Kwun Tong 12

Temple day today!! :D :D :D

and learned A LOT although I was really tired and was afraid I would doze off, but I didn't! Because I prayed that God would keep me up so I can learn and get answers to my questions, hehe

And I further realized that temple work and mission work are really alike, Though we are serving these people on the other side that needs the gospel, we still learn a lot through the ordinances we do for them, and as we serve the people in this world that need the gospel we also learn many many things, so awesome.

Andyways this week was miraculous one too! finding awesome investigators, especailly with Sister Cook's amazing music talent! Lily is Sister Sam, a recent convert's non-member daughter who is learning not only guitar from Sister Cook but also wants to learn more about the gospel!

We have also found 5 new potential investigators from just eating at a same restaurant twice in 24 hours, and one of them, Michelle, came and toured the church and participated in our English class last night! On Monday we had our consecrated finding time, which means that we schedule that time to go finding in advance and don't let anything come in the way and treat it like a sacred appointment that it is, and we found an elderly lady in need, Chan siu je, who we were able to invite to our ward's Family Home Evening and then taught about the prayer, and had her prayer answered by that night, it's actually a pretty long story but don't have that much time to tell all the details. Ah! can't believe all that has happened just last week, looking at my planner it surprises me how much has actually been done and happened, so incredible! Despite the crazy last minute interview invitation by our mission president for our whole zone on tuesday, where we had to use at least 2 hours of travel and some more waiting time but we are still able to accomplish so much!

Also I am learning so much more about working with the spirit, I really can see it more in this move because sister cook and i both often don't know what we are doing but things always work out so smoothly for the best and we definitely know we are being led by the spirit because we both are very well aware of eachothers' weaknesses. We are receiving revelations constantly for this area, the work is going so great and we are just over joyed witnessing miracles after miracles we fall into our bed with big smile-lies every night. So happy right now, God is so merciful and graceful to us!

Got to go now

but loves always and remember you are in my prayers!

Sister Burningham

Sister Wan our Thai less-active sister I talked about in my first week in Kwun Tong, we have been visiting her almost everyweek, and she has improved so much! she dilligently attends church when she doesn't have to work on sundays now, and prays everyday and is smiling more!

Today for P-day after the temple we went with the missionaries from different zones to eat together in a buffet, before that we went to the pier and admired the view of the hong kong city. And Sister Cook and I accomplished a nice companionship picture--which happens to be rare for some reason--yay!

     The view of the pier 1

    The view of the pier 2

 
     Re-union with Sister Farr! I have missed her very much!

At the Buffet with some missionaries! The far left is Sister Chan, she is from Tai Wo Ward, my first area, and her mother is called my Hong Kong mother who calls me "nice pig", which is why she became my hong kong mother because my real mother calls me pig, hence we are sisters, we already felt like we already knew eachother before we came to this world when we first met so, we love eachother lots though we never served or lived together in same area! I love her and her family lots. Next to me is Sister Cook, and some elders :)

Kwun Tong 11 - Month 11

Wow, lots have happened,

May 12 was my 10 year batism Anniversary,

20th was our 6 year family sealing anniversary,

Lots of birthdays happened,

and on 22nd was my 11 Month Mark

AND on the same day,

Elder Oaks from the 12 Apostles visited Hong Kong!

We lined up to take a picture with him and shook hands with him and had him speak to us missionaries, it was an overwhelming experience,,

I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M SERVING IN HONG KONG AS A MISSIONARY AND HAVE SHAKEN ELDER OAK'S HAND!!!

Just had one of those wake up moments to how many blessings I am being poured down with,

I don't have much time right now to email, but we have been blessed with SO many SO MANY miracles and blessings lately, like, EVERYDAY, we almost expect them to happen,

just a quick update, Mary and Grace BOTH came to church and stayed longer than they meant to because they enjoyed it that much, We found so many new investigators lately miraculously, God is so merciful we are so overwhelmed and humbled, because we don't really know what we are doing, and we are pretty silly and dumb, but God really takes care of all our mistakes and we are being blessed with miracles left and right, and he also helps us know how to deal with all these miracles as well so that we don't mess up what He has set up.

So grateful, extremely grateful. I can never express it enough.

Got to go!

Love you all so much

Love my Lord so so much,

always,

Sister Burningham

Kwun Tong 10

Many mixed feelings right now, but I am mostly very very happy.

Sister Cook reminds me lots of my BYU family so it has been especially fun lately.

Miracle story from yesterday: A lady named Mary whom neither of us knew who she was or where she got our number, just randomly called for information on our English class. I was happy to let her know and we chatted for a while to arrange it all for her. Then on the end note she mentions, "You guys are the Mormon church right? Is it possible for me to maybe get a copy of that Mormon Book? I want to understand more about it" And we ended up scheduling to see her in the afternoon that day. And so she comes to our church, with a younger Friend! Who also really want to learn about our church and asked So many questions! We ended up teaching them both! And both are interested to learn, to really sincerely pray to find out if the Book of Mormon is true or not, if Joseph Smith really saw the Vision! We were both very awed and didn't know what to say afterwards, just very very very happy. Our finding lately hasn't been that of an obviouse success, and our beloved Amber from the week before was prevented by her family to ever see us again, we keep in touch through text but all three of us are sad that she won't be able to keep progressing and coming unto Christ through baptism. But God has been very merciful for us in our best efforts, He is really trying our faith, and it has been a short but great period of growth for us both. We realized that because Kwun Tong has been known as the "promised land" by missionaries because of their many frequent baptisms, the ward was actually very weak and couldn't even support or keep the recent converts without constant effort of the missionaries. We realized that the Ward needs strengthening from the missionaries so that they are themselves converted and can have the power and inspiration they need to fellowship and start reaching out sharing the gospel with their friends. We decided to put most of our efforts and time into strengthening the members although it will not count towards any outward results on our key indicators. But we decided to trust that as we exercise our faith to do what we believed was the will of the Lord, He would also bless us with needed miracles to keep His work moving forward. And He really did. He gave us two ready investigators just yesterday to start teaching, and He also has given us lots of help from other missionaries. Anyways, I am just constantly overwhelmed by the grace and mercy of the Lord, and it really keeps me going and happy and grateful. And I am falling in love more and more each day of really giving my all to serve Hong Kong, to draw these precious children of God unto Christ, to forget myself and the world I used to know and just lose myself in serving, I know I am in the Lord's care and direction. I know He will take care of all the rest. And I am striving each day to live up to all that I testify, and rely on the Atonement of my Savior for all that I fall short in. I am constantly grateful, God is truly Great.

Loves Always to you all,

Sister Burningham

                                            the beautiful view from Sister Pang's home again :)

 

                                          with my new companion Sister Cook

got unintentionally advanturous (we went finding and didn't have enough time to return to our normal traveling route) took a ferry instead of bus to travel to our zone meeting, And! DIDN'T Get LOST :D

 

                                          view from the ferry

Kwun Tong 9, New Beginning

We had some dramatic changes the past week, I won't go into details, but right now I have a new companion Sister Cook, who just got torn away from her beloved first area Yun Long, where she has served for the past 3 and 1/2-ish transfer/move. She is absolutely amazing, although she had to leave her beloved baby area in such a short notice she is so strong, so willing to give her all into her new area Kwun Tong, and although I am a senior companion she has already taught me so much, she is incredibly humble and dedicated, passionate missionary.

 

So much has happened the past week, but I want to mention just one recent miracle, on our first day together we went finding, we haven't gone finding on our own in a while, and we prayed about where to go, felt to go to this place with a pretty sweet name: Crocodile Hill. There we found our new investigator and felt to share the Plan of Salvation with her and asked if she would be willing to be baptized if she comes to know the truth of all these things, she said yes. We had just met her on her way home from school and just sat down and had this lesson out in that park and she scheduled to see us the next day (yesterday). She came to our appointment and we walked to the church together and watched the Restoration(20min) movie together and shared the message of the restored gospel, she told us she doesn't know why but she believes that Joseph Smith really had the Vision and that our messeges are true. We asked her what feelings she felt, she said comfortable feeling. We asked if she ever felt it before, she said no. We explained to her that what she was feeling was that indiscribable feeling of the Holy Ghost and that as we turn and draw closer back to our Heavenly Father we feel this special feeling. Then we invited her to pick a baptismal goal. She prayed with us to pick a date then she paused and said she wants to do the Lord's will and said that she will prepare herself to be baptized on June 17. After the prayer she explained to us that at home and at school people has been telling her all the bad rumours about the church and would not believe her feelings and what she has learned, so she asked if it is a wrong thing to do if she did not tell those people about her choices. We discussed about Joseph Smith and what he had to go through after having his Vision, and told her that it was her choice to share or not, but that it didn't matter what other people say because this is her own testimony. So we were so, very overwhelmed with joy the past two days together with all the miracles left and right, we still have many things we need to do better and repent and improve on, but God is so merciful to us right now showing us miracles after miracles and I'm so excited to continue to witness how full of miracles this coming move/transfer wil continue to be!! I am incredibly happy and so blessed right now!!

I Love you all so much,

always trust in God,

Got to go now

see you :)

Sister Lee

Kwun Tong 8

Hello everyone!

P-day changed to Friday again this week,

I don't know if I ever mentioned this yet but mission has really been different than what I had expected or dreamed about,

but of course, everything will give me experience and will be for my good because it is all arranged by God and He knows what is best for me.

He really personalized this short mission experience for each missionaries for our specific needs and duty.

Mission has been challenging and becoming more challenging as I am out longer, but I am also realizing that the Lord has really strengthened me, prepared me, taught and raised me up for these challenges that I am able to endure them patiently and actively, and it draws me evermore closer to the Lord and strengthens my trust and faith in Him.

I would not be being honest if I said that I don't struggle. But I found that I can still move forward no matter what. It is because of the Grace of the Lord prepared by the Atonement of our Savior. I am understanding ever more about love. and all the things the Savior and the prophets spoke about love sinks even deeper in my heart.

I am learning to trust in the Lord that my best really is enough and I am striving to develope more self-esteem and confidence in the Lord, doing my best to trust that my best effort is acceptable to Him and that He is pleased by my hard works no matter how imperfect. I am learning more about feeling successful by the Spirit not by any other measure, I am applying more of President Monson's quote: "Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved". I am finding more and more things to constantly repent about and can feel my conscience becoming clear before the Lord. "Seeing is half the battle" I know what I need to fix and work on and change in myself, and I know I can change because God is with me every step of the way.

Today was our temple day!

I have really been craving for it since I went to Macau, and it was so good to return home! Temple is where I can feel that I am home, and can find rest. Last Friday we had the opportunity to participate in the baptism part of the temple with Cassandra our recent convert, and few other recent converts! Cassandra is really improving and growing in the gospel. Though she is forgetful and doesn't know or understand much, she is able to withstand all the anti-pressure from school and other places in her life simply because she knows this church is true. She is awesome! I also had the opportunity to be on splits and teach Jenny on Tuesday, she hasn't been to church since her baptism and has told me on Saturday that church on Sunday was the most annoying part about all the church activities and that she didn't want to go, so I had been extra concerned as to how in the world to help her. But I bought her a Childrens' Book of Mormon Story, and she started reading it right away in front of me and started to comment on the stories and things and have impressed me that she really wants to see Jesus Christ like the prophets have. So I asked her "you REALLY want to see Jesus Christ don't you?" and she said "of course" so I told her I will teach her how to see Him, while IN THIS LIFE. :) We turned to Doctrine and Covenants 93:1 and read the pre-requisites to "see my face and know that I am". And I asked her if she really wanted to see His face and if she knew now what to do. And she said she really does and answered me those things in the scripture, and I asked "how do You need to keep the commandments?" and she told me she needed to come to church and keep the Sabbath Day. I asked if she would and she said yes. ,,,,,,!! So I am looking very much forward to this Sunday!!!! I really hope this pure desire to see Christ will really help her keep all the commandments and to grow in the gospel! She is young and has good questions, she has so much potential, and she just needs to come to church and be nurished by the good word of God and renew her baptismal covenants to grow in the right ways. So I am very thankful that the Holy Ghost has guided me to that scripture that I read such a long time ago. Still praying and fasting for Jenny!

There are lots of things happening that I don't understand and causes me to question my worthiness as a missionary, but then as I look back on my week--like during emailing time--I realize I am still being led and guided by the Spirit and I know He is what we need to do this work worthily. And I know that these things are only helping me, leading me to the Promised land. As described in Ether 6:5-12, These winds that God has arranged are to help us get to the promised land, it will not cease until we get there, and many times we will be buried in the depths of the sea, but the Lord will hear our cries and deliver us, and we will praise Him always, and as long as we rely on the Lord no monsters of the seas will brake us, and we will have the Light of the Lord continually, and WE WILL GET THERE, the promised land! :)

Let us all strive to have joy in this journey :)

Add Oil everyone!

Sincerely with loves always,

Sister Burningham