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