Guess
where I'm serving?! ABERDEEN!!! WE'VE BEEN THERE!! The church literally
looks out over the water where those boats where people used to live in
are! but the mission actually split, so we actually serve in.. Pok Fu
Lam! But we travel to Aberdeen every day to get to the church and we
live in West Point. So we do a lot of traveling! haha almost every bus
ride I sit away from my comp, next to a random stranger. hahaha i can't
help but laugh at how annoying and awkward I am! haha i have SO much
compassion for forgeiners in the states now. haha wow.
well... WHAT TO SAY!!! so much!!!!
First: airport. 1 sad story, 2 AWESOME ONES!!
1)
Once we got to LA, we quickly had to get on to our next flight. well,
we all got seated on our plane to HONG KONG, all SOOO excited, but
Sister Heaton was just bawling...and bawling. all of a sudden Sister
Heaton got up and said, "I'm going home." and walked out of the plane.
oh my gosh, we ran after her, trying not to make her do something she
doesn't want to do, but ah!! my heart broke and i just started crying! I
told her, "This is a once in a life time opportunity Sister Heaton..'
and tried explaining how we can get through it. but she turned and left.
wow. Sister Tu'avao, her comp, was especially bawling. so i sat next to
her and we watched out the window as the workers took her bags off the
plane. Man, my heart aches for her and I hope she made the right
decision. But that incident helped ME, because whenever I'm down... i
just remember how I would NEVER want to give this once in a life time
opportunity up. Pray for Sister Heaton!
2) on
the plane, Elder Ferrar started talking to a girl from China, and all of
a sudden we taught her literally all the lessons, gave her the BoM (the
one that I highlighted in Chinese!) aaaaand I even asked her to get
baptized and her started crying and said yes! One sister speaks mandarin
so she taught a little more and got her info. WOOOWWWW ohhh my gosh.
that pumped us ALL UP! can you believe what a miracle that is? China
needs to open. people want this gospel so bad! That moment just made me
SO happy for her. it was incredible seeing the light that grew in her
those short hours on the plane. incredible!
welllll im in HONG KONG!!!
My
companion is INCREDIBLE! her name is Sister Cheung. She's from LA and
spoke Canto at home and she speaks SO FAST! haha phew! But she is so
incredibly patient (thank you, answer to my prayers!) and SO energetic. i
love her mentality. i get super exhausted and overwhelmed already (just
adjusting and jet lag...) and she is just a burst of happiness! I love
her! hahaha she makes me call people so I always put it on speaker and
plan out what i'll say, and then they'll respond and I'll have NO Idea
what they're saying, and S Cheung just starts dying laughing, mouthing
words to me! hahaha she says calls are her favorite thing now. I'm glad
SHE likes them ;)
She's also an awesome cook! My first lunch we made fish and choi. yay!
i've
already had some red meat (freaked out inside), sugar because I
couldn't say no, and yeah. goodbye 'karlikale' ;) it's okay though,
it'll work out!! that's honestly the least of my worries now.
The
night we got the mission, our president (OH HE IS AWESOME!!! he reminds
me of a mix between Elder Holland and Jon Bunker!!! haha i love him so
much!! his wife IS SO FUN and SO COOL. i love them!) had us pair up with
an experienced missionary and go finding. guess who i was paired up
with. SISTER MOODY! haha the sister who's blog i follow! she is SO
adorable and SO cool! I had so much fun, practically said nothing
though, but she was incredible. she gives me hope! every contact she
would said "sjaghbkjhbwelwn Baahk JiMuih (thats me) fnklkaneravhenrva"
and then look at me and i'd just spit out something like "um I know the
Book of Mormon is the word of God. When you read it, you receive peace."
WOO! awesome missionary huh. ......
Our apt is ITTY BITTY!
Everything just makes me laugh because it's SO different from home! but
i'm starting to love out itty bitty apt! Today we exercised on the roof.
we room with the STLs and they're AWESOME! we live on the 23rd floor
and overlook the ocean (don't know which one sorry), super tall
buildings, and super cool jungly looking trees. love. it.
Well,
i'd say the most stressful day so far was for sure Sunday. meeting the
members. first, our ward is INCREDIBLE! it's small, about 50 members,
but it's a brand new ward (a month old) and our Bishop-- he is the best.
I love him. plus he speaks english. But, he gave me 2 challenges. 1)
get to know every member. 2) in one month, master sign language.
OHH
MYYY GOSHHHH hahahahahaha i'm dying. So i tried getting to know the
members, but i'm so awkward it's hilarious. one Recent convert, Casey,
is SO gorgeous though and made me a Chinese Name! Baahk Seun Yan. It
means faithful gift or something. i'll figure out the characters later.
but yay! haha so unfortunately i'm already failing with the first
challenge because I can ask some questions, but i can't understand their
answers. also, EVERYONE looks the same. I kept asking my comp: have I
met her yet??
Second challenge. our ward is very unique
because we have a ton of deaf people. and we have a DEAF INVESTIGATOR.
she's not progressing though because she can't read much either, and
literally never really used her brain much so it takes her a LONG time
to understand basic gospel principles. she came to church though! yay!
so... basically... please family, please pray for me to receive mainly
the gift of tongues, but also the gift of hands. thank you. it's also
going to be hard bc President doesn't want me learning Sign during
language study. so the only time we get is during lunch or dinner. phew!
i honestly got super overwhelmed. but, I read Mosiah 2:21 (mom can you
paste it in here please? mhgoisaai! thank you!: "I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another - I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants." and it just pumped me up
this morning! The Lord has blessed me with SO much, I can't even
believe it! here I am learning what matters most in life. Life is
beautiful. this gospel is perfect. Because of God, we can become SO
much. We can do anything we put our minds to with His help. I know I
will be able to speak and help others come unto Christ. I know because I
have faith. I know because He has comforted me every hour of every day!
it's even a miracle I can be here. I love Him!
And
here's the most exciting miracle... HELEN! Gou Mui! She is AMAZING and
is getting baptized July 20! I am so lucky to be able to meet her. We
were teaching her commandments and she had a problem with the second
one, because she worships GyunYam, a buddhist woman creature thing. So
for 2 lessons, we had ward members come and help. the NEXT day, she told
us she's trying to keep it. She knows this gospel is true! it's
incredible how in ONE day, she built the faith to try to keep this
commandment! She reads the scriptures with so much power. she's always
at church, and she even came early to an activity last night to help
make sandwiches. man, she's incredible. today we went to lunch with her.
S Cheung translates for me haha. Oh Helen is 17 btw! Pray for her! She
is so incredible!! :) :) yaaaaaayyy!!!! it's people like her that make
everything worth it! A mission is definitely much harder than I
expected. But, it's SO worth it. i'm SO grateful I get this opportunity!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS! you're all amazing!!! I love you! I have so
much faith, I know I can do this!
The picture of lunch with Helen will not open. Working on it!
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