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

Asian Invasion Part 3

Everyone...ALOOOHA!

So transfer calls are in and Sis. Ikegami and I are staying together for one last transfer! Haha! Exciting things are happening in Saratoga and we will be together to be a part of it! It's going to be great!

I am so excited to see the new sisters that come to our zone! I know they're all going to be great! I'm super excited for General Conference this weekend! It's like Christmas except twice a year and for a whole weekend. So... actually I guess it's not really like Christmas at all. But it's still really great and I'm excited to go to the Oakland Temple next week! It's going to be great. So many wonderful things to be excited for! 

This week...our wonderful golden investigator is still doing well! She is just on a roll! She's like a sponge just soaking up everything there is to know! It is so exciting! I am so grateful to be a part of this process! We had a great week this week! We were able to get to the second page of our progress record in one of our wards this week! Which may not seem like a big accomplishment but it is to me!  Just a little FYI, a progress record is just for us to share with the ward council, or the ward leadership,  to so they can be aware of those we are teaching. It's great for both parties because then they can know our investigators and we can report on people they may have asked us to visit! Anyways, with three wards to cover, I've gotten close to getting to two pages but this was the first week it actually happened. Usually with three different progress records it looks like we've only visited a handful of people that entire week because we spilt our work within the different wards. So hopefully at one point we can get to all three wards with two sided progress records. That'd be so great!

Other than that, everything's been going well! Looking forward to another wonderful week of missionary work! I hope everyone has a great week! I love you all! 

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

Another Amazing Week!

Aloha! :)

This week has been another amazing one! Sis. Ikegami and I did back to back exchanges with sisters this week. So much fun! All the sisters in our zone are basically more on top of it than we are so it's pretty great! I learn so much every exchange. It makes my job really easy because then I get to just tell the sisters how wonderful they are! Pretty great gig, if you ask me!

Hmm. This week went by in a whirlwind! We were able to teach a bunch of people and our golden investigator is still doing wonderfully! She is preparing for baptism in October and nothing can stop her! There's been a few roadblocks but she just trail blazes right over anything Satan tries to send her. It's inspiring. She's telling everyone about what she is learning and sharing the gospel with everyone! Pretty much she should just take my missionary tag! 

Well, lately I think I've really been gaining a stronger testimony of our missionary manual, Preach My Gospel. It is great! Every single word and scripture and everything. I've begun to read it from the very beginning all the way through and I'm learning new things as I go. It's kind of like the scriptures in that way, a new meaning every time. I've been noticing how much of a habit I've gotten into in regards to the way I teach. Don't get me wrong...I'm glad I have a rhythm but there are so many scriptures and references and perspectives that I have used or thought of using in a really long time! I'm really excited to start shaking things up a little bit! Hopefully we can get more people to progress.

On to Week 6 already. I don't know how this dreaded week keeps creeping up on me. Time is definitely moving too fast. I feel like Sis. Ikegami and I just became companions last week!

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

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan

At dinner on exchanges...Isn't this little girl precious? : )

Asian Invasion Part 2

Alooooooooooooha! :)

This week was another amazing one! Except that it was even better than normal! We got a baptismal date from our new wonderful like golden of all golden investigators! She is so great. We've been talking with her about baptism and we invited her with a date and she had already been thinking of one! Isn't that wonderful? She is just the greatest!

Now I'm just worried about her because I know how wonderful she is and Heavenly Father knows how wonderful she is, so Satan probably knows the same thing. I'm praying that Heavenly Father will help her through all the obstacles to come. 

Hmm other than that, Sis. Ikegami and I have been having lots of fun! Especially contacting! Haha. We get all kinds of Asian comments it's hilarious. I contacted a lady the other day and begun telling her we were missionaries for our church. And she, who was also Asian, asked if it was an Oriental church! Haha! I kindly had to let her down easy and tell her, "No it isn't, it's a worldwide church!" Haha! I thought I was pretty clever. But she wasn't as interested anymore. Haha! 

Another contacting story, we met a guy the other day outside of the mall from Ethiopia and he's only been in America for about 5 years. It was super cool to talk to him about his beliefs and he started off not wanting to listen to us at all and then as we continued to talk he agreed with us on so much that we taught him the whole Restoration of the Gospel. Sis. Ikegami is just a contacting ninja master. Mostly because she's Japanese but also because she's just really good at contacting! Haha nah... I'm just kidding. But she is really great at contacting. 

So we've just continued to see the amazing miracles that Heavenly Father has in store for His children here and I could've wished for anything better. He really knows best! I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Sis. Ellis-Lui-Kwan