Joanna's Journeys: Sister Hugo's experiences as an LDS missionary in Hong Kong: Week 4 Toilet to the end!

Wow! I can't believe how long I've been in the MTC. It feels like a lifetime ago that I was dropped off, but at the same time, it feels life yesterday. It doesn't help that according to the MTC I've been here four weeks, even though today is only day 22. Yeah, that's what I'll blame it on.

A lot has happened this week, but first, language mistakes!

I'm really glad that all of the investigators that we teach are already converts, because otherwise we would be preaching a lot of false doctrine. Like

-Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon

-We are possessed by the Holy Ghost

-We need to toilet to the end

-We don't know Jesus

Just to be clear, we TRIED to say

-Joseph Smith TRANSLATED the Book of Mormon

-We can FEEL the Holy Ghost

-We need to ENDURE to the end

-We always say YehSou Geiduk, which is Jesus Christ. So when our investigator said "You're here to teach about Jesus" my companion said "YehSou? I don't know that word" because she didn't realize "Jesus" without the "Christ". Does that make sense? I hope it does.

All of these were hilarious, and our investigators love to bring them up. Which is awesome, because they're HILARIOUS! I hear missionaries all the time say "My mission language is just so beautiful!" Cantonese is not beautiful. At all. But it is so much fun! And I have enough language mistake stories for a different ice breaker for every situation in Hong Kong.

They've been telling us for a long time that eventually we'll get Chinese names, and to not worry about it. It's being taken care of! Well this week when we brought it up to our teacher Lao Ji Muih she freaked out because she had forgotten about it. So we got to spend an hour going around the room talking about the meaning of our names. I'm excited for my Chinese name because my first name means "Beloved of God" and my middle name (well, ONE of the meanings of my middle name) is hummingbird. I told Lao Ji Muih she could use butterfly though because there's not really a word for hummingbird.

Sister Crockett thought that her name (Leah) meant "lazy" and "cow." When Lao Ji Muih looked it up on her phone she said "I don't know this word. Mysterious?" So she wrote the word on the board.

Mistress

We laughed SO hard, and poor Lao Ji Muih was soooooo confused. Finally we settled down enough to explain to her what a mistress is, and she was MORTIFIED! She and Sister Crockett decided to have her name mean "Courage" instead.

On Friday I had the stomach flu which was SO FRUSTRATING! I wanted to work on my vocab, and plan our lessons, not focus on keeping food down. Finally in the afternoon my companions dragged me to the nurse. She gave me some OTC meds and told me to sleep. It took a little bit of prayer before I was okay with the idea. I realized that the Lord needs me to work hard, and give my best. And it would be much better if I took off 1 day to get better, than if I tried to push through it and spent a week at only half efficiency. I planned on sleeping for 1 hour. I slept for 5. Woke up in time to teach our lesson, and went back to sleep till 10 the next day. About 17 hours of sleep.

Sleep is beautiful.

When I woke I was back at 100%, although I was STARVING.

I know that the Lord blessed me with getting better quickly, and used the opportunity to teach me a lesson. Also, sleep was beautiful.

I tried to use this lesson to convince our Branch President that all missionaries should get 30 more minutes of sleep a day. He didn't agree.

All of the food at the MTC is blending together. I can't eat the burger everyday, because it sits like a brick in my stomach. But the salads are less like lettuce with a sprinkling of toppings, and more like toppings with a few leaves. And my district is convinced that all of the soup is same base, and they just add different chunks. I'm figuring it out though. And I'm drinking a lot more water. All of the Sisters bladders have shrunk to the point that we have to go every hour. It's annoying because the bathroom in our building only has ONE STALL. Who planned this? Some days it really does feel like we are toileting to the end.

My District has changed again! Elder Parker (Bak Jeung Loh) was having a hard time in the other Canto district, so we had an Elder swap yesterday. We all miss Elder Stober (Song Jeung Lo) a lot. And it broke up the dream team of Elder Stober and Chapman. But I know that our district is going to be really good for Elder Parker. And we still see Elder Stober at every meal, so it's not the end of the world. It's crazy to me how close we've grown in such a short amount of time. I can't imagine how stressful transfers will be in Hong Kong.

This Sunday I get to go the Temple-nacle (Provo City Center Temple) dedication. I am so very excited. I'm not sure if we're allowed to have favorite temples, but it is mine. Even just looking at it brings me peace. Heaven is found within the walls of the Temple. I wasn't the best at going consistently before my mission, but in the MTC I get to go every week. I'm so grateful for the peace and love it brings to my life. I hope that all of you love the Temple as much as I do. I challenge you all to go the Temple this week. I know that when you do, you will feel the spirit, and you will become more perfected. You will take upon you the Savior's countenance.

Yesterday for the Tuesday Devotional, the MTC choir sang "This Is The Christ" and it was ....... beautiful doesn't begin to describe it. We practiced for an hour Tues. and an hour Sunday, and EVERY TIME we sang "This is the Christ" I felt the spirit testify that it was true. We've been looking a lot at all of the amazing videos the Church has been making for Easter. I want to add my testimony, that I KNOW that that He Lives. He lived for us. He atoned for us. He died for us.

And He rose again for us.

"He is not dead, not doth He sleep"

Jesus Christ is the head of this Church. And he loves us all so dearly that we can't begin to imagine it. All that we need to do is reach out to Him. I'm so excited, and so blessed to be bring this glad message to the people of Hong Kong. He has helped me every day on this mission, and I know that as I continue to reach out to Him, He will continue to guide, love, strengthen, and bless me.

I love you all.

Talk with you next week!

Love

Sister Hugo

Yui Ji Muih

Your favorite

Picture 1 is the Sisters in My District. I'm sending it because I thought I was so clever using the phone to block my eyes. Turns out it was a terrible idea.