Blog Post #42: Even More Changes

Dear People,

In this Church our congregations are assigned by geographical boundaries. Sometimes, to accommodate the needs of various congregations (more leaders, more young people, etc.) these lines are redrawn. This happened yesterday and it's a HUGE game changer! Let me give a quick rundown of what happened. (In semi-map form!)

Sheung Shui Ward

Northern Border: Mainland

They lost about the southern third of their area, a region called Fanling. Those of you who follow these letters a bit too religiously will remember that that's where I live. They were the strongest Ward in our area, so no one feels sorry for them losing Fanling.

Tai Wo Ward

They got Fanling from Sheung Shui, which is a bonus to their Young Women's program, stole a few housing complexes from us, but lost Tai Wo Estate, which is a massive hit to their Young Women's program.

Tai Po Ward (Where I serve!)

We got Tai Wo Estate! There are some extremely powerful people there that will be HUGE in helping us teach lessons. We also lost a bit of our northern area, but we'll survive. Another massive gain for us was that we got the Chinese university of Hong Kong from Shatin Ward! It's a famous area for being successful for finding people, and I'm excited to have it be a part of where I serve!

Shatin Ward

As far as I know they only lost CUHK to us, which is okay-ish because they have such a powerhouse area anyways.

So, the next 19 weeks that I'm guessing I'll be here will be super awesome, and all this new territory we have to work with is really going to help us find more people and keep them in the Church! Nevertheless, pray for me, I'm going to have a lot of work to do out here!

I love you all, and I'm so glad that I have this opportunity to serve the Lord! I am so blessed to be in this area with Elder Roper, he has a lot to teach me and I have a lot to learn from him! I love the hour I get for Personal Study every day. It helps me understand this Gospel that I'm preaching, and I hope that you are taking time to study the scriptures every day. Even if it's just a few minutes in the evening, anything you can do to invite the Spirit of God into your life will help you become happier and better people.

I love all the things that I am learning out here! I am excited to be able to share them with the people of Hong Kong and with all of you, and I hope that what I write is uplifting as well as entertaining. I hope that everything is going well in America, and that all of you are happy and healthy and well!

Love,

Elder O'Gara

Blog Post #41: Two Days Late...

And with only 2 dollars in my pocket!

Today is Wednesday in China, which may have some of you thinking, "Did Preparation Day change again?". No, well, only for this week. Our normal P-Day is on Mondays, but our Temples aren't open on Mondays because that day is set apart for families to be together. SO we changed our P-Day from Monday to today so that we could go to the Temple! Hooray!

We went at 9:00 and got out at about 11:15, and in the intervening 2 1/2 hours we went to Korean BBQ, because why not?

We paid $108 each, and 8 of us sat around a trio of 16 inch round grills and [feasted?] on [ate?] meat and veggies until we were stuffed. 

People tell me I don't include enough detail, so here's a blow-by-blow of the epic struggle.

Elder O' VS Food

Round 1

18 golf ball sized dough balls, covered in sesame seeds, deep fried, and then drowned in sweetened condensed milk

-Gone in an instant! I pounded them into oblivion until all that was left was a puddle of goop with sesame seeds floating in it.

Round 2

12 Baby Squid, soaked in chili sauce

-Although the hot chilies on the outside made me pace myself, a dozen calamari the size of my palm is hardly a challenge. I am, however, quite satisfied with how well I grilled them; I usually under cook fish and take one bite and have to throw it back onto the cooking surface.

Round 3

12 ounces of chopped mutton, soaked in Chinese BBQ sauce (soy sauce, sugar, more soy sauce)

-Didn't stand a chance! After tossing it around on the grill until it had gone from deep red to medium brown, I threw a little more soy sauce on top and ate it bite by bite, enjoying each mouthful of delicious fragrant sheep.

Round 4

4 coconut mochi balls, 6 sesame dough treats, some kind of fruit... gelatin?, a small order of fries, and a few deep fried wanton wrappers covered in honey

-I ended up eating on [one] coconut mochi and given [giving] the rest to Sister Clements (we went as a District), but everything else was amazing! Except for the fry sauce they had, it was just funky. But, at least they tried!

Round 5

A plate of watermelon and Dragonfruit

-No Comment Necessary

Round 6

A bowl (i.e. a pint) of French Vanilla and Chocolate Chunk ice cream. Not a pint each, but a pint total

-I had to slow down a bit, but overall I finished off the ice cream with little resistance. I did, however call it quits after this round, just to keep myself from gaining too many pounds.

There were also 2 glasses (a quart) of soymilk in there, but it was sickeningly sweet and I only drank that much because I thought it was the better, less sweet, less thick stuff they had last time. I was a bit disappointed in it.

Well, that was my Preparation Day!

 I have enough time to write an email to the President (Mission President), go home, do studies, and then hit the streets in a desperate attempt to burn off a few hundred of the few thousand calories I ate today.

I love you all, and I hope everybody is having a good time! 

If any of you have any suggestions for improving my Blog, by all means, share! I don't want to bore anyone!

Love,
Elder O'Gara

[Editorial notes are in brackets [  ] . He is losing his spelling/grammar more and more.  I have been correcting it but have decided that perhaps his readers deserve to read what I, his compulsive spell/grammar checking mother, read. That would be the untouched email I receive ~ with my 'improvements' in brackets.]     [kvk]

Blog Post #40: Ten Minutes

Dear People,

I love you all! I don't have buckets of time, so here's a picture of noodles covered in brown fungus...

...Chicken Fajitas and Beef Potato curry I made from the stuff Numero Quatre left me...

...and $800 of food storage that I bought, just in case a rainy day comes around and our apartment is in trouble.

As you can see, I eat really well, even too well, but hopefully I'll learn self control and run more in the morning and get more fit. I love the work I'm doing, I just wish I had more time for aerobic exercise! Maybe I should run from person to person while I'm doing street contacting...

Love,
Elder O'Gara

Blog Post #39: Not Really the New Year

Dear People,

I'm not going to say it, because it's still the 10th (Lunar) month. When all of China shuts down for a week, red (meaning Prosperity, not Communism) banners cover everything, and every flat surface is covered in cartoon snakes, THEN we'll talk about the New Year. 

Okay, so they do acknowledge it for business purposes, but if China didn't have to play by the rest of the world's rules to trade with them, we would probably use the Lunar Calendar exclusively.



Speaking of China...

Yup, that's it behind me! The tall-ish houses are still HK, but the really tall towers and the houses in the far back are all the Daaih Lohk! I'm a stone's throw from the one place every Chinese-Speaking Missionary wants to go, it's a pretty great feeling.

For the last day of December I went with many of my friends, including my buddy Elder WR Jackson from Wyoming, to the beach...

To have a BBQ!

I was too busy eating to take any pctures, sorry. It was delicious, though! We had lots of chicken, a little pork, a little beef, a pineapple, and some genius brought a durian. I forgot to take a picture of the durian, else I would put it on. I bought the smallest one and it still cost me $53, a quarter of my average weekly food budget! It's a good thing we're getting leftovers like CRAZY from all the people in our Ward, else I would be in trouble!

I really have been working, we've been able to talk to some amazing people, and we've got 4 people preparing themselves for Baptism! I pray for you all, many of you by name, and I hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder O'Gara

Blog Post #38: How Old?

Dear People,

First; my little sister's birthday was earlier this month, which I forgot to mention. Sorry! I love you, Hermanita! Happy 19th!

ANYWAYS...

Two days ago I turned 20. That's 1/6 of my Earth Life gone! I've come a long way, though; I can tie my own shoes, brush my own teeth, button my own jacket, and I can even flip an egg without throwing it on the ground... most of the time. I'm working on that.

I've also gone from 5 1/2 pounds to 200 pounds, and 21 inches tall to 70 inches, not a small feat for someone that spent a good 1/2 of that time asleep. I've also become a mostly-independant person, with the occasional exception of not knowing how to order food in Chinese, but I'm working on that, too.

I've had a great week celebrating the birth of my Savior, my self, and soon that of 2013! I'm going biking with some of my friends here, which will probably produce some great pictures. Hopefully I will remember the cord that lets my camera upload to the computer next week.

I've gotta run, but I love you all, and hope you all have a great time ringing out 2012!

Love,
Elder O'Gara

Blog Post #37: Three Days Late...

But not three dollars short!

This week has been CRAZY! 

We had a fantastic activity at my old building in TST on Christmas Eve! The whole Mission was there, and we ate 2 pigs, tons of rolls, a bit of Jello, a ton of cookies, and some blueberry cheesecake. I was in the Mission Choir, and we sang "The First Noel", "Oh, Holy Night", "Born to Wear a Crown", and "Silent Night". It was such fun, I love singing! We also had a gift exchange that was supposed to be a $50 gift exchange. It turned out to be that "Evil Elf" game where people run around stealing all the good presents. I ended up with a $15 dollar broom and $35 of chocolates (which I traded with a Sister who got Ramen), and President Hawks got an empty pop bottle ("Instant Water Storage, Just Add Water!"). There were good gifts (for the record; I love my broom!); like a $50 bill, some fluffy slippers and fluffy ducky towels (I almost stole one of those for my niece), and various amounts of Ferrer Rochers, which are worth their weight in gold here!

THEN, on Christmas Day itself, we road a bus for an hour and a half (I got SUPER carsick!), and then I sang the same four songs at the Hon Seui Kiu Chapel Open House! It's a massive building, but not quite what I'd consider "Standard/Full Size". They had really good apple cider there, which I liked. Right after that we rode the MTR train home (they don't make me carsick), and hung out for a little bit before our Ward Christmas Activity! There was a really fun Scripture Trivia game about Christmas, and a lot of good food. The thing I love most about the Church is that Mormons, no matter what continent we live on, love to eat together. I talked to an older gentleman who's not super interested in the Church, but helped him understand why he should consider it... I hope.

I love Christmas! It's an easy way to talk openly with others about the Savior, why we need Him, and why we celebrate His life, love, and Atonement. I love Christ, and I love spreading His Gospel! It's not fun every day, but it's worth every second. I know that I'm here in Hong Kong to give these people a chance to experience true, unending happiness, and I hope that I can be the best Missionary I can so that they will make the most of this opportunity. I know that all of us can find ways to spread the Gospel, so I invite all of you who've experienced the Savior's love to share it with someone around you!

Love,
Elder O'Gara

Blog Post #36: You Know it's Fun When...

... "Fun" is in the name!

On Thursday I moved to Fanling (pronounced FUN-Ling)! I live with my "little brother" (we have the same trainer/dad) and my companion is my "uncle" (he and my trainer had the same trainer). I'm the only Non-Utah Born in our house, which is kind of a cool thing for me! Go Washington!

That means Cougars, not Huskies.

Anyways, the new area is great! It's TINY (maybe around 1/8 of TST?), but the ward members are golden. They gave us a few pounds of fried noodles, a gallon of fried rice, and a couple Asian-Style microwave dinners. Do they have Eat East in America? It's pretty good, for microwave food.

My companion, Elder Casey Roper, is from Camas, a little town in Utah where all they had to do was watch movies and play Risk or Settlers. We may or may not play Risk as a house tonight (my little brother's never seen it before!), but we only have Settlers of Zarahemla, which is apparently a Mormon ripoff. It still looks fun to me, but Risk is more favorite.

Like grape, rather than cherry.

I'm excited to be serving here in Fanling. I can feel great things getting ready to happen, and I'm glad the Lord has called me to labor in this corner of the vineyard. I hope that I can live up to His expectations, fulfill this calling, and send Elder Roper home a happy and successful Missionary in 3 months (yeah, I'll probably "kill" him).

I love you all, I love this work, and I am SO happy to be here serving!

Love,
Elder O'Gara