The One Where Sister Mindy Tells Us About God's Hand In Her Life

Hello!

I promise to have all her emails on her blog BEFORE she gets home. Might be the DAY before, but it'll be before she's back home :P

here is Sister Adams' February 26th email :)


I'm going to teach you the meaning of "Fong Fei Gei"

Hello Everybody!

How was your week? Mine was cold but still wonderful!

We had a crazy week this week! At the beginning of the week we had about 5-7 lessons planned (which is lower than normal but still pretty average) but by the end of the week we only had taught 2 lessons and turned over another of our mandarin investigators to the mandarin Elders. That means that Sister Knapp and I spent a lot of time making calls, street finding, and less-active finding. The greatest part in all of this is that although we had a ton of people cancel or just not show up for lessons, I could still see God's hand guiding this work.

Let's take Sunday for instance. We were supposed to have two investigators come to church and then we were going to teach on of them and her sister right after church, but neither of them showed up. This was actually a blessing in disguise because we had the monthly ward birthday party after church that day and there was only one room in the whole chapel that would usually be available for lessons after church and that room was now occupied by the birthday party. The birthday party was a blessing as well because it gives us missionaries the opportunity to better know our members. After the birthday party, Sister Knapp and I returned home. We'd been home for all of 5 minutes when we received a phone call from our Ward Mission Leader telling us that there is a man looking for us whose last name was Lam. We'd totally met a man with the last name of Lam on the street on Saturday and had invited him to church! He was 4 hours late but he was there nonetheless! So we rushed over to the church. When we got to the church, our Ward Mission Leader told us that the man had left but said that he would be back in a little while. So we waited for him. 

Mr. Lam never returned that day but while at the church we had a mini meeting with our Relief Society president, gave a chapel tour to a surprise walk in that lives in our area, and I got to see an old mission friend. God's hand is in the work. It's small details but He's there. I will never understand why we missionaries have to face so much rejection BUT I love it anyway because it makes things sweeter when miracles happen. Sister Knapp and I love serving in Tsing Yi and we also love the fact that we know our area SO MUCH better because we had to learn it to go finding. 

I also found this in the October 2016 edition of General Conference. It's from Elder Carl B. Cook's talk "Serve." He says, "As we serve, we draw closer to God, we come to know Him in way that we otherwise might not. Our faith in Him increases. Our problems are put into perspective. Life becomes more satisfying. Our love for others increases, as well as our desire to serve. Through this blessed process, we become more like God and we are better prepared to return to Him." I LOVED this. Because i've been trying for months to figure out how to perfectly describe what a blessing service is and how it refines us and changes us. THIS is what service does. It helps turn us into something celestial. It makes us into what we really are and helps us stay better in tune with Heavenly Father because it helps our thoughts become more like His and we truly are better prepared to return to Him.

I hope you all know how much God loves you and how much i love you! I also hope that you have a fantastic week and that you find some opportunities to serve someone this week! 

Love you all!

Sister Adams
P.S. Fong fei gei means, to not show up or to stand someone up.

The One Where Sister Adams Explains Her Meaning Of JOY

I only have a little over a month to catch up, everyone! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT, BECAUSE I CAN'T!! SOMEONE PINCH ME!
sorry, i will settle down. i'm just REALLY excited for Sister Mindy Mint to come home :) emails just aren't the same..

Here is her February 12th email and then she just sent a little picture and message on February 19th, so i will be adding that to this post as well.



I don't know why we got set loose in Tsing Yi

Hello Everybody!

How was your week?
We love Tsing Yi! Sister Knapp (my new companion) has arrived and we're having a blast. She's from Orem, Utah. She's been here Hong Kong for 7 months and she's hilarious. Because i'm still fairly new to the area, I don't really have a great handle on everything so we are learning together. It's a little bit of a mess in a dress but we're having a good time anyway. HAHA.

We're still struggling to get a few of our investigators to schedule after all the New Years craziness but we were able to give our investigator, Yunice, a solid baptismal date this week! she's really worried about her parents and family being okay with her baptism, but she really wants to be  baptized so we are working through that. Apparently her parents have been asking her a lot of questions about tithing and callings and other things in the church. She hasn't really been taught the commandments yet so she doesn't know how to answer them but she has great faith. When we shared about obedience in relation to baptism, she bore her own testimony about how important she thought it was and seemed really willing to expect it. She'll be getting baptized on March 19th. She set her own date because she wants her boyfriend to be in tow for it. He's a member and the one that introduced her to the church. She didn't come to church this week because she needed to be with her family but if she can get to church every other week, she'll be good to go. I'm praying super hard about teaching her the commandments, that her heart will be prepared for them because I think that tithing might be a hard one for her just because of her families questions. We'll see though. I have faith that it'll be okay!

My message this week is simply about JOY. I'm sure that I've shared this before but I just love it so much and it really hits me every time that I study joy and also every time that I hear this. JOY stands for Jesus, Others, and You. I love this message because by putting Jesus and then other first, you will always have the MOST joy in your life. Really, truly, honestly. I promise you. I hope that you all have a fantastic week this week and that you get some JOY in your life!

Love you!
Sister Adams



I love Tsing Yi and I love Sister Knapp, I also love Jesus Christ. I know that the message that I share is true and that it DOES bless lives. Miracles happen and great things are coming. I hope you all have a fantastic week and that you remember to PLEASE read your scriptures and say your prayers. 

The only good picture of Sister Adams and Sister Knapp (according to Sister Adams) ;)

The One Where Sister Adams Talks About Her Eventful Week

Sounds like our missionary had a great week!

Here is Mindy's February 5th email:


Another week in the life of Sister Adams

Hello Everyone!

Things are going great here in Tsing Yi! I'm super grateful that New Years is over so that our investigators will be back and the work can pick up pace again. We didn't really have very much happen as far as teaching and finding until about Friday and then people were back in Hong Kong and it was good. 

I finally got to meet one of our investigators on Friday named Sister Lo. We've been trying to schedule her since I got here but she keeps cancelling or was too busy. So, we were really excited to meet her. She's had a hard life and trusts basically no one. She also likes to talk A LOT but that's okay because I have a lot of experience with those kind of people from my days in TST. I truly think that once she starts to feel God's love for her, her whole perspective on life is going to change. So, we focused a lot of prayer and the Godhead last week. We also were able to give her a Book of Mormon and invited her to read the introduction. I'm excited to see how this works out. 

We were supposed to have a lesson with our recent convert, Miki, but she had to cancel on us and so we were down a lesson. But, then by some small miracle, our new investigator, Mr. Wan, called us and asked if we had gotten to the church yet. We were confused but said "YES!" and ran downstairs to meet him. We ended up teaching him a really powerful Restoration of the gospel lesson. It's actually really lucky that i've been studying a little bit of mandarin as well. He took the lesson really well and said that he believed it and would pray about it. So much fun to teach! He really has a strong desire to know truth. We'll have to turn him over to the Mandarin Elders, though. 

Our last lesson this week was with Yunice and Yvette. The twin sisters that used to be Ngau Tau Kok's investigators. They're really good about reading their scriptures and saying their prayers. Especially Yunice. But, we're struggling to get them to church and get them a baptismal date. I'm really hoping in the next few lessons that we can get things settled and start chipping away at their concerns. It should be good. I have a good feeling about them both. Just can't wait to see them progress!

We got to go bike riding in the Sha Tin on Saturday with some members, less-actives, and investigators! It was super fun and the perfect day for bike riding. It's finally warming up for short sleeves. My skin was NOT prepared though so i walked away with some lobster arms. HAHA! it was good to have the casual day with these investigators and especially our less-active. She is 14 and in need of whatever love and happiness that we can give her. I love serving here in Hong Kong. Even though I might not be baptizing every single week, I love being a part of other people's adventures and help them come unto Christ. 

Some interesting revelation that I received in Relief Society yesterday as we were talking about peach makers is the sentence that, a loud voice is not always the best way to be heard. I liked this thought a lot because growing up in a big family. I felt that if I wanted to be heard, I needed to be loud. Through my mission and other experiences, i've learned that that is not always the case. There's a lot to be said for the people that keep their cool and speak with kindness always, no matter the situation and I really truly hope that I can become that person. 

I love you all! Have a great week!

Sister Adams

The biking crew

Sister Adams and her sunburn

Sister Adams and Sister Vasseur.
 Apparently Sister Vasseur got transferred to Tin Sau and Mindy will be with a Sister named, Sister Knapp. She's excited but misses Sister Vasseur. 

The One Where Sister Mindy Talks About Her Celebration Of The Chinese New Year!

Another blogpost about another email of our dear missionary.

She comes home in 7 weeks, people. I REPEAT, 7 WEEKS!!!!!!!

Here is her January 29th email:

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR #2

Well, Everyone! I have officially survived another Chinese New Year (actually I am still surviving it. Libraries are closed during the holidays so i'm emailing in a sketchy 24 hour internet cafe, but don't worry it's super safe)!

It was a ghost town in the mornings again but still super fun! You can always tell when it's New Year because everybody and their dog goes to mainland China and/or is super busy with their families. It's like Christmas in America. Because we had so much time and we quickly found out that calling people would be pointless, we put most of our efforts on less-active finding, street finding, organizing our records, and making something for our members for Chinese New Year. Sister Vasseur had these really great coupons that let us get 60 really pretty Red Pocket packets for free and we could get a picture with them, so we took a picture of us found missionaries and we made them. Then we put some candy in it and New Year cards and gave them to our members at New Years. It turned out pretty good. They really, really liked them. I also had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Sister Curtis (and MTC buddy that I haven't had the opportunity of seeing in a while...) and it was so fun! We went singing in the park with the Elders and got to pass out a TON of cards and got some good contacts. Caroling in January is still okay! :)

One thing that I love about Chinese New Year is all the greetings and blessings that people send to each other. They are constantly wishing each other healthy bodies, energy, success in life/business, beauty, and money. Haha! It's fun to experience. It reminds me of where all our blessings truly come from though. I love being a missionary because we have a special calling and authority to act in the Savior's name. I love being able to visit people and pray with them because I know that the blessing that I ask Heavenly Father for on their home will actually come to pass. I know that the source of all the wonderful blessings that we have are from Heavenly Father. He loves us and He looks for any excuse to bless us. 

I hope that you have a safe and blessed week. I love you all. Don't forget to pray and remember to look for opportunities to share your glorious blessings. 

Love you!

Sister Adams

Sister Adams and Sister Curtis :)

The One Where Sister Mindy Had A Very Spiritual Week

hello all!
I must admit, i have actually completely forgotten about this blog for a while. i really do apologize! i'm about to make that up to you by posting all kinds of Mindy's emails. WAHOOOOO!!!


Here is Sister Mindy's January 22, 2017 email.

It feels a bit like flying.

Hello!!

Welcome to another week of possibly lame updates from Sister Adams! :) I hope all had a great week because I know that I did.

This week was a spiritual one for me and i'm so grateful for that. I got to attend the temple on Tuesday (so blessed!!!) and i had some really incredible lessons this weeks and I also had the privilege of attending a baptism this week as well. Spiritual highs are wonderful and I wish that everyday could be like that because it truly feels like flying. I think that someone once described it as "celestial moments". I really like that. It's those moments where you get a tiny taste of what heaven must feel like it's awesome. I really truly hope that each of you have the opportunity to feel them.

We had a really spiritual lesson with our investigator, Candy, after the baptism. She asked a lot of really good questions about baptism (because she was there to see it) and we got to know a little bit more of her concerns. She's really good though. She prays and read the Book of Mormon. She's been praying about baptism since we last taught it to her and during this lesson, she accepted a baptismal date for April 1st. She hasn't been to church yet, so that's our biggest trial. That's why we put it so far out but we're excited. I really hope this goal gives her something to progress towards and that she will learn and grow. It was a fun lesson for me as well because it was in Mandarin. I can understand a lot of the gospel terms in Mandarin but here are some things that I just can't get yet. Anyway, in the lesson there was a point where I felt prompted to share a scripture but because I didn't know what was going on in the lesson (flashbacks to my first months in Hong Kong) I didn't want to share it and mess up the power of the lesson. I finally worked up the nerve to share it and it ended up being a scripture that she needed to read. I just love having those kind of situations and moments come up in the work where you know that Heavenly Father has your back and that if you trust the promptings of the Holy Ghost, things are all going to work out. So cool!

I also had a cool opportunity to sing in sacrament meeting yesterday. We sang, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and it's still one of my favorite hymns of all time. I love the verse that says, "O to grace, how great a debtor daily i'm constrained to be! Let they goodness, as a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love; Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for They courts above." I like this verse because it's one of those things that just echoes in your soul. It hits a string. I truly know that every single day, I am in debt to my Heavenly Father and my Savior, Jesus Christ. If it wasn't for their miraculous love, mercy, and grace, I would not be where i am nor would I be who I am today. Everyday I hope that I can give my heart a little bit more so that someday I can have a place in His courts. 

Anyway, cheesy email today but these kinds of weeks only happen every once in a while. I don't have much more to say. I love Tsing Yi. I love my companions, investigators, and members. I'm learning a lot. Heavenly Father's plans and ways are always greater than my ways...so here I am, still learning how to trust Him and follow Him and enjoy the ride.

Have a fantastic week!

Sister Adams

Here is a picture of Sister Mindy, her companions, and their recent convert, Miki and her mom.