Week 23: Bowling/Is there room in the Inn, Investigators, Videos and pics, Zone Conference

Lieh Hou Ngohge PahngYauh!

I will make this quick so you can all get back to your regularly scheduled day! Hope you all are doing well and are having fun this week!

Right then, Lets Crack on and get to the good stuff of this weeks Episode of Stan Theman Hong Kong Mission Impossible! Dun Dun!

Bowling/Is There Room in the Inn:  P-day was really good this week where we did some crazy stuff at the bowling alley, and it is not that much different here than back home. They even have shoe sizes in American and European so that is really nice. There was some great moments with some strikes and some not so good ones with gutters ha. Chinese people don"t believe in bumpers ha ha. After that we went to the church to see what we could do there. Elder Newbold decided he wanted to try and fit himself into things to see if it was possible or not. So we made a little series of "Is there Room in the Inn" and ! will send a video of it to you all so you can see our fun and how flexible he is for being 6.3! We have made plenty of more videos and It would be hard to send them all to you all sadly but they are know in my drive so my Dad could probable get them out some how! Ha

Investigators: SO our investigators are doing pretty well for know. We haven't been able to meet with Justin, Tom, and Ricky so I hope we will see them soon!. We met with Connor this week to see how he was doing and to catch up on things. He is doing well, and it turns out that when he came to church that one week he did it without his parents knowing so there is still some family opposition here and there and we will hopefully fix that. Derek we also didn't meet with this week because he had to go with his dad to do stuff but he is slowly but surly getting there which is really good! He just has no friends in the ward so that is our main goal at the moment! Edith is doing absolutely fantastic! She had her baptismal interview and she totally passed with flying colors. We are currently getting everything ready and I will tell you what filling out a baptismal record and stuff is crazy! She is going to have her Boyfriend Baptize her because he introduced her to the missionaries and she wants Bishop Wohng to confirm her! AHHHH...SO Exciting!

Videos and Pics: So Elder Newbold and I have had some really great experiences and things in just our 2 weeks together and we got them all on video and pics so I will see how to make sure you all can get them!

Zone Conference: We had a Zone Conference this week and it was actually really good. President Lam gave some great words of Advice and our Zone with Kowloon West was great as well. We had an object lesson of putting a cup on someones head and filling it to the top with water. Then they used a sacrament cup. This was to demonstrate how much each person can uniquely learn! And guess who got water all over himself hahahaha! Yup it was me! We had some curry as well to eat and wow was it hot! Also some brownies after.

Well that just about does it for this week's episode; sorry it is a week bit short but hopefully you all can get some good fun and laughs out of some of these videos and other things!

I know this church to be true and that we have a loving savior that died for each of us to be happy and to love everyone we come in contact with. Always to remember to have fun in whatever you are doing or else it is pointless! Make it fun and it will never seem like work! That is what I am learning the most right now on my mission!

I love you all so much and I am always gratefull for your prayers and thought and emails.

Stay Safe and Weird for me!

Yours in Fellowship and Love,󾓭🐲🐼✌🍜

鄧 長 老

Elder Duersch

Dahng Jeunglouh

Stan Theman

Week 22: 6 Months out!, GunYam, Edith, Elder Newbold (Liuh Jeunglouh)!, Investigators In Abundance!

Lieh Hou Ngohge Pahngyauh!

How have you all been this fine week! Good I hope.

Alright lets get started then shall we!

Alright here is what happened on this weeks episode of Elder Stan Theman: China Hong Kong Mission Impossible!

Six Months!: I cant believe that this coming Tuesday will hit my 6 month mark! It seems like yesturday that I just got off the plain and had absolutly no idea what to do or where to go. Time really does fly when you are having fun and are getting to work. True there are times when it is slow with finding efforts to get new investigators, but it is the lords work and I am glad to be a worthy vessel in his hands to lead me to the children he wants me to teach and bring to the light of Christ. They say that your mission really does fly by and I can really say that it does. There is a saying by elder Newbold that your mission is in 5 chunks!

1. MTC
2. First 2 Months in the Field
3. All the way up to your last 2 month mark
4. 2 Month mark till you leave home
5. Getting off the air plain

The time will fly by and I have to make the best of it because 2 years seems long for some.(Love ya Mom) but I am doing what I need to to serve the lord and make people smile. I love making people laugh and smile. Its fun!

GunYam: So you pronounce this by saying GoonYum. This is a gigantic statue of a lady named Gunyam in the middle of a nice garden in Tie Mei Tuk thats in our area. You have to have a member schedule it in advance and so we scheduled it early December to go. It was so great with all these huge traditional Chinese buildings you see in movies and temples with golden statues! We got to do some Zen Calligraphy that was free and we got to keep it so I will have a really cool souvenir of me writing characters and my name. GunYam is absolutely massive. She stands 250 feet tall and was made buy a guy who was filthy rich and wanted it to be a public place for people to come and see Gunyam and to worship. When you get up close to her it really took my breath away and I would absolutely love going back there again! There is a legend behind the statue that is super cool relating to us. About 2000 years ago the Chinese people say that a man in white came down to the Chinese people and taught them about justice and mercy! Over the years it some how changed to a woman and no one knows why. So what does this mean! It means that Christ had to have come to China when he was back on the earth 2000 years ago! I don't know if that is correct but I thought it was something cool to realize!

Elder Newbold: Elder Newbold is literally my twin! We have so much in common with our interests in Star Wars and he is a total Super Nerd in a good way! He is from Salt Lake City and went to BYU for a year and is minoring in Engineering and Majoring in Writing books for a living. He is the funniest guy ever and he Reminds me of a friend I had in Band named Jayden! He has literally the same voice and personality! I cant wait to work with him over this next transfer! I will learn more about him since its only been 4 days!

Investigators In Abundance!: So we have a grand total now of 6 investigators! Connor, Derek, Justin, Ricky, Edith, and Tom. We haven't had a chance to meet with Ricky and Justin so once we get to have a lesson they will become new investigators and they are for sure golden ones. Tom is the one we have recently been working with and he wasn't able to come to church yesterday. I think he is in main land for a bit so we will get back with him later. Connor was sad for a couple of days because Elder Besson left and he didn't want to meet for a while. I am hoping that we will meet this week and get him closer to Christ. Derek is progressing really well and we believe that soon he will get baptized and he is really excited for that. Lets talk about Edith for a bit. She is an investigator who has been taking lessons from the missionaries for a year and she always comes to church and has been taught all the lessons! She is basically a member of the ward and she just isn't baptized yet. We met with her and asked about her concerns and she says she thinks she needs to have a Joseph smith Experience and also doesn't want a calling after because she doesn't think she can do it. But She scheduled her own Baptismal date for the 28 of this month!!!! SO happy for her! And yesterday we got a call form her and she said, "Can I have my baptismal interview this Saturday?..........YES! I am so excited for her and she is so ready and I cant wait to see what will happen.

Well that is all for this weeks episode and I cant wait to see what the following weeks will bring and the stories that will come! Remember that the Book of Mormon can and will answer the questions of the soul and questions we didn't even know we had! I learned that very strongly over these past weeks. Listen to the last words of our Prophet Thomas S. Monson and prayerfully study the Book of Mormon. It will bless you beyond belief!

Stay Safe and Weird for me!

Yours in Fellowship and Love,󾓭🐲🐼✌🍜

鄧 長 老

Elder Duersch

Dahng Jeunglouh

Stan Theman

Lieh Hou Everyone! How are we all!

So lets get on with the stuff this week!

Alright lets dive head first into the magical land and this weeks episode of Stan Theman Hong Kong Mission Impossible!

Transfer Calls: So we were expecting to have transfer calls this Saturday but they never came! Elder Beeson knew for sure that he would be leaving this time because he has been in this area for over a year now! So when we were doing our Weekly Planning the phone rang and I looked at it and it said "Pres Lam" I freaked out and was like Oh NO What did I accidently do on Purpose! I talked to him and he asked how I was doing. He then asked to speak to Elder Beeson. So Elder Beeson is now a Office Elder! It is so exciting for him and he gets to live in the Temple and work in the office for a while. So I will be in a trio for 3 days and will then get to meet my new companion Elder Newbold on Thursday. So Things are about to get NUTZ!

Tom the News Reporter: So we met with Tom these week and he asked if he could bring some friends with him to ask us some interview questions about our church and why we are away from our homes to preach the gospel. It went really well and they really were interested in what we had to say! Tom is becoming a really good investigator and he is attending church and is wanting to learn which church is the correct church to help and bless his life! I know which church that is! He is a really good kid and he is getting fellowshiped by our ward so well and he is now wanting to learn more! So that is going to be really good for him and for me now that I am taking over the are as a Senior Companion and I hope I am up to the task at hand! I know the lord will help me in anything I have do because he never wants to see me fail!

Tacos With Bishop Wohng: So since Elder Beeson is leaving he wanted to make tacos for Bishop because that is his favorite food! So on monday we got some materials together and more or less just made some Chinese Tacos ha! We had some seasoning mix and I cant tell you how bad I missed the tast of Mexican Food!

Well that was pretty much all that happened this week sorry it is a short one and I will have more time to talk to you all next week with new companion stuff!

I am sad to hear of our beloved prophet passing away. Remember that Prophets words are gods words! They are always meant for us to hear!

Stay Safe and Weird for me!

Yours in Fellowship and Love,󾓭🐲🐼✌🍜

鄧 長 老

Elder Duersch

Dahng Jeunglouh

Stan Theman

Week 20: Connor at Church!, New Investigator!, Bruce Leah Cheng, Transfer calls This Saturday!

Lieh Hou Ngohge Pahngyauh!!!

SanLihn Failohk!!!!!! Happy New Year!

So lets get right to it because this week was awesome! I had my first investigator at church this week!

New Investigator Tom:  I had the Privilege of calling a potential from our record book and called a young man named Tom. I don't know how to do much small talk, so I just straight-up asked him "Do you want to learn about our gospel?". He said yes and we also asked him if he wanted to go to church with us tomorrow and he also said yes! So after we had Ward Correlation we ran over to the McDonalds to meet him there since he doesn't know where our church is so we were in-front of the McD's and we say to him to cross the street, and he came over and shook our hands and we walked over to church. When we walked behind the McDonalds the thought actually shot across my mind, "I have a person coming to church for the very first time!" So we got to church and every one was so friendly and started talking with him and sitting by him. Our ward rocks for going out of there way to do that. Then my phone rings out of the blue a little later like at 10:15, and its Connor. Once sacrament was over, Tom told us he had to go and he would love to meet us this Thursday and to come to church again! Never have I prayed with so much strength to have them come to church and to have them feel the spirit while they were here! I offered a huge prayer of thanks for that miracle! Cant wait to teach him so much more!

Connor at Church!: You read that right - we did get Connor to church this week! He called me and I went to the back of the chapel and he said that yesterday he was rock climbing and he woke up late and would be at church in like 15 min.........WOW!!! I sat by him while Elder Beeson sat by Tom. Connor talked to me for a while and then we went to Sunday school where we had a lesson about the second Coming and Connor was really interested in it. I also gave him a CTR ring that would always remind him of the joy he felt at church. It was really cool because on the day of our Ward Party we invited him to fast to overcome his family issues and come to church. We learned that he actually did it and that he was able to come to church because of his fasting! Fasting can bring great blessings to those who need help and I know can say I have seen that form a friend that wants to come to church and fasted for it and the Lord helped him come. We will teach him again on Thursday and hope he will come to church next week.

Bruce Laaih Cheng out!: So we had a Cheng out with a member who is Yauh Chin!!! That literally translates to Has Money! SO yes he is very well-to-do! We went to his house that is 3 stories and he has Koi Fish ponds lining his stairs to his house! I have pictures I will try and send so you all can see! We had a great message from him and we had a great dinner that was so much food and he is the coolest guy ever! He has the greatest love for our savior and loves to mess around with the missionaries. He especially loves German people and He loves to talk to me because I am German and am shorter than him. He is the best. His message was about some of his companions and how all they thought about was wanting to go home and count down the time they had left! He said they didn't find there purpose yet and we told us tonight we will find our purpose and then the time will fly. "Our Purpose is to let the whole world know, that Christ Lives!" That is our purpose to share this great message with all the world! All in all really great time to have with Bruce!

Transfer calls will be this Saturday and Elder Beeson knows for a fact that he is going to get moved because he has been in Tai Wo for his whole mission and that is a year and a couple of months he has been out. So we will see what will happen! I am truly grateful for this man in my life and his great leadership and counsel in helping me out!

Well that is just some stuff we ha happen to us this week and this week was really full of miracles and I can truly say that thanks to the events we had a church and to the great things I have been studying!

We also met with a less active named Leon who I will talk to you all about next week!

I know this Church is true and that Jesus Christ loves every single one of us and will always help us!

Stay Safe and Weird for me!

Yours in Fellowship and Love,󾓭🐲🐼✌🍜

鄧 長 老

Elder Duersch

Dahng Jeunglouh

Stan Theman

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