NEWS!!! Week 54 from Hong Kong

Hello all!

   Well I had some stories to tell but then we got move calls last night. I am not gonna lie the whole district was pretty upset. We all get along really well and we are all really sad to see people move. I was hoping to make it one year in Sha Tin but moving on is just as good. That totals 10 months in Sha Tin. I understand that moves are the will of the Lord and that we must be humble enough to accept them. I am very excited to move to Tai Po (Just a few stops north on the East Rail Line) and apply the things that I have learned here. I loved serving as a district leader, I learned a lot and really enjoyed it. I was disappointed to have to stop but if some one else can learn what I learned then all the better. I am just as excited to re-focus on the basics of missionary work. And really sharpen my language and teaching skills. Also my new companion is named Elder Jensen! He is the best. I am really looking forward to working with him. We Also will be white washing that area. SO that will mean a lot of work, but that's ok. He will be my first white companion since the MTC. So I guess every year I will get a White one haha. My Old MTC companion will be taking my place in Sha Tin so that will be great!

   Also we reported to our Ward Mission Leader that President Lam is concerned about the missionary work specifically in Sha Tin. The ward mission Leader then reported it in PEC to the bishop. So last Sunday (yesterday) the bishop smashed the ward. It was really great. He got up at the end of sacrament meeting and he talked about how the work is not and has not really been progressing and talked about how there are "4 great and very diligent missionaries" in Sha Tin and also that a missionarie's job is to teach and the responsibility of the ward to find. It was really great. I was very impressed with his response to the information which he received. I think it really woke him up to the needs of the ward.

   Other than that we had a great week and finished our EEFY That was a lot of fun. We had 6 days of fun and games. On the last day Elder Daplin was playing with some electrical wire. He used to rope cows in the rodeo back in the Philippines. So naturally I asked him to rope me up! it was really funny I got a good video of it that I will have to attach.  He attached it but it was in a different format and we couldn't open it!

   We also called a man who wanted to learn English. Elder Chapman was talking to him (in English) and the man got mad and said he wanted to talk to Americans in English and not Hong Kong people... Elder Chapman is from California. So that was really funny.

   We also got a call this last week which informed us that sister Nettles was in the Hospital and wanted a blessing. So we dropped everything and went over to give her a blessing. She was ok and discharged that day. Apparently it was some kind of abdominal muscle issue. I am not super sure. Then last night it was 10:45 and we were getting ready to jump in bed and we got a call from the sisters. Now we are not allowed to call after 10:30 so we answered and all yelled the word for apostate in Chinese and hung up. They immediately called again and I was like aww crap in is an emergency. Sister Nettles wanted another blessing. So we called President Lam and got permission to go over to the sister's house past curfew and give a blessing. So we changed back into missionary attire and that is what we did. That was fun because we were able to be out late. Also because giving blessings is awesome!

   I didn't sleep well last night. Probably just nerves about moving. I am really not looking forward to packing. That is going to be rough.

Love You All!

Elder Walker

me after being tied up by elder Daplin

anyone recognize that font? We are scratching our heads...

package I got from my family!!! I love those!

 pillow case I got from my family. It is not a great picture It is a "hug from home" pillow case.

part of EEFY

my selfie of nothing

one of my favorite members from Sha Tin. he is brother Chan wei. He is the member who gives me peanuts. I will miss him and his awesome family

Last picture of the Sha Tin crew. the super short one is sister Lock. She is a summer missionary

Things. Week 53 from Hong Kong

Hello all!

  This week was a fairly normal one. We got a Typhoon again. It was only level three this time so it was just annoying. It rained every day this week though for the most part. 

   This week we had EEFY (English Especially For Youth) That was fun. It was a two hour activity from 2-4 Tuesday through Thursday. There were only minimal injuries so that was good. Good solid activity. 

   I got a hair cut last night. That was the sketchiest hair cut I have gotten in a while. I had Elder Daplin do it. It turned out ok. It took a few tries but I think that it came out just great. I will attach pictures at the end. 

 I think the biggest news for this week by far is that I hit my one year mark. That feels so weird!!! We had district meeting on Friday because of the EEFY. So there was Elder Daplin, Sister Lo, Sister Nettles and I that had our "hump day" together. So Elder Daplin made a mango float and it was soooooooo good! I need to learn how to make those before I come home! That evening I had planed to eat with the Tai Wai elders and go to a mildly nice restaurant. But they had a dinner appointment so we were just having toast for diner and they called us and told us to get to the church because they felt bad. So we ran over there and joined them and the Tai Wai sisters  for dinner. All of which was cooked by Tanner Lau who is their ward mission leader. He had cooked Mexican food!!! It was so good. I haven't had Mexican food in forever! So that was fun. I really enjoyed that. Then we stayed after and helped clean everything up.

   In this year I have sweat harder than ever before. Studied harder than ever before. Walked further everyday than before. Traveled farther than ever before. Prayed harder than ever before. Ate more than ever before. Learned to Love a people more than ever before. Laughed harder than ever before. And I have been happier than ever before. I can honestly say that I loved my first year of consecrated service to the Lord and I am Looking forward to more of the same in this next year. 

Love you all,

Elder Walker

Video of catching the tiny lizard

Video of Elder Powell getting a haircut by Elder Daplin

One year stuff. (the Camel is because it is "HUMP DAY!")

Elder Chapman fell asleep on the train

Lizard that we found when setting up for EEFY 

Hair Cut

mini Light rail MTR up in the new T's

You can't see it but that is a rainstorm and covered by the clouds is Mainland China

Day one of EEFY

Day three of EEFY

I didn't understand this advertisement

 MEXICAN FOOD

a less active wanted to see where I lived. I now Know how to say Newberg in Cantonese

Magic

HIS FACE!!! Week 52 from Hong Kong!!! 1 year down (on the 19th!)

Hello all!

   I hope that everyone had a good week. We certainly did! I will start this week off with something amusing I discovered in my Language study. The word for Satan and the word for beach are really close. So one must be careful when you say that you are "taking your family to the beach" because you might say "taking your family to Satan" hahaha I though that was really funny.

   Our Blind investigator is doing well. He couldn't come to church this week but all of the ward members have latched onto him and really like him. The only problem that we have is sometimes he says strange things because he is a little socially awkward. That is just because he doesn't have that much time to talk with people. But that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

   Last P-day we went to the island to one of the secret missionary spots to get really cheep hand picked fabric and lining and tailored suits. I didn't get one but Elder Powell is nearing the end so he got one. The coolest part was that we took the ferry back to TST!!!! (Tsim Sha Tsui) it was so cool!!! the last time I was on a boat I was going from Canada back to the US over a year ago. I got a really cool video. And it was just our luck that an old style fishing boat was out so w e got cool pictures of that and massive buildings in the back ground. So that was cool! 

   I also got the opportunity to do another baptismal interview! This time it was for Tom. He was supper cool. I decided he needed a little more time before getting baptized though. We were discussing repentance and when I asked him if he had done anything he felt bad about I was expecting him to just say yes... but instead he launched in to a story about how he once put his moms car in the washing machine. Then he started laughing. He said it was when we was very young. So that was interesting haha.

   Ok so you are all probably wondering why the subject of this e-mail is HIS FACE!!! Well I'll tell you. This last Friday we had our zone sports night and we invited a man named Brother Tsui(the HD is short hand for the word brother in Cantonese so that is why I will write it like that). Tsui HD is a less Active member who does a lot of drugs, so we thought that a little light sports would be good for him, and it would be two hours that he wouldn't be smoking. So he agreed. We went to Kowloon Tong for the activity and met him there. We started off in the gym shooting baskets, he wasn't very good at that so we moved on to ping pong. He was pretty good at that, so that was fun. Then outside on the brick parking lot we were playing catch with an American foot ball. Which is really funny to watch Chinese people try to catch and throw. So Tsui HD is not very coordinated because he did lots of drugs. So one time the ball got thrown right between his feet. and he bent down to get it and fell out of his shoe. And very, very slowly from a nearly squatting position made no attempt to stop himself and fell FLAT ON HIS FACE AND THEN SLID 6IN!!!!! Not gonna lie it was really hard not to laugh. Elder Powell said "I have never seen a grown person do that. only very small children who are learning to walk." So Tsui HD just laid there until we ran over and rolled him over to expose his now bleeding face. So we picked him up and took him into the mission office and administered first aid. He went home with a big bandage on his forehead and nose. We all felt really bad but he said that he wanted to come next time. 

   So yeah that was an interesting week this week. 

Love you all,

Elder Walker

Gordon says these videos all explain themselves

These are the sisters in Sha Tin with us. left is sister Nettles and right is sister Lo

These will be buildings and cool shots like that

TYPHOON!!! Week 51 from Hong Kong

Hello ALL!

   Well this week had many great adventures. The most notable was a fantastic miracle! So last week I talked about Justin. We were talking with him on Friday night 2 weeks ago and he asked for clarification on how to fast. So we explained it to him and he was like "sweet I am going to fast on Monday for my parents hearts to soften so they will let me be baptized" So we decided that we would do it with him. So last P-day we fasted and went and played a game of soccer with some missionaries and members. That was hard but the Lord heard the fasting pleas of 6 missionaries and a 17 year old boy and the next day his parents signed the form and gave permission for him to be baptized! So that was sweet! Supper good testimony builder.

   Then on Monday night we got a text form the mission office announcing a typhoon level 8 signal and ordered us home until further notice. So on Tuesday morning we woke up to a huge typhoon slamming in to the side of the house. Bad news was that we left a window open because someone was using the dryer and the exhaust was going out side and... yeah... our office was a bit damp. Luckily nothing too bad so that was great! we still were not allowed outside so we just walked around the mall and looked at the storm and the wind blowing the doors open. For some reason the lifts were all not functioning as well, but yeah. We found a place that let us go outside and we ran like 20 feet and back just to say that we went running in a level 8 typhoon. Little note on typhoon warnings there are only 3 8 and 10. and we had an 8 and it was huge!!! Elder Daplin of the Philippines said that he remembered when a level 8 hit his home town and killed 1,000 people. so they are strong storms. I will send some pictures of the damage.

   Then I have some funny stories about Nadeem our blind investigator. He said that he wants to be baptized at the end of the month so that will be fun. He also thinks my hair is orange... which is funny. He also was talking as we were leading him back to the train station he said (In Cantonese) "I like American girls they are much more pretty than Hong Kong girls"... remember he is blind, so I asked him "wait you are blind, how do you know?" and he said in English "mommy told me" so that was really funny.

   Then we met and taught a crazy man who after the lesson was walking with us and said that he could jump over a fence. So he did. like 12 times back and forth. He then punched a bunch of poles to show us that he is in his own words "strong and gracefull, like a gazelle". haha so that was funny.

So yeah it was a great week this week. 

Love you all,

Elder Walker

A video of their new apartment buddy!

Some of you know that I am not a sweaty person. So take this as it is really, really hot here.

Typhoon pictures

tree in the pond

right in half

  big tree knocked over

Massive snail. About the size of​ my palm.

Inbound Typhoon Week 50 from Hong Kong

This week went great!!! We met a lot of new people and were able to teach the gospel. One was particularly open to the message. His name is Nadeem. He is from Pakistan but moved to Hong Kong when he was one or two years old. So he said that his most comfortable language is Chinese. The interesting thing about him is that he is blind. SO we pick him up and take him back to the MTR station when we meet him. He came to church yesterday and the members love him. They all came up and talked to him and got to know him. We even had a few people tell us that if we need they would love to fellowship him. Then after church we grabbed a member and asked if he would be willing to help us read the BOM (Book of Mormon) to him. The member gladly agreed and said that he loves to read the BOM out loud. So we read 3 chapters to him. HE loved it! He asked if there was an audio version and we said that not in Cantonese. (That would be really helpful though) He then told us that he can understand English fairly well. SO we helped him download the gospel library on his phone so he could listen to it in English. So we are really excited for him. He also accepted baptism. So we will give him a date this week.

   I love being Elder Chapmans companion. He as progressed so far. I would say that definitely if he needed to he could be a senior companion next move. Maybe even trainer if that were necessary. So that is really good.

   I also Love being a District Leader. Everyone is doing well and optimistic about the future. Unfortunately the Tai Wai elders had a bit of a set back. One of their investigators Justin is one of the most prepared people I have ever met. I did his baptismal interview this Saturday and passed him with flying colors. unfortunately his parents pulled permission right at the end so they are very sad about that. The bishop said he is going to take care of it and to not worry so that will be good. His interview was really fun to do. I got to use my fake glasses and I could tell that he was really nervous because overtime I would try to speak or elaborate on what he said and he would cut me off and add more. Which was fine because he was supper prepared. 

  Also had Exchanges with Elder Sargent. I was very disappointed with it. it was far short of 24 hours and we did not do as much work as I had hoped we would. So that was a bummer. we spent a lot of time talking about the district. which is fine but I was hoping to learn more in the work. 

   We have heard that we have a typhoon that is going to hit either today or tomorrow morning. I don't know much about it. All I know is what people tell me on the street. It shouldn't be too bad. So that should make for some good pictures next week.

   We also managed to not die with the extra mouths and extra little food. SO that is good. I thought Summer missionaries was going to be a lot of fun. It is sometimes but they are also a bit of a pain in the neck. They keep eating my Oreos, and they complain a lot. That will probably get better this week though. 

   Also something called Pokémon go came out. apparently you can walk around and catch Pokémon with your phone. At first I thought it was great but now I realize that there is a lot more people out which is great but they also will not be bothered at all. I got cussed out a few times just for saying "hi how are you" so yeah I am not a fan of that game. 

   We also got to go to the temple and it was Incredible!  as usual. 

Love you all,

Elder Walker

Gordon Says the video explains itself

the district on temple day!!

the district on temple day!!!

this is Justin

This is the display in Kowloon Tong right now. I don't get it. it is Disney characters but they're all pigs or sushi

The temple is getting a new Moroni so it looks like this for now

I call this one up the nose 

Hong Kong Temple sign