WORKING HARD, CHINESE CHESS, USING MY FIRST SQUATTER & STAY TUNED!

Hey Mikesell Family!!! How's everything back home?! I hear you guys are starting school soon. Good luck!! Things here are still rolling. We are working hard trying to find people to teach. We do have one investigator who definitely has potential for baptism, but it will probably take some time.

Oh! Did you know that there is such a thing as Chinese chess? Not Chinese checkers, Chinese chess, and there are elephants and cannons involved!!! I've never played, but it looks cool. Oh, I also used my first squatter the other day... It wasn't too bad. Though, kind of intimidating when you see just a hole in the ground, haha. Sorry I don't have a whole lot of time to write, we had to give our summer missionaries back all the way in Kowloongtong and that takes a while. 

Also, I was just informed this morning that next move, starting Thursday, I will be training, so please pray that I don't mess up my new missionary for life, haha. I'll let you know how it goes next week. So, for now, I'm staying put. I'll probably spend two years here in the village of Kam Tin, haha, but that's not so bad. It's super pretty out here. Anyways, I love you all, keep the faith. I'll write more next week, so stay tuned... hahah. 

Love,
Jay

THE MYSTERY BEEPS, TYPHOON, WORKING HARD & MHDAKHAN (TOO BUSY) FOR CHRIST!

Hey! So this week has been pretty challenging... I've spent a week speaking very little English and very little understandable Chinese,  hahaha, but my summer missionary companion who's name is also Mahk (though that's his real last name) is awesome. He's 17, and his brother is actually a missionary here in Hong Kong right now. He's a really hard worker and never complains. We've done a loooot of finding this week with not a ton of success, but he doesn't let that get him down. We've got another week together, so I'm hoping to make some progress. 

THE BEEPS... It's a mystery!

In other news, we got an apartment phone! The land line has been broken, but we got it fixed. I know that's not the most exciting thing in the world, haha, but the story isn't finished.. So, we got the phone fixed, but at random times it will ring and then when you answer, no one is on the other line. It just goes dead.. kinda creepy, right? We call it THE BEEPS... It happens at least a few times a day, and it's acually more annoying than anything else, haha. 



Oh, also, we had a typhoon come close to shore this week. The warning level got up to a level 9 which is pretty intense, but most of it was during the night and in the morning, so we only had to stay in our apartment for an extra 2 hours before the warning went back down to a 5,  and we could go out. I was kinda hoping we'd get a hard core typhoon,  but twas not so. Where we are in Kam Tin, there was a lot of wind and more rain than I've ever seen in my life. Other than that, we've just been doing what we always do. Work hard. We were told in our last zone conference that we aren't allowed to have backpacks anymore while finding, they want us to use shoulder/messenger bags. I'll just buy one here becasue it would be cheaper than you sending me one. They are pretty cheap in American dollars.

Also, I thought of something I wanted to share on a spiritual note that I just remembered. We were paking muhns the other day (knocking doors) and a man opened tho door, and we told him who we were. He responded with the usual "mhdakhan" which is busy, or not free right now. That's how they reject us, anyways, after he closed the door,  we turned to go and someone else inside yelled "Who was that?" and the man responded "JESUS." In Chinese  to say christian you just say "Christ church" but people will sometimes just call us "Jesus people" or even shorter, "Jesus". When that happened, I thought about what if Christ really was at the door? Would he still slam it? As missionaries, we are literal representatives of Christ, and in more sense than one. Christ was rejected by the people who proclaimed to be waiting for him. By the people He saved. As I get rejected by literally dozens and some times hundreds of people per day (like if we're finding at Long Ping Bridge, where there are a ton of people), I experience some of what Christ experienced, in an infinitely tiny amount. I understand the atonement more because of it. Just a thought. Make sure we aren't closing the door, because we are "mhdakhan" or too busy for Christ in our lives. 

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormon-missionary-life

I love the second one! It really hit home!

I love you! Keep the faith!

Love,

Jay

And the picture with the t-shirt... I don't think Alec knew what it said when he sent it to me. I just got down to the bottom of the box with all the treats that it came in and saw it. It basically says "hooray" for some communist leader in China. Seeing how I am definitely not communist, nor is communism popular here in Hong Kong, I definitely can't EVER where this shirt! Thanks, Alec!

BIKING, GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE, SHARING THE BOOK OF MORMON & TRAINING SUMMER MISSIONARIES

 

Hey, so first I just want to thank all of you for writing me!! Other missionaries get jealous because I get so many letters, :)))) so thank you. It's the best. Man, Alec, I can't wait for you to get your call!!! It's gunnna be awesome!! Almost ready to get those teeth yanked out, haha.

So, last Monday we actually went up into the mountains with a scout group from mainland. It was super fun. We sang campfire songs and stuff. When they started the fire all the kids were freaked out, haha. I don't think they had ever seen a fire before :p It made me realize how blessed I am to be able to do all that stuff before my mission. 

 

Also, the other day Elder Kwan and I decided we were going to tract out a chyun (village) that we had never been to before because it was on the edge of our area, on the other side of where we live. We started out and came to this big hill. I loved it, haha, it reminded me of when I used to ride up Beaver canyon on my bike. Kwan didn't like it so much though, haha. He couldn't understand why I loved biking up this hill, and I'm not sure myself, either haha. Anyways, we got to the top and the road kept getting smaller and smaller, and the forest kept getting bigger and bigger, until we were in the straight up jungle! 

 

Haha, no kidding! I was waiting for George of the jungle to swing by, haha. Then, finally it opened up to this little valley overlooking all of Kam Tin and parts of Yeun Long. It was the most beautiful thing I think I've ever seen, and this little chyun nestled in the middle. At first we didn't have much success, and we were absolutely soaking wet from the climb. I've never sweated so much in my life, but right before we were going to come down I stopped at another house, and the guy let us into his backyard. We taught him and his wife. I thought the lesson went really well. He liked to talk to us, but wasn't super interested in our message, but his wife seemed like she might be, so we gave her a Book of Mormon and she agreed to read it. So even though this wasn't an immediate success story, it was cool. 

 

 

We also had moves this week. My companionship stayed the same, but we lost Elder Ward and Au in the apartment which made me sad because I love those guys. And this is Elder Ward's last move, so he'll go home, and I probably won't be able to see him before he goes because he got transferred to the other side of Hong Kong. But we'll hang out after the mission. We also got a call Saturday that we were getting summer missionaries again and that Elder Kwan and I would be training them. I don't know why because I'm about as far from qualified for this as I can be, but the Lord wants me to do it, so I promised him to do my best. We picked them up this morning and my summer missionaries don't speak English... So, I'm training in all Chinese. Please pray for me, haha. These next two weeks are gunna be interesting, but we'll work hard!! Thanks for everything. I love you all. Keep the faith!

 

Love

Elder Mikesell

THE LINK TO LINDA'S MORMON.ORG VIDEO - WATCH IT!

Hey :) yeah it was good [the talent show], and, no, I didn't do anything [in the talent show]. The waffle bar sounds good!! Yeah he'll do great though, Jayden is definitely ready to go. Man, good Ol' scout camp, haha. I think dad will be doing that till he's 80, haha. That's funny about Brandon haha he keeps everything interesting!! 

I got all your letters!! Thank you so much! I will try and write everyone back and send them as soon as possible. I've been trying to take more pictures too, I promise. I also wanted to thank you for that talk you gave me, it was amazing, way good, and for all the letters you write and what you do to help me while I'm here. Thank dad for all his love and support, the kids too. Oh, also thank Alec for the t-shirt. I didn't see it at first but I've been eating all those snacks and found it at the bottom. I don't know if he figured out what it said before he sent it but it says like "huraaa for commissioner maow!!" who was the dude who started communism in China and isn't super popular here, haha, so I can't wear it outside, haha, but I sleep in it :p Oh, also I forgot to tell Chase in my last letter, we had an investigator who's favorite band is All Time Low, and I guess they are on their Asian tour right now and will be in Hong Kong on the 20th. Of course I can't go, but it would be cool though, right?! 

This week hasn't been too productive. My companion messed himself up after wrecking his bike, but luckily he crashed RIGHT in front of a hospital, hahaha, so if you had to pick somewhere to crash that would be it right?! Oh and also I found the biggest cockroach I've ever seen in my life in our cupboard the other day. We ran and got the raid to kill it, but it took like half the spray can!! It was tough. We used to have geckos living in our cupboards, but we hunted them and killed them because they started pooping in our food... But we've been told that they eat cockroaches, so I'm not sure which is worse, hahaha. 

The sister in our ward who has a Mormon page is named Linda. Here is the link to her video.

http://mormon.org/ling  

Well, I have to go, I don't have as much time today, sorry, but I love you!!