December 16, 2013 - New Companion & Joy at Christ's birth because of the atonement!

Hello, my family. This week has been very interesting. In a lot of ways it was really hard, probably the hardest week of my mission so far. But hard times are usually hard because a lot of stuff is happening and changing, so I have some good hopes for the future.

This was the end of my first move, or transfer as they call it in most missions. 2 months in. Elder O'Gara left to go be the District Leader in Yeun Long, which is about as far away from everything as you can get. He's really gone. I was actually pretty sad to see him go, but frankly I'm bad at being sentimental or emotional about things like that, so I didn't really react at all. He was a pretty good trainer. He's taught me a lot about humility and learning from others, and about hard work.

My new companion is what we call an ABC, meaning his parents both spoke Cantonese in his house. Not quite a bundei (native) but 2nd best thing. His English is perfect, though Australian, and his Cantonese is really good. He can speak and hear pretty much perfectly, though he can't write at all, his reading is still progressing, and he does have a comparatively limited vocabulary. Still, I feel like my Cantonese is already improving from having him as a companion. Oh, he's also the new Tai Wai district leader. I just get stuck with leadership where ever I go.

Elder Tong (man, I forgot to say his name until now, embarrassing) is also really big into organization, which I'm realizing Elder O'Gara was sort of average at. I've become quite well accustomed to hearing, 'Oh goodness!" as he discovers another neglected part of the area book or apartment, or another of Elder O'Gara's exotic food experiments, such as a live sour dough starter in a MILO jar.

It has made me realize that we actually weren't doing so great in Tai Wai. We've had a couple investigators, but no one really progressing quickly, and not really any new investigators since I've gotten here, which has been a long time. But Elder Tong just looks at it and says, well let's change it. SO we shall.

Mom,

The Christmas package arrived, and was very much appreciated. Elder Ah Mu in particular loved the Christmas Choir CD, Alfie Boe is a pretty good singer. We also randomly found the one with Natalie King Cole, which has some good parts, but, you know, mediocrity.

I actually did get one chance to go over to the island. We actually had to go get some watch links that got left behind at a watch repair store in Central District by an Elder right before he left for home. Not sure what he was thinking, but it was kind of cool. Central is a big place. And Hong Kong really goes crazy with decorations here. Our apartment lobby has wreaths and trees and lights all over, but no nativities, no Christ, just western Christmas decoration. Weird. I got to go to the Bruce Lee museum for last P-Day, which was pretty interesting. He has almost a whole floor of a medium sized museum for him alone. Pretty weird. Also had a lot of Chinese art and porcelain, which reminded me of Grandpa and Grandma's house.

I tried to make Tuna Patties 2 days ago (you can definitely buy tuna, and mayo is a little expensive but not bad) but totally guessed on how, so I just used some torn up bread in place of crackers (because I had none) and mixed in a lot of mayo. I figure mayo is made of mostly egg anyway, so I was close, they weren't too bad. Thank you for the full recipe, though. I just finished a cheng out, and I feel uncomfortably full, so enough of food.

I will call you. We'll buy a call card or a SIM card, one of the two. I will have to see with Elder Tong, so I can tell you totally finalized details next week, but probably 9:00 PM at the earliest. We'll see.

Miss you, Mom. You’d hate the weather here. There are very few heaters and it's been cold rain for the past 3 or 4 days. Not Utah cold, but pretty bleak.

Dad,

I am sad that I have only recently gotten a taste for music. And that sounds pretty impressive, Gimli, son of Gloin, reading Luke 2. I will have to read over it on Christmas Eve with that voice in mind. I liked David's comment about tossing. Also, you should probably get out of the choir while you still can; before they start you all taking tap dancing classes or having you dance down the aisles of the tabernacle. Things can only get worse in that respect.

It's weird to think of people on Christmas break. The Hong Kong people decorate a lot here, but you can bet no one is getting days off school yet, never mind work. And for us missionaries it's still a vague more than a week away thing, so it seems pretty far off. And honestly, we won't do much. Our mission president said that because of the increased size of the mission and the cost, as well as our big Thanksgiving thing, we'll do no group Christmas thing. Which I think is fine. More blessings for me, going finding on Christmas.

Thank you for mentioning that at the end, Dad. I actually have struggled a lot this week with keeping happy and non-guilty, I know what you mean about the way to be happy on a mission is by working hard. It really hit me pretty hard that you included that, because it's something that I did learn a lot specifically this week, and something that I needed to hear. Thank you, and love you.

Hey Abby,

I can't say too much BECAUSE YOU STILL HAVEN"T READ SCRIPTURES WITH BECCA but I will say this; I do TONS of dishes here! I have to cook breakfast and lunch almost every day and there is absolutely no room in our apartment to let dirty dishes pile up. For that matter, there is no room for clean ones. So every morning I cook pancakes and then scrub the pan, scrub the plate, the fork, the spatula, etc. It could be worse, little one. Believe me.

David,

I'm not sure if that first sentence is or is not a subtle joke, because on the trains I've been seeing ads for some space program shuttle thing that is heading for or already went to the moon or is maybe planned to eventually go to the moon. I can't understand what they're saying, so I'm not sure, but I don't trust you one bit.

Strewth, it doth awaken mine brain to the length of the time in to which between mine ears have Recife the word STREWTH. Verily.

I don't really want anything for Christmas but baptisms, and there's absolutely no snow here, so that would be great advice if you weren't so dumb all the time. Really.

Becca,

'Wink wink' did you get that? You know, the message, huh?

Did you know that dancing is actually illegal in Hong Kong? Too many people got hurt, so they just banned it outside of professional companies. I don't care too much, of course, but it is pretty weird.

That last paragraph is a complete lie.

Hey, guess what! I was being a missionary in Sunday School this last Sunday too!

Actually it was really nice, usually I miss most of the vocab, just can't follow along quite well enough to get the lesson really well, but this week I understood most of it, and I wrote down a ton of new vocab that Elder Tong translated. Oh, you won't care too much about this but the kid in our ward who will go on a mission in February and does most of the fellowshipping for us is our new Ward Mission Coordinator. So when he gets to the MTC he'll be the only one there who's already done that.

Anyway, love you Becca. Wish you could see Hong Kong, or be all moody. Either one.

Joseph,

Aston Martins, whatever. I'll have you know that I saw 4 of those weird 5 seater Porsches at one intersection, all within 1 minute, and at least 20 since I've gotten here. Plus about 50 A4, 20 or 30 A6, a couple A8, I think an R8, a lot of Q7s, and a surprisingly large amount of TT's. I think my first night I saw a Bugatti. Lots of funny looking cars here. Lotus Elise, etc. I also accidentally saw a good deal of World War Z on the plane ride over, against my will.

Anyway, I need to focus. Yeah, got your package, I really wanted to read the story, but I just can't in good conscience. I need all the help I can get.

I age just as much as you every day and I have only gotten Christmas presents so far. Don't know what that's about. I was actually pretty sad that I couldn't send anything back for Christmas, but as the Chinese say mouh baanfaat! no solution. And as for Micah and his brother, don't worry. We're bigger than them. Just sit on him or knock him over or something.

Thank you for your emails, and thanks to everyone who has sent me letters. Grandma and Grandpa especially have been so great at sending me mail, it really has lifted my heart up until it is stretching at its arterial connections. I'm sorry I haven't sent anything back, I don't have much time, I have no Chinese stamps, I have no clue where or how to send it from here, and I’m a bad person, so there.

I feel like this week I have learned so much about hope and faith and repentance. I just really want to be able to stand before God with a clean conscience, and know that I have done my part. Preach My Gospel says that the Restored Gospel will bring peace in this life and eternal life in the world to come. I know that this is true. I think we should all strive to look at our lives, analyze what we're doing, and honestly see if we feel happy with where we are right now. I know that I am not ready right now. But I also know that the promise of the gospel, the message we as missionaries share, and the reason for our joy at Christ's birth is the news that through the atonement, we can all be cleansed of sin. We can all be healed, and change ourselves so that we can stand before God free of guilt and without spot, no matter what we have done or where we are. Our lives may always have trials, but we can have that peace in life that comes from knowing that through Christ we are saved. I invite you all to think about and be grateful for the atonement, and think of how to share the message of the gospel with others this Christmas. Especially since you're all on break, you've got a lot of time.

Elder Morrell

P.S. STREWTH, I KNEW IT! I can't remember where I heard that originally, I think in Ivanhoe.

In Hong Kong they say, Sing daan faai lohk for Merry Christmas (or I guess Happy Christmas, since they have the whole British thing going on). Sacred egg happy happy. Go figure.

At Ward Halloween Party with the Bishop

A wild boar in a fenced off area right next to a super densely populated Luhng Hang area. 

My new desk in Ma On Shan

Elder Morrell w/ Elder O'Gara
(I like the random slab of concrete that bench is sitting on.)

Elder Tong, my new companion.

Yes, I know I'm wearing glasses.  I wear them half the time to make sure I'm used to them if I get an eye infection.

December 9, 2013 - Acting Senior Companion & Trying to Turn Finding into Teaching

Hello my family dear,
In this the Christmas season, my thoughts often turn to home, except they don't because I am busy and don't let them. In fact, to forestall said homeward ruminations, I often engage myself in the multiplication of two 3 digit numbers, which occupies my mind so fully I find myself incapable of entertaining any intruding sentiments. You should try it, Mom.

This week was interesting because as part of my training Elder O'Gara made me do acting senior companion, which job entailed the choosing of our finding location, the choosing of our daily plan, the choosing of our daily meals, and the direction and leadership of our companionship study. I have learned from this that surprisingly, 2 month old missionaries are not good at being senior companions. Not that anything especially bad happened, but it's hard to decide where to go all the time.

On Monday we found a magical place above one of the apartment complex areas near our Bishop's house. Hong Kong uk chyuns (village) are usually laid out as large 30 story buildings in a line or cluster with parks and walk ways and sometimes stores underneath. This one had a massive man made pond full of koi fish, which was pretty cool.

Tuesday was a very good day. We went finding, and in about 90 minutes had 3 street lessons and several contacts that couldn't stop to talk but were willing to listen for a while. That was a great experience because we have not met very many of our numbers goals at all since I've come to Hong Kong. People just don't want to stop and talk; we have only 2 or 3 regular investigators, etc. But by finding really aggressively, e.g. stopping people a lot and actually standing in their way so they couldn't just wave us off, we found some pretty decent success. The main problem that we're facing overall is that we'll have these street lessons, we'll exchange numbers or emails, and then we are just totally unable to turn them into investigators. They just won't reschedule, they're all too busy, it's inconvenient for them because no one ever meets in apartments here so we have to try to get them to come to the chapel, which is hard to find and out of our area, technically, and they won't answer their phones. I've seen some miracles with street lessons so far but I really want to learn to teach more powerfully and challengingly, because I feel like too many of the lessons are having almost no effect. Anyway, Tuesday was good.

Thursday was not good. We were finding next to a canal that runs through Tai Wai and Shatin, and we met a 25 year old guy who stopped to talk to us for a while, who was Taoist. He had some slightly unorthodox beliefs as well that included Jehovah and a heavenly government, but I think he was also saying that everyone needs to have their own beliefs or something like that. Our lesson started okay but quickly became just a discussion on a little of our beliefs, a little of his, no real interest in changing or discovering about ours at all on his part. I was getting concerned because 1. I didn’t think we were actually helping him at all, I felt like we needed to be more testifying and less focused on his beliefs, if that makes sense, and 2. We had gone over time into our dinner hour and had an appointment at the chapel, which was 15 minutes away, in 20 minutes. So I tried to say that basically I respected his beliefs but that I knew that the Book of Mormon was true and he could find the truth of our message by reading. We left, he didn't take a book or a reschedule, and then Elder O'Gara was mad at me for being rude. That really threw me off for the rest of the day. I was really confused and annoyed because I really felt like our lesson had just been pointless. I had a hard time participating in our lesson afterwards and just felt annoyed and down that whole night and part of the next day.

Then, on Friday we had miracles. We got stood up for a lesson with a new investigator (he hates us now for some reason, keeps hanging up on us) with a member there, so we apologized to the member and started doing finding. But, he said he was available so he did finding with us, and in 40 minutes we found some people to come to English class and taught 2 street lessons. That was incredible. One of the kids we taught was Buddhist, which gave me an awesome chance to learn that there are better ways to deal with other people's religions, and he said his reason for talking with us was that he was shy but felt like he needed to practice his English. He probably won't become an investigator any time soon, but it started his preparation. And the other kid was really willing to listen, very interesting, and hopefully will meet with us again. THEN that night we had a less active kid reschedule his revision time (revision, or boujaahp, is a horrible Hong Kong invention where kids pay money to listen to lectures on subjects and become unavailable to do any gospel related thing for months on end. Eva says it is like tutoring.) from Sunday to Saturday. He hadn't been at church for about a year, and showed up this week. So despite things looking bad, the Lord does work miracles some times, right when we're feeling the worst.

Then to ends things anticlimactically, no one came to church. 0 investigators, but the less active kid did show up, so it was okay.

This week I learned an important lesson, trust Preach My Gospel. It was the Preach My Gospel method that worked when we were talking to the Buddhist kid. Every time I have realized that PMG is not telling me obvious or corny suggestions and used it, things work out better. So that is what I'm trying to do.

I have also experienced more that God will comfort us when we are down, if we trust and rely on Him. It is really hard for me to stay positive all the time, because we don’t have a ton of success. It's tempting to despair about stuff. A scripture that has really comforted me is in Alma 31, I don’t know the exact verse or wording, but it says that their sorrows were swallowed up in the joy of Christ. I try to remember that and be grateful when things don't go well, and retain a hope that if I work hard enough and endure I will have success.

Mom,

Thank you for the advice. It seems like younger people will actually stop and talk with us, whereas most older people just brush us off. Honestly the thing that is the hardest right now is going from people who stop to people who meet again. I had some really cool thoughts recently, though. 1. Number goals. I would like to become the type of missionary who every night prayerfully and thoughtfully sets goals with my companion, then the next day looks at those goals not as regular goals, but as what the Lord has told our companionship we can accomplish if we are exactly obedient and work as hard as possible; then achieving or missing goals becomes a way to know whether or not we are living up to and working to our potential. I hope I can develop the faith to do that. 2. Inviting people to talk with us is the first commitment we give them, in a sense, and when we extend commitments we are supposed to promise blessings and testify. I've being thinking about how to do that better recently, and it fills me with hope.

I made cornbread today, and last night I ate 6 eggs worth of egg salad sandwiches. My diet is a bit random and probably unhealthy. Could you send me some recipe tips that are extremely simple? Also no cheese, it is obscenely expensive here.

I miss you guys, but like I said I try not to think about home too much. Focus is worth more. So I hope you won't be too sad. Keep on facing that tough Utah winter, and just don't think of the long January, February, and March coming up.

Dear David,

I did wonder where that piano bench had gone (David was excited that the piano bench in the gym was back because he played for Priesthood Meeting yesterday. I was not excited because the piano bench in the Young Women’s room was gone). They have mostly electric pianos here, because they’re smaller, and the one in the primary room randomly has an insanely powerful bass. Like the whole room vibrates.

You know me so well, mein Bruder. Du sollst nicht vergessen, meine neue sprache sind Cantonese, so I will suffice myself with a quote from our purple grammar book, "She has inhaled quite a bit of poisonous gas".

Dear Dad,

I realized when I got to the MTC that I developed a taste for classical and church music just 1 year too late, and now I don't have time to listen to it. I think this year I might have actually enjoyed the Christmas Concert, but it's too late now. I still always pull out your Motab membership when people start bragging.

I have been very slack on my goal to talk to people on trains, so this week I will try to repent and really sincerely try to talk to everybody. I hope I'm able to.

Abby,

I saw an ad for Frozen in Hong Kong about a week ago. It looked weird, but that means you'd like it, I guess. I bet mom fell asleep. (I did for a few minutes.)

Wish I could have seen David, Rebecca, and you perform at the Ward Christmas Party (they played Jingle Bell Rock on the piano, flute, & violin). I just realized when I think of home I imagine that I wouldn't actually have to do anything. In reality I'd be in school or working. That means that you're in school right now. Ha ha. Read with Rebecca, I mean it. I won't stop mentioning it until you do.

Joseph,

You epitaph was quite humorous, as is the thought of a person like you creating confections. I chuckle.

However, I also stop chuckling and type with sadness to inform you that I will not be able to read your book. With heavy fingers I tap out the reason, and then insert a semicolon; after a discussion with my senior companion, I have come to realize that to really focus on a mission means leaving everything but missionary work behind. Your book will be the biggest sacrifice so far, but I cannot read it. Shoot to the mark, not the tolerance. But, my fingers dictate a short thought of hope, I will with pleasure read it on the plane. And this way I can read it in fully edited (besides my final review) glory when I return. See to it. And be that eagle scout, bro.

Rebecca,

Your language conceals your age well. From your clever remark on teeth brushing I would have pegged you at 16, not 12. I also have experienced this phenomenon (Rebecca said that everyone at church was complimenting her on her flute playing); I cannot tell if it is just the inherent excellence of our family or the kindness of the ward, probably the former. Ga yau, or add oil, as the Chinese say. Read with Abby. Do it.

December 1, 2013 - Thanksgiving & Trying to Find People

Oh my goodness.

It just deleted 30 minutes of writing.

I am really upset right now.

Okay, it wasn't that great of a letter anyway.

30 minutes left.

Helllo family. We had a Thanksgiving meal with our whole zone, which was good, but we wasted a lot of time, I think. Elder O'Gara made a 7 kilo turkey, which involved buying, brining, baking, bathing, and bisecting the poultry. It wasn't a huge waste of time but it did throw off a lot of schedule stuff and the like. I feel like partially because of this our numbers were very poor this week. I had a really cool paragraph written about how numbers aren't success but they help us work harder, but oh well.

I felt kind of frustrated this week because finding is still extremely difficult, and I don't have very good finding methods or success. I've been trying to humble myself and learn from other missionaries more, but it is really just hard. I don't know who is most effective to talk to or how to do it. I used to stop a ton of people, but I realized once I humbled myself a bit that Elder O'Gara was right and it was sort of a waste of time. Not that you don't want to find people, but just telling someone to stop if they obviously have no interest is not really putting in the effort needed for success. Working hard, not smart and hard. And a lot of people just aren't interested. I know that I wouldn't want to stop to talk to weird religious nuts unless I had a good reason, and I don't really blame the Hong Kong people for being uninterested. But I do know that if I put in the effort, I can improve my finding skills and make it more effective. When I get down on my finding or teaching skills, I am comforted by the fact that the scriptures say specifically many time that he who prays for help and is worthy can have the spirit teach through them. I have also been reading in the book of Acts recently, about Paul, and he is a great example of being bold and hard working, and the power of the Holy Ghost that results because of it. SO I carry on.

Abby and Becca,
Because you have still not read together every night, (and because I have such little time) you will be one email this week. You two sound pretty great. I'm really glad you got to hang out with the Emerys. I miss doing things with them like we used to when we were younger. Hopefully you gave them a good example, but you probably just pulled each other's hair. Oh well. I like the idea of the Ward Christmas Party performance thing on 3 instruments (violin, flute, piano). You should make Joseph sing, that would be hilarious. Becca, of course your ballet teacher complimented you. She's probably been jealous the whole time, but now she realizes that she's sinned, so she'll make you the head of the level 5 class soon. Abby, his hat did smell good. Don't be silly. Read together. make a plan on when you will each night. Please. Or I won't come home.

Dear Daddio
Hong Kong actually has gotten pretty cold. It is down to about 14 or 13 degrees celsius, which is pretty warm for December but cold for Hong Kong. And, none of our buildings have central heating, and most apartments have open air hallways, so it's a bit chilly. E.O'G hates it, he's too jaap gwan (accustomed) to the warm, but I think it's really nice. We are going to find out who the new AP's are today or tomorrow, so everyone is excited for big changes. It made me realize that you were an AP, which hadn't meant much to me until now. Interesting.

I wish working hard was easier, but then it wouldn't really be hard, would it? I've been trying a lot this week to focus my desires on missionary work instead of daydreaming or being homesick or thinking about physics, which is always a temptation. Oh, I had a thought. If you have a wire like this
------------------------------
l____a____l

with that loop touching but not connencted so that it can slide along the top wire (as in an electirc train) is there anyway to use a magnet at position a to generate a little back current or somthing to increase the resistance of the part of the top wire that the loop is bypassing so as to divert current through the loop even if it had a lot of resistance, as in a train motor? I'm not sure how the MTR trains work, but I think it flows from the top down through to an electric rail.

Joseph,
Group 4 (IB project in Science) was very stressful for me for that same reason (given very little direction). I did some weird experiment about lasers and leaves, and basically did the whole thing myself. How was it for you? Group hou m hou? Ask Eva.
Elder O'Gara is actually a writer, amateurishly at least, and was telling us about some of his story ideas. He said solid outlines are essential, I said my brother's outline was like 50 pages long. SO there.

I also have seen ads for "Ender's Game" here. I was afraid it would be horrible. It's just not the type of book that translates over to a movie very well. Turns out all my companions and roommates so far think that I'm way too critical on movies, and other things in general. I think they just have poor taste. And they should focus on missionary work more. Oh, how was the Stake Youth Rep thing?

I look forward to your package and story. Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to send anything back. OH ALMOST FORGOT,  you guys need to tell me when to call for our Christmas call, the day before, the day of, or the day after, 45 minutes. Figure out when everyone will be there, and remember our weird time schedule. Christmas Eve for you guys and Chrismas day for me is probably best.

David,
You should know, I'm always flattered, always.

Play that klavier, mein silo, gogo haih yatgo hou ge sihou.
I miss Amnesia (a computer game). I still haven't finished it. It's actually really hard not to talk about video games, so I will try not to sabotoge myself.

MOM,
You might be last, but your letter is always biggest, so you love me the most. The suits were used, from the sister's husband, but still pretty good. It rains violently every now and then, so it's nice to know that the suit is free if it gets ruined. Speaking of which, it already got pooped on by a bird, so yeah, good thing it was free.

Tell Eva thank you for the advice, I actually really like it. I like the idea of testifying and teaching quickly without being super awkward, though no matter how you do it, finding is, as Elder O'gara says, 90% awkward 10% miracle. I for one find it really easy to not argue, I just don't feel like arguing with people. Maybe I'm just still new, but I don't get annoyed at them very often. Elder O'Gara does very easily. Sometimes it irritates me, but I've learned a lesson I should have learned years ago, which is that criticising often just doesn't help.

One of the things that bugs him a lot is bureaucracy, like the guards at the chyuhns where our members live that won't let us in because they hate missionaries and Jehovah's Witnesses, even though it's illegal. So I sympathize with your efforts to get my paycheck stubs from the Salt Lake County bureaucracy.

I'm really happy about Grandpa's medical report. That actually made me kind of worried, though he's such a good guy that everyone knows he'll be fine no matter what happens. Oh, by the way, tell Grandma and Grandpa and the Relief Society that I loved their letters, they were awesome. Morris Matthews' as well. I'm trying to get around to sending some back but it is just inconvenient and I'm really bad at stuff like that anyway. I really do love it.

Thank you for your advice from your mission. It is comforting to know that it might just take time. I'm still loving it, it's just hard to work hard. I think this month is going to be a good one. Love you all.

Triads say hi.

Nov. 25, 2013 - Chinese Etiquette & Helping Investigators Feel the Spirit

Hello Family. This week I will be slightly shorter because I watched a couple of the Bible videos already, and we have to go play RISK afterwards, which is an essential P-Day activity, very important to missionary work.

This week was great. We had two investigators turned over to us, both of whom have been taught the First Lesson, and one investigator who we found by our own efforts, e.g. street finding. One thing that I have learned very quickly since coming on a mission is that nothing in missionary work is ideal, especially not the investigators. You do find some people like my first baptism kid who accepted baptism on the first visit and always calls to confirm appointments himself, but not many. Most are hard to schedule, hard to get to read, hard to give a really strong desire to. That, as I have found, is probably the most difficult and most essential thing that we do, is giving people a desire to progress. If they don't have that they won't keep commitments and won't develop faith, and it's something we have very little control over.

This week we were facing that challenge with A-Keuhng, who is very happy to meet with us but will not accept baptismal date, go to church, read a lot on his own, or feel the spirit very much. Elder O'Gara explained to me that one of the most important things we can do is have some spiritual experience with them, or help them see during a lesson what the spirit feels like, because if we can do that they'll want it again, and then they're trapped.

I feel like one of the tough things for me is that it's impossible to describe to people or convince them of the power of the atonement, which is the center of our message and gospel. I have experienced the edifying and sanctifying power of the Atonement many times before and on my mission, and I know that that is the real reason we teach people, or accept this gospel for ourselves, is because we all need that power and the change it brings. But it's just not possible to let other people know that in a street lesson. Very few Hong Kong people want to change, to be honest. It’s one of the biggest challenges, besides the business.

Taught an atheist kid last night, and he started just discussing a lot of unnecessary stuff, lots of weird kind of anti material and ideas from "1984" (George Orwell (he he Joseph)) about brainwashing or something, and the rest of us in the lesson spent about 10 minutes trying to just discuss things with him and answer his questions, basically wasting time, until E.O'G randomly burst in and cut the kid off mid sentence. I got nervous, because E.O'G occasionally gets irritated and rude to really annoying people while finding, and I think walking away from someone is more acceptable when you just met them on the street instead of scheduled a lesson for them. He basically said that he respected the kid’s thoughts but that he had no interest in hearing them, and that as missionaries we really just want to help him understand us. It was a little rude, but actually quite appropriate, since we had little time and no one else was really willing to say anything to get things on track. SO, we taught the rest of the lesson, gave him a Book of Mormon, and challenged him to read. I think that illustrates a very important principle that is worded well in some verse in the Book of Mormon but I don't remember where. Basically, if we don't believe we won't understand. There is no point in trying to argue an investigator into belief using logic. We have to help them believe, then the spirit helps them understand. That actually takes a load off us as missionaries. Our job is not to teach people these huge complicated concepts and get them to understand them to the point where they're baptized, it's to give them experiences with the spirit, teach them how to repent, and let the Holy Ghost do the rest. That is true of us as well. We need to believe, and then trust God will help us understand. Otherwise it's not faith.

Becca,

You go first today because I always run out of time for you. Your dance sounds like it's going great. I remember the Arabian dance as just having the 2 people, where they do a lot of crazy lifts and stuff, kind of acrobatic. Help me remember which part it actually is (unless you're so good you are the Arabian acrobatic girl).

It is a good thing that you have taken my mantle upon you and spearhead the religious discussion in your classes, my sister. Now that I am away in this strange land the heavy burden of maintaining the impeccably righteous and in all ways scholarly Morrell fall to you (because David's too goofy, Joseph too cynical, Abby too young and quirky). Bear it well or depart.

Joseph,

Here I am trying to rid the world of silly religions that lack the truth and lead the sons of man astray, and you, my younger brother, are actively striving against me! As I live, you shall cease this despicable idolatry and hearken unto the words of your siblings. Pray I do not return to end this heresy in person, for you would not abide such a chastisement, wretch that you are. Harden not your heart, and heed my words, or at least send me a copy of some of your ideas that I might counsel you in wisdom and the cunning of the world, not that I would ever take part in such heathen practices. And as for your various repulsive sensory and artistic experiences, I say wo wo wo unto such as reject the arts and the craft of his family, both literal, clerical, and academic. Censure your soul, youngling, lest you be pierced with spears or other sharp things.

Hello, my esteemed Father.

I feel like before my mission I would always point out Pride as my fault, but I didn't really understand how I was prideful. I just had a feeling I was. Since working with Elder O'Gara, however, I really have come to understand what it means to be humble and how lacking of that I was, and still am. E.O'G is a very nice guy, not super picky, not really annoying, but he is also very quick to correct things, and expects me to follow his example as a trainee. That was really hard for me at first. I thought that he was just being dumb, or refusing to discuss things or explain his reasoning, and I would often assume that he was wrong because he had gone against an opinion of mine that I considered absolute truth. Over time, however, I've learned that unless I stop trying to get my own way or argue, or even follow half heartedly or grudgingly, I would never be able to see the truth behind what he was saying and I'd never grow from it. It's the same as it is with Heavenly Father, but I'd never been able to really apply that to people who I considered imperfect. So I feel like I've learned a ton. How to improve finding, teaching, etc. If I could become the most humble missionary I can, I will be happy when I come home. It's the quality of not just accepting criticism, but seeking it out, and not just listening to people's advice, but wholeheartedly applying it.

That reminds me. That principle has been heavily applicable to my language study, because in the MTC I thought my Cantonese was great, and here I realize it's not. So I've been trying to listen to advice more, which has been hard but good. Just wondering, how did you learn German on your mission? What worked for you?

Almost forgot to mention. Yeah, in keeping with my statement about un ideal missions, one kid never showed up, the other's phone number was lost, and he was probably mandarin speaking, so we need to somehow find him and then turn him over to the mandarins. Yeah, underwhelming. But finding them was still a miracle, helped me a lot.

David,

I am joyful to hear of your online strategic exploits in the game of kings. Do continue, but beware I will return to pawn yo face. So be ready. Also, you should try Chinese chess. It's weird, but cool. I like the coding idea, and I can only hope that your words of warning are a reference to a certain fictional narrative involving pencils...

Abby,

I feel like you love me most because you sent me twoooooooo letters! You can send me a DVD of your recital, we all have little DVD players, though it might be slightly rebellious, not sure. I definitely want to hear it. I love the First Noel. 12 songs is a ton. How did you do it? I would be exhausted, and I'm way more diligent and naturally talented than you. And I LOVE big black stick figures.

I love them.

Hey Mom,

Sorry, you get short stick this week being last, and I don't have a ton of time, but I will endeavor to comfort your weeping soul.  Writing late last week made me realize how much you guys must depend on me. If I stopped writing you'd probably all just weep all day.

The etiquette dinner sounds nice. Etiquette is rough in China. Everything has bones in it and you spit them out on the table. Really. And, my chopstick skills are rough, so that's always slightly comical. Our ward mission coordinator “chenged” us out to a place that served really good tomato stuff and rice, not very Chinese but delicious. People in China give the missionaries a lot of food, which is nice. It's very weird to think of another musical come and gone without me there. It's such a big deal at Hillcrest, and through the lens of nostalgia it seems very nice. While I was there it was pretty boring. Thanksgiving should be interesting. We are making turkeys and potato and coco rice, very weird. Sorry, not a lot left to say and my hands are literally frozen right now, dumb air conditioning. Your little Star Wars reference made me laugh and feel bad for you.

WOAH almost accidentally discarded this. That would have been tragic.

P.S. I tried to plug in the camera but the computer is all characters and I can't figure it out. I'll ask E.O'G for help next week. Sorry, but that's me. I don't like cameras.

November 20, 2013 - Temple Day & Yam Chah (Dim Sum)

Hello Family!!!!!

Okay, this week was fairly poor on the doing of actually missionary work side of things but, I feel, very instructive and useful on the grind my pride into powder and then mix it with some other materials and probably some chemicals and make it into a strong sort of concrete that can be used to construct a bridge in between the heathen nations of the world and baptism. My meaning (or yisi) is that we got very little done this week, BUT I feel l've learned a lot more about humility.

We had our Zone Conference, which is done by having one or two zones all come down to Kowloon Tong and be taught by the AP's and President Hawks. It was a great experience. They talked a lot about planning, planning for lessons and sticking to our plans. That is something that I've found is that we actually very rarely will plan out lessons in much detail, so we've been trying to fix that. I also set a goal from the conference to use the Book of Mormon more. In our 9 week training schedule, this week is about using the Book of Mormon, and it really has been great. I've realized why we need to have such strong testimonies of the Book of Mormon, at least in terms of missionary work. Because the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our testimonies and religion, the main way to get a testimony of Joseph Smith, and the restoration, and priesthood, etc, it is vitally important for investigators to have a very strong testimony of it. Any concern can be worked out if they know the Book of Mormon is true. SO, we as missionaries need to be very active in challenging and inviting investigators to read it. As I talked about last week about faith, having faith means choosing to do things because of our belief in God or the Book of Mormon or anything else. If we as missionaries don't have a very strong knowledge of the Book of Mormon's power, we will not have the confidence to challenge investigators to read it. The same principle goes with prayer, church attendance, bearing testimony, etc. If we don't know that it will help them we won't have the courage to put their interest, their salvation on the line and trust in it. That's why we need to continually read, go to church, pray, bear testimony, etc, to strengthen this knowledge and conviction. You never know when you'll need it.

I also had the opportunity to do two splits this week, with Elder Ah Mu (again) and Elder Barker (his comp). They were very helpful. I realized, especially during the split with Elder Ah Mu, that I need to humble myself not just before God but before other missionaries as well. If I won't accept and apply their advice or if I get annoyed when criticized I can't benefit from them and I won't be able to help the Hong Kong people. That feeling was reconfirmed by some really good comp. studies with E.O'G, where he was giving me advice on how to introduce the Book Of Mormon for a practice thing, and I really just thought he was wrong. Fought against his advice for a while, then finally humbled myself a bit and found out he was right.

This email is late because our P-Day got moved because TODAY WAS TEMPLE DAY! IT was an awesome experience. The first time I went to the temple I really thought that it was strange and didn't get a ton out of it, same as first time doing baptisms for the dead, but I feel like I'm at the point now where I can really take advantage of the sacredness of the temple. It was great. Also, very cool, very weird, very beautiful temple.

1. We do English class for kids and adults every Saturday. Recently we've had very few people there. Honestly, I'd like to put more effort into them, but it's hard because the people aren't there every time. Right now the classes are okay but very awkward and definitely not the most useful. We did get a guy to say he and his daughter would come to church, and even though they didn't they're moving closer, I think.

2. We get about $1800 Kong of Hong dollars per month, which is about 245 US dollars. Each week we spend about $110 on travel, and this week I had to spend an extra $133 on “Sounds and Tones” discs (I left mine at the MTC, as did many in our group, because we never used them, thought they were a waste of weight. President Hawks says every missionary should do 15 min a day for their whole mission, so I kind of needed them.) So money is slightly tight, but we get reimbursed for anything over $250 a month, so if I can make it to the end of the month I'll be fine. I actually like the challenge of spending very little money, though I do daydream about coming back afterwards and buying huge amounts of baked goods. The bread here is tasty.

3. (Mom Question - How often do the missionaries go to the temple?) Every transfer, usually, but it's not a set rule.

4. We are all given a $50 reimbursable budget to buy stuff, and as far as we are able it's going to be a proper zone wide Thanksgiving feast with turkey and everything, thank you very much. E.O'G is cooking a lot of it, which means I'll have to help or feel guilty. Jerk. His family was going to buy us a huge turkey, but they gave it to the Philippines instead. NOTE when you pay my tithing (which I am fine with you doing) throw in an extra $200 for the Philippines. I don't need it that much and they really do.

Just to specify, that is $200 of my money, not yours. Got nervous for a second.

Dad,

We still haven't had a ton of success, and lots of the people who will stop to talk to us don't actually follow through at all. It's very unlike the romantic missionary portrayal, where you run into someone in the park and 2 weeks later, after several intense lessons in a nice house, their whole family is baptized. No one ever lets us in their house, for one. And in the Hong Kong Mission they have a policy where they really prefer an investigator to have attended at least 4 sacrament meetings in a 6 week period before baptism, so even when they don't drop us it will take a while. But it's a huge growing experience already. I can see why you loved it so much, though I haven't really gotten to the point where I want to do it for the people yet, not quite enough actual teaching interaction, but I feel like I'm slowly getting there.

I probably shouldn't say this, but I'm curious if you've played Rome II. I talked with a guy on the MTR who had a copy in his hand. Actually you probably shouldn't tell me. It'll just distract me. Sigh.

I haven't missed home too much so far, but I have noticed all the cool things I'd love to do when I get back and I finally start using time well. For example, I'll sometimes catch myself daydreaming about doing a personal study on my own when I get back. Very odd. Honestly, I need to focus a bit more on the here and now, but it's better than wishing I could go home and screaming at Chinese people, so we should all remember gratitude.

Also, Joseph probably envies you.

Abby,

I like the gold fish picture, but I have a little bad news. Since we moved, we're not as close to Lady Street, where you can buy all the stuff, so I might not be able to send any Christmas presents. I'm actually really bummed. I can just imagine you guys anxiously looking at my stuff...sigh.

Anyway, you can change a bit but only if it's to become a little taller and a little skinnier and reading the BOOK OF MORMON WITH BECCA EVERY NIGHT. You must begin. I anxiously await word. Also, you can get a bob and learn French and stop eating goldfish, but that's it. If you change any more I might not come home, so be careful.

El Daveed,

Wow, what a waste of time. I've had all sorts of weird dreams since I've come here and you don't see me spraying them all over the world, not when I've got better things to do. And if I feel like dying, I will, and phooey to your lack of forgiveness. Humph

Mom,

It's nice to see that 5 out of my 6 family members still love me. It's hard sometimes when you don't know how to work really hard. Especially with street contacting, it's just so easy to waste time and not know how to stop. And I have been feeling a lot recently that I need to improve my teaching. I don't know how long it took you to feel like your teaching skills were okay, but right now I am realizing that the ways I always like to teach are almost always not the best way and often not good. But, the nice thing is that that is a problem that I really feel good about pleading for help with. It's not really a sin at all, it just takes humility, faith, and patience to overcome, which I am working on. SO, I hope I can do better this week.

I have 90 minutes at a public library to do emails, so it's plenty of time. I did get some letters from Rachel Kirkland, Morris Matthews, and Grandpa Carmack, all of which were really amazing. If you have time to send letters in the mail, I do enjoy them a lot. I understand that it's hard though. I've written 4 letters and never gotten around to sending them, so yeah. Elder Brown is an Assistant, we usually have 9 week transfers, but natives and Filipino missionaries mess things up a little sometimes.

DON"T SEND THE SUIT

I got really nervous you would, because a member gave me a free really nice suit that fits almost perfectly, and gave E.O'G one, and bought us yam chah, also known as dim sum, which is where members order huge amounts of food which comes in little baskets. You order small amounts at a time but a lot total, ask Eva, and then laugh as the missionaries try to eat it all and be polite without vomiting all over the yam chah place. It was lovely. Ate chicken feet, weird meat balls, weird fermented sausages in rice, weird bread with chicken inside, weird wrapped up rice things, etc.

My acne is fairly bad, sometimes really bad, and sometimes fine. It's bad enough that the members keep asking me if my 'skin is always so angry?' or if it's just Hong Kong. I tell them I don't know. It's funny. Send whatever medication might help.

You sound essential to the ward, and your kids are a majority of the youth program.

Joseph,

Good to hear from you, my kind sir. You account of audio visual antics intrigues me, but I must warn you that your multimedia triumphal money may accompany prophetically warned love of lucre, which would dampen my joy. Actually, it wouldn't, but I need to practice English. Sounds legit, bro. And I like the account of your nasal hemorrhaging. When things get bad, I will reflect on my younger brother’s suffering.

I love hearing about the sacrament thing and Stake Youth Council, I wish I'd done more stuff like that. Honestly. Keep running, I've burned my chronologically metaphorical rope.

Becca,

You may find this strange or disturbing but I have considered standing on a bench and just screaming that everyone will burn if they don't listen to us. Maybe if I had enough faith I could. Worked for Ether.

It is very hard to get people to understand why they need the gospel. We don't like preaching about destruction, but I find myself tempted. A lot of people think that they just don't need our message. Very sad, honestly.

Don't tell me not to sin. If I feel like it, I will.

Not, I'll pray instead. SO there.

Love you family, I will send you a triad member's fingers for Christmas.

November 11, 2013 - Chicken Feet & Choosing to have Faith

Heeeeeeelllllllo family. It was really creepy when I started answering this email because it arrived here only 45 minutes ago. Spooky, but that's how you can tell when to send it. Any later than that and I might not get it.

This week was very good. I'd been feeling like I was going through a very long humbling period, which is great, but not productive to missionary work. I don't know if I'm just desperate, but every time someone stops to talk to us or if I even testify before they mhdaakhaan (I have no time) us, it makes me feel like the day was a miracle and I have been richly blessed. So that's kind of funny. This week though, I actually did have some success. On Thursday, I stopped some kid walking by a park and he sat down for 10 minutes, took the first lesson, and prayed. Almost a new investigator, but we needed a concrete reschedule, and he didn't know when he was available. So that was amazing. Then, like 40 minutes later, stopped another kid and the same thing happened, except he did give a solid revisit, making BOB the first new investigator of my mission. THEN at dinner at the chapel, Nick, the first kid, called us and RESCHEDULED HIMSELF. That means 2 new investigators, one day, various other success, me very happy. Granted, BOB ended up not showing up (or we couldn't find him, he was unclear on where we'd meet.), but Nick showed up and is still awesome (though quiet, and he'll probably get switched to the Mandarin Elders, we think he's a Mainlander). Also, I had made a goal to talk to people on the train every train ride, which is incredibly hard. I don't know why but it's super awkward for me. I'm not great at casual conversation, but I read this article given by President Hawks about being a testifying missionary, so one Saturday, I had great success talking to people (though no one listened) and on Friday evening had a good discussion with a Catholic guy. He didn't have any interest, but my Cantonese was good enough and maybe it helped prepare him. He was really nice, so maybe later if something horrible happens to him he'll realize that Catholicism is flawed. Don't know.

Had a very cheap week of food. We had several people give us food this week, 4 chang outs. Oh, I have now officially eaten Chicken Feet, which were really boring to be honest. They're just steamed chicken feet, most of what's on them is just skin, and there's no real flavor, so, disappointing. Did have a very good dish with eggplant and dried fish in it. My taste has expanded a lot since coming here. I'll at least try basically anything, though there's plenty I still don't enjoy. Coconut, for example, or cantaloupe is now much more edible to me.

Read a great article about faith, you may have heard it before. Story of a farmer who needed an irrigation ditch to water crops during summer, but would never use it on Sunday. He would find some way to get water throughout the week and things would work out. Then one year, there was a drought, he absolutely needed to water, but received a witness that things would work out again. Although it looked like he was dooming his farm and maybe his family, he chose not to water, and it miraculously rained. I think that is a great example of true faith. Exercising real faith is doing things that will be, at best, a waste of time and at worst dangerous or deadly if the Lord doesn't support or help us. It is when we commit to these things and rely on our faith that miracles happen. Something that always bugged me was how it says in the scriptures and the prophet's words, we need to have faith. I never understood, how do we choose to have faith? What are you supposed to do? The answer, I think, is this. We can choose to do the things that require faith. We can choose to pay tithing, read scriptures, repent, bear testimony, go on a mission, follow the pioneers and abandon our possessions, ask for a priesthood blessing, give a blessing, and other things. We don't need to have absolute faith to do them, we choose to. And when we do them, and the Lord follows through, our faith is strengthened and confirmed. And if we're looking for them, we will find as many opportunities to try and strengthen our faith as we want, until we finally have a perfect knowledge.


(Part of Glen's letter to John that will help explain John's words to Glen)

"I made up a metaphor when I was a missionary about how to deal with constant rejection.  I thought of it as if you have a nice patch of green lawn.  Either you can fence it off so that no one can walk on it, or you can make it so strong and hardy that it can handle any stress and still be green and beautiful.  If you try to shield your psyche from constant rejection, you can preserve your own sense of self but you don’t help anyone.  On the other hand, if you let your grass grow like crazy, you can share it with others and not worry about whether they mow it down a little.  This might not make much sense to you, but this is the mental image I envisioned to help myself keep putting myself on the line.  If the grass is growing strong, it really doesn’t bother you much when someone takes a swipe at it.  If you try to fence off your own psyche, you can’t reach other people very effectively.  When you reach the point where you are talking to people on the street out of love and a sincere desire to communicate with them, their response changes."

Dad,

I like the metaphor, because it doesn't require fence building or lawn mowing. I think that fencing yourself off is an alternative that also doesn't require any growth or strength, and the other way encourages. I agree with the sentiment.

I had a very cool sort of revelation thing this week about what type of people we teach and how we teach. It occurred to me that the Lord will put people in your path based on what type of missionary you are. If you're lazy, he'll put no one in your path, if you're industrious, a lot of people. That is fairly well understood. But, I realized that the same is also true of how you teach. If you are a very careful teacher, who tries to not offend your investigators and is patient with them, you will find people who will take time, will maybe be easily offended, or in other words need more preparation before baptism. If you are a teacher who is very committed, who testifies boldly and challenges their investigators to be baptized, you will probably find more people who have been prepared and will respond well, because the Lord trusts you to teach them boldly and very spiritually. I for one would prefer to find a lot of the elect pre-prepped investigators, who will feel the spirit and respond to challenges to repent and be baptized. Obviously, this metaphor can't be taken too far. Having patience and tact and teaching to an investigator's needs are really important, and I don't want to drop people who don't respond to testimonies or who take a lot of time to be baptized. But, I think that if you won't testify boldly, you'll never find those miracle people who would accept a bold challenge.

Those are just my thoughts. I have considered how hard it will be to try to keep doing missionary work at home. I would say, one truth that comforts me is that you'll never regret trying to share the gospel with someone. If you ever feel like a middle aged man might be a good avenue for a friend to be converted, you know the gospel pretty well, so you've got no excuse.

Thank you for the advice, Dad.

Mom,

Trying to write super fast, only 25 min left.

Your dream made me laugh. I've had some odd dreams, but I don't really remember any.

District meetings are on Tuesdays, in Ma on Shan, which is more convenient for us I guess. We're the only companionship in our district not in Ma On Shan.

Tell Eva that Book of Mormons are free now. We grab like 10 every time we go to Kowloon Tong, try to pass them out a lot, and Pres. Hawks wants us to have one in our hands at all times. Emails are done in a library, which is very pretty. We actually go to Kowloon fairly rarely. Kind of pricey, and we're spending about $80 on train each week as is.

We have a washer and dryer. We actually wash all the ward baptismal stuff, because most of the members don't have one. Yeah, living with Elder Ah Mu again. He makes a lot of food. He's Samoan, so, yeah.

Yeah, heard about Spencer, he emails me.  I'm pretty careful on money, almost obsessively so. I really feel like buying treats is a waste. Tastes good for 3 minutes and then what. You wasted $7. So yeah, I'm okay.

I wish I had Deux Arabesques, but I don't think I could ever justify practicing it, so no. Sigh.

Love you Mom.

David,

Sorry, you didn't say a ton, so I ain't got much backwards to say, iffen you picken it up. Jsut hang in there. Coding does seem really cool, I feel like I need to learn.

HABIIIIIB

Convert the habibins, david.

In Hong Kong, they have gross ice cream bars made of beans. Beans. Not bean flavor, beans!

Joseph,

I do understand with the running. I actually really enjoy running, I'm just not great at it. We run in the morning 3 days a week, and Elder O'Gara really likes it, so hopefully I'll get good. It does wear your joints a bit, but the lack of chlorine and total body workout/immersion is a lot easier. You should do some weights for you arms, be all buff when I get back.

Keep it up with the book. See, me still waiting for it is like the faith I was talking about earlier.

Oh, I have felt recently like there were a TON of things that I really wish that I had done earlier that I didn't do. I therefore challenge you and David to

Go to the temple on your own once a month or so.

Actually plan and do some real work on organizing at least one YM activity. It sounds weird, but just do it.

Be nice to siblings. Lots of regrets there.

Keep up the inscribing, mein Bruder. IA sounds like it was okay. Don't skive off in school, I'll have to look down on you and apparently you're taller than me now, so it'll be awkward.

Abby,

Love you girly. Sounds good with cleaning the playroom. Sorry, not a lot of time, but I hope you and Becca are being nice to each other. And Mom, she's probably still mourning me. Long after you guys have forgotten. Don't send me gold fish, I don't like them. How do you like the idea of jade bracelets? They have a lot here...

P.S. I'll try to be nicer, but only if you pay me money.

Becca,

My companion is doing a stretch routine to be able to do the splits, so that's funny. I like the Laser Quest story. Isn’t Star Wars 7 coming out soon?

Keep up the dancing. I think I had a dream where you did dance, but I don't remember. You and Abby should read the Book Of Mormon together at night. I just thought of that, and I'm a missionary, so you need to do it. Make sure you actually discuss stuff. Please, actually do that. Tell me about it next week. I'm not joking.

How do you like the idea of a silk Chinese shirt thing? Like in the Nutcracker, but better? Lady Street has some...

And Mom might get a picture...

Don't know what the rest of you will get or if I'll be able to at all because the shipping might be too much, but...

We’ll see...

I found out that there are Triads active, but not very active, and they keep the other criminals down. Hopefully I can become first Triad elder...

November 4, 2013 - "Perfect Love Casteth Out all Fear"

Hello mine family.

It has been a pretty good week. I got my first 'baptism', though I didn't really teach the guy and didn’t actually baptize him. A Houh was our investigator, he was basically ready to be baptized when I got here, waited a while for family convenience. I did teach him a bit, though, and it was pretty great. When he was baptized, he came up and was like, "Woah, yeah yeah!" Not really loud but more than you would expect. He is pretty spiritual, but I think it also may have been the water was really cold. Afterwards he kept saying he was 'gam syufuhk' which means so comfortable. Pretty great kid.

It made me realize that the counting of baptisms is not only bad because people focus on the numbers and judge success off things they can't control, but also because it really is hard to tell whose baptism it is. I only taught 4 lessons, maybe, nothing new, just maintenance stuff while we waited, but some elder in Macau helped do all the major teaching. So, baptismal count is pretty worthless. It takes like 6 weeks at the least to be taught in Hong Kong anyway, so you have a really good chance of being moved before finishing.

Finding, still lacking success, but good. I've been trying to talk to more people on trains, since we have two 30 min train rides a day. It's awkward, but good practice. I feel like I have a very easy to please measure of success. We'll have a whole 3 hours of contacting, and if one person that I stop,stops for 2 minutes and then waves us off, I'll count it a success. This is a strength. I can do no wrong in mine own eyes.

Obviously exaggerating. But it does keep me going. I had one time this week where E.O'G stopped to watch a Chinese chess game, and I randomly stopped some guy, talked about Heavenly Father, the gospel, the Book of Mormon, etc in about 1 minute, and the guy, surprisingly, asked where he could buy a Book of Mormon. So of course I gave him mine (we always carry around copies in our hands), got his number, and he said we could call him, seemed very interested. Made me giddy, partially because I did it on my own. Then of course I've called him 5 times and he hasn't answered, but we'll see.

Did some tracting in these little villages that are honestly really creepy at times. It gets dark at 6 pm here, so by 7 pm it's pretty black, and we're walking around on these tiny alleyways, over concrete trenches we suspect may be semi open sewers, past a surprising number of starving cats, and knocking on tiny houses. Most have bai sahn (worship god, or ancestor worship) shrines, some are next to large cenotaphs (which are like empty buildings with nothing but incense sticks, a dark and suggestive altar, and two disconcerting red bulbs glowing in the night) some have doors covered in bai sahn pictures. We almost got trapped by a large amount of dogs once, so that was fun. It's just weird. Like mud huts, but closer together, and everything including the ground is concrete.

There are a lot of people in Hong Kong who don't like the church, who are biased against it, or who go inactive for no reason, or don't do their home teaching (actually that is almost everyone). It can be very frustrating. When you go contacting for 3 hours, and the only guy you talk to believes in 'himself' (which is a very common idea) and gives illogical arguments, it can be easy to want to argue, to prove that you're right, and to conclude that he's an idiot, that he doesn't know anything, or that he's just wicked. But he's a child of God, same as us. He needs the gospel as much as I do, and he could be just as good a person. One thing I'm really grateful for is that I've been blessed to not feel angry at them, to start to have that love for the people. It might just be that I'm new, haven't been jaded yet. But that is one goal I have for the end of my mission. By the time I leave, I'll know which people are statistically more likely to listen, which people will basically never listen. I want to still try to talk to the unlikely people, and never say that the people are stupid or prideful or racist. They're not. They are people who need the gospel, same as everyone.

When we ask people for referrals, they usually say they don't know anyone. But obviously, everyone we know needs the gospel. Don't be scared off by thoughts that they're not ready, or that they are not sensitive enough or are too prideful, or whatever. As Mormon says, "...perfect love casteth out all fear." (Moroni 8:16). Love them, and help them. If you don't love them, serve them, pray for help, and then love them.

Dad,

Keep on keepin’ on with the grants. Just think, if they do fire you, then you can go into private practice and have twice the money. You could have a bike for each day of the week.

That's scary about Grandpa Carmack. Luckily he's in a pretty healthy state, but I will pray for him. It is fun to brag that my Grandpa dedicated the land that our temple's on.

Mission is really cool, difficulties notwithstanding. I feel like I've learned a ton and I've still just started. Time passes very quickly. It seems crazy I've almost been here a month. I've had people tell me my Cantonese is amazing for having been in Hong Kong 3 weeks, which is gratifying. Honestly, I would be happy with things like this for the rest of my mission, except that I feel like I could be working harder. It's tough to figure out how to work best. And it's hard to be humble enough to accept criticism from people I know aren't perfect, like companions. E.O'G is great, but he's fairly jaded, gets really negative about Hong Kong people and “Antis”. It makes it hard for me to accept advice, even though he does know what he's doing. Still, I'm trying. I finished the Book of Mormon for the 3rd time on mission. That was cool. Thanks for the advice Dad.

Mom,

I would really love some snow. It's not hot per se, but it's definitely not cold, often warm, always muggy. Still, weather has been really nice, and I feel fairly adjusted already. And Ma on Shan is right on Tolo Harbor, so the air is great here. If the whole world were like Ma On Shan... actually we'd all die because there'd be no room for crops, no room to actually produce anything, just very pretty apartment complexes and garden areas. Lots of playgrounds, though, so we could play as we starve.

I figured out I have about 375 Hong Kong dollars per week for food and travel, which is actually plenty. I’ve been trying to not get snacks or stuff very often, save money, plus most people seem to gain a lot of weight on their missions here. Elder Ah Mu, for example, has gained 10 pounds, but that's largely because he cooks huge pots of coco rice every day.

Halloween literally had nothing in Hong Kong. Nothing. We did nothing. Nothing special occurred. The day we were tracting was much creepier. I didn't mind too much, though. I will admit, I'm looking forward to Christmas season. I keep practicing Christmas songs on the pianos at the chapel. Oh, and I'll say it. I really wish I'd played piano more. Particularly because I only have the first 4 lines of “Deux Arabesques”. I have played them many times. Many.

Jsut the boy, (David)

Oh how fondly I recall the autumn night, when gathered we to peruse and survive the dark mansion. Many were the shrieks that day.

I enjoy hearing of mein bruder punishing incompetent chess players. Play a lot, or code. Do something cool, bro. I need to brag to the Hong Kongs ' bout choo. Oh, and they know what Halloween is, but don't care. So sad. Jsut about brings me to tears.

Becca,

You’ll be glad to hear I stretched a lot today. Working on my splits. Don’t let any boys hang out with you unless they're really smart or they give you money. But don't let it go to your head. You're too much like me, Becca. I never cared about girls in school because I knew I wouldn't marry them, so what was the pointe?

Did you get that, pointe? Ha

Anyway, keep golden girlio I don't know what else to say. No one in Hong Kong is named Becca. They're all called Destiny or Kelvin or Cameron or Yuki or Naicy pronounced Lancy. I wish I could read. Tell Dad and Mom to make a list of good classic books, I want to read them when I get back.

Abby,

I too, have felt stirrings of excitement for the First Noel. I play Christmas songs often. It's kind of sad. I’m glad you like violin a little more. And you really should be first chair, just saying. Do your best, little munchkin. I feel like I don't know what to say and I am slightly rambling. Also this keyboard is hard to type. Don't send me goldfish. I might send you girls silk shirt things, or jade bracelets, think about what you want.

Joseph,

If you can't take the water, you might as well take the dirt, I suppose. I wish I was a better runner. I ran a lot in the MTC, but never more than a mile at a time, and now my hip muscles need time to rest a bit.

I would point out that establishing a female ruler as incompetent doesn't exactly decrease the chauvinism of your book. Might want to through a stereotypical tomboy princess who loves fighting and hates dresses.

Actually if you do that I will never read your book. Nothing against tom boys, but if you do that do it with some class. Send a hard letter, even if it's not done, when mom sends the stuff. Please, I have nothing to read, but SCRIPTUUUUUUURES. What more do we need? Oh yeah, other books.

Okay family, love you. You must not be praying hard enough because I still haven’t had tons of success. Work harder. I will try to as well. Triads subdued by nice weather, maybe hibernating.