Sister Shiffert in Hong Kong : Adventures = Miracles

Leihdeih Hou!

This week, especially the past couple of days, have been craziness! The beginning of the week was pretty normal with a lesson here and there but then the past couple of days have definitely not gone as planned. It's funny because Sister Percival is one to drop everything for a chance to help someone and I am one to think things through to make sure we don't mess up other people's schedules, so we balance out each other nicely :) She helps me remember my purpose is to serve and help those in need, whether it's physically or spiritually. There were so many blessings from all the miracles and craziness though and I am so grateful!

The most exciting thing that happened this week was we had a baptism! :) We were able to teach a mainland visitor which was quite an adventure! So the background on that is there are little branches in mainland and members share the gospel with their friends who then come to Hong Kong to be baptized. They come in the morning, listen to all 5 lessons (you squeeze what usually takes at least a couple months into like 5 hours), get baptized later that day, and go back to mainland that evening. Props to the Mandarin missionaries because it's craziness haha!

Well, this lady named Fung Ji Muih called on Friday morning to say she was coming to get baptized. Usually they give you a few days notice but not this time haha! She spoke Cantonese and we were the closest sisters that could teach her. We were actually on the way to Central when we got the call but we rescheduled all of our lessons for the day and booked it to Kowloon Tong. We didn't really have time to mentally prepare ourselves and we had never taught past the first two lessons as a companionship before so things were bound to be interesting. The lessons went really well though! It was a great test to see how well I have retained Cantonese the past 18 months haha! It was also a good test of Sister Percival's and my unity when teaching. I realized we have different ways of teaching some of the lessons, but it all worked out nicely.

Fung Ji Muih was amazing and definitely prepared by the Lord! It is so amazing to see someone so prepared and humble and ready to follow Christ's example. I am so thankful I had the chance to see Fung Ji Muih get baptized! I realized this is probably the Lord's way of blessing us for our efforts and diligence. I think 95% of the time, you don't see direct results or blessings from your efforts, but the Lord blesses you in His own way and in His own time.

Our investigator Icy is doing so well and I am so proud of her! She woke up late for church but still decided to come for the last 15 minutes of sacrament meeting. I thought she wasn't going to come because she just got back from mainland and was probably too tired to wake up, but she did! And there was a linger longer afterwards so she was able to stay for that as well. Her daugther Yuki may need a bigger push to get her motivated but I think she will start seeing her mom's example and follow her lead.

Also, fun story of the week. So we got this call from a potential investigator Agnes we have been trying to get in contact with for a while. She wanted us to help her move some stuff for her. It was crazy trying to reorganize our schedule but we were able to do it and help Agnes. She needed to ship off these 5 giant moving boxes full of clothes and things to mainland because she's studying there. So we put them in a shipping cart and little trolly cart thing and walk across Sham Shui Po to the post office. Well it was closed but the one in Tsim Sha Tsui (about 40 min away) was open until 6. It was 5:20. So a stranger helped call a GoGo Van to come pick us up and take us over there to mail off the stuff. It was rush hour but by some miracle, we got to the post office with 7 minutes to spare. Agnes had one box that was 35kg which was overweight so she had to open it and take 5kg worth of clothes out and didn't have a bag so she put them in the shopping cart lol Then we had to take another GoGo Van to get back to Sham Shui Po because shopping carts aren't allowed on the trains haha! Those 2 hours were quite an adventure but it was worth it because Agnes has a lot of interest in the gospel and wants to learn more :)

Last week was crazy so I am excited to see what this week brings! The Lord just wants to keep things interesting for me these next couple weeks haha! I hope all of you have a great week! I love and miss you all!

Scripture of the Week: Matthew 7:7 Ask in faith and ye shall receive

Quote of the Week: The best technology cannot replace revelation from God (Henry B. Eyring)

Sister Maggie Shiffert
施姊妹