Letter Home #75: The Tai Wai Day

Dear People,

So, some of you "dear people" have been wondering what a Tai Wai day is like. I've decided to be boring and regurgitate my planner into this post.

0700 Wake up, run to MacPhearson Park, run around, do push ups, run back home

0730 Eat Cornflakes with soymilk and cheap protein powder, shower, iron my clothes, get ready for the day

0830 Read the Bible, Book of Mormon, etc for an hour

0930 Talk with my Komp about the things we need to do that day

1030 Start Language study and throw my beans into a pot to boil so they'll be edible for...

1130 Lunch! Virtually always at our apartment in Mong Kok

1230 Go to Mong Kok East Station, catch the train up to Tai Wai

1300 Get working! We usually do "street contacting", where we walk around a place talking to everyone we see and inviting them to learn about Jesus Christ and our message. We average 2 lessons a day, which is pretty good.

1830 Dinner, usually greasy duck on rice, but I also like sweet n sour pork on rice and eggplant/ground beef sludge on rice. All three are pretty traditional.

1930 We try to schedule a lesson with someone and get a member of our congregation to help us out.

2030 Beep our card at Mei Lam Estate on the special machine that gives us a $1 discount for walking 1 KM to Tai Wai Station

2100 Get home, right records of what we've done today and schedule people for the rest of the week!

2200 Write in my journal, brush teeth, clean up my desk & living room, and if there's time I'll play a round or two of Chinese Chess. I have no skill or tactics, but I don't always get smashed. But I usually do.

2300 Go to sleep, prepare to wash, rinse, and repeat.

Today is Preparation Day, so we're going to see if there's anywhere in the huge Langham Place Mall where I can get a couple new white shirts for a not-outrageous price. Please, wish me luck! I promise to do something cool one of these days, and post photos of it. I've got a plan for 10 month that should be pretty awesome. October?

Love,

Elder JE O'Gara

Letter Home #74:Whole Grains and Lean Protein

Dear People,

I don't actually have any time to type today, but along with working hard, sweating lots, drinking close to a gallon of water a day, and preaching the word of God, I've begun to eat only whole grains and lean protein... for lunch. Breakfast is still cornflakes and dinner is still usually a rice box, but I try to have an overly healthy lunch to compensate for the grease I eat for dinner. Roast duck is always oily, right? It's not just an HK problem, right?

The work here is going marvelously well and fast, and if I can ever get enough time to write about it I will detail the typical Tai Wai Day.

Love,
Elder JE O'Gara

Letter Home #073: The Temple and the Rain

Dear People,

So, in the LDS Temples there are a lot of older, loving, grandparent-type people that have the time to volunteer 8 hours a day and keep things running smoothly. When Sister Chan from our ward saw that we were there she gave us a delicious white swiss roll, think white cake with whipped butter on top, then rolled up. When she saw that we were sopping wet because we'd forgotten umbrellas, she told us to give her our suits so she could dry them.

While we were getting dressed in our white clothes (to symbolize peace and purity inside what is believed to be the literal house of God) a Temple Worker named Brother Lee came and asked for our suits. We passed them to him, figuring they'd throw them in the dryer.

Much to our surprise, when we got back our suits had been drycleaned and there was a pair of new white socks in the pocket of each jacket! They even thought about our sodden feet! Really, it doesn't matter what people say about Mormons, we LOVE to serve others! Also, there were a bunch of people from Mainland at the Temple, and a few from India, which was really cool to see. We had a good 4-5 countries represented there today!

We, unfortunately, didn't have a baptism this week, and there isn't one scheduled for next Sunday. We do have 4-5 scheduled for this month, so I'll hopefully be sending out some pictures of my Komp wearing his whites (I've baptized enough people, and I'll baptize my kids later, my Junior Companions can get the spotlight time from now on).

Beyond that, not much is new. We go finding a lot, eat "2 Grocery Rice" a lot (I used get 2 orders of Sweet & Sour Pork), and we do serious work! We also take wrong buses that get us home 4 minutes past curfew, soaked to the bone and all of our possessions ruined. It's a miracle that the phone and my camera survived, it really is.

Life is great, God is Good, and I love Hong Kong!

Love,

Elder JE O'Gara

[according to the Hong Kong Observatory Hong Kong got 2 inches of rain and nearby areas got as much as 4 inches. "The easterly airstream converged with a southerly airstream in the vicinity of the Pearl River Estuary this morning, bringing more than 50 millimetres of rainfall to the widespread areas of Hong Kong. Rainfall exceeding 100 millimetres were recorded over parts of the territory."

Besides, Tropical Storm Toraji has transformed into an extratropical cyclone.http://www.weather.gov.hk/contente.htm]

Letter Home # 72: Water War

Dear People,

[A couple of weeks ago he started using the title "Letter Home" and it just occurred to me to stop putting "Blog Post" ... ]

This is "Bishop Mak, like Mak-Donalds", he's amazing, and wasn't afraid to take part in the water fight our ward had. The Missionaries weren't allowed to get involved, which was good because the fight escalated into a war very very quickly. I got some good action shots, I'll have to put those on the internet when I get home.

We had another baptism this week; Elder Healthy said it PERFECTLY and then got the guy baptized like a pro! I'm so proud of him, he's going to have a lot more people coming his way to get dunked.

I pray for all of you, especially those who I find out are having tough times. I wish I could be there in person to give hugs and comfort people, but I'm just going to leave that one up to the Holy Spirit for now.

I'm out of time, have a great week!

Love,

Elder JE O'Gara

Blog Post #71: Best 2 out of 3

Dear People,

I come home in 8 months! I've successfully completed 66% of my Mission! 
You know what I did to celebrate?

I baptized a young woman!

 The guy that was supposed to baptize her set his alarm for 6:30 AM on Monday - Saturday, so when he didn't show up on Sunday; the Bishop decided Elder Healthy's Chinese isn't good enough to perform the ordinance of Baptism, and before I knew it I had 7 minutes to throw on the jumpsuit and get in the water! It was so awesome! The very special thing about this whole situation is that the young lady in the picture was my first Baptismal Interview, so I was all sorts of involved in this process! Also, the family on the right hand side is from Mainland, the oldest daughter did the 2 Week Summer Missionary program here.

It's been an outstanding 16 months, and the next 8 are looking like they're going to be even better! I love the pace of the work here in Tai Po (ten lessons a week is a bit slow in this Area), and I feel like this is going to be a place where I really find my leadership capabilities and learn to shine! During our weekly reports last night I felt like some old grandpa/veteran, telling people how to work better and not make my mistakes, it was surreal to hear vaguely wise words proceeding forth from my mouth.

I'm learning a TON about how to be a leader, how to report things coherently, and how to gently, subtly, lovingly pry information from people who are hesitant to share their issues. I feel like Jesus probably didn't have this much of a problem with it because people could just feel His love for them and just wanted to open up and let Him in on all their issues and challenges so He could help them understand the best solution. I'm trying to be like Him, but it's definitely not in the near future. I'm just going to keep working, smiling, praying, and studying the Master's way of ministering.

See, that's why I love reading scriptures! There's always that One Perfect Example of what to do in almost any situation, and then a bunch of examples of people trying to be like that in other situations, and through the whole thing there's an overarching theme of love, charity, and hard work to keep you wanting to be like that. I'm not sure if I'll ever go back to reading non-scriptural books again (I mean, Michael Crichton died years ago, so what else can there be?), there's just so much to learn from the Bible and Book of Mormon!

Anyways, my time on the computer is almost up, so I'm going to log out. I hope you all have a good one, and that things keep going great!

Love,
Elder O'Gara

Blog Post #70:

Dearly Beloved Brethren (and Sisters),

Before moves calls my good friend Elder G. Sin told me that I "had a good one", referring to my assignment. So, what is it?

I am now in Tai Wai as the District Leader. We have four companionships; Shatin 1 (Zone Leaders), Shatin 2, Tai Wai Sisters, and us. Let me draw you a little word picture map to illustrate the two crazy things about this move.

Here is the train stations, in North to South Order;

Lo Wo - Sheung Shui - Fanling - Tai Wo - Tai Po Market - University - Fo Tan - Shatin - Tai Wai - Kowloon Tong - Mong Kok East - Hung Hom

Now, any of you who are long time readers and write letters to me have realized that my entire Mission Life has centered around this rail line. The Mission Home is at Kowloon Tong, I used to serve the last two stops, then I served Tai Wo, Tai Po Market, and University in my second area, and now I'm serving Tai Wai. I'm really hoping that I finish up in Tai Wai (the Elder I replaced had been here for the last 10 months of his Mission, so my 8 remaining isn't unreasonable at all) and keep to the KCR line.

The other weird thing is the "Tolo Curse". If you start in the Tolo Harbor Zone (the northeast 30% of Hong Kong), you will definitely come back, and if you got to Tolo for your second area you'll probably leave and then return. Apparently, I've got the Tolo Curse so bad that it won't let me leave! That's no really issue; my first Sunday in Tai Wai Ward we had 2 convert baptisms and I did my first Baptismal interview (she passed!).

As a District Leader, it's my responsibility to ensure that everyone who's been taught in Tai Wai or Sha Tin is ready to be baptized on the day that they've chosen, and that all the new Missionaries have a language study plan, are sticking to it, and that their Chinese is moving right along and not stagnating. I also call people periodically to make sure they get along with their companion, that they are following the rules, and at the end of the week I get to chat with them on the phone and get a report of their numbers for the week so that the Mission President can ensure everyone is doing their best out here (which we are).

Being District Leader isn't a HUGE deal, but there's a decent amount of responsibility that goes with it that I'll have to get accustomed to and learn how to deal with. So far it's pretty easy; check up with people, give them ideas to help them become more like Jesus Christ, and plan District Meeting. Now, District Meeting is the hurdle that I'm running up on that I know how to get over it, but never had the practice to do so. I've been in good District Meetings and less good ones, so I'm guessing all I have to do is follow the example of my past leaders and I'll be fine!

Now, my Kompanion is probably the most exciting thing about Tai Wai! Why? Because he's Korean (hence the "K" in Companion)! His family owns a couple restaurants in Provo, and he's told me all about making Kim Chi and his time working in a Sushi place and his awesome life that involved lots of Korean culture in Utah! He has zero accent, but he can speak what sounds like good Korean to me (as if I know anything but "hello"), and he'll occasionally read the Book of Mormon in Korean before bedtime. He's really funny, LOVES Greek mythology (he's already taught me a lot), and it one of the all round best people I've ever met. I will call him Elder Healthy, because, well, he's healthy.

I am so excited to be in such an awesome area as Tai Wai! Some of my favorite HK people are here, including the parents of one of my Missionary Training Center teachers! I am anxiously waiting for her to come home and tell me that my Chinese has improved.

One last thing; because of some house shuffling; I'm living in Mong Kok for the time being. I am about 3 blocks from the house I was "born" in over a year ago, and it's REALLY nice to know where all the stores, restaurants, and email places are in the vicinity of my new home! Tons of deja vu, I love it!

I hope all of you are having a great time! Keep praying!

Love,

Elder JE O'Gara

Blog Post #69: Keep the Commandments!

Dear Loved Ones,

Okay, so I'm not going to be hitting any bookstores, but the very specialized wording contained in a short hymn was 100% covered by my knowledge of characters! Here's how it goes!

Keep the commandments; keep the commandments!
In this there is safety; in this there is peace.
He will send blessings; He will send blessings.
Words of a prophet: Keep the commandments.
In this there is safety and peace.

遵守誡命;守的戒律！
在這裡面是安全的，在這裡面是和平。
他會送祝福，他會送祝福。
先知的話：當遵守誡命。
在這裡面，是安全與和平。

There you have it! I am officially at Kindergarten status! We have moves calls tomorrow, so next week I might remember to tell you all where I'm serving from August to October.. and I might remember to bring my card reader to attach photos of birthday party foods!

Love,
Elder JE O'Gara