Happy Halloween!

Leihdeih Hou!

     Happy Halloween everyone! This week has been pretty good! I have been in a trio with Sister Leonard and Sister Viazzo again for the past week (trio adventures part 2!) so that's been exciting! Our schedule this past week has definitely been craziness, but we have managed to make it work! It's been a little harder adjusting to Sister Luk leaving because she was seriously the best companion I could have ever asked for, but I know she is doing amazing things in Minnesota and being a miracle worker in that mission :)

     I can't be too sad though because I am getting a new companion this Thursday so that's exciting too! We got our moves calls last night and I am staying in Yuen Long but they won't people where they are moving to and who their new companions are until tomorrow. So we shall wait and see! I am SO happy to be staying in Yuen Long! :) Who wouldn've thought I would stay in my baby area for a year? That's crazy! I'm not complaining though! Haha! Miracles are happening and the Lord is hastening His work here. I am ready to see what comes next! I am super sad though because 2/3 of our district is leaving. Sister Luk already left and now Elder Cornilles, Elder Sharp, and Elder VanDyke are leaving! So it's just me and Elder Herzog staying. Super chaam! :( All of the elders in our district are so amazing and our unity has grown so much over the past 6 months together, but I know they are going to continue to be amazing wherever they serve next.

     On the bright side of the week, we had another crazy miracle of finding two new investigators! Their names are Carson (11 years old) and Winnie (10 years old). Their mom Cat is actually a less active who hasn't been to church for years because of work. Well, one of our members Sister Chu has been talking with Cat on Facebook for the past 7 years (never actually met in person) and invited her to a baby shower our ward was having. Cat doesn't have to work on Sundays anymore so she is ready to come back to church. Her wants her kids to learn about the gospel and be baptized so badly. We met with all three of them after English class and Carson and Winnie accepted the invitation to be baptized on November 27th! We taught them a very simple message, but the Spirit was SO strong. When we were talking about baptism, Cat started to cry and Carson cried when we extended the baptism invitation. This is seriously a miracle family! They came to church yesterday and stayed for a baptismal service the elders were having and it was just amazing! It's so true that when you put forth your best effort and diligently persevere, the elect start to come and find you. They may not come immediately, but they will come! Cat and her children are definitely one of the elect and super prepared for the blessings this gospel has to offer. 

     Well, that's all the excitement I have for this week. Happy Halloween everyone! Be safe when trick-or-treating and eat a lot of chocolate for me! :) I love you all!  

Scripture of the Week: Joshua 24:15 I am chosen to serve the Lord. Who will you serve?

Quote of the Week: Service is not something to endure but enjoy (Elder Carl B. Cook)

Sister Maggie Shiffert

施姊妹 

I love our district so much! (Left to right: Sister Luk, me, Elder Sharp, Elder VanDyke, Elder Herzog, Elder Cornilles) 

We had temple day last week! Seriously a blessing to have one close by!

This is Carson, Winnie, and Cat! Cutest family! :)

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Really??? Are You Sure???

Leihdeih Hou!

     This week has been pretty good! It's also been bittersweet thought because Sister Luk leaves me tonight to go to Minnesota tomorrow! :( I am going to miss her SOOO much!!! :( I seriously don't want her to leave!!! But I know the Lord has bigger and better plans for her in Minnesota. Sister Luk has been and amazing companion and I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to train and serve with her. She works so hard and is super humble. She has turned so many weaknesses into strengths and she continues to grow daily. I have complete confidence in her! She is super nervous about going to Minnesota, but I guess ready or not Minnesota, here she comes! Things are definitely going to be different around here, but I am excited for her. She is going to be the most amazing missionary ever and have so many miracles and blessings! 

     

     We met with Alice yesterday and the lesson went really well! Actually during sacrament, she was asking about how many lessons she still needed to have before she could get baptized. We were planning on inviting her to be baptized again but this time have her set the date instead of us, so I'm glad the Lord was putting all of us on the same page. During her lesson, Alice expressed to us that she has been thinking about baptism recently and was thinking about Christmas Day but didn't know if that was a Sunday or not. Well, it turns out it is! It's crazy because we were thinking about December 18th or 25th. So December 25th is Alice's new baptismal date! She really has progressed a lot since we first met her and I think now that she is starting to realize things for herself and build her testimony, she is going to definitely be ready by then. 

     Laahn Je is doing really good too! She still has some conflicts with the member Yip Ji Muih who lives in the same place as her, but she is starting to remember more and more gospel related things and continues to have the desire to learn more. Pohpos are my favorite! Honestly when we met her on the street and gave her a Book of Mormon, I thought we would never hear from her again, but she is progressing and growing and becoming one of my favorite people! She's so cute!

     We had Mission Tour this week and Elder Wong from the Area Seventy came and spoke to us. He is so funny but so good at the same time! We did a sihfaahn (role play) where we had to two minutes to teach and practice our teaching skills, and we were volunteered as the missionaries to teach President and Sister Lam (our investigators) while 50+ missionaries and Elder Wong watched us. It was definitely a little nerve wracking to have all those people watching us teach, but we survived haha! Elder Wong also shared a really good anaolgy between us and the story of the brother of Jared. I don't have time to explain the story (you can read it in Ether 2-3 if you want to know how it goes), but the analogy is that the two stones that provide light in the barges represent our companionship serving two by two. The stones were touched by the finger of the Lord but us missionaries have also been touched by the Lord. We are the stones that light the way for the barges (investigators and families) to go to the promised land (back to God's presence). It always amazes me when people make connections like that because it just makes me look at those stories with a different perspective and it makes them more personal to me. I think I might do that more with the people we teach to help them better understand how this gospel can apply to their lives. I don't know if my brain can function like that, but I'm going to try!

     I hope all of you have a great week this week! I will talk to you next week!

Scripture of the Week: D&C 78:19 Have an attitude of gratitude and you will be blessed 100 fold

Quote of the Week: We walk on diamonds but can't distinguish them from pebbles (Dieter F. Uchtdorf)

Sister Maggie Shiffert

We went to a member's house to celebrate the Hong Kong temple president leaving so these are us with some of the members!

That fun moment when you walk up to a member's house and see your mission president and his wife there! Hey, President and Sister Lam!

Us with the elders and Katherine in the middle will be leaving soon to go to Canada for her mission. 

We don't want to be separated! :(

Last apartment selfie! 

One Year? Already?

Leihdeih Hou!

     I hope all of you had a great week this past week! Mine was really good! The craziest part was that I hit my year mark this past wee! Really? Are you sure? This past year has seriously flown by SO fast! It has also been the best year of my life, ups and downs and all. There is nothing I would rather be doing right now than serving the Lord in Hong Kong. The number of blessings and miracles I have received and seen have been countless. I knew serving this mission was what I needed to do, but I didn't fully understand how much it would change my life. I know the next 6 months are going to go by even faster and I am excited for what the Lord has in store for me! 

     I know I mostly talk about Alice, but I also want to share about our investigator Laahn Je. We met her back a while back and she was a success from our Book of Mormon challenge. She lives in a nursing home but she is so sweet and so funny! She can't remember a lot and we have to teach like we are teaching a five year old, but that's okay! I love her so much! One lesson a member who lives in the same nursing home was telling Laahn Je how she wasn't keeping the commandments because she smokes and drinks tea/coffee. We haven't taught Laahn Je about the commandments before so this made her so sad because she didn't know she was breaking anything. Well, when we visited her this past week, she said that the past two weeks she has stopped drinking coffee and tea and instead of smoking a pack a day, she is making it last two days per pack of cigarettes. She seriously has the biggest desire to learn about this gospel and to follow Christ! she's also trying to get the poho (grandma) in the bed across from hers to listen to the gospel. Haha! 

     We were also able to meet with Alice this week. It';s been a couple weeks since we've met with her and it honestly made us a little worried. She is actually progressing a little more than we thought though! She shared with us that she has not had green tea lately and will continue to work on it. She is also trying to share the gospel with one of her friends who she thinks could really benefit from this gospel. I think sharing the gospel with her friends is one of the best ways Alice will be able to strengthen her testimony. It will really help her see how this gospel has helped her personally and realize that everything she is telling her friend is actually true. I know this is the answer to our prayers to help Alice strengthen her testimony. It wasn't what we were expecting, but God knows His children better than we do, so we will go with it! 

     And this is our miracle story of the week. We went to go visit our LA Lolo but she wasn't home so we decided to go finding around the area. We had already been finding a lot that day, but we decided to push through and keep going. It was time to go home but decided to walk one more lap around the park and stopped this lady Ko Siu Je who was on her way home. Usually we introduce ourselves and share a quick message and ask to meet again, but Sister Luk asked her if she had a few minutes where we could sit down and talk with her. Sister Luk was definitely in tune with the Spirit because she said okay and we ended up teaching her the whole Restoration lesson. She was super receptive and I could tell she was feeling the Spirit. I never thought of teaching full lessons on the street, but clearly it's possible so we are going to be trying this method of finding more often now. We are meeting with Ko Siu Je tonight so hopefully she will become our new investigator. 

     I hope all of you have a great week! If I have not replied to your emails recently, please know that I am sorry and I promise to respond soon and I love you! :)

Scripture of the Week: Doctrine and Covenants 46:30 When we pray if we ask by the Spirit then we are asking for God's will and He will give it to us.

Quote of the Week: The course we are pursuing is in accordance with God's will (David A. Bednar)

Sister Maggie Shiffert

I went to Mong Kok for the first time last week (that is where you can get stuff for super cheap and as close to Chinese traditional as you can get in Hong Kong lol!)

Sister Luk knows me so well! What will I do without her?!

Sadly not everyone is looking at the camera, but here is our zone! 

We love Laahn Je!

Happy 1 Year! 
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The Joy of General Conference

Leihdeih Hou! 

     There wasn't anything too exciting that happened this week with the work, but General Conference was definitely the highlight of the week! I always love listening to conference and receiving the personal revelation that comes from it. I swear those are the fastest 10 hours of my life! All of the talks were really good and all things that I needed to hear. There were so many quotes that stood out to me and I received some really good insight as to how I can help all the people I serve. They talked a lot about the Atonement, overcoming challenges, the Sabbath Day/sacrament, missionary work, and prayer and I feel like if you can have a firm testimony of these things, then there is nothing stopping you from receiving the Lord's help and blessings. These were some of the quotes that stuck out the most to me from conference:

When you pray, do you really want "not my will but thine be done"? (Juan A. Uceda)

He doesn't want us to suffer longer, but He wants us to come unto Him so He can make our burden lighter (Carole F. McConkie)

Stumbling blocks can be turned into stepping stones (Quentin L. Cook). 

Don't search for things that aren't meant to be revealed/understood now because you will miss the plain and precious truths right in front of you (W. Mark Bassett)

He believes in us even if we don't believes in ourselves (J. Devn Cornish)

Sharing the gospel with others is not a pass/fail test (Neil L. Andersen)

As you look to The Book (or Mormon), you look to the Lord (Gary E. Stevenson)

Be ambitious for Christ (Kazuhiko Yamashita)

Joy has nothing to do with the circumstances of life but on the focus of life (Russell M. Nelson)

The course of life we are pursuing in in accordance to God's will (David A. Bednar)

We can know that in our afflictions, God had prepared compensating blessings (Evan A. Schmutz)

     I am so grateful that we have to opportunity to listen/watch conference twice a year! I know that this gospel is true and it is the only way to have true and everlasting joy and happiness. If we follow these teachings and principles, we will be able to obtain the Lord's blessings and have true joy and overcome any challenges that we may face. I'm so glad I have this opportunity to share this message with the people of Hong Kong and I know there are blessings and miracles out there for all of us who share this light with others! I hope all of you have a great week!

Scripture of the Week: 1 John 4:16 Have that charity for others and love them as your brothers and sisters.

Quote of the week: All of us have the mantle of charity (Jean B. Bingham)

Sister Maggie Shiffert

Still Going Strong

Leihdeih Hou!

     I'm afraid this is going to be another short email. But don't worry because we get to watch General Conference this weekend so there will be plenty for me to say next week! :) I can't believe it came so quickly! The past 6 months have flown by so it snuck up on me! Sister Luk and I have been working hard and seeing some blessings along the way. The Lord was giving us a little test of faith the past couple weeks, but I think we showed He we can weather the storms and find the rainbows on the other side. 

     We have started visiting our investigator Fung Taai again so that's good! We dropped her back in August but revisited her to see if she had progressed at all. She hasn't had that big of a change, but she was really excited to see us and seemed to really listen to what we had to say. She is still a pohpo (grandma) who forgets a lot of things, but I think she might be ready this time to learn about the gospel. We will try for a few weeks and see how it goes! 

     Sister Luk is doing awesome as always! We are almost done with her training and I feel like she has grown a lot since she first started her mission. She is definitely a better teacher and I think overall a spiritually better missionary. I am excited to hear about the miracles she will experience on the rest of her mission. We are working on her prayers in English so it will be more natural when she goes to Minnesota and one less thing she has to worry about adjusting to in the field. Sometimes we pray in English and it is becoming one of the hardest things for me. It' feels so weird! Everything I want to say is in Cantonese so I have to quickly translate it to English. It's a challenge to pray in English, but I guess it is a good challenge to have haha! 

     There is a story that our bishop shared with us that put some things into perspective for me this week. There are two missionaries. One missionary goes out and spends most of his mission street finding and knocking on doors but doesn't have any baptisms. A few years later another missionary serves in the same area and has 10 baptisms. Who was successful? Each of them are successful in their own ways. But the truth is, if the first missionary wasn't out there finding and planting seeds, then the second missionary wouldn't have had those baptisms. That is what Sister Luk and I are doing right now. We are planting seeds and even though we may not see the fruits of our labor, I know that some missionaries in the future are going to find those prepared people. We may not help these people get baptized, but by at least introducing the gospel to them, we are helping them move one step closer to the Savior 

     I love all of you! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers! The Lord is definitely blessing me and this area. I am glad all of you were spiritually nourished affter watching General Conference, and if we didn't have a chance to watch it, then go to lds.org and you can see all the session there! Have a great week! 

Scripture of the Week:.Mosiah 24:14-16 the Lord won't take away our afflictions, but He will ease the burden. 

Quote of the Week: The Lord did not make it easy, but He made it possible (Elder Dallin H. Oaks)

Sister Maggie Shiffert

It was Sister Luk's birthday yesterday so we had to match! Comp unity! :)

We have discovered ice cream cookie sandwiches are better than birthday cake haha! 

So you know how we have been having cockroach problems? Well, we gave them to our neighbor....and this is the note she left on the door. It basically says we gave her cockroaches and she is very angry and confused and we need to solve our cockroach problem faster. Oops! 
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