Last day of 2012 (Dec 31, 2012)

Ashling Stout	4:48 PM (1 hour ago)
to me

 

so crazy that another year passed already. This week, we've been fed and fed. So right now, I think I'm 10 pounds heavier than before my mission.

It was so nice to call you on Monday. Hope you are ok afterwards. :) Make sure to buy a webcam next time though. :)

This week, we have had lots of small miracles, as always. On Thursday, when we were going to English class in downtown to teach someone another pair of missionaries found, Sister Lao saw that a guy was looking at us. She wanted to go and talk to him but there was too many people and he was walking fast. I saw her trying and pretty much gave her a push and so she talked to him. It turned out that he had been to English class before. We invited him to go again. He came that same day. We saw him there and decided we should talk to him about the gospel, so we invited him to learn more right there. And he said yes. We've set another appointment already. He works in Sacramento five days a week but he wants to come to church (which, by the way, doesn't happen very often with people you just meet) So we are happy to have the chance to teach him. Funny how a little flyer or a short conversation can do.

Our mission president changed the standard of excellence (mission goals) for 2013 so we were supposed to have 3 new investigators each week. We're lucky this week to achieve that goal. It is a miracle in itself, cuz we weren't expecting it. :)

We were super stoked though, when our investigator suddenly showed up at church this week. We didn't expect her to come, she should've been working. We usually don't look at our cellphones during sacrament meeting, but for some reason Sister Lao looked, and saw a missed call from her. She was gonna call afterwards but I felt like we should call now. So we sneaked our of announcements time and called her. She was outside trying to find the church building, so we helped her find it and come it. It turned out that her boss decided that day that they were gonna remodel the place, so she had the day off all of a sudden. :) I don't think it's a coincidence.

It's so amazing how wonderful companionships are. It always takes two to have things happen. If Sister Lao didn't want to talk to the guy, or I never push her to go for it, we'd never teach him. If sister Lao didn't check our cellphone for no reason, or if I didn't insist we call now, we'd never have our investigator at church.

On Christmas Day, we went to the Visitor Center ot hear the Sister missionaries' christmas devotional. They are all dressed so well and they sang so well. It's like whole bunch of angels :) Love those people.

Thanks for the gifts, by the way. Sorry I can't send pictures today, will do next week. On X-mas day, we spent our exercise time trying to make C, H, R, I, S, T, M, A, S with our bodies. It was hilarious. We did that and open our presents and eat all within one and half hour, quite proud of us :) Anyway, it was wonderful opening presents from everyone. Justin and Bonnie gave me a notebook (always so useful for missions), got lots of cards, including from Chris and Chelane, Steph Jason and kids... Got a dress from a sister in the ward. And of course your things made me quite happy. We drank hot chocolate with those crackers. It was fun. Already started using the stickers, bookmarks are quite pretty. Robe is so soft, :) love it. Can't remember everything, but it was just all really good :) Sister Lao gave me a card holder, cuz I keep losing my bus pass in my bag among all the stuff that's in there. :) I gave her a book organizer cuz she has a hard time with stacking her books and she has to try to restack everyday, I thought she should just put it all up like a bookshelf. :)

I'm talking a lot for some reason, but anyway. Our less active said he talked to his boss to change his schedule to come to church next week. :) Progress, progress.

We had ward X-mas dinner on Saturday. Us the missionaries performed 12 days of Christmas in Chinese, with slight moderation on the lyrics. Here is a part of it

On the ___ day of Christmas my true love gave to me,

a partridge in a pear tree

two turtle doves

three French hens

four calling birds

five golden rings

six geese a laying

seven swans a swimming

eight maids a milking

nine ladies dancing

ten lords a leaping

eleven pipers piping

twelve drummers drumming

在圣诞第__天我的朋友送给我

一只鸟在梨树上
两只白鸽子
三只法国鸡
四只愤怒鸟
五金戒指

六个鹅下鸡蛋

七个鹅在游泳
八个人喝牛奶
九个女生跳舞
十个疯狂男生

十一个人在吹笛
十二鼓手敲鼓

Anyway, it was really fun. We had so much fun trying to translate the song. We had other crazy ideas, which included making a Christmas-LDS version of 西游记, but we didn't want the members to identify us with the characters. (取经是去取摩而门经) It was just a lot of fun. Our elders are pretty funny.

The mission's yearly tradition is to have a missionary New Year's party where we all gather together to watch movie with our zone. We are doing it tonight, and watching all G or PG movies. One is called Brave, the other is Kong Fu Panda HOlidays.

Hmm...I like Christmas :) But HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas Eve (Dec 24, 2012)

Well, it is Christmas Eve already. I think time is just going by really fast. Tomorrow is Christmas. We have 2 dinner appointments tonight, so we'll have double dinner. Then we have one for lunch tomorrow, and one for dinner. I think we are gonna over eat for these few days. :) I'm really glad to be in Chinese branch, especially at this season. :)

The highlight of this week would be our zone caroling at Union Square, which is in the middle of downtown San Francisco. We did it right by the Macy's christmas tree, which is gigantic. We had lots of people who video and take picture. We had a table of materials out for them to take, and a lot of them took something. We had a quite outgoing Tongan elder who was really good at getting people comfortable enough to take things. There was only two companionships of sisters in our whole zone, and we went out to pass out materials and talk to people nearby half of the time. It was quite fun and quite happy.

It really doesn't feel like Christmas yet, maybe because most days are just the same for us. But, as Elder Holland says, what a good way to celebrate Christmas to serve the His children. :)

So we are quite happy. Planning on opening gifts tomorrow morning, before we have our regular studies schedule. Sister Lao got lots of packages. I got a letter from the Chinese ward at SL :), a purple package from Bonnie and Justin which I haven't opened, a card from Stephanie and Jason, and yours of course :) Quite happy.

Not much else going on. One of our less active member is going to change his work schedule and start coming to church every sunday. :) Another less active wants to go to BYU for some reason and so decided that he will come to church every sunday now.

Our baptism on the 13th is still quite solid. She is awesome. Our recent converts and forming their own little group :) They get along quite well. So happy to see them progress, getting the priesthood, passing the sacrament, and even talking about going to the temple and eternal marriages (). It's all good.

One of our recent converts introduced us to his friend, so brave. :) And his friend was slightly interested and agreed to learn more.

It's gonna be good. Hope your end will be good too. :)

Love you! Will call you tonight around 8pm.

Visite Chocolate Factory on P-day(Dec 17, 2012)

 So last week we went to the chocolate factory. We saw how they made chocolate. They had these coco plants which has a fruit called the cacao pod, and then the seed inside they roast it and it is like 100% dark chocolate, and they have to mix in milk powder to make it more sweet and not completely bitter. It's kind of cool. We got lots of chocolates to taste, which was bad for dinner. :) But we had clam chowder soup at Fisherman's Wharf. I forgot my camera today :), so I'll try to send pictures next week. But it was pretty.

Got your package, opened it and saw the note, then closed it, so I don't know what's inside yet. Thanks though :) Made me happy

We had zone conference this week. This time it was more Christmas oriented. They mission bought a lot of little things, food, toilet paper, candy, things like that, and it was wrapped in gifts so we couldn't see, but we had to choose and that was our gift. I got cereal, but it actually tasted pretty good. :) We learned about how to fold our laundry, especially the elders. We learned how to back a car :) Anyway, besides that, we sang O Holy Night. It was quite good. We also watched a video from President Holland, really made me want to be more hardworking. It seems not so long ago that I just got here. Can you believe it's 7 months already?

We had exchange this week too. I stayed in Daly City with Sister Croft. We went tracting a lot, but we also had lots of lessons. She is really good at tracting. Hold on, send the pictures, then will continue...

She just knew what to say when she meets people, and she doesn't ask the same questions very often. Anyway, it made me a little braver at talking to people. So now, I'm just shooting for it and things usually come out alright. What's quite amazing is that this week we try to have a vision of who everyone we meet can become, as soon as we see them. It helped a lot in finding, I'm not sure if we just met a lot of successful people last week, but we had quite a few good potential investigators now.

Our investigator with a date is still solid and she loves the members. They invite her to dinners and she loves to be with them. She goes to all the events too, despite it being finals week.

We got to go to the visitor's center twice this week to take our investigator and recent converts to events there. The temple is so beautiful, they've got the lights on. :)

That's pretty much my week. Going soon.

Got new car! 1st lesson in Cantonese! (Dec 3, 2012)

We got a new district leader this week. The only new person in this transfer. Elder Davidson (sun1 zhanglao) from Virginia. He is quite funny. He came on his mission one transfer after us, he has to learn Chinese in the MTC.

 

THis week has been highly interesting. San Francisco is full of ... different...people. Lots of Filipinos, Chinese, and Hispanics. We got someone who yelled us us for pushing the doorbell, :)

 

Oh, great thing this week is that we got a new car. Completely brand new. It's a 2013 Ford Cruise :) Smells new, I had to open the window to be not gagged inside. It only had 75 miles when we got it. :) So cool. And guess what color it is? Sapphire  :) It took us a while to figure out how to work the car, too advanced. I like it. HOw did we get this car? Well, first of all, we hit our previous car. It was an accident. I pulled into the parking spot as the elders were opening the door. None of us saw the other until we heard the crunch, so our car had to get fixed, so we got a red car temporarily. The red car is old and needed to be sold. Elder Bailey, the mission vehicle person, had told the elders before to change the oil on the red car, but they never did, he also told another pair of elders, and they never did, when we got the red car, we changed it, not knowing that it was such a big deal for him. Then we get this call from him saying, because you did the oil change, you get the new car. :) Cool. Now we are famous in the mission home for changing the oil.

 

Also great this week is that we got a new investigator. Another golden one that is so prepared. When we asked her if she will be baptized once she knows what we teach is true, she said "of course!" :) So yeah. She is from Guangdong, so she speaks Cantonese. The member who introduced her to us is so awesome. She just got baptized in April in Hong Kong, and she is only here for three weeks, but she is sharing the gospel with everyone still. :)

 

My Cantonese is getting better, I think. I can understand what the topic they are talking about any time, but as for sentences and words, not so much. I can understand enough to add. I taught the first lesson to Sister Lao this week, all in Cantonese. It was really crazy, we laughed so much.

 

Had another experience tracting at Supermarket. A guy came up and started saying Joseph Smith is a fraud because he got charged and was in jail for fraud or something. He is an athiest and doesn't think God exists. So all I did was teach and testify, then testify and testify. At the end, he was silent for a few second and just said "I got to go." He had no basis for his arguments and he knew that I knew the Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith saw what he saw. It was quite interesting. Left him something to think about for sure.

 

Don't know if you saw the Christmas Devotional, but it's quite good.

 

This past sunday, our recent convert (Brother Wang) passed the sacrament to us :) and he bore his testimony too. so happy. Then another one (Bro Zou) got confirmed. So it's a pretty good sacrament meeting.

 

Got your letters. Glad you had a good enough Thanksgiving, especially with out me 

The boy who referred himself got baptism, Yeah! (Nov 26, 2012)

Hi Mom,

So we got our transfers call last Saturday. I'm staying in SF, still with Sister Lao. So I guess we'll have a San Francisco Christmas. Extra cold. We are quite happy though.

Thanksgiving was great. We had three dinner appointments. I was quite proud of myself not eating too much, even though I liked some of the food very much :) It wasn't my best day though. I think it's true what they say, you are happiest when you are working hard. I felt like I'd rather have a day teaching and talking to people rather than sitting and eating too much food. We have awesome ward members though. I think we'll be eating Thanksgiving leftovers for the next week still. We still have turkey leftovers in the fridge.

We had a ward Thanksgiving dinner too, so that's more food. I just eat normal amounts though. We had lots of less actives and investigators come, so it's good to have them talk with members.

Most exciting last week is of course the baptism. :) Brother Zou from Shanghai. He is great. He was the one that referred himself on mormon.org to meet with us. He was totally happy. Everything went smooth. He was happy. Lots of people went. Perfect :)

We are having a baptism next week too, in Berkeley. The person I got to teach before. :)

You take care yourself, Mom....

More byptism (Nov 19,2012)

So. Got your letters :) Chen Meng is in Hawaii? I don't remember that happening. Forgetting everything again. Hm...she should send me emails :)

We didn't get to vote, but that's ok. We heard Obama won. No one asked us about it though, so that's good.

Best thing about this week so far is that we had a baptism from Berkeley. We are allowed to back for baptisms in our last area if it is within one transfer (six weeks). So Tuan got baptized yesterday. He was so prepared. He had been coming to church for years and everyone thought he was a member. When he was ready to take the lessons, he emailed the priest quorum leader, and asked for missionaries. So when we taught him, he pretty much already knew everything. He knew how important baptism is and how important enduring to the end is. The perfect investigator. He is great!

I went to a leadership training meeting. I still don't know why I'm invited to go, but I certainly learned a lot from it. They talked about decision making and how important it is to gather ALL of the facts before making a decision. We already knew it but actually role playing it made it more obvious how we should do it. It's great. President Meredith also talked about the story in 1Nephi3, how all 4 of the brothers went to get the plates, but they went with different motives. None of them knew why. Nephi didn't figure out why they needed the plates until he was trying to decide to kill Laban or not. But attitude made all the difference. Nephi had to try twice, but his attitidue saved the day, and the plates. So he talked about exact obedience, that we don't just do things because we are told to, but we do it willingly. Obedient in thought and action. I liked that.

We took our recent convert, Robert, to the visitor center this Friday. We watched the Joseph Smith movie, 60 minute one (you can watch at Temple Square too. Bottom floor of the statue of Jesus place). He really liked it, everyone liked it. Definitely went away with a stronger testimony of why this church is here, why he didn't just join another church instead.

We got another investigator we are teaching who is gone a 180 this week. Last week when we saw him he was denying the existence of God and everything. This week he read the pamphlets and was asking a lot of questions. Still doubting, but he didn't say God doesn't exist anymore. He thinks our bodies are amazing. He read the Liahona, and is now ok with the Joseph Smith story. Great change, all in two lessons. Sister Olvera, the missionary who taught him with us, was great in testimony, I think that is a reason why he is softened a lot. Great to see the change.

Next week, we'll have two baptisms. One in Berkeley, a person me and Sister Poon taught from the beginning. He is finally ready. Another is from our area. He self-referred on mormon.org and has been looking forward to his baptism for a while now. He goes to church every sunday, mixes in well with the ward, and is keeping the commandments. All just great. Will say more next week.

That's pretty much my week.! :)

Happy shopping day (Nov 12, 2012)

So today we are emailing in the Chinatown English class room, which they also use as computer class room, joint rent. So I get a little bit more time. We just came back from shopping in Chinatown. So crazy, bought lots of stuff. Is there anything you want me to look for here that's not in UT?

 

So this week, we took our investigator to the VC. He really liked the place. I think he is at the point where he has and will believe everything. So we watched Finding Faith in Christ. Have you seen it before? It's really good. Makes me tear up every time.

 

We also went on exchanges this week. It's different doing it with the full-proselyting sisters. Almost the whole day we spent out trying to visit people. We mostly knocked doors. Their area is Spanish speaking, so I couldn't understand much, but enough to know the topic. It's good. We almost had to tract in the rain, but 'tis a blessing it stopped right as we were parking to go out :)  I learned that I need to be more persistent when talking to people about the gospel. Talk more, give out cards later. :)

 

We had weekly coordination with Aaron Wong. He is sooo helpful. He always asks how the ward can help with each of the people we talk about.

 

This week I also got to eat dumplings at a less active's house. Haven't ate it for a long time. :) Our meeting with different less actives were really good. Three of them said they'd come to church on Sunday. Most of them have a hard time waking up though.

 

Scariest thing this week was that President Pearce asked me to speak in sacrament the day before. I only got about one hour of preparing time to prepare. It wasn't cool, but at least I didn't mess up. Talked, told stories, not too bad I hope. :)

 

We tracted for a few hours on Sunday, since all of our plans fell though. It must've meant to be though, cuz of the four people we talked to, three of them agreed to have us come back. One family was Bhuddist and wasn't wanting to talk at first, but keep talking and eventually it turned out that they accepted a pamphlet on the plan of salvation and will have us back to visit in a few weeks and talk about what they read.

 

It was really funny today. It's our p-day but we try to share the gospel when possible. When we were on the bus coming to Chinatown, Elder Ho, our district leader, talked to a woman from Cambodia in Mandarin for a while, then we joined in the conversation. Not two sentence in, Sister Lao knew that she actually spoke Cantonese and they just starting talking so fast and for the rest of the ride, they were talking about families and gospel and everything. Me and Elder Ho were really amazed at her. :)

 

So, that's my week. Not too much new things. Lots of shopping.

Another good week! (Nov 5, 2012)

Sorry, late again. But today we finally got to go to San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Sadly, I'm in the library where it doesn't recognize my camera card, so I'll have to send it later.

 

Aaron and Jade goes back to Salt Lake on the 19th, so you can meet them and get the box of clothes and thank them. :) They are so good. The whole Chinese branch is depending on them here. And they are so good, they are actively looking for ways to help the missionary work.

 

So, this last week is crazy. So many things happened this week.

 

First of all, our recent convert who just got baptized last sunday, was already being tested. He borrowed friend's car and it got towed on Monday so he had to pay for it. That made it easier for him to accept the job he was offered a few days later to work at a restaurant. But it wasn't until later that he found out he had to work Saturdays AND Sundays. He didn't know what to do. We told him it was his test and he needed to make the decisions, but inside we just wanted to make the decision for him. We jokingly said that missionaries don't like agency, but of course, we respect his choice. Anyway, after struggling for days and us praying for him, we got the news that his boss okayed him to work whole days on Saturdays. We were SOOO happy. He came to church on sunday and got confirmed. :)

 

And, this Friday, we took one of our less actives to the visitor center. I LOVE the visitor center. So happy to see all the sisters again. San Francisco is like elders territory. You don't get much of the sister-ness here. We only see the Tagolog sisters every week or so, but we see elders pretty much about everyday. So, I was happy to see all the sisters. Anyway, Sister C Chan and Sister Lau (Hong Kong) was great and they talked about temples after seeing God's plan for his family and temple pictures. They got him committed to come to church on Sunday. We watched Finding Faith in Christ together. The whole tour was in Cantonese, but I knew what was going on. So amazing. Anyway, he felt great about the whole experience. We were a little apprehensive whether he would really come to church or not, but he did. He came for elders quorum and for sacrament (we have sunday school first, then relief society, then sacrament). He had a great experience. The fellowshipper who went with him to the VC sat by him and he was welcomed and talked to. It was great. He said he'll come next week too! :)

 

We also talked to one of our recent convert young woman's mom. She is just like us. Her husband is back in China and she is here alone with her child and they are pretty much relying on each other. But anyway, her daughter took her Mom to church. At first she was wondering what her daughter was getting into, she thought all churches have a lot of good people and a lot of bad people, but she was very happy with our meetings. She said there was nothing bad she heard. She liked it. She is busy so we don't get much chance to share the gospel with her, but she said she'll be there when we teach her daughter. :)

 

So, it was a week full of miracles. Many times we couldn't find people to go with us to lessons, but at the last minute prayers answered, it all works out.

 

We did a street display in Chinatown. 免費英文班 poster and 我的家庭怎麼樣可以更和睦? or something like that. Spoke Cantonese most of the time, definitely learned the phrase 免費英文班. It was fun.

 

What else happened...let's see. We went to Aaron and Jade's for missionary coordination meeting, since he is the ward mission leader. They live really close to the stake center chapel. Their place is beautiful though. :) They are so nice too.

 

We had a missionary fireside held by President Meredith and Elder Packard? of the 70. They talked about how to share the gospel. Pray for missionary experiences. Exercise faith. Invite people to do something. If anyone asks a question about the church, turn it into an invitation. They had the stake president demonstrate it. He asked his wife, role play, "so I heard your church has magic underwears" So his wife, playing the member, said, "Yeah, I have some people you can see and they can tell you all about why we have it." Anyway, it was really funny. And the last thing he mentioned was to invite people to church. He said if all members who are speaking at church invited their nonmember friends to support them by going to church, they we'd have lots more poeple exposed to the gospel.

  

很高興你有機會看到Elder Eyring. I know Stephanie Eyring. We were in the same seminary class together. I think it was in Brother Hugh's class in Bountiful High. I sat right by her too. Yeah, she is really nice. Awesome person. Glad you like the ward and gets to meet so many amazing people. Elder Eyring does have a way of making you cry. He is so spiritual. :)

 

That's pretty much my week. :) I like your letters :)

  

Loves and hugs and kisses :)

Twin companion & Fun Hollowen ! (Oct 29, 2012)

Sorry! Just had a rushed p-day, as usual. :) We tried to go to San Mateo today. It's a lot warmer and not foggy. We went to the gardens, that's where I took the pictures. 

We got a baptism just yesterday. Brother Wang from Zhejiang. He came to U.S. when he was in high school on exchange and stayed through college. His host family was Christian, so he was exposed to God but he didn't believe. Anyway, one thing led to another, he believed in God and wanted a Bible. He requested it on mormon.org, so the missionaries came and gave him a Book of Mormon. So he started taking the lessons and now he has a great testimony. He bore his testimony at his baptism and all the missionaries were going "wow" because of what he said. :)

The members are really good at feeding us. We have a couple who give us food every week. Others are quite willing to feed you if you go to their place around dinner or lunch time. :) I hardly have to buy anything. So amazing. I think the members here are quite amazing. Their testimonies sometimes aren't shown on the outside, but when you talk to them, deep topics, you see. The benefits of being a missionary :) Amazing people really. The branch is small, but growing. Aaron and Jade Wong does a lot of the things here. Aaron (or as Brother Wong, we were supposed to call him) is in the bishopbric and is the ward mission leader and sunday school teacher. Sister Wong is the RS president. Both of them work a lot. Really the branch here needs them.

I think full proselyting is just tracting a lot. We probably do two hours of tracting everyday. A little intimidating to talk to people, especially since I don't speak Cantonese, but learning :) I think I understand conversations pretty well. I don't know every word, in fact, only about 30, but I know enough about the sounds from Mandarin that I know what they are talking about. Since most Hong Kong people understand Mandarin as well, I'll just speak in Mandarin from what I guessed in Cantonese.

We teach English class too. Not too many people come, only two regulars, but it provides an opportunity to talk to them one-on-one. We taught one of them how to pray this past week. Hopefully they didn't get scared away. :)

We are doing what they call "haunted housecleaning" on Halloween night. So we'd be moving furnitures and scrubbing the whole apt down. It's really interesting here in CA that really no one is planning on going outside to go trick-or-treat as far as I know. Too many stories of poisoned candy and other crazy things people do. It's quite sad.

Anyway, San Francisco is great.

I just got your two letters this week. We get mail slower here. Remember not to eat TOO much. If you have to, eat fruit :) or yogurt is good too. :) I'm the only person who is allowed to get fat 

First week at San Francisco (Oct 22, 2012)

Hi Mom!!

How was your week? How is church this week? Are you eating well? Exercise? Piano? Any news?

So, I'm in San Francisco now, Daly City to be more specific actually. It is absolutely FREEZING here. The day I came I was wearing a light jacket and a summer skirt. I learned that night that it was not a good idea. Next day I was wearing my thickest winter coat. Sister Lao tells me I'm getting a nice day still! Anyway, two days later I was wearing wool scarves and two layer of tights. Freezing. I'm good though. At least we have a car, the elders have to bike.

San Francisco has been taken over by the Chinese people, I've decided. I didn't think it was possible to have so many Chinese people together outside of China in U.S. About half, if not more, of the people here are Chinese. Sadly, for most of them, their first language is Cantonese. Which means I'm attacking Cantonese now. Have to learn it fast or I'm not gonna be able to stop people. Most speak Mandarin, but won't continue the conversation unless it was in Cantonese. Anyway, Sister Lao is a good teacher, so I'll be good, hopefully.

The ward is quite good. Saw Aaron and Jade Wong yesterday. Quite happy. They are coming to UT around Thanksgiving, and they offered to bring something if needed, so I was gonna give them the package I was gonna send home, so I guess I'll send it later. The members are willing to help with lessons and with feeding us and giving us food. It's all quite good.

This week we got a really good referral. The guy had been learning from the missionaries before in Texas and he gradually started to believe in God. He moved to SF for job and tried to find the missionaries on the street, he went to the church building but it was on Saturday so no one was there. He eventually went on mormon.org and referred himself. He is quite amazing and is already ready to be baptized. :) We usually confirm appointments before we come, but last Saturday for some reason we forgot. We just went there and when we got there we realized it and was a little nervous when no one answered the phone call to open the door, finally we decided to just push the doorbell (usually lots of poeple live together so we try not to push doorbells if we can). He came down and told us that he got locked out of his work along with his phone and his keys so he couldn't get into his room and don't have warm clothes and has been sleeping on the floor. So it was good that we forgot to call, otherwise we'd've never came, and he'd never gotten help. He was so glad to see us and said he's been hoping we'd come even though he knew we'd try to confirm appointments. He said he's been praying :) And now, he has lots of time to read the Book of Mormon. ;)

Sister Chan (her grandma is Guo Mama in the Chinese ward) was the missionary here before. Anyway, we are having a baptism next week. He is a quite boy/man and always accepts what was taught but he does ask questions. Quite sincere. So big event next week :)

Our district is the San Fran Chinese district. Just us and two sets of elders. One set with our district leader, the other set is our zone leaders. Elder Lai, who was my district leader before from Singapore, is my zone leader now. :) Elder Guan from Fujian is the other one. Our district leader, Elder Ho is from Hong Kong. His companion, Elder Anderson is from Logan, UT. So we get a nice combination of everything here, different accents and so too. All of us are assigned to the San Francisco 7th Chinese branch. :>

Full proselyting, I found, is just different because there is a lot more tracting--talking to people on the streets and knocking on doors. We also teach English class. Have you been to the English class at our home ward before? How did they get those people to be interested in the gospel? But anyway, lots of variety, it's fun. We can't do street board or booths anymore, because it's illegal in SF.

We had a little miracle this past week, among the many. We tried to find a member to go with us to teach this investigator. But no one was available, we drove there intending to just stop by insteading of teaching, since we can't teach men without a woman there. On the way, we went past hte street we were supposed to go, but a few seconds down, we saw our member coming back from running on the street. We stopped the car and said hi, and she was willing to go with us to the lesson. It's amazing how everything works out. :)

Hmm...yeah, that's San Francisco. And that's my week.

Loves, hugs, kisses,
Meng

TRANSFER TO SAN FRANCISCO!! (Oct 15, 2012)

Hi Mom!

Ok, I have to tell you the BIG news first before I can think about anything else.

We got transfer calls yesterday. I'm not gonna be in Berkeley anymore. I'm going to San Francisco!! :) I'm gonna be in the 7th branch, the Chinese branch. So cool. I was totally not expecting to go to San Francisco at all, so it was a big surprise. This means that I'm not gonna be in visitor center anymore, for the next transfer and probably longer. I'm hoping I'll come back to Oakland area a few months later though. So San Francisco is full-proselyting, so no visitor center, and we get our morning studies everyday. My new companion is gonna be Sister Lao, the same companion as the one I had in the MTC :) Such a surprise, but quite happy. :) I'm packing today and have to finish. This is the second time I've had to pack, then you realize how much stuff you have... So anyway, that's the big news.

So this week lots of things happened. One of the people in our singles ward got married, our ward mission leader. They are such a cute couple. We got to go to their wedding and help out. They were just so happy and gleaming.

Saturday night in the VC was a miracle. We always set goals in the VC to see how many referrals we can get and how many tours we give. This time I really tried to listen to the Spirit when I set those goals. At the end of the day, we had three amazing girls come in. Two of them weren't members and were so touched by one of the presentations that they cried. One of the girls said she felt something special, she thinks it's God calling her to come back. So she left her information for missioanries to visit her. So amazing. So with that group, all of our goals were completed. No more, no less, exactly what goals we set. Amazing how when you listen to the Lord, he helps you accomplish the goals. :)

Sunday was a little sad cuz I had to say goodbye to a lot of people. I have to do it tonight too, since we have FHE. Transfers aren't until Tuesday mornings. I'm gonna miss Berkeley. In these few months I really got to know the people here. The members are so amazing and always willing to help. We can almost always get members to go with us to lessons and to give people rides to church. I think being a missionary you get to know a lot of the people personally. You get to see their spiritual side more than their fun side or whatever. The RMs are amazing. We know about four poeple who are already planning to go on missions after the age has been lowered. It's just such a good place. It's so pretty there too. We see beautiful sunrises every morning when we go running, and sunsets are just so pretty. So it's an amazing place and I'm sure I'll miss it. If I didn't know the Lord wanted me in San Francisco, they'd have to drag me to leave Berkeley. But I guess San Francisco is where he wants me to be. :)

Hmm...not much else happened. We are having a baptism this sunday. One of the investigators is ready :) So I'll be back in Oakland for his baptism. He's come a long way, from not knowing God to wanting to be baptized. He even tells us he wants to go on a mission. :)

One picture is of the Berkeley University clock tower, the landmark in Berkeley. The other one is of Berkeley toward the bay area. Quite pretty.

Anyway, loves, hugs, and hope you are ok :)

Meng

Special email on Dad's memorial Day (Oct 12, 2012)

Mom,

I got permission from President Meredith to email you today.

Hope you are doing ok. I know it is hard, but I also know you are MY mom and I love you.

I just want to share a song with you that I heard Sunday morning session of General Conference. I really love it. Hope it will help you today.

The song is called Does the Journey seem Long? You can click on the green square to listen once you put the mouse over the song

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/music?lang=eng#sort=title&dir=asc&page=&lang=eng&clang=eng&search=&conference=10491_000_000&session=Sunday+Morning+Session

Lyrics are:

Does the journey seem song,

The path rugged and steep?

Are there briars and thorns on the way?

Do sharp stones cut your feet

As you struggle to rise

To the heights thru the heat of the day?

Is your heart faint and sad,

Your soul weary within?

As you toil beneath your burden of care?

Does the load, heavy seem

You are forced now to lift?

Is there no one your burden to share?

Let your heart be not faint

Now the journey's begun;

There is One who still beckons to you.

So look upward in joy

And take hold of His hand;

He will lead you to heights that are new ---

A land holy and pure,

Where all troubles doth end,

And your life shall be free from all sin,

When no tears shall be shed,

For no sorrows remain.

Take His hand and with Him enter in.

Take His hand and with Him enter in.

:) love you Mom.

Here is something else to help your day: Alma 36:3, Joshua 1:9, D&C 61:36, Ether 12:4, D&C 84:88, Alma 7:11-12

I think being on a mission makes me realize just how much God cares about each of His children. I know God cares about you and knows how you feel. I'm not there for you to talk to today, but He is.

I love you, Mom, and I'll talk to you on Monday :)

Meng

General conference week (Oct 9, 2012)

Hi Mom!

Sorry didn't email you yesterday. They cleaned the carpet in the family history center where we usually email, and yesterday was Columbus day so all the libraries were closed. But we get today.

I got a postcard from Justin and Bonnie again. :)

How is grandma? Are they happy in China?  sjz still have the church, right? She is still going?  God certainly appreciates your efforts while they were here:) My mom is so good. All the sisters here already like you and want to meet you. :)

So did Emily and Brooke and Cam come eat yet? Em sent a letter to tell me too. It'd be good. They are happy people :)

I know it's Dad's anniversary soon. I've been thinking about him too, but I think teaching about the plan of salvation gives me a much better perspective. He is in a good place. Though he is still evil dad to leave us. Alma 40 might help. http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?autoplay=true&index=1&locale=0&sourceId=b63b822d7ecc8210VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=bd163ca6e9aa3210VgnVCM1000003a94610aRCRD
I don't know if you got to watch the mormon messages yet, but they are really short and spiritual. Something to keep you mind occupied. 17 Miracles is good movie to watch too. Somethings to keep the day occupied :) Love you. :)

We watched all four sessions of general conference. It was really good. I really appreciated general conference more. Really modern scripture for each of us. :) I especially like Elder Gay and Elder Holland's talk. If you look through my Jerusalem pictures, somewhere along the JC folder you can find the talk Elder Holland gave to us in Jerusalem. It was so similar to the one he gave at conference. So powerful. I had to run to the bathroom right after to clean my face. Elder Gay, the general authority who visited our mission, I like because he is so directly but not blunt that makes you feel guilty. I guess you can say it is calling people to repentance without directly saying that.

What did you think about general conference? What did you like? How do you feel about the announcement? Maybe all these new missionaries would help to get prepared to open up China :)

We have an investigator who is getting baptized on the 21st. He is literally someone who was taught from the beginning. He didn't know if God existed at the beginning when we met him. For the last few weeks we met him, there wasn't too much difference. He loved what we taught him and wanted to keep meeting. He liked going to church and especially the people at church. But this last week we really saw the change in him. He had a story--the lost wallet. You know, when you lose something and expect that you can't find it and pray and then miraculously find it. He left it outside in Oakland, which pretty much means don't expect to see it ever again, but he went back after a whole night and it was still there. The miracle really changed him I think. That or something else. He was so much more spiritual. He got more out of reading the Book of Mormon and even explained the scriptures to us before we asked him what it meant. He watched a whole 30 minute movie--finding faith in Christ, without falling asleep or yawning too much. It's quite the progress. During institute right after, he even bore his testimony to a less active. He said the church really gave him perspective in life and he likes it and he is getting baptized. We were so proud of him, so happy. :) He is ready. He quit smoking too, as soon as we told him about the word of wisdom. No problem, he said. :)

Anyway, the week is good. Work is going forward. We get our transfer calls this week. We'll see if I stay in Berkeley or not. :)

Loves, hugs, kisses,
Meng

4 people are willing to be baptized (Oct 1, 2012)

Mom!!

Glad you are back from China. Got the package, so heavy, but made me happy :) I think that was a record in package size received in the visitor center :) Everything I like, but a few I'll send back to keep since they might not let me wear it here. We weren't supposed to wear anything that attracts attention :) Like the food though, especially tang2 hu2 lu4 :)

Hmm...so this week has been quite good. Lots of miracles still. We have four people who are willing to be baptized now. Two of them have a date in October, the other two we need to set the date. So the work is really picking up.

I think we have a really wonderful ward. Singles ward is great. Half of them are RMs and want to help out. The most recent ones especially. We have an RM from Hong Kong who said he'd rent a car to pick up our investigators, so amazing. He took the bus to go to lessons with us, since we can't take him (gender rule). We got a new rule that we absolutely cannot teach unless there is someone from the same gender within sight, and it can't be in public places either. So about 20+ people volunteered to help the elders, since they have to keep to the same rule. It's quite amazing.

We went to the visitor center with one of our investigators who has a baptismal date. Afterwards, when we told him about the word of wisdom, he told us he had a problem with smoking, but he said "no problem, I'll quit." Wow! so happy. He even said there is no problem he'd quit by saturday. :)

Our eternal investigator, amazingly, he even went up on the stage to bear his testimony this sunday. Even though he didn't say anything about doctrine truths, but he thanked everyone for being good examples. I think it's so cool. :)

We have a new investigator. He went to school at Cambridge study abroad with a lot of BYU students, and he was always impressed that they could hold to their values while he couldn't, even though they all believed the same values. Now he is back and he went on mormon.org to refer himself to meet with the missionaries. So amazing, so we get to teach him and he already wants to get baptized no problem. He came to church this sunday and had a really wonderful experience. All the lessons were really good and inspiring. I think it might've been too inspiring though :) Sometimes I think we forget the they aren't used to all the spirituality that's there. He's ok though. He's happy.

I had president interviews this past week too. President Meredith is really so amazing. We talked about the spirit. He pretty much told me that we shouldn't expect to be led everywhere. It's not often that the Lord wants us to go to a specific place, because he has people prepared everywhere. sometimes He doesn't necessarily need us to go down a specific street. Also, he said that not all of us feel the spirit at the same time. Sometimes some of us needs some truth confirmed while others do not, since they already know it. Thus, when my companion feels the spirit, I don't have to, but could.

We had an amazing experience of prayer being answered. Well, a lot, but one of them is when our investigator told us he really wants to get baptized but wants to work out with his parents first. We prayed to know whether we should set a goal with him right then or in later lessons. And whether we should do 10/28 or 11/4. My companion prayed, but it was amazing that I knew the answer before she said it. We at first decided we are gonna pray for telling him right then and do it on 10/28. But as she prayed, she prayed for doing it later. And I juggled the two date in my mind, and 10/28 just kept being wiped from my mind, so when she said 11/4. it was no surprise to me. So amazing. Little things, but the Lord cares. :)

Hmm...a good quote "gospel is to help us in our trials, not after our trials."

Oh, and this webiste http://mormonchannel.org/mormonmessages has lots of good short videos, so when you get chance, should see them :)

Ok, loves, kisses, hugs,

Meng

Weekly Miracles (Sep 24, 2012)

Hi MOM!!!

I think the emails are weird today, so if you didn't get the pictures, check hotmail
So, you are finally back in the U.S. now :) Make sure you eat well. Still need to eat even though grandma is not there to cook.

 How about grandma? Did grandpa know what was going on?

I got letter from both Faith (Sister Goimarac) and Emily this week, so happy :) Did  you know it takes a month for letter from here to get to Paraguay?

This week, there was lots of miracles. We had lots of things that were on the edge, but was resolved. One of our investigators' mom didn't want him to get baptized so soon, but he wants to, so we had to talk to him and figure out what he really wanted to do and help him to make the decision.

We had a investigator we are about to drop because it seems like he was on drugs half of the time and really don't have the desire to change, even though he feels great every time he sees us and even asked us, when am I seeing you again? It's really sad when you see people who knows there is something special about this gospel yet they refuse to change. :(

But, we had a great miracle. Last week we got a call from our eternal investigator, he says he doesn't want to meet anymore because he has lots to do. We were so sad because we know he is SOo good. He believed and knows everything is good in the church, but just have to regain his testimony. So we were so sad. We prayed for him a lot. I specifically prayed for him, asking God to create opportunities for him to reconsider his decision (I don't remember exactly how I worded it).

Anyway, so in sacrament meeting yesterday. It was our ward mission leader's turn to speak. He literally answered my prayer. He said he didn't know who his talk is intended for, but after he is done, I knew, along with many friend of this investigator, that the talk was for him. So amazing, God answers prayers. :) Anyway, after his phone call on Thursday, he agreed to meet yesterday to talk, so we sat down together with another member who was his friend before. It is really an inspiration to get her to come, and she had the prompting that she needed to come. We sat down and really, I thought this was pretty much the end of us meeting him. I really had hope that it wouldn't be the end though. We had fasted for him and prayed for him and pretty much I don't know what more we can do. So anyway, our member had a great idea for him and made a plan to do some things and pretty much everything is ok now. He is gonna search around, but will still keep God a part of his life and keep seeing us. :) We were so happy last night.

We also had a miracle meeting one of our new investigators. We were trying to contact one of our referrals. We were outside the apt complex and couldn't get in, there is passcode. We tried a few times before but nothing worked. This time, we were about to give up, and I pretty much punched the keypad randomly. And, I was Soo surprised that the screen said "Please Enter" rather than "Wrong Passcode." I pretty much stood there for a second not believing it, then just grabbed the door and went in. :) The thing is, the person we were trying to visit wasn't home.

So we were pretty much wondering what is going on. Why God let us in if we can't visit him. So we came down and there was a man sitting outside of one of the restaurants. We talked to him. Pretty much, he is the reason we were there. If we didn't get in to the apt complex, we would've left already and he would never had the chance to hear the gospel that day. But we did get in and he got to hear about the Church and we taught him the Restoration later that day and he is now looking into the church in addition to his own beliefs. It's amazing how God works huh? :)

Anyway, lots of good things happen this week. It was good. :)

Loves, Kisses, talk to you next week. :)

Mengmeng

Pictures in front of Oakland temple (Sep 17, 2012)

 

So Mom, you are on the plane right now. :(

You know I always like packages :) I have lots of drawers just for food my Mom sends me. Especially the big packages, they take some time to eat and enjoy. :)

Did I change? I don't feel like I've changed at all, at least physically. We don't have a scale, so I might've gotten fatter for all I know. But then we have to exercise almost everyday so I'd say that might work the extra weight off. I like yang2 da4 wan3, hmm...we should eat it when we go back. Don't forget to send me your picture.

I get to eat lots of different food here. Because Berkeley is a university town, there are lots of people who come from all over the world. We get all sorts of food, including Middle East, so I get to eat felafels and kabobs :) They are actually quite food and almost authentic. I'll take you here when we come back :)

Yes, I'm used to talking to people first. In fact, we did a booth this week too. I remember my first time doing it I was afraid to talk to everyone, now I'm just thinking. Hmm, that person might be interested, and just go for it. Cuz really, all they could say no. If they do anything worse than that, we'll just laugh later. :)

So this week. It's been intense. We fasted for one of our eternal investigators. He is so ready, already has all the background, already living the gospel, all he needs to do is to get dunked. :) He has two RMs as roommates, not to mention others as close friends. One of his roommate spoke in sacrament today. It was so good. There is something about how he talked that just lets you know that this person is speaking with the spirit. He talked about perspectives. We all have our purposes, but how we approach our purposes is different.

Also on sunday, it was just a really good day, we had another speaker who talked about where you look is where you go. So the question was, is where you are looking where you want to go? He talked about how if we can see the beginning and the end, then how would we act. It was good to think about. It was a really good sacrament meeting.

We also went to the temple this week. Second time to go :) Always happy. Can't really say much except it was quite spiritual. :)

Our recent convert is doing quite well. She is so nice, she makes stuff for us every time we go.

Yep, that's the highlights of my week. :)

Lots of loves, hugs, kisses, and safe trip.

Meng