKSgRr3nq5Mrb5VdV9zUlagiBQ/s1600/fw6.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdLsL3dfyP7hVRKGLF3yoWHmWOQw28CMueEoGwCK9Mo-TH2HZYKpHZM_xFYRAoJbpEK9xaTfuqISIQWO1y1VRSwtfWwMluXntgNnPxzW_8ZW89hoXbzzKSgRr3nq5Mrb5VdV9zUlagiBQ/s320/fw6.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729409202887190402" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 239px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTbraT3grEkYdxw6_YN3rYgksYEfmj4Bqr08xdre9_S3joMQ2Cv2Px-DdQfO0a4FSNLJNY9LpqUZ-k-3HPKrF39njK7PigqbAbDJJh6TsusNUZSh7KzRPmtimH7M2VUtLXDLpPB0w0cx0/s1600/mini+farewell.jpg" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTbraT3grEkYdxw6_YN3rYgksYEfmj4Bqr08xdre9_S3joMQ2Cv2Px-DdQfO0a4FSNLJNY9LpqUZ-k-3HPKrF39njK7PigqbAbDJJh6TsusNUZSh7KzRPmtimH7M2VUtLXDLpPB0w0cx0/s320/mini+farewell.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729407298536683378" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 239px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Generally you get 30 days, then 20, then 10 and then you're done. In between those periods you have to come BACK to HK and sleep in the mission office for a night! SO WEIRD! Supposedly if you look like a bun deih, sometimes you can get more time. ...my plan is to weird everyone out by SOUNDING like a bun deih so I can have more! Or maybe I should try the "I just want to come spend a lot of money gambling and take a ton of pictures tourist" trick... </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Macau makes moves/calls really interesting in the mission because of the weird schedule. When people get more or less time than they thought they'd get, the whole mission gets turned upside down and scrambles for companions and areas. I'M SO EXCITED!. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">I think I just wrote that whole paragraph within parentheses.--FIX IT MOM PLEASE.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">I'm super mhsedak (translation... don't want to leave, seperation not okay) this area. Last night we called a bunch of ward members and investigators and ate orange slices and salsa on pringles (long story...) and took pictures and bore testimonies and played guitar and cried. They are so amazing and I'm seriously so blessed to have served and been served by them. I can't imagine living my life without meeting them... this mission really means everything to the rest of my life. It changes how I see everything.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Yesterday by miracle Buddist holiday luck we got to go visit Carrie--my last time ever! I love her so much. I felt like I should be bawling the whole time--especially as her little daughter Nana said she'd wait to perform on violin until next time we visited and Carrie said "Nana, we don't know when the next time is! We may not see Sister Darcey until you are very big!" but I guess I was just numb. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">I love that family so much. C drew me a picture--I PROMISE I'll send a picture next week--of ME! In Macau! The picture is so beautiful. She wrote a poem on it, too, in Chinese... wow. I will never forget her. I seriously am a witness of God's grace. I'm given so many things I just don't deserve. Strength and will to breathe and do and then blessings when I obey, too! </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">I also got to say farewell to Sister P again this week--AND so many beloved friends from my last areas! The sweet L and the N families from MOS, tiny T A and LOVELY L from Sha Tin, A. (my summer missionary) from Tai Po (we're going to be at BYU at the same time! I'm going to make her come over every night and speak Chinese with me. I seriously love that woman so much) and of course Elders Dashtrup and Dodd and Sister Lam who are dying today. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">What a terrific opportunity, but as the Lord Leads, I go.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">Sister Darcey in Macau!</span></div>
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Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-22710787477033308662012-04-04T06:40:00.007-07:002014-11-10T10:56:15.612-08:00HA HA Sneak Attack - Email NEW DAY<span style="font-size: 100%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQGMGqVPNyxv4FXQw7RJWzBDItvEOwf_kLqCx6jYEJ7-goEA7KYuqwiSKDyTw0W0aRnLcH1D-funiOuc3VM0OvnPfOf984vwF3u8zZD044emIZodgbEvfRlO06WlosygZ5hfGWv5nN1aY/s1600/bikers+gals.jpg"></a></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcstxmeVUTumZ8ngbUeOi1cx0iR8Tjyl8RY4RJq9MyiMhYGEIwMapvilPcDNpT5RmyDFDRjklY7iYX1fenAXXi7_mZiGiSgVQ4YIvn_eJwULykWNxRPS0rtuLnq4hclrR5sjgo89iPZk8/s1600/d+yl+fw+guitar.jpg" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; line-height: normal;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcstxmeVUTumZ8ngbUeOi1cx0iR8Tjyl8RY4RJq9MyiMhYGEIwMapvilPcDNpT5RmyDFDRjklY7iYX1fenAXXi7_mZiGiSgVQ4YIvn_eJwULykWNxRPS0rtuLnq4hclrR5sjgo89iPZk8/s320/d+yl+fw+guitar.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729412582312790274" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 320px; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; width: 239px;" /></a><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Allright, all, </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">As I head to Macau, I am sure I will miss the new music I have loved with Sis. C! </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">My/Your commitment this week is so find a way to make art in my/your life! </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">It helps develop AND express emotion and I've missed it terribly. Even though I get to sing hymns and read scripture every day, I really felt that experiencing the music at Conference on Sunday did something for my heart that it has truly been needing for a while! </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">There was a mission wide musical fireside on Sunday and I really felt like my soul was filled and healed and blessed that night. The "Songs of the Heart" singers (MoTab of HK) performed "From Cumorah's Hill" which I sang in college once--it was so amazing. I love the songs Born of God and I Never Stand Alone so much.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgATe0S0BsWlE8-HKjeLROnWTmCUvvrz5PAjLiITD25LdejnlO6o1qlSSPjogeBEHWvHEQMPvfU5ofkkegOc4vAE4kkQg2AaTpIfypX8baqwg4_XqjZol_zacgWtO0xRt-J0R4nQN7yE0Y/s320/DSCN0410+%25281%2529.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729412607223328786" style="color: #0000ee; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 240px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; width: 320px;" /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">In other news, Sister Cook and I will finish and record our duet guitar missionary song ...sometime. I Only Wish It Were To Be Before I Leave!! It's to the tune of that "I will walk 500 miles and I will walk 500 more" Irish song... the lyrics so far....</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">When I wake up, oh I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna wake up on the bunkbed next to YOU.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">When I go out, oh I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna go with you cuz we go two by two. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">And we would walk 500 miles and we would bike 500 more </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">just to be the gals who tract 1000 miles to knock now at your door.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">GOING TRACTIN! And no one's home but dogs and baai sahn (Buddhist) folk.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">GOING TRACTIN! We start to count "mdakhahng"s as a joke....</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQGMGqVPNyxv4FXQw7RJWzBDItvEOwf_kLqCx6jYEJ7-goEA7KYuqwiSKDyTw0W0aRnLcH1D-funiOuc3VM0OvnPfOf984vwF3u8zZD044emIZodgbEvfRlO06WlosygZ5hfGWv5nN1aY/s320/bikers+gals.jpg" height="300" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729412628090710050" style="color: #0000ee; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 240px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; width: 320px;" width="400" /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">That's it so far, I'm so excited to write more verses (Buggin' members! or WEEKLY PLANNING! or... etc).</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">I am so happy and excited for this next challenge! You'll all still get pictures because Sister Marcado is coming with me to be in internation in Macau (obviously Heavenly Father knew I needed her Mexican-food-making-skills or I'd just break down, because I've NEVER heard of two missionaries being apartment mates for more than 3 moves, much less 5!!!) and I'll send some soon... maybe...</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">I think maybe I need to find an art form I can participate in with a group (waaaaait, is that in the white handbook..."Don't participate in groups clubs etc" haaa... well, that's awkward) because it's great to express by itself but it's heavenly to work with others to do it--whether it's a band, a choir, a team or a district or zone. Probably even if it's a committee and especially if it's a family.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">I love you, my family, and I pray for you every single day. I want you to know I'm thankful for you and the patience and love and joy you've developed and expressed for me. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Love you, </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Sister D ALMOST IN MACAU!</span> <br />
<img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Fe2Cm16S7UQ0WsC8xPt-bQIfwbCPtQr85ev_ZWrIrZcLtVLdiByqaJXoP8hyphenhyphenPRggYfx34AIc4Mw8qmMru_MuPYVdeICWJ9fsZn1J1oMiDi_lwfwN_yuaWoXP54RgF_a_I-uRZ_EQEo8/s320/dia+03-2012.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729412599603818194" style="color: #0000ee; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 240px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; width: 320px;" /><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-align: -webkit-auto;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">PS: Dad, you'd love Elder Kessler's job. He just figures out missionaries' money all day long. And talk to new people (you've always been my example for that). </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">And Mom would love organizing the mission home and writing English </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">class curriculum and etc... just saying. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Ya'll should so go on a couple's mission. I'm just saying.</span></div>
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Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598421526019936491.post-88499658937312059132012-03-22T06:22:00.003-07:002012-04-09T06:35:17.240-07:00Grounded in Truth<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJCrprw4UMRdqntNyOVdHHMSl49kBEzwJhr2iFe_zcDTCCMmZUE-f45Cparc8qfe1vovw3zr8zHw1vV9c70LgrFGh-dhtHcCl3cpjbzsaa5uet-PvL3QzQEZGofa6FkwoxVW_zBjyNPPI/s1600/dia+lau+shrek.jpg" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; line-height: normal; "><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJCrprw4UMRdqntNyOVdHHMSl49kBEzwJhr2iFe_zcDTCCMmZUE-f45Cparc8qfe1vovw3zr8zHw1vV9c70LgrFGh-dhtHcCl3cpjbzsaa5uet-PvL3QzQEZGofa6FkwoxVW_zBjyNPPI/s400/dia+lau+shrek.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729391480945242882" /></a><span ><span style="font-size: 100%;">Dear All,</span></span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2ToZXiQ60oHzJqJFgkPVFLM5g2fvcRvidzk2Pw_PQdvXoYE_OcYN9b1eT0ujzkuh6iqbAjq6hzUfr2XFyVl9cAMKCX6tKmbTIANFT5ot7OIJH6pA7VUqnLzT708SQtyCm6SuGATC21Y8/s1600/dia+lau+shrek1.jpg" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; line-height: normal; "><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2ToZXiQ60oHzJqJFgkPVFLM5g2fvcRvidzk2Pw_PQdvXoYE_OcYN9b1eT0ujzkuh6iqbAjq6hzUfr2XFyVl9cAMKCX6tKmbTIANFT5ot7OIJH6pA7VUqnLzT708SQtyCm6SuGATC21Y8/s400/dia+lau+shrek1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729391481224126786" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZgkkl_1Rw6gCnBTtllHummGRVXJvf_ngOOOXdxhgyIhb_tfTCnSC2a5nu_20LFVjoIakkQPxUNSsTi0FQ54XHocBvcE63LIbLQam0j6mkiNt7NRsmhJRkAUncbV2P69DMmZsoUm_fsII/s1600/dia+shrek+lau2.jpg" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; line-height: normal; "><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZgkkl_1Rw6gCnBTtllHummGRVXJvf_ngOOOXdxhgyIhb_tfTCnSC2a5nu_20LFVjoIakkQPxUNSsTi0FQ54XHocBvcE63LIbLQam0j6mkiNt7NRsmhJRkAUncbV2P69DMmZsoUm_fsII/s400/dia+shrek+lau2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729391476943894162" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxMOx8HR96e31eKOEW7oHUE7eAXdeUMCsI52otAVSUbg04_pj76kOrMEXOQd3pjFLW7pHMH_QkMZscFecs-Vuao3QEMoSYqBpZOL9gPK9tTLOZSFJNwW2IggLRPuQt5BJLZNbro08Ik8w/s1600/DSCN0404.jpg" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; line-height: normal; "><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxMOx8HR96e31eKOEW7oHUE7eAXdeUMCsI52otAVSUbg04_pj76kOrMEXOQd3pjFLW7pHMH_QkMZscFecs-Vuao3QEMoSYqBpZOL9gPK9tTLOZSFJNwW2IggLRPuQt5BJLZNbro08Ik8w/s400/DSCN0404.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729391468242203714" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXSb8MzXkc9nol7DMPpbsbqacV3d0ZVpHYCOi4wQt5Zhh2AQoDrrDBFCxbdciAwd7HhXSEwGRMvqqqBculQzxuVUnJi4P7CgpKm3ywD5DQ_2bGhBVy-g2FGnwZjC_c43BTz2kYhgYTrsM/s1600/DSCN0381+%25282%2529.jpg" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; line-height: normal; "><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXSb8MzXkc9nol7DMPpbsbqacV3d0ZVpHYCOi4wQt5Zhh2AQoDrrDBFCxbdciAwd7HhXSEwGRMvqqqBculQzxuVUnJi4P7CgpKm3ywD5DQ_2bGhBVy-g2FGnwZjC_c43BTz2kYhgYTrsM/s400/DSCN0381+%25282%2529.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729391458471474146" /></a><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">We've had miracles and marvelous works here this week... I'm kinda drawing a blank right now, though. Which means maybe I'm supposed to say something specific. </span><br style="line-height: 15px; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br style="line-height: 15px; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">We made ONE simple change--prayerfully asking in nightly planning who we will ask for a referral the next day--and that has shot the work off the ground. Turns out our ward members already trust us, are motivated and are doing their own missionary work--they literally just needed us to ASK them who they wanted us to help them share the gospel with. </span><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">We've received 2 great referrals and contacted three others already this week. We'll go meet another one with her member friend today. </span><br style="line-height: 15px; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br style="line-height: 15px; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Saturday's St Patrick's activity was awesome--including an Irish Jig performance by the missionaries. Hilarious. And my camera isn't uploading anything for some reason... </span><br style="line-height: 15px; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br style="line-height: 15px; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Made my first pot of congee (jok) yesterday-- 2 quarts of water and 1/2 cup of rice in a big pot, simmered for 2 hours. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">Easiest thing ever (and tastes like nothing) and good for sour stomachs. Made me wonder why people buy mixes for baby rice porridge, though. </span></div><div><br style="line-height: 15px; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">OK, now I think I know what I'm supposed to talk about. "Jesus Christ IS the only Begotten and Beloved Son of God... He is our Savior from sin and death. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">This is the most important knowledge on earth, and you can know this for yourself!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The way is desire and obedience. As to desire, Jesus taught, 'Ask, and it shall be given you,' and as to obedience, 'If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself." </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Dallin H Oaks' quote from Conference has resonated in my experiences of late. I am building a testimony this way, and I see my investigators building theirs in the same way. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Obedience isn't fooling ourselves or manipulating ourselves into thinking something's true, it's the necessary step and price for real religion and real belief. We have to experience something for ourselves to know if it's true or not--so why do we so often obstinately halt at the threshhold of faith and require PROOF before we take one more step?</span><br style="line-height: 15px; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Mark Sabey's latest couple of letters--especially a talk he gave, "I'm a Sinner, I'm a Child of God"--seemed like they're written right for Yuen Long, HK. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">When I lose faith in myself and despair that I'll "never be good enough for God to bless me", I'm making of myself a false god--one that doesn't run to greet the prodigal son "a long way off" and one who wasn't born in a stable, one who wouldn't ever wash feet. God's grace is abundant and now, more than ever, I've felt and stood in awe at his love for us. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">God stands in the filthy rooms of our hearts--he IS the physician, the healer and wants to work with broken, with maimed, with infections and sores and leprosy and hardened hearts. He just asks that we come to him, without money and without price, and obey his gentle commands that will make us whole. </span><br style="line-height: 15px; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">I wish I could explain better and today we're short on time--but I do know and believe that God finds us where we ARE. His grace is so amazing and I know that I'm his child. As a child, I'm loved and he's patient with my slow growth and frequent set backs and even with my pride.</span><br style="line-height: 15px; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">I know God lives and you can, too. I know He has restored His </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">gospel in all of its fullness and made a way for families to be together always.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Love,</span><br style="line-height: 15px; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Sister Darcey</span></div>Sabeyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359865367026280765noreply@blogger.com0