1/6/10 and 1/13/10 "A Two for One"

1/6/09

I apologize for not writing last week, actually I did but I recently had to change my email as some sort of church procedure so I sent your email not too my mom.

I am excited for all the baptisms, although I think I’m winning the numbers game over here.

I brought my camera but I didn't bring the cord to attach to the computer, plus I don't have very many photos anyways.

We are having a mandarin zone chess tournament today, I will win. I think maybe my mandarin is improving. I am definitely getting better at making friends with people I have never seen before. Many people read my "Wo hui Putonghua" badge and start conversations because they think its hilarious or probably impossible that I can speak mandarin. I pretty much can't speak mandarin, but I can fake it and people think that I’m a genius if I don't try to say too many things.

Chinese New Years is on Valentines Day.

Funny names: I can't think of very many, Im pretty sure I already told you Coco, Angel, Candy and Ocean right?

A typical day is like wake up and eat, exercise somewhat, shower, study for forever, get dressed eat again and then go to appointments and do some finding when there are no appointments. I have heard that no Mandarin has ever "found" a person that became a progressing investigator who got baptized. There are plenty of referrals from Cantonese missionaries that turn into baptisms though.

I feel my Savior's love every day. I planted the seed and it grew, it is beginning to be delicious unto me. I am so glad that this life has a purpose and meaning and that I was fortunate enough to get to know that my whole life.

I love you guys and hope that this letter was okay even without any interesting photos.

Hua Zhanglao (Elder Wall)


1/13/10
I feel just like Daniel. I can't keep up good habits for more than three days. Any sort of new years resolution that I attempted was definitely killed by the first week of the year. I don't exercise very regularly, study consistently or bring my camera around or write in my journal. You know that I have been this way all my life. I thought that somehow the mission would automatically do that for me. But no, God still gives me the gift of agency everyday.

I am happy for dad, I brag about him all the time. My mother can definitely learn Spanish. After my mission I think I might pick it up in a day or two.

I threw up this morning, then I went to the temple. I think it was food poisoning. I like to see my temple. I might get a picture of it someday.

I just wonder why the Lord wants to send in four more mandarin missionaries so soon. All of our experience and natives who can also speak Cantonese are probably toast and are going to canto work. I secretly hope to go to the international zone when the new ones come. I can mess my English up really well over there (not to mention my Mandarin). If not, I could be training pretty soon.

All I know is that I need to do my best, or at least strain myself and put forth a bigger effort. I love missionary work and love my mission.

I am so upset that I miss all the babies. I am starting to appreciate them a lot more. Elderly people too. I recently helped an old lady walk around and she sang like three songs in Mandarin to me, the old lady also spoke Russian which was way tight. She is sister Zhang, we probably can't baptize her though because her hip prevents her from going to church. We also have an investigator who is going to get baptized in march, she has a really cute daughter who is really shy and only really opens up around me. The daughter is three and a half and talks half mandarin and half Cantonese (all of our primary is that way). In fact our branch president's two year old son speaks Japanese all the time with his mom and speaks mandarin to the members but his best language is English. Musashi is a genius.

I didn't see any picture of Thomas.

I love you guys,

Hua Zhanglao (Elder Wall)

Adorable Chinese Children

I asked Stephen, who drew his name for Christmas and what he got. He didn't say who he got and what he bought that person. I also closed telling him that I pray for him everyday and often pray that he will marry in the temple and raise righteous children etc, etc, etc.

Here is his response:

I got Elder Elia's (a senior missionary who checks our apartments) chopsticks. He thought it was a great gift and will probably remember me for the rest of my mission. He is a pretty humorous man from Hawaii - just like the previous senior couple was. I like his wife too.

I wish that you didn't write me about finding a wife and having babies. My kidnapping list is growing bigger everyday you know. Pretty much a whole lot of our investigators and less actives and home teaching people have adorable children who all know that I was Santa. I can't wait to grow up, geez mom get me all trunky.

I thought I had answered all of your questions. I really wish that I could write home super righteous things home to you guys like Elder Dodge does with his family. I think I might write him back today as well as a few other people. There are a lot of people that come through Hong Kong who also live in Vancouver, in fact I have also met some people going to Vancouver on their missions speaking Mandarin.

I am growing spiritually too. I feel the Spirit and enjoy my companion. I love scriptures and want to read the Bible in Chinese even though that's probably not the best use of my time. In the back of my copy there is a plan that tells you what to read every day in order to read the bible in one whole year and it is a huge temptation to make finishing the Chinese Bible a new year's resolution.

Today I am going to a really expensive buffet.

I love you all

Hua Zhanglao (Elder Wall)

Christmas Package Arrived!

Merry Christmas.

I forgot to bring my camera. I will definately get pictures of me as Santa with little chinese kids around me. I pretty much think that our branch's primary is the cutest in the whole entire world. They are also the most talented and naughty in the world.

Thanks for the package. I really liked all the treats and everybody was so jealous and wanted to help me eat them. I have gotten more generous.

I like all my companions that I have had. In fact, today I sat by all of them together. I realised that they are all Chinese. I like them all. I didn't bring my camera or I would have gotten a picture of them all together. Refresher: Elder Lee from Malaysia, Elder Bendall from Maryland and Elder Ngai from Canada (Calgary). An interesting fact for you all: My MTC companion, Elder Stewart, is on his mission in Calgary in the very same branch that Elder Ngai's dad is serving as branch president.

I want to come back and live in Hong Kong and attend the Victoria 3rd branch (my Mandarin second family). I have a secret desire to be a counselor(if that's how you spell it).

I also want to be mission President in Hei Long Jiang. Did I tell you this fantasy already?

I really need to write people snail mail letters, but I am so lazy. Jessica Li is coming to Hong Kong one day for her aunt's wedding in the temple. I still haven't written Daoqi Zhanglao back (Elder Dodge). I probably need to write Sonia back too (that Peruvian girl who played trumpet).

My companion's aunts and uncles and grandparents live in Hong Kong, so I get to hang there on Christmas. The only problem is that I think I might not earn their love because I can't do Cantonese and I'm a large white man.

Expect a call around seven pm on Christmas Eve. Thanks for providing that number. I remember how the MTC only had the Provo number and so when I got to Taiwan I could only remember Dad's cell phone and basically I just talked with dad only.

I don't really know what to say, but I get to call you so that will be make up for this bogus email that took an hour to write.

I love my mission.

Love,

Hua Zhanglao

Two Letters at Once 12/7/09

Date: Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:12:49 +0000
Subject:
Hello family,

I am gaining much experience and I am progressing. I had almost lost my wallet once this week and thought that I had lost it today. Turns out it was in my backpack.

To Laura: Congratulations! Thanks for writing me. I actually am fat. Chinese people are allowed to point this out. It actually is funny. Pretty soon I will inevitably get skinny and then not be funny anymore. I am the fattest missionary in the mission.

I see Elder Kershisnik about twice a week. This week we had companionship exchanges and I got to be with him. We went finding. We contacted this one guy together. We asked him why his church doesn't have prophets, but the church in the bible had them. He thought that was a really good question. We pretty much blew his mind. He started walking away and turned around to assure us that his mind had been blown. Then I threw in stuff about children not needing baptism. He was pretty stunned. I wish I could explain how incredibly flabbergasted he was. Kershisnik's Mandarin thrashes.

I am still terrified about when I become a senior companion. I will train pretty soon too. We have a mandarin coming in January and four in march. This is actually way too many mandarins. I think president Chan wants ten max. My second move there was only eight. When there is fifteen mandarins for almost a year straight I don't know what exactly will happen. I assume all of the experienced Mandarins and Hong Kong natives with mandarin calls will get sent to Cantonese or English work. Then I will have to train and probably die. I actually wish I could get sent to do international work and convert a lot of Philipinas and Thai ladies who are nannys. I don't want to be in a zone full of a whole lot of white guys who just barely arrived in Hong Kong who only "speak" Mandarin.

I am definitely having the time of my life. I am slowly improving my testimony and confidence in myself. I don't know about my language improvement thought. My English is definitely digressing (it took me like five minutes to recall that word). I guess I can say its because Chinese is replacing it.

Hong Kong has pretty much every kind of place you can imagine to purchase things. Seven eleven and circle K are here. They also have supermarkets and street markets. There are many Chinese medicine places. Turtle shells and antlers evidently have medicinal properties.

I will probably answer other questions once I have better experiences to answer them.

I love you all,


Hua Zhanglao (Elder Wall)

Letter that was sent to someone else:

I just moved to Mong Kok today. I am the zone leader minion. That means that Elder Ngai is my companion and that he is mandarin zone leader. He is from Canada and plays hockey. I like him. I just have to go on exchanges every time he has a zone leader meeting. I'm not invited. All the other zone leaders are in zone leader companionships. I told him that I am his flying monkey. His parents are both Hong Kong people. His mandarin is better than his Cantonese though.

Mong Kok is an immoral place. There are many pink lights (Chinese version of red light) everywhere. There is pretty good shopping for Chinese merchandise on lady street. My apartment has six people all of whom I am pretty familiar. I like them. There are a lot less roaches here than in Kwai Fong.

I will send more photos next time. Actually I didn't take a single picture last moves. I basically went on a strenuous hike to the top of lions rock and then realized I didn't bring my camera to take a picture of the view of all of Hong Kong.

I think I might not be scared of talking to random people anymore, whether on the train or on the phone. I have more confidence now. Elder Bendall really helped me. We did have our differences though.

I just really wish that that package had Maris yahoo in it; that was probably my only Christmas wish. Its cool though. Thanks for all the love and support. Sorry that my emails sometimes aren't emailed correctly. I think that my drivers license might be from when I lost my wallet and the lucky person who got all my money decided to mail my license out of mercy or something. I had a spare because I anticipated losing my wallet. I will never use it though; mandarins don't go AP anymore (APs drive cars).

I love my mission. I love you guys.

Elder Wall

Hua Zhanglao.

The Lost Email from Nov 12 is Revealed - compare to the recreated version

My apartment is really small and has roaches. The view is great. Nobody uses bikes in this mission. Only the office elders and APs use cars. I haven't noticed any new talents that will aid in missionary work. My companion is Elder Bendall. Transfers are every six weeks and this transfer has about four more weeks. Unfortunately, Chinese girls are attractive, but my companion is helping me not to become a "Larry" when I get back home. Elder Dodge or Daoqi Zhanglao said happy birthday/encouraging things. I am planning on writing him today.

Madagascar! all right! My favorite manager at the MTC cafeteria was from Madagascar. His name escapes me but I bet he is still there and Kevin should practice Malagasy and French with him when he goes to the MTC. it bugs me that I forgot his name. There are a lot of Indonesians here in Hong Kong if that means anything.

For Christmas I want the Maris Yahoo (however you spell his name) CD. I know dad knows who the Jew who does reggae is. I am dying from all the Mo tab. Maybe send me Christian heavy metal or rap as well. I think I might be able to find that in Hong Kong though.

By the way, speaking of probably inappropriate requests. I think that my mother shouldn't have asked Seely to give me a picture [mother was only doing what her son asked her to]. I feel really awkward about that. Her picture was nice though. I don't think I will print it off, but maybe I will. I think worshiping idols is against one of the 10 commandments. Why do the letters that I send take so long?

I really miss Grandma Wall. Sometimes I get really afraid to do something bad because I swear grandma is watching me. Isn't the spirit world on earth? I don't know. I should probably be more afraid that God is certainly watching me.

My language is progressing I think. I am just frustrated a little because I am certain dad's Mandarin is still better than mine. Why couldn't I have a little more genes from him and a lot less genes from Grandpa Blanchard?

I like hearing about the family. I really like hearing about James pupating. How tall is that guy? How big is his mustache? Is he gonna get fat like me? Everybody tells me I'm going to get skinny and they tell me all the examples of previous missionaries who went home completely different. I just haven't seen any before and after pictures or heard testimonials. There is another Mandarin right now who was supposedly (that's not how you spell it) just as fat as me. but he denies ever losing any weight. I can't wait to be his companion and learn his secrets.

I love you all,

hua zhanglao

Old Man Christmas

Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 8:14 PM

Dear Family,

I am so excited about baby Ezra. I like that name. I also like how Gideon at 16 months can talk and tease his dad. Levi must talk now. Mikey must be in full sentences. How is Jordan's speech? Pretty much perfect by now huh?

I just wonder how I sound to Chinese people when I speak their language. I bet its pretty funny. I just about die every time I hear one of them speak English.

The ward decided that I am going to be "Shengdanjie lao gong gong" (a vocab word that I thought I would never use but still learned anyway). Which basically means that Santa isn't real and that I have to be the impostor who goes around claiming to be him.

I liked Thanksgiving, I had about three - so don't feel bad about me. Today we have another.

I am progressing as far as confidence goes. But the Lord has placed quite a few people in front of me who will engage me in conversation first so that I don't have to be too outgoing.

I liked the family pictures. I don't know about getting a photo of girls from efy. By the way I wonder if its possible to get that girl's address so I can write her back. Her name is Alison. Sonya also wrote me. The one who played the trumpet. She took world religions from Brother Choi because I recommend him. I'm so glad that Kevin suggest for me to take that class. I pretty much have more knowledge of people's own religions than they do themselves. You can pretty much know that they are a foolish tradition.

I know people named Yuki, CoCo, Angel and Candy. Actually I know a lot of people with these names. They are the most common ones. Very suspicious names if you ask me.

I know somebody named Ocean someone else name Star. Those are translations of their Chinese names.

There isn't much graffiti. Its in poor English and pretty funny. "Death: the ultimate high" and "Visit China before China visits you" I can't remember the really good stuff.

The school kids wear uniforms. I have no idea what their schedule is. Hong Kong is probably safer than Japan. Everybody here idolizes Japanese things. Hence the "Japanese" name Yuki that is so prevalent.

There are quite a bit of homeless people. What's funny is that a whole lot of them are Mandarin.

About two kids is the average per family.


Bird's nest soup is too expensive. So is the shark fin variety. I ate a duck head once. I didn't know it was a duck head until all the meat was off and I realized it looked like a skull. I thought it was funny. I guess brain pretty much tastes like everything else.

I love you all,

Elder Wall (Hua Zhanglao)

--
Missionary Son
Elder Stephen Wall
Hong Kong Mission
#2 Cornwall Street
Kowloon Tong, Kowloon
Hong Kong

Cold Snap

Nov. 19, 2009

Sounds like everything is going great over there! Right now its probably the coldest its ever going to get (in the 20's Celsius). I still sweat profusely. I think that I'm going to live in Hei Long Jiang when I grow up. Its really cold over there and there are Russian people and Mongolian people and Korean people.

I like being a missionary. I recently bought a 20 questions game in simplified characters. Its an amazing study resource; now I can ask people if things are bigger than a bread box using Mandarin. I still don't know how to be interesting when I write. My companion is really helpful and pretty loving actually, he seems to care about me and is really helping me conquer my problem with being shy and not having much confidence. I will probably be with him next transfer again.

I think I forgot to mention that my first companion that I had is about 26 years old. I put that in perspective; isn't that older than Peter? [no - Peter is 27] I have really grown to love him too. He got pulled from Mandarin work and will go home in Cantonese work. I will miss him.

Noah tears it up in mandarin. he also isn't too shy. I really do enjoy his sense of humor.

I have officially lost track of how many baptisms I have had.

We have one investigator who is really close to baptism. The 22nd of Nov is her goal. her name is Elsa. I think she's as old as Laura - but Laura has two babies now.

Dad is too busy. I don't think that I'm quite as busy as him and I'm a missionary. Aren't I supposed to be more busy than him?

I enjoy bragging about how smart my dad is and how loving my mom is for having nine children.

I love you all

hua zhanglao