Broken phones, transfer calls, and EASTER

大家好! Hello hello everybody!

I hope you've all had a great past week and a wonderful Easter! 🐣🐰🎉(there should be a Jesus Christ emoji because that's what it's actually about). It's been quite a busy week on this end! Here's what happened,

On Monday for pday we went to the dirty mall in Kwai Fung which was SO FUN! They have so many cute, cheap dresses and cheap food! I was able to get three dresses for less than $70 USD 🤯 It was such a fun day, although we were pretty tired at the end of it haha.

On Tuesday we went to pass out flyers and it turned out to be really great! We hoped to pass out 20 and ended up passing out 25! And then we even saw one of our less responsive investigators which was so cool! Later on that day, we had a Cantonese practice with a member named Sister Ng and then two awesome lessons with our friends Jasmine and Wilson! Jasmine and Wilson have both been praying and feeling peace which is amazing!! We talked about the first half of the Restoration with Jasmine and then the full Restoration with Wilson and invited him to start reading the Book of Mormon. He said that he's curious to learn more so we're excited!

On Wednesday morning our kitchen sink decided to yeet itself which was pretty exciting. Thankfully a member was kind enough to come over and fix it ^^. Then we had another flyer distributing session and we were able to pass out 30! AND we saw another one of our friends! #epicgamermoment. After that, I had a language meeting with a member named Sister Fung which was great! She was super sweet and said she thinks my Cantonese is good 🥰 Then our week got a little crazy though when Sister Ho broke her phone! 😨 It accidentally fell off her top bunk and landed face flat on the tile floor. We did some quick thinking and put her sim card in my phone for the time being to try and call a repair shop close by, but unfortunately they couldn't fix it until the next day so we used my phone for the rest of the night. Then we had a lesson with Sunny that day instead of on Saturday (because of the devotional on Saturday) and we talked about baptism!! Sunny said that he still really wants to be baptized! Yay! But the biggest concern is that his parents are of a different church and so that might cause some separation in the family. We asked if his parents will even let him get baptized (because we heard that he's been on date a few times before but his mom always said no) and he said that they should be okay with it 🤔 So we're going to keep discussing it over the next week or so and we'll see if we can figure it out! Other than that, we just did some ECG evaluations to rearrange our class and that was pretty chill.

On Thursday morning I had my LPO for law of chastity and I passed!! It was my last time doing it with my current LPO partner because she finished her mission on Friday :'( so sad. I don't know who my next partner will be or how easy they'll go on me but I guess I'll find out soon! After that, we had district council which was pretty fun. We all shared about our areas and discussed a bit about last zone conference. Then Sister Ho and I traveled to Sham Shui Po to get her phone fixed. She had to call a bunch of different shops because none of them could fix her model of phone but we finally found one and the guy who fixed it was awesome! He did super fast and at a great price! And while he was fixing it, Sister Ho and I got to take a look around the Dragon Center, a big mall, which was sooo cool! It even has a rollercoaster on the top floor (but it hasn't been running for a long time). Once we got her phone, now repaired, we went to Kowloon Tong to pick up some stuff and then headed back home. Then we had the drawing activity which was sooo fun! We drew zebras and I'm quite proud of mine 😌. Then we had zone dinner over messenger call and had a fun time chatting with the other missionaries. After that, we had a language meeting with some members named Lai jimuih and Lai Hingdaih and they were both really sweet! The audio on their end unfortunately was doing some weird echo thing for our voices so I messed up my speaking a few times but we pushed through haha. Then we had another lesson with our less active friend, Brother Lam. We talked about the story of Alma the Younger and how Christ can cause great changes in our lives. He still isn't coming back to church but we'll keep praying for him and maybe when the chapels open up again (on May 1st!!) he'll start coming ^^. Then lastly we had a lesson with Gwok SS where we went over the word of wisdom. Luckily he doesn't have any big addictions or habits but he does like to drink tea sometimes. We invited him to try keeping it though and see the difference it makes. We'll be praying for him!

On Friday we had a mini exchange again and this time I was with Sister Myers while Sister Ho was with Sister Robison. While Sister Myers and I were together, she ended up getting a call from one of our APs and he told her she's becoming STL! So exciting!!! Other than that, we did some studies and Facebook finding together which was chill. After we exchanged back, Sister Ho and I joined our district language study where we made up a funny story in Cantonese and then we went out for our district find. Sister Ho and I went to Aberdeen for the first time which was pretty interesting. It's about a 45 minute MTR ride down to the south end of the island and the whole area is just neighborhoods, water, and fishermen. It's wayyyy more empty than all of the other places I've seen in Hong Kong so it was honestly kind of hard to pass out flyers there but we did our best 😅 Later on after returning home, we had a lesson with our other less active friend, Aaron, and we talked about the Plan of Salvation. We had a good discussion about it which was pretty fun. Then at the end of the night we got to do a gospel study session together as an apartment which is always so spiritual and special. I love these sisters :')

On Saturday, we had another language meeting, this time with a Sister named Woo jimuih which was great! We talked about how God can strengthen us and give us patience to face our trials ^^. Then we had a first time lesson with a new friend named Andy that we actually found through call finding! We taught him about the godhead and how to pray and then invited him to try praying this week. Next, we did an ECG evaluation for a guy who wants to join our class AND who has gospel interest which is pretty epic. His English was super good too. Then after lunch, Sister Ho and I got to have a video chat with two of the new sisters in quarantine! Their names are Sister Phister from Ohio and Sister Frear from Utah and they're both really sweet! Sister Phister is a Cantonese missionary and Sister Frear is a Mandarin missionary (which is exciting because we only have 3 Mandarin companionships in the whole mission right now 😮). We answered a lot of their questions about the mission and had fun getting to know them better! Then we had our dance activity which was awesome as usual. Zoom was still being a bit wacky with sharing audio but we were able to figure something out so it was okay in the end. After that, we got to watch this amazing Facebook live Easter music devotional with performances from all of the missionaries and their families (including mine) which was sooo good and spiritual! If you guys are looking to feel the spirit and hear some great music about the Savior then go check it out! I'll attach the link below! Then all of the sisters in our apartment filmed a video of us singing I Know That My Redeemer Lives (including some Mandarin and Cantonese) so if you want to check that out, it's posted on my Facebook!

Easter Sunday!! 🥚🥚

Easter was a fantastic day and I think it was the best Easter I've ever had! We had a great sacrament meeting and Sunday school lesson about the Savior. Then we had some studies and meetings before we watched a big Easter testimony meeting with testimonies from members of all the Hong Kong stakes! There was a lady in attendance who only understands Mandarin and they didn't have a translater so Sister Ho was epic and volunteered to step in and translate. She's awesome. While she was doing that, the English translation was being kind of wacky so we ended up turning it off for a bit and I kind of translated for the two sisters in my apartment. I've never really tried live translating Cantonese to English but I think I did okay. I definitely felt bad because there were a lot of things that went over my head but I just said what I felt was right and honestly the Spirit was so strong. Taking someone else's testimony and saying it again myself but in a different language made the testimony feel even more powerful. Although I only translated for 1 or 2 people before we turned on the provided translation again, I'm grateful that I tried and was able to feel that spirit and power. After the testimony meeting was over, we made dinner as an apartment (they really like my teriyaki chicken so we made it again) and it was sooo good. Sister Robison is the best apartment leader ever and she hid little candies for each one of us around the apartment and we had to search for them like a mini egg hunt. I love her so much. After that, we watched an old 30 minute church video from the 80s about Jesus Christ. The actor for Jesus was kind of funny but regardless, we were still able to feel the spirit so strong. When the video ended, we each took a turn to share our testimony of Jesus Christ and we were all crying by the end of it. The Holy Ghost, the love, and the peace were all so powerful, I wish I could live in that moment forever. It was truly the most spiritual, Christ-centered, and love-filled Easter I've ever had and I hope that my future Easters can be more like that. After that, we had transfers calls which was pretty scary. In the end, we found out that Sister Ho and I will be staying here until the end of May (when she finishes her mission), Sister Robison is staying in the apartment and training the new Mandarin sister, and Sister Myers will be moving out and taking over the international branch. So our apartment is going to change a bit this week which will be really sad but I know that the Lord truly is with all of us and will support us each step of the way.

And that's my whole week! It was pretty crazy but so good in the end. If you really read these emails all the way through then I seriously love you so much, thank you 😂

But you're going to have to read a bit more because now it's time for a ~spiritual thought~

This week I'd like to reiterate what Elder Soares said in his general conference talk two weeks ago (yes I finally finished watching all of it). He talked about a very imortant principle which is being in awe of Christ and His gospel. It is one thing to believe in this church, but what happens when you're truly in awe of it? It changes your whole perspective entirely. I know that I've truly felt the transforming power of awe in my life as I've grown spiritually on my mission. As Elder Soares says, "such a feeling of wonder, inspired by the influence of the Holy Ghost, stimulates the enthusiasm to joyfully live the doctrine of Christ". As our love and awe of the gospel grows, so will our desire to live it grow. After all, when you see that something brings you happiness, wouldn't you want to do that thing more to get more happiness? I know that life has it challenges and we all get thrown for a loop sometimes, but if you want to find lasting happiness even through those times, then this gospel is your answer. When things get hard or you start to see yourself not making as much time for the Lord in your life, I exhort you to stop, say a prayer, and get back on the right track. Your Heavenly Father is always there for you, your Savior loves you and wants to help you. I know that as you seek to grow closer to the both of them, your awe of them and of this gospel will grow and you will be blessed with greater power and joy in your life. Finding awe will truly give you strength! This I testify of in the name of the Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.

丁姊妹

Sister DelHoyo