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)
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