May 8, 2013

We are getting 27 new elders in June sooo that means almost one person from every companionship will have to train (except AP's, ZL's or Office). Soooo you might be right but oh how I sin in my wish for another bundeih (local)... (Quoting Nephi there). My Chinese has improved a lot but I still don't understand everything. I can teach lessons and explain things pretty well but regular stuff is just hard because there is SOOOOOOOO much... Whatever if I train a white kid God will help me out some how.

For your question about WOW its really not THAT big of a deal (this is in regards to an investigator quitting smoking)... Its more of culture... Once they decided to quit its normally fine but coffee and tea are a big culture thing. There is the place called "yamcha" literally means drink tea and its a traditional breakfast (I will take you when you come) and you drink tea with everything you eat. Its just stuff like that we have to go against. Smoking and drugs are kind just like America some people do it and others don't nothing to crazy I don't think. Nothing to new on the finding but we did go "paakmuhn" (door knocking) we had some success but its super sketchy... Its in the "ghetto" park like the people are really nice and some are SUPER smart but just not a lot of money or they don't want to live in government housing. So we are trying some new things nothing to special at the moment. We have around 11 investigators so things are starting to improve but still having a huge problem with church attendance. People will come to church to meet us, they will pray and other things but they won't come to church. They always make the lamest excuses too... Its okay because as soon as we get over that little speed bump things should go faster. The DSE (the big test you mentioned) ends this Friday (or next Wednesday  sooo its coming to an end FINALLY! OH my goodness so happy...

I will share a little story. Last Tuesday we did some "paakmuhn" in the little area we can and would talk to people but most would just slam the door. (Yay I get to experience all sorts of rejection in Hong Kong!!) We get to this one house and a little voice answers through the window. We start talking and she seemed really nice, she said she was 10 and we asked if her mum was home and said she was at work. So I invited her to English class and turns out she spoke SUPER awesome English and she was really excited about it but we couldn't get a number or anything because her mom wasn't home. So now go to last Saturday. We go back to "paakmuhn" and I really just wanted to go to her house no one else's. So we get there and knock on the door the mom answers and she is pretty nice but we could tell not really interested. Then her daughter runs over and pokes her head from under neither her mom's arm and says "他們是我的朋友!!"  (THEY ARE MY FRIENDS) I don't think I have ever seen anyone as happy as her to see me in my entire life! I kid you not she had the biggest smile I've EVER seen! The mom then said if she wants to meet with us and go to church she can because I won't stop her from making her own choices. (THAT IS SOOOOOO UN-HONG KONG LIKE!) So I am just praying this little girl comes to English class tonight; if not we are visiting her again this Saturday (well we will try too). Seriously one of the best moments in my finding ever. 

艾長老 -- Elder Arrington

April 29, 2013

I've been pretty good with companions. I LOVED Elder Ward and he taught me a lot of things (basically how to become a successful missionary) but I struggled some with Elder Krainock.  I had to let a lot of things go between us to be productive together... You would be surprised how I acted during those two moves. Now with Elder Tse things are pretty drastically different I wouldn't say he is senor or I am junior but rather we are on the same level sooo that's been helping me a lot.

Random but I have three things I want to do when I go home

1. Grow a beard... I hate shaving

2. Buy a dog

     2a. Husky

     2b. Boarder Collie

     (I don't think I could get another Boxer; they wouldn't match up to Liberty) (For those of you who may not know we had to put Liberty- Sam's dog of 10 years- down last week. We believe she had a brain tummor.)

3. Skateboard

Also when I get home if I arrive in the morning we are going to IHOP, the afternoon some Mexican place and for dinner Dad's pasta and sause!!!

We have three (four one is dying off right now) investigators Mr. Wong, A-Sing, Henry and Edwin. 

Mr. Wong is pretty awesome his family are member (wife and daughter) he came to church  this last week and the ward was awesome everyone talked to him and welcomed him in. We really didn't do much we kind of just let the ward take care of him (AS IT SHOULD BE). It was nice; we plan to give him a BD (baptismal date) this week for June 2nd I think is when he could really be ready.

A-Sing is doing pretty well he got a cool answer to his prayer actually. We invited him to start the Book of Mormon and pray to see if it was true. He read the introduction to 1st Nephi 11 (I told that last week I think) but when we met he told us he asked God if it was all true and said he opened the Book of Mormon to a random part. It happen to be 3rd Nephi 12 about Jesus and the Twelve Apostles. He took this to be his answer and thinks it could be true. He is pretty awesome but we found out he smokes haha. We were walking from the church to the bus stop and he pulled out a cigarette and lite up right in front of us haha. So that will be coming up soon. 

Henry is a kid we taught this last week (we found him the week before). He is really nice and has come interest not much to report only a new investigator.

I will share one little story then I probably need to go. So we make a ton of phone calls every night (like you know). I use the house phone and Elder Tse uses our cell but the house phone has no caller id so if some one comes back I always say I am Elder Arrington blah blah and who are you. They always say, " YOU CALLED ME!" Then hang up... So this last Thursday I made a million calls with no success... Then I finished and about 10 minutes later the phone rang... I was just like UGH I don't want to get hung up again... So it started the same and he was like you called me blah blah but I was just like-  look I don't have called id sorry and he started laughing and we started speaking in English and he was this super nice college kid. He remembers the missionaries but not much else and he was super stoked to talk to me. (No one is every stoked to talk to missionaries unless they are freaking weirdo's.... there are a lot of weirdo's in Aberdeen... ). So we had a great talk got to know him Andrean was his name! We might met with him next week or the following week because he is busy with business finals. Super stoked!! XD

 We have a games night on Friday at church its a lot of fun these are the members that come!

This is a guy me and Elder Brown visited last week. He is a LA named Wu Ming Kong. 

April 21, 2013

Transfers aren't until like June... Our moves are now 9 weeks... really long.

 

Well nothing is really going on right now. We are trying to find new investigators but everyone has an excuse to not meet with us and most of them are just terrible lies haha. Its okay we have three investigators and in all honesty only two. One is Mr. Wong he is a PM family, his wife (Bobo) and daughter (Millie) have been members for a while and we have been teaching him for almost three weeks now. He has been keeping most commitments (he missed church this week, that's the only thing he hasn't kept) but he is doing awesome. We think he will get baptized because of his wife; she has SO much faith its amazing. I also talk to Millie yesterday (she was helping us teach an investigator) and said last time the Elders came he had no desire to talk to them or try anything. This time he is completely different its mind blowing! So that's great and the other is this kid named A-Sing. He is like 25 ish and we found him like two weeks ago. We taught him the first lesson and he has some interest and asked typically first lesson questions. It went well. We invited him to start the Book of Mormon at the introduction and keep going until we meet next week. So we call him the following week to schedule him (his boss called him in so couldn't meet on his one holiday) but he read all the way to Nephi 11... YEAHHHHH SOMEONE WITH REAL DESIRE!! ha he seems really awesome we are meeting with him again this week and hopefully things will go great! Also the DSE (this test in Hong Kong that basically determines everyone's future) ends this next week so we should gain like 5 to 6 former investigators who had interest but couldn't meet due to studies! Soooo stoked!

 

April 15, 2013

Okay Mandarin and Cantonese are two different languages haha... The only way they are close is written form of Cantonese and just regular Mandarin. Spoken Cantonese has its only slang and idioms that don't come close to Mandarin. However if you learn how to read and write Cantonese (as a missionary) you typically can learn Mandarin with easy. (Some elders have done that one for example is my dad -  Elder Ward, he has amazing reading/writing skills so he can do decent conversations in Mandarin like a street contact). They aren't the same language... Best way to say it is Cantonese steals about half its written language from Mandarin. (Also Cantonese uses Traditional characters but Mandarin use simplified).  I have picked up very little Mandarin because I want to get Cantonese first and not confuse myself. Personally I like Cantonese, I think Mandarin sounds "harsh" and of course Hong Kong people like Cantonese MORE! That's like asking Brazilians if they like Spanish haha.

 

Things are going okay Aberdeen nothing to special the only real change right now was this guy named Mr. Wong. His wife, Bobo, and daughter (Millie) are members for about 4 - 5 years and he hasn't had much interest in the church ever. Two sundays ago sister Wong asked us to start teaching her husband (FAMILY LESSONS WOOOO >:OOOO) and its been pretty great so far! He has kept all commitments and came to one conference session on Sunday  If he gets baptized it will all be due to his wife in all honesty. I can tell she wants this more than anything and it has nothing to do with us teaching/converting him now haha.

 

Well thats really it, nothing cool because it FINALLY stopped rainning after three weeks... ugh

April 8, 2013

When I say spoken vs written I mean they are two completely different languages... words are different, for example; "is" spoken is "haaih" but written is "sih" | "Us" is "ngohdeih" written is "ngohmuhn" | And to make it even more confusing there are words/phrases in the spoken language you can't even write. The language has no structural base that's why its considered a "dying" language because it changes soooo much. If you were to say slang from the 80's people wouldn't understand you... Its a weird language and hard to explain over an email I guess...

Well to explain what goes on here. I live in west point which is the city next Aberdeen. So every morning we will exercise (now I just run, there isn't a soccer pitch near us), come back shower/breakfast, then studies (personal, companion, language), then we have our day of lessons or finding. Wednesday 7:30 pm I teach English class each week and every Friday 7:00 to 8:30ish we have games night. Its pretty different than CWB (Causeway Bay). Our chapel is just three floors (5, 6, 7th) in a building in Aberdeen.

Things are going well in Aberdeen. Not much has changed people are still to busy to meet, people are anti'ing people and people just don't like like white missionaries haha. Finding here is hard we can go door to door in one area but its kind of sketchy so that's not really the first option, we normally go to Wa Fuh apartments,  AP Lei Chau (island) or stay in Aberdeen to find and when I mean find I mean to walk around a city with busy people and try to stop them in the middle of their day... Its mind numbing how unsuccessful this can be some time. To make things better its rained for two weeks straight.... So there isn't anyone to talk to and I'm wet... Ha least its not hot, right? haha (its still like 120% humidity) I think I'm complaining a lot in this email... I just need help in Aberdeen and I can't find it in myself right now. Never thought I could feel so alone when you are with a companion 24/7, in a city with 9 million people and talking to everyone you see... Never thought it was possible.

 Well I've been reading a lot in the Book of Mormon. I'm up to Mosiah 15 already with Alma and Noah and such. I seriously only feel peace of mind now when I read the Book of Mormon. I really enjoy reading Enos, its pretty short but it brings a lot of peace to my mind when I'm upset about something