How fun! I miss the asphalt crack filling job. (It was always messy and sounded really productive, but it was a great excuse to get tan and get all dirty, and was probably the most fun of all the outside jobs haha.) Thank you for the pictures! you all look great! I cant believe school's already started again. It just got out! Ga yau! And Abbey's driving?! Awesome!!
Things here are rolling. I got to cover my area and sham shui po with Sister Probst for the first half of the week until transfers. So fun! I live with her, and she's really great. We got the entire apartment to ourselves for those 4 days, and it was a party. Not really, but at the end of the day we would turn off the lights and listen to that "Jesus, King of Angels" song on repeat, and floss haha. We made it a companionship goal to make it to bed every night by 10:30 which was awesome. (Our mission has a different schedule than most...we wake up at 7 and go to bed at 11, since most people here are up later and get up really late in the afternoon). But it was so fun. I think you got me sick through cyber space or something, because I've had a cold this week. You sent me a "virus" ...get it? please laugh, I've been thinking about that one all morning haha. So at night I boil some water and put some honey it. Maybe I'll buy some lemon juice today to complete it, but maybe not. that's stuffs expensive. probably. I dont know. The worst part about it though is that my nose is all runny and stuffy at the same time, so it's hard for me to speak this dumb language. No, it's an awesome language, but it;s super sounds and tone-y, and it's been hard to pronounce things right this week. But hey, at least now I can hear that I'm saying things wrong. Improvement?...I think so :)
I also got to take a couple of the new sister missionaries finding on their first night here. It was great! It was hard though, because it's not like I can understand everything people say back to us (which is sometimes a good thing ha). But we did just fine! We were meeting a girl named Eunice and giving her a copy of the Book of Mormon and talking a bit about it, and then her boyfriend walked up (ok, we thought it was her boyfriend, but then we found out he and his girlfriend just got in a fight and he saw a bunch of girls and wanted to come talk to us haha), and so we gave him one and started talking to him too. He had these huge gauges and the F word flat across his chest on his shirt. Sorry new missionaries...maybe not the best first impression of Hong Kong, but it gets bettter! Anyway, long story short, he love metal music and wants to play in the vans warp tour in america, but has a criminal record, so can't go to america. Super bad boy kind of guy, but he LOVES Jesus. It's so great haha. He was praying that morning and felt like maybe he should just give up. He felt unworthy and passed the point of return. Things were bad with his girlfriend....all this stuff. But, he was so excited to meet us. He went to church yesterday and met the Elders. Wore a shirt and tie and brought the book of mormon. Would have had a baptismal date, but since he's on probabtion, they need to work it out. But awesome, heh? Nice guy. I'm excited to see what happens with him. And it's cool, because it's easy to get down and feel a little hopeless with the people here. But when I look back on it, I've met so many people with stories like this. People really are looking. They do exist. So that's nice to remember :) When we were going finding this week, I was reminided of that Saturday's Warriors movie song..."I take this picture in my hand"...I don't really remember it. Do you?! I just remember the guy singing it with his awesome glasses. But it made me smile, and motivated me to keep talking to this kid.
I also got to go to a funeral this week. And in all honesty, it was really hard for me to sit through. Our bishop asked us to go, because the man was apparently baptized in Kwun Tong 50+ years ago, but went less active and was lost somehow. So we went and it was just us and the Bishop and his wife maybe? We sang some hymns and shared a few scriptures and prayed. It was really hard to see nobody really there for him. And it was hard to think there are hundreds of thousands of old popos or grandpas just like him, or even worse off. They work all day, or sit at the chessboards all day, and really just live off the government and have no relations. They live alone in horrible conditions, and it's a horrible feeling to think that there are so many people who's passing would hardly affect anyone. It really overwhelmed me, actually. And it made the idea of life and death so much more raw to me. After the prayer, they had the casket on this conveyer belt in the front of the room, and we went and put a pink rose on it. This conveyer belt lead into a big oven/crematorium place, and you could smell it heating up and burning during the entire service. Which in all honesty, terrified me. After we put our rose on the casket, the last person in line pressed the big green button which started the conveyor belt, and the casket rolled into the crematorium. You could smell it. I seriously did everything I could not to cry. I've never met the man, and I can't even remember his Chinese name, but it was so thick and raw and real---the experience. I absolutely love the Plan of Salvation, and I know we will see God again and continue after this life, but even still, I felt super dim and sad. There are millions of people everywhere we go with no desire or felt need for God or salvation. And that's hardly a speck in the perspective of God's creations. All these people. It seems almost unfair, like they hardly get a chance. Sorry, I don't mean to write a depressing letter, but these thoughts have been through my mind all week. And I probably didn't think this letter out as well as I should have before I wrote all my feelings to you. But I think the thing that established my hope a little better is that I can specifically think back to times when I have sincerely and very personally felt like Heavenly Father was aware of me and loved me. I know he is mindful of me. And even though in all reality I am incredible small and insignificant, I still matter to Him. And so does everyone else. The nameless man at the funeral. I pass by this old popo with a crooked smile every wednesday on our way to read scriptures with a wonderful woman who suffers from schizophrenia, who has a toothless smile that would honestly make any person smile back. This old sweaty man we pass on the mountain of stairs on our way to church. He has the biggest beer belly and he walks with his tank top rolled up resting on his stomach...groceries in one hand, cane in the other...calling us the Jimuihs and using us as an excuse to take a break from walking up those stairs. I love these people. But more than anything, I think it's because I can feel Heavenly Father's love for them. I feel like I'm in one of the most condensed places in the world with people, but everyday I become more and more convinced that this gospel is personal. The atonement is personal. Heavenly Father knows their story, even if nobody else does. And He'll take care of them.
Oh! I forgot to tell you about my new companion! Sister Lam...bundei(native). She's great. we work and think pretty differently, but I think we'll be great :)
Alright, I need to go, but I love you!
Love Hannah
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