September 23

Hello Everyone!

This week, like every other week, just flewwwww by, but had a few fun things as well. I guess I'll do the list thing today since I'm feeling very organizational at the moment:

1. This week we finished teaching S the lessons and she had her baptismal interview! She'll be getting baptized on the 26th and I am so excited!

2. Last friday we had a few lessons planned, and were at the church. After our first appointment "fonged" us (didn't show up for her appointment) we were really looking forward to meeting with our next appointment. Her name was W. So we hadn't ever met her, she had just called us the night before and asked if we had time to teach her the next day. So we walk to the hingtit station to meet up with her and this bleached-orange haired asian woman with bright reddish-pink lipstick comes up to us. I don't exactly remember what she was wearing but it was like sequin-y and sparkly and... awesome... um.. ok so people don't usually just call us out of hte blue unless we've met them and given them our number. Sister e starts to ask her how she met missionaries and stuff about her, finds out she knew a missionary who left the mission field when I left and she just showed up at church last week. The thing is, W used to live in the crazy hospital, and sister h would visit every once in a while. She would try to convince the sister missionaries to tell the people that they were her sisters because then she could leave the mental hospital.She then starts showing us pictures of her with other missionaries, and asks if she can take pictures with us. SO we proceed to have this photoshoot with W, and right after we start teaching her, the doorbell of the church rings, then rings again, and again. Finally we get up to answer the door, and it is GS. Our other neighborhood crazy lady. She wants to meet with the missionaries because she loves the elders and wants to get married. She is constantly trying to give them gifts and follows them around. It is kind of scary and innappropriate obviously. Anyways the elders were down the street when she was walking in and darted into an alley and waited to go to the church so she couldnt start following them. So we have hiding elders, miss GS, and w all at the same time. I don't know if i can convey how incredibly funny this was at the time, but it was. It is really funny and really sad at the same time, because really, there is nothing we can do to help them, they need to get medical help. I am amazed at the number of people here with disabilities both mentally and physically. Maybe it is the area I'm in or maybe hong kong in general, but it is astounding.

3. Now that the w story is over, we had stake conference on sunday. C came even though she was sick and it was just so good. She is really busy so we don't get to meet with her very often, but she really has a huge desire to learn more about Jesus Christ. Every time i see her it just makes me so happy because she has a huge smile on her face. yeah!

4. Monday was Elder D's actual birthday so we had a party for him during lunch and at Family Home Evening that night we had ANOTHER party.

5. Last night/today is mid-autumn festival where everyone gets glowsticks and goes and worships their anscestors or something? I am not quite sure about what it is, but I know glowsticks are involved, as well as mooncakes. um.. mooncakes. how can i describe these. My first time I ate a piece of a mooncake I threw up- it is the only thing so far I haven't been able to stomach. It is like this dense square-ish cake about the size of my fist. it can have several things inside, but usually its like this oily pasty stuff and then salted duck eggs. It is a little sweet, a little salty, and really really gross. OH, good way to describe it- its like eating oily mud with sugar in it and a salted duck egg surprise in the middle. But, I tried it, as it IS the time of year for mooncakes. and members keep giving us mooncakes so we just turn around and give them to less active members and investigators, the guards at our apartment building, basically to anyone we can give them to, because most people here LOVE them, and it makes them oh-so happy. and us too. :)

6. we also had to go on splits this week, because sister c is training next move. on tuesday sister e went with sister m and c to kowloon and then stayed together while sister c had meetings, and on wednesday I was the only option because sister e and l had a doctor's appointment. Basically yesterday with sister m was the best! We woke up early so we could be to Kowloon tong by 830, came home, did studies, and headed to crossroads. Since the training in kowloon tong was a leadership training, elder d (who will be training next move too) and elder d (district leader) as well as elder f/v (zone leaders) and elder L (yuen Long district leader) were also there. Soo.. at crossroads we had Elders JW, MW, and M. All of us in HK 3 moves or less! IT was SO much fun. The people at crossroads finally let us do the "AIDS X-perience" where we go through this half hour of stepping into someone else's shoes who is at risk of getting AIDS, like through their life and what brought them to the point they are at. I was this malaysian girl who was tricked into prostitution when she was 14. It was really really sad, but interesting and eyeopening at the same time. Afterwards, we worked on cleaning the roofs of 7 different buildings. But crossroads is kind of ghetto and the ladder we used had to be put on the stairs and then up to the hole in the roof to get up, anyways really scary, i was praying the whole time i wouldn't die, especially when they thought it'd be funny to SHAKE the ladder as i was climbing up. I almost broke the missionary no-elder/sister touching rule and slapped one of the elders. but i didnt. oh, and it did lead me to a realization- I have a fear of climbing up ladders and I think it's because my earliest memory is of falling off the ladder in the play structure in my backyard when i was little. I also fell off a ladder when i was 11 while picking cherries and my mom was pregnant and ran outside to see if i was ok. but I digress. crossroads was so fun as usual.

7. Speaking of crossroads... that reminds me of the bug bites of last week. I re-counted thursday night marking each one, and I had exactly 100 total. 70 on my left calf, and 30 on my right one. It was so bad that I couldn't sleep really and I couldnt sit in my chair because my legs would twitch. I had to walk around during studies. Even now I wake up at night scratching my legs sometimes and can't fall asleep again for a while. Mosquitos and the little annoying black bugs that got me at crossroads are going to be the death of me here. I just hope I don't get japanese encephalitis or something. There are these posters all over the place that have these NASTY big pictures of different types of mosquitoes and their scientific names along with the warning to watch out for them because they can carry dengue fever and japanese encephalitis. ew. please noo.

9. I am somewhat nervous for moves calls next tuesday to find out if I'll stay in tuen mun or move or whatever. Part of me wants to stay and part wants to go. I know whatever happens is what is supposed to happen, so I know it will be fore the best, BUT its still making me nervous. I know sister c is staying in butterfly/tin shui wai, and elder d will be staying in Tuen Mun, but other than that, there could be a LOT of change this move. well, no use speculating i guess. i'll find out on tuesday and you'll find out next thursday haha! (or is it wednesday when you get these emails??)

10. I've got nothin. any more questions? Thank you all for the letters/emails/prayers!!


Love you all!

Sister Black/Baahk jimuih