My New Area - Love It!!

Leih hou all you people!

First off, I got the postcards you all sent from the family reunion! I LOVED them so much! I am always so amazed at how much my family loves me and how awesome they are. Man. I just love you guys. I died laughing at Mikell's postcard ;) and all of you! I just LOVED them! Thank you!

I have soooo many things I want to say about my new area! I absolutely love it here. It's awesome being back in the middle of everything. I didn't realize just how isolated it was in Macau until now, when I get to see other missionaries every single day! It's awesome!

On Monday while we were at the mission office, I saw Elder Barker from the MTC. It was hilarious to see him because he acted like I'd died. He was like, "Hey! What are you doing here?!" haha he also thought it was really funny that I had a British companion as my trainer because of how often I did a British accent in the MTC. hahaha. Then we went to the church on Tuesday for district meeting and I saw Elder Nestman from the MTC! He also acted like I died. He was like, "Wow! I haven't seen you in forever!!" And also Elder Beal from the MTC is in my district now! it's so great! I've missed my MTC friends! :)

I absolutely love living with Sister Pearl, Tidwell, and Aldana. We have a lot of fun together. It's a little bit weird because we're in two different areas (in Macau we all went to the same branch together and saw each other a lot more). It's pretty different here. We live in Kwai Fong, but our area is Cheung Sha Wan, which is like 15 minutes away. And the church for our area is like 45 minutes away. We're on the MTR sooooo much every single day. We spend a TON of money on traveling. Like $550/month. But that's in HK dollars. Anyway, as far as both Sister Aldana and I know, we are the only companionship that doesn't live in our area OR have the church in our area. Weird. Super different from Macau.

Anyway, this area is awesome! We are in a ward now instead of a branch! Yippee! We work really closely with our elders, something we didn't really do in Macau. That's been really fun! I like our elders, Elder Allen and Elder Liu. They're also the zone leaders. They're super funny and both from America (AZ and UT).

Sister Aldana and her comp just barely opened this area last transfer! So we've been doing a TON of finding. I haven't done finding like this in awhile. And it's WAY DIFFERENT HERE. In Macau, people were way more laid back. They were way more willing to talk to you. It's been pretty hard, hot, and discouraging. One day this week, no one would listen. I mean NO one. And when it's already 7:30 at night and you've been finding since 12:30 and you still have an hour to go before you can go home, sometimes it's all you can do to keep going. I had to stop Sis Aldana and say, "Can we pray?" Prayer is so powerful. I know that's what keeps me going through all of the hard days. It's amazing to see what miracles Heavenly Father gives us when we humble ourselves enough to ask for His help.

We do have one investigator that is pure gold. Her name is YJ and she has a seven year old son named K. They are AMAZING. They started out with absolutely no gospel interest, but because of English class, they started having interest. and now she has a baptismal date for the end of September! Okay I wanted to die yesterday, they are so awesome. They came to 3 hours of church and then later last night we called them to schedule them for this week. Sister Aldana talked to her for a while, then K wanted to talk, so she talked to K, then YJ asked if she could talk to me! So then I chatted with her for a while and then K wanted to talk to me, so I talked to him for a while. Oh my goodness I wanted to cry. I love them so much. I LOVE being able to love so quickly and so fully! When I hung up the phone, Sister Aldana and I just looked at each other and were like freaking out because they're so AWESOME! Gosh. I wish I could describe it.

This week we did an English fast (only speaking cantonese. obviously.) from 12:30--6:30 on Wed and Fri. It was SO good! Seriously. We never did that in Macau and I felt like it helped my Chinese a lot! It gave me more confidence too. Like I can actually do this! It's gonna be okay! Haha, at one point we were by this mall around dinner time. We went inside to see if there was a food court, but we didn't see one, so we walked up to the Information Desk. The lady behind the desk watched us approach with a terrified look on her face, like, "Don't come over here, I don't know English!" So I walked right up to her and said, "Leih hou!" and immediately her face totally relaxed and she asked how she could help me. Then we had a full on conversation in CANTONESE! And I did allllll the talking. I was soooo happy! I LOVE when people don't expect us to be speaking Cantonese but then we are anyway. Ahhhh :) love it!

So, there you have it. The challenges and good times of this week. I absolutely LOVE being a missionary. Struggling through the hard times to experience the joy of bringing people unto Christ is the best feeling in all the world. I can't get over it. I love this so much! I love all of you! Thank you so much for everything you do for me. I feel all your prayers. TM, 1st ward, I love you! Thanks for your prayers! :) I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you!

Until next week!!

Love forever and always,

Shay Bay Bay
Gwok
xoxoxo

I forgot! Next week we get to go to the temple! YAY! But that means that our P-day isn't till Thursday. So you won't get an email till Wednesday night. Just didn't want you to worry ;) I love you all! xoxo