A Week of Growth

Leihdeih hou!
Not going to lie, this week has been pretty hard. Being in a trio is harder than I expected (although thankfully we all get along great and our sense of humor is straight fire, let me tell you), and covering two areas is way harder than I expected, and trying to adjust to doing both of those things at the same time (while two of my two companions are basically on their deathbeds with bronchitis/the cold and while we have a new district leader who is really pushing us to be better than we've ever been before and better than we think we can even be, which is admittedly a good thing) has been an interesting experience. Here's some things I've learned:
1. It's okay to struggle (you'd think I would have learned that week 2 in the MTC, hahaha)
2. Communication fixes pretty much everything (you'd think I would have learned that sooner too)
3. Growing mentally and emotionally and spiritually is like growing physically--when you grow really really fast all at once, it gives you lots of growth pains. It's not fun and it hurts a lot, but the good news is that by the end of it, you're not a puny eleven-year-old anymore. Not that there's anything wrong with being eleven, but once you're not eleven anymore, you know that there's so many better things ahead (has anyone ever tried being nineteen? I'll probably look back at this and laugh at that when I'm thirty, haha). I hope none of you are ever content with being a tiny eleven-year-old. The growth pains hurt but they're worth it.
4. Chocolate doesn't fix everything, but it sure helps.
So yeah, it's been a week of really fast growing, but I've already learned a lot! I'm definitely feeling stretched in almost every way I can be, but the good news is that when we rely on the Savior, He'll keep us from snapping. And that's the best news I can share. :)
In other news, I hit my 9 month mark this past week! I still feel like a little baby missionary, so it's crazy that before too long I'll be considered what we call "experienced" (now that I'm here I'm figuring out that that term is a joke, hahaha). Since I'm serving an almost 19 month mission (due to the way transfers work out), I'm not quite over the hill yet though! (And no, I'm definitely not using the discrepancy between my 9 month mark and my halfway mark as an excuse to treat myself to fancy Chinese junk food twice... Definitely not. ;)) Thanks for all your love and support on this crazy adventure of mine! Love you all so much, let me know if there's anything I can do for you. :)
Love you! Gayauh!
Sister Wasden
郭姊妹

Pics:
1. Transfer day! Saying goodbye to Sister Bannagao :(
2. THE TRIO
3. A nice morning greeting on a sign in our mall

Paint and Tons of Group Pictures

Leihdeih hou!
This week has been the craziest week of my life! I'm pretty sure last p-day was probably 3 years ago. Let's start with a story...
Let me paint a picture for you (slight pun definitely intended, please hang on). A paint can, full of white paint. Innocent enough, right? Wrong. This paint can has a tiny little hole in its side, near the bottom. Now picture a water balloon with a small hole in it. You know how the water shoots out of it? Yeah, that, but with paint. This was the start of my week. I was hopelessly squatting next to this paint can with fear in my eyes and terror in my soul, just trying to keep this thing plugged up. I felt like the Little Dutch Boy in that Hans Christian Andersen story, the one who sticks his finger in the dam to keep Holland from flooding. "How did you get into this situation?" you may ask. Well, let me take you back about four weeks to an apartment leader (aka the people in charge of making sure that everyone in the apartment does their chores) meeting. "Apartment Deep Clean Day!" Daaih Chou, one of our office elders, announced. "February 12th! Two-One-Two! Easy to remember!" So here we are on Two-One-Two, and we've got a problem on our hands. Oh boy, has our apartment been deep cleaned. We've scrubbed the floors too many times to count, reorganized the kitchen, and we even did a little feng shui magic to make our tiny living/bedroom feel a little bigger (the secret: we moved Sister Risenmay's and my portable closet to our study room. It made our study room feel about 8 times smaller but it's a sacrifice we are willing to make). Our apartment was now the cleanest it's been in at least a year, and Sister Risenmay and I got a little (over)ambitious and decided that our apartment walls needed some serious TLC and more than a few touch-ups (actually, we decided that they need to be repainted entirely but as limited missionaries who only had until p-day ends at 6:30, we could only do so much). So yeah, we decided to paint the walls and our paint can decided to paint the floor (hence scrubbing the floors too many times to count). Realizing that I couldn't keep up this Little Dutch Boy gig for much longer, as fun as it was, Sister Risenmay and I moved the paint can to the shower, which left a trail of paint splatters behind us. Artsy, but messy. Thankfully Sister Kimball is a quick thinker and thought to spray the paint on the floor with cleaner to prevent it from drying until Sister Bannagao could come through and swipe it up. It was a messy maneuvre, but once the paint was safely draining in the shower (along with a ton of water to rinse it down), our lives got a little easier. Convinced that although we may have lost that battle, we could still win the war, Sister Risenmay and I armed ourselves with kitchen sponges, dipped them into the leftover paint, and got to work on a couple of spots. I don't know a lot about makeup, but the three tips I know about blending foundation really came in handy here. After about three spots we gave up. We lost the battle and we lost the war. Our walls are still gross. BUT the rest of our apartment is so nice and clean! May it stay that way for at least three weeks.
This was a great start to a great week. It's been Chinese New Year for the last few days, and while missionaries can't see a lot of the festivities, I did get to witness a Lion Dance from my window. They also have Chinese calligraphy artists outside painting these red sign things (to bring good luck), and they give them out for free. They gave Sister Risenmay one about having a prosperous life and me one about always smiling, and then they insisted that we try to paint our own, which was so fun! If anyone was wondering, I am absolutely awful at Chinese calligraphy. Thanks to New Year's, all of our investigators went to Mainland or were otherwise completely unavailable, but for some reason that made all of our members available, so we got to eat with so many different families this week! I love this sweet Tai Wai ward. For one cheng out (member meal) the family (and their less-active friends, who are SO NICE) took us to see a flower market (it's tradition to buy a ton of flowers for your house for New Year's). We only had time to see a little bit of it, but there were so many sights and sounds and snacks and people and I'd love to go back. So sweet!
This week we also had zone conference. All of the trainings were so great and President Lam talked to us a lot about the enabling power of the Atonement and how that can--and does--help us in our everyday lives. I mean, I definitely couldn't learn Cantonese on my own. That's a testament in and of itself. We (the Lion Rock zone leadership) gave a training about having a positive attitude and loving the work, even when it's hard and discouraging, and I think I learned way more from preparing for that than anyone else did by listening to it. Great things are ahead, only if you let yourself think that they are.
The other really exciting news from this week: MOVES CALLS! I can't even believe that this transfer is already over. It has completely FLOWN by and I can't even wrap my head around it. Big news! I AM GOING TO.... stay in Tai Wai! Yep! By the end of this transfer I'll have spent half of my mission here and I couldn't be happier! There's always a surprise in every transfer call though, and here's ours: right now it's Sister Risenmay and I covering my beloved Tai Wai and Sister Kimball and Sister Bannagao covering Sha Tin. However, Sister Bannagao is moving to the international zone and they're not sending anyone in to replace her. Sister Risenmay, Sister Kimball, and I will all be in a trio, covering both Tai Wai AND Sha Tin. That means that we get to figure out all the weird logistics of being in a trio (we're now shopping for three, cooking for three, and we have to figure out how to make our tiny study room work for three) and all the weird logistics of covering two areas (we have twice the area to cover, two wards, two sets of elders to coordinate with, and so many other things like that), all at once! It will be completely chaotic and a big change. It's a ton of responsibility for sure, but I'm excited to see what happens! Tai Wai has got my whole heart, but I guess I can share some of it with Sha Tin too. :)
There's just a piece of my crazy week! I'm loving the people, loving the work, and loving where I'm at right now, and there's only room to go up! As is my motto right now, "Let us not be content with where we are, but neither let us be discouraged" (Elder Christofferson). Life only gets better as long as we're keeping our sights in the right place and keeping ourselves centered on Christ.
Love you all so much! Gayauh!
Sister Wasden
享姊妹
Now for the loads of group pictures (sorry):
1. Well, actually not a group picture. But here's me with some rice cakes our Bishop's wife made for us! Rice cakes are a traditional New Year's treat. :)
2. Aaaalso not a group picture. Sorry again. Here's my trying to paint my name. They were really impressed that we can write characters (I literally only know my name, haha), even if it was really ugly.
3. Us and the painting people. I think they were really excited to see white people.
4. Us at the flower market!
5. The Tai Wai squad with Justin and George, our ward mission leader and ward missionary. Elder Stansfield is leaving (so sad) so obviously we needed a photoshoot.
6. Our barbecue with some members today! Chinese barbecues are so different from American barbecues. I almost got attacked by a monkey. Monkeys stole some of our corn. It was great.

A Week in the Deep South

Leihdeih hou!
This week has been good! Busy busy busy, but that's the way we like it. :)
This past week for p-day we went to a Pixar exhibit. Gorgeous art, fun sculptures, and a whole lot of nostalgia.
This week we also had MLC (Mission Leadership Council). Our mission president talked to us a lot about setting faith-based goals and relying on the Lord to achieve them, so then we promptly set a ridiculously high missionwide baptism goal for 2018 (more than double what we got in 2017). It's definitely possible with the Lord's help though, and I'm really happy that I get to be here for aaaalmost all of 2018 so that I can see it happen! We also ate Mexican food for lunch (a rare thing to have here in Hong Kong), so add that to the highlights list.
Back to my week in the Deep South. Three things: Bible bash, fried chicken, and the word of God.
The Bible bash wasn't anything too intense. We met a friendly missionary from another church (here from Australia) who pushed through a crowd to come talk to us (as white people, we're pretty noticable). Our conversation started out pretty okay but before too long he was set on fighting out tiny little differences between our beliefs (without being willing to listen to anything we had to say), and as peaceful representatives of Jesus, we're not here to pointlessly bicker, so we peaced out after 40 minutes. Sister Risenmay and I reflected on that a lot, and ultimately it made us really grateful for the gospel truths that we have. Even if other people don't want to listen to it, I'm so grateful that not only does the gospel help me and inspire me, but it just makes sense to me. Not to say that I know everything, because obviously I don't, but for me, logically and spiritually, it all checks out. Pretty nice guy though, and really awesome that he's also willing to sacrifice to help tell people about what he believes. The second part of this whole southern thing was when we got a call from one of the members of our bishopric, telling us that there was food in the church kitchen for us to share with the elders. Luckily, we had a lesson at the church in just a few minutes anyways, so we were excited to go and see what was up. We walked into the kitchen, smelled something good, and finally came across a bowl with 5 pieces of fried chicken in it. Don't get me wrong, I love fried chicken, so I was pretty excited, but Sister Risenmay and I were a little confused as to why they would ask us to share 5 pieces of chicken between us and the elders. Pretty soon we figured it out though: we opened the fridge, and there were the two most MASSIVE tupperwares of fried chicken I've EVER SEEN. SO. MUCH. CHICKEN. The elders were very very happy to get theirs, and as for Sister Risenmay and I, we've had fried chicken for lunch and dinner for a few days in a row now. Our whole district has been brainstorming why one person would have so much KFC. Regardless, we're grateful. The third part, the word of God, isn't anything out of the ordinary. Just reading it and sharing it, make sure you're doing the same. :)
Overall, it's been a good week! We've been blessed with TWO new investigators, which is a really really exciting thing here! This coming week is Chinese New Year, which basically means that nobody will schedule us, but the good news is that we have lots of time for finding and a couple more member meals than usual. Life is good. :)
Love you all! Gayauh!
Sister Wasden
郭姊妹

Temple Trips and Frozen Fingers

Leihdeih hou!
This week has been so good! The highlight of my week was going to the temple. Always such a special experience, and I feel so lucky that we get to go as missionaries! This time we had the opportunity to go through with a group of 19 Cambodian saints, and their sweet humble spirits touched me so much. I only know one word in Cambodian, so I wasn't able to talk directly with them, but one of the senior missionaries that accompanied them told me about all the sacrifices they'd made and miracles they'd experienced as they worked to get to the temple, and it was amazing. Cambodia is a very poor country, so some of them saved up money for five years--FIVE YEARS--and could only manage to save up twenty American dollars even though they'd sacrificed so much. The church covered the rest of the money (through the temple patron fund, something I'd never even thought to donate to until now) and these sweet saints were able to go through the temple for themselves for the first time (including a few branch presidents who'd been teaching about the blessings of the temple for years but have never had the opportunity to go), and then they were able to go through for their ancestors. These sweet people were soaking it up--they went to every single session they could, back to back to back. It made me feel so spoiled to have always had a temple so close to me. Each of the Cambodians managed to find at least one family name to take with them, and because back in the day there was a big cultural movement to burn all the family records (similar to what happened in China--it makes family history a little difficult, to say the least), that's no small feat. There were a lot of miracles that happened for everything to work out, and hearing about them was nothing short of inspiring. (And soon the Cambodians will have a temple that's so much closer--only a 10 hour drive away!) The session we went to was in Cambodian, so all the missionaries got to wear translational headsets, which meant that I got to not only listen to the Cambodian, but I also got to switch back and forth between English and Cantonese the whole time. I LOVE THE TEMPLE. The blessings of the temple are so so so real and so so so powerful and so so so precious. If you live close to a temple, PLEASE don't take it for granted! Go as often as you can. There's so many people in this world who only get to go once in their lives, if they're lucky, and they would love to be in your exact position.
In other news, these last couple of weeks have been SO COLD. Granted it's only like 50 degrees Fahrenheit (who even knows how to spell that), but with the humidity, it makes it feel so much worse that it actually is. Good thing I know how to layer (thanks, Idaho), although layering with a skirt is admittedly a little more tricky. The hardest thing about the cold here is that there is NO escape. In America, if it's cold outside, you huddle up in your warm house, and then you rush outside really fast until you get to your warm car, and then you rush outside really fast into you're in the next warm building. Here, heaters aren't a thing. So you're really really cold, and you rush outside and into the trains, and the trains are really cold, and then you rush inside to the store, and then the store is also really cold, and then you rush home, where it's still really really cold. Thankfully we have a tiny little space heater, and we basically live in front of it when we can. So different from the summer, where it's so hot that you do literally anything you can in other places (studies at the church or in McDonald's, etc.) because those places have air conditioning and our apartment air conditioning is severely limited, to now, where we do literally anything we can inside, so we can huddle in front of our little space heater and try not to lose our fingers and toes. Sometimes the only phrase that gets me through the day is "at least I'm not in Russia."
Another highlight from this week was English class. Since it's February, class was Valentine's Day themed. Picture this: teaching a bunch of sweet Chinese people the meaning of the phrase "friend zone." Hahaha it was great. Another word was "poetry" and Elder Stansfield stunned the whole class by saying "I'm a poet and I didn't even know it" and now everyone thinks he's a literary genius. We didn't have the heart to tell them the truth.
Okay, last thing: This week we got a new investigator! Her name is Miss Wong, and I love her so much. We taught her this past week and it was the scariest mission of my whole life. Miss Wong has some very real family problems going on right now, and it was terrifying to hear her talk about them, and then look right to us for help. I definitely don't know the vocab for what she was telling me (the Gift of Tongues is REAL, let me tell you), and even if I DID know the words, I wouldn't even know what to say to help her. This problem is bigger than me. I kept thinking of little things that could maybe help her, but the Spirit kept telling Sister Risenmay and I to just stay quiet. Just listen. Don't say anything, just listen. The longer we sat in complete silence, the more Miss Wong opened up. And the good thing is that even though her problems are way bigger than little 19-year-old Sister Wasden, there is no problem that's bigger than the Lord. We sat and we listened. She talked. She cried, we cried. Then we bore a simple testimony on the very real and very literal power of prayer, and then we left her. I've never been through family problems like that before. I myself can't help her. But the Lord can, and that's what matters. As I sat there and listened to her talk (and tried to understand it--I still probably caught only half at best), I couldn't help but think that only the gospel can help her. The gospel can bless everybody, and obviously I knew that, but as I saw only a fragment of her situation, I was so absolutely convinced that only the gospel can bring her the peace she so desperately needs. Now it's just up to us to keep praying for her and hope that we can guide her to that knowledge too.
Anyways, there's my week. Sorry for the novel, haha. Thanks for all the love, everyone! Go to the temple. Say your prayers. God loves you, and so do I. :)
Gayauh!
Sister Wasden
郭姊妹

Pictures:
Temple shenanigans with this sweet little district of mine, and dinner with the Chan family (the most wonderful little family--also, Brother Chan served a mission in Hong Kong 30 years ago!)