from the land of crazy english names and fate

something food:
so this week has been the week of the "DOUBLE-O CHALLENGE!!!" yes, my companion and i ate Only Oatmeal for an entire week just for kicks to see if we could do it. that's 21 meals of oatmeal. i made it different every time and kept track of what i made and took pictures of every bowl. it was amazing. you'de be surprised of all the different ways you can make oatmeal. my favorite was probably the pineapple and yogurt combination. so good! they also have an oatmeal porridge with egg in it that is really good. we will reward ourselves by going to Tripple-O's - a restaurant here in sha tin/tai wai area. anything to make missionary life more exciting!...:)

something exciting:
I am staying in Tai Wai for another move with my trainer! i'm excited because i feel like i just started to get to know the area and the people in the ward. we are also going to be moving buildings as the church building here is going under construction, so that should be fun teaching lessons without a church in our area to teach them in. thank goodness for the members. we will use their homes! that's more ideal anyway...:) i was hoping to know where mitch and mike are going on their missions, but i guess i'll have to wait another week for that exciting news! ah, it's killing me!

something miracle:
the Yaji saga continues. Yaji, our friend who believes in fate and said that if we saw him again we could teach him is very cool. we showed up at the bridge at 12:45pm and missed our moves calls meeting to see him. we prepared and prayed so hard to know what to say to him and just prayed that he would show up! he did, and he came by himself so we could discuss "truth."...:) he even bought us lunch! he is an amazing man and use to be a police man and is now a mathematics teacher and tai chi master. yes, sister vance i want to learn tai chi from him. next time he said he will show us some stuff. wahoo! anyways, he will be our mystery investigator that we teach whenever fate allows us to run into him because he won't give us his phone number or anything. but he always says, "next time," so we assume there will be a next time. we shared a lot of things with him about truth, who god is, the holy ghost and how we have our testimonies and know these things for ourselves because of personal experiences and faith and all the different kinds of knowledge and how spiritual knowledge has to be gained through spiritual means. it was amazing! i will keep you updated.

something funny:
chinese english names. they are ridiculous. i started keeping a list of the crazy ones. and yes, these are all considered english names. people give them to them or they create them themselves. here we go:
winky
elvis
crazy
bigyu
string
caviar
money
winseh
koey
apple
chopstick
lego
fifi
angel
there are also about 5 people in our ward that have the english name "mandy" including the girl who we just had baptized. i guess it was popular this year or something, but it makes things very confusing!

something cool:
my mtc district finally made it to Victoria peak this week! Sister Peck from our younger district just arrived from Provo and we went with her to the peak and had a fabulous time. such beautiful views of hong kong! but also especially good since it was April Fool's day... i of course had to do something outrageous, so i showed up with my arm in a sling and told everyone that i had slipped in the shower trying to reach for my towel without getting out of the tub and fell and hit my arm on the toilet. so ridiculous, but everyone believed me and felt bad for me and sister palmer wouldn't let me carry my bag....:) wahahah! i had called sister van dam in the morning and got her in on the joke and she brought me medicine and talked about scheduling an x-ray appointment. the only skeptical one was president van dam, who kept poking my arm to see if it hurt and asking my suspicious questions...:) it was awesome. i broke it to everyone when we got down to the bottom. silly people! don't even realize that it's april fool's day!

something spiritual:
ahh! i don't have any time! so, i will just leave you in suspense and write about it next week. i call it my "Analogy of the Artichoke." it's amazing and deals with Alma 5. love you all! cheers!