Email: September 30th, 2010

Hello Family!!! I miss you all!!! Today was Moves and last Tuesday we had our moves calls. We found out that Elder Morgan and Elder Lamb (Tai Wo) were going to move and me and Elder Cheng (originally Tai Wo) will be companions and they brought in Elder Wright to make us a threesome covering both Tai Po and Tai Wo. Elder Cheng has been serving in Tai Wo for six months now so we were surprised that he stayed but he's really good. He's a bit shy but were all trying to help him out of his shell. He's really humble and will not offend anyone. He always thinks of others first. Elder Wright, our new companion, just came from serving in Tuen Mun. He's originally from...you guessed it. Utah!!! haha Gotta love Utah. He came to Hong Kong with Elder Jolley. I have now been officially companions with three of Elder Jolley's MTC group of six =) Jolley, Ward, and now Wright. And I've gone on 24 hour exchanges with all the other three.

Wright, I hear, is pretty cool. He seems pretty chill and ready to work. His Cantonese is really good. He's only been in Honk Kong for about five months. I think it's so funny to hear how in Spanish speaking missions they become fluent in like three to four months. In our two years we don't get as good as they do in even a couple of week of speaking Spanish. But Chinese is cooler =) haha

This last week has been really good. On Sunday we got one of our new investigators, Eric Ho, to come to church. Eric is a little more quiet but really interested. Last night we gave him a baptismal date for October 23rd. I'm really excited for him!!! And also on Sunday our 11 year old investigator, Jimmy, shows up to church in slacks, shined shoes, and a long sleeve white collared shirt. haha He looked like a stud. We want to get him a tie to top it off =) We are planning to give Jimmy a baptismal date this week. Miracles are just popping up around us.

I love my mission so much!! It's so much fun!! haha The other day it was a couple of minutes to eleven (we're supposed to be in bed at 11 here) and I originally planned on calling our investigator, Eric, to see how his prayers and reading is going but it was getting late and I was tired but when I was getting into bed I felt like I really should call him. It wasn't really strong but just like an idea. Kinda like a guilty feeling, like yea, I should probably do that. I don't know how to describe it but I decided to call him. And I'm REALLY glad that I did. He read a couple verses in the Book of Mormon that he didn't understand and I helped explain it to him and then I talked about the gospel (faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, and endure to the end) and he told me that he wanted to accept the gospel and follow Christ. So yesterday, when we taught him, we were able to give him a baptismal date. It wasn't something huge or fantastic that made me call and I don't know what would have happened if I didn't call him, maybe nothing but I'm really glad and grateful that I did. It's so amazing to learn how to follow the Spirit. It is exactly a still small voice, a feeling, thought, and idea. The question I used to have though is how do I know if it's the Spirit or just me feeling or thinking those things but it doesn't matter. As Elder Bednar said in a talk in the MTC, "It doesn't matter. Be a good boy, be a good girl, follow the commandments and you cannot go aims." I love the scripture Moroni 10:6. It often gets overlooked but it also answers this same question. I'll make you guys look it up =) haha

I love you all so much. I hope you all have an amazing week and keep the spirit close. I'm praying for all of you. Please keep praying for me =) I love you all!

Love, Elder McAllister

Email: September 24th, 2010 and New Pictures

Hey Family!!! How have you been? This week has been really good for us. Last Saturday we put on a mission activity for the Young Men and Young Women. We had a little sharing and then we took them out to go finding with us and to visit some less active members. It was way fun and I hope it was good for the YM and YW. I would love to have a calling in the YM when I get home. That would be so much fun.

After we went on exchanges with the Tai Wo Elders and I went with Elder Lamb to visit one of their recent converts that literally live up in the middle of nowhere. It took almost two hours to walk (HIKE) to his house =) haha I send a couple pictures of his village and house. He's a 97 year old man and live way out there and I have no idea how he survives. There are other people living in the village that I'm sure take care of him but it's just so much different from the rest of Hong Kong life. I also attached a picture of when we went to the Korean BBQ a couple of weeks ago. Elder Morgan is the one sniffing the hundred dollar bill =) haha That's my comp =) Mom I'm so sorry I forgot to take the one of the church. I promise I will next week =) So Sorry.

This week we also had the leadership training that we had last moves which was really good. We got hammered on how to be a better missionary. =) Tonight we are going to celebrate one of our investigators 12th birthday =) We're going to make cookies with him and then teach him and his mom a lesson. And then we have English class and play basketball =) Every Friday we have English class and play basketball. I love you all so much. I hope you all can have a really good week this week and make sure to behave yourselves =)

Love, Elder McAllister

Church in Talks to “Regularize” Activities in China

Newsroom - August 30th, 2010 Salt Lake City

A series of high-level meetings between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) and an official from the People’s Republic of China is expected to lead to “regularized” operations for the Church in China.

A statement from the First Presidency of the Church disclosed today that a senior representative of the People’s Republic of China — the highest ranking representative from Beijing to meet with Church leaders — has visited with the First Presidency.

That meeting in the Church Administration Building in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, 24 August, followed meetings in February and May in Beijing, attended by Church apostle Elder Dallin H. Oaks and Elder Donald L. Hallstrom, who are responsible for overseeing the Church in Asia, on assignment from the First Presidency. These meetings were initiated by the Chinese representative.

Elders Oaks and Hallstrom represent two of the most senior councils of the Church — Elder Oaks of the Twelve Apostles and Elder Hallstrom of the Presidency of the Seventy.

“It is important to understand what the term regularizing means, and what it does not mean,” Church spokesman Michael Otterson said. “It does not mean that we anticipate sending missionaries to China. That issue is not even under consideration.

“The Church deeply appreciates the courtesy of the Chinese leadership in opening up a way to better define how the Church and its members can proceed with daily activities, all in harmony with Chinese law.”

Otterson said that many details need to be worked out in further discussions with Chinese officials but that the pending developments were the result of 30 years of building mutual trust with the Chinese.

“They have become thoroughly familiar with us through numerous contacts, and they have seen how we and our members operate in China. They know that we are people of our word when it comes to respecting Chinese law and cultural expectations,” he said.

The formal, brief statement from the First Presidency said that they and other senior leaders at Church headquarters in Salt Lake City “have had discussions with a senior official of the People’s Republic of China from Beijing, and have established a relationship which we expect will lead to regularizing the activities of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in China.”

Otterson said that given the importance of understanding and complying with various Chinese laws and the need for ongoing cooperative efforts, the Church does not plan to comment further on the discussions for the time being.

“At the conclusion of the meeting in Salt Lake City, it was agreed that it would be appropriate for this information to be announced publicly,” Otterson said.

Short History of the Chruch in Hong Kong and Current Statistics

Newsroom - The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints

China - Hong Kong

The first missionaries to Hong Kong visited for four months in 1853, but internal problems in China made missionary efforts difficult. The Church began to grow when missionary headquarters were established in Hong Kong in 1949. By 1951, approximately 30 people attended weekly Church meetings. By 1960, approximately 1,700 members were divided into eight congregations. Over the next five years, membership grew to 3,000. In 1975, membership was 10,000. In the past 10 years, membership has nearly doubled.

The Hong Kong temple was completed in 1996 on the Kowloon peninsula.

Current Membership - 24,114
Missions - 1
Temples - 1
Congregations - 32
Family History Centers - 4

Email: September 16th, 2010

Hey Family!! How are all of you? I'm so tired right now. We went with the zone this morning to hike Lion's Rock again but this time we had to get up at three in the morning because we live further away. It was really cool though because this time there wasn't too many clouds so we could see the sun rise. We've had a few really good miracles happen this week. Last week after emailing (I emailed in the Ho Man Tim library) I left my planner at the library and totally forgot until we got home. It was full of people's numbers and information that we needed. Usually in Hong Kong if you lose something for more than a couple minutes then it's gone. But I was able to call the library the next day and they had it and the TST missionaries were able to get it for me. If we didn't find that planner then we wouldn't be able to teach a couple of the people that we are teaching right now because the only numbers we had for them were in it.

The other day I was on exchanges with my zone leader Elder Preece and we were able to find so many people. It's because he had the ZL power. We were walking on a bike trail that runs along the river and we started walking alongside this kid and started talking to him. First we got to know him and then started to share the gospel with him. We were walking and talking with him for a really long time and we walked with him way outside our area. I figured Heavenly Father wouldn't mind and I had the ZL with me so he's got full jurisdiction. This kid's name was Eric, one of the three Erics that we contacted that night, (everyone in Hong Kong is named Eric) and he was totally interested. We got his number and we're going to teach him later this week.

Finding can be really stressful but really fun sometimes. There's a lot of things to argue about like the heat, humidity, tired, hungry, rain, and whatever else but some of the best memories I have of my mission so far is of finding. The crazy people we meet, the amazing spirit we feel... I'll tell you what, there's nothing better than finding all day and getting totally depressed and sweaty and hot and then coming in contact with someone that totally needs and wants the gospel. It makes up for all those things and then some. I love the scripture, the one that talks about tithing and says that if we obey this commandment then Heavenly Father will open the window of Heaven and pour out a blessing that there will be not room enough to receive it. I believe this is true for all commandments. We had a really cool lesson the other day and we were trying to explain about how to get an answer to prayer and out awesome fellowshipper gave this analogy; Imagine you have a tennis ball and a wall in front of you and you throw that ball at the wall. The harder you throw the harder it'll bounce back. Also the weaker you throw the ball the weaker it'll bounce back. Commandments are almost the same. The more willingness, sincerity and effort we put into following the commandments the bigger the blessings is that comes back. But the only difference is that what comes back is honestly much more then we deserve, or so great that there will not be enough room to receive it.

I know that our Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us, His children. He knows what we go through in this life and has provided His Son, Jesus Christ and His Atonement to help us overcome those challenges. I'm so grateful for my Savior. I know that he lives. I know that this is His work. I love the story by President Uchtdorf about the statue of Jesus Christ and his hands being broken off in the war and afterwards the people engraved "we are His hands." I hope and pray that I can better be the hands of the Savior in this small part of the world. I love the people here and I love this area and all of Hong Kong. I love you all so much too! I hope that you will all have a good week. Always remember that the church is true =)

Love, Elder McAllister

Email: September 9th, 2010

Hey Family!!! How are you all doing? Sorry last week I couldn't send personal emails to everyone. I ran out of time. But I'll catch up today =)

This week has been pretty good. A lot of tough days though. We've bad a lot of new investigators that we scheduled not show up to the lesson and we've had to go finding a lot. It's been really hot and humid lately so it's pretty tough to go out but hopefully Heavenly Father will bless me with losing weight =) haha I haven't gained or lost since being in Hong Kong. I really want to lose weight but Chinese food always has a lot of grease in everything, that and I need to work out more =)

Anyway, This week has also had some good parts. We had four investigators show up to church and some of them brought their kids. It was so awesome!!! Church started and none of our investigators were there so we were pretty sad but then slowly one by one some of them started walking in. They were all people that we met on the street before but haven't actually sat down and had a lesson with but we just invited them to come to church and the ward members did amazing at fellowshiping and rescheduling them for us. I really like Tai Po ward. It's smaller then West Point ward. West Point had about 80 active members and Tai Po has 60 but on a good day 70 to 80. So it's really small but just like West Point it's like a big family =) So I really like it. Our ward mission leader is awesome. He looks exactly like dopey off of Snow White =) haha He's just a really old guy but really cool and helps us out a lot. And makes us Tong Seui (I have no idea what that means in English but it's kind of a sweet soup). Yesterday while me and Elder Morgan were finding in front of the church we pulled a guy into the church from off the street. We taught him lesson one and it went pretty good. He spoke really really fast and loud Chinese so we were barely able to communicate and it was kind of hard to feel the spirit. So me and Elder Morgan tried to talk really slow and quiet and by the end of the lesson he wasn't yelling so much and was mostly talking slow. It was really cool when I bore my testimony about my family (AKA ALL OF YOU) and you could really feel the spirit and he started to get a little teary eyed. I've only seen a couple of Hong Kong people cry. It's really amazing how when I look back on why I came on a mission and I see all the blessing that came from it, learning a new language, learning patience, discipline, my English getting destroyed, seeing people lives change, these are all blessings that come from serving a mission but not why I came out. It's because of my family. Because of the blessings that the gospel has brought to our family. After Grandpa Ki passed away I had a strong confirmation that the plan of salvation was and is true. I've seen and felt what the Sacrifice and gospel of Jesus Christ can do especially for a family and I knew that because of Him I can see not only Grandpa Ki again but that we all can live together forever. I came here because I love my Savior Jesus Christ and what he has done for my family. I love you all so much and miss you. I love Hong Kong and I don't want to leave it. I realized that other day that my time is getting shorter and it's scarring me. I'm praying that Heavenly Father will slow time down for me =) haha I hope you all have an amazing week. Don't forget...The Church is True =)

Love, Elder McAllister