Good Day to Die. Week 104 from Hong Kong

Hello all,

   Well if I am honest I don't know how to feel. On the one hand I am excited beyond measure, yet also terrified. My Life is about to take a huge turn. The time has come I guess to close the book on this chapter and move onto the next one. 

   As far as weeks go this was a great last full one. Now I only work until Wednesday. Last p-day we went to a bowling alley in Tuen Mun and played snooker. There was a member who wanted to go and so we did. I had never played snooker before. Turns out it is a lot of fun! It is also much more difficult than American pool. So I will need to find a place where I can do that back home haha. 

   We had a good last Zone Conference. haha I just realized that the word "last" is going to be in here a lot of times. That was good. I have seen a lot of zone conferences in my day and to be honest a lot of them are the same. This was a good one though.

   Then the rest of the week was pretty normal. We did some finding and found a person or two with some real good potential. 

   Sunday was a crazy day!!! We got move calls! I forgot to mention that! Elder Fakatou will be training!!! Also Elder Taylor (My British trainee) will be training and zone leader!!!! That is crazy. He is now 9 weeks younger than I was when I met him for the first time. I wish I could stay and watch everyone keep growing and watch people's success. 

   Sunday was also crazy because we went to 2 baptisms! It was my last Church in Chinese but we skipped third hour, which was Elders Quorum, to go to a baptism in the Castle Peak ward. She was someone that Elder Fakatou taught back when he was in that area. So that was a lot of fun. Then we ran back to our church in HSK and went to ward council meeting. Which will be my last one until I have a calling in a ward in the USA. Then later that night we had a Baptism for a young lady named Karmen (Yes spelled with a "K") She is super funny! That was just a great meeting. There was 18 missionaries there too! 

   There are pictures attached of all these things.

   I am extremely grateful for everyone who has supported me on this epic adventure. I have worked harder and for longer than I ever thought possible. My testimony is stronger than ever. I now can comfortably say that I know Jesus is The Christ, That our Heavenly Father lives, and that they love us more that we know and that their hand is in everything that we do. I have learned a great many things through the experiences and the bitter trials that I have been blessed with. 

Paul says it best:

 6 For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.

7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

 For the last time

Love you all,

Elder Gordon Walker 

伍家盛長老

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This is my last full week. Week 103 from Hong Kong

Hello all,

   Well this is a very strange feeling indeed. Today is the start of my last full week. I don't know how I feel about that. I am super conflicted about coming home. I just cant believe that I got to this point. We will have more of that touchy feely stuff next week haha.

   This was a great week. Last P-day we went and rode bikes from Tai Wai to Tai Po. So I got to see my old areas for the last time. That was fun. It was so hot! I always forget how nice riding a bike is. We brought elder Chapman (My first trainee/son) a long with us. That was fun. He is super funny and I also got to meet his trainee which is my grandson. haha I now have 2 three generation pictures. Which is a very rare thing indeed.  That was also a fun day because I got to see (Elder) Ethan Griffiths! He was one of the first people I lived with. haha he was super funny. It was grate seeing him again. 

   Also Last week I was assigned to have my exit interview on this Monday morning at 9:30 am. Now that is super early and also p-day so I thought I would just call the office and see if I couldn't change the day, and I could! It was super good! I got it moved to Friday. That was fun because I was able to see some of the people from my group that I have not seen for a very long time. The interview was great!!!! It was less spiritual than it normally is, this time it was a lot of life advice. So that was good. haha I am glad that I recorded it. 

   This Saturday we had a ward water fight activity. That was a lot of fun! We had 1,000 water balloons! 500 of which elder Fakatou and I filled up. That took about 2 hours. It was an awesome activity. Everyone who came loved it and like all good water activities it evolved into a huge all out war. It was so much FUN!!!! We had a couple activities and stuff. I will send a few pictures home. 

   Other than that it was a normal fantastic week here in Hong Kong. I have my last Zone Conference tomorrow. and this week the lasts are real. 

Love,

Elder Walker

伍長老

Smog. Week 102 from Hong Kong

Hello all,

   I'm going to be honest I can't remember if the word I put as the subject is the one that means pollution or the Dragon from Lord of the Rings. I meant the pollution one. English is hard guys. I think English is much harder for a person to learn than 中文. Anyway that is enough excuses.

   Last week I think I mentioned that we had a Level 8 Typhoon warning and so church was cancelled which was unfortunate. This week the weather was strange. There has been very little wind and so the smog has just stayed in Hong Kong and it is gross! I will attach a video I took this week to show you.

   This week at Crossroads (The place that helps refugees and where we do service) Elder Fakatou and I ended up having to carry refrigerators up and down to the 4th floor! In total we moved 2 up to the 4th floor and 2 down from the fourth floor. I should also mention that there was no lift, and the weather was like 34 deg. (C) and 80% humidity. So there was some serious sweating going on. haha

   We also met with our less Active friend who plays baseball. He has been teaching me how to throw different pitches. This week he taught me how to throw a curve ball. That was fun. That is one of those things that I learned on my mission that I didn't think I would. 

   The rest of the week was pretty normal. Elder Stober had his member friends from TST come and bring us food. They bought us Ice cream!!!!! That was soooo good!!!!

   Other than that it was a pretty normal week. I have enjoyed the lack of meetings. I get to actually go out and work more so that is great. 

   We also said goodbye to the Summer missionary that was working with the Yuen Long Elders. That was sad. He was funny!

Love you all!!!!

Love,

Elder Walker

伍長老