Happy Chinese New Year!

Welcome to the Year of the Snake!  Remember how Chinatown wasn't any different during Christmas?  Well, Chinese New Year is much more lively around here.  People have been buying food, spending time with family, and generally happier than usual.  It has been a great week.

For those who don't know, Chinese New Year celebrates the beginning of spring and is 15 days of celebration for the people.  The irony behind all of this is just before the celebration of spring we got a giant snowstorm that froze over New York.  It was crazy, and we had about four inches of snow.  That didn't dampen any spirits, though, and we had a happy holiday.  On New Year's Eve, we were invited to a reunion dinner at a former investigator's house.  She is a very kind older Taiwanese woman who loves the missionaries.  She doesn't have any family in New York, so we went to keep her company for the holidays.  She made us an awesome dinner with two kinds of fish, beef, dumplings, and a fried rice cake called nian gao, which is traditionally eaten at the new year.  We brought some noodles and veggies so she wouldn't have to cook everything, but she still insisted on making most of the food.  It was delicious and we had a wonderful time with her!

On Sunday, since it was the first day of the new year, we had only one hour of church meetings and then all ate food together as a ward.  We invited our investigators to come, and it was nice to see them integrating more with the ward.  In the evening we (the sisters) made a traditional dinner and ate with the other missionaries.  It was fun to be together and to share traditions.

On a side note, I had a wonderful birthday, and am grateful for all of the well-wishes sent my way.  Thank you!

The work this week has been interesting, ranging from entire days of contacting to entire days of teaching lessons.  After teaching all day yesterday, Sister Khong and I were exhausted!  We found an envelope full of former investigators on our bookshelf and started calling numbers at the end of last week, and we have been able to set appointments with several of the people we found.  It has been awesome to see how they have been prepared to receive the gospel.  What a huge miracle that we found them!

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve the Chinese people here.  I have had so many great experiences learning from the people here and helping them to learn about the gospel.  Yesterday as we taught all those lessons, all I could feel was the love Heavenly Father has for these people.  He wants what is best for them, just as He wants what is best for each of us.  I am just beginning to understand how much He loves His children, and I am grateful for that.

I love you all!  Happy New Year!

Love,

Sister Beer

And now it's time for pictures!!!

These are two of the recent converts in my ward. The one on the left is Amy. I taught her and her daughter, who just got baptized in December. (They are the mother and daughter who we met before General Conference.) On the right is Sister Hu, who is one of the best member missionaries I have ever seen. Super solid. They are both from Guangzhou, and are close friends. They met while they were both investigating the Church and have been a huge support to each other. Tammi (from the other picture) is Sister Hu's daughter.

One of the people we found in the folder was named Jackie.  Jackie Chen.  "Chen" is the Mainland Chinese romanization of what many people know as "Chan," which is the Hong Kong romanization.  So there was a former investigator in our files named Jackie Chan.  Awesome.

My family sent me these awesome brownies for my birthday!  Can't you just feel the magic?

The other sisters surprised me on my birthday by spraying me with water guns, making waffles for breakfast, and a couple of gifts.  The book is full of pictures of me and Sister Khong (along with some other people) that she has been compiling for a while.  Pretty cool, right?

I made dinner for my birthday - teriaki pork roast, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and rolls from Trader Joe's.  Mmmmm.....

The Sisters with the food!

Here are pictures from our ward Chinese New Year party:

First we have Sister Khong and me, Elder Blair, Hou Ya Qing, Elder Blonquist, and Bishop McConkie.

This is Tammi, me, Joy, Sister Woo, and Sister Khong in the background.

My favorite part of this picture is Elder Blonquist creeping in the background.  The little American girl is Bishop McConkie's oldest daughter.

This was the Chinese New Year feast that Sister Khong, Woo, Chen and I made.  Sister Khong and I hand-wrapped the wontons.  It was all delicious.

We steamed a fish!