12-28-14

                            view from our apartment window                              

night time view from apartment 

our kitchen

our living room

12-28-14

Things have been great here. This last week was full of craziness and a few really nice surprises.

 

I can't express how grateful and excited I am to actually be in Hong Kong, and actually be doing missionary work. Even despite the hardships and frustrations, which I kind of figured would be part of the package deal.

 

So, interesting stories;

 

On Christmas we had a ward Christmas party, which was fantastic. The ward that we-Elder Barker and I-serve in-Cheun Sha Wan Ward-is wonderful. There is a really good bond between everyone, and it reminds me so much of my homeward. Everyone's happy, everyone jokes around with one another, and there's always food involved.

 

Besides the party being good, we got a new investigator there! The Cheun Sha Wan Sisters brought Jason to the party, and we've had the chance to talk with him several times. He's a very cool guy, and is very interested in the church and our beliefs. Ahh, but all sweet things have a bitter bite. Because of work, Jason goes to Macau-another part of the mission, but a separate "country"-for a month or so, then comes back to Hong Kong for a few weeks. He's going back in just a few days, which means, we won't be able to teach him. Hopefully, though, we can give his name and number to the Macau Elders and they can pick him up.

 

Next, on Sunday, there was a baptismal service where three people got baptized. And there were a lot of investigators there. We had five at church, and the Sisters had three. Most of them stayed after church to attend the baptismal service, and it went very well. Jason was one of them, and another one of investigators, Mark, who is a tough nut to crack. He's a bit of a "punk," in a good way, but thinks about things in a very different and difficult way. We've been trying to get him excited for his baptismal date, and I think he finally is. Hopefully we can keep that fuel under him.

 

And last but not least, calls.... I must say, calls are my worst nightmare. It's difficult enough to understand and speak Cantonese face to face, but over a phone, it's nigh unto impossible. Plus, there's a lot of different language that's used on the phone that you never hear on the street. Just like any language, but it makes it super difficult. Oh, and for some really strange and awkward reason that makes absolutely no sense at all whatsoever in the universe or in the entire history of history is that; you HAVE to speak fast. If you speak even somewhat slow and careful, they WILL NOT understand you. I still don't get how that computes, but, it does. So you have to learn how to mash a bunch of words together really quickly. And there's all sorts of weird slang terms and conjunctions and yadda, yadda, yadda.

 

Calls and I now have a mutual relationship, but it's still so wonderful to call some random person, squeak out that you're a missionary, and have the phone hung up on you. Ahh, but that happens to every and all missionaries everywhere. Part of missionary life, I suppose.

 

It was funny, though. I was doing calls, when the phone rang. I picked it up and said, "Wai, haih bin wai?" In the best Buhndeih-Native-voice possible, of course. Instead of answering with, "Haih Chan Sin Sang-Is Mr. Chan," there was a whole lot of angry yelling and then...another hang up. Who knows what that was about? My guess is it had something to do with a little bit of nothing.

 

In any case, I can't remember any other specifics that made the week exciting, besides the usual. I'm doing fine, and have learned a "butt load of poop about the Gospel" and Cantonese and other things.

 

 

 I love you all very much. Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

 

P.S. Thanks for the gifts. I like candy. The only sad part is I can't listen to the CD. One of President Hawkes' rules is that we don't listen to any music that's not produced by the church. It's was kind of interesting, though, because my trainer said, "Hey, that's cool. Now you have another physical thing you can sacrifice for the mission." I hadn't ever thought of it like that, but it makes sense. So, thanks! I look forward to listening to it in two years :D

 

Gaaiyau!

 

 First day with my trainer

Second day with my trainer

12-23-14

HI the Georges,

This is brother Tsang. I am the Elders Quorum president of Hong Kong CSW ward. Your son Elder Georges is currently serving in my ward and he is amazing. 

During Christmas, he is allow to skype with you guys! but i guess he doesnt have your skype account. Could you please Email me as soon as possible so that i can make sure he can skype with you guys during Christmas?

wish you have a great Christmas. 

Regards

James Tsang

12-16-14

12-21-14

Singdaan faailohk! Merry Christmas! I hope that everything is going good with everyone.

 

Things here are crazy. And when I say crazy, I mean it. The Asian culture, and more specifically Hong Kong, is fast paced and always on the go. People are always busy and in a rush, and not afraid to push others out of the way. It's actually been kind of fun learning how to zip in and out as we rush back to our apartment, then back out for finding, then back to the church building to teach a lesson. There is virtually no time for anything other than missionary work or study. Even while we ride the MTR-public subways-I'm studying vocab, which has helped a lot. In the last four days I've memorized seventy-five to an hundred words. Pretty good, if I do say so myself.

 

 A lot has happened since arriving, so I'll just lay it out real fast.

 

When we flew into Hong Kong, grabbed our luggage and left the airport we got to meet President and sister Hawkes. I was a little worried at first that President Hawkes would be one of those popcorn fart dry people, but he cracked a joke first things first, and I knew it was all going to work out just fine. But, mind you, he's extremely diligent and won't tolerate and sort of disobedience, which is most definitely a good thing. We then drove to the Mission home, which is acoss from the Temple, and pretty much just went to bed.

 

The next morning we got up, ate a wonderful breakfast prepared by Sister Hawkes, and then went to the Immigration Station, which was crazy. It was like being at the Blanding MVD, except, you can't understand a word anyone says. We applied for our Hong Kong Residence Licenses, and did our first real "missionary work" in Hong Kong. Talking to people was fun because they all laughed and spoke English for us.

 

In the evening we went finding with some other missionaries, which was a crazy experience. Elder Durham and I wandered around forever, after getting lost, until we found a street with his name on it that led us back to known civilization. What a coincidence. We talk to a few people, and almost had one street lesson, but no one really wanted to talk. It's crazy, though. The places here that are considered high end and expensive are more or less low budget places back home. It's not quite third world, but it's pretty destitute in some places, and the buildings are just old and grungy. But, everyone had a phone and a computer.

 

Thursday morning we met our new companions. Elder Barker is awesome. He's upbeat, excited to be a missionary, and only has four months left, so his Cantonese is great. He says he doesn't know as much as a lot of other missionaries, but his is clear and crisp because he's spent a lot of time focusing on speaking habits. We went to the apartment, dropped of my luggage, did some planing and then went out and tuaght a lesson. Then went finding. Then taught another lesson. And then more finding. It was crazy. The people here speak extrememly fast, and slur their words together, which makes it all the more difficult to understand what they're saying. Plus, as I've said, they're super busy, so they don't have the time to stop and speak slowly to accomodate you. But, I suppose it's all for the best. I've already learned so much.

 

The next day was pretty much the same, and the next. We taught some lessons, did some finding. Riding the MTR is fun, especially when it's hou bik, or, very crowded. You just pack in like sardines, and when the train starts moving everybody stumbles around for a few seconds, tied together like asparagus. Except, everyone else is short.

 

Finding is crazy. Just stopping random people on the street to talk about religion is weird enough, but when you can't udnerstand most of what they say and they can't understand you, it's even more awkward. But still fun. Usually what happens is I stop them, say a few weird things, then Elder Barker takes over. I'm actually surprised at how much success comes from street Finding. A lot of people are really interested in what we have to tell them.

 

The food here is really good, though, nothing like Panda Express. The thing that's actually the most difficult to get used to is the fact that there's bones in all of thier meat. It's a bit awkward when eating. The smells here are strange as well. Everywhere you go it smells like fish or something else that's hard to describe. I can't really tell if it's good or bad, or somewhere in the middle. In any case, it's different.

 

And, of course, everyone lives in super tall buildings. They aren't apartments, though. The people refer to them as homes, because that's what everyone lives in, except for a few super rich people. Usually one of those rich people owns an entire group of these "apartment" buildings, which is called a Chyun. Kind of different. But things are good, and despite the difficulties of the language and adjusting to missionary life, I'm having a great time, and am very excited for the day when I can actually speak the language.

 

 I was really glad to be able to call you at the airport as well. I almost cried, but then Mahonri got on and it was all good. I've put my cooking skills to good use already, and the other three missionaries that live in the apartment have enjoyed it. Not saying that I appreciate you making me cook all the time or anything but...thanks. You're a good mom.

I love you all so much. See you in twenty-two and a half! Gaaiyauh.

 

P.S. We do get to Skype on Christmas. We'll do that around 9:45 in the morning my time, which will be 7:45 in the evening your time, so, Christmas Eve. I don't know what our Username will be, but we'll get things figured out.

12-16-14

Sister George:  We wanted you to know that your son has arrived safely 

in Hong Kong.  He is excited to be here and ready to go to work.  We are 

very grateful to have him here.  Thank you for sending him.  We look 

forward to serving with him.

Sister Hawks

12-14-14

Leihdeih hou! Dim a? I talked to the Branch Presidency and they said that we could e-mail today, which is nice. I'm not quite sure but I think that the HongKong mission P-Day is Wednesday, so, I might get to email in two days. 

Just wanted to let you know that I'm doing fine and am very excited. I have most everything packed and have enough space, so we're good with the luggage. Everyone in the district has their Visas, so no problems there. And, hopefully we'll get to call in the morning sometime between eight and ten. 

Oh, and remember that once I get to HongKong the time difference kicks in and we'll be thirteen hours ahead. We land at nine at night, HK time, so we won't be e-mailing then. 

I hope that everything is going good with you all and am very thankful for the opportunity you've given me. And thank you very much for the package. The treats were great and I'm excited for the presents. Plus, I'm glad to have the pictures. I sent a package back and hope it's arrived, or will in the next few days.

Merry Christmas

Love, Da Smoe

12-08-14

Things are going well here. Though I've struggled with a lot of things, I still feel confident that I know at least enough Cantonese to say hello and give my name. Still can't believe that I only have a week left. The older Thais just left, and we were all freaking out. 

Nothing super exciting or interesting happened this week. I kind of feel bad about not having anything to tell you, but, that's how it goes here at the MTC. In any case, the next 95 emails will all have cool things in them, so I'm not too worried about it. 

I've had the hardest time thinking up an ornament. There's just not much to work with here, and not much time to do anything. If worse comes to worst, I'll just do something totally cheesy.

I just thought of something funny that did happen. On Friday we were playing soccer for gym, and I tripped and did a swan dive and.... It's just a sprain, but it did hurt when it happened. The funny thing was that I was laughing instead of whining about it, which everyone else thought was weird. But then, it fits me well.

My two years will be over before we know it.

Though you're still not sure exactly what you'll be doing for Christmas, I do hope that you're able to go to New Mexico and celebrate it with the Georges. It would be super sweet to be able to skype them as well.

I love you all so very much, and am very excited to have this opportunity to be going to such a cool place and share the gospel with such interesting people.

P.S. Here's our flight plan;

LV: Salt Lake City, UT - 11:10 AM - 15 DEC

AR: Seattle, WA - 12:22 PM - 15 DEC

LV: Seattle, WA - 2:38 PM - 15 DEC

AR: Hong Kong, Hong Kong - 9:30 PM - 16 DEC

So, according to that, there will be virtually no time to call. We leave the MTC at 6:00 AM on Monday, and though we will have a few hours at the SLC airport, there will be so many other people/missionaries there, we won't be able to call. So, don't plan on it. A little disappointing, but, we'll get to talk ten days later on Christmas.

Me and Elder Beresford

12-01-14

This week was epic! Or, rather, Gamgo singkeih hou faeseunghou! (It's annoying typing Canto without the accents.) In any case, Thanksgiving was altogether different than every other thanksgiving I've ever had. The food wasn't that great, and we didn't get to eat a whole lot of it, but that was fairly insignificant compared to the rest of everything that happened.

Firstly, On Monday, when we went to gym, President Hacking (Second Counselor in the MTC Presidency) came by and asked for a few volunteers to help move all of the items for the week's service project. I was a little hesitant at first, mostly because gym time is super rare and super important, but Elder Beresford and I decided to go after all. We got to ride palette movers around for an hour or so. Needless to say, it was fun.

On Tuesday Elder Oaks came for the devotional, and gave a really good talk. I don't have my notes, but I received a bit of personal revelation and it helped me a lot. Then on Thursday, for Thanksgiving, we had a really fun Program which involved some amazing performances by other missionaries. Elder Bednar came for the Devotional and we got to have a Q&A session with him. The best part was that we sent our questions to his I-pad via cellphones. Everyone was freaking out, as if he was asking us to do something forbidden. I was a little disappointed because most of the questions that got asked could be answered with common sense, and they just got asked to be asked, but it was still good. And then we got to watch Meet the Mormons, which was as good as the first time.

And then, yesterday, Vocal Point came for the Sunday Devotional and performed for us. It was pretty sweet. All in all, a very good and successful week. 

We are all officially freaking out now that we only have two weeks left. We should get our flight plans sometime this week. Hopefully all of our Visas and paperwork are sorted out. I have prayed every nights since arriving at the MTC that we will have no problems, so, if my faith isn't sufficient, then, I don't know what to do. Actually, God will probably make my Visa have issues just because I said that.

I love you all so freaking much. I can't express how much I've changed in the last seven weeks. My heart has been softened greatly. I know that great things are in coming in the future for our family. Gaaiyauh! (Spelled it wrong the last time.)

Love, Da Smoe

P.S. I get to call at the airport, if you don't already now, and depending upon departure times and such, we might have upwards of two hours. Not that you'll want to talk for that long, but next Monday I will send you my travel plans so you can plan for that. And then we get to skype a week and a half after that.

Well, I trust that things are going well. I'll check my email later to see if you've sent me one.

In any case, things are going well. We just hit our six week mark, which means, we only have three left. I'm freaking out a bit because I don't know if I'm physically ready for Hong Kong. Mentally and spiritually, though, I'm prepared. We asked our teachers if they thought we knew enough Cantonese yet to go, and they told us that we didn't need to worry. We could be shipped out now and we'd be just fine.

I feel like I've been speaking Cantonese all my life.

I had a dream just the other night in which I was speaking to someone in Cantonese. He kept saying a word that I didn't recognize, because I've never heard it before. Dongwu. After I woke up I went and looked the word up. Turns out it's a real word and it means animal. A bit of Gift of Tongues there or something. Definitely a cool experience, though.

We've been having a lot of fun here recently. Elder Shipp has been building forts for his bed instead of sleeping. (I'll have to get some pictures of it.) He and Elder Powell-now Zone Leaders-are setting great examples ;)

My comp, Elder Beresford, has been struggling with the language as of late. Part of it is that he's not as "intelligent" as the rest of us. I don't mean that in a bad way, just that, his brain works differently. We pick new concepts up a little quicker. We had a fast for him on Wednesday, and I know it helped. He's doing better now, and when he applies himself, he speaks just fine.

Speaking about speaking languages. We had TRC on Saturday, as usual, and man was it good. I took virtually no notes, and was able to ask questions, understand the answers, teach by the spirit and help resolve the "investigators" needs, all in Cantonese. It shocked me, to say the least. That was when I really realized the extent of what we've all learned. I know I've worked hard, and I've applied myself day in and day out to learning the language, but I also know that there is no possible way I've remembered this much without God's help.

I only have two requests. 1) Apparently, in Hong Kong, when we talk to the people about our families, they're going to want to see pictures. Our teachers actually told us to take pictures of family with us, because it's a great teaching tool. Would you mind printing some that actually look half good? (I know, we're so photogenic.)

2) Would you mind sending some knee pads :D They will be put to good use. 

P.S. Just kidding. Seriously, though. I pray a lot now.

P.P.S. HAHAHAHAHAHA! That's how one of our teachers, Chan Jimuih, laughs. We're pretty sure she invented "hahaha."

P.P.S. I'll send pictures right after this.

My comp and I, Oh, and Elder Anderson

11-17-14

 Leihdeih haih Faht!

Leihdeih - You all

Haih - Is/Am/Are

Faht - Buddha

We call each other fat all the time now. 

Things have been going swell here. Except for the food, of course. A few of us are starting "diets" today. We're going to focus on eating salads and wraps, which still aren't very good for you. If I enjoy eating the salad, it's most definitely not healthy.

A funny thing happened last night. I was struggling a bit, and I needed/wanted a reaffirmation that I'm doing the right thing. So, in my evening prayer, I asked God for such a thing. I didn't want to become a Korihor and say, "Show me a sign!" But at the same time, I wanted a definite answer. So, I said, "If I wake up before my alarm goes off, then I'll know." Seemed like a good thing to say at the time. Of course, I was sick and tired and almost asleep, but you know.

It was the most restless sleep I've had here at the MTC. I feel asleep at first, then woke up around two in the morning and just could not get any rest. Everyone kept snoring and flopping around in their beds and...AAAHHHHHH! I woke up pretty frustrated, not to mention tired, and asked God why He would do that to me? Of course, being Smoe, I had completely forgotten my previous prayer. When I realized that I had received my answer, and that the Lord had capitalized on the opportunity to put me in my place, I felt pretty retarded. But, it was a good experience, and the first time that I've received physical evidence in such a short time.

So, for lack of a good night's sleep, I know this church is true.

I love you all and am very grateful for the sacrifices you're making to allow me to be out here. I pray that God will bless you for it. 

Love, Da Smoe

P.S. sorry there are no more pictures this week. I didn't get much of an opportunity to take more, as it's been very cold here, and we all have so much extra free time to do things with ;)

P.P.S. I'm sending a few words with pronunciations in a letter. I'll continue to send more.

11-10-14

Okay, replying to the reply of the reply of the reply. My comp isn't finished, so I figured it would be fun to teach you some Canto.

Leih - You

Ngoh - I/Me

Ngohge/Leihge - Mine, Yours

Hou - Good

Gatihng - Family

Leih hou - Greeting meaning, "You Good."

Faehzerng - Very

So...Leih hou ngohge faehzernghou gatihng means, "Hello my very good family."

Ngoh hai Yehsou Geiduk kahpkeih sitough haih chuyngaausih - I am a missionary from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Yehsou - Jesus

Geiduk - Christ

Hai - This means yes as is, but with an ascending accent it means "from."

Kahpkeih - I can't remember if this is correct, but it should mean "current day."

Sitough - Saint/Apostle

Haih - Is/Am/Are

Chuyngaausih - Missionary

The language is epic. It's beautiful sounding enough to not be harsh, but it's also harsh enough to not sound like French.

11-10-14

 Leih hou ngohge faehzernghou gatihng!

PICTURES!!!!!!

I'd send you a bazillion, but I don't think the email would ever make it. Needless to say, I'm excited, and now that I can send them, I will start taking plenty more.

This last week was pretty epic. We did a lot of fun things, got a lot of work done, and made a lot of progress. We had TRC for the second time on Saturday. TRC is where you go teach random members who volunteer. You get about twenty minutes with each of them to teach a specific thing. I wrote down about five sentences in my language book, but only used one. The rest of the time I just went off of memory. I'm still amazed that after only four weeks I can teach a full lesson, teach an investigator how to pray, how to receive answers to their prayers, and invite/commit them to prayer.

Today we went to the temple, as usual, but this time we decided to do Sealings, rather than Endowments. It was an amazing experience. As I was being proxy for a son, and the officiator was reciting the ordinance, I could not but help remember when we went through the temple as a family. I was full of emotion and love for this gospel and for you all, and was immensely grateful for the fact that we have been sealed in the temple. It is a blessing second to none.

Perhaps the funniest thing that happened this week was while we were sitting at lunch on Friday. My comp, Elder Beresford, does this amazing magic trick with his ring. He puts it on his middle finger, and then makes it change fingers but slapping it against his wrist. The first time he showed it to us, we were dumbfounded, because it looked realistic. But then he did it again and we realized what was happening. He puts his middle finger and index finger against his arm, then says "WHABBAM!" and takes his index finger off and puts his ring finger on. But his fingers look enough alike that it seems realistic. Once you figure it out, though, it's hysterical. So, at lunch, he did it for this new guy who is speaking Lao, and the guy believed it at first, which made us all laugh. Then he figured it out and went into some fit of obnoxious laughter which is most definitely not human. It sounded like Sister Daily being attacked by a chipmunk. We laughed for ten minutes solid, and everyone in the cafeteria was just staring at us.

Life is good.

Except the food, which tried to kill me. 

And thank you all for supporting me. I like to play the tough guy, but already this experience has been very difficult. I'm very grateful to know that I have family back home who are proud of me, and are there for me. I will make you proud.

11-3-14
As you can probably tell, we like to quote Nacho Libre. That and Napolean Dynamite. The movies seem so much more funny when we quote them. Never thought I'd want to watch a movie so bad. Well, we did watch one, that is, The Testaments. Everybody cat-called when they kissed, of course. Such a good film. The Sunday Devo was pretty good as well. Sister Nelson-aka Russel M. Nelson's wife-came and spoke to us. I can't remember much about it because I don't have my notes, but we did get to sing a new hymn that she and a friend wrote. O Lord Make Us A Holy People. Maybe the church will produce a modern hymn book sometime soon that has more hymns in it.

In any case, things are still going along just fine. The language is very, very, very, very, very, very, very difficult to learn, but I'm enjoying it, and amazed at how much we have learned. The only time I get frustrated is when we go to teach a lesson. It's very difficult because our "investigators," who are our teachers, ask really difficult questions, which have really difficult answers, and we don't have the vocab for it. Plus, my comp, Elder Beresford, is struggling a little with Cantonese, so I usually end up doing the listening and talking by myself. He finds it hard to focus a lot of the time, but, he'll come around soon.

Funny story. I got the package, which I am very grateful for. The cookies are great, if a little dry. And thank you so much for sending something to Elder Beresford. He really appreciated it. I was excited to have my other shoes for gym and such, but when I wore them to play soccer, they exploded. Literally. I kicked the ball, and the metal strip which keeps the bottom rigid tore through the material, cut my ankle, and flew off into the grass. The shoes are pretty much done for. Everyone tried to convince me  d sadmksiw3io3o3p3o3pjiq

Well then...ahem...nothing happened there.

It's all Elder Gonzalez's fault. He's one of the Thai Elders in my zone and is sitting close by. He started typing all crazy, so I looked at his comp and we both shrugged. Then I went all Nacho on the keyboard and...yah....

Anyways, back to the story, everyone tried to convince me that I could just wrap it up with duct tape and it would be fine. Because everyone is running around with a bunch of duct tape in this place. They don't have any at the bookstore either. Speaking about the bookstore. Everything is so cheap. There's a lot of things I could have just bought here and saved a lot of money. The small quad scriptures are like thirty dollars. And, of course, I've capitalized on the fact that they even do the missionary discount on their junk food. Paying for it at the moment, though, because I've got a bit of a cold. I whipped out the garlic immune last night to take some, and everybody in my room freaked out because of the smell. I'm going to use it to wake them up tomorrow morning.

We talked to some Elders who are going Stateside, but come from Hong Kong. It was pretty dang sweet. They helped us out with the language a little, told us about some good places to eat, and then told us that we all should have waited to buy our mission clothes when we got there. They said they bought two full suits plus all their shirts and shoes and such, for like five hundred dollars. What!? I think I'll just get a job in the states when I get back, work for a year, then go live for five years in Hong Kong. I may live in a tiny cage, but I'll have a sorts of cheap stuff to bring back.

Well, we finally found out how to send pictures, but we can't until next week because we have to go buy the "expensive" SD Card Reader and we don't have time. The guy in the bookstore assured us that the cheaper one worked fine. Guess he never tried. 

Ngoh jidou ligaan gaauwui haih jansahtge. Ngoh jidou ligaan gaauwui haih Sahnge gaauwui. Ngoh jidou Moyihmuhnging haih jansahtge. Ngoh gwaanyu Yehsou Geiduk yauh seunsam, tuhngmaaih ngoh gwaanyu Keuihge Suhkjeuih yauh seunsam. Ngoh sihsih wuih yauh seunsam. Fuhng Yehsou Geidukge mihng, a-muhn.

I have only one request. Send me a fifty pound box of chex-mix around Thanksgiving time. Don't worry, I'll share ;D

Hope you all are doing good, and just know that I know that I'm in the right place, and this gospel is true.

Da Smoe

Sad I haven't received an e-mail yet. 

In any case, this week has been great. Learning Canto is very, very difficult, but it's also fun, and I can't believe how much we've learned so far. I feel confident that I can teach a lesson-very very basic mind you-without using the books very much. The grammar is extremely difficult, but that will come in time.

We now have THREE investigators! I think our teachers are trying to kill us. Of course, the investigators are our teachers, but, still difficult. Mostly because we have to focus on their individual needs, so we can't just focus on one thing, but rather, have to change how we're doing things each time we go to teach.

The food is going to kill us all for sure, and I greatly miss having food that actually gives you some nutrients. But, it's survivable. It's been a little difficult, though, because I feel like there are a lot of things, a lot of rules, that just don't fit with the goal of teaching us to be missionaries. I realize that they have to cater to the least among us, but then, it's just like "no child left behind," those of us who are ready and willing are being held back. But it is the Lord's time, so I'm forcing myself to worry less and work more. 

Thank you for sending my shoes, and the paper jerky ;) And the money. It is very much appreciated. It's been funny picking the mail up each day. Elder Shipp gets a letter every day, and a package every other day. And one of the sister's gets at least two letters everyday. I had no idea the impact that would have on the other missionaries, though. Every time I hand out the mail, you can see how much it hurts the others to not receive letters or packages. I kind of feel bad for them. Especially my companion, Elder Beresford. He's only received one letter since arriving here, but I suppose it's hard being that his family is in England. 

Anyways, the church is true and my faith is strong. Sorry there are no pictures, but I still have no idea how to upload them, and nobody is smart enough to just explain it. So I'll have to go talk to the IT Department or something.

Talk to you later.

Da Smoe 

10-19-14

Hello peoples,

So, this is a little late because the time I typed it all before it didn't send it because the internet went out and the draft wouldn't save. But, got it anyways, so, here goes.

The MTC is pretty awesome. There's a lot of really good things about it, and I love that we get to learn all the time. We, that is, District 30 C, have learned so much in the last six days, both about the Gospel and Cantonese. Honestly, from speaking with other language speakers and the older Cantos, I feel that we've learned more, and faster, than just about any other group. We can already pray and bear our testimonies without the book, and they aren't just short memorized one liners. Hopefully we'll learn all of the greetings and such soon, so that our meetings with Yihp Jimuih, our "investigator," won't be so awkward.

Speaking of Yihp, we just met with her for the third time and...yah, it was pretty crazy. I felt we did good in answering her questions, until she asked one that I just couldn't understand. I tried so hard, and thought she kept asking what God's name was, but that wasn't it, of course, so after a while I managed to discern that she was asking what God's commandments are. It was pretty dang hard to answer because the book we use doesn't have any answer for that. Then we made the mistake of opening a Cantonese hymn book and reading "I Stand All Amazed" as out testimonies. She asked us to sing it. After half a verse, she said "Mh hou!" which is "not good" and laughed and said we should just pray. Other than that, though, it went well. 

So, being District leader has been fun. I get to organize meetings and such, which I'm good at. We'll set some District goals soon, but I have no fear that it will be easy to complete them together, as we all get along. And I continue to realize that, even though my calling is simple and not really that "important," it is of the most importance to the other eleven people in the District. A District Leader can help their District do good and be good. A dedicated District Leader will help their District to go above and beyond. That's what I want to do, so, we'll see. 

Us four Elders that stay in the same room are easily the most obnoxious on the campus. Others will be goofy and crazy, but we definitely take the cake with our wild singing and screaming, trying to hit our heads against the lights, animal noise making and movie quoting. We find it a bit hard to sit still for a long time and to get to bed on time, but we do the work, and I feel that's what's important. I know we need to follow every rule here at the MTC, being that exact obedience brings miracles, but I don't feel like we've done anything bad or wrong. I really do know that God is allowing us the blessings we earn, not because we're the most exact or the most humble, but because we're the most dedicated to the work. I know that just about every other missionary here is a good person and has a testimony and will be a good missionary, but, to be honest, we twelve who are going to Hong Kong are something special. We really do have the power to change the world.

And that's what we'll do.

15 hours. That's how much time I have left to live my adolescent life. Then I get tossed out on the curb of real life, and manhood. At least, hopefully.

Everyone says their mission was the best two years of their life. I hope it will be that for me, but beyond that, I hope it will continue on even after my two years is done and I take the tag off. At this point I have high hopes and dreams, but all of that can change in a matter of moments. 

What I do know for certain, though, is that I have been given a specific list of things to do, rules to follow, and that by doing them, I will be successful, even if success comes in little more than a one man band conversion, wrapped in a paper bag. Who knows, though? There could be big things in store for me way over yonder on the other side of the world. That is, if my plane doesn't crash somewhere in the Atlantic. But I don't have to worry about that for nine weeks, so I best just do that, and not worry.

And with that short message, I'll close out this short letter to no one but myself, and leave it up to my mom to keep the page up to date. We'll see ;)