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Leihdeih hou!
This week has been good and busy and crazy. Here is your weekly brief summary.
Last p-day we went with our RC Tim to a place called Discovery Bay! We were going to hike, but we had torrential downpours, so we just wandered around and Tim spoiled us rotten. We had (wait for it...) REAL MEXICAN FOOD for lunch! Real Mexican food seems to be the thing that all the missionaries miss here, and for some reason it never crossed my mind that OF COURSE it would be difficult to find here, hahaha. But yeah, it was the bee's knees. So good. Such a fun day too, and so good to get to spend more time with Tim, our angel on earth.
We also had interviews (our first!) with President and Sister Phillips this week! They are adorable and interviews were so good. We set lots of goals together and he'll be following up on them next transfer. They're so sweet and so excited to be here and we're all so grateful for their service. Taking over a mission seems like the hardest thing in the whole world.
This week we also had lots of member visits (cutest people ever) and some lessons (Jacky is still doing well and he says the sweetest prayers) and I also went on exchanges in Chai Wan with Sister Lima Po! Sister Lima Po is from Hawaii and she finishes her mission in just a couple of weeks! It was so fun to be with her and learn from her.
We also got the opportunity to meet with a family of four this week! This was my first time ever teaching a family, and it was really cool. We're still not sure if they're interested in the gospel or just in learning English from us (always a struggle), but we're so excited to keep working with them.
All in all a good week. God is in the details and I'm so glad that He's in charge because if I were everything would fall apart. Stay close to Him and He'll stay close to you, as He always does.
Love you all! Gayauh!
Sister Wasden
郭姊妹

Pics:
Discovery Bay :)
Just pondering on the meaning of life, you know how it goes
Us and Grandma Lee, one of the sweetest souls you'll ever meet
Our new best friend. She's from Pakistan and is seriously SO COOL. Love her so much.

This Weeeeek

Leihdeih hou!
Not too much to say this week. Lots of visits with members and other various activities. Basically Pok Fu Lam has the sweetest souls in Hong Kong and I am in love with this ward. Everyone pray that this can be my last area.
This week was our long awaited TEMPLE DAY! I love the temple so much and I was so excited to go. Satan does this fun little trick where he tries to stop us from going to the temple, and when he realizes that he can't stop us he just tries to make the rest of our week miserable instead though any way he can, but the good news is that we survived with minimal tears shed, the temple was wonderful, and we're all still happy and loving the work. So grateful for the temple.
In other news, tomorrow marks ONE YEAR in Hong Kong! I can't even believe how fast time has gone, and looking back, I can't believe how much I have changed. For one, I'm now slightly functional in Chinese, my faith in God and His timing is so much more solid, and I'd like to think that I've become a little more Christlike on the way. So blessed.
Anyways, I hope that you're all doing well! God is real and He loves YOU. Hope you know that.
Gayuah!
Sister Wasden
郭姊妹

Pics:
CAUGHT ON CAMERA: me having the time of my life in primary
Temple fun
Ward party

I Can't Even Explain How Much Rain There Is

Leihdeih hou!
Okay, so yeah. We haven't hit a typhoon yet (after all the ones we experienced last year, I'm kind of wondering where they're at), but yesterday we had an amber rain warning! Basically amber rain translates to "it's literally raining so hard that it's almost dangerous," and after amber rain it's red rain, and then it's black rain and when it hits black rain we're not allowed to go outside. I'm hoping for black rain soon because that sounds dangerous and exciting. Anyways, it will be completely clear one second, and then suddenly you'll feel one raindrop, have just enough time to think "oh no," and then it's dumping BUCKETS on your head. And then by the time your umbrella is up your efforts are pretty much futile and then it stops raining after 5 seconds. It's been really exciting.
Anyways, besides being regularly showered down by nature, this week has been really good! Last week for p-day we went to the science museum since they had a special space exhibit! Not going to lie, the space part was a little bit of a letdown (I've seen lots of space exhibits in my day thanks to my padre and his love of air and space museums), but the rest of the museum was pretty fun. Also we got delicious burgers for lunch. Grateful for American food.
On Wednesday we had zone conference! It was so so so good and President and Sister Phillips are really sweet. We talked a lot about having faith and doing miracles with Jesus and it was so good! We were combined with Lion Rock and Tolo Harbor this time, so it was really fun to see all my pals from my old zone and all my pals in Tolo as well. Love zone conference.
On Thursday we had... emergency transfers! Sister Sufia got swept away to Macau (Macau has a lot of tricky visa things going on so this happens a lot) and Sister Perry is now with Sister Cauna, who has been here in the mission for six weeks now. She's so sweet and it's always fun making new friends.
On Friday (the 13th) we celebrated Halloween. Mostly we just ate ice cream and make peanut butter cookies and then recommitted ourselves to our "as healthy as possible" lifestyles. This may have been foreshadowing because on Saturday we were thrust into the apocalypse (our own fault). So we'd known for weeks that our whole apartment building was going to have no power for a few hours on Saturday (just for testing or something) and we'd been planning to plan our day around that so we wouldn't have to deal with it, but then we forgot. So we had a nice little district find (in the rain. Everything is in the rain these days) and then we went back to our apartment building, excited for some studies... only to see everything dark, and remember that if the power is out there are no elevators. And there's 23 flights of stairs between us and home. We decided to suck it up, live like the pioneers, and start climbing these dark, cramped, HOT, humid stairs with only our phones for lighting and I legit felt like it was the end of the world. The good news is that the power came on earlier than expected! (We were all eager to use our 2 hours of allotted air conditioning time right then and there.) The bad news is that it came on only 15 minutes after we made it to our apartment. We were so close to catching the elevator, hahahaha. Oh well, you live and you learn. And you get really sore legs.
On Sunday we had a big miracle! All week long Sister Briggs and I have been praying to find someone that we can bring to church (because this ward is AMAZING and we want to give them more people to love), but none of our finding had been very successful. God definitely saw our efforts though, because as we walked into church on Sunday, we were delighted to find a sweet lady named A-Kahm, who had randomly come to church with a friend (another lady that I've also never met), and they brought three kids with them. SO COOL. They were so sweet and the ward was so good with them and miracles happen, people.
ALSO Tim (our sweet RC) and his wife Ann are both going to the temple to do baptisms this week and we couldn't be happier! A missionary's dream for sure, these people are.
Cool quote for the week from President David O. McKay: "Sculptors of life are we, with our uncarved souls before us. Everyone of us is carving a soul." We're all carving our own souls--and helping to carve others--little by little, day by day. Do what you can to make sure that every mark counts for the better.
Anywho, there's my chaotic email for the week. Love you all! Thank you so so so much for all the love, all the support, and all the prayers. So grateful for each of you.
Gayauh!
Sister Wasden
郭姊妹

Pics:
1. Playing with mirrors at the science museum
2. Bus selfies with the apartment squad (featuring Sister Sufia. She is missed)
3. Zone conf selfies
4. This sunset sponsored by our roof
5. Same with this panorama
6. The new apartment squad (featuring Sister Caunca)
7. Dim sum for breakfast is always an adventure

Another Week :)

Leihdeih hou!
Nothing too wild this week. It's been good, filled with lots of finding and running all over the place (as is the drill when you don't live in your area). Here's a few highlights:
1. Last week we had a big birthday party for a few of our missionary pals for pday! We all got lunch and just hung out at the church and it was so fun!
2. I went to MLC last week! President and Sister Phillips are so sweet and I'm excited to get to know them better and see what they do with the mission. I'm so grateful for all of the inspired leaders that I've been privileged to work with while serving here in Hong Kong.
3. Lots and lots of finding. Did I mention that? Haha
4. Surprise! Our cute little investigator Jacky is actually 7, not 8! So he'll be getting baptized in December, not July, haha. He's so cute though and is progressing so well. We'll keep visiting him every week and teaching him. He's my favorite.
This week in personal study I read a talk called "Following Up" by Elder Ballard. Aside from an adorable story about him and his wife (my favorite kinds of stories), it has a lot of good advice on how we, as members, can better do missionary work, and I'd invite each of you to read it. It was so good and I'll be setting some goals based off of the things I learned.
Anyways, life is good and the church is true. I also read another quote this week (I can't remember who by, I'm so sorry) that says something along the lines of "the gospel promises us a rock in the whirlwinds, not an umbrella" and I love that. No matter what we're going through, we've got a solid foundation in Christ and His teachings. Remember that. :)
Love you all! Gayauh!
Sister Wasden
郭姊妹

Pics:
P-day party
MLC desserts (orange rolls, cinnamon rolls, and lemon rolls. We love Elder Roskelley and his baking)
Finding out on the pier with my girl Sister Perry

This Week on: The Island (we should make that a game show)

Leihdeih hou!
It's been a good week! Here's a few highlights:
1, President and Sister Phillips are officially in Hong Kong! I already miss President and Sister Lam already and nothing can replace the spot they have in my heart, but I am really excited to meet President and Sister Phillips! They'll be making a mini tour through the mission this coming week, and between that and MLC, I should be able to see them a couple of times!
2. This week we had lots of meetings and language studies and cheng outs (meals) with the members. This ward is so special and I love each of them so much!
3. July is AMERICA MONTH. Sister Briggs and I love America so much that if we talk too much about it we run the risk of getting emotional, haha. We'll be wearing red, white, or blue every day this month to celebrate. In addition to that, we set a goal of getting rejected 300 times this month (obviously with the hope that 2 or 3 out of those WON'T reject us), and we've dubbed ourselves the All-American Rejects, after the band. Wish us luck.
Okay, time to get spiritual:
So we have a recent convert in our ward (that I LOVE SO MUCH), and he's so hard on himself and is constantly afraid that he'll slip back into old habits (and I'm afraid that he'll just go off and get translated on us). Yesterday in personal study I did some studying for him, but I found out pretty quick that I was actually just studying for me, and I think it might be helpful for you too.
Okay, so pretend for a second like you're Satan. If you were Satan and you wanted to get a strong saint to lose their faith in Christ, what would you do? Your answers may very, but the answer I came up with is that I would personally get them to stop repenting so they'll stop relying on the Savior. And then as I thought of ways to get them to stop repenting, I came up with two options (again, your answers may very depending on your circumstance or whatever):
1. I could get them to be too easy on themselves (complacency). If they have the mindset of "oh, I'm doing okay where I'm at. I don't need to repent of that, that's not a big deal. I don't need to change any more," then they'll stop repenting because they'll feel they don't need it. Goal accomplished.
2. I could also get them to be too hard on themselves. If I can trick them into the mindset of "I can't believe I messed up again. I can't be perfect on my own. Will God still love me? Does the Atonement even work for someone like me?" they'll stop repenting because they'll be afraid that they can't be perfect, so they won't even try (when the reality is that we can only reach perfection WITH the Savior). Goal accomplished.
Okay, so on the other side of the equation, as the saints, what can we do to prevent this from happening?
Here's what I came up with (again, feel free to add or take away from the list):
1. BELIEVE fiercely in Christ and the power of His Atonement. Seek to understand that power through study.
2. USE the Atonement. Repent of every single little thing you can think of, and do so daily.
3. TRUST the Atonement. Once you've repented, move on! Don't dwell on it. Thanks to Christ, every single day is a new day and a new start, and through the sacrament we can be completely clean every single week.
So then I guess the only thing left to ask is:
1. Do you believe that?
2. What are you going to do about it?
I KNOW that the power of the Atonement is real and it changes lives, one day at a time. Don't undervalue it and don't underuse it.
And if you, like me, tend to err on the side of being too hard on yourself, here's a quote from my dear Elder Uchtdorf that's really helped me:
"God loves you this very day and always. He is not waiting to love you until you have overcome your weaknesses and bad habits. He loves you today with a full understanding of your struggles... He knows of your remorse for the times you have fallen short or failed. And still He loves you. And God knows of your successes; though they may seem small to you, He acknowledges and cherishes each one of them."
I know that's true. Everyone breathe a bit; you're doing better than you think you are. :)
Oh, one last thing: Last night for our ward FHE Sister Briggs and I made rice crispy treats and the ward EXPLODED. I think Bishop's wife ate at least five (and snuck two more home in her purse), and at least 3 other people asked us for the recipe. This America month, make a rice crispy treat for a non-American in need. They apparently don't know what they're missing out on.
Love you all so much! Gayauh!
Sister Wasden
郭姊妹

Pics:
1. Cheng out with the deaf members. I always feel like I'm floating after spending time with them, I love these people so much.
2. Sister Briggs and I had extra money this month so we chenged our district to floats (ice cream, and any other dairy product, is a BIG DEAL here). A wonderful district meeting followed.
3. Cheng with the Tangs! I love this family and Kelly just got back from her mission to Temple Square a couple of months ago and it's so fun to talk with her about it!
4. My area, summarized in a picture. Jungle. Apartment buildings. Heat and humidity and mosquitoes (not pictured). Ocean and other islands in the back. All while being situated on a huge island ourselves? Sweet.
5. A pic from finding the other day. Fun fact: thanks to the ocean breezes, Pok Fu Lam is the coolest place to be in the summer time, and boy am I grateful. It's hot enough as is.