Various Rice Toppers Called Cai

Family,

That family that we found was pretty awesome. A family is so rare to come acrossed in mandarin work , so our new branch president offered to fellowship for us after I complained about not having very many people who could fellowship for us. I really think that we can eventually baptise them. Mainlanders are kinda like that. They are pretty humble and willing to accept and follow what the Lord asks of them. They do what it takes. In Hong Kong, we have a saying: If anyone stops, they are either crazy, or mainland. To be honest sometimes I don't like hong kong culture, very rude and very subborn, It's also really hot and humid all the time. Sometimes I wish I was in the mainland in the freezing cold north; then I could study russian as well and just be loved by everyone I came in contact with.

I am pretty content with my mission still. I was more content with Macau, but that's over with.

I am going to be tempted to quit once I baptise a family. That's the ultimate goal. No other Mandarin has done that before, at least not for several years. I would feel so satisfied if we got the Zhu family, my mission would be complete, at only a little over one year!

I bet there are more families out there though. I just don't know if I have the faith to do the impossible twice before anybody else.

James keep holding in there. One day you can realize and put everything into perspective. I am in the process of doing that. Having fun is like the opposite if the meaning of life.

Man, I don't have much to say.

What do you eat? Mostly rice with various toppers called cai
Who does the cooking? usually the owners of the little chinese resturants called fanguan thas is where we eat most often
What kind of eating out do you do? that is pretty much every single lunch we have and occasionally dinners as well
What are your favorite native meals? cambells new england clam chowder with a chinese label on the can
What is a typical day like? wasting time going around talking to cantonese people who reject you and teaching one or two lessons
What is your favorite scripture as a missionary? probably ether 12
What kind of wildlife to you see there monkeys, roaches, vermin
How do you pronounce a 'Y" in Mandarin? before an"i" or just a "u" its doesnt make a sound but normally just like english.
What city are you in?Wanchai on hongkong island
Are you working in wards or branches? victoria third branch (putonghua)

Love,

Hua Zhanglao

A New Pillow June 10, 2010

Hello family,

I am so happy of the success we are having. We could probably get seven baptisms next transfer period. Seven investigators baptised is way better than most get their whole mission. In fact an awesome miracle happened.

So my companion was inspired to have us go to the japan home center to buy me a pillow so that I can sleep good. I couldn't fit a pillow in my bag when I left Macau and the sisters took everything when they left the apartment. So, being the responsible junior companion that he is, he reminded me that I needed a pillow. Its wasn't p-day mind you, but it was pretty much an emergency; just like the necessity of getting a slurpee throughout that sweltering hot day. So we went to the store and found a really good pillow (one that didn't have green tea inside of it) but it didn't have a price tag so I went up front and asked the lady how much it costed. The thing is, I could have chosen to ask her in English or even Cantonese. But for some reason I asked her Duo shao qian? instead of Gei do chin? and this one dude in the store over heard me and exclaimed "wow very good! mandarin is well", We talked to him after I bought this extremely cheap pillow which provides excellent comfort while I sleep. He was in the store with his wife and ten year old daughter. They are all from shanghai. So anyway, I told him that we had a free English class and he started practically having a seizure. Then I said that we could even tutor his daughter and help her with English homework. I think it was a miracle because nobody ever finds a mandarin family, especially not a mandarin missionary. most investigators are single mothers or students (female students). We scheduled them for Saturday and I hope we can schedule them for pretty much every week and set up a regular "English tudor day" and we will proceed to convert them by degrees. HAHAHA. They'll never see it coming...

What we can learn from this miracle is that we need to follow the spirit where we should be led. And we always need to be speaking our mission language. I would probably give up our other awesome investigators who are students and single mothers just to baptise a fully functional family. Is this sin? If that's what it took I would do it in a heartbeat.

The gospel blesses families. Families are forever. If we do what we are supposed to do in this life, we can see our family again. Relationships are strengthened and disagreements are resolved when true doctrine is applied in the home. Of course you all know this, but nobody outside the church does. I really hope we wont blow this one. I have high hopes for the zhu family. The reason is because the father practically scheduled us and was so jittery and shivered so much when we told him about teaching his daughter English. Apparently he must love his daughter, which is better than most of china who only want sons. I really hope that they can become a forever family.

Of course I am totally counting my chickens before they hatch. I really feel like we can harvest soon though. Last transfer period no mandarins baptised an investigator, so the mandarins were downsized. Did I tell you this already? It really upsets me. Anyway we will show them how fruitful the mandarin work can be.

I will for sure write Elder Dodge this week. I have only wrote him once. Poor guy.

i like how my older brother can speak Chinese now. I only really know like 1000 characters myself. I really think that the twenty questions game in Chinese is helpful I should purchase it for gifts. I cant write to save my life, my awful English handwriting carries over into Chinese and its pretty frustrating.

What are some of your favorite scriptures as a missionary? Ether 12
When you did international work, did you do service if so what kind? Cleaned mold off out of the Fely's restaurant and painted a house
Did Elder Oaks go to Macau?I dont know
Did you know your way around Macau?Not really
Are you a senior missionary?Yeah
What was a typical daily routine in Macau? Wake up, study, proselyte, eat some time, baptise, sleep.
What is a new typical daily routine where you are now?Study, eat, leave, fruitless finding attempt, decide the most effective way to waste our time, maybe teach a lesson that day, eat, return home.
Can you send some pictures? I'll see what I can do.

I love you all,

Hua Zhanglao

Keep asking questions and Mandarin Woes

June 2 2010

Hi folks,
It’s good to hear from you. I am enjoying my new area, I think I am the Mandarin missionary who is the least familiar with the island. All the others, including greenies know it better than me. I remember in Macau the large amount of Nepalese (or Nepali?) people there. We even had an eternal investigator who faithfully came to all three hours of church every Sunday for about two years. For some reason I feel if we spoke Nepalese he would get baptized. For some reason he was reading the Hindi Book of Mormon, but I thought I saw a Nepali copy in the church basement? Anyway, I really hope that my fathers effort could eventually help brother Sen get baptized. (Stephen is referring to a new assignment Dion has translating Nepali scriptures)

I really want to make a triumphant return to Macau. I know exactly how to do it, and that is by learning Cantonese. I love the Mandarin branch, but it is just not cutting it missionary wise. The Mandarins made zero baptisms last transfer and so President Chan cut another Mandarin companionship. Out of the thirteen Mandarins now, five are in international work, including Elder Kershisnik and Elder Ngai. I am told that me going to international work was the first time that ever happened to a Mandarin. Now we all have the threat of going to teach Indonesians and Filipinas hanging over our heads to motivate us to baptize more. I thought that love was enough to motivate me.

I feel like this companionship will baptize. Have I ever told you that I have a blessing of baptizing with every companionship; even the companionships that only lasted one transfer.

Having baptized quite a few people, I can say that baptisms aren't everything and by no means proves if a companionship or missionary is successful. I just wish some people out here knew that... I miss my mandarin brethren who are in international bondage. that missionary who went home was my friend and Elder Kershisniks MTC comp, I think that psychology is a stupid science and that Satan is attacking Mandarin work. The brethren likely know this because they keep sending more and more mandarin missionaries. Too bad only four companionships are open to receive them.

I love the work and think that my companion and I teach well together. I found out that I probably played in football games against him, he is from Springville. My Mandarin didn't suffer a huge blow by being in English work. I hope that I am still improving daily, although sometimes it’s hard to tell.

I think that I will write my best friend and Katy Seely today. They both have written to me tons of letters and I have only written Elder Dodge once and Seely maybe twice. I have receive a letter about one every week from both of them. I am such a terrible friend. I also love my sisters who write me emails and snail mails. I hate snail mail and wish I could just email Elder Dodge and Seely. And I wish that just casually mentioning my beloved older sisters Tatiana and Laura could count as writing them back personalized letters. I type so slowly and struggle to think of subjects to talk about, please forgive me, this letter alone took almost my whole hour to write.

God is good. I like how he sent his son to the earth to atone for our sins. The ability to repent as a result of Jesus Christ's atonement is really comforting and amazing. I am glad that it is basically never to late for me to improve myself, and while I will miss out on certain opportunities and receive the consequences of my poor choices, I am not hopeless as long as I don't give up. I still have one whole year on my mission to push myself and get better and a whole lifetime to work on being like Christ.

I am sorry to hear that some of my brothers and sisters are having a hard time learning sometimes, but I know that they will eventually get the point because of their goodly parents and their Father in Heaven.

Thanks for being so supportive and being such a good family that I can show you off to everybody.

I love you all,

Hua Zhanglao, Wah Jeunglouh, Elder DingDing, Elder Wall

Please continue to ask questions and constructively criticize me.

Out of Sight - Not out of Mind

27 May 2010

Those photos were adorable. I am here in Wan Chai back in mandarin work. Presently there are 13 elders with the mandarin call, only eight of them are in mandarin work. Only four companionships will certainly make the work more difficult. Hopefully we can get a baptism or so to make President Chan realize that there is a whole lot of work in the mandarin side of town. Elder Oaks came and told me stuff that I already knew and asked for comments about what we have learned about revelation. I really like the main point of his talk which was about improving ourselves and always repenting and learning and doing better. I really want to improve and hopefully I will with my new companion. His name is Elder Reber.

I am quite out of it, so thank goodness my new companion is so responsible and patient. Even though he is the "junior companion", he helps me remember keys and the cell phone and how to get places and basically all the common sense things that I am incapable of. I think I will love him. About the only thing I have on him would be mandarin, and a guy like him will certainly pick it up really fast.

We helped all the Filipina sisters move around and then replaced all of our stuff into their old apartment. We also escorted some to the ferry pier to get to Macau. Today we also taught a mainlander who wants us to get his art into America so that people would want to hire him as a cartoonist. His art skills are pretty crummy. Poor guy. When we taught, I taught a whole bunch and then basically turned the lesson to my companion to take over when it was time to talk about the book of Mormon and then the cartoonist very vigorously rejected it. Poor Elder Reber.

We sorely need more investigators, baptisms and all around more success. I really don't know how to write a lot. I will probably start again to write in my journal now that today is my hump day and because I want to improve myself.

Me and Elder Reber are going to be really patient and understanding with each other. Our theme is to "keep it real". This basically means to be humble and non-sarcastic and never to hide our feelings. I hope I don't have to stop being "fake" all at once. It is not meet for a man to run faster than he is able.

I do miss Macau totally and I will probably study Cantonese in an effort to qualify myself for a return transfer period. I love you all and hope that everybody will improve at least a little and will push themselves more.

I really am kinda bummed by James's performance, but I am so happy that I can be in Hong Kong and it can be out of sight and out of mind. I’m grateful its not me. But I know he will still have ample opportunity to correct this, I myself feel like I wasted a whole year of my life and I have a bright outlook at what this next year will have in store. This internet cafe is packed will tons of fourteen year olds who swear loudly while playing computer games together, please excuse me because I would really like to leave soon and don't really have much to say.

I truly am the happiest I have ever been in my life.

I love you all

Hua Zhanglao

Man, I love Macau

5/13/10
Man. I love Macau. But Macau doesn't love me. I have to leave in ten days and never come back for at least fifty days. The phone company also robbed me of all my Mother’s Day talking. Maybe I'll call just out of the blue sometime. I surely will miss the people here.

I never got the opportunity to get all those Vietnamese people. Too bad. I guess the work the Lord had for me do is finished over here with only a mere three baptisms after Sunday night. I will be trunky for Macau for the rest of my mission. I have no idea what will become of me now. I am pretty sure I will go senior. There is also a Taiwanese elder coming in a few transfers. I hope I get to train him. Im next in line to train by seniority.

When I come back from Macau I better appear to be a big dog in the eyes of the new elders, most of whom I don't know. The lessons that I have learned over here will perhaps aid me in the work over in the Mandarin branch. I will be a lot more friendly to people. I probably will long for friendly people who are not too busy to stop to at least say a quick hello.

We saw the Michael Jackson gallery at a casino named Pointe 16. We ate a buffet at a casino named star world. and we watched a dragon show and then a water fountain show at a casino named The Wynn. Today was a day to remember.

I am way bummed, but I realize how blessed I was to get to come here. It seemed like it was an impossible dream every minute. I will be slightly upset when Elder Kershisik will probably come and take my place. What a mission stealer!

I really loved Elder So. Too bad it was so short.

My Mandarin will probably get better though. I will probably go back to Mandarin work.

I don't think I’m ready to be a senior especially since I don't know my way around Hong Kong. I have lost most of my knowledge from living in Macau for a while.

Sorry I don't have much to say. I love all of you and I will try and make up my Mother’s Day phone call when I get back to Hong Kong.

Hua Zhanglao

Patience, Caveman Talk, Better Letters

4/23/10
So when I went back to Hong Kong and attended the temple the man in the changing room stall across from me asked me if I knew where Elder Wall was. Turns out He was brother Leurng or Uncle Parkenson as Elder Dodge addresses him I guess. He is the missionary leader of his Chinese branch in Vancouver, I did an endowment session for his great great grandfather. Brother Leurng was a awesome dude who didnt stop smiling or punching; he playingly socked all of the really old temple workers he could find. He told me that he is a bao li person and abuses his missionaries. A wise leader I assume.

When I got back, the Macau government only gave me seven days stay. I would love to have prayers to be able to remain in macau. I also think my investigators all need that same prayer.

I'm gonna do it. I will actually take advantage of having a Chinese companion and learn amaizing Chinese. Brother Leurng told me that Elder Dodge's Cantonese was marvelous. I am so jealous.

I bet the other missionaries' mothers get way better letters from their sons. Its true nothing happened really this week. I was pretty sick. Our investigators are ticking bombshells of drama. No casualties yet, but I've heard the horror stories of international work in hong kong. Never serenade a sister over the phone!!

We have a sister named Augustine who quit smoking after 22 years she had be smoking since ten. The only problem is her slave driver boss.


Maybe more later

I love you all.

hua zhanglao Elder Wall


4/15/10
Family. Isn't it about time? That's the message of General Conference in my opinion. It made me severely trunky. I loved the patience talk during preisthood by President Uchtdorf (if thats how you spell it). I really need that. The patience section in my preach my gospel got ripped out - complete accident.

So the next transfer happened and my new companion is Elder So, a really cool Hong Kong guy who is actually also a Mandarin missionary. He is about twenty-five.

So there were really awesome ladies that came from Philipines last pday after I wrote you all. What is so awesome about them is that they are Chinese teachers in philipines. One is a member already. What is even cooler is that they really teach Fuijianhua which looks alot like Fijian to me after I wrote that down (its a Chinese dialect). They speak Mandarin too though. Now they are learning Cantonese. The day after my companion and I met them we had to go back to Hong Kong for supplies and to make our exit date that the Macau government gave us. I was so excited to meet them because we had an automatic fellowshipper because one is already a member. I would also be their bestest friend because we all speak Mandarin. Wouldn't you know it, just as I suspected, once we got back from Hong Kong on Saturday, the sisters had already taken them as their own. The first thing I told Elder Lindsay after we met them on p-day was "don't let the sisters know about them" and that's exactly what happend. I miss Mandarin work where we didn't have to deal with theaving sisters. We're definately all on the same team, but they have no idea how bad they thrashed all my dreams and crushed all my hopes. I totally had a skip in my step all last pday and thought it an absolute miracle that I had met Philipinas that spoke Mandarin and that taking time out of my preparation day gave me blessings. Its okay though, every single companionship here in macau has Mandarin investigators and wouln't turn them over to me. Elder So will tell them, he's gonna be the Zone leader.

Elder So and I will definately have a stronger emphasis on Mandarin people this transfer. I am so excited. And we will only speak Mandarin to each other.

Elder Dexter Gomez was one of the many missionaries sent out from the Oakhills second ward. That ward is a powerhouse.

I was so happy to receive my father's letter in his area of expertise. I wonder if now I should print out that email and gloat it around in front of everybody. I think maybe I should have patience to weather out people's comments instead. Uchtdorf's talk was the absolutely tailor made for Elder Wall talk of this general conference. I definately need patience with the sisters.

Thanks for having patience with my constant complaining about others. I hope you all will tell me your hardships and frustrations just as much. I hope my mother will recover soon. I hope my little brother's beard will come in soon (seriously shaving is the ultimate acne cure). I hope that my little brothers and sisters particularly Alyssa will learn to listen to mom and dad. I have almost learned that they have been right all along.

I will keep a journal starting tonight.

I love you all and will have better letter.

Hua Zhanglao( Elder dingding)

PS Ding ding means wall in both indonesian and tagalog. Indonesian took alot from arabic huh dad? They have kitab mormon and are always talking about Allah.

4/7/10

I want to start off by asking my father one thing. So I never hear the end of Cantonese being the hardest language on Earth, with the exception of Finnish and that's it. The logic I have heard is that the writing system doesn't match the spoken and that the pronounciation (if that's how you spell it) is probably some of the hardest in existance. I have the feeling that Vietnamese is more difficult. I always get hasseled about how easy Mandarin is in comparison to Cantonese. I realise that this must be true to some extent since most Cantonese missionaries only know about two hundred characters and I can easily thrash them. But the grammar! Same! Caveman talk. Today he/she/it eat rice. Simple.

So my question is: How many hundreds of languages out there are harder than Cantonese?

The answer to that question should satisfy my pride for being incapable at this moment to learn that particular language. To be honest the only thing I can't do is the pronounciation; a couple more tones and a few weird sounds is all. If I get that, its a sinch and I know it.

I also get bugged when they say that Mandarin sounds like drunk cantonese. It is so obviously the other way around.

I have to be cautious with this letter because my companion glances at my screen periodically to insure that I am not saying any thing bad about him or his mission language.

We all know that mandarin is so much more useful. And all the Cantonese missionaries are destined to study it one day.

That felt really nice to vent to you dad. I really hope your expertise in this field of study will agree with me.

I feel so handicapped sometimes because I can't speak. I can understand alot.

I love Macau. I love the gospel. I love my companion. He is such a softy. so sensitive. He makes our lessons really long and likes to sing with our investigators and kneel down when we pray with them. Its not a bad thing. It gets the job done in international work. He can make the sisters cry easily.

We have two investigators with a baptismal date. Both are Indonesians.

I want to get this Vietnamese thing goin. We dont have any pamphlets in Vietnamese so its hard. I'm gonna order some. I feel like we can probably baptise twenty if we work hard. Thats my honest feeling.

General Conference hasn't happend yet over here. Was it any good?

I hope there is something on journal writing that doesn't just tell me to keep one, but will tell me how to go about doing it.

I hope this letter wan't be too bogus. I couldn't remember anyhting that went on this week.

I love you all,

Elder Wall (Hua Zhanglao)

Multilingual - Won't be on the 2010 Census

3/25/10

I understand more and more Cantonese everyday. I decided that I am going to seize some sort of business opportunity in Macau one day. This place is getting huge and I heard it makes more money in revenue than Las Vegas. I also want to be a good member of the church and help it explode over here. There is a Marriot being built and when its done it will probably give out lots of Books of Mormon.

As always I forgot what I needed to write. I will totally keep a journal soon. I also didn’t take much pictures this past week. I love that all the children here are multilingual (if that's how you spell it). for instance that Filipina girl shoving flowers in my face can speak English, Tagalog, Cantonese, mandarin and Portuguese, her name is Danielle and she is eight. I think it is just the most awesomest thing to speak mandarin with her; most of the other primary is that same way only her mandarin is the best. The little boy is Chinese and his care taker is a member so he comes and disrupts sacrament all the time. The only young man in the branch can't really speak English, or tagalong from what I hear, but his mandarin is really good. I have got to get a photo of him, he looks like a Chinese trapped in a Filipino body. Frances needs to go on a mission and trash the world, he's the teacher’s quorum president now, James is approximately twice as tall as him.

So I just want to learn every language that is flowing around over here, particularly Vietnamese and Nepalese. Recources for these people are basically limited to the Book of Mormon. There are some Vietnamese members here though.

I really feel that there could be a mandarin branch here very easily. The only problem with that is that then there would be no Cantonese branch because all of the members are from mainland or Taiwan.

The University is jam packed with people I can teach. It is a huge temptation to teach ten million mandarins and forget the other people. Our baptism is on Sunday and Doreen is inviting her friends to come.

I have learned that baptisms and numbers are definitely not what a mission is about. Sure I have baptized with every one of my companionships, but I feel I am far from being a successful missionary. I heard a disturbing analogy of missionary work like being on a boat. So missionaries are all on a ship saving all the people who are overboard by pulling them onto the ship. While the amount of people who are coming onto the boat is high, there are about two times as many people jumping off of the boat.

It is really hard to retain members over here and keep them active, I guess ultimately its there decision but I’m sure we need to put a larger focus on them rather than putting more people on the boat. Correct me if I'm wrong RM friends and family.

I love Macau and I am so upset that I came so early in my mission. When I get back, I will be so "Macau trunky" as they call it. They also have a disease called "international trunky" as well. Lucky me - to be destined to contract both. Yellow fever already interferes with the work enough. God definitely knows what to do to test me.

But he did know that Jessica Li would be coming to Hong Kong, so he wisely put me in Macau while she stays there. I’m not so sure why that's wise, but its probably best that I don't see her while I'm on my mission. As far as requests for things that she can bring me, perhaps a letter with some photos and the hook ups with her relatives.

My time is up. I am so glad that I wont exist for ten years
Love
Hua zhanglao