I'm a Mormon on a Mission: 3/11/2013: Hello TKO!

Hey family!

I'm back in Hong Kong! This week was so random, between serving briefly in my old area, doing splits on the island while my going-home companion was in a workshop in Wan Chai, and moving again. It was really fun though-- in Sham Shui Po Ward I got to go to FHE and see a bunch of the ward members, English Class and see all the regulars + the 7 or so new missionaries, and on top of all that I got to see some of my favorite old investigators, like Lau Popo and Agatha, and a less-active that we helped reactivate, Ho Jimuih! It was really cool. Agatha is being as stubborn as ever in insisting that she doesn't want to rely on anyone besides herself, and it was so sad because she's so stressed out right now and was telling us all these problems, and we were like "Agatha! The gospel can solve EVERY SINGLE ONE of these problems! Just listen to it!" But she insists on staying miserable. It's sad. But Lau Popo will probably start reading the Book of Mormon more, since we told her it has the answer to every problem in life-- she wasn't sure if she believed us, but I saw that it piqued her interest. I'm confident she'll start reading it more. The coolest part is that it DOES have the answer to every problem in life! The Book of Mormon is so cool.

Now I'm moved to Tseung Kwan O, which is east of Kowloon. My companion is Sister Larson from Austin, Texas! (Amy, didn't you tell me you heard someone give a talk in stake conference who was coming to Hong Kong? It was probably her!) She just finished being trained at the end of last move, so I am her 2nd companion in the field. I realized that even though this is only my 6th move, she's my 6th companion in the field. Crazy, no? She's really great and has a really great capacity to love people. Her love for the area, etc is already really apparent, despite it being hard for her to communicate with the people here. But she's doing really well! She's really funny too. We've been having a fun last few days. Tseung Kwan O is a super clean, probably kind of rich area, or at least pretty new. It's pretty nice. The bishop here is awesome, and super willing to help the missionary work, which may be in part due to the fact that his son is serving a mission in Hong Kong right now! I actually served with him in Macau, so it's been pretty funny to begin to meet his family and see how similar he is to them already. I feel like the ward already quite likes me, and I'm realizing that the part in Preach My Gospel that talks about how the more you get to know the language the more you'll be able to win the hearts of people is totally true! The gift of tongues is so real too-- I understand what people are saying probably about 85-90% of the time. Like in church I totally know what is going on the whole time, which I'm realizing is a huge change from when I first got here, because I'm seeing my companion at the earlier stages of learning the language and remembering that it wasn't always this week. It's pretty neat.

I feel like becoming a more real senior companion (i.e., my junior companion hasn't been on the mission the same amount of time as me, and has only had one other in-field companion to learn from) has put a lot more fire into my missionary work. I've felt way more motivated to get up and get going the last week or so, which has been awesome. We do a lot of finding in this area because we have very few investigators, but we've found that as we work work work all the time and talk with everyone we come in contact with, whether it be on the bus or in grocery stores, whatever, the more Heavenly Father's been willing to reward us with good contacts. For example, the last 2 days at the very end of 2-3 hour finding periods where we've just felt exhausted, we've found people that are super prepared and willing to listen to us. Yesterday, we had a lady passing out flyers try to shove some in our hands, and Sister Larson said "Sorry, we can't read Chinese," then she was like "Wait! But you speak Chinese!" And I was like "But we don't know how to read, only talk!" Then she said "Wait, how do you know how to speak?" And we told her we're missionaries, and she said "Where is your church? I'd like to check it out sometime-- can I give you my email address or something?" And we were like "Of course! How about you give us your phone number, and we can meet with you this week to tell you more about our church?" And she was like "Yeah! I'd love that!" We scheduled her for this Saturday! So SHE stopped US! Yeah! Heavenly Father rewards hard work!

So yeah, this week's been good! Work + the gospel is the best cure for anything!

Love you all! Ga yau!

Sister Heaton