Chapter 75: Ants!!!!, Amazing ward!, Where do we go?

Elder Connor R. Duersch(Stan Theman鄧長老) Ministering to Hong Kong 1 by 1! Chapter 75 
你好!!!    

I would like to first and for most say congratulations to my Sister Erin and Troy for there new baby!!! I forgot to talk about it in last weeks email and i am a derp so kinda forgot hahaha. That also means that I am now an uncle so Uncle Stan is a real thing now!!! SO COOL!!! Second I would also like to thank you all for the emails that you have sent me this week. They really have strengthened me and helped to realize my potential and who I am out here as a missionary. 

This weeks email will kind of be a little short one but we will see if my brain can fish out what happened.

The ants thing is kinda a funny story. We were at crossroads and the place where we laid carpet a while ago and we had to move a bunch of desks and shelves into that room. So we grabbed a desk and when we moved it the bottom popped out and it was an ants nest!!! SO we brought it in and then we realized, wait...there are ants everywhere now!!! SO we got a vacuum and just went to war on these things and it was super funny!!!

But the coolest thing this week was we had a person who we met on the street and he said he wouldn't mind to come and see our church. So Sunday comes along and we get a text saying that he is on his way. Super awesome right off the back! Then we got to tell the ward super fast and as soon as he came the whole ward just swarmed him and just made him feel so welcomed and he loved it and said he would love to come back again. We asked if he wanted to hear more about our message and he said that he would let us know this week when we call him. So just another miracle of the week and I have to give a shout out to our ward for how awesome they were! Keep Sam in your prayers! He is so awesome!

The last thing this week was Elder Robinson and I were out finding and we were out for a while and had no success. Then we decided to pray and ask the lord Where to go. Elder Robinson felt like we should to the fountains in the park. I felt like we should go to the pond. So we decided to go to the middle of the 2 spots  and then we found a man on a bench who knew us and then he had some questions about the after life and so we shared about the plan of salvation and he was happy to have a new view on things. He had no interest but it was fun to tlak to him and to clarify some things that we had about our church.

I learned a lot this week when we say that "we believe" to tell someone about our church. But we shouldn't say we believe, instead we could say "I know" for it is our testimony and we do know that these things are true. I have learned that out here when you don't want to offend someone and it is good to share your testimony to let them know what is true! I love you all so much and you are all great examples to me in my life! Again thanks for all your emails to me!

Yours in Fellowship and Love,󾓭🐲🐼✌🍜

鄧 長 老

Elder Connor R.Duersch

Dahng Jeunglouh

Stan Theman   

Chapter 74: Paul Bunion, Stephen, Transfers.

Elder Connor R. Duersch(Stan Theman鄧長老) Ministering to Hong Kong 1 by 1! Chapter 74

你好!!! 

The Computer I am using is strange so sorry for the weird font and format here folks.

Sorry for the late email today. We went with Elder Allen and Elder Newbold to go to Gyun Yam! A super awesome Monastery in Tai Wo!!! Yup so my baby area is still making me come back hahaha. No matter how hard I try to get away it seems that I still will be drawn back there. It is really one of my top 3 favorite P-Days to do in Hong Kong. You have to schedule it in a month in advance and Elder Adams and Newbold asked if we wanted to tag along so we did. It took a while to get there from where we live but it was super worth it!

This week was pretty cool with the things that happened.

We went to CrossRoads this week and we went to Maintenance. That means WOOD WORKING!!!! I was so excited. For those who don't know I absolutely love wood working!!! It is one of my favorite things to do. They asked if we spoke Chinese cause the man that works down there only speaks Chinese. So we went down to meet him and it turns out that we were gluing doors and such. But the smell of a wood shop was fantastic. His name was DTC(David the Carpenter) Turns out when people address him they call him that name and also when people come to talk to him they address him as Master. So the way you would say master in Cantonese is how you say Shifu's name in Kung Fu panda so that was super cool. I was so happy that day and we also heard some Enya music from Avatar and Gladiator playing in the background which I wasn't sure if it was ok to listen to since it was instrumental, but it made me super happy and at peace. We had a super good lunch with roast duck and some steamed egg plant. I have never eaten Egg plant before and I have eaten it a lot in Hong Kong and I love it!!!

Transfers:

So, the whole mission seems to have gotten a lot of change this transfer, except for our companionship. So, I am staying in TinShuiWai for another 6 weeks.

Stephen:

We were on our way to church this week and on the train, we saw Stephen walk in and he was doing his come follow me book on the train. It was super cool to see him doing this! He was also able to pass the sacrament this week as well and that was a true blessing to see. He is going to have an interview for his recommend this week and hopefully soon we can go to the temple.

Other things this week was some basketball with Stephen. A member family gave us some KFC to eat and it was super yummy! The Egg tarts are also good! Also, Sister Chan chenged us to some Yam Cha and it was super good that morning. The day before we had some Tai Curry and it destroyed us!!! So eating all the food the next morning was super hard and I kept having to run to the bathroom. She is an amazing ward member. After we ate we asked her to pray real quick on an area we should go. She prayed and we pulled out a map and she pointed us where to go. We then asked what message to share. and she said about Love. So we went off and we found 2 people with some interest and they were willing to give us there numbers. really fun idea to try with the members to have them get into the missionary spirit.

That pretty much is it for the week and Chinese New year is soon upon us coming up on the 5 of February so we will see how the work goes when that time comes around.

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Yours in Fellowship and Love,󾓭🐲🐼✌🍜

鄧 長 老

Elder Connor R.Duersch

Dahng Jeunglouh

Stan Theman  

Chapter 73: The Nunnery, I want to hang out with you, Stephen.

Elder Connor R. Duersch(Stan Theman鄧長老) Ministering to Hong Kong 1 by 1! Chapter 73
你好!!!  

So for starters we are working on how to do better with Data Privacy and how we can respect things more. I will apologize now for anything that could have been offensive and or wrong. Glad to know that we can do better at this and it is definitely something I will be doing better at.

Any who the weather has gotten a bit warm again and it is super interesting honestly. One day it is just freezing and then the other it just gets warm again. Hong Kong is really a place where weather has absolutely no pattern what so ever.

For P-day this week we went with Elder Graff and Bruschke to a Monestary in Diamond Hill. It is a Nunnery and it was so cool!!! Lots of gardens and so many statues. There was also a super big temple with lots of Buddha statues. Because of how Sacred it is you can't take pictures of the Statues so there are no pictures of those. If you want to see em you have to go and see em in person. It was very peaceful and relaxing to walk around and to see all the sights. Going to these monasteries really helps me remember that I am still in China hahaha. I am surrounded by big buildings in my area and then you get to go to a cool park like that.

 Ok, this story is pretty interesting. Elder Robinson and I were walking around our area one day and then a lady came up and talked to us for a while. We tried to explain our beliefs and our message but she just kept saying I don't believe even if it wasn't about the message. But then she stopped talking and looked at me and then slowly to my arm. Now as you all I know I am about as harry as a bear and the people here are not. She then reaches over and starts petting me!!!! Ewwwww!!!! Then I just stood there and I felt totally Violated hahaha. Then elder Robinson asked if she would have interest in meeting and she looked at me and said,"I want to hang out with him." AHHHHHHH SUPER EWWWW!!!! Then In English class I got pet again by a little girl and then on the way here to emails a grandma that we talk to all the time was seeing us all come around and she was super sweet. I talk to her all the time when I saw here today she shook my hand and then grabbed onto my arm!!!! oi. Super funny though. They have never seen a bear before I guess!

Also update on Stephen. He is doing super well. He is loving the Gospel and the come follow me program. The ward is helping him out so much and he is so happy!! I love him so much and he is one of my best friends!

The other thing that happened this week was that we have sacrificed a lot of time this week to just go and hit the streets as much as possible to find the elect and show the Lord just how much we want to teach these people. And who knows maybe we wont find anyone but we will see the blessings eventually from our efforts in this work. 

That does it for this week and There is more to come from this week for all you lovely people to hear about. Hope you all have a great week and that the Spirit will guide you in the affairs of life. He will always be there to comfort you and to lead you along. You just have to be quite and still to wait for him. We must also remember that we must want him to come as well to us. it works the same for every one. If they do not want to feel the spirit then he will not come. Humble heart and a sincere desire to have him will bring you to learn what God has in store for you to be lead along and to be safe.

Yours in Fellowship and Love,󾓭🐲🐼✌🍜

鄧 長 老

Elder Connor R.Duersch

Dahng Jeunglouh

Stan Theman       

Chapter 72: House of the Lord, good and bad food, Now it feels like Christmas.

Elder Connor R. Duersch(Stan Theman鄧長老) Ministering to Hong Kong 1 by 1! Chapter 71
你好!!!  

Hello!!!! How are we all!? This week was a kinda normal one and there are more pictures and the video that can explain better, but I will do my best as well to tell all of you lovely people what has happened this week.

House of the Lord:

This week was temple week so we did get to go to the temple with our district. It is always a great thing to go to the temple. When I was in the MTC we went every week and out here in the field we get to go every 3 transfers. SO that would mean I only have about 2 or 3 times left to go to the Hong Kong temple. It is truly one of the greatest blessings we have as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saint to go to the house of the Lord and seek his guidance in our lives. If you live near a temple close by please go as often as you can. The work is still needing to be done to help people on both sides of the veil.

Good and bad food:

So yes i tried cooking this week and there were 2 times i did it. One was good and the other one.....not so much. Well both were good but the one that was bad I added some frozen peppers into it and I had no idea actually how spicy the things were. Elder Robinson and I were dying hahahah. the other time was last night when we fasted all day and so I looked through the fridge and found lots fo stuff so I was like ok lets see what I can do. I made some super good sauced meat with some vegies and rice!!! The best meal I have made out here on my mission yet!!!

We also went to cross roads this week and we were in charge of taking down all the Christmas decorations and it was super funny. We went to the cafeteria and had to take down a tree and the problem was they didn't have a box to do it. SO Elder Robinson and I had to go and find a box and the one we found was massive!!! You could fit 5 elders in it hahaha. It was super funny! The cafeteria is called Narnia and Elder Robinson told me about it cause I have never seen or read it before. So that was fun.

Not to much else this week I can think of.....oh wait Stephen got a calling this week! He is the Sunday school secretary! He is also doing the come follow me program and he loves it so much!!! The 2 hour church is a new change and it is actually super cool!!! You get to go to the new classes and this Sunday was a really good one for me! I was able to really understand what people were saying and it was good to see the gift of tongues kick in.

That is all for this week and I will let you all know what more fantastic stuff will happen as it follows next week.

Love ya all and I hope you really try and go to the temple more often and really see what he needs you to do to help increase the capacity of your spiritual growth!

Yours in Fellowship and Love,󾓭🐲🐼✌🍜

鄧 長 老

Elder Connor R.Duersch

Dahng Jeunglouh

Stan Theman