Last week was super busy! We had so many trainings going on haha. VCTM (visitors center training meeting with Elder Hafen), Worldwide Missionary Broadcast, and Zone Conference! And can't forget, Chinese New Year! :) 

- Elder Bruce C. Hafen wrote several books on the topic of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and he taught us more about our unique understanding of the Atonement because of the restoration of the gospel. We know that the Atonement helps us overcome bittterness, become perfected like Jesus Christ, and that there are conditional blessings attached to our decisions. I highly recommend reading some of his talks :) "Beauty for Ashes" and "All for All: The Atonement"

- The Worldwide Broadcast was so good! We learned a lot about how to teach repentance and baptize converts :)

- In Zone Conference, we received a few insights from President Bekker's son and daughter-in-law from their mission experiences. Kaitlyn said one of her favorite quotes is from the movie, "Forever Strong," which says, "practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent." Our attitude about obedience and everything we do here in our mission will develop habits for the rest of our lives! :) It we want to do God's will and what He asks, we can! Everything else in life will fall into place.

VC: 

1) Online, I talked to Matt, who actually met with missionaries when he was in college. He remembered how welcomed he felt at church, and now, years later, he's searching for that again. He was raised Catholic but felt that the way they handled the repentance process was overbearing. I invited him to meet with missionaries again so that he can know if what we believe is true, and have those same feelings again, of our Heavenly Father's love for him. It is great to see that those missionaries he met before planted a seed of faith in him. :)

2) I met Liz and her family from one of the tram tours one evening, and she was super open to learning more! They were visiting from San Francisco, and she is starting to learn more about Christianity, and I was able to testify about the importance of a living prophet, and having a strong family foundation. She loved the temple, and wants to learn more from missionaries!

3) So while I was on exchanges with Sister Lundgren, I tried to call Jan, to confirm if she's met with the missionaries yet. The crazy fact is, the first time I called her, she was so desperate and took it as a sign from God that she needed the elders to give her a priesthood blessing. So I'm thinking, "wow this is perfect! She's going to truly see the miracles of the gospel immediately in her life." But when we called, it was so weird! She basically felt that the missionaries she met were the kindest people ever, and took the time to listen to her problems, and helped(as she talks, she's crying). BUT she has no interest in becoming Mormon ever, because she just can't believe in Joseph Smith as a prophet. We shared our testimonies and continued to encourage her to read the Book of Mormon, but it was so sad to see that she felt the Spirit so strongly but chose to reject that path to learn more. She wanted to find her own answers first. The restored gospel directly relates to the way we treat others, especially in our missionary work. I know that everyone has their timing to receive the gospel, and I'm just grateful she was able to see how much Heavenly Father loves her personally.

4) We said goodbye to Elder and Sister Smith this past week and welcomed our new senior couple, Elder and Sister Chong! They are such honest people and are converts to the church too!

5) On Saturday evening, we had a little celebration to celebrate Chinese New Year! Just at the VC. Sister Lee and a few other sisters prepared a dragon dance for us, and a fan dance. It was too funny! We are so blessed here to learn about different cultures. Then we had a little dinner with fried rice and other goodies. I love my culture! And it is so fun to see many Chinese families on vacation here during this break. Sister Ng and I took a cute family from Beijing to watch God's Plan (video walkthrough presentation) and they were so touched by the Spirit they felt. The mom was reminded about the blessings of spending quality time with her kids. I love opportunities like this, because we rarely have a family who has enough time to watch God's Plan (12 minutes).

Happy belated Chinese New Year everyone! Year of the rooster 🤗🐓. 

Scripture of the week: 3 Nephi 13:19-20

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

​Group picture with Elder Hafen and Sister Hafen(right under the Christus with the yellow tie).

​Dinner with a cute family in our married student ward, Sister Kaopua and her cute baby Leila! We are sad we can't hold babies...

​This is one of our lovely tram drivers for our tram tours from the PCC! William

​Elder and Sister Chong! They are from Utah, but they were both born and raised here in Hawaii. We love them already.