November 10, 2013

JOUH SAHN mums and pops!

 

So today i am just emailing in the convention center in Wan Chai again. We live in sai wan. It is about 45 mins from my area which is aberdeen. So every morening and night we spend about an hour traveling to our area and then back home. And Sai Wan has no place to email unless you scheduel which is so hard without a computer haha so we get to travel to wan chai to email! kind of a maahfaahn but oh well. I just love Wan Chai. They are already putting up HUGE Christams decorations because they dont ecelebrate thanks giving haha so it is pretty great! I love Christmas.

I can play the christmas c.ds on our little portable dvd player so all is well! I dont know how to get them on the ipod. haha i just love getting your packages! Sister Johnsons mother also likes packages and decorations so we will have the most decorated place on the flat! woohoo! I think it is just so great that you follow the little promptings of the spirit when you are shopping haha. Im going to need that Burts Bees stuff! I am just super duper excited! hmmm recipies.....it is hard to say. I just want some recipies that dont need a lot og ingredients because we are poor and the food is expensive! oh speaking of, yes i got the new camera! it was about 150 but i took out a little extra because i dont know how to convert haha. My bad!

 

Sister Jonhson is from Utah. I have been learning a little bit of sign language already! we teach a recent convert family and a less active and we also have an investigator who need signing. We have translators who are also ward members that come and help us out. The recent convert family is the Lee family. They are so cute. Those lessons are so amazing. So spiritual. It is so silent and the Spirit is so strong. I just love to go to their house and see their faith. They are amazing.

 

Kasey... This week has been such a rough week. Her family is completly against her decision to be baptized. They have been just cruel all week. When she told her mom she was getting baptized, her life turned to chaos. Her twin sister wont talk to her. Her mother has just abused her in every way possible. They wont let her leave the house, and they took her clothes. She came to church yesterday with bandages on her face and knee. We dont exactly know what all happened because of the language barrier, but we know that it is not good. but the amazing thing is that she is still pushing onward. She met with us yesterdday and she was just a different person. She was stronger, and i could just see the faith radiating from her. She is such an amazing example to sister Johnson and I. We read the bom together and then asked her to offer a prayer. Her prayer was the most sencere prayer i have ever heard. We were all just in tears. She prayed for her family, she prayed for her situation to be better, she prayed that she would be baptized soon. But the thing that really hit me was when she just started to thank Heavenly Father. She thanked Him for the Gospel, her knowledge, the church and the members. She is just going through the hardest time oof her life right now and she just is full of gratitude. I just hate to see her suffer for doing whats right. for following Jesus Christ. We just continue to pray for her and help her in any way possible. I just know that she will be blessed because of her faith.

 

We also had a ward Halloween party this week. The missionaries were asked to decorate a Halloween plan of salvation room.... you can just imagine how that went haha. We have pictures but this computer wont let me send any! so maybe next week. But it was so funny. It was great! then they wanted us to put on  a little skit. Well we decided to act out the story of ammon....but we didnt plan it until 3 minuted until we were supposed to perform. So the Chinese elders just thought it would be easy because they would read a scripture and we would follow what they said. Well sister johnson and i had NO clue what he was saying *scriptural, spoken, and written cantonese is completly different). So they just started to read and then shooed us up on stage. It was hilarious. We kinda knew what was going on but not really and no in the right order so the ward was just laughing so hard and we were trying to cut arms off while he was teaching the king and the sheep were just all over the place. I dont even know how to describe how embarrassing it was haha.

 

Yes i emailed granny carol and so i hope she got it! I got her letter and then emailed her right away :) it was such a nice email! I love love my hymn book with my name on it. It is just so special :) i will definitely write a thank you letter :)

 

HUDSON GUHMAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tell that little rascal to come out already! I was so excited to see him! awhhhhh well send me some pictures!!! :) :) I really have so many pictures to send you all haha so i hope next week we will have time to send some pics your way! ill just have to print them and then send you some pictures!

 

WOOHOO ALL THE MISSION CALLS! congrats elder mosness and ELDER GOLDSMITH! when does he leave? thanks for giving me permission momma haha. Ps stop trying to plan out my wedding! i am a missionary and my heart is locked away in Eagar Arizona. :)

 

I cant believe cupcake broke the bench! actually i can. Im t hinking the sprinkles are his problem:)

 

well i love you all and hope that you have a fantastic week! Tell that sster of mine to hurrry up with the whole baby thing! I NEED TO SEE HIM!

'

LOVE SISTER HAMBREEN! (oh and i saw sister lee this week. it was a great reunion and ashley and karen will be baptized this month!!!!!!)

November 6, 2013

Lee Family Picture

Good Morning mumsie and pops!

The new area....WOW! it is so different from KWUN TONG. We went from 15 investigators to 1. So we have been doing a looooot of finding. It is good though. I love walking around and teaching lessons on the street. It teaches me more chinese and more patience.

Sister Johnson is a rock star missionary. She is awesome! She is a hard worker and we just get along so well. We are just so new and dont know where we are going or what we are saying. I have really learned about relying on the Lord. We dont know Cantonese and we dont know exactly how to do missionary work, but we know that we are nothing without the Lord. I have seen so many little miracles this week. I have tasted a little bit of the gift of tongues. We were both so nervous for our lessons because we never could understand before. But now we have been able to understand everything we needed to! It is amazing. I could not learn this language without the Lord.

We have one investigator and her name is Kasey! She is 23 years old. She is a nurse and CINDERELLA in Hong Kong's Disney on Ice! So she is pretty much a real princess.....(other than being a daughter of God). She is a twin. Her twin sister is a jehovahs witness and does NOT like Kasey involved in our church. Kasey has been through a lot of trials. She is the perfect example of having hard trials and being deep in the pit of heartache. She has used the Atonement and has read the Book of Mormon and is just stellar! She read like 100 pages of the Book of Mormon within 4 days of us seeing her. She loves the D&C and the Bible. She is just amazing. the first day i got to my new area she told us she didnt know if the church was true and that she didnt have faith. We committed her to start reading the book of mormon (this happened before she read the 100 pages). Then she came back the next week to church and said that she got her answer, she knows this church is true, she loves the book of mormon, she said that her faith had grown so much and it is just a miracle! she is getting baptized in 2 weeks. What a miracle. I know that us as missionaries do not convert people. All they have to do is read the book of mormon and the rest just falls together. We had a meeting last night after her baptismal interview and she just asked us if she could stay in the church for a while and read scriptures. after we went into the room and she had the bom out, d&c, and the bible and she was just sriting away in her notebook. I think we all need to follow Kasey and be converted to the gospel and the book of mormon. We should all be dilligently studying the scriptures daily just as this investigator does. I think that the people we are teaching are such bettter examples than i am. I wish i would have really really studied the scriptures before my mission!

anyway HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOHOOO!!! Nothing really happened in Hong Kong on Halloween haah sorry mom! oh p.s. my neck is doing that weird thing again. Hope that goes awa soon.

   So i just got another package today! THANKS MOM!!! :) :) the starbursts are already gone! haha i love candy from america. Nothing tastes the same here......so keep it coming! :) also if you know ....you were going to send another one soon....i would love some granola...it is suuuuper expensive here! (well for missionareis) i guess it would be easier to just buy it here......oh well. OOOOO mom! can you send me some easy christmas snack recipies and mexican recipies? Not on email but maybe in a letter? sister johnson and i want to make some! oh and maybe some hot tamales and reeses!!!

   So i never thought this would happen but i am peeling like a lizzard out here! it is 70% humidity and i am so dry haha i am using chapstick all day and lotion. I cant imagine what i will be like when i get to arizona in a year. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT HAS ALREADY BEEN 5 MONTHS?!!?!? it is so crazy! time flies.

  So something culturaly different.....people are not afraid to tell other people that they are fat. it is like normal. and no one gets offended. We were on the bus and i was talking to a couple of girls and one of them just talked about how fat the other one was. it was super awkward. then we went to dinner and one of our ward members new a missionaries mom and said oh i know your mom! She is the fat one! and the missionary was like "oh yeah! thats my mom." it was so weird. I dont think i will ever get used to that haha.

   O.k. my rice cheeks are out of control! How do i stop this>! dad do you know any cheek exercises? Help me know how to be healthy in hong kong! all their food is noodles, rice, dumplings, and a tiny bit of vegetables. WHAT DO I DO!?

   Well i just want to tell you all that i am living in paradise. I love Hong Kong. I am even getting sad when i think about how long i have been here because then it means i have to go sooner! I love the Lord, i LOVE your letters, emails, and packages, i love you all. keep loving me :)

Oh we went to the temple today and i just want to tell you that i love the temple and it is a place of ervelatioN!  :)

sorry no pictures. I took some but this computer has no usb place. HOPEFULLY NEXT WEEK! :) :)

LOVE YOU!

-sister hambreen

hmmmmmmm so i have like more time to write than i thought and i am kind of bored :) please dont forget to tell me all about Jess and Hudson this week! send lots of pictures! and stuff!! Thank you for the christmas cDS! I LOVE them! i havent opened the rest of the package yet but im excited :) oh and have you recieved the package i sent? it is just little and has something for mum and jess in it! ok better get going! and i just emailed granny carol! lcan you ask her if she got it so i can know if that is her address? :) thanks! and HOW IS KARA AND AUNT NANCY! tell them to let me know!

October 28, 2013

WELL HELLO MUMSIE AND POPS!

SO MUCH HAPPENED THIS WEEK! haha hmm where to start...... well last monday we somehow locked ourselves out of our bedroom. I really have no clue how we did it because it has a hook lock and there was really no way we could have done it. So it was 11 o clock (the time we are supposed to be in bed) and we were calling the housing elders and our ap's and our land lord to try to help us out. Finally president Hawks called us and asked if we had any sheets...yes? then he said "lay them on the floor and try to get some sleep". So there we were. 4 sisters all crunched up on the wood floor on a couple sheets. We decided to get some clothes out of the closet and out towels to sleep on haha. What a crazy night. Sister Lee was grinding her teeth like a mad man, sister escabarte just screams in her sleep, and sister Palmer and i woke up just snuggling with our cheeks together haha it was an awkward morning. Anyway, president Hawks then came over with some elders and just broke our door.... no he wont stop making fun of me for locking myself out. President hawks is so funny. But when he was in our house it was just such an amazing feeling. He really is a man of the Lord and his presence is so calming and motivation. Anyway i love president Hawks, what more can i say?

Then we got to teach some "lost sheep" that we found! It was a family who got baptized a year ago and then moved and no one knew where they had gone to. Found them finding and we have been reactivating them! they are so cute. We also got with the elders and taught them a FHE and played games and just had a great time with this little Lauh family :) Then we went home and were getting ready for bed and we got another random call. they told me that i would be moving to ABERDEEN!!!! It was just a random move. Sister Lee's old companion is coming back to be with her in Kwun Tong and i am going to a new area. I was soooooooooooooooooooooooo sad. I didnt want to leave Sister Lee or Ashley or Karen or Wendy or my ward or my district. But here i am in Aberdeen. Ill tell you a little more about that later.

then we had a relief society broadcast in Wan Chai and we walked in and in another big room to the side there was a groom just freaking out. Turns out that some people took down all the wedding reception decorations because they wanted to have a funeral in that room. So as you can imagine aeveryone was just scrambling around trying to get everything set up because the reception was in an hour. So thats where missionary work comes in. We got all the sister missionaries and boy did we set that wedding reception back up! It was so fun! and while we were there i met my future new compaion! SISTER JOHNSON!!!!!!!!!!!

She came up to me and gave me that biggest hug and said that i was an answer to her prayers. She was so so so excited! she said that right before she got the call she was talking to another sister about me and said that she wanted to be my companion because hers was having a loooooot of problems. Then 5 minutes later she got the call that i would be her companion! what a miracle for her. Heavenly Father really does listen to every single one of His childrens' prayers.

So today we went to kowloon tong and exchanged! Now i am on hong kong island with the insanely rich people! it is so different from Kwun Tong. I am in a billion dollar building right now just looking out at the ocean with cruise ships and the famous building from the Bat Man movie haha. But i absolutly love sister johnson. She is so sweet. she is just a move above me so we both dont speak cantonese. WE NEED THE GIFT OF TONGUES! I also saw president Hawks today and he told me that he was so excited tht sister johnson and i would be companions and that aberdeen was the next ward he wanted to split! I am soooooooooo grateful that i could serve in kwun tong but i already love aberdeen. It is a huuggeee finding area so mom your prayers were also answered haha. we will see how it goes! Pray for the people in aberdeen. and as with ashley, she bought me a birthday cake and then gave me the sweetest note. Our goodbye was not pretty but i know she will do well!!!!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE BIRTHDAY PACKAGE!!!!! peanut butter and reeses and suuuper cute clothes and money! (ps sorry again for losing my camera. THANK YOU), the super fun cards, halloween decorations, and pictures, and the paralized father of mine. I love love loved it! thank you mumsie and pops!

Oh and there is a lady in kwun Tong that looks exactly like granny carol but thai. She is so sweet and makes me feel at home :)

The weather is AMAZING!!! like so perfect i am loving it. Dragon beard candy......uhhh not sure. you will have to search it! and i will not be with sister lee for christmas! I WILL BE WITH SISTER JOHNSON! i have such a great feeling about her and the miracles that are going to happen in Aberdeen! it is such a beautiful place (disneyland and ocean park area) haha and it is knowno for the best sea food in hong kong! so i am glad i am loving fish right now! It is so good to hear that granny is doing a little better. and i pray for her. Take care of her for all of us cousins. I love you so much and pray for you! I want to invite you this week to invite 2 less actives or innactives to come to church! WE NEED TO BRING THEM BACK!
LOVES AND KISSES FROM ABERDEEN!
-sister hambreeen

October 21, 2013

well first things first. My camera was thiefed!!! Yep. so there is this sketchy email place that we dont go to unless the other places are full but we had to go last week. I acidentaly left my camera and we went right back when we found out. Like 2 hours later. When we got there it wasnt there anymore :( so then the man told me that i had to come back the next day. So i did and we had to watch a video footage of the past day for like an hour. THEN WE SAW IT! This boy just came in and took it! I SAW IT WITH MY OWN EYES! this boy just took my camera! haha oh funny some chinese cops just walked in and they are sitting right behind me and just telling me how beautiful i look today haha "good morning!!!! you are so beautiful beautiful beautiful!" they just keep talking to me haha. ok back to the story. anyway so the internet place found the boy and gave me his number. We called him and he had sold my camera! what the? and then he said that he could give me 100 dollars (that is 12 us dollars) i was like, what the? how can i buy a camera with 12 dollars!? he said her couldnt do anything else. so i decided to pray and read my scriptures so i would know what to do. I opened my scriptures right to the law of Moses! Yep i could just call the police and have this boy give me money or go to jail!!! then i didnt feel like that was right haha so i opened again. I opened to justice and mercy. So i could tell this boy to give me all he had and then i would forgive the rest.... and then for some reason that didnt feel right either. Then i just thought of Les Mis. The preacher totally forgave 24601. He even gave him the OTHER CANDLE STICK! well i didnt have another camera to give him but i felt really good about this thought. I would just forgive and forget. 

Now that doesnt take care of the whole "i need a new camera thing". but i felt like the right thing was to forgive him.

so mom i dont know what to do? should i buy a new one? i looked at cameras and they are like 300-500 us dollars. that is super exprensive but i really need a camera for my mission! what should i do? i can go shop for one today but i would need money on my card. can you put some of my own money on my account so i can get a new one?

Oh today we will go to the dentist. sister Lee grinds her teeth and it is SO LOUD that it wakes us all up. Yep the first week i was here i thought it was thunder. The apartment is pretty crazy at night. I feel like i am in a mad house. One sister grinds her teeth. the other one just has bad nightmares and screams like everynight! then the other one just speaks in cantonese. So here i am, just chiilling in my bed. You can just imagine haha.

I GOT TO RIDE THE FERRY THIS WEEK! from Kowloon island to Hong Kong island. It was soooooo beautiful! ill send a picture. 

We also went to visit a memeber this week and we went to her flat and we signed in. then the guards told us that the elevators were broken...the member lived on the 38th floor!!!! so we started walking haha. it was pretty rough but we made it in less than 15 minutes! it is a good thing she was home!

hmmmm ooo i also got to eat DRAGON BEARD CANDY! it is probably the best candy in china. It is super traditional and super cool. try to find a recipe and make it! superrrr yummmmyyyy!!!! 

ASHLEY came to stake conference this week and it was amazing. All about missionary work and then tithing....which was a miracle because we had just taught her about tithing! Then right after there was a baptism. She got to watch it and the spirit was so so strong. I am so excited for her! We also got Karen back!! we taught her about repentance this week and she just started to cry. It amazes me everytime how much power the atonement has. We are also still teaching old wendy and a few others. We only have a few progressing but that is alright with me! I also started to understand what people were saying in stake conference! I got the gist of their talks and felt a little bit of the gift of tongues! WOOHOO! the gospel is amazing

I found myself looking out the window of our apartment last night and i just realized that i am in china. I am learning chinese and i am in the most beautifl city in the world. I looked through the tall buildings and across the harbor to Hong kong island. The boats were sailing and the lights were beautiful. I was just so happy. Then i thought about leaving and couldnt handle it!.i dont want to leave this place. I know i have a long time left but i am just loving it more and more every day. I wish that you could be experiencing this with me! It is amazing. 

well i dont have much time but i love you all so much. thank you for being amazing. Than kyou for staying strong in the church,. thank you for letting me go on a mission and have this once in a lifetime opportunity. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

-sister hambreen

October 14, 2013

GOODMORNING! MUMSIE AND DAD

This week was such a great week. GENERAL CONFERENCE was aboslutly amazing. I feel as if every single talk was exactly for me. I have never has such a strong witness to me that Thomas S Monson is a true prophet of God. HE IS and I know it. I know that he speaks with God and he knows EXACTLY how to help each individual member of this church. I did get to see it in english at the Wan Chai chapel! The chapel is the most beauiful chapel ever. Look it up. It is 7 stories of lovely. Anyway, My favorite talks were of course our beloved prophet but also president eyring. I felt the love of our Heavenly Father flow from their souls to mine as i listened to their heartfelt testimonies and advice. Then we thank thee oh god for our prophet was the great finisher to this amazing conference! Before conference i really prepared myself to have humility to know what i needed to change in my life. Holy Cow to i have a lot to change. and one message was that we need to change NOW! we cannot wait to make changes in our lives. The time is short and we need to make the decision to follow christ in not only our actions and words, but our thoughts. I have made a new goal to have Christlike thoughts. It is very difficult but this is one thing that i will change in my life. I hope that you really listened with your spirit while listening to conference. I hope that we all know how we can change and become who God wants us to be and knows we can be.

 

dad i know how you feeel about those rice cheeks. People tell me about them all the time. I have already gotten them. We eat rice and noodles for every single meal! well i try to eat cereal for breakfast. but yeah i feel like i have lost weight everywhere but my face! haha that is the worst. also i feel that all the humidity soaks into my skin and then i just am all puffy........oh the life of a missionary haha.

 

I LOVED getting the letters from lieke and janice! thank you for sending them! They are amazing. I think about them a lot and hope that they are doing well.! JANICE COME TO HONG KONG! ill be here for a while haha. BUT IT IS ALREADY IN THE MIDDLE OF MY 4Th MONTH ON MY MISSION! it is so fast...well some days seem slower haha but it is flying by and my chinese is not improving as fast as i would like. BUT i was told that my sounds and ones are improving and that i can sihk teng a whole lot!! woohoo!!!

 

so i am also very happy that sister lee and i have 9 more weeks together! but i know presdent hawks knows we like each other so he will change us next move. thats how it goes here. But sister lee cant say my name and it is so cute. she just calls me sister hambreen! she tries sooo hard to say it right but cant haha.

 

so ill have to admit that i am liking the chinese style now. Last p day i bought 2 of the ugliest sweaters i think i have ever seen. But i....like them.... anyway. mom now that you are a grandma you will have to take on the granny fashion here in hong kong! haah the only ladies love to jerk leapord pants and ':hip" shirts haha.  so mom i will make sure to bring you some clothes home. and dad you can be a grandpa with surfer shorts and an open sutton up shirt haha. Yeah you can only imagine what they wear haha.

 

I AM BECOMING CHINESE! we went to eat at a litle place on the street the other day and we were with ashley. then ashely and sister lee just looked at me and started laughing. when they finally pointed a my toohpic in my hand. I was picking my teeth like a true chinese old man! And now i can even burp out loud to make sure everyoe knows i like the food. It is no weird or anything to just burp all day everyday. especially when you are talking to people. ewww.

 

GUESS WHAT?!?!!?!? WE HAVE ALMOST REACTIVATED TWO OF OUR LESS ACTIVES! i dont know if that is more exciting or knowing that ashley will be baptizzed next month :) well we still have faith that she will. She is progressing wonderfully. Alhough our other 14 are not...but at least they want to learn about the gospel! It is soooooo hard to have people keep commitments!!!!!!!!!!!! no one wants to come to church or read their scriptures. I wish that they could just see how the gospel can bless their lives!!!!

 

So we just got a bom in cantonese! With the pinyam. But we were told not to read it becasue spoken and written cantonese are so different. President Hawks told us that we can only read it if we are reading a scripture to someone.I wish i could just read in cantonese! After m mission i guess i will.

 

Tell granny that i love her. I am so sad that she is in so much pain right now. I hope that you will all love her while we have her! I miss her so much but i know tha papa misses her more. Let her know that i am so happy to be her granddaughter.

<3

<3 <3

oh and we got new missionaries this week! I AM NO LONGER that NEW! haha WOOHOOOOOOOOO!

 

just remember what president monson said

THE BLOWS OF LIFE ARE TOUGH, BUT JUST REMEMBER THE STRONGER THE BREEZE THE STRONGER THE TREES!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO much and cant wait for you to expreience china :)

 

pic. ashley bought us a tony wong cake! it was amazing!!! mmm mmm mmm

at the temple with ashley

 

LOVE SISTER BUG blockhead emmyb hambreen

October 6, 2013

HELLO MUMs AND DAD!!

I just cant tell you how much i love reading your emails and letters! haha and mom i think i realize now more than ever that moms and their girls have such a strong connection! I have been thinking about olivia so much lately and was going to ask you to talk to her for me! I also needed new insect repellant! I seriously think that the stuff i have attracts them. When i use it i seem to get way more. So i think i will stop using it! and it is 40% DEET! what the? haha but its ok. I was also going to talk to you about Halloween! You seem to know all my thoughts :) I love you so much!

GENERAL CONFERENCE! we get to see it next saturday and sunday :) I am not sure if it is english or cantonses but i bet we will be able to hear it in english. I have never been more excited to listen to a general conference before haha. I am so excited to hear things that answer my questions and help me and my investigators! I am just jealous that you already got tot walch it! 

YEAH KIA! and also Tia! She is going to New Jersey! Woohoo! With Christia! ummmm messages....i think i am good for now. Just one for Olivia :) THANK YOU MOM! ANd thank you so much for the Jerky :) you know me so wel.

NATHAN NICOL! what?! That is so scary but such a miracle! I am so glad that he is alright. The nicolls are having a rough go huh? But they are so strong. They can handle anything life throws at them. Bishop Nicoll and Sister Nicoll are seriously two of my most favorite people. Call them tonight and tell them that i love them ok? Tell them that God loves them and they have missionaries praying for them and for their families. The are so strong and i know that they are the type of people who look with eternal eyes. I love them!

OH JAXON/HUDSON! I am so so so so so excited to be an aunt. All of china knows that i will be one in one month and they are also excited :) haha. everytime i meet someone that somehow comes up... YAYAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!

My shirt in the toilet...im not really sure. I just looked down after a shower and there it was! not like it matters haah it is that wet all day anyway :) 

Brother Jung gave me some mainland coins this week. No food because fast sunday haha. I just love him. I dont think he would accept anything i tried to give him. The chopsticks are coming! except they eat chicken wings with them! That is probably the hardest. Like i still cant understand how they do it. I wait until no one is looking and shove it into my mouth hahah. Ill have to learn someday but it is a whole lot better! Sai Kung is a place. The richer people live there haha. They actually live in houses there and not high rises! It is a little more homeie :) My favorite food...hmmm well i love frog. OH! And we had 4 chang outs this week and we went to a place called tucan lane. It is where the very wealthy people live. We went to teach a members wife. her name is Paula. haha we walked into their house and it was like a mansion! (well in hong kong) and then i saw heaven. It was a full body massage chair!!!!!!!!! Arms head bum you name it, it massaged it! And then they told me i just had to try it. so there i sat. In heaven, while they were cooking SNAILS! Yeah. full on snails. So they brought out the huge pot of snails in their shells and little sticks to pull the body out. It was SOOOO GOOOD!!!!!! so ill have to judge between frog and snails. And at that chang out they also brought us some little cans. Inside this can was a weird looking jellyfish looking fish.THey told me i had to try it out and so i did. It was ok la. but then when we left i found out that that small little peanut sized fish was 400$!!!!!!! I felt so bad. They also had a birthday cake for me and sang to me :) I love chinese people. But they always make you eat too much. Missionaries in Hong Kong do not lose weight haha la. They just say Sihk La!!! Sihk dodi! that just means eat. eat more hoisam di happier when you eat more haha.

We had to turn charlie over becasue the wards split but the elders are in contact so it is  good! And Ashley! that is her english name. I dont know her chinese name though. Ashley fung. She is super progressing! We took her to see the temple last night and it was amazing the spirit she felt. She hould be baptized on the 24th of next month. Finding. I still dont love it but i am a lot more brave. And i am a lot less sad about rejection. They are just not quite ready to hear the gospel yet. BUT THEY WILL BE! People have more interest in me being amarican than they do with the gospel but thats ok too! We will develop their interest :)

The cantonese is coming! I have learned so much with a native companion that i wouldnt have if i didnt have her. It is great. We still dont understand eachother all the time but it is ok. It makes both of us have to work harder on our language. ps i am just sitting in this internet cafe listening to like 7 boys from india talking about that facebook farm game haha they are so excited about it and they are like 15 years old. hahahahhahaha. Oh and i am staying in Kwun Tong for at least 9 more weeks. I passed the move haha and sister lee will be staying with me! So my cantonese will improve a lot more! woohoo!!!!!!

YAYA BIRTHDAY PACKAGE!!!!

I just saw halloween decorations so that is pretty cool. I love halloween. THey also trick or treat and stuff like that. It is just not as big. Houses dont decorate haha. maybe that is just my mom :)

Sister Leee says she have love for you too. hehe. oh something funny about her. She gets the words Satan and Santa mixed up allthe time. SHe was writing a leter to her friend and said that she can see the powers of santa all around. And santa is taking people from our gospel. hahah i just cant even imagine all the things i say wrong! Satan and Beach are about the same in cantonese and so is work and china so i always get those cofused.

So right now we have about 15 investigators and 7 with baptismal dates! It is amazing actually. We have about 3 that are actually progressing. Everyone just has one little problem here or there that stops them from coming to church! I want them to come to church so bad. They need this happiness!

So dad also asked me about Mute Ways I Could Serve. I have been looking and the ways that i have served mutley are very small. When i am on the MTR or trolly or bus, i will move or give my seat. I can open doors and just say hello. Last night was probably my favorite. There was a family at a restaurant and they had a baby and the baby knocked a lot of stuff off the table. So i went over and helped them pick stuff up. All they could say was thank you. they were just grateful and i felt the spirit so strongly by just helping someone pick up some things. It was great. I hope that we can all look for these ways to serve! Well i better go! I love you all so much and pray for you everyday! Thank you for all the support and not praying for things to be easy for me.

BYE BYE LA!

-sister bug

September 29, 2013

MUMSIE!!!!

hmmm typhoons... we dont get them often. I have only had about 3 but only 2 we had to stay in. It is definitely a mission rule. But president Hawks doesnt like it because it slows down the work! I agree! But no one wants to be outside when trees are blowing down haha. I just cant believe i am on an island with monkeys (havent seen one yet) palm trees, beaches, sharks, and CHINESE PEOPLE! wow. There are so many people but yeas i think i am used to the people. unless i want to get somewhere fast! then it is totally impossible. 

I am not sure if they even sell maderma here. But i just got your package with the jerky! WOOHOO! only 7 weeks.........ugg! Why does it take so long? But dear elder definitely takes longer than other packages. Thats what the missionaries say. 

President Hawks is amazing. And i talked to him today and it turns out he teaches engeneering at BYU. so i bet you anything that he taught andy. You should ask andy! I didnt get the chance to ask pres so let me know!!

I want to see jess so bad! I cant wait to meet jaxon! :) :) :) and i havent gotten any emails from granny carol. what is up with that? maybe they are going to a random folder in my email! Ill check it out!

soo hmmm what to tell you about. SO MANY THINGS HAPPEN EVERY WEEK! ok well remember the gaasih i talked about? The wet market? Well i was walking through and of course i am the only american there. That is still so weird to me haha. and i was squished in hundrends of people and then this fish just flops out of the water and splashes this lady right in the face. I couldnt help but laugh and then karma hit me. A huge shrimp literally jumped 5 feet out of a cage and landed right on my foot! I definitely freaked out a little. The chinese people think i am crazy.

DRAGONS

So i know why I had all those dragon dreams when i was a kid. It was because i knew i was going to china. This week i went on a stroll on FIRE DRAGON PATH! and saw a sign for the DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL. an den i even ate DRAGON FRUIT. and i also got a DRAGON FRUIT seed stuck in my eye. That was pretty darn painful.

Oh and i also dropped my shirt in the toilet......

ok so in our ward we have a brother Jung. He is probably 60 and he loves to bring me presents. This week he gave me a super cool coin from Maccau! He has brought me oatmeal....condensed milk, and bread. He is the coolest. I just love old chinese people.

This week we had a chang out! (it means please. and you add out for missionaries to understand i guess) We went to SAI KUNG! I am convinced that Sai Kung was the garden of eden. Any way we walked in and they made us take off our shoes and gave us little slippers to wear. Then i found myself hoping that they would feed us fish! yep, weird. But the food was so good! and we eat chicken wings with chopsticks. I think that is the hardest tings to eat with chop sticks haha. Try it out. But i dont think i will know how to eat without them when i get home!

This is a long email but i also went on an exchange this week to Wan Chai. That place is like one of the most busy places in Hong Kong. We went finding for over 6 hours.... it was so fidderent from Kwun Tong. I just want to say that i love my companion and i love my area and i love my investigators! by the way, we had to turn charlie over to the elders because when they split our ward she was in the other ward :( but she cant get baptized on her date. SHe went missing for a week! And then she got a job and couldnt meet with us. It breaks my heart. But tonight we are going to eat at another investigators house and will teach them the 3rd lesson! I am so excited! And we also have Ashley! She is what you call a golden investigator. the second lesson she told us that she knew joseph smith was a true prophet and that she knew the church was true. Well thank you ashley!!!!!!! There really are people prepared to hear the gospel!!!!!

I love you and i love being a missionary and i love china and i love HONG KONG!!!!!!!

pic. the family in sai kung (members)

ashely!!!!!

woohoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

September 23, 2013

HELLO MUMSIE! <3

Not drying off one bit haha. We just had a typhoon 8 and so we had to stay inside our apt. If we have a typhoon 8-10 we have to stay inside. The busses stop running and no one really goes outside. But we were lucky today because the lowered it to a 6 at 10 :). But no not drying off one bit! I think i am more wet at hot today than ever! haha But i kind of love it. Well i dont know if i can say that but it is just Hong Kong ya know? 

Yes! The Chinese wear their scarves and sweaters. I dont know how they do it. I feel like passing out everytime i go outside. Haha i can only imagine how cold i will be when i get home. From Hong Kong to Utah. But yes I am going to need some lotion for a lifetime! Even on the like 40% humidity days i need lotion here.....so it will be crazy!!!!

Thank you for feeding the missionaries!!!!! Wow you were cookin! You are such a great cook though so i bet everyone loved all the food. p.s. Can you teach me how to cookwhen i get home? I know how to put chicken in a pot and rice in a rice cooker...thats it. I NEED HELP!!!! 

HOLY COW!!!! JESS ONLY HAS 8 WEEKS?!?!?!!? awe i want to see jaxon so bad! He is going to be the cutest little baby on planet earth...well we will see. These little Chinese kids are adorable! Tell her hello and that i love her andy and JAXON! (or hudson...i guess that is alright if he isnt blonde.)

So I just want to say that i have the best mission president in the world. He and his wife are seriously the best. I am so so blessed. so i went to the mission office the other day and president hawks came up to me and said that i had to go into his opffice. When i got in he pulled up google earth and started typing in Eagar Az! We just sat and looked and talked about eagar and where he lived and where he played as a kid. It was so fun. It was just like dad :) 

I have not received a package yet :( ...but i know that other missionaries have. so just send it to the mission home. I do get the dear elder letters but like 2 and a half weeks late...so i think dear elder is just reallllly slow!!!! I have sent you letters with the globe stamps and some i have bought here so letme know if you get the letters. I have sent at least 3!

the only thing ican think of is that scar remover stuff i talked about in the last email.

I hear from my missionary friends almost every week so it is great! I hear from the cousins and kaeliand brandon and dallin and devon and everyone :) I havent heard from olivia yet. She sent me cookies and letters in the mtc but no emails :( come on Livy!!!

So hmm something different about Hong Kong. You know when people get sick they wear like those big blue doctor masks. haha i think it is so funny, but so necessary. They are millions of people walkingaround and the masks are for public health! But it is super funny haha. Also have i told you about all the old people? Well Kwun Tong is like the old people city haha. And the old people just chill on the roads and do their little pohpo exercises. They just shake their  bodies and slap their muscles. It is so cute and funny. I cant wait for you to see them! 

Oh and ok you can see where i live if you go onto google and search like "Kowloon skyline BEA tower" There is a huge building and it has BEA on it. We walk by it almost everyday so if you see that on the internet, you will see my area!

So this week we had MissionTour. Elder and sister Wilson, the first counselor of the Asia area 70 came and talked to all the zones. It was amazing. It was a full day of them teaching us about the fall, creation, atonement, how to teach, how to imrpove, and how tochange. They gave us a list. We had to fill it out with things we wanted to change. I had A LOT of things i wanted to change. I want to become the best missionary, future mother, future wife, future employee, and daughter of God i can be. But irealized that i need to change a lot of things. I need to improve every day in everything i do. I hope you all will write down a couple things this week that you can change and really work on them! 

also at mission conference we had a sisters meeting. This was the best part. We have such amazing sister missionaries. I can see their humility and love and gratefulness. Sister missionaries are so blessed too. We went around in a circle and all shared something that we have learned on our mission (or for us newbees, something that has changed our lives or a scripture etc.) There was on sister from the phillipppeaaneessss (sp) and she shared an amazing story. when she was born, she was diagnosed with a disease. I am not sure what it was but she could not walk.For 13 years she layed in her bed. She decided to go on a mission and she was healed. She said that she knew God healed her so that she could serve in Hong Kong. She said "i am so grateful that i have these two feet so that i can find the people who are prepared to hear the gospel". I hope that we can all be so grateful that we have two feet to find and serve those around us. No matter who they may be. 

I love you and pray for you and hope that you have a fantastic week. Mom, you are my hero and my example. One of my goals is to be as loving and caring as my mother. Thank you for your amazing example! ILOVEYOU!!!!!!!!!! Ngoh Ngoi leihdeih!

-SISTER HAMBLIN!!!!!

Sept. 15, 2013

September 15, 2013

Hi mumsie!!!

I didnt get a letter from you this week :( :( why not?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?! 

anyway ill just talk to you haha. Like dad says, i can talk and talk and talk and not really say anything, but i hope i tell you things you want to here! 

so this week i ate some cow intestines and stomach. That was probably the weirdest looking food ever. (and weirdest texture). Haha i am getting such a different eperience than the other missionaries with american companions. My trainer knows all the ins and outs and experiences she thinks i should have in china. haha. I hope i make it! 

So this week is MID AUTUMN FESTIVAL! It is a chinese festival that is centered on FAMILY! Perfect because i love my family. They have the coolest little traditions. They will all stay together and eat moon cakes. They are super good little cake thingys. You can look them up haha. ANd then they will pit candles in oranges and then put them in a circle. Then they will all sit in the circle and eat fruit, moon cakes, and just talk. It is so cool. Then they light those little lanterns that float in the sky. It is really such a great time. I miss my family during the family festivals, but i know that i can be with mine forever!

This week our ward split! Remember when i told you that one of our goals in to get 8 new wards in 18 months? THE WORK IS MOVING FORWARD! :) But since our ward split we are losing investigators and innactives. I am so sad! We still dont know which ward we will serve in but i think ill stay in Kwun Tong. Kwun Tong has about 800,000 people so it is verrrrryyyyyy big. 

Oh and mom the mosquitoes here are awful! And sorry to tell you I scratch a lot :( I am starting to get little scars and i was wondering how expensive scar remover cream was in america. I think it is a lot more expensive in china. Do you think you could send me some in a package sometime? and dont worry i spray with bug spray but it doesnt really work haha. They have always liked me! i think the scar creme is called maderma. 

So yesterday we saw miracles! It was sooooo hooooot like every other day, and we were finding. Finding is so hard because everyone says "mmh daakan" That means not available. They are alwyas so so busy. That is one thing that is the hardest to get used to. Everyone works so much and is just so busy. Anyway we were finding and a lady came up to us! She asked for a flier and to tell us about our religion. Ok this NEVER happens. We were so excited. WE also do something called pullbacks. That is when we try to get people to come back to the church with us so that we can teach(because no one wants you in their house because they are all so small), We were about 20 minutes from the church and this lady was problaby about 65 years old. She wanted to see the church! THis was the first person we have ever pulledback. It was amazing. This little old lady walked up stairs and hills for 20+ minutes to see our church. Then we gave her a tour and taught her the first lesson. We asked her what she thought about Joseph Smith and she said "yeah i think it happened. It makes sense". That is so simple and so powerful.  This gospel MAKES SENSE! When people her it, they love it. THe hard part is getting people to take the first step. To get interest in another religion. But the gospel is so powerful if they open up. 

Then right after that we found a man named Eric! (yep i just thought of my old uncle eric :) )

He was like, yeah ill come to the church. Tell me about you and what you believe. ANOTHER MIRACLE! haha really, no one ever says that. Dad you understand haha. So we gave him a tour and we sat down and he just started asking questions. Like what i wanted to do with my career and why and how and when and everything under the sun. Then he turned it around and asked what my purpose was in this life. He asked how i believed that God existed. He asked me what what the time that i can't forget when i felt God's love the most and knew He existed. I didnt know what to say. So many things in my life prove to me the existance of my Heavenly Father. The beautiful Earth we have to live on. Everytime I think of my family. The perfect gospel that shows me exactly what to do and who to be. The scriptures that teach me how to be better. Everytime i bear my testimony i feel God's love. Every time I study about the plan of salvation, Just everything tells me that God does exist! Then he said that his life has been full of just wandering. He doesn't have balance, he deosnt know what to do or where to go. He wants a goal, or a purpose in his life! PERFECT! That is exactly why the missionaries are here :) haha. Sorry if this story doesnt make sense.. But then he talked about Albert Einstein. Yep and how he was the smartest person in the world and he didnt have a religion. (right now i want to thank our gospel discussions and our talks with the Davis family). I remembered what we had said about Einstein and how even he believed in God. I brought that up and it totally changed Eric's look on the missionaries. I dont exactly know why, but he then reschelueled us and gave us his number. I love the gospel and the changes it makes in the lives of others!!!!!!!!! 

ok so now dad, I am writing you a letter now and am answering all your questions about culture, school, and Kwun Tong :) HOw long does it take a letter to get to you? Have you recieved any of mine? let me know! :)

One more story! So this week we have reallllly been focusing on members becasue we NEED MEMBERS! So we went to visit  Brother Chan. He has a disability and can't use his hand. I dont  know what it is called but his hand is stuck up to his chest and he has a limp. He let us come over and then brought in 4 big bags. In these bags were hundreds of drawings of the Savior, Joseph Smith, and other gospel things. He told us that he is able to draw with his bad hand! It is so amazing. I just thought about the blessings of the Atonement. One day he will be perfect. I cant wait for him. Then he told me I could have one of his drawings! He gave me one of the Savior. Ill send in in a different email. It is so amazing. He is a miracle.

PICTURE TIME-------

So our elders baptized one of their investigators this past week! It was so cool! His name is Dave and he is just so great :)

The picture of the mint is just showing you what this weather is doing to all our food and just everything haha. So weird!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! Thank you for the letters and the support. I miss you and love love ya. Mom i hope you back is doing better and dad i want to know about your bees!!!!!!

<3 <3 XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

sister Huhng