Week 41 from Hong Kong

This week was full of lots of great adventures!

   The first was that because of Tyrone from last week we were able to have a lot of really good food for dinner. One of my favorites was Grilled Cheese!!!! I haven't had one of those in a long time and it was amazing! We also had a lot of egg salad. There was also a new experiment that we named Peanut butter Chicken. It is surprisingly good. 

   Then this last Saturday I had forgotten about the service at the mentally disabled/handicapped place so the bishops wife called us in the morning and reminded us. That was a lot o fun. The problem is that it is from 3:30 to 4:30 and it takes exactly a half hour to walk (walk fast) back to the church for English class at 5:00. I was really glad that we had set it up before we went to the service. The problem was that it got out with 10 min till 5. So we thought that is not a problem we can just grab a Taxi. However it was raining quite hard. So we were unable to get a taxi despite chasing a few down. So we had to run back through the rain and the mall was supper crowded so we got to English class half hour late and completely drenched! All the moms were quite amused. 

   This last week we also got some sweet pens that announce the 2 new stakes in Hong Kong. They have QR codes on them and a scroll that rolls out. I will have to take a picture and show it next week.

   Also on Thursday I went on exchanges to Tai Wai with Elder Powell (My Zone Leader). That was the first time since moving to Sha Tin that I have done missionary work outside of Sha Tin so that was very refreshing. It was really fun. We went "LA finding" Which is where the ward will give the missionaries a list of names that they want us to visit. So we did that in a place called a "village" which means that the houses are spiraled out all over the place and the numbers that function as the address don't have any relevance to the ones next to it. So we knocked on this one house because we were pretty sure that that was the one we were looking for. The lady on the other side was very mean. She would not even let us say a full sentence. We were just trying to ask if it was house number 50 and she just kept saying "I don't want to hear your message, get out I will call the Cops" and we kept saying "We don't want to tell you our message we just want to know if this is house 50". So eventually we just left. We decided to try the next one and his door was see through and he was just standing in the middle of the room in a very revealing speedo. We had a very similar experience there. So long story short, we did not find house 50. 

   This week we also had Zone Conference and that was awesome! We are all stoked for next week because that is when the 2 new stakes come into effect and we will see what changes will be happening! 

Love you all, Hope your week was as interesting as mine was! 

Love,

Elder Walker

Me and Elder Powell on exchanges waiting for an investigator to show up

We (The Zone leaders and I) were doing reports in the living room and one of the offices so that meant that Elder Chapman was in an office by himself. So when there was a break in the reports we went in to check on him and found him like this:

There was a big Thomas the Tank Engine thing in the mall and it made me really happy!

Week 40 from Hong Kong

Hello all,

   Well this week was interesting. I was able to get a "three generation" picture with my trainee and my trainer. In the mission we say that your trainer is your dad and your trainee is your son. So that was kinda cool. I'll attach that at the end.

   This last Monday we met a man in the mall who came up to us and said he wanted to meet with us. So this last Wednesday we met him and he bought us breakfast. That was fun. His name is Tyrone and I will add a picture of him at the end. So we were just talking and he told us that he had recently moved to Spain. He is originally from HK so I asked him why he moved there and he said "Well my husband moved there so I followed him"... so that was not what I expected. But meh he was a nice guy and was asking really good questions so that was great. He then said that he wanted to come to church with his dad. So we talked about it a bit and explained where it was and what time it started and such. Then we said goodbye. Then the next morning he called us while I was in the shower and said he wanted to meet so Elder Chapman scheduled him. So he bought us breakfast again and then we went to the church and showed the Patterns of Light videos. That was really good. At the end of that meeting he said that he wanted to meet on Friday morning and buy us breakfast again and all buy us groceries. SO that was very nice.  

   We met him Friday morning and ate with his dad. We had congee which is like Japanese oatmeal. It was pretty good. Then he took us out and bought groceries. He, despite our objections spent almost $2,000 on steak and ice cream and fruit! It was absolutely amazing! It was enough that we had to get it delivered to our house! It was like Christmas morning allover again! haha too cool. He ended up not coming to church because he got sick all of a sudden but he also gave us a bunch of old ties so now I have a lot of gay man ties haha. They will make good cannon fodder for the summer. 

   Also last week Elder Chapman got a haircut and it is tradition that the trainer tells the trainee the word for shorter and then lets him figure it out. It turned out rather well. 

   Then Last night we were over at a members house (Chan wei). and we were talking just about normal stuff. And then they told us how they all got their names form an elder a few years ago and sister Chan sad that she didn't have one and said that if we wanted to we could give her one so that will be fun. 

Yeah those were my big adventures this week so I hope this next one is just as eventful. 

Love you all,

Elder Walker

This is Tyrone

This is announcing the two new stakes in HK!!! it says come see the historical event in the church in Hong Kong.

 the three generation 

cool building 

BLT's!!! supper good!!!

Elder Merrell Praying with a bottle of sprite balanced on his head (I put it there)

Week 39 from Hong Kong

Hello all,

 

   This week was very exciting! Many things happened. First things first last Monday I got to Skype Home!!!! That was great!! Though it was kinda weird. I have 4 total calls I get to make on my mission and I have done 2 of them. That is really weird to me.

 

    Anyway enough of the mushy stuff. This last Friday Elder Chapman and I were way out in a far corner of our area finding and we were on the bus to go home and I got a call from an unknown number. So I answered it and started talking in Chinese, thinking it was a sales person, identifying myself as a church volunteer and that I had very little money. After I did that there was a pause... and a voice said "uhh... is this Elder _______(I forgot his name but it was the name of a 70 member) is this Elder Walker and Elder Chapman?" I said that it was and he asked us if we could come to the Prince of Whales Hospital because there was a Filipino sister in the hospital. He then also said that he was one of the senior couple missionaries. Now there are 2 Filipino sisters in my district so I assumed it was one of them. We had just passed the bus stop that would have been great to get off at so we got off at the next one (about a half mile from the hospital) and I called the Zone Leaders and told them to meet me at the City One MTR station and that a sister was in the hospital. So they did and Elder Chapman and I ran the whole distance to the MTR station to meet them which was quite a sight for all the people around us haha. We eventually got there and were told that it was in fact not a missionary but a member of the Filipino branch who had a burst appendix. Still very scary but a little relief to us. So we gave her a blessing. I did the anointing and the senior did the sealing and blessing and the whole time my hands were shaking because of all the adrenaline. So that was a good experience. As soon as the other elder said amen a nurse showed up and shooed us out.

 

   Then we went to dinner at a place called Tam Jai. It is a good place. A funny thing happened when we were eating. A white guy came in (very unusual) and had a mainland girl with him. He ended up sitting next to us. We talked a little bit. Normal stuff. i.e.. why he was in Hong Kong, who the girl was. The man said he was in the oil and mineral industry and that he was married. (though not wearing his ring) When we asked who the girl was he said that he found her on the internet and that she wanted to "learn English". Then he went off about bunch of weird stuff so we finished eating and left. We were sad because we were hoping for a normal conversation but he was too weird.

 

   Then Saturday was very busy with service. We spent 4 hours cleaning the chapel. Then we went over to a mental Hospital with the Bishops wife and took some people out and they ate McDonalds and we cut up their food. That was fun.

 

   Then Sunday we had a broadcast from Salt Lake for Taiwan and Hong Kong. It was very good. Unfortunately it was all in Chinese. But we did learn that Hong Kong will have a new stake called the "Lions rock stake" So that was really exciting. It also might mean that our ward boundaries change which would be interesting. More details will come latter.

 

   Yeah, this week was really busy but really fun. I hope all is well at home.

 

Love,

Elder Walker

 

I thought this was cool

Skyping 

We were surprised to see where he was Skyping!

That empty chair is where he was when he talked to us.

cool restaurant in my area

It rained very hard while we were working out in the morning so these are our shoes outside

The Tam Jai

I got a cool belt (it is fake obviously) on the street

Week 38 from Hong Kong

Hello all,

This week I am very excited because I will be skyping with my family very soon!!! like in a little over an hour. Also Happy mother's day Every one! 

   This last week was not that eventful. Last p-day we went to the Island and had some pizza which is rare here so that was fun! We also went to the longest Escalator in the world which was... like ok. The funny thing is that it goes up a mountain, and then there is only normal stairs down! So that was funny.

   One day this week We were out finding and a person asked if I was born in Hong Kong. So That made me feel really good. I guess my Chinese is not as trash as I thought it was. Which is nice.

   This week it also started to get hot. Like really Hot! And it is only May. SO I am really afraid for the real summer... I have seen the stains on some elders shirts and that does not look like a good time. 

   I also learned this week that there is a restaurant in Sha Tin (Where I live now) that was one of Bruce Lee's favorites! so that was a fun fact. Sorry this week is so boring... I will take better notes for this next week!

Love you all,

Elder Walker 

This is a video we took of Elder Walker while we Skyped with him on Mother's Day!  It's a shout out to his Grandma and Grandpa Beck and a good indication of how well he's doing with the Cantonese Language!  The video quality of our connection was questionable but we could hear him just fine!

This is my new companion and trainee Elder Chapman

This is a repair shop in my area (Yes that is a Ferrari) 

 This is elder Merrill after being thrown from (and breaking) the chair 

fancy picture of the same thing

Still here in Sha Tin. Week 37 from Hong Kong

Hello all,

   Well this week A LOT of things changed for me. Just to kick things off I did not get moved so I will be here for a total of 8 months at the end of this move. So that is great! I love it here and there is a sea wind that comes in so that is really nice going into the summer. 

   This last Monday I got a call at 10:30 in the evening from president Lam.... and he uhhh.... Called me to be a trainer!!! It was really funny the way he did it because it wasn't a question. It was pretty much just telling me. SO that was a surprise! I did not sleep that well that night. I also had a dream that I was training a sister but that didn't happen haha. 

   Then the next Tuesday I was told that I was going to be the district leader! Which pretty much means that now I have more meetings, more paperwork and a lot more problems to deal with haha. It has been really fun so far. I am really looking forward to it! 

   SO my new companions name is Elder Chapman. He is half Chinese and Half Philippine. HE is also HUGE. So that is fun. I haven't had a white companion the whole time I have been here haha. I have a picture of him but this dumb computer doesn't have a USB port so I will have to sent that next week. He is really nice. I am looking forward to working with him. 

   

   It is also really fun to see the training process from this side. I just hope I don't mess him up too bad haha.

   This last Saturday we had a Recent Convert Fireside. SO  that was really cool. We took one of our Catholic investigators and he said that he felt the spirit really strong. I am excited to keep helping him. 

   So yeah this week has been a busy and stressful and good one. We are all supper excited because we get to SKYPE this next Monday for mothers day! I am soo excited!!! 

Love you all!!!

-Elder Walker

This last Thursday, we saw (on President & Sister Lam's FB page) a picture of the new missionaries that just arrived in Hong Kong and a picture of their trainers.  Gordon was in the picture as one of the trainers.  There is also a video of him meeting his new companion that I'll attach here.  It was so fun to see his excitement in the video then receive this letter.  
I'll share the video on Gordon's personal page.

The new trainers

The new missionaries