Quarterly Blog??

I enjoy writing but somehow my laziness always overcomes me. So I think this blog becomes a place that I get on quarterly. Few of my close friends understand that I only like to share good news rather than negative things. Sometimes it's because I just don't remember all the sad feelings when I see them as I'm just happy and enjoy the time I spend with them. But sometimes, it's also because I choose not to remember them. I keep a personal journal right next to my pillow; when times goes by, I have noticed that I tend not to write or record anything when I'm going through trials and sadness. But when I finally feel the love of God again, I would go and write them down. I'm still learning, and I think I should record it even when I'm going through hard times so that my children could read about me. Even at the times of trials, they could come to know how God uplifts and has tender mercy on me and his children. In the meantime, I will write on here more often and hopefully those who come to this blog could somehow feel uplifted and come to know that there is God in Heaven who loves and cares us so much. We did not come to this earth to fail but to gain experiences and have joy!

Love and Fear

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love" (1 John 4:18)

I remember one time on my mission, a sister made a comment in a Sunday School lesson about "Charity never faileth". If we truly love a person, we would choose to love her/him with respect, expecially of her/his decisions instead of trying to be right. Besides, many times we tend to think that children are naughty because they do not receive proper teaching or training from their parents. Being the parents, what would you say? Well, I'm not married yet and of course not even a mother. But I believe that these parents notice the problems and would try to offer the best solutions to their children. Through out my years being a member of the church, I've learned that children's personalities are not initially created by their parents; they have their own unique personality chemistry, which they bring from the premotal life. Much of this personality formation exists beyond the parent's control. We should understand that what the child chooses to do is a unique reason resulting from his own personality, his agency, and his enviornment.

I enjoy reading good uplifting books. One of the books I have been reading is Selected Writings of M.Catherine Thomas. She suggests that parents can pray for, but may even also wait for, readiness in a child when he prefers the trouble to the solution. In this process, parents learn divine patience, coming to understand our eternally patient Savior more and more.

One of our problems as Latter-day Saints is that we feel so responsible. Perhaps some of us assume more responsibility than is ours; we may even assume God's responsibility. We may think that we bear the whole load of another's salvation and forget that every person is a child of God and has his own personal Savior. Love easily turns into unrighteous dominion, into interference with a plan that must unfold between a person and his Savior. When love tries to control, it is not love, but fear. We should try to resist the temptation to control the choices our loved ones make.

I admire those who really understand and apply the principle of Free Agency. We were given this agency since the beginning when each of us chose to come to this earth. My parents are not members of the church yet, but I'm grateful that they have given me freedom to choose which allows me to learn from the consequences of the decisions I make in life.

It's been a while ...

Well, it's really been a while since I wrote here. One of the reasons was that I was going to switch my blog to Wordpress, but then I never have enough time or chance to figure out how to do things on there. So maybe I should just stay writing on this blog instead.

Since I haven't written for about half a year and there are so much going on in my life, I decided to put all the special events into bullet points.

July:

• Started to get busy with planning all the YSAs activities in the stake

August:

• Had a really successful FHE with the stake YSAs, and then we had a dance party. First time having more boys than girls in a church dance.
• And I was still busy with planning YSAs activities, BYU Management Society's Workshop in September, and helping ward YMs/YWs with the family history work for their good work project.
• I was invited to be one of the emcees of the church's youth conference in Hong Kong. My partner was Key Luk. He's talented and I was surprised how it turned out so well even when we did not practice with each other.

Sept:

• Very busy in arranging the Six Sigma workshop for the BYU Management Society - HK Chapter. We had the workshop at Deloitte (Alan's office) and then we had a networking dinner at the Wan Chai Church Building in the evening. That was a great success and we all learned so much from our keynote speaker - Mr. Chet Harmer.
• We had a big, fun, and successful stake YSAs activity! It's a decathlon - some crazy games that we made up! The name of the activity was "Fun Fun 中需要您".
• I was called to be a temple ordaniance worker. I was so thrilled and happy when President Koo extended this call to me. I just love him and Sister Koo. I still remember how I always wanted to meet Sister Koo ever since I heard her talk at the BYU Women Conference in 2006. Her story touches my heart that I would never forget because our stories are so similar and I could literally feel that I'm not alone! I love the temple and I know this is a preparation for my future!
  

Oct:

• I had my birthday in the US. It was so fun to see my American family, John, Justin, Shu Ling, Zhou Laoshi, David, Xaviera, Clotile, Dave, Teresa, Cameron, and some of the missionaries that I know. I had my birthday dinner at Macaronni Grill and I saw Chase working there. He brought me a cake and John bought us all dinner (with Justin and Camille).
• During those five days in Utah, I was busy in attending conferences and tranings hosted by the BYU Management Society of the Marriott School of Business. I felt a little bit out-of-place at the beginning as I was the youngest one who was also the only female chapter president. I felt a little inadaqute when I was sitting with all the business professionals, such as attorneys, CEOs, CPAs, and Presidents...etc. But I absolutely learned a ton over there. I'm so grateful to have this opportunity to be involved with the Management Society.
• As for that conference weekend, Teresa came to the Saturday afternoon session with me. We also attended the international leadership luncheon at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building before the conference. We had a great lunch there and then we headed to the conference center. I love the conference center and I'm so blessed to have the opportunity to attend the conference.
• Another fun thing that I did in Utah was to hang out with those little guys - Tristan and Alec. They've grown so much and they're just adorable. I wonder what they'll be like when I see them next time.
• Well, another great news is that John and I began our relationship on Oct 8 (Wed) when I was in Brea, California (I was actually staying in a hotel in Chino Hills at that time) and he was in Las Vegas. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father gave me the opportunity to see him again and to get to know him.
  

I'm back!

Well, it's been almost three months since I wrote on here. Sorry about that ... life just gets so busy that I've become lazy to sit in front of a computer and update my blog.

There are a lot happened in these few months. The BYU Ballroom Dance Company's tour was over and then I started my new job at Basic Creations Ltd. This is a company based in L.A. and has its offices in Hong Kong and China. We mainly help US movie producers with their merchandising effort. I feel blessed to have this job and hopefully I can learn more and more as time goes by.

Besides that, I've been busy with church callings and random church assignments. A few weeks ago, I got to help the ward young men and women with their good works project, doing genealogy for their own families and other ward members. It was fun to be with them. And I could feel that the spirit of Elijah is back! Another unexpected assignment was that I was asked to be one of the emcees for the HK Youth Conference. I'm still wondering why they asked me to do that as I don't think I'm a fun person ...

Other than that, I became the president of the BYU Management Society - HK Chapter couple months ago. I'm so glad that Doris and Joyce will be helping me with this. And I'm excited that we have this opportunity to serve among the BYU alumni and help them be connected with other business professionals. These things make me start realizing how my past experiences at BYU have led me to where I am now.

Last Saturday, we had a young single adults activity in the stake. Besides our stake members, Emily (Victoris 1st), Joyce (Discovery Bay), and a sister of Sai Wan Ward also came and joined us. We went to the Museum of Coastal Defense and then had our tea at the swimming pool restaurant in Sai Wan Ho. Although I was all busy that morning to arrange everything to make sure the activity could run smoothly, it's all worth it when I saw everyone had a smile on their face. We had about 37 people come and that's totally within our estimation. After the meal, half of us went to Ho Man Tin Chapel for the Preach My Gospel Cup (contest) hosted by the Hong Kong Mission. Our ward - Tsing Yi won! Hurray!!

Well, the following is one of the pictures we took at the activity. I'll post more on here later on!

Farewell to Sister Panting, Pearson & Tunstall

On March 23rd, I went to an outgoing missionary fireside in Ho Man Tin. The three sisters in my second group at the MTC finished their missions in Hong Kong. I can't believe how fast time goes by, and I still remember the time with them in the classroom when they first learned the language and to be a missionary. They were scared whenever they needed to teach me a lesson, then possibly 60% of the time that they didn't understand what I was talking about in Cantonese...

Now they were standing at the pulpit sharing their experiences and testimonies in Cantonese. The spirit was strong and I know that they are going to have a great future ahead of them. A quote by President Hinckley always helps remind me to continue studying in the gospel and bring what I learned from being a missionary to my post-missionary life. I hope that these sisters will get a chance to read this:

"Today more sisters are being called to serve. Not because they aren't married or don't have anything else to do, but they have the desire to serve. The reason the Lord wants more sisters to serve is because within the next generation, He will be sending His priesthood army to the earth. He wants to send choice spirit children to mothers who have been prepared, properly trained and taught in the gospel. What better trained and taught in the gospel, what better schooling and a mother have than through serving a mission." - President Hinckley

I do miss being a full-time missionary but of couse this time I would want to go with a companion that I choose so I may have to wait ... until how long? 30years? 35 years?? 40 years????

Ahh..... I forgot my white tag... Me and Sister Panting, with Sister Pearson on my right hand side and Elder Hansen at the back. That was a good district!

The sisters I taught at the MTC. I miss wearing the teacher tag but I'm just so happy when they call me "Sister Kwok". A warm sweet feeling and all the good memories are just back!

First time seeing Elder Westman since the MTC, he lost a lot of weight. Sister Tunstall told me that most of the missionaries would lose weight when they served in international districts...But now Elder Westman is back in a Cantonese area, hopefully he will be well fed with more nutritious meals by the local members.

Sister Tunstall's dad was so gracious to take us all to a floating restaurant in Shatin for dim sum. It's fun to eat with these missionaries and see how they can carry a coversation in Cantonese now.

(L to R: Elder Hedin, Elder Westman, Bro. Tunstall, Sis. Tunstall, Isi, Me)

Long Island with Senior Missionaries

One Saturday in Febuary, Emily and I joined the senior missionaries to go to the Long Island (Cheung Chau). We had so much fun with the couples. We all rent bikes for an hour to go around part of the island, then we walked, shopped, and of course ate lots of different famous local snacks. I hadn't been on this island for about 7 years. There're not so much changes surprisingly and here are some pictures I took. Go to Emily's blog and check that out because she does better in taking more pictures and updating her blog! =)

This is what we saw after we got off the ferry in Cheung Chau.

Trying to practice how to use the fire beater to put off fire ... that stick is quite heavy for me to use.

One of the couples- Elder and Sister Jones

"I can finally ride a bike!", I said. Then the next thing we knew was that the bike got stuck between the fens, Emily just couldn't stop laughing about it. And I think I scared the couples a little bit. Emily finally believes that I can't ride a bike! ;)

Emily was actually the real driver ... a really good one!

Monkey Mountain

Couple weeks ago, Emily, Kathy, Laura, Denise, and I went to Monkey Mountain. I always knew that there're lots of monkeys in Monkey Mountain but never had an idea on how many there would be. Sure enough, just so many that we can't even count them. The funny thing is that we're actually afraid that they might come attack us. These monkeys are so smart, they know how to open a can of soda, "pop" the bags of chips, and enjoy sucker, etc. That was truly a fun trip!

Monkeys in the city!

That's pretty fun to see the monkeys swinging on the trees, but Kathy and Laura were scared to death. I would just never guess Kathy would be so afraid of monkeys!

These monkeys were just hanging out here.