Kwun Tong 18

Wow, I don't know what to say, so much is happening, so many people are coming closer to the Lord,

So humbled to be called on the Lord's errand here in Kwun Tong to be used as His tool to help these souls come unto Christ.

Debby, our recent convert's little sister brought her friend Christine to go to Sports Night with us on Friday!!!

We taught about prayer and had our two other recent converts Ying Ying and Cassandra share their testimony of prayer. Then they both were willing to pray, so we had two "closing prayer"s! And they were so heart felt and sincere prayers! Debby especially expressed how she had been doubtful about prayer and everything but "as I really did pray to you, I felt that there really was someone who listens, very close by me, with me, and understands me and my feelings, and it leads me to want to learn and listen more, so please help me know you more I am willing to see these missionaries, to learn more truth." I am so grateful for how open they each are with their prayers and to let us hear them, take glimpse into their heart. I feel so trusted and honored to hear their prayers.

Suki prayed and chose a baptismal date!! She wants to be baptized on August 5th!! She is so amazing! So special, ha, she is so child-like, so pure and honest and simple. Though she has big issue she first need to take care of before her baptism, she isn't stressed out at all about it and is willing to communicate with the parties involved to resolve them nomatter how hard or complicated it may be! She really wants to be baptized and establish an eternal family in the temple.

On Sunday we had 7 people come to church! and not only that, our neighbor investigator that we teach, Susanna, invited us to her Sunday family dinner,,,,

,,,where we met her entire extended family!!!!! :O

there were her parents, her husband and kids, her brother and sister, and their wife/husband and kids!! The three families eat together every Sunday (we turned down the offer of beer, lol)  and liked us missionaries so much(I don't know why really) that they invited us to come again next sunday and eat with them! 

I am so excited for the future of Kwun Tong, there are so many potential domino rows ready to start, we are really entrusted with so much and we are working very hard and doing the best we have ever done to take on all this!

Got to go now, but so much gratitude!!!!

Loves, 

Sister Burningham

Kwun Tong 17

Last week's miracles were overwhelming, we had five people show up to church! I have never seen so many in my whole mission so far!! So we got to grab members to go on splits to different rooms afterwards and teach some of them after church!

And we have been given overwhelming amound of new investigators and the Lord really has been blessing us with so many teaching pool for our Summer Missionaries it seems!

I know I don't deserve even the half of all the blessings and miracles we are experiencing right now, it really humbles me, this really is the Lord's work.

Last Sunday we also had planned a Consecrated Finding time from 3 to 5 from our weekly planning, and we felt a bit confused because we had already so many new investigators more than we could handle, and was even debating if we were willing to still go even though we "don't need it", I feel very hurt or sad from even having that thought come across, I repented,,Of COURSE the Lord still wants us to go and has planned something specific for us in that time. We are so quick to forget and be weakened in faith. Anyways,

we planned to go finding in Kowloon Bay during that time and we prayed together to seek the Lord's forgiveness and seek His comfort and confirmation to still go finding, Then, He gave us a prompting: Michelle lives in Kowloon Bay, why don't you go visit her and perhaps you will meet her little sister?

I was very excited and nervous at that thought during the prayer, we have been wanting to meet Michelle, who is a recent convert, her non-member little sister for many weeks and it just never worked, she wouldn't come to meet us for any activities or anything. But we told Michelle about our prompting, she then immediately called home to ask her little sister who IS home if that's ok. She said that she would be bringing some people home for surprise. :)

Then Hoi King said we should also visit her home and meet her family, who still doesn't know she has been baptised and she had been avoiding to let them know because they would be very upset to find out. But she has got a job this past week that required her to work on some Sundays and if she were to quit her family will have to know why. But we fasted with her on Sunday--all four of us missionaries. And she talked to her boss again and he didn't have problem of giving her sundays off in addition to the two weeks she already has asked for days off for when she becomes a summber missionary!!!

So we split, me and my summer missionary sister Yam went with Michelle, and then Sister Cook and her summer missionary sister Lee were going to go with HoiKing when the phone rang and Suki wanted to come see us now! So we decided to go ahead and they could stay and teach Suki and go over to Hoi King's later.

So when we visited Michelle's home, her little sister was there, and despite her big interest in Korea and our excitements to meet her, she was very shy? or anti-social about it all and just walked into her room and shut the door, we then just stood there wondering "Dim Syun" like,, "what now? What do we do?" Then she came back out and I just straight forward told her I am here to meet and get to know her and we had her sit with me and we just talked, or, she didn't want to talk so I talked and she listened,,,

But, something amazing happened, she started to ask really good questions, she loves to read and she seems like a thinker, and asked some deep questions that Michelle being a recent convert didn't know how to answer. But we answered them through the plan of Salvation and invited her to learn more. Because God loves us nomatter who we are or what we do. and always is inviting us to learn of His truth so we can have answers and peace and assurance and guidance in this life and eternal happiness in the next life. And I asked her if she would be willing to learn of it herself, and meet with us missionaries and she said yes. She even agreed to come to Sports Night on Friday evening and is even bringing a friend! We are so excited!!!!!!!! And by this time she finally let me know what her English name was! She was unwilling to let us know for some reason,, and so her name is Debby and we are very excited for her, and for Michelle, and for the Lord!!! So looking forward to Friday :) :)

Anyways, it was really a miracle, that Consecrated finding we plan during our weekly planning with the Lord really is true, and if we are faithful to it we will really be blessed. That meeting with Debby lasted exactly 3 to 5. In Kowloon Bay. We knew we had to go to Kowloon Bay at 3 to 5 and find someone, and we really did!

Mission is so full of miracles like this, but I sometimes wonder and believe, it's not that there are more miracles in the mission than anyother time in our life, maybe that's true, but I believe that it really is happening every day anywhere and everywhere, it all just simply depends on our planning and learning to recognize them more.

I love the Lord so much, and I wish I could help everyone know how Awesome He is, and share all these miracles with everyone,

well, I must go now, but I love you all so very much,

always,

Sister Burningham

     Girls' Night Even Bigger Success than the last!!! (another miracle I didn't have time to tell)

    Our wonderful Summer Missionaries finished their two weeks yesterday, we will really       miss them :')

Kwun Tong 16

Wow, we've been having so many miracles with our summer missionaries! Being able to see investigators that has dissapeared for quite sometime has come back and especially our new investigators May and A-Miu!!!

they are both missionary contacts from other areas in Hong Kong whose numbers other missionaries have given us to contact, and it was so hard to get a hold of them and this week we saw them both!!! And especially May (who was an English interest referral) just texted us out of nowhere and said she wanted to come to our church on Sunday and we met her at church and she is an awesome investigator with pure desire to know the truth!! And I love Suki, and Mona, and so many miracles!! Hopefully I can write about them more next week because I really got to go now!

Love you all, sorry this was so brief today but enjoy the pictures!! :D

Sister Lee

    With my summer missionary! the Brother and Sister Ho took us missionaries to a restaurant for dinner!

   With K-K, a Young Woman in our Kwun Tong Ward, she left last week for school in Oregan, USA, we will miss her!

    With Hoi King, before her baptism at Picasso museum on P-Day.

 

    Picasso Muesum

   With Sister Law-Poon, she is our Thai member, she is totally awesome, and so is her conversion story!! This is the day she treated us missionaries (Elders with their summer missionaries then) out for lunch!

   one of our Kwun Tong member Granny Ho

  

  When we visited her she has a pet parrot!! and I was fascinated, until its eyes zoomed in and out creepily at me, but it was just getting ready to fly and jump up onto my shoulders--not to poke my eye out xD......................                                                it jumped upon my shoulder, pretty excited because birds are my fav. animals!  

Kwun Tong 15 - YEAR MARK

So much to write about and so little time, today has been busy!

We have a pair of summer missionaries starting today!!! We picked them up this morning and dragged them both throughout our P-day errands and they are both dead tired, feel bad, but, They are so wonderful!! I can't wait to see what kind of miracles we will be experiencing these following two weeks!!!

So,

First of all, 2 weeks ago on Tuesday we met our new investigator Hoi King, who now has an english name of Parley. The Kowloon Zone sisters introduced us to her because she lives in Kowloon Bay which is part of Kwun Tong Ward. She has been to church in Kowloon Ward for three weeks with her friend from school so far and wants to become a missionary, and we met together to help her smoothly transfer to the ward she belongs. That following friday we were weekly planning where we realized every investigator whom we wanted to give a baptismal date to, when we prayed about them, we both felt like they should be baptized on the 17th of June, which is only a little over a week away. So we decided that Heavenly Father wants us to have someone baptized on that specific date but no one was ready. However, because the feeling was so sure we made that goal of one baptism for the coming new week. Then we planned specically who and how we can prepare each of possible investigators to meet that baptismal goal. Then the next day was my birthday and we couldn't get a hold of anyone yet still, then Hoi King just walked into the church with her guitar!! We taught her and asked about her feeling towards baptism, she said she wanted to be baptized as soon as she can, she said she really wanted to be baptized. She happily accepted her baptism date of 17th and we were all in awe.  The following week was very challenging week, the opposition from Satan is strong of course, but God is stronger. Michelle who also lives in Kowloon Bay fellowshipped the following lesson, and Carry who is also a recent convert bore the most strongest recent convert testimony to Hoi King for her baptismal interview questions review questions, which not only helped Hoi King, but also Carry to really solidify her previous shaking testimony and rid of any doubts she has previously has had recently. Through prayer and fasting and doing our best, the concerns that arose during the following week was resolved, the week was truly miraculous and it's sad I won't be able to describe how incredible and miraculous it had been. Everything worked out and Hoi King was baptized Sunday the 17th! It was very faith testing week, it was difficult to discern where the source of our impressions and feelings were coming from, but I can't begin to describe how amazing the week was.

Second of all, Suki, our investigator learning English with us wants to be baptized! She also came to church that sunday and stayed not only the 3 hours but Hoi King's baptism too! She kept asking, "when I'm baptized..." questions!!! We really didn't expect her faith to grow so fast! She used to be so hesitant in having Christian influence, but now she loves it, and said she will definitely come again next week! She also participated in Family Home Evening the next day and loved it, asked us to invite her to more of these activities! She is starting to hunger the gospel it is SO Exciting!!!

Out of time, but those two, (three including Carry's solid testimony) has been the biggest blessing and miracle of the week, I am extremely happy and so overwhelmed with joy!! Tomorrow, I will have served my mission for exactly a year, it's all going by SO SO FAST!!!!! There are so many miracles God wants us to have faith to see, and so many people to bring unto Christ, I can't waste a single moment, and I am truly growing in ways that is perfect for me, the way of the Lord, and my faith is growing and my confidence is starting to bloom. I hope to continue to trust and follow the promptings of the Lord, I am so grateful that He trusts us so so much. He is truly so so great.

I love you all, time is over, but I hope you all could feel at least a little bit of the spirit of the week I had!

God be with you, Loves!!!!

Sister Lee!

    suki, sister cook, hoi king, me

                       me, elder ho, hoi king, sister cook

    me, suki, michelle, hoi king, sister cook

Today for our one year mark, our MTC District met together again and ate together at the Indian Buffet to "celebrate", It felt really good to see them all together again, wow, we really have come so far in Hong Kong, I felt like some-sort-of-home somehow being with these silly bunch :) far left next to me is my summer missionary companion Sister Yam!!! :)

Kwun Tong 14

I had the best birthday of my life last week, thank you all so much again, and most of all, thank Heavenly Father so so much.

Ah, SO MUCH has happened since I last wrote, I guess it's like that every week, so sad I never have enough time to write about it all,

Suki, the girl a little older than us that we met in our favorite restaurant in Kwun Tong by eating there--she's a waitress there--has been doing incredibly well! She didn't know ANY English to start with but she has been progressing already in 3 weeks? And she has no background in Christianity but has started praying and has been feeling the peace and happiness and good feeling from it, and has been asking questions that we are actually teaching her the gospel much faster paced than we'd originally thought we would! We last saw her yesterday with Sister Becky Ng, our member friend who has fantastic English, and she prayed with us by the end to find out if God exists and hears her prayers, the Spirit was strong as she prayed, we could feel of God's love. Afterwards she said that she is feeling something very special she hasn't felt before, and stayed kneeling for a while. It was really special to experience that with her,,

As for my Birthday, it became more of a birthday week and it was so Awesome, SO MANY Miracles!!! One of which is still continuing, we are looking forward to its results, I will know by next week so I'll tell you all about it next week, SO EXCITED!!! :') Oh and the members even prepared a surprise lunch for me that day and one sweet recent convert Michelle even cooked Seaweed Soup!! It was really so special, I felt very very loved and thought about, so so grateful that day,,!!

One of the recent converts Carry is doing better than before, we have been quite worried about her lately but as we saw and talked to her last time the spirit guided our conversation, it was so so gooood!! I also was able to draw a picture of Savior for her, hopefully it will continue to help her.

Yesterday's miracle is so incredible, the two mothers that Elder Ho and Bingham and their Summer Missionaries contacted last week brough 6 other mother friends with them to this newly started childrens' English class!! there were so many kids it was quite overwhelming when the two mothers we scheduled to teach English to their kids showed up to church with what it seemed like an army of mothers and kids! And it went smoothly and well, the kids loved the class! We shared about prayer, and they were so good with it! And so now we have established our weekly Childrens' English Class by Study and by Faith! We are excited to see what kinds of fruits would come from all this, we are definitely going to find members to help us in the class as well! So Excited!

Anyways, time is almost over, but I also wanted to add on really quick, Happy Father's Day!!! I can't believe it's already been a year since last Father's Day when I gave my departing mission talk, time really does go by so fast! And I am so happy that my relationships with both my Heavenly Father and Earthly Father has improved since my mission even when I am away from home! I love them both even more now, miss them both very much, but feel like they are near me, Can't wait until Father's Day really comes on Sunday! It will be a Great Day!!! :D And I may also add that I really love and appreciate my companion Sister Cook!

Loves always and forever :D

Sister Burningham

Kwun Tong 13

Wow,, I have received the birthday present on tuesday and just today I watched it,

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! It meant so much for me to hear all your voices!

I am very blessed to have such thoughtful parents and friends, I would never be able to thank the Lord enough for this huge blessing.

The past week has also been such amazing week full of miracles, including JENNY CAME TO CHURCH!!!!! AND STAYED SMILING THE WHOLE TIME!!! I was SO happy!!! Now we just need to keep this continuing, she pulled out a picture I drew her of her sitting on the lap of Jesus Christ and she keeps it in her wallet and shows it to me everytime she sees it, I know it has been the quest on her part to come to church, we hope to keep her coming!

Also there's one particular miracle that I would like to share, On Tuesday we went on another Consecrated Finding (where we decide on the day and time and place to go finding--China Hong Kong Mission way of doing tracting--in advance in our weekly planning and don't let any other appointments replace it because we dedicated that time to the Lord and the Lord wants us to be out finding during those hours) and we saw a boy about our age who we felt that we should talk to but was hesitant because he Is our age and it might be a little awkward having two sisters contact a guy, but when we started talking to him the first question he asked us was if we were from Utah in English. And it turns out, his name is John Wong, he was born in Hong Kong, grew up in Hawaii and went to BYU Hawaii and has a girlfriend in BYU Provo whose whole family is member of The Church and lives in Hong Kong and she wants to serve a mission, and he is a Seventh Day Advantist who has been through the Marines for 3 years and has so many similar interests and personality as Sister Cook, and knows our District Leader Elder Cuevas from the Marines while serving in Afghanistan!!! He is now traveling the world and Hong Kong is his first stop. And when we bore our testimony the Spirit was very strong, and we bore testimony and shared our process of how we chose to come finding there not knowing exactly why. We exchanged numbers although there's a great chance his dying phone won't survive and at least a good word of "see you again in Provo after mission". And it did not end there, when we told Elder Cuevas about him it was a very special miraculous experience, because Elder Cuevas remembers him and has had a deep conversation about God back in the Marines and John told him that there was a reason why he met him and had the conversation. Elder Cuevas then didn't see him again and he even thought that he had died there. And we prayed together for him and cried, because, we felt an overwhelming feeling of having found our long lost brother. We haven't been able to get a hold of him since, his phone has died, and it doesn't help that he had planned to travel to Taiwan next, um, Today! But we know that that meeting was inspired and arranged by God. We feel so much love for John, he's been on both of our minds since and it is another testament that God is really so aware of us all individually and the fact that He could arrange things so specific as tuesday's meeting and how much us 3 all needed that meeting to turn to our God more, I am just continually overwhelmed by how grateful I am to my God, how much I love Him. This experience also reminded me of Zen Zang, he never replied to my email I sent with President Chan's permission, but I feel the Spirit's comfort that I have done my part that God wanted in their road to find Him. I really hope I can see the fruit of both instances among many in my life time, but I know that I will definitely see it in our glorious family reunion in the Kingdom of God after this life. I am grateful to get at least the glimpse of that eternal fullness of joy, I am so happy with my mission and so grateful. And although I am so happy and blessed, it amazes me how much I am still growing and learning, especially from Sister Cook. She is a truly amazing teacher and I am infinitely blessed to have her as my companion.

Time is up and I got to go, but I love you all so very much, thank you so much for the birthday wishes again, the mission is also making sure it's not forgotten as well haha :)

Loves always

Sister Burningham!

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

Kwun Tong 7, Month 10

Just realized I have just past my 10th month mark in my mission last week, Where did month 9 go??? It's all going by way too fast.

Last week was so special, well, I guess every week I realize that my past week has been very special; I am grateful for e-mail times not only because I get to communicate with my family, but also because I get to reflect back my week and realize how wonderous and miraculous it had been, and how much I have learned and grown in such a short time.

I can't believe all the things that has happened the past week, it all seems so long ago, yet I feel like P-day was just 2-3 days ago and it's already here.

Last Friday-Sunday was a very overwhelming period for many of us in our areas. One of the sisters living with us in our apartment, her relative has passed away very suddenly who was very personal to her and was one of the hopes and blessings she prayed for as she went on her mission. There were also other many very crisis moments that happened all at once for so many people around us, even for me as well. And the most miraculous, unifying part of it all was that we all overcame each of our crisis through the same power: the Atonement. I would not be able to fully describe how amazing, how incredible, I can't describe what we all experienced, only that it was so very special, we are really trusting in the Lord, and we can feel His strength, and, ah, it's SO incredible, we are changing, we are becoming ever more humble, ever more meek and broken hearted, and the Lord is able to purify us and help us become more like Him.

The World will never be able to understand, how those who apply the Atonement of our Savior daily can do what they do, how we can still laugh and look out for someone else in their crisis while in the midst of our own, and how we are able to invite the Spirit to let it lift the burdens of our friends whether they be members or investigators or whoever they may be, how we can remember someone else's needs and include them in our prayer of faith, how we can list lists of blessings after blessings and really sincerely thank God for everything--even our painful moments we are experiencing, how we are able to just continue to do our best efforts in the Lord's work, how we can just let go of others' offences and mistakes, how we can just forgive and accept, to move on and trust and obey, how we can look at some one in the eye and tell them "I know God, my Father in Heaven loves me, and I know He loves you". God is so merciful, so patient, so kind, so loving. I am grateful that such a perfect, all mighty and all loving, glorious being is our Father up above. We really can trust Him, because He really does have all the best in mind for us. Mission has really been different than what I had expected. The Lord is ever so mindful of us each. He uses specific people, blessings, trials, and opportunities tailored and personified specifically for each of us to help us grow and learn and become more like Him. And as we realize we really are His baby, ever in need to rely and trust in Him, as we humble ourselves like so and accept our brothers and sisters who are also given weaknesses as we have been, we are letting the Lord change us into who we were made to become. And the price for all that mercy and privilege has already been paid through the Atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I am thankful for all the prayers and fasting and other supports on my behalf,

so grateful for this privilege to serve a mission even though I have so many weaknesses, the Lord truly qualifies those He calls, He makes sure He fixes them up :) And Loves us so SO much.

I am so grateful to be alive

to have all these experiences in this mortal life, to know my Savior and can feel of the power of the Atonement,

His Grace, I will eternally be grateful for, it is my source of survival,

I am super grateful I had already chosen my Savior even before this life to receive this body of flesh and bone :')

And as always, I love you,

and what more, our Best Friend, Jesus Christ loves you, Perfectly.

S2, Leih Ji muih

Zone Activity today, we went to Tai Po!! My baby area!! I have missed it so much! Felt so good to visit it again :') 

Kwun Tong 6

This past week was unique,

we went on a zone find and during the find they exchanged the companions and I got to be companions with Sister Cheung (we were in the same zone & apartment my first area and recently she was moved into this zone --but different apt.--so we are reunited in the same zone! :D) And we found a new investigator together who was willing to pray and hear our lesson on the street, her name is Skye, and she loves art as well :D she asked good questions and though it is Sister Cheung's area so I won't see her in their next appointment, I am really excited for her to come closer to the Savior, and she expressed that she wants to :)

And on Monday I helped Phoebe with her English homework and she thanked me saying she was able to get it done much faster than she would have if she struggled on it by herself, so since she has been to busy to read the Book of Mormon, I congratulated her for this extra time that she has just discovered to actually read the Book of Mormon now! And she really did read! I was SO happy! Because of the way she grew up she was convinced that there cannot be God and was hesitant to try having faith and gain answers to her prayers, so we came to a conclusion that the only way she can overcome those doubts and be convinced to try it out is through the Book of Mormon, and she is a reader herself as well. So we are slowly trying to help her find her faith. Her younger brother on the other hand is preparing himself to be baptized on the 29th! We hope the changes he will go through through the gospel will also help Phoebe develope the seed of faith to plant.

On Saturday we visited our less-active recent convert Jenny and that day we also met her older sister Ada as well! Ada is a former investigator who skipped on her appointments with past missionaries and this rare opportunity we were able to share the messege with her with her siblings--Jenny and her very active older brother/Ada's younger brother Marcle. And Jenny offered the closing prayer where she expressed her hopes that her sister Ada and her parents would also come to believe in God someday and it was so beautiful. Since Jenny's learning the gospel, the relationship with her and Ada were improved, and we could see that her prayer drew them even more closer, we also could see that Jenny actually deep within really did love the gospel and realized that we just needed to encourage her to wake up on sundays so that she can come to church, so her sister and her parents can also see her love for the gospel in action. I have made an agreement that she may sit next to me and watch me draw her some pictures during church, which she seemed to be excited for.

This week we also had 24 hour exchange in our zone, and I had the opportunity to be companions with Sister Kelly again from the MTC!!! and we didn't realize how much we had really missed being companions until that day, we had such an amazing unity and were able to experience the application of basically everything we learned in the MTC and Preach My Gospel! We could see that the same time we have been apart that we learned so much ourselves and it just came back together so smoothly and really helped us to feel the potential of well unified companionship applying the new principles introduced in the MTC. And we were very happy and it really helped us to know that we really have grown and learned more than we thought we did since coming to Hong Kong.

I am truly learning so much, more than I have enough space or time to record it, let alone email it, time is running out, but I just want to share I am so happy to have this privilege to be used as the Lord's instrument in His work. Really overwhelmed by His grace and mercy :')

Loves always

Sister Burningham

Kwun Tong 5

Last week was Hong Kong's General Conference!! And I am glowing and floating and giddy with such a feast for my soul! And as usual it answered my questions! I am so grateful that we can have such a meeting and gathering with the Saints all over the world and be strengthened together.

Anyways, I am becoming closer to our recent converts and less-actives and our investigators. I am getting to know them more and we are becoming better friends, I just need to help this relationship to slowly be passed onto the Savior, so that He can be their Constant best friend, like He has been for me with all the changes I've gone through :)

It will take some time as I help them gain more out of the Book of Mormon, but I know it can happen, because it already has in my past areas, and it's what we have been called by God to do.

 

Pictures this week are Korean food! well, I have desperately been missing Korean food more than I ever have in my entire life this past week, and I attempt to cook something somewhat close to it, but my beloved companion had her birthday past week and a member took us out for dinner and since my companion also loves Korean food, we went to a korean "fast food" booth and had some! hehe <3 it's SO much better than my attempted cooking in the limited time we have as missionaries :)

 

Short and sweet this week, hope to write more next week!

Loves to you all

from Hong Kong :) :) :)

Sister Burningham

Kwun Tong 4

Sunday last week was so awesome, Kobe the elders' investigator was baptized and bore strong testimony, he's so great, loves the gospel so much, so happy to see him so excited to keep growing and improving. Last Sunday was also a special My Conversion Story Fireside with Songs of the Heart Choir for Easter season for the whole Hong Kong. It was held in Kowloon City and we all traveled there and got there early to look around the temple together, Kobe was so excited. It was his first time in Kowloon and he even gets to see the House of the Lord. It phases me everytime how the temple stands in the midst of busy Hong Kong streets and despite how noisy the street is with cars and buses once we enter in the temple grounds, it is actually quiet and so peaceful within--and we haven't even actually entered into the actual temple itself! It truly is the House of the Lord where it points us to look to God.

The Choir program was great and powerful, I just wished we could have had our investigators to come but they all thought it was too far and too late in the evening, because the fireside is for everyone and anyone and the spirit is so strong, and the recent converts of the missionaries ending their missions share their conversion stories and why they believe. So good.

It was a bit funny, a bit of a culture shock to be at the fireside because basically everyone in Hong Kong was there, including the members and missionaries in my first area, I must have been away quite a while it was quite overwhelming to see them all again,

time is running short already, (yay send picture days), I love you all so much as always, thank you for your support and prayers.

Leih Jimuih

The recent converts of Kwun Tong Ward: (from left) Kobe (baptized that day), Elder Ho, Earnest, Elder Farnsworth, Cassandra (baptized a week before), Michelle, Sister Wan, Carry, me

 

With Sister Chang, her last Sunday as missionary in Hong Kong, I heard about her since the MTC and met her my first day in Hong Kong and really was a great example to me, I will miss her and her smiles so much!! 

Harbor side of my area, from our beloved Thailand sister, Sister Pang's balcony, she treats us for dinner basically every Thursday and we eat in her balcony with this beautiful harbor sceneary :)