Email: September 2nd, 2010

I can't believe it's September already!!! Time goes by way too fast. haha Sorry, anyway, how are you guys? =) How has your week been? We had an amazing miracle happen this week. So I'm not sure how much you guys know about the whole Philippine situation in Hong Kong but I'll explain really fast. Basically the Philippines is a third word country and a lot of the time most families will send their daughter, mother, sister, wife...out here to Hong Kong and some other places to work as a "house slave" (for lack of a better word). Their called Gung Yahn in Chinese. Anyway, they make money to send home to their families in the Philippines. Anyway there are a lot of them here and that's why we have an International Zone for missionaries in the Hong Kong Mission so they can focus on those Philippians. There only allowed one day a week off and so the international branches in Hong Kong have sacrament meeting every day of the week except for Monday. It's pretty cool. Anyway so we are walking from out apartment to get lunch and all of a sudden this Philippine is running up to us out of breath and crying. She told us that she was a member of the church and her name was Sonia. She was baptised in the Philippines about three of four years ago. She is a widow with two kids. Her family sent her out here to earn money. She told us that she has been in Hong Kong for a little over two months and hasn't been able to find any members, church buildings, or missionaries in Hong Kong. She said that she's been praying everyday to ask Heavenly Father to help her find a member or missionary and then she randomly saw us on the road and ran up to us. We were right next to the church and so we took her to church and there happened to be some members from Ma On Shan there about to go on a bike ride and I told Sister Pon, a Ma On Shan member, what happened and she just went right up to Sonia and gave her a hug and Sonia just balled because she was so happy. It was freaking awesome. Even though those two Sisters were from completely different backgrounds, cultures, countries, languages, and who knows what else, Sister Sonia felt like she was home because she was with members of the church. That's one huge reason why I love this gospel. No matter where you go or in what language, you always feel like your home. When I first came out to Hong Kong I thought that the church would be different but when I got here they were teaching the same gospel, they had the same attributes, and it had the same feeling as any other ward that I've been to in America. It's the same no matter where you go because we know that everyone is a son or daughter of our Heavenly Father and no culture, country, or language can separate us from that. I love it so much. We took Sonia inside the church and all said a prayer and thanked Heavenly Father and then all sang a hymn. It was awesome!!!!! We got her in touch with Elder Hawkins (my old companion currently serving in the International Zone) and she is going to be able to go to church for the first time in over two months on Thursday. We got to be the answer to someones prayer. How cool is that!!! =) It was really strong testimony to me that Heavenly Father does hear and answer all of his Children's prayers. And you could say that it was just coincidence that we happened to be at the right place at the right time and happened to bump into the One Philippine in the city of over a million people looking for us. But I know that's not what happened. I know it wasn't coincidence. I know that Heavenly Father answered her prayers and He will answer all of our sincere, humble prayers. I love you all so much. I have to go right now because I ran out of time so I can't write personal letters today but I love you so much. I hope you have an amazing week.

Love, Elder McAllister

Pictures: August 26th, 2010

Email: August 26th, 2010

Hey Family!!!!! How are all of you doing? I'm really liking Tai Po and I Love being back in Tolo Harbour!!! =) This last week has been really fun. I don't know if I told you in my last email but Elder Jolley (my son) also move to Tai Wo which is right next to our area and we live together. It's pretty crazy living with him again. I've never had that happen with any of my former companions. But, yea, right now it's me and Elder Morgan in Tai Po and Elder Cheng and Jolley in Tai Po almost closed because it was so slow. Anyway, we have two really good investigators right now. One is Manyu and the other is Elaine. I haven't met Elaine yet because she just had her birthday and had to spend time with her family last week. But I've met Manyu a couple of times and she is really good. She's more of a thinker like most Hong Kong people but we're really trying to get her to feel the spirit.

Mostly lately we've had to go finding. We just mostly try to get some people to come into the church from off the street. We haven't got anyone to come into the church yet but we're been teaching a lot of street lessons. We're supposed to be seeing her tonight so I hope she comes.

Elder Morgan is probably the most different out of all my companions. I love the guy to death. He's got so much energy. It's pretty funny. He kinda reminds me of Mark a few years before his mission =) haha He's really good guy though. He's really good with people and makes friends really easy. This is going to be a really fun moves especially since Jolley gets to live with us too =) I really miss you all so much and really hope you all have a good week. Don't do anything I wouldn't do =) haha Oh and I remembered to bring my camera with me so I'll send you guys some pictures. Love you all!

Love Elder McAllister

Email: August 19th, 2010

Hey Everyone!!!

How are you all doing? I'm glad that Dad and the kids made it up the down Mt Whitney ok. =) It looked like a lot of fun. A lot has changed this last week. On Tuesday we had move calls and we found out that TST ward was going to be loosing one companionship. Elder Illum stayed and is now training and I just moved today. My new area is Tai Po. I'M BACK TO TOLO HARBOR!!!!!!!!!!!! =) YES!!!!!!!!!!! I'm actually in the Ma On Shan libary right now where I used to email every week. It felt so weird coming back to this end of Hong Kong. Elder Ward also moved. He went to my second area, West Point. I'm so jealous!!!! He will love it out there. I'm so excited to be back in Tolo Harbour. We came to Ma On Shan today to chill with some other missionaries and when I walked into the church I had a bunch of flash backs. It was crazy.

It was really hard to leave TST though. I just barely go there and we just started to get our investigators progressing. We got it all figured out with Elder Illum though. He already knows most of our investigators and he promises to help them and to get them baptised =) We were really worried about Wilson (the one who's parents don't like religion). Elder Ward has been calling him a lot lately and Wilson did a special prayer and got an answer. AWESOME!!! He says he still wants to respect his parents but now that he knows for himself he will progress really fast. I'm so excited for him. I'm so sad I had to leave but I'm also so excited to be back near my baby area.

My new companion is Elder Morgan from Salt Lake City (of course). He's been out for three moves and this is now his forth. The apartment that we are in is really nice. Nicer than Mong Kok and West Point. This time we're on the 27th floor. Officially the highest I've been (West Point was 26). Elder Morgan has a lot of energy so I'm hoping I can keep up with him. I'm starting to get old. When we were sitting in the Ma On Shan chapel today I realised that every missionary there was younger than me (in the mission) by at least 7 to 8 months. I'M GETTING OLD!!!!!!!!!!! =) I don't feel like it though. I still feel like I just got here. Remember the song Forever Young by Alphaville, I like that song =) haha

Anyway, I love you all so much. Thank you for your love and support. The Church is True!!!! =)

Love, Elder McAllister

Email: August 12th, 2010

Hey Everyone!!!

How are you all doing? We just dropped off our summer missionary at the mission home today and picked a new one up. The new ones name is Brother Yu. He's from Chai Wan Ward on the island. He's really cool but he forgot to shave so we have to go buy him a shaver today =) haha He's cool though.

This week has been really good. I got to do my first baptismal interview this last week. I've done three now. There really fun and it's cool to hear their testimony. The first one that I did talked to me forever about how she's had health problems all her life and it was really hard for me to pull it back to the baptismal questions with out being rude. It was really fun though. I really like doing the baptismal interviews. You get to see the investigator after they've already gone through all the lessons and challenges and they're really humble and glowing. That's like the only thing I like about being district leader. haha

We asked our fairly new investigator, Mandy Chan, after church on Sunday if she has desire to be baptised and follow Jesus Christ's example. She said that she did but very little right now. Before this she's never heard anything about Christ and we didn't want to push her too much but we told her the blessing that will come from gospel and helped her understand why we need to be baptised. Next time we see her we're going to give her a date =) I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!!!! I love being a missionary!!! Besides it give you all the skills you need for when you go home and start dating =) haha Seriously though! After your mission you still have to go "finding" and you still have "potential investigators" and you still have to give "commitments" haha It's totally the same. I love the way the church works =) haha Just kidding. Don't worry I'm focused and not thinking about dating. We just had this conversation the other day in the apartment. haha

Anyway, This week has been really good for us. I'm really excited to be pushing more in the coming weeks in TST. I love you all so much and miss you all. Keep holding the iron rod. Talk to you next week =)

Love, Elder McAllister

More Pictures

Black Rain Storm!!! (Sorry, I couldn't get the pic to rotate.)

Email: August 5th, 2010

Hey Family. How is everyone doing? This week was way awesome! We had 24 hour exchanges and I went to Tung Chung. It's way nice and quiet out there. A lost different from West Point or TST. On Saturday we had the ward FHE and me and Elder Ward played the guitar and it was pretty awesome. Everyone loved it.

We taught our investigator Leslie on Sunday after church and we found out some trials that she's having right now. She's older but still lives with her parents (it's like that a lot in Hong Kong) but her mom and dad are separated and her mom is giving her a lot of pressure and telling her not to go to church and telling her that we are a cult and stuff like that and telling her that she sucks at making choices. Basically Leslie fell really worthless right now. She cried like the whole lesson. We really tried to comfort her and share scriptures and testimonies. We explained how much she is worth of our Heavenly Father. She felt a little better after the lesson but is a little scared to get baptised right now because of the pressure form her mom. She told us that after her mom dies then she'll get baptised. She's still going to come to church and through that she will be able to have her testimony grow and then she'll know that she needs to be baptised. I'm so grateful to have the gospel in our family so that even though we have our disagreements and what not, we still love and support each other. I really want Leslie to have that.

We found a really old guy the other day and pulled him back to the church and taught him a lesson. He's in his 80s and is really cool. He says that he feels that he failed with his family. We explained how the gospel of Jesus Christ can and will give him a second chance. He's a really humble nice old man. He said that he will come on Sunday. He told us stories from WW2 and the Korean War.

I really love Hong Kong. I couldn't have picked a more awesome place to go on a mission. Heavenly Father wanted me here for a reason and I'm so grateful for that. I love the Hong Kong people. I just wish they wouldn't be so stubborn and use their free agency so much =) haha I love it though. I love and miss all you back home. Always remember your Heavenly Father loves you. Talk to you next week.

Love, Elder McAllister