Blog Post #68: Happy

Dear People,

I love everything! I'm just so happy today! Why? I'm not 100% sure, but it definitely has to do with the awesome care package my awesome family sent me! What do I miss more than Girl Scout Cookies? Just about nothing! So what did I get? Thin mints and Caramel DeLights! I am ecstatic, and definitely not sharing the Caramel DeLights.

There are many exciting things going on in my family, some of which will be talked about at later dates, the most exciting of which is that my mother is officially a year older! My dad also had a birthday that I forgot to plan a party for, so next week I'll put up pictures of the food I made. There were brownies and birds, I'll be more specific in my captions next week.

Another reason this week was happy is because we taught 10 lessons this week! Now, I'm not sure if Statesiders or Mexico-Serving Missionaries are sad if they're not pulling triple digit numbers every month, but here in Hong Kong 10 lessons a week is a pretty respectable number. Elder Sugar Baby and I have worked hard, talked to a lot of people, and we're feeling better than ever about the future of Tai Po.

Despite wind, rain, and people who don't like us, we've been working, and we'll keep working no matter what happens. I love being out here, I love being with my companion, and I love the work I do! I'm glad I've still got lots of time out here on my Mission, and I expect to write a lot more letters home about the amazing things that are being done.

Love,
Elder J.E. O'Gara

Blog Post #67: The Invasion

Dear People,

When I came to Hong Kong, I was aware of two redheads; Sister J was in the Kowloon Zone with me, and my Trainer had just been companions with Elder C, who's hair is the color of a Crayola Crayon with "fire" in the name.
[Elder O'Gara's best friend in high school is/was a "ginger"]

Now, the Gingers are invading! Sister J is serving the Tai Wo Ward, so she shares the building with us, and Elder C is serving in the other companionship in the Tai Po Ward, so I see both of them ALL the time! My life is being overrun by the red hair people, and it's pretty awesome! 

Sister J loves to draw, which is cool, and Elder C and I have many conversations about the Calculus needed to find the hyper-volume of an nth dimensional object. Okay, so that last one is a lie; he tells me about the math and I nod my head, because the only math I remember is "A squared plus B squared equals C squared". He also loves to read Science-Fiction and blow things up, so even though neither of us can do either of those things as Missionaries, we have talks about the shenanigans we used to get into.

This week we've just been working hard and getting people to come to Church and commit to be Baptized, and everything else that Missionaries do! 

Yesterday Sister K got set apart as a Missionary, and she brought 6 friends with her to be there; she's already doing tons of work! She's already on the plane to California (via the MTC), which is super exciting for the Ward! There are something like 9, soon to be 10, full-time Missionaries serving from the 2 congregations that use the Tai Po Chapel, which is really exciting and happy for everyone involved!

I love you all, and hope that everything is going great back home, or wherever you are! Keep smiling, because life will only go according to God's plan for what is the best for you! Have some faith and roll with the punches!

Love,

Elder JE O'Gara

Blog Post #66: Pictures!

So, I've had some awesome times this last week, and I took pictures of it on my iPod Touch! I was super stoked to share these pictures and experiences with everybody on the 20 minute walk from the apartment to the Tai Po Market Library, so here they are, from most recent to least...

I met Dr. Ron Staheli! He's the chior director at BYU, and taught one of my favorite Chior Directors, Luke Lords! He gave a series of devotionals in half a dozen places in Mainland (he had to choose his words "very carefully"). I told him I'll probably see him next Summer, but the next Spring is more likely.

Mango season is upon us! This is not trick photography, that mango really is cut into cubes! And the size of my face! For the price of a quart of cheap orange juice or a dozen eggs, both my companion and I bought the ($15) Philipines mangoes, and they are good! Mostly surupy sweet, with a little tang, they are what mangoes ought to be!

I cooked a $160 dinner for 7 people the other night, and the video I took of the kitchen is too big, so here's the plum, squid, pork, corn, pork liver soup I made! It was really good, but needed more salt. I also did a whole steamed fish and two heads of cauliflower, 4 carrots, and a head of brocolli, all steamed with a little butter.

Oh? What's that that I'm reaching for? Is it a bug? Let's take a closer look!

Yup! That's a small Banana Spider! He's not a baby, not even for a boy spider, but he's not an adult yet. This was only 10 minutes from the inner city housing estate where we like to do street contacting. I love how Hong Kong draws sharp, clear borders between city and rainforest, it's easy to go from one to the other!

This is just a Westie I pretended to kiss because I miss my dog. Joey is a lot cuter, and older, than... I forgot his name.

{insert "caterpillar"}
[Sorry, the caterpillar photo did NOT arrive with the email. Maybe next week!]
I took this the first day after I got my iPod! We found him on the sidewalk, and then we found a couple more that had been run over by bikes, so we went back, picked him up with a stick (because he may or may not have been venomous with colors like that) and put him in the bushes.

That's about all for this week! I am so happy to be able to do pictures! I hope all of you are having a great time, because I know I am, and I know Number 4 is loving Ramadan!

Love,
Elder J.E. O'Gara

Blog Post #65: Lack of Communication

Dear People,

No one told me that Devotionals at the MTC are at the Marriott Center now! Also, I wasn't able to tell anyone that today was Temple Day, so yeah, we're even I guess. I have zero time because of a Scheduling Fiasco involving 3 different libraries, but we already booked next week's time, so it won't happen again!

Love,
Elder JE O'Gara

Blog Post #64

Dear People,

Happy Monday! I am feeling really weird today, mostly because it's July! I was in Hong Kong last July, with Elder Ma, not knowing a single word of Cantonese. Now I'm in Hong Kong, but with Elder SugarBaby, and he's the one that doesn't know Cantonese! That's not true; his Chinese is pretty good, and he had the First Vision memorized a good five months before I did.

Welcome to the hot month! This one and August are the worst here in HK; but I've got my chin up because I know I'm going to sweat off about 20 pounds this summer. Unfortunately, I'll likely get it back in the winter, but it's like whatever. I'm happy to be here doing the Lord's work! I really do find joy in what I'm doing, it may not bring happiness or pleasure every moment of every day, but I go to bed happy every night... That I don't eat three McDonald's Fanta Float Freezes because they were $7 instead of the regular $10, and the promotion ended on Saturday, so you know we HAD to get our fill! I did enjoy it though, not gonna lie.

The work is still moving on, and I am still a very happy Missionary! One of the people we're working with is making truly miraculous progress; she just barely started reading the Book of Mormon daily, and now we're hoping that she'll find the desire to come to Church weekly. One other person we're working with is working on finding his faith in Christ, and by helping one of his friends come to Church they are progressing together!

I am so excited to be here, I love it, I love Jesus Christ, and I love the people I'm serving. Because I have the constant companionship of the Holy Spirit; I am protected from feeling crushing doubt or debilitating disappointments, because I know that God is my Father, and that He has what's best for me in store! Being a Missionary truly is a great thing!

Love,
Elder O'Gara

Blog Post #63: Rain and Vegetables

Dear Friends and Family,

I only have 5 minutes, but all of my life right now consists of walking in torrential downpour and buying local (but not organic) vegetables at the local street markets. The work here has been going well, but really slow. However, on Friday we got a dozen phone numbers, which is pretty good! As we start scheduling and meeting them we'll see amazing things happening, and I am excited for that! Not much is new here, but I'll try to take many pictures to put on here.

I love you all,
Elder JE O'Gara

Blog Post #62: Culture

Dear People I Love,

Last week we went to the Hong Kong Culture Museum, and it was pretty awesome. At first I was thinking "Yeah, whatever, I don't really want to go, but it's only 20 minutes away and only $10, and it'll make my companion happy, so whatever". My enthusiasm was pretty low, not gonna lie.

IDIOT! I had the time of my life! I already knew that I loved the Lingnan School and their painting style, but now I know that Gao Qi-Feng is my favorite artist that was ever born among the children of men! He blends the old-school chinese with more modern techniques in ways I didn't know existed!

rooster and chicken in the rain


 monkey in the moonlight

Until further notice, he's not only my favorite painter/artist in modern times, but he's who I want to be when I grow up. Especially bespectacled, and living in HK wouldn't be bad either.

There were other awesome things there (like finding out that Tai Po was the center for the resistance against the British when they tried to take the New Territories), and I'll probably go again when there's a cool featured exhibit! How many awesome things are in your backyard? Go find out! Go see a museum this week, everybody loves museums, it just has to be the right one!

ANYWAYS,

On a Missionary note, I've been tearin' it up with Sugar Baby! We've been doing a lot of work trying to find and identify/bring back people who have fallen away from the Church, and while we haven't seen a ton of results yet, I know from my time in TST that miracles are right around the corner! Regardless of how long that takes, I'm still going to have a lot of fun here!

Yesterday during my Personal Study I was reading Alma chapter 49, where the good guys fortifying all the cities so the bad guys can't annihilate them, and I thought "What does this stuff have to do with me?". Then, out of nowhere, the the dews distilling from Heaven, I recieved personal revelation in an analogy.

You can't just say "I'm going to be strong in the faith of Christ and be protected", it doesn't work that way! You've got to strengthen every facet of yourself and ensure that it can withstand a war. In Preach My Gospel (kind of like the Missionary training book), there are a dozen or so Christlike Attributes that we're encouraged to study and develope, like Charity, Love, Patience, Humility, Faith, etc. Each of these parts of ourselves has to be strong enough by itself to withstand anything that Satan can throw at it. I'd love to elaborate more, but I'm out of time for today, so I'll leave you all to ponder it out for yourselves.

Love,
Elder J.E. O'Gara