Asian Invasion!

Alooooooooooooooooooooooooooha! :)

This week was amazing! We had transfers and guess who my new companion is?! She is great. We have been laughing and cracking jokes from day one! This is going to be one amazing companionship. I can just tell! 

We've had a pretty great week so far! We were able to catch some people at home that we weren't able to catch before and we've been able to get in touch with a bunch of people that we have been having a really hard time with before. 

We were talking about it and we have had a pretty diverse week. We talked and taught people from all over the world! Seriously, in the same week. I've contacted/taught people from Russia, Norway, Nazareth, Cameroon, and some other really cool places! Let's see what else...we had all kinds of different service opportunities this week as well from pulling weeds to rhinestone-ing dresses. On a side note, a elderly brother came up to my companion and I in between classes on Sunday and read both our name tags and looked at us and then said, "Are you in the Chinese program?" "No, sorry." "Well, then...Vietnamese." (He was quite sure of it.) And then, we sadly had to break it to him...that we're English speaking sister missionaries and co-cover his ward. Hehe :) Don't worry we broke the news to him gently. I guess I look really different next to my new companion.

Something that was really great was that we got to talk a lot this week about the love that our Heavenly Father has for all of His children. It was great! I feel like it's been this hidden theme throughout my entire mission, which is totally fine with me because it is my favorite thing to talk about or to teach people. We've come in contact with a bunch of different people who have been having a really rough time and it's just the greatest thing when you can tell them that they are not alone and that Heavenly Father loves them! What greater message of hope is there? The love that our Heavenly Father has for us changes lives. It's just great!

This morning, our zone did a hike together and we all got to study our scriptures at the top. The view was gorgeous and it was such a neat experience to be able to be separated from all the city noises and stress.

I am so excited for this coming week! We have quite a few new potential investigators that seem really interested and one who already wants to be baptized! The Lord is truly hastening His work, I'm trying to make sure I can keep up!

Have a wonderful week! Did you guess who my new companion is?

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

 

 

Yup. It's real life. 

 

Sis. Ikegami's grandparents & Aunty Donna are in Nu'uanu Ward! : )

(Photo Credit: Sis. Ikegami)

 

All Too Soon!

Aloha everyone!

This week was as amazing as ever! We taught so many wonderful people and had the opportunity to be a part of so many miracles and Sis. Christensen and I have been so much on the same page that we snapped at the same time. Twice. 

Haha! I know that sounds really random and to be quite honest, it really was! We were talking about something and then snapped at the same time. After having a good laugh about it, and through even more choking laughter we started explaining the story and did it again! It was too weird!

But, transfer calls came this week and Sis. Christensen is getting transferred! I'm nervous to see who my next companion will be, but I know I probably shouldn't worry about it by now because she'll be great! So many great miracles are just around the corner this next transfer, it's almost as if I can see them right there in front of me. So many of the wonderful people we are teaching are making some huge decisions and huge changes in their lives. I am proud of their courage. I don't think I could be half as strong as the amazing people I get to spend my time with everyday. What a blessing it is to be around such strength.

I'm so excited and optimistic about this new transfer. There are great things ahead for so many of the people we interact with. I'm excited for all the things Heavenly Father is going bless them with because of their faith and trust in Him. Ahh! It's great to be a missionary!

I love you all! I hope you are having a wonderful week!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

"I Don't Like Scrabble"

Aloha everyone! :)

This week was a whirlwind. Just crazy amazing! Our zone went to Santa Cruz again yesterday! It was lots of fun! There were two other zones there so we got to hang out with them as well! I went on more exchanges and got to work with some really amazing sisters! We also had another Zone Training Meeting which was really great because we got to hear testimonies from all of the departing missionaries. Our zone is in for a major adjustment this next transfer. Almost every companionship is affected by this transfer so basically half of our zone is either getting transferred or finishing up their mission and going home. Craziness! Haha!

This week was great! Sis. Christensen and I were talking about it and we felt particularly led by the Spirit this week! Heavenly Father is just watching over so many of His children! I can't count the number of homes we entered this week that told us they were glad we came right when we did. It is such an amazing thing to be a part of. So so cool! We were able to find people and home and learn so much about those we work with. Just hearing their thoughts and their growth is amazing!

On Sunday night, we had dinner with one of our Ward Mission Leader's and his family! They are just amazing! We were cracking up all night long from talking about Scrabble, to Potatoes, to Ninjas, to Nerf guns, it was quite the night! Their kids were hilarious! Almost as funny as Kala and Abby. Haha. But really though... I have a new knock knock joke that I think is just great! Anyways, at the end of the dinner we shared a message like usual but we decided to share with them a Mormon Message called, "Earthly Father, Heavenly Father." It's probably my favorite one and if you haven't seen it yet, PLEASE do! You won't be let down! I had the iPad on my lap and they all gathered around to watch it on the ground in front of us and it was just picturesque. It was like a movie or something! To see them all together and laughing and giving each other looks because they've had something similar happen in their family! It was so great to see a family that truly loved each other and loved our Father in Heaven. I was so grateful to be a part of that moment.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

(Aloha Everyone! I'm trying to include the link to the video Sis. Ellis mentioned in her email above. Hopefully it works. If not, if you can find it on LDS.org or just Google it.  Thank you for all your love and support! Keep those letters and emails coming! She'll be home in just a few short months! Love, Anela) 

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-01-002-earthly-father-heavenly-father?lang=eng

Bien Bien!

Aloha everyone! :)

This week just as crazy as ever! I feel like this is a new theme....hm. But completely and totally great so that just makes it all worth it! Sis. Christensen and I had a wonderful week and were able to get into contact and  teach a lot of our wonderful investigators!

On Tuesday, I was able to go on exchanges with one of the sets of hermanas! They are on bikes and we had so much fun! It made me kind of miss biking! I'm so blessed to be able to work with those sisters. They are just amazing and bold! I love it! It encouraged me to be more bold in the way that I teach and contact people I meet. They are just great at being able to teach when they find! The sister I was with was great at relating everything someone said to a gospel principle or a scripture. I was just in awe! Plus, it was really fun to spend a day in Spanish program! Even if I just smiled and said, "si" all day long. Haha it worked well until they thought I actually spoke Spanish and would ask me questions I didn't know how to answer! Haha! :)

The rest of the week was great! Sis. Christensen and I were able to teach our wonderful new investigator from Burma and she is just progressing well! We thought because of the language barrier she wouldn't be able to understand what we were saying but as we started to reteach her the Restoration of the Gospel she said, "yeah I already know that part. God came and appeared with Jesus and said, 'This is my Son, Hear Him.'" Sis. Christensen and I just sat there with our jaws open so wide they were probably an inch from the ground! It was amazing! She remembered it all!

On Friday, Sis. Fraser and I went to another Missionary Leadership Council and we were asked to lead a discussion on Christlike Attributes! So great! It's my favorite chapter but we were nervous no one was going to participate. But, we think it ended well! It was great to hear everyone's participation though, especially those going home soon. They all had such great insights into to developing those Christlike Attributes in our lives to help with the work that we do here. 

Well, this week seems like it's going to be another amazing one! We have a Zone Training Meeting and a few more exchanges to do! I am so excited! I hope everyone has an amazing week! 

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

What Matters Most :)

Aloha! 

I hope everyone's week was great! This week was just glorious. I don't know why Heavenly Father decided to bless me and Sis. Christensen so much but we are grateful! We picked up three new investigators this week! THREE!!! :) Just to put it in perspective, so far I've been lucky on the mission to pick up three in a transfer period, which is about six weeks. Haha. Actually on second thought, I don't know if there's ever been a transfer that my companion and I have picked up three new investigators. Haha oh man! But it's okay because this week we have three!!!! YAY! It's amazing because they each are incredibly amazing people!

I love being able to meet so many new and wonderful people! I love being in the Bay Area because there is just such a mix of different kinds of people from different walks of life with just amazing stories mixed here together! Even better, we're all God's children and even better than that... I get to tell them all! Haha! It's great! Even though some people just look at me funny because I can't stop smiling! They just don't know how great it really is! Haha....sorry I'm getting off topic!

Our new investigators. One is from Burma. She is great and so enthusiastic about the gospel! We have to go through things a little slower because there's somewhat of a language barrier but she follows along in her Bible in Burmese and it's super cute when something clicks for her. She gets really excited and then writes it down! :) Another is from Cameroon and she basically won like a visa lottery! Super interesting! Then, our last new investigator is from guess where?! Hollister, CA. Haha! Random or what?!

In addition to that, our wonderful Italian investigator is just great! We brought a member who served his mission in Italy to help us teach and it went great! She understood so much more because he was able to relate things to her culturally that Sis. Christensen and I just don't know about! It was just amazing! That's pretty much why I love members coming with us to lessons! They are just great! Even if it's not bridging a language gap, members are just this beautiful way to show our investigators that we're actually human beings! The Spirit was so strong while we taught and testified of the Gospel it was almost tangible! 

Then to top off this wonderful week! My little investigator from Hollister got baptized! :) It just brought it all home for me. That's what really matters most. The wonderful opportunity we have in this life to make covenants with our Heavenly Father so that we can all return to live with Him again! What could be better than that? 

Well, I hope everyone has a great week! You are all wonderful! I hope you all can meet someone this week as wonderful as the people I had the chance to get to know this week!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

Ni Fengle

Aloha My Wonderful Family and Friends!

This week has been so totally great! I have met some of the most amazing sisters of Zion in the midst of Babylon. Such a privilege to be around some exceptionally great women! 

It all started with this wonderful sister who fed us on Monday night. She is great! We didn't have a dinner and she offered to feed us! So so kind! We both just felt this overwhelming sense of Heavenly Father's awareness of her and by extension his awareness of us!

Then on Wednesday night, we met a wonderful Recent Convert to the church. She is a single mother, with two children, who has already battled cancer twice and she's not even 40 years old yet! I was just amazed at her faith and her testimony. She was an example to me as she talked about how grateful she is to have the Gospel in her life and to have the knowledge that she does about the Savior because it has strengthened her in everything she's gone through.

On Sunday, we were able to meet with another Recent Convert and she is just amazing and we also had dinner with Pres. Mella and his wife and those two, they are amazing! Sis. Mella is such an example of a great mother who raises her children in righteousness. They are so down to earth and really just make everyone feel really comfortable. I feel like I can really talk to the both of them about anything and everything.

This week has been great. We ended the week teaching three Chinese exchanges students staying with members of one of the wards. It is amazing to see the immediate effect the Gospel and the Spirit can have in someone's life. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to serve!

Have a wonderful week,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

P.S. Speaking of another wonderful person. Here's finally a picture of me and Sis. Christensen. 

Also, I figured I should probably explain the Subject line. Sis. Christensen has had lots of Mandarin speaking companions and was teaching me things and the subject line means "you're crazy." So this week we were out contacting and Sis. Christensen and I were speaking in Mandarin to each other and these Chinese ladies popped out of nowhere and were all surprised. It was really funny. It was kind of one of those you have to be there moments.

But in other news, for one of those you don't have to be there moments. Sis. Christensen and I definitely showed up at a part member family's home this week with a huge Italian flag for our member's husband to replace his old one and yelled, "Viva Italia!" He loved it so much he wrapped it around himself and gave us Biscotti and fruits! Haha! It was great! 

The wonderful Sister Christensen

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