22 September 2011

at mormon morning! its this ward activity once per month where we go somewhere, do exercise, have a testimony meeting, and then eat food. this time we went to a beach in coloane.


a famous portuguese church


a mooncake. last year when i ate one i threw up. this year, i kind of actually enjoy it a bit.

Hellooooo everyone! I am so glad today is Pday!! We've been working so hard this week. A couple of weeks ago when president asked us to try and focus on the 2nd branch more I started praying to Heavenly Father to let us know which of our investigators is ready now and which aren't going to be progressing now. it was cool because its like black and white- we've been able to see this gap between a lot of them and are now helping several acheive their baptismal goals while letting others go. which means... more time for finding! more street contacting again! Its nice because when we were busy teaching so much and had no time to call/findnewinvestigators/eat/etc it was like we were stuck in this whirlpool. We have an investigator who will be baptized this weekend and another investigator, K, who is amazing. She has a really tricky situation but is moving forward with the faith that Heavenly Father will take care of her. It is so wonderful to see the progress.

A couple of cool experiences/funny ones/sad ones.

1. One investigator is 15 years old and has so much faith. Earlier this week she still hadn't talked to her parents about baptism, but she'd been praying about it and was asking heavenly father for strength. Then she had the thought "read alma 38:2" She hadn't read up to alma, and didnt know what was there. she told us "i thought it'd be like about a war or something cause every time i flip to alma itsa lways about a war" but it said very clearly, and specifically to her "And now my son (daughter? haha), i trust that I shall have great joy in you, because of your steadiness and your faithfulness unto God; for as you have commenced in your youth to look to the Lord your God, even so I hope that you will continue in keeping his commandments; for blessed is he that endureth to the end." yeah. cool huh. then she asked her parents yesterday if she can get baptised and they accepted.

2. We lost an investigator. she just moved here from mainland and after seeing her 2 times she missed her 3rd appointment. when we called her the phone was always off. Anyways we were praying about it and we felt like we should go back to taipa (the island where we met her) and contact on the bridge again where we met her at around the same time. Then we met her again! her phone (and our number) was lost and the day she met us she couldnt leave work yet because they still had people eating at the restaurant. So anyways, we met her again yesterday and she's doing SO good. :) yeah. miracle.

3. We havent had hot water at our aparmtent for almost a month, which isnt a big deal because its been so HOT that we wouldnt want to take a warm shower even if we could. But 2 days ago the weather started to change, and a cold shower wasnt so nice. so yesterday we scheduled the water heater guy to come over, went on splits so we could keep covering our appointments and went back to the apartment. He comes in, walks to the kitchen, maybe 45 seconds later he walks back out and says no charge and its fixed. Well turns out there are batteries in the water heater (who knew?) and they needed to be changed. we paid him for the batteries anyways and felt SO dumb. But now we have hot water. yeaaah.

4. One of our investigators has been meeting with us for a couple of months but her parents are burmese buddhists- pretty hardcore. anyways ive probably mentioned her before. but we found out yesterday if she doesn't get her parents permission we can't keep meeting with her or contacting her. Needless to say i'm pretty sad but hopeful that she'll find a way to talk to them. She's probably one of my favorite investigators i've had on my mission and I know she wants the gospel so bad in her life. but it is really important for her to respect her parents as well... anyways, I'll keep praying.

So yeah this week was good, we had some fun times and the new missionaries are full of fire and working hard. Its a wonderful time to be a missionary in macau and I'm excited for the progress we can make in this area and the help we can give to people. I am so grateful that i'm serving and learning SO MUCH. One last thing- I'm working on memorizing scriptures in chinese and in english- right now I'm working on Ether 12:4. love this one: "Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yeah, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God."

yeah. i believe in that. The only way to really change the world is through the principles of the gospel being applied in individual lives and families.

love you all! thank you so much for your prayers love and support!

sis black

15 September 2011

I can't believe its already september 15th. This week was pretty good, its been nice having half the zone full of new missionaries. There is SO much fire in Macau!! They are pulling back tons of people every day and working so hard, it is really pushing us too. I am so grateful to be able to end my mission here (almost). Last week my visa was up and i had to exit macau for a night. It ended up on a saturday that i had to leave so Saturday night sister siddayao and I took the boat to hong kong and stayed in the int'l sister's apartment in wanchai. It was fun to catch up with sis c (one of my 1st companions in the mtc) and meet her baby... sister K, who just happened to be in my freshman ward at BYU. ok lets just talk about this for a second- weird missionary connections- first my roommate before the mission/rs pres went on her mission here. my trainer lived in the apartment next door to mine the year before i lived there. My baby was in the same ward as me when i got my mission call. and now freshman ward.... weird. but cool, i love it.

So sunday morning i went to 2 sacrament meetings at Wanchai, got to see one of my recent converts, and then headed out to the ferry terminal to catch the 1:15 ferry with the senior couple missionaries. When we finally got to macau the lines to go through and get your passports stamped was SOOSOSOSOSOSOOOO crowded. luckily i was with 4 sr missionaries, who are all over 65 and get to go in the seniors line, which had a grand total of 2 people in it when we got there. Then to top off the blessings of the day- they gave me until October 1st to stay in Macau!! which means (probably, speculations here) i will get 10 days when i come back on the 2nd, so until the 12, then on the 13th when i come back they should give me 5 days till the 18th. aka i pretty much can die here if it works out right :)

Sorry this email isnt very interesting. we have a few investigators with upcoming baptisms but a few of them need parental permission. we have an AWESOMe new investigator named a and she's so sweet. then yesterday i talked to this old australian man for like 30 minutes about life and stuff and he is catholic but he basically believes everything we do except he doesnt think God can tell us that smoking isnt good for our bodies because people who dont smoke can die from lung cancer too. (?) i donno he was pretty cool but no interest. and thats nice because usually australians have tended to be pretty rude to me.

but anyways I'm loving being companions with sister c and sister y. we pretty much never stop having a good time doing missionary work. I am pretty exhausted and was feeling sick last night, but feel a lot better today... hopefully i can keep my strength going another month.

I am really grateful i can be a missionary. seriously probably the greatest learning experiences of my life. I've never been more happy and I've never learned so much in my whole life. Last night while i was falling asleep with a terrible headache I could hear our neighbors above us screaming at each other. I know they have kids too cause ive heard them before. but it was so sad because i thought... i have been so blessed to have never heard my parents yell at each other. i've never had to fall asleep scared and sad just trying to block out the angry yelling and stuff. last night it was seriously terrible, it felt so sad. and i wish every family could have the gospel in their lives, and learn to love each other and deal with their problems not yell and fight. Its true that satan is trying to attack the family, i see it here, i've pretty much seen it everywhere my whole life. So fight FOR your families!! :) Be kind to them, love them, have fun with them. i knwo i havent been the perfect daughter or sister, but i know its important to always love your family.

anyways those are my thoughts.

love you all!

sis black

8 September 2011

ok 2 of these are of us and our zone at the science museum. yeah. SO FUN. haha it was telling us the water content of those foods and stuff. i love the one where im a durian. and lard. just funny.

This past week was so busy. Saturday we were pretty much straight booked all day at the church teaching lessons, and then ended it off with a branch YSA activity watching Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration. (i love that movie). Our investigator a prayed to know if joseph smith really was a prophet or not and told us afterwards that she knows he was. Basically I highly recommend anyone who has doubts about joseph smith to watch that, especially since every occurrence is documented in journals and personal histories and recorded etc. yeah pretty legit. And S, the girl who was touched last week by the testaments is planning on being baptized on the 25th, as well as our investigator T. The people in macau are really special, I seriously just love them so much. Today starts a new transfer and i'm still here, but have to go back on the 10th for a night and then come back (the weird visa stuff again). Its so strange to start my last transfer... knowing in just 6 weeks from tomorrow i'll be flying home. I wont lie and say i dont think about it (its obvious from my emails that i do, especially during email time) but at the same time it also makes me just want to live every day to its fullest.

We are getting another sister and sister s leaves on the 10th to stay in hong kong.. so i'll be in tri-panionship #7? I donno i almost have lost count by now, but i've still had more companionships with 3 than with just 2- i donno why, but its been interesting and usually pretty fun! 2 friends to always work with instead of 1!! :) Last week we went to the science museum so i'll send some of the pictures from that (WAY cool science museum too, especially the sports part. there was this one "game" (?) where you got to be judges for olympic gymnasts and compare the scores you gave to the ones in real life- basically i was reminded of how much i love watching the olympics. and i was pretty close when i judged! So glad my mission didn't interfere with watching the olympics haha.

Nothing really interesting happened this week except that its a new move and there will be 4 new missionaries coming to macau. I think they're trying to infuse this place with fire because it has SO much potential. 4 companionships of elders and then our tri-panionship. I'm really grateful i get to be working here now. pray that i get more days for my visa when i come back this saturday!!

I am really excited also for general conference. It is such a huge blessing to have a living prophet who can recieve revelation for the whole world. It will also be nice to watch it right before I finish my mission, get lots of inspiration for my life. Also- if you want to email me instead of writing these next few weeks, that'd be cool. Hope you are doing well!!

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

25 August 2011

So first story of the week- this past week b's little sisters e and a came to eefy as well. And. well. we had taught e really briefly before (like 2 minutes, in passing kind of at the end of b's lesson she came in and we invited her to read the book of mormon as well). So this past week when she came we wanted to check to see if she'd read at all. It kind of surprised us when she said she'd actually gotten her sister's BOM out and read it. ok then we asked her to tell us what she remembers from what she read. So she begins- well, lehi is a prophet, and the people are really not listening to god. So he's praying for them and then he sees this fire and has a vision and he gets a book to read that tells him all about how jerusalem is going to be destroyed... 5 min later... so then lehi is really worried about his sons laman and lemuel, and he sees a river and a mountain and tells them that he wishes laman could be like the river because.. .. five min later... then Nephi's brothers want to give up but then nephi talks about how a long time ago god helped moses... . 5 min later... so then nephi puts on all of labans clothes and his sword and everything and goes to laban's house and asks the servant... etc.

so you get the picture. This girl is a genius. she in 1 day read up to page 32 in the chinese book of mormon and could explain it to us and make connections about it... our jaws fell and were down for about 30 minutes as she told us up to the part about the tree of life and everything. Then there I am thinking.. okay wow, so she knows the stuff, now she just needs to make sure she knows its true, not just a story or something.

me: "so you know, this book is REALLY special, because God's promised us that if we read it and we think about the messages in it, and ask God sincerely we can know if it's true or N..."
E: "oh! I KNOW its true! because Joseph Smith one night he was praying and then there was this light that started appearing in his room and.... 5 minutes later... but he couldn't just go get the plates, he had to wait and go back to meet moroni at the hill on the same day for 4 years.."


then 2 days later she was on pg 75 in the book of mormon. we asked her what she felt the difference was between BOM and other books she reads (because obviously she loves to read hahaa) "it feels like I'm really there, more than other books" okay the book of mormon is scripture. wow. so thats e. She's a genius. she and her sisters are probably some of the nicest people I've ever met too.

hmmm.. what else. Oh. I love macau. did i mention that? I LOVE macau. my companions are hilarious and we have so much fun together. We're SUPER busy, the weather has been nice, our district is good. we have fun activities...

speaking of which, this week we had an AMAZING activity. We watched the testaments on a projector screen with sound hooked up into the church sound system.. it was so legit. And we did it as kind of a "sneak attack" on one of our investigators. She believes in Jesus Christ but says she hasn't really FELT the spirit yet. So we had the movie night then asked her to go home that night and read 3 Ne. 11 about when christ appears to the people at the americas. Then the next day she came back and said she felt so touched when reading the chapter. and she has a huge desire to just be at the church more and learn more and be baptized. I am so grateful for the people who made that movie. seriously, if anyone knows ANYONE involved in that movie- you can thank them for our investigator because it probably will have been a turning point for her progression.

Its also really interesting being here in HK and Macau, because there are a lot of people who haven't ever learned about jesus christ before. many don't even know anything about God. and seeing the change in them, kind of like s. she said one time when she was younger she went to a church and just learned a little about Jesus Christ (buddhist background) and she just cried and didn't know why. she thought at the time it was so weird, but now remembered that experience and asked us to explain it to her.


okay so last story of the week:

i'll call this "how to kill a cockroach" by sister c

step 1: locate cockroach
step 2: scream hysterically as cockroach crawls into a bag of plastic bags
step 3: open the door
step 4: grab purple umbrella so you don't have to touch the bag yourself to throw it into the hall
step 5: accidentally disturb the said cockroach and see it crawl out of the bag of bags and onto the shelf
step 6: Scream even louder
step 7: scream so loud that the neighbor comes over to see what is going on
step 8: cry while sister s attempts to relocate the said cockroach
step 9. prepare your shoe to kill the cockroach
step 10. once the cockroach reappears hit it with your shoe
step 11. watch as sister s pours rubbing alcohol onto the cockroach and seals its fate.


Thats what happened last night. i was not fully dressed at the time and had to take cover when the neighbor appeared (also, chinese neighbors seldom communicate with each other. but seriously im pretty sure they thought someone was getting beaten or something sis c was screaming so loud. poor thing hahaha)


There we have my week. Things are going well. I'm sad that in 2 weeks I'll be leaving macau, because it really is a wonderful place with wonderful people. also next week we have a special missionary meeting with the general sunday school president and the YM 2nd counselor. It should be good!! eep and i get to say the closing prayer!

Thank you all for the love, prayers, everything.

Sis Black

17 August 2011

Wow I cant believe it. i only have 2 months left in the mission. Its going really really fast these days, especially since we just combined 2 companionships into 1 tripanionship. But its going really really good.

I dont think i shared this story before- but last week we were on our way home from teaching some lessons and a few nights earlier sister s had ran across this filipino store really close to our apartment. i had the thought like i wanted to go there, even though at that point i still hadn't ever eaten any filipino food but i just had the desire, like i wanted to go.. and for no reason i cant really describe it. because it was such a weird thought and we needed to get home i ignored it. Then as we got closer to our apartment sister s said, hey, i think i'd like to eat some filipino ice cream, i wonder if that store has any. actually no i can just get some later" or something like that. but, since i had the same thought, i wouldnt let her not go. so we went to the store. Last time we were outside the lady was kind of rude to us, but this time it was a new lady. we walked in, found out there was no ice cream and then as we were just about to leave she started asking if we were the mormons. and that missionaries in the philippines used to go visit her family all the time. Her name is n. then as we got talking i remembered that that morning i decided to put my photo album in my bag, but not really for any particular reason. In it were pics of my cousin who's in the philippines on his mission. we started to talk about how my cousin serves in the philippines etc. then she looked at the pic of my cousin and some people at a church getting baptized and she said they look REALLY familiar. so we asked her where she's from- the same place where the baptism was. yeah so If someone could get this to spencer and ask him who those people are... we may have a potential investigator who knows them or knows of them. Also we'd like to get missionaries to visit her family again because they all still live there. :)

i'd almost forgotten this because it was right before we went to hong kong and then my world just flipped around and i cant believe i didnt remember until now. but yeah that was a pretty cool experience. sometime the holy spirit works in mysterious ways... like having me put those pics in my bag and having sister s want to eat ice cream. can the spirit work through a food craving? i say yes.

Then what else, yesterday we also saw a couple of miracles. we had several lessons scheduled last minute at the church and no members to help us for 2 of them because it was so last minute. BUT twice members just showed up at the church, seriously right as we were about to get started. one was c and she helped us out with a my favorite burmese teenager. and then e showed up right as we were about to teach j, a chinese 16 yr old. yeah it was pretty cool. We had a commitment in district meeting to look for the lord's hand in the work, and ever since its been amazing to see all the little things he puts into place.

another example. Monday night we had FHE in Taipa, on an island that takes about 45 min from the church (walking, waiting for the bus, riding the bus, then walking again). Wellll we were a bit late because us sisters had a dessert appointment with some investigators about 15 min from the church. so we were already running behind and stressed. as we finally left the church with the entire zone of missionaries (ok theres only 9 of us actually so not like SO huge haha) as we crossed the street to the bus stop the bus was stopped to let us cross. and the driver wouldnt let us on because he'd JUST passed the bus stop. Our zone leader said, well, there's a bus stop just down the street right? I think there is?! and he starts booking it towards the next stop. i follow quickly and the rest of the zone struggled to run. Elder L made it just in time and waved for me to keep coming, i made it a few seconds later and waved the rest of us. The bus had to wait like a minute for all of us to get on, but it was really such a miracle. we made the bus and made miracle time to taipa for FHE. (that bus comes like every 20 min or so they said...) yeah, so heavenly father is watching out for us missionaries.

Other stuff- today we were supposed to go see pandas and then to get lunch and sightsee with the other missionaries but right as we were about to lave this morning it started POURING. like lightning and heavy rain and we couldnt see a lot of stuff we normally can from our apartment. so probably no panda pics next week, sorry. We have EEFY today again so our Pday is super short, but thats ok, EEFY is like a party anyways since the teenagers we teach english to are SO cool. This one girl and her boyfriend come and she has like a polaroid camera but a diff brand, and always is taking pics and giving them to us. i love those cameras.. so fun.

Lately I'm trying to just focus myself completely on the work, but its hard. my mind is so ADD sometimes that even though im trying to focus in my prayers even i start thinking about other random stuff. completely random. but whatever im trying and its getting better. I think its really important too, because like elliott and emily said this week, prayer is SO key to missionary work. when you pray things get better, you see the blessings God is giving you and the people around you. even though not everyone you pray about accepts the gospel or even tries at all to learn about it, when they are prepared and are willing to do their part, your prayers in their behalf are answered miraculously. Its particularly interesting when people who used to not believe in God at all start to learn about him, and all of the sudden if they are humble and want to know, they feel it. Like a few months ago when we taught three young mothers from mainland china. though tears are not necessary for a spiritual experience, they prayed and cried and felt the truth of a God in heaven who loves them very much.

Though at times we all have doubts, when you can look back on your life of faith and see how God has blessed you and how He's helped everything work out as you follow him, there is really no way to stop believing, because its true. Jesus Christ is our savior, he was the perfect example and showed us the way. I'm so grateful to be a missionary and realize even more deeply than i ever have before the importance of the savior in our heavenly father's plan for us. its just SO COOl!!!!

anyways thanks everyone for the prayers! See you in 2 months!

Sister Black

Thank you Australian Postal Service... August 4 2011

So I'll just start out with the most recent interesting story. Yesterday afternoon when our Zone leader got back from training in Hong Kong he said we had mail. I was pretty excited since it was for us sisters. "any for me??!" well.. the answer was yes, but he said "yeah but i think the one for you is pretty sad" no clue what that meant but then he pulled the letter out. take a look at the first picture... so elliott sent me a letter that got ripped to shreds in australia apparently. "damaged by machinery" is the official declaration. So elliott, if you get the top half returned in another envelope by the australian postal service, know that i have half of the letter hahaaha!

Okay other than that, things in macau are AWESOME. we're so busy but not at the same time. I think filipinos are more similar to chileans and mexicans, in that they are totally willing to talk to you but not as willing to commit to anything. Its a huge change from chinese work where no one even talks to you ahhaha. But I love it. Even when there are no international people around, the chinese people here in macau are SO NICE. They'll stop and talk to you a lot more often than hong kong people will. And there are tons of indonesians, filipinos, vietnamese, nepalese, thai, etc people that we talk to all the time. Its kind of funny too, because this week we had days where most of the people we met were of one or the other of these.

example. Day 1 of mostly straight finding- indonesians. We pulled back three to the church. M, one of them, had been a domestic worker in saudi arabia for several years and her employer would beat her all the time. then she heard about jesus christ and god and started praying every day. She felt like she should quit after a while and then when she said she was going to terminate her contract early, her employer apologized and thanked her for everything she did and asked her to stay. she stayed for a couple more years and they had a great relationship. anyways she was really good and translated for her friend K who didnt speak chinese or english. later in the day a member showed up with her indonesian friend who doesnt speak chinese or english either- we taught a lesson with her friend acting as translator. Its so difficult to teach lessons with a translator!! I need the gift of tongues to the MAX now.

Day 2 of mostly straight finding- vietnamese. im serious almost everyone we talked to turned out to be vietnamese. such nice people. Two were willing to come back with us to the church and were really excited that we have pamphlets and stuff in vietnamese.

day 3 of mostly straight finding- Nepalese (spl?) We met like a billion nepalese men yesterday. I went on splits and we walked around the reservoir. It was so much fun!! It makes me work hard to have to explain things in very simple english, but I love the challenge.

Its amazing the people we meet and their sacrifices for their families. I realize i prettttty much have nothing to complain about in my life- i mean, these people work so hard in these terrible conditions at times, so their family can have food, shelter and especially education. When i asked one of the nepalese men yesterday why he was here he told me because his teenage daughter needs to go to a good school. I have so much respect for that but it makes me think... there has GOT to be another way because their families need them there too. but i dont see a solution. My companion, worked in fields since she was 10 and then started working in hong kong so her brother and sister could go to school, and paid for 5 of her cousins to go to college. Luckily she had a great employer but many people are not so lucky.

It puts a whole new meaning into the work for me, because the hope and the joy of the gospel can help them so much! I mean, its important for everyone, but the urgency for me feels greater working in the international branch, and probably since i am nearing the end of my mission too. Macau is a more relaxed place, you can even feel it in the air, but that is what makes working hard so much fun. because you can work harder than ever but still feel like you're having a good time. The brazilian sister, sister b is AWESOME and she's our ward correlator. she's got some great ideas on how to help this branch and get everyone involved. Its like everyone wants to help, even though they have very little time and are probably so tired. the YSA in the branch want to have an activity to go finding this week. seriously theyre so excited about it. that would never happen like this in chinese work. haha. but i still love my chinese, especially the macanese. seriously. They're the best! I thought i would really miss my old area but i think this is just so exciting to be here in macau and working with these people, having a crazy, HARD WORKING filipina as a companion. im so grateful like sister d she's willing to get up early to go running (actually shes usually up a few min earlier than i am just waiting for me to get up.)

ok well theres so much more iw ant to say. sorry i had so little time to take pics this week. but maybe next week i'll have more. its so pretty here!!! ok love you all! the other pic is the view from our apt.

sis black