April Fools!!

We got our new name tags!! Because so many people in Hong Kong speak English, we get split name tags. We were so excited! But because of General Conference we didn't have a temple walk on Monday, which means instead of getting Pinterest worthy pics, you get the selfie I took in the classroom. Selfies on a regular camera are an acquired skill, turns out. Also, do you think it's sacrilegious to take a selfie in front of a picture of the last supper? At least Jesus wasn't in my Selfie I guess.

As I think we all know, I am the most competitive person in the world. THE MOST COMPETITIVE! Unfortunately, Sister Crockett seems to think that SHE is the most competitive person in the world. We have a goal of being able to do a full pull-up before we leave the MTC. So that's where some of our competition comes in, but mostly, we compete about the DI buckets.

Our residence is built like a hotel. And in the social area next to the vending machines, there are the DI buckets and the sharing shelf. Whenever sisters are leaving, they put things they don't want in the DI buckets, and food they don't want on the sharing shelf. At first we thought it was weird, but I get at least one nice thing a week from the DI buckets, and we have an endless supply of candy from the sharing shelf (don't worry Mom, I only get things that are sealed). But you have to get to the buckets before anyone else does. And therein lies the competition. At first it was subtle, just going earlier in the evening than the other person. But now, anytime we go back to the Res, even just to pick up a notebook, both of us BOOK IT to the buckets.

 

We race there at least 5 times a day, including at 6:29 am. That's right. AS SOON AS WE WAKE UP we JUMP out of bed and SPRINT to the buckets. It's nice because it wakes us up, but more important than that is that I always win. Don't listen to Sister Crockett.

In one of the care packages from my mom, I got a little basketball net and little plastic balls, and a tiny catapult. That's the newest thing that we're obsessively competitive about.

It's deceptively hard! I've only ever gotten 3 baskets, but Sister Crockett has only gotten 2 so I'm okay with that.

April Fools day was amazing. We wanted to plan pranks, but we also wanted all of them to be missionary appropriate, so they all just turned out being the lamest pranks ever. 

• We switched out the Hong Kong flag in our classroom to the Macau Flag
• When we got to pick what song to sing, we chose Hymn 276, Come Again to Sunday School
• We put a sticky note on the bottom of the computer mouse so it didn't work
• We purposefully used terrible tones for class. We planned on making it the whole way, but only made it about 30 seconds
• Sister Viazzo made Sister Crockett's bed

The last one actually turned into quite a big deal this week. Sister Crockett was so confused that her bed was made, that we started making her bed everyday. We'd say that we were going to the bathroom, and then go back to the Res and make her bed. Yesterday she finally figured it out, but it was still soooooo funny. #worthit #MTCpranksaren'tactuallyrealpranks #mydadwillbeashamed

During personal study one day, I decided to do family history and I actually found a lot of names to bring to the temple! I found 26 names for sealings to parents, and some names for baptisms that I sent to my family. Part of me is nervous that after I bring the names to the temple my Nana will write me saying I did everything wrong somehow. But for now, I have names to bring to the temple today!

We asked our teacher Jong Hendai if we're his favorite class. He said "every class is different" 

Are we the funniest? 

"every class is different" 

Are we the most distracted? 

"every class is different" 

Do you even like us? 

"every class is different" 

That's his favorite phrase. BUT! Then we asked Lao Ji Muih and she said that we are her funniest class, and her most distracted class! She wouldn't answer if we were her favorite class, but her face said it all. 

The devotional on Tuesday was amazing. The speaker said exactly what everyone in my Zone needed to hear. But the most memorable part about it was that halfway through, somehow a bat got in the room. At first just a few people noticed it flying around, then more and more. After maybe 2 minutes the speaker said "I see I have some competition" at which point the cameras switched from the speaker to following the bat. The speaker then said "Let this be a lesson to you. Sometimes your investigators will be distracted and you have to think of a creative way to get their attention back on you." His way was to begin speaking in French, which was a good enough distraction for an employee to catch the bat.

General Conference was AMAZING!! I won't even pretend my eyeballs were sweaty. Those were straight tears. One of the sisters who left to Taiwan last week left us a challenge. She takes "pretty" notes. She writes as if she was creating a Pinterest masterpiece. She said that she used to take bullet point notes, and she gets so much more from her notes when she takes them this was. So she challenged us to "pretty" notes. I met her half way and took normal notes on one page and pretty notes on the other. I loved it! Some of my favorite talks were given by Elder Arnold, Elder Hallstrom, and of course Elder Holland. When he stood up to talk and said "Do you have any idea....do you have any inkling..." I thought he was going to call us all to repentance. I was so ready too. But then he said "How much we love you" and my heart melted. That was exactly what I needed to hear. 

After Conference and Dinner, we had a special secret devotional. We didn't know who it was till 5 minutes before. Any guesses? It was Vocal Point! The devotional was amazing! They each picked a word and spoke about it for 2 minutes, and then they would sing a song. Their last song was "Nearer My God to Thee" which is my favorite song of theirs (you should all look it up and enjoy it for me since I can't for another year and a half). I realized halfway through the devotional that this is the best music I'll listen to for another year and a half. There's no music in the MTC, and my Hong Kong Mission President only allows Hymns sung by the Mormon Tabernacle choir. Which means that for the next 18 months I'll be listening to myself sing :)  

After such deep rebellion as listening to songs sung by someone outside the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, we went a step farther. Every Sunday we get to watch a movie, and we chose to watch Legacy. The movie was fun, but even better than the movie were everyone's reactions. Imagine a room full of maybe 200 missionaries, who get to watch a movie, which includes 3 whole kisses! The horror! Actually, the hilarity! There was so much cheering anytime two people even looked at each other. And then there were scenes with conversations like

"You're working 2 days in 10. Twice what Brother Joseph asked for us to finish the Temple"

"Yes"

"Eliza and what's his face are waiting till it's done to be sealed together"

"Well maybe I'll slow down to 1 in 10 then"

Watching that movie might be my favorite memory at the MTC. And I haven't even told you the best part! We watched the first 15 minutes in Cantonese!! They forgot to change the settings, and so for the first bit the movie was in Cantonese! It was actually a little bit disappointing because for the first 5 minutes we were debating about what language it was, Japanese or Korean. Then they said "sinji" which means prophet and is one of the words we know best. At first we were so excited!! But then we realized how bad our Cantonese must be if we were debating whether it sounded like Korean or Japanese. But rest assured, if I land in Hong and someone says prophet, I will KNOW that they are speaking Cantonese.

During General Conference, I was thinking about missionary work. I was writing down "Everybody needs my help" because they do. I am an authorized representative of Jesus Christ, and so while not everyone needs Joanna Hugo, everyone needs Sister Hugo. I was going to continue by writing "except Jesus and Heavenly Father, but I will never teach either of them" when I realized that I was wrong. I might not street contact Jesus, but they both need me. It is not Heavenly Father's plan for our Savior to appear to us all at this time, so they need us. They need missionaries (and every member a missionary) to bring about their work. At the second coming every knee will bow and everyone will know that Jesus is the Christ. Part of that is that they will see the prints in his hands. But maybe another part is that everyone will have been taught. I know that sometimes it can be daunting, but the Lord NEEDS US. He needs us to be brave. He needs us to not shrink. He needs us to live in such a way that others come closer to Him by knowing us. He needs us to open our mouths. MY Branch President shared a quote from Brigham Young with us this week. Don't quote me on this, because I'm already quoting someone else quoting someone else, but the essence was "If you preach this gospel with all of your might, the Lord will bless you as if every person who heard you testify of Christ accepted the gospel." 

I love you all so much. I pray about you every night. Which should mean a lot because I give up sleeping time to do it :) You're all so loved. I hope you realize that. I hope I help you realize that.

--

Love

Sister Hugo

Yui Ji Muih

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