Wednesday, September 14, 2011, 7:55 PM
from: Sis. Rachel Kiene
What a week it has been! The new missionaries have come and it's fun seeing familiar faces! They are all doing really well and seem to be adjusting just fine. It's been yet ANOTHER roller coaster week :) haha it's so hard because we are constantly finding new investigators and losing others. My comp and I are trying to be patient and trying our best to help anyone we can. I totally understand how Mike feels when he says that they can't get people to come to church! there is one thing that Hong Kong and Montana have in common! haha sadly none of our investigators came :(. However, Sister Lam, the less active Thai sister came for the whole 3 hours! She is so good and so humble! She has been sick and so she asked if she could get a priesthood blessing. The bishop was able to interview and meet her since she just came from a different ward and then they were able to give her a blessing. As we shared our message she was just in tears the whole time. She has a strong testimony and the more and more we see her and the more she comes back to church she has been realizing how important the gospel is to her. Saturday we had our stake music night and the missionaries performed Israel Israel God is Calling! I have it on video hahaha our little duet at the beginning was alright. we were a little off but I don't think anyone cared! the other performances were HILARIOUS! There was a group that sang some English Spanish song! bahahaha then some other dances and songs and it just reminded me of William hung on American Idol :) haha they just have so much spirit and happiness when they sing and perform. it's so cute! I got a couple of them on video so no worries, you'll have a chance to see them!
We did a lot of finding this week! (Finding=contacting) Monday we had a zone find and we went on exchanges but each companionship had a different number and color. The number indicated how we were contacting the person, 1 lesson -2 lesson -3 lesson -testimony -word of wisdom -Joseph Smith- proclamation to the family- etc. The color was the color shirt they were wearing haha we do A LOT of finding here and so over time they have tried to be creative. So Sister Cecil (from Cedar City--she is going home next move) was my comp and our contacting weapon was our testimony and color was light blue. So as we traveled to our area and once we got there we were just chasing down anyone wearing light blue! it was pretty funny but at the same time we experienced so many miracles! one guy was on the MTR and he was pretty far down but since he was wearing blue we trekked over to him. His eyes were closed so we just said hello a few times and then he opened them and we began talking to him about the gospel! hahaha turns out he was a less active! but from a long time ago. he doesn't have a book of Mormon or anything anymore...not sure if he even remembers it much. so we got his name and number, gave him a book and told him that we were going to help him come back to church! James looks like he's maybe 28...turns out he's 19! haha so we told him he can even go on a mission still! he asked if mission are fun and of course we told him they are the BEST! We also met a lot of other really good people and some cute school girls in their light blue dresses that were willing to learn more! There were some elders that were near us also finding and their color was fuchsia haha well since that's not a super common color they were contacting pretty much anyone and one of the Elder's is a mandarin speaking so he was just finding anyone that knew mandarin. So as we headed back to the MTR to meet the other missionaries there was a woman walking with a little girl in a light blue dress! so we stopped her and talked to her for a bit and turns out she speaks Mandarin better than Cantonese! we told her there was a mandarin elder just back behind us that she could meet! so they met and exchanged numbers and it was awesome! and guess what, she was wearing fuchsia!! haha Some other elders were finding and their color was apple red. They said not a whole lot of people would listen to them and then they saw a guy walk out of the bread store wearing apple red so they darted over to him and I guess he's played soccer with other missionaries! haha it was just really cool and I don't know, I felt like the brother of Jared. We were telling God that we need to find a way to preach this gospel to them and he allowed us to come up with an inspired way of doing it. Some may think it sounded silly or funny, but it worked! The lord works in hysterical ways. But we have to be willing to act and to have faith in the work that we are doing!
Tuesday I had the opportunity to help the International Zone with statutories. International zone (except one companionship who works in the English branch) teaches the Philippine women in Hong Kong. whenever there is a big holiday (lunar moon festival and Tuesday! big holiday!) they get a day off. So the zone needs extra missionaries to go finding and teach lessons! so we all headed over in the morning to central/ worldwide and I had a member, Berna, help me! We just went up to tons of women and contacted as many people as we could! It's hard though because they ALL go to church and believe that it doesn't matter what religion you are because there is only one God and etc. But we did our best to help them and with the help of the Lord, were able to get quite a few numbers. Then after that we had a lesson with Daisy, a cute girl Sis Chinison and I contacted on the street last week. Now on the other end of the spectrum, she doesn't believe in God. It's just crazy how you deal with literally all sorts of people with all sorts of believes and you have to learn how to help each of them. We talked a lot about families and we really feel like she can learn so much and realize how much the gospel will bless her and her family! we'll see her again before Sunday and I pray that she will come to church!! We also did more contacting yesterday after visiting Hoh Poh Po our 80 year old investigator (who is coming to relief society activity on Saturday! yeah!) and at first we had no success. People see our tag and instantly run away. But we were able to teach a lesson to two sweet girls on the street! They just finished school and they were so nice! One is struggling in school so we taught about prayer and how it can really help her with her studies. Despite all the hard things that we've been going through like losing investigators or feeling like we are giving everything to help them and not seeing the results, we have been able to witness the tender mercies of the lord. Sis Chinison and I are learning and growing a lot together as we share our insights, thoughts, and feelings about everything we are experiencing and how we can become better teachers, missionaries, and representatives of Jesus Christ. I love this work. I am so grateful for everything God has given me. A family that loves me and supports me in all that I do, a family who also loves the gospel and as we all strive to live by its teachings, we become closer to not only our Savior, but each other! I love you all so much! Thank you for the package! it was soooo good! We roasted Starburst last night on our gas burner right before bed hehe and I’m exposing Hong Kong to REAL food like Fruit roll-ups! hahaha Mom, I sent you a letter last week and this week printed pics that I will send you! Hope you are enjoying Ohio and tell everyone hello! Send the girls my love! And the story about Ty and putting himself in time-out is hilarious! What a cutie. Thank you everyone for your support, love, and prayers. The language is slowly coming but I still need a lot of help! haha you all rock! Hello Grandma Peterson, Grandma Kiene and Grandpa Kiene! I love you all too!!
love,
Sister Piano
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