Leaving Dublin...Doughnuts..and Chinese People

Hi everyone! :)

This week was awesome! We taught a few really great lessons, we sang an a fireside for the outgoing missionaries, and I got a transfer call! Ah! This tuesday I'm getting transferred and I'm not sure where yet but I know I'm leaving the Tri Valley Ward and the ever adorable Mandarin Branch. I'm pretty bummed because I feel like all of those huge, amazing changes are right around the corner but it's okay. 

It's been great! I really love the ward and I'm so sad to leave them all! They are such a solid group of YSAs and I love it! I hope that I get to work with them all again at some point! One of the YSAs told me something yesterday at church that I thought was really profound. She said, "Never let Satan make you feel like you didn't have an influence." Isn't that so awesome? Not just for me as a missionary but for everyone. 

I think we all have those days when we're just ready to give up, when we feel like we're just frustrated and we get really down on ourselves and ask why we even try. But in those moments, Satan can take advantage of us. He knows that we're feeling defeated and so he tries to make us feel like all of the good we try to do, all of the hard work we put in doesn't matter. But, it does. It matters to all of those you've helped. It matters to all of those you've influenced and it matters to our Heavenly Father.

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

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

The mattress was for this Chinese sister from Temple square that stayed at our house one night. I forgot to take a picture with the sister...so here's me posing with the mattress the elders dropped off. Haha. We thought they were going to drop off an air mattress and then dropped off this thing. Hah.

Feliz Navidad from the Tri Valley Charity Ball

And then Me and Sis. Johnson. She came back for a baptism and bought us toilet paper :) Haha gotta love her.

These pictures were sent to me (Anela) on Thanksgiving Day by families that fed the missionaries.

(Another picture recently sent to me (Anela) by someone who spotted the missionaries shopping in Target)

Aloha All, This week makes six months out in the mission field. Amazing.  I can't believe how quickly time has passed. We truly appreciate all of your love and support!  Every letter, card, and email is like Christmas everyday for Sister Ellis-Lui-Kwan! May we all find simple joys in the Christmas season and remember to be grateful for all that we have been blessed with.  Thank you again for helping me to raise such a wonderful daughter. Love, Anela

Merry December! : )

Aloha everyone! 

I can't believe that it's already December...especially because everywhere I look makes me feel like I'm stuck in an eternal September. It's the weirdest thing. Haha. 

This week has flown by! We've been meeting with our new investigator form Georgia this week! He is doing great! It's so awesome how solid he is. He read the Book of Mormon and loved every minute of it. I am so excited to see all of the blessings that await him. His willingness and desire to have an open heart and mind about all that we have been teaching him is so refreshing and brings the Spirit into all of our lessons. I can't wait to meet with him again!

This past Sunday was great! Our other investigator came to church again this Sunday! She is so sweet. She is really starting to open up to us and isn't so shy. We go to the family ward with her while her mother goes to the Mandarin branch that meets at the same time. I think she likes going to the English speaking sacrament meeting better...which is fine with me seeing as I don't speak Chinese. Haha! Then in our own ward, one of our recent converts gave the opening prayer in Sacrament meeting. It was so tender. Every time he prays it strengthens my testimony of prayer even more. He really talks to Heavenly Father and has a conversation with Him. It's so awesome. You can just sense the overwhelming amount of gratitude, love, concern, and reverence that He has for Heavenly Father. It has really made me think about the way I pray and now I am trying to make every prayer a lot more meaningful! I am so grateful for all of the wonderful examples that I have in my life that get to bring me closer to my Savior. How wonderful!

I hope everyone had a great week! I love you all so much! 

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

pc Sis. Stevenson

pc Sis. Stevenson

pc Sis. Stevenson

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! : )

Aloha everyone! :)

This week has just flown by yet again! From birthday parties to a Dance Party with the Mandarin branch, this week has been totally hilarious! I love being a missionary!

On Wednesday, we had a lesson with a less-active and it was really cool. We invited him to take the missionary discussions as he has made it a new goal to refocus his life on the gospel. So we started teaching him The Restoration and then out of nowhere this kid pops out and is like, "oh hey I just recently returned from my mission in Russia why don't I sit and join in this lesson!" It was awesome! He bore his testimony and I think it really added to our lesson. It was great, I asked him how the restoration of the gospel has blessed his life and he pretty much summed up all of the missionary discussions into like two sentences it was amazing and I've been focusing my study on it lately!

He talked about how the restoration of the gospel in it's fullness makes it possible to effectively use the Atonement in our lives and through the gospel of Jesus Christ we can return to live with our Father in Heaven again and experience eternal life. Like whoa. I don't know if you are all as mind blown as I was but if not...maybe I'm just easy to please. But he pretty much just summed up everything we teach as missionaries into like two sentences...and plus it all points back to the Atonement of Jesus Christ. :) How blessed we are to have a Savior who was willing to atone for us and how blessed we are to have a Father in Heaven who wants us to have everything He does! 

The rest of the week was great and I am so excited for this week ahead. I have three thanksgiving dinners. Haha! Ahh! Love it! :) I hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving! I love you all so much! I am so grateful for all of you!

Love,

Sis.Ellis-Lui-Kwan

(Just adding my two cents.  I, too, am grateful to all of you who have been such a great influence in our life and in helping me raise such a wonderful and amazing daughter.  I am truly blessed. I am also grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ and peace and happiness and security it brings to my life. I know that Heavenly Father and my Savior loves me and I know he loves you too. We can help others feel the love of Jesus Christ too, if we take heed of Elder Ballard's counsel "that if every member, young and old, will reach out to just "one" between now and Christmas, millions will feel the love of the Lord Jesus Christ."  I hope you'll take the challenge to do so! Happy Gobble Gobble Day! Love, Anela)

Being 20.

Aloooooooooooooooooooooooooha!

So now I'm 20. What does it feel like to be 20 you may ask? Well. It feels just about the same as it did to be 19. I'm still a girl. I'm still a missionary. I still live in the basement of my Chinese landlord's home and my primary food is still baked potatoes from the microwave...(Thank you Madison for the potato bag). But there's one word that just makes it great.. "teenagers" Haha. It has a new level of irritation every time I say it! Haha! It's great.

Haha. But really though. Thank you for all the birthday wishes and things! It was a really great birthday! :) One of the YSAs kind of threw me a birthday party and all in all I ended up at the end of the day with half a red velvet cake, brownies, a chocolate bundt cake, and a dozen of these awesome things called "bundtinis" (they're like cupcake verisons of a bundt cake)! It was totally awesome!

But here's the greatest part of the week! Hands down. Sunday! We had four non-members come to church and we had some less-actives come who haven't been in a few years! It was so great! The bishop told us we were the best missionaries in the San Jose mission and I just laughed because even though I would've loved to have been like, "oh yeah that's us." I have no idea how all those people decided to show up! It was great! All these people who we've been inviting for the longest time and have been flat out telling us, no, they don't do church, decided to all show up! It was marvelous. Seriously just amazing! I was so happy! But it gets better! All four of the non-members who came to church want to meet with us! Haha! What? I thought that kind of stuff only happened on The District! :) It was a great end to this week! I have no idea what Sis. Bliss and I have done to receive all of these wonderful tender mercies from the Lord but I want to figure it out real soon so this can keep happening! YAY for people that want to meet with us! WHOOOOOOO! :)

Best. Birthday Present. Ever. 

 

Sorry everyone...the Lord wins. Hehehe :)

 

I love you all. Have a great week! 

 

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

 

 

(pc: Sis. Stevenson's blog)
 

 

Tri Valley Bringing It Home...Once Again.

(This is a little late since the library was closed yesterday for Veteran's Day.)

Aloha everyone! :)

So this week was another load of awesome. Ending with the fact that my companion and I now have matching grandma track suits....which we got for a whopping total of $1 each. Ohhhhh yes... And if I had any technological skills I would have attached pictures. But for some reason it's not working.

Anyways, this week just flew by. Seriously I have idea where it went at all. On Monday...last week Monday we went bowling. I did terribly...but it's cool. Tuesday we were in Livermore again! It was great we visited all the wonderful YSAs there and Wednesday we met with our wonderful investigator from the Chinese Branch!!!! :) She's doing great! She's only 11 years old and so so shy and we got her to kneel down and pray with us out loud! Ahhh it was the greatest thing ever! I love her and her family so much! I am so grateful and blessed to be able to teach her. She is so cute!

The rest of the week passed by really quickly but I have developed such a testimony of how quickly Satan works. We have a recent convert who has been feeling Satan's power in full force. It was breaking my heart to see her struggle and turn away from things she knew and knows are true. Yet...another tender mercy from the Lord. We had the wonderful opportunity to meet with her today and she wants to come back to church. She said she misses being in the church and "feeling the presence of God." Ahhh! :) Just when we had felt that all hope was lost with her on Sunday, Heavenly Father pulls through yet again! I am so grateful for this gospel and the change that it brings to people's hearts. I feel so lucky to be here and get to see these wonderful changes.

But I love you all so much! I hope everyone's week is great! 

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

Aloha!

(Thank you to all of you who continue to write and send your love and support.  I know she appreciates it very much and loves hearing how you are doing. She wishes she had the time to write more but is kept very busy - which is actually a very good thing even if it doesn't seem so. Thank you for all you do! Keep those letters coming! Love, Anela)

Aloha! :)

This week was the start of another wonderful transfer and I am so excited! This week one of the sisters that lived with us was sick and so we did a few exchanges so that we meet everyone's appointments and service and things. It was so fun!

We also got to teach a wonderful lady in the Chinese branch and her daughter! She is a recent convert and her daughter, who is 11 years old, is now investigating the church! She is the sweetest thing! I love their family so much already! We walked in and she had us put on house slippers so our feet didn't get cold. Isn't that the cutest thing? So nice. She gave us grapes and raspberries while we taught and I just loved it! We taught her daughter the part of the Restoration of the church and showed a mormon message called, "Look to the Source". It's one of my favorites! I love how it puts Joseph Smith's experience in today's society. But the lesson went great and we invited her to be baptized and she said okay and that she would pray about it! How adorable! Oh I just love them! They invited us for dinner this coming week and I am so excited! They are just so precious! I love it!

On Saturday, we had a tender mercy from the Lord and two sisters from the YSA came on splits with us! It was great! We were in Livermore and we had a ton of visits to do and with the two of them we were able to hit everyone we wanted to for the week. Some weren't home but we were able to do a whole lot of work that would've taken Sis. Bliss and I a long time to do by ourselves in such a short amount of time. It was so, so great! I'm so grateful for those two sisters! They are so solid. 

Other than that, it was another busy week. We had 23 lessons. So things are still looking up and I am so excited! Have a wonderful week! I love you all!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

Ni hao ma Kung Hee Fat Choy Chow Mein Orange Chicken

Hello Everyone! :)

This week has been hilarious and awesome and all over the place! But so so great! On Monday, I got a flu shot. It hurt. But I was brave and didn't cry. On Tuesday, we headed out to Livermore like we normally do and had an amazing day we got a ton of lessons! It was so amazing! The Lord truly blessed us on Tuesday! We also had lunch with this sweet lady we were dropping by to visit her granddaughter but her granddaughter wasn't home and she wasn't letting us leave without feeding us lunch! So sweet! It was so wonderful to be in a home and to have someone take care of us.

The rest of the week went great and we ended up with a grand total of 20 LESSONS! YAY! For some that might not be much but it's the most I've ever gotten in one week on my mission! Haha! Sis. Bliss and I looked back to when I first got to this area and Sis. Johnson and I had a total of 4 lessons my first week in. Haha. I've received some tender mercies from the Lord because the work is exploding now and it is awesome!

On Sunday we also sang in Chinese branch that meets in our ward building. We sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer. It was so beautiful and Sis. Bliss and I even learned the last verse in Chinese and I sang the alto part! It was awesome. Sis. Bliss taught me how to do it! Then later that night we also had a musical fireside for the Livermore stake! It was called Finding Faith in Christ. Most of it was music, but I was asked to bear my testimony about my faith in Christ. :)

I knew that it had been coming up for a while but I couldn't figure out what to say.I would see different quotes or read different scriptures but nothing really stuck out to me. This happened for weeks and then last night, I was slightly freaking out because I had no idea what I was supposed to say. But then I thought about it differently. Instead of thinking about myself and how I had come to find faith in Christ, I pondered the question what do the people in attendance need to hear in order to find faith in Christ. :) Yet, another tender mercy from the Lord. I stood up and though it was short. The Spirit guided what I had to say and I had no trouble getting up and speaking! :)

But....for all of you who are wondering about my wonderful Chinese on the subject line! :) Guess what?!? Haha! As of next transfer... I will also be serving in the Chinese Branch! Yes, Chinese Branch means they all speak Mandarin. No, I don't speak any Chinese. Yes, I sit in front of the translator so I don't have to wear headphones and can still understand what's going on! Haha!

Haha but really though! I love them all already! They are so hilarious. We were introduced to a bunch of the members of the branch and they are so cute! I'd tell them, "Hi, I'm Sis. Ellis!" (You know trying to keep it easy for everyone...) And they'd look at my name tag and tell me, "Hello, Sis. Kwan." So hah... apparently I'm Sis. Kwan now in the Chinese Branch. Haha. Oh dear...I love being a missionary!

I hope you all have a great week and hopefully by next week, I'll actually be able to say something that makes sense in Chinese! Haha! Love it!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan