The Zhao Family

This week has flashed by. We are almost halfway through my first transfer (every 6 week period), and I feel my Cantonese becoming ever so slowly more applicable when teaching. I've gotten to know so many more missionaries out here and it is so cool to see their different strengths between tones, vocab, reading, writing, and even confidence. There is so much to work on here and the grind is really starting, but I love it.

Stories/Highlights! 

- The biggest highlight so far has been going volleyball finding . As missionaries, we go out to "find," which means we talk with people and share our message. Last week, we went "volleyball finding" where we go out to the volleyball courts and find people to teach while playing. Elder Smith had never done it before, but I thought it would be an amazing way to connect with people. That day, we met 6 teenagers who were all from the same school practicing for their club. They had only started at most a year before, and I was able to coach them! Afterwards they were so curious to know who we were. We were able to get all of their contacts and schedule them later in the week to play and teach again. In that next meeting, we gave them all Book of Mormons to explore for themselves. It was really cool. We have now met, played, and taught them three times, and have one of them coming to church next week!! 

- Last week we got to go on a Zone Pday, which took almost all day but was a blast. For this Pday, we had the unique opportunity to visit Disneyland together! 

- I know I have mentioned it before, but I am so grateful for the Tai Po ward :) There are so many people and it is so exciting to go each week and meet new people supporting us! Plus, each week  Sister Yu prepares us lunch and it is always so so delicious. We also get a lot of bread from Sister Lau, and we often cannot finish it 

- I am becoming a board game PRO. Each day, we have 9:30-11 to wind down and prepare for bed. This is called "after hours." During this time over the last three weeks, we have played Settlers of Catan TEN times, which means we have played it about every other day I have been in HK... Just last night we decided we had enough and learned a game called 三國殺, which has been super fun as well.

- Along with board games, I have also learned some ukelele. I haven't been able to get a violin from the office yet but I have substituted it with the ukelele to pluck songs. Elder Chuy even taught me how to play Riptide! 

- Small world moments:

We randomly ran into return missionaries on the way out to traveling! One of them served in Taiwan and the other served in Hong Kong two years ago. 

Sister Thang in our district is from the New York ward where my parents attended a long time ago, and knows many of my family friends! In fact one of them is coming to HK soon to visit, so hopefully he can visit Tai Po haha

I met a family who also used to live in New York, the Jeungs, who also knew my parents

The world is a small place, and the church is even smaller 

- Small things... Our toilet is constantly flushing and is probably wasting a bunch of money, I'm starting to forget English, and living off of ramen and udon when I cook at home. 

And a tiny spiritual thought: as I've worked throughout this week I've seen how "faith without works is dead!" As I've put in everything I've got and immersed myself in this work I've seen how much the Lord can help me!

As always let me know how life at home is going and I'll try my best to respond in due time :) I forgot to do a word of the week but just know I am learning many words. 

Talk soon, 

Elder Zhao