WAI? WAI WAI? LEIH HAI BINWAI A??!! (just a little Kennedy Town apartment talk. When other missionaries call me I tend to pick up like I'm an old crusty Hong Konger slightly irked at the fact that an unknown foreigner is interrupting his Chinese chess game). Speaking of Chinese chess, I can now occasionally beat chinese people. And I'd venture to say it's more fun than regular chess.
A ton has happened within the past week! I'd first like to make a couple shoutouts to friends -- Tyler and Abby, if I remember correctly, you tied the knot yesterday? Which would put you on your honeymoon at the present? Which would mean you're not reading this? I wouldn't be.
Bridget Benton -- I got your letter AND this year's pass-along card for Nauvoo. I tell my companion that I don't get trunky for home, but I get trunky for that place sometimes. When I saw that picture, I was slapped in the face with memories. Thank you so much for sending the note.
Rivkah Steele -- your birthday is today! Don't act like I forgot. I wish you the best and hope all is well with you.
MOM. I got your package today. The jerky warmed my belly, the notes warmed my heart, and those scottish tartan ties kindled an inferno inside my withered soul. And the non-aluminium deodorant sticks. What more can I even say? I LOVE YOU.
Today, as promised, Elder Ng left to go be our Zone Leader here on the Island. I'll miss him -- he's taught me a lot about what it means to love the people and take time to show how much you care. He was quiet, dignified, and answered people's questions like a master -- he could practically dissuade any man to argue with us simply by answering in a way that caused them to think instead of try to defeat you in a battle of the wits. I was very blessed to be his "baby."
My new companion's name is Elder Wu -- he sounds like he's native but he's actually from New Zealand. His parents are Chinese but he didn't know a lick of Cantonese before his mission. You can rest assured that my New Zealand accent is going to be pro by the end of this move. He's come to be our new District Leader. He is very outgoing and I can tell he really likes to have fun. I'm excited to show him around Aberdeen and learn from his example.
This week we started our 2 week long EEFY (English Especially For Youth). It's a big event we've organized throughout Hong Kong to attract a lot of people to learn English and become familiar with the missionaries. Apparently they do this every summer. It's been fun and we've been able to schedule some new investigators there.
There is so much to do. I remember when I first came to my area I didn't teach a single lesson for a week. However, we now have a good pool of investigators. They aren't all progressing, but we're doing the best we can and we know we've at least developed a good relationship with all of them. It's been somewhat of a miracle this past week to have been able to schedule random people that actually showed up. When I first got here, I swear everybody "fong'd" us, but this week we had success in scheduling people -- we got 4 new investigators. Some of them may not stick around, but I know that the Lord is guiding us to new people to teach and helping our area to progress.
Two of these new kids I want to make a brief mention of -- because both of them are kind of hilarious. One of them is the "chillest" kid you'll ever meet. I don't know how else to describe him. He says he likes to learn everything. His name is A-Gin. We call him A-Gin the Younger because we already had another investigator with the same name. Well, the first day we scheduled him we took him to our chapel and shared with him a message about prayer and finding happiness, and then gave him a Book of Mormon with the invitation to begin reading. After the lesson he stayed with us because he had nothing to do, so when we met with Brother Choi (the less-active who we helped reactivate), A-Gin stayed and sat in. It was hilarious when this kid, who had only learned of the book's existence a couple hours earlier, jumped into our lesson and tried to help us answer Brother Choi's question about the Anti-Nephi Lehites.
Then the other kid, his name is Tom -- he's a bit strange, but he asks the best questions. We shared with him the message of the Restoration on saturday and then he came to church with us the following day. He had a weird desire to have ALL of God's knowledge, so he was kindof annoyed when the Gospel class's lesson on Charity was "too basic" for him. But the hilarious thing was, he kept saying how he wanted to learn about Jesus and after the Priesthood hour he said he wanted to attend seminary and go to Scout Camp. In order to do the latter, he needed to meet with the Bishop. So Tom met with the Bishop on his first day at church. Good old Tom.
A follow-up with Vincent. We had the best meeting with him a couple days ago. He was scheduled to get baptized last Sunday, but he wasn't able to reach his goal because he didn't have enough time to meet with us. But in our lesson we shared about the importance of baptism and gave him a card that I designed to look like a tree growing out of a seed -- based off of Alma 32. A few meetings ago we shared this chapter with him and he told us how much it spoke to him and his situation. He loved the card, and then he set his own batismal date for the 26th. I'm positive he'll make it -- when Elder Ng asked him what the difference was between this goal and the goal before he said, "The biggest difference is that my previous goal was passive, but now this goal is active."
I know this work is the work of the Lord. Just as every person we teach needs patience to obtain truth for themselves, we missionaries need to have patience. But instead of waiting on the world to change, we're endeavoring to go forth and change it, according to the will of our Father in Heaven. May He be with you all and bless you in your lives to find more truth. There is always more to find.
Elder Hazen
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