Shorter than normal

Hadley DelHoyo hadley.delhoyo@missionary.org

Sun, May 1, 2022, 10:58 PM

to me

大家好! Hello everybody!!

I hope your week was fine, fresh, and crisp! My week was pretty good on this end!

For last pday on Monday, Sister Ho and I went to the only Popeyes in Hong Kong which was pretty cool except they didn't have any ranch >:( that demotes a star from my review. Then we walked around this fun little mall and ended up running into some other sisters, so fun!

On Tuesday we had to go to Wan Chai so I could get this QR code that basically shows I got three vaccination shots and while we were there we got cream puffs at Beard Papa's which was so good Then we did some outside finding where we talked to an old guy for 30 minutes and he told us his whole life story. He wasn't interested in the gospel but he said that he really respects our church. We gave him our number in case he ever has interest so I guess we'll just have to see 🤷‍♀️ Once we got home, we had a language practice meeting with a member named Fong jimuih and I got to practice teaching the Restoration to her. She was really sweet and it was good practice! Then we had two lessons, one with Sunny and the boys and the other with our friend Jasmine. With the boys we talked about the Holy Ghost and having His influence in our life more and we invited them to pray to feel the Holy Ghost each day. Then with Jasmine we taught her the first half of the Plan of Salvation and she thought it was pretty cool! She even said she's already read the first page of the Book of Mormon! Yay! We invited her to keep reading and to pray to know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. I honestly think she has a lot of potential so please pray for her that she continues to keep commitments and feel the Spirit!

On Wednesday, Sister Ho had Mission Leadership Conference so I got to go on an exchange with the lovely, Sister Hinton! She is so fun and we had a great time together! We did some good studies and finding together and I showed her around the area. Then when our STL companions returned to us, Sister Ho and I had another language meeting with Fong jimuih (the same one as the day previous). This time I roleplayed my LPO about fasting and tithing with her and I think I did well! I'm grateful for the members' willingness to help me improve my teaching and speaking skills. Other than that, we just had our ECG which was pretty chill. We started a new unit this week so some new people joined the class. We practiced introducing ourselves and then in the end we shared a short message about our divine identities as children of God. It was really fun and one of the ladies even said, "thank you, young sisters, for teaching me English". So sweet!

On Thursday we had district council, zone meeting, and LPOs so we went to the Wan Chai chapel. In district council we discussed a lot about how to have effective finding and it was very enlightening. For the zone meeting we got to hear some wonderful testimonies from some of our members and discussed our zone's progress so far. Then for lunch, Sister Ho and I got pizza at Paisano's with Sister Hinton and Sister Myers which was so fun! We don't get pizza very often here in Hong Kong. After that, we returned to the chapel for LPOs and I passed!! Yay!!! I was scared I'd be stuck on that one for a while. Now I'm down to my last 3 LPOs which is crazy!! This next one will be reviewing the baptismal interview questions so I hope it goes well! We returned home after that and then the office elders came over to put up a ladder on our bunk bed (Sister Ho almost died every time she tried to climb up without one) and some curtains in our windows. While they did that, Sister Ho and I called a member named Jau mama which was really sweet! We shared a short message with her about the atonement and invited her to work on increasing her faith this week. Next was our drawing activity and this week we drew the three little pigs and Mickey with Minnie Mouse. The drawing activity is always so fun but I wish we could get more people to join :( it's on zoom so it's not that hard to! After that, we were able to call our friend Olina and talk a bit which was good but then the call dropped in the middle of our prayer so that's awkward. But it's okay because then we were able to call some less active members and share some short spiritual thoughts with them which was great.

On Friday, Sister Ho and I had a first time lesson with a new friend named Leih siuje! She's originally from Mainland and speaks Mandarin but she prefers to speak and listen to Cantonese which is why she was passed to us. Sometimes it was kind of hard to talk with her because she would switch off between Mandarin and Cantonese in the middle of talking but Sister Ho and I got through it. We taught her about prayer and the godhead and she accepted the invitation to pray. Then we invited her and her daughter to church and she said that they'd try to come! Unfortunately she later texted us and said that because of the pandemic, she'd prefer to wait a bit before coming in person but it's okay, at least she said she'd like to come! Later that day, Sister Ho and I did some flyer finding in Sai Ying Pun which was pretty good. We were able to pass out some regular church flyers and who knows, maybe someone will end up calling! Then when we got back home we had a call finding and we talked to two pretty cool people! One said that we could whatsapp her and the other said that we could call back on Tuesday to share a message! Fingers crossed that the lesson goes though! After that, we called some less active members again and were able to talk to a lady named Lau jimuih. She unfortunately said that she only wants to come to church on zoom and if it's not on zoom then she won't come :( We're hoping to try and meet with her again and maybe we can help her increase her faith to come in person. Then at the end of the night we had a language practice with a member named Woo jimuih which was cool. I practiced teaching the Restoration again and I think I did pretty alright. We then shared a message with her about having Christ's healing power more prominently in our lives and invited her to pray to feel it more. After we said goodbye to her, we had an apartment personal study share which was so fun! I love these sisters, they all have amazing testimonies

On Saturday, we had a district outside finding where basically each companionship went to a different area and did street contacting or passed out flyers. Sister Ho and I did mostly street contacting and I realized how bad I am at it That's one thing I want to work on is being more confident to go and talk to people about the gospel. After the finding was over, we went to Wan Chai for our dance activity and it was super fun! We even had a few people come in person which was awesome. We also had a lesson with our friend Vivian over zoom which went great! We taught her the whole plan of salvation and then invited her to pray about it and she said she would Unfortunately because of her hospital job, we won't be able to meet with her again for a few weeks but hopefully she continues to pray and read scriptures in the meantime! After we said goodbye to her, we had our game activity over zoom and a few people joined so that was chill.

On Sunday, we were finally able to go to church in person again which was so exciting! Sunny and Thomas came by themselves which was so cool because we got to really meet them for the first time! We also got to talk to a lot of members in person which was really cool. After church, we went home and had some studies and meetings and then had a big apartment break-the-fast dinner. I made teriyaki chicken again, of course, and we were able to chat and play some games which was super fun. Then Sister Ho and I did some call finding and had an English lesson with our young friend Jens. A pretty chill day.

And that's my whole week! Nothing too crazy but lots of good stuff! This email isn't done yet though because we can't forget the ~spiritual thought~

This week for my spiritual thought I want to share a quote from a talk I read this week by Elder Quintin L. Cook titled, "Strengthen Faith as You Seek Knowlege". He said, "The foundation for every important decision and choice you will make is your testimony of Jesus Christ and the Restoration of His gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith. The Book of Mormon is an essential element of that testimony."

I know that sometimes it can be easy to put the gospel aside and treat it as something secondary, but I can promise you that if you go into all of your decisions with a lens of faith, you will always find success. I know from experience that the best decisions I've ever made were made from praying and counseling with the Lord and having faith in Him. I invite you each to evaluate where you're at currently with your testimony and what you need to do to make the gospel more of a focus in your life. As you do, I know you will see more happiness and peace than you've ever before imagined.

丁姊妹

Sister DelHoyo