The One Where Sister Mindy Talks About Her Thanksgiving In Hong Kong!

Thanksgiving in Hong Kong! She has less than 6 months left until she's home! wahoo!
pictures!!

Here is her November 27th email
hope you enjoy :)

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!"

Hello Everyone!

Thanksgiving was awesome! I made a turkey, gravy and helped make pumpkin rolls for the first time in my life (shout out to all you moms who make Thanksgiving incredible every year, that's a lot of hard work!!!!). It was super fun and actually didn't turn out as awful as I thought it was going to! For Thanksgiving, we missionaries were given time to celebrate. We all participated in making the dinner and providing the games. It was really fun and we got to get to know our Zone better, so it was a definite plus!

The temperature dropped this week! It went from 26 degrees celsius to a really cold 13 degrees. I was not expecting it. All my winter gear was still mildewing in my suitcase. But i got smart and pulled it out and it's in the wash. LOL! It was a cold weekend though. The air is not the only thing preparing for Christmas, Hong Kong is lighting up with Christmas decorations and it is the most exciting thing ever! I walk around singing Christmas carols (sorry Sister Christensen) and i'm just so excited! How blessed are we? We have a Savior and an incredible opportunity to celebrate His birth every year. I'm feeling blessed. LOL! I'm so grateful i get to wear His name over my heart every day.

To update you on my investigators, they are all doing well! we're working on building their faith and belief in a living, loving God. I never realized how blessed I am to have been born with this knowledge until I had to teach others about this knowledge. It's not always something that comes easily to people. It takes a lot of trust and time. I'm proud of them though because at least their taking those first steps toward change and Heavenly Father.

I'm sorry that this post is sort of lame today! We're going to ride bikes today so i've got to rush. I love you all a bunch and i hope that you have a wonderful start to your December. LET CHRISTMAS BEGIN!!!!

My scripture of the day: "Therefore, I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the Salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." 2Timothy 2:10. I'm willing to endure all things for the sake of those that are ready to come up to Christ! Are you?

Love you all!
Sister Adams

Mindy and her companion took a trip to the outside of Disneyland!

Sister Mindy and her companion, Sister Christensen

Sister Mindy's Thanksgiving feast

Sister Mindy Mint's first mexican food in Hong Kong since she got there!

The One Where Sister Mindy Mint Talks About Her Attitude Of Gratitude

Here Is mindy's November 20th email
no pictures, but still a great email!
hope you enjoy :)



"An Attitude of Gratitude"

Hello Everybody!

How are you all this week? HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

i love this holiday! Food, family, gratitude, football (oops, not for me!). It's all wonderful! Treasure it!

So, Thanksgiving in Hong Kong is interesting because almost everybody knows what it is, thinks it is an awesome idea, but does not celebrate it. I laugh every time i have a conversation with someone about it because they just love the idea of it but also consider it very American. We missionaries are blessed with the opportunity to celebrate every year though. I'll give you updates about that next week!

This week was an interesting one for sure. Our investigators are progressing pretty good! No baptismal dates yet, but God is good and miracles are happening every day. It's hard to see all the different trials that Satan throws at these people. Every single one of them has COMPLETELY different trials that are pretty rooted into them. but it's also awe-inspiring to watch the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon answer their concerns and open their eyes. It's been challenging to teach them, but i'm learning a lot. This gospel is true and the Atonement of Jesus Christ can change every life.

in honor of Thanksgiving this week, I've been studying A LOT about gratitude. There's a quote that I found by a German Author name Dietrich Bonhoeffer that I really like. He says, "It is only with gratitude that life becomes rich." I love this because it's true. Gratitude has this amazing ability of bringing LIFE back into our lives! I was reading a talk from April 2016 titled "A summer with Great Aunt Rose." In it is a story about a little girl whose great aunt Rose teaches her about love, faith, and hope. Aunt Rose taught ME a lot about gratitude. The story talks about how happy and joyous Aunt Rose is and how everybody loves to be around her and feel happy around her. She explains that it's easy to let life get you down. It's so easy to see everything that you are lacking, but that's not a happy way to live life. That path doesn't lead to a life that is so rich with color, laughter, and light. When we strive to maintain and "attitude of gratitude" we start to discover just how richly blessed we are. We start to realize that the love of God is greater than we ever realized. 

I am grateful to be a missionary in Hong Kong. I am grateful to be companions with Sister Christensen. I am grateful to serve in Tsim She Tsui. I am immensely grateful for my family. More than all of that is my gratitude for my Savior, Jesus Christ. I can't express it. I am so immeasurably grateful for a Heavenly Father and for His guidance and blessings in my life. You cannot find a more blessed person than me. :P I truly love this gospel and I KNOW that it is true. There is no doubt in my mind about it.

I hope you all take a moment to "count your blessings" this week and really notice the details that God has paid attention to and helped direct. 

I love you all! Have a great week!

Sister Adams

The One Where Mindy Talks About Her Crazy Week

Heyyyyyyy!
okay, gonna crank out these blog posts! I'm 5 behind. I KNOW! 5! AHHHH! i'm the worst at this... But it's all good, because my new year's resolution is to be on top of this until she's home sooo don't you worry, i won't have to do catch up for every. single. post. :)


Here is mindy's November 13th email

LOL! What?

Hello everybody!!

Was this a crazy week of what? I'm still trying to get everything resettled!

This week started out just like any other week, full of laughter, energy and ready for some finding (haha!) then on Wednesday morning we get a text from the housing Elders saying, "Good morning! Did you guys know that you guys are moving apartments tomorrow?" I quickly called them to see if they had made some sort of mistake and nope! they had not! LOL! We were getting moved to an apartment that can hold 6 sisters and the elders in my district were moving into our apartment. THE NEXT MORNING! So we spent whatever spare minute that we had the next day packing and cleaning like maniacs! Our new apartment is one that had not been opened for missionaries yet, in other words, the apartment owner left behind A TON of stuff and didn't have time to clean before he left, so we spent whatever spare minute we had deep cleaning the new apartment and unpacking our stuff. LOL! It's been a crazy week but it's still been full of laughter. I'm excited for everything to be settled down again though. 

One thing that I have learned from this experience as well as the last year of my mission is, the importance of a clean home. I cannot describe to you the HUGE difference in feeling between a clean home and a messy home. When your house/room/desk is organized and clean, you focus better, you feel the Spirit better and it's so much easier to get stuff done. Mom, i'm sorry I was so messy before. You were right to try to get me to clean up so often! I'm serious, though that small time that you spend cleaning everyday saves you time when you have to clean a little deeper later and also keeps your life in order! A clean house = a happy, spirit-filled life. 

Our investigators are doing great! i'm enjoying teaching them because they ask a lot of questions! It's been fun because with a couple of them, we're starting completely from scratch. They have no concept of a loving Heavenly Father and the development of faith is slow but every step in the right direction is a miracle. We still have not been able to get Christy a solid baptismal date. She's accepting the messages really well though! She now understands why she needs to be baptized again, she's just worried that she's not going to be prepared anytime soon. She's also worried because a lot of people tell her that we are a cult and that the Book of Mormon is a bad book. She enjoys coming to church and activities though. A new investigator that we picked up this week is a man name Alex Wong. We me him while street finding on the Hung Hom promenade. He's really nice and has a lot of questions about why there are so many church, why do people believe in Jesus and "why can't you drink coffee?!?!?!?!?!?!" It's hard to keep the lessons on track but we're learning and we're having fun with it!

I hope that you all have a fantastic week. I'm grateful for a knowledge of a loving Heavenly Father. I know that His hand is in every aspect of our lives. I know He loves you and wants to lead you. Let Him lead you.

Love You!
Sister Adams

Mindy found a CoCo's curry house in her area!! She's so excited!! 

"p.s. i <3 Sister Christensen"

The One Where Mindy Gives Us Some Updates On Her Mission In Hong Kong :)

Two emails in one on this blog post. she posted just a tiny one on October 31st. So i hope you enjoy both of them! plus, there's a picture of our cute missionary. she's amazing. I may be biased, but if you know her, than you agree!
enjoy!


October 31st email:


At least I sent a picture

Sometimes you only have time to send home a picture!!

I love you all. Enjoy this picture of my companion and me as we will be having another awesome transfer together is TST!!

P.S. Sister Ng is moving :( i've been with her for a year of my mission as almost companions and i'm sad to see her go but excited see her grow and experience other things!

Trust the Lord. He'll lead you where you didn't know you needed to be!

Her November 6th email:


Updates!


Hello everyone!

I'm so sorry that i've been so crappy recently. It's been busy and I have lots to think about but these are all excuses. Sorry!

This week went by so fast. We found out that Sister Ng was leaving and that Sister Cote (also went to the MTC with me but was in the other district) is moving in to Kowloon City with Sister Terry! I miss Sister Ng lots but it's been fun to get to know Sister Cote again. She'll be my Sister Training Leader companion now and i'm already excited to see where Kowloon East (the zone i'm in) will go.

Sister Christensen an dI finally got a new investigator this week! Her name is Christy, and she seems pretty solid. She started meeting with us because she's looking for a church. She recently decided to leave her other church and has been looking for a new one ever since. We met with her on Wednesday and taught the Restoration. She took it really well and seemed willing to find out if it is truth or not. She was baptized into her previous church so we're overcoming that issue (priesthood power is so hard to explain here...) but otherwise she seems to really enjoy church and the ward members are warming up to her. We're still trying to find a solid fellowshipper for her though. She wants to hear the testimonies from all the missionaries about why they chose to be missionaries and how they came to know that this was all true. Elder McGrath and Elder Thong (couple missionary) bore their testimonies this week and hopefully she'll keep coming and hearing more. I'm pretty excited!

Things seem to be starting to pick up for us here in Tsim Sha Tsui and i'm really excited to see that change. I'm happy that Heavenly Father is giving me the time to see success here in Tsim Sha Tsui. When Elder Wong of the Seventy was with us, he gave the mission the challenge of doubling the baptisms in the mission before the end of the year. You can imagine that we were all pretty shocked and doubtful of the challenge at first but i've already seen some incredible blessings and miracles in my Zone since then. There are people to be found in Hong Kong and we're going to find them. i've really noticed the blessings that have come from asking for referrals, doing more role plays to improve teaching, finding on the street more often, serving the members, and focusing on goals. It's a lot to balance all at once, but it's so worth it. I'm really happy to see what comes next. We have potentials coming out of the wood work and it's been fun to watch.

If you remember me talking about my friend, Alexandra, i'm happy to say that she is progressing really well! It's looking like we might have a reactivation in the next few months and i'm really happy about that. She's been one of my miracles in Tsim Sha Tsui because i've been able to watch her grow and learn. I've been able to watch the gospel light up her life as she does the simple things of reading the Book of Mormon every day, praying every day, and going to church every Sunday. She's able to overcome challenges by herself and relies on the Lord more. I've really enjoyed watching light fill her eyes again because this process has been lighting up my testimony too. This gospel is true and "it works!"

If there are any of you that are feeling like your life is not as light as it used to be, i challenge you to do those 3 simple things. Get on your knees and pray every day. God wants to hear from you. He WANTS to guide you and bring light to your life. Study the Book of Mormon every day. You will never find yourself closer to the Savior than you are when you are STUDYING the Book of Mormon every day. And go to church. Don't just go through the motions of going to church. Prepare you soul and your mind to be THERE when you are there. It does you no good to sit for three hours in a chapel if you aren't going to open you heart and mind to be taught. Do it with real intent and I can PROMISE you that you wills tart to see light and it will fill you. Jesus Christ tells us that He is the "light of and life of the world." Let Him be your light. 

I love you all. No time for pics today but I promise next week!

Love, Sister Adams

The One Where Sister Adams Celebrates Her One Year Mark!!!

Hello everyone! it's been a bit, and there are quite a few emails to catch up on. Here is Mindy's October 24th email. She's been out for over a year!! i can't believe it!!! :) :)
enjoy




"One Year Older and Wiser too!"


I'M SO SORRY I KNOW I DIDN'T EMAIL LAST WEEK!!!!! Please forgive me. I had this huge email written up with twelve scriptures that describe the last twelve months of my mission but i didn't have enough time to finish it...so... i'll just share that with you all another day. Also, i realize that the title line is a birthday song but I'VE OFFICIALLY BEEN A MISSIONARY FOR OVER A YEAR! One year since i was set apart as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A year full of laughter, confusion, faith, tears, obedience and great love. I cannot believe how fast the time flew. I feel like I just got to Hong Kong and now i have people counting down for me. (#stopit) Time keeps flying by and I cannot believe how much experience can be packed into one year of life.

Today was such an awesome day because we had the opportunity of having a mission tour with our area Seventy, Elder Wong. I'm a little mentally and spiritually fried because of how powerful that meeting was so, i'm really sorry if my email doesn't make sense today. A couple of things that really struck home for me today was actually a couple of things that Sister Wong said. She said, "the calling you have today prepares you for the calling that you have tomorrow." I loved this because as i've received callings in life and here in the mission, i've discovered that the callings that I had previously helped me learn skill sets that have helped me solve problems or plan for things in my next calling. God knows what He's doing and He knows how to prepare us to fulfill our full potential. We just have to trust Him. The other things that i liked was when she said, "if something is high enough up on your priority list, your mind and thoughts will be more sharpened to promptings about that thing." This is kind of a "duh" thing but for some reason it really clicked with me today. We are what we think and what we think about really influences who we are. If i spent all my time thinking about home, i would want to go home. If i spent all my time thinking about some of my less-actives and investigators, I would get a stomach ulcer. If i spend ALL my time think about Jesus, I would probably be translated or something (don't quote me on that, i don't know how those things work.) My point is, if we want something bad enough, bad enough to need the powers of heave to help us out, we should be thinking about it a lot more. God can only give us as much as we're ready to take.

On that note, i've narrowed down the last year of my life into one scripture, are you ready?!?!?! 3 Nephi 5:13 - "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of Him to declare His word to His people, that they might have everlasting life." In my mission, I have truly strived to become a DISCIPLE of Christ. This is different than being a follower of Christ. When you are a disciple of Jesus Christ, you truly wear His name on your heart and His name is on your lips, ready to proclaim to anyone who crosses your path. As a disciple of Christ, we have power and authority to act in His name. This name tag is forever written on my heart. The last year of my life is so precious to me. In the last year of my life, i have TRULY felt the necessity of being a DISCIPLE of Christ and not just a convert or a follower of Christ. This church doesn't just teach people how to become better people. This church has the power of God behind it. Only this church has the authority to baptize people and help them walk the path back to Heavenly Father.

Be bold. We are incredibly blessed. YOU can all be disciples of Jesus Christ as well, rather than just a convert. It's all about becoming. It's all about action. It's all about being willing to fulfill your baptismal covenants and truly "take His name upon you."

I love you all so much. Thank you for the blessings you are in my life. You truly bring me joy and I feel your prayers lifting me and helping me along the way. Thank you also for all the sacrifices you have made from me to be on a mission for the past year. I'm forever grateful for this precious gift that you have given me.

Have a fantastic week!

The One Where Sister Mindy Mint Talks About Her Favorite Season

Hey there!
When am I not behind on posting her emails? ha! here is the october 9th email
enjoy!



           #looseyourthumbs and IT'S FALL.


WELCOME TO MY FAVORITE SEASON IN THE WHOLE UNIVERSE!!!!

Hong Kong has officially hit it's fall season and i'm in love with the weather right now. It's perfect morning exercise weather and also perfect 'finding on the street' weather. All of Hong Kong feel happier but maybe that's just me!

General Conference was wonderful and if you skipped the Saturday sessions, I encourage you all to go back and watch them. They were powerful! My title today comes from Elder Oaks' talk. He talked about the need for missionary work and gave some suggestions for getting started. The "loose your thumbs" thin is in relation to the wonderful tool social media gives us for doing missionary work. I loved how much this year testified of the Savior, the Plan of Salvation, and the Restoration. We're getting back to the very basics of our doctrine of Jesus Christ. You will find it A LOT easier to withstand adversity when your knowledge and trust in these things is sure and steadfast. We missionaries focus a lot on these things and it's helped me answer questions, and find strength that I didn't know I had. 

President Lam gave us a challenge in our mission recently. He asked us to ask EVERYONE for referrals. Literally every. single. person. that we have a conversation with. It's actually been really fun and it's been motivating Sister Christensen and I to talk to people that we normally wouldn't talk to. People actually consider it! people who straight up ignore us will stop and think about whether or not they know anyone who would be interested. We've had some huge blessings and miracles happen ever since we started doing this. I'm really excited to see what other cool things will happen this week as we continue to do this. Preach My Gospel is true and so is the calling and setting apart of church leaders. 

We got an awesome text message from our less-active, Alexandra, last night. We've been talking to her a lot recently about goals, the future, missionary work, and faith. She's gone finding with us and had a great time. The test that she sent us last night said, "Sisters, what can I do to start preparing myself to be a missionary." I was so excited!!! She's grown so much this summer. We're meeting with her tonight and will be discussing it more. I'm excited to see her progress. There's a lot that she needs to overcome and deal with before she starts but i think that once she makes the goal to go and overcomes all her testimony stumbling blocks, she'll get into the field pretty quick. She's already incredibly good at recognizing God's hand in her life and answers to her prayers. I sometimes feel like helping her and other less-actives like her was one of the reasons that God sent me to Hong Kong. I just hope we can get the ward to better support her. We're trying to get her more comfortable with the ward as a whole and not just a couple people and the missionaries. 

On another note, we had a surprise from the mandarin sisters when we walked into general conference. They had found a sweet girl name Erica who is SUPER interested in knowing more. We got to meet her and she was REALLY excited to learn that there are missionaries that speak Cantonese. She has some really good potential and we should be meeting with her again this Saturday. The blessings for opening our mouths more and asking for referrals are starting to come through and it's exciting to see because it was a long summer. 

I love you all a lot. Please go back and continue to watch Conference over and over again. We are so blessed to be in a church that has divinely called priesthood leaders. Their words are God's words so take them seriously and strive to apply them into your lives. 

Have a fantastic week!

Sister Adams

The One Where Mindy Gets Real With Us

Hello Blogsphere!
here is Mindy's Oct 3rd email. Behind again, like usual. ha!
hope you enjoy her long email! she's amazing! :) also, PICTURES!

Living on the bright side of life.

Hello Everyone!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful week and enjoyed your conference weekend. I'M SO EXCITED TO WATCH IT!!! Sister Christensen and I are counting down the days and are so excited to have some questions answered.

Today, I'm going to get a little deeper than i have in the past couple emails because this is something that i've been feeling prompted to share about for a couple weeks now but haven't really wanted to.

So, i'm going to talk about what it's like to not have investigators for months of your mission. As i explain this, I want you all to know that i LOVE my mission and everything that i say is my own thoughts and feelings. This is not the feelings and thoughts of every missionary in the whole world. We call it a "dry spot" but honestly it's more like a "hurt spot." In Preach My Gospel, we read, "Nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach." I can testify that this is true. When you don't have people to teach, you spend A LOT of time looking for people to teach. When you get rejected and ignored for weeks and weeks and weeks, it start to hurt. You start to feel like you're a terrible missionary, like there is something wrong with you. "Why don't these people love me?" You spend A LOT of time on your knees, a lot of fasting, asking so many people so many questions. Every week you show up to church and you can feel the ward members, the bishopric and the ward missionaries watching you and wondering why you STILL haven't brought an investigator to church. You're trying everything and sacrificing so much and yet, no one wants to listen to you. 

This isn't the hardest part though. The hardest thing to accept is that every time someone rejects YOU, they are actually rejecting their Savior. They're rejecting the chance to be free from sin and regret. They're rejecting the opportunity to have peace and LIGHT fill their lives and make it into something incredible. They're holding themselves back and it hurts because you LOVE these people. you WANT to see them happy and see their family make it to the temple. You want to be able to see them in the Celestial Kingdom again. It hurts but it's also been the sweetest part of my mission. 

I wish that I had the time to write down all that i've learned so far. I am so immeasurably grateful for my Savior. Now, more than ever before. In the MTC, they tell you that "you are sent to find the elect and BAPTIZE them." We're promised that they're out here. I know they are too. I can promise they are here in TST. They are. I have learned that having faith and HOPE closes the gaps between "you are sent to baptize" and "why will no one listen to me?!?!?!?!" I have learned that having a grateful heart and a happy heart is a CHOICE. You can choose to let trials in life break you down until you're nothing. You can choose to be bitter, to compare yourself to others, to let Satan stop your mouth. OR you can choose to learn what God wants you to learn. You can choose to be optimistic and strive to learn how to build yourself back up it's hard but it's worth the fight. 

I have also learned that "all sunshine makes a desert." Life needs the rain to make it beautiful. It needs trials to make it worthwhile. Life needs rain. 

In 2 Corinthians 6 verse 10 has become close to my heart. "As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making MANY rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing ALL things." I'm learning to rejoice in my sorrow. I'm learning that although I have nothing, I have a knowledge of my Savior and of His TRUE church and that is "ALL things" in my eyes. It's a "pearl of great price" for sure. I may be poor (in spirit as well as a missionary LOL!) but I truly truly hope that I am making many people here in Hong Kong feel rich. I'm learning to be grateful and figure out what's most important. 

The last thing that i've learned comes from John 16:33- "In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." We WILL have tribulations. As humans and especially as followers of Jesus Christ. We WILL have trials. BUT we can always be of good cheer because He's walking this path with us. He's lifting us every step of the way and lifting us when necessary. Having no investigators is not the hardest trial in this life by far, but i know that Heavenly Father gave me these trials so that I can walk through harder paths later on and hopefully be able to lift those around me while we walk. I know that miracles are around the corner. I know that miracles and blessings are coming. This trial is worth it. The hurt is worth it. 

There are miracles in Hong Kong. Just because I have no investigators does not mean that my area is a dad area or that Hong Kong has no hope of being saved. Sister Christensen and I see miracles everyday. We change lives everyday. Hong Kong has some incredibly wonderful people. I love them so much. The missionaries that serve in Hong Kong are BLESSED to be here. 

I love my mission. I love Hong Kong but more than all that is the love that I have for my Savior and for Heavenly Father who knows me so perfectly that I get tailor made trials. ;)

I hope that you all are loving your missionaries back home. I also hope that you remember that it is NOT just the missionaries responsibility to find people to teach. It is EVERY SINGLE MEMBER'S duty to share the gospel. Do your part in this work of eternities. You won't regret it. 

i love you all. I AM happy, I promise. Thank you for your prayers and love.

Sister Adams

P.S. Thank you for not sending conference spoilers.

The view from Sister Mindy's roof where she exercises every morning.

A small part of Sister Mindy's zone. Kowloon East!! <3