So, this week has been amazing. Overwhelmingly so. First of all, I ought to let you know that this transfer ends next week, and I will be moving, to where I know not. You see, my companion just found out two days ago that she will be training! She will be an excellent trainer, I'll have you know. Anyway, she'll be staying in this area to train, and I shall move on to the next place, the next group of people. This move has been a blissful blur, thanks to my wonderful and understanding (and entertaining) companion, Sister Yiu, and to the fact that we have been constantly busy since the minute she set foot here. I knew that this move's theme would be Hard Work. And it has been. Ooo, how I love it.
It's kinda strange, I admit, to be leaving, though. I think that I am feeling, on a minor scale, the feeling that will come at the end of my mission - that feeling that I absolutely do not want to leave these people in this area. I just love them too much. I feel like my time with them has been so short, and I hope that it has been helpful. I've gotten to see some miracles with these people, and I just am going to care about them forever, is all. You will understand my feelings when I tell you that in our last lesson with Vina, when I told her I would be leaving, she started tearing up and had to try not to cry. Whelp, that is a surefire way to make me cry too. But the exciting thing is that there are people that I need to meet and serve wherever I am going! Hooray! Yup, life is good and exciting, and change will always come.
But, I really want to tell you about some of this week's miracles. Truly, there has been one a day, pretty much. So, on Sunday, Ng Jimuih came to church! Just like she said she would. How I love that lady. She has strangely become very attached to me, which is really very endearing, considering the fact that I can't communicate very clearly with her (you know, Cantonese).
THEN, we had Vina's baptism! It was amazing. That girl is inspiring. She bore her testimony afterwards, and she is just so excited to be starting this journey. And she's so outgoing and proactive. She's already friends with all of the YW in the ward and the YW leaders. It is so reassuring to see this - that she's going to have support and friendship from them. And Vina already wants to serve a mission. Bless her heart. I love that girl.
But, anyway, as soon as the baptismal service ended (as in, that very moment), some members came rushing to us missionaries saying that there were some people in the chapel who wanted to investigate the church. For reals. There was this woman and her husband who had walked themselves right into the church and asked if they could learn. Or, to be more accurate, the man had brought his wife to learn. He was not so interested. Sister Yiu and I joked that we'd just drained the font from the last basptism...but really, it felt like someone got Brazil and Hong Kong confused or something. Tee hee. Anyway, this woman, A-Hong, is incredible. Very prepared to hear this message. We had a lesson right there with just her (her husband just dropped her off), in which she said such things as "this feels like coming home," "I just want to find out truth." "I feel like there is truth to be found out." And after the lesson, when we asked her what she was planning to do with the rest of the day, she said "I want to go read this book (the Book of Mormon we had just given her). Yup.
She's a miracle. We gave her a baptismal date in that first lesson with her for April 29th. And we've met with her again since, and she's really looking forward to it. A-Hong's past is pretty interesting. She's from Mainland China originally (I've been teaching a lot of people lately who are also like this. Very little Christian background.). She married her husband and they come to Hong Kong and she's been working as a manicurist. But her husband's been really controlling and not very nice, and A-Hong just recently got over a bad illness resulting from overworking, probably. Anyway, this made her husband feel kinda bad, and so he let her go do some things she's been wanted to do...and the first thing she wanted to do was go to church. Wow, huh? Yeah. Anyway, she's divorcing him now, and she definitely needs some support and love, and it is just perfectly perfect that she has found the gospel. I am happy that Sister Yiu and her new companion will get to teach this noble and great person.
Another miracle from this week: We went to do some finding in Tsuen Wan on a fairly normal day. We haven't had much success in Tsuen Wan, and we spent the two hours we were there not really finding anyone. And then...we were walking, saying hello and trying to talk to people and we said hello to this girl passing by who just kinda glared back at us. So we moved on. Then we had to turn back to start heading back to the church for a lesson. We passed by this girl again. And she glared again. So we kept walking. But then, she turned back around and came after us and asked us "what's the name of your church?" We started talking and telling her about who we were, and then she started crying. Apparently she had just been trying to hold in tears earlier. She had just broken up with her boyfriend and went out walking aimlessly, hoping to be happier. And ran into us. Three times :) She ended up sitting down with us and having a lesson. We saw her again yesterday, and she is so excited about the things we are teaching. She obviously has been prompted by the Spirit to learn this gospel. I'm pretty hopeful she will keep learning. her name is Sammy.
Anyway, that's the main news from this week. I'm excited for General Conference coming up, and I hope you are too. And for Easter. What a miraculous season. I am so grateful to be spending this time here serving the Lord. I know this work is important and the things we are teaching are true. Just seeing these people feeling it too has strengthened my testimony so much.
Lastly, thank you so much, parents for being so wonderful. Some missionaries who are dying soon, when talking about things they learned said that they have learned better how to honor their parents. So true. I am learning more and more how much you have done for me in teaching me the gospel and in being such dedicated people. I owe you so much. Thank you.
Well, gotta go. I love you all!
Love,
Sister Nielsen
P.S. So, the first picture is from Vina's baptism. In the picture are her mom and her good friend Veronica (we are teaching her too, thanks to Vina bringing her to church :) ). Then the other pictures are from a multi-zone sports activity we did today for kicks. (Since Hong Kong is so small, we can get together for mission activities really easily and quickly. It's great). It was truly fun. We all bought jerseys for super cheap and got our names printed on them. You cannot see my name because I am too short. The last picture is not particularly good, but it summarizes Sister Yiu and me. We had a lovely move together.
Oh, by 'dying' missionaries, I mean, ending their missions. Whoops. Some mission lingo coming out.
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