Here are all the e-mails Peter has sent since April 1st. Hope you enjoy, sorry we are slackful!
April 8th 2010 ONE YEAR!!
This Week in West Point:
Hey Family!!!! =) How are you? It has been exactly one whole year to the day since i've seen you. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by! I miss you all so much! Everyone is starting to call me an old missionary now. haha i still feel like i just got here. Today for our Year Mark my MTC group (Elder Plumb, Illum, Harper, and me) are going to Sai Kung to an american steak restuarant =) haha I'm so excited!! What i really miss right now though is Mexican Food!! I would give anything for a Chickin soft taco from Del Taco or a pork borretto from Barbacoa, or from Cafe Rio =) haha oh my gosh those sound so good right now. Chinese food is really good though don't get me wrong. by the way panda express is nothing even close to real chinese food =) haha the strangest thing i've probably eaten in hong kong is probably pigs ear =) I really did. very interesting testure. haha my favorite thing is the curry though. I love curry here. That and the barbacued pork rice box. so good!! =) If mom and dad come to pick me up i'll have them try it all...including the pigs ear =) haha just kidding.
This last week has been really good. We have a couple new investigators that are way cool. One of them, Dixon, is really into details and it takes us an hour just to talk about one principle =) haha he's way cool though. Mr Leung is doing really good. He came to Sacrament meeting last week!! Right aftert I asked him what he thought and he chuckled and said do you really want me to say. haha that's just how he is but when we taught him on monday he actually seemed really touched be the testimonies. (Last sunday was fast and testimony meeting. we don't have general conference untill this weekend. we always have it one week after you guys). We went over 3Nephi 11 that we gave him to read the week before and he had alot of questions. one of them was from one of the verses Christ says that if you don't follow the things that he just told them in the chapter then you will be damned. Mr Leung said that it sounds like Christ is threttening them. We explained that Nowhere in the scriptures or in our lives will God, Jesus Christ, or the Holy Ghost use fear or threts to get us to do something. Those feelings are only from Satan. What Christ was doing was giving them and us a loving warning. If a curous young child wants to touch the hot stove because it's so beautiful and bright and the parents tell the child don't touch the stove because you will burn your hands. is the parent threttening the child or out of love for there son just warning him of the consiquences. Everything that God does for us is out of love. He loves us so much. it's kind of funny though because i had the same question as Mr Leung. I didn't understand why Christ would talk that way but as we answered his question i realised that even though we didn't have the answer, the Holy Ghost did and he was speaking through us. it's really kinda hard to explain but I know that sometimes we may have some questions that we don't know the answer to but as we have Faith in Christ and Trust in him, then the aswer will come but only if we are humble enough and willing to accept the answer no matter what it is. I really love the word Faith in chinese because it really defines what faith really is. Seun Sam. Seun means to trust and believe. Sam means heart. Together in Chinese Seun Sam means Confidence or Faith. We need to trust, believe, and have confidence in Christ. haha there's some chinese for you guys to work on =) haha
I love my mission so much. I've learned so much and am still learning even more. I love you all so much and I know that Heavenly Father is watching over you guys for me while i'm gone. Making sure you guys stay out of trouble =) haha I love you all. Have a good week and i'll talk to you next week =)
Love Elder McAllister
April 15th 2010
This Week in West Point:
Hey Family!! How are you all? Today is moves day but i found out on tuesday that Me and Elder Hawkins will be staying together for another move (6 weeks). I'm pretty excited that i don't have to leave yet. Oh hey our mission is on the web now http://www.lds.org.hk/ldsorghk_0908/english/hk_mission/members_and_mission_Eng.htm I think it's just some testimonies of some missionaries and how members can help in missionary work. You guys can check it out.
This last week was really good. I loved General Conference! Mr Leung and another investigator Bryan were able to come. Mr Leung thought they were really good talks. he really liked Elder Erying's on the saturday morning session. My favorite was Uchtdorf's on patience and Elder Hollands. Elder Holland SLAMED DOWN!!!! =) It was awesome! last night we taught Sister Fung (recient convert) and we talked about the talkes and shared our favorites. We talked about how they focused on family alot. We read the verse in Helamen 5:12 or 13 i can't remember. about the foundation of Christ. we talked about how if we build our family on the foundation of Christ it will and can not fall.
When we taught Mr Leung we read 2 Nephi 32 and really tried to stress the importance of prayer. I really hope that this week he will pray by himself. We talked a little bit about the pre earth life and revewed some of the plan of salvation. He still doesn't believe in God but we testified that if he prayed continually and got to know Heavenly Father then he would know for sure without a doubt that God lives. I love Mr Leung so much and i know that one day he is going to have the strongest testimony of our Heavenly Father.
I love being out here so much and I seriously never want to leave. I'm not going to say that Missionary work is easy because it's not but it's deffinately the funnest thing i've ever done and i love it so much. One day we will all be sitting around the family room and share all our mission stories. I love you all so much! I hope you all have a great week this week. THE CHURCH IS TRUE.
Oh one more thing. i don't know if any steaks in the states are going to do this but here they just started a plan for each member to give out church pamphlets (The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, The Plan of Salvation, The Gospel of Jesus Christ) at least i think that's what they are called in english =) haha anyway i'm not sure if they are going to do that there but if not you guys can still do it. just ask the missionaries in your ward for some pamphlets, and trust me they will love you for this, and give them to anyone. Friends, Co workers, anyone. It's an amazing way to share the gospel. I love you all so much! I'll talk to you next week.
Love Elder McAllister
April 22nd 2010
Hey Family =) How are all of you doing? I'm excited to hear about my new neice, rachel, and for Louise and Jakes baby!! =) It's going to be so crazy coming home with a bunch of new kids running around. and i bet everyone else has gotten so big. I miss you all so much!! I love Hong Kong though. Mybe i'll just stay out here after my mission. I'll just buy a fishing boat and chill on an island and talk chinese to some gangster Poh Pohs =) I can't believe that one year has gone by already and i keep trying to forget it but every one here likes to remind me of how old i am. It's all good. I've still got plenty of time =)
This week has been really fun. alot of finding time because alot of our investigators are not progressing right now so we've kind of put our visits with some of them on pause. Finding is pretty fun though. you really get to see some pretty interesting things and meet some strange people. We talked to a guy the ather day that is a really strong member of the christian church that he goes to. (that's pretty rare in hong kong. most people will say that they're christian but they don't know what that means) We started sharing about our church and he asked us if we had a bible. we didn't at the time. he started sharing with us what he believes and trying to prove us wrong but alot of the things he was saying was true and i kept agreeing with him and then i even pulled out my Book of Mormon to show that it even agrees with him. He really didn't like that =) haha at the end he realised that we were good guys but then he told us that we are very devoted but it's sad that we are on the wrong side. I really feel blessed that God sent me to Hong Kong and not to Europe or South America now because i can teach a Buddhist or Baai San (ansester worship) any day but devout christians are the hardest thing for me. =)
Our lesson with mr Leung this week was pretty good. it got pretty deep as usual but he slowly is starting to accept what we are teaching him. In his prayer he told Heavenly Father that he doesn't believe in him but that he hopes that he can. HALELUIA!!!!!!!!! (i don't know how to spell that) =) I'm so excited for him. Last week when we were teaching him we shared some scriptures from the Pearl of Great Price. as he flipped through his 3 in 1 I noticed that he had verses marked in every chapter of the Pearl of Great Price!!! He already read it!!! and he's probably half way through the Doctrine and Covenants already.....more deep doctrine discussions ahead =) haha I love Mr Leung! he is so amazing!!!
Today for Pday we went to Cheung Chau (the island in our area) with most of the zone. it was so much fun. it started raining really hard but none of us cared. we rented bikes and road aroung the island and just had fun. I'm soaking wet right now and freezing but it was totally worth it. =)
I love you all so much and i hope you have an amazing week. be good and may the spirit be with you =)
Love Elder McAllister
april 29th 2010
Hey Family!!! How are you all doing? I was so happy to hear about my new little girl Rachel =) I'm so excited to meet her when she is 1 year old =) haha Please show her pictures of me so she will know that she's my girl when i get home =) haha
This week has been good. On friday we had a zone conference and the AP's gave us a commitment to re-read the book of mormon starting from the beginning. They told us to mark all refferences to Christ, His words, Attributes, and all Doctrine and Principles all in different colors. I love it so much. I'm getting more out of the book of mormon this way and i end up marking a lot more. I'm already in the middle of 2 Nephi and i'm hoping i can read the whole book in a month =) It'll be my new record =) I really love the Book of Mormon. As i've started applying the scriptures not only into my life but also our investigator's lives it's really helped my realise how it can answer every question. At the Zone Conference they did a little skit example of how to use the book of mormon to answer any question. they had one missionary and an investigator who's concern was that he is bald and he wants his hair back. the missionary read Alma 40:23. So for those of you that are in camino ward you can tell Bro Robberts that there's still hope =) haha (i'm pretty sure that's his name. I'm slowly losing my memory of my pre-mission life. kinda like the veil of forgetfulness when we're born) any way I really do love The Book of Mormon and how much i've learned form it. i wish i read it more before my mission.
Mr Leung is amazing as usual. We read the tree of life vision with him and explained everything and the whole time he was quiet and didn't have any arguements and totally just soaked it up. He is so amazing but the thing is he won't admit it to himself that what he is feeling is the Spirit. I know that he knows it and that he knows it's true but he just is too stubborn. Every week though he get's better and better though. After our lesson with him he showed us the True story of Mulan (you know the disney movie) He showed us in english and chinese. when i get home i can show you guys. it's pretty cool. I love learning random stuff from Mr Leung.
Tonight we are going to a members house for dinner. they are probably the richest family in the ward. he is a CEO of some big company in Hong Kong. They also live the highest up. in hong kong they go Up instead of Out like in the US. so the higher up you live the more rich you are =) haha
I love you all. I hope you all have an amazing week and remember the church is true =) I love you
Love Elder McAllister
May 6th 2010
Hey Family!!! How are you all? We just got back from the temple. It was amazing! It can get way busy and loud here espically on the island so i look forward to going to the temple every move. It's so peacful and quiet there. one thing about hong kong is that it's alot like utah that they are constantly working on road work or cunstruction so you always hear Jack Hammers and stuff like that. even when you go to church you can still hear it outside. haha anyway i really love the temple because it's the most quiet place i've ever been in in hong kong.
anyway this week has been really good. We're working with one of our investigators that lives on Cheung Chau and is kind of sheltered but we're trying to get him to come out of his shell. he's really starting to progress and understand the importance of the gospel. We also taught mr leung on tuesday. He wanted to know why couldn't we just have the gold plates here for people to see to prove the book of mormon. we explaned that if people could see the gold plates then we wouldn't need faith to ask God. one of his biggest reasons that he says he won't pray by himself is because he thinks that by doing so will just be like convincing himself that God is real but it still wouldn't be true. like it's something that he would make up in his mind. I hope that makes sence to you guys. We told him that the testimony that the spirit can give is way stronger then anything we make up in our head. He asked us another question about why God did something. i can't remember what, but this time I didn't answer his question. I looked him straight in the eyes and told him to ask Him. Ask Heavenly Father, He's the one who did it. That kinda hit him, like he knows that i know God will anser him. We testified the truthfulness and reality of prayer and he was really listening. I LOVE MR LEUNG. He's helped me with my own testimony so much. Everytime we teach him and he tries to make the gospel seem so complex and then we testify of the simplicity of it and it really streangthens my testimony everytime. I love being on a mission! Mr Leung is going to be going to Mainland for the next couple weeks so it'll be a while till we see him again but he said that when he gets back he will take us to Lamma Island and treat us to a Sea Food dinner. =) I'm way excited!!
I love you all so much!!! I hope you all have an amazing week. don't forget the Church is True....I just learned how to say that in Mandarin and it's WAY harder then cantonese!! it's sounds cooler though. We always fun into mandarins (people from mainland that don't speak cantonese) and the only thing i can say is that the church is true =) haha i love it.
Love Elder McAllister
May 12th, 2010
Hey Family!!!!! This week has been amazing and a little crazy. on Monday i was able to call Mom and Dad and talk to them and Karen and the kids. it was really fun. Karens kids all sound so old. its going to scare me when i get home and see how big they are. For christmas i'll try to make some time to call everyone. Christmas is going to be my last call home on my mission, CRAZY!!!! Time has gone by so fast!
So something else crazy and amazing happend this week. I'm what we call in the mission, "pregnent," haha which means that i'm going to have a baby!!! =) I dont know if any of you did this in your missions but here when you first get to hong kong that's when you are "born", and the one that trains you is you daddy (or mommy if your a sister...Elders can't give birth to baby sisters =) haha ) and when you go home that's when you "die." anyway so i'm going to be TRAINING next moves!!! On monday night President Chan called me and asked me to be a trainer for one of the new missionaries coming in, in a couple of weeks. I've been wanting to train so bad lately and now i'm so excited!!!! =) a little nervous but mostly excited. i've been trying to think of fun things i can do with my baby. You can tell new missionaries anything and they will believe it. =) I was the same way. Elder Wortham (my old companion in ma on shan) is training right now and he convinced his baby that the mandarin missionaries have to take a row boat everyday and row into mainland and smuggle out mainlanders to hong kong and then they baptise them and row them back. and that they have to hide the rowboat at a members house. haha =) his baby still believes it! So i'm trying to think of something like that to do to my baby =) haha Mom is probably thinking of how horrible i am right now. i'm really excited though. It's going to be so fun working with someone that is so full of fire and fresh out of the mtc with a really strong testimony. i'm hoping that it will build the fire in me again. I love the work don't get me wrong but there's something about a new missionaries faith that is so amazing. like i said they will believe anything. their faith is just so fresh and pure. i'm so excited!! =)
I love you all so much! I love being here in hong kong and i know it's where i need to be right now. I love sharing the gospel. I was talking to this guy on the bus the otherday and we were just talking about random stuff and somehow it led to talking about families and how important they are. we shared about eachothers families and just talked. and then i shared my testimony about the most important thing that brought and brings my family together, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that most people and families aren't perfect. I know that our family isn't perfect but that's ok. it we were a perfect family i think that would be pretty boring. haha. but i know that the Gospel can take those imperfections, differences, and challenges and make them fun. Man's purpose is to have Joy. only the Gospel of Jesus Christ can bring that joy. The plan of salvation gives us a long term goal that we can shoot for as a family that most people don't even know about. it gives us a reason to build our relationship because that relationship will last. I know that that is true. I love you all so much!! You probably don't know this but i talk about you guys everyday to everyone that i meet. My family is the reason why i'm out here right now. because i want everyone here in hong kong to have the same joy that we have dispite our differences. I love you all. thank you so much for your example to me. I hope you all have an amazing week and i'll talk to you next week.
May 20th 2010
Hey Family!! How are all of you? this week has been really good. On thursday after i emailed you we went to Lamma island with the zone and BBQed and played ultimate frisbee on the beach. When i get home i'll have to teach you all how to BBQ chinese style. it's completely different. nothing beats an american BBQ though =) This week end the Elders quarum president in our ward (he's american) is having an american BBQ activity at his house and i'm so excited for it!!! =)
on sunday a miracle happened. a lady walked into church right after sacrament and a member brought her to the investigator class (i can't remember what that's called in english. dad used to teach it a while ago). any way we were able to talk to her after church with a couple members. (west point members are amazing!!!!) we found out that she is looking for a church closer to her home and saw the sign for ours but didn't see a schedule so she just walked in to find out when services are. she's heard alot about our church from her friend who left the church so most of it wasn't good. we explained what we believe and why. she seemed to understand. she's leaving hong kong for a couple weeks but hopefully she will be able to come back when she comes back to hong kong. we're praying that she'll come back.
on monday we went to a mexican food restaurant in our area. it was a little expensive but so worth it!! At lunch time they have an all you can eat so we ate untill we were stuffed. it was so amazing!! =) haha the funny thing was that we had a dinner appointment that night with a recent convert and we were still totally stuffed but we ate all that food too. i'm still full and it's thursday =) haha
Yesterday we went to play badmittin with an investigator. out here badmittin is a huge sport and most everyone out here are really amazing at it. it was pretty interesting but way fun. and then last night we had dinner with that same investigator and i got to try a new hong kong delicacy....pigs face =) YUMMY!!!!! =) haha that was by far the strangest thing i've put in my mouth. even worse then the pigs ears =) haha I LOVE HONG KONG!!!!
Today we're just going to chill around the appartment because we're really pore from our adventures this month. so we're just going clean up and write some letters and stuff. maybe some of you will be the lucky ones and get a letter =) haha i love you all so much. i hope you have a good week and i'll talk to you later.
Love Elder McAllister
P.S.- I forgot to tell you guys. we just found out that Elder Oaks is coming next week. we get to see him on wednesday. I'm so excited!!! love you gusy
Love Elder McAllister
May 27th 2010
Hey Family!!! I don't have a lot of time today. Today is moves day and i picked up my trainee today so we're pretty busy but i know that if i didn't email you guys mom might think that i died =) haha I'm alive. My new companion is really cool. his name is Elder Matt Jolley. from salt lake utah. i don't really know him yet. i just barely met him 5 minutes ago. but next week i can tell you guys more.
Yesterday we had our mission tour with Elder Oaks. it was awesome. he talked alot about revolation. it was really cool. he asked alot of missionaries what they've learned about revolation and he would comment on it. we also got to each shake his hand. there was also elder Pratt, Holstrom and Perkins.
On Sunday they had a BYU Choir Fireside that was really cool. There were a couple Return missionaries from hong kong that were in the choir that i got to see again so that was fun.
sorry this week is really short but i just wanted to let you guys know that i love you all. I love hong Kong and i'm really excited to train. Oh and one other thing. last monday President Chan called me and called me to be a district leader. i was totally shocked!! any way i really need your prayers now.
any way i love you all. have a great week. I'll talk to you next week.
Love Elder McAllister
June 3rd 2010
Hey Family!!! how are you all? This week has been amazing! I love Training!!!! My companion, Elder Jolley, has a lot of fire and really wants to get not only me but all us old missionaries pumped up for the work =) haha It's working too. I've found myself looking for more opportunities to share the gospel. Yesterday we went to the Fung Family (recent convert) and we went to get on the Ding Ding (like sanfransisco's trolly) to go to their house and we sat next to these two kids that were heading home. I felt that we should share the gospel with them. so we started talking about random stuff like what school they go to and just random stuff like that. i finally found an in and started sharing the first lesson. we shared the entire lesson right there on the Ding Ding and I totally wasn't paying attention to where we were and when we got off we were way past our stop. I really felt good about talking as much as we did though even though we past our stop. one of the kids really was into what we were saying, and i'm really glad we took that opportunity to share what we did with them. so we backtracked walking as fast as we could to our appointment at Fung Family's house and some how still made it on time. sometimes, especially as an older missionary, you start to think that you know who out on the streets wants to hear the gospel and who doesn't. So you start to judge the people and think that, "Oh that person won't listen to me," so you don't end up talking to them and never give them that choice. But what i'm re-learning is that i need to Open my mouth again. not just to the ones that i think will hear the gospel but to everyone and give everyone that opportunity to choose for themselves. and if they do say no that's ok, I still did what i am supposed to do. It's the same with members. we sometimes start to judge others in thinking that they will reject what we have to share before we even give them the chance to choose for themselves. I really hope that i will use the rest of my mission time to continue to open my mouth to everyone. The Doctrine and Covenants teaches us that we need to preach the gospel to every creature that comes under the sound of our voice. In Hong Kong that means about 1,000 people in any instant. haha that's alot of people =) but i know that Heavenly Father won't give us any commandment unless he prepares a way for us to accomplish it. So if He wants me to talk to everyone then i can and need to talk to everyone. My voice is going to be gone by the time i get home =) haha just kidding. I love you all so much and i'm so greatful to be here in hong kong right now. I hope you all have an amazing week and i'll talk to you next week =)
Oh and the mission home address is changing. It's now:
Elder Peter McAllister
China Hong Kong Mission
18 Dorset Crescent
Kowloon Tong, Kowloon
Hong Kong
Anything that you sent to the old one will still get to me but just from now on please sent to this new address =) i love you all
Love Elder McAllister
June 10th 2010
你好吗家产
Hello Family!!! How are you all doing? it took me forever to write those charactors and i'm not totally sure if there all right because there in simplifide not standard which is what i'm learning. haha any way
This week has been really good. today we met with Mr Leung and then together with Brother Kidd and his wife (white guy in our ward) all went to Lamma Island and Mr Leung treated us to a real sea food dinner. we had some shrimp, clams, fried squid, steam boiled fish (chinese style. it's the best), we also ate the fish eyeballs =) yummy =) haha it was the best sea food i've ever had. I sent two pictures in this email. i hope you guys can all see them. the old guy is mr leung. i just found out today that he is 75 years old and i never would have guessed that before. threre's me and my companion Elder Jolley and Brother Joshua Kidd and his wife Angel Kidd. in the picture where Sis Kidd isn't in the picture we are on the ferry abou to head back to hong kong island.
This last week we've been doing alot of finding. it's been really fun though. elder Jolley is having alot of fun and helping me try to be a little better. we've met some really golden people this last week. one of them says that she is very available to visit with us ( hong kong people never say that. there always busy ). she said that she wants to come to church with us on sunday. yesterday when we were out finding by the star ferry pier we stopped on the last pier to look at the skyline. behind us was sitting a white guy with a chinese lady. the guy came up to us and asked us if he can ask us a couple questions. we're like YES! haha he asked us where we're from and stuff like that. He was trying to explain to his friend, the chinese lady, in really simple english what we were saying. finally i just asked her in chinese if she speaks mandarin or cantonese. she was from the mainland but from canton province so she speaks cantonese. the white guy just stared at us as i talked with her in chinese with his mouth wide open. haha he started asking us questions like how do we speak cantonese and only after just a short time in hong kong (i'm not going to lie, after seeing his reaction i had a little pride right then =) haha but i quickly got rid of it). i started talking to the guy and the lady started talking to my companion. we taught both of them a quick message and then the lady started asking me some questions. she had a lot of questions about christianity. it was amazing. the guy wasn't as interested but the lady was really interested. he's actually from germany and he gives speaches all around the world. but the lady was amazingly golden! its sad though because she has to go back to mainland in a couple days. we gave her a book of mormon and the information for the church and hopefully she will be able to look up the church in mainland.
I love being on a mission and being able to meet such amazing people and share the gospel with them. it's the best expirence of my life. I'm really greatful that i can serve in hong kong (the best mission in the world) =) haha it's true.
I love you all so much. i hope you have an amazing week. sorry this week is a little short. but i sent pictures so that should make up for it =) haha i love you all
Love Elder McAllister
June 17th 2010
Hey Family!!!! How are you all doing? sorry this week i don't have pictures. i hope you all liked the ones from last week. This week has been really good. Last friday we had Zone 24hr Exchanges and i got to go with Elder Plumb again. He's been serving in kwun tong since end of october last year. that's a really really long time. i'm just behing him. I got to West Point in the begining of december so almost 7 months in this area. haha that's so long!! i love it though. West Point is an amazing place and i have a lot of good memories here. Keven my recent convert is doing amazing. he is the decons advisor/teacher person and he blesses or passes the sacrament every week. I'm not sure what's been up with Candy my other recent convert. she hasn't been to church for a couple weeks. I talked to her on the phone last night and she just said that work is really busy but she really wants to come. I hope she does. she has an amazing testimony.
This last week something sad happened though. We had to drop Mr Leung on monday. he wasn't progressing and we told him that if he's not willing to pray by himself to find out if God excists then it's pointless for us to continue to teach him because he doesn't have that foundation. he seemed to take it ok. i didn't though. i really love mr leung and i didn't want to drop him but we need to focus on the people that are progressing right now. i gave him my information for when i get off my mission so i can talk to him. I gave him mom and dads information so if you guys get a random call from china it's probably Mr Leung. =) haha that would be so cool if you guys could talk to him.
On tuesday me and elder Jolley went finding and our hearts weren't into it at all. we both new it and wednesday morning elder jolley told me that he didn't feel good about our attitude towards finding so we figured out what we were doing wrong and we fixed it. we dicided to have more fun on the streets so we can attract more people to talk to us. so we thought of little crazy object lessons that we could do on the street. one of them worked really good. i know how to do a trick where when you open a banana the banana on the inside is already cut into two pieces without being opened first. anyway we decided to use it on the street. we talked to this kid and he really liked the message we shared and then at the end we told him that the best part is that he gets to find out for himself if it's true. we explained that we can tell him all we want that it's true but untill he finds out for himself then what we say is useless. then we pulled out the banana and i asked him, would you believe that the banana on the inside of the peal is already cut into two peices. then i gave him the banana so he could examin it to see that it's never been pealed. he just kind of laughed and said, if you say so. then we pealed it open and it was already cut into two peices and the kid freaked. haha he was shocked. we explained again that we can say all we want that the gospel is true (or that on the inside of the peal the banana is already cut into two peices) but unless he finds out for himself and prays (peals open the banana to see the two peices) then he will never be able to know the truth. it was pretty cool. I hope you were able to understand everything i just wrote. i'm really not good at writting. any way i really love being in hong kong. I love the people here so much. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and was restored through the prophet joseph smith. This is the best experience i've ever had in my life and second to getting married and having a family i think it will forever be the best experience. I love you all so much and truely am greatful for your support and love. I hope you all have an amazing week.
Love Elder McAllister
June 24th 2010
Hey how are all you guys? =) How was your week. looks like dad, jon, richard, mike and nate had a pretty fun time last week. I wish i could have been there with all the guys. That was the first picture i've seen of Dad's new haircut. Leng Jai! =) haha My MTC district just celibrated today. Today is our one year mark in Hong Kong. we went to the Hong Kong space museum and watched the Grand Canion Adventure on the big dome screen. i remember going to something like that in san fransico a long time ago as a kid and you could see the stars on the cealing. I can't believe that one year ago i steped off the plane being shocked with how hot it was. and now one year later it's exactly the same =) haha it honestly doesn't feel like it's been one year to me. but when i look back i have alot of really good memories. I still feel like i just stept of the plane though. it's crazy. so i have a really amazing miracle happen this last week. on monday we had a Zone Find in West Point. That's where all the zone gets together and we go finding in one area. so anyway everyone gave us the numbers that they collected in the find and we went though and called them all on tuesday to try and schedule them. we were able to schedule a couple and one of them A-Ping we scheduled for the next day. we told her that we would give her a tour of the church. so when she showed up at the church we showed her around and explained a little bit about what happens at church. after we sat down in the foyer and taught her the Restoration. she had a lot of really good questions like, how do i ask to find out if this is true, and how will God answer me. GOLDEN!!!!! =) haha when we got to the virst vision Elder Jolley quoted it and it really brought the spirit. we both bore testimony and asked her if she would pray with us right there. she was a little sceptical but we quickly showed her how to pray and she said an amazing humble prayer. it was her first time so it was a little bumpy and she would ask us questions in the middle of it to make sure she was doing it right. haha but in the prayer she told Heavenly Father that she thinks that what we taught her is correct and especially if we teach about love, peace, cherity, vurtue, etc it must be true. We previously shared with her the fruits of the spirit scripture in galations. She also said in the prayer that she wants to see us again and learn more about the gospel. When we learned in the MTC about finding the elect i didn't really know what it ment. but i totally do now. I've only taught a couple investigators that in the prayer they say that what we are teaching them is correct or true. they are already humble and they know already that it's true. i don't know how to explain it but it's kind of like this...We were all in the pre earth life so we all already know the gospel of Jesus Christ but we just forgot when we were born. so are job as missionaries is to simply remind them. the elect are those willing enough and humble enough to recognize and try to remember. and then they will want to know more. It's the biggest miracle i've seen on my mission when i see someone who is ready to recieve the gospel and change there lives for the better. that's what the gospel is all about, doing better. trying a little harder. progressing a little more. it's all about going up not down. going forward not backwards. being happy and now afraid or sad. It's about Love not pride. That's why i'm so greatful for the Gospel because i know that i can change and do better and i don't have to worry about anything that i might have done before but rather i can look to the future with hope. That's the blessing that my Heavenly Father has given me. I love you all so much. You've all been amazing examples for me by serving missions, being good husbands or wives, good parents, and in living the gospel. I love you all. I hope you all have an amazing week. keep me in your prayers.
Love Elder McAllister
July 1st 2010
HEY FAMILY!!!!!! =) I can't believe it's July already!!!! How are all of you guys? Do you have any cool plans for the 4th? We're going to try and do our own little thing for district meating on monday. technically it'll be the night of July 4th while we are having our district meating so it works out perfect =) haha We only have one small american flag so we're not sure how much we can do with that. I asked Elder Jolley to help me come up with ideas and he told me he would sleep on it and hopefull recieve a vision =) haha he dreamed about a parade.........I don't know if we can do that in hong kong =) haha
This week has been really good. on sunday we taught Keven the one of the After Baptism Lessons (it's been four months and we still haven't finnished them =)). Keven is so humble. He told us that he loves being a young mens advisor because it forces him to study the gospel and then in order to teach he has to learn. He is living profe that anyone can change if they really want to. he did a complete flip before he got baptised. He's one of my best examples here. it's pretty funny when the people you teach become the examples but it's so true. when you see someone struggling with something and then they're totally willing to change to follow Jesus Christ it really shows me how i need to be. Being a missionary is really a humbling experience.
Yesterday we found another miracle. His name is A-Jihk. He is also a humble piece. When he come to the church for our first time teaching him we talked to him to try to get to know him. he told us that he is taking care of his 70 year old Dad. He's dad has been really sore lately and he really wants to help him. He said that he wants more happiness in this life. He said that life is hard and he just wants something to help him feel at peace. (GOLDEN!!!!!!!!) haha he testified about the gospel and how it will help us and answer so many questions and most importantly we taught him about prayer. after he said the closing prayer he said that he feels really good. we explained what that feeling is and commited him to pray and read the scriptures this week. he also said that he can't come to church this sunday but he will do all he can to change his schedule for next week so he can come. He works 6 days a week for 11 hours a day. very typical for hong kong. it's a completely different life out here then in america.
We were also able to teach A-Ping this week again. she is still amazing. She told us that she's been buddhist her whole life so this stuff is very new. right now she doesn't want to be baptised but we invited her to church this sunday and she said that she would come. once to come to the West Point Ward as an investigator you basically become hooked. these Members are the most amazing members i've ever seen. they are really good at welcoming anyone that comes in. so yea as soon as she meets sister woo or sister fong she will be hooked =) haha
Today we are going to go help International missionaries like we did on christmas. and then in the evening we are going to go to kwun tong and have a zone activity. each companionship has to make a desert and then we will have a contest. we haven't even really thought of what to make. =) President and Sister Chan are also going to be there so it'll be really fun.
I love you all so much. I hope you all have a really good 4th! send me some pictures if you take any. Love ya talk to you next week
Love Elder McAllister
This Week in West Point:
Hey Family!!!! =) How are you? It has been exactly one whole year to the day since i've seen you. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by! I miss you all so much! Everyone is starting to call me an old missionary now. haha i still feel like i just got here. Today for our Year Mark my MTC group (Elder Plumb, Illum, Harper, and me) are going to Sai Kung to an american steak restuarant =) haha I'm so excited!! What i really miss right now though is Mexican Food!! I would give anything for a Chickin soft taco from Del Taco or a pork borretto from Barbacoa, or from Cafe Rio =) haha oh my gosh those sound so good right now. Chinese food is really good though don't get me wrong. by the way panda express is nothing even close to real chinese food =) haha the strangest thing i've probably eaten in hong kong is probably pigs ear =) I really did. very interesting testure. haha my favorite thing is the curry though. I love curry here. That and the barbacued pork rice box. so good!! =) If mom and dad come to pick me up i'll have them try it all...including the pigs ear =) haha just kidding.
This last week has been really good. We have a couple new investigators that are way cool. One of them, Dixon, is really into details and it takes us an hour just to talk about one principle =) haha he's way cool though. Mr Leung is doing really good. He came to Sacrament meeting last week!! Right aftert I asked him what he thought and he chuckled and said do you really want me to say. haha that's just how he is but when we taught him on monday he actually seemed really touched be the testimonies. (Last sunday was fast and testimony meeting. we don't have general conference untill this weekend. we always have it one week after you guys). We went over 3Nephi 11 that we gave him to read the week before and he had alot of questions. one of them was from one of the verses Christ says that if you don't follow the things that he just told them in the chapter then you will be damned. Mr Leung said that it sounds like Christ is threttening them. We explained that Nowhere in the scriptures or in our lives will God, Jesus Christ, or the Holy Ghost use fear or threts to get us to do something. Those feelings are only from Satan. What Christ was doing was giving them and us a loving warning. If a curous young child wants to touch the hot stove because it's so beautiful and bright and the parents tell the child don't touch the stove because you will burn your hands. is the parent threttening the child or out of love for there son just warning him of the consiquences. Everything that God does for us is out of love. He loves us so much. it's kind of funny though because i had the same question as Mr Leung. I didn't understand why Christ would talk that way but as we answered his question i realised that even though we didn't have the answer, the Holy Ghost did and he was speaking through us. it's really kinda hard to explain but I know that sometimes we may have some questions that we don't know the answer to but as we have Faith in Christ and Trust in him, then the aswer will come but only if we are humble enough and willing to accept the answer no matter what it is. I really love the word Faith in chinese because it really defines what faith really is. Seun Sam. Seun means to trust and believe. Sam means heart. Together in Chinese Seun Sam means Confidence or Faith. We need to trust, believe, and have confidence in Christ. haha there's some chinese for you guys to work on =) haha
I love my mission so much. I've learned so much and am still learning even more. I love you all so much and I know that Heavenly Father is watching over you guys for me while i'm gone. Making sure you guys stay out of trouble =) haha I love you all. Have a good week and i'll talk to you next week =)
Love Elder McAllister
April 15th 2010
This Week in West Point:
Hey Family!! How are you all? Today is moves day but i found out on tuesday that Me and Elder Hawkins will be staying together for another move (6 weeks). I'm pretty excited that i don't have to leave yet. Oh hey our mission is on the web now http://www.lds.org.hk/ldsorghk_0908/english/hk_mission/members_and_mission_Eng.htm I think it's just some testimonies of some missionaries and how members can help in missionary work. You guys can check it out.
This last week was really good. I loved General Conference! Mr Leung and another investigator Bryan were able to come. Mr Leung thought they were really good talks. he really liked Elder Erying's on the saturday morning session. My favorite was Uchtdorf's on patience and Elder Hollands. Elder Holland SLAMED DOWN!!!! =) It was awesome! last night we taught Sister Fung (recient convert) and we talked about the talkes and shared our favorites. We talked about how they focused on family alot. We read the verse in Helamen 5:12 or 13 i can't remember. about the foundation of Christ. we talked about how if we build our family on the foundation of Christ it will and can not fall.
When we taught Mr Leung we read 2 Nephi 32 and really tried to stress the importance of prayer. I really hope that this week he will pray by himself. We talked a little bit about the pre earth life and revewed some of the plan of salvation. He still doesn't believe in God but we testified that if he prayed continually and got to know Heavenly Father then he would know for sure without a doubt that God lives. I love Mr Leung so much and i know that one day he is going to have the strongest testimony of our Heavenly Father.
I love being out here so much and I seriously never want to leave. I'm not going to say that Missionary work is easy because it's not but it's deffinately the funnest thing i've ever done and i love it so much. One day we will all be sitting around the family room and share all our mission stories. I love you all so much! I hope you all have a great week this week. THE CHURCH IS TRUE.
Oh one more thing. i don't know if any steaks in the states are going to do this but here they just started a plan for each member to give out church pamphlets (The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, The Plan of Salvation, The Gospel of Jesus Christ) at least i think that's what they are called in english =) haha anyway i'm not sure if they are going to do that there but if not you guys can still do it. just ask the missionaries in your ward for some pamphlets, and trust me they will love you for this, and give them to anyone. Friends, Co workers, anyone. It's an amazing way to share the gospel. I love you all so much! I'll talk to you next week.
Love Elder McAllister
April 22nd 2010
Hey Family =) How are all of you doing? I'm excited to hear about my new neice, rachel, and for Louise and Jakes baby!! =) It's going to be so crazy coming home with a bunch of new kids running around. and i bet everyone else has gotten so big. I miss you all so much!! I love Hong Kong though. Mybe i'll just stay out here after my mission. I'll just buy a fishing boat and chill on an island and talk chinese to some gangster Poh Pohs =) I can't believe that one year has gone by already and i keep trying to forget it but every one here likes to remind me of how old i am. It's all good. I've still got plenty of time =)
This week has been really fun. alot of finding time because alot of our investigators are not progressing right now so we've kind of put our visits with some of them on pause. Finding is pretty fun though. you really get to see some pretty interesting things and meet some strange people. We talked to a guy the ather day that is a really strong member of the christian church that he goes to. (that's pretty rare in hong kong. most people will say that they're christian but they don't know what that means) We started sharing about our church and he asked us if we had a bible. we didn't at the time. he started sharing with us what he believes and trying to prove us wrong but alot of the things he was saying was true and i kept agreeing with him and then i even pulled out my Book of Mormon to show that it even agrees with him. He really didn't like that =) haha at the end he realised that we were good guys but then he told us that we are very devoted but it's sad that we are on the wrong side. I really feel blessed that God sent me to Hong Kong and not to Europe or South America now because i can teach a Buddhist or Baai San (ansester worship) any day but devout christians are the hardest thing for me. =)
Our lesson with mr Leung this week was pretty good. it got pretty deep as usual but he slowly is starting to accept what we are teaching him. In his prayer he told Heavenly Father that he doesn't believe in him but that he hopes that he can. HALELUIA!!!!!!!!! (i don't know how to spell that) =) I'm so excited for him. Last week when we were teaching him we shared some scriptures from the Pearl of Great Price. as he flipped through his 3 in 1 I noticed that he had verses marked in every chapter of the Pearl of Great Price!!! He already read it!!! and he's probably half way through the Doctrine and Covenants already.....more deep doctrine discussions ahead =) haha I love Mr Leung! he is so amazing!!!
Today for Pday we went to Cheung Chau (the island in our area) with most of the zone. it was so much fun. it started raining really hard but none of us cared. we rented bikes and road aroung the island and just had fun. I'm soaking wet right now and freezing but it was totally worth it. =)
I love you all so much and i hope you have an amazing week. be good and may the spirit be with you =)
Love Elder McAllister
april 29th 2010
Hey Family!!! How are you all doing? I was so happy to hear about my new little girl Rachel =) I'm so excited to meet her when she is 1 year old =) haha Please show her pictures of me so she will know that she's my girl when i get home =) haha
This week has been good. On friday we had a zone conference and the AP's gave us a commitment to re-read the book of mormon starting from the beginning. They told us to mark all refferences to Christ, His words, Attributes, and all Doctrine and Principles all in different colors. I love it so much. I'm getting more out of the book of mormon this way and i end up marking a lot more. I'm already in the middle of 2 Nephi and i'm hoping i can read the whole book in a month =) It'll be my new record =) I really love the Book of Mormon. As i've started applying the scriptures not only into my life but also our investigator's lives it's really helped my realise how it can answer every question. At the Zone Conference they did a little skit example of how to use the book of mormon to answer any question. they had one missionary and an investigator who's concern was that he is bald and he wants his hair back. the missionary read Alma 40:23. So for those of you that are in camino ward you can tell Bro Robberts that there's still hope =) haha (i'm pretty sure that's his name. I'm slowly losing my memory of my pre-mission life. kinda like the veil of forgetfulness when we're born) any way I really do love The Book of Mormon and how much i've learned form it. i wish i read it more before my mission.
Mr Leung is amazing as usual. We read the tree of life vision with him and explained everything and the whole time he was quiet and didn't have any arguements and totally just soaked it up. He is so amazing but the thing is he won't admit it to himself that what he is feeling is the Spirit. I know that he knows it and that he knows it's true but he just is too stubborn. Every week though he get's better and better though. After our lesson with him he showed us the True story of Mulan (you know the disney movie) He showed us in english and chinese. when i get home i can show you guys. it's pretty cool. I love learning random stuff from Mr Leung.
Tonight we are going to a members house for dinner. they are probably the richest family in the ward. he is a CEO of some big company in Hong Kong. They also live the highest up. in hong kong they go Up instead of Out like in the US. so the higher up you live the more rich you are =) haha
I love you all. I hope you all have an amazing week and remember the church is true =) I love you
Love Elder McAllister
May 6th 2010
Hey Family!!! How are you all? We just got back from the temple. It was amazing! It can get way busy and loud here espically on the island so i look forward to going to the temple every move. It's so peacful and quiet there. one thing about hong kong is that it's alot like utah that they are constantly working on road work or cunstruction so you always hear Jack Hammers and stuff like that. even when you go to church you can still hear it outside. haha anyway i really love the temple because it's the most quiet place i've ever been in in hong kong.
anyway this week has been really good. We're working with one of our investigators that lives on Cheung Chau and is kind of sheltered but we're trying to get him to come out of his shell. he's really starting to progress and understand the importance of the gospel. We also taught mr leung on tuesday. He wanted to know why couldn't we just have the gold plates here for people to see to prove the book of mormon. we explaned that if people could see the gold plates then we wouldn't need faith to ask God. one of his biggest reasons that he says he won't pray by himself is because he thinks that by doing so will just be like convincing himself that God is real but it still wouldn't be true. like it's something that he would make up in his mind. I hope that makes sence to you guys. We told him that the testimony that the spirit can give is way stronger then anything we make up in our head. He asked us another question about why God did something. i can't remember what, but this time I didn't answer his question. I looked him straight in the eyes and told him to ask Him. Ask Heavenly Father, He's the one who did it. That kinda hit him, like he knows that i know God will anser him. We testified the truthfulness and reality of prayer and he was really listening. I LOVE MR LEUNG. He's helped me with my own testimony so much. Everytime we teach him and he tries to make the gospel seem so complex and then we testify of the simplicity of it and it really streangthens my testimony everytime. I love being on a mission! Mr Leung is going to be going to Mainland for the next couple weeks so it'll be a while till we see him again but he said that when he gets back he will take us to Lamma Island and treat us to a Sea Food dinner. =) I'm way excited!!
I love you all so much!!! I hope you all have an amazing week. don't forget the Church is True....I just learned how to say that in Mandarin and it's WAY harder then cantonese!! it's sounds cooler though. We always fun into mandarins (people from mainland that don't speak cantonese) and the only thing i can say is that the church is true =) haha i love it.
Love Elder McAllister
May 12th, 2010
Hey Family!!!!! This week has been amazing and a little crazy. on Monday i was able to call Mom and Dad and talk to them and Karen and the kids. it was really fun. Karens kids all sound so old. its going to scare me when i get home and see how big they are. For christmas i'll try to make some time to call everyone. Christmas is going to be my last call home on my mission, CRAZY!!!! Time has gone by so fast!
So something else crazy and amazing happend this week. I'm what we call in the mission, "pregnent," haha which means that i'm going to have a baby!!! =) I dont know if any of you did this in your missions but here when you first get to hong kong that's when you are "born", and the one that trains you is you daddy (or mommy if your a sister...Elders can't give birth to baby sisters =) haha ) and when you go home that's when you "die." anyway so i'm going to be TRAINING next moves!!! On monday night President Chan called me and asked me to be a trainer for one of the new missionaries coming in, in a couple of weeks. I've been wanting to train so bad lately and now i'm so excited!!!! =) a little nervous but mostly excited. i've been trying to think of fun things i can do with my baby. You can tell new missionaries anything and they will believe it. =) I was the same way. Elder Wortham (my old companion in ma on shan) is training right now and he convinced his baby that the mandarin missionaries have to take a row boat everyday and row into mainland and smuggle out mainlanders to hong kong and then they baptise them and row them back. and that they have to hide the rowboat at a members house. haha =) his baby still believes it! So i'm trying to think of something like that to do to my baby =) haha Mom is probably thinking of how horrible i am right now. i'm really excited though. It's going to be so fun working with someone that is so full of fire and fresh out of the mtc with a really strong testimony. i'm hoping that it will build the fire in me again. I love the work don't get me wrong but there's something about a new missionaries faith that is so amazing. like i said they will believe anything. their faith is just so fresh and pure. i'm so excited!! =)
I love you all so much! I love being here in hong kong and i know it's where i need to be right now. I love sharing the gospel. I was talking to this guy on the bus the otherday and we were just talking about random stuff and somehow it led to talking about families and how important they are. we shared about eachothers families and just talked. and then i shared my testimony about the most important thing that brought and brings my family together, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that most people and families aren't perfect. I know that our family isn't perfect but that's ok. it we were a perfect family i think that would be pretty boring. haha. but i know that the Gospel can take those imperfections, differences, and challenges and make them fun. Man's purpose is to have Joy. only the Gospel of Jesus Christ can bring that joy. The plan of salvation gives us a long term goal that we can shoot for as a family that most people don't even know about. it gives us a reason to build our relationship because that relationship will last. I know that that is true. I love you all so much!! You probably don't know this but i talk about you guys everyday to everyone that i meet. My family is the reason why i'm out here right now. because i want everyone here in hong kong to have the same joy that we have dispite our differences. I love you all. thank you so much for your example to me. I hope you all have an amazing week and i'll talk to you next week.
May 20th 2010
Hey Family!! How are all of you? this week has been really good. On thursday after i emailed you we went to Lamma island with the zone and BBQed and played ultimate frisbee on the beach. When i get home i'll have to teach you all how to BBQ chinese style. it's completely different. nothing beats an american BBQ though =) This week end the Elders quarum president in our ward (he's american) is having an american BBQ activity at his house and i'm so excited for it!!! =)
on sunday a miracle happened. a lady walked into church right after sacrament and a member brought her to the investigator class (i can't remember what that's called in english. dad used to teach it a while ago). any way we were able to talk to her after church with a couple members. (west point members are amazing!!!!) we found out that she is looking for a church closer to her home and saw the sign for ours but didn't see a schedule so she just walked in to find out when services are. she's heard alot about our church from her friend who left the church so most of it wasn't good. we explained what we believe and why. she seemed to understand. she's leaving hong kong for a couple weeks but hopefully she will be able to come back when she comes back to hong kong. we're praying that she'll come back.
on monday we went to a mexican food restaurant in our area. it was a little expensive but so worth it!! At lunch time they have an all you can eat so we ate untill we were stuffed. it was so amazing!! =) haha the funny thing was that we had a dinner appointment that night with a recent convert and we were still totally stuffed but we ate all that food too. i'm still full and it's thursday =) haha
Yesterday we went to play badmittin with an investigator. out here badmittin is a huge sport and most everyone out here are really amazing at it. it was pretty interesting but way fun. and then last night we had dinner with that same investigator and i got to try a new hong kong delicacy....pigs face =) YUMMY!!!!! =) haha that was by far the strangest thing i've put in my mouth. even worse then the pigs ears =) haha I LOVE HONG KONG!!!!
Today we're just going to chill around the appartment because we're really pore from our adventures this month. so we're just going clean up and write some letters and stuff. maybe some of you will be the lucky ones and get a letter =) haha i love you all so much. i hope you have a good week and i'll talk to you later.
Love Elder McAllister
P.S.- I forgot to tell you guys. we just found out that Elder Oaks is coming next week. we get to see him on wednesday. I'm so excited!!! love you gusy
Love Elder McAllister
May 27th 2010
Hey Family!!! I don't have a lot of time today. Today is moves day and i picked up my trainee today so we're pretty busy but i know that if i didn't email you guys mom might think that i died =) haha I'm alive. My new companion is really cool. his name is Elder Matt Jolley. from salt lake utah. i don't really know him yet. i just barely met him 5 minutes ago. but next week i can tell you guys more.
Yesterday we had our mission tour with Elder Oaks. it was awesome. he talked alot about revolation. it was really cool. he asked alot of missionaries what they've learned about revolation and he would comment on it. we also got to each shake his hand. there was also elder Pratt, Holstrom and Perkins.
On Sunday they had a BYU Choir Fireside that was really cool. There were a couple Return missionaries from hong kong that were in the choir that i got to see again so that was fun.
sorry this week is really short but i just wanted to let you guys know that i love you all. I love hong Kong and i'm really excited to train. Oh and one other thing. last monday President Chan called me and called me to be a district leader. i was totally shocked!! any way i really need your prayers now.
any way i love you all. have a great week. I'll talk to you next week.
Love Elder McAllister
June 3rd 2010
Hey Family!!! how are you all? This week has been amazing! I love Training!!!! My companion, Elder Jolley, has a lot of fire and really wants to get not only me but all us old missionaries pumped up for the work =) haha It's working too. I've found myself looking for more opportunities to share the gospel. Yesterday we went to the Fung Family (recent convert) and we went to get on the Ding Ding (like sanfransisco's trolly) to go to their house and we sat next to these two kids that were heading home. I felt that we should share the gospel with them. so we started talking about random stuff like what school they go to and just random stuff like that. i finally found an in and started sharing the first lesson. we shared the entire lesson right there on the Ding Ding and I totally wasn't paying attention to where we were and when we got off we were way past our stop. I really felt good about talking as much as we did though even though we past our stop. one of the kids really was into what we were saying, and i'm really glad we took that opportunity to share what we did with them. so we backtracked walking as fast as we could to our appointment at Fung Family's house and some how still made it on time. sometimes, especially as an older missionary, you start to think that you know who out on the streets wants to hear the gospel and who doesn't. So you start to judge the people and think that, "Oh that person won't listen to me," so you don't end up talking to them and never give them that choice. But what i'm re-learning is that i need to Open my mouth again. not just to the ones that i think will hear the gospel but to everyone and give everyone that opportunity to choose for themselves. and if they do say no that's ok, I still did what i am supposed to do. It's the same with members. we sometimes start to judge others in thinking that they will reject what we have to share before we even give them the chance to choose for themselves. I really hope that i will use the rest of my mission time to continue to open my mouth to everyone. The Doctrine and Covenants teaches us that we need to preach the gospel to every creature that comes under the sound of our voice. In Hong Kong that means about 1,000 people in any instant. haha that's alot of people =) but i know that Heavenly Father won't give us any commandment unless he prepares a way for us to accomplish it. So if He wants me to talk to everyone then i can and need to talk to everyone. My voice is going to be gone by the time i get home =) haha just kidding. I love you all so much and i'm so greatful to be here in hong kong right now. I hope you all have an amazing week and i'll talk to you next week =)
Oh and the mission home address is changing. It's now:
Elder Peter McAllister
China Hong Kong Mission
18 Dorset Crescent
Kowloon Tong, Kowloon
Hong Kong
Anything that you sent to the old one will still get to me but just from now on please sent to this new address =) i love you all
Love Elder McAllister
June 10th 2010
你好吗家产
Hello Family!!! How are you all doing? it took me forever to write those charactors and i'm not totally sure if there all right because there in simplifide not standard which is what i'm learning. haha any way
This week has been really good. today we met with Mr Leung and then together with Brother Kidd and his wife (white guy in our ward) all went to Lamma Island and Mr Leung treated us to a real sea food dinner. we had some shrimp, clams, fried squid, steam boiled fish (chinese style. it's the best), we also ate the fish eyeballs =) yummy =) haha it was the best sea food i've ever had. I sent two pictures in this email. i hope you guys can all see them. the old guy is mr leung. i just found out today that he is 75 years old and i never would have guessed that before. threre's me and my companion Elder Jolley and Brother Joshua Kidd and his wife Angel Kidd. in the picture where Sis Kidd isn't in the picture we are on the ferry abou to head back to hong kong island.
This last week we've been doing alot of finding. it's been really fun though. elder Jolley is having alot of fun and helping me try to be a little better. we've met some really golden people this last week. one of them says that she is very available to visit with us ( hong kong people never say that. there always busy ). she said that she wants to come to church with us on sunday. yesterday when we were out finding by the star ferry pier we stopped on the last pier to look at the skyline. behind us was sitting a white guy with a chinese lady. the guy came up to us and asked us if he can ask us a couple questions. we're like YES! haha he asked us where we're from and stuff like that. He was trying to explain to his friend, the chinese lady, in really simple english what we were saying. finally i just asked her in chinese if she speaks mandarin or cantonese. she was from the mainland but from canton province so she speaks cantonese. the white guy just stared at us as i talked with her in chinese with his mouth wide open. haha he started asking us questions like how do we speak cantonese and only after just a short time in hong kong (i'm not going to lie, after seeing his reaction i had a little pride right then =) haha but i quickly got rid of it). i started talking to the guy and the lady started talking to my companion. we taught both of them a quick message and then the lady started asking me some questions. she had a lot of questions about christianity. it was amazing. the guy wasn't as interested but the lady was really interested. he's actually from germany and he gives speaches all around the world. but the lady was amazingly golden! its sad though because she has to go back to mainland in a couple days. we gave her a book of mormon and the information for the church and hopefully she will be able to look up the church in mainland.
I love being on a mission and being able to meet such amazing people and share the gospel with them. it's the best expirence of my life. I'm really greatful that i can serve in hong kong (the best mission in the world) =) haha it's true.
I love you all so much. i hope you have an amazing week. sorry this week is a little short. but i sent pictures so that should make up for it =) haha i love you all
Love Elder McAllister
June 17th 2010
Hey Family!!!! How are you all doing? sorry this week i don't have pictures. i hope you all liked the ones from last week. This week has been really good. Last friday we had Zone 24hr Exchanges and i got to go with Elder Plumb again. He's been serving in kwun tong since end of october last year. that's a really really long time. i'm just behing him. I got to West Point in the begining of december so almost 7 months in this area. haha that's so long!! i love it though. West Point is an amazing place and i have a lot of good memories here. Keven my recent convert is doing amazing. he is the decons advisor/teacher person and he blesses or passes the sacrament every week. I'm not sure what's been up with Candy my other recent convert. she hasn't been to church for a couple weeks. I talked to her on the phone last night and she just said that work is really busy but she really wants to come. I hope she does. she has an amazing testimony.
This last week something sad happened though. We had to drop Mr Leung on monday. he wasn't progressing and we told him that if he's not willing to pray by himself to find out if God excists then it's pointless for us to continue to teach him because he doesn't have that foundation. he seemed to take it ok. i didn't though. i really love mr leung and i didn't want to drop him but we need to focus on the people that are progressing right now. i gave him my information for when i get off my mission so i can talk to him. I gave him mom and dads information so if you guys get a random call from china it's probably Mr Leung. =) haha that would be so cool if you guys could talk to him.
On tuesday me and elder Jolley went finding and our hearts weren't into it at all. we both new it and wednesday morning elder jolley told me that he didn't feel good about our attitude towards finding so we figured out what we were doing wrong and we fixed it. we dicided to have more fun on the streets so we can attract more people to talk to us. so we thought of little crazy object lessons that we could do on the street. one of them worked really good. i know how to do a trick where when you open a banana the banana on the inside is already cut into two pieces without being opened first. anyway we decided to use it on the street. we talked to this kid and he really liked the message we shared and then at the end we told him that the best part is that he gets to find out for himself if it's true. we explained that we can tell him all we want that it's true but untill he finds out for himself then what we say is useless. then we pulled out the banana and i asked him, would you believe that the banana on the inside of the peal is already cut into two peices. then i gave him the banana so he could examin it to see that it's never been pealed. he just kind of laughed and said, if you say so. then we pealed it open and it was already cut into two peices and the kid freaked. haha he was shocked. we explained again that we can say all we want that the gospel is true (or that on the inside of the peal the banana is already cut into two peices) but unless he finds out for himself and prays (peals open the banana to see the two peices) then he will never be able to know the truth. it was pretty cool. I hope you were able to understand everything i just wrote. i'm really not good at writting. any way i really love being in hong kong. I love the people here so much. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and was restored through the prophet joseph smith. This is the best experience i've ever had in my life and second to getting married and having a family i think it will forever be the best experience. I love you all so much and truely am greatful for your support and love. I hope you all have an amazing week.
Love Elder McAllister
June 24th 2010
Hey how are all you guys? =) How was your week. looks like dad, jon, richard, mike and nate had a pretty fun time last week. I wish i could have been there with all the guys. That was the first picture i've seen of Dad's new haircut. Leng Jai! =) haha My MTC district just celibrated today. Today is our one year mark in Hong Kong. we went to the Hong Kong space museum and watched the Grand Canion Adventure on the big dome screen. i remember going to something like that in san fransico a long time ago as a kid and you could see the stars on the cealing. I can't believe that one year ago i steped off the plane being shocked with how hot it was. and now one year later it's exactly the same =) haha it honestly doesn't feel like it's been one year to me. but when i look back i have alot of really good memories. I still feel like i just stept of the plane though. it's crazy. so i have a really amazing miracle happen this last week. on monday we had a Zone Find in West Point. That's where all the zone gets together and we go finding in one area. so anyway everyone gave us the numbers that they collected in the find and we went though and called them all on tuesday to try and schedule them. we were able to schedule a couple and one of them A-Ping we scheduled for the next day. we told her that we would give her a tour of the church. so when she showed up at the church we showed her around and explained a little bit about what happens at church. after we sat down in the foyer and taught her the Restoration. she had a lot of really good questions like, how do i ask to find out if this is true, and how will God answer me. GOLDEN!!!!! =) haha when we got to the virst vision Elder Jolley quoted it and it really brought the spirit. we both bore testimony and asked her if she would pray with us right there. she was a little sceptical but we quickly showed her how to pray and she said an amazing humble prayer. it was her first time so it was a little bumpy and she would ask us questions in the middle of it to make sure she was doing it right. haha but in the prayer she told Heavenly Father that she thinks that what we taught her is correct and especially if we teach about love, peace, cherity, vurtue, etc it must be true. We previously shared with her the fruits of the spirit scripture in galations. She also said in the prayer that she wants to see us again and learn more about the gospel. When we learned in the MTC about finding the elect i didn't really know what it ment. but i totally do now. I've only taught a couple investigators that in the prayer they say that what we are teaching them is correct or true. they are already humble and they know already that it's true. i don't know how to explain it but it's kind of like this...We were all in the pre earth life so we all already know the gospel of Jesus Christ but we just forgot when we were born. so are job as missionaries is to simply remind them. the elect are those willing enough and humble enough to recognize and try to remember. and then they will want to know more. It's the biggest miracle i've seen on my mission when i see someone who is ready to recieve the gospel and change there lives for the better. that's what the gospel is all about, doing better. trying a little harder. progressing a little more. it's all about going up not down. going forward not backwards. being happy and now afraid or sad. It's about Love not pride. That's why i'm so greatful for the Gospel because i know that i can change and do better and i don't have to worry about anything that i might have done before but rather i can look to the future with hope. That's the blessing that my Heavenly Father has given me. I love you all so much. You've all been amazing examples for me by serving missions, being good husbands or wives, good parents, and in living the gospel. I love you all. I hope you all have an amazing week. keep me in your prayers.
Love Elder McAllister
July 1st 2010
HEY FAMILY!!!!!! =) I can't believe it's July already!!!! How are all of you guys? Do you have any cool plans for the 4th? We're going to try and do our own little thing for district meating on monday. technically it'll be the night of July 4th while we are having our district meating so it works out perfect =) haha We only have one small american flag so we're not sure how much we can do with that. I asked Elder Jolley to help me come up with ideas and he told me he would sleep on it and hopefull recieve a vision =) haha he dreamed about a parade.........I don't know if we can do that in hong kong =) haha
This week has been really good. on sunday we taught Keven the one of the After Baptism Lessons (it's been four months and we still haven't finnished them =)). Keven is so humble. He told us that he loves being a young mens advisor because it forces him to study the gospel and then in order to teach he has to learn. He is living profe that anyone can change if they really want to. he did a complete flip before he got baptised. He's one of my best examples here. it's pretty funny when the people you teach become the examples but it's so true. when you see someone struggling with something and then they're totally willing to change to follow Jesus Christ it really shows me how i need to be. Being a missionary is really a humbling experience.
Yesterday we found another miracle. His name is A-Jihk. He is also a humble piece. When he come to the church for our first time teaching him we talked to him to try to get to know him. he told us that he is taking care of his 70 year old Dad. He's dad has been really sore lately and he really wants to help him. He said that he wants more happiness in this life. He said that life is hard and he just wants something to help him feel at peace. (GOLDEN!!!!!!!!) haha he testified about the gospel and how it will help us and answer so many questions and most importantly we taught him about prayer. after he said the closing prayer he said that he feels really good. we explained what that feeling is and commited him to pray and read the scriptures this week. he also said that he can't come to church this sunday but he will do all he can to change his schedule for next week so he can come. He works 6 days a week for 11 hours a day. very typical for hong kong. it's a completely different life out here then in america.
We were also able to teach A-Ping this week again. she is still amazing. She told us that she's been buddhist her whole life so this stuff is very new. right now she doesn't want to be baptised but we invited her to church this sunday and she said that she would come. once to come to the West Point Ward as an investigator you basically become hooked. these Members are the most amazing members i've ever seen. they are really good at welcoming anyone that comes in. so yea as soon as she meets sister woo or sister fong she will be hooked =) haha
Today we are going to go help International missionaries like we did on christmas. and then in the evening we are going to go to kwun tong and have a zone activity. each companionship has to make a desert and then we will have a contest. we haven't even really thought of what to make. =) President and Sister Chan are also going to be there so it'll be really fun.
I love you all so much. I hope you all have a really good 4th! send me some pictures if you take any. Love ya talk to you next week
Love Elder McAllister
No comments:
Post a Comment