Still Alive

Leihdeih hou!
This week was interesting. I'd heard that older missionaries' bodies fall apart at the end of their missions, and I didn't fully believe it, but oh man is it true. I feel like Sister Gaillard and I are always having some kind of medical problem (nothing major, promise) on alternating days, and while it's not enough to kill us or keep us down for TOO long, it's enough to be a little exasperating, hahaha.
This all came to a climax on Wednesday, when Sister Gaillard passed out on the subway. In the busiest station in all of Hong Kong. Typically I would have just dragged/carried/probably taxied her home, but since it was SO PUBLIC chaos ensued. The MTR staff called the medical personnel, as is policy, and pretty soon (for privacy) they had her up on a stretcher and into an ambulance. (Side note: this was my first time in an ambulance. I rather enjoyed myself. Ambulances are cool.) Sister Gaillard was already doing better by now, but they recommended going to the ER just to check up on her, and since ambulances are free, we figured we might as well, so off we went. (Because of the heath-care system here, the ER isn't as scary as it sounds, promise. Pretty much if you have a flu or any sort of slight ailment you take yourself away to the ER.) Basically, Sister Gaillard is fine, we had a good time chilling in the hospital, and we had an even better time hanging out with President and Sister Phillips (who came to be with us) until they released her. And we felt rebellious and cool getting home past midnight. The shining star of this whole experience is a sweet member who I'd never met before (she's from a different stake) named Sister Wong. She was coming back from work (going home to her fam) and happened to be walking by RIGHT as Sister Gaillard fell to the floor, and then she stayed with us and dealt with all the medical papers and such until 10:30 pm (three hours later), when President and Sister Phillips came. AND she speaks perfect English. It's like God knew that we would be needing a mother figure and sent this sweet angel right as we needed her. I'll never be able to express enough of how grateful I am for her. God is good. And Sister Gaillard is alive, don't worry.
We met a lot of really cool people on the subways and buses this week, so that's been really fun! Hong Kong is full of super awesome people and I'm sad that I can't get to know every single one of them.
Anyways, life is good. God is so aware of every single one of us and He knows exactly what we need. Trust that and trust Him.
Love you all! Have a good week :)
Gayauh!
Sister Wasden
郭姊妹

Pics:
1. Escaping the hospital, featuring a lot of laughs
2. In case you didn't know, Hong Kong means "Fragrant Harbor." There are indeed a lot of harbors. (No comment on the fragrance.)
3. Games night party with these cuties
4. Boat selfies
5. Ukelele--fave pasttime
6. Combined ward party :)

Hidden Blessings

Leihdeih hou!
This week was...good.
I think this week will best make sense backwards (it's been one of those weeks, hahaha). So on Saturday, we had a day that I've pretty much been dreading since it happened last year: flu shots. We got a nice text about it in the beginning of the week, and on Saturday the whole mission had to mosey on over to the mission home for our vaccines. I immediately felt cold tendrils of fear grip my heart and experienced a rather unpleasant flashback to flu shots last year, when I cried nearly uncontrollably in front of not only my whole zone, but most of two other zones as well (a panic response, I wasn't actually that freaked out, promise). As a young trainee, this was not the best first impression to make on half the mission. So anyways, the text comes in, and I'm not excited to see how I can outdo myself this year. BUT God heard my prayers, and He decided to bless me in an unexpected way... with the actual flu itself.
Admittedly, I grumbled about the flu a little bit when I first got it. I'd woken up with it on Tuesday, but after being stuck inside all of Sunday and Monday (why couldn't I have gotten it then, when we were stuck inside anyways?), I wasn't about to let ourselves be cooped up again, so we proceeded to go out and do all of our needed meetings and things. Twelve hours of freedom after the typhoon misery, folks. Only twelve hours. On Wednesday the fever hit me hard and I had to stay home all day. (Lesson learned from staying inside so much: I would not do well under house arrest.) I still wasn't doing better by Thursday, but the work of the Lord must go on, so we pressed forward. The fevers and other misery can't keep this companionship down. However, on Saturday, when I told the lady with the needles that I had the flu at that very moment and she said it wasn't "recommended" that I get the flu shot, I said a prayer of gratitude and have not uttered one complaint since.
Other lesson learned: sometimes we have awful trials in our lives and we're not sure why God would allow them to happen to us, but often, if we look back, we'll see that those trials were really just hidden blessings all along. And I think if we try to see them as blessings while we're in the midst of those trials, we'll be all the happier for it. I'll be working on applying that to my other trails too. Let me know how it goes for you.
In other news, feel free to pray for the rest of the misson's arms. From what I heard, the flu shots hurt. ;)
Seriously though, life is good and we're all doing well. The Lord's work is wonderful and I'm so happy to be here!
Love you all! Gayauh!
Sister Wasden :)
郭姊妹

Pics:
Just riding the boat to get to the other spots of our area :)
My favorite meal these last few days

Typhoon Mangkhut came and went but we're still alive and kicking (and preaching)

Leihdeih hou!
First of all, sorry this email is late! Typhoon Mangkhut (the biggest to hit Hong Kong since they started keeping record) swept through Hong Kong on Sunday (this made Saturday, if you're curious, one of the hottest days of my life). Hong Kong's infrastructure is really really good, so we were all very safe up in our apartments, no worries there! We mostly just saw a lot of wind and rain from where we were. Even though we were stuck in our apartments, the missionary work must go on, so Sister Gaillard and I split up our time between doing weekly planning and calling every person that has ever given the Pok Fu Lam sisters their number in the past twenty years. Real exciting stuff.
Monday rolled around, and although the typhoon was gone, there was some flooding and a lot of fallen branches and broken windows, so the missionaries were asked to stay home again to allow the city to pull itself back together. Good thing I had recently bought myself a deck of Bruce Lee playing cards, so I passed most of the day playing more games of Solitaire than I can even count. Sister Perez and I also tried to teach our foreign companions the very American game of BS, and that was an experience I'd definitely recommend to anyone. But alas, it was not to last. After almost 50 hours straight cooped up in our tiny apartments, the China Hong Kong missionaries were allowed to exit their little nests and see if there was any service we could do around the city. Sister Caunca, Sister Perez, Sister Gaillard, and I decided to grab our old broom from our house and see if we could sweep up some leaves and trash off the streets. We only thought to grab three garbage bags, and that ended up only lasting us about one and a half street corners, but I'd like to think we made a difference. That street corner looks great.
This week we also had Mission Tour! Elders Homer and Muers from the Asia Area Presidency came to speak to our mission, along with their wives. It. Was. So. Good. I learned so so so much and I just have such a testimony of God calling the right people to be our church leaders. Elder Homer actually served in Hong Kong as a young missionary, so he had some good experiences and bits of Chinese to share with us. They mainly focused on how the Lord is calling us to a higher level of missionary work. Right now, our mission averages about 0.7 new people we are teaching per companionship per week, and if we want to "Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts" every single month (something we all desperately want), we're going to have to bump that up to about 5 new people per companionship per week. We spent all day receiving amazing trainings about how to make that happen and to say the least, we're all excited to go to work and start! (After today because today will still be all service and clean-up. We'll likely proselyte tomorrow haha.) Something I really loved from Elder Muers was the idea of setting a really big ambitious goal and then asking ourselves, "What would it take to accomplish it?" And then, simple as that, you just do that thing. Amazing.
We also had MLC the day after Mission Tour (how much spirituality can one person take in a week? Turns out a lot, actually), where we again had Elder Muers, Elder Homer, and their wives with us, and we spent most of the time reviewing what was learned in Mission Tour and planning how to review that and apply it with our zones. Good stuff.
Life is good, and not being stuck in a typhoon is even better. Thanks for all the love and prayers, everyone. Grateful.
Gayauh!
Sister Wasden
郭姊妹

Pics:
A mini MTC reunion (only missing a few people!) at MLC
The pier in the morning time is artsy
WE LOVE ELDER AND SISTER ROSKELLEY (if you're reading this, I love and miss you both)
Went up to the roof again this week (pre-typhoon, of course. I suggested going up for fun during the typhoon and Sister Gaillard said probably not). Panoramas for life
Your local enthusiastic typhoon clean-up crew
Broken windows in downtown Wan Chai (look at both buildings)

Don't panic I'm not dead

Hey familia :)
So yesterday we had the big typhoon/hurricane hit HK. It was kind of a letdown--we stayed inside all day and all we could see from our window was a lot of wind and rain. There weren't any deaths in HK, just 200ish injuries (because a lot of people think it's cool to feel the real force of the typhoon by standing on the pier, exactly what they tell you NOT to do. I will reserve my comments about natural selection for another time). There's some flooding going on but nothing incredibly dangerous. Just in case though, the mission is having us stay inside all day today while the city cleans up, so we will not be emailing normally until later in the week. We're just allowed to send you a short one to let you know that we are still alive (and very stir crazy). Love you all tons! Talk to you sometime later in the week. :)
❤❤❤
Sister Wasden

Hi am I in Mexico or HK

Leihdeih hou!
Nothing too wild to report this week! Lots and lots of finding. We did get a new investigator and she's adorable! So that's good news.
All of our complaining about the rain finally paid off and we had a nice clear week this week! ...Which means that it was SO HOT. So yeah, we'd like to formally apologize to the weather. The rain is welcome back anytime.
Also, it's that time of the transfer! It's... exchanges! I brought Sister Mangubat to PFL this week. She just got here 4 weeks ago but I was so impressed by her love for the work and her dedication to the gospel. Cute little Sister Mangubat got baptized in the Philippines under two years ago and she just doesn't slow down. As usual, I'm supposed to be the one doing the teaching in exchanges and I always end up doing all the learning.
This week we also decided to treat ourselves (and accidentally celebrate my half-birthday, hahaha) by making guacamole. Did it cost us an arm and a leg? Almost. (Thankfully, we've got a really good avocado dealer around here.) Worth every penny? Absolutely.
Lately we've been challenged by our church leaders (especially Elder Evans, the Asia Area President) to use the Book of Mormon more in our teaching. Sister Gaillard and I really took this challenge to heart and it's made such a difference that I can't even begin to explain it all. We've especially noticed this with one of our investigators that we've been meeting for a few weeks now. We emphasized the Book of Mormon from the start, so he knows that the Book of Mormon has all the answers, not us, and it's been amazing to watch him progress. He reads a LOT, and every time we see him he seems more humble and accepting of religion. It's so true, guys.
I'm doing well and life is good. I'm so grateful for all of you! Gayauh!
Sister Wasden
郭姊妹

Pics:
Exchanges :)
Bad English still makes me laugh
Highlight of the week?
The elders had a friend get baptized this week! So happy!
The nature of having a companion whose first language is NOT English. Gotta get her caught up. Happy to do my part.

Sister Wasden and the Time She Still Didn't Know What to Put in the Subject Line

Leihdeih hou!
Real quick this week. This week was good! Because we taught TWO (and a half) LESSONS. Guys, it feels SO GOOD to teach lessons again.
Last week we went to Stanley with Sister Low (my MTC angel companion), Sister Scott, and their summer missionary. If anyone is curious, Sister Low is still as perfect as she was in the MTC.
So missionaries have this thing where we can't remember anything about pop culture from before the mission. We fondly call it the "mission veil." This week the mission veil was manifested in my life when I was trying to tell Sister Gaillard a story and I accidentally said, "You know in Pirates of the Caribbean when Will Smith is floating on the board in the water?" Sister Gaillard about died, hahaha. But seriously, if someone could get a movie production of that going, I'm interested.
This week Sister Gaillard and I also had the opportunity to be in a choir of missionaries that performed for the mission president seminar that was happening this past week. We went in and sang the prettiest arrangement of "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go" (classic) for all of the mission presidents and wives in the Asia area and everyone cried. Everyone take a second to be grateful for mission presidents and their families. They sacrifice a lot to do one of the hardest jobs in the world.
That's pretty much it for this week. God is a god of miracles, don't forget that! He's putting all kinds of little miracles into your everyday life, you just have to be willing to recognize them for what they are.
Love you all. Thanks for being my little miracles :) Gayauh!
Sister Wasden
郭姊妹

Pics:
1. I'm not a model, I swear. (Stanley)
2. As a person gifted with ridiculously long arms, I am always the designated selfie taker.
3. I've been eyeing this burger place by our church since it opened. Sister Gaillard and I finally caved in. Delicious.
4. Our missionary choir :)