Oh Little Town of San Jose...

Aloha Everyone!

This week has been amazing! I can't believe it's December and here starts my final full week as a full-time missionary in my area. Time seriously flies by. This has been such an amazing experience. But before I get too caught up with reminiscing (because I'll have the rest of my life to do that...hah) I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS WEEK! We have so many investigators that are just at the beginning of their journey closer to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. And what better time than now... the time of the year that we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

I have been thinking a lot lately about how wonderful it is to have the knowledge that we do that we have a Father in Heaven who knows us individually, who loves us unconditionally, and who wants us to succeed. So much so that He knew we were going to mess things up and He provided us with a glorious gift. Our Savior and His Atonement. We've had the great opportunity to share with many of the families we meet the video "He Is the Gift". I love it! It starts with the materialistic commercialized Christmas that we all participate in and then brings it to Christ and how He is the greatest gift we have ever and can ever receive. Well, when I was in high school, one of my math teacher's taught me to read word problems like an equation. The word "is" meant "=". With that in mind, He, meaning Christ, = the Gift. There's a part near the end of the video where it says, "Discover the Gift. Embrace the Gift." The invitation the video is making to all of us is simple, to discover Christ and to embrace Christ in our lives. What a beautiful invitation that is... 

One of my favorite scriptures is in Romans 8, it says, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?...Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creatures, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord...What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?"

Our Heavenly Father loved us so much that He gave a Savior to provide a way for us to be with Him forever. Who can be against us when we have that kind of love penetrating every aspect of our lives?

I know that our Heavenly Father loves us. I am so grateful for this Christmas season that we have to remember our Savior and I am so grateful for the sacrifice that He was willing to make for me and all of us! I love you all! I hope you have a wonderful week! I'll see you soon!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

 Here's the beautiful video that Sis. Ellis mentioned above.  Enjoy it and remember to keep Christmas in your hearts all year long.  We are all so blessed because of our Savior!  Love to you all, Anela

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Aloha my wonderful family and friends!

Wow. It is December! How fast time has gone by I can't even wrap my head around it! I can't believe that 2014 is almost over. This has been the fastest year of my life. This week was wonderful! We had a wonderful thanksgiving! We ate so much food. Oh my. It was great!

This week we also had a branch conference with the Samoan Branch. It was a huge party all weekend! Haha! But really though...it was also the one year mark of the branch and so everyone was so excited about it! We had a dinner the night before and it was like a full blown luau. Each auxiliary performed something and so did the missionaries! I got to dance a hula! Haha whoo! So I really did dance hula all the way to San Jose. Prophecy fulfilled. Ironic how Bro. Finau, the high counselor who spoke at my farewell talk mentioned that I would, and now I did! Coincidence..I think not! Haha. The Branch Conference was amazing. The Branch President spoke and so did Pres. Mella. It made me so grateful for the opportunity I have to work with them both. Both such great leaders who really love the work they do and love the people with whom they work. Just amazing!

But this week was really great! We had so much fun! A lot of our regular people were out of town or unavailable because of the holiday but it's okay because we were able to see others that we don't always get a chance to see! Pretty great! We're super excited for this week we have a new potential investigator that we're really excited about! I really hope it works out! She seems like she's going to be amazing! So much work to do! I love it!

Well, hope everyone has a great week! I love you all! Here's a picture of thanksgiving. All the food on that table...is not even the actual food. That was on another whole table. That stuff was like the amount we took home with us. Haha yeah...it's real life. My wonderful companion is the two from me on the left. 

Love,

Sis.Ellis-Lui-Kwan

Sis. Young Yen is is two from me on the left. : ) A VERY Happy Thanksgiving! : )

Attachments area

Swimming in Deep Water

Aloha everyone!

 

This week was just another amazing one! We have really just been blessed! I seriously don't know how this keeps happening but it's truly amazing!

This past week one of our recent converts was finally able to be confirmed a member of the church and receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost. She was baptized a little while ago but she went into the ER and then the member she is the caregiver for went into the ER. It was a whole lot of crazy. But Heavenly Father definitely takes care of His children and she was able to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost finally this week! I was so happy to be a part of it!

We were able to do a lot of work in the Samoan branch this week. They are all hilarious. And man....the food. By thursday my mouth was seriously tired of chewing. I just drank a smoothie. Haha. But haha...it's real life. 

Anyways, in addition to that we now have two wonderfully golden investigators. I mean I joke about this area being the celestial kingdom but I'm coming to realize that maybe I was actually right. One investigator we just picked up last night and taught her for the first time. She referred herself online to learn more about the church and she is so excited about it. She couldn't wait for us to give her a copy of the Book of Mormon! It was amazing. She had so many questions and pretty much invited herself to be baptized. Haha! Seriously, I don't know where this wonderful individual came from but man...she is great! She is super excited about the Gospel and the church and I am again so overwhelmed with this sense of gratitude to Heavenly Father for blessing me with yet another great opportunity!

I'm so excited for this coming week! My favorite holiday is coming up and we're booked to eat with some of the 49ers. Haha. Oh the Samoan program! I think I'm going to fast this whole week until Thursday! I hope everyone has a wonderful week! I love you all! 

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

(Aloha Family & Friends - I just wanted to let you all know that I just received her travel itinerary this weekend. Sis. Ellis will be coming home on Wednesday, December 17th on Alaska Airlines, Flight 837 arriving at 12:48pm from San Jose. Come join me to welcome her home if you can.  WE have been so blessed by so many wonderful family and friends who have supported us both throughout these past 17 months. We love you all dearly! May you all have a wonderful and very happy thanksgiving! love, Anela)

TALOFA!!!

Hi everyone!

This week has just been as crazy as ever! You know sometimes I think that life can't get any crazier and then...I'm wrong and it can! Haha! But as always. It's just as great as ever.

This week we had transfers and I got a new companion and a new area! Haha! Our areas are now combined so now we cover the Los Gatos, Saratoga, Campbell wards, and the Samoan Branch! The branch is just hilarious and full of hilarious polynesians. It reminds me of home. We had a baptism this past week and of course, there was more than refreshments after. It was like a full blown baptism luau. Nah...not really! But there was a lot of food. I think I've so far gone to like three different buffets. Oh man!! Haha. But don't worry I'm taking my half an hour of exercise seriously! 

My companion is great! Her name is Sis. Young Yen and she is from Samoa. She has been out 11 months exactly as of today! She is super funny and I am so excited to be working with her!

In addition to all this transfer craziness, we also had a wonderful meeting with Elder Bednar this past week. He spoke to our mission and the Oakland/San Francisco mission. It was super interesting he had us kind of participate in this huge discussion. He asked a few open ended questions and missionaries responded to which he then sometimes asked follow up questions. It was so interesting to see the way the meeting took different turns and how differently everyone learned different things. Super amazing. He testified with such power and authority! It was truly an unforgettable experience.

Sorry this is so short. Somehow I seem to have run out of time. I love you all! I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

(Aloha Gang! Sister Ellis-Lui-Kwan has a new address: 141 Saratoga Ave., #1132 Santa Clara, CA 95051.  She'll be home in a month!!! Woohoo!  Thanks for all her birthday cards and gifts too! Love, Anela)
 

Another One Bites The Dust

Alooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooha!

I hope everyone's week was just lovely. This week we had so many things happen! It was amazing! We picked up a new investigator. We just barely played a game of Ultimate Frisbee with the youth. We contacted a man, invited him to church and he walked miles to come. We had a WONDERFUL double baptism. We had a Zone Training Meeting. We had Sis. Ikegami's "funeral." We found more Burmese material on LDS.org. We sang a duet in church...acapella. We planted native plants. We went on exchanges. We ate ribs. We did service at a Thrift Store. We went to the Outgoing Fireside where Sis. Ikegami gave a beautiful testimony. We saved a dying bird through prayer. We taught the Relief Society sisters the ten commandments. Then...to top it all off. We may even become famous because a photographer came to take our pictures doing missionary work!

So all in all. It's just...oh another week in the wonderful glamorous life of being a missionary. 

Haha! Nah...but really though, this week was great! We were able to have some amazing lessons with some amazing people who I love so much! Like I mentioned a little earlier, we have had some amazing miracles this week to end this transfer!

Miracle 1: We contacted a man from India on our way to an appointment the other day! He was so grateful that we took the time to just get to know him and talk to him that he was moved to tears. He's endured so much hardship since he moved to America to be with his wife, who has since passed away. He was really excited to hear about our church and wanted to come. We offered him a ride and he said he didn't need one and he'd just walk. (We knew it was far away and so we kept pressing him offering to arrange a ride. Still, he declined.) So we figured he probably wasn't going to come...for at least this Sunday anyway. Well, guess what! Yes...he walked all the way to the church and came and LOVED it! It was amazing! Talk about doubting your doubts before you doubt your faith.

Miracle 2: We met this woman the other week who lived in our old housing complex. She said she's been meaning to talk to us but never seemed to catch us at the right moment. She invited us to come to her home and we invited her to take the lessons and she said, "Of course, that's why I invited you over here. I need that peace in my life." Yeah...it's real life.

Miracle 3: Our wonderful Burmese investigator! Oh she's just the greatest. We hadn't seen her for two weeks and we got the chance to visit her. We came and she was so happy to see us. She shared a scripture with us and said it was from her favorite packet we had left her. We were both confused because we didn't know what packet it was from and figured out it was from the "Law of Chastity" pamphlet. We left her seven pamphlets/packets and that was one of the last ones. We asked her how many she read and she responded that she had read them all! She asked if there was more material available and we found her some of General Conference. The next day we came back and she had watched all of it! She is so prepared. It is amazing!

Miracle 4: Our investigator got baptized. Need I say more? :)

The baptism was beautiful and she was so ready to make a covenant with our Father in Heaven.

Well, sorry this was so long. Hopefully you all actually made it to the end. Sis. Ikegami is heading home this week and I get a new companion for the last five weeks. Man...haha. Saratoga just can't get rid of me. I keep shuffling through companions like nobody's business. What's up with that? Haha. I'm excited for this next transfer. The windows of heaven are just wide open pouring out blessings and there's seriously not room enough to receive it. I'm pretty sure I've said this before...but thank you to whoever paid their tithing.

Have a great week!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

P.S. Sorry...hopefully pictures to come!

You Know You're Missionary When...

Aloha everyone!

This week was another wonderful one! Our lovely investigator is getting baptized this weekend and we are so excited for her! She is just great and I am so blessed to have met her! She had her baptismal interview yesterday and we were talking to her beforehand and it was just so tender. She was really nervous about it and we explained to her that she has nothing to be worried about. Just to reassure her even further we "re-reviewed" the questions for the interview with her and she bore such a powerful testimony to us about each gospel principle. So of course, Sis. Ikegami and I were smiling from ear to ear and she told us she used to get mad when people did that. She was like, "at first I didn't get why all you people would smile when I started getting emotional but it's such a happy crying." To which she then started describing how she feels the influence of the Holy Ghost in her life! It was a pretty glorious moment. Definitely worthy of being on The District.

This week has been so full of amazing little tender mercies and miracles. We had people that we hadn't see in a while call us and ask us to come and visit! Haha! We bother and bother and bother with no response and then they call and ask us to come! The Lord seriously works in mysterious ways! 

Then this week, I had yet another hilarious moment! At least this time it wasn't out in public almost falling into people on a bike or something...it was just in our apartment. So we were just all talking and one of the hermanas quotes something and I'm sitting there racking my brain trying to think of what scripture she just quoted. Meanwhile, everyone continues with the conversation and the same sister points out that she just quoted from Pride and Prejudice. HAHA! She quoted Jane Austen and the only literature I thought anybody could quote from was the scriptures. Hahaha! Only a missionary would think that! HAHA! It was pretty hilarious! Maybe..it was one of those you-have-to-be-there moments but I thought you'd all appreciate that anyways! 

I'm so excited for this week! It so bittersweet! We have a baptism this Saturday and this is Sis. Ikegami's last full week in the mission field and it's surreal to see her go. 18 months felt like so far away at the beginning of my mission but now it's just gone by all too fast. Seriously too fast. I'm starting to experience this weird kind of emotional constipation. I really don't know what to think! Haha! Well, have a great week everyone!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

MYSTERY SPOT!

Alooooha!

 

Hi everyone! I hope everyone's week was as great as mine! This week we were able to find so much success! The Lord is seriously smilling down on the Saratoga Stake!

 

We found someone in Sis. Ikegami's last area that speaks Burmese and we gave our investigator Burmese church materials and she just loved all of it! She was so happy to be able to read anything she could and she was so happy for the opprotunity to communitcate with someone who spoke her language! It was amazing to see her desire to really learn the Gospel! I was getting a little discouraged because I didn't know how much she was actually understanding I felt like we weren't teaching her well enough. But then, when we brought the member who speaks Burmese she just started bearing her testimony about almost everything that we taught her! It was amazing! She pretty much understands the entire first lesson all about the Restoration of the Gospel and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. It was amazing! Definitely a miracle!

 

We also had an amazing dinner with one of our members. She invited a friend who wasn't a member of our faith to come and we were able to meet this amazing woman and talk about our beliefs. It was super cool! She came all the way from Turkey and now she just finsihed her Ph.D. and she's like in her thirties. So cool!

 

Then we also had the opprotunity to go to the Mystery Spot this week! It was so fun! I've been seeing everyone's bumper stickers for the past year and a half and now! I have two! HAHA! If only I had a bumper to stick it on... Haha. Nah. But I have to go. Sorry the email is so short! I love you all!

 

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

We had so much fun here! http://www.mysteryspot.com

Hola!

Hi everyone!

This week was...well as amazing as ever..big surprise! Haha! But really though this was an exceptionally fantastic week. We had Stake Conference, we went on exchages with some of the sisters, and we had a Mission Conference with Elder Raphael E. Pino of the Seventy.

I can't even believe that October is more than halfway through. This month has just been zooming by I don't even know where to begin with this week! We have been having some major break-throughs with our Burmese investigator. She came to Stake Conference and she liked it. She said she thought it was going to be really boring and long but that it didn't feel long at all! We also found a member who lives in Palo Alto who speaks Burmese but is willing to come for a lesson to help! Such a blessing! Then, another member found Church material for us in Burmese! Tender mercies just pouring out left and right! Talk about not room enough to receive it! Haha! Thank you to whoever paid their tithing! So this week is definitely going to be really exciting to have all the materials in her language, with the exception of the Book of Mormon, and to have a member who can speak Burmese come with us! I am so excited!

So like I mentioned a little earlier. We had a mission tour with Elder Pino and his wife and they are just the sweetest! They spoke in their native language, Spanish, following with the Spirit of General Conference and it was fascinating. They are so inspired and we were so blessed to hear from him in like a double portion. At Stake Conference and at the Mission conference. I really enjoyed all they shared and I loved how Elder Pino talked so much about becoming like a little child and being humble. So great!

Well, I hope you all have an great week! In about a month, we just found out we'll get to hear from Elder Bednar. He's going to speak to the missionaries from our mission and the Oakland/San Francisco mission at the Stake Center next to the Oakland Temple! AMAZING! We're all really excited! Well, until next week...

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

Meet Me!

Aloha everyone! :)

This week was amazing! I know I say that they always are but this one in particular was just exceptionally amazing! I just need to go study the dictionary for more synonyms of "amazing". But in the meantime, "amazing" will just have to do. 

We had the opportunity to go the Oakland Temple and to watch "Meet the Mormons". It was like a spiritual outpouring of wonderfulness. Sis. Ikegami and I had a wonderful time at the temple on Wednesday. It is just so beautiful there and the peace that comes from attending the Temple is just unparalleled. Heavenly Father just seriously loves all of His children.

On Thursday, we got to watch a special viewing with President Mella of "Meet the Mormons". It is such a great movie. If you haven't seen it yet, go and see it! It follows six individuals and it really just shows their different stories and how incredibly amazing all these people are and yet, they're not perfect. We're just all trying to follow Jesus Christ. A really good feel good movie! 

Then later on Thursday we had a Zone Training Meeting which actually was a lot of fun! We talked a lot about trying to get our investigators to church and Sis. Ikegami and I are working extra hard and hoping to help our investigators to progress even more. 

But, the crowning event of this week was on Sunday! For a number of reasons, Sis. Ikegami and I ended up having a bunch of meetings at church this past Sunday and we only left for about an hour in between to go out and do something and then when we finally left the church building, it was dinner time. Haha! But that's not the important part. The great part comes in that "in between" hour we had! 

We went and visited a lady who is not a member of our church in a nursing home. We visit her about every week and sing for/with her hymns. Anyways, she is one of the most hilarious people you will ever meet and we love singing with her. So we visit with her for a little bit and then begin singing. Part way through one of our songs a man comes in and then when we finish he started saying some not so great things. We just kind of smiled and the woman we were visiting just kind of looked at him and was like, "Uhm, can you stop? I want them to sing." She then closed her eyes, and began singing the hymn, "I Need Thee Every Hour" to herself! Hahahaha! It was pretty funny! But totally great. Haha. So sassy..in the best sense. I just loved it! Haha! Totally made my whole day! Especially because she's not a member of the church and she totally just backed us up! So great!

Ah man...missionary work at it's finest. So fun! And I get to do it everyday! What could be better? 

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week! Can't wait to tell you all about Elder Pino of the Seventy who's coming to visit this week! I'm so excited!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

Sis. Ikegami and I at the Oakland Temple! : )

Wake Me Up When September Ends...

Aloha everyone!

Too bad it came and went before I even closed my eyes. Well, here we are in October. Really don't know how that even happened but this week has been just insane. Wonderfully insane of course. But between transfer meeting on Tuesday,  Leadership Council on Friday,  General Conference over the weekend, and moving into a new apartment Sis. Ikegami and I have been running around like crazy. 

My new address is 131 Saratoga Ave. #3116

                             Santa Clara, CA 95051

Our new apartment is just wonderful and even better we moved in with the Hermanas! Basically they're just the best and I'm learning a lot more Spanish. It's totally fun seeing that now I can call every guy we meet "hermano." Haha... nah. But on a real note, I learned how to pray in Spanish this morning. So that was really cool. Plus, I've been trying to learn Japanese from Sis. Ikegami so all my "mutli-culturalness" inside of me can finally be at peace with all these random phrases I continue to learn. 

So many things I've learned this week! You know that scripture that talking about learning "line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little..." Well, I feel like I got the whole chapter book this week. Listening to counsel from inspired leaders from the leaders of the church and the leaders in our mission, I've been able to take so much from their teachings. I love how so many leaders talked about personal revelation and how each of us are able to receive answers from God. Sis. Ikegami and I were teaching these two guys outside of PetCo last night and just in talking with them about their beliefs it was interesting to hear their views and they came up with the conclusion that to know truth...spiritual truth at least...they'd have to ask God. We then asked them, how they thought God would answer and they responded with about 5 different ways that we talk about feeling the Holy Ghost. We didn't prompt them in any way and neither really had any religious background. But hearing them come to the conclusion all on their own about receiving a personal witness of Heavenly Father was pretty amazing!

I know that Heavenly Father inspires us when we seek for inspiration in our lives. I know that He is mindful of us even when we don't think so and I've come to know even more that He wants us to succeed. He didn't make this whole plan, this whole earth, or devise the Atonement to trick us or to exhaust us, He did it all to help us to succeed. He wants us to do and be the best we can and I loved the way Pres. Uchtdorf put it when he talked about the human understanding of the universe. Just because we didn't know that we weren't at the center of it or that the sun didn't revolve around that earth doesn't mean anything changed all of a sudden because now we understand that the earth is the one the revolves around the sun. Our understanding has changed. The laws of nature were always the same. Just like the laws of God are always the same. Just like we can trust Heavenly Father because we know that He loves us. It's all pretty cool in this crazy all-connecting sort of way that I'm just beginning to figure out. So hopefully some of that made sense! If not, just know, Heavenly Father loves you. But, if you haven't had the opportunity to watch General Conference just yet, PLEASE DO! It's on https://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2014

Do it! It's like Christmas in October. 

Have a wonderful week everyone! 

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

Asian Invasion Part 3

Everyone...ALOOOHA!

So transfer calls are in and Sis. Ikegami and I are staying together for one last transfer! Haha! Exciting things are happening in Saratoga and we will be together to be a part of it! It's going to be great!

I am so excited to see the new sisters that come to our zone! I know they're all going to be great! I'm super excited for General Conference this weekend! It's like Christmas except twice a year and for a whole weekend. So... actually I guess it's not really like Christmas at all. But it's still really great and I'm excited to go to the Oakland Temple next week! It's going to be great. So many wonderful things to be excited for! 

This week...our wonderful golden investigator is still doing well! She is just on a roll! She's like a sponge just soaking up everything there is to know! It is so exciting! I am so grateful to be a part of this process! We had a great week this week! We were able to get to the second page of our progress record in one of our wards this week! Which may not seem like a big accomplishment but it is to me!  Just a little FYI, a progress record is just for us to share with the ward council, or the ward leadership,  to so they can be aware of those we are teaching. It's great for both parties because then they can know our investigators and we can report on people they may have asked us to visit! Anyways, with three wards to cover, I've gotten close to getting to two pages but this was the first week it actually happened. Usually with three different progress records it looks like we've only visited a handful of people that entire week because we spilt our work within the different wards. So hopefully at one point we can get to all three wards with two sided progress records. That'd be so great!

Other than that, everything's been going well! Looking forward to another wonderful week of missionary work! I hope everyone has a great week! I love you all! 

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

Another Amazing Week!

Aloha! :)

This week has been another amazing one! Sis. Ikegami and I did back to back exchanges with sisters this week. So much fun! All the sisters in our zone are basically more on top of it than we are so it's pretty great! I learn so much every exchange. It makes my job really easy because then I get to just tell the sisters how wonderful they are! Pretty great gig, if you ask me!

Hmm. This week went by in a whirlwind! We were able to teach a bunch of people and our golden investigator is still doing wonderfully! She is preparing for baptism in October and nothing can stop her! There's been a few roadblocks but she just trail blazes right over anything Satan tries to send her. It's inspiring. She's telling everyone about what she is learning and sharing the gospel with everyone! Pretty much she should just take my missionary tag! 

Well, lately I think I've really been gaining a stronger testimony of our missionary manual, Preach My Gospel. It is great! Every single word and scripture and everything. I've begun to read it from the very beginning all the way through and I'm learning new things as I go. It's kind of like the scriptures in that way, a new meaning every time. I've been noticing how much of a habit I've gotten into in regards to the way I teach. Don't get me wrong...I'm glad I have a rhythm but there are so many scriptures and references and perspectives that I have used or thought of using in a really long time! I'm really excited to start shaking things up a little bit! Hopefully we can get more people to progress.

On to Week 6 already. I don't know how this dreaded week keeps creeping up on me. Time is definitely moving too fast. I feel like Sis. Ikegami and I just became companions last week!

I love you all! I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

At dinner on exchanges...Isn't this little girl precious? : )

Asian Invasion Part 2

Alooooooooooooha! :)

This week was another amazing one! Except that it was even better than normal! We got a baptismal date from our new wonderful like golden of all golden investigators! She is so great. We've been talking with her about baptism and we invited her with a date and she had already been thinking of one! Isn't that wonderful? She is just the greatest!

Now I'm just worried about her because I know how wonderful she is and Heavenly Father knows how wonderful she is, so Satan probably knows the same thing. I'm praying that Heavenly Father will help her through all the obstacles to come. 

Hmm other than that, Sis. Ikegami and I have been having lots of fun! Especially contacting! Haha. We get all kinds of Asian comments it's hilarious. I contacted a lady the other day and begun telling her we were missionaries for our church. And she, who was also Asian, asked if it was an Oriental church! Haha! I kindly had to let her down easy and tell her, "No it isn't, it's a worldwide church!" Haha! I thought I was pretty clever. But she wasn't as interested anymore. Haha! 

Another contacting story, we met a guy the other day outside of the mall from Ethiopia and he's only been in America for about 5 years. It was super cool to talk to him about his beliefs and he started off not wanting to listen to us at all and then as we continued to talk he agreed with us on so much that we taught him the whole Restoration of the Gospel. Sis. Ikegami is just a contacting ninja master. Mostly because she's Japanese but also because she's just really good at contacting! Haha nah... I'm just kidding. But she is really great at contacting. 

So we've just continued to see the amazing miracles that Heavenly Father has in store for His children here and I could've wished for anything better. He really knows best! I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

The California Gold Rush!

Aloha everyone! :)

I hope everyone's week was great this week. This week has yet again just flown by. I don't know how that seems to happen...but it does. This week has been another amazing one! Sis. Ikegami and I are doing great and our area has just been exploding! All of these wonderful people to teach...I just don't know what to do with myself! 

We got a new investigator this week who I am so excited about! We have been trying to meet with her for the past little while now and we haven't been having any success. She is the caregiver of one of our ward members and everyone has been telling her how wonderful she is so I was so excited to meet her! Anyway, ward members had been randomly stopping by and catching her there taking care of our ward member and yet every time we tried to go..she had either just left or something had happened and she wasn't there. It was a little discouraging. But then.... (drum roll please...) WE MET HER! 

And you know what...she's just as amazing as everyone said she was! Whoo! I was so excited because honestly, I was starting to get a little skeptical about this "amazing" elusive person everyone was meeting, but she is just great! We taught her about the Restoration of the gospel and she even thanked us for teaching her! She's been reading the Book of Mormon and came to church this Sunday and wants to be baptized! 

It's a miracle if I ever saw one! 

Seriously. I've never met someone so prepared and so receptive to the Spirit. It's amazing. She can feel the Holy Ghost and she's starting to recognize it. She told us how every time she meets people from our church and talking to them about the gospel and all of her anxiety starts to calm and she gets goosebumps! She kept pointing it out while we were teaching her. It was so cute to teach her about the Holy Ghost as the comforter.  I am so excited to teach her again and all of our investigators. We're not in Gold country...but we may as well be. The Lord has been pouring out blessings like I don't know what. 

I can't wait to teach her about the plan that Heavenly Father has for all of His children this week. It's seriously my favorite thing because I get to tell people Heavenly Father loves them in just about every point we teach! It's a wonderful thing to know and to be able to help others know! :) Ahh. Being a missionary is just the greatest.

Well, until next week... I'll update you all on the miracles that come this week. It's going to be great. I just know it. I don't know how it happens every week but it seems like the week to come is going to be even better then the week I just had. I have no idea how that's possible. 

I love you all! I hope you all have an amazing week! Keep up the great work! 

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

Since When Is It September?!

Aloooha! :)

Time is seriously flying by. (And I realize I've been saying that for a while now. But man... I feel like I blink and here I am sitting at a computer again to email.) This week was another amazing one! Sis. Ikegami is great and we have been having a lot of fun here in Saratoga! So many miracles.

This week we picked up four new investigators! How amazing! I don't know how I got to lucky to see so much success lately but the Lord has been so good to me! One of our new investigators speaks Farsi and so now... Sis. Ikegami and I can count to ten, conjugate "eat", and describe our face (down to the eyelashes)! It's pretty amazing. On a better note, we contacted this man, our new investigator, in the park and we told him who we were and then he starts expressing to us that he wanted to know more about our church. So of course we're both really excited! Then, he stops and asks us what missionaries do! The whole time we were talking to him. He was telling us all this stuff he knew and so I just assumed he knew what we did as missionaries..turns out, he had no idea. Haha! Lesson learned..

Our other investigators came from contacting all over the place and we are both particularly excited for one of our new investigators. He met us and was so impressed with what we do that he wants to know how he and his daughters can get involved so they can go on missions like us! How amazing is that? 

There have been so many things happening lately and so many miracles and blessings just pouring out from everywhere. This area is just taking off and I am so glad to be here!

I hope you all have a wonderful week and had a great Labor Day yesterday!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

P.S. New skill of this week...KNITTING. A recent convert in one of our wards is a young single mother who also happens to be a master knitter. Like really though... she's an actual master knitter. One of nine. And she taught us how to knit. I feel super talented now. Just call me Sister Knifty Knitter Ellis-Lui-Kwan from now on....or you could probably just use my name..because that's long enough already. Haha! 

Asian Invasion!

Alooooooooooooooooooooooooooha! :)

This week was amazing! We had transfers and guess who my new companion is?! She is great. We have been laughing and cracking jokes from day one! This is going to be one amazing companionship. I can just tell! 

We've had a pretty great week so far! We were able to catch some people at home that we weren't able to catch before and we've been able to get in touch with a bunch of people that we have been having a really hard time with before. 

We were talking about it and we have had a pretty diverse week. We talked and taught people from all over the world! Seriously, in the same week. I've contacted/taught people from Russia, Norway, Nazareth, Cameroon, and some other really cool places! Let's see what else...we had all kinds of different service opportunities this week as well from pulling weeds to rhinestone-ing dresses. On a side note, a elderly brother came up to my companion and I in between classes on Sunday and read both our name tags and looked at us and then said, "Are you in the Chinese program?" "No, sorry." "Well, then...Vietnamese." (He was quite sure of it.) And then, we sadly had to break it to him...that we're English speaking sister missionaries and co-cover his ward. Hehe :) Don't worry we broke the news to him gently. I guess I look really different next to my new companion.

Something that was really great was that we got to talk a lot this week about the love that our Heavenly Father has for all of His children. It was great! I feel like it's been this hidden theme throughout my entire mission, which is totally fine with me because it is my favorite thing to talk about or to teach people. We've come in contact with a bunch of different people who have been having a really rough time and it's just the greatest thing when you can tell them that they are not alone and that Heavenly Father loves them! What greater message of hope is there? The love that our Heavenly Father has for us changes lives. It's just great!

This morning, our zone did a hike together and we all got to study our scriptures at the top. The view was gorgeous and it was such a neat experience to be able to be separated from all the city noises and stress.

I am so excited for this coming week! We have quite a few new potential investigators that seem really interested and one who already wants to be baptized! The Lord is truly hastening His work, I'm trying to make sure I can keep up!

Have a wonderful week! Did you guess who my new companion is?

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

 

 

Yup. It's real life. 

 

Sis. Ikegami's grandparents & Aunty Donna are in Nu'uanu Ward! : )

(Photo Credit: Sis. Ikegami)

 

All Too Soon!

Aloha everyone!

This week was as amazing as ever! We taught so many wonderful people and had the opportunity to be a part of so many miracles and Sis. Christensen and I have been so much on the same page that we snapped at the same time. Twice. 

Haha! I know that sounds really random and to be quite honest, it really was! We were talking about something and then snapped at the same time. After having a good laugh about it, and through even more choking laughter we started explaining the story and did it again! It was too weird!

But, transfer calls came this week and Sis. Christensen is getting transferred! I'm nervous to see who my next companion will be, but I know I probably shouldn't worry about it by now because she'll be great! So many great miracles are just around the corner this next transfer, it's almost as if I can see them right there in front of me. So many of the wonderful people we are teaching are making some huge decisions and huge changes in their lives. I am proud of their courage. I don't think I could be half as strong as the amazing people I get to spend my time with everyday. What a blessing it is to be around such strength.

I'm so excited and optimistic about this new transfer. There are great things ahead for so many of the people we interact with. I'm excited for all the things Heavenly Father is going bless them with because of their faith and trust in Him. Ahh! It's great to be a missionary!

I love you all! I hope you are having a wonderful week!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

"I Don't Like Scrabble"

Aloha everyone! :)

This week was a whirlwind. Just crazy amazing! Our zone went to Santa Cruz again yesterday! It was lots of fun! There were two other zones there so we got to hang out with them as well! I went on more exchanges and got to work with some really amazing sisters! We also had another Zone Training Meeting which was really great because we got to hear testimonies from all of the departing missionaries. Our zone is in for a major adjustment this next transfer. Almost every companionship is affected by this transfer so basically half of our zone is either getting transferred or finishing up their mission and going home. Craziness! Haha!

This week was great! Sis. Christensen and I were talking about it and we felt particularly led by the Spirit this week! Heavenly Father is just watching over so many of His children! I can't count the number of homes we entered this week that told us they were glad we came right when we did. It is such an amazing thing to be a part of. So so cool! We were able to find people and home and learn so much about those we work with. Just hearing their thoughts and their growth is amazing!

On Sunday night, we had dinner with one of our Ward Mission Leader's and his family! They are just amazing! We were cracking up all night long from talking about Scrabble, to Potatoes, to Ninjas, to Nerf guns, it was quite the night! Their kids were hilarious! Almost as funny as Kala and Abby. Haha. But really though... I have a new knock knock joke that I think is just great! Anyways, at the end of the dinner we shared a message like usual but we decided to share with them a Mormon Message called, "Earthly Father, Heavenly Father." It's probably my favorite one and if you haven't seen it yet, PLEASE do! You won't be let down! I had the iPad on my lap and they all gathered around to watch it on the ground in front of us and it was just picturesque. It was like a movie or something! To see them all together and laughing and giving each other looks because they've had something similar happen in their family! It was so great to see a family that truly loved each other and loved our Father in Heaven. I was so grateful to be a part of that moment.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

(Aloha Everyone! I'm trying to include the link to the video Sis. Ellis mentioned in her email above. Hopefully it works. If not, if you can find it on LDS.org or just Google it.  Thank you for all your love and support! Keep those letters and emails coming! She'll be home in just a few short months! Love, Anela) 

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-01-002-earthly-father-heavenly-father?lang=eng

Bien Bien!

Aloha everyone! :)

This week just as crazy as ever! I feel like this is a new theme....hm. But completely and totally great so that just makes it all worth it! Sis. Christensen and I had a wonderful week and were able to get into contact and  teach a lot of our wonderful investigators!

On Tuesday, I was able to go on exchanges with one of the sets of hermanas! They are on bikes and we had so much fun! It made me kind of miss biking! I'm so blessed to be able to work with those sisters. They are just amazing and bold! I love it! It encouraged me to be more bold in the way that I teach and contact people I meet. They are just great at being able to teach when they find! The sister I was with was great at relating everything someone said to a gospel principle or a scripture. I was just in awe! Plus, it was really fun to spend a day in Spanish program! Even if I just smiled and said, "si" all day long. Haha it worked well until they thought I actually spoke Spanish and would ask me questions I didn't know how to answer! Haha! :)

The rest of the week was great! Sis. Christensen and I were able to teach our wonderful new investigator from Burma and she is just progressing well! We thought because of the language barrier she wouldn't be able to understand what we were saying but as we started to reteach her the Restoration of the Gospel she said, "yeah I already know that part. God came and appeared with Jesus and said, 'This is my Son, Hear Him.'" Sis. Christensen and I just sat there with our jaws open so wide they were probably an inch from the ground! It was amazing! She remembered it all!

On Friday, Sis. Fraser and I went to another Missionary Leadership Council and we were asked to lead a discussion on Christlike Attributes! So great! It's my favorite chapter but we were nervous no one was going to participate. But, we think it ended well! It was great to hear everyone's participation though, especially those going home soon. They all had such great insights into to developing those Christlike Attributes in our lives to help with the work that we do here. 

Well, this week seems like it's going to be another amazing one! We have a Zone Training Meeting and a few more exchanges to do! I am so excited! I hope everyone has an amazing week! 

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

What Matters Most :)

Aloha! 

I hope everyone's week was great! This week was just glorious. I don't know why Heavenly Father decided to bless me and Sis. Christensen so much but we are grateful! We picked up three new investigators this week! THREE!!! :) Just to put it in perspective, so far I've been lucky on the mission to pick up three in a transfer period, which is about six weeks. Haha. Actually on second thought, I don't know if there's ever been a transfer that my companion and I have picked up three new investigators. Haha oh man! But it's okay because this week we have three!!!! YAY! It's amazing because they each are incredibly amazing people!

I love being able to meet so many new and wonderful people! I love being in the Bay Area because there is just such a mix of different kinds of people from different walks of life with just amazing stories mixed here together! Even better, we're all God's children and even better than that... I get to tell them all! Haha! It's great! Even though some people just look at me funny because I can't stop smiling! They just don't know how great it really is! Haha....sorry I'm getting off topic!

Our new investigators. One is from Burma. She is great and so enthusiastic about the gospel! We have to go through things a little slower because there's somewhat of a language barrier but she follows along in her Bible in Burmese and it's super cute when something clicks for her. She gets really excited and then writes it down! :) Another is from Cameroon and she basically won like a visa lottery! Super interesting! Then, our last new investigator is from guess where?! Hollister, CA. Haha! Random or what?!

In addition to that, our wonderful Italian investigator is just great! We brought a member who served his mission in Italy to help us teach and it went great! She understood so much more because he was able to relate things to her culturally that Sis. Christensen and I just don't know about! It was just amazing! That's pretty much why I love members coming with us to lessons! They are just great! Even if it's not bridging a language gap, members are just this beautiful way to show our investigators that we're actually human beings! The Spirit was so strong while we taught and testified of the Gospel it was almost tangible! 

Then to top off this wonderful week! My little investigator from Hollister got baptized! :) It just brought it all home for me. That's what really matters most. The wonderful opportunity we have in this life to make covenants with our Heavenly Father so that we can all return to live with Him again! What could be better than that? 

Well, I hope everyone has a great week! You are all wonderful! I hope you all can meet someone this week as wonderful as the people I had the chance to get to know this week!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

Ni Fengle

Aloha My Wonderful Family and Friends!

This week has been so totally great! I have met some of the most amazing sisters of Zion in the midst of Babylon. Such a privilege to be around some exceptionally great women! 

It all started with this wonderful sister who fed us on Monday night. She is great! We didn't have a dinner and she offered to feed us! So so kind! We both just felt this overwhelming sense of Heavenly Father's awareness of her and by extension his awareness of us!

Then on Wednesday night, we met a wonderful Recent Convert to the church. She is a single mother, with two children, who has already battled cancer twice and she's not even 40 years old yet! I was just amazed at her faith and her testimony. She was an example to me as she talked about how grateful she is to have the Gospel in her life and to have the knowledge that she does about the Savior because it has strengthened her in everything she's gone through.

On Sunday, we were able to meet with another Recent Convert and she is just amazing and we also had dinner with Pres. Mella and his wife and those two, they are amazing! Sis. Mella is such an example of a great mother who raises her children in righteousness. They are so down to earth and really just make everyone feel really comfortable. I feel like I can really talk to the both of them about anything and everything.

This week has been great. We ended the week teaching three Chinese exchanges students staying with members of one of the wards. It is amazing to see the immediate effect the Gospel and the Spirit can have in someone's life. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to serve!

Have a wonderful week,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

P.S. Speaking of another wonderful person. Here's finally a picture of me and Sis. Christensen. 

Also, I figured I should probably explain the Subject line. Sis. Christensen has had lots of Mandarin speaking companions and was teaching me things and the subject line means "you're crazy." So this week we were out contacting and Sis. Christensen and I were speaking in Mandarin to each other and these Chinese ladies popped out of nowhere and were all surprised. It was really funny. It was kind of one of those you have to be there moments.

But in other news, for one of those you don't have to be there moments. Sis. Christensen and I definitely showed up at a part member family's home this week with a huge Italian flag for our member's husband to replace his old one and yelled, "Viva Italia!" He loved it so much he wrapped it around himself and gave us Biscotti and fruits! Haha! It was great! 

The wonderful Sister Christensen