Thursday, April 26, 2012

Elevators, International and an English Fast




 Pictures from a Zone activity a couple weeks ago.  It was raining pretty hard.

On the ferry from splits in International area of the mission back to Kowloon Tong

My mission is flying! I'll hit 8 months in a few weeks!!!

Thank you for the encourangement on the hair straightener, I just might do it, I guess I was being a bit selfish just thinking that I wouldn't put a whole lot of use into it, but if I share it with my companion and roommates, I'm sure we can wear it out!!!! Thank you!!!

As far as the ipod goes, the office can upload everything I'll need, but I'm going to do a bit more searching before I ask you to send it. As I've thought about this past week, I don't know when I would have had time to use it! I haven't figured out what resources we have available.  I'll keep looking. Maybe you can give it to Elder Oaks and he can bring it to Hong Kong for me? hahaha


This week we had mission wide sister splits and I went to INTERNATIONAL!!!!!!!!!!!! Ahhhhhh it was sooooooo fun!!! The international stake has church everyday but Monday because the philipinas have different days off. These women are AMAZING!!!! They have sacrificed so much to be here so they can work and support their families back home, they work hard all week and sometimes their employers aren't the best, and they spend their day off at church!!! Church is from 1 to 4 then they have Family Home Evening (FHE) they play games, eat dinner together and have a spiritual message! It is so great! In the morning, we went finding from 10 until 12. The international missionaries go to worldwide everyday becase that is where all of the philipinas go on their day off to send money back home. The space we were finding in was no more than a block long. We just smiled and talk to everybody. We found one lady who was interested in learning more so we took her back to the Wan Chi Chapel and introduced her to the wonderful Sisters who already there cooking for FHE that night. A few of them joined us and we taught a lesson. It was in Tagalog, but my companion for the day would use more English and then turn to me when she wanted me to speak. After that the sisters invited her to stay for church and FHE!!! They are such good missionaries too!!! It really is a different mission, but I enjoyed it!!! We took the ferry back to Kowloon Tong!

After that, since we were in Kowloon Anyway, we took AM to walk around the temple.  AM has 3 children. She is getting baptized on Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm only a little excited!!!! She is amazing!!! She has really studied about the church and really knows it's true. She has such an amazing desire and excitement to have this be a part of her life. She talks about her daughter doing Personal Progress when she gets older and her sons going to Young Men activities and going on missions.  She already has such a strong desire and excitement to go to the temple and hopes she can be sealed to her family. It is a miracle to see how much this gospel can change people.

Ok Your questions:

1 – Nathanael wants to know if any of your neighbors have pets?
Not that I know of, we don't see our neighbors very often, except for the cute popoh who exercises att he same time as us every morning.
2 – Are all the sisters in the mission in apartments with 4 sisters? 
Yes, I think Macau has 6

3 – Do your roommates work in different wards than you? 
Yes, they work in Tai Bo, Seurn Sui and Tai Wo

4 – Do Elders work in the same 3 wards as you? 
No, there is a different set of elders for each ward, which is Super fun, but also crazy because sometimes we have to do things 3 different times!!

5 – What meetings do you go to on Sunday? Sacrament Meeting for all 3 wards? 
We will split when we go to Tai Wai/ Sha Tin since they're in the same chapel, but In Ma On Shan we stay together because it's in a different chapel. We usually rotate Sundays, once in a crazy while we'll split, but that's super Maufan (inconvenient) because we need members from each ward to help us and be our companions.
6 – What have you noticed about the culture or city lately? 
Normally in the US if an elevator is full, we'll just wait for the next one. Since they're so many people here, they'll just push their way in because who knows when the next one's coming it could be 20 floors away, and it could be full too!!!

The US
 manners I am accustom to don't exist, people talk with their mouth full, reach into the center dish with their chopsticks, stand up to get the food they want, slurp, lift their bowls to their mouth and shovel the rice in. . . . When we go to the Chan's for correlation, we use plates and forks, I honestly have no idea how to act!!!! I will definitely need remedial lessons when I get back.

I read a talk the other day about being a more consecrated missionary. It is so hard, but I've made a goal to be more diligent in talking with everyone, especially on the trains. It wasn't as hard as I thought, and once we've started making a better effort, Heavenly Father is putting tons of people in our path!!!! It's amazing! and makes traveling more fun!! We had a lady run up to us today and ask about our English Class!!!
I have no idea what else I should write except that I love you!!!! This church is true!!! If you ever think you can't do something, the truth is you can't!! But the other truth is Heavenly Father absolutely can, and that is amazing. Turn to Him in everything, pray, read the scriptures and things will always work out for your good.
Oh one more exciting thing, we started a 2-week English fast today!!!! Yikes!!! It is sooooo hard and I've broken a few times, but we're bound to figure it out soon, and it's already helping our Cantonese sooooo much!!!

I love you all!!!
Have a good week!!!!

Love,
Sister Nelson

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