Writing like the Prophet Nephi

A few months ago when we were traveling to Taiwan, I learned from one of the sister in the Daya ward how to use this new app in my phone to do memories.  This is an app that is put out by Family Search.  I quickly fall in love with it.  I could pull the app out during sacrament meeting or devotional and start writing in it.  You should check this out if you are looking for something easy to keep up on your journal.  https://www.familysearch.org/mobile/memories

Now that I am writing in memories, I can keep some of the more spiritual experiences in there.  Then I have this blog.  I want to share some of the fun things we did here.  As I am writing, I can really feel for the prophet Nephi in the Book of Mormon.  It has to be so hard for him, having to write in the Large plates and then has to keep a separate records in the small plates.  He did not even have the modern conveniences, such as typing, auto-correct, spell check, etc ... The only excuse I have is time ... it seems like time is flying away for me.  We have been so busy and at the end of the day, I just want to sit in front of the TV and watch a movie! 

But, I feel guilty ...  if Nephi can do it, so can I, right!

October, 2017


The Chandlers who are Self-Reliance missionary went home early part of October.  They were not replaced by another set of missionary so they asked that we take over the English Class for them.  They have taught the class twice while they were here.  They taught the ILETS class helping mostly returned missionaries to prepare them to take the ILETS exam so they could apply for local college or overseas university.  We are now teaching two nights a week.  It will be 10 weeks course with 20 lessons.  Our first few classes we have about 10 YSA showed up.  It was fun to exclusively speak English.  We told the YSA that once they stepped into the room, there will be no Chinese during the two hours class.  I was skeptical about teaching because I don't feel my English was very good, but I guess it is good enough.  As long as we follow the manual Focus on ILETS, we will be okay.  I hope my English would improve too.  It is so funny when I see the student worked on their writing, I see them stop to count words to make sure they have the 100 or 150 words.  I remembered doing the same thing myself when I was at their age.  Counting to make sure I have the number of words required, and if not, adding a few a, the, add etc. just so I could squeeze in a few more words!

With teaching two nights a week and working in the Temple on Wednesday, we are gone over 12 hours days.  Because of this, I am cooking more and packing lunch.  We are starting this eating plan to let our stomach has a 16 hours fast every 24 hours.  This means, if we have dinner at 5 p.m., we will not eat until 9 a.m. the next morning.  After a couple weeks of this, we are getting used to it.  Hopefully, we can loose some of the weight we gained from eating so much starch here!!  If you want to read more about the 16:8 diet, check out this article.

http://www.bodyandsoul.com.au/diet/diets/the-eighthour-diet-is-the-key-to-weight-loss-according-to-experts/news-story/bdda1ada8bbb6f35d4be35ff63c9e199

Finally time to restart, August and September

Finally, I have no more excuses!!  All the posts that I could extract, I reposted in this blog.  Now it is time to catch up on the last 3 months!!

August 7 - 12, 2017  HONG KONG FSY - a different kind of success!
Hong Kong FSY is a quite a bit smaller.  We have about 200 youth actually attended with 40 YSA.  There were many trials during camp we observed.  The counselors were great and so were the coordinators and assistance coordinators. The evening and morning prior to day one of was a bit confusion for most but everyone jumped in.  We could have more training but time ran out.  The YSA is great at learning their role on the job.  Personally, I feel there were some communication break down between the two couples: logistic and in-session; each claiming the other not doing their job and become very critical of each other; one couple more then the others.  There were misunderstanding happened over the budget and how certain thing needs to happen.  Needless to say, I was affected also; I fear the Spirit has not be very strong.  Logistic tries to sooth thing over and provide explanation, tries to work in counsel but the other person was too proud.  There was terrible feeling between them.  However, they were able to set their personal feeling aside and work together for the greater good.  I guess this is how man works, they just forgive and forget, verses I on the other hand, would want to get to the bottom of understanding and compromise.  I was very concerned until day 4.  Normally, we see the youth struggled during the first 3 days with disobedience, homesickness, and difficulty in making friends, By day 4, we would see a bonding of the group and spirituality increased, however, this time, I was concerned.  But my worry was not to be sustained; The morning of day 4, we have Living Christ activity where the youth have been preparing to teach each other about Christ. Then in the afternoon, we have Variety show and then a wonderful music program.  The spirit was in abundant!  I stand in awe that God is really in control; what I see was a lot of negative but Heavenly Father can turn them into learning experience.  While the lesson or devotional provided by in session couple were not very spiritual, but what they lacked were make up by individual efforts of the counselors with their youth in their groups!  At the end of the week, I know God had accomplished his purpose with this FSY.  Many testimony strengthened, questions answered and friendship forged.  After FSY Hong Kong, we know of 6 couples of YSA that is firmed with dating and engagement to get married right afterward.  Recently, we know of few more couples in Taiwan that had gone public that they are dating.  I know there are more, but they done want people to know in case it didn't work out and they do not want to be embarrassed!

September, 2017

We have been serving in the Temple on Wednesday evening as temple worker.  The first Wednesday was the first time I was asked to be the first follower at a session with Tamil, an Indian dialect.  It was amazed to listen to the dialogue of the temple session in a different language other than Chinese and
English.  I found myself listening to familiar word.  I was able to get a feel on what other sisters felt when they sit thru a session that they could not understand.  Despite the fact that I didn't understand the language, the spirit was in abundant!

The first Sunday of September, we found out that a non-member who had attended FSY was getting baptized.  Ted and I has to divide and conquer because he was asked to teach in the Priesthood.  I took the bus and MTR after sacrament back to Wan Chai building to attend the baptism of Michael Wang.  I found out that his mother was baptized in March this year and Michael has been taking the missionary discussion but kept avoiding the challenge to be baptized!  After FSY, I guess he felt the spirit and when the missionary asked him when he will be ready to be baptized, he said he is ready anytime!!  So he set the date, September 3, 2017, to be baptized.  His mother was thrilled.  After the baptism, I went up to talk with him and ask him to share his testimony with me, he was shy but said he had already shared his feeling after FSY during sacrament.  I ask if he would write down his testimony for me.  He said he would but I still have not receive it.  I was so happy that as least one of the 4 non-member got baptized because of what they feel during FSY!

Brother Wang, his mother and a non-member friend.