March 10 2011

Sooo.. Today is my older MTC district's year mark... which means in 6 weeks I will have been on my mission for a year, weird, it doesn't feel like its been that long (except every once in a while there are those days...) So.. wow, 7 months to go and I'll be home and back to being a normal person. Its SO short! I feel more than ever the need to work as hard as possible because every day is one less day to share this message with people (full-time).

This week was actually really good, despite the street-contacting for hours and hours per day. Since we have split, this area has essentially no investigators (all were in the other half pretty much). Anyways so this is the 2nd time starting from ground zero. I am grateful for the challenge and that Sister La is here working with me. She has such a positive attitude and I'm learning a lot from her. She joined the church 2 years ago while studying in the US and she's a great person. So overall this week was great. We were able to teach a lot of people on the street, and even though we still have very little numbers-wise to show for it, we are confident in our efforts.

Last friday we taught this recent convert sister W, and her 2 year old son and baby daughter were there too. So halfway through our lesson, the baby starts crying so sis w changes her diaper right? but babies, they sometimes do this, pee mid-diaper change right? Anyways then theres pee all over the bed and the 2 year old is trying to help his mom clean it up and comfort his crying little sister, it was the cutest thing ever but SO funny. I felt bad for sis W though because she's young and has 3 young children to take care of (the oldest is in kindergarten or something). She told us about how her relatives have been trying to convince her that our church is evil and giving her anti-mormon stuff to read. She says she doesnt feel good when they tell her it and she wants us to help her strengthen her faith. We started this week to read the book of mormon with her from the beginning and it was really good. We talked about how important family is and read 1 Ne 1 and how Lehi taught his children to trust God, and followed God himself so he was able to protect his family. There is so much good stuff at the beginning of the Book of Mormon, ok actually the whole thing is good, but since Im studying there myself... its especially fantastic.

I actually was humbled a lot reading 1 nephi 5, because of Sariah's experience. Even though she was following the Prophet, her husband, and going into the wilderness, she still had her doubts and complaints. But why did she have them? Because she misunderstood. "For she had supposed that we had perished in the wilderness.." She didn't have the faith, trust, or patience to find out the truth that they were safe and the Lord would make good on his promises. Sometimes when I complain about things or am frustrated I think its because of these same things. When the Lord promises us things, he will provide a way for it to be accomplished-- we just have to trust Him. That's huge, because when we trust the lord completely, we dont worry as much, we don't stress or tense, because we know that somehow things will work out.

Other stuff from this week- I know there were a ton of things. Yesterday I met a man on the MTR who was born in the US but hates america and stuff. He started talking to me and was like, I've been wanting to be baptized into your church for years because i know its true but there's no way. See.. since he speaks english he'd be going to the english ward for foreigners, lots of americans that he doesn't want to associate with I guess. It just made me so sad because I can see that his pride and his anger is keeping him from being able to recieve the blessings that God is ready and willing to give him. At the same time though, don't we all do this sometimes? Allow pride to keep us from doing what we should? yeah read this talk... Its pretty much the best most humbling thing ever for me because every single time I read it, I remember, oh yeah, I need to work on this or that.

Good Stuff: I moved down to the bottom bunk, which means I can sleep 10 BILLION times better (haha and so can every one else because without fail I always wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom). But I've also realized something funny about my mind. Sometimes when Im falling asleep or if i wake up, I'm like "Sih-Faahn"ing in my sleep. Basically like role-playing missionary scenarios in my mind. Like in my mind im talking to someone on the street or teaching someone about a gospel principle. Its actually preeetty funny. Kind of how when you play (ok yes im nerdy) DDR for like hours then you can close your eyes and see the little arrows.. i just do this so much i close my eyes or start to sleep and im still doing missionary work haha!!

I've also started to read the book of mormon in chinese- now i don't understand a TON, i can follow what's happening and stuff, but basically its my goal to read it every day and eventually as i learn more characters I'll understand more so by the end of the BOM i'll be able to know all im reading. This is the goal. Im in 1 Ne 11 now in the chinese book of mormon!!

So other than that not much special to report this week, just talking to people all day every day. Last night we had dinner at the mission president's apartment because his son is our Sha Tin ward correlator. So we had a meeting with him after dinner. It was so weird because they like, live in the temple. Not the temple temple part, but it pretty much looks like your in the temple, its so nice, and there is like CARPET? which is so weird because no one here has carpet. Oh dear it was fantastic. I hope we get to go there again,plus his wife is an excellent cook. then the APs and office elders and Sam shui po elders live across the hall in another apartment. Its just so fascinating to me- what would it be like to live across the hall from the mission president?? weird. really, really weird.

I'm still really grateful to be serving a mission and pretty much love hong kong. The work is tough but its fun at the same time, and its the most important work in the world. Maybe we can't change the world, but we can change ourselves for the better and then help other people be better too, and in reality that is the only thing that can change the world right? So be happy and honest and help people.. . :) aka follow Jesus Christ's example, and that's the most important thing!!

Thanks for the love and the support!!

Sis Black/Baahk Jimuih

ps. today we have zone activity! we're going hiking to a waterfall!! woop woop!! and going bike riding afterwards, yup its going to be awwwesome.