FAMILY! Oh my gosh! I love you so much! I don't think I could love you more than I do at this moment in time. Okay, I just started crying. That's embarrassing...
I don't even know where to start! I'M IN HONG KONG!! It's so insane here!!! Ahhhh!!!!!! I will try to write everything - please don't get bored reading my letters. Ha you say you want details, I will give them to you!
Side note: I AM A MISSIONARY! I AM LIVING IN CHINA! IT SMELLS DIFFERENT CONSTANTLY! I AM ALWAYS SWEATY! I have these moments several times a day. I can't believe I am here, I am a missionary, and that I can understand some Chinese. Whaaa??!!
Sooo... when we left the MTC, it was probably the saddest day of my life. It was so hard to say goodbye to my district. We had a last district prayer on Sunday night before we left and Elder Barker asked me to say it. Me. The bawl baby. I was like "are you sure?" haha and everyone laughed and he said, "yes. i'm sure." So I said the hardest prayer I have ever said and thanked Tinfuh for giving us such a great district in the MTC and for giving us each other and our amazing teachers. Ahhh. I love them. I miss them SOOOO much. Almost as much as I miss you. They were like my family for 9 weeks in the MTC! Anyway, we were all crying. And then we went around and shook each others hands and said "Ga Yauh" and good luck. It was sad!
Monday (June 3)/somewhere in there it changed to Tuesday (June 4): 2:00 am wake up. Ah, so hard. But I heard E. Barker describe it as the "scariest Christmas morning ever." Yup. Pretty accurate! It was like major butterflies but also terror but also excitement. Craziness. Our cute teachers came and said goodbye to us as we left! I love them. They are the best. The next hours were a BLUR. Airport craziness... yeah yeah you know all that. I TALKED TO YOU ON THE PHONE! That was the best/worst thing ever. Best because I love you so much and it was so great to hear your voices, but worst because I was counting on talking to you FOR SO MUCH LONGER and I didn't get to because of my lame flight :( I was so sad. But it's okay. It was so good to talk to you all. I love you sooooo much! Then we boarded our plane to HK! CRAZY! such a long, boring flight. I was in the middle of 4 missionaries: Sis Tidwell, Sis Wuthrich, and Elder Young. I slept A LOT. Ate some really disgusting food that I hope I never eat again. Studied my scriptures. Wrote you a letter. Studied Cantonese. Got up and walked around and talked to this cute mom and daughters who were from Hong Kong going back there, but they wanted nothing to do with what I was talking about. So I was just nice to them, because every time I brought up religion I think the mom wanted to shoot me. ANYWAY. At the HK airport, met our mission president, wife, and the assistants. WOW. Pres and Sis Hawks are AWESOME!!! I really love them so much! They feel like parents to me already. I'm so thankful that they're American. hahaa. We drove to the mission home (it was pouring rain!!!) and had dessert together with Pres and Sis Hawks. It was like 9 at night. Went to bed! Our first 2 nights we stayed in the temple patron housing, which is in the same building as the mission home. Really small. But it had A/C which was really nice. I was exhausted that night.
Wednesday (June 5): Woke up. SO TIRED. Oh my gosh. Went across the street to the temple/Pres and Sis Hawks' apartment for breakfast. French toast and sausage! For some reason, that was the best meal of my life. We were all dying. Maybe because we've been eating MTC food/disgusting airplane food for the past 2 months. It was delicious. Sis hawks made it all... she is an angel. Went and got our HK Id's. Went on the MTR! (the metro transit something or other... the subway. such a cool efficient system!) HONG KONG IS INSANE! It's huge. and it smells WEIRD. I just can't get over how weird it smells. hahaha. And everyone is speaking really fast Chinese. And there are NO WHITE PEOPLE. whoever said it was a very international city is the biggest liar I ever heard. I have seen NO WHITE PEOPLE besides missionaries. anyway, went and got our HK Id's. Tried to give away some pamphlets! Realized how much Cantonese i DON'T know. Everyone speaks way too fast! if they slowed down a ton, i could maybe pick out some words! But right now I can't even get hardly anything! Anyway, after that we went back to the mission home and had a few hours of study. We were all falling asleep. It was pathetic. We were sooooooooooo tired from jet lag. Ate lunch (sis hawks made sweet and sour chicken over rice, mmmm delicious), did some mores studies, had an interview with Pres Hawks (he's such a nice guy, i really like him a lot and i love his wife!), ate some dinner (pizza! totally normal. although they did have some seafood pizza there for us to try with octopus on it, but it looked totally disgusting so i didn't try it.) went to the English class they have at the church there which was way fun :) I loved that! This cute little old lady said the opening prayer and she said, "Heavenly Father, I am Chinese. Forgive me for my poor English. But thank you for giving me a good place to learn English from your missionaries. I love you. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." In a heavy Chinese accent. Sweetest thing. I cried (of course). After English class, went to bed. STOKED to go to bed.
Thursday (June 6): Woke up. Got ready. Went downstairs to meet our trainers! I played the piano to open that meeting - yippee for me using my piano skills already! :) Then they announced the trainers. I was sitting there with Sis MOrgan, Sis Johnson, Sis Palmer - all of us holding hands and squeezing so tight! They announced everyone's companion/area, and then they came to me. Very last. They said, "Sis Wilcox, your trainer is actually not here. You won't meet her till Monday because.... you're going to MACAU."
WAIT! back up! I forgot. On Wednesday night after dinner, Pres Hawks came up to me and said, "Can I see you for a second?" Sure President. So I go with him. He asks me, "Would you say you're adventurous?" uhhh..... haha what am i supposed to say to that? I don't really feel like i'm adventurous. But I said, "Um, i don't know." We both laughed, and he said, "If I were to give you an unexpected assignment, I get the impression that you'd take it and make the best of it and deal with it really well. Is that correct?" Wow. I said, "I would sure try!" And he said, "Okay. That's all I needed to know." He didn't talk to anyone else.... so I was suspicious....
Anyway. MACAU. Everyone FREAKED out. I'm not even kidding. Sister Hawks ran up to me and hugged me and was shrieking, "Macau! Your first area is Macau! Oh my gosh!" So I was just stoked, right? I had no idea what Macau is about other than its a different country! Wow! Macau!!! K so then we all ate breakfast together. Everyone is like chatting with their trainers and I'm just all like wow. Macau. No companion. OKay..... one sister came up to me and said her name was Sis Pearl and she was going to Macau on Mon too and we were going to be comps till then. Then Pres Hawks came up and told us we'd be living in the Kowloon Bay apartment and helping out the Kwun Tong area until Monday. Okay, cool. Then it was time to leave! Everyone just left! Wow! It was sad :( I miss them soooooo much!!!! Anyway, Sis Pearl and I went and met these other 2 sisters, Sis Cutler and Sis Jamison that are also going to Macau today. They're telling me they can't believe that Macau is my first area because it's so cut off from everyone else. Can't call missionaries in HK from Macau. Can't see any other missionaries. Can't go to the mission office. OKay, wow. Sad. So then I started feeling really sad. Plus, the other 3 sisters weren't talking to me much. And they were talking about stuff that I didn't understand. We basically went finding that day. Oh the thing about HK is that we can't knock on people's doors. because everyone lives in a highrise apt buliding that has a guard. so we just have to find on the streets! Anyway, after a day of finding where i had no idea what anyone said or what anyone was saying to me, i felt awful. I'm in this really strange place and i MISS AMERICA. I MISS MY FRIENDS. I MISS MY FAMILY. I MISS MY MTC DISTRICT AND ROOMMATES SO BAD. we went to a member's house for dinner (Becky) and they were all speaking Chinese. and I just sat there at the table (yes they have tables) and wanted to cry the whole time. It was really hard. Oh, and we had pizza at Becky's. ha. No weird food yet! After Becky's we went home and went to bed. I got into bed and started BAWLING. I have never been so sad/lonely/homesick in my entire life. Ever. Ever. Oh man. I felt so awful. Our apartment was small, it smelled weird, it was just really lonely. I missed my roommates in the MTC so much.
Gah now i'm running out of time. So i will condense the past three days. They have been getting better and better :) Now, I can honestly say, I like it here. It's so fun to be in a different country! Finding is getting better! I love it! I love asking people if they're intersted in hearing a message about eternal familes and then whipping out my picture of you guys! it's awesome! No lessons yet because we haven't had any investigators! I haven't even met my companion yet! All i know is her name is Sister Lao and she's from England and she's Chinese. So that'll be good for my language! :) I'm stoked to get to my area and actually start the work. Like, it's been good here in Kwun Tong, but we can't teach lessons, we have just been finding for the other KT sisters. I LOVE finding though. It's so fun :) I think my Cantonese is getting better already! I love personal study. I love companion study. I really love the Lord. I can feel Him watching over me. I feel such a close connection with people on the other side of the veil EVERY SINGLE DAY. I know they're watching out for me. It's really special. I have felt an especially close connection with Papa for some reason. I feel like this mission has bonded us two. i can't wait till the day I can see him again and thank him for helping me SO MUCH on this mission already.
If there is one thing I have learned, it is that I can love EVERYONE. I know it. I love the sisters I'm with now. I love my mission president. I love the people here. I love the Lord with all my heart and i'm ready to give EVERYTHING to him!
I love you all so much! I have to go! thank you for being the best family there ever was! You're amazing!
With all the love I have, from China to Heber City,
Shay
xoxoxo
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