Just the Facts: CHICKEN FEET!

NOTE from the elder Sister Darcey--MOM: This Week I was internetless in Utah, so the letters are late. Sorry, but here they are, finally posted!

Good morning (it's 4:19 pm)! Have you eaten yet? Fact: "Have you eaten rice yet?" is a common greeting here. As in, I can say it to anyone, and they'll tell me a) if they've eaten that day and b) what they ate. I can also ask a) if they cooked it, b) if it was good eating or c) if their wife/mom/brother/child/whatever made it for them. If they respond, "meih" (not yet) it is also OK to ask them a) what they will eat b) where they will eat it and c) if they usually don't eat until this time. So. Weird. I love it!

Fact: Food is such a big deal here--this week I learned it's the love language of choice! Perfect! That's MY love language!!! This week on Tuesday we had 3 chang-outs (aka people fed us--A LOT). Looking back, I probably shouldn't have prayed on Monday night for help being fed (it was the end of the month and Sister Black had casually mentioned to me she was out of food money and didn't know what she'd do for lunch the next day, so I innocently mentioned it in my prayers), or at least should've prayed more specifically... OOps, I don't think I've ever hated food this much before.

The next day we did a chang out to Yam Cha (which is infamous for its ability to kill missionaries with too much dim sum) at NINE AM (yeah, chicken feet at 9 am. Yummy!), then we had a lesson to a member referral at the member's house and she fed us cha siu faahn (ooooh, no) and PIG (the skin is really good--then there's about 2 inches of white fat, then about 2 millimeters of pig meat...eat the whole thing, please), then we went back to the church and DIED.

We We went to another less active/recent convert's home that night to teach a quick lesson and SHE fed us this thing... um... picture... how can I explain... OK, open your rice cooker. Now go outside and get a pail. Now go to the nearest pond and dip yourself a bucket, then pour that in your rice cooker with rice and that's pretty much what we ate. It had dehydrated baby squid and 800 kinds of mushrooms and slimies and squigglies and I-don't-want-to-know-what-that-is and I LOVE HONG KONG!!!!!! :) :) :) :) :)

Ooo, I also found out that if you are eating too slowly (playing the "I don't know how to use chopsticks, too bad" game in order to eat less) someone will go get you a spoon. Then you're humiliated AND doomed!

This place is so much fun. I really haven't balked at the food at all--the above is definitely true to life, but is much more fun to look back on than in the moment. In the moment, you really just... eat. And talk about how mei (delicious) everything is. I love it here.

Fact: there are (on average) about 12 levels of "spicy" at restaurants here. I get "4 siu laht" which means 1/4th small of a spicy--and it STILL blows my face off. It goes from "10 siu laht" to "jung siu laht" (middle small) all the way to "daaih laht" (big spicy). Daaih laht could pretty much kill an elephant.

Fact: Hong Kong doesn't have "napkins," but licking your fingers is NOT OK (I think I already told you this...?). So we use tissues. Any citizen of HK, at any one given moment in time, has tissues somewhere upon their person. EVERYONE. It seemed so odd, but then I remembered that I started sweating the moment I stepped of the plane (and still going strong!).

Fact: it is also rude to use a toothpick without covering your mouth.

Fact: It is also entirely OK to tell anyone if they have gained weight. Sister Black said that last Christmas, someone told her that she'd gained so much weight that she should be Santa for the Christmas program. At our appointment on Tuesday with the member and referral, the referral told her she needed to lose weight but I was "just right."

Ayiyi, if... I mean, since they keep feeding me like this, I'm sure it's just a matter of time.

Fact: People are fine with us calling each other our new nicknames: Sister Darcey and Brother Darcey.

OH MY GOODNESS, I had no idea the tornadoes were this bad. People kept asking me when I told them I was from Oklahoma (in Cantonese it sounds like, O huk lai hou ma) if they were hitting my house. I just kept saying, "I trust God to take care of my family!" but MAN. I don't know if I would've been as cheery if I'd known it hit the Joplin stake center. That's terrifying.

Tell Jacob and Matti happy graduation! I love cousins! Particularly those who write to me! Happy for them!!! I don't even remember what month it is here... is it really almost June? It's so nice that life is SO different here than at home--it makes me so much LESS homesick.

Tell Derick WELCOME HOME FROM ME! Someone, please, ayiyaaaa, don't remind me! I've missed him and so will the Lord's people in Peru. But more cousins could go on mission too, you know? Who is next?

I love Miss Marla! Her RS lessons sounds wonderful. The Lord loves her so, SO much. He loves ME so much for letting me know HER. I love that woman. Oh, I know, tell her to think about all the other mommies whose babies get to be in the gospel because HER baby is on a mission. Seriously--OR how God is entrusting HIS babies to Elder Watts' missionary skills. A parent's love--pretty amazing motivation.

Ahhh, one last funny story--we went through all the baptismal interview questions with Bonnie last Saturday night (she's getting baptized this Saturday! YAY! and she'll be wearing my skirt, like she has been for the past 2 weeks, because she doesn't have her own!) Did I mention our washer's broken again? It's beautiful, I'm down to this choice every morning when I get dressed: "Hmm, shall I wear the dirty black skirt...or the dirtier blue skirt?" I love this!!! :) and she passed with flying colors. Then she said the closing prayer---and prayed to Jesus. :)

Love, LOVE LOVE
SISTER DARCEY

Wan Chai LDS Building Hong Kong

Questions of the week? _________________________ Is that why you only "find" on buses and in public areas? You teach in members home though? right? Does Hong Kong really have church services more often than just Sunday?

The WanChai building (on HK island) has Sunday services every day for the Filippino helpers (to poorest members maybe in the world) because they canNOT get to church any other day. They have a break once a week and go then.

Are you allowed to tract to apartments?

We don't tract "chyuns" (REALLY TALL apartment building groups--usually 3 or 4 of them, usually 50 floors +) because it's illegal and we could never get past the doorman.

We also usually don't teach at investigators' homes because they're just too small--we teach at the church or at a park. We go eat at members' homes about twice a week and try to take investigators with us-----

For examlpe C J M, a 60+ lady who had a GREAT TIME at another 60+ member's house this week--we had to DRAG her there, but by the time we left she didn't want to go! She's really shy--she's the one with a sorta-active son, who has a problem with sik ching (prngraphy)--and she was really nervous to go, but man!

It is a testimony to me that we really are sisters and brothers. Those ladies were acting like tween-12 year olds by the time we left ("You are so wonderful! No, YOU are!") ("Oh, brother,") it was hilarious. .

"Waiter, there's a fly in my soup." "Ah yes, there atop the snake's head?"

Okay, okay, okay, I have not, as yet, eaten snake soup as it is a winter food, But I have eaten a bunch of other AMAZING STUFF!!!!

(this section is for mommy):

A member in the Tai Wai ward took us out to "yam chah" Monday for lunch (literally: drink tea, but it's actually a kind of restaurant where you eat dim sum), and it was SO GOOD. Oh my goodness: I ate taro root balls (sweet, kinda looks like a big purple eyeball, wrapped in sticky gooey rice stuff), about a hundred stuff-wrapped-in-rice-paper things, beef balls, mai sin noodles (I've had those before---just rice noodles, really good), these SUPER SWEET things that look like a gooey orange marshmallow sprinkled with peanuts, about a million shrimp-disguised-as-something-else things, long DELECTABLE rice stuff wrapped around meat stuff wrapped around vegetable stuff and this is just really descriptive, huh?

Whatever! The point is that it is all so, so, so good. It was the weirdest experience, though--it was as though the members who took us found joy in the missionaries' suffering. They'd keep ordering food, even when we cried for mercy because we were so full, and then they'd eat about half a dumpling and keep enjoining us to "sic do di, sic do di!" (eat more, eat more!). It wasn't as bad for me because I couldn't eat any of the stuff with bread wrapped around it. Tee hee. It is true that Hong Kong is known for it's cuisine!

We also go to FHE with nonmembers at the bishop of Ma On Shan's ward, Bishop Mak, and his wife's cooking is to DIE for. She changed her recipes for almost EVERYTHING so I could eat there! SO nice!

Ah, yes, but...

Some of my eating experiences haven't been so nice. [Mom couldn't resist putting up this internet photo of a Hong Kong theme'd Wedding.]

Last Saturday we went to a wedding reception for one of the ward member's daughters in MOS, and I ate pretty much anything I wanted that looked vaguely OK. I should tell you first--I feel like I've been super blessed so far in having NO celiac reactions--even though I for SURE ate a malt thing on accident my first day here and definitely have eaten soy sauce on accident since then. But I got cocky at the wedding and was supremely humbled with the worst reactions I've ever had for the next 2 or so days. Bleeeeh. Big mistake; I'm asking from now on!! (Sister Black is really good--almost as good as Brian!!--at being super careful about what I have to eat. She even reminded me to grab my food first at yam chah, before all the soy-sauce-contaminated chopsticks got into it. She's AMAZING.)

BUT! The wedding was totally worth it, despite getting dog sick because: B) Chinese (Mormon, at least) wedding receptions are HYSTERICAL and more importantly: A) We met KEN!

Details of B) OK, just in general, anything that would be considered hokey, tacky, cloyingly sweet or juvenile in America is ADORED here. The wedding was a huge, lacy-covered and dripping with frosting. For example: Imagine the cultural hall floor (except it's tiny because this is Hong Kong) covered in green plastic and the ceiling veiled in a frothy canopy of fake lace and glittery pink and purple hearts, complete with BELL in the center of the room. Every surface that doesn't move (and some of the kids, too) are covered with glitter. Cupids are abounding. I'm not kidding. It was AWESOME.

Now, for A!

A) We met KEN! Ken was a friend of the groom--who is a Larry [an earlier blog identified the Hong Kong term Larrys as Caucasian men who marry Asian women.] who came on his mission to HK and met his bride on a trip back)and came to the wedding reception by himself. It was a little awkward for us to start talking with him--especially at a wedding reception--because honestly he's a hou leng jai (extremely attractive male). Sister Black made me sit next to him when we went back into the hall after dinner because she felt too awkward and, in her words, "babies aren't weirded out by men yet." [again, in a previous blog, babies are "greenie missionaries"] So we started talking in Chinglish--he went to the University of Utah (roomies with the groom) and LOVES Zion's Park, has even hiked Angel's Landing before, but really had very little interaction with the church while he was there.

He asked us about our families and identified with mine, because he and his Dad aren't Christian, but his older sister and his mom are. We started talking about faith and he mentioned that he sometimes wished he could believe, but can't just pretend God exists when he doesn't. He also said that he totally agreed with the morals and lifestyle and service of a Christian, but couldn't believe God was really there. I told him he reminds me of my dad and a scripture, and we looked at Alma 32:27.

It was the neatest experience--we read together, asked questions together and let the Spirit teach. I asked questions I would never think to ask ("have you ever tried to do what this is describing? Trying to believe in God?") and, in his words, he said "I want to try--maybe I've never really tried before." I wish I could explain better. It was such a beautiful experience with the Spirit, not me, teaching someone who really wanted to know.

He was also my very first miracle number!! I had made a goal early the night before--and wrote it in my planner-- to get my very first contact number from someone I talked to that next day--then, I talked to EVERYONE, on the bus, on the MTR, on the street.

Finally, the very end of the night, this guy suggested he get our number and give us his number so we could talk more about this (and we, of course, mentioned that next time the ELDERS would be there--as we Sisters cannot teach a man alone without the Elders present).

That night at home, I opened my planner to make calls and remembered--I did it! God really does make miracles and help us along when we have righteous desires and then do all we can to accomplish them. Wow.

Ayiyah, I have so much more to say and so-no-time to say it.

OH! Just real quick--being blonde gets me so much attention. I know at least... 6 contacts that we made this week originally started talking with us because I'm blond. One of the old ladies at the old folks home we did service at last Saturday morning kept stroking my face with her crippled hands saying "tin si, baahk tin si" (angel, white angel). It was such an amazing experience.

One of the girls who accompanied us to the rest home on that activity named Syrina is a former investigator and also thinks I'm the best thing ever (must be ENTIRELY because I'm blonde). She took about 100 pictures (it's kinda like a deacon having a crush on me... yup, that's almost exactly what it's like. Hilarious!) BUT! She's meeting with us (we made muddy buddies on Tuesday, so fun!) AND more importantly, she brought a friend--a friend who at 15 has just moved out of her house to live with her boyfriend's family and who has a real, deep and urgent need for a real foundation in her life.

We're so blessed to be able to teach her about the sure and steady and unmoving rock of our Savior, Jesus Christ!!! Her name is Janice and she needs your prayers.

Elder Holland comes on the 25th!!! SO excited!

Today we're going to hike Ma On Shan!

LOVE,

Sister DIA

BBQ - beeebeeeque Hong Kong Style

Dear Family,

Tuesday, I went to my first "bbq" ever in HK (you have to say it in a high voice, beebeequeue), where the entire ward takes a chartered BUS to the BEACH in 30 C (what is that 86 in Fahrenheit??) weather to sit next to FIRE PITS and cook QUESTIONABLE MEAT for EIGHT HOURS and the main topic of conversation is HOW HOT IT IS.

Like the last ward food fest, I do not understand it, but I love it.

(internet picture - until the real ones come.)

I slathered and slathered borrowed sunscreen (why didn't I wear a HAT?!) that I had wheedled from members. Every hour or so, I went begging from one group to the next, asking if they had any sunscreen and slathering it on top of the LAST layer).

I'm guessing these people don't burn easily. I escaped with only a super red circle on my wrist around my watch, a burn where the hair is parted on my head and one side of my neck burned. PHEW!

Speaking of PHEW, as in PEW, today we (our entire zone of about 14 missionaries including two native Mandarins) went to the border between mainland and HK and hiked a mountain!

It took a LONG time to get there, mainly because we took the wrong bus. Oops. Oh yeah, and we couldn't find a trail so we started gallavanting around in the bushes, breaking every rule known to Girls Campers about how to avoid ticks and snake bites. ie.,

• Don't walk through grass. Oops.
• Wear long pants. Great.
• Wear a hat. Ha.
• Wear socks, deet, sunscreen, etc etc etc. Oopsie daisy.

Brian would've loved it. Once we got back on a trail though, it was so fabulous. The top was amazing--mainland on one side and HK on the other!

And the breeze, waaah (means so good. People say that all the time here because there's really no way to say, "cool!" or "amazing!" or "that's so neat!". You just say, "Gam hou" = so good.

So we say it in English, too, and all the missionaries sound like 4-year olds):
Breezes are the miracle of evaporation!

Dad, I wanted to ask if you'd look in the HK tour book I sent home and put in your care (not thinking I would still need it) and find something neat for us to go see or do--we can get permission to leave our area, but cannot pass onto the mainland. (sad day). :)

Something cheap would be best. We're already planning on the 10,000 Buddhas.

Thank you, foo chan (dad), leng jai (handsome).

Picture me in a half-dead stupor, half-lying on my top bunk in the halfway-to-heck heat at half-past ten two nights ago:

Sister Baahk dai Yat is going through her ipod and smacks my arm, which is hanging off the bed:

"Sister Darcey, close your eyes."

(*SO already closed, haaa*).

"Listen to the samba music. Where are you right now?"

Sister Baahk dai Yih (me):

"I'm in Spain... at an airport... TRYING TO GET BACK TO HONG KONG!"

Prayers on a Bus

Dear Family,

I love this place.

Monday I taught a woman how to pray on a siu ba (little bus). It was so amazing--especially since she had the thickest accent I have heard yet. She was from the mainland but she didn't speak Mandarin, either--her Cantonese was so garbled. She kept asking me if I sic ting'd (understood) and I'd put my best fake-it face on and nod enthusiastically.

I'm thinking, "Really lady, it's not like if I say NO, your explaining it again is going to help. No Way. "

I'm going completely on the Spirit now--you know, when Luke decides to use the force in the ... I'm going to go with-- the 1st Star Wars movie to destroy the death star? Yup, Just like that.

I'm taking my hands of the steering wheel, and letting the spirit drive because this lady's Chinese is indecipherable. I did understand that she thought that Sister Baahk and I were actually SISTERS, which totally makes sense since we have the same sing (last name). That was pretty much impossible to explain, but I think I handled it (or thought I'd handled it,) until she asked later, "So how many other sisters do you have?"

Daaaah. Face-palm smack.

Anyway, I eventually got up the courage/faith to bring up religion. She had "no time" for church--of course she didn't, no one does here, (But oh my goodness, I don't know if I'd have the faith that so many people have here to take out time. There are Philippinos working 24/7 for their kids back at home. Anyway...) but she believed in God. It was really sweet to tell her that I knew God loved her, and that He knew her name, (her sing was Jahng--we think. Again with the accent.) and cared about her--and wanted to communicate with her in prayer. I asked if she knew how to pray (No?) then I taught her, right there in the very last two seats of a crowded siu ba in Hong Kong, rocking back and forth as the siu ba turned corners, how to pray to God in Cantonese. It was one of the most amazing moments in my life.