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.