MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERY ONE!!

This last week for P-Day we rode the mid level escalators. It's just a part of city that's built on really hilly land, so to help everyone get around they installed escalators everywhere so people don't have to walk. Everyone says it is the "Longest String of Escalators in the World" but I'm not sure how true that is. #HeardItThroughTheGrapeVine #MissionRumors #YesIDidSpend3HoursRidingEscaltors #NoRegrets

 

We would get off every now and then to look around at all of the cool shops. It was weird to see just how different the real city is from Sheung Shui.

 

 

 

The Package my mom sent me!! IT had more stuff in it at first, it was BURSTING, but I got to the bottom and realized I had opened it upside down!! AAH!! 

 

 

 

My beautiful and amazing kind family sent me a 12 Days of Christmas CountDown Banner, a little cut out tree that we hung on the Window, and "ornaments" to decorate the tree. The Ornaments are different names of Christ, with one addition by my father (Undefeated and Undisputed Heavy Weight Champion of the World). It made the apartment feel so much like Christmas!!

 

This week, we didn't have any investigators at sacrament meeting.Everyone got sick, and once investigator has been sick this week she didn't even realize it was Sunday! But the sacrament meeting was amazing! They had all 6 of us missionaries (4 sisters, 2 elders -- we had 2 wards meet together) give talks. but....... the other sisters Bishop forgot to tell them that they had to give talks, so we called them 3 minutes before sacrament meeting started. Their talks were AMAZING though, so they didn't need the extra time anyway. I was really nervous for my talk because when I get nervous I speak really quickly and then my tones go all over the place and no one has any idea what I'm saying. But I managed to speak nice and slowly, and even got some laughs in! I spoke about a picture my sister gave me for Christmas, it's a nativity picture with a TON of angels, and Joseph looks really stressed. I talked about how I loved the combination of those two things. Joseph, is asked to be the Earthly Father of JESUS CHRIST!! The only perfect being to ever walk the earth! And in his first day as a new father, he can't even find an inn. If it was me, I would have felt like such a failure. BUT we sing praises of that day 2000 years later. There were angels present. If Joseph had failed God, how did it end up being such a sacred moment? The answer is that Joseph didn't fail God. Heavenly Father knows we won't be perfect. That's why He sent His Son. Because of Jesus Christ, his love, and His Atonement, we will ALWAYS be enough. President Hinckley said "All you have to do is try. But you've got to really try!" I love that attitude. That's what I'm doing. REALLY trying!! That's my invitation for the week. Just REALLY try -- at whatever you think that it needs to be.

 

Love you all so much.

Love Hong Kong.

Love getting frustrated at learning a tonal language.

Love this Gospel.

Love my Heavenly Father.
--

Love

Sister Hugo

Yiu Ji Muih

Your favorite

 

(Editor's Note:  Here are a few other pictures we received from other sources)

 

 

 

 

 

The countdown has begun!!

The countdown till Christmas has begun!! Which is to say, that it's no longer weird that I have a countdown to Christmas. It took ya'll long enough, I've been waiting for 5 months!

 

Last P-day we went down to Central, to what most people think of when they think Hong Kong. It was really weird honestly, because it is just SO different from Sheung Shui! But we took some awesome pictures! Well, we tried at least. The wind was so strong that I'm not sure.....I'm telling myself that I just look like a model in a wind tunnel......but I don't quite believe myself yet

 

 

 

I'm not sure if I was standing sideways somehow, or if all the buildings and the ocean were experiencing uneven gravity. Probably uneven gravity, you know how it is. 

 

 

 

 

We ate out for Sister Thomsons Birthday! We shared this pineapple stir fry and it was AMAZING!! We've been together for the past TEN months!! CRAZY #TenderMercies #TiredEyes #SisterMissionaryProblems

 

 

I got a Christmas Package! So did Sister Thomson and Sister Hoxer, so our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree is looking much less lonely. I'M SO EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS!! Although, the customs paperwork for this package says that it includes "Lures" so I'm not sure what that means #ProblemsOfPeopleRelatedToMyDad #BlessingsOfPeopleRelatedToMyDad

On Sunday we stayed after church to be in the Ward Choir. Wow. I love Chinese people so much. But they are just not super good at singing things that aren't Chinese Opera. There are some songs that work if you're just got enough of us, cause then our enthusiasm makes up for it. Anyway. Last night we had a music activity where a member choir sang parts of Handles Messiah. It was AMAZING!! The Messiah isn't normally my style, but it was just so beautiful, and I couldn't stop thinking about my Savior, and how grateful I am for this time as a missionary to serve him 24/7. It will still never be enough, but at least I can share the blessings. #LightUpTheWorld #WhatShallWeGiveInReturnForSoMuch

I love you all! Merry Christmas!

--

Love

Sister Hugo

Yiu Ji Muih

Your favorite

Small Fire Stick Nurse

Learned this week that the translation of "The Little Matchstick Girl" is literally "Small Fire Stick Small Nurse." I love Chinese, because 1/2 of the time words have really silly meanings, and sometimes they really cool and deep. Like, repent is literally "regret then change". How cool is that! But then gloves is "hand socks". Also VERY cool, but in a completely different way.

Only time for one story.

This week we had a member call us in a lesson, and we forgot to call her back after. Then she called us again.

Hi, Lai Mommy, how are you doing?
Yes. Sister Hugo. Hello. Can you be at my house at 3?
*Looks at watch. 2:45*
Probably not, Lai Mommy
Hmmm........ It's just that I have a friend coming over at 3 who wants to meet the missionaries. 
....Go on.

It was so funny! I could just imagine Lai Mommy's thoughts "Hmm. Is that so missionaries. Because I think that you are actually VERY free at 3, and will do whatever it takes to get here by then." 

Touche, Lai Mommy, touche.

Sister McNeilly is a violin prodigy, so a member leant her this one to practice with and she'll perform in Stake Conference with it. Then we all got a hold of it and tried to play. Try being the operative word. There was sound ......but that's about it. One day though! #FutureMasterViolinist #ForeverIsALongTime #MaybeI'llJustBuyAnAlbum

-- 

Love

Sister Hugo

Yiu Ji Muih

Your favorite

Wow. So this is what durian is like.

So this is what Durian is like.

Surprisingly, the durian wasn't that bad! Sister Lam has been helping us teach lessons a couple times a week while she looks for a new job. This past week she invited us over for lunch before the lesson. It was so good!! Then while we were chatting she suddenly jumps up and says "Have you ever tired Durian!?! Do want to try it!?" Of course!! This bit was frozen so that it ended up having a creamy texture that was kind of a little bit close to ice cream. Kinda. I just had a little bit and I didn't puke! This may sound like I'm being dramatic, but in the summer we change how we walk home so we don't have to walk past the Durian stands and smell them. I didn't eat any more after the first little bite, but I had durian burps allllllll day. Sister Lam also made us a Chocolate cake. A REAL AMERICAN CHOCOLATE CAKE!! The cakes here in Hong Kong mostly just taste like air and disappointment, so having REAL cake was such a tender mercy #I'mJesus'Favorite #MyMembersAreBetterThanYourMembers #JustKiddingIt'sNotACompetition #ButIWouldWin

On the topic os Sister Lam, We asked her to help with a lesson on Tuesday and then she asked if she could also help us teach on Wednesday before she starts her new job Thursday. We asked if she was sure and then Sister Lam LITERALLY started shaking me! She told me that she needed more blessings and to stop blocking God from blessing her more. Wow.

So this is what being famous feels like. 

The Fanling Sisters contacted a college on the train the other day who was SUPER interested in the Church. Then they got a call last week asking if she and some friends could meet us missionaries to interview us for a school project on Mormonism. SURE!! We met at a park and then spent about an hour and a half being interviewed about our doctrine and our own conversion stories. We taught the The first 3 lessons (Restoration, Plan of Salvation, Gospel of Jesus Christ), some commandments (Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity and Tithing) and even some bonus stuff (Temples, service in the church). WOW. It was amazing. We were honestly a little worried about it, but they had such a desire to understand that we were all able to feel the spirit. When we started they said "Can you please explain your church a little bit?" "Well. Where do you want us to start?" *all three of them in synchronized motion pull pages of questions out of their bags*

It helped us realize how much asking questions can lead to an atmosphere of the Spirit. I love that  my faith doesn't limit me asking questions. They need to be asked in the right spirit, but ultimately sincere questions are the ONLY way that we can really learn. Isn't that awesome!

ALSO I made one of my random mission goals this week. "Contact a Chinese person who speaks english with a Scottish or Irish accent". DONE!! His parents moved to Ireland before he was born so he doesn't speak Chinese, but he has a REALLLLY thick Irish accent. It got to the point that I just wished I could speak with him in Chinese. 2 countries superheated by the same language. 

One of the attachments is the Ban/Lee family! I wrote about them a while ago -- they're the ones who randomly decided to move to Chili. This is what a mom of the missionary who taught them wrote on Facebook.

"A few years ago, this Chinese family was introduced to the Gospel by some missionaries but, at that time, the family was not interested. In September 2016, the family sought out the missionaries and in October, Elders Garcia and Darrington baptized them. On October 31st, my husband and I picked them up at the Amtrak station in SLC, Utah and took them to our home in Idaho. Today, November 29th, this same family moved into an apartment in SLC! They are excited to have left China and now attend a mandarin ward in SLC and continue to learn the Gospel in their own language!"

Their story is so cool, and although I didn't teach them, I'm no less grateful that I was able to know them. I hope they'll be okay with how often I plan on visiting them in about a year.

The other attachment was not taken by me, but by Sister Crockett from my MTC district. Yes. That is a pig face. Hanging up in a meat market. For sale. Either for really cheap or a ridiculous amount of money.

Yep. That's China for ya'

--

Love

Sister Hugo

Yiu Ji Muih

Your favorite

Thanksgiving!!

This is Sister Ng! She is amazing. She reads from the Book of Mormon about an hour a day. She cut my hair last week and now she loves messing with it in General.




















Sister Cote left some face mask in the apartment, so we used it!

We made rolls for the Thanksgiving party! More than a hundred! We had to travel for about an hour to find an oven, but it was SOO worth it!

Our thanksgiving party was so much fun! We had 5 hours to cook, play, eat, and clean up. We had a zone "UnTalent Show" with pre-assigned "Un-Talents". It was SOO much fun!! We had impersonations of famous African Americans in Cantonese (Frozone, Obama, and Bill Cosby),  I translated a Korean folk tale terribly wrong on purpose (not hard considering I don't know Korean), and there was a dramatic reading of a real (not really) Dear John letter. And I got to sing the Dirge (my family birthday song)! All in all a pretty perfect day.

(Foot Piano talent)

(Comedy "Whose Line is it Anyway" Style)

See you all next week!

--

Love

Sister Hugo

Yiu Ji Muih

Your favorite

Half Way There! #roundingerror

So it's not really half way there. This Thursday will be 9 months from my first day in the MTC, but that's not necessarily 274 days, nor is it necessarily my half way mark. But since I don't know my exact release date, I'm saying this week is my half way mark! Yay rounding error!

Found a new investigator this week! Her English name is Elsa, but I don't know if she got it before or after Frozen. When we stopped her on the street she was hooked once we asked if she knew why there are so many christian churches. "No! I've always wondered why. And which church is the real one? How am I supposed to know? ...Do you know?!?!" ".....have we got a message for you!!"

So we rescheduled her for a couple days later (she had to go to work right then). 2 minutes into out first real lesson she blurted out "I read about you on the internet!" we thought "okay, hit us with it, what did you read? Let's get this out of the way." And we really did get it out of the way. She wasn't trying to bash us, she was just seriously concerned with some things she had read. But 5 minutes later she had asked all her questions, was satisfied that we aren't a cult, and so we taught the restoration. She loved it!! We're meeting with her next week, maybe at the church. SHE LIVES BY THE CHURCH!!! NO ONE LIVES BY THE CHURCH!! IT IS IN THE MOST ANNOYING LOCATION POSSIBLE!! It's a sign. She's getting baptized.

After helping Siu Pohpo on her farm, we took a selfie. She decided that we're terrible at planting (we kill everything) and worse at weeding (we go 10 times slower than her and sometimes pick the wrong things) so she let us spread manure!! She says it's super expensive, and it definitely smells very fresh. We felt so bad riding back home on the crowded bus. 

She has a water tank that she collects rain in, and then pumps out to her sprinkler system (she made all of it by herself by the way) and I looked in it the other day and there are fish! She has a ghetto little aquaponic system going on! She is a genius.

Answering calls outside the church#SisMissLife

Quote from Sister Homer's email :

when we were finding at a park last saturday we met a guy who literally could not have seemed less interested. so we just gave him a flyer and left. then sunday during church we had 3 missed calls from the same number. so when I finally call back I found out it was the sameguy! turns out he basically just wanted to rant on for a half hour about anti church stuff, but took me about 20 minutes to get to that point. I'll tell you the full contents of the phone call on a later day when I have more time... but here's a few of my favorite lines... 

-"Where are you from?" 

-"America" 

-"Where in America?"

-"Utah"

-"Utah! Mormons! Book of Mormon! Cult! Donny Osmond!!

Did a hike this morning for exercise. SO PRETTY!!  Not the best pic, but it's my favorite one of today.
​

It feels crazy that I'm halfway out. I was hoping that at this point I would be halfway perfect. *cackles* NOPE! Not even close! But I realized that the awesome thing is that as long as I'm progressing, I have eternity to reach perfection! Not just 18 months! Wow. I'm so grateful for my Savior's atonement which gives me infinite chances to start over. I might end up using all of them.

LOVE YOU ALL!!

--

Love

Sister Hugo

Yiu Ji Muih

Your favorite

The American, eating Korean Barbecue, in China.......

This last P-day we finally went to get Korean Barbecue. It was like I was back home :) it wasn't beaf-

and leaf, but it was still soooo good. We cooked it on the grills right in the table. The people who 

worked there were SO excited that we spoke Cantonese, some of them even took selfies with us. 

After KBQ we went to do some shopping in Mong Kok on ladies street. It's just one street that used

 to be drivable, but now it has been utterly taken over by little stalls. A lot of them stalls sell the 

same stuff (purses, backpacks, phone covers) but some are more specialized. You can also BARGAIN! 

Which was so exciting. I'm really proud of how well I did at bartering. That meant that most stuff I 

got down to below 1/2 the starting point.  Maybe ignorance is bliss though, I imagine almost 

everyone who walks away from Mong Kok thinks they got a bargain.

aught Liz again this week! Just as a recap, cuz I'm not sure how much I've written / you'll remember. 

Sister Hoxer (my new comp.) contacted her in Tuen Muen 5 months ago, gave us her #, and we 

taught her. She was awesome, but got busy with work, although she said she still read the BoM 

every day. Anyway. Sister Hoxer and I taught her again this week and it was....crazy. After everyone 

involved freaked out over what a miracle it is that Sister Hoxer is the missionary who originally 

contacted her and now she able to teach her, we taught the restoration. Liz was so intent, but then 

when we invited her to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is the word of God and Joseph Smith 

is a prophet she said "No need. I already know all of the that." "insert spit take here" 

Whatwhatwhatwhatwhat?! She is still nervous about baptism because at her last church you had to 

take a three year course before you could get baptized, but I'm not worried about her.

Sister Ng has this amazing orange tea that I love, and I finally found some this week! I was sick, so

I bought it even though it was a little expensive. It's basically just orange marmalade. You put a 

spoonful of it in the bottom of a cup, pour hot water over it, and stir it up. It really makes me realize 

why people love tea so much. But don't worry everyone, my orange tea has no actual tea plant in it, 

so no one freak out.

Elder Lee (my new district leader, see group pic from last week) is a Hong Konger, so we had district

language study this week. I learned Avadakavra (aakaawaakaadaanlaa, with tones that I don't know 

how to type) and Lotso -- the purple bear from Toy story 3 -- Lousou. His name is fun because it's a 

transliteration (they just picked a sound in Chinese that sounds like it in English) but it also means 

"Crotchety" as in "Crotchety old man". I'm also learning words and phrases that are more useful, but 

I can't look up things like this in a dictionary!

I was sick this week. It came on in just a couple hours, but then the the next day I was 98% better. Still 

have a bit of a sore throat, but nothing really. 

Life is great. I'm learning more about faith everyday. In my study of the gospel I just keep coming 

back to the basics. Christ, his perfect example, and his gospel. Faith. Repentance. Baptism. It's all there!

Gotta go now, but as always, I love you all. I love this gospel. I love my Savior.

See you next week!

-- 

Love

Sister Hugo

Yiu Ji Muih

Your favorite 

Bring on the Cheng Outs! and Transfers

*Not sure if y'all remember, but Cheng Out is Chinglish for people had us over for dinner, or took us to a restaurant and fed us*

I have been changed out FIVE TIMES THIS WEEK!! Shout out to the Poons, the Lam Family, Lai Mommy, Ling Family, and the Choi Family. All of it was AMAZING. I'm SO glad that I've grown to love the food here in Hong Kong. 

Speaking of food.....

^This is the head of a teenage pigeon. That I ate. Adult pigeon is too tough, and baby pigeons are too small, but teenage pigeons are just right!

In the winter in Hong Kong, everyone's favorite food is Hot Pot. It's a really spicy soup that you put vegetables and meat in to cook them, and then you take them out when they're cooked. It's SOO good!! Missionaries have to be careful because sometimes in the past missionaries have gotten sick, but our members know how to take care of us. This might have been the spiciest thing that I have ever eaten in Hong Kong, but it was SOO GOOD!!

This is the air sac of a fish. They use them to keep buoyant and can control the amount of air in them to rise and fall to different levels in the water. Nothing special about the flavor, and the texture was really rubbery, but all Chinese agree that they make you a good swimmer.

Over dinner, our ward taught me a lot of really cool Chinese. My favorite saying was "mahn yih sihk waih tin", which is useless to y'all to because you don't know pinkham and I don't know how to write tones, but you can pretend you know what it's saying. The way that they explained it is that in China, people believe in many god's. And this is basically saying that one of them is food. I guess if you had to translate it you could say "Food is heavenly, it's my highest priority"

So much more to tell y'all, but I got some more picture to send. 

TRANSFERS

What people thought our companionship was like

What our companionship was actually like.

Our ward got two new missionaries! So exciting!!

Last experience before I sign out. This week an investigator asked what Zion was.Then in fast and testimony meeting, so many members just took 3-4 minutes to share their testimony, and every single testimony mentioned someone else in the ward that week who had reached and out to them. It just made me really grateful to serve in Sheung Shui. It's a special place. An investigator asked this week what Zion is. When I was sitting there in Sacrament meeting, I couldn't help but feel "This. This is what Zion is." It's a place full of imperfect people. SOOO imperfect. Everyone has different problems, bad habits, weaknesses, sins, and weird things that can be really annoying. But we are okay with that. We're moving forward TOGETHER, and we're sharing the gospel with everyone we meet so they too can be part of our amazing "together". 

That's all for today. Love you all. Add oil!!

-- 

Love

Sister Hugo

Yiu Ji Muih

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