From the Land of sweat and temple work

something hard:

It turns out whitewashing an area is a lot of hard work. ha! surprise! i expected it, but i never expected being this exhausted everyday! it also probably has something to do with the fact that i wake up 1/2 hour earlier than everyone to work out longer too. i don't know if i can keep it up, but i'm going to try. you probably think i'm crazy, but if i don't wake up earlier to work out then i get about 20 minutes of running in and that's it. everyone else wakes up at 7am, prays, uses the bathroom, gets dressed, and by the time we get out the door, you have no time to run really...well, at least for me 20 minutes isn't very long. i try to do pushups and abs before everyone wakes up so i can keep some strength from my days of being in shape. it's killing me though. every morning i have to tell myself it's worth it. i'm up to 50+ (real) push ups every morning. i've never sweat so much in my life!...:) it feels good though and i will keep going for as long as my body will let me!!! never give up! never surrender!!!

something funny...sort of:

so, this week sister wilson and i got another summer missionary!!! yes, that is my 4th summer missionary. so many! they are great though and come in very handy when you don't know your area or how to read chinese, that's for sure. since sister wilson and i are new to the area we don't know where anything is, any of the bus systems or how long it takes to get places. not to mention, this area is about 5 times bigger than my last area. so, this week we had an appointment that was at a chyun that we had been to before so we thought it would be no problem right? wrong. very wrong. mostly because the missionaries before wrote down the address wrong. ha! we were lost for a good hour and half in 95 degree weather and 95 percent humidity. and then it rained. and then we found the apartment. it was right where we had started from the beginning. yea for exploring your area!!! wahoo! it was actually pretty hilarous and our summer missionary, sister wong, thinks we are crazy, which is true.

something hot:

it's hotter in the city. that's all i have to say. where i was before in sha tin and tai wai was like living in the country compared to this. so many buildings, people, pavement, buses, taxis and pollution that can't escape! ahhh! it's crazy, but i love it. and i love sweating...ha, just kidding, but it seriously is something that i've just gotten use to. i carry around a fan, tissues and a sweat rag like all chinese people do. i'm officially chinese now.

something about the temple:

it is such a privilege to go to church in the same building as the temple. it just feels more close to heaven for some reason. i love it so much. but the coolest part is getting to be close to the mission office everyday! well, actually it is kind of sad because we can check the mail everyday and then it's just more sad because we are disappointed everyday instead of just once every couple weeks...:) ha! anyways, many amazing things happen at the temple. for example, the first week of moves there were a lot of mainland baptisms...where people that learn about the church from friends or family come to hong kong to take the lessons and get baptized in one day. yes, pretty amazing. the mandarin elders here are so lucky! sometimes it happens with the cantonese missionaries if the they come from a province where they speak cantonese, but not very often and sisters aren't allowed to teach those, just elders...:( anywways, people also come from all over asia to go through the temple for the first time. there was a group from cambodia the other day. they come to the temple and stay there the whole day pretty much. there are so grateful to be there and want to go as many times as they can before they have to return home to where ever they came from. they are so humble, beautiful and excited to receive the blessings of the temple. it makes me want to live more worthily and be more grateful that i get to go to the temple everyday. so spoiled!!!! when i think of them spending so much of their money just to come here i am humbled to the dust. it puts me in awe that i am here at this time in the place i am to witness these things. the Lord trusts me more than i trust myself i think. but i am working hard to live worthy of these amazing blessings. i hope some of those blessings are reaching you where ever you are! and if you can go to the temple, GO! and don't take it for granted!