Friday, May 4, 2012

Brother Fred




Hi Everyone!!!

The English fast doesn't include e-mails or phone calls home, but we kind of died at district meeting on Monday, we had a testimony meeting and one of the Elders in our district just got to HK and then the toliet overflowed Monday night, and our fast died there.  Not to mention, a lot of our members and investigators speak to us in English and we don't want to deny them the opportunity to practice because they don't get to speak English with an American very often.  It turned into us speaking Cantonese to each other and English to everyone else sometimes.  A little backwards I know, but I thought it was funny.  Now that we know what an English fast is like, we're going to try it again starting tomorrow.  
Questions:
1 – Anything new about the culture this week?  
Well, we found a gecko in our apartment the other night!!!!  I was a bit jumpy that night, but after talking to the natives we've realized it's a choice of 1-2 geckos or 2 inch long cockroaches and mosquitoes. . . . that wasn't a hard choice.  His name is Brother Fred. . .

The Chinese don't like the sun!  There are so many umbrellas out in the summer!  it's hilarious!!

– I always hear that Hong Kong is pretty safe.  Have you seen that is true?  Have you had any problems?  
It seems pretty safe to me, we're obviously careful, but we went contacting at about 8 the other night and I didn't feel any safer or less safe than any other time of the day.  There's crazies like everywhere else, but there's also a TON of people.
Well, AM is baptized!!!!!!  It rained like crazy on Sunday morning.  It was a "Red Rain"  and they even canceled church for a bit until almost everyone showed up anyway and they decided to have it.  By the time church was over it was cloudy and beautiful.  AM said she got up that morning and saw the rain and was worried if she would be able to get baptized.  She said she prayed and felt peaceful and knew she needed to get her daughter ready and go to church.  The baptism was so nice, it started a half hour late because her husband couldn't find the chapel, but he eventually found it, and all was well. Of course, you can never have a baptism with out at least a little opposition.  We hope her husband comes around soon so that their family can go to the temple next year!!!
Tuesday we went to a wetlands park with our Sha TIn ward.  Ward activities are pretty different here.  First of all we had a bus like a double decker street kind reserved for our ward.  Second, we all went to this wetlands park which is like an arboretum/zoo about the wet lands in Hong Kong.  Third, we had several tour guides that took our ward around and the whole ward had lunch at the "Cafe de Coral" inside the park.  Crazy huh?  Our tour guide was pretty funny.  Of course we didn't understand much of what he was saying, but we did understand a little.  Regardless, he would stop every few minutes and shout a synopsis in English to us!! hahaha he apologized at the end of the tour for not doing better, but I thought it was great because I got the main idea and didn't have to listen to the whole presentation.  We actually saw him while we were out finding the other day!

They're considering increasing the amount of money missionaries are given each month so we will have a bit more money to spend on healthier foods.  Well they've asked for one person from each zone to keep track of their expenses for the month and I've been asked to do it for my zone!!!  It is funny because I get "made fun of" a lot for eating so healthy and because I actually use the budget that is written on the back of our reimbursement slips for travel.  Hahaha!
We've been teaching R's new wife English (she's the one from Vietnam)  It's is soooo fun!  Her English has gotten so much better just from when we first met her.  She is 23, so just around our age!  We gave her a Vietnamese Book of Mormon.  Even before we started meeting she started reading it with her English one to help her learn.  We taught her Wednesday and she said, "When I read this I feel. . . Happy!"  "Sometimes I think Vietnam and I sad, then I read and I'm happy!  Don't miss home!"  Wow!! She also said she knows that if she's good and listens to God's word she will go to Heaven.  That was probably the highlight of my week just hearing her simple testimony and feeling the spirit so strong even though she couldn't speak much English.  We taught her to pray in English the other day and she was sooooooooo excited to learn!!! 
The other not so spiritual highlight of my week:  AM left her stroller in Sha Tin after her baptizm on Sunday, so we offered to bring it back to Ma On Shan for her, because we were going from Sha TIn to Ma Oh Shan on  Wednesday.  Well, after we finished teaching R's wife Elder M. was intent on buying us sisters ice cream, but we had to take the stroller because we didn't have time to go back to the chapel.  Of course the Elders wouldn't let us just pull the stroller either.  Elder M. unfolded it and put his backpack in it, until a popoh was like "It's too early to have a baby isn't it?"  After that we convinced him to fold it up PLEASE!!!!  hahaha we were sooooo happy to get rid of the Elders and just pull the stroller on our own, it was so much less sketchy.  hahahaha
This week I've been studying the Atonement in my scripture study, I've spent three days on it so far and I still have a ton to learn!  I'm focusing a lot right now on the Law of Moses and how they represented Christ's Atonement with animal sacrifices and how that can apply to me now.  I'm really excited!
Well, I better go, I'll include a few pictures today!
I love you!!!
Kasey

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