China Hong Kong Mission: April 2018

Leih hou! (Hello)

Picture: My companion Sister McColgan

How's everyone? Hopefully everyone's doing good... 😊 As for me, I am enjoying my experience here in Provo MTC. Everyone is nice and really dedicated in becoming a better servant of the Lord! 😊

Picture: A classmate from BYUH (2nd pic), District sisters in our hall (3rd pic)

Updates about me:

Tuesday -

Got here in Provo MTC around 9:30 in the evening. We were so tired cos we had a looong flight (with layovers) - 23 hours of travelling. There's 13 of us from the Philippines and we met 5 more missionaries in LA airport waiting for the flight to Salt Lake Airport

Picture: Sisters from our district (1st pic)

Wednesday -

Our first day! :) We were officially welcomed as missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Every people that we meet in the hallway will say "Welcome to the MTC!". My companion is Sister McColgan and she's from Wales. I really like her accent! Hahaha. We also had a devotional for the new missionaries. President Martino (MTC president who served in Philippines Angeles mission - couple) and his wife, President Gilbert (1st counselor) and his wife, and President Ralf (served in Philippines Cauyan - couple) and his wife gave wonderful talks... In the evening, we were able to meet our zone leaders and other branch members.

Thursday -

Today was an overwhelming day. Lots of Cantonese words to learn! These are words/phrases that are really used in conversing to other people. These includes "missionary" words also, like words that we can use to convert other people... In the evening, we met our Branch President and his counselors. We also watched a Mormon message video entitled "Lifting Burdens". I know that the Gospel of Christ is the Gospel of transformation :) We should come unto Him and be transformed. Heavenly Father sees us as the glorious beings we are capable of becoming.

Picture: Roomies! (2nd pic)

Friday -

Today was a "not-so-busy" day for me. In the morning, we had exercise time and my companion is not really feeling well 😕 She was kinda sick so she had to stay in our room and get some rest, so I had a split with the other sister.. Our "language class" was postponed so I had to study inside my room. In the evening, me and my companion planned on what to teach to our investigator tomorrow. We agreed on teaching about God's love and how to pray. Our investigator is from China but moved to Hong Kong when he was 10. He is now working here in Provo.

Picture: My companion and I along with my friend from BYUH Sister Enriquez with her companion.

Saturday -

Great day! :) It's my friend's birthday today (Sister Enriquez). We went to BYUH together and she's my batchmate. She's going to Taiwan Taipei mission... Today after breakfast, me and my companion prepared ourselves for our first lesson to our investigator. We are really nervous because we have to teach him in Cantonese! Wowww. And we only know few words/phrases but we really tried our best not to do "Chinglish" or Chinese-English haha... and I think that the lesson went well :) We taught him how God is our loving Heavenly Father and we also taught him how to pray. I think that we understood like 80% of what he's trying to say to us (thanks to the Spirit) :) I know that the Holy Ghost is the best mission language :) .. we will teach him again [on Tuesday].

Pictures: 1st care package!

Sunday -

We made it to Sunday (yaaaay!). They told us that if we could make it to Sunday then we could definitely make it throughout our entire stay here in MTC lol. I still have 8 weeks left hahaha... Went to church and a "Chinese" sacrament meeting. Everything is in Chinese even the hymns, prayers, and talks. :D after sacrament meeting, we had District meeting and we made a district goal this week which is to develop one Christlike attribute (Charity and Love). This week, we have to give a sincere compliment to each person everyday, do daily acts of service, and pray for others :) And my personal goal for this week is to be diligent and more focus on the work of the Lord :) In the afternoon, we had Zone Conference and me and my companion Sister McColgan did a musical number. She played the violin and I played the piano. We did hymn 26 Joseph Smith's first prayer... I think me and my companion really get along cos we bought love music haha. :D In our zone conference, I learned that "strict and exact obedience" is really important. It is not enough to be obedient because we have to "obey with exactness", just like Jesus Christ said "Not my will but Thine be done.".. I also joined the choir practice here and it's a great experience! In the evening, we had a Devotional by Brother Ryan Eggett (MTC choir director). He talked about Christlike attributes that we should have as missionaries. It's acronym is T-O-M-A-S.

T- Think
O- Observe
M- be Meek
A- Ask
S- always Seek the Spirit

And a great question to evaluate ourselves is "Am I really converted unto the Lord?". Elder Bednar said "Testimony is a beginning, not a final destination".

Pictures: Provo Temple

Monday (April 30) -

Went to Provo temple and had initiatory and endowment session for the first time. Great experience indeed! 😄

So that's it for my first week here in MTC. See you all on my next email! Have a great week! I love you all! 😄

I wanna hear from you. Email me back 😄

Your sister in Christ,

Sister Apao (Au Jimuih)