Harmony is Being Different--Together

Dear Family

I got your package! Thank you so much... especially for more makeup than I'll ever use in my lifetime, much less my mission... and the deceptive (thanks to IAN) FALSE packing label that said it had "contacts, candy (well, it did have a PICTURE of candy...) and some "scribble, scribble, scribble, thing" in it. HAAA! You people are the best package senders ever. I'll have to return the favor soon! And by soon I mean Christmas! :)

Seriously, though, thanks for the photos!!! Pictures are the BEST. I will carry a few more around with me (I still want some of disneyland! And mom, I don't have ANY of Mom!) and I just wrote the vocab I'll need on the backs so I can talk about my family.

Speaking of Chinese vocab, who's ready for their Cantonese lesson of the week? This week focuses on FIRE (fo! sounds like fah)...

Fo che= fire car = TRAIN

Fo luhng gwo= fire dragon fruit= DRAGONFRUIT

fo teui= fire leg = HAM (I don't get that one, either)

fo gai= fire chicken= (this is my favorite one) TURKEY

I love this literal language.

Anyway! This week has been ... wow. Sunday I lost the keys to the Tai Wai/ Sha Tin chapel. It was a pretty horrible night trying to find them, find someone to get the chapel locked, get home on time etc etc., + the guilt of being a burden to the bishops + all the disappointment and confusion of praying to remember, praying to find and coming up empty over and over. That night I fell asleep praying--just sick at heart. A few hours later, I woke up--seemed like SUDDENLY--and got off my knees (owwww) (at least it was in bed).

I had the parable of the woman searching her house for the lost coin in my head and realized how wrong my focus was. I was so worried about a little thing like keys, but I am called--as we all are, by the voice of the Master himself--to search for his lost children. How sad that I worry so much more about KEYS than these precious people!!!

I woke up the next morning re-energized and READY to be a light to Hong Kong. We still haven't found the keys, but every singe day this week that dream/idea/experience has been a motivation to me and helped me to see the good, hope for more, have faith, smile, be patient, etc etc etc. It's been an amazing blessing.

I also learned much more about patience/leadership/worth of souls this week in my companion relations, but not with Sister C. This week, Tues,. to Th, we had TWO summer missionaries--which is AWESOME because it means we can basically do twice as much missionary work AND don't have to worry about double scheduling people OR locations (because one full miss+summer miss can go to Ma On Shan all day and the other full miss + summer miss can stay in Sha Tin/Tai Wai all day!).

One of our summer missionaries was... in need of a lot of help. In Sister C's words, "Ayiyaaa, hou faaahn!" = I'm gonna kill her. She just... couldn't do the hard things. She would (literally) whine. Out loud. When she didn't want to do something. I mean, OK, I don't really know how to explain well. Prob the best way is just that she is 18, but she IS a great person, has a great testimony, and by the end of the week had worked hard---probably much harder than she's ever worked in her life. What a Challenge this was for her.

Anyway, I learned a lot about myself when I was on splits with her, especially since that made me the senior companion. I have learned for myself that D&C 121 whatever verse (37) is absolutely true--it is the nature of man (and women!) to, as soon as they get a little authority, start to exert unrighteous dominion over others.

37 That they may be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.

.

Yes, my inner thought process was unfortunately often something like "AYIYA! Sister Jang! We're missionaries! The Lord's army! The Lord's warriors don't WHINE about HEAT! NOW Drop to your knees and give me twenty!"

Bad, Bad, bad, Sister Darcey. So on Tuesday we were on a fast zone find (we only had about 20 minutes to find because we had to get to another appt later), and she was basically having a panic attack. She couldn't do it. Couldn't even say hello to people. She was following me around like a lost puppy. And I was, really, honestly, being absolutely heartless.

After a couple days of being on splits with just her, I was really just fed up and frustrated and impatient and etc. FINALLY I stopped and realized how cruel I was being--and we went to the side of a building and I asked her to pray for us. She prayed, I was repenting for my behavior the whole time, and then she started crying, and Wow.

Then. We really found. The Lord blessed us and we found.

Humble works! What a lesson I learned this week. People are so much more important to God than anything else.

Love,

Love

Sister Darcey!

P.S. Last week I got MUGGED!! It was while we were contacting around 8 pm in

Tai Wai on Lion's Bridge (by the Sha Tin Marriage Registry, on the river, see if you can find it on Google Map). A big group of mainlanders came up and surrounded me and I couldn't see my companion and it was terrifying---but don't worry, all they took was...

my picture!! (8000 times...) HA! OK, I thought it was funny..