Week 17: 5 Cheng outs, Crazy Jazz, and the return of a long lost Friend!

Lieh hou Ngohge Pahngyauh!!!

Hope you are all doing well and are looking into all the 25 days to light the world project from the Church. I can testify that it will change your lives when you truly have a desire to do it!

So there was also a lot of some crazy stuff that happened here this whole week! SO here are just a couple of weird things that happened and we saw!

1. On our way to church for stake conference, there was a huge marathon going on that went on for miles. I thought China had a lot of people but this was absolutely nuts!!! We literally had to play Chinese Frogger to get across the road hahaha! The highlight was there was a dude in a shark costume booking it down the street full speed and his costume was the funniest thing ever!
2. So we have a member in our ward who is 16 and he has some mental disabilities and whenever we are at the church, he comes in always and uses the phone to call random people and harass them. Wohng Jyugaau(Bishop Wong) has gotten a lot of complaints and has told us to kick him out nicely so we don't have any issues. We were teaching a kids english class and we heard the phone in the church lobby going off and we heard his flip-flops so we knew was doing it again. So we left our class for a sec and told him he couldn't do that anymore. He asked why not and he wouldn't leave. So we called bishop and bishop talked to the boy. We got the phone back and bishop said in a Joking manner that he might call the Cops to get him off the property, but not send him to court. He hung up and we were wondering what to do and Bishop called us again and said the Police where on the way......WHAT!!! We can't believe he called the cops. So we waited and they showed up in a police Van and with some Riot Shields. Its was so weird and I was even a bit worried. It didn't help that the Stake Presidency for all the wards were there as well and were courthouse what was going on. Also the Asia area Presidency was there as well and everything was kinda Nutz!!! But we think we got things solved.

That was just a couple of things that happened to me this week and there is so much more that I will write more next week cause a missionary is always busy and I don't gots much time. Any way I did read through Joseph Smiths testimony this week and am currently going through JS history in the Bom. I would recommend you all to do that and gain an even greater testimony of our Prophet and the story of the restored Gospel! I know that Joseph Smith as a prophet of god and because he is I know that the church is true and the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I love my mission and I am getting stronger and stronger every day with my studies and am coming closer to my savior and am unraveling the mysteries of the Book of Mormon.

One thing I also learned is that when we truly read and study with prayer, we will get our questions we didn't even know we had answered.

Stay Safe and Weird and Be yourself for that is the best person you can become!

Also Robin Williams has returned to us!!!!!!! I love my new glasses hahaha!

Yours in Fellowship and Love,󾓭🐲🐼✌🍜

鄧 長 老

Elder Duersch

Dahng Jeunglouh

Stan Theman

Week 16: Stake Activity and Paak Muhning

Lieh Hou Ngohge Pahng yauh!!!

Hope You all are doing well and have seen the new Light the world Videos this month. Tiz the Season to Remember Christ and all the things he has given us!

Alrigth lets get on to this weeks episode of Stan Theman Hong Kong Adventures!

So we had a stake activity this Saturday and there was so many people there! The activity was for a family history party and it was open to the public and there was so many people. I took pictures and will send them! There was canopies of little booths of families and pedigree charts of family trees! Connor And Derek CAME!!! They had fun with the games they had there. You had a blank family tree card and you played games to get stamps to fill in the tree. There was an archery tournament with a nerf bow and Guess who did pretty well hahahahaha. They took my picture in front of the targets ha! Every time you got a stamp you could go and get some food from the food tent thing. They had fish balls and Seumi which is more fish stuff, Pop-Corn which was so good to eat again, a chocolate fountain with marshmallows, and malt Syrup inside crackers on a stick. That was a treat that all Hong Kong parents would give there kids and they would eat so much of it. The upstairs of our church which is the gym and chapel was turned into a family history computer room with ward members helping people out to learn about there family. There was also a balloon pen that me and Elder Beeson took some balloons and sucked the helium out of them. Everyone loved us doing that and being goofy. I scared Hoh Hingdaih from behind him with my helium voice and he literally almost had a hear attack! he is my Ward mission leader by the way. We stayed after all the festivities and cleaned up a lot of stuff. All in all it was a really good time and we are hoping to get Connor and Derek back to church to teach them even more lessons and share with them the gospel. 

Alright here is the coolest thing that has happened to me yet on my mission so buckle up and grab some snacks! I went on Exchanges again this week with Elder Egens companion Elder Paulsin. I wasn't to thrilled about another exchange but I would see what could happen. We decided to do Diablo Finding! Some of you know what a Diablo is but I will quickly explain. It is a massive yo-yo you spin on 2 sticks and a string and launch it in the air. We took it to the Tai Po Market and Elder Paulsin did some awesome tricks and it got a lot of peoples attention! There were 2 ladies who were watching and laughing at him so I had to kick my self and go and talk to them in my broken Cantonese. They were so nice and we talked for 45 minuets about what we do as missionaries and why we are here. There names were Apple and Faanny. We gave them 2 pamphlets and light the world Flyers and Jesus Christ Flyers. They were willing to listen and to talk. We had to go early cause I had a language pass of. It was super cool to talk to them. Later we did it again in a park full of little kids. They all were so fascinated by it and there moms came over and we started talking to them. We gave them flyers and English class flyers as well and they all were really excited about Free English class. After that we had a lesson with Tim. For those of you who don'r remember Tim was a potential investigator that Elder Beeson found and we had to give him over to the Tai Po Elders. Tim is doing so well and has a baptismal date for the end of December WOW! After the lesson Elder Paulsin told me we were going to go Paak Muhning. So I will tell you what that is and it is the one thing I feared the most coming out here on my mission and that is.........DOOR KNOCKING!!!! We went to a little village that we could legally do it in and I had the first door. I was so scared and a mom opened the door and we told her we were missionaries and she wasn't interested at all but she wanted a free English class flyer. We tried countless other doors and I had my first Door Slam which wasn't to bad. We saw a pitch black alley way and we said Hey lets go check it out. So we went down the alley way and there was a door wide open. We knocked on the metal gate and there was a lady cleaning her floor. We said we were missionaries a couple of times and she couldn't hear us because of the water. So we just Screamed MISSIONARIES!!! She got a smile on her face and came to the gate and opens it up! We introduced ourselves and she called her husband over and I was so afraid that he would kick us right out. He was happy to see us and he had to go take care of there little boy and girl so he went into the other room and was quite. The Lady on the other hand INVITED US IN!!!!!! I was absolutely speechless at this point. Me in the middle of Hong Kong getting no where finding on the streets and my first time knocking we were accepted in. We sat down on her couch and we talked for a bit and asked if we could share a quick message about the Restoration of the Gospel. She said YES!!!! I have never felt more confident in my language in my life when we told her about the restoration and the lesson when so fluid I was speechless. Elder Paulsin told the First vision and my legs and body went numb from how strong it was. We shared a little about the Book of Mormon and we gave her 2 copies and she was so excited to read them that she was going to give one to her neighbor up stairs. We bore powerful testimonies and asked if she could say a prayer before we left. We taught how to say it and she did it in an interesting way but it was the sweetest prayer ever! She asked when we had church and Elder Paulsin told her our time. We left and we both couldn't believe that that just happened! I cant Believe that just happened! We found a little tunnel and said a quick prayer of thanks.

Fast forward to Sunday! SHE CAME WITH HER FAMILY AND HER FRIENDS FAMILY!!!! 9 PEOPLE AT CHURCH From one door knock! I still cant believe it.

If there is one thing I have learned from this, is that the lord has a plan that he knows what is going to happen and we need to have faith and do as he leads and the blessings will come. This will forever be a faith builder to my testimony and to my life from meeting Mrs. Wohng! 

There is the bomb shell of the week for you all. I cant tell you how happy I am to be out here doing the lords work! Thank you all again for your love and support and most importantly your prayers. I have recently been feeling the prayers of you all and it helps so much! 

Stay Strong, Weird, and yourselves!

Yours in Fellowship and Love,󾓭🐲🐼✌🍜

鄧 長 老

Elder Duersch

Dahng Jeunglouh

Stan Theman

Week 15: Thanksgiving, Exchanges, Dragoon Center, and Derek

Lieh Hou Ngohge Pahngyauh!!!

So here is what happened on this weeks episode of Stan Theman Mission Impossible Hong Kong!

Thanksgiving was so good here! I was so glad that we had it and had a grand time with the other missionaries in our zone. We played some games and shared some pictures from our families and friends. SO in a way you all where there having Thanksgiving with me! The Fire Chicken was so good and I got to snag the legs hahahaa. President and Sister Lam came and said I was very Wise on getting the legs. We talked and sang and had so much fun there. Cleaning was a nightmare and as you can guess, mashed potatoes are a true enemy to the world in a big pot! hahaha. I hope you all had a wonder full day of Thanks as well!!!

I went on Exchanges with Elder Egen this week on Wednsday. He is our district leader and he lives in my apartment so that was a bonus that I didn't have to bounce around for the exchange. We went to the other side of my area in Tai Po where it is actually really similar to Tai Wo. The people are the same and they are all super busy. I had to go and use the restroom while we were out and the bathroom I found literally was a Squatty Potty! I laughed so hard and They don't have toilet papers in the bathrooms! So that was an experience hahahaha, I got to know more about elder Egen and all he likes to do and such and such. I like going on exchanges to see what other people are like and there areas! 

So for P-Day this week we went to a place called the Dragon center! It was a super Giant mall here and there was so much Jazz inside it. It was 9 Stories tall and there were so many little stores that had some interesting things. Anime is every where here and games and such so I am more or less in Heaven!! There was also a really cool music store that had really cheap instruments! They had Chinese flutes for like 50 american dollars and the chinese Violin thingy that you hear all the time in like chinese movies for like 150! Things are a really cheap here when you think about the conversion rate of things in Hong Kong.

One night this week after we had gotten a little down on ourselves for not having a new investigator in a while we had some weekly planning and some jazz on how to find some new investigators. Right when we finished weekly planning we got a phone call from a former named Derek. Elder Beeson and his trainer found him a while ago and he had to drop the missionaries because he failed some school stuff and his mom wouldn't help him out with the cost. So he had to get a job and school at the same time. So he called us and we met him and he said that he has completely changed his schedule and that he has free time a lot and that he has nothing on Sundays! He loves video games and his favorite game is Battlefield 1 which is my favorite game! I know I was called here for a reason and that's because all the people here love the things I did at home!! We talked for an 1 1/2 hours and he wants to meet this Saturday! So lets hope that he will want to be taught again and that we can have a new investigator. 

That is just some of the things that happened this week. We also had ward conference where I had to share my testimony in third hour. I shared it on Joseph Smith and The gift of Tongues is so real! I cant even describe it! I just started to speak and everything just started to flow with ease! 

I finished the Book of Mormon and I have a new study plan I am trying out with it. There are countless things that you can do to help you learn from the Book of Mormon! You just have to pray about the new plan you want or make one and ask if it is right! You get so much more meaning and fun out of the Book of Mormon when you have a truly effective study plan!

I have an unshakable testimony of the Book of Mormon and I love to read it every day! I would encourage you all to read it every day and Disect it and Feast on it. Those were the words of our prophet today!

Well I gots to get back to saving Hong Kong hahahah.

LOVE YOU ALL STAY SAFE AND WEIRD!!!

Yours in Fellowship and Love,󾓭🐲🐼✌🍜

鄧 長 老

Elder Duersch

Dahng Jeunglouh

Stan Theman

Lieh Hou!!!!

Thanks Giving! We get to have it this Thursday at the Ma On Shan church. Each companionship has to bring food for the feast and we all get to eat a nice big Turkey. Fun fact, Turkey in Cantonese is Fei Gei I think.translated it means "Fire Chicken" hahahahaha!

Here is the top stories for Elder Stan Theman  - Hong Kong Survivalist

We had the opportunity this week to go and talk with a Less Active that Elder Beeson has been working with for quite some time. Elder Beeson has been in this area for almost a year now and his trainer was the same way. So that will probably be the case for me unless something happens. Anyway, he was baptized a while ago and he is 60 years old. He has a job as a taxi driver and that is where the problem comes into play. He doesn't work on Sundays but he works late hours so he gets home like at 4 in the morning and sleeps through church. There was a time he didn't have work on Saturday and he came to church willingly. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and how god wants us all to be happy and learn in this life. I bore my testimony on how families are key to our happiness and god wants us to be happy. I bought a 16 dollar sleeve book and put all my pictures you sent me in there. He loved seeing you guys (Family and Friends) and all the Chinese people here love seeing families. We have two ideas that could help him out with his situation. 

1. He either changes his work Schedule or quits his job. I that is the case we can share experiences from church members who quit there jobs and get better ones that pay more and make them more happy if they come to church and do what they are supposed to do.
2. There is a ward on Ma On Shan that has church at 2:00 that he could get some sleep and still go to which would be a better option if he is up for it.

We decided this week to also go to a new area that Elder Beeson (Yih Jeunglouh) has never gone to. We bought a map book of Hong Kong and found our area. There was a big spot past water front park that he had never checked out before. So we waddled on over there and this place was so sketchy man! It would easily fit the qualifications for a zombie apocalypse movie! There were factories everywhere and buildings that looked like they had been bombed or something. There was no one there either! It was just like the factories ran themselves and just cars everywhere. We later went up north of that area a bit and there in the middle of this jungle was this 5 star hotel. Literally in the Middle of nowhere. That is kinda how Hong Kong is: there was once upon a time a huge jungle and forest and then WHAMMOO they threw a City in the middle of it all! We took a bus back near our home and went to another area called "Wonder Land". Well it wasn't that wonderful hahahaha. It was just apartments and a train.

Some time this week we went to the area with the Tai Wo Hostpital is. There was not a lot of people there wanting to talk to us so we made our way back home. We went through this huge tunnel for bikes and walking and there was this old man sitting in a rocking chair playing some guitar. Elder Besson asked if he could play some songs for him. The old man said yes and Elder Beeson just went on for like 30 minuets and this old man was so happy to hear the music he was playing. He asked us some questions and we talked with him for a long while. He wasn't that interested in religion stuff but told us his wife and kids were religious but that was the extent of that adventure.

We had the opportunity of taking the sacrament to the Ng Gatihng! They are the Sweetest people ever! She is like in her 80 or 90's and her husband had a stroke years ago and is permanently in his bed and cant talk. But he can still eat and understand what people say to him.

She talked to us for a while and talked about her family. Trying to understand the older generation in Hong Kong is pretty tricky since everyone talks a little different. She was so grateful and gave us some Chocolate filled bread! The bread here is by far one of my favorite things to eat. It is always fresh and is so tasty and  so many varieties of it as well!

Connor our investigator is doing well as far as we know. He is just 16 and wants to be baptized but his family is not wanting any of that at all. We are going to try and have Bishop Wohng Help us out with our next lesson and see if we can help his family. If not he is just gonna get baptized when he is 18 so it is great he still wants to receive baptism. 

Trying to find new investigators is pretty challenging here in Hong Kong. No one wants to give you the time of day and they all don't think they need a religion in there lives. Their schools here teach some religions and they have days where they do seminars about why other religions are bad and not true and Mormons is on there number one list dang it! Oh well, we will keep trying and praying we will get a new investigator soon.

Well that is all the highlights from this week. I have the feeling that you all need to read Ether Chapter 12 and really dissect what is in that chapter. It is probably my new favorite chapter in all of the Book of Mormon. READ IT IT IS SO GOOD!!!

Love you all and I pray for you all every day! 

Stay Weird and Awesome!!!

Yours in Fellowship and Love,🍜✌🐼🐲󾓭 

Dahng Jeunglouh

Elder Duersch

Stan Theman

Week 13: BBQ, Dinner with Roy, and Connor

Lieh Hou Ngohge Pahng Yauh!!!!!!

Hope things are going super well for you all! I have had some pretty interesting things happen to me this week so here is what went down and some Highlights.

We had a really cool activity with the Elders Quorum in our ward. They took us to a BBQ place. But it isn't like the BBQ place you are thinking of. They literally bring a TON of meat that you just throw on a fire and grill or Char in my case. We tried so many different meats there and they tasted so good! Bishop Wohng brought some interesting looking stuff and I asked him what it was. It was the Skin from Squid. So we threw that on the fire and it was like eating a balloon that you chucked in the fire with some sweet and sour honey syrup sauce on it. Not bad actually.

Later in the week we had dinner at a place called 101 with a man named Roy. He worked in the Navy in the US for a while and got married and is living in Hong Kong. He has lived here for the past 10 years so he knows his way around. We found him when we were passing out English class pamphlets to some people on a bridge. He stopped and started talking to Elder Beeson for like 10 min. So I waddled over and we talked for like 40 min. He wanted to talk with us again and so we went to dinner the next week. The restaurant was so GOOOD!! 68 HK dollars for a big meal, fried chicken, and a huge strawberry shake Mug. We got to know him more and he really wants to talk with us more. So we will see what will happen with him.

Finally, I got to meet Connor!!!! He literally looks like an Chinese Harry Potter and is the coolest guy ever! We asked him how things have been going with his family. For those of you who forgot, Connors family was against him being baptized and eventually Elder Beeson and his old companion softened them up and right when he was about to be baptized, his older brother was against it and changed his parents minds. So they wont let him read the Book of Mormon at home or go to Church. But he can come to ward activities. We got to know him a bit more and then shared the story in Mosiah 24 about how the prisoners would be killed if they were caught praying. We compared it to his family situation and told him if he read and prayed every day with a sincere heart his family would let him get baptized! So he found an app on his phone of the Book of Mormon and we followed up yesterday and he said we was reading and praying every day. I was so glad to hear that from him. We just need to keep being his friend and supporting him in all he does. He wants to be baptized and we are planning on having the bishop come with us to our next lesson this Tuesday hopefully if he cant come we will just teach about Fasting and the blessings from that.

So that was just some of my weekly WOWS and I will for sure have more here as time goes on.

I was reading in 3 Nehpi with the Chapters of Christ and I would encourage you all to read them and not just read, but GORGE your self's and feast one every little word and dissect each chapter, verse, and sentence! Hold fast to what you know is true and read and Pray every day. It will bless you and I can promise you that for I have seen it bless me out here!

LOVE YOU ALL!!!! Stay safe and Weird!

Yours in Fellowship and Love,󾓭🐲🐼✌🍜

Dahng Jeunglouh 登 長老 (Our Computers have character drawing pads hahaha) the first character is Duersch Dahng.

Elder Duersch 

Stan Theman

Week 11: 10,000 Buddha's, The Legend Tyler, and The stalker on the Bridge - Curtis

Lieh Hou Ngohge Pahngyauh (Friends)

So glad to hear from you and to hear how you all have been!

Let's talk about some cool stuff this week. We had the opportunity to meet with Tyler!! The same guy we taught at the MTC. He was so fun to talk to and to hear his story and all the things that have been going on in his life. Really cool to talk to him. He is struggling with his testimony right now and just wants some new friends. I AM ON IT!!! He is really cool

We had probably the best street contact ever this week!! We had just gone on our normal route in Tai Po and we went to the industrial area where there isn't a lot of people. We lapped around it a couple of times and we headed back to our apartment. 

We noticed a guy was following us for a while and would some times come close to us to hear me babbling on about True Grit. I was telling Elder Beeson about it since he had never seen it before. We were one step from our border line and a voice came from behind us saying "Are you guys from America?" We turned around and found a native who could speak fluent English!

He said he had been following us for a while and was wondering who we are and what we are doing here in Hong Kong. After explaining who we are and why we are here, he began to explain how awesome we are and how cool we are for sacrificing 2 years to come to Hong Kong. He said the people here are so busy and so mean that no one wants to smile or talk. And sadly, it's true! He asked if we could answer some of his questions he was having about his life. 

We found out that he was getting married in June and was thinking a lot about that. He asked us about Caffe and our church meetings. He asked where our church was and said he would like to come. HE INVITED HIMSELF TO CHURCH!! WHAAAAAT?! He is leaving this Friday to go to American to see his family and his fiancé. He won't be back till December 15......BOOOOO! Lets hope he remembers us and Elder Beeson will still be my companion until then so he can finally teach some one. I have an Audio recording of the event with more detail so I will send that with some pics. He was so cool to talk to and had some really good questions. Our prayers were answered to have someone to talk to and it was literally the last part of the night. Prayers are answered here and it is so cool. It is hard here to find new people, but I will just keep smiling and trekking along.

Today we went to the mountain of the 10,000 Buddah's! I have never laughed so hard in my life at some of these statues and how they looked!!! I took some really good pics and some monkeys showed up! I hate monkeys they are so weird! Plus there is a place called Monkey Mt where they will come and steal your wallets......Little thieves! 

Again I am so grateful for all of your love and support you have given me while I have been away and the love you have been sharing with my family while I am out here in the field serving the lord! Remember he is there to catch us when we fall and to help us when we need help to most.

I love my savior and am getting stronger every day reading and praying. I would encourage you all to feast on the words of Christ and to get to know him personally like I have!

I LOVE IT HERE!!!!!

Yours In Fellowship and love,🍜✌🐼🐲󾓭

Dahng Jeunglouh

Edler Duersch

Stan Theman