"My Little Baby's Goin' Off To Save People!" MUSHU

Dear Each and Every One!

BIG NEWS! BIG meaning TERRIFYING! We found out on Tuesday night that Sister Black is moving to Macau, English speaking and I'm staying here in my area---but that our apartment would move from Mong Kok to Tai Po! AND I would get (got) a BUN DEIH (read like boon day) companion! = NATIVE!!

Yeah, so basically I have the responsibility of all the knowledge of the area and I've just been forcibly removed from my mommy (seriously, I was basically swimming after the boat headed to Macau; They had to drag me back onto the dock).

AND Sister J, is my new companion...

who doesn't speak English.

WOOT! And by woot, I mean WHIMPER OF FEAR! I'm trying to adjust/survive.

{this photo is of Sisters D & B's last day.}

Sister J is a only-one-in-her-family convert of about 8 years. She is super traditional Chinese in her food, exercise and how-hard-things-are ideas--but she is really, REALLY awesome and a hard worker (from what I can tell from the past twenty four hours or so). She's also seems really serious. She's never been senior comp before and she actually started her mission in February, too (but only had to spend 3 weeks in the PHILLIPINES MTC since she already speaks Chinese). I really like her. I also really miss English.

The biggest worry for me is I hadn't even really figured out missionary work in ENGLISH. Since maybe the most important part of missionary work is working to become one with your companion, now I have to learn how to do everything in Chinese... and I'm not even comfortable enough in Chinese to really even have a personality yet. I feel like my missionary identity was really tied with Sister Black--where I'd even think in terms of "we" instead of "I"--and it will definitely be a challenge to learn how to be an independent missionary.

Interesting Spiritual Side Note:

Also, I noticed this week--as other missionaries, leaders, etc noticed that I was kinda freaking out--that most things we rely on to buoy ourselves up are based somehow on compliments--ergo, PRIDE. Phrases like, "President Chan wouldn't put you there unless he thought you could do it."

or "God must trust you a lot!"

These phrases seem hollow to me. I think that up 'til now, I have been missing the point of weaknesses and challenges. Challenges aren't put before us to test how much we are capable of. Instead I think they are put before us to teach us to trust Him, to learn how much HE is capable of. His strength is shown in my weakness and incapacities, and I'm here because HE can do it. God put me here because he wants me to learn how much He can help me, so I will try, try, try to trust Him and keep praying and keep smiling and keep trying to help these people progress to Him!

And missionary work really is the most awesome thing in the world! Can I just say, no one has ever felt this cool (HOT!) wearing a cardigan.

I ate a pig ear's this week (not a big deal, basically tasted like really chewy piece of ....ok, I actually can't describe it. It kinda reminded me of plastic, actually).

Yesterday as we (me, Sister J and our new summer missionary VASHTI! Yay!) were taking our luggage up to our new apartment (it's so big and so beautiful!), the white man walking in front of us kept looking back. Eventually he turned on his heel and came back to set us straight. He said something like he wanted to "let you all (the two chinese girls) know that this church says they're Christian and true but it isn't and I just want you to know that..."

We didn't say anything; we didn't have to, because suddenly he looked down and then he realized that we were ALL wearing a black nametag, not just the blonde girl.

Well, whatever, after he caught a glimpse of their nametags he turned tail again...

Ah, sad. I couldn't help but giggle a little at the irony of the situation when we got into the elevator and I translated--

from English to Cantonese-- what he had said to those whom he perceived as poor, helpless, Chinese victims--my stalwart senior companion and our summer missionary. These are both women who have endured much more trying opposition to their faith than I have today from a random, ill-informed white guy.

Later in the day, we also experienced a random miracle (it's the spiritual law of opposition--and it always works). I was chatting with a lady from the mainland with a very thick accent on the train and I had explained the restoration with a pamphlet and I told her how it had blessed my life and my family. When she got off the train with pamphlet in hand, another native lady, who'd been watching and listening the whole time, contacted ME! (that doesn't happen very often!) She actually ASKED if she could have a pamphlet and our telephone number because her kids had started in a Christian school and she really wanted them to know what it was that the school believed. She spoke perfect English. She'd heard me, I guess, talk about why there were so many Christian churches and that we wanted to give people the opportunity to learn why. I hope she was touched by the Spirit when I testified about the blessings that come from following God's plan for our happiness, the gospel. It was a pretty neat and very quick experience. Her name is Yan, if you want to pray that God's spirit will touch her! :)

We didn't get to email yesterday because of the apartment move (so crazy!). Sorry you had to wait until today! I love you all!

Sister DIA Darcey

Testimony Of Prayer to Aunt DawnL

Dear Clegg Family, Thank you for my very-last-stateside-letter. It feels so long ago that I was in the MTC. It truly has been the best experience of my life. HK is so amazing: There are so many different kinds of fruits and fish that I've never seen before and the buildings are so tall. Chinese is so hard to learn, but God really helps me learn it FASTER. Another funny thing about HK is that braided hair is really cool here. Every time I wear my hair in a braid around my head everyone says "Sai lai!. or hou leng! So cool, so pretty.

I must share a neat testimony with you to pass on to the rest of the family of the power of prayer:

Last Tuesday we went to the mission office for a meeting and on the way out the door to return home, my companion, Sister B and I both felt like we had forgotten something. We went back into the office and searched around... nope. Weird. We started walking slowly back out, convincing ourselves through talking that we had picked up everything we needed but we both still felt uncomfortable. We each decided that we should say a quick prayer. We kept heading toward the MTR and kept feeling odd, so we turned back again and decided to just start walking. The very next person we met asked us if she could have a Book of Mormon!! it was so amazing!

If we had been any earlier or had kept walking to the train we would not have met her. Her name was Kate and she was only in Hong Kong for one day. She was from mainland China and the people there have to come into Hong Kong if they hope to ever learn about religion, as it is prohibited on mainland China to worship any religion outside your own home.

She had only heard of Jesus Christ once before and so we taught her a short lesson right there

on the street!

I want you to know that I have a testimony that Heavenly Father wants to guide us and he wants us to help others learn about His gospel.

Love Sister Dia!!

If It's Going To Be Funny Tomorrow, May as Well Laugh Now

Dear Friends and Family,

Meet Sister Lee and Her Two Sons, Kyle and Kyle--that was a real introduction I heard this week.

It is Sunday night and I am lying on my mat contemplating the best way to describe and eat a chicken's foot, and I think I came up with some pretty good answers.

There are actually two types of Hong Kong chicken foot preparation: broiled/baked/fried and boiled. The first sort is infinitely more preferable to me than the second, as the first is actually very similar in texture to a very scrawny chicken wing and the second resembles more of a prickly skin bag wrapped around or filled with a thick snotty substance with tiny little bones swimming around inside. Oh, and I can't forget. WITH CLAWS.

The reason the first option is better than the second is because the first kind of chicken foot can be eaten by gingerly picking off meat and skin with your teeth and sliding the bone underneath the edge of your plate asap. The second option is much more all inclusive--one must first pluck off the claws with the teeth, and then suck all the snot and skin off the tiny little bones while thinking of your happy place...

I'm developing so much faith in my stomach acid here in HK.

We participated in a WATER FIGHT in Tai Wai with the leuih/lahm ching lings (YM/YW) on Friday. It was ridiculously fun AND we had a couple investigators, less-actives and recent converts there. We squirted each other with water guns for about 10 seconds...then moved to the hose and buckets. And then we pulled out the big guns--the water balloon catapults we had prepared beforehand.

Our leader, Bishop Mak is so fun--he was a gangster before he was converted in his 20's. He's the one who hosts a huge FHE at his house every single Monday night--and . He kinda reminds me of Bishop Anderson; I love him (them both!) so much! He is so good with our investigators--it's neat how much he radiates love and how comfortable it makes you in his presence. He can also, I've noticed, ask more of people because they know how much he loves them (even immediately--at first meeting!). I think that's how God works with us, so it's a fabulous quality in a leader (or a Dad, or Mom, or anyone, really).

My companion, Sister B is so wonderful--she sticks up for my food needs so well! On Saturday night members from MOS (the N family) wanted to chang us out last minute. We met them at the mall and they told us that we'd be going to (drumrolll........) PIZZA HUT! Ayiyaaah--Sister B really tried to convince him to pick somewhere else--anywhere else--but thinking it would be a real treat for the Americans, he reassured me that they could find me dak (ok) food there.

That was not a fun night--Pizza Hut in HK is more like Olive Garden or nicer in the US, and they used flour in everything. I don't know why that stresses me out so much, but it is really difficult for me to be a mah faahn (best translation... bother? to be a bother? or an annoyance?)

YET to know that pretty much everything I ate was going to make me sick later. It was much worse though to watch everyone else eating pizza for two hours or so while I sucked Sprite...) The whole time Sister B kept whispering--think how funny it'll be tomorrow!

I wonder if I probably have developed some kind of psycho problem being in China; Such situations really shouldn't stress me out that much. So I have the Solution!

Pray for Pizza Hut to suddenly go out of business in the whole of China!

OK, I know, I know, maybe that's too big. So pray for me to work through my food anxieties that have been building for about three years now :) I need to have more confidence. I must open my mouth, put my worries aside and be strong! I will be more powerful in my convictions that I JUST CAN'T EAT THAT! Ha! Good Practice for a Missionary!

Oh, yeah, Sister B is wonderful! That's what I am talking about. We have the most fun companion studies/discussions over dinner or at night ever---this last week we found a free Old Testament study guide at the mission home-- (Imagine such a phenomena akin to basically letting Ian loose in a GF pizza bakery).

Since then we've tried to figure out how old Daniel was when he got taken to Babylon, we've acted out Jeremiah's prophecies (he was so awesome! And hilariously caustic, who know?!), we've discussed atonement theory and Mosaic law and these conversations with someone so smart in the scriptures is wonderful.

I love her so much! She's also doing an English fast right now--[Going without speaking it?]

Ah, a couple days ago I bought a mango the size of a papaya. I think THAT this food may be the best way to describe Garden of Eden happiness (maybe I will use it as a metaphor when I contact--"Hello, have you ever learned about how you could have REAL happiness--mango-the-size-of-a-papaya kind of happiness?").

You know when Daniel gets taken out of the lion's den and then the king puts in the bad people and the lions gobble them up in a frenzy? That's pretty much what happened with me and the mango... I think there may have been mango on the ceiling...

I received a couple of letters in the mail at the mission office today; I'm so excited to read them! I haven't even had time yet to see who they're from, but one is a Dear Elder. At least one, I think...? Has anyone gotten Dad a wall calendar yet--the ones where you put a sticker on every day for your missionary? I think that'd be HILARIOUS ...and that he'd actually secretly use it.

AAAAHHHH I have to tell you more about Angel's baptism!!! She didn't come to church on that day YIKES-- she'd only come 2 times and you have to come 3 tiems b4 you get baptized. I called in a panic--she said that she just couldn't come. She has a son w/ a heart condition and her daughter couldn't be there to take care of him--absolutely no way she could be there, but that she was really looking forward to her baptism at 2.

Yikes!! So we had Chan H D, our ward correlator who also happens to be the mission president's 23 year old son, call Pres Chan--oh, but Pres Chan's in MACAU (like calling... Puerto Rico. From Florida. Sorta). So Pres. Chan says he trusts the judgement of the sister missionaries and that it's UP TO US (gulp!) if she's ready to get baptized or not-- yikes! So we pray and take Sacrament and this is all happening WHILE we're taking care of other investigators at church, and we pray some more and call her and talk to Bishop and finally decide that she is ready. And she comes to get baptized--just beaming, so beautiful, even wearing a dress!!! so exciting--and even has invited the member referral she knew who helped her learn about the church 10 years ago.

So she's in white, in the baptismal font, so exciting, the lahm ching ling (YM) does the prayer to baptize her---and then he starts lowering her, I swear inch by inch, into the font. What is he doing?! She's a good 6 inches taller than him, for sure, but ---oh, no. (this is so hard to describe without actions, but basically try to picture someone floating on their back and someone else alternately pushing down their shoulders and then their feet start coming up, so he starts pushing on her feet and her head starts to come up and he's had her under the water for what feels like at least 10 minutes and I'm as white as the wall behind me and the whole room is starting to swim and people are starting to shout cheut laih (bring her back out!!!) and he so does WHEW!

And we start over. Whew. Deep breathe. Prayer. Amen. ... then he does it AGAIN. aND THEN he does it... (drumrolll........) FIVE MORE TIMES. So basically, after 7 drowning/baptisms, Angel is finally baptized. And I think I aged about 30 years.

I was so stressed out.

And Yes, like Sister B always tells me, it was HILARIOUS... later.

lOVE YOU eVery One! sISTER dARCEY

Water Fight Hong Kong Style

We participated in a WATER FIGHT in Tai Wai with the leuih/lahm ching lings (YM/YW) on Friday. It was ridiculously fun AND we had a couple investigators, less-actives and recent converts there. We squirted each other with water guns for about 10 seconds...then moved to the hose and buckets. And then we pulled out the big guns--the water balloon catapults we had prepared beforehand.

Our leader, Bishop Mak is so fun--he was a gangster before he was converted in his 20's. He's the one who hosts a huge FHE at his house every single Monday night--and . He kinda reminds me of Bishop Anderson; I love him (them both!) so much! He is so good with our investigators--it's neat how much he radiates love and how comfortable it makes you in his presence. He can also, I've noticed, ask more of people because they know how much he loves them (even immediately--at first meeting!). I think that's how God works with us, so it's a fabulous quality in a leader (or a Dad, or Mom, or anyone, really).

Dearest Family and Friends:

First: Tell Brock that there IS indeed a light show in Hong Kong! (Click to see the light show). It's made up of a whole bunch of different buildings and goes off every night at 8 pm. I've never actually seen it from the island, but one of the buildings is right outside our kitchen window. A couple weeks ago we used our dinner hour to run the 20 flights of stairs in our building twice, and from the top you can see three buildings at once going off!!! Apparently it's really amazing from the island because everything's synchronized with music that they play on the Pier. Hong Kong is so amazing!

Second: Yesterday we found (and MADE) a gluten free brownie mix! Kowloon Tong/Sha Tin/where I live and serve right now is really amazing for GF food. It's seems really expensive ($52???) but then I remember that food is so cheap here (divide by 8... oh. more like $7). We spend between 25 and 35 on a meal normally (between 3 and 5 USD) and a super expensive meal (KOREAN BARBEQUE SO DELICIOUS) is still only 10 USD.

Third: Speaking of food, I've now tried octopus balls (pretty good, no complaints), squid (which wriggles when you put it on the grill... that was a shocker), pig ear (whatever... just put that on my plate. Great. Thank you), pig stomach (pretty good) and cow tongue (actually really good). My favorite thing I ate this week was... probably... eel sushi (we're not allowed to eat raw/real sushi so it was cooked!).

We had a kickoff dinner/planning meeting on Sunday night for our English EFY camp and Sister Black and I volunteered to make the food---GF CREPES. We have developed a lovely recipe on our dinner hours of about 1 c glutinous rice flour, 2 c rice flour, 2 eggs, vanilla, soy milk and water. They're DELICIOUS with peanut butter, bananas, flax, berries, mango, flax, chocolate sprinkles, nutella, flax, flax, flax... basically they're just an excuse to eat more flax... anyway.

So we brought everything we needed to the church and started about 45 min before the thing was supposed to start. We even brought our own pan because the church in Sha Tin/Tai Wai is not very well equipped (it was renovated about a year ago) (and we found a gecko in it last night... long story: actually really short story: I saw a gecko, the end! --in the CHURCH, not in the PAN).

Anyway. We mixed up A TON of crepe mix (used 16 eggs!!!) oiled our pan and turned on the stove. Now, HK has these things called "smart stoves" which means that the stove can sense what is ON it and thus, will turn off by itself once the pan is taken off (so the church doesn't, for example, burn down). Unfortunately, the so called smart stove didn't RECOGNIZE our pan.

No amount of testifying ("I know this pan is a true pan. I myself have cooked with it many a time and it has brought me great happiness and delicious crepes. You too can have these blessings in your own life...") would change this stove's mind.

SO we got creative--and tried cooking a crepe in the soup pot there at the church. Sizzling, scorched failure. OK, let's get MORE creative... and put our pan on TOP of this aluminum PAN!~ Nope. Still doesn't recognize it... At this point, MY most creative thought was either "first, we'll turn this crepe mix into a flea. A harmless little flea. Then, I'll put that flea in a box. Then I'll put that box in another box and then I'LL MAIL that box to myself and use MY STOVE TO COOK IT.." or "hmmmm....what else in the church gets hot?" It's so lucky Sister Black was there or the church really might have burned down.

So we tried double boiling CREPES ("I'll put our pot in another pot, and then I'll fill that pot with water, and when it boils HA HA HA, I'll turn the crepe OVER! IT'S brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! I say, GENIUS!"), which actually worked in the end. We also made crepe muffins and crepe... sorta like german pancakes in the oven... yeah, whatever. We were TRIUMPHANT, and IT WAS DELICIOUS.

Anyway... missionary work... tee hee. This week we saw Angel, who teaches us more than we teach her. She's getting baptized this Sunday at absolutely no credit of ours. A rock could've taught her the discussions and she'd still get baptized. And the ROCK would probably have a better testimony at the end, too.

Oh, I witnessed a beautiful experience last Sunday during Relief Society. LJM in Tai Wai was teaching--her husband is not a member but comes with her and her 3 year old boy, Gee, to church. Gee is pretty much the cutest boy on the PLANET and he really withstands well, all the spoiling that the ward would LOVE to force him into. (Yeah, Sister Darcey, that sentence made so much sense...) (OK, what I meant is that he really should be quite annoying since the ward spoils him silly) (but he isn't, he's still hilarious and very down to earth) (for a three year old) (I'm gonna stop now with the parenthesis).

Anyway. Leung JM was teaching a hilarious--as far as I could sic ting {understand}--lesson about how to love other people. She was in the middle of a gut-splitting story about Gee learning to love the hideous 150-year old lady next door who always spit on their door mat, because that's just what old people above 60 DO here, they SPIT ALL THE TIME, when her big sister walked in to the meeting late.

Now, I happened to know that this big sister was really special to LJM because she'd fed us lunch on Saturday and told us how she was reactivated--her big sister got in some kind of accident (sorry, wish I knew more Chinese and I'd tell you what kind), had to go to the hospital and asked her lil sister, basically with her last breath, to pray. LJM prayed and her sister was miraculously healed (sorry, the story's much better in Chinese/if I could actually understand Chinese tee hee)--but I still was totally taken aback by what happened next in the meeting.

When LJM saw her come in, she immediately flew across the room and flung her arms around her neck. LJM is pretty animated (if you haven't already figured that out) so I thought at first that this was an object lesson about how to love others--but she kept holding on. And started crying. Everyone in the room felt a little awkward--I mean, we are Chinese people, we don't do this lovey-dovey stuff, this is even weird by American standards--and HJM (the RS Pres) then stood up and explained.

On a side note: I've learned that every time HJM talks I might as well just tune out because I've come to the conclusion that she's not even speaking Cantonese--she's speaking lightningHJMlanguage--so I have NO CLUE what she said. Another side note, this is most unfortunate since HJM fellowships with us all the time (tee hee).

Meanwhile, LJM just kept holding on. It was so amazing--every particle of thought was bent on loving her big sister, she had no, zero, nada thought for what it would look like to a room full of other people. I realized, watching that, what the parable meant when it says, "he fell on his neck" and I think I learned, I understood a little bit better, about what the Lord means when he says, "Love One Another," and how much God loves us and wants to welcome us back into his presence. WOW!~

So I leave you now with the reminder that I love you... all. Sister Dia Darcey

P.S. Tell Peruvian Cousin Derick that I loved his dear elder (#2! One more letter already than I was expecting!!!) Who said that?