Hi family! GUESS WHAT! I'M IN HONG KONG! and i've been here for what, 2 days now? I don't even know. Everything is so weird, including this keyboard which has Chinese characters all over it. We are in a public library in Tuen Mun, part of the new territories, which is my first area. I'm with my companion, Sister Darcey, from Oklahoma. ahhh! I have so much to tell you I don't even know where to start. I guess the beginning is a good place, so i'll tell you about the flight.
Monday morning after I called you, mom, I got on a plane to Seattle, and from there we headed to Tokyo. It was so exciting to be out in the real world with people to talk to the gospel about. I contacted a few people, two uhh...lady friends who just got back from a gay christian conference in Orlando, and then later i talked to a mom and her son who were on the flight to hong kong with us, going to china for the New Year. All in all it was a pretty good flight, I was glad to just hang out with my district, and sleep, but my shoulder started hurting pretty bad after about 21 hours of just sitting down. When we got to Hong Kong, we all got off the plane and elder Ward realized he left his passport on there, so he couldn't get through customs, and that was crazy, so by the time we found it and got sorted, it was about 11:45pm. President chan and his wife and the AP's met us in the front of the airport and it was so cool to hug sister Chan and to shake my mission president's hand for the first time. We then went to the mission home, across the street from the Temple in Kowloon Tong. Sister Chan drove us there and I've never been so scared in my life. haha. Driving on the left side of the road for the first time is scary, especially here. But we made it safe. Kowloon Tong (and all of Hong Kong for that matter) is REALLY pretty. It's so nice this time of year, about 70 degrees and pretty, most tree's are in full bloom. And the mountains look really cool next to all the water. The most awesome part is the park right behind the mission office, which every morning, is filled with old Chinese men and women doing tai chi. It's so beautiful!
The Temple patron housing above the mission office was filled with random people from all over the world. We stayed there for our first two nights. I met a family from Thailand and a lady from Texas who was teaching English in mainland China. I met some mandarin speaking lady who couldn't understand any English, and it was a little awkward when she tried moving into our room with her 10 year old son, and we had to explain he couldn't sleep in the same room as us. haha. Language barriers are interesting.
So the morning after we flew in, after getting a traditional chiense breakfast (rice, and some coconut bread stuff, with soy milk) we went through some orientation and then we went out to victoria's peak, in central hong kong (i think) and we brought stuff to tract with. All 10 missionaries walking around hong kong for the first time and trying to teach the gospel was pretty dang crazy. A lot of people looked at us weird. We tried to talk to people but mostly no one could understand what they were saying back to us. It was actually kinda funny. And really mentally exausting. When we got to the top pf the peak we found a rock that someone eched in the date that the china hong kong mission was dedicated, and we read teh dedicatory prayer for china that david o mcay gave in 1949. It was a really powerful spiritual moment. I really feel like I'm supposed to be here, but I have a long way to go, and a lot of stuff to learn. People's chinese here is crazy. it sounds loads better than our teachers chinese. It's way prettier, and flowing, and they accent the tones a lot more. I was expecting a lot more english from people, but most people I talked to MhSikTeng Ying Man. Soyih, we just tried as hard as we could. The view from the peak was AMAZING. Hong Kong is seriously like the prettiest place in the world. besides the pollution. But I love it. and there is so much to do, and there are people everywhere you go, and so there are shops everywhere, and everyone dresses really interestingly. (as in, nobody matches, and old people that shouldn't wear leggings and mini skirts). haha. But the feel that I get of the culture and the people is this: Most everyone is polite, but also pretty prideful, and they like to learn English, so they appreciate it when i try talking to them in Cantonese.
So a little about my second day:
I met my trainer (my mom) sister Darcey (bak ji muih), and I love her! I had the opportunity to read her blog a little before I left on my misison because sister Nelson showed it to me. She is really funny and she likes to write. She seems to be pretty impressed with my ability to understand what's going on, so that makes me happy, and so far she's taken really good care of me! I am the first person she's trained and she was apparently really scared about doing it, but she's done a good job. And President Chan told her (after an intervierw with me) that (and this is a quote) I'm probably the most dedicated missionary that came in with this district. I'm glad my president thinks highly of me, and i'ts true, I'm really dedicated. I'm not really fluent, or spiritual, or good at remembering things, but i am really dedicated. And I believe that will be all the difference. My MTC companions got paired with two other trainers that seemed really nice too. We all were told where our first area would be. There are 6 zones in our mission...both my old companions are in Tolo Harbor, and I got sent to the New Territories, right up near the border of Mainland China! It's neat, because I thought I would get sent here...for some reason. It's still pretty urban, but it's a lot less urban than downtown Hong Kong. it's out in the boonies, people are a lot more humble, and a lot poorer here. Everything is spaced out, moreso than any other area... I think its the biggest area in the whole mission. My trainer was telling me that we have the best apartment in the whole mission too. It's small, but it's really nice. We have 5 sisters in this zone, me and my companion, two buhndae's (hong kong natives) and sister mercado, from Pennsylvania. I feel really blessed to have two natives in my apartment because it forces me to speak chinese all the time. haha. It's been pretty interesting so far, but we've been able to get by. My Comp is helping me to understand, and to learn, and it's a slow process, but still a lot faster than in the MTC.
So yeah...what was I talking about? Oh yeah, second day. Transportation is interesting here! Everything is super effecient. We have what is called an octopus card that we use for everything. Except yesterday, we had to get tickets on the airport express and I WILL TELL YOU WHY. It was crazy.
So, because of the horrible missionary that I am, I left my scriptures on the plane in hong kong. I told my mission president as soon as I got back so they phoned the airport and found out that we had to go get them. Which wouldn't be bad, except we live on the opposite side of the mission. and I had my luggage with me. So my dear companion and I took the rail system as far as we could, pulling my heavy bags, in very small and crowded circumstances, and eventually got to a point where we either had to take a bus (Basi) or the airport express (really expensive) and we weren't sure what would be better, and neither of us knew exactly where we were or what to do so we prayed...and then started a day of miracles.
After our prayer we felt good about taking the airport express, so we did. and no sooner did we get on then we meet these two girls from mainland china, who were on their way to shang hi, in china. And they didn't speak Cantonese but sister D knew enough mandarin to get by, plus they understood a lot of english which was good. I asked them where they were going and sister D saw that one of them was wearing a cross around her neck, so we started talking about church. Apparently, they both had read the bible and had a copy of it in English, because their friends told them that reading the bible would help them learn english, and they said they liked it, but they didn't understand a lot of words. so we started talking about the book of mormon! and luckily we both had one, in chinese, as well as some restoration pamphlets, which we were able to give them. It felt so good to place my first book of mormon. And i was really excited because they expressed sincere interest in reading it. I was able to bear my testimony about how important scriptures were, and that, in fact, i was on my way back to the airport because i left my scriptures on the plane, and they are very important to me so i needed to get them back. It was so neat, and sister D and I just felt really peaceful about the whole thing. Every book of mormon that can get into mainland china is a miracle. It really is. Because no one can teach the gospel there. I feel like those two girls will read the book of mormon, and I pray that they will be able to feel god's love for them.
Ok, so miracle number two is that I taught my first lesson, to a 15 year old girl, Stella! Stella is amazing. I'm pretty sure she is smarter than I am. Her family is dirt poor, but she travels to kowloontong every day to go to school and she works very hard. She's also as sweet as an angel. I love her. After running around all day yesterday we were really worried we would have to cancel her appointment, but we made the 20 minute walk to church into an 8 minute walk (miracle) and we were able to get a member present (another miracle) and we taught her about god's love for her and about getting answers to prayers. Stella is very Buddhist, she believes in a god and his love for everyone, but she dosen't believe it's individual. But in our lesson we were able to bring out a lot of good points to try and help her, and she was very excited to implement them. She looked up how to say florida and idaho for me in Cantonese. and called me as soon as the lesson was over to tell me. And she's so excited about progressing in the gospel, we think that she will get baptized soon (yayyyy!) her older brothers are taking lessons from the elders and her parents don't care, but she's so great, and her testimony is really strong.
I'm running out of time but i want you to know that overall, i'm having a great experience so far. I'm dirt tired but i'm trying my best. I'm getting braver, and every day i do a little victory dance that i'm able to do so much. I'm adjusting well, and i'm able to sleep and eat the food without many problems. I have a long way to go in the language but so does everyone else, and I'm happy. I know the lord is protecting me. you'll probably get emails late tursday night while i'm here in this area because pdays are usually Thursdays, but i'm sooooooooooooooooooooooo happy! I love the gospel, I love hong kong, it's exciting, I love Chinese people, I love weird Chinese food, and I love my companion.
You are all in my prayers and I love you! Send me mail!
love,
Gou Ji Muih
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