If you eat taro ice cream, red bean ice cream and black rice ice cream for dinner...

...that equals a red bean, black rice, taro balanced meal, right? Particularly if served with Octopi?

[ice-cream photos courtesy of internet]

Dear Family,

Funniest ("coincidence...") just happened:

[The editor-Mom doesn't know what the funniest coincidence might be as it is never fully explained in the following letter. And FYI, this letter was one of the most difficult to English grammarize--still debating the neither/nor, either/or, and semicolon issues. But never mind, hold onto your hats for the wind beneath Sis. Darcey's wings is gusting. And away we go!]

Yesterday was awesome, amazing, miraculous; all of our planned lessons worked out!

1. We enjoyed one cute analogy about the Word of Wisdom/Law of Chastity that Sister C. shared--a story of her little brother putting bologna in her CD player. That visual really helped S--our investigator--understand how the things we allow into our bodies affect us.
2. We were able to track down and meet an amazing less-active who'd just gotten divorced last week (and see her smile!!! after reading Moroni 10:32 with her!)
3. Sister C. was able to give a recent convert guitar lessons in CHINESE while I taught his little sister English while the mom (who was TOTALLY opposed to the rest of her kids' baptisms) listened in.

Yeeeessss! And... we ran around crazy and didn't eat dinner. SO last night I had a huge headache and was simultaneously praising the awesomeness of our day and lamenting the non-food-situation of our apartment (actually... the no-ICE CREAM situation of our apartment) when Sister Cook said, "HEY, it's only 9:25 and we didn't get dinner. Let's run down before planning and grab some ice cream."

"Whaaaaat, no, we're in our normal clothes already, that's so mh dak!" (= not done!) I responded mommy-like.

Buuuut she convinced me and we grabbed our tags, phone and Books of Mormon and raced down to the store right below our apartment. We got the prize and had almost made it safely back into the elevator---when we ran into the zone leaders. NOOOOOooooooo it was too perfect. I've NEVER run into them at night before... I've never made an ice cream run before... the one night... yup. God has a sense of humor.

And He proved that again in another instance this week wherein I became convinced that not only does God have a sense of humor but that our AP's [assistant to the president] are crazy.

Last just-a-second-where's-my-planner Tuesday, the AP's called and asked me to... whoa, let's back up a bit.

Remember when I told you about the HUGE Hong-Kong-wide fireside about which, for the last month, we've been spreading the news? The one that will include 100+ other missionaries; the one that will kick off our new English program called "Study and Faith;" the one that has been touted on the news, on Facebook, in papers and on the radio as "The Secret Revealed: How Foreigners Learn Cantonese in Two Months," and the one that President Chan told us, "...will drastically change the face of the church in Hong Kong," he hopes forever?

Remember that fireside?

Remember how Sister Cook and I were curiously wondering as we passed out our 100+ fliers, what it would include since it was such a BIG DEAL?

Well, No, you don't remember because I don't remember if I told you all that, but now you know.

SO we were minding our own business meandering through the acid drizzle to the church from a miracle lesson on the street where the investigator's employer met up with us and we were able to help her move from an entirely negative perspective on the church, to reading the scriptures with us and learning about how God is a God of Miracles in Mormon 9, and her totally opening up (for a Chinese person) and sharing what was going on in her life; then heading to an awesome FHE activity where Sis C. and I pulled together a game out of the random stuff we had at the church including cookies from Christmas, frosting (again! from Valentines!) and random items like scarves/ties/ spoons--When The Phone Rang.

(Stay with me, here).

And the AP started talking about the fireside. I was sure he was going to ask me to lead the music, but then he asked me to speak.

I asked him if he was kidding. Then I asked if he was sure. Then I asked if he was crazy.

Then I stopped talking (=being unable to talk) because he told me my topic: Jesus Christ.

This coming Sunday night, I will share. "How Faith in Jesus Christ and His Gospel Helped Me become Fluent in the Second Hardest Language on Earth in a Little Over One Year," to an audience of business people, professors and news people who have largely either never heard of or have already rejected Jesus Christ and his gospel. It will be 5-7 minutes long followed by fifteen minutes of questions and answers and "should be given in as near to perfect Chinese as possible".

...

So when we got back to the church, I collapsed on the ground and Sister Cook dredged up a box of Lindor truffles and I didn't see the "barley malt" ingredient so we ate like half the box together while we dished out to each other pep talks and moaned.

It was so awesome/awful. THEN we went and taught the best lesson ever to our investigator whom we'd thought didn't have any faith in Christ and then blew us away with her testimony...

(Also did a neat food coloring/ bleach example of the atonement that we altered a little to be truer to the doctrine of repentance and baptism. Usually you just stick in some food coloring to the water, say that it is sin, and then add bleach and stir to represent the atonement washing away sin, but we changed it to adding bleach to represent all the ways WE forget, cover up or deny our sins or repentance without the turning to God.

Then we asked if, even though the water LOOKED clear, anyone would be willing to drink it. No way, it's like half bleach now. Truly understanding and accepting the truth of the atonement not only does away with the sin-- the pain and stain of acting against what we know to be true--but pours us another cup of new, clean water).

This week also included:

• a guitar/how-to-share-your-beliefs-with-your-parents-who-don't-want-you-to-come-to-church class,
• a 15 minute lesson with a super sweet mom who said she just didn't have time with her two jobs and didn't want to see us again. But on the phone, I bore all the testimony in me that she would not regret just 15 minutes with us--and she accepted,
• a lady who randomly came to the church at Tuen Mun's and wants to come regularly but actually lives in Yuen Long, so she called us to come see the church and hear the gospel (we'll meet her tomorrow!),
• and then God granted me time--time when I really enjoyed singing beautiful hymns in harmony with Sister C.--truly a personal gift from my Lord just for Dia Darcey.

I love it here and love my life and love being part of God's work.

I know God loves us and is completely aware of us.

He only gives us as much as He can handle.

We must totally turn to Him when we feel it's too much.

Pray for me on Sunday! Thanks loved ones!

Sister D

Wish me Happy Anniversary! It's been one year TODAY!

Hello family and beLOVEd peoples and animals etc,

Chihng Yahn Jit Faai Lohk! (Sweetheart's Holiday Happiness!) Happy Valentines!

Valentines (Hong Kong China is REALLY GOOD at the junk part of Valentines actually--little paper/stickers/craft shops are EVERYWHERE).

We were pricked in our hearts in last week's weekly planning--OK, mostly because we had nothing planned for Wednesday night and wanted to do something fun and different and non-boring-- to make up and set up a
Valentine's activity.

So I already told you how we pulled off an almost genuine USA Laurels level activity--made frosting (blending the sugar into sorta powdered) and that it went really well? We made little rose/pencils (substituted green electric tape for green floral tape and I had to figure out how to ask for red cellophane at the shop and we used pencils instead of sticks which was actually infinitely cuter and more useful).

But then we had all these supplies left over, so we used the same supplies to do THREE other activities at an English teaching class last Saturday night. The poetry the kids wrote was HILARIOUS:

"Dear Friend;

The hand(s) and the feet.
You are.

My energy."

and another,

"Behind the moon
Under the sun
You are my brightest star"

and yet another,

"Hope you always have considerate friend at your side everytime."

Oh man, it really was inspired and the best idea ever. OH, and the favorite one was the one Sister C made just for me, which I will try to remember... It starts, "It's hard to explain how awesome you are/ You are more awesome than a Fender guitar" and ends... "I've used the word awesome four times, now five/Poe would slaughter me if he was alive/But he isn't, so I'll still give you this Valentines card/ and you'll always remember Gou Ji Muih, "The Bard"

... BEST THING EVER.

We repeated the activity at a make-Valentines-for-less-actives-and-build-relationship-with-new-ward-missionary
thing at Sister L's house Sunday night (which worked perfectly since a couple of appointments had just fallen through), and a SERIOUSLY LAST MINUTE AWESOME activity at the church Monday night that was
constructed entirely because our district leader was trying to get us in contact with a couple friends of a member student in HIS ward (Tin Shui Wai) and he knew they'd be in Yuen Long on Monday so he called us and we pulled everything back together from the other activities and did it AGAIN--and met two new friends (R and R) both from Yuen Long AND got back in contact with Y., that gal we met at the beach-bum activity from LAST Saturday... basically
activities are infinitely more effective AND more fun than tracting in missionary work. AND did I mention more fun...

We're focusing on the JOY and happiness of getting to have the Lord as our boss in our work! It's so wonderful and hopeful to just release and trust him. I've been working myself into a rut for a while, and I've been pulling back out of it and seeing dawn.

Bye for now, Sister Darcey

More CHINA Dates and Hong Kong Suplises

To Continue:

On Monday, the president of our Mission, showed up at our apartment (surprise!) and held interviews with us. I  showed him our "Happy Tree", the piece of plastic we sticky-tac'd to our wall and drew/wrote miracles on so that we would remember the joy and the success of missionary work. He simply said, in his adorable accent that I'll never forget my whole life, "Sister Darcey, in fact, you don't need a tree. I can tell you, you are an excellent missionary."

He then talked just a little. He is so powerful... he only says like three sentences, but they are SO profound. He spoke about not sacrificing more than you have. The Lord wants a sacrifice of righteousness but he only wants what he asks for.

In comp study on Tuesday we tried to figure out what that is that He asks of each of us--and on Wednesday I think we figured out that we're really already consecrating and giving it all, we just need to do as He asks and trust Him more. I think we do that through relaxing and relying on Him.

On a lighter note to end, I got asked on a Valentine's Day date! I was just walking along on Daai Tung Road (busiest street in Yuen Long) minding the Lord's business when I heard "Mo Muhn Gaau?" which means that I must immediately stop in my tracks and try to explain to someone that we're not an evil church. I looked over and found a WAAAAAAY-too-interested-20-something-Chinese male walking along beside us and asking me to explain the Bible to him and could he come to church with me and what was my number and could I come visit him at his house and what was I doing tonight and then Oh my goodness, then he put his hand on my shoulder (it's been a LOOOONG time since I've been touched by a male in any way besides a handshake bleeeeeh) and his face was 5 inches from mine and he asked, "Do you have blue eyes?!"

Oh, man. Sister C was pretty much cracking up and I was like, "Um, we have to get on THIS TRAIN, goodbye!"
And we got on the light rail pulling up with absolutely no idea where it was going--but not until he forced me to give him a number (I gave him my OLD number from my last area and then called those sisters and told them not to answer it, haaaaaaa). Sister C's explanation was just perfect: "What did he THINK would happen? You're a SISTER MISSIONARY! Did he think you'd just say,

*speaking in falsetto* "Oh, yes, I want to give up my life of serving in the church and run away with you! Something in your aura just caught my heart away! Can I meet you tonight?" Bleeeeeeeh ;)

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make his/my/our date that night as we had a lesson at W's house planned (and taught two more suplise lessons on the way, woot!) but I did take out Sister C for a romantic neon-lit dinner of steamed rice, salty fish and greasy octopus patties mmmmmm. 

Got Cami's package and a lot of mail that night, so fun! So perfect, on the list of best Valentines ever ;)

1 John 4:11 is what we've been writing on all our Valentines all week. Everyone could read the whole chapter to remember the source of all love and goodness, our Savior.

Love forever and throughout eternity,

Sister Dia Darcey

PS no camera this week it's a long story :)

If Mom Were In Hong Kong

Dear All and everyone:

Well, I'm fulfilling what Oscar Wilde wrongly described as the tragedy of every woman's life: I'm becoming my mother!

Now, this has been my goal for the past 14 or so years -- (since at about 8 years old, someone explained to me that there were some serious genetic challenges in my then-goals of growing up to be my other superheroes:

#1, Dad and

#2, Pocahontas),

I'm seriously enjoying the process of laughing at myself (and her! :D ) and finding the joy in the journey...

Evidence # 1

(I can't think of what it's called in a court case... mom, help? It's like, look, we have a picture of their footprint! And that's _____#1. Help?):

[could she mean exhibit?]

I pulled a brilliantly-Terina-Mommy-like move on Sunday afternoon. We'd had a crazy busy Sunday as usual, that was highlighted by a visit to a recent convert's family because her grandpa was in the hospital. [W. from Yuen Long (if Sister Hancock's reading, W needs a note!)] was really, really sad--eventually figured out (Chineeeeese ayiyaaa) that she was really upset not because he was passing away but because her family could not accept the peace that the knowledge of Christ's gospel truth brings.

We taught a really awesome lesson--on a bench outside his room--based on the promise of Christ and the Book of Mormon. We talked about the prophet's experiences of family member's rejecting or eventually receiving the gospel and the neatest part was when W's little sister, who we've been trying to contact forever to learn about the gospel because she has a ton of potential and really good questions, but is socially awkward so she doesn't want to start meeting with us, came and sat down next to us on the bench--and W. tried to share her testimony.

[Whew! And I thought only Mark Twain could pull off a convoluted sentence like that]

It's a beautiful gospel truth that families are forever, but maybe one even more poignant is that families are not perfect. Families are not perfect, but they are beloved by God. Families are not perfect, but love within families is probably the closest we'll get to God-like care. We were able to teach a lot to J (the little sis) and reschedule her for an activity on the coming Wednesday (last night--she came, and loved it, and I LOVE her).]

So, it was about 5:15 when I received a phone call from Brother D, the member who set up the town performance we were supposed to do on Monday that I told you about last week. He asked, "Are you coming to my house yet?" "Um." I replied, "You mean... actually, what do you mean. What? Why?"

He said with not a hint of anxiety in his voice, "The C party. Tonight. 5:30."

I said with more than a hint of anxiety some lovely Chinese phrases (it's ok, the worst phrase I know is "it's devil hot" so the only thing that came out was like "YOU'RE KIDDING ME") and started diving for our stuff to pack so we could get back out the door to get to his chyun--more than an hour away by train, bus and walking a lot.

My companion was more than a little distressed seeing my sudden change in demeanor... OH, it was so awesome. In the end we switched piano players (to an Elder who'd literally never seen the piece and the first time he played it was for us--and 300+ people) and Bro D picked us up and we practiced in the car on the way and it was AWESOME hilarious and I have videos that I tried to send but I have a feeling it didn't work.

Anyway--THAT EXPERIENCE SO reminded me of my entire teen life with my mother... not that you were absent minded, Mom, it's just more like your mind had taken an extended leave...

EVIDENCE #2 I cut my hair off and now I look exactly like a blond version of Mum.

I think the hair stylist was seriously freaked out by how much hair came out when he was just combing through it. I thought about faking a theatrical "getting scared/upset/ angry/passing out" but I then decided to have mercy and just tell him it's no big deal, just chop it off. The stylist must have caught a glimpse of a vision of my mom or something, but this supposedly it's called an A-line (tempted to call it an Air-head) hairdo that makes me seriously look exactly like Terina De.

ANYWAY! I love having short hair; I think WAY less is left to fall out and it doesn't feel so thin and gross. We saved

the ponytail--6 inches--that he cut off, and I'll have to send it home just to show how thin my hair really is/was. It's like... less than a finger's width. BUT it feels way better now and was a big step forward mentally, I think.

I finally garnered the courage to read Sister J' note this week and seriously tung yi'd (agreed?) with a lot of things--I, too, thought at times, "Man, I'd ALMOST rather have NO hair than this constant stress of seeing it everywhere and
picking it off everything and it's all over the floor and worrying everyone and when should I cut it etc etc" AND it was SO not helpful that everyone kept saying it was just stress and (therefore) if I just calmed down and stopped taking stuff so seriously and relied on Christ that it would stop.

One of the biggest corners [turn-arounds] in dealing with this was when Sister C said one day, "Hey, it's not your fault that your hair's falling out" and another light blinked on and day dawned and once more peace reigned.

Anyway, it's been SO MUCH better this week and I've found so much joy, and comfort in seeing a blonde version of my mother every time I see a mirror :D even though I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to "do" this hair do and since I have no time/care/idea how/hair dryer it ends up looking like I fell backward through a hurricane everyday... I
kinda like that look.

Wow, fabulous week. We had two amazing activities, one of which me and Sister C just made up because we wanted to meet more Young Women and their friends. It was a Valentines activity last night SO FUN because I love crafts and colored paper and sequins and it turns out that 12-24 year old CHinese girls LOVE IT TOO! I bought a blender for this activity so I could MAKE powdered sugar (I think I killed the blender the very first day I bought it--that reminded me of Momma, TOO!) to make frosting.

The other party was a crazy beach party that so didn't feel like missionary work but was one of the most effective fellowship things we've done to meet members and get referrals EVER.

Oops, Out of time,

love you all!

Sister D

My little baby's going off and saving China!

Dear each and every ones,

 Sister C just blows me away every day. She's speaking miracles! She really loves these people and 
has such great faith. I'm so thankful for her talents, too--we just got asked, through a church member,
 to SING at a "chyun lyuhn fun wui" which is basically a town party for New Year's. 
(There will be a lion dance!! I can see my first one up close!!)

They want "pioneer American songs" and we auditioned last night. It was so neat--a miracle that 

we just HAPPEN to have Sister C--who's been singing and playing in bluegrass bands her 

WHOLE LIFE--here at this time!! It was so awesome. We tried out for the presidency of the town 

board thing--two Chinese men with ponytails who didn't want anything "too Jesus-y". We sang

 "I'll Fly Away" (with like an hour the night before of practice--and I'm a little sick) and just blew 

them all away. They don't want us to sing that one, actually (because it says the word "die" in it, 

and Chinese people are SO not ok with that) but it was a great show of our talent :D and 

enthusiasm!

And awesome harmonies! Anyway. They wanted us to sing something in Chinese, too, so Brother D (the member) went and grabbed a couple hymnbooks from his house. It was a really special and simultaneously
heart breaking (is that called poignant in English?) moment as they were picking from the hymns. They were skipping anything that mentioned "Jyu" (Lord) "Sahn" (God) or "Yeh Sou" (Jesus) and we were a little worried. THen, however, they turned to "Love at Home." This really is our special message and the reason we usually start on the train or bus with "Our church really focuses on families; we have a special message about how to have more happiness and unity in YOUR home that we'd love to share with you..." Chinese people are so focused on their families. And Satan is doing everything he can to destroy or distort that into an obsession with money or prosperity, even to an obsession with school work... It was pretty cool.

We'll also be singing "Faith in Every Footstep," which I have NO IDEA how it got approved... it's SO LDS-y... whatever, super excited. We'll be pulling that off somehow--

AND We'll be MC'ing the whole night because they think it's cool when white people speak Chinese--this will be Monday night. So, pray that our Elders can learn the piano music that fast :D

Lately the 2nd ward has been asking me to play the piano in Sacrament. This should help the stress level right? I used to play the piano for peace and calm in high school. This invitation has led to some hilarious happenstance the last couple weeks because of the yat jihk = (...english... english... can't remember english constantly?) it's the up-beat heartbeat that happens to me every Sunday morning...

Anyway, back to the excitement of Sundays,

Last Sunday we had to be at church for correlation at 8 (= wake up at 6 and leave the house by 6:45) and then we had the next ward's correlation at 8:30, simultaneously trying to call a couple investigators and less-actives to get them up for church, THEN trying to find Sacrament (I forgot to bring it last week--I always use this special rice cracker that's pretty much as common as the equivalent of their Oreo here. I didn't bring one last week--but prayed hard--and in between the Sacrament meetings a member who is deaf ushered us outside and gave us each a bag of food--which of course included this special cracker! = I could have Sacrament! YES!)

What with welcoming members AND trying to find someone to sit next to the new investigator who came and someone to translate for the Phillapina lady who comes sometimes with her employer so that she can understand the meeting (I ended up doing it tee hee) and AFTER all that racing up to the piano and sitting down and playing "Sweet Hour of Prayer"...

Is it any wonder that I played it at LIGHTSPEED -- making the "hour" of prayer into about "Sweet 30 seonds of
prayer sweet thirty seconds of prayer" bwahahaaa. I sped along the whole congregation sprinting behind me until my heart rate finally went down on the second chorus and I look up to see the conductor frantically signalling "SLOWER, Sister, Slower! MERCY!" and... yup. That's about how the peace of playing in Sacrament goes. Hilarious.

Mercies and Miracles

Letter Page II

I'm a little sick today so I got excused from the zone activity (such a fugitive) and got to sleep for 30 minutes! And I'm wearing a facemask, so weird. Here, because of SARS a couple years ago, if you're sniffling at all on the train or bus people will literally OFFER you a mask. So odd. It might just be allergies, not a big deal.

Miracles all week! One was getting fonged [stood up?] because our 9 year old investigator and her little bro got out of school late. We then prayed, decided to find a bathroom and magically ran into them around the other side of the estate. [park] So we got to teach them English and the tree of life after all, yay!

Oh, but the BIGGEST mercy was that this gal's big big brother E. (recent convert, then got all... back to
badness, put back in his earrings and didn't want the priesthood and never came to church etc) has TOTALLY CHANGED! We have no idea what the Lord did in his life, no idea what happened but he showed up with lil sis Saturday afternoon two hours early for English class and Sunday morning 30 minutes early to church... wow. We're so amazed and thankful; I love that kid!

Another was Monday night--teaching S. and finally helping her set a baptismal date! She's 15 and an "old soul"--SUPER smart (into physics, I even have trouble helping her with her English homework) (OK, that's not saying a lot since my english is horrible now) and very very very Buddhist. But she LOVES the Book of Mormon. We've been
working with her for about two months now. Their family was a member referral from our correlator and they're so so so provident but on Sunday still chang'd us to a TON of food--so heart enlivening actually, to see how much they love and revere this sacred work.

Anyway, on Monday we watched the Restoration with her and S L (a 14 year old member)

[WATCH OUT ! ! ! Total non-sequitor]

More on her: lil sis of the gal who just went to BYU Hawaii and whom I told to look up Amber Blair and then Amber sent me a letter and I LOVED the earrings thanks Amber!!!... anyway)

...and the Spirit was indescribable. We challenged her to fast this coming Sunday with us (and SL!) for a confirmation of her choice to get baptized February 26th--and she said she's willing. Amazing spirit and lesson and girl. I'm so blessed to be seeing and hearing these things every day!

Best quote of the week:
My hair band was coming out of my ponytail. Sister Cook noticed and mentioned,
"Hey, your hair's falling out."
I looked at her --we both paused for a second, "Um, I know."
Then we both busted up laughing :D ha ha ha haaaaaaa

I'll probably cut it shorter today. Too scared to get a Chinese bob, but I'll get a couple inches off, for sure. I'm not gonna buy a wig, not mentally prep'd for that yet. And it doesn't look THAT bad yet :D Did get blood work, we'll see how that turns out next week. Hugs family,

Love you all, no worries here (or not many anyway).

Sister Dia