MY FIRST WHITE COMPANION, COOL STAKE CONFERENCE & BLACK RAIN!

Elder Mikesell's Adventures in Aberdeen

Sister Chan is doing great! She has been really excited about missionary work and has given us probably over 6 referrals, haha. They are all deaf, but I don't mind. Not very many want to keep meeting, but it doesn't matter, it's the effort that she is making that makes it worth it. She's given more referrals since being baptized than any member or ward combined in such a short amount of time, haha. 

My companion is really cool, his name is Elder Phillips. He's a move younger than me, but his Chinese is way better, so it's pretty humbling. He's my first white companion, haha. It's weird to think I've been out a year, I still feel really new. Especially with the language. Chinese is a whole different animal. Just when you think you are starting to get it... you get humbled. The members are great. We are really trying to get them to give us more referrals. We just had stake conference and literally the entire adult session was about missionary work. It was cool! Our mission president spoke about how the prophet says that it is the members responsibility to find investigators and the missionaries responsibility to teach them. I hope something comes out of it. We have a couple investigators right now. March, honestly, has been pretty rough. We are hoping it picks up in April. Aberdeen doesn't have a ton of good "finding spots" where we normally go to try and contact people, like parks and stuff. The street itself is impossible cuz there are too many people and their isn't enough room. Plus they are all busy going somewhere. 

Last night I experienced something I've always wanted to since I got to the field. Hong Kong has a series of warnings for the amount of rain fall when it becomes dangerous. It starts with yellow rain, then amber, then red and finally black. I'd never actually seen it get to black before. It is the only time we can't go out. During red we are just supposed to stay close to somewhere we can get safe if it turns to black. So, last night we had a huge thunderstorm roll through. It was literally a wall of water like I had never seen before in my life. It was dark but with constant lighting flashes and so loud we couldn't hear each other. It was the most water I've ever seen. Super cool. I can't remember what qualifies for black, but it's something like a few inches a minute or something crazy, and I believe it. So cool. Anyways, we are safe. 

Thanks for everything, love you all, keep the faith, never quit, just keep swimming.

Love,
Elder Mikesell

Yes, I really did eat the spicy duck tongue. It kind of taste like jerky but not nearly as good, haha. 

STILL WORKING HARD, KNOWN AS THE SIGN LANGUAGE MISSIONARY & FIRE BENDING

Hey, Mikesell Clan! So this week we are still working hard. Been having a hard time getting our investigators to keep commitments, but we are still plugging along. We had zone training this last week, and they announced that because this year is the 65th anniversary of the Church in Hong Kong, President Hawks wants us to celebrate by hitting 65 baptisms in the month of July. Now, to those who have gone to other missions, that may or may not seem like a big deal, depending on where you went, but let me put it into perspective. Our mission has, for a really long time, been consistently hitting an average of 20 baptisms a month. So, this will be over 3 times the norm. It has been done once before back in 2009, they hit 66 which is the mission record, so it's possible. We are to work twice as hard as we are now, and the third part will be made up by the Lord in pure miracles... so says President. How we work twice as hard, I'm not entirely sure. My companionship decided to cut meals and our nightly bed prep time to work, but unless we break rules and work more than 16 hours a day, we can't really do more than that. Pray for us. We've seen some blessings. Sister Chan, the one who we just baptized has given us some referrals, and so we have met two other people who are deaf and are meeting with another one today. (We also decided to cut part of P-Day), so hopefully they have an interest. 

I personally like teaching the deaf better than hearing people, but that's just me. Even though it can be hard at first because there are so many different ways of signing the same thing in Hong Kong, it can get confusing. Normally, in the church we use a lot of ASL for gospel terms because Hong Kong doesn't really have them. But a lot of times, they don't understand them, so the first couple lessons can be difficult cuz we have to teach them new words. But it's good. I'm known in the zone and other parts of the mission as the sign language missionary now, which I don't mind. I kind of want to be assigned to being able to teach any and all deaf people throughout the mission! 

Oh, also, the other day, I saw the coolest thing. So for those of you who watch Avatar: The Last Airbender, in Hong Kong there are a ton of people who will water bend in parks, mostly because the south eastern part of China is where water bending originated, also because it's fluid and people like it because it's pretty looking. I had never seen any other type of bending done before, but the other day we saw a guy fire bending, and it was pretty cool, so yeah. Those martial arts are real and people know them (I mean obviously not the actual bending of elements but the movements behind them). I really want to take it up when I get back. There is a water bending class that a member teaches at the church every week, but we don't have an investigator who goes, so I've never been. I have to go, love you all, keep the faith, just keep swimming, never quit!

Love

麥長老

PULLING TEETH, HEARTACHE AND MUSEUMS

Hey, so not much to report today. We've been having a harder week. Trying to get people scheduled to meet with us, keeping commitments, it's like pulling teeth. The devil is really good at what he does. A-Wayne just fell off the planet. I haven't been able to contact him in over a week. It's common here for that to happen... it's easy to disappear being that Hong Kong is what it is, but it's heart breaking. I've prayed and fasted for him, but that's all I can do for now. It's impossible to find him if he doesn't want to be found. I had the same thing happen to a solid investigator in Kam Tin. It's the uncertainty that's so hard... Anyways, we are still working hard.

Hong Kong Science Museum

We got to go to a science museum last Monday and see a dinosaur exhibit which was really cool. There was one part where you can control this super real looking T-Rex robot. I used it to scare some school kids, haha. We bought a museum pass, so we can go to any of the museums in Hong Kong. Today, we are going to the space museum, so I'll let you know how it goes. Especially B-rad :) Love you guys! Keep the faith, never give up, never quit. Just keep swimming. 

Elder Mahk