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