This Weeeek

Leihdeih hou!
So a Chinese girl, a Korean girl, and an American girl all went hiking through the mountains in Hong Kong. That's not the start of a bad joke, that was my p-day last week! Sister Lee and I went and did the Dragon's Back hike with our Sha Tin pal Macy, and it was so gorgeous. We accidentally picked a very hot day to go and accidentally picked the hottest time of said hot day to climb the mountains, but despite that, it was still really fun and really good to catch up with Macy. Also did I mention that it was completely gorgeous? Hong Kong is such a special place, that is all.
Nothing too wild to report for the rest of the week. I love this area. Our members are SO INVOLVED and we've had dinner almost every day this week (which is unheard of in my last area). I'm full of food and full of love. We had a few really really cool lessons with potentials and recent converts, and it's amazing to me how prepared some people are for the gospel, even when on first glance they don't seem like it. God's really working hard, and it's just our job to do our best to keep up!
I guess that's kind of my message today. God is preparing so many people for the gospel, and so many people have been searching for the peace that it offers for years. They may not look like it, but they're there, and the only way we can find who's ready and who's not is by sharing with EVERYONE! If you're already sharing, keep going! If you're not yet, start slow. Share something on Facebook. Keep Christ's name on your lips. It will come. :)
Thanks for all you do and for all the support. Sending love to you all!
Gayauh!
Sister Wasden :)
郭姊妹

1. Us hiking Dragon's Back
2. I can't even include all the gorgeous views from this hike, but here's one of them
3. Us at a member's house :)
4. A classic HK scene for your viewing pleasure

Island Life

Leihdeih hou!
This week has been one of the craziest weeks of my life. Here's a good place to start:
Surprise! I've been emergency transferred! Long story short, there was an emergency that caused a need for a transfer, and as a trio, Sister Risenmay, Sister Gaillard, and I were prone to getting shuffled around. So after 9 wonderful months, I have left my beloved Tai Wai, my newly beloved Sha Tin, and my dear Lion Rock Zone, and got dropped into Pok Fu Lam in the Hong Kong Island Zone. They called us on Wednesday and I was gone on Thursday, with just enough time to call a couple of my recent converts and tell them goodbye. It was kind of a blessing, though. Under normal circumstances I would have been completely heartbroken, but it all happened so fast and we've been so busy here in PFL that I haven't even had time to be sad yet. My new companion is Sister Lee from Korea (who I lived with for my first 4 months in Hong Kong so we're already good pals). We help out with the neighboring ward, Aberdeen, a lot, and here's the kicker: Sister Lee goes home at the end of the transfer, so I have just under 4 weeks to figure out essentially two areas (it took me 4 months to figure Tai Wai out and Tai Wai is a much simpler area). Wish me luck. We live with Sister Wilson and Sister Ane Sufia (both from Australia) on the 23rd floor of our building (I went from floor 2 to floor 14 to floor 23 and I consider this conclusive evidence that I'm getting closer to heaven the longer I'm on my mission). The shower is much better here, in case you were wondering. Good heat and water pressure. You just have to physically hold up the shower head the whole time, hahaha.
Life on The Island is different. I feel like I'm in a completely different world here. IT's more of the big city (relatively speaking, of course. Everything is big city here), and there's a lot more white people here (have I ever mentioned how white people now intimidate me?), so people stare at me a lot less than they did in Tai Wai, although they're still vaguely impressed when I speak Cantonese. We live in this cute area called Kennedy Town (Google it), which is near to the ocean, and oh do I love the ocean and the big city. God created this area just for me. On the way to our chapel, we take a mini bus that drives right along the ocean side, so I get to look at the ocean and islands and ships and casually chat with the person sitting next to me about Jesus all at the same time. It's great.
Other fun facts I've accumulated about the area in the last four days: Since we cover islands, we not only get to ride the subway and buses and mini buses, but also boats and cute double decker cable cars (they're called "ding-dings" and I think that's hilarious). We cover some of the most expensive housing in the world, as well as the most densely populated island in the world. We also cover Ocean Park (Hong Kong's amusement park) and Stanley and Victoria Peak (big tourist spots). That's pretty much all I've gotten figured out so far. More to come.
My last few days (without knowing that they were my last few days) in Tai Wai were really good. We had some good cheng outs with some wonderful members, and we also got to go to the temple! The temple was SO NICE and Brought me so much peace, which I now consider a straight-up gift from God because I got my move call exactly one hour later, haha.
Pok Fu Lam has been good as well! Lots of people to meet and things to do. Busy busy busy, just the way I like it. THE PROPHET CAME on Saturday, which was amazing. Elder Holland spoke about Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail and how we can turn our prisons into temples, and President Nelson talked about a lot of things: temples, tithing, family, prayer, faith. He's amazing, and I loved getting the chance to see him (I was only a few rows away!). So grateful for an inspired, Christlike, generous, loving, living prophet. Listen to him, follow his counsel, and you'll be good. :)
In other news, my language study has very recently gotten more interesting: this past week, I was approved to start learning Chinese characters, and (here's one reason PFL is so special)... PFL is one of two Hong Kong Sign Language wards in Hong Kong! Not all of the members are deaf, but they all learned sign language so all the deaf people in this half of Hong Kong can come here. I've started learning just a little bit and I am so in love with it. A couple of the deaf members, Polly and Leih JM, taught me some while Sister Lee taught Polly's son piano, and I love them so much. I've never met kinder people. Polly asked me when I go home (she can write in English, which makes learning so much easier), and I said December, she taught me how to sign "very sad" and then wrote "I wish you stay HK." Me too, Polly. She also found out that my birthday was last month and surprised me by getting me involved in the ward birthday party yesterday. So. Sweet.
One last thought: Whenever I see Polly or Leih JM, they always sign to me that I look very happy, and I"m happy to say that that's because I am. I can hardly believe I"m living the life I am, sharing the gospel here in Hong Kong. I can't help but be happy. That happiness doesn't have to stop post-mission though, and it can continue forever: when you're on God's side, living the gospel of Jesus Christ, how can you not be happy?
Sending you all my love! Gayauh!
Sister Wasden
郭姊妹

Pics:
1. Cheng out at Lai Ma's house. Lai Ma is 80+ years old and has no cares left to give. She's absolutely hilarious and was always the entertainment of my Sundays in Tai Wai.
2. The temple :)
3. My first day in PFL, we had a cheng out to this restaurant. It's the most expensive dim sum place in Hong Kong (delicious), and it's floating, so we had to take a boat through what I can only describe as a parking lot for yachts to get there. So fun.
4. A pic of the restaurant.
5. This is the Wan Chai chapel! It's not actually my chapel, but we get to have district meeting here. It's 11 stories tall, is the Asia Area HQ, and they have an English branch here 7 days a week to accommodate all the members from the Philippines that only get one day off a week. So cool.
6. A little blurry, but this is me and the PFL ward at our birthday party :)

Busy Busy Busy

Leihdeih hou!
Okay, so everyone always said that covering two areas will be the busiest part of your mission, and I'm just starting to understand why. We haven't had time to do all of our studies in days. (Thankfully, most of our meetings are in Chinese, so that's kind of language study in and of itself.) We've had lots and lots of meetings with investigators and ward members and I've never been more exhausted or happier. Life is good.
This week was also zone conference! Nothing too wild, except for this piece of news: OUR MISSION IS GETTING SMARTPHONES SOON. Here in Hong Kong, we've been living in the Stone Age: no smartphones, no tablets, only our Nokia bricks and paper records for everything. All of the missionaries are pretty excited, especially because everyone and their dog in Hong Kong uses a texting app to communicate, which makes it really hard to talk to people if you don't also have that app. Exciting to see the work progressing.
This week the missionaires in my zone also got to perform in a singing concert. It was actually a really cool idea--it was a bunch of songs that outlined the story of the Restoration of the gospel, and the missionaries got to sing "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" and it was really pretty.
This coming Saturday President Nelson and Elder Holland and their wives will be visiting Hong Kong, and as excited as we are for smartphones, we're ALL even more excited about that! We've all got some investigators coming and we're all so excited to hear the words of a living prophet in person. God is so good.
This week I've also been doing some studying in First Nephi, and I really loved 1 Nephi 16:23. This is when Nephi's bow broke, and he really needed to find a way to provide food for his whole family. While I was reading, I noticed something I hadn't noticed before. Verse 23 says: "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did make out of wood a bow, and out of a straight stick, an arrow; wherefore, I did arm myself with a bow and an arrow, with a sling and with stones. And I said unto my father: Whither shall I go to obtain food?" Nephi made himself AN arrow. As in, only one arrow. Nephi must have had SO MUCH FAITH to trust that not only would the Lord tell him where to go to obtain food, but also that the Lord would magnify his abilities enough that the first shot would be enough. We find out later that he killed many animals for food, so his first shot was enough over and over again. That's really all there is to it--trust in the Lord, rely on Him, and He'll make your arrow, whatever it is, enough, every time.
Love you all so much. Gayauh :)
Sister Wasden
郭姊妹

Pictures:
1. Us and the Sha Tin elders at a cheng out (member meal). Update: I've had it at least 3 times now, and my answer has been the same every time--pigeon is delicious.
2. Our RC Ivy is the classiest person; this is what we ate at our last meeting with her. Homemade scones with cream and jam. SO GOOD.
3. So to get to and from Ivy's house, we have to walk up and down this huge mountain, and poor Sister Gaillard has some knee problems. After all of Dad's problems, I don't mess around when it comes to knees, so when Sister Gaillard was having knee pain on the way down the mountain, this is the best solution I could think of.
4. Too real. To quote Elder Long: "I feel like on the mission eating just becomes a hobby." Also English mistakes here are my most favorite things.

I LOVE CONFERENCE

Leihdeih hou!
This week was so good! Sister Risenmay and I got to take out a baby missionary on splits on her first night here in Hong Kong, and she was so adorable and so excited to be here in Hong Kong! Taking out baby missionaries always reminds me that 1. I'm happy that I'm not a baby anymore, and 2. Hong Kong is a really cool place to be and I should be so excited to be here 24/7.
We are also now officially back in a trio! Sister Gaillard is the most energetic and excited person I've ever met and she has brought exactly the energy that Tai Wai and Sha Tin are needing. Her love for the people is inspiring and I'm so excited that I get to keep working here in the Lord's vineyard alongside her and Sister Risenmay.
Also, as you can see, I LOVE CONFERENCE. General Conference as a missionary is basically just two days of Christmas. We soak up every moment and it's over too fast! President Nelson is just the cutest, and we're all so excited about Elder Gong! Since he served in the Asia Area Presidency for a while, he spent that time living right here in Hong Kong, only a 30 minute subway ride from me. I've developed such a love for living prophets on my mission and I never want to take them for granted again! I hope you don't either. Review their words, apply them, and watch your life change. I also am in love with the idea of ministering, and I've already studied a lot about how I personally can be a better minister, and it's been insightful. I have a lot to improve! I'd invite each of you to do the same--prayerfully study what your spiritual gifts are, and then identify how you can use each one to uplift and bless someone else. It will make you so much happier and you'll be used to help so many of God's children. I'm so grateful for inspired leaders and for their counsel on how we can better follow our Savior.
Life is good! Thanks for all your love and support. :) Gayauh!
Sister Wasden
郭姊妹

Pics:
1. KBQ with the members last p-day!
2. Pictured: us visiting a 105-year-old lady in our ward. Not pictured: us sweating to death underneath those awful sick masks.
3. Us and our baby missionary
4. All the sisters in our zone got lunch together between sessions of conference on Saturday. Love these people. Sorry I don't have a picture of the trio yet! Sister Gaillard is the one taking this picture. :)

Transfers and Moving! (Not in that order)

Leihdeih hou!
It's been a good, crazy week! Just the way we like them.
This past week we moved apartments! We actually stayed in the same estate and just moved two buildings over into the elders' apartment, and they moved into Tai Wai (into an even bigger, fancier apartment. We're definitely not jealous). Seriously though, this new one is still really small by American standards but it's WAY bigger than our old one, so we're happy! Also the view is stellar. That's my favorite part. My least favorite part is probably the shower. It can't decide if it wants to spit out ice water or actual lava, so it usually just rotates between the two on a 15-second cycle, which keeps things exciting (also the term "water pressure" feels like a dream from a life long past). Definitely helps you wake up in the morning, though.
We also got transfer calls this week, and surprise! I'm not moving. 7 transfers in your baby area is totally normal, right? Honestly though, I'm more than happy to stay and keep loving Tai Wai and Sha Tin. I'll also still be companions with Sister Risenmay, and we're happy about that! And here's the twist: we'll be in a trio again! Sister Gaillard from France will be joining us! We overlapped for 3 weeks in the MTC and I've just adored her from the start. We're all excited to see what happens!
In other news, I have found a deep (and probably undying) love for coconut water. I've bought probably 4 bottles of it in the past 5 days. This isn't really that important, but I just thought that you should know if I get swept away to an island during typhoon season, I'll stay hydrated, don't you worry.
Yesterday was also Easter, and I hope that in the midst of eggs and candy, you found some time to think about Jesus and His Resurrection. I know my Savior lives and I'm so grateful for the knowledge that through Him, all is possible. Hope you all had a good Easter/conference weekend (SO excited to watch conference next week!). :)
Love you all! Gayauh!
Sister Wasden
郭姊妹

Pics:
1. The message I'm trying to share here
2. Since moving took all day, but we were supposed to have district meeting still, we got permission to come to district meeting in our moving clothes. This has been fondly dubbed "t-shirt Tuesday" and here is a very backlit picture in remembrance of it.
3. The view from my study room window--in love with it.
4. So we were walking to the church building (most of our walk is through a mall) and we passed by these things (I think they're Hatchimals??) and since there was nobody around Sister Risenmay and I decided to snag a picture for the weekly (since I promised you all better pictures, obviously). Cue the CROWD of people SWARMING to get pictures of dumb white girls taking pictures here, hahaha. We made sure our tags were very visible. :)
5. Easter eggs, y'all.