"YOUR SON, ELDER MIKESELL HAS ACCEPTED THE ASSIGNMENT TO BE ONE OF MY ASSISTANTS."

ELDER MIKESELL IN THE CHURCH NEWS!

Check out this article in the Church News about the Saints in Hong Kong commemorating their mission's beginnings. Elder Mikesell is featured with his companion, Elder Kho in the article!


Saints in Hong Kong Commemorate Mission's Beginnings
Contributed By Elder Paul Richard Sullivan, Church News contributor
16 JULY 2014 

Missionaries currently serving in the China Hong Kong Mission pose on Victoria Peak with Hong Kong in the background. (From left) Elder Kho, Elder Mikesell, Elder Little, and Elder Tong. (In front) Sister law and Sister Garlitz. Photo by Janet Cheong.

GOT STOPPED BY THE POLICE THE FIRST DAY DRIVING IN HONG KONG!

July 13, 2014

I'm doing well. I'm adjusting. I picked up my license this week and drove home... it was pretty weird with everything on the wrong side... I kept turning on the stupid windshield wipers instead of the turn signals, and Elder Kho had to keep telling me to get back on the right side. Driving in Hong Kong is pretty intense. Imagine the strip but even worse, everything backwards and way more Asian drivers... but it was fun. I actually got pulled over that night, first time driving and I get stopped at a police stop check point. We pull up, say hello, and the cop said, "Are you guys church people?" And we were like, "yeah" and then he and his partner laughed and just told us to go ahead, haha. 

This is Elder Fong, his story is super awesome. He's 26, the only member of his family and a convert of only a few years. He had a lot of family opposition and stuff but is one of the hardest working, humblest missionaries I've ever met. We went on exchanges last week.

Yeah, I work pretty close to the mission president and his wife. He is good. He takes his calling really serious but makes jokes, too. I'm starting to learn when to laugh. His wife is really nice and is a really good cook. She will cook sometimes for meetings that we have and stuff. 

We also had a cool meeting with all the Asia presidency and seventy inside mainland. They also pulled down all the district presidents from Beijing to discuss procedures with the Mandarin missionaries working in Hong Kong for all the visitors. We've been getting a lot lately. If I can remember right, we baptized more visitors from China than we did for the entire mission of Hong Kong in the month of May.. and they keep coming. I don't know how many members there are inside mainland but judging from how many of the leadership of the church came down, it's pretty big. They aren't allowed to proselyte or even tell their friends about the gospel, but they can talk to their immediate family. The restrictions are pretty tight and enforced pretty hard. 

We also just had the 65th Anniversary Peak Service on Saturday. Back in the day, they used to do it every few years or so, but the last time they did it was in 1993. The Peak is the top of the mountain that looks over the harbor. It's really famous and where all the landscape pictures of Hong Kong are taken. It's also where the land of China and Hong Kong were dedicated for missionary work in July of 1949. The seventy who actually did it (Elder Cowley) carved the date into a rock on the Peak that is still there, which is cool. Originally, they had planned on having the serve on the Peak itself, but they couldn't get government permission to do it because there were thousands of people going and they didn't believe that a group that size wouldn't bring a drop of alcohol, haha. So, we did it in Wanchai but it was still cool. 

We went finding and ran into a park they made around some ancient Chinese ruins. They had a full zodiac in the middle and some cool gunman which is like really old Chinese characters. Kind of like Shakespeare to us but even older and people don't know what a lot of them mean, haha. 

Haha, that's funny Chase got his wisdom teeth out. Thanks for all the pictures. Sounds like you guys are doing well. I will try and send more pictures. Thanks for keeping me updated. I'm trying to do better at writing more. Everyone and their mom keeps telling me that they are following Sister Moody's blog. But since she is leaving soon, I guess I should step it up. Thanks for everything. I love you all. Keep the faith, never quit, just keep swimming.

This is a HUGE fish in a reservoir up above Aberdeen. We went on a hike and from the dam you  can see these massive coy fish, they look like giant gold fish. Then I saw this guy, I swear he is over 6 feet long, even though you can't tell from the picture!

Elder Mak

TWO BAPTISMAL DATES FOR JULY, LIVING ABOVE THE TEMPLE IS PRETTY COOL, BUT THE MISSION PRESIDENT LIVES ACROSS THE HALL AND THE TEMPLE PRESIDENT LIVES NEXT DOOR...

We went to a history museum on a P-day and saw this old ding ding. (Ding dings are tram things on the island, they go superrrrr slow, but they are really cheap.) It was cool, though, because our huge massive church building in Wan Chai is getting a name for itself, haha. 

Yeah, Sister Moody and I are in the same ward and district. I'm not a big fan of being in leadership positions. It's cool because you stay busy, which I like, but it's just a lot of responsibility and everyone looks up to you and expects perfection and stuff. I'm trying to be a better example, so hopefully I get better. Being busy with errands and stuff is better than not having anything to do but find. It's really hot outside, and I stay in an office typing or in a car driving most of the time. We still go out, but not as often... I feel so guilty sometimes like I'm not actually working. I feel more tired but more mentally than physically. There is too much stuff to do and it hit me like a train cuz the assistant I replaced went home, so I couldn't call him or anything to ask for help on what to do. Elder Kho helps a lot though. He's great. He's an ABC (American Born Chinese) so both of his parents are from Hong Kong and his Chinese is perfect... so it's nice for language study. Kind of like my old trainie, Elder Wong, who was CBC (Canadian Born Chinese). He's really cool and loves soccer, so we get along okay, haha. Some of the elders who have gone home are keeping us up to date on the World Cup... it's huge here, and I cry myself to sleep knowing that I'm missing it all and that it won't be back for another 4 years... and the US is actually doing pretty well! But anyway...

I have a lot of new responsibilities but one of my major ones is I'm in charge of the numbers reports. So, I have to input all the numbers and different values for the mission as far as the key indicators go. I use most of my time on Excel which at first I was really slow on.. and made a lot of mistakes, but I'm getting better with memorizing all the formulas and stuff. As hard as it is, though, I'd rather have that job than Elder Kho's. One of his responsibilities is to set up all the main lander visitor baptisms with the Mandarin missionaries, and that can get pretty scary cuz you are dealing with international and federal laws of religion.

Yeah, I'll probably be in this ward for a while. This ward is good. It's probably the same size as my last ward before it split. I haven't gotten a cheng out here but a lot of times we don't have time for dinner anyway so it doesn't matter. Living above the temple is pretty cool, but the mission president lives across the hall and the temple president lives next door...   I'm in an apartment with five other elders. One of them is my trainer Elder Kwan. It's kind of weird but cool to see him again.

I haven't gotten my license yet because we haven't had time, but hopefully next week. I'm in no rush though, cuz it's been a long time, everything is on the wrong side, and the streets of Hong Kong are insane. Elder Kho is a good driver, though. I actually saw from the number report that Cotton was baptized! I couldn't go see him, but I think he's doing okay. I was sad I couldn't be there... but other than that it's just been really busy. 

We have a couple really solid baptismal dates for July. One was kind of crazy actually. Elder Walter and I found a guy in Aberdeen one night by super good chance we went down a super industrialized street, full of construction sites (not normally where you would go to find people) and ran into a guy named Mr. Lau. We taught him on the street and found out he lived in Sham Shui Po, and when I found out, I can't lie, I was pretty disappointed... He was golden, and we had to turn him over. So, we scheduled him and went to the turn over lesson with the assistants who work that area. That same day, I found out I was getting transferred to Sham Shui Po! So, President Hawk told me, "Looks like you will follow your investigator over", and we've been teaching him ever since. He's super awesome. Yesterday, he came to church and after he told us that he had gotten off work at 7 in the morning (church starts at 9:30), and he really wanted to go home and sleep but he felt like he needed to go to church, so he did and he was really happy he did. He does that every week because he works graveyards. So, pretty cool. 

Oh, also, the craziest thing happened. Elder Loderup, who came in with me, got attacked by a huge dog last week!! He's been in the hospital since then, doing okay but had to have a couple surgeries. We go visit him every day. It reminded me of Kam Tin because the dogs outnumbered the people like six to one. I think the biggest mistake he made was he ran... Whenever a dog would get mad at us and growl or bark, we would just stand up really tall and sometimes pick up our bikes over our heads to make ourselves look really big and they would normally not do anything until we could walk backwards and get out of there. But he's super tough and will be okay. Pray for him. He said his mom is kind of worried. Thanks for everything, love you all. Keep the faith, just keep swimming, never quit. 

Love,

Elder Mak

This is our bishop and his family in Aberdeen. Super awesome people.

This was in Stan Lee during the dragon boat festival. There were a stupid amount of people there. These guys were doing Brazilian capoeira which is like a martial art/dance. They were pretty good.

This was taken from Lama Island. One of the places we would go knock doors. Full of the biggest spiders you'll ever see and a ton of mosquitoes but really pretty. It's a weird place because of all the different cultures mixed in such a small area.

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Sister Moody & Elder Mikesell at a hot dog eating contest.

Sister Moody & Elder Mikesell at a hot dog eating contest.