The One Where Mindy Talks About Her Summer Missionary

Hello everyone! Here is last week's email, from July 6th. sorry i'm so behind on these! slowly catching up! haha enjoy :)

"Some things can be learned only by faith"

Hellooo Everyone!

Sorry for emailing so late this week but i got a surprise on Friday that needed to be taken care of on Monday so i had to wait until today to let you all know i'm alive and well! Happy Independence Day!

To start out, my new companion!  My companion is Sister Villasin! She's from the Phillipines and goes home at the end of this transfer (so at the end of next month) and yes, that does mean that I will be sending another missionary home! I'm blessed and obviously God has something He needs me to learn and He needs me to learn them fast. Sister Villasin is very faithful and focused. I'm really enjoying being her companion! 

Second, I have a summer missionary! This is why i couldn't email on Monday. I Needed to pick up my summer missionary from the mission office and get her started in some missionary work. Sister Villasin and I had only been companions for a day and a couple hours when we got a call telling us that we were getting two you to stay with us for two weeks. Usually, these missionaries are Hong Kong youth, ages 16-19 and they spend two weeks of their summer with us living like full-time missionaries. Some of it use it as a trial run and some of them do it because they love it. I was blessed and got a special summer missionary. Her name is Sister Lui and she's from Lehi, Utah. Her parents are from Hong Kong so she understands the language but her knowledge of gospel terms is about the same as my knowledge of things that are not gospel terms. She's  awesome and we're having fun figuring it all out.

As for the title, that's a quote from Elder Oaks in the April 2016 General Conference. He was talking about the need for opposition. We learn by experience. From making mistakes. From picking ourselves up and trying again. That being said, sometimes we don't find the answers that we are looking for. Sometimes we just have to trust God and let Him teach us how to have more faith.

I love you all. Have a great rest of your weeks!

Sister Adams

Sister Mindy and Sister Villasin

Sister Mindy and Sister Lui 

The One Where Mindy Uses A Bunch Of Quotation Marks In Her Email

Catching up! Here is Mindy's Jun 27th email. enjoy!

Sister Adams and Sister Mendoza

Hello Everyone!

I have to admit that i wish the title were true but mostly i'm just sweating. It's all worth it though. For those of you that have never lived somewhere that is humid, with limited AC hours, I would just like to tell you that "all wet" is not something that should have been in my vocabulary before the summer hit here in Hong Kong. But on the bright side, I have never been so grateful for AC and shade in my entire life. I am grateful that God created trees and hand-held fans and wind. "Count your blessings" my friends because i promise that you have them.

This week has been "full speed ahead." Sister Mendoza is taking on her last few weeks in Hong Kong like a champ. I am so proud of her. I'm nervous about what's going to happen when she leaves, but I trust God and I know that He's got something great in store for me and for the Tsim Sha Tsui area. I have no clue who my new companion is yet but i already know that this area doesn't know what's coming their way because the missionaries here are powerful and hard-working. 

We invited our investigator, Sister Chan, to be baptized yesterday but she wasn't willing to set a firm date. She has great respect for this church because of how it has influenced her daughters and she even came to church yesterday by herself! She wants to learn more first before she decides to be baptized. I have a strong feeling in my heart that she will be baptized though. When we first met her, she was very "whatever" about the church. She didn't feel a connection to the things that we shared and didn't really feel that it had anything to do with her. She even mentioned that getting up for church was not something that she wanted to do. But through the example of her daughters and through her gaining more knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ through the missionaries, i've seen in her. She shares more now. She goes to church by herself. Her prayers have improved and there's more light in her eyes. This gospel changes people. 

We shared the Plan of Salvation with her yesterday and even though I have taught that lesson a bunch of times on my mission, I still learn something new from it every time. There is never a point in this life where we can say "I have enough knowledge, I don't need to learn anymore." (2 Nephi 29!) If we aren't on the level of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ then there is still more to know. I can't help but thin of the fact that God has commanded us to gain knowledge in this life. I think that the reasons that He gave us that commandment is 1. So we can become like Him, all knowing and all powerful, and 2. So that we can make proper choices. There are many other reasons but because of the scriptures we know it is impossible to go to the Celestial Kingdom and be ignorant at the same time. By choosing not to learn, they are choosing not to go to heaven. I had so many people this week tell me that they wouldn't listen to me because I am a missionary, a stranger, from a wicked church, or various other crazy reasons and i couldn't help but think that they are depriving themselves of true happiness and infinite blessings. They are choosing to be ignorant instead of striving to learn everything that they can so that they can make proper decisions about what is truth and what is not. 

I love you all so much and I hope that you all have an amazing start to your summer. I hope that you all are striving to gain knowledge so that you too can make correct choices and become more like our Heavenly Father. 

God loves. God lives. And i know that this church is true. I know that God is guiding this work and that i am just a small part of something incredible. Miracles are happening in Hong Kong! 

Love you!

Sister Adams

Bowling like a champ

cute sister missionaries! 

Sister Mindy Mint learning how to make dumplings!

The One Where Mindy Tells Us MORE About Her Investigators

Sorry this email is 3 weeks old, but it's just been hectic. you know how life goes, right?

Here is her email way back on Jun 20. The other two are to follow. 

Weaknesses Becoming Strengths.

Hello Everyone!

How has your week been? Did you have a good Father's Day?

My week was full of ups and downs, loads of adventures and full of the Spirit, per usual. 

To start out, i don't know if i have told you much about the investigators that i am working with right now. The first is Heidi, she's ten years old and i'm at least 98% sure she has ADHD and I love her so much. She's teaching me how to be more patient, how to be a better teacher (hello object lessons!) and most importantly, how to rely on the Spirit when i teach. Heidi has a speech disability that makes it hard for Sister Mendoza and I to understand what she says to us, but through the Spirit and spending time with her, our understanding of her is at least 87% more clear (we will make it to 100%!). Her mom and older brother are both members. We've discovered that when Heidi's mom helps us teach, Heidi pays more attention and understands more. We've also seen the growth that this process has made on Sister Cheung (Heidi's mom). There's power in teaching your kids the gospel. They truly need their parents help.

Another investigator is Sister Chan. She has three daughters that are active members and hasn't really had interest until recently. One daughter is preparing for a mission and the other is studying at a BYU college. We taught her the Restoration last night and you can see the light developing in her eyes. While we were eating dinner with the Chan Family last night and Brother Chan was asking things like, "How do you even know who God is?" and "How do you know what church is true?" "there are so many churches that it's impossible to know, i haven't found my answer yet." While we were teaching, you could see the questions floating in Sister Chan's head and the answers coming to her. Her heart has been softened by her daughters' examples and it's amazing to see her start to have a desire to learn more. Sadly, Brother Chan did not have "ears to hear" and "eyes to see" quite yet. He has the questions but won't listen to the answers when they are given to him. It's sad to see but i know that God has a plan for him. 

Now, for the title, i think that one of the most satisfying things (other than seeing people you teach progress) in the mission is hearing that your weaknesses are becoming strengths. God loves us. Prayer has strength. Never give up on overcoming your weaknesses. It's worth it. Take it from someone that has so many weaknesses, through Christ we truly can overcome all weaknesses and trials. We just have to be humble, obedient, and willing to listen. 

Funny of the week: i have never eaten so many dumplings in my entire that i have the past two weeks. i'm pretty sure i won't be able to eat dumplings for a solid couple months after my mission. LOL!

i love you all so much. Don't forget to pray.

Sister Adams