The Exhibition

(email from July 8, 2013)

Dearest Fam that I love more than anything in the entire world, EVER,

How are you doing?? You're on vacation right now! I've been thinking of/praying for you ever since you left on Wednesday. I hope you're having a blast. I think it's so cool that you get to go to Philmont and have a "spiritual vacation." What could be better than that? I hope you have fun and I expect next Monday to have DETAILED letters from EVERY ONE OF YOU (sibs. you're falling behind on keeping me updated. what's up with that. it's summer. you have loads of free time. every free second you have should be spent on the computer writing long letters of your lives to your sister in china. okay? okay.) I LOVE you sooo much!

This week has been CRAZY busy. I can't believe we have so much to do and so many investigators! It's been amazing! I have so much to say, I don't even know where to start!! I did make notes in my planner though, of everything I wanted to tell you about. Most times I get to the email place, sit down, and try to remember what happened in the week. And I don't remember anything. haha.

Oh, first of all, Gigi, thank you so much for your letters! You are BY FAR the best pen pal I've ever had! Your letters are so supportive and I love reading them! You are amazing. I love you sooo much! I sent a letter last week, so sometime this week you should get it! I love you!

This week the Mandarin elders gave us a new investigator, HJ. She has no Christian background at all but she is VERY interested in the church! She has the best questions and she's just awesome!! In our second lesson with her this week, Sister Lau said the opening prayer and blessed her and her family. She was very teary after the prayer and so we asked her if she was alright. She opened up and told us that her husband had left her :( She really started getting emotional about it, and all of a sudden, I was getting REALLY emotional too. I started sobbing with her. I just looked at her and said in Cantonese, "I'm so sorry, I just feel your feelings" (which, I don't, because I'm not married and I can't imagine how hard that is, but I didn't know how to adequately express my feelings in Cantonese). I was crying so hard my voice was shaky. It was kind of embarrassing but I just felt so much compassion for her, I didn't even care. I told her how much Heavenly Father loves her and how I know that He will help her through her hard times. Then Sister Lau shared Jacob 2:35 (is it 35? i think..) about the Lamanites "breaking the hearts of their tender wives". It was really touching. We bore testimony to her of how much Heavenly Father cares and loves her. She said that she has felt so angry this week, but the many times she has knelt to pray, she has felt calm. Wow. Prayer is awesome. She is awesome. We call her "Golden HJ" because we feel like she is so golden! It's these kind of investigators that you pray for!

Also this week we nailed down a baptismal date for D! D is 15 years old and she is incredible. She has an amazing desire to learn and to be baptized. She understands things that I'm pretty sure I didn't understand when I was 15. Ahh, she's just so great! The plan is for her to be baptized August 18th... a few weeks after I leave Macau :( so sad. But so happy for her. She is really awesome. I love teaching her because her English is so great and she helps me a LOT with my Cantonese :)

On the 4th of July, we had no free time until 10:00 at night (as usual). So at 10:00 after we'd planned, we all dressed up in red, white, and blue and made hot dogs! And sang the Star Spangled Banner. Hahaha it was hilarious and SO much fun. Earlier in the day I even called the other sisters to make sure they'd bring home an English hymn book from the church so we could get the words right to the song :) it was so fun. America, i love you! From clear over here in China! We are so blessed to live in America! I feel more and more blessed the longer I am here. God bless the USA!

On Friday, we had a branch activity - Less Active Finding. Apparently in the past almost no one has shown up, so Thursday night I spent calling through all the RS sisters, asking them to come to the activity while Sis Lau called our investigators. And we actually had 4 sisters come! It was a miracle! Sister Lau said there has never been that many sisters come. So how it worked: the Branch Mission Leader split us all up, one member with one missionary, and he gave us all two or three LA to find. I was put with JJ, and let me tell you, I was more than just a little bit nervous. I can teach full lessons in Cantonese, but trying to make conversation is still pretty much "Leih hou! Leih gamyaht hou ma? Leih sihkjo faahn meih? Leih jichihn yauh mouh gingwo ngohdeih chyungaausih?" (Hello. Is today good? Have you eaten yet? Have you ever seen us missionaries before?) So I was thinking, oh great. I'm going to be put with a member and we're going to do this in silence. FUN. But I tried to have a good attitude about it! And I loved it!! JJ was so awesome! She served her mission in Singapore and with her little bit of English and my little bit of Cantonese, we had a great time! We actually got to talk to a LA! (hardly ever happens -- the other Canto sisters have been going LA finding for weeks and they haven't spoken to a LA yet) She was a little popo (that's what old ladies are called, it's like "grandma" in English but it's also like a title. Like Mrs. or something. Like the old lady investigators that we have are W Popo, C Popo, etc.) Her name was S Popo and she was so sweet and nice. Her house was TINY. You walk in -- did I mention that every door here has a gate in front of it? it was way weird at first, it felt like prison, but i'm used to it now -- so anyway, you walk in and there is her tiny kitchen table, bed, and fridge all right there. There was a door that I'm assuming went to a bathroom. I hope. Anyway, it was so small! She doesn't want to come to church because she's too tired in the mornings, but we had a nice visit with her anyway. I always remember Jeffrey R. Holland's words. We're here to spread the gospel, yes. But we're also here to "go about doing good", and maybe sometimes that doesn't mean sharing the gospel. Just being a nice person and being willing to serve is also part of missionary work.

The EXHIBITION! Wow. It was crazy. Saturday was spent allllllllll day long doing exhibition stuff. From 8 in the morning till 6 at night we were crazy busy! In the morning it was pouring rain. You don't even know the meaning of pouring rain in Utah. Here the streets flood, you can't see in front of your face, your umbrella is useless type of rain. But by 11:30 the rain went away. MIRACLE!!! The exhibition was good. We got a lot of numbers! The best part was seeing all the members doing missionary work. Here we are in the middle of this park, this big square, and all the members are going around with pamphlets and talking to people. So cool to see them being missionaries! This work is real and the Lord is hastening it! It's so exciting to be a part of!

Well, it's time for me to go. I'll send pictures of this week too. I love you so much! You get me through the hard days. I LOVE hearing from you. Thank you so much for being such great support and examples for me! I count my blessings that I was born into THIS family with all of you. I love you I love you I love you!!!!!!

Parker, I want to hear about Africa dudE! I'm dying to hear about it!

LOVE always,
Shay
Gwok

xoxoxoxo

Wow! I love this!!

Hello FAM! and FRIENDS! and all of you that i LOVE!

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really do. I can't believe that time is flying by so fast. Weeks feel like days, and days feel like weeks. That's how it works. Macau is the best place on earth, I'm convinced. I'm really loving the people and loving the work that I'm doing. Despite all these challenges, I can look back on my life before and see how much I've already grown. I hope and pray that I'll continue to grow and that when I get back, I won't be the same person! (as Jeffrey R. Holland tells us missionaries, we CAN'T be the same person!) I will be a much, much better version of myself.

Daddy, I have the BEST story for you! It was the most wonderful tender mercy the Lord gave me this week. You know that framed picture of Jesus Christ I have that Shauna Jensen's mom gave to me in Primary? I've kept it all these years, i love it. I took it to college with me and now it's on my desk here in Macau, halfway across the world. Anyway, there is "The Living Christ" in the back of the picture and I decided one morning for personal study I would read that. I got it out from behind my picture and saw a piece of paper that said "PRIVATE" on it in little kid red marker. I got it out and you know what it was?..... a Valentine's note from you, Dad, from when i was 10! Oh man, it was the sweetest little note! You said, "Shay, I can't believe you are TEN! Where have the years gone! You are such a beautiful young lady inside and out. I am so proud of who you are becoming. You are really trying to help me and Mom in a lot of ways. I love how you love to read. That is such a good thing for you to do. Always quest after knowledge. Shaylee, I love you so much. I hope you will always want to share your feelings with me. I am here whenever you want to talk. Please be my Valentine! Love you. Love, Dad." I cried. Not because I was sad or because I missed you, but because that is SO sweet. The note is so sweet, and it's so sweet that I held it so dear at 10 years old that I wrote "private" on it and stashed it behind my picture of the Savior. It was a very tender moment and one that I won't ever forget. Dad, I love you so much. Thanks for everything you do for me.

Mom, your questions! I LOVED that email, by the way. Thank you for sending me stuff. That is so nice. I feel so bad it was so expensive. I sure love you. Thank you for supporting me! I love you, I love you, I love you!!

1. The lice are coming okay. I feel like they're getting less and less. I'm not combing bugs out anymore, just eggs, and I'm excited to get your pkg so I can get rid of the eggs too!

2. 6 girls, yep. Before I came there were only 4 girls in this apartment, so yes it's VERY crowded. But we do okay! Haha. We don't really eat together, we're all busy doing different things and have dinner at different times/different places. Sometimes if we're all at the church we have lunch together and watch cheesy 90's Mormon movies (What is Real, On the Way Home, Together Forever) during lunch. Those times are the best :) Other times we're eating with investigators. We LIVE at the church. You don't really knock doors here (but you can in Macau - only place in HK you can knock doors) so we mostly teach lessons at the church.

3. My mission pres and wife are the most amazing people in the world. I love them SO much and look up to both of them. They are endlessly patient, kind, and understanding. They have so many good insights and so many good things to say! This week was Branch Conf for our little branch and so we got to see Pres and Sis Hawks yesterday! it was awesome. Pres Hawks spoke about his vision for Macau in 10 years - 2 stakes! Right now Macau only has 2 branches. Oh man, he pumped us up so much! Idk about the members, but us missionaries, whooo! We have so much work to do! :) it's AWESOME!

4. My branch is awesome! They kind of have been having some difficulties with unity in the branch, but I'm hoping that I can help in some way. this week has been really good for me. I feel like I know everyone's name (only 70ish active members) and I can start up a conversation! Not as many people speak English as I thought before I came. But through body language we can communicate haha :) I really love the members. They're awesome. This week we're getting ready for a BIG exhibition about the church! We've been getting ready for it this whole time, I think I just forgot to tell you. We have all these banners about the Church and we're going on Saturday to this park and staying there from 1-6pm. The missionaries will be doing to Plan of Salvation display. We're excited about it! I hope a lot of members show up. They need to get fired up about missionary work here. The branch president is AWESOME, though. He's maybe 25? He's so nice and speaks really good English so that's good. He has a little baby girl. the whole branch presidency is really young with young families. I think they're good for the branch though. President Chan (BP) is so good about helping us missionaries. He remembers well what missionary life is like and he's always good about asking me how I'm doing. He really cares. I like him a lot.

5. Cantonese is..... coming. I feel like it's coming better and better but it's still really hard. I write down all new words in a little notebook that I keep in my bag all the time. that helps. My companion is good about helping me learn new things. I feel pretty comfortable (usually) in lessons, it's just during finding that I don't know what anyone's saying. It's funny... well, not funny. I'll say "Leih hou!" and people will look at me, look at my nametag, shake their head, say "Msai" (no need), and walk away. I want to say, "Msai what? All i said was hi!"

We have increased our number of investigators from one to six this week! MIRACLE! Seriously. Sister Lau is always telling me how she can't believe how fast the work is progressing. It's not us, either. It's the Lord, hastening His work! It's absolutely INCREDIBLE to be a part of it.

This week we found C. in our book of former investigators and gave her a call. She agreed to come meet us at the church. She was a really nice woman, middle aged, and right away asked us about our conversion stories. I started to say that I've grown up in the church, and she interrupted and said, "You've never questioned? Never been to another church?" I said no. I started to bear my testimony that doing the little things my whole life, like reading my scriptures and praying and attending church, has helped me to know without a doubt that this church is true, and she wouldn't hear it. I didn't understand what she was saying but I could tell that she thought I was naive. I felt really bad. I brought it up to Sister Lau later and she said, "yeah, I wanted her to realize that it's a process that everyone goes through, and you made it sound like you just grew up in the church and never had to find out." Wow, that made me feel really bad. So for a few days after that, I was questioning myself. Is my testimony as valid as other people's, who have had crazy awesome experiences where they BOOOM, all of a sudden, knew it was true? Do I need to kneel down and ask Heavenly Father if it's true? I don't think I ever have. Well, this went on for a few days. It was really bothering me. One personal study, I knelt and prayed, "Heavenly Father, I know this church is true. I don't think I need to ask you. But please help me feel comfort in this. Please help me to know that I am okay." And I started reading the BOM. {PS. If anyone wonders whether or not the BOM is true, oh my goodness. Read it. It will answer any and every question you have. I know that.} I was reading in Alma 32 and it talks about whoever is compelled to be humble is good, but who humbles themselves without having to be compelled is better. And it also says whosoever knows the word of God without having to be compelled is better off that he who has to be compelled to know. (something like that, i can't remember exactly, it's like verse 16). Direct answer to my prayer. Then I got thinking about D&C 6 when the Lord is telling Oliver Cowdery, "Remember that night when you inquired of me? Why do you want a further witness? Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter?" I am like Oliver Cowdery. I have never needed to ask the Lord whether this church is true, because I've come to know that it is through reading my scriptures, learning the gospel, praying, attneding church.... all these little things have added up. I know the church is true with all my heart, and it's okay that I haven't had a huge Alma the Younger-like experience. I don't need it. The Lord is satisfied with my efforts :) I'm okay. That was such a miraculous experience for me. I'm so grateful for the scriptures and how the Lord comforts us through the scriptures.

Some things I have learned:

- how to change sheets like a PRO. I change them every single night! I can do it with my eyes closed.

- Cockroach in my cereal? No big deal. pick it out and keep eating. Didn't even freak out.

- Showering twice a day is necessary. At the end of the day you're so sweaty that if you don't shower, you'll wake up really itchy because of your sweat.

- ALWAYS carry around tissues. Not for crying. Not for runny noses. For wiping the sweat off your face, neck, arms..... everyone carries tissues here. Crazy.

- The people here carry umbrellas, rain or shine. My companion thinks i'm crazy because I don't "protect my skin from the sun." Well I like the sun!! Even though it's hot, it rains a lot here and I really miss the blue sky. When it's blue, I'm gonna enjoy it! :)

- Keep our bedroom door open during the day or mold will grow on the walls. Yuck.

- There is no such thing as too many prayers. I pray probably 100 times a day.

I have the best family on the earth. I love you so much. You wouldn't believe how many other sister missionaries have asked me, "did your family actually have family prayer and scripture study?" I'm so proud to say yes! So many times I think of you and what a blessing you are to me. I love you all so, so, so much. Xoxoxoxoxoxo FOREVER!

Love,
Shay

PS. Write me letters! Like real ones. They're fun to get :)

FULL of Miracles

Leih hou a! Gamyaht hou ma?

How are you all this week?? It's still weird thinking about it being a different time in Utah. And everywhere else. Most of the people I know in the world are still in Sunday night. But for me, it's Monday already! And so much has happened today! I miss you guys TONS. I hope you know how much I love you and pray for you. Dad, it sounds like you had an INSANE week. I hope stake conference was great! Wasn't the broadcast good?? Yes, we got to watch it :) We're the only missionaries in the mission that got to watch it today! We got up at 5 and went over to our senior couple's apartment here in Macau (Elder and Sister Welling) and Sister Welling made breakfast for us and we all watched it together at6 am! It was fun! Did you think of me here in Hong Kong? :) Did you like how Hong Kong got a shout out? Some of the missionaries I'm serving with knew some of the people that were on the video from HK, so that was cool! :)

Anyway, this week has been amazing. Seriously. Full of so many miracles. It has really helped me to recognize the little miracles and write them down everyday. I've been really good about my journal writing too (much better than when i was in the MTC, i liked my roommates too much in the MTC haha) and so when I have bad days, I go back and reread through my good days. It helps.

Hmm... where to start....

I guess I'll start with the lice. Seems like you guys like hearing about that ;) Thanks for the info, momma. I read all about it. Sounds like they're really hard to get rid of. Great. I've been combing through my hair every night, washing sheets and pillowcase daily.. ahh it's such a pain. It's hard to find time to do that stuff. The shampoo that Sister Hawks tried to find is actually not shampoo :( I was sad to find that out. I know she worked really hard to find something and it came from really far away in Hong Kong so I'm grateful for it. It's actually Lice Defense Spray.. so I'm not sure it really does anything for those of us that already have lice. I don't know. Thank you for sending shampoo! I was actually going to ask if you could try and send some. I'm not sure what else to do besides have faith that the priesthood is real. I know it is. I know that I've been healed before and I can be healed again through that sacred power. I pray that my diligence in trying to get rid of these dumb lice will pay off and I can be healed.. and also that none of the other sisters will get it :/ ugh.

Anyway, things in Macau are going great other than that! I really am starting to love this work. Is it horrible to say that the first week I really didn't? That was enduring through the tough part. Now it is becoming enjoyable and I am seeing that really thrusting in my sickle with my might is working! I am gaining a love for these people and a real love of missionary work! Plus Macau is soooo cool. It's like Europe and HK mixed. I LOVE it. It's so awesome!! I'm slowly trying to find my way through these little narrow streets haha. You guys would love it too!

High points this week:

- Tuesday. We were out park finding. It was boiling hot. I was wearing my glasses and had the biggest headache EVER. My hair was a giant frizz ball. I could understand no one, and no one wanted to talk to us. We still had 2 hours before we could go home. I wanted to die. I stopped my companion right there on the path in the park and said, "I need to pray or I'm not going to make it through today." I offered the prayer, and in my very broken Cantonese said, "Heavenly Father, we are trying to be good missionaries. But we are so tired. Please help us to have strength. Please give us tailihk (it's like.. stamina). Please give us success. Please let us talk to at least one person who is interested in our message." When I closed the prayer, I felt a little bit lighter. We started working again, talking to everyone, and my headache went away almost immediately. It was still hot, but I felt better. We talked to a lot of people and got a few phone numbers and handed out a BOM! On the way home, we bought chah siu baau (delicious meat filled roll type things.. but not really rolls. But sort of. Idk how to explain them). I know prayer is real. Heavenly Father answers our prayers. He gives us what we need. He gives us comfort and strength. I know it!

- Wednesday. We watched "None Were With Him" Mormon Message with our investigator, Bobo. Bobo is awesome!! I really love her. She's been investigating the church for a looooong time. She says she has a testimony of the BOM but won't be baptized because she struggles with homosexuality issues :( It's really sad. I'm not sure how to help her. We pray for her sooo much. Anyway, we watched that mormon message because she wasn't sure if she wanted to keep coming back to church if she wasn't going to be baptized. We talked about how Jesus Christ will never leave us, and if we truly love Him, we will never leave Him either. I know that is true. I cried. (of course i did) and I really hope we touched her heart. SHE WAS AT CHURCH ON SUNDAY! yay! plus she came to Iris' (one of the other sisters' investigators) baptism. How awesome! What a miracle :)

- Thursday one of our investigators, Ha-Jeh, took us to lunch at a BUFFET in a CASINO! Hahahaha oh man it was awesome! She brought two of her friends too, and the whole time we were eating she was teaching them things that she'd learned from us and saying, "Isn't that what we believe, Sis Lau?" so funny. She's the sweetest old lady who believes that red is a lucky color and so she wears it all the time. Except apparently now she's switched to pink. She dyed her hair a BRIGHT pink magenta, and was wearing pink from head to toe. She's hilarious. After the buffet -- which was mostly weird Chinese food (I tried lots! just for the experience!) but they had some good salads and delicious ice cream -- we went to visit a less active with one of the members and it was awesome. Sadly, she did not show up for church on Sunday. We'll keep praying for her. Then we went to a part member family's house for dinner. Two cheng outs (cheng out is like when people feed us) in one day. Whoa. Too much food. We were still stuffed from the buffet, but when we went to the Lai family's house, they were making homemade pizza. I was thinking, oh sweet! Pizza! American food! I love pizza! ............ then I started helping make it.

Sardines.

Some weird things that looked like mini octopus.

Some other weird fishy looking stuff.

Pineapple.

Some weird looking meat.

Ketchup for the sauce.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

I was sitting there thinking, there is no way I can eat this nasty looking pizza. I'll throw up all over their beautiful kitchen table. Oh ewww. Imagine my face when I have to clean up moldy things from the fridge. But I couldn't make that face. So I made it in my head, smiled, and said, "Oh wow, this looks delicious! Thank you so much for feeding us!" and made the disgusting looking pizza. And you know what? When it was cooked, it looked like regular pizza. And it was actually pretty good. But it tasted really fishy. But i ate it! :) Oh Asia.

- Friday was Zone Conference. It was amazing. I wish I could tell you everything but this email is too long already and I'm running out of time and I want to send pictures. I LOVE President and Sister Hawks. They are incredible examples. Our Zone Conference pumped us up so much to get out there and do this fabulous, sacred work of the Lord. We are saving His children! What a great privilege!! Anyway, they stayed in Macau from 9 until 1 and we had lunch with them (just the 10 of us missionaries). It was a really cool opportunity to have it be a more intimate setting. I love Macau :)

- Saturday was the best day!! We helped A-Yen (a recent convert). She wants to serve a mission but has been having a lot of trials getting her papers started. She was telling Sis Lau all about it and I was sitting there not understanding anything feeling like a dead log. Then she started to cry. I felt so bad! I wanted to help SO BAD! But I didn't know what she was saying. I prayed that I would be able to touch her in some way. After a few minutes, I spoke up and I said in Cantonese, "A-Yen, I'm sorry. I don't know what your trial is because I don't understand. But I do know that God loves you. He gives you trials because He knows you are ready to grow. He trusts you so much, A-Yen. He will never leave you. In your greatest trials, He will be right beside you. He will carry you. I know because He has carried me through my greatest trials. He carries me every single day." We were all crying by then. It was really special. I felt so humbled. I didn't know what her problem was, but I was able to help her by relying on the Spirit and saying the things that came to my mind. The Spirit is incredible. I love relying on that power.

- Saturday was also the RS Activity. Our branch has some real problems with unity and we as missionaries are trying to unify the branch more. We decided we would go the RS activity, but also that we would contribute something because it was a cooking competition! But Saturday we ran out of time, so we had like 30 minutes to make something and get to the church on time (church is like 15 min away). I boiled some pasta, cut up some red and green peppers and sauteed them, and looked through the plethera of sauces that have been left in the fridge by other sisters and threw some alfredo sauce on it. Then we went to the cooking competition. GET THIS. I won. hahahaha I was laughing so hard. I won the cooking competition! It was basically a big taste test and apparently they liked my dish! What was even funnier was when I had to stand up in front of everyone and tell them how I made it. They were all taking notes. It was hilarious. And I won a tupperware container. :) haha my first cooking competition... and I won. Wow. Who would have guessed??!! Also funny was that Sis Pearl got 2nd place. And she made cake from a cake mix :)

Well, I love you all so much. I wish I had time to email you for like 8 hours. I would tell you everything. I miss you all. Keep praying for me! I'll keep praying for you. I know this is the work of the Lord. When I let myself "forget myself and go to work", I know I am SO much happier. Life is so good. SO hard, but so good. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. Best decision I've ever made :) Daddy, Momma, Twit, Park, Jare -- I LOVE YOU MORE THAN ANYTHING. I hope you're having a great summer! Park, I hope Africa is amazing! I can't wait to hear about it!

With all the love I have,
Shay
Gwok

xoxoxo

Head Lice, Macau, and Rollercoasters!!

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

I AM IN HONG KONG!! But not for long....MACAU?!!

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

LAST WEEK IN MTC!!!

Jou sahn! :) (good morning!)

WHO CAN BELIEVE THAT AT THIS TIME NEXT WEEK I WILL BE IN THE SAN FRAN AIRPORT WAITING TO GO TO HONG KONG CHINA?!!! Not me! But I couldn't be more excited about it! :) We got our travel plans on Friday!! Oh my gosh I haven't been that nervous since I actually got my mission call. We knew they were coming after lunch, so during lunch my stomach was doing backflips. I couldn't even eat. Our whole district wolfed down our food and ran to the mailbox. We all wanted to know who we were traveling with so bad. We had heard that they hardly ever keep everyone together, so I was terrified that they were going to split up our district, or worse.... me and my tuhngbuhn! (companion). WELL GUESS WHAT?! We are ALL traveling together! All the Cantos! I could not be more happy!!! We have to be at the travel office at 3:00 AM on Monday, June 3. Yeaaahhhh... 3:00 AM. I just threw up. Anyway, our flight to San Francisco is at like 6:15, we get to San Fran at 7:15ish Cali time, then have a 5 hour layover in San Fran. Get this. We leave San Fran at about noon on Monday.... don't get to Hong Kong until 6:30 PM on TUESDAY (HK time). How weird is that. 16 hours on a plane... hmm..... that should be interesting! But I am SO THRILLED! We are actually going to Hong Kong! It finally feels (sort of) real! As for calling in the airport.... I AM SO EXCITED TO TALK TO MY GATIHNG!! Seriously. You have no idea. I am stoked. Sooo I will probs be calling around 10 your time? 11? I'm not really sure how long it'll take us to get through customs and get settled and everything. But plan on that. Monday morning sometime, be expecting a phone call from meeeee! Should I call Dad's cell? That's what I'll plan on right now unless you tell me otherwise. I won't call from the SLC airport. Unless you want me to call at 4:30 AM. Which, I don't think ya do ;)

Now that's out of the way.... how are you all this week?? :) I didn't hear from you very much but I know how busy the end of the year gets. Dad and Whit, how was speaking at seminary graduation? I'm sure you both did AWESOME! I wish I could have been there! Whitney, when the heck is your graduation? I assume this week but I don't even know! Sorry I feel like a bad sister... and that's way weird that I won't be there :( I will be there in spirit! I will be thinking of you on.... Wednesday? Thursday? Friday? Whenever it is :) How bout I just think of you this whole week, then I'll be sure not to miss it ;) Mom, how are you doing? What's new with you? I really miss you! I miss talking to you about things. Sometimes I get in bed a lil early and just look at pictures of you guys and have conversations in my head with you. Haha. I wish you could come here, sit on my top bunk with me, and we could just talk for hours and I could tell you everything I'm learning and everything I LOVE about being a missionary. Daddy, thanks for your dear elder! Parker, how's driving? have you been on a date yet? I hope you've taken Mom out on a date! :) Jaren Baren! How are you dude?? YOUR BIRTHDAY IS THIS WEEK! I almost had a freak out the other day. I've been telling everyone that I have 2 brothers, one that's 16 and one that's 13. Because you're almost 13 and that's just easier. But the other day I got kind of confused and thought you were turning 14 this week... I about died. No way can my little bro be 14 already!!! And then I remembered. Nope, you're not 14. Just 13 :) haha. And I'm glad!!! I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful birthday!! I love you so much fam!! Pleasetake advantage of the last week you can dearelder me! hehe. I love your mail so much!!

Also, Hay! Your birthday is this week!!!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOU'RE FINALLY 20!! :) i love you soo much and pray for you in every prayer i say! We are SUCH GREAT friends! Haha I hope you have a great birthday!!

Annnnnnnnnnnd Marianne! Your birthday is this week! Check it out, 3 of my favorite people in the world share May 31 as their day of birth :) Mare Bear, I hope your day is great too! YOU ARE A LEGAL ADULT! 21! That is so weird. I love you!! (Mom or Whit, will you put that on FB or something? Or text her to let her know I remembered her? I don't have her email..)

Misti and Matt and Caleb! I pray for you every night! Today is little baby girl's due date! I hope everything works out. I love you guys so much and have been thinking about you a lot lately!!

G&G Waddoups - thank you SO MUCH for the cookies! That was so sweet and I LOVE THOSE COOKIES. Oh man. So did the elders in my district :) And they loved the way you packaged them. I opened the package thinking, how uncharacteristic of Grandma to send me a can of Pringles! But hey I'll take it! Then I looked inside. Cookies!! :) Mmmm they were so delicious! Thank you so much! I love you both so much!

I got thinking this week... If this was the end of my mission, or if I had to go home for some reason, I'd be completely devastated. I would miss everyone here so much, but more than that, I would miss the feeling of being a missionary. This is the greatest work and the greatest feeling in all the world... and I am a part of it! How did I get so blessed?? In a week, I will be laboring with my might and helping the Lord nourish His vineyard. There could not be a greater feeling in all the world. I know when I get to Hong Kong, it will be discouraging. It will be difficult. I will be challenging. But I am so ready to get out there and be the most optimistic, positive person I can about this, because I honestly love it. I have never been so happy. This past week was another amazing week at the MTC. I wish I could tell you everything!

First of all, earlier in the week Sis Morgan volunteered us to do the musical number in sacrament meeting! (Us means our roomies - Sisters Johnson, Palmer, me, Morgan, Probst, and Tidwell - all the Canto sisters). We decided to sing Lead, Kindly Light. Wednesday night we were practicing in our room. Our choir director, Brother Eggett, is always telling us that when we sing, we need to be teaching through our singing because that is when the Spirit is there. So that's what we decided to do. We sang through it and then went through and broke down the lyrics and talked about what the song meant to us. It was awesome. We talked about how the light of Christ should shine in our faces. We are putting on Christ's hands as his missionaries. Why did Christ make sure to keep the marks in his hands and feet and side after He was resurrected? So that we would know with a surety when we saw Him that HE IS THE CHRIST, and that He truly did what He did for us. As missionaries - representatives of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ - we should be doing all we can to help others have the experience of touching Christ's feet and hands and side. We are there to help our investigators come unto Christ as those Nephites did. We should be doing all we can to be examples of His light. We are going to Hong Kong as the Lord's light to bring light to His children there. And who is ultimately giving us that light? Jesus Christ, the Light of the World. We also talked about how we need to let Christ lead us. It is time to let Him take hold of our lives.

Lead, kindly light
Amid the encircling gloom
Lead thou me on
The night is dark
And I am far from home
Lead thou me on!
Keep thou my feet,
I do not ask to see
The distant scene -
One step enough for me.

Heavenly Father, lead us on. We are putting our trust in you, because we know you will lead us where we need to go. We don't need to see the big picture. You know the big picture, and you'll lead us one step at a time, and that's okay with us. It was a really powerful experience, sitting on the floor in a circle in our pajamas - 6 sisters that have never met before, but now sharing a bond as missionaries of Jesus Christ. It was such a sweet moment. Sis Probst said, "Our room feels different now." I loved it. This is what makes missionary work worth it - sweet, sweet moments when you get to know the Savior a little better and the Spirit bears a strong witness: yes, this is right. It's sometimes difficult and exhausting, but oh my goodness I'd never trade it. Never. I love it. I love Him.

Saturday, we had the BEST TRC lesson. (TRC is different from our regular lessons with our "investigators" = our teachers. TRC is when they have volunteers come in that speak Cantonese and we teach them 20 min lessons. They are not pretending to be investigators, they are just members, so basically we share a 20 minute spiritual thought with them in Cantonese. Super fun!) But Saturday, they didn't have enough volunteres. So Sis Morgan and I just taught Sis Palmer and Sis Johnson, and then they taught us. The topic this week was prayer (it's always assigned). During our lesson, I shared an experience we had with Vina. (remember Vina? one of our investigators?) We had showed her a picture of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane and asked her what she thought it was. She'd said, "Yeh Sou Gei Duk jouh keihtou?" (Jesus Christ saying a prayer?) At the time, I had smiled and thought it was so funny and cute of her to say something so simple. But as time has gone on, I have thought about it more and more. I have realized that Vina was right. That WAS Jesus Christ saying a prayer. He was praying for all of us. He was pleading with the Father to allow Him to perform the Atonement any other way - but He also said, "Not my will, but thine be done." Jesus Christ was prahying right then in behalf of all of us. In behalf of me. I underestimate and take for gratned sometimes the opportunity I have of being able to do what Jesus Christ did in the garden of Gethsemane - say a prayer. Prayer is soo powerful! We then asked them if they had any powerful experiences with prayer they'd like to share. Sister Palmer shared her experience of joining the Chruch. She started sobbing and said that she felt like she didn't want to join because she didn't want to leave her parents behind. But she prayed about the decision to be baptized and felt the overwheliming feeling that Jesus Christ was there with her and that He would NEVER leave her. It was really a powerful testimony and had us all in tears. I was sitting there in that tiny TRC room thinking, you can't get these experiences anywhere else. Sharing the things that are most dear to our hearts with each other is such a priceless and beautiful thing. I never want to miss out on an opportunity like that. I think about the many times I said, "I'm not going on a mission!!" and shudder. I can't imagine not being here, not knowing these wonderful people, not knowing the Savior like I do now, not growing and getting to experience this beautiful, wonderful life of a missionary. I love it so much!

Sunday, I had to speak in sacrament meeting. Remember how I told you they tell you right before? Yep. It was so nerve wracking. President Capik stands up after the sacrament and says, "We'll now hear from Sister Shaylee Wilcox." Okay! Haha guess that's me! I spoke on the gift of the Holy Ghost and how much it meant to me and what it means to be sanctified by the Holy Ghost when we receive that "baptism by fire." I hope I did alright. I really felt the Spirit prompting me to share certain scriptures or say something. I was glad I had that opportunity. And then two seconds later I was singing with the Canto sisters hahaha I felt like I put on sacrament meeting yesterday. I should have said the closing prayer too! Our song went great. We sang a cappella - 3 sopranos, 3 altos. It sounded really pretty. Sister Hanson (one of the branch presidency's wives) was sitting in the back just crying. She told us after that she felt like angels were singing with us, and I really believe they were. It was awesome. :) Later, at choir practice, we found out that the song this week is Lead, Kindly Light. What a tender mercy for our last song we'll sing in the MTC choir! I think I'm going to make that song my mission song.

Aw, fam, I wish I could share everything!! But I have to get off. I hope they let us email on Saturday afternoon so we can verify when I'll be calling, all that jazz. Mom, if you don't get all that stuff sent, no big deal. I'll survive :) If you can, the most important things are ribbons for my suitcases, a portable CD player, and pictures of you all! Lots of pictures! Can't get enough of my family! :) I love you so much. So, so, so much. I'm so thrilled to be a missionary! On to Hong Kong! With the Lord on my side, who can be against me?!

With all the love in the world,
Shaylee K

GWOK

xoxo

"Sister Gwok, you remind me of my girlfriend's mom!"

Leih hou my amazing, wonderful family!

How is everyone this week? I hope you're doing great! I love you all so, so, so, very much. I can't even express it. Dad, thanks for your dearelders! I love hearing from you! Mom, you too! Thank you! I love you so much. I LOVE LOVE LOVE hearing about what you do everyday. It makes home seem not so far away :) Whit Twit! I was crying laughing over your dear elder. Seriously. I loved it so much - it made me week. You are awesome and I love you to pieces! Parker brother, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I wish I could be there today so you could take me for a spin in Carlos.... legal now! :) haha. I love you bro! Jaren Cade! You only have 2 weeks left to send me a letter mister! I better be getting one soon! For real though. I miss hearing from you :) Love you!

My heart breaks for Ben this week :( I know, though, that through the Savior everything will be made right. Ben, I love you and my district is and has been praying for you! I hope there are no complications with your eye and everything is okay there! That is so scary! Please keep me updated!

The craziest thing about this coming week is that WE GET OUR TRAVEL PLANS ON FRIDAY. ohmygoodness. I can't even believe it! I'm hoping that we all get to travel together. But that never happens :( so I'm hoping I get to travel with some of the Cantos at least! I love em all. Only 2 weeks left in this special, special place! Gotta make the most of it!

This week was really hard at the beginning because Elder Black went home. Honestly, it was probably the most difficult thing I've ever been through. It was a really tough time for our district. Monday night I couldn't stop sobbing, and neither could Sister Morgan or Elder Barker or Elder Black. We've become so close to our district... I really love these elders. To see one of them go home was so tough. Tuesday was also tough, but I prayed on my own too many times to count during the day, and our district prayed together a lot. Through the Savior's infinite, intimate, all encompassing Atonement, we were able to overcome this challenge. My heart goes out to Elder Black. We have been keeping him in our prayers and we love him so much. This experience was such a testimony to me, though, that the Savior heals our broken hearts. He knows how we feel. He understands. Oh, I know He does. The only way I was able to get through Tuesday was to lean on my Savior, my Brother, my best friend, Jesus Christ. I am so incredibly thankful for Him!

Our district is PSYCHED to get to Hong Kong! We practiced "street contacting" with Yeung Hing Daih... oh my gosh it was so much fun! He pretended to be at the train station waiting for a train and we got to go street contact with him like 4 times in a row. I LOVED it. I thought I wouldn't, that I would be too scared or too shy or not know enough Cantonese, but it was seriously awesome. One of the times, we walked up to him and told him who we were and that we had an important message about Jesus Christ. He said he wasn't interested, he was Buddhist. So I just started asking him about his family and his friends. He was pretty open about that, then he asked us where we were from. When we told him Utah, he said he had a Mormon friend in Utah. We explained that we were Mormons! Then he was really open. But then his "train" came. So I quickly asked him if we could get his number. He said he didn't think so, he needed to get to work. So all of a sudden (I don't even know where this came from) I said, "Please? We need friends! We don't have any friends in Hong Kong yet!" And then he gave us his number :) It was so awesome! It made me so excited to get to Hong Kong. The fact that I could actually communicate in Cantonese was great!! I know it'll be different when we get to Hk but STILL! I have this glad, wonderful message to share with people! I WANT TO SHARE IT WITH THEM RIGHT NOW!!! I'm so excited!

This week Elder Smith told me I remind him of his girlfriend's mom..........

.... uh..... thank you?

Haha. Our district was laughing so hard. What a compliment! ;)

Elder Martinez got these little plastic ninjas in the mail from his family. There are 8 of them, and we've been hiding them around the room every week for Jeung Jimuih to find. She loves it. It's so funny. This week, we were running out of hiding spots in our classroom so we taped a blue ninja to Elder Nestman's waterbottle, a red one to Elder Barker's waterbottle, a purple one to Sister Morgan's waterbottle, and a green one to the back to Jeung Jimuih's hymn book. She found all the ninjas right off besides the green one. She was laughing and loving it, then she wanted to start class. So she picked up her hymn book to sing and all of us were trying so hard not to laugh. She didn't suspect a thing. She asked us what song we wanted to sing, opened her hymn book, felt the ninja, and started laughing SO hard. We were all cracking up. It was so fun! I am convinced I have THE BEST district in the MTC. I love them all so much! We are all so close and feel like a little family away from our own families. It's awesome :) I want to be friends with these people for the rest of my life! They are all such great examples to me and I love learning from them. I wish some of these elders' mothers knew what incredible missionaries her sons are.

Tuesday's devo this week was ELDER RUSSELL M. NELSON! Two apostles! How lucky are we?? It was so awesome! He talked a LOT about the other side of the veil and how our ancestors are helping us on this mission. I believe that with allllllll my heart. I have felt so close especially to Papa while I've been a missionary. I feel like he wants to be with me since he didn't have the opportunity to serve a mission like this. I feel him with me all the time, and I know that what Elder Nelson said is true. Having these sacred experiences with loved ones on the other side of the veil is so special and wonderful.

Sister Morgan and I during our weekly planning session on Saturday night had an interesting experience. She was feeling REALLY down. She said that she didn't feel like a good teacher and she didn't know how to convey to our mouhdouhje (investigators) the doctrine. I felt the Spirit prompt me to share a scripture with her. Now I can't even remember the exact reference. Dang it. But it's in Ether, and it's scripture mastery (sorry Bishop Woodruff...) and it's the one that says contention is of the devil and he stirs up our hearts to anger and doubt and frustration. Anyway, I told her that all bad things come from the devil - including doubt, discouragement, fear, competition. I told her how grateful I was to her as a companion and how glad I was that she was there to help me teach. I told her what a fantastic teacher I think she is and that she conveys things wonderfully and I know she has the Spirit with her. It was a really neat experience. We were both in tears by the end. I'm so grateful for a good companion and how we strengthen each other. She truly is such a blessing! I love her so much!

Our branch president told us earlier in the week that he was going to send the district president (who is over a bunch of different branches and was going to visit our branch yesterday) to our district's district meeting on Sunday. He told us that was a great compliment to our district and he was proud to send the district president to us out of every district in our branch. That was really nice. Our district meeting went great! President Hemert (the district pres) is awesome. He told us how proud he was of us. He said, "Imagine yourselves 6 months ago. You were not here, crammed into this tiny classroom, wearing clothes you're not used to wearing, sharing things with strangers that are very dear to your heart, praying more than you thought possible, and studying the scriptures and a different language every waking moment. You were not here. But you are now. And that took a lot of faith. I'm so proud of you. I know you'll do great things." It was really neat. A lot of elders were teary at the end of district meeting. And of course I was. It did take a lot of faith to be here. And my faith is growing every single day. I would never trade it! This experience is shaping me into the woman I will be for eternity. I hope and pray that I can be humble enough to let the Lord do what He wants to do with me. I want to be a good servant of His. Not just a good one. The BEST one I can be!

I gotta go, I'm out of time :( I'll get on later and send some pictures! I love you all so much! I know with all my heart that this work is GOD'S. It's so mighty. I love, love, love being a part of it. It is the best decision I have ever made in my entire life. I know my Savior - YOUR Savior - lives. He lives! He loves us! All we have to do is believe in Him and act. I will never doubt again. This work, this knowledge, has been burned into my soul. Jesus Christ is the reason for everything. Because of His Atonement - the crowning moment in all of eternity - we can do all things. How grateful I am. How grateful we all should be!

I love you so much! Keep your letters coming. I love your support. I pray for you all every single day!

With all the love I have,
Shay Bay

aka Gwok!

xoxoxoxo