Elder Joseph George - China Hong Kong

Hello peoples!

Is it bad that the subject for this last email of your's didn't shock me at all? We're most definitely one of the strangest families on the planet. But, wouldn't have it any other way.

It's really interesting to see how different I am than others because of the family I've grown up in. I mean, everyone is different, but you really don't notice until you get away, get around others, and can analyze yourself. And that's what this mission is all about. Everyday, every hour, every minute you have to look over your performance, your actions, yourself, and judge it against the goals you've made and the examples you've been given and the things you've learned.

I read "The Fourth Missionary" yesterday, which is an amazing talk. It says somewhere in there something along these lines, "Change is easy. The second you think something in mind, you've changed. It might be imperceptible, but it happened. Therefore, the key to change is to think it." That's pretty much what we do. We realize what we need to change and we make the mental note, and we move on, because, out here, you don't have much time to sit down and make a detailed plan and all of that jazz. I've never been so busy in my life.

Ahh, but I keep thinking about haw amazing this is. Never, ever, will I get another opportunity such as this to really become what I need to become. It's actually kind of exciting because you really get to realize your personal potential. But then it's also a bit humbling. "The Fourth Missionary" slams you hard and just highlights all the mistakes you have and have had and will continue to have, and you kind of feel a bit stupid while reading. But then, that's not altogether a bad thing. Every change in a good direction is a good thing.

This last week has gone by so fast. I swear every time Sunday roles around that we just had it. I swear that every time I sit down to do personal study, it's time for companionship study. It's becoming less of a challenge to know how to speak the language and know how to teach and such, and more of an impossibility to manage everything you need to do and fit it into the schedule. I think I'm beginning to understand how you feel Mom and Dad. You run and run as fast as you can, then look back at the day and realize how much you didn't actually get done. But, such is life. It's hard to not get discouraged at times, but I'm learning how to control myself and just do what I can.

The language, as I just said, is becoming less of a barrier. I mean, it's still super difficult, but I'm learning vocab at a fast rate, my ability to hear and understand is going up, and I can teach quite well. The only really difficult thing is my accent. I have a super hard "American" accent, and it makes my Cantonese sound silly, so I'm working hard on cutting that out. But, in order to make that happen I have to speak more from the throat, and speak out of my nose. What the heck? I sound like Darth Spader the Chipmunk. More like a choking aardvark than a Buhndeih-Native. Elder Barker laughs every time I sit down to read Cantonese pingyam during language study, because I'm always getting mad at myself. I try to make the sounds come out right, but it's hou laahn teng, (very difficult to listen to, meaning, sounds really bad.)

Perfect practice makes perfect though, right?

I love you all so much. Kind of hard to put it into words, but, yah. If this mission teaches me anything, it's taught/teaching/wil teach the importance of our family, and how grateful I am that we're going to be together forever. I love being able to whip out my photo album, show it to an investigator and say, "This is my family. We're kind of weird, but we're eternal."

Pretty sweet.

Hope you all have a fantastic week! We're going to 10,000 Buddhas today, so, next week I'll have some cool pictures.