Week 26 - 6 months

Well in 3 days it will mark 6 months, and it's so hard to believe!! I can perfectly remember hopping on a plane at 6am heading to the MTC. it's crazy, but not as crazy as this week has been. Last Monday we had a supper good lunch at KBQ (Korean BBQ) in Mongkok and went with like 8 other missionaries, then right after I finally bought my new suit, now just gotta wait another month before I can get it. This week was super packed with activities and a typhoon, so very few lessons were taught, but those numbers will rise next week I promise, and I can explain how awesome they were!

Mongkok, Real HK city

My favorite part of the week was we had Mission Tour where Elder Wong of the Seventy came and game us a training for most of the day. You remember like 2 years ago when General Conference talks were allowed to be spoken in the speakers first language? Well he was the first person to do it in Cantonese and he made sure to remind us about it. He also loved blasting President Lam about him going to a super good expensive school and becoming super rich, and he also made fun of Elder Earls and called him an animal that escaped from the San Diego Zoo haha.  General Authority's with a sense of humor gotta love that. My favorite thing he shared with us was us missionaries are the exact same as the stones that the brother of Jared used to cross the ocean. There were 2 in each barge and they were touched by the hand of God to give them light. He said "you missionaries have been touched by the hand of God when you went through the temple, and now you are the light in the darkness to bring these people to the promised land" that just really hit me, and helped me to even better realize my purpose is as a missionary. It was a great experience. I know it won't be the last time he will meet with us. (He kind of lives like 20 minutes from Mission headquarters in Kowloon)

Then Friday, well lets just say it was a wasted day. There was a typhoon and we were stuck inside almost all day. Nothing happened in my area, but some places had bad flooding and cars were being moved. So yeah we did some weekly planning and you can only do that for so long, so we also played some card games, so it was pretty much a wasted day because most people won't even schedule you for next week because they are afraid they'll die haha. 

Korean BBQ

So yeah that was my week

Love ya all!!

Elder Eveson

Korean BBQ in PDay

Week 25 - Zone Training

Another great week here in the China Hong Kong Mission. Not alot to report on this week, other than we had a boss Zone training, where we talked about getting referrals for 3 hours. We even had a NCAA tournament bracket made for different ways to ask for referrals. We had to go back and forth asking "Do you know anyone" questions, and if you couldn't think of one you were out. Elder Cornilles from Tualatin Oregon took the championships. Yeah I lost in the second round.

Right after Zone Training we went to Tin Shui Wai which is like 2 wards over from mine, and taught someone who totally called us from a flier we gave them. First time that's ever happened for any missionary, but anyways it was a great lesson and she kept saying "God totally arranged this!!!" We also taught her son, and he also seemed super interested. His eyes were glued on whoever was speaking the entire time, and it was awesome. So powerful. (But Sadly when the missionaries in the area tried to contact them it turned out her son got super antied and passed it to his mom.)

Zone Picture

The only other significant event to happen this week was on Saturday I went on exchanges with Elder Stratford, one of my Zone leaders in Yuen Long and he's a Mandarin missionary. We taught a couple of lessons, and I had no idea what was happening, the only thing I was able to do was bear my testimony at the end. I did learn a lot from him though, and while on the trains going back and forth if someone didn't know Mandarin it went straight to me, which is like the first times that's happened to me, but it was a lot of fun.

The rest of the week, we met with some recent converts, and we met with our RC Jacky for the first time in a month because he is at school, and its a lot of fun teaching him. We get some laughs in, but also he teaches himself a lot which is great.

So that's my report on  the week, now I'm off. I need to get myself a new suit!!

Love you all

Elder Eveson

The Bracket

Distracted Weekly Planning

Week 24 - A Missionary's "Super Bowl Weekend"

Nothing really special happened this week other than Conference, and it was awesome!! I guess the coolest thing was we met a guy on the street named Shawn, who is from Nigeria, and he had 2 young kids who were black and obviously preferred Chinese over English. Actually now that I think of it they may only know a little English, but they were the coolest little kids, but anyways Shawn seemed super interested!! He even asked us for our phone number and we have been in contact with him, so we are super excited to teach him, or see how he does if we hand him over to some of the English missionaries.

Chelsea and Munich Bayern in Central
(If you know soccer, you will know them)

Talking about conference, we, missionaries call it the Superbowl weekend for missionaries!! I loved how the priesthood session started off. Elder Holland started by blessing the Priesthood holders about home teaching, and we missionaries just started dying because Elder Holland was also talking to us, but the talks that stood out to me the most was Elder Stevenson on the Saturday afternoon session. I loved his challenge to give up some of your TV/ phone time and read the Book of Mormon. He said if you can give 10 minutes to reading it, it could make a big difference in your life, and ain't that the truth!! I also love Elder Rasband's talk to end the Conference. If any of you are struggling with your testimony GO READ HIS TALK!!! I promise it will help!!

There isn't really anything out of the ordinary to report this week. No super spiritual lessons, just spiritual. English Class is becoming really good. When I got here we averaged 5 or 6 people at a class, but the last 2 weeks its been like 18-20 people, and there are regulars that have been coming for months, who are just now starting to meet with the missionaries. Its awesome!!

Today we had a ward activity and we just got back from Central. We went to a old church chapel that was turned into a Museum, and before it was a chapel. It was owned by a super rich guy. so yeah they had church in a mansion before! We also went around to some of the historical sites around there it was pretty fun.

So that was my week!! Shout out to my buddy Elder Loftus who I saw in the MTC choir that sang in Conference!!

Love you all

Elder Eveson

Us and Sister Yeung

Central, Hong Kong

My new friend at church

Week 23 - Trainee No More!

Very little to report this week. I just hit my 5 month mark last week, and it's crazy that I've already been out this long. Last monday we went to Ikea and had some very good food. Elder Oquist is from Sweeden  and he loved it there. So almost everything here in Hong Kong are both translated into Chinese and English, but there they had a 3rd language Sweedish, and he was freaking out!! We had some good meatballs, and we dropped some good money of food there.

Wednesday at Crossroads (a charity where Elder Jensen and I volunteer every Wednesday) was alot of fun. The rooms there have been having leaks, so one of the people in charge of fixing it was like "I know tar works, so I'm trying to convince my boss to buy more tar for this problem". So me and Elder Jensen spent a couple of hours on a room tarring the roof. It was fun and got some tar all over my legs and some on my fingers. That wasn't fun getting off, but the rest was actually fun, a lot better than weeding, that is for sure! After that, we had a zone find out in a new complex in HSK, We scheduled to be finding for 2 hours, but we spent over a hour talking to a very interesting man, and by we I mean Elder Jensen because the guy went on a 30 minute rant, and my brain can't process Chinese that long, so I got the beginning, but slowly zoned out. So there is something I could improve on. We then went on to ask him if he had any friends who might want to hear about the gospel, and he took us into the nearby shop and started introducing us to random people there haha! Most of them said they didn't even know who he was and told him to get lost!

Yeah we taught  some lessons, got Sister Tsang to a baptismal date!! Now we just need to help resolve her concerns. She loves meeting with us, and loves sharing about what she reads in the Book of Mormon, now we just need to help her stop smoking which we know she can do!

So that was pretty much my week. today we are meeting up with Elder Jensen's trainer and going to a the largest dirty mall in Hong Kong, and apparently they have dirt cheap gummy candies over there!

oh I totally forgot this week I finished training so I am no longer a trainee!!!

Love ya all

Elder Eveson

The epic walk in the ghetos of Hong Kong