Hong Kong - Kowloon - Track 19 - A super busy week, with lots of ward Christmas parties🎄🎄🎄

Hello family and friends,

Salut la famille et les amis,



yesterday was a super freezing day and we were outside the whole day.

today its still freezing (12c + wind).

Hier, ce fut un jour glacial et nous étions dehors tout ce temps.

Aujourd'hui, ça caille toujours autant (12c, avec le vent)




in the morning, its super hard to get out of my bed but i need to. don't worry i have everything i need to survive this winter,

yesterday xiao jiemei(eternal investigator), tippi's mom gave me a coat, she was worried because she knows that i am not used to the cold. she is so nice, she told me she is my mom in hong kong, so cute !!

i am really blessed to be surrounded by these great people.

Je vous dis pas le matin, c'est super dur de sortir du lit mais je n'ai pas trop le choix.

Mais, ne vous inquiétez pas, j'ai tout ce qu'il faut pour survivre à cet hiver.

Hier, Xiao jiemei (une éternelle amie de l'eglise), la maman de Tippi m'a donné un manteau, elle était inquiète parce qu'elle sait que je n'ai pas l'habitude du froid.

Elle est tellement gentille, elle m'a dit qu'elle était ma maman de Hong Kong, c'est mignon!!

Je suis vraiment bénie d'être entourée par toutes ces personnes formidables.



yesterday, we attended 3 different sacrament meetings, polam ward: some members invited us for christmas dinner at their house, tseung kwan o ward- 1st time visiting them-: we were invited to attend their ward christmas party this coming saturday. then our branch:

Hier, on a assisté à 3 Réunions de Sainte Cène differentes, celle de la paroisse de Po Lam, et des membres nous ont invité chez eux pour un dîner de Noël, la paroisse de Tseung Kwan, c'etait la première fois qu'on y allait, et on est invité à leur Noël de paroisse ce samedi et enfin, on a assisté à la Réunion de Saint Cène de notre branche.




we will also have a christmas party combined with the wan chai mandarin branch this coming saturday.

Et nous aurons aussi notre Noël combiné avec la Branche de Wan Chai ce samedi.




at 4:30, we attended ''alice li'' baptism, she was taught by elder hayden his whole time serving in our district but 3 weeks ago he moved to new territories so he especially came back to baptize her yesterday.

A 4:30, nous avons assisté au Baptême d'Alice Li, elle a été enseigne par elder hayden tout le temps où il a servit dans notre District mais il a été transféré il y a de cela 3 semaines à New Territories, il est donc venu exclusivement hier, pour la baptiser.


in the evening, we visited yang feng (less-active) and her daughter, we ate together ''hotpot'', then shared a christmas message about christ, finally, we gave her the cookies we've prepared with the relief society sisters.

Le soir, nous avons rendu visite à une Sr inactive Yang Feng, il y avait aussi sa fille et on a mangé avec elles "Hotpot" et leur avons ensuite partagé un message de Noël sur le Christ, et lui avons offert ses Cookies que nous avions préparé avec les Soeurs de la SDS.



on saturday, we met with a new investigator, zhen jiemei all the way in ho man tin. she was so great.

Samedi, on a eu notre première rencontre avec Zhen jiemei, une nouvelle amie. Elle était super.




we then rushed our way to po lam for the english class christmas party, we ran trying to catch the bus but we missed it, so we had to wait 20 min for the next bus to come, so we were super late for the activity, we just ate with them and played.

On a ensuite foncé sur Polam pour l'activité de Noël de la classe d'anglais, on a couru pour essayer d'attraper le bus mais on l'a raté et on a du attendre 20 minutes pour le suivant, résultat, on était très en retard, on a juste mangé et on s'est amusée un peu avec eux.




in the evening, we had dinner with the po lam, tko and monica & daughter (polam members), for a Christmas dinner before she leaves hong kong to visit her family.

Le soir, on a dîner avec des membres de la paroisse de Po Lam, Tko, Monica et leur fille, pour célébrer Noël avant de quitter HK pour aller voir sa famille.



friday, we were invited for the ngau tau kok ward christmas activity. we attended it with huang jiemei and kenny (our investigator).

Vendredi on a été invité pour le Noël de la Paroisse de Ngau Tau Kok. Nous y sommes allées avec nos amies Huang jm et Kenny.


wednesday, in the evening we attended the po lam english class, with mandy and her mom (investigators).

Dans la soirée de mercredi, nous avons assisté à la classe d'anglais à Po Lam, avec nos amies Mandy et sa maman.



last monday, we had zone devotional and played a fun game.

Lundi dernier, nous avons eu un Devotional de la Zone et avons eu un jeu super marrant.


wow a lot of things happened this week and this coming week sound super busy. see you next week.

Wow, beaucoup de choses ont eu lieu cette semaine et celle qui arrive promet d'être elle aussi super chargée.

A la semaine prochaine.


love you all.

Je vous aime tous.







sister colombel.

Hong Kong - Kowloon - Track 18- We were happy to spend some time and help the sisters, who all came straight from work, so busy, so tired... much respect for them

Hello everyone!



Christmas is coming soon i am so excited to talk to my family.
Christmas is not a big thing here only among christians so you are the one who need to bring the special spirit of Christmas.


Salut tout le monde!
Noël approche à grands pas et je suis impatiente de parler avec ma famille.
Ici Noël ne fait pas partie des festivités, seulement parmi les chrétiens.




last week, we had a slow and long beginning but we were determined to do our best to serve and especially serve in a happy and positive way.
By the end of the week, we were blessed to meet with new potential investigators.
when we did not really expected things to happen they just happened.


La semaine passée, on a démarré très timidement mais nous étions déterminées à donner le meilleur de nous même et servir dans la Joie et avec la Positive attitude.
Arrivées en fin de semaine, nous avons été bénies de trouver de nouveaux amis potentiels.
Alors que nous nous y attendions plus, s'est arrivé.


on wednesday night, we went to the po lam adult english class with mandy and her mom.
for the first time since we are going to this english class we had more than one student and 6 missionaries.


Mercredi soir, nous sommes allées à la classe d'anglais pour adulte de la paroisse de Po Lam.
Pour la première fois depuis que nous assistons à cette classe d'anglais, il y a eu plus qu'1 seul étudiant et 6 missionnaires.


on friday night, we went to help the relief society sisters to make cookies put them in bags with small messages. it was also a good time to spend with our sisters, they are all so busy and they are tired, they all just came straight from work.


Vendredi soir, nous sommes allées aider les Sr de la Société de Secours à faire des cookies et les mettre en sachets avec un petit mot.
Ce fut aussi une bonne occasion de passer du temps avec nos Srs, elles sont toutes tellement occupées et fatiguées, toutes revenaient directement du travail.


on saturday, we had english class then ate lunch and went to investigators, yang jtiemei and her daughter, mandy with the member, cindy.
the mandarin branches had a temple activity in the morning but we could not attend it.
in the evening, we attended the kowloon east stake christmas activity, there were a lot of performances, our english class had to sing and play, the birth of christ. mandy came, zhen jiemei a former that we called the day before also came with her friends and a member referral, hazel also came.
it was so good to have all of them coming because all the performances were about christ and showed what important place he has in our life.


Samedi, on a eu classe d'anglais puis on a dejeune et ont est allé chez nos investigateurs, Yang jm et sa fille Mandy accompagné d'une membre Cindy.
La Branche mandarin a eu une activité au Temple le matin, mais nous n'avons pas pu y assister.
Dans la soirée, nous avons été à l'activité de Noël du Pieu de Kowloon Est, il y a eu bcp de spectacles. Notre classe d'anglais devions chanter et faire un sketch sur la naissance du Christ.
Mandy est venue, Zhen jm, une ancienne amie, que nous avions appelé la veille est aussi venue avec des amies, ainsi qu'une référence d'un membre, et Hazel.
C'était vraiment bien qu'elles soient toutes venues car toutes les prestations portaient sur le Christ et démontrait la place importante qu'il a dans nos vies.


Yesterday, it was our branch primary program, it was so funny, they were all cute and funny.
we have a small primary but all of them were not afraid to share their testimony and small talks.
Hier a eu lieu le Programme Primaire de notre Branche, c'etait trop marrant, ils étaient tous adorables et marrants.
Nous avons une petite primaire mais tous n'avaient pas peur de partager leurs petits discours et temoignages.


This was our week, have a great week all! bye bye.
Ce fut notre semaine, passez tous une bonne semaine!
Nana.


Sister  Colombel

Hong Kong - Kowloon - Track 17 - We taught a brother who was super proud of his decision to get baptized...

DA JIA HAO!           


We are emailing a little bit late today,
Aujourd'hui, j'envoie mon émail un peu tard (lol, 2h du mat, pour nous à Tahiti)


Today was a little bit special we did not have ''pday'',
Donc, ce fut assez special et donc, pas de pday pour nous.

We had a visitor, a brother (not common!), he was super prepared and he is also the first one in his family to join the church but he is planing on bringing his wife and son too.
Nous avons eu un visiteur, un frere ( ce n'est pas commun), il etait super bien préparé et il est aussi le premier de sa famille à joindre l'église, et, il prévoit aussi d'envoyer sa femme et son fils.

We spent the whole day with him, we taught the 5 lessons with roger's help in the morning and brother tao in the afternoon, they are members in the branch i am serving in.
at 6:00pm, we had the baptismal service with elder garcia and elder clark help, president also attended.
I never saw a convert that happy the day of his baptism, he was so happy that when he received his baptism certificate he stood up and read it to everyone.
I could tell that he was so proud of his decision, and especialy he was really grateful for us but especially to heavenly father.
so it was a great day, and a special day!

On a passe toute la journée avec lui, on lui a enseigne les 5 leçons avec l'aide de Fr Roger le matin et Fr Tao, l'après-midi, ils sont tous les 2 membres de la Branche où je sers.
A 18h, a eu lieu le Baptême avec l'aide d'Elder Garcia et Elder Clark, Pdt Lam etait aussi présent.
Je n'ai jamais vu un Converti aussi heureux le jour de son Baptême. Il était tellement heureux que quand on lui a remis son Certificat de Baptême, il s'est levé et l'a lu pour tout le monde.
J'ai vu à quel point il etait fier de la décision qu'il avait prise, de plus, il nous était tellement reconnaissant et encore plus à Pere Céleste.
Ce fut donc un jour magnifique et Spécial.


Yesterday, we went all the way to po lam thinking that it was a normal sunday but we got there and no one, we called the members and they told us it was stake conference for them and that it will be held at 10:00, so we traveled all the way to ho man tin and attended the stake conference with the po lam members and the rest of the members that we never met before!

Hier, nous avons été jusqu'à Po Lam pensant que c'était un dimanche comme les autres, mais en arrivant, pas un chat, on a appelé des membres qui nous ont dit qu' ils avaient Conférence de Pieu à 10h, on a donc du faire le voyage jusqu'à Ho Man Tin et nous avons donc assisté à la Conférence de Pieu avec les Membres de Po Lam et d'autres membres que nous ne connaissions pas.


In the afternoon, we attended our branch church services, justin's family came, the elders asked us to take care of them while they were in wan chai on their way to kowloon tong.
i like this family so much, their daughter is so cute, i will try next time they come to take pictures with them.
Dans l'après-midi, nous avons assisté aux réunions de notre Branche, la Famille Justin était présente, les Elders nous ont demandé de nous occuper d'eux alors qu'ils quittaient Wan chai pour venir sur Kowloon Tong.
J'aime beaucoup cette famille, leur fille est tellement mignonne, j'essayerai de prendre une photo avec eux la prochaine fois.


As of right now i dont remember the past week, but i guess it was a good week!
still working hard but next week, we will do better, we are going to focus on our less actives more.
we contacted some of them and they are super nice but busy.
we also contacted some formers and two of them were super interersted about the gospel so we are going to meet with them hopefully this week.
this week will be such a great week!
let's pray for miracles to happen, its christmas so we can only expect good things and mircales to happen.


Sinon, je ne me rappelle plus trop de la semaine écoulée, mais ce fut une belle semaine!
On continue de travailler dur mais la semaine prochaine, nous ferons encore mieux, on va se focaliser d'avantage sur nos inactifs.
On en a contacté plusieurs, ils sont super sympa mais très occupés.
On a aussi contacté d'anciennes références et 2 sont super intéressés par l'évangile, donc on va les voir, je l'espère cette semaine.
Cette semaine sera très prometteuse!
Prions pour que des miracles se produisent.
C'est Noël donc on ne peut qu'espérer de Bonnes choses et des Miracles se produirent.


i love you all, sorry i dont have a lot of pictures for the past week. bye bye.


Je vous aime tous, désolée, je n'ai pas beaucoup de photos cette semaine.
Nana


Sister colombel

Hong Kong - Kowloon - Track 16 - I just need to be patient...

Hello family and friends ! mom shared with me some good news, more soldiers are joining us, its so great. i heard also the missionary work is moving forward in our stake, i am also happy to hear that everyone is trying their best to keep their testimony, serving to establish heavenly father's kingdom on earth, through doing family history, temple ordinances, going on split with missionaries.


We had a tough week, not super successful. we again had some '' false-hope''  but its okay we move forward with faith.
This week during one of my personal study time i was studying... in the beginning of alma, he did not have the exact same experience but while i was reading i just thought about these past days struggles. so it was the time when alma went to ammonihah but then the people there rejected him and he needed to flee.

So he was going through much tribulations and sorrows but then an angel appeared unto him, telling him to return so he did what the angel told him to do and there he found amulek and together they went to preach to the people. there is a lot of things to learn from this scripture s story. 

But it has teach me a really simple principle and it is that i just need to be patient and do what the lord wants me to do. and if alma has received the blessings then why not us...

Anyway, so there is not a lot of exciting things that happened this past week but a few.
so on saturday i met with christelle my great grandma friend native from tahiti we ate with her and her daughter. and we talked about random things but also a little bit about ''family and the gospel'', i asked er if she would like to hear more about the gospel she accepted and added that she would love her family to hear it too, but she is going to ask them and next saturday we are going to visit them together at their house, so we are waiting for her answer. please pray for them.
Also on saturday, a none member family came to church, hannah, justin and their cute daughter nathalie. she is so cute, she is 12 months and she like to talk. she gave me a kiss, and was smilling at me all the time, i wanted to hold her so hard....but we can't, i miss babies so much......
they are going to start to meet with the elders, elder garcia and elder yang.


Last night we had a ''thanksgiving'' dinner at the leonards with the 8 missionaries together. tonight again but with sarah, we are going out. and on thursday its our zone thanksgiving.


Bye bye, love you all.
Sister colombel

Hong Kong - Kowloon - Track 15 - Yearning to save some souls...

Hello fam and friends, its cloudy and cool (22c) today!
we don't have any special plan for the day, sister dodge just want to do a little bit of clothes shopping, and we will probably have time to rest.
tonight we are going to do ''less-active finding'' in tseun kwan o.


this week heavenly father really tried my faith. last week i was sharing about some member's referrals that we were going to work with, and we were hoping to meet with them if they have interest. so yesterday, one of the member referral came to church, i had hope that he was going to like it and so on, but then he said that he does not actually have interest. we've asked another member about her referral and then said that she actually does not have interest. and a lot of different things stressful and disappointing happened. but with all of this we worked super hard because we know that heavenly father will bless us in his time.


yesterday, my companion shared with me some of her actual struggles, so i tried to help her by sharing my personal experiences when i first started my mission. this discussion help me to see, how much i have changed and learned in the space of 1 year. there were a lot of things i did not understand about heavenly father, his ways, his plans for me.
i had a lot of questions, fears and doubts but in these trials i've discovered who i am and who heavenly father and jesus christ are.
a lot of the questions she had were the ones i had before but now i have a better understanding. my thought is that everyone think that the mission is to find heavenly father's children and to bless them with the gospel but when you are his Servant, his missionary, mission has a more deeper and sacred meaning. its hard for me to explain probably those who served a mission can understand.
i love my mission even though i need to worry and stress a lot but those i am stressing and worrying for, worth it because they mean so much to heavenly father.


happy birthday mom, you are the best! i love you !


hope you will all have a great week, a safe and happy week.
heavenly father loves you all, and me too!!

Hong Kong - Kowloon - Track 14 - Open your mouth !

hello fam and friends,


i don't really know what to say but we are still working hard, this week we spent time with some potential investigators during activities so we are looking forward for the next time we can meet with them.
so heavenly father really know the challenges we are facing right now, and he knows how to better help us.
so actually, we are working with 3 investigators, not super solid.
then last wednesday, we had ''mission tour'', our special guest was elder evans. he gave several trainings, with lots of invitations, lots of call to repentance. he said a lot of things in his training. he talked about the time he was serving in the japan nagoya mission as a full-time missionary and mission president. he talked about the ''mission language'', he said how important it is to learn it, and maintain it because only heavenly father knows how he will use it in the future... he also invited us the missionaries to ''open our mouth'', ''talk to everyone'' and ''ask referrals 100%''. (it is really a resume of what he said).
sister lam and president lam also talked to us, and it was so touching, he told us that he loves us . they shared their conversion story, and how the sisters who shared the gospel with sister lam blessed not only ''one soul'', sister lam but her whole family and her whole posterity.
so by applying what elder evans shared, we went home and i talked to the first person i was standing by in the mtr, and then she said ''hello'' back like we knew each other and she asked me if i remember her , so actually i met her one day we were doing finding her name is ''yoyo'' she is from mainland but is regularly coming down to hong kong, this time i gave her my number.
another thing that we've applied was to ask referrals so on friday night we visited zhu jm a member and we asked her and she gave us a referral. we also ask selin, and on saturday evening we visited her and she told us that her friend, james wants to come and see us on sunday. so a lot of miracles happened.
sadly i don't have tones of time to share everything. but we are blessed.


next week i will try to share more. i love you all, great week.

Hong Kong - Kowloon - Track 13 - Solid investigators come from members of the Church

Hello friends and family!
I know that last email was super short, i am sorry for that!
hopefully today's email will be better.
so with sister dodge we are in the 2nd week of training, she is adapting pretty well, her mandarin is already pretty good (studied 5 years in high school). so i can focus on other stressful stuffs. we don't have a lot of investigators right now, so we are focusing on finding those who are prepared to receive the restored gospel.


president lam before transfers told us that we needed to focus more on a certain part of our area that we kind of neglected before, so with sister dodge we are focusing on this area.


this week i had a lot of things that stressed me, but in those situations i saw heavenly father hands guiding me and placed people on the way.
one of the experience that i had this week happened yesterday.
so since last week, we are working with the cantonese elders in one of the ward in the focusing area. we are trying to work with the members because the solid investigators come from members, investigators referrals. but the thing is that they don't know us and they speak cantonese or they can understand mandarin but they speak cantonese back to me (i can sometimes understand...).
so the first challenge is for them to know that we exist, then communicate with them, then for them to trust us and be willing to introduce their friends, none member's family. so on sunday, we went for the sacrament meeting which started at 9;30, we arrived there right on time, the sacrament was in cantonese of course so maybe i understood 5 %, i was stressing about how i am going to do to talk with the members and get to know them in 2 min because we needed to travel all the way back to kowloon tong for our sacrament meeting at 1. i don't know how many prayers i did but at the end, chen jm who has just finished her mission (she was serving with us in hong kong mandarin speaking), she came and talked to us and then after she invited us to come next sunday to her house she is with her mom organizing a party with members and investigators. and they will help us invite one of the potential investigator t we have in the ward.
that is the miracle, i almost cried when she came to us and invited us.
the most important thing i remember is that heavenly father answers our prayers, in his own time, and he knows what is best for us.


thats the week's email, i don't have time to write a pretty conclusion. but everyone have a great week, i love you all.


bao jiemei.

Hong Kong - Kowloon - Track 12 - I am a Mom now !

Hello everyone, i don't have a lot of time today. i have received some good and surprising news today. i am happy to see that everyone is doing good, and especially super happy to see that the faith of those i love and cherish is growing or is even still exciting.
Salut tout le monde.
Je n'ai pas beaucoup de temps aujourd'hui. J'ai recu de bonnes et d'etonnantes nouvelles aujourd'hui.
Je suis contente de voir que tout le monde va bien et aussi tres heureuse de voir que la Foi de ceux que j'aime et cherit grandit ou est toujours belle et bien presente.


It started to get colder this week, so people started to wear sweaters, jackets and so do i...
Il a commence a faire plus froid cette semaine et les gens commencent a mettre des pulls, manteaux et moi aussi...



I guess you've already watched the ''transfer'' video, so yeah i am training and my trainee is siter dodge from lehi, utah. she is super nice, she likes to talk so i guess i need to talk more, that's good!!!
I am trying to be the niciest companion and help her do missionary work.
Je pense que vous avez deja vu la video des transferts, alors oui, je suis formatrice et ma "fille" est Sr Dodge, elle vient de Lehi/Utah et elle est Super!!!
Elle aime parler alors je crois que je vais devoir faire un effort pour parler d'avantage et ce n'est pas plus mal...




My email this week will be really short. but i love you all.
please pray for us as the area has been splited with the other sisters and we only have 2 to 3 investigators. we no longer teach miko, i'm quite sad but sister grover and sister lee are taking good care of her.
Mon courriel de cette semaine sera vraiment court, mais sachez que je vous aime tous.
S'il vous plait, on a besoin de vos Prieres, notre secteur a ete divise avec deux autres Soeurs Mandarin, donc nous n'avons plus wue 2 voire 3 amies et je n'enseigne plus Miko, je suis un peu triste mais je sais qu'elle est entre de bonnes mains avec Sr Grover er Sr Lee.


I love you all.

Je vous aime.