Aloha! : )

Alooooha!

Sorry I wasn't able to hop on the computer last week! I was at "Poly Day". Haha...because as we all know I'm pretty much the most Polynesian person out there. Ahhh...haha. Anyways, it was pretty fun. All the Polynesian missionaries in our mission got to spend P-Day together and we pretty much ate, hung out, and played volleyball. Another shocker there...

Haha...but really though. It was totally fun! I got to meet a whole bunch of people who I don't have to explain how "flip-flops" are called "slippers". It was so great. I wasn't the only one with a tita bun. :)

Anyways, these past two weeks have been awesome! So many miracles. This week we have interviews with our mission president. As always, they were great! President Watkins makes me feel like I'm the best missionary on the face of the planet every time I talk to him and then I want to just go and tell everyone about the gospel! Haha! So awesome! On Wednesday, one of our investigators dropped us. He called us and told us that he wasn't interested anymore and didn't want to meet with us. It was really sad. Especially when his cousin, a recent convert, who had been there at every lesson was helping our investigator along the way. Sis. Bliss and I think he took it really hard. But everyone has their agency. I know it will all be fine and that the Lord will continue to bless him and his cousin!

Then, on Thursday the miracle of all miracles occurred! I thought I was in a movie! We went to visit our other investigator and she was amazing! We talked to her about how she thought sacrament meeting went this past Sunday. She said she loved it and even though she had to leave she said when she got in the car she said a prayer asking Heavenly Father if the church was true and if it was the right thing for her and she said she had a voice come into her head and say, "You already know it's true!" What?!?! Ahhhhh! It was so great. I was sitting there listening to her continue to tell us all of these awesome spiritual experiences she was having because she was willing to accept the Lord's will and be receptive to the Spirit. Oh so great! She told us she's excited to go shopping for church clothes now and she wants to get baptized! Whoo hoo! I'm so excited. She is so solid. Man... I felt like I was on "The District" it was so great! It totally was a testament to me that the Lord really does prepare people. She told us that right before we started teaching her she had just told her boyfriend that she wanted to get her life in order and wanted to look for a church! Seriously, tender mercies from the Lord. Things like that really don't happen everyday! I'm so glad that I've had the opportunity to teach her and get to know her. She is such a blessing! 

I can't wait for this new week ahead! All of the wonderful blessings that lie ahead for all of the great people I get to teach and talk to every week are really starting to blossom. I'm so excited for each of them!

I love you all a whole ton! Stay safe. Stay wonderful! Get a tan for me because I'm turning into this weird...pale-ish...person. Love you all!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

Happy After-General-Conference-Weekend Day! :)

(Aloha Gang, This is last week's (10/07/2013) post.  Sorry it's late, I didn't have access to a computer. Sister Ellis wasn't able to email home this week (10/14/2013) because she was in San Jose for the day, but I did hear from her companion who said that she is doing well and will email again next week!  Mahalo for all your love, support, and prayers on her behalf! Love, Anela )

Hi Everyone!

I hope everyone enjoyed General Conference as much as I did! Oh my, it was amazing! It was great to be able to listen to Conference and see all of those we're teaching have questions answered. I can't wait for this coming week and have the time to share all of the messages from General Conference with them. Ahh! So amazing!

This week was as amazing as ever! We got to go to the temple which was just so perfect. It couldn't have come sooner. Ah I love the temple and all the peace it brings to my heart.

We went on exchanges with Sis. Bassett, she's our new Sister Training Leader. She is so great! I loved it! We also gave a church tour this week! It was Sis. Bliss's first church tour and she did amazing! I love giving church tours. I feel like the Spirit is already so strong from the moment someone steps in our church buildings that you just have to feel happy when you're there! 

We also picked up a former investigator! It was great! She had a whole bunch of questions for us and she seemed so open and receptive to meeting with us. Her whole countenance changed from the time I first met her and she really wants to learn things about our church and it is making me so excited! I can't wait to meet with her again this week.

Other than that, everything is going great! We traded in Old Bertha (our Navy Car) for Big Red (the Elder's red car). I was sad to see her go. But seeing that we had to fix our duct taped bumper every couple of days I'm appreciative that Big Red doesn't have those problems. Haha.

But I hope everyone had a wonderful week and I hope each of you have an amazing week to come! I love you all so much!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

"Old Bertha"

"Big Red"

Sis. Bliss & Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

At the Oakland Temple

Sister Ikegami's (2nd from left) Grandparents & Aunty are in Nu'uanu Ward

You Know You're A Missionary When...

Aloha Everyone,

This week I wanted to do something a little different because Sis. Bliss, the other two sisters we live with, and I all started talking about the crazy things we do as missionaries...

So here it goes...

You know you're a missionary when... someone texts you to ask for a priesthood blessing and you drop your whole life.

One of the people we teach gets really bad migraines and so sometimes we go over and you can just see the pain on her face. She gets them quite frequently but at this time in her life, she doesn't really want anything to do with the church or the priesthood. We've asked her before if she'd like a blessing and she's never wanted one, until Monday night! She had asked us to pray for her earlier that day and of course we had her in our thoughts. Then Monday night, we got a text from her asking for a blessing. We called her home teacher and his father and we headed to her house. It was amazing to see everything fall into place so easily. First of all that we didn't have a set appointment then so we could go right away. Second, her home teacher answered his phone and then was willing to come. Such a tender mercy from the Lord. It was amazing. They gave her a blessing and the Spirit was so strong. I was so glad to have been able to be a part of that precious experience. 

You know you're a missionary when... you invite someone to come to church without their iPad. Another one of the people we teach has had a hard time coming to church and paying attention because he is constantly on his iPad. When we invited him this past week to come to church without his iPad and sit in the chapel with us, we thought he was going to attack us, but then after a long pause, he agreed. Another tender mercy from the Lord. Hah. Seriously though, that could've gone down a lot differently. 

This week has been amazing. We got to meet with both the Livermore Stake Presidency, the stake we're actually in, and the Pleasanton Stake Presidency, the stake that we cover and the rest of our zone is in. Both stake presidents and counselors are amazing! They are so empowering and motivating! The Lord has called great people to lead the members here. We also had the Sisters Retreat! YAAAYYYY! So....for those of you who don't know... my mission president and his wife are the best that are out there. We had a day long retreat for all the sister missionaries in our mission. We all came to San Jose and went to workshops and listened to speakers. It was such a wonderful spiritual boost and a perfect lead in to the Relief Society Broadcast this past Saturday. I am so grateful for the wonderful Spirit I am able to feel as a missionary and I am so looking forward to General Conference this coming weekend! Ahh I'm so excited! 

I hope everyone is doing well! I love you all so much!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

The Best Zone in the Mission! 

So Apparently Now I Sing...

ALOOOHA. 

:) 

Hi Everyone. This week has been another great one. Sis. Bliss and I started off the week super strong and had a whole bunch of lessons. It was amazing to actually have all these people remember they were meeting with us and then still want to. Haha! Ahh. But really though...it was awesome. 

Later in the week, we had quite the bump in the road. One of our investigators told us that he doesn't want to meet with us anymore. It was really hard. The two of us were really sad and to top it off, it rained - like the whole day. It was just a really sad day. But, it's okay because I know that the sun will shine again. The Lord has a plan for him and even though we've been able to see him feel the Spirit and feel the comfort that the Holy Ghost can provide, it'll all work out even if he doesn't want to meet with us anymore. 

I feel the one thing I've been learning over and over again is that the Lord is always mindful of us, his children. He will not leave us alone. He will not leave us hanging. He wants to bless us. How amazing! I've seen that over and over again. No matter who we are, no matter who we may think we are, no matter what circumstances we may come from the Lord loves us all and He knows us each more individually, and personally then we could ever imagine.

But here comes the most shocking part of my week....are you ready for it...here it comes...

I sang in Sacrament meeting. In a quartet. Haha what? Yeah. I was surprised at myself too.

Now for all of you who are like "wow, I didn't know she could sing." Don't worry I still can't. Haha. But really though, I was really nervous but Sis. Bliss has this amazing voice and the two elders we sang with, that also serve in our ward, were great too, so we sounded so awesome. We sang "Abide With Me Tis Eventide" and I think that it may be one of my favorite hymns.

Sometimes we feel alone in our lives, sometimes we feel we can't go on, sometimes we are in a hole so deep we think we can never get out and it's okay because that is exactly what the Savior is there for. He is here to help us. He is here is succor us. I don't know about all of you, but sometimes when I'm having a rough day I just want to come home and vent about everything and that's kind of what I think of when I sing "Abide With Me Tis Eventide" asking the Savior to sit and listen to me, asking him to help carry me through the next day because I just feel spent. The Spirit was so strong when we sang and the peace that carried through the rest of church was just amazing. I know the Lord wants us to be happy and I have seen that in my own life. I know that the Lord wants to help me and I am so grateful for that fact!

I love you all so much! 

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

(Thought I'd share the words to the beautiful hymn she mentioned above. Wish I knew how to post a link to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performing it, but I'm me, so no link -- just Google it, it's beautiful. Love, Anela)

Abide with Me; 'Tis Eventide

Abide with me; 'tis eventide.

The day is past and gone; 

The shadows of the evening fall; 

The night is coming on.

Within my heart a welcome guest, 

Within my home abide.

Chorus

O Savior, stay this night with me; 

Behold, 'tis eventide.

O Savior, stay this night with me; 

Behold, 'tis eventide.

Abide with me; 'tis eventide.

Thy walk today with me

Has made my heart within me burn, 

As I communed with thee.

Thy earnest words have filled my soul

And kept me near thy side.

Abide with me; 'tis eventide,

And lone will be the night

If I cannot commune with thee

Nor find in thee my light.

The darkness of the world, I fear, 

Would in my home abide.

Transfer Calls...What's the Verdict?

Hi everyone!

I hope everyone has been having a great week! ! You are all wonderful people and I miss you a ton!

This week was another great one! On Monday night, we were able to meet with new investigator. He is the cousin of one of the Recent Converts that started coming to our ward. Member missionary work. It's awesome. Try it. Haha. But really though, it's awesome. Anyways, he is so solid and he committing to getting baptized as long as he prayed and knew for himself that it was true! Ah! Great right? That's exactly what we want him to do! We're meeting with him again this week and I am SO excited.

On Tuesday we were out in Livermore again! It turned out to be a really weird day. A bunch of our appointments fell through at the last minute but it gave us the wonderful opportunity to do some visits that we hadn't been able to do yet! It gave me such a testimony of the Lord's timetable. We visited a member who we haven't been able to catch yet. She works a whole ton and we just happened to catch her in like the half hour between her two jobs! It was awesome! We shared a message with her about Christ's loves for each of us and she seemed so sweet!

Hmm...what else happened this week. Well we got transfer calls...and the verdict is... I'm staying here! Whoo hoo! I'm so excited! I love it here in Dublin in this YSA ward. They are an awesome bunch of people. We were able to do a whole bunch of service this week, which is always great! I love that we do so much service here. It always makes me so happy. One service that we help at is at a place called Open Heart.  It is for senior citizens and I actually think just about anyone. But it cracks me up every time we work there. It's seriously like one of my favorite places we volunteer at. The people we volunteer with are great and the all the seniors that come and eat are so hilarious. Sis. Bliss and I were are the serving lines on Friday, so we plate the food for the servers and then they take it out to the people who came to eat. I just wish that I had a bell so I could ring it at people to tell them their order is ready like in the movies! Haha. Except it wouldn't really work because I wasn't actually cooking anything. But still. An annoying bell would've been awesome.

Well, other than that, things have been great! I feel like I'm learning so much and I can't wait to continue to learn more. This gospel is a beautiful thing and I am so grateful to be a part of it!

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

Sometimes a week feels like a month.

Alooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooha! 

Hi everyone. I ate a chocolate doughnut today and it was AWESOME! Seriously like the best doughnuts ever. We all need to come back here and eat doughnuts together at this place here called Doughboys. It. Is. Awesome.

Anyways, this week was so great! I feel like we did ten million things. We had this super solid week planned out but as it would happen like every day almost all of our appointments would fall through. Ahhhh. But it's okay. We always somehow turned out to meet one person everyday where I just felt like, "Yes, this is who the Lord needed me to meet today." Haha. The Lord truly works in mysterious ways! 

On Tuesday, we headed out to Livermore and a whole bunch of our appointments feel through and Sis. Bliss and I were feeling very bummed. We prayed about it because we both felt like we shouldn't be in Livermore and so we headed out. We ended up meeting with this wonderful, wonderful member recent convert who was going through a hard time. She is amazing and the strength that she has really inspires me. She was able to get a wonderful priesthood blessing and the Spirit felt so strongly. I am so grateful to have had that wonderful opportunity to have been able to talk with her. On Wednesday, we started exchanges! Except that it wasn't a real exchange because I didn't go anywhere. Our Sister Training Leader just came to join us. It was super weird because this was kind of my first exchange like this because Sis. Johnson was the Sister Training Leader so I couldn't really go on exchanges with my own companion. Haha. On Thursday, a bunch of appointments fell through yet again and Sis. Bliss and I went contacting at the BART station. We had a whole bunch of meaningful contacts and passed out four copies of the Book of Mormon in like 45 minutes! It was amazing. We even passed one out to a guy who only spoke Spanish. Haha that one involved lots of pointing and gesturing. But as we were driving away we saw him reading it! So awesome!

Saturday, however turned out to be awesome! One of our investigators who identifies himself as an atheist, prayed. With us. In the middle of a park. What a tender mercy from the Lord! We taught him about God's Plan for each of us, or the Plan of Salvation! It gave him a lot to think about and he still wants to meet with us next week! Whooo! 

Every time I teach, my testimony is strengthened even more. I feel like I continually realize how much the Lord loves us! How lucky we are that this omnipotent, awe-inspiring God loves us as awkward and random as we may be. Haha. Because as we all know I definitely more than fall into the "awkward and random" category. I am so grateful to be here for another wonderful week! 

I hope you all have a great week! I love you all so much!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan 

Happy Belated Labor Day!

Hi everyone!

 

Sorry, I forgot to mention...but the library was closed yesterday because it was Labor Day.

 

Anyways, it has been another amazing week and it really seems like things are just flying by. I can't believe I'm almost done with another transfer. So weird.

 

Thie week was pretty awesome. It seems like ages ago but it was only really a few days ago. Whoever said that days pass like weeks and weeks pass like days on the mission was so right!

 

Last week, during our weekly planning my companion, Sis. Bliss, and I felt impressed to visit some of our people listed as "Do Not Contact". A lot of them hadn't been seen or heard from in a long time. Those are people who have told the missionaries or the ward for whatever reason that they don't want to have any contact with the church. So this past week, we took that on. It was really amazing. A lot of the people that we hadn't even seen or that we have never met before we found. Before some visits we prayed so hard that people wouldn't yell at us or be rude to us but time and time again the Lord provided for us.

 

We even met this one YSA and she was so nice! She was geniunely interested in what we had to say. We shared with her a scripture in 3 Nephi, where Christ appears to the multitude of Nephites and talked about how Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love each and every one of us!

 

It was also a great week because a ton of the people we contacted were willing to talk to us. It was amazing. People were asking us questions and talking to us about our faith instead of just taking our little mormon.org card. So many blessings!

 

I'm so excited for this week ahead. I have a feeling it's going to be another great one!

 

Love you all so much! Have a wonderful week!

 

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan