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 :)