Why Do The Weeks Move So Quickly?

Hi Everyone! :)

So the computer is acting really weird and I don't know what's happening so hopefully this works. (Obviously my technology skills haven't gotten any better. But oh well). Haha! I'm involved in more important things. Like, for example, finding out how to make time move slower. I don't know if this is happening in the rest of the world or just in my head but I feel like when my mission first started I was running uphill. Then slowly without me even realizing, the uphill turned into a downward slope and now I feel like not only is it a downward slope but it's like the side of a cliff that basically I'm just rolling down because as we all know... I'm not that coordinated either. Haha. But really though....someone's messing around with the clocks in this place. Time is moving way too fast!

Anyways, this week has been another amazing one! Sis. Christensen and I have been really working on building up our area and slowly we're seeing some really great changes. I'm excited to see how everything turns out! Something that I've really been thinking about lately is a quote I found. I may have mentioned it before but it says, "Never confuse a single failure with a final defeat." It's so so true. Even though things don't always work out the way we want them to, it's such a comfort to know that it wasn't the "final defeat". Luckily, we all have the Savior and His Atonement that make it possible to try again and again! 

I am so grateful everyday for this opportunity to be a missionary. Seriously the best decision I ever made. I can't count the things I've learned and the blessings I've received. Sorry this email is so short. Again... the time factor. Somehow I keep running out of it. I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

Ready, Set, Mella! : )

Aloha everyone! :)

This has been another wonderfully hectic week! With meeting our wonderful new mission president and his wife, to teaching all of our wonderful investigators, to helping to prepare for the baptism of one of our investigators this week! Life has just been so much fun!

On Wednesday morning, we had the wonderful opportunity to have a meet and greet with President and Sister Mella. Let me just say... they are AMAZING! I was quite skeptical after knowing how great President and Sister Watkins were but the Mellas are going to do great things. They are so filled with the Spirit and I can't wait to work with them even more. I'm so excited to have this great blessing of being able to have both of the BEST mission presidents and wives there ever were. (Seriously people, it's just fact.) 

The rest of this week has been great! We've been preparing our investigator for baptism and she is just doing wonderfully! She's going to get baptized this Saturday and we are so so excited! She already has such a sweet testimony of the gospel. She was telling us that she thinks the Lord has kept her here this long just so she could learn about the Lord and get to know us! It just melted me heart! :)

In other news, Sis. Christensen and I will be staying companions! :) We made it through the dreaded transfer calls! So I don't have a picture just yet... but we've made a goal to try to take one of us everyday this week! So hopefully we'll end up with one good one by next P-day! Haha!

Also, on Thursday night, we got leadership calls and I'm going to be a Sister Training Leader starting this coming transfer. How scary! I don't know who thought that was going to be a good idea. I'm so nervous. Seriously, we've got some really great sisters in the zone. I have no idea what kind of sister training leader advice-type-thing they think I'm supposed to give, all the sisters have already got it down! Oh man. But it's okay, it'll be great anyways...hopefully. Haha! 

Well, everyone...Have a great week! I love you all! I hope everyone's week is wonderful! Smile at someone, I know from experience it can really brighten someone's day!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

A Whole Lotta Crazy!

Aloha! :)

This week has been amazing! So many things happening. Sis. Esikia left and Sis. Christensen came. I got to have an interview before President Watkins left. President Watkins and Sis. Watkins left. One of our beautiful, wonderful investigators got baptized and like the entire city came to witness it. So great!

Let's see. I started off this week with one companion and then her flight plans had her planned to leave on Tuesday so we with the other Temple Square sister and her companion go to airport Tuesday morning with Sis. Watkins...only to find out that the flight is actually tomorrow! Clerical error. Haha! We had an extra day together and we just had so much fun and were able to teach one of our investigators one last time before Sis. Esikia left. Our investigator told us that she is so grateful for us and the work that we do and since she's been investigating she finds herself thinking so much more about the Lord and her purpose in life! What a blessing to hear!

Then, Wednesday morning, we had take two and then got Sis. Christensen and the other Temple Square sister from the airport. I had also had my last interview with Pres. Watkins and that night was our baptism! It was so great! Our investigator had been investigating for a while and so she had  two wards who just absolutely loved her! They all supported her and there were so many people you couldn't even count! It was amazing!I just sat there in awe and thought about how wonderful it is to have such a support system behind as she grows and learns in life and in the gospel! 

Well, the rest of the week has gone great! We've been able to teach a bunch of people and Sis. Christensen is such a great misisonary! I can tell already! She's from Yakima, Washington and is at BYU! Go Cougars! It's been loads of fun already! Can't wait to see what this new week brings!

I love you all have a great week! Sorry I don't have pictures of Sis. Christensen and I just yet. The computer isn't working properly right now. I'll attach them next week!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

Another Wonderful Week in LosSaraBell!

Aloha Everyone!

I hope everyone's week is going great! Sis. Esikia and I had a great week! We were able to meet some really interesting people and have some really great lessons.

The big news for this coming week is that Sis. Esikia is leaving....tomorrow. :\ And then President Watkins and Sis. Watkins are leaving by the end of the week. How terrible is that? Man... nobody likes me anymore. Haha nah... I'm just kidding. But really though, everyone's leaving this week and it's kind of a bummer. I'm not really sure what's going to happen to me or who's going to be my new companion but I'm thinking that the new Temple Square sister that is coming to replace Sis. Esikia will be my new companion. At least for the next week and a half until transfers. 

Change is definitely in the air and there is a huge shift happening in the next few weeks. I get a new companion, the Watkins are leaving, the Mellas are coming, but the greatest of all....... our investigator is getting baptized on Wednesday! Whooo hoooooooo! I am so excited for her! I can't say I really did anything because by the time I got to her she was already amazing and completely ready. I just got really lucky to get to meet her at the tail end. But she is so great and she has such a great support system behind her from all the ward members. It is just wonderful to see how many people are asking about her baptism. You know she's loved by the members when everyone else knows more about it than we do! It's so great! 

I am looking forward to this coming week being a great one! So many things happening! We have a quite a few investigators who are doing extremely well. There is really a marvelous work and a wonder occurring here! People are really being prepared all over the place!

A few weeks ago, Sis. Esikia and I were contacting out on Main St. in Campbell. A normal afternoon and we met a bunch of people. One of the people we met was from New Delhi, India. We got to talking with him and invited him to come to church. He took our card but after we invited him to come it seemed like he couldn't get away fast enough. But, we just looked at each other and shrugged and kept on our way. Well, this Sunday, we're standing near the chapel doors (And this Sunday there was like an entire receiving line...everyone wanted to be the door greeters...haha) A man comes through the "receiving line" and says, "Hello" and introduces himself and then we both stop. And I said, "Hey, I remember you!" It was the same man we contacted like 2 weeks ago! It was totally awesome! He was so, so incredibly prepared. He was like a sponge. It was great! The Elders taught Gospel Principles that day and taught him the Restoration of the Gospel and he loved it! He wants to come to everything church related but he's moving back to India by the end of the week so we're hoping to get him into contact with missionaries there. It just goes to show, we're never know who's really prepared. I don't really remember what happened we met him there but it stuck with him for two long weeks enough that he just showed up at church on Sunday! How amazing is that? What a testament to the Lord's work!

I am so glad to have been there at that moment to have met him and to have been there at church to see one of Heavenly Father's children be exactly where He wants them to be. I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

Sometimes We Go To Santa Cruz on PDay!

Aloha everyone! :)

I hope everyone's week was great! This week was great! Sis. Esikia and I hit the ground running with missionary work this week and everything is going great! The people we are teaching are great! The area is great! The food we're eating is great! 

We've had some really great lessons this week and I have such a testimony that the Adversary really works hard to make things difficult. We had a lesson last week with one of our investigators. She is one of my favorite people ever and she is about 90 years old. She is preparing for baptismal and accepts just about everything we teach her. I may have mentioned her story a little bit before but she used to watch this TV program, which from her description sounds like Music and the Spoken Word, on Sundays and so she says, a  lot of the things we are teaching her she's already learned from that program. Totally golden! Anyway, we head to go and teach her about the Word of Wisdom and for the first time ever she offers us tea. We politely declined and she asked if it was a religious thing and we explained to her that it was and she felt so terrible about it. 

Oh, it just broke my heart. We told her she didn't know and that it wasn't her fault because she wasn't aware and that Heavenly Father loves her so much but she was just wasn't the same. It was heart wrenching. We taught her the Word of Wisdom and she sat there intently listening the whole time and went through every part and then said, "Well the only thing is the tea, I don't do everything else but it's okay I'll just find something to substitute it with." How amazing is that? From a little of what she was mentioning earlier it sounded like she grew up drinking tea and now she was willing to give it up after all those years just so she is in line with what Heavenly Father wants her to do? Wow. It was so so amazing! She is just great. I feel so blessed to be able to get to know her. You really are never too old to change! 

Ah, another amazing week ahead. I love being a missionary and I love getting the blessings that come from participating in this work. The Lord is seriously just great! I hope everyone has a great week this week! Yesterday our zone went to Santa Cruz! We had lots of fun! I ate a Seared Ahi Sandwich on the wharf! So ono! Well, have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

Jamba Juice for DAYS!

Aloha everyone! :)

This week was another great one! Full of hilarious-ness, Sourdough bread, and smoothies! Sis. Esikia got her wisdoms pulled this week and so we were down for a few days. We spent time in the apartment and I scavenged our house and found quite a number of church DVDs. I think I almost memorized The Testaments. Haha! It's been great though. We had so many people come and bring us food and Sis. Esikia smoothies. From the members to missionaries everyone was bringing us smoothies. It was just hilarious!

By the end of the week, we finally were able to get back to doing missionary work and I felt like somebody had fired the gun for a race! I was so excited! We were behind on numbers because we were at home for most of the week and we had no idea how we were going to catch up to really anything and so we prayed and had a plan all in place. Then we went to bed and woke up the next day and of course as things all to often happen, almost all our plans fell through. But, we were determined. I knew the Lord was going to help us out. I had felt that He would the night before. So we went contacting in Los Gatos after church to try to talk to more people and there was none other than a Farmer's Market with tons of people for us to talk to! In our mission we count the number of people we contact because we don't tract and Sis. Esikia and I talked with over 80 people. It was a miracle if I ever saw one! Seriously. Contacting 80 people in a day doesn't happen. It was a huge blessing and set both of our hearts at ease. 

I know the Lord will provide when we put in our best effort. Even though we tried really hard to plan all kinds of different things and nothing really worked out, the Lord had a plan and really took care of us. I hope you all have a really great week!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

P.S. A picture of Sis. Esikia and I. Don't mind my weird poof in my hair. I couldn't tell you what was going on with that. Needless to say... I fixed it.

Welcome to Silicon Valley...Finally!

Alooooha! :)

Well everyone, finally actually close to the mission office. Haha! Both Pleasanton and Hollister were kind of out in the middle of nowhere but now I'm kind of in the heart of it all! It's crazy and so much fun! My companion is Sis. Esikia and she is a Tongan Temple Square Missionary from America Samoa. :) Haha. Two polynesians together. :) It's been lots of fun.

As we drove away from the mission office I'm pretty sure my eyes popped out of my head on Tuesday, I was telling Sis. Esikia that driving to Hollister the 101 turns from like four lanes to three lanes to a two lane highway into the Highway 25, a one lane highway, to the point where there's actually a Stop sign. Anyways, I started freaking out when the highway went from four lanes to like six and then had like 3 on-ramp/off-ramps at the same time. Haha! So, to say the least, it's pretty different! 

In this area, my companion and I co-cover three wards each with a set of Elders. We cover the Campbell Ward, the Saratoga Ward, and the Los Gatos Ward. We've been going all over the place meeting lots of new people and the people here are seriously just great! The work here is really moving forward and we have two investigators with a baptismal date. One is a lady that we taught today is 90 years old and she is just the best! We came and taught her and she gave us a review of all that we had taught her previously! Talk about golden! I was blown away! I told her how amazed I was and she chuckled and said, "Eh, pretty good from 90, huh?" No, no pretty good for anyone! It was so great! 

Well, other than that, things are going great! I'm excited to be here in this new area and I am so excited for my little investigator in Hollister to get baptized on the 14th and I can't wait for our two investigators here! I am seriously so blessed.

I love you all! I hope you have a great week! Sorry I don't have pictures today! I'll attach one of me and my new companion next week!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

(Here's her current address: 501 Hacienda Avenue, Apt. D30 Campbell, CA 95008. Mahalo for all the love and support! Love, Anela)