4-26-15


What Ya' Gonna Do When they Come for You

Well, this last week has been a most interesting week.

To start off, last Monday we went to this place called the "Hyatt Hotel," which has to be at least five star. In Elder Barker's first area, Ma On San, he had a recent convert named Yoshi, who is this super classy Chinese guy who teaches Cantonese in a big university. He has a history of helping missionaries, and he spends all of his money on clothes, missionaries, and buying missionaries clothes. 

So, at this hotel there is a very fancy restaurant which was far too high up for me (struggling to write English at the moment as Chinglish is so much easier.) We sat in these nice lounge chairs and drank tea, (don't worry, it's flower tea and doesn't have any real tea in it,) and had all you can eat ice-cream. Really interesting, but super good, except for the fact that you feel extremely awkward when anyone treats you to a meal, especially at a five star restaurant which is far out of your league. 

In any case, we spent about two hours eating ice-cream and ice-ceam cake and some other little deserts. Honestly, my favorite part was the Strawberry Tea, which had a sort of bitter-sweet taste to it. Everybody else said it was weird, but I liked it. 

I could tell that Elder Barker was grateful to have another opportunity to talk with Yoshi before he leaves. Which brings us to the interesting week thing. Elder Barker leaves this Thursday, which means transfers, which means I'm getting a knew companion. But, a few weeks ago the Assistants moved into the Cheung Sha Wan ward, and just last week they informed us that our companionship will be closing, as the mission is shrinking a little. Which means that I'm moving to a different area. It's a little sad, as I have most recently begun to figure out this missionary thing and how to work with members and such. A fresh start will be good, though, in a lot of ways.

But, this last week all we did was turn over all our investigators and less-actives to the Assistants, and go finding for the Assistants, and do calls for the Assistants. It was strange, but I was able to understand better the definition of "selfless service." Something I'm sure I will grateful for in the near future. It's definitely a different feeling to go out and give your all with the complete knowledge that you, personally, will not be "reaping the rewards." You can't always have your cake, and eat it too. So, we baked the cake and gave it to the Assistants as well.

Things are going well here, and the weather has been fairly mild as of late, which probably just means that it's saving up so that we can have even more fun in July. Looking forward to that with much enthusiasm!

I love you all! Things are going well here and time still flies. I have been meaning to send letters, but I was informed that I should not write letters on any day except p-day, so it's difficult to find the time. Hopefully this next Monday or the following one we can work out the time.

I took a picture of my shoes the other day, which are just classic Joseph George shoes. The brown ones have now become multi-purpose and work not only as shoes but also a mop for the Hong Kong streets as the bottoms are now transparent. And my black shoes are splitting at the seems, so...good thing I have some money to buy new ones. Hopefully in the next week or so, when and if we have time.

I'm doing great and enjoying the non-enjoyable moments, especially when it's pouring rain and still magically is hot enough to make you sweat. But, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Which is to say, by the time I come back I'll look like Arnold Schwarzeneggar.