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