Never give up

Hello Family what's up.

This week was transfers.  I did not get transferred but we got a third companion.  Her name is Sister Adams and seriously she is the nicest, warmest person you could ever meet.  I love love having her with us.  She seems to lighten the load and make everything easier.  I dont know how long we will have her but I hope its a while.  Kowloon hasnt had any baptisms or success for so long they were considering closing my area, but last minute decided to add another area to ours and see if making it bigger could help some.  I hope so.  It can get discouraging to look and look and never have anything work out.  The people here just have no need for religion.  I wish Kowloon could see how awesome being a Mormon is.  I would be very sad if this area were closed from lack of work able to be done.   I've been getting pretty frustrated with these cute Hong Kong people. They just don't care about or have any desire to talk about God. Okay, that's a generalization but a lot of people we talk to have just never even thought about Him before and just don't want to. It's been driving me crazy. I don't get why they don't get it. So anyways, as we've been finding and talking to people this past week I've just been thinking why doesn't God show them? Why won't He show them the way to Him and help them to be happy. Then on Tuesday when we had district meeting an elder in my district said something that really touched my heart. He said that President Lam was helping them teach a lesson where this man was so against religion and God in general. He just kept insisting that nothing was true and was getting aggressive. This elder said that President Lam was getting obviously frustrated and trying his hardest to answer every question the man had and he was completely kind with every act of aggression.  But then eventually he just sat quiet for a minute and thought. After wards he got very calm and just said " We can't force you to be converted. If you don't want it there's nothing we would ever do to force you." The elder in my district said that at this point he was so mad. He couldn't believe that President Lam gave up. They brought this man to him thinking that they could finally get through to him and then he gave up. He was so disappointed. Then later he was talking to President Lam and President shared a thought about the experience. He said that sometimes we look at other churches like they're evil and we look at people with no God and think they are wicked. But that's not true. God does not favor certain children. He loves us all equally, The ones who have the fullness of the gospel and the ones talking to an American missionary girl on the bus telling her that it's not possible that God helped her learn Cantonese because he doesn't exist. Because of this love our Heavenly Father wants each of his children to have peace. Except for some of them won't take the peace he has to offer. For some of them keeping the commandments and the rules and praying and doing the things they need to do is just too hard. They refuse to do it and they refuse to open themselves to it. So He'll give them whatever peace he can. If the peace they need is to go to another Christian church and believe that no matter what they are saved, then He'll let them have that peace. Or if the peace they need is to reject God entirely He will still allow them to have a piece of happiness in their decision (at least until they are ready to accept more). 

I have been thinking a lot about this thought. God's love for us is so deep and I still don't understand it. I'm grateful that He is willing to give peace and love to His children in the capacity that they are willing to accept it. My thought on the frustration of peoples resistance in Kowloon (not one missionary has taught for almost a year here) is that God meets us where we are at, and loves us in that moment, and line upon line builds our understanding and knowledge.  I have faith that if someone is ready to hear the gospel, we will find them. 

Keep praying for Hong Kong and keep being so wonderful because you are.

Love love love you. <3

-Sister Terry 

a little monkey business

 This past week we went to the beautiful Hong Kong Temple.  Thankfully we got to do it in English.

 Beauty treatments on the mish!

 This is one of our favorite people to visit.  She always feeds us delicious food

 So I guess they knew I was coming and named this incredible street after me.  Please tell Paul.

 This is my favorite I have ever eaten.  The meat is the most delicious I have ever tasted.

this is our temple group

 Okay so monkey Island is the SPOOKIEST PLACE ON EARTH. We went there for p-day.   Im not kidding.  Monkeys everywhere!  I was freaked out!

the baby monkey is cute but still a little bit spooky

 Guess what... we got summer missionaries! And uh... haha I'll tell you more about that later. 

Last week we got to go to the temple on Friday. It was super nice. I was scared it was gonna be in chinese but don't worry President Lam has apparently heard all our chinese and so he knows better. It was probably the first time I went to the temple and really felt at peace. Sister Ng and Sister Adams and Villisen and I sat in the Celestial room for a long time and I felt a lot of love from God. After that we went to this Phillipino fast food restaurant because Sister Villisen is from the Philippines and wanted to go. It was pretty good and after that we walked around Central and then had English class. It was a nice day. And then on Saturday we got a call from the Assistants asking us if we would be willing to get summer missionaries. When they called to ask I said "summer missionaries? us?" and laughed and then Sister Ng took the phone from me haha. I didn't think they would give us some because I don't know what I'm doing. But they did. Summer missionary are kids 16-20ish who want to try out a two week mission. They take a companionship and give them each a SM and then you basically split from your real companion all the time and are only with your SM. That means that right now I'm kind of like the senior companion for my SM and I. The only time we are with Ng and hers are when we do planning or just at the house seeing them/ward stuff. Which I guess is kind of a lot. Her name is Got Jm and she's super cute. But it's pretty tough. She's only 16 and I think she came here expecting kind of an EFY type thing... but yeah this is definitely not EFY. She doesn't like finding, actually pretty much hates it.  I cant judge her, this is tough stuff in the heat and everything.  Shes also a little disapointed by our diet of eggs and ramen noodles (cheap and fast) She keeps telling me that I don't understand Hong Kong people and that I'm doing it wrong. So she is actually a huge gift to me because she is teaching me so much.  As a missionary you really have to be persistent with people. I'm fully aware that I am annoying pretty much every person I talk to and yeah thats hard,  but it's what you have to do if you want to find that one person who will be willing to talk to you. So whenever we're out I'll start talking to someone chatting and finding ways to introduce the gospel and she'll grab my arm and pull me away and then after tell me that because I'm white I don't understand Hong Kong people and I need to stop. I feel torn so much of the time on this.  I dont want to annoy people but I also dont want to miss opportunities or waste my time.  It's pretty hard. Im not sure what to do about it, but I told Sister Ng and since she is bolder/clearer chinese than me she has said a few things to try to explain what missionary life is like, but Got JM is still pretty defiant. She always says she's tired and asks stuff like "when are we going to eat at a members house?" and I feel so bad because I don't know how to explain to her that we can't really take time to rest and that our members don't feed us. Ive been praying like crazy a member will ask her to eat at their house but its looking bad.  But on the bright side my language has already improved since I'm with her all the time and we speak cantonese all the time. Her English isn't very good so it's hard to communicate, but it forces me to have to figure out how to say things. 

 We haven't been able to meet with Slamet again but when I called her she said that if we call her an hour in advance this next week she'll meet us at the park again. Also glynis's mom is doing super good. She came to relief society on sunday and made all these comments like she's been going for years, super cute.  I love you guys.  Have a great week.  

Sun shines bright in Hong Kong

 I passed this the other day in my apartment building.  It feels like something Paul and Luke would love, but amazingly enough, I love it too!

Zone conference....
Hey everyone!  If you love the feeling of boiling hot water on your face, you would love being in Hong Kong right now!  They never let you drink cold water because they think its too big of a shock to the system.  All we want is cold water.  Weve started telling people we want to get sick so we can get cold water!
My language is very slowly but surely improving.  So is my attitude and outlook ;) Since Sister Johnson and I are fairly new its a little tricky when we go together.  It's doable just because we're talking about church and the Restoration and so I know that kind of stuff, but if they get into anything else it's a huge struggle. Honestly I usually just nod and move on or guess what they are saying or just straight up tell them I don't understand and then move on. Haha it's super awkward. Understanding is just a huge issue. I still get very little, but Im noticing I can pull out small tidbits here and there, just enough to survive. But it's all right because when we go finding we know enough to get by. Also the last time we brought Christa a member with us and so she was a huge help. Also Sister Adams and Villisan aren't summer missionaries, they are just regular missionaries. They live with us and serve in the same church building as us so we are with them a lot. They each had a summer missionary who was a native for two weeks. Their names were Sister Lui and Lee and they went home today. I'm sad they are gone but also I get to sleep in my bed now so also pretty happy.  Everyone's obsessed with sea food which is super fun for me. But actually I'm getting use to it. I just eat those little shrimps and the fishes and it's fine. On Saturday Fiona from the TST sisters ward took us out to dinner. She has this group of unmarried friends who love the missionaries. We went to an indonesian food place and it was awesome. Also update on Korean class it is just becoming more and more of a hit. The Chinese have officially rejected our American class and only want to learn Korean.  Who knew?  We actually had three people who we found on our own show up! Since the time I've been here we've never scheduled a new investigator and had them actually show up, but this little girl and her brother and Mom came to Korean class on Saturday. I was so happy. They said they'd come back next week and let us teach them lesson after. I really cant tell you the level of joy this has filled me with.
I want you guys to know that I am glad I am here, and am filled with hope and love for the chinese people every day.  They are gentle and truly good people.  The women are soft and kind in their manner and I really feel drawn to them.  I feel braver as we go looking for people and feel like if not me then who will go looking for them.  God loves people.  I know this to be true.  He understands the reason we are where we are, because he knows the entire life circumstance and has complete love and compassion for us.  I want to represent him fairly.  The only way I can do that is to love and show compassion to everyone.  I know God hears and loves people.  We are his treasures.  
So I bought a fan.  For real!  Its a beautiful chinese fan and I fan myself on the brutal hot streets . I hope you have a good image of me and all the Chinese people fanning themselves on the street.  Have a great week!

Chopsticks mastery

HEY GUYS!  You're fourth of July sounds way fun. Mine was pretty good too, After Pday we went to eat with the Pangs again with the Elders. Their kids are so cute and funny. Their little girl  Yoyo dances and her mom showed me this video of her doing High School Musical cheerleading and it was so adorable but then Yoyo started crying because she was embarrassed and it was kind of sad.

 I was able to share a message with them from the scripture I shared last week and I actually felt like I was able to say what I wanted to say (which is rare). Also this week Sister Ng started doing her Sister Traning Leader stuff so I went on exchanges two times with Sister Johnsen. It was awesome. I'm seriously so happy I get to do that sometimes now! She came in with me and she is a good friend. She had a little bit rough first transfer and she is so kind to me and my struggles,  but she got a new comp this transfer so she's doing better. We have a lot of fun together and we even were able to teach some full lessons when we went finding. 

 We also took Christa with us. Christa is also 19 and she is in the ward right next to ours so we see her all the time. She's pretty much in our ward too because she always sleeps in past her sacrament and comes to ours instead haha. I love her. Yesterday we ate dinner at the church with Christa and her older sister Ayan and Christa helped me do language study. Her English is really good and it was so helpful. Today we are going to this place called Mega box which is a restaurant place and then to the Bruce Lee Museum with Christa, Ayan, and Glynis (who is Sister Chung's Daughter). Glynis told her Mom that on her summer mission all she ate was instant noodles and I guess her Mom freaked out and then invited us over the next day to eat dinner at her house where she fed us a ton of vegetables haha. It was cute. We also ate these huge shrimps with the eyes still attached. Surprisingly they were super good. I'm getting much more adjusted to the food now and also using chopsticks which makes life a lot easier. You can lose alot of weight really fast if you dont know how to use chopsticks.  You notice your weight stabilizing when you start to master chopsticks.  

 Oh also we have two summer missionaries in our apartment who are with Sister Adams and Sister Villison which is fun. Well kind of not fun because we have to sleep on the kitchen floor, but fun because their super cute and always help me figure out my words. I love you guys.  Have a great week.

So I see this cute picture every day leaving my apartment and I realize Paul and Luke are never far from me. 

never ceasing miracles

Hi family! 

This was a good week in Kowloon City. We met with a couple of our investigators and they are doing well. Gigi, our little eight year old friend, is excited about being a missionary. We gave her a little missionary tag to wear and she was so proud. When we teach her she loves to answer questions and be like the missionaries. It's pretty adorable.

 We were also able to meet with an investigator who was just turned over to us from some other missionaries named Betty. She learns slowly, but has the purest heart I've ever seen. She's just so sweet. She also has a bit of speech impediment as do I so our phone conversations are very fun as you can imagine. We  taught her the Restoration this week and her desire to know truth is so pure and sweet. 

I also want to share some thoughts with you that I've had this week. Last night particularly I was thinking about atonement. Sometimes when I do dumb things and then repent it feels like no big deal. You know, some days I know I did things that weren't perfect but I tried my best and so I know that I'm forgiven and it doesn't feel like a big deal. But then there are some times where it wasn't that I just fell a little short after all I could do. Sometimes I know exactly what I should do but I choose not  to do it. Sometimes I know that God is telling me I should say I'm sorry or have a better attitude and I purposely do not do it because I just don't want to. And I'm a missionary, I really should be doing these things as soon as I am prompted to. Anyways, the other night I was thinking about Christ performing the atonement and I thought about all these things that bring me pain and other people pain that I have done purposefully and knowing full well what I was doing. I felt so sad at the thought. How could I do that to Him? How could I, someone who knows better, someone who preaches this same thing to people every single day, cause my Savior that kind of pain simply because I'm selfish or lazy? It hurt my heart so much. I wanted to hide myself from God. Then this morning as I was reading the scriptures I came across a scripture that touched my heart. 

Romans 3:22-24

"Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." 

All have sinned and come short. All. I know that that's true but then sometimes for whatever reason I just want to be perfect and think maybe just maybe, today I could not fall short. Today my sins could be minor and I could be exempt of this all people are sinners thing. But that just isn't the way it works. God already knows that every single person will sin every single day. He is well aware that they all will fall short. So He sent His son to pay the price, and the price has already been paid. Why would it matter to God the size or significance of your sins if the price has already been paid? Why on Earth would He measure whether your sin was an allowable sin, a righteous person sin, a good missionary sin, or a big one, a shameful sin, a bad person sin? I came to realize that sin is not being unaware of what is wrong and accidentally messing up. Sin is knowing right from wrong and choosing wrong anyways. Sin is purposeful. I kind of hate this. The scriptures tell us time after time that we are all sinners but I think to be honest I always ignored that. I never wanted to be a sinner. Being a sinner just feels too shameful. But this is what fills my heart with love for our Savior. He just doesn't care. He felt our shame, He knows the parts of us we don't want anyone else to know. He knew from the moment He created us that we would be sinners, this doesn't faze Him. Our sin is not something that surprises Him or disgusts Him. He saw it coming before we even did. All we have to do is accept Him and all is well. We are forgiven.  Not half forgiven, or almost forgiven, or forgiven but still pretty rotten. No, we are completely healed and completely justified through His blood. 

 I have a final story to tell you that you will not believe and I think this is worthy of being printed off and read out loud or something because it really is huge.

On Saturday  Sister Ng and I were ready on our way to go visit a former investigator named Caroline. She is 17 years old and started investigating the church a few months ago but she doesn't have much focus and is more interested in being friends with the missionaries so they stopped teaching her. But we still see her sometimes just to check on her. So anyways, we had our appointment to visit her home on Saturday afternoon when Sister Ng dropped the bomb. She has TWO CATS. I told her well we cannot do that then and she told me we can do that and we have to do that. So we got on the bus and found Carolines house and I never stopped praying the whole time. then we got to Carolines house and there was no sign of any cats. I thought I was safe. We were talking with Caroline and having fun and she was even speaking in English and it was a dream.  First it was Kenny and William shortly followed and I thought I was dead. Caroline noticed that I was uneasy so her sweet little heart made sure that her cats didn't cross her so that they wouldn't touch me. So then I began so share our spiritual message with her. As I was talking about the scripture we would share William (the big cat) COMES AND SITS RIGHT NEXT TO ME. RIGHT NEXT TO MY STOOL. HE WAS PRACTICALLY TOUCHING MY LEGS. AND GUESS WHAT I DID? I, Emma Frances Terry, kept on talking. I looked Caroline in the eyes and I smiled and in my awful cantonese I told her that God wants to hear her prayers and that He loves her. I didn't even look away from her the entire time. I did it. I was terrified and yes, being afraid of cats is probably the most insane thing in the world and most definitely the most humiliating thing, but it is quite a cross to bear and I DID IT. So if any of you are wondering if God exists I think I have officially solved the question , but God gave me strength beyond my own to be able to share my testimony with our friend. 

So I just want to tell you that it doesn't matter how little, or HUGE, or embarrassing, or shameful, or unique, or difficult your problem is. Heavenly Father does not with hold his help. He cannot judge us for our problems because He gave them to us. And I have many. And wow Hong Kong is awesome but it kind of has a lot of promblems too. I'm beyond thankful for a Father in Heaven and Savior who understand every human being perfectly and know exactly how to help them have the best life possible.  Love you guys.  

Complaining in the rain

Family, oh my family I love you. So it looks like everyone has almost figured out how to be in the same country as each other and that is pretty exciting. I'm so happy for Max. He's been a big inspiration to me. When being a missionary is just not too easy I think of him and think well okay if Max is gonna do it I guess I'll do it too. Mostly I just don't want him to outshine me, but also he is a really good example. Hong Kong is so amazing. Sometimes I just look up at the high buildings and can't even believe I'm here. Cantonese is still just... cantonese. Everybody says not to worry about it but when you go through five hours of church meetings without a clue of what they were about, it's pretty easy to worry.

But my ability to speak is improving so... silver linings yay.  This week we met with our investigator Sister Chung. She is the mother of an ammaazzing girl in our ward. Her name is Glenyis and she's adorable and wonderful and so is her mom. Her Mom is already Christian and has been investigating our church for a while and just warmed up to missionaries. She took us to dim sum and met with us again at the President's house. She also told us for the first time that she is going to read the Book of Mormon. We are so proud of her. She has a thick mandarine accent so if we're being honest here I rarely know what she is saying but I feel so much love for her and can really feel the Spirit when ever she shares her feelings on God. Another miracle, even though her daughter Glynis is doing summer missionary right now (amazing!!) and won't be home, she told us she wants to come to English class on Friday and meet with us afterward. The most I ever related to her is when she told me that English was so hard and I told her cantonese was so hard and then she shared her umbrella with me while we complained to each other.  This week we also got to meet with a family in our ward who have four adorable little kids. I watched them play and it made me think of me and my siblings when we were little. I love getting to be with the families and feel their love and light. It's amazing that even though we also know that they are struggling and challenges that are just heartbreaking, they still have love and they still have God. They are so adorable, I'll send some pictures of them. Also they live in a beyond gorgeous apartment building with an incredible view, I can't even describe how pretty it is.  God is good and kind and life is good and even though it is a hard life that doesn't make it bad. Don't forget that, but I know you won't so that is why I am in Hong Kong talking to people and not to you.

Being Carried

Hi Mom! This week I am feeling a lot better. It is still difficult with the language and all the other things but I have just felt more at peace. I've been trying to focus on no thinking about myself and when I start to feel homesick or sad or annoyed or angry or stressed or anything I just try to remember that I'm not here to be comfortable I'm just here to do what God wants me to do and then I try to think about my companion or the people on the street and its helping me alot. 

The other day I did calls for like four hours because Sister Ng has been pretty sick and at first it was the worst because calls are pretty hard. But then I just started talking to people and asking them about their lives and I couldn't really understand them but it was ok and there was this guy outside out apartment singing terrible karaoke and there I was talking to about a thousand chinese people on the phone and it was the funniest situation I have ever been in.  This whole experience is really pushing me and I'm realizing I want the results but not always the uncomfortable parts.  

Yesterday at church I was feeling so discouraged because I just want to communicate with people but I can't fully understand them when I try to and they can't understand me and I just feel like I sit there feeling so awkard and no one can tell and it is the worst. And then our district leader who is from Korea went up and bore his testimony. He talked about how hard being a missionary is and then he looked at me and said dai ji muih(me) and song jeung louh (elder stober) are new missionaries and they have a lot of difficulties no one can see. I felt like for the first time someone finally got it. I knew that god was really hearing my prayers for them to just get it and so he sent little korean Elder Kim to go tell them. It was a cool experience.  Another tender mercy on a list of many.

When I was in first grade I got sick at school so the school called my Mom and had her pick me up. For some reason (which isn't surprising because we are the Terry's) my Mom didn't have a car at the time and so she walked to the school and when she got there she put me on her back and gave me a piggy back ride all the way home. Our house on Montana Avenue was up at the top of the hill from the school and she carried me the whole way.

I've been thinking about this day a lot. I feel like it is happening again. I feel like Im struggling to understand language and culture so much I cant really do anything on my own yet and so I had to call home. And the person this time who came to pick me up without a car was my Savior. Every morning when I wake up I climb up on His back and He carries me. It's sooooooo hot outside and our house is uphill but he doesn't complain, He doesn't even seem to mind. He is just carrying me home. My heart is full of gratitude for this Jesus who never tires of succoring us. My faith is not perfect and I'm ashamed to admit the way I so often doubt Him and ask Him if He knows what we are even doing. But it doesn't matter. I think that if I was carrying my daughter on my own back up a steep hill and she was telling me I wasn't doing enough I would put her down and say "Okay, do it yourself." But our Jesus does not do that, and wow I am so thankful for that. He hears me out and all the while never stops walking, never puts me down, never makes me do it all on my own.

 I love Him with all my heart and if there is something He is teaching me while on his stable back it is that He love me too. He loves all of His children, maybe especially the ones in Hong Kong.

I love you guys!  Have a great week.