Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Aloha! :)

Hello all of you wonderful people. This week was another amazing one. Sis. Fraser....well. She just blows me away. Yet again. I didn't know they made missionaries that good. Haha. But really though. She's awesome.

We're nearing the end of yet another transfer, things are just flying by. We taught a whole bunch of different people from our set appointments every week to a few street lessons. It was great. We ended the week with President and Sister Watkins coming down to our building for a fireside. They talked to both Hollister wards and the Spanish branch about member missionary work. They were great. They had all the full-time missionaries go up to the front and had us stand in front of everyone and close our eyes. (There are 8 of us by the way. 2 English Elders. 2 Spanish Elders, 2 Spanish Sisters, and then me and Sis. Fraser.) President asked us two questions and we had to gesture with our hands our answer. He asked us to show how hard we thought the mission was and then how much fun, or how worth it the mission was. Needless to say, each one of us agreed that the worth of doing missionary work far outweighed the work we put into it. But everyone else in the audience had a good laugh. President also talked about how easy it is and as long as we are truly being a friend and disciple of Christ to everyone we meet we are being a member missionary. So so great!

Sorry, this is a short one. We went hiking today as a district to the Pinnacles. It was really fun. There were little caves and a lake. It was really pretty! I'll attach pictures next week! I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

Another Wonderful Week! : )

Aloha! :)

I hope you all had a wonderful week. This week in Hollister was as wonderful and hilarious as ever. Sis. Fraser and I just about died laughing everywhere we went. On the plus side, of looking weird while we laugh on our bikes I think it's building up my core. Haha. Not really...but it makes me feel better to think that. 

Anyway, we got to do a bunch of service this week, which is just the best. I love that I am in a service mission. It's seriously so fun. We helped a family move into a new house across town and we got to paint her bathroom. Sis. Fraser and I felt quite proud of ourselves after we finished. It ended up being like a seafoam greenish color...not that that's really important. But it was really pretty. :)

We also were able to teach a bunch of different people that haven't been able to see recently because of everyone going on vacations and things. I feel like things are finally starting to relax for a little bit because everyone is getting back into their routines of school and work. 

Other than that, we had a really cute experience happen to us on Valentine's Day! One of our recent converts was talking at work to her co-workers about the church and about us and then we ran into one of her co-workers at Safeway while we were contacting. She was really nice to us and we gave her a mormon.org card and then we complimented her red gloves. They were really cute and it was kind of gloomy day outside. So, that was a couple of week ago. On Valentine's, we had a lesson with our recent convert and she pulls out this bag for us and says, it's from one of her co-workers. The woman we met outside of Safeway bought Sis. Fraser and I each our own pair of red leather gloves!! :) So nice. I don't have a picture of us yet. But I'll make sure to send them next week.

Well, I love you all. I hope you have a great week. I'm going to attach some pictures of our P-Day last week. We had a Nerf War in the gym with our District. It was pretty hilarious. Sis. Fraser and I got jerseys from the Thrift Store. Haha. It was awesome. Well, talk to you all next week! :)

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

Sister Fraser and I ready for Nerf War Games!

My District

Where is the time going?

Aloha :)

This week was wonderful! We taught some really great lessons and Sis. Fraser....well, she's just as amazing as ever. We also had the special opportunity to hear from Elder Quentin L. Cook on Saturday for a mission wide conference. It was so great. 

He talked to us about a bunch of different things including how he feels the Spirit when he assigns missionaries to their mission. But one of the things he talked about was the relationships we have with others. He mentioned four in particular that were directed to us as missionaries but I think it can apply to everyone. They were to love the people, love and respect our companions, love our mission president and his wife, and most importantly to love the Lord. He talked about how in every situation, in every relationship, we have to change our mindset. It needs to be one of love and humility, just like the Savior. That even though we may find it hard to love some people whether it be those in our community or those in our families, if we have a mindset to love, respect, appreciate, and learn from them we'll be able to see the blessings that can come from it. We will be able to feel the Spirit more abundantly in our lives and then be able to act on it more and more frequently do the things Heavenly Father would have us do. It just kind of turns into this wonderful cycle of continually becoming more like Christ, which is awesome because that's what we're all trying to do anyway. Funny how that works out isn't it?

It was great to be able to listen to him speak. The Spirit was just so strong when he testified it was almost tangible. It was so cool to be able to sit there and listen to him. Sis. Cook spoke as well and she is just adorable, she had us sing "Hark All Ye Nations". It was so cute. They also let us all come and shake their hands which was just awesome. So cool.

But other than that, I'm doing great. Things are wonderful. We have a new baptismal date coming up in March. A 13 year old boy. We're both so excited for him. Wonderful things are happening here in Hollister, it's just great.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

If there was ever any question...Heavenly Father answers prayers.

Aloha :)

This week was amazing! Sis. Fraser is still amazing. Hollister is still hilarious. And I biked in the rain this week and definitely got a geek streak up my back. Sometimes biking isn't as glamorous as it seems. Haha.

But really though, this week was awesome. We taught a bunch of lessons and this Saturday, Elder Cook, the Apostle, is coming to speak to us! I am so excited! Things have been going great. This week we taught our investigator, the little girl, and she never ceases to impress me. We talked to her about some of the things she has a hard time with and she turns to her dad and says, "This week is fast Sunday right? I should fast for that!" She's 10. So amazing. Her testimony is so strong. I'm so grateful I get to teach her.

Other than that, we had interviews with President Watkins this week. He and Sis. Watkins came to our apartment and while President interviewed us, Sis. Watkins had us teach her one of the missionary lessons to see our teaching skills. I and our entire household were are really nervous about Sis. Watkins coming but it ended up to be a lot less painful than we all thought. They are both so great. I'm so glad to have the best mission president and mission president's wife ever! They are just wonderful! 

On Sunday, the leadership of the church asked the whole state, I believe, to fast for rain. I have to say I didn't have the best attitude about it but, Heavenly Father answers prayers. It rained all day yesterday and even though it was really gloomy-looking outside, it was a beautiful day! :)

Well, I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! I love you all so much.

Love,

Sis. Ellis

Hello.

Aloha.

I hope everyone's week was as marvelous as mine! I love you all a ton!

This week was great. We had a bunch of lessons with a bunch of people we haven't been able to see in a while. Sis. Fraser and I are doing wonderful and still cracking ourselves up all through Hollister as bike down Sunnyslope to eat McDonalds and then back up Sunnyslope with toilet paper! Yes...that actually happened. Haha.

Last night, we met with one of our Less-Active members of our ward and we had a really interesting lesson. We talked about faith, which actually kind of turned into our unofficial theme for the week. Anyways, we brought a member with us and he brought up an interesting point. Having faith is an act of our agency. We choose to have faith. Sometimes in our lives we don't have a knowledge of things. Maybe we don't know that certain things are true even though others may have that knowledge. But there lies our choice. We can choose to have faith. When we try to act on our faith, when we exercise our faith we build on the choice or the desire to have faith and sometimes we fall short. Which only makes sense because we're all human and we're not perfect. But this part is really cool, our active member says this, that sometimes our desire to believe is greater that our capacity to achieve. So just because we stumble doesn't mean we have any less faith. That's what the Atonement is for. We have Christ to help us through all the mistakes or trials that may come our way and He promises us over and over and over again in the scriptures that he will never forget nor forsake us. How amazing!

Well, sorry it's just a short one this week. But I've got pictures...so have fun laughing because I do.

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

"I love 2 CTR"

Just biking up Sunnyslope with my TP! Ha! 

Don't Do Unto Others What You Wouldn't Want Them to Do Unto You

Alooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooha!

 

So this week was amazing! Sis. Fraser and I almost met every single one of our goals. It was kind of mind-blowingly awesome! :) But this week is going to be even better! The Lord has been blessing us here in the lovely city of Hollister and we are so grateful! One of the wonderful blessings we recieved this week is that I only had to bike up Sunnyslope [aka the street to our house (aka the hill of death)] once. Sis. Fraser is telling me that I'm not explaining this properly because I'm making Sunnyslope sound huge but to use her exact wording she accounts, "it's just a slow incline to our imminent demise." Sooo, take whatever definition you prefer but either way, I think you all get the picture. Haha. But we love every minute of it as we laugh all the way up and down the beautiful, lovely Sunnyslope.

 

But in other news, we able to have some really great lessons with a bunch of different people. We have a new investigator, this wonderful lady who is 74! She is so awesome! She is so sharp and she wants to join the Peace Corps and if you ask me, I could see it happening and she'd be great! Meeting with her was such a blessing and the Lord has prepared her so much! We were talking with her a little about the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and she started singing, "I Am A Child of God!" Our eyes almost popped out of our heads we were so excited! She is such a wonderful person and I am so grateful to be able to get to know her!

 

Another wonderful person is this little girl that we teach. She is about 10 years old and I'm not sure if I have mentioned her before but this little girl is amazing! I literally feel honored to just sit in her presence. She has such a strong testimony of the Savior and such a deep understanding of the gospel I forget she's 10 years old. We talked to her about prayer and I felt liked I learned more about prayer from her than I taught her and she's only been investigating the church for about six months. She just needs to get permission to get baptized from one of her parents and so we invited her to pray to have the courage to ask and I know that the Lord will bless her with that.

 

This week was just full of miracles and it has been a great time with Sis.Fraser and I am so excited for the great things ahead! This Sunday we had a wonderful Sacrament Meeting. One of the speakers talked about the love that our Savior and our Father in Heaven have for us and how if we can each figure out how to love others the way they love us we'll pretty much have this life down. And that's where my subject line comes in... He talked about the golden rule and how maybe we need to do the opposite. Don't do unto others what we wouldn't want them to do unto us. That way even if we haven't fully figured out the love of Father in Heaven has for us we can at least work towards not doing bad things or negative things like judging others. So, that is my goal for this next transfer and I want to invite everyone to do the same. Maybe you aren't at the level of the golden rule just yet, like me, but wherever you are on this path to understanding the love our Father in Heaven has for us I know that if we just try, He will help us.

 

Well, I love you all a ton! I hope you all have a wonderful week!

 

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

Sister Fraser & I

"Never Lose Faith in Your Father in Heaven Who Loves You More Than You Can Comprehend."

Aloha everyone! :)

I hope your week was just as great as mine! Sis. Fraser and I saw blessing after blessing this week! It was great! We had some cold nights on the bikes but it didn't rain! :) Basically I and every missionary on bikes in California are the only ones grateful that there's a drought. Haha.

Well, this week started off great. We were having a hard time Monday night. We were having a really hard time with the work and we had this impression to visit a Less-Active member but we couldn't decide who. We finally thought about one person and agreed. :) Here comes the good part. We get there and we meet her and her husband and their two children. Her husband and her two children aren't members of our church and they invited us to come back this coming week. We sat and talked to them both and her husband is so prepared it's amazing. He was talking about the need for authority from God and we are so excited to share with him all about the Restoration of the Gospel and the restoration of the Priesthood through Joseph Smith. We're hoping his mind is going to be blown! :) In a good way.

We also had another good lesson with another family. They are so adorable. It's a father and his two primary aged children. We have been having a hard time getting them to focus and so they week we pulled out all the stops. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and had them make their physical bodies out of Play-doh! Haha. It was hilarious. The little girl's legs kept falling off so she licked her finger to make "glue" and her brother made himself a chair so that his body didn't have to walk he could just sit. Hah! It was totally awesome!

It has been another great week in Hollister and Sis. Fraser and I just crack ourselves up all the time it's hilarious! I love you all and hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan