We moved apartments!

Hello Family Dearest Family Mine!

I love you all! So much! Like, it is truly inexpressible how much I love you. I hope you're all doing well, as your emails and notes would suggest.

As for me, life is exciting and actually very wonderful. I just am as happy as can be to be on a mission, here. Sometimes I just wake up and am inexplicably happy and joyous. I think it's because I get to do the best thing ever, which is share the gospel  with others. You should all try it sometime. It's really wonderful.

Anyway, so the news of the week: We moved apartments. The old one was really expensive, and then they raised rent. We knew that pretty soon here we'd have to move, and then we got a call from the office elders telling us that we'd be moving in two days. Just like that. Missions are efficient things, wot. So we packed up our bags and all of the entire apartment, including the furniture, and with the help of 6 elders, moved it all! We are now living in a cozy little apartment in Hung Seui Kiuh, which is way more convenient for us. We used to have to travel for an hour to get to the Yuen Long church, but now it is a quick 20 minutes or so. Yay! Also, we have tons of members and some investigators in this area. It's lovely, truly. PLUS, they are building this big new chapel not 5 minutes away from our house, which means that in August or so, we will be able to go there. So life is good.
I am sending two pictures looking out the window from the new place. Just so you know, Hung Seui Kiuh is in the middle of nowhere. Yup. That is a garden outside our building.

So, what made this entire process even more exciting was that poor Sister Cook came down with some nasty food poisoning the night before we started moving homes. So she was out of commission for the whole thing (poor girl!). We've been taking good care of her and she's getting better. You see, the evening before we moved, we were invited to dinner at the home of Stella, one of our investigators. Her background is so unique - she basically lives in very humble circumstances, with lots of brothers and sisters. But education is really big in their family, and they're very generous people. Their mother really invests in their education because she knows it's important. Stella, who is 15, spends most of her time studying. The gospel has really helped her have a fuller life in many ways. We are slowly getting to be better friends with her mother so that he mother will let her be baptized. Her mother is from Mainland and very very very baai sahn. Anyway, they are an incredible family, and the Yuen Long wards have really been looking out for them. We just know now not to eat at their house...

But, the week's excitement does not end there! We had mission-wide Sister 24-exchanges wherein we switch companions for 24 hours. Since our mission is so small and there are only 26 of us sisters, for goodness sake, we can do this every 6 months or so. So, I got to go to Tolo Harbour (Ma On Saan, Shatin, Tai Wai) with Sister Hintze (who is also in Sister Cook's MTC group - being step-trained by Sister Nelson in my group. Cool huh?). It was glorious. We really just had a short time to work together, but Tolo Harbour is also a very beautiful and relaxing place (not as rural as Yuen Long but definitely not so crowded as most of Hong Kong), and Sister Hintze was wonderful. I learned a lot from her, and we got to participate in some cool miracles. We only got to go finding for about an hour or so, but we got to stop and talk with lots of people, and it's always so thrilling to see that there are really people who are willing and ready to listen.

Speaking of that, we just met with a woman yesterday in Yuen Long, named Marine (seriously, English names of Chinese people are the best. They often just pick one from the dictionary. For example, a 14-year-old boy named Sparkle. Yup. His mom chose that one). It was our first time meeting with Marine after having contacted her on the MTR (subway), and she was so nice and so ready to hear this message, even if she doesn't know it yet. She told us that normally she wouldn't talk with the missionaries, but that Sister Cook seemed so nice and so cute, she just couldn't resist. And that her husband even didn't mind her meeting with us when he heard Sister Cook's voice on the phone because it sounded so honest and trustworthy. Way to go companion! Seriously, Heavenly Father helps us out so much. We are looking forward to working with Marine.

And the work goes forward! Jennifer gets baptized on Sunday, which is so exciting. It's a big day, because the meeting at church is about missionary work, so I have to give a 10 min talk, and then sing with Sister Cook, and then sing at Jennifer's baptism...Woohoo! It's going to be an exciting day. Truly.

Lastly, I would like to share a miracle story. One of many. There's seriously one every other moment. It's because Heavenly Father knows we need the help. So, this Saturday, after a lesson with Jennifer, we were walking to the MTR, when we realized we couldn't find our keys. Aiya! So, Jennifer suggested that we pray (amazing girl). So we did. We looked in our bags, three times each, then looked in each others' bags...but still couldn't find the keys. So we decided to go back to the church, and tell Jennifer to go on home but keep praying. So we went back and looked at the church, but still couldn't find the keys. So, Sister Cook looked at me and said, "Sister Nielsen, we need to pray right now." And I said, "What do you think I've just been doing?" And then Sister Cook wisely said, "no, we need to pray together" So we did. In the prayer, Sister Cook prayed that we'd find the keys and that Jennifer's testimony would be strengthened. Right after we prayed, I kid you not, I reached right into my bag and pulled out the keys. And then Jennifer called us immediately. Wow. Amazing. Jennifer even shared this story on Sunday at church. Heavenly Father definitely wanted to teach us all something.

Well, I have to go. But I love you all. I know this work is true and important!

I pray for you all daily. I love you!

Love,
Sister Nielsen