THE FIRST PERSON EVER TO SPEAK A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE IN CONFERENCE WILL BE IN CANTONESE!!!!

September 10, 2014

HEY! Sorrry, I should have known you already sent a package. Sorry to make you send another one. Thank you though, a lot!!! I got your first package, thank you guys so much!! I love it! Especially the beef jerky!!!! Oh, man, I don't remember the last time I had jack links beef jerky! There is an elder in our apartment who likes to bake things, and we have an oven across the street in the chapel, so we went over last p-day and baked some of the stuff. We also used some of the chocolate and Oreos for English class. We did a scavenger hunt, and everyone LOVED it. So, thank you a bunch!

Yeah, the Seventies are pretty cool. Actually, we met with five of them, including Elder Rasband from the Seventy because all the mission presidents in the Asia area are coming to Hong Kong for a special mission president seminar. It started Tuesday and goes until Friday. So, President Hawks is basically gone from the early morning until late at night which means we have to keep the mission running until he is done... pretty scary! We had to pick up some new missionaries, too, and it was the first time ever that President Hawks wasn't there at the airport to greet them. He felt bad, but then we found out that the mission president of one of the Taiwan missions (I can't remember which one) is getting something like 30 new missionaries while he's gone. I feel so bad for those assistants. We only got three in, and our mission president was still in the country, haha. But before the conference, Elder Rasband wanted to come and have a meeting with the missionaries. So, with like 2 days notice we set up an all mission meeting. Only the second one I've ever been to. (First with Elder Holland). It was cool to be taught by so many Seventy, but the coolest part is soooo awesome!!!! 

We got some inside info about conference coming up MAKE SURE TO WATCH THE SATURDAY MORNING SESSION OF GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! It's going to be awesome! Elder Wong, who is really cool is from Sha Tin in Tolo Harbour which is like the Northern East part of Hong Kong, kind of, and just got called recently to be a Seventy. Actually, his first assignment as an official seventy was at our mission tour about a month ago. He's the first Hong Kong local to be called to the first quorum of the seventy, so he's like famous in the church in Hong Kong. But he's going to make history. He's going to speak in general conference, but wait, not only that, he's going to be the first person ever to speak in general conference in his mother tongue!!! Yeah! So, the church changed their policy about only speaking in English. They want everyone who's mother tongue is something other than English to be able to speak it over the pulpit and it will be translated. (I think into subtitles)! Awesome, huh? The first person ever to speak a different language in conference will be in CANTONESE!!!! Wooo Wooo! REPRESENT!!!!!! They said that there will be others too, in Spanish, Portuguese and maybe some other ones. (Hopefully dad will be able to understand it), so it should be fun. But, yeah, you should watch it! I know a lot of people don't watch the Saturday morning session, but it will be sick! Elder Wong is pretty nervous, but he'll do great. His English is great, but I'm sure that giving it in Chinese will be easier. 

Well, other than that we are still just busy getting everything done that we need to. We had an awesome activity the other day with all of Hong Kong. All four stakes came and competed in a sports day, and we had a ton of non-members there. Our investigator, Joseph, had a great time. I ran one race, it was a relay race where one person spins around and then runs, then another has to run with a bucket of water on his head, and so on. So mine was the hurdles... and even on the lowest setting... I was wearing jeans and am fat, so I didn't want to hurt myself, so I crawled under one, ran around the next two and then kicked the last one over, haha. It was fun. We also did a Kung Fu performance to the Mulan song Be A Man in Chinese, it was the most boss thing I've ever done, haha. I have a video, but I'm sure it's too big to send. 

Anyway, I love you guys, keep me posted on what's going on. Keep swimming, keep the faith, never quit.

Love,
Elder Mak

BEING ABLE TO SEE THINGS FROM A BIGGER PERSPECTIVE HAS CHANGED MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE MISSION AND MISSIONARY WORK

Hey! 10,000 Buddhas was pretty fun. I'm hoping we can go to the Bruce Lee museum sometime soon because I hear it's awesome. This week wasn't too bad. Elder Falk and I are still just getting used to our new assignments together. Without Elder Kho we sometimes just run around like chickens with our heads cut off. On Saturday we had a big group of 30 people come from the Sham Shui Po Peace Evangelical church to tour our chapel and the temple grounds to see what the Mormons are all about. It went okay, but we couldn't get the stupid computer to work with the projector in the chapel for the video, and we just had some technical problems which was a little frustrating, but it was still good. They weren't really too interested in the gospel so much as they were about us missionaries. They think we are weird white guys in suits that walk around all day speaking Chinese, and the inside of the temple and what goes on and stuff. Because they can't go in they were really interested. Elder Falk made a joke that we would start telling people that our church has an amazing book called the Book of Mormon and that it was incredible, but you are not allowed to read it unless you were baptized and active for a year. We would have EVERYONE lining up to get baptized, haha. Just cuz people want what they can't have. I't pretty interesting.

Other than that, it wasn't too busy. We are prepping for a smaller transfer next week. We have a local, a Malaysian and an ABC flying in next week, but President and Sister Hawks won't be able to pick them up because they have a mission president seminar to go to. That means we are just going to go get them ourselves. We'll see how it goes. It's always weird going to the airport. Lots of flashbacks. 

We also have Mission leadership council next week that we are prepping for. My new companion is pretty awesome. We've known each other for a long time and have lived together before becoming companions, so it's good. I think I enjoy just having things to do and being busy the most. Also, to be able to see things from a bigger perspective has changed my understanding of the mission and missionary work. It's not just my little corner of Hong Kong anymore. It's all of Hong Kong and the Asia area. My language is terrible. We don't speak it nearly as much as I did before, so I'm trying to keep it up, but a lot of times we don't have time for language study which I hate. President Hawks served here in the 1970's, so he does speak Chinese but not super well. Like, he can have a simple conversation and he'll give talks that he's prepped for in some meetings and things, but he doesn't do interviews or anything. He gives those to his counselors. Sister Hawks can say things like "missionary" and "blessing" and stuff like that. She's really nice and a realllly good cook. 

Love you all! Keep the faith, never quit, just keep swimming.

Love,

Elder Mak

Gave the Buddha statue a Book of Mormon... not sure what the monks there thought of that...

Apparently, it's a serious problem

Bigggg ol Buddha

One of the temples. Inside one of these temples was a monk who had his entire body coated in gold to keep him "preserved" and live forever, but we weren't allowed to take pictures.

1,000 handed gun yam

Thought he looked good with a tag, haha.

13 NEW SISTERS COMING INTO THE MISSION, 20 HOURS DRIVING IN THE CAR & FIGURING THINGS OUT WITHOUT ELDER KHO

August 24, 2014

Busy week. Transfers take a lot out of you. Especially with 13 new sisters coming into the mission... It was good, though, we are done now. It was a lot of training and managing logistics and all that stuff like where people are going, apartment closes and openings, people forgetting passports, visa problems, some of the sisters had to go to Macau to get out of the country for a little bit... it was interesting for sure. We moved a lot of sisters around to make room. Some of them had so much stuff it baffled me! The only day we really had to move a lot of them to be ready for the move was, of course, the day we had a red level rain warning. Trying to get things moved without getting it all wet was difficult because if it gets wet it will get mold for sure, so we had to be extra careful. 

We also took the returning group to the airport Friday morning which is always a weird drive... you just dump them off, throw them their luggage and drive away. This time wasn't as bad as when Sister Moody's group went home, though. We got to sleep until 5:00 instead of 4:00 in the morning because their flight was delayed. This last week we had to have spent 20 hours in the car. Just driving from one side of Hong Kong and back again over and over. But, I've decided that if you can drive in Hong Kong, you can drive anywhere on the PLANET! Imagine down town Vegas but wayyy more complex, unforgiving roads, and absolutely ruthless crazzzzy Asisan drivers, haha. But, we got through it. We are hoping to get Elder Falks drivers license this week, so he can drive some too. He is in no rush though, haha. Being on the other side of the road and all freaks him out a little I think. 

We didn't really have a ton of time to do a lot of proselyting, but we did get to meet with a new investigator named Joseph who is really cool. He has a desire to be baptized, but he doesn't feel super worthy and is worried about not staying faithful till the end. He's also on parole right now, so we'll see how it goes. He's really cool though. In a band, loves America and wants a Ford Mustang, haha. Other than that, Elder Falk and I are just trying to figure out how to handle everything without Elder Kho here to babysit us... but it will work out. Elder Falk is smart. 

Well, I love you all. Keep the faith, never quit, just keep swimming. I don't know if you ever watch Mormon Messages, but these two are probably my favorite. You should check them out and then share them with friends online!

The Hope of God's Light

Because of Him

Love,

Elder Mak