This week was good, and hard. Hard, but good. Who am I kidding -- my whole mission has been like that. So, so good. So, so hard. Good + hard = best. Because if things weren't hard, they wouldn't be worth it!
The Good:
- We had Zone 24's Friday and Saturday! That's where every companionship in the zone gets to go on exchanges with someone else (for 24 hours... hence "24's"). It was so fun! Guess who I went with??...... Sister Aldana! My old companion! It was great! We went to her area, Butterfly, which is beautiful and amazing. It's down by the coast, so there's waterfront everywhere. Loved it. Early Saturday morning one of their less actives invited us to go on a hike with her so we went! IT WAS THE BEST. Wow, I miss hiking. I miss the good outdoors. We shared a message about agency and choosing the right path and ah, it was just perfect. It was fun to be with Sister Aldana and see/talk about the things we've learned and the ways we've changed since we were comps.
- One night, Sister Aguilar and I were STARVING. So we went to this little Thailand restaurant that's like right below our house. We got some good food, ate it, paid, and were walking out when we saw some candy in a dish right by the door. We were like, "Hey, it's like Cafe Rio!" took the candy and left. We were walking by the restaurant again a little later when we realized that the candy we ate was FOR THEIR ANCESTORS. People give food to their ancestors here and put it on little shrines and stuff. We ATE THEIR ANCESTORS' CANDY!!! Oh man, we were humiliated. But we laughed for like an hour. The people that owned the shop were probably like, wow, stupid Americans.
- We ran into one of our investigators, Helen, on the street one night. She was like, "hey! I met this lady whose husband and son died in a car accident. I think she needs the gospel! Want to go visit her with me right now?" We were like, OF COURSE!!! Helen, our INVESTIGATOR, gave us a referral. We were shocked but stoked out of our minds.
- I am learning more and more every day. One of my "3 things" (hey dad, remember when you told me to pick 3 things I wanted to work on over the course of my mission?) is to be a better studyer. It's been awesome to really dive into the scriptures lately, to really pray and speak with Heavenly Father, to really think about my investigators and how I can help them, to really study Cantonese so I can speak it better and better. I love learning. I love study time. I love this gospel.
Mostly just this one thing. Yesterday one of our investigators came to church for the first time with her little son. It was the happiest thing EVER. We were thrilled to see her. After sacrament meeting, she said she needed to talk to us and took us outside. She started crying and told us that the night before, her husband beat her. Kicked her and hit her and threw things at her. AND he beat her son. AND it's been happening since before her son was born, over 6 years ago. She was just sobbing and we were sobbing with her. My heart broke for her. I want to send her off to America, to Utah, and tell her she can sleep in my bed at home with her son. They can have a good life, FAR away from her stupid husband. I can't even describe how much I love these too. They are so good and so innocent. Sister Aguilar and I were really upset about it all day on Sunday. We were both crying as we were writing in our journals about it. Life is SO hard. It kills me to think of our cute investigator going home every night to THAT. I would give her my apartment/bed/food if I could. :( SO sad.
The only thing that makes me feel a little bit better is the fact that through Jesus Christ, this can be made right. Our cute investigator can be healed. Completely healed. Spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally. She can turn her life completely around. That's the wonderful thing the gospel offers to all of us. No matter our trial, whether we endure abuse or whether we have physical disabilities or bad hair days or pain because of guilt or financial problems or WHATEVER, Jesus Christ's Atonement gives us a chance to become new. I am so incredibly thankful for that gift. There is no way to describe how much His gift to all of us means to me. I am thankful that through Jesus Christ, I am clean. I am not perfect, but I can start again every single day to be better and more than I was yesterday. I love being able to share that with everyone.
Fam, I hope you know how good you have it. Whit, Park, Jare... I love you guys so much. You have the best of everything. I hope you're grateful for it and recognize it and tell Heavenly Father how much you are thankful.
I love you all so much. I love this mission experience. The gospel is HOPE. I'm giving hope to Hong Kong. It's the best, most worthwhile thing I've ever done.
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Sister Gwok
xoxxoxo
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