When You Jog In A Typhoon

... every direction is a headwind!" 

 Dear All:

I sang a hymn this week and burst out laughing in the last verse--but it's kinda not funny. I seriously need and am considering praying for, "More Longing for Home"--BECAUSE MY AREA AND MISSIONARIES AND INVESTIGATORS AND SPIRIT AND LIFE ARE SO AWESOME!!!

I got to experience Hong Kong's first Level 10 Typhoon in 13 years this week, but my own personal whirlwind began Friday with a big surprise from our dearly beloved Assistant to the President, Elder Cheung. He's a CHARACTER--a accomplished architect already, born and raised in England but 100% Hong Kong parents--so his Chinese is perfect and his English is British. He was my zone leader back in the New T's so we go way back... we lost our hair together in October-March... and he's dying (=ending his missionary service) with me! 

He's a PLANNER and likes things just so, and is a really great leader and designer. And I hope I get to see him after we get released some day--so I can punch him in the face!

I just gave all this background so you could picture more perfectly my shock when he texted me on Friday morning to ask, "Are you on your way yet?"

I texted back "Being on the way involves knowing where I'm GOING, Elder Cheung, WHAT DID YOU NOT TELL ME???" 

Just kidding, I texted back, "Where?"

And then he told me we were getting TWO summer missionaries (= with whom we will split ALL DAY LONG EVERY DAY) AND he would bring them to me in 10 minutes, since he might have overlooked the little detail that he needed to TELL ME about them!!!!!!!!!!! 

It was a pretty stressful 10 minutes; Picture Sister C and I alternately moaning, flipping through planners and worrying out loud, but when they got out of the AP's van---we just fell in love with them. 

Our worries were that Sister C would have a lot of trouble, because so far we've been unable to move past  "baby" mode and recognize we are a more responsible, confident, capable missionary (which she already IS, she just didn't NEED to be)--she relied on me way too much, and I was exhausted from having to be "super" senior companion. (This is all what she told me herself last night) . 

The amazing thing about summer missionaries is that now Sister C is SENIOR and, technically, TRAINING because our summers have never been missionaries before! IT'S AMAZING and teaching her SO MUCH through experience. It's... so awesome. I'm so much happier, she's so much happier, we're SO HAPPY. 

Principle:  The Lord provides (=forces) experiences to prove to ourselves that indeed, we are capable.

My summer mish. is amazing. She's super quiet, a little shy, just 1000% adorable HK young woman packed up into 80 pounds of cuteness and she has the CUTEST SMILE in the whole world so I spend all my time trying to make her laugh. 

[The typhoon begins here and so grab on and just whirl with her while we struggle to stay upright.]

We had the BEST EXPERIENCES EVER yesterday and the day before-- went LA finding after a typhoon morning (it got to a level 10~ =4 sister missionaries at 4 am NOT sleeping because the windows are screaming, it was SO COOL) (so tiring tho!) and met a golden, sweet and SMART 50's lady named Betty (who came the next day and totally understood the first lesson and I've only ever had to explain where the BOM starts in the Bible chronology ONE other time in my mission so I still don't know the Chinese name for King Zedekiah and that just totally describes her lesson--she was asking questions so fast we just couldn't even explain fast enough to suit her!!! and she's coming again tonight and wants to come to church and is SO PREPARED FOR THIS) on the bus on the way there, and THEN the lady was home and let us IN and I don't have enough time to explain it, but the story includes:

• a really angry, REALLY large man wearing too little clothing in a wheelchair smoking, 
• several cages of hamsters, 
• one boy playing a loud kill-everyone video game, 
• one summer missionary who, turns out, is scared to DEATH of cats, 
• one (of course) of the evilest cats I've ever met in my life,
• one sweet less active lady who hasn't come to church for years because her husband was confined to a wheelchair who REALLY needed our visit and 
• one of Sister Darcey's arms mauled by above-mentioned cat. 

IT WAS SO AWESOME. As we went in (yes!! she let us in!!!) my summer froze and said, "Baahk Ji Muih! I'm scared of cats!" and I said, "...Pray!!" We ended up squatting on typical very-very low plastic stools with the TV turned off, the fan turned on (so we weren't breaking the word of wisdom, cough, cough!!) and singing them all three verses of "I am a Child of God" and sharing a great message.  The whole time I was trying to corral this evil weird Chinese stub-toed-snake-patterned cat so it wouldn't kill my summer missionary but I totally forgot that my cat at home is DECLAWED. 

OUCH! It was hilarious and awesome and my summer missionary will be scarred for life. My right arm will only be scarred for a couple days :D

Love always, pray for us!

SIster D

Typhoon II

[...continuation]

Yet dear ones,

It hasn't all been roses, though. We've had to drop some investigators who need the gospel so bad because they yell, and I cry and it was so rough, but the members are so kind and tell me to stop worrying, that I am not a psychiatrist or a social worker, I'm a missionary.  But I still feel bad about people who need the gospel and Jesus Christ so much, but won't let Him into their lives.

In other news, another investigator has been giving us the cold shoulder and we finally figured out why.  In an odd twist, it has NOTHING to do with baptism, but it may be all about our attention to other teen investigators!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??! 

Last night's conversation about it.... so funny--Sis. C explaining to me the twists and turns of teen social persona.

Sister Darcey: "I never understood this in High School 101. How does this dumb relationship stuff work???"

Sister C: "So I make you jealous which makes you upset, so now you try to make me upset, no, jealous, so that I'll give you more attention."

Sister Darcey "This sounds like a Shakespearean comedy. How do they fix it in the plays... let see, if it's a comedy, somebody dies, and then somebody gets married..."

...ten seconds of silence...

Both of us:  screaming and laughing. If you can figure it out, you can laugh, if you can't, I'm NOT saying anything more...

But on Sunday after spinning through a ROUGH gospel principles class (the persons yelling at me and persons ignoring me and my weepy through the whole lesson, wondering if I'm making things WORSE or better here,) I had a miraculous twist during the Relief Society lesson that helped me recognize the Lord's plan is bigger than any Level 10 typhoon in my life.  

"For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." Moses 1:39 

The teacher stood up and bore testimony of missionary work, as her big sister (whom I met at a party and made friends with, then invited to English class in Tuen Mun and then put her in contact with the sisters there) is now meeting with missionaries and progressing and coming to church and her friend (whom we only taught once and it didn't go well, then passed her off to the island sisters) is also progressing.  She has had the second lesson and is coming to church. WOW. 

I heard of whirls of miracles in other areas with people I first contacted and then passed to other missionaries-- C., T., and R., all coming to church and getting baptized now!!! Just seeing it all come together at the end--in THIS last whirlwind of a week. 

Even an investigator in Yuen Long who started meeting with us because of our (what we thought was  almost total waste of time) St Patrick's Day activity is now baptized! God Is SO AMAZING.

I'm so spiraling happy that I'm never coming home. Seriously. It just keeps getting better, every day is the BEST DAY EVER and I don't know how I can bear to end this rush. 

My calling, my people, my city, my ward, my summer, my missionaries, my heart aches as I feel that I can't leave this; it's a little death. 

But Sister Cook did testify that just like when I came out here and prayed to love the people, I'm gonna need to pray that God will lend me the courage and faith that I can go home and learn to love my life with this much joy when I get back--it's so hard. 

Like my heart is just breaking. 

Love always, and as always: Pray for us!
Sister D.

P.S.  Mom, you are NOT allowed to pray that the work won't progress so I'll come home!!! OR that I'll get fleas (already have em!), constipation (that too...) or worms of some kind (none!... so far). 

To My Awesome Rabbit-killing Sai Lou (lil brudder)

I never wished you happy birthday!

 BUT 
I sent you a package! And because God is so awesome and merciful, I sent it about 2 weeks before your birthday!!! BUT... I don't think it got there yet. BUT WHEN IT DOES it's gonna be so awesome. I think you will love it!

So, happiest returns, my awesome rabbit-killing sai lou (lil brudder). I am so proud of you and I tell people about you every day. I know you're doing the right thing, keep serving your companion and smiling and glowing because you are SUCH a blessed child of God. Your humor and good attitude always remind me to smile more. I'm working on laughing more with my companion--And I'm trying to take myself less seriously and just laugh more. 


For example, one day when Sis C. was complaining that China doesn't have any American food she misses (I think she was talking about pickles) and trying to think of how she could find or get some American food,  I started belting out Phantom's "Music of the Night" but changed all the words-- "Let your mind start a journey to a strange new world, leave all thoughts of the life you knew before-----Just forget all about your cheddar CHEEEESE--Only then, can you become Chinese."

Etc, etc, it was hilarious. Good way to get across the point AND to laugh and feel happy about it :D

So laugh more. 
LOVE ya lots
Sister D

Let's Try Photographs

Dear Each and Everyone,

Here is my latest attempt at photography and downloading.  One picture is with a little girl who fell in love with me while we were eating out with a part-member family.  She was so hilarious; she kept me too busy chatting and drawing and giggling to eat.  It was so fun.  I hope she comes to EEFY!

Which is gonna be AWESOME! The zone set it up in our planning sessions where we'll do the topics I can help most with (go figure: "service" where I'll teach card making, "dress and appearance" where I'll teach hair styling and how to sew and then "music and dance" where I'll teach how to read music and a little guitar... so weird...) (my last three days of missionary work in HK!) and then I'll just write out really carefully the rest of the weeks. They'll be awesome, of course, but I've found and developed lots of leadership and organization skills out here and they come in handy when we're planning girl's camp sized activities for non-members for two weeks of full-time crazy gospel fun on less than $100 US budget! :D I LOVE IT.

Life has been so good; I got my dying packet today (and THAT is what we like to call a misuse of a semi-colon, kids!) with my flight information. Those phrases have nothing to do with each other :P

Anyway.

We've been encouraged by our new mission president to start praying and finding FAMILIES and it's been really neat as we've started doing so. I talked to a cute family on the bus yesterday--almost didn't, since we usually go up onto the second level to leave street level seats for families and old people who can't climb the stairs, but then I decided the little girl was just too adorable to not be talked to--and they're super amazing! They're already Christian and named their kids the equivalent of "Grace" and "Mercy" in Chinese, so crazy! I've never come by a whole family that Christian (who wasn't totally scared off by the black nametag :( ) and the mom JUST called me during email time! And wants to come to Church! And I need to call her back in a minute, YAY.

We've also had lots of miracles with part member and less active families. SOOOOO often people just need to feel loved and accepted. It's not a ploy or a trick to get people to come to church or to "join us" --it's the way Christ taught to treat people and to love people, to challenge people to something greater than what they have now through treating them like their potential. I remember Mom teaching me "how to treat the deacons" --to expect more and treat them like they're already doing it. That's something I've learned about God's grace and the Atonement here--He gives me MORE than I deserve and expects more of me because he knows... just some ideas.

We're doing another Girl's Night tonight (making pudding cups! Finally!).... we have an activity or class almost every night of the week now. It feels slow sometimes because we spend lots of time planning, prepping and then just sitting in and building relationships in the classes, but it's a fabulous investment. These girls are really starting to trust us and come to us for help or for their problems.

On the other hand, we had a serious set back with an investigator this week. She finally talked to her parents about baptism on Saturday night after one of the most spirit-filled and led lessons I've ever sat in on (the member, the mom convert of a part member family who had to fight to get baptized, fight to go to church, fight to get her boys to come and then they went on missions and got crazy grades in school and now are famous all over HK and she's SO AMAZING--- pretty much taught the whole thing, it was simply miraculous listening to her stories and testimony) but then didn't come to church. And didn't pick up the phone. And ... our hearts just broke on Sunday. We saw her on Tuesday when she came for accounting class but she wouldn't even look at us. From what we can figure out from members contacting her mom, she got the OK for baptism--in August 2013. But ....why won't she talk to us now? Praying lots here...

I got to listen to the temple today in Cantonese--it was so clear and simple. I loved hearing it in, it FEELS like, now, my "2nd" native tongue. My brain translates all the English into Cantonese all the time, anyway, so to hear something I've heard so many times in the "original" (to me...?) language felt so right and happy. I can't really explain!

As an end note, I realized just how scary the thought of going back to white-people-land is to me this last Sunday night (headed to the Bishop's house for food! They were SO KIND TO US) when we got on a mini bus (seats just  16 people)--FULL OF CANADIANS!

They were full time volunteers teaching English and Christianity but just for 5 weeks... and I felt so, so awkward and out of place. They all looked exactly the same, it could've been a big family... like 12 white people in the same place, it was so terrifying. Blondes EVERYWHERE... SO weird.

Pray for us; I never even guessed how confusing and happy and horrible and sad and hard but good yet stressful and still exciting it'd be, this last month.
Love you all,

Sister D
P.S.  Great photo downloading, Mom?  Not So Much

Sister Darcey, You Look Like:

Things I've literally heard this week (Chinese people are blunt; gotta love it. Love it and laugh, or cry! ):

Sister Darcey, you look like...
"a flower that hasn't been watered in a long time,"
"you need a nap,"
"40 years old,"
 "sick,"
 "dead." 

All of these (except in Chinese).

Bwahaha! I feel alternately super stressed/ anxious/hurried/out of time/ rushing/ wanting to do everything and super soul-weary/apathetic/bleary/old/grumpy/impatient--but no worries, usually I am happy and not trunky. The problem isn't me--it's EVERYONE ELSE! (mmm, THAT sounds like a healthy coping technique... I've moved from denial to blame, what's next?

 Am I making up my own grieving process? Is one of the stages "hoarding large amounts of Chinese food in my suitcase"? Can someone write me one where that IS a step?  Derick, I pick you. ) 


Anyway. Seriously! Not my fault! Everytime I TALK to ANYONE it sounds like this, "Hi, how are you?" "Hi---OH! When do you finish?! What are you going to do when you get home?? Is it weird??? Are you trunky?? Do you have anyone waiting?? Where does your family live??? Are you going back to school??" ARRrrgrrh. 

Anyway!  BACK TO THE WORK!  We have some great goals and plans, we ARE going to keep working really hard to help our investigators get baptized AND summer is the busiest, best, most amazing and simultaneously most sanfu (body bitter... kinda means hard) time. We have a great member who basically never got off his mission in his head (he has 4 busy crazy kids, is a PhD in some kind of math something, works from home and two other offices and has helped two of our investigators get jobs and another totally improve her grades to help her get baptized) and is now starting a free math and accounting camp every Tuesday and Friday for our YW aged investigators and members AND new referrals. It's already bringing so many miracles! I'm so thankful, and it makes me want to pursue something in college that will give me more opportunities to serve the community and build up the church. 

We're hiking Dragon's Back today; pray we don't get heatstroke. I'm doing it to see if it's fun or not for Dad, Aidan, Song Daaih Hing and anyone else who wants to hike it with me in December. Also Sister Cs has been dying to go hike for like ... since she started her mission :) We're taking a LOT of water.

We're also doing ANOTHER girl's hair for graduation in 5 minutes (this is the fourth this week! Who knew I'd be able to serve in this weird way??? Someone tell Kathleen, Mati and Genelle Anderson I mean ...Powell? for me ha) and having a Girl's Night tonight--I'm going to teach hair braiding and to make those flower hair clips and the Kwun Tong sisters will make cookies with the thousands of people who said they'd come... we're so excited. 

Busy and HAPPY and keep praying I won't get trunky I love you people!!
Sister D

Dear Dad, the only one who doesn't ignore me.

Dearest DAD and Everyone! 

Thanks so much for taking time from your watching the cats sleep, watching the cement dry, watching the weather reports, watching webcams of Utah and Alaska, and watching the bike tire fill up. You truly have a full life ;) but you took time out of it for ME!!! AND MOM DIDN'T!!! 

That turncoat trunky Terina-lady mother of mine, too busy playing with cousins and aunties and gramies and Utah houses and tent trailers and GF goodies and who knows what else to email her little snookums in HK. I'm not even gonna talk to her for the first 2 minutes I get home :) Seriously, for two WHOLE minutes. 

Our new mission president was asked, "What do you like to do when you're free?" and he replied, in SPITTING IMAGE OF MY DAD, "Work." (He's an "engi-nerd" according to his wife, and the director of technology at BYU according to his resume). "I like yard work, housework, fixing things... when we have a holiday at my house and all the other kids in the neighborhood are going off to play at the lake or something, I would tell my kids, KIDS, we're painting the deck today! Labor day is the day we celebrate WORK! And Memorial Day? RESHINGLING! The day we celebrate the hard work of our ancestors! And Christmas? chopping wood! LABOR is what got Jesus into the world!" BWHAHAHA. So ... sounds just like my family. I love it. 

Feed The Missionaries!!

I don't need money (NOW...), but I would love you to wait until the last week of the month to invite the missionaries over for dinner. When I go back to the states and get into a ward, I will always invite the missionaries for food on the 30th. It's the "starving week" ... No worries here, I can start playing the "I'm leaving soon" card so members will chang me out (chang means "invite" or "please" in Chinese, but it's used universally in missionary chinglish to mean buy someone food) and then I can gain back the 20 pounds I've lost the last 6 months [running every morning and only eating ONE (or two...) dessert(s) a day]. I'm back down to normal, and I'm worried I'll disappoint everyone who was all excited to see fat Sister D ;)

I have lots of pictures but no USB plug in at this computer ;P so they'll have to wait. They include such thrillers as, 

"Sister Darcey uses hair braiding to win the hearts and referrals of previously clique-y young women,"
 "trying to celebrate the Fourth of July in China at English class" and
 "various exciting and mysterious escapades on the way to hong kong history museum which the man on the phone tried to convince me to take a TAXI to instead of walking."
I think it's because he's a wuss.
"The photos include but are not limited to Australians celebrating Dragon Boat Festival WAY late, Jackie Chan's handprints and Jet Li's challenge to a duel". 

And our most GORGEOUS Salmon lunches (Sister C was a bus driver in Alaska last summer so she feels very strongly about eating Salmon. Which is fine with me!)

In that same (last night's) English class, I got stuck with the rowdy bunch of 15 year old boys who were LITERALLY punching each other so loudly they couldn't hear the lesson. I pulled them off the other group of "advanced" English learners so they, at least, could learn the awesome ancestor/culture/countries/family history lesson we'd prepped for English class and then I COMMANDED their attention by 

a) being female, blond and blue eyed AND able to speak chinese and 
b)by teaching them the difference between punch, hit, slap and kick in English. 

It was HILARIOUS--they went from [un] im-managable (is that a word?) to totally interested in 2 minutes--even raising their hands ("Baahk Ji Muih, would THIS** be considered a hit or a slap?") Everyone ended up bruised but happy, and they even let me teach about family trees after that. One even asked for a good night kiss at the end of the lesson (groan.......). 

Hilarious incident in Thailand relayed to us via Sister Cook's "friend" who's there on his mission: He just met a golden elderly couple who met the missionaries years ago and liked the church so much they named their two boys "Mor" and "Mon" (Mormon). However, they wouldn't commit to baptism because they got hung up on tithing. After hearing the story Sister Cook read, it only took a couple seconds for me to think of the pun it was begging for...

 "So... did they have a third kid named, 'Ee'? As in "Mor + Mon+ Ey?" 
bwahahaaAHAHAHAHAAA.

This week an investigator--bless her soul--invited us to her home to sit down with us. Very seriously, very carefully, she told us she had something she wanted to ask us. I was on pins and needles waiting for either her total dismissal or acceptance of the church and the gospel... but then she asked us if we wanted to MOVE IN WITH HER. NOT KIDDING. 

Oh... I just don't have enough time or words to express the sanctity of the moment... Oh, man. Dear little soul. She's in her fifties, totally alone and SO LONELY. Poor little thing. But.. at the same time... later it was RIDICULOUS.

We're going to dissect a pig heart next week to get a less-active and a recent-convert to bond with us. I'm so psyched I can hardly stand it. 

TIme's gone! I love you! AND I LOVE OUR NEW MISSION PRESIDENT! In my interview he said three things: "Well done" "thank you--I can see you've given up a lot, and given your heart to God" and "Lucky is the man who marries you. If I still had a son..." 

I love this! And I love you! Be happy! And if you miss Mom and Aidan so much... go to church and hang with those people? ;) Too much time in just the company of our cats can do some strange things to people...