I'm a Mormon on a Mission: 11/4/2012: Happy Halloween!

Hello,

First off, thank you Mom for sending me the clothes! The sweaters and new shirt are really cute and fit me well!

This week was good, but so exhausting. We found out the hard way that Lau Pohpo is not prepared to hear the gospel yet-- she's been freaking out ever since we brought up baptism, which was in the context of "when you know these things are true, will you be baptized?" because she wants nothing to do with commitments. We visited her on Saturday and she was honestly wasting our time. It was really sad. We're going to hold off on calling her for awhile and see how that goes, if she changes her mind.

My last day with Sister Kiene was Halloween, and we had a fun Halloween-themed English class in the evening, so we made it fun by "dressing up" as much as missionaries can. She wore an orange shirt and put a green pin on top of her head and was a pumpkin, and since I inherited some of her clothes and couldn't think of how I wanted to dress up, I was Sister Kiene for Halloween. Haha. I wore her most signature outfit and did my hair like she always does and imitated some of her mannerisms and the funny things she says or does, like pretending to shoot Elder Groesbeck. (He's an elder also serving in Sham Shui Po and was in my older MTC group, so we've served together in 4 out of my 5 moves so far.) We had our class go trick-or-treating around the church, and they had to perform English tasks at each door, like guess what a missionary was acting out in English or sing a song. It was quite a fun last night. Sister Kiene finished her mission this week, and her parents came in town to pick her up. They're pretty funny-- I like them a lot. They're really nice, and they totally plan on giving mom an update on me. They also gave me a bag of Reese's, which you can't get here, so they're pretty much sealed in my good book. Haha. It's sad to see Sister Kiene go, but I'll see her at BYU after the mission, so it'll be OK. It'll probably hit me more once she actually leaves town on Wednesday, but for now I'm just adjusting to my new companion.

I have a new companion, Sister Wong! She's a native and a convert of almost 2 1/2 years, meaning that a year after she joined the church she left on a mission, because she only has 2 moves left. That means I'll either be in this area just for this next move or else for the next 3 moves, since President Hawks probably won't take both of us out at once. I don't know how I feel about either of those options. Sister Wong is great-- she was a pro on Sunday at getting to know a new area! She introduced herself to everyone, the ward had her bear her testimony, and even one of the members afterward in his testimony said he could tell she was a good missionary since her face looks tired. So that's good news! We've both been exhausted though since Thursday when we got her all moved in, and neither of us really know why. My Cantonese has already improved a lot, especially in listening, since she'll a lot of the time just speak to me in Cantonese. I'm also speaking more now, which is good, but also maybe part of why I've been so exhausted this weekend. I'm feeling better today though!

I also found out that one of the Elders that just moved into our district's parents also served in Hong Kong 30 years ago, so mom might possibly know them! They would be an Elder Tyau (I think Diu is the Chinese pronunciation) and a Sister Gu (Ku?). I don't know if they would've been natives or American-born Chinese or what. Ring any bells, Mom?

I'm glad to hear you're all safe after that huge storm.

Love you all! I hope you all had a Happy Halloween! May the only ghost
that haunts you be the Holy Ghost. haha.

Sister Heaton

One more thing! Funny story! Sister Wong's younger sister is a part-time model, which obviously reminded me of that hilarious Flight of the Conchords song. We were at a member's house for dinner last night, and she was showing her family picture to them, and said her sister was a part-time model, and me and the Elders exchanged grins and were all like "are you thinking what I'm thinking right now?" It made me laugh.