June 22, 2015 - Staying in Castle Peak Bay

So, this week...

We had transfers this week and I stayed in Castle Peak Bay as Zone Leader, but surprise surprise, Elder Little left after only 7 weeks and now I am with Elder Boyd. He's a really cool guy, relatively newer, and he has some amazing faith to see miracles. He understands a lot about attitude and character, and is very perceptive. The mission as a whole had quite a lot of changes, though our zone wasn't too much. Transfers are always pretty interesting, especially when you're the Zone Leader and you know the whole zones moves several hours before they do. But in the end no matter where you serve it's all for the same boss. I am glad to be able to stay in this ward, all the same. I am glad that I have a chance in this last transfer to really work and get some people baptized, and that I can work with the foundation that I've been building here, not in a prideful sense (I hope ) but just that I'm glad that I can have a chance to finish the work I started and was called to do in this ward.

On Wednesday we went to Crossraods to serve and we were loading freight into trucks and shipping crates in the heat of the day, which really was oddly fun. I had to take off my glasses because I was sweating too much and they kept falling off, but for some reason it made me really want to work in a warehouse or at a port loading stuff. Don't worry, on the way home I talked to some electrical/computer engineer and it renewed my desire to be an engineer.

Our missionary work this week went pretty well, but we didn't get anyone really scheduled until the last half of the week, so we were sort of scrambling to teach everyone and achieve our goals. Church was really cool, because we had a relatively new investigator Amigo there (no one knows how to say his name or what it means, including him) and we finally got to see and teach Brother Chi again. He's back from Mainland, but he's still got some struggles. He doesn't understand really how to read the Book of Mormon, and I think because of that he still has a lot of things that he doesn't really understand about the essence of the gospel, but his desire is still good and he's totally trusting of us and willing to be baptized. This week we are going to help him get that testimony and love of the Book of Mormon, and I can see it just turning the key on him getting baptized. I'm pushing for July for his family. They're so cool.

There are a lot of high school kids more available now because testing just finished, like Amigo. I can see some really great things coming this week. This is also President Hawks' last week. We meet with the Stake President and him on Thursday, hopefully I can get a picture with him. He's influenced me so much on my mission.

Joseph,

It's always really weird to be home alone. I didn't buy a blue suit, just a light grey and a dark grey. The place just has too many choices, and the more you look the more they all look bad. I got to choose the inside fabric, which is bright blue and red anti-respectively. I hope you approve...

I saw your schedule and was disturbed that the only science related class was political science...

Today I read a really cool talk by Elder Ballard from when he was a 70 about discipline and goal setting. I think that's a strength you have, and I'm really trying to apply that in my life more now. My biggest problem is usually just focus over a long term, and narrowing down goals to a manageable number. I really want to apply that because I feel really driven to make the best use of the time I've got left.

Dad,

I think that at this point in my mission I really understand what you meant by the longer you are out the less you want to go home, and also about feeling a bit panicky. I really really wish I had more time to do better or do more. That's actually been a big struggle for me this week, because I realized that up till now my mission has been sort of selfish in that I mostly serve for myself; for what I want to have done on my mission, or what I want to become, or what I think my potential is, and sometimes what I think I appear to other missionaries or how I measure up to them. I'll worry about how well I teach, but the main reason might be because I worry I don't teach as well as some other missionaries or as well as I could have, not because I want to help people more. Now I'm really really trying to turn more to the people. It's not that I haven't cared about people before; I think that over my mission I've really come to care a lot about the people we talk to and how to help them. But maybe the main focus and the goals I set are more for me. So I'm trying to change. I wish I had more time, but I know that regretting things or wishing or worrying is totally useless, so I resist. But it's easy to say I definitely don't want to be home sooner.

Mom,

Yeah, that's one thing that I think that President Hawks has done an amazing job of, is that he has instilled in the mission an attitude where major disobedience just seems absurd, and being really uptight about small rules is not looked down on but looked up to. I think there are a lot of missionaries who don't fully understand the blessing of obedience, but there are very very few who are blatantly disobedient, and it seems to be less and less as time goes on.

The farming game is a pretty great game. Thanks again for all the work done with my school stuff. It seems like it'll be a pretty smooth transition. The weather recently has been pretty warm, but honestly I quite enjoy it. The days where it doesn't rain, it's super bright, and about 34 Celsius are really quite bright and happy if you're outside and not inside. Chinese people, on the other hand, seem terrified of any weather condition and seem to only desire to have 20 Celsius and cloudy days. Sometimes old people will outragedly shout at us to get under the shade because it’s too bright. They seem personally offended by our standing in the beautiful sunshine. Oh, Hong Kong.

David,

You just need to blow harder. I remember at the beginning of my mission I would try to stop people and literally be terrified. It was the worst thing ever, and I would often hesitate, or sort of half heartedly talk to them, which they would often not hear or ignore. Many people still ignore me, but I feel totally entitled to talk with them, stop them, and share with them. That was one reason why I started talking to people on buses, was to develop that ability.

Rebecca,

How could you not want to go on the vacation? It's the cabin, it's like a paradise. Plus everyone knows that it's Dad's future retirement home. You’ll have to get used to visiting when he drags Mom off to live in seclusion after he retires.

I think feeling bored is a product of having an I-Phone. It’s a curse, not a privilege, I tell you.

Abby,

I'm sorry, I'm almost out of time, but I really really love and appreciate your descriptive letters. It's a really great thing to be able to really hear about how your life actually is. Do you keep a journal? If so how big is it? Because I imagine that you could fill a lot of journals if you started. That'd be pretty cool. There was another 12 year old girl at some activity on Saturday who went out finding with us missionaries (another companionship) and I was with some 12 year old boy, and imagining if you were out finding. It'd be interesting.