Week 11 - 3 Uses for an Umbrella

Mom. Dad :) Hey!
It's been a good week. (The space bar here doesnt work very well, so sorry if the words stick together.) What to say? They have a new mission rule here that we can't really go and eat at members houses unless it's with an investigator, so I haven't been fed too much. I've had a few weird things though. We went to one investigating family's house and they made this blacksoup. It was super bitter, and really just awful haha. I wish I had a picture. There was a black hard-boiled egg in it...ugghh. they call it 1000 year old eggs and let me tell you...never again. and then there were all sorts of other animal parts in there. Like a hoof or foot of some kind, and then there was also this smoother thing, that was some sort of organ haha. At first I was bummed with that new mission rule, but I don't think I'll ever be more grateful for anything haha. I also tried durian or dorian or something. I didn't mind that, but I guess a lot of people don't like it. I wouldn't go out and spend money on it, but I ate it just fine. I usually just cook up some porridge in the morning and cut a mango into it. The fruit here is so cheap and so good. 3 mangos for 15 HK $. which is like 2$US. I think. maybe. I honestly don't really know anything anymore haha.

You would love it here. It's so busy and fun and has so many lights. The malls are huge and on every block, and the shops are cheap and so much fun. The metro is awesome. It's like a sauna out here. I am always wet from my sweat haha. When we go running in the mornings, it seriously looks like we jumped in a swimming pool haha. The popo's (grandmas) here do a funny exercise dance in the mornings. 100's of them in the park doing the same exact little dance thing....so funny haha. And everyone always walks around with an umbrella here for 3 purposes: 1) for the rain 2) for the sun 3) to shield us from talking to them haha. They're good shields....they just stick them in our faces when we say hello. It's funny...very few people know or believe in God, but they all recognize the missionaries!

The language is tough. I can understand when my companion speaks about the gospel. But when the natives start talking, it's pretty difficult. But I can see improvement from last week, so that's good. I think it will just be a long process, so I'm not feeling frustrated or anything about it. It does wear my mind out a little bit to be constantly trying to listen and understand what people are saying. Church is exhausting! But really helpful for the language! And the members are so great and kind. We teach all of our lessons at the church building, and we almost always have a member present for every lesson. And we teach like 8 or 9 lessons every week, so they really are involved in helping us and building their ward.

The mission work itself is a little difficult for me right now. I'm just trying to get a grasp on the people here so I can better understand how to approach people and what their needs are. Most people we have met with with so far consider church as almost an extracurricular activity. They have hobbies and once they feel like they're more proficient in one area, they'll move on to another. Many people are only interested in church for their children because they know that children that go to church are better behaved, and it's a big deal here to raise well-behaved children. So that's really the only purpose any of them see in church. It's hard to help people understand the purpose of the gospel or why this is important to them. Many of them have never put much thought into the purpose of life, or what happens after death. They're here right now, and they're purpose is to get money, and it's just kind of a different way of thinking. So I've been trying to learn how to best present our message to people. The idea of God and Salvation is hard for the people we've been meeting with to grasp. It's just been interesting and different.
I feel like I can work physically pretty alright, and I think I've worked hard mentally too, but I dont know how much I've exposed myself to working hard spiritually. And now I'm trying to, but it's tiring! haha. You just care for these people, and you can feel Heavenly Father's love for them, and you study and you do everythinig you can for them to somehow understand that the Spirit that they feel can be felt again and that through the gospel they can have peace and rest from their burdens and eventually obtain perfect happiness, but since it's not convenient, they dont entertain the idea for very long. So if you have any good thoughts on this, send them my way! And who knows, I've only met a handful of people, but it's been a re-occurring theme.
But I love you all! I think about you all the time.

The man with the slaughtered pig almost ran me over yesterday haha. We were walking through the gaisi in a crowd of people, and he just charged through....guts and all haha!

Love you!

Hannah