I'm in Hong Kong!!!!

Kasey at the top of Victoria Peak on the day she arrived in Hong Kong.

Kasey's apartment

View from Kasey's apartment

Front door with a gate

Hello Everyone!!!

It's December first here!! Which is funny, if I'm doing the math right, it is for you too. So that's it!!!! I'm in Hong Kong!!!!!!!!! I can't believe it! I am seriously in the best mission on the face of planet Earth! It is amazing!! My companion is awesome! Her name is Sister C,.and she is from Tahiti. Her mom grew up in Hong Kong so she speaks really good Cantonese, but also speaks really good English, which has been a relief for my first day, but I'm so excited to speak Cantonese more. We landed in Hong Kong at about 10:30 yesterday morning (Nov. 30) and President and Sister Chan met us and drove us back to the mission home which is right across from the Hong Kong Temple!!! We ate lunch, and had an orientation and then the Area Presidents and the other office Elders took us up to the peak. It was pretty hazy, but still really cool! The best part was we got to talk to people on the way!! In Chinese!!! It was great! My first contact in Hong Kong was a teenage boy who obviously spoke English, but seemed to be humored by my trying to speak Cantonese. Then Sister N. and I started talking to another girl. We were struggling a bit to figure out what we could say in Cantonese so one of the office Elders helped us a bit and then we were fine. We taught her about prophets and Sister N. gave her a card about Mormon.org. It was a amazing!!! She really understood what we were saying! After that we took the bus up to the Peak and I got to talk to a woman from Thailand. She is here in Hong Kong on "holiday." I really enjoyed getting to know her. After the peak, we hiked down a small path to a rock that was etched the year Hong Kong was dedicated. Then we took a bus back!! Talk about crazy! I was lucky enough to get to sit for the first half, but one of the other missionaries wasn't feeling well so I got to stand! Aaiya!! It was difficult and I thought I was going to face plant, but I made it! When I first sat down, the ladies I sat next to saw my name tag and said, "We already have a church." I wasn't going to just get up and move, especially on a crowded bus, so I asked if I could just practice my Cantonese with them. It was quite fun and they were really nice until one of them stopped talking and the other started speaking so fast I couldn't understand. Haha! I gathered that she was talking about prayer and that God loves His children and probably inviting me to her church. I knew I was right when she handed me a flyer for her church. I just told her how amazing it was that God loves all of us and how blessed I have been to be able to receive direction and comfort through prayer in my life. That is the most amazing thing about Cantonese, I only can say enough to simply state what I know is true and that's all that matters! When we got back to the church, I talked for a bit to this sweet lady who was there for English class. It was great for us to practice our new languages with each other. Elder B. taught me to say this phrase that goes, "Ngoh sik siu siu, baahn deui biu." It means I know a little and fake a lot. She complimented me on my Cantonese, so I used it and she loved it! Hahaha! I'm glad he taught me that, I think I'll use it a lot! That's actually something that has surprised me a lot, first the fact that people understand us, and second that they comment on how good our Cantonese is, then we tell them we've only been learning for 3 months!! Wow! It really is a miracle though! I can't believe how much we are able to communicate!!!

I was feeling great and super energized last night until dinner, and then the jet lag hit!! Haha! Luckily, we were able to go to bed early. We slept in the patron housing above the Kowloon chapel and mission office. Here the schedule is a bit different from most missions, we go to bed at 11 and wake up at 7 so we were able to get about 10 hours of sleep. I was so grateful! I'm still a bit off today, but hopefully I'll catch up soon! Today is P-day so this morning we met our companions. All of ours companions are so much like us. In fact, all of us sisters just happened to sit across from our companions at breakfast before we even knew who they were!! Tell you what though, it was weird leaving Sister L. and Sister N. I've spent my entire mission with them. But, I am soooooooo excited to work with Sister C. We had to get my HK ID and then we went to our Apartment. We live in Kwun Tong, but our area isn't Kwun Tong, I'm sorry, I still haven't figured out how to say the name of our area, let alone spell it!!! I'll hopefully let you know soon!! I think it's north of HK island, it's definitely north of Kwun Tong! We are just over one ward which is fantastic!! That means we can really get to know the members!! We live on the 17th floor of our building, and our apartment is probably no bigger than our front room, but I love it!!! The view from the garbage room is fantastic!!! Seriously though, all three of the pictures before the picture of our front door is from the garbage room of all places!! There is also a picture of our front door and the gate over it. I feel like I'm looking at a prison gate when I close it. Thank goodness I'm not actually!!! Wow!! I'm not sure what else to write! I'm pretty jet lagged today so my thoughts are a blur. All I can really think is how much I want to start talking to people and teaching them!!! Unfortunately we have to do some necessary things like unpack and buy food. However I am soooooo excited for weekly planning tomorrow!! We get to talk about all the people we will be teaching this week and all the awesome things we get to do!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH this place is amazing!!!!!!!

I'm soooo glad I got to talk to you for a bit! Thank you for your letters! I'm so happy to get them last night! Thank you Dad for your e-mail I love hearing about everything that's going on! I hope you all have an awesome week!!! I love you soooo much!!!!

Love,

Sister Nelson