Sunday, November 10, 2013

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!!!!!!)

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

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!