"Stephen is Awesome" - so says his mom

1/28/10
Hello family,

I am doing pretty well. Me and my companion did the impossible, we found a new investigator on our very own, she brought her almost eight year old son with her to English class. The boy, named Benson wants to come to English class next week as well. He is a genius and says that his favorite subject is math. However his least favorite subject is English. We found them when I noticed them struggling through his English homework together. I offered to help them after a whole lot of encouragement by my companion. We gave them a Book of Mormon after English class. To be honest, I feel it is very likely that they will both get baptized. That is the way with our Mandarin English class, about a 90% baptizing rate - if they come.

I am just actually a really shy person when it comes to talking to strangers and adults. I like children much better. They are just so receptive and patient, and it’s okay to make faces at them and tell them that you can run faster than them. I hope to be able to over come my fear that I have been developing for the past few years.

I brought my camera, but the USB cord that I brought was the wrong one. I like the recipes, actually Gyoza, or Jiao zi in Mandarin, is probably my favorite Chinese food now. We just went to a members house who just got back from the mainland and seriously ate probably like a hundred that she made. I am totally going to learn at New Years or Valentines activity that our branch will put on.

I got a letter back from Daoqi Zhanglao (Elder Dodge). He said that his Cantonese is slowly improving. Man! I thought I could like brag about how I learned too languages or something on my mission and he just got to brush up on one that he already knew. Oh well, we are going to tour the world together after the mission though. I can't wait to have conversations with him in Chinese.

I am improving really slowly. Probably at my own pace. I am satisfied, but I’m sure that if I improved at the level that the Lord knows that I can, I would have been as powerful as I am now back in the MTC. I am definitely not saying that I am powerful or anything, but I bet my language could be pretty good if I had worked my hardest the entire time. I probably would have really good social skills too.

I still don't really have any crazy miracles or super hilarious stories that have happened yet. This makes it really hard for me to write a journal.

Maybe this was the longest letter I have ever written. It sure feels like it. I have learned about families on my mission, I really love you guys. I am really blessed to have a powerful family. I can't wait to have all the nieces and nephews become endeared to me. I have decided that I will probably adopt a Chinese girl when I get home. My reasons are that one, adopting a girl makes you feel better than if you adopt a boy because they don't like them up there in mainland and two, they are a couple thousand dollars cheaper. Its a win win situation. I have also learned the value of women on my mission. Here in Hong Kong there is so much pornography and prostitution and as a Mandarin a large portion of all of our investigators and branch members are single mothers who were mistreated by some dirt-bag. It makes me sick, I’m glad that I know that women are daughters of God. Also basically all of our turnovers and new investigators are given to us by sister missionaries. I also really like the “please mind the gap” talk by that one single sister during conference, it hit me because we have that at our subways too. They also say queue up, and rubbish bin and chips instead of fries. Britain really jacked this place up.

I love you, Hua Zhanglao