Mindy On A Mission: The One Where Mindy Celebrates The Chinese New Year!

SOOOooooooo i'm a complete dope and i forgot to post last week's email on her blog!!! gahhh worst person ever, i know!! please please enjoy! :) i've also a lot of pictures from last week too. so make sure to look at them! she's such a cutie!

"Hong Kong is a ghost town" and "the Gospital"

Happy year of the Monkey!

I'm sorry it's been so long since I emailed but I promise I'm alive an well. Beyond well to be honest with you! It was Chinese new year and there was nothing open so we're having our P-Day on Thursday.

Chinese New Year is awesome. The first morning of Chinese New year, we woke up and went out to exercise like normal, except when we got outside there was nobody else outside. It literally looked like an Apocalypse had occurred and that the missionaries were the only ones that survived. It was kind of an erie feelings NOT seeing a bunch of people everywhere because here in Hong Kong that NEVER happens. The rest of Chinese New year we spent in a meeting and celebrating with our ward. Chinese New Year lasts at least 3 days then the rest of the week people are still partying and yelling well wishes at one another. One of my favorite things about Hong Kong is that when big holidays come around the chinese have specific phrases that they say (yell) at each other in a greeting. You can say these greetings for almost the entire month of the holiday. Sister Takahashi and I have been wishing people a happy new year since January. LOL!

My ward had a barbecue yesterday in celebration of Chinese New Year and I can honestly say that I have now roasted almost every kind of meat on a roasting stick. We met up at 9 in the morning and didn't come back from the mountain until 5 that evening. The ward that I'm in is fantastic at bringing their nonmember friends and relatives to activities so we missionaries had a great time not only building friendships with ward members but making new contacts with some potential brothers and sisters we can help bring back to our Father and our Savior. I am so happy that I have this opportunity to be a tool in Heavenly Fathers work. I wish I could put into words how important this work is and the happiness that it brings but my words wouldn't do it justice. I ATE AN ENTIRE STEAK that I had cooked over the fire. A whole steak. Cooked over the fire. And it was REALLY good. I am a fan of chinese barbecues.

There's a quote that I heard this past week that I want to share. It's from the BYU talk by F. Enzio Busche called "Unleashing the Dormant Spirit". "In your life there have to be challenges. They will either bring you closer to God and therefore make you stronger, or they can destroy you. But YOU make the decision of which road you take." This life is hard. This life has SO many challenges but the purpose of this life was to prepare us to become like God. The purpose of this life was to have trials, to overcome those trials through our Savior and to achieve eternal life. God has blessed us to live in a time when we have the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have the plan and the path that we need to take to be successful. God has made it incredibly clear how we will be able to fulfill our purpose for this life. He's made it clear and SIMPLE how to have incredible peace and joy. Our job is to get over our pride and follow the path that is better for us. When we look at our lives through God's eyes, we understand that we can become SO much more with Him than without Him. SO MUCH MORE.

I want to testify that I know that Joseph Smith is a true prophet. I've read the Book of Mormon and it's changed my life. I get to watch it change other people lives every single day. Christ's TRUE and full gospel is on the earth again. This gospel, Christ's gospel, can heal souls. It can heal families. It can heal illnesses (including mental illness). "Through Christ all things are possible" and I know that to be true. I'm grateful for everyday that I get to wear Christ's name on my chest and beam at people while sharing how amazing our Savior is. I still have things that I need to improve and I'm not always the best missionary sometimes I'm terrified to open my mouth, but my burning faith in Christ gives me courage and it gives me hope to keep sharing and to keep pushing along.

God knows us each personally and He has a plan SPECIFICALLY for each of us. Embrace Him and strive to understand your Savior. I can promise you that you will see miracles in your life. You really truly will. I love you all and I hope that you have an incredible week!

Sister Mindy Adams