GOLDEN INVESTIGATOR, PLANTING SEEDS & GACHAI BENG... THE MOST DELICIOUS THING KNOWN TO MAN!

 

YES!! I got the Halloween package this week! Thank you so much! The whole apartment loved it. It was great, thanks! I feel like I'm missing out on a ton sometimes, but other times it's like.. yeah they are all the same, haha. I'm in the worst shape of my life right now I think.. Super fat from the rice and fatty dumplings and stuff. We only have a stove, so we fry everything... and McDonald's is the cheapest place to eat and pretty much the only thing we can afford so yeah.. I'm pretty sure I couldn't run a half marathon right now at all, and it will only get worse cuz we are the only missionaries in the mission who have bikes, and we bike all day everyday, so when I get transferred... even less exercise. I really want do better, but there is just like ZERO time. It's depressing, but I'll get it back when I go home. Haha, yeah I don't know, but I definitely need some deodorant, haha. 

Elder Mikesell & summer missionary Elder Mahk

Oh, the elder I'm standing with in front of the church was my sukeih, my summer missionary. They lived with us for 2 weeks and were our companions, we taught them how to do missionary work and stuff. He has the same last name as me, haha Mahk (麥) spoke ZERO English.. it was a challenging 2 weeks, haha. 

Elder Mikesell with his companion Elder Wong

Elder Mikesell with his companion Elder Wong

Training is going well, my comp is great, and we work well together. My comp's name is Elder Wong. (For anybody who knows Cantonese it's not wongsik ge wong, but wongdaih ge wong) (王長老) There was a lot of pressure at first because I was a new missionary myself when I started training him, but we've been blessed. We actually found this golden investigator the other day that was a potential from a year ago. I just called him up for the heck of it, to practice calls.. cuz I hate calls, and he was actually willing to talk to us. He thought my Chinese was awesome and asked how many years I had lived in China.. so yeah, we got along really well after that, haha. He wants to come to church and everything! But the only problem is he lives in teun muhn, so we had to pass him to the tuen muhn elders, who are our zone leaders and also are on fire... teaching a ton. I was a little disappointed. I wish we could teach him, but we are progressing the work as best we can. Lot of planting seeds, tilling the ground, weeding, watering.. and all that other stuff. But we will reap eventually. We also met up with a returned missionary who served in yuen long 22 years ago! He was in the same building we use now, so we gave him a tour. He said it was trippy being back. I'll bet it was, haha. Anyways, I love all of you! If you ever come to China, you need to get a gachai beng!! It's the most delicious thing known to man. Some kind of waffle, with tons of butter, sugar, honey of some kind and peanut butter mixed with a dose of Chinese magic. Awesome. The best ones are in TST. So yeah, I'll send you a bunch more pics when I get the SD card! Thanks for everything! Love you!

I HAD TO PRAY THE ENTIRE TIME FROM PUTTING IT INTO MY MOUTH TO SWALLOWING THE LAST BITE, A MIRACLE & GOD GAVE US THIS ONE, AND IT'S NOT THE ONE WE EXPECTED

Our church building. This is actually the first one ever in Hong Kong. The dedicatory thing says, "Southern Far East Mission" haha

AHH general conference was awesome!! I can't believe how fast it went by! It NEVER went that fast before my mission. And I didn't even watch the Saturday conferences that often.. It's insane. I was talking with Elder Walter about it, and we were wondering if it was just because we were missionaries and this is what we are focused on 24/7... or if it's cuz we are closer to the spirit... or just because sitting in an air conditioned room is better than going outside and finding, hahaha. We concluded it was probably a combination of all 3. 

We actually had a cheng out the other day! I ate pig skin, chicken feet, cuddle fish, some innards of pig and/or cow, and some other stuff I wasn't sure about. I won't lie, the pig skin was the worst. It was really hard. I had to pray the entire time, from putting it into my mouth to swallowing the last bite. You just chew and chew and chew. It's like a disgusting piece of pure fat, but the skin has like bumps on it... that was the worst. Ughhgghghghszb. 

Anyways, we didn't have a great numbers week a couple weeks ago, but it was moves so that's kinda normal. I stayed in Kam Tin which is what I expected. I'll probably stay my whole mission here, haha. Our new district leader is super funny. I love the kid. Elder ward emailed me from home... crazy he's on the other side of the world now.. I just saw him last week... but anyways we had a miracle a occur this week. A while back we were going through our area book and found this kid who was a former investigator, so we called him up to see if he would meet with us. He said he liked to run, so we set up a time to go running with him. We found out that he was leaving for Seattle the following week, so we weren't going to be able to teach him. We just gave a short lesson on prayer and the Book of Mormon. The next week we were finding at the MTR, and I met a lady who was willing to talk with me. She told us that she had a son who used to investigate our church. We ended up finding out that she was the mom of that kid. She was really nice but wasn't willing to hear our message or anything. We didn't want to push her cuz she was nice, so we just left it at that. 

Anyways, she would walk her dogs at the MTR a lot and would see us finding. We would talk to her from time to time, not really about the gospel very often but just chat. Then eventually she invited us to dinner because we told her that we would be away from home for 2 years, and she said that was too long to not have a meal made by your mom, haha. Plus I think she was sad because her son was in Seattle, and she missed him. So, we go to this cheng out not expecting too much. After dinner we asked if we could share a short message. She said that would be ok, so we read 1 nephi 1:1 and talked about families, and the Book of Mormon, really simple and fast, only a few minutes. Then she started talking about her family, which lead to her past and then she started saying how she didn't know God's will for her, and she was confused. She's had a hard life, and had to get divorced and stuff. She said she told us stuff she never even told her kids. Then she asked if she could come to church. She said that because she saw us working so hard everyday, getting rejected, sometimes really meanly but never retorting - that our motives must be to bring people to Christ and have Christ like love. I never thought about it. I'm really excited and hope it works out. She would be such an awesome Relief Society president. I know that God gave us this one, and it was not the one we expected.. but I guess it normally isn't. Anyways, just something I'm excited about and wanted to share. 

We got to go on this picnic with the yuen yih ward. Sooooo cool. Way up in the mountains there is a bamboo forest and an awesome lake. Oh, also guess what? So there was this HUGE fire right outside of Kamtin last week. I thought we were going to have to evacuate, but they got in under control. It burned the whole mountain that is outside our window and we have to look at a black mountain instead of a green one. But that night it was all orange, soooo coool.

So, jacket season is coming up, well it actually already started after general conference, but it's been hot so President Hawks delayed it for a few weeks. Anyways, I needed to get a black jacket so I could wear it with any black pants because the suit that I brought with me is blue with pin stripes, so i can only wear those pants.. and after a few days of that they get nasty.. so 6 months is probably stretching it. Anyways, I bought a suit jacket today in Monkok for $268 (that's like $33 American, haha). I really want a p-day I can just relax, but they are busier than normal days. I'm glad you got the card!! Yeah, Kamtin is really the only area in the mission like that. Everywhere else is exactly how you would imagine it.  Yeah, that was a lesson about faith, if you have a sure foundation (keep you hand steady) then the lord will help you over come your trials. I tried it, too... it burned my hand, haha, guess I don't have enough faith. I didn't realize there were a lot of people speaking in that video, that's funny. 

The language isss... coming. I think. I can understand more than I can say myself, but it is coming. Still struggle everyday. I don't know how long that will last, but I'll get there eventually. Alec is going to be a boss missionary. I tell every philly I come across, cuz there are a ton in China, that I have a brother going to Baguio, and they're all like "whaaa that's the best place in the Philippines!!"

We found this kid the other day who is half black half Asian. He loves basketball, so we told him if he wanted we could play with him, if, after we played we taught him a little about our church. So we played, and he was ok, especially for Hong Kong. There aren't very many good basketball players here. Anyways, he thinks I'm like the end all, be all, NBA star for America. So he keeps calling me coach and compares me to this guy called the professor (he's like the one white dude on the And 1 streetball team, ya know like the harlam glob trotters stuff) anyways it's kinda funny. But he also has potential. Unfortunately, he doesn't live in our area, so we have to turn him over to the yeun yih elders, but it's whatever. We're moving the work along in every way we can. 

I'm starting a Christmas list for anyone interested, haha. Number one on the list.. deodorant because I can't find it anywhere. I don't understand.. there are a TON of body sprays and stuff but no actual deodorant. Weird right? You'd think everyone would stink but they don't.. I don't know what the trick is, but I guess apparently it's too hot for deodorant and it melts here.. but I don't know if that's a valid excuse. Well, I love all of you! Keep the faith, never give up.

Love,

Love Elder Mikesell / Mahk Jeung Louh / 麥長君

PICTURES!!! AUGUST - OCTOBER 2013
 

TEMPLE TRIP, SISTER MOODY'S BAPTISM & LANGUAGE EYE OPENER

Well, I wish I had some awesome story to share with you, but this week hasn't been anything special... Elder Ward is going home.. Super sad. He is one of my best friends on the mission. I'm going to miss him a lot. Last Monday we got a bunch of people together and played soccer which was super fun. Then on Tuesday our stake had a temple trip, so we got one of our less actives who is a school bus driver to take the ward, and he had a really good spiritual experience which was good. Oh, on Saturday we got to go to Sister Moody's baptism which was awesome! She's a great missionary. I guess she was supposed to go to Maccau but ended up not going, so it's been a weird week for her. Last night we got to go to a special fireside in Kowloontong called the "My Conversion" fireside. It's where all the missionaries who are going home pick one of their recent converts to bear their testimony. It was cool. We were able to get D, our investigator, to come which was good, I think she had a good experience.

So, I was just going through the Mormon messages on mormon.org cuz I love them and think they're great. I'd watch them all day if I could. I came across the Stella one; the lady from Hong Kong. 

Click here for Stella's mormon.org message

I've never met her cuz she is way out in Kowloon, but I remember watching that video like a dozen times [before coming to Hong Kong] and not understanding a single word they said. Like at all, and thinking... "Man, I'll never learn that language." I actually still have days like that, but I just watched it again just now and was amazed. I understood everything! Not exactly every word, but I knew enough to know what they were talking about the entire time. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I find that I compare myself a lot with other missionaries. There are some who have been out for the same time as me or even less, and I feel like their language is better, but I have to get over it and stop worrying about it. I am learning as fast as I allow myself to learn with the Lords help, and that should be good enough. I don't know, I'm just grateful I guess. It was an eye opener. 

Anyways, I don't have much else to report! We have moves coming up, but I doubt I'll go anywhere. I'm still training, so I don't think they will split us up. I'll probably be here next week, but if not I'll let you know where I am. You never really know with President Hawks. Love you all! Keep the faith!

Love,
Elder Mikesell