It'a not fun being sick

 大家好!

It's been another fun weekend of quarantine over here in Hong Kong for Sister Johnson and I. Except for the fact that I've been SICK. It started last Monday right when I woke up and I've been feeling sick all week. The runny noses, the headaches, the depleted energy, the whole shabang. Thankfully it wasn't covid (I know because the hotel has already tested us twice in just this week) but it was still pretty sucky.

Wings and fries dinner with Jong jímuih

Sister Johnson and I didn't let that ruin all our fun though. This week we were able to watch the whole first season of the Chosen and it was awesome! I love getting a different perspective on the effects that Christ had during His life and the show does a really good job of making you develop a love for each of the characters. Sadly, we don't have season two on the google drive (pls send it if you have it 👀) but we've loved what we've seen! Sister Johnson and I were also able to watch some classic movies like the Singles Ward and the Best Two Years. I saw the Singles Ward once a long time ago so it was fun being able to re-experience that, but I've never seen the Best Two Years and it was so fun! Favorite line was definitely "I'M TRUNKED OUT OF MY MIND". It was also just fun to see Kirby in all of these old church movies haha. That's my trek dad :')

But don't worry, we haven't just been watching movies this whole time. We were actually able to have a lot of member meetings this week and it was great! Most of them spoke both English and Cantonese even if their English wasn't perfect and it was pretty easy to communicate and learn from them, but one sister we spoke to only spoke Cantonese. That was kind of hard just because if we asked her what one of the words she said meant, she had a bit of trouble trying to explain it to us and in turn we also were limited with what we could express by the words that we knew. She was so sweet though! She asked about the food while we were in quarantine and we told her it wasn't very good and then she kept trying to tell us something but we just weren't getting it. Then Sister Johnson was like, "I think she's saying she wants to drop off food to us." I was like how on earth did you understand that?? She had no idea but that's just a testamony of the gift of tongues I guess haha. We sent her our address but we haven't had anything come yet. This could just be due to lack of communication, but regardless it was still a very sweet thought on her part.

And speaking of food, you all might remember me talking about the hotel food and it's...less than exciting existance, but guess what we found out about? An awesome little thing called FOOD PANDA. It's basically doordash but for Hong Kong and it has blessed our lives. Sister Johnson's family and my family have been such angels and have sent us a lot of dinners this week. Sometimes we'll just get surprised with a dinner delivery and that always just makes my day. Thank you so much mom and everyone else who's done that for us! :)

👍

Next week we will start on teaching what's called English Conversation Group classes! These classes are open to everyone, even if they aren't interested in the church and it's a great opportunity to meet people and share a little bit about what we do as missionaries. We won't really be using much Cantonese in these classes since the goal is to help them with English, but I'm still a bit worried about just being a good teacher in general. I'll be praying that things go well though and I guess you guys will just have to wait to hear about that next week!

This week I also had my first LPO (language pass off). This is basically when you get partnered up with someone who actually knows Cantonese and try to have a conversation with them about whatever topic they give you. Sister Johnson and I were stressing out about it a bit because we heard that there was one sister who's 6 months into her mission and finally just passed off the first LPO. It wasn't too bad though. The first LPO is just a simple street contact and I definitiely could've done better at just chatting with the person before going into the gospel, but I think I was just trying to keep the conversation on the vocab that I knew so I wouldn't misunderstand or not know how to say something. There were one or two grammatical errors I made but other than that it was good! I don't know what determines a pass though so we'll see how I did :D

Yesterday evening we had a departing devotional where the 4 elders who are going home this week got to share their testimonies. One of them talked about how this mission used to have around 200 missionaries but currently we only have 44. He said that by the end of the year there will be 80 but only 19 of that 80 will be missionaries who've been around for more than just a few transfers. He said that soon we're going to be the most senior missionaries in our mission and so we need to choose now what kind of missionaries we will be and what precedent we will set for this mission. This was kind of an intimidating thought because within a few transfers I could already be training and I don't want my greenie to be with someone who's got mediocre Cantonese. I already suspect that this mission will come with a lot of challenges that I cannot forsee, but I know that if I just remember in whom I have trusted (2 Nephi 4:19), I will be able to face whatever comes.

I hope you've all had a wonderful week and continue to have another one! Yesterday (or I guess still today for most of you) was Xander's 10th birthday so wish him a happy one! Sister Johnson and I only have about a week and a half left in quarantine so my next email will be the last hotel email you get! 

I love you all <3

丁姊妹

Sister DelHoyo

3 Nephi 28:18

18 But this much I know, according to the record which hath been given—they did go forth upon the face of the land, and did minister unto all the people, uniting as many to the church as would believe in their preaching; baptizing them, and as many as were baptized did receive the Holy Ghost.

This verse is talking about the three Nephites who chose to live until Jesus' second coming so that they could continue to do missionary work. I love this so much because I feel like it emenates the true joy that comes from service. We should go out and minister to everyone. I know that as we do so, so many lives will be blessed, including ours.

Beautiful sunset hour view

An AMAZING pizza that Sister Johnson and I had

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!! This is a big holiday in China! Moon cakes are a special autumn treat but sadly these two were Earl Grey and Matcha flavored so we couldn't eat them :') (also they gave us Oolong tea which we too were unable to drink)