Made it!

Dear Friends and Family,

     Wow.... That's all I can muster right now. It has been a crazy few days! So let's start with Monday. Got up at 5 and finished the last bits of packing in preparation for leaving. Left, the MTC! My first looks at the world outside the MTC in the last 2.5 months! It was so nice to be leaving and heading for bigger and better. The airport was nice but my pre-paided calling card didn't get me very far... a measly three calls--one to the wrong number. But thankfully the family was able to call me back on my pay phone and we talked for an hour or so. Nice to hear everyone's voice and hear about how things are going. After that ended it was was on to the gate to board our plane set for Los Angeles! The flight was good and I was a row or two back from the rest of my companions and sat next to a nice Japanese man. He and I talked for the entire flight and we talked about portions from the 1st and 2nd lessons! I didn't have a Japanese Book of Mormon obviously so instead I gave him an Articles Of Faith card and told him of this great website he could check out (mormon.org)--He seemed genuinely interested so that was nice!

We had an hour or so wait in LA so I just waited as everyone else called home and made their final calls to their families. The flight to Hong Kong was completely full and just my luck I was in a middle seat with Elder Parker to one side and a Chinese man to my other. Elder Parker was generous with me though and halfway through the flight he switched me for a bit so that I could stretch my legs. This flight was good but of course long (13.5 hours). We did fly right over Japan though so maybe Grandma and Grandpa could have seen me. We flew with the sun and so it was bright the whole way. For the flight I napped a little bit, read my Book of Mormon a little bit, and spent a lot of time asking "Would You Rathers" with Elder Parker. Needless to say, we both know a lot about each other now and had a few good laughs.

When we finally got to Hong Kong it was almost dark but coming in for landing we could see a few apartment buildings on Lan Tau Island. We disembarked and wearily went through immigration, got our bags, went through customs and met President Hawks, his wife, and the APs on the other side of Customs. Great to see familiar American faces in a sea of Asians. Took a few photos with them (which should be sent home by them soon) and then drove to the temple/president's home. Had a quick chat and then went across the street to Patron Housing where we spent the night. Basically patron housing is free housing for all the international travelers who come here to go through the temple. The room we stayed in had 4 sets of bunk beds with about 1 foot in between them. Very cramped.

The next day we had a little bit of orientation and then went with the APs and members to go "finding" that afternoon. I was paired with a member for the 3 hours of finding and we had a good time together. We searched out people around a park as well as near the subway station we had just come from. Almost no one had any interest, one man started shouting at me (later I found out he was swearing at me and calling me a white devil), but there was some success! We placed a few pass-along cards with 2 elderly people, and 3 boys. One of the boys, named Heyward, seemed interested at the prospect of learning English as well as playing basketball so there is potential there. Pause: One thing you need to know about Chinese people in Hong Kong is that all of them have regular Chinese names, but they also have English names that they have chosen for themselves. So Heyward was Chinese but gave us his English name. The other success we had was in a rooftop garden where we found Pakistani or Indian, Aadhil. He is 12 and was pushing his little brother in a stroller when we approached him. He spoke English so I was feeling confident. We taught him the 1st lessons and had a great conversation. We exchanged numbers and I asked if he knew of anyone else who might be interested in listening to our message. He said yes, and so we have a plan to meet on Friday at 7 with him and his friend. (By the way, the area we were searching in was the APs area so they will be teaching all further lessons). After this we took the Subway back to Kowloon Tong (the temple neighborhood stop) and grabbed some cha siu for dinner (BBQ pork w/ rice). Really good, really cheap. 3 nights a week the missionaries give free English classes at the Kowloon Chapel. All the new missionaries assisted in this last night as we taught parts of the body. It was a good hour and really crowded too! (free English classes are one way missionaries here try to find people).

This morning was the start of day 3 here in Hong Kong and has proved to be busy thus far as well. This morning I was assigned my trainer! His name is Elder Bingham and is from Alpine, UT! We know many of the same people actually! Seems like a great guy! After assignments were made President Hawks asked to meet with Elder Bingham and I before we went to get my Hong Kong ID card. He spoke of the hard decision it was to decide where to place us. He has placed us in Chai Wan (Eastern part of Hong Kong Island) in the WanChai ward. This area has had ups and downs in productivity and is suffering right now. 14% of members attend--the lowest of all the wards in Hong Kong and no one in the area is very receptive to the missionaries that are already there--usually grounds for taking out missionaries instead of putting them in. Elder Bingham and I are a completely new additional companionship to the area with the purpose of trying to spark member activity and get investigators (we have no current investigators). It is also the smallest apartment in the Hong Kong mission and we share it with Elders who are working in Causeway Bay. There is no apartment in our area so we have to commute in each day--though it's not as bad as the other companionship who will be working with us and have an hour commute from their apartment up in Kowloon somewhere. Not exactly ideal, however, the church is trying to find an apartment for our two companionships to move into in our area. I'm excited but humbled by all this. Even a little scared to have my first area be what some are calling the hardest in the mission. I trust Elder Bingham though and he seems like a great guy!

I forgot my camera cable today so I will have to send a few pictures home next week.

It's very hot here in Hong Kong and very humid. Yesterday it hovered around 95 with 95-100% humidity. It's hot, I'm sweating but it's good. The train (MTR) is one place of refuge with wonderfully cold air conditioning. I rode my first bus just a few minutes ago to get to the public library where I am now writing and that was cool--very big since they are double deckers. I still haven't unpacked or been to my apartment so I expect that that will happen this evening. Maybe tonight I'll have enough time to actually sit down and write out my schedule for tomorrow (I can assume it will be street contacting and finding all day). With so few members showing up to church (the average overall in Hong Kong is 22%), it will be interesting to see what responsibilities they will give to me if any.

Each day I collapse in bed which I attribute to my jet-lag, the heat, and constant work, but I do it gratefully, knowing that I gave it my all that day. Hope you all are having great weeks and if you would like to write me my address is:

18 Dorset Crescent

Kowloon Tong, Kowloon

Hong Kong.

P.S. Dad, I figured out that the $3 stamps I got from Elder Rostrom were actually Cantonese and amount to 39 cents.