WELCOME HOME ELDER MIKESELL!

Friday, May 1, 2015

Elder Mikesell arrived home today! His flight arrived at 1:35pm! He was greeted by family and friends! After a 15 hour flight and being awake for 24 hours, the first thing he wanted to eat was Mexican food. After dinner, he went home and shared souvenirs, pictures and stories of his mission while we ate chocolate chip cookes. President Stolworthy came by our home and released Elder Mikesell as a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He was able to bear his testimony in Cantonese one last time as a missionary before being released, and the Spirit was so strong. 

We are so proud of Elder Mikesell and know great things are in store for him! Good luck!

LAST ONE!

Well, this will be my last email to you guys. Sorry, I know I haven't emailed as much as I should lately. It's hard to remember what's going on and when it happened and whether or not I already told you, but to be honest it's kinda hard to explain. I can't speak well, let alone type what is going on, haha. But wanted to show my appreciation and the support everyone has given through emails, packages, letters, and prayers. It still hasn't really hit me yet, but I'm sure it will eventually. I also want to say sorry in advance for my crappy English when I get home. I've been reading the dictionary lately to get it back up to par, but it's pretty bad. I thought that my English getting worse was a result of my Chinese getting better, but they both kinda suck, hahaha.

This last week was really good, we worked hard and were able to see some cool things come out of it. Just wanted to let everyone know I love them and am excited to see you all. Hope a bunch of people can make it to the airport so I can see you, but if not, no big deal, I'll see you eventually. Hong Kong was way different in some aspects and what I expected in others, but the surprises outweigh what I expected by a ton. The mission in general is not what I thought it was. I learned a lot. Mostly the hard way because I'm pretty prideful, haha. I feel like I just got here in some ways, but at the same time, America, home and family and friends just seem like some dream, like I've always been here, doing what I'm doing. It will be weird going back. I know it will be a hard adjustment. I've gotten used to everything about China. I can't imagine being in any different kind of environment, let alone the white people. I'm terrified of white people, haha. But I'm sure it will be fine. Thanks for everything, love you all. Add oil! Just keep swimming, never quit, until we meet again. 

Love,
Elder Mak

SLEEP... AN EXTRA HALF HOUR... IS WHAT I WANTED TO CELEBRATE MY TWO YEAR MARK IN THE MISSION!

April 12, 2015

Castle Peak Bay Hike

Hey, so this week was good. We were able to see conference which was awesome. Last week Elder Merrell asked what I wanted for my two year mark as a missionary. I didn't have to think about it very long, we ended up going to sleep a half hour early, hahaha! Last p-day we hiked Castle Peak which was awesome, suppper pretty. Well, this week has been pretty much the same other than that! Please continue to pray for Blair. She's doing really well, but still has some hurdles to overcome before she can confidently set a baptismal date. I love you guys!

Elder Mak

DINNER (SOOOOO GOOOOD) AND FAMILY MISSION PLAN

March 30, 2015

We went over to this family's house for dinner and to make a family mission plan with them. Her food is SOOOOO GOOOOOD, but anyway they took a picture and emailed it to me, so I'm forward it to you, haha. Love ya!

ELDER BALLARD CAME TO SEE US :)

March 19, 2015

So, we were able to meet with Elder Ballard, and he taught us some cool stuff a couple weeks ago. Here is the article.

https://www.lds.org/church/news/elder-ballard-reports-rich-harvest-underway-in-asia?lang=eng

And I'm totally in this picture! (Can you find me???)

https://www.lds.org/church/news/elder-ballard-reports-rich-harvest-underway-in-asia/gallery?lang=eng#2

elder ballard 

HIKING

We went on a hike the other day, and our high priest group leader sent this to me!

TAUGHT ONE OF THE BEST LESSONS OF MY MISSION, GOT INTO A HOUSE WITH A FAMILY & GOT TO MEET ELDER BALLARD

March 1, 2015

Hey, so this week was good. It was transfers, and I surprisingly got a new companion, but I'm stoked cuz he's a boss. Elder Merrel is his name. Kind of new, been in for about 6 months. I picked him up from the airport, haha. But super cool awesome missionary. He can also dunk which is sick. Especially at like 5' 9ish. Super athletic. We've seen some miracles this week. Got a call from a former potential investigator who wanted to meet out of no where, and we taught one of the best lessons of my mission! She's so golden. Also, got into a house of a family! So, hopefully something comes from that. Elder Ballard was super cool. Got to hear him speak twice and meet him which was cool. So, lots of cool stuff happening! Love you guys! Keep it up! Add oil!

麥長老

ELDER BALLARD COMING, DEEP CLEANING APARTMENTS & NEW INVESTIGATOR

Hey! So, I don't know if I told you guys yet, but Elder Ballard is coming to Hong Kong next week, so we will be able to meet him and get taught by him on Wednesday or Thursday. That will be cool. It's funny because he's coming exactly 1 year after Elder Holland came back in 2014. We are pretty blessed because all the general authorities come through Hong Kong to get into Asia, so we get to see them. This week was good. We had a little bit of a rough start because everyone was celebrating New Years, so no one was free to meet with us. Every year in the second day of the New Years we do a deep clean of the apartments, so that was good. It takes all day, but it's fun and different, and there aren't very many people willing to talk on that day anyway. It's kind of like Christmas day in the states. 

The other Hung Shui Kiu elder's investigator, Tyler, finally got baptized on Sunday which was suppper cool. He has been really ready for a long time now, but he has had ridiculous family opposition, but he decided finally that his parents weren't going to change any time soon, so he just got baptized without them knowing. He's in the early 20's, so it's not like it was against the law or anything. President Hawks came all the way up to see the baptism, it was really cool. Also, the other newest recent convert, Ken, in our ward (he was baptized a week before I got to Hung Shui Kiu), introduced his girlfriend to the church, and she got baptized like a week or two ago as well, which was cool. She lives in Castle Peak Bay Ward. She also got a ton of anti from her mom and sister, but she's toughing it out. 

We were struggling to find a new investigator these past weeks until yesterday after church. We went out in the rain to find and ran into this young man named David. He's pretty cool. We taught him a lesson on the street, committed him to a baptismal date and rescheduled him! So that was awesome. I really hope he shows up. Sometimes people will listen and act interested and then never answer their phone or meet again, but he seemed pretty genuine. I've only given a baptismal date out on the street a few times, and it was cool that he accepted. Anyways, things are still going along. There is always opposition. We also ran into a guy the other day who kept telling us that our Bishop had 40 wives because he read it on the internet. Another time we were talking to a nice kid when some other guys, who he didn't even know freaked out when they saw us, grabbed him and told him that we were a cult from the devil. It gets absolutely ridiculously frustrating at times the ignorant, literal hatred I've felt from people who are "Christians". A lot of the times the Buddhist and Baai sahn people are nicer, but sometimes they will make fun of Christ, too. We will knock on doors and people will answer and not know who we are and be really nice until they realize that we are Christian missionaries and then say, "Go away Jesus, never come back!" Super sad. But, there are diamonds in the rough. It just takes a lot to get to them before their friends do. A missionary said, speaking of the "golden investigator", true gold will withstand the refiners fire. 

Keep up the good work guys, I love ya. Never quit, just keep swimming.

Love,

Elder Mak

PAISANO'S PIZZA CHALLENGE: 2 PEOPLE, 20 MINUTES AND A 24" PIZZA... OUR TEAM LOST!

February 15, 2015

Hey family! So, last week we went to Discovery Bay to try the Paisano's pizza challenge. 2 people, 20 minutes and a 24" pizza... There were 6 of us, 3 teams of 2.. and two teams won... ours lost. Hahahahaha! I ate about 3 1/2 pieces and my teammate, Elder Goronson, ate a little less... It was pretty embarrassing. He had won the challenge before, too!! I dunno what happened. We prepped and everything!! Elder Anderson ate 5 slices, there are 8 in the pizza, which I didn't think was physically possible. It was incredible. I felt terrible for the rest of the day. I almost threw up like twice, haha. 

Other than that we are doing well. Been working really hard with Blair, our investigator. She's been investigating for a long time and hasn't really progressed, but last week we had a breakthrough. We read 1 Nephi 8 with her and explained the vision, read and talked about the scripture. No formal lesson or anything. It went really well, and she told us it really helped her. She read ten chapters last week and really likes it now. So, it's super good. 

Other than that, we've had a kind of slower week. It's New Years, so people are really hard to schedule. Everyone just tells us to call after New Years, so we've just been out finding. But after February we should have more lined up. Love you guys! Thanks for everything! Keep swimming. Never quit. 

Love,

Elder Mak

ELDER COPELY, GOOD WARD, COOLEST THING... LETTER WRITTEN OVER A YEAR AND A HALF AGO!!!

Hey! Yeah - Abo left Saturday and won't be back until after New Years in March... He went to his home town in Saichyun, which is like half way between here and Beijing. Blair goes up and down, but she's doing okay. Not too stoked about the commandments, believes they are pretty restricting. Though, I don't think she realizes she keeps most of them anyway. She just can't go shopping on Sunday.

Elder Copely is doing a lot better. He is from Canada, but his mom is originally from Gwongjau which is the region just above Hong Kong in mainland, so she spoke Cantonese, but he never learned. His dad is white, so they just spoke English in the home. It's kind of rough because people sometimes ridicule him for being half Chinese but not being able to speak, even though it's not his fault. 

Our ward is pretty good size. It's the same ward Sister Moody used to serve in when I was in Kam Tin. Members are pretty good, willing to help with lessons and stuff. No, they don't really feed us. Except for the mission leader's wife on Sunday's will make us lunch and the Bishop's wife will sometimes give us stuff. But it's good. 

Sounds like all is going pretty well!! OH Kelly!!! I have to tell you the coolest thing!!! So, I don't know if you remember, but a loooong time ago you wrote a letter for an investigator we had in Kam Tin who had an autistic son. We were never able to show it to her, though, because she dropped off the face of the earth and got eaten by the mainland monster. I don't really remember this, but apparently I gave the letter to my companion when I left who kept it and then gave it to the next ones after that and so on. Until just a month or so ago, the missionaries there got a hold of her after looking at some old records that I made for her. It had her address and so they stopped by. She was there and by the next lesson they brought that letter, translated it and read it to her. I guess she just cried and cried and then accepted a baptismal date and is doing really well now, so good job!!!! Haha, I heard about it last week at zone training meeting. Keep up the good work!! Love you guys!! Add oil!!

Love,

Elder Mak

ABO DOING GREAT, BLAIR STILL DOING GOOD, SAD THAT BROTHER MOK PASSED AWAY OF CANCER

January 25, 2015

Hey family, so we are still doing well out here in Hung Shui Kiu. A-bo is doing great, he was sick yesterday but still came to sacrament. He'll be gone for a month for the New Years, but he'll be baptized when he gets back. Blair got a new job and wasn't able to come to church on Sunday, so we were sad about that, but she is still trying to come and she is reading scriptures, so it's still good. She finally told us her major concern with baptism, that she is afraid after baptism she won't be able to endure to the end and when she gets married, she's worried about the whole interfaith marriage problem. 

Last Monday we went to a super cool old Buddhist temple. It is one of the 3 oldest in all of Hong Kong and the "birthplace of Buddhism" in Hong Kong. Bruce Lee trained there and filmed "Enter the Dragon", too. It was super cool. I'll send you guys pics. Unfortunately, though, we had a big blow on Sunday. Brother Mok, our investigator who was sooo awesome passed away Saturday night. He had cancer and went to the hospital on Monday. We were able to visit him once before he died. Our ward mission leader and us gave him another priesthood blessing a few days before he went to the hospital. The ward is doing well with helping the family. They, so far, haven't been too receptive of the gospel, but have, I feel, felt and noticed the love that we have tried to give with dinners and visits and prayers and fasting... Elder Colpey (my companion) is taking it pretty hard. He found Brother Mok months ago before it was this bad and has seen the whole progression. His mom also died of cancer a few years ago, so he's struggling. Other than that we've just been pushing along. Thanks for all the support. Love you guys. 

Love,
Elder Mak 

CRAZY POVERTY, GIANT MAZES, WILD DOGS & A NEW INVESTIGATOR

January 12, 2015

I'm good. We do a lot of finding, but I'm used to it, so it's not too bad. We do a lot of door knocking here which is never a dull moment. I've seen some of the craziest things I've ever seen here in Hung Shui Kiu. Crazy poverty, where people live in tin shacks with tarps as their roofs, but then spend everything they have on a new phone. Some people live up in the mountains where, I kid you not, you would think you were in the amazon rain forest, the green trees are so thick. I've also seen some really cool ancient Chinese temples, statues, villages, and shrines that I've been told are older than America. It is a very different type of Hong Kong. Most people live in 1-4 story apartment complexes that are built so close to each other in villages that all there is in between sometimes is 8 inches of space. They are like giant mazes with endless alleyways and streams running between them. Super creepy at night but way cool. The down side is the dogs. There are TONS of wild dogs running around and sometimes they keep us from getting places because they will block paths or gates or something. Most of the time, if you come across a big pack, you just stand your ground and get big, back up slowly, and they won't do anything to you but growl and bark. Maybe follow you for a while but not much more than that. Just super annoying.

We were able to find a new investigator who accepted a baptismal date, though. His name is A-bo. He's 18 years old and super cool. He is from mainland and doesn't really know anything about religion, but he's really interested and willing to learn. He came to church on Sunday and really liked it. We haven't gotten any referrals yet, but we are hoping to soon. They don't come everyday, but our ward mission leader is a boss and is helping us work closely with the ward.

I love you guys! Keep up the good work. Never quit. Just keep swimming.

Love,
Elder Mak

CONTACTING ALONG THE COAST, UP 25% FROM LAST YEAR, CHECK OUT "HE IS THE GIFT" ON YOUTUBE

Hey! Yeah, my area is suppper pretty. We contact people along the coast a lot. It's been really cold, though, the last week or so, especially because it's right off the ocean. Yeah, seeing Sister Gok get baptized was awesome. She was the second of two Popo's (grandmas) that were baptized this month in Ma On Shan. The first was Sister Lee who is 91 years old. The oldest active member in Hong Kong, haha. Ken is scheduled for the 14... it will be awesome. 

The work has picked up here in the last year. There has been a huge push from a lot of people, and just the attitude and spirit of missionary work has changed here in Hong Kong in the last year. We are up 25% from last year, and the year isn't over. We are striving for another 65 in December like we did in July as a Gift for Christ. By the way, have you seen what the church is doing with "He is the Gift" initiative? It's pretty huge. Total YouTube takeover in several countries for several days, ads all over the work and a huge push with social media. They are hoping all get involved. It's super cool. If you guys haven't seen it, check it out, and SHARE it!! It's a great way to do member missionary work! The Church is pushing more social media/internet missionary work.  

YouTube "He Is The Gift"

That's soooooo cool that you guys are doing all that stuff for missionary work!!! That's by far the best gift I could ever get. Yeah, Lions Rock was super fun. It took about an hour to get up. I'm in SUCH BAD SHAPE! I almost died, haha. It's really sad, especially when I think about what I could do when I devoted so much time to exercise, that it's all gone, haha. But, anyway, no we only went with one other companionship. We aren't allowed to go in big groups. Christmas is good here. It's not a huge thing, though. In the Church it's more, but most people don't really celebrate it. New Year's in February is HUGE though. The best thing is to be able to sing Christmas songs, haha and remember the Savior. Also, I love being cold. It's sooo much better than being hot, haha. 

As assistants we didn't really eat much different than any other missionary. Here in Ma On Shan, though, the members love to feed missionaries. I've eaten more food from members here, than in my entire mission! Thanks so much for the blades!! I love you guys, keep up the good missionary work! Keep the faith, never quit. Just keep swimming. GAI YAUH! Love you!

Elder Mak

NEW AREA MA ON SHAN, DOING A LITTLE RECON FOR PRESIDENT, CAME IN RIGHT AS THEIR 81 YEAR OLD INVESTIGATOR GOT BAPTIZED!

December 7, 2014

My new area Ma On Shan.

Well, I got kicked out last week. I'm in an area called Ma On Shan. It's an absolutely beautiful place. I've always wanted to serve here, though I was told I will probably only be here for a couple weeks. I'll most likely get moved at the transfer. I was put here because one of the Elder's, Elder Pincock, went home with the early group in the move. He's been having some health problems, so he just chose the early of the two transfers. He's a boss, though, he went 8 months with only one lung in Kwun Tong before the doctors figured out what the problem was. It's a super hilly place, too. Walking those hills is hard by itself, and I assume having one lung is too, but together is crazy. Anyways, I was sent to fill his place until the move and to do a little recon for potential trainers in my area. I'm serving with Elder Lam right night. I was actually with Elder Lam in Aberdeen about a year ago, haha. It doesn't happen often, especially in Cantonese work, that you go back with old companions. In Mandarin it's more frequent, but it still doesn't happen a ton. So far, it's been great.

I came in right as their investigator got baptized! She's an 81 year old grandma and mom of some members in the ward. She actually reminds me a lot of my grandma, haha (EXCEPT OLDER!!!  I know, I know..) It was cool to see, though, because she had been investigating for two years and had strong ties to ancestral worship and tea drinking. But, now she's working on getting sealed in the temple with her family. Pretty awesome. Well, I love you guys, keep up the good work. Never quit, just keep swimming, GAI YAUH!!

Elder Mak

TRAINING MY REPLACEMENT

11-30-2014

Lions Rock

I have started training my replacement this week. He actually was in my MTC group, Elder Smith. He's super cool and a great missionary. He'll definitely do a better job than I was doing. He actually grew up in Korea for half of his life and the other half in America. His dad is white and his mom is Korean, so he speaks both fluently which is super cool. His Chinese is really good as well. I still don't know where I'm going... I will probably find out this week. 

There was a ward split just a few weeks ago up in the new T's and President told us there should be more, so it's a good sign of the missionary efforts in Hong Kong. I know that the area (Asia area) and the brethren are really pushing for a new stake here by the end of 2015, so hopefully that will happen. There used to be 5 stakes (not including Macau and International) here back in the day, but because of inactivity (it's a crazy high percent) they had to consolidate back down to 4. But, they are making the push to get it back to where it was back in the good ol' days. So, other than that, just trying to get my replacement ready for the move. I will miss Ken's baptism which is a bummer, but it doesn't matter. Thanks for everything! I love you guys! We went to Lions Rock last P-day and it was SICK! Coolest view. Better than peak in my opinion. You can see from the northern part of the island all the way to Ma On San. Crazy. I'll send some pictures. Keep the faith, never quit.

Elder Mak

GETTING THE BOOT, KEN DOING GREAT, PRAY FOR BROTHER LAU

11-23-2014

This is our investigator Ken. One of the coolest guys ever. He's blind but really smart, studied in England to be a physics teacher, loves The Strokes, Pink Floyd, Elvis and all the good old stuff! He has a baptismal date for December 14th and is working on memorizing the route to get to church, so he can get there by himself. Listens to the Book of Mormon every day. Just a Boss!

Hey, so we had an activity the other night, and one of the members took pictures. Here is me and my companion.

Well, so last week President, in preparation for our board meeting (the meeting where we meet for like 3 hours to discuss how to make the transfer work) asked us to prepare three names for new assistants... and seeing as I've been in for 6 months, and I still have a good amount of time in the field, I'm pretty sure I'm getting the boot. So, I'm just trying to get ready for my replacement who I'll be training in a few weeks.

We also had a really cool meeting with Elder Wan, who is the seventy inside mainland (he lives in Shanghai) and several of the leaders inside. We are also continuing to teach Ken, he's doing great. We taught him keeping the Sabbath day holy and even though it will be a really big struggle for him, he committed to keep it. Because he's blind and lives alone, he normally goes out to eat, but on Sunday he said he would stop. Huge act of faith. We are worried about our recent convert, Brother Lau (the miracle story that we had when I first got here back in June. Elder Walter and I found him in the last place you would expect to find an investigator, a big industrial street with factories on either side, off a hunch that Elder Watler had. He was the one who lived in Sham Shui Po, and I ended up turning him over to myself  because I ended up going to Sham Shui Po. Well, he was doing really well, but his family is anti-ing him a lot and his two jobs are keeping him from coming to church, he's starting to go less active. Please pray for him. He's probably going to have to move to mainland to find work which might be a good thing, and it might not depending on where he is and if there is a branch close by. More than anything, pray that he will stay in the Book of Mormon consistently. Thanks. Well, I love you guys. Keep the faith, never give up, just keep swimming, Gai Yauh! We are going to hike Lions Rock today which has one of the coolest views in Hong Kong. I hear it's even better than the peak. I'll send pictures next week!

Love,
Elder Mak

MISSIONARY TRANSFERS AND PREPPING FOR ZONE CONFERENCE

11-2-2014

So, this week was good. Last week was crazy because of the transfer. We moved a ton of missionaries and their stuff. Some of those sisters have a lot of stuff... It was especially weird because I helped take the sisters who started with me home. This week we are prepping for Zone Conference. We were assigned a training, so we are working on that. Other than that, it's the same stuff. We just had Stake Conference. It was really good. There were some rumors of the TST ward splitting, but it didn't happen. Love you guys, thanks for the pictures! Keep up the good work, never quit, just keep swimming and gai yahu!

Elder Mak

HOW WE SAVED THE TEMPLE FROM BURNING!

10-19-2014

Hey family! So, I don't know if I have told you this story or not, but if I have I'm sorry, my memory is bad. Anyways, this is the story about how we saved the temple from certain destruction. So, we are eating lunch in our apartment when all of the sudden, the fire alarm goes off... and of course, the first thing we think is "so annoying... can someone turn that off! It has to be a malfunction or something". So, we walk outside the hallway and one of the temple workers comes running up the stairs and asks us if our apartment is on fire... and we were like "uhh, no, I don't think so..." and then asks if President's apartment is on fire, but they haven't been home all day, so we told him probably not. So, he goes next door to Elder Wong's apartment (the temple president) and knocks on the door. No one answers, so he uses his keys to unlock the door to check it out, and by this time, we are really interested in whatever is going on because it's obviously not a drill... so, we walk into the apartment and it looks normal at first, but then when he turns into the kitchen all you see are flames.... So, of course we all just stand there for a few seconds watching it, then the temple worker tells us to go get a fire extinguisher... so we snap out of it and start running down the hall as fast as we can, all try and get in the door to our apartment at the same time, and find the fire extinguisher. I knew that there was one in the closet, so I open the door and see two. One was about 8 inches tall, the other one next to it was about 24 inches tall. You can probably guess which one I grabbed! We run back to the Wong's apartment, and I go to spray the fire, but the pin is still in the handle, and I couldn't pull it out because I had one hand holding the nozzle and the other hand holding the tank. So, I yell for someone to pull the pin, someone does and I sprayed until they yelled at me to stop. And then some... we got the fire out and the fire department came. We told them not to worry and that everything was under control, we handled it, but if they wanted to check out the remains they were welcome to, haha. Turns out their stove fan was left on, and it overheated catching the grease in the fan on fire. So, now we tell people that we saved the temple from burning to the ground, which may be a little bit of an exaggeration, but it sounds good, haha.

Love you all. Keep the faith, never quite. Gai Yauh.

Love,
Elder Mak

ELDER WONG'S CONFERENCE ADDRESS, BRUCE LEE MUSEUM & PROTESTS IN HONG KONG

October 5, 2014

Hey Family. Not much to report this week. We are still working with Ken, the blind investigator. He's doing well, but hasn't accepted a baptismal date yet. We also have a new investigator, Kerson, who came to church for the first time. He's interested in the social aspect of church right now, but it's okay. 

Did you see Elder Wong give his conference address?? We watch conference a week behind you guys, so it will happen for us this coming weekend. I watched a tiny bit online, though. It's kind of lame that they covered his Chinese with some English speaking dude, but whatever, it was still cool. He gave a really similar talk a year ago during zone conference.

The protests are going up and down, but still going. We talked to a bishop of the west point ward who is one of the protesters, haha. He says they are being peaceful, just sitting in the streets, so no one can drive by until they are allowed to vote for whoever they want to in elections and not from a list of names given by the Chinese government. But, last week, the police dropped a bunch of tear gas and sprayed them with pepper spray. I guess that only intensified their drive to stay. Now the police are just trying to wait them out, but there have been some fights breaking out between protesters and people who want to drive... But, most of it is happening on the island and in Mongkok, so here in Kowloon it's not as bad. But, from what I hear, it's catching a lot of news attention. How China decides to deal with it will also influence Taiwan who really doesn't like being part of China at all (they don't actually admit or consider themselves a part of China, and have had pretty bad protesting earlier this summer), but we still go on trying to get done what can be done. It's really not all that bad, though. 

Last week we were able to go up to Sha Tin though, and see the Bruce Lee Museum. It was pretty sweet. Today, we aren't really supposed to leave our area, so I think I'm just going to send a package home and clean or something. We had planned on doing the Pizza Challenge in D-Bay, but that will have to be another day. Well, I love you guys. Keep up the good work. Gai Yauh!

Love,
Elder Mak

MAKING A CANTONESE AUDIO BOOK OF MORMON & GAI YAUH! ("ADD OIL" = KEEP AT IT / KEEP GOING / DON'T STOP)

September 28, 2014

Hey, so I'm doing well. The last couple of weeks have been good. Still just busy with normal stuff. We've been back and forth to the hospital because Elder Pingkock has been in for a collapsed lung. Apparently, he's been living with one lung for the last 8 months or so. He had felt sick and short of breath and thought he had bad heart burn, but when he went to the hospital they told him that it was just some deep tissue bruising, or something like that. He went back last week because it was bothering him more, and they found that he had one lung this entire time. Crazy! So, he's out of surgery and in the office now with the other online elders. 

My next big transfer is in October, I think the 23rd. The only meeting I have to prep for right now is mission leadership tour, but it shouldn't be too hard. Yeah, we did okay without President Hawk for that week. There were a few scares, and I was glad he was still in the country, but we got through it. Today we are hoping to go to a cool Bruce Lee Exhibit in a museum in Sha Tin, but we haven't been cleared to go out yet because there are some demonstrations going on, and I guess it's getting violent. But we're fine and are just going to wait it out. Most of it is on the island anyway, but I guess it's spreading up into Mongkok and stuff. From what I hear there are a lot of college kids who are really mad that they don't have "true democracy", so they are doing some demonstrations, but I think it is dying down. I'm not worried because all the people who are mad are mad at Mainland China, not Americans. They love Americans, haha. 

Well, it sounds like the usual back home. Keep up the good work. I know there aren't a lot of people who might be ready right now, but I promise if you pray sincerely, a name will come. Without the members, missionary work becomes nearly impossible, and a big part of that member missionary work is finding investigators. Also, if you can, I'd like to have you all pray for our investigators. Joseph isn't really progressing right now because of his laziness, but also his parents. They really do not like the Church and won't let him go. They found his Book of Mormon and threw it away, too... We also need help with Ken. He's blind and really humble. Likes to come to church and has a lot of questions. He can't really read English braille, and there is no Book of Mormon in Chinese braille, so we went looking for an audio recording of the Book of Mormon in Chinese... also doesn't exist. So, we are making our own. We've got some of the native missionaries taking turns reading out loud and recording the Book of Mormon. We've also talked to the Young Men's president and he wants to do an activity where they get all the young men and young women together to each read a few chapters and record it, so we can have the whole Book of Mormon. It's been going well, but he hasn't accepted a baptismal date. He's been baptized in the Baptist church and doesn't understand why he needs to get "re-baptized". If you could pray for them, that would be great! 

Love you all, keep up the good work, never quit, just keep swimming, and Gai Yauh! ("add oil" = keep at it/ keep going/ don't stop, etc.)

Love, 
Elder Mak