Family! I didn't think it was possible for me to miss you or love you more than when I was in the MTC. Then I came to Macau. And I miss you and love you more than anyone has ever missed or loved their family in the history of the world. Heavenly Father has blessed me beyond belief. It's incredible when I take the time to think about how amazing my family and friends are and how much support I have. From halfway across the world, it buoys me up and I am so thankful for that! Thank you all SO MUCH! I LOVE you!! :)
I don't even know where to begin!! This week feels like it's lasted 7 years. It's crazy!
I guess I'll start with my companion. Sister Lau is from England but she was born in Hong Kong and lived there until she was 5. So her English is perfect and her Cantonese is perfect. What a blessing! She is a tiny little thing and makes me feel like a giant. Just in general I feel like a giant here. Everyone is a five foot twig. Haha. She's nice. She's very blunt, and VERY obedient, which is good. She's not very emotional which makes me feel really dumb when I have breakdowns... oh well what do you do. We get along, and I'm learning lots from her!!
MACAU! Macau is so different from Hong Kong. The streets are smaller, there is a lot more internationality here, (is that even a word? idk), and it smells different. My nose has been so sensitive since coming to HK. So funny. But yeah! It's cool. There are only 2 branches in all of Macau. Everywhere else in HK is wards, but here in Macau it's only branches. We serve in the 1st branch, which is Chinese speaking. The 2nd branch is international and they speak English there. But if we contact someone who speaks English we have to turn them over to the international sisters :( what a bummer haha. But i guess that will make me learn Canto faster! The only thing I don't like about Macau is the fact that we are cut off from the rest of the mission since we're an hour by ferry away. We can't call them, they can't call us, it's weird. It's like our own little isolated mission! Craziness! But we do have a senior couple here, Elder and Sister Welling. They're nice. I'm bummed out that Zone Conference (this Friday) I won't be seeing all my friends from the MTC :( Just us in Macau having our own little special Zone Conf. Which is still cool. The Seventy that's coming will get to just be with us 10 missionaries! :)
Sister Lau and I are a new companionship here in Macau (before they only had 4 sisters, now there are 6) so we've been finding a LOT. We've had so many crazy experiences! No one wants to listen :*( We were in this park yesterday after church, finding, and we were talking to this really cute girl. Of course I have no idea what she's saying, but I'm smiling and nodding and pretending like I do. All of a sudden this really old Chinese man pops up from behind me and starts yelling "Mormon gaau!!! Che gaau!!!!" (Mormon church, evil church). And when I say yelling, I mean SCREAMING at the top of his lungs. The whole park went silent and was staring at us. The girl we were talking to like ran away. The old man just kept on screaming. I don't even know what he was saying. We just kinda stood there and then Sister Lau said, "Let's go." And we left. I asked her what he was saying and apparently he was calling us "Hags" and saying how evil we were and how we should go die and never come back to Macau. Okay, rude. I wasn't doing anything to you, mister. Instead of making me feel discouraged, this experience made me feel encouraged. It's a testimony to me that this work is true. Satan is working so hard to stop us from proselyting, but he can't stop it. No one can stop this work. This is God's work, and it is mighty, and it WILL go on. I feel so blessed to be a part of it!!
So.. yes. Head lice. I'd been noticing my head getting SUPER itchy lately. I didn't think much of it, but then started remembering that Arthur episode where they all get lice and their heads get really itchy. so then i start thinking... hmm... i wonder if i have lice. OH SICK. I didn't want to tell anybody because i didn't want to find out if it was true or not haha. I finally decided i better tell my companion. I told her, and she looked at my head, and we all decided that I for sure had lice. At that moment, I wanted to say "Forget this! I'm going home!" Okay, not really. When I actually stopped to think about it there's no way in this world or the next that I want to come home. But I wanted to at least sit down and cry. But there's no time for that! We went to see Sis Welling (senior missionary here in Macau) and she told me I'd have to cut my hair off. Nope, not doing that. So we called Sister Hawks and she told me what to do. It's a pain, but I've been putting olive oil on my head every night and combing out those nasty nits with a fine tooth comb. I like to think of myself as Job. I'd like to imagine that Heavenly Father and Satan are watching me. Satan says, "I'm going to give her head lice, that'll make her want to come home." Heavenly Father says, "Go ahead. I know her better than that." And so, here I am, in China, with head lice, where they have no special shampoo and no mommy to comb the nits out and no comforts of home. But guess what, Satan?! YOU CAN'T BRING ME DOWN! No way. This is a very very small trial in the beginning of my mission. And so I'm not letting it get to me. It's a pain to get them out, but Heavenly Father gives us trials because he trusts us, right? He's showing me how much he trusts me. More than I think He should ;) haha. But it's all okay!
Every day is a rollercoaster of emotions. I wake up on a VERY very very lumpy mattress (top bunk) with the lumpiest pillow of my life (I'm not even sure how it can pass for a pillow), sweaty like no other, with crazy hair, and want to cry. But I get up, pray, and get working. That's when my homesickness goes away and I really start to enjoy this. I am giving ALL I have to the Lord. I am giving Him my name for these 18 months. I am giving him everything I have, my hair, my head, my body, my mind, my might. I want to make him proud!
I started writing down daily miracles in that little cute owl notebook you got me, Mom. It's helping me see the small things that make this mission worth it. I love looking on the positive side. I hope I can always be happy and show others that I am optimistic :) I want others to want to know Christ because they know me. I love this work. I love the Lord. I love the things I'm learning and the many, many, many, MANY wonderful ways I am growing. If we didn't have challenges, we would never grow. I am so thankful for the challenges of mission life.
I love you all more than I could ever say. You are so incredibly supportive and wonderful. I miss seeing you, but Mondays make the rest of the week worth it. I love talking to you. I really have the best family in the world!
Until next Monday, with all the love I have,
Sista Shay
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