GONG HEI FAT CHOI!

CHINESE NEW YEARS!!!!!!!!! It's been so much fun!! I'm pretty hyper right now, so this email will be all over the place. 

Okay. Lets go.

For New Years, everyone says these saying to each other after saying Happy New Year. My favorite thing to do has been to try and learn them all and recite them to everyone after I say Happy New Year. I know a lot of them :)

Heart-thing-want-become (May your dreams come true)

body-health (have a healthy year)

dragon-horse-energy (May you be as healthy as a horse or dragon)

step-step-tall-rise (May you progress one step at a time to perfection)

Layer by layer pretty(Get prettier every day)

Job Trust (good luck with your job)

RANDOM FACT! It is bad luck to give people oranges on New Years because the word for oranges sounds like the word for bad luck. Instead they give each other these tiny fruits that look just like mini oranges. They are good luck because they sound like the word for good luck. Do not try to call them small oranges, or else everyone in the market will start yelling at you....not that I know from experience....

We had a ward activity today and someone found an old dragon dance costume in a closet, and I got in it and pretended like I knew what I was doing. SOO FUN!!

RUGBY The Young Men brought a Rugby ball to the activity. We tossed it back and forth for a while, but then I had to stop. It made me feel like a weird mix between pumped for a game and homesick. 

As a missionary, ward activities are some of the MOST stressful times. You have to try and help them have the best experience possible, but it has to be the best experience possible with the members, NOT us!! Today Lee Yi and Siu Pohpo came to our ward activity. And our members were AWESOME!! They loved it!! There were some lonely moments, but then a member would swoop in and save the day!! ILOVEMYWARDSOMUCH!!!!!!!!

My members are better than your members. I was changed almost every day this week. To AMAZING FOOD!! And Chinese Culture is that you pretty much need to eat twice your body weight in food. And members know that missionaries are supposed to respect the culture, so they guilt trip us eating MORE!! And then they bring out the soup. Then the fruit. Then the dessert soup. Then the real soup. Then they box up all the leftovers and tell us to eat them the next day with our roommates. One day I will figure out why Chinese people are so skinny, but it is not this day.

Chinese New Year FINDING

Because everyone was either in Mainland, or else celebrating with their family, we had a lot of time this week to practice our finding. We weirdly did a lot of English contacts with people who are Chinese but born in England/America and don't speak Chinese but came back to see family. VERY weird...... I'm glad I'm not an English speaking missionary. I can do the chatting fine, but I trip over my words every time I try to bring up the gospel.

Red Envelopes

It's Chinese Culture that at New Years, married people give unmarried people money in red envelopes. The red envelopes are sooo pretty! And people just walk around with bunches handing them out to every unmarried person they know.

Weird food of the week

Pig Skin, Eel, NOT ORANGES (they look just like mini oranges though.....), lotus root, pig knuckle, pig feet, 

Love you all. This work truly is of God. I'm so blessed that I get to see so many miracles every day. How amazing is it, that we are CHILDREN OF GOD! He LOVES US!! We lived with Him before this life, and He has given us a plan that we can BE WITH HIM AGAIN!! If that's not beautiful, I don't know what is.

I'll send pictures next week. Pinky Promise

(Editors Note: The pictures below are from the Facebook page of the ward where Joanna is serving)

-- 

Love

Sister Hugo

Yiu Ji Muih

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THIS is why I came on a Mission

I think I'll have to send out a follow up email when an investigator gets baptized saying "I was 

joking before 

THIS REALLY IS why I cam on a Mission"

Anyway. This week we have been doing more finding because everyone and their tiny purse 

dogs are going back to mainland for Chinese New Year. Which is fine with me because I love 

finding!! My theory is that if I keep telling myself that, it will eventually be true, but that's 

besides the point. Saturday was a day of miracles. A potential we contacted ~2 months ago 

called and wants to meet, a Less Active walked up to us on the street and gave us lunch, and 

in general we were just in the right place at the right time all day. At the end of the day we 

only had 30 minutes to do finding. It was tempting to go home and do calls, but we're trying 

to be more excited about finding -- so we went finding!! The second person we talked to told 

us her life story, and opened up about her drug addicted son, her family problems, and about 

how she's never been sure if God is real. We prayed together, all cried, and rescheduled her. 

The real miracle is that she showed up! I'd say maybe 1 in 20 people show up if you reschedule 

them.  We're planning on seeing A-Ying (that's her name) about 3 times this week, so hopefully 

she will commit to a baptism date before the week is over!

I'm a Sister Training Leader now! That just means that I'm in charge of the spiritual/emotional well 

being for all the sisters in my Zone, and I share responsibility with the Zone leaders for the 

missionary work for all the Zone's missionaries. I'm excited. Also nervous. 

Did I tell you Siu Pohpo has a baptismal date? March 12!!

There are a lot of reasons I came on my mission. But one of them was for moments like this. My 

life has been so incredibly blessed by the knowledge that I have of my Savior's love. I can't 

imagine life without it, and the idea that some people do it is astounding to me. I'm just glad 

I get the chance to share this joy with my brothers and sisters in Hong Kong. 

To me, this really is a marvelous work and a wonder.

-- 

Love

Sister Hugo

Yiu Ji Muih

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New Life and Old Life

Sister Hoxer goes home this week. I'm going to miss her like crazy. She keeps teasing me that I'm not going to cry and so she is going to force me to sing "God Be With You Till We Meet Again" in our last Comp Study. In missionary lingo, going home is "dying" which means that I am "killing her". I freak out a little though anytime anyone says anything though, so I normally just deny that she is every leaving. YAY! Solving my problems like an adult!

Last week we went biking and took some awesome pictures (which is good, because I don't have time for a long group email this week and these will cover it up)

Sister Woodruff said "thug life pic" and I had NO idea what to do. Enter this face.

Sister Thomson!! We were seperated for a whole days because of transfers, so we had apicture OVERLOAD
​​

With all these pretty pictures, I had to have at least one ugly one

Me and Sister Woodruff #GingersUnite #InstaWorthy

This is what our trio looks like for the past 12 days. Except high resolution.

See you next week!​
-- 

Love

Sister Hugo

Yiu Ji Muih

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One of those weeks

It's been one of those weeks where I look back and just think "A lot of things happened. I KNOW a lot of things happened.....WHY CAN'T I REMEMBER ANY OF IT!!"

Hmm......

Well I guess I'll just start spewing random things.

We're a trio! Me, Sister Hoxer, and Sister Woodruff (yes, related to THAT Woodruff, President Woodfruff, Prophet Woodruff. Our ward is SOOOO excited!) Being in a  trio is interesting.... I did it in the MTC,  but the MTC is VERY different. For now, our apartment is VERY crowded with an extra persons's luggage. But it works out really well  because the week after Sister Hoxer goes home we have deep cleaning day. You've never heard of deep cleaning day? We take all P-Day to stay in the Apartment and deep clean the whole thing. All day. Yay. I'm so excited. Really.

yay

Our investigators are doing really well. Last week at church they were passing around the new lesson manual (Gordon B. Hinckley, AKA my favorite) and Sister Lee and her daughter Bluey took one. They said this week that they LOVE reading it, and whever Bluey is stressed with school (which is every day, welcome to Asia) she asks her Mom to read it out loud to her. They also requested a copy to give to their grandpa. They are SOO CUTE!!

 

-- 

Love

Sister Hugo

Yiu Ji Muih

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Happy New Years!!

I have begun an epic journey to document the amazing Christmas Package that my family sent me. So this is me using the pocket knife to cut an apple for lunch. 

​I was really poor this last month (spending a lot of money traveling to do everything on Sister Homer's bucket list while she still has time). I was really okay until the last 3 days when I was really grateful for all of the ramen members gave us for Christmas. I did get to have feast of re-hydrated LASAGNA! Wow.  I never realized how much I missed cheese. 

Wai Ki was set apart this week!! She's going to serve in the Australia Brisbane mission, but she's taking a pit stop in the New Zealand MTC for a little bit first. We're SO excited for her!! She's a convert of a year and a half, and her testimony is AMAZING!! She would help us teach lessons a couple times a week, and I'm not sure what we are going to do without her. 

Happy New Year!! As a New Years present, we got move calls. I get to stay in Sheung Shui for another 9 weeks (YESSSS!!!!!) but starting Thursday I'll be in a Trio -- Me, Sister Hoxer, and Sister Woodruff who I only know because she is the only other Ginger Sister in the mission. Sister McNeely is staying in Fanling, but Sister Thomson is moving out to Tai Wai. I'm going to miss her so much. I've lived with her for ALLL of my mission. 10 months to be roommates is a long time in normal time, so in mission time it might as well be forever. 

Love you all!!
-- 

Love

Sister Hugo

Yiu Ji Muih

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