This
week's shout out goes out to vests, or sleeveless cardigans as my mom calls
them. I totally look ridiculous, but they're crazy warm. I'll bring 'em back,
just wait ;)
So I'm slowly
remembering people. And with that, as we go over to their houses, I'm like
"Yeah... wait I've been here before" and then the members go
"Yeah! We thought we knew you, but the sisters said we'd never met you
before so we didn't want you to think we were crazy." I still don't know
most of the people in the ward. I can't even remember that I've met them before
haha
We had a huge zone
conference, which is basically where a bunch of missionaries all gather
together and we get to hear from President Meredith and get trained all day. It
was great but it's also very spiritually draining. I learned a lot though, and
I'm planning on being a better missionary because of it. One great thing that
happened though, was there's this lady in the area, who hand stitched a bunch
of towels. So there's a patch on the towels, and there's California and a star
where our mission is, and then there's "Oakland/San Francisco California
Mission" and it was just so awesome that someone would take the time to do
all that for us. So so sweet. I don't even want to use the towel.
The ward had a Relief
Society Christmas party, which was nice in that we got to meet a lot of
members, and the food was great. We also had a ward Christmas party, which was
awesome. We had some less actives show up, and the whole thing was service
based. Like people came in, and they were tying quilts, or putting together
hygiene kits, or wrapping gifts. There was just such a tender spirit as we
stood there watching this all happen. It was kind of overwhelming. All the ward
members were so willing to participate, and they didn't care that they weren't
going to benefit from them. Then the whole program was really focused on
Christ, which was so great.
We taught Bob this
week! He was so so close to coming to church. I know that once he comes to
church, he'll feel the spirit and know that it's undeniable. It's just true.
But we had two really great lessons with him, and we brought awesome members
with us each time. He actually was like "Well, I can tell Sister Park is
pretty serious, and Sister Kwan is kind of... Well, she's the kind that makes
jokes and pulls pranks" I just started laughing. He's so funny. He's
really receptive, but he's not willing to take the plunge (yet) and as of right
now, it's kind of a waiting game. But it will happen. Soon.
The Guillen family is
so so great. I love them. There's the mom, her boyfriend, and her son and twin
daughters. They're so funny. And really smart. They have these two cats, Simba
and Jasmine, who they just love to death. But we were sitting there making
cards for cancer patients since we talked about charity, and one of the twins
says, "Simba's really really fat. Maybe he should fast like Joseph [her
brother] so he can lose weight." And I started busting up because who even
thinks of that? It's genius though, I will say. But they are such a cute
family. Joseph is a really really nice boy. But he's a typical 10 year old boy.
Then there's Alicia and Sophia, who I still can't tell the difference between
until I talk to them. Sophia is kind of a punk, but Alicia is the sweetest.
She's always asking us if we need anything, or if she can do anything for us.
And their mom is really just trying her best, and I think she's doing a great
job. It must be really hard though, so I'm always amazed that she holds it
together so well.
We had dinner at the
Lee's this week, and they are the cutest. Sister Lee went off on how BYU
removes agency and her daughters were singing and playing piano and her husband
was telling us about how he applied to John Hopkins and didn't even want to go
there but got locked in to going. It was kind of a crazy night. But their
daughter, Emily, can sing SO well. We were like "Hey... can you sing for
us?" She goes "NO" but then as we're heading out the door, she
goes, "Well... maybe I can sing you a little bit.. this song is from that
new movie 'Frozen' so here goes..." yeah, she can really really sing. And
the other two are just cute haha
So I woke up one
morning and both sides of my chin are bruised. I don't really know what
happened, but I guess I punched myself on both sides of my face one night?
Weird.
Met with a less active
who told us she doesn't believe in the after life. But she believes in heaven
and hell. But she wants to be cremated and have her ashes thrown across the
ocean so she can fly away. But she also wants to ride a motorcycle. I have no
idea if this makes sense to anyone else, but we are going to follow up. I was
like "You know, when we get there, I hope you let me ride with you on the
motorcycle, because my mom would kill me if I did that anytime soon." And
she just looked at me and smiled. Lots and lots of follow up questions...
Yesterday's dinner
included peasant that had been shot by our member. I know it was fresh because
I found some of those little like pellet things while I was eating. Peasant is
kind of tough, I don't really recommend it. That and buffalo. We also met with
our recent convert, Shuwei, who I actually taught that first time I came here
as an investigator, and he's so funny. He's an exchanges student from China and
he's going home next week, which will be interesting since China isn't really
all about freedom of religion. He was telling us his favorite music artists and
he says, "Well, I really like Taylor Swift, but there's also Ke$ha, Katy
Perry, Rihanna..." hahahaha
This week's thought is
on joy. It was the theme for our Christmas party- Jesus Others and You. Tricky
right? But I was thinking about what really makes us happy. And not just
content, but joyful. And ultimately, it's the things that last forever.
Relationships with family, friends, God. Working hard all day every day for a
good cause. Not many things will bring that lasting happiness, but I do know
that Christ can provide that. Despite our flaws, God loves us unconditionally.
And thank goodness He does, because otherwise it'd be pretty hopeless. But
that's only one of SO MANY things that I'm grateful for at this time.
Especially all of you good people.
Keep the Christ in
Christmas
Love,
Sister Kwan
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