4-19-15

Flying Airplanes

Hello world!

 

Things here are quite normal. The temperature has spiked once again and the humidity is through the roof, which makes the "stick" a missionary's worst nightmare. When you go home at night you don't want to move, so you just sit on the couch in front of the fan with your arms extended out and keep as still as possible. You take a shower and put your garments on before drying off all the way so that the humidity doesn't get to your skin. And when sitting or attempting to lift your arms to do something, your pants and shirt defies physics and magically does not shift, but rather grips your arms and legs like some slap-happy octopus, which makes for quite the enjoyable day. But, I suppose every mission has its own special gifts.

 

This last week was quite the week, especially because I can't really remember exactly what happened so I can write whatever I'd like to ;D

 

So...last Monday/P-Day we went biking in Sha Tin, which was quite fun, except everybody kept telling me it wasn't a race. I knew that, but couldn't help it if everyone else was just too slow. By the end I figured I'd do best to just follow behind and go their pace, which actually turned out to be good because I was able to witness the Crash!

 

Nobody knows exactly what happened, but this is what I saw; I was riding ahead of four other Elders, namely, Elder Barker, Elder Powell and Boyd, (who live in our apartment,) and Elder Lee, (one of the Assistants.) I turned around to see how far away they were, which just happened to be the perfect moment to see Elder Lee swan dive into Elder Barker like they were acting out the Star Wars scene (number 1) where little Anakin is flying in the Pod Race and everybody else keeps crashing into him, and his and that other racer's pods get stuck together. Or something of that sort....

 

Then Elder Barker runs into oncoming traffic and a random guy crashes into the fence, but bounces of like nothing happens and keeps riding. Elder Barker, on the other hand, does the Wobble Wibble and eats pavement like a proffessional, but manages to get a roll into it so he scuffs up his arm, and not just his hands and knees. Elder Lee hops off his bike like a deer, meanwhile, following far too closely behind, Elder Boyd slams on his brakes to avoid the carnage, but fails to realize that in China they do everything backwards and the left brake isn't the rear brake. He does a great rear wheelie and catapults into the group, earning a perfect 10.

 

Of course, as cool as a cat, as always, Elder Powell just sets his bike down and comes running up to see if there's anything that can be done. to be honest, I thought my companion was dead or at least had received a compound fracture, but nothing cool like that happened so we didn't get to go to the hospital. We just wiped the dust off and laughed about it, but Elder Barker whined about his hands for a few days (don't tell him I said that.)

 

So, all in all it was quite the experience. We had a lot of fun, and I was grateful to actually be able to do some exercise. Never thought that would be such a big sacrifice.

 

This last week wasn't a big week for numbers. In fact, we had some of the smallest we've ever had, which is hard. You always feel that it is your fault and a direct representation of how good of a missionary you are, which is most definitely not true. You can never judge accurately by the numbers. But, they can give you an idea in which areas you can improve in, and thus, we have plenty of room to improve in this area. Actually, one interesting thing is that the Assistants' companionship was recently moved into the Cheung Sha Wan ward, which is inevitably because the mission is shrinking a little bit and Elder Barker and I's companinoship will be closed down (not the area) in the coming months as there will be less missionaries. So, not much change, really, but just not as many missionaries.

 

We've been struggling a bit in the recent weeks to find people to teach, that is, people for us to teach. We had another turn-over lesson in which we gave another twenty or so year-old young man to the Kwai Chung elders. The last one wee gave them, A-Sing, is doing awesome and is really progressing towards baptism, so we are super excited. Now all we have to do is find some for us XD But the work is moving forward, and things will work out.

 

The people we have found continue to Fong us, though. Fong FeiGei is a term that means "release the airpalanes," which means that they got on an airplane and left, which, being interpreted, means they never show up to the appointment and never call us. That happens a lot here, and especially recently. We're designing some new tactics to keep it from happenin, though. Hopefully it will work.

 

 

Dear Familia - I don't have much time due to computer problems. I got the package, and was super excited to have some candy, and also to read all the news from the other Elders and the few letters. It's always great to hear from home, of course. I'm doing fine, and it sounds like not much has changed back there in the good old George Clan. Still the same breakdowns and everything that has never happened before happens around us, right? The Curse is real!

 

I'm super grateful for all the support that you guys give me and am glad that I have this opportunity to become a better person and to serve the Lord. I hope you all are super surprised at how much I've changed in the next eighteen months. But until then, Gayauh!