January 28, 2013

Yeah so Felix's parents don't know he is baptized and he said he will probably tell them in a year... haha. He told me he wants to be a summer missionary! In Hong Kong locals can serve with missionaries for 2 weeks in the summer as a full time missionary! I don't think they have that in America but its pretty popular! He wants to try it to see if he really can serve a full 2 year mission I am super stoked! Oh by the way Melody's friend Kiko is SUPER AWESOME! She has already came to church twice and Melody is the greatest fellow shipper EVER! This is why I am soooo proud of them! I think she could be baptized in March no problem! Its really awesome to see how much good can come from just one baptism!

  

So last Wednesday me and E. Kraincock were going to get some noodles from a place called Tam Jai for lunch but it was WAY to packed so we said forget it. So we went for diner the next door; me, E. Krainock and Felix. We then walked back to our chapel to eat but when I sat down I had a sick feeling like something is missing. I looked up at E. Krainock and he said, "We have to go I saw someone we need to talk too" And I knew that was why I got that sick feeling so we briskly walked back near Tam Jai to this lady sitting on a bench. We talked to her for a bit and convinced her to come to the church... It was weird how smooth it was going... It was actually going perfect and nothing goes perfect in this mission...ever. So we give her a tour and take her to the chapel (its around 8:00) and start teaching her the first lesson. How ever she said she was feeling tired and asked if she could rest in the hallway then come back... We were like okay? She then sleeps for an hour and half.... We told her we had to go and said thanks... We concluded we just brought a homeless lady to sleep at our church building... Not sure why God wanted us to do that but we did.

January 20, 2013

Felix is doing great. I was wrong he is actually getting the priesthood next week but its still pretty early so I think its awesome. Melody this weekend brought two friends to meet with us; no surprise I was teaching/tutoring English again. One of them was actually able to come to church Kiko! So our RC's are turning into little missionaries ;)! I love them so much haha. When you meet them you will understand why they are my pride and joy! There are a lot of people "converted" here and baptized but you have to understand how powerful these two are. Felix got baptized with no support from his parents and went around them because they were not going to change. Melody got her parents to sign her papers to get baptized with no support and her older sister trying to anti her the entire time... These two are true examples of converts. Honestly even if you are born into the church we need to have changes like they had and I don't think most kids do. (Until a mission, BYU, or some other experience . I have no fear of them ever leaving the church. We actually tease Felix that in 10 years (he will be 31) he will probably be a Bishop or something.

 

Today for pday we kind of climbed a mountain... Me, E. Krainock, the Mandarin missionaries (Woods and Bradley) and their two friends (Becky and Kloe <- investigator)  went to go hike this mountain but like 1/8th of the way through the hike Kloe got sick so we turned around... but I got some epic pictures haha!

Me, Johnny, Joyce and Sister Wong at the ice skating rink

E. Ward really likes scarfs? (Stole it from someone haha -- gave it back of course)

Last Pday to celebrate Felix's baptism we went ice skating! Everyone was there including Elder Ward 

Sis Jamison, Melody, Felix -- Melody has never been ice skating before... it was pretty funny haha

This is the CUTEST little family ever! The little girls got baptized on the first week I was in Hong Kong. We visit them a lot. There is Scarlett, Sara and their Mum (Hung jimuih) 

We celebrated Johnny's birthday last week - he is awesome (member)

                                                   Elder Siebach and me trying to be handsome with scarfs

So we went to this area called Tung Chung were there are some epic mountains to go hiking! This is Hong Kong... Not all of it is a city like you may think! This is only 30minutes away by MTR (subway)

Me and Elder Bradly "hiking

 so funny story... we wanted to hike to the peak but the girl in this photo (Elder Woods' investigator) Kloe got sick so we got like 1/8th way and turned around haha... We took a ton of funny pictures to make up for it!

Our group!  me, E. Krainock, E. Woods, E. Bradley, Kloe and Becky!

Elder Bradley and Woods (woods in the red) I live with these guys haha.

 E. Bradley and I just chillen in front of a mountain

 E. Bradley, Becky, Kloe, and E. Woods just walking... (I took a lot of pictures...)

Group picture after our little hike haha

Since we ended our hike early we decided to take a bunch of funny pictures -- our chinese friends thought we were super creative for doing this! It was really funny haha

E. Krainock is little and Woods is big

Elder Bradley is big and Woods is little haha

Our studly mountain side pictures... we look awesome.

Elder Woods is big and Krainock and Bradley are small!

So our Chinese friends kept telling me and Elder Woods we look like apples because of our shirts... so we hung from trees like apples...

 So me and Elder Woods had to get down this little moutain side... so we slide/ran down it? haha

Everyone gets a Chinese name!

Family Chinese Name

Samuel Todd

艾兆倫

Ngaaìh siuh leùhn

Surname billion/trillion relationships

Zachary Scott

艾碩朗

Ngaaìh sehk long 

Surname strong optimistic 

Matthew Elwin 

艾宏峰

Ngaaìh wàhn fōng

Surname great/mighty peak/mountain 

Mikayla Marie 

艾晞雯

Ngaaìh heī mùhn

Surname hope elegant/kind/gentle 

Isabelle Florence 

艾絲婷

Ngaaìh sī tìhng

Surname ribbon graceful 

            The people in this picture are the ones who named ya'll: Johnny, Joyce, Melody, Sister Wong, Enoch Shek, and Felix

January 13, 2013

Baptizing Felix the best thing so far on my mission experience. Seriously after preforming it I had a feeling of happiness I've never had; I don't know... an eternal one? I would imagine it like having a kid haha. Felix and Melody are like my pride and joy of my mission! They are the best fellow shippers ever and they love everyone its amazing! They are great!
 

That girl I met in the Victoria Park is doing great but we don't teach her she isn't in our area. The sister missionaries we work with (Wong and Jamison) are teaching her and they said everything is going well.

Here are some pictures he sent:

                                      Last Pday we went to a huge shopping thingy and it was packed...

 this is my favorite food Cha Seui Fan. Sweet fried pork with rice, geung (I totally just forgot the English word) and lettuce stuff

                                                        here is one of many epic apartments

                                                          Me and Felix wearing white haha! :)

                                                           Elder/Sister Chan, Felix, Me :D

                              Elder Wong got a picture of Felix hugging someone and me making a stupid face...

                                                                    E. Krainock, Felix and Me

 This is our little Causeway bay gang: Johnny, Joyce, Krainock, Felix, Me, Sis Wong, Sis Jamison and Melody

  This is a lot of people from our ward the thumbnail is to small for me to name everyone :D

  Haha this one is kind of a inside joke... Elder Ward use to always make this face (on accident?) in A LOT of our pictures sooo we took this for him ha :)

January 6, 2013 - His 1st birthday in Hong Kong!

Felix went into his baptismal interview yesterday and passed (of course) and asked me to be the one to baptize him. This really brought some hope and faith back and it'll make my mission worth it. I will have to do it in Chinese so this should interesting but he is getting baptized Jan 13 2013.

                                                       This is my big pizza from my party.

                                                            This pizza was awesome!

 The surprise party cake Sister Wong got me. That character is my name Ai and the BB is because she still calls me a baby... lol

                                                            Yayyyy my b-day cake ;D

                                                     Everyone looking in the wrong direction.

                                                   Everyone looking in the right direction. haha

 These are the missionaries I'm serving with. (The Chinese girl is Sister Wong, The red head is Sister Jamison and then there is me and Krainock)

                                                                                Happy Birthday to Me ;D

December 25, 2012

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

So today is Christmas and that means we will do MISSIONARY WORK!!! WHAT WHAT! No seriously haha. Yesterday we had a big mission wide activity and all the missionaries are there soooo I got some sick pictures I will upload in a bit. However today for Christmas we get a half PDAY and regular mission work so nothing special.

                                                       Some breakfast in HK! Crystal dumpling

                         Same breakfast! That's Sister Wong one of the Sisters I serve with in Causeway Bay Ward

                                             Same breakfast! Not sure what this is but I didn't like it 

                                                         Same breakfast! Some steam pots!

                                                                          Dessert!!!!

                              Here is my steak... Its good but not Texas good. I could show them a thing or a two

 This is who we got breakfast with! 

                                     Christmas Mission Activity pics! Here is my old district from the MTC

                                   Me and Elder Wong (this is his last move he just got released form AP)

 Me, Neild, Cuaves some fly friends I have made. I played soccer with Cauves. Neild and I have been come recent buddies in the last couple of weeks because I helped him prepare to mission choir for their performance by judging them.... 

 ME and Elder Wright!!!!!!!!! Yay I shared apartments with him in my first move I miss him:( and he gave me that tie I'm wearing! FRESH :D

   Me and Elder Wu. This guys is from New Zealand and we have become pretty close since I have come to Hong Kong

  Me and Elder Brodrick. He is super AWESOME! He knows more than 3000 characters... He is wise... haha I love this guy

    Me and Elder Au he is a native. He serves in my Zone; he is a baby right now and he is a super awesome missionary!

                                             YAYYY TEXAS MISSIONARIES WOOOOOOOOOO >:O

                                               Sis Larson Me and Siebach. We are all from Texas :)

 This is the group I was born with in Causeway Bay. Wong Wong Ward (aka Elder wong in chinese) and me (Elder Ai) haha we are awesome 

                                                             Here is another picture of us

                    Not sure if I have ever sent a picture of Felix but this is Felix our investigator... I caught him off guard

               So today E. Krainock bumped into a member from a Philippine ward he served in and they made us these                            NACHOS FOR CHRISTMAS!!!! :D

                  s my name tag (sorry I took it with a fisheye lens affect) but ya... My tag is cooler than everyone else's

                                             Merry Christmas in Chinese (really awkward picture haha)

SO I see the NICEST cars ever in my area and I mean THE NICEST. This a mcclary (I cant spell...) it runs a V10 turbo charged.... I see at least 50+ Porches a day and at least 1 or 2 Ferrari's or Lamborghini a day too

Last Saturday we had a big Christmas Party planned with singing and other fun stuff and of course food! We had 2.5 hours before it started and nothing planned so E. Krainock was like lets go finding to fill time and we started to walk towards the MTR (subway) and I said nah lets go back and make phone calls for LA's and Formers to come to the party. He said okay and I wasn't really sure why I wanted to do that because I HATE PHONE CALLS. So we go back and I start going through our LA book and no one answers and then I go through formers and no one answers. Then I remember an investigator I met once with E. Ward named Roddy. So I thought I would give him a call; I hadn't seen him since the Mid-Autumn Festival. So I invited him to come and while E. Krainock and I were teaching Felix before the party Roddy happen to walk past our door (a little early for the party). I left the lesson to go talk to him and asked how he was doing and he said good but I could tell on his face he was lying and was really upset by something. So I asked whats wrong and he kind of tried to brush it off but after about 2 minutes he broke down and told me his sister just died a couple days ago. He broke down and it was really heart breaking to see his pain. I gave him a hug and told him it would be okay and I shared my testimony and little about Dad and his father (kind of saying I cant relate but I know many people get hurt by this). I prayed with him for comfort and bore my testimony with all my soul on the Plan of Salvation and families. He seemed happier after we talked and I shared my testimony but I know he still is suffering. I really wish I could do more.

The only other to happen this week is Felix decided he is really going to get baptized. He said he wanted to but had the problem of his parents saying no to him but we recently talked to him and told him to pick a date and he chose Jan 13, 2013. We really think he is getting baptized and the best part is he told E. Ward before he left that he wanted to serve a mission! If he goes on a mission I could just end my mission right now and be happy. Its crazy that stuff like this is happening all around me!