New in Tin Sui Wai. Week 90 from Hong Kong.

​Hello all,

   Last Monday was super cool! We went to a Guan Yin monastery. It is this supper cool one made by the richest person in Hong Kong. The main attraction is a huge statue of the goddess Guan Yin. It is actually just about the same size as the statue of liberty. It was just the coolest thing ever! I took a lot of pictures so you can see those. It was also near Buddha 的 birthday. So that was cool. There was a lot of people there so that was not the best but that is ok. There was also a few cool statues of baby Buddha that one could bathe. I did that. It was interesting. I got in trouble because I did not know that there was a procedure but I finally did it correctly. There was also this place where we went in the monastery to copy Buddhist scripture as a form of meditation. That was a mistake it took about an hour and a half. My hand hurt super bad afterword. 

   After that on Tuesday we had a combined district meeting as a zone to start and the 3 sisters that went home gave their "words of wisdom" (Things they learned on their mission) It was super good. I also was able to say goodbye to everyone. I was really sad to leave. 

   Here I am though in Tin Sui Wai it is the smallest proselyting area in the world right behind temple square. I Live in Yuen Long and go to church in Hung Shui Kiu. The whole place has a completely different feel to it. We all get the West rail pass and after that travel is free on the Light rail (We take that a lot) the MTR and MTR buses. I get really lost a lot but it should be fine. My companion Elder Cox and I get along great. I will kill him at the end of our 6 weeks together (He will go home) Then 9 weeks and I will go home. Super, Super weird!

   We had church yesterday and the Chapel is so nice! It is huge and feels way better than the one in Tai Po. The benches have padding too! It was actually really hard to not fall asleep. The Bishop asked me to speak so I did. I am much more comfortable  doing that in Cantonese now. 

   Next week we get to skype home!!! I am so excited! It will be my last one in the field though so that will have a strange feel to it. But yes Life is Hot! 

   Next week I will send home a video of the new house. We Live on the 28th floor but they don't count the 4, 14, or 24 floor. Chinese people are not a fan of the number 4. Good thing I am elder 5!

Love,

Elder Walker

伍長老

​

There are too many pictures to explain. Sorry. The people are Jeremy (Member I was friends with) Elder Harding. Elder Chen (Former Companion) 

"Quick" video of the Tai Po Chapel. (The one he went to before his transfer)

Move Calls. Week Week 89 from Hong Kong

Hello all,

   Well this was a week. I am exhausted. I went on two exchanges last week. One with Elder Lee and one with Elder Cobabe. Those were a lot of fun. I love elder Lee. I think I have talked about him here, but he is super funny and is a native from HK. So he gives my Chinese a good workout. He is a super good missionary. The other one with Elder Cobabe was also a lot of fun. I like going to Ma On Shan it is super pretty. While we were there we taught a lesson to a Less Active with Yoshi. After the Lesson Yoshi took us out to lunch. We went to this super good Japanese restaurant and ate until we almost died. The food was AMAZING though. Then for dessert we had some fancy ice cream (Picture attached) Super good day.

   Those days were pretty much back to back so I was exhausted by that point. The rest of the week was pretty normal. We had a good kids English class on Saturday morning. Then Saturday evening we had a ward FHE. That was a lot of fun. They sent us home with a lot of food! We were in charge of the game and we decided to do statues. That was a lot of fun and I think the members liked it. 

   Other than that it was a pretty normal week. I did a lot of paperwork last night to close the month and open the new one. Then we got our move calls. I will be moving to Tin Sui Wa. Way north and Way on the other side of the mission. So that will be interesting. I will be junior companion under a guy I don't know very well. He goes home in 6 weeks so that will be the first companion that I kill. (when missionaries go home they say they "die" or in other words, their mission is complete) Should be an interesting move. It is also strange that the sisters that I met at the end of my time in the MTC are going home this Thursday. That means that I am an OLD missionary.   

Love,

Elder Walker

伍長老

 

 me and Elder Cobabe ice cream

Yoshi and his girlfriend 

Elder Smith and his taahm ji bib to avoid the spots on his white shirt

statue game at FHE

The following pictures of the Ward Family Home Evening or FHE were posted on the

Tai Po ward's Facebook page.

Another Week in Paradise. Week 88 from Hong Kong

Hello all,

   This has been an interesting week. I had anticipated going on 2 exchanges but canceled them both because I had a TON of meetings this week. So looks like that is going to be what happens this week. We also got to go to the temple! That was awesome! It might have been my last time in Hong Kong but we shall see. 

   Yeah so last p day was great because we got to go to the temple. It was super hot like it was 34 at 10:15 am. Which is hot! Plus all of the Humidity and the suit and it was rough. It was great though because a member from Tai Wo ward gave us a ride in his car! So that was great. Then for pictures we had the whole district there. We took a few pictures and then decided to do one where every one was jumping in the air. We did and the member ripped his pants about 6 inches! So after the temple he just left his white temple pants on. That was funny. The temple is the best I wish we could go more often but oh well. 

   We also got great news that Elder Cook of the 12 apostles will be visiting us in like 2 weeks so that is great! We know he will take a picture with us I hope he speaks too!

   On Tuesday we had a combined district meeting so that Elder Ashton and I could share a message with the zone. That went well I think. I hope every one apples the things we shared. 

   This last Saturday we had a missionary run Easter activity. We had a good amount of people come and so I think that went well. We were hoping that the members would bring some of their non member friends. But that is OK, next time I guess. 

   We had a good meeting with the Stake President last night. We Thought that the meeting was going to be an hour long. Tuned out that after 2 hours we were not even close to done. We got a lot of things done though so that was good. A long meeting is fine so long as every one is on the same page and good things get done. Our Companions were not super happy about that but that is ok. haha

   Lastly there have been some things happening with a person we are teaching. We are working with the Bishop and Stake President very closely. There is much pride and anger and we are trying to resolve it and it is causing some emotional stress in me. That is alright though so long as the will of the Lord is made manifest it does not matter what happens to me. 

   By this time next week I will know what the moves calls are! I think I am moving but I am not sure. 

Hope everyone has a great week! 

Love,

Elder Walker

Videos are at the end...

Having fun translating

Dog troubles in Tai Po

Ward Party Game

Easter. Week 87 from Hong Kong

Hello all,

   This has been a really good week. Not a whole lot has been happening. We are really desperate for new investigators. We are trying a bunch of different ways so I guess now we just have to wait. 

   I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with one of the district leaders in the zone. He is over the Mandarin district. That was fun. He is an interesting guy. He is a new district leader so it was fun to answer some of his questions. He will be really good once he has gotten the hang of it. 

   We had a few days that we didn't have to use the AC so that was good because it was a cool temperature. Yesterday we used all of our extra time because the hours don't roll over to the next week so today we are back to no extra and we are gonna be very sweaty. That is one of those things that I have gotten used to that I wish I didn't get used to. Sometimes I am in a members house in the summer and We are super sweaty and I know I smell terrible and it makes me feel bad for the member because they have to pretend to be nice to me when I smell like a pig. 

   Anyway it was a pretty standard week. Until Sunday. We came home from church, had lunch, and prayed into personal study and suddenly a massive parade started. I took a bunch of pictures and videos and sent them home. Hopefully everyone can see them. There were dragons fighting each other and other performances. It was super cool! Very very Chinese!  I am not sure why we had it, it could have been for Easter and it could have been for something completely different. 

   We get to go to the temple this week so that is awesome!!!! That does mean that today is not our Pday. So we are going to do emails and buy groceries and that will be it. Then we will go back to work.

   I also got my birthday package! It had cereal in it! I was very very happy!!!

  That is all for this week!

Love,

Elder Walker

He asked for a bag of Marshmallow Mateys for his birthday! 

Parade Pictures

Video of Gordon Walking on the street on HK Island

Parade Videos