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.
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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

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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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