New Moves!!! Week 45 from Hong Kong

Hello all,

   Well this week was a supper busy one! These are also the last few weeks of this transfer. I already got move calls so I know what will be happening! I will still be a district leader in... Sha Tin! So that means that at the end of the next transfer I will have spent 10 months here. Which means that I pretty much know every inch of this area. haha

   Well one of the more traumatic things that happened this week was that the AC is broken at church. Which means that church was an absolute sweat bath, and when you add the fact that we were in our suits it was even worse! I was supper glad that E. Chapman and I bought Chinese fans so we didn't die completely. So that was un pleasant. Last Sunday was also Sister Alipaos' last Sunday in HK so we did a musical number with all of the full-time and ward missionaries in the ward. and ugh yeah we got a lot of compliments on our accompanist.... And we did to so that was fun. The problem now is that the bishop wants us to do it again in in two weeks when we all give talks. We are trying to talk him out of it so we shall see.

   Then the last three days have been busy enough that we don't have time to eat all of our meals or we just go off of the little snacks that people give us when we visit them haha. Which means that last Saturday we had ice cream for breakfast. haha benefits of being all the way in China is that mom can't stop that from happening! yeah not the best but a less active bought it for us after we played basketball with him in the morning and we didn't have time for a real breakfast so that is what we had. 

   So every week we do something called "English class finding" which means that the whole district goes out together and we all hand out flyers for our English class. and this week the Sha tin sisters brought balloons so we spent a fair amount of time making balloon animals. That was not a skill that I was anticipating on learning on my mission but hey that will be fun to randomly bring up in parties later in life!

   This week also had summer missionaries. Which means that the Tai Wai sisters got two Hong Kong girls as missionaries for two weeks so they have been on exchanges and having  blast. They are so much fun to have around. I hope we get some this next transfer! that would be sweet! 

This has been a busy week! but I would not have it any other way! 

Love,

Elder Walker

balloon animals! there is a bit of a learning curve and this was in the beginning and it was really hot which is why I look so gross. 

this is a cool shirt I found last week and couldn't resist the temptation 

 package from home! Those are always the best!

 my fan. $8 HK best purchase of my life!

 me and my fan 

 us and our fans (the selfie stick is true!)

This week here in the sweat box. Week 44 From Hong Kong

Hello All,

   First of all HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!! Yet another holiday away from home so that is fun. 

   I am glad to report that there was no blood and gore this week. haha

   Well I'll  just get started. The 14th was Elder Merrell's birthday. He turned 21. It was great because it was a Tuesday the Tai Wai sisters made him a cake that we were all able to eat, so that was great! Then one of his investigators came and gave him a little cake. That was really cute. Then in the evening we went to a place called cafe coral. That was really good food. We don't eat at nice places very often because we are very poor, but it was for a good cause so we decided to do it haha. Then in the evening elder Chapman and I went and bought a cake on our way home. So when they were done praying after their daily planning we grabbed the cake out of the fridge and placed it on the table so when he opened his eyes it was just sitting there on the table. That was a lot of fun.

   Then this Saturday we went and did some service with some ward members for a place that takes care of mentally disabled people. We ended up going out to Yun long and doing some gardening. Which means that they all stayed in the shade while the volunteers did lots of weeding. Which was fun because I was able to learn the word for caterpillar. But it was less fun because I got a lot of bug bites and ants in my gloves which bit me the whole time. And it was very hot. So that was hard haha. But I realize that the sooner we were done the sooner we could get back on the air conditioned bus. So I just went supper hard and got it done quickly. Then after that we went to Chun wan and ate really nice food. We helped them eat and then after that they told us that we could choose something to eat so long as it was less than $60. Which is a lot of money because we usually spend $23 on meals. So that was amazing!!! Good times. It was also a really great way to get to know some of the members that went with us. I don't think that I have any pictures but I will see if I can get some sent to me.

   Then this last Sunday we got to see Norton get baptized. He goes to the Ma on Shan ward but he comes to our English class so we all know him. He is really funny and it was great to see him baptized we are all so happy for him. It was really funny because the Investigator we took to the baptism, asked E. Chapman "how can you play soccer? you are so fat!" haha Chinese people are very blunt.

   This week they also split the zones to fit with the stakes. So that caused a lot of stress but all is well. I get to work with a new zone leader so I am really looking forward to that. 

  That is it for this week. I hope you all had a happy fathers day!!!

Love,

Elder Walker

I saw this sign and I thought that it was awesome! 

Elder Merrell's cake.

Elder Powell and I tried cooking and it went pretty badly. It looked exactly like puke... not that good tasting either...

Elder Powell broke a stool

it is un-fixable

Elder Merrell wore a members skirt... I can't remember why...

Elder chapman put Elder Merrell's shirt and towel in the freezer... he was not pleased...

Week 43 from Hong Kong

Hello all,

Well this week had many very interesting experiences. Some of which were great! and some which I would like very much not to have again. You will probably be able to guess which is which. 

   This last week we heard about a wonderful place in Shum Shui Po to get hair cuts. So we went and it was $43 HK which is very cheep because our normal one is about $60 and the hair cut was much better! Mostly because they shampoo your head!!! Then the touchup is with a straight razor! Then a straight razor shave! It was so nice! I will never go to the other place ever again! 

   Bad part was we ended up leaving our umbrellas there which means that there were none in the apartment this whole week. Which was a problem because it has been raining quite hard these past few days. So I decided to invest in a small one that I can keep in my bag. So hopefully that goes well. I bought it and it seems to keep me dry so that is good.

   This last Thursday was great because it was a festival! I can't remember the Chinese name for it but it is dragon boat racing in English. So that was a lot of fun to watch as we waited for investigators. I have a fair amount of pictures to show. It made a really cool noise. 

   Then on Saturday we had a rather interesting work out. We were at the place we play basketball just like normal and I was stretching wile watching people ride their bikes down a long bridge with a sharp turn in it that went right by the basketball court. I saw one lady coming really fast and then... well... she didn't quite make the turn and smashed in to a huge cement pillar and collapsed. So I waited for a few seconds to see if she would move but she wasn't moving so I grabbed the other three and we ran around the corner to help her. When we got there she was pined under her bike with a huge cut on her head with blood gushing everywhere. Luckily for her Elder Chapman was a life guard and makes a pretty good medic. So wile we were trying to get her cleaned up the other two ran to get help. When help arrived she declined and said that she didn't want us to help her. So we went back to basketball. However she hadn't left after 10 min so we went back and she had a small mirror in her hand and was trying to clean herself up. I asked if she was still going to work (The reason she declined help at first) and she said yes. So I told her that she needed to go to the doctor. She agreed with me and called her boss to get the day off to go to the doctor. So we helped her carry her bike back to her house and then parted ways. SO yeah, that was a good way to start the day. 

   Then today we got invited by Yoshi to go and eat at another Buffet! Chinese buffets are the best!!! We had lots of crab and eel and lamb and ice-cream and everything you could possibly want. It was amazing! Yoshi is the best! I will also attach pictures. 

All in all it was an interesting week. Hope yours was too.

Love,

Elder Walker

this is were I am

new stakes in HK

pretty building

pretty building with pretty sky 

Dragon boats

Same boats, really cool

the company testing the fire alarm in our building has a silly name 

interestingly phrased 

the AC broke at the church while we were having a meeting

the Sha Tin bishop (Bishop Tze) and the full-time missionaries

midway through a 3 hour Yoshi driven feast. He also brought this Chinese medicine that was dried orange peels and it made it so that we could eat more haha pretty fun

final project (Yoshi is on the Right.  He's such a good friend to all of the missionaries!)

Two new stakes!!!! Week 42 from Hong Kong

Hello all!

   This week was great! We were able to see a very historic moment for the church here in Hong Kong. We went from four Stakes to six! (for those that are wondering, a stake is an administrative region in the church)

Isaiah 54:2 (2Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes ;) and

Doctrine and Covenants 136:10 (Let every man use all his influence and property to remove this people to the place where the Lord shall locate a stake of Zion.)  

Elder Wong of the first quorum of the 70 presided over the event. We watched it as a broadcast in our new stake center in Kowloon Tong. The whole church in Hong Kong was gathered to watch it. It was incredible!!! I am in one of the newly founded stakes called "The China Hong Kong Lions Rock Stake of Zion" supper cool! I am excited to see what this means for the mission.

   In other news I had a good laugh this week when I was receiving a report from the Tai Wai sisters and they said that they found a new investigator named "Swimming pool" Chinese people have great names haha.

   This week we took the ward mission leader to visit one of our investigators named "Brother Yun"... Turns out he has schizophrenia and is unable to be baptized. So that is pretty lame. We can keep teaching his family though so that is good haha. Yeah I was really not expecting that. 

   This morning It was raining quite hard and we went for a run because it wasn't that bad when we started. However because it is p-day we got up really early and as a consequence a lot of the gates that we use to get around were locked shut. So that made for quite the wet morning haha. 

   This week went quite well, Elder Chapman and I are getting along great and it is so much fun to watch him grow and progress as a missionary. I just wish that we could teach more people so that we can practice our teaching more. I am sure that will come. 

   I hope that everyone else had a great week too!

Love, 

Elder Walker 

A note from Mom:  In my letter to Gordon I mentioned that last week was the 3rd anniversary of my brother's death and this is his response:

That is interesting that it was the anniversary of Mike's death. I talked about him in a lesson this week for the first time. The lesson was about the Plan of Salvation and the Law of the Fast. I talked about eternal families and fasting for you. The lesson went really well. 

This was so touching to read and made me cry.  LOVE that kid!

this is our new stake center! it just got the outside renovated so it is supper nice now!

pretty sky

same but different pretty sky