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