Week 106 - The End

Well, this is it, everyone! My last email coming from the HK! The last week has honestly been crazy, and so many great things are happening in our area! To start off yesterday was a great day at church because we got 4 people there! that really just doesn't happen here in Hong Kong. That's the most I have had at church my entire mission! and the greatest part is every single one of them has a lot of potentials as well! They all have a strong desire to grow closer to Jesus Christ, and I know Elder Newbold and his new companion Elder Siddoway will do a great job and take care of these people! 

Another miracle that happened this last week was one of our new investigators this last week named A Wah. So 2 weeks ago there was a couple who came to church out of the middle of nowhere, and we found out the guy (A Wah) was not a member, but they left when the second meeting ended, and I was actually really mad! But then yesterday before church we were told by the bishop that they were coming back, and A Wah said he would have interest in taking the missionary discussions, so we taught him right after church and he's a pretty chill guy! (He eventually got baptized! according to Eunice) Then after that lesson, I found out a member of my ward also got his mission call! His mom is actually good friends with my mom growing up, and she has wanted him to go on a mission for well like 5 years haha, and he got called to Hong Kong! The entire ward was there, and they went nuts, and his reaction was like "Well alright then". I'm pretty excited for him.

This week I have also had to say "goodbye" to a lot of people. It was pretty hard, but yeah it's crazy I'm going home....

The rest of this week we are visiting some members for dinner, and meeting all of our investigators all 1 more time. I've had a lot of fun here in Ma On Shan. I've seen the ward go from absolutely no faith in missionary work, and us with no investigators when I got here to 4 solid high potential people who are willing to come to church, and another 4 who I think someday can also get there when they build their faith, and the ward now is full of energy towards the work, and I don't even need to talk to investigators at church because they are always with a member! 

The last 2 years and 3 weeks have been fun, and I have learned so much, and I guess I will see a lot of people in a couple of days!

Love y'all!

Elder Eveso

Sister Ng, Woo, and Lai from NTK came down to visit me before I left!

My buddy Hughe

I got attacked by the English class students when they found out I was leaving

Nephi got his mission call to the best mission, HK mission!

My buddy/ investigator A Hin

Week 105

This week was another one of those "we didn't do that bad this week" weeks. We were able to find 2 new investigators this week! The one with a lot of potential is named "Betty" so when I stopped her we actually talked for like an hour and she talked a lot about how she felt she needed to start going back to church, but the reason she stopped was because all of them were fake! Then a couple of days later, we were able to share the restoration with her, and when I asked her how she felt, she said "I believe it's true!". It was one of those miracles because we were walking the streets for like 2 hours and hadn't stopped a person, then on the way home, we found her! Then she came to church on Sunday, and it just happened to be a broadcast from Salt Lake specifically for Hong Kong and Taiwan, and she loved it! I'm excited to help her to continue to develop her faith in the restoration! ( I've been home for a little over a year now, but Betty ended up being great! She got baptized a couple of months after I got home and has stayed active since. Every once in a while she will whatsapp me thanking me for finding her on the street!)

Then on Thursday, I had an experience where I was pretty scared for my life! Me and Elder Newbold were street contacting and ran into a super cool kid named Lishawn and the kid was just loving us (we are meeting him tonight for the 1st time!) but after we met with him we didn't want to walk back the same direction, so we kept walking straight and ended up in a pretty sketchy area. So when we turned around we accidentally took a wrong turn, and walked past some older people who I'm pretty sure were drunk. Then they started yelling at us "AYYYY HELLO!!!" because well we were the white people then we saw one get up and start walking towards us and the second we turned a corner we booked it into a full on sprint into the woods! Then we found out it was a dead end, and it was this sketchy "fort like place" I had ever seen with a tarp as a roof and a dog barking at us! so I was ready to smack this guy and run! Well it all turns out they were telling us to get lost and that sketchy place their "home" and they said "look at the signs that's private property" (there were no signs in sight they pointed at a tree)  I still don't 100% believe them but once I was once again out of sight we booked it again! Well that was fun!

So yeah, that was my week love y'all and talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Eveson

Yoshi took us to a cool Korean buffet! He's a legend!

gotta love biking!

Week 104 - 2 Years

Well, it's crazy to say, but I've finally hit my 2 years mark a couple of days ago!! But looking at the bright side I still got 2 weeks left!! This last week was a pretty normal week, but we did get to teach a new person this last week! His name was A Hin and he is a stud! After the 1st lesson we just chilled for another 10 minutes just chatting! You gotta love when you meet those people and just hit it off right away and become buds!

We also finally were able to meet with Athena, the 1 investigator in the area, when I showed up! So she's back! we are teaching her again tonight, so hopefully, we can get some of that interest that she once had back!

Other than that, it was the normal talking to people on the streets, talking to as many people as I can! It's honestly such a blessing to be serving my mission in Hong Kong and being able to speak Cantonese as well!!

Well love everyone and talk to you next week!

Elder Eveson

We went to Ferris Wheel

Cheung Chou

Cheung Chou

Cheung Chou

Cheung Chou

Week 103 - The Prophet came to Hong Kong

This last week was a blast! Last Tuesday we had the chance to go to the temple, and the second I walked into the session someone waved me down and it's a friend of my grandma! Then less than 2 minutes later, of course, my grandma walked in haha! It was pretty funny! We had a good chat, then after the session, we talked for a couple of minutes outside the temple! It's crazy how many times I've run into on the streets here in Hong Kong.

Then last Saturday there was a special member devotional with President Nelson and Elder Holland! It was held at the convention center in Wan Chai and it was the largest gathering of saints ever in Hong Kong! Elder Holland talked about Liberty Jail being a "prison temple" and how our hardest challenges in life is when we can receive the most revelation for our self. President Nelson talked about a lot of things, like his trip to Jerusalem, us being children of God, the importance of temple attendance and some experiences the last couple of months. He also apologized to all the missionaries he was too busy to meet with us, so he had all of us to stand up and gave a "air handshake" to him. It was super good.  You could just see how much he loves the members around the world! I also got to see a lot of members from previous wards as well!

It's crazy to think in 4 days I will hit 2 years! Time really does fly by fast. Luckily I still got 3 weeks left here in Hong Kong and I gotta make them count! Well love you all and talk to you next week!

Elder Eveson

cool avengers setup in the mall in Kowloon Tong!

my popo and her friends

our district

one of my favorite families from the Tuen Mun days!

Week 102 - Moving (apartments)

Hello! Another good week in the HK! This last week was honestly a little hectic. It started with Tuesday we had to move apartments. We moved from Ma On Shan to Tai Wai into the largest apartment in the mission! It's pretty nice, and we finally have roommates again! We now live with the Tai Wai and Sha Tin Elders, and it's honestly a blast! I missed living in 6 man aparmtents! It also helps when it's some of your good buddies from your last zone, and never get to have the chance to just talk with them!

Then on Thursday, we had Zone Conference and we watched the 2016 missionary broadcast. It was honestly a good reminder for me and alot of the mission of what our purpose is as missionaries, and how we can improve what we can do to help people become converted to the gospel. I also got to see some good friends that i haven't seen in a really long time!

Other than that it was kind of adjusting to a new apartment, and honeslty trying to figure out time schedule because we now live 30 minutes out of our area, and this is the 1st time I haven't been able to walk out the door and go street contacting, but ehhh I've gotten used to it now.

love yall!

Elder Eveson

The Lee Family

Week 101

Another great week we had here in the HK! Actually to be 100% honest not a whole lot happened. We did, however, did get a new investigator this week! His name is Xengxus (pronounced census) you gotta love Chinese people and their weird names! but anyways this story goes back 3 months ago to my like 3rd day in Ma On Shan. I met him on the street and taught a full like 30 minutes restoration to him, but he refused to give me his number. 2.5 months pass along and I run into him on the street again and he uses the normal "I lost the flier" excuse and asks for our number again haha. So I type it in his phone and pressed call haha! He had a mini panic attack because 1 we now had his number, and 2 our number was already saved in his phone haha! Anyways he actually answered the phone, met with us and came to the conference yesterday! I still don't really know how much interest the guy has, but it is still a good story, right? Anyways we will keep trying to work with him! (We met a couple more times but he had no interest. Just wanted to hangout or something.)

Then another thing pretty funny that happened yesterday as we were out finding on the boardwalk in our area and who do we run into? We ran into our investigator Sammi and it was super awkward but she tried to help us street contact. No success but it was pretty funny!

Then yesterday we had the chance to watch General Conference. It was a super cool experience to sustain President Nelson as the Prophet and the spirit was felt so strong in the room of missionaries watching it! I know President Nelson is called of God!

love yall for all the love and support!

Elder Eveson

Weekly Planning

District Photo

we were taking a funny photo then i tripped...

funny photo

My boy, Miles

Week 100 - Happy Easter

Another great week in the HK! Honestly, not a whole a lot happened this week. It was the same old same old, but anyways we were able to finally meet with a guy I've been trying to schedule since my 1st week in Ma On Shan. We call him "Master Jeung" I don't know why, but that's what a member told us to call him. He was a pretty interesting guy and really likes our church, but man he got into some deep doctrine haha. Luckily, my good friend Elder Newbold knows this stuff and was able to answer the questions haha. Anyways, we might meet with him again? (Never did)

We also got to visit a couple of members this week as well! I guess that's one of the positives of serving here because the members love to feed the missionaries, and to my surprise, I've actually lost weight here! The investigators are doing good, so real change to their status.

Since it's easter right now back home I would share my testimony of Jesus Christ. In Sunday school yesterday my good friend Miles Yip asked a question "What blessings come from the atonement of Jesus Christ?" and as I was thinking the word that came into my head was "Hope" sadly a member said that before I could but it's so true! Because of Jesus Christ, We have hope! Because of his atonement, no matter who we were before, we can become clean and can become a new person! What a blessing that is to the entire world! Also because of His sacrifice, we all will be resurrected, so I know I will see my family again no matter what happens in this life! I am so grateful for Jesus Christ.  I can end with a line from one of my favorite hymns it says "oh it is wonderful that he should care for me, enough to die for me. oh it is wonderful, wonderful to me!"

love yall!

Elder Eveson

we visited the Yuens this last week with our investigator Sammi!

We saw this outside our apartment window

Wild Fire in our area

Mango favored Fanta

Week 99 - 23 months

Well tomorrow will mark 23 months since I got  on a plane and flew off to the Provo MTC! It's crazy of how fast the time goes by here! I honestly learned so much over the last 2 years, and honestly the sacrifice of time is worth it! Not alot of cool things to share about this week other than we were able to visit some members this week and were also able to have an investigator tag along with us as well! Also this last week we also had interviews with President Lam, so for some crazy reason he said I had 本玴 (native) chinese and I kind of told him to stop lying and get to the interview haha. We talked alot about Elder Stevensen visiting us and what we learned and how it has helped applying his teaching over the last week or so, and it was great just to sit down and talk with him!

Honestly that's the only real cool thing to happen this week. Today we are getting the original Trio back together (me, Elder Earls, and Elder Cobabe) for lunch with a member today in TST so it should be alot of fun!

love yall!

Elder Eveson

Week 98 - You are 3 sum?? I can't use you!

Those were the wise words we heard from Elder Stevensen last week! Last Monday we had a chance to have a special meeting with Elder Stevensen, and it was a great 2.5 hours we had! We got to hear some testimonies from everyone that was traveling with him, then he gave a training to us missionaries about keeping commitments and how we can become better teachers through helping our investigators keep their commitments! It was a great day, and spiritual experience and also it was great to see some good mission buddies that I don't get to see very often!

So a couple of funny/cool experiences this last week! I forgot to mention this last week but I was on the bus coming home when someone calls and our phone doesn't recognize the number. I answer it at it turns out to be a member who is probably in her 60's or so and I ask "why do you have a new phone number?" then she went on to say she found a 15 yr old boy playing basketball and was smoking and she went over to him chastised him a little bit then told him she had friends that could fix his life! She passed the phone to him, and he was a little weirded out on the phone and we never met with him but its a pretty funny story!

Wednesday was the McDonald "Pie Day!" and pies were half price and they had a new 1 day flavor and it was sooooo good!! Then Friday I went down to Tai Po on exchanges with my good buddy Elder Paulsin and actually most of the day turned out to be helping the sisters missionaries move apartments, but we got to teach a lesson together, and did some basketball finding! (He's a straight baller), but man we got roasted by this group of kids even with a total of like 20 3's between us and some members playing with us we still lost 3 straight games... but it was cool because we had 1 non member on our team that loved us and could become a future investigator, and some of the other kids recognized us as the "guys in suits" that walk on the street! so honestly I think it was a success and the Tai Po Elders have solid potential in some of these kids!

Then Sunday was a lot like last week the ward took our investigator in and Sami once again was well fellowshipped. I talked to her once all Sunday, so that's great!

That was my week love yall!

Elder Eveson

Mission Conference with my old companions

Mission Conference

Trio

Pie Day

Week 97

Another good week in the HK. Sorry I don't have alot of time left but we had a good week. The highlight was we got a new investigator!!! Apparently those are hard to come by in Ma On Shan but we are turning that around! We found her along the board walk in our area and when we officially met her and taught a lesson she said she saw us get rejected by like 5 straight people and decided to stop! She was super accepting of the restoration and came to church the next day! Funny thing was when I talked to her on the phone to schedule she said before 5 because she had to go to her own church, but after the lesson I asked her where she was going and she said "home"!  She also really enjoyed church, and I have never seen a ward welcome someone as much as they did yesterday. It really was a miracle and all of a sudden the ward has some energy towards missionary work again!! Her name is Sammi by the way if anyone was wondering.

Then today we have the chance to meet an apostle of God! Elder stevensen is visiting the mission today, so super excited!

love yall!!

Elder Eveson

Tai Mei Tuk where we went on PDay 

Rafael a LA his dad makes some good food!

Week 96 - Tolo 57

Another great week down in the Hong Kong! The zone is super pumped for the new zone #Tolo57! It's our goal for new investigators for the month of March! Something we realized last month was that if we don't reach our goals for the month, are we really stretching and doing everything on our part to achieve our goals? This was a big discussion between the entire zone when we had a Zone Meeting to make our zones' February goals. We of course had a long discussion on the the topic of faith to find. This has been a big talk all around the mission, and the great thing is since we have started this theme across the mission, the number of new investigators in Hong Kong has slowly raised about 2 each month since October, so it's super cool to see just what can happen when you have faith to find! We already designed to Tolo Harbor Zone T Shirts to continue to pump up the zone, so its gonna be a lot of fun!

An experience of faith to find actually happened this last week. We had been on the streets for a couple of hours and hadn't gotten a single number all day. Then right before we decided to go home we got a number from some mandarin guy and we didn't understand a word he said, but it sparked some faith and in total we got 3 numbers in 10 minutes! It's great to see just if we have more faith things really can happen. We had the chance to meet one of those new people yesterday named Mr Fan and he actually wants to build a relationship with Jesus Christ! (I don't think he ever got baptized, but he was always really nice and had real interest.)

Also there are some big things happening in Hong Kong!!! Next week we are getting a visit from Elder Stevensen of the 12!!! Then next month we are getting a visit from the Prophet President Nelson and Elder Holland!!! The next month is gonna be so much fun!!

Love ya all

Elder Eveson

彥長老

                                    

Week 95 - The Trio

So not a lot of time left but a couple of cool/ weird experiences this last week. So right now i'm in a trio with Elder Dickens and Newbold, both of which are taller than me, so now we are by far the tallest companionship in the mission. Our first day together we were on the streets finding and while walking past 2 high school aged girls I said "Hello" in Chinese that's all and one lost her mind she started screaming and sprinted away like a maniac and her friend was just standing there shaking her head as if to say "I'm sorry" haha.

Then another crazy thing happened. So there is this really sketchy guy I taught 2 times and decided to never meet him again. Well anyways he callled us like 100 times and every time we said wrong number and he would get super mad! Then he ran into us teaching a lesson in the park and man I got chastised so hard he gave me the death stare and all and did a little evil laugh as he walked away. I have never been so scared in my life!

I totally forgot to mention we had Zone conference last week and had a long discussion on the atonement and then a senior couple gave a training on how if you look at the Chinese character for gospel words they have gospel meaning in it! It was super cool!

Sorry I'm low on time but love yall!

Elder Eveson

Ma On Shan

Hiking Ma On Shan Mountain

Leung Family

Week 94 - 17 hours of Deep Cleaning

Well this was another really interesting week. So this last week was Chinese New Years, which pretty much means everyone is busy and goes to mainland, so it was pretty slow. Also this last week I was in a trio with Elder Riley and Dickens. Ummm last Monday for p day was the missions yearly deep clean. So usually it takes everyone just 1 day to clean the entire apartment but it took us a total of 6 days total of  17 hours to clean the place haha. I'm just glad its finally done!

Also we got moves calls this last week and the entire mission had just massive changes. It was pretty funny when we got the call from the Assistants they said "Are you ready this is gonna be a wild one" so Elder Riley is going to move back to his baby area and I will still be in a trio with Elder Dickens and Newbold now. The funniest thing to happen was a Mandarin sister missionary who just picked up Cantonese while here is completely shifting to Cantonese work now haha. I am also no longer the Zone Leader just a District Leader now haha.

We still were able to visit some members, did a lot of finding but this week was pretty slow...'

love you all and hope to hear from you next week!

Elder Eveson

Ma On Shan at night

We decided to pay for Yoshi's meal for once!

Week 93 - Goal for 2018

Another good week in the books here in Hong Kong!  The work is kind of slow right now, but the big news is my companion Elder  Davis actually left this morning for the airport. He was reassigned to a mission in Atlanta, so right now I am in a trio with Elder Riley and Dickens right now in Ma On Shan until the rest of the transfer. Ummm as for the week we had MLC this last Wednesday and it was super good and spiritual. The topic was on the atonement of Jesus Christ and it was amazing and the spirit was felt so strong during the meeting. We also set our mission goal for the 2018 year for baptisms. The goal last year was 242 and we got 192 last year. This year the goal is 400 and we discussed a lot about faith when talking about that number. The entire missionary leadership council were all 100% on board and when we took it back to our zones they were all 100% committed to the number! So I'm excited to see what can happen in Hong Kong in the next couple of years when in comes to doing the Lord's work!

We also had the chance to visit a lot of members this week too. It was especially good because me and Elder Riley are still getting to know the ward and area and we got a lot of support from the members as well. Also when we brought up the number in ward council they were like that's a little high and we pretty much told them they need more faith haha. So this was a good week. The next week will be a little interesting but also fun at the same time. 

Now of to deep clean our apartment!

love y'all! 

Elder Eveson

 Big Buddha

Ng Family

Lam Family

Yip Family

Week 92 - Temple Day

Well the highlight of this week was we got to go to the temple! It was a lot of fun to be able to go there every other transfer! Then after the temple we went to eat some of my favorite food KBQ!!! Then on Wednesday we were also able to meet with a new person as well and are hoping to build up a teaching pool here in Ma On Shan.

This week we also had the chance to visit some more members and get to know them, and I really like this ward! The members are great and are super willing to help with missionary work.  So as missionaries we just need to give them a reason to help us. That's something we as missionaries have been focusing on the last couple of weeks is showing the ward we are here to work not to have fun but to work. That's a problem that has been in this ward for a while now, so hopefully we can get Ma On Shan back on its feet.

On Saturday we also had a cool experience we got a call from a member to help out at her grandsons birthday party. They live in like one of the nicest places in our area called Lake Silver and the parents are non members and we had the chance to just help them set up and we were gone before the party was even started. This is a part member family that the ward wants us to work with and I think that was a cool opportunity!

I'm excited for this next coming week and to see what we can do!

love yall!

Elder Eveson

Zone Selfie

me and Elder Davis at the temple

District Selfie

Yoshi the man!