9/4/11

31 August 2011






at the panda park
can you see the panda??? hahaha
panda.... the best shot i got because then they both went to sleep
i hope someone appreciates this- personal air-con on the bus...

This week really flew by. EEfy finished and we had a hiking-adventure-competition thing for the graduation that we had to leave early from with E because she has to be home by 7. every day. I would go absolutely crazy if as a 17-yr-old i had to be home by 7. But I guess its cause a buddhist monk in Burma told her mom not to let E out at night... and now you have it. PS. E told us her family's story and its WAY cool. her dad was apparently working for the Gov't building government buildings in burma back in the day when he found out that the government was going to massacre all the students at a certain university who were protesting against the government and his girlfriend at the time (her mom) went there. so he raced home and told her NOT to go to school the next day. She didnt. The next day the gov't surrounded the school and not a single person that was there survived. So crazy. It gets a little crazier too but anyways... her story of how their family came to macau is awesome.

So graduation and EEFY over we went home, pretty exhausted from the week. We had also been feeling pretty sad that we'd have to leave all our investigators and turn them over to the elders in a week and a half. BUT. . . right after we got home saturday we got a call from the APs saying that we get to STAY IN MACAU!! Its a miracle! I love this place so much and we are so excited. Its great to be busy and now we're just working on really getting our friends to progress. There are so many with potential, I just hope we can make sure and have the spirit guiding us and that we can do our very best the last few weeks. My companions are great and this is probably the funnest, most exhausting, most amazing move so far on my mission.

okay so then sunday we fasted with E, because her mom is WAY anti-christian. she forces E to pray to these idols and wont let her out in the evening because of that monk you remember. Yeah. So E wants to get baptized so bad and wants to let her mom know she's been going to church. we also really dont want her lying to her mom to come to church because thats like sinning in order to keep a commandment and shouldn't be that way. But anwyays we're working on it. I know someday she'll be able to. Then during the fast this member was supposed to meet us and go with Sis C to visit someone, but she didnt show up and we had to walk a half hour in the heat to get sis c to the appointment. and then the members like "actually i cant take her back either, so..." but we had to walk all the way back to out apartment in the meantime anyways and i finally got the member to take her back. pretty sure she just didnt want to walk back in the heat and humidity but whatever. it worked out.

then that night i found out how they are working it out to allow sisters to stay here. 8 elders. 1 apartment. I feel SO BAD for them. (but not bad enough to want to leave). and they should all be training next move.

okay then comes monday- we had to go back to hong kong for the special meeting with brother Osguthorpe (gen. sunday school pres) and brother Ochoa (gen YM 2nd counselor). Our zone was singing and I was asked to say the closing prayer so were sitting on the stand with them. It was pretty cool and they had some good tips for our mission. Its interesting because lately we have the very least amount of missionaries we've had in hong kong in a long time, and yet we've been having record breaking results. I feel SO blessed to be working with such great missionaries and with such great people. They focused on the doctrine of christ and how even though we are in an area where most don't know a thing about Him or completely misunderstand his role, we really need to focus on this. I felt really inspired and we have some new ideas for how to help our investigators. Bro Ochoa's was particularly awesome. he started out in spanish for a few sentences and i thought of emily and elliott haha.. too bad my spanish is now limited to hola, como estas? muy bien y tu? hahaha.Anyways he gave us 7 ways to be better.

1. be one with christ.
2. be one with companion
3. be one with the bishop
4. be focused
5. take responsibility
6. Listen and Bless others
7. develop perfect faith

it was cool too because all of the asia area presidency was there and a couple area seventies. Its always uplifting to hear from people who are really devoting their life to helping others.

oh.. i almost forgot! how could i forget.

2 things. for the special missionary meeting, we had been told told it would be at wanchai. but. . . the week before it changed to kowloon tong (where we slept at in temple patron housing..) but nobody told macau zone. so we got up extra early and headed in 3 different groups to wanchai to practice our song. when we were almost to wanchai (during rush hour on the MTR with our luggage. just try to imagine) we ran into other elders that told us it was at kowloon tong. so we had to hurry back to kowloon tong and barely made it in time. phew! hahaha. (it was 45 min to wanchai, 35 back... not fun). but it was a little test i think, and i wasnt angry really except for like 5 min. and once the meeting started the spirit was just so strong so it was all right.

then.. on our way back here, they only gave me 10 more days in macau. visa problems. BUT i talked about it with them and they said next time i can have 20 days, and they made a note in my passport so the next person knows. phew! i thought for a minute i was going to get kicked out of macau for good in just over a week!!!

anyways. love you all! have a great week!!

sis black


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