Sheung Shui - My Second Area

After 18 weeks in Yeun Long and not teaching a discussion the last seven I was ready for a transfer. I was sent to the area Sheung Shui. It is located just to the east of Yeun Long but in the next stake/zone over. Also, it borders China for its entire northern boundary and was a continuation of the rural, less crazy part of Hong Kong. We lived in the next area over (Fanling) and would walk a half hour every day from our apartment to our area. Can’t think of much else to say for general description of the area.
Companion = Elder Tang, an American-born-Chinese (ABC). He was from Philadelphia and very American in some ways (English much better than Cantonese), but also Chinese in many ways. We had our struggles at times but I think we both learned a lot from each other. He went back to Utah post-mission and married a girl from Asia. We’ve kept in touch some and sounds like he’s doing well. I lived with two other Elders here that were lots of fun. Elder Wayne Ott from Tropic, UT and Elder Solan from Orem. Ott used to write “Mom,” his zip code, and USA on his letters home and it would work fine. His mom was the postmaster so that helped. Elder Solan won a bet with me he would still be single when I got home from mission (he left when I had 15 months left) and is still single to this day. I still owe him a steak dinner too.
Members/Ward = We served in the Sheung Shui Ward. It had a fair amount of young families and a solid core, but only numbered around 60. Our ward mission leader was a good guy but didn’t really have a good handle on things. One night he did have us over to his house for dinner and I left in a slightly worse off condition. His three year old son got really interested in something on the other side of the table and decided to logically take the shortest course to his destination. In his journey over the table he knocked a bowl of hot soup over and right into my lap. It got my shirt, tie, and pants all soaked. It was quite funny after the fact. Another cool member was an elderly lady named Lai Mommy. She was a doctor and had an office in town that didn’t get much business but served as a HQ for the missionaries teaching efforts. She’d have the whole district over for lunch once a week on top of letting us use her office to teach. A wonderful lady! I actually visited her last year on one of my layovers during my Asia trip. Lastly, the Church building was beautiful but in the middle of nowhere. If you walked from our apartment it was about 45 minutes out of town. Usually we’d take a minibus. The benefit of being out of town was that it was a free-standing chapel that looked more American than any in Hong Kong.
Missionary Work = We had some slow times here, but also some success at times (12 weeks in area). The definite highlight was teaching Chan Bo Sing. He was a 17 year old young man who we randomly met while waiting to catch a bus. He looked like a total ‘Feijai’ (punk) with spiked, colored hair, earrings, and an attitude. However, as we met with and taught him over 8 weeks he changed completely in appearance and attitude. As the junior companion it was my job to call him nightly and share a scripture and check up on him and I really grew close to him. Sadly I was transferred the week of his baptism so I missed the wonderful occasion. The last Sunday I was there I thanked him for letting me teach him the gospel and he replied that he should be thanking us. He then bore his testimony about how he didn’t know God before meeting us and now had a relationship with his Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ. It still brings joy/happiness whenever I think about it. He will always hold a special place in my heart as he was the first person I taught who got baptized (a good seven months after arriving in Hong Kong and almost 10 months after leaving on my mission).
Memorable Experiences = First baptism, soup on lap, long doctrinal conversation with English dude, and a few others. We did ‘Sports Finds’ here with the members every Saturday morning which largely consisted of the entire zone’s Elders playing soccer against the local Chinese members and a few non-members they’d recruit to their team. It was lots of fun but not too effective for missionary work. That was especially the case because the Elders insisted on winning and running over the competition (Asians don’t play sports as rough as Americans). I would go home disillusioned every Saturday thinking, “I thought the point of missionary work is to get people to like/listen to us, not dislike/speak ill of us.” Seriously, what’s the deal with guys and sports?! One day Elder Tang and I took a hike out towards China and climbed this really big hill northwest of town. It was awesome as it had an abandoned observation post where the British troops used to monitor the border and offered a great view into Shenzhen (when it wasn’t too cloudy/foggy). We got some great pictures and talked/dreamed about going into China as missionaries.
Favorite Meal = This was another area where we ate a lot of McDonalds. The members took us out to a couple good YumCha (kind of Chinese buffet) places.
Favorite Song = I’m kind of ashamed to admit this, but “Her Garden” from EFY 2000. It just stuck with me and helped me to understand the importance of women and their divine role in God’s plan.

Running Descpription of Photos: Left Side 1) Chan Bo Sing and me. I've talked to him on the phone so far but he's proving difficult to schedule. 2) The entrance to the Restricted Area. Technically you had to have a special permit to go into this area. We felt a need to proclaim to the souls within. OK, maybe we actually just wanted to climb the mountain and get some good pictures of China. 3) The countryside and our town all in one. I loved the contrast between the two. On the same day we could tract people in 20-story public housing blocks and small shacks next to a field less than a mile away. 4) Spent my first Christmas in the area. The first 30 minutes of the call was spent on hellos, love yas, how's the work, etc., then I talked with my dad until the phone card ran out about sports, politics, world affairs, and everything I'd missed for the last seven months. 5) Fanling Church building. Right side 1 & 4) Visting Buddhist Temple in Shatin 2) The first of two pairs of shoes I walked through on my mission. Those were mighty comfy but weren't made for walking. 3) Mainland China is in the background. I like the mists of darkness, appropriate for a land that restricts the freedom of the gospel. 5) Public square in Sheung Shui where we would go contacting a lot.