Week 27: Elder Riley, Curtis and Ricky!, Soccer ball and a plane, my new leadership rolls!

Lieh Hou Everyone!

Hope you all doing this week! Sorry that this is a short one but here is the good stuff for this week! I hope you all are feeling the savior in your life cause it is always a good thing to have!

 

On this weeks episode of Stan Theman China Hong Kong Mission

Elder Riley: So as you all know I have a new companion this week and he is really cool! He loves Marvel and we talk a lot about nerd stuff and are just having so much fun. It has only been a couple of days here with him,  but his first area when coming to Hong Kong was Tai Wo, so he is so glad to be back with better language skills and to help the area in any way he can! If you are wondering how he sounds and acts, he is more or less like Ross from the TV series Friends, if any of you know that! He is helping me out with language and it is really helping finally! I am now starting to understand people when they talk to me! He is from Chicago and has been out for almost a year and a half! Cant wait to see what we are going to do to change the area for the better!

Curtis and Ricky!: So I finally got in touch with Ricky who if you all remember was stalking us on the bridge during December! He finally got home from america and he wants to meet soon and learn more about our message. SO glad he is still in contact and wants to learn more! I love teaching out here it is so great! We also finally got to meet Curtis in person this week at his English class and it was super fun to help him out with his little kids learning English, and they all thought I was in my 40's-50's...I have gotten that so much out here it is so funny. They all should have seen me with my beard - ha! I miss that lush beard hahaha! We will meet with them soon to start lessons and it will be great! Cant wait!

Soccer ball and a Plane: We went hunting the other day and Elder Riley was doing member calls and there was a mom and 2 little kids trying to get a ball and a plane out of a tree! I didn't even hesitate, and went over and asked her if she needed help and so I started to shake the tree like crazy and then Elder Riley came over and helped and it came out. We talked to her for a bit and gave her our number, and asked if she had interest in out church! It was a great learning experience cause I almost had the ball and plane out but with more help from my companion it was easier!

Leadership rolls: Since everyone in my district has a leadership roll and I have nothing, I was promoted to English Class President to make the classes, and am now the Apartment leader to make sure we all don't die from carbon Dioxide and stuff hahahaha. I saw that coming from a mile away ha!

Well that is all for this week sorry for the shorter email but there is something cool I found this week that was in Enos 1:15 and It talked about how if we pray in faith in the name of Christ what ever we pray for will come true and to pass!  I absolutely love that scripture!

The church is true, and I am still staying happy, and still being my goofy self - there is nothing to worry about haha!

Have a good week for me back home!

Stay Safe and Weird for me!

Yours in Fellowship and Love,󾓭🐲🐼✌🍜

鄧 長 老

Elder Duersch

Dahng Jeunglouh

Stan Theman

Week 26: New Year,,Deep Clean, Zone Conference, Transfer Calls!

Lieh Hou muiyatogoyahn!

How are you all doing!? I hope you are good and also having a good Chinese New year for all of you who celebrate this holiday hahaha. Well i will not waste time and just get on with it.

NewYears: So everyone who lives here for a while who is a missionary knows that Chinese new year is the time of the year where all the people you talk to go to main land and then vanish for like months. Yup I now believe that cause all our investigators went MIA and we will hopefully get in touch with them soon. We are meeting with Ricky these week for the first time to help him teach English to his students and he is really excited for us to come and help him. We met him around Christmas and he came to the ward party and he loves our church so we are so excited to meet with him. The streets were empty and there was literally no one so it was so weird to have thousands of people walking around and then BAM no cars or people! Stores are all closed and no shops are open and ya. So we didn't do much just tried to find people and there was no one so ya that was it. There was also no fire works cause there was a bus crash in our area and 19 people died so they canceled the fire works to help the families which was really cool.

Deep Clean: We deep cleaned our apartment and it was so gross hahahaha. It took all P-Day and there was so much gross stuff hahaha. I cleaned the Kitchen and I am glad cause I didn't want to clean the toilet hahahaha. It was actually really fun!

Zone Conference: We had a zone conference and it was about the Atonement of the savior and I would recommend you all to go to the BD and look up atonement and really do some digging cause it really has changed my point of view on things.

Transfer Calls: So Sunday I was sitting in my office doing a audio journal and then we got the call for transfers already! Time has really flown by fast and it was crazy! There was a trio in a area called Ma On SHan and Elder Newbold is leaving up there to that area. He is still in our zone and my new companion is Elder Riley who is just trading spots with him. So my apartment now has a Dl and both Zl's so that will be crazy and the sisters in my district are also STL sister training leaders. So this is going to get nutz real quick!

Well that is all for this week and I also read up on The Liahona for February and I absolutely love the part when it talks alot about Peter and how he relates to all of us. I would really recommend it to you all it is such a good read. The work is progressing here and I am so grateful for all your love and support! Have a great week!

Stay Safe and Weird for me!

Yours in Fellowship and Love,󾓭🐲🐼✌🍜

鄧 長 老

Elder Duersch

Dahng Jeunglouh

Stan Theman

Week 25 : Pixar Museum, Investigators, Friends, and sacrament to Soho

Lieh Hou muiyatgoyahn!

How are you all doing! So glad to hear that you all are doing great and that you are all warm. I cant believe that there is no snow in Home and that it is warm. I am praying really hard that there will be snow and that rain will come to make life easier for you all in the summer. Not much happened this week but there are good things that are coming our way and that there is always fun in China!

So here is the latest on what happened this week with Elder Duersch Hong Kong Mission!

Pixar Museum!: So for P-Day this week we went to the Chinese Herritage museum and they had a really cool Pixar exhibits with how they came to be made and how all the things of Pixar work. I think some of my favorite ones are the Up and Brave exhibits. They went into so much detail about how it was made and all the Clay models that they used in order to make them work. If that makes sense. I have some pictures that will be attached and hopefully you will be able to see them. It was really cool they also have a huge Bruce Lee exhibit there as well with a lot statues and his famous yellow spandex suit he wore. We coulnd't take pictures of that cause it was not permited but I did get a good shot of one of the statues out side. It made me feel back at home and also how much fun Disney and Pixar are. I love those movies ha!

Investigators: So currently at the moment we have an investigator pool of 5. Connor, Derek, Tom, Ricky, and Justin. They are all as I know doing well. We haven't met with Tom in a while and we think he is just out of the country for a bit so we will see. Ricky is a man who we haven't met with yet but he was at our ward Christmas party and he loves the church! He is really busy lately with New year stuff and after it is over we are going to meet and he is all in for learning about our gospel and how it can help his family. Justin is a brand new investigator and he is also looking really good for wanting to learn more. He is young and has a lot of questions and loves our teachings. Connor is a bit busy as well with new year. Derek is doing well. We meet with him every Saturday and we have our lessons and catch up. He is getting there and he is such a great guy to talk to. They are all doing well and they are learning so much and I love them with all my heart!

Friends: So also every week we meet with a Less active named Brother Chihng and he is so busy all the time that he wakes up at 4 and goes to work as a taxi driver and then gets home around 6 in the morning. So he is really busy and all he does is work and sleep. When we come we just read with him the Book of Mormon and he really likes that and it helps him remember things and also helps us with the language. We also meet every week with a man named A-Wing and we always do language study with him and he loves to meet with us and talk about life. They are doing great and the ward is going to help us find ways to help them out.

Sacrament to Soho: So Soho was a RC who went less active and then he came back to church and he is now doing really well. He didn't come to church yesturday and we wanted to know why. So our Elders quorum President asked if we could go to his house. I had to lead us there since I knew where it was and he was just sick. So Elder Newbold and I had the oppertunity to give him the sacrament. It was so powerful and so interesting to say it in another language cause it makes it have more depth.

Well that is all for this week sorry it is so short and things are normal here. It is the new year here and that means that it is the time for family. That is what I love about this gospel is that we have eternal families and that we are always and forever will be together. I love you all and you all are my family! I know this church is true and that I would never give up this great oppertunity that I have to serve my savior!

Stay Safe and Weird for me!

Yours in Fellowship and Love,󾓭🐲🐼✌🍜

鄧 長 老

Elder Duersch

Dahng Jeunglouh

Stan Theman

Week 25: The coldest I have ever been, Temple, New Friend Justin, and Ediths Confirmation

Lieh Hou Ngohge Pahngyauh!

I heard that Utah has had a drought in snow this year! Odd, usually you think it is because every one in Utah prays for different weather every 15 min hahaha! That was a great Joke I heard here! Any way I don't want to take up to much time from you all so here is the main course for this week!

The Coldest I have ever been!: So when I heard I was going to Hong Kong I never would have thought it would get this cold! It was 44 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday and with the humidity it goes straight to your bones! We went to church in short sleeves because we put our hands outside the window of our apartment and it wasn't to cold. Big Mistake! It was freezing and the church also has no heaters so we just bundled up in our suits and rubbed our legs to keep warm. The sisters in our ward asked do you need clothes? And we said "No, we will just go and buy some scarfs on P-Day." So we went back to our apartment and we put on our sweaters and our PJ bottoms over our suit pants and just huddled up by the heater we have that is about the size of a Phone Book. We got a call from our member Linda and she got some coats and Scarfs for us to wear! So we met her at MC Donald's and she was so sweet for giving us winter clothing! We will survive cause the winters don't last long here and it will get blazing hot really soon!

Temple: We got to go to the House of the Lord in China and let me tell you, it was breath taking. The inside was all gold and Chinese stuff and it was so great! It felt good to go in and be reminded of my time in the temple in my youth and at the MTC. The spirit was there and it was so great to get refreshed for the week and to have some knowledge acquired. Since it is a small temple the rooms are really tinny and it was really peaceful and you could not hear the outside world with the cars it was so great!!!

New Friend Justin: Back in November we met with a young man who is 15 years old and he was wanting to learn English from us. He was a referral from our Ward mission Leaders Son. So we taught him English every time we met until the 6 time and we asked if he wanted to learn about the gospel. He said he would when he gets back from Christmas and some camps he has to do for school. We finally met him this week and taught him a quick lesson of the Restoration and it went really well because he went to a Christian School so he already knew how to pray and about Jesus Christ which was really good. He really likes our gospel and wants to learn more so lets hope he will continue to learn. Retention rate for people here is interesting so I have hope and faith for him. He is also 6.7 so he is a really tall guy!!!

Edith Confirmation: The last thing that happened this week was Edith got Confirmed and received the holy ghost by our Bishop. It was so powerful and you could feel the spirit in the room going towards her. It was a new feeling I have never felt before in my life and I will never forget it. I also loved hearing how it was done in Cantonese and it felt like it was more powerful! I understood a little and I was able to understand a lot thanks to the language of the Spirit which everyone speaks!

Well that was about it for this week. Our other investigators are doing well and we should get a new one this week that we met with at our ward Christmas party! Also people will be leaving the country soon for Chinese New Year so that is when the work starts to slow down a bit since we cant go into main land. Well we can but it wouldn't end well for the church ha.

I want to share with you all what I have learned over the past month in my studies and with my other work. I have come to realize how important it is for us to have Charity! I know it sounds weird for me to say that but when I really went ham on studying it I learned so much and how important it is that we all need it. There is a scripture in 1 Cor that says that the three most important things are Faith, Hope, and Charity. But the most important of the three is Charity. I know that when we ask to have a piece of the Lords Charity and then use it to bless lives, we receive great courage and reassurance of peace and love. I want to invite you all to do as the Savior did and that is He served where ever he went. I Know this church is true and that Charity is the pure love of Christ and when we have it, we can never loose!

Have a great week and as always you are all in my prayers and thoughts every second of every day!

Stay Safe and Weird for me!

Yours in Fellowship and Love,󾓭🐲🐼✌🍜

鄧 長 老

Elder Duersch

Dahng Jeunglouh

Stan Theman

Week 24: Edith's Baptism!!!, Connor with Raybin, and Google Eyes!

Lieh Hou everyone! Hope you are doing well! Sorry this one is a bit short because I am running out of time but here we go!

Lets get on with this weeks episode of Elder Stan Theman(Duersch) Hong Kong.

Edith's Baptism: It was a truly great week this week because Edith got Baptized!!! We were so excited for her and we can't wait for the confirmation this next week. She has been investigating for so long and she now has gotten baptized, it is so good! Her boy friend baptized her, and Bishop Wohng will confirm her this next week. There was great music and a video we watched about agency and things from an old seminary video. It was really funny because it was in Cantonese with voice overs! The spirit was so strong when she went into the water, and I remembered back to my baptism. The spirit was so big there and it was such a great service. She put her foot in the water and she said it was really hot!! That is the first time I have ever heard that. We just told her it was the singlihng (Holy ghost)! We gave her a little CTR ring as a gift and I think i cut my self on it because when we were talking to people, my hand was all red and covered in blood! I freaked out a little and just got it fixed up so nothing to worry about. The work does press on in the world. Even in China!

Connor and Raybin: So we met with Connor this week to see how he was doing and we met him with one of our elders Quorum members to fellowship him. It worked out great and he is starting to act now. The day after we taught him we were in the church making food and Raybin walks by with Connor and they were just hanging out which was so great! Our ward is literally the best!

Google Eyes!: Also real quick, we google eyes everything in our apartment and it makes us so happy hahaha...I will send pics to you!

Well that is it for this week and I can't wait to hear from you all again. Until that time I want you all to have fun with whatever it is you are doing or else then it would just be boring ha!

Stay Safe and Weird for me!

Yours in Fellowship and Love,󾓭🐲🐼✌🍜

鄧 長 老

Elder Duersch

Dahng Jeunglouh

Stan Theman

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