Welcome to Macau

Im in macau!!!


the sweeeeeeeet new touch screen display outside of the wanchai building, before I got to Macau.


the church sign in Macau. yeah. :)

Okay well that was a pretty big suprise. despite bishop requesting us staying and my best efforts to drop clues to the mission president, God, as always, overrode my selfish notions and put what's best out there. And guess what the outcome is?! I'm in Macau!! I am SO STOKED. Tuesday night at moves calls i went in completely expecting to just stay and then he pulls out Macau. Are you serious? And not only that but I'll be serving the 2nd branch which is English speaking. My mission language has changed, you know where it says you'll be serving in the blablabla language. yeah mine just changed and thats awesome. it should probably now read "simplified english" since i'll be speaking with non-native english speakers mostly. My new companion, sister s, is from the Philippines. I'll mostly be working with Filipinas and other people who have moved to macau to work. Its like stepping into another world. people still speak cantonese mostly, but all the signs are in chinese and... PORTUGUESE (dad don't laugh). but really, i'm pretty excited. i just wished i remembered portuguese since its everywhere. no worries though, im sure i'll pick it up again soon, especially since my mission language is now english. I'll probably work on tagalog as well. eep. maybe i should write spencer for some tips.. seriously though.. on how to work with filipinas, because chinese people are pretty much the polar opposites.

Yeahhhhh. The process of getting here was a little rough though. The plan was for me to stay one extra night in HK and then head over here, because my companion is currently going back for an overnight visa thing (for americans/filipinas? you can only stay 30 days then they kick you out, then you have to come back for like 20 days then they kick you out etc until time is up) But my apartment is in the process of being moved in HK so they just decided last minute for me to just go today. and im companionless. We took an hour long boat ride which made me queasy (sitting next to a man smelling of tobacco and beer... along with the waves) and finally me,and elders N (hk), Y(hk), and L (singapore). It was so weird traveling without a companion. so weird. And then pulling into macau, well its pretty cool. From what i can tell so far, its like this weird mix of east and west, but the thing is-- its like latin west. It reminds me a lot of madrid and of bits and pieces of brazil. but at the same time everyone is chinese. And on top of that, its like the Las Vegas of asia,HUUUUGE casinos and hotels, ive heard its bigger than LV but i donno wikipedia that and let me know. I'd love some history on Macau as well if you get a moment and can send me a letter. like as soon as possible because ill be goin back to HK in a week and a half for mission tour and temple so i could get the letter ;)

On my way in i met these swiss college students who were traveling the world for a couple of weeks.. pretty cool. then they started talking to each other in swiss german and well... i dont remember any german, or maybe i just dont understand swiss german. probably both.

I'm really excited for this new area though. Its definitely going to be a challenge and I'm going to miss sister D a TON but I think its a good transition into the end of my time on my mission. I only have 2 moves left. TWO? I realized also when i got moves calls that i had gotten pretty attached to my area, comp, investigators. A and k were able to see us last minute and I am really going to miss them. I hope they both keep going strong!! A has already started to recognize so many blessings from receiving the gospel, seriously i am learning so much from these people.

So other than that I can't really remember anything from this last week, probably because all i can think about is my new area and new challenges. President was talking about how he wants us to just keep working hard because the priesthood here needs to be strengthened. I know my chinese is going to suffer, but its also a huge blessing because i can be a benefit to these people the most right now this way. I havent even been to our apartment yet because we had to drop the stuff at the church, buy groceries, and then we headed to email. PRETTY SURE i'll sleep well tonight. The other 2 sisters here didn't have any Pday yet either because of a ward activity so we'll probably just go home tonight and crash. yeah a pretty crazy day to say the least.

So to sum it up, goodbye chinese, hello english and tagalog! haha! Hope you all are doing well and i'm really grateful for the prayers and support!

Love you all!

Sister Black