The One Where Everyone's Name Is Lam

So glad she's available to email us in Hong Kong! Never taking this for granted! hopefully it's like this the whole time! We got to see her cute face Christmas Eve in the States, Christmas Day here time! We skyped the whole family! Hong Kong, Japan, Washington, and Utah. Gotta love the holidays! here is the this week's email. hope you enjoy :)

The other Sister Lam

Hello!

Just another week in paradise! The weather warmed up for me before Christmas and then has been freezing since Christmas day. But, I'm seriously loving this city and the people. One of my favorite things so far is waking up every morning and running to the track. At the track all the "popo's" and the grandpas are there doing tai chi (am I spelling that right?), slapping their fat, scarf dancing, sword tai chi or "running". The tai chi and the fat slapping are a personal favorite of mine. I'll try to send a video of them sometime. 

I'm trying to remember what I talked about last week so I don't repeat anything. Today, my trainer, Sister Takahashi, and I bought groceries from the market. It's been fun to find the best deals and to try to practice my cantonese for stuff not gospel related. It still makes me a little sick to see the pig faces and to see live fish flopping around on the tables. They have these vegetables here called choi (?) and this ginormous grapefruit thing called pomello that I'm in love with and want to take home with me. My trainer is a really great cook so we get to eat lots of stir-fry and ramen type foods.

The chinese name, Lahm, that I was given in the MTC is REALLY common here. It make me laugh every time the members find out what my english name is because they can't figure out why my chinese name would be Lahm. I always laugh and say I don't know why either but at least I didn't get a sketchy last name (apparently there have been some that if pronounced wrong can mean something very different). But there's like three other Sister Lahm's here, including my mission president's wife. 

Christmas week was a challenging week for us as far as teaching went. We had A LOT of people drop appointments with us or just not show up without shooting us a phone call or a text. I got to go caroling twice and I had two Christmas parties that I went to. One with the missionaries and one with the ward. The ward one was so cute, it reminded me a lot of the ones back home except I only understood every fifteenth word. Caroling with my district was really fun because we brought the guitar along with us and were just belting out Christmas hymns and passing out cards. I'm not sure if we got anything out of it, but we did plant some seeds and definitely brought some smiles to peoples faces, so that's all that matters. 

One of the songs that we (the missionaries) sang for the ward Christmas party was called "Do you have room?" It talks about how important Christ is to the earth but that the night that He was born, no one had room for Him. It asks the questions, "Do you have room for the Savior? And do you seek Him anew?" So, my question to all of you is, do YOU have room for your Savior? Are you constantly striving, each day, to seek Him, to know Him and to show your love for Him? If not, make the time. Christ is as important to the world now as He was back then. He's worth giving up your time and efforts to serve Him. He's worth the show of your devotion for Him. 

I had the opportunity to share a message at my mission presidents' granddaughters' baptism (it was in english, which actually felt weird to teach in english), my companion and I shared some scriptures from Mosiah 5. I love verse 8, "And under this head ye are made free, and there is no other head whereby ya can be made free. There is no other name given whereby salvation cometh...". It had to be Christ. He is the ONLY way. I would like to add my testimony to this that Christ is the only way that we can have true joy. The kind of joy that makes the trials worth it. The joy that lights up your whole countenance. The joy that comes from knowing that the love you have for your family is an eternal love. Love that doesn't end when we die. Christ is the best example of that love and the best guide that we can look to for answers and guidance. 

I hope that you all had a Christ-filled Christmas and I wish you all a very happy New Year! I love you all so much and I'm so grateful for your prayers and your emails that you send my way! 

Love, Sister Adams (The other Lam)