Herro Famiry

Dear Family,

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Happy San Francisco! 

 Calling home was way weirder than I thought it would be, don't get me wrong, it was awesome to hear from ya'll, but I never really use just English anymore. We use a ton of chinglish here. so I'm gonna teach ya'lls some chinglish we use all the time here:

Mafaahn: like annoying but deeperish "that guy is so Mafaahn!"

chaam: like sad and suck at the same time. Sorry Mom. "that's super chaam."

Leng jai: handsome boy, stud "Jug is way leng jai"

Chisin: crazy. just like english. "chisin!" 

Wat leih gei: I owned you. literally "dominate the machine"

Watgei: boss. like our slang boss. 

That's just a bit of what we use. Hopefully this helps you understand me next time I call cause chinglish is the best. Calling was good. The christmas pics look super good:) everyone seemed pretty happy and stuff. Christmas here was super awesome here too:)

 I'm gonna start trying to tell a story a week from now on too. New Years resolutions I guess. So here it goes. last last Saturday we were out finding like normal and Elder Van Orman started talking to this young mom waiting at a street light next to us. we just talked about normal missionary stuff, about her family, how old her kid was. Invited her to church the next day and then she came! Her name is Lily and she's super nice and cool. She wants to raise her son in a good church and stuff. Her son is 2 years old, adorable, and already super well behaved. Anyway, we gave her to the sisters to teach and she already has a baptismal date and everything! She's awesome! She came to the Christmas party and church this week too!

 So that's one story. I'll keep working on making more:) Yeah so far that's about it. things are going really good right now. The work is booming and I'm a happy elder:) Thanks for being an awesome family and supporting me and everything. Have fun in San Fran! Say Hello to China town for me!

Love,

Elder Osborne

Merry Christmas

We had a really good week this week, good stuff is happening and we're working hard. The weather lately has been awesome, a little bit cool but way better than last week. Last week was humid cold. humid cold is evil. As soon as you get out the door you start freezing, even if it looks super nice outside. Btw, I bought me a scarf this week for 30 HK dollars, which is about 4 US bucks, super nice.

Also, the package was awesome! Thanks for all the cool stuff, I liked the ties. The cookies made really good snacks and breakfasts:) Thanks to you and grandma I have enough lemonheads to last my entire mission. I sometimes sneak them in Elder Lau's pockets and stuff. It's hilarious cause when he finds them he always finds me and says "You!" super sneary and hilarious. I'm kinda the trickster of the apartment right now.

As for calls let me know what time it is a at home ASAP so I can figure it out, we're kinda planning on calling you christmas night your time but we'll see.

I'll email ya more in a bit, have fun in the snow!

I think we're just gonna call, we're not smart enough to face time or anything else:( Which episodes of Dr. Who did you watch? From what Mom said it sounds like you watched the dinosaur one in the 7th season. Try showing her one that's simpler like the weeping angels or somthing. Time goes way too fast here. yesterday was like 10 days till Christmas, it hardly even feels real. That's about it for me, tell mom to email back fast!
Best thing this week: got lots of people to come to church this week
I'm looking forward to doing more missionary stuff!
New food this week Don't remember, but we ate dinner at an old member ladies super old chinese boonie house this week. Imagine eating in like an tiny old farm shack with some furniture and stuff and that's what it's like :)
Christmas plans: Work, call you guys, ward christmas party
Story:
Investigators: Ivan, A-louh, Samuel, bro. Wong, lots of others and stuff
How Chinese celebrate Christmas: not entirely sure, go shopping more?
Anything else (maybe make me laugh): Here's me being a goof with QQ. Enjoy.

Love,

Elder Osborne

Still in Sheung Shui

 Moves were this week, but nothing  really changed. Elder Van Orman and I are still together, which to me is pretty good, he's been a good comp for me this move. I just hope he doesn't get sick of me. Little Chinese apartments make me hyper. For some reason, this new move has given me new energy for the work. I want to do my best and leave Sheung Shui in awesome shape, so I'm gonna work hard. I think I'm spending Christmas and Chinese new year in Sheung Shui. The members are gonna be sick of me. Everyone is saying "like father, like son" cause Elder Staheli spent his first 9 months in Sheung Shui. Btw, Elder Staheli went zone leader this move, which is awesome! 

 That's about it for me, things are going pretty good, home sounds pretty good too. Honey's shoe story is hilarious. That would happen to her. The weather here is coldish but definitely not like Utah. I kinda miss snow a bit, oh well, rain's nice too. 

 As for Christmas call, I can anytime, I just can't figure out the time change. We could do it whenever is good for you. The package I heard is in the office but we haven't picked it up quite yet, maybe today.  Oh, and we didn't find poopy pants, it's super hard to find if you aren't a naitive, but we'll keep looking. I hope you a have an awesome Christmas.

Love,

Elder Osborne

Salad Is Awesome!

This week was amazing! We had another investigator in our ward get baptized! Technically she is the sisters investigator, but Elder Falk found her when he was serving in our neighboring area and Elder Staheli taught her pretty much all the lessons. I was there for some of it too with Staheli. Then a rule change happened and we had to turn her over to the sisters because she was too young. Her English name is Salad cause she couldn't say Sarah when she was a kid. Anyway, when the Elders found her she had no friends so she said she prayed for friends and the Elders found her! Now she has tons of friends in the ward and school, and her relationship with her family has improved a lot too! She's been waiting to get baptized for a while, but her dad wouldn't let her till she turned 16. So we're all super happy this week:) Salad is Awesome. Last night I also got to see a lot of my missionary friends at what we call "my conversion story fireside" It's a meeting that all us missionaries and investigators can go to and hear RC's conversion stories. I'll send you a pic. The other elder in the pic is Elder Falk. He's awesome. 

 Also moves calls are tomorrow. we'll see if I get kicked out or not. I don't really wanna go, I love the ward and Leo and Nephew and Salad too much. They're all doing awesome by the way. 

 Things at home sound awesome, besides scary roads. I kinda miss snow. Honey, Lou, and jug sent me pretty good emails. Sounds like everyone is good:) Btw, what's Zach's email? I miss that kid. 

 As for christmas calls, when could I call you? How does time work over there? let me know as soon as you can. I love you and the whole fam, Merry Christmas from Hong Kong!

 Love,

Elder Osborne.

P.S. Tell Lori and them I said hi!

Thanksgiving

 This week was a lot better than the last one. I'm feeling a lot better now. Home seems like you are all doing awesome, Hopefully DeLoy is feeling better now. Things here are pretty good. I've still got a lot to learn, but overall things are doing well. Moves calls are coming up on the 10th, so we'll see how it goes, right now it feels like anything could happen. I still need to help Elder Van Orman to get to know the ward and the area better. We'll see how it goes.

 Congrats on getting the Tennessee family to dinner at home, if anyone can make people realize that Mormons are normal people with normal crazy families, it's us. We've been talking about it in the apartment. Most all the people we find, teach and baptize end up being really normal, which is strange  because there are a lot of crazy people in Hong Kong. A lot.

 Thanksgiving was really good over here too, us missionaries got together as a zone and had a pretty normal thanksgiving! We even managed to somehow get a turkey there too!

 Thanks for all you do for me and being a great example that I can look up to. I've got a great Mom and family. We see a lot of Asian families smoking in front of their kids here. Thanks for refraining. I love you and I'll keep on doing my best!

Love,

Elder Osborne

Pohng = Borne

 It's been a pretty good week, we're finding more people and things seem to be going good, this week should be especially good, we've got some potential families to teach coming out of the woodwork and stuff. I'm glad things are still going good at home, besides the Durhams moving, that stinks, I'm going to miss them a lot. Why is everyone jumping ship while I'm gone? Moves calls are coming up soon again around December 11th. I feel like I'm leaving this time, but I don't want to, I feel like there's a lot that I still need to do here. This last Sunday was really cool though, I got to see Leo bless the sacrament and I also got to see Nephew receive the Aaronic Preisthood. He should also be passing the sacrament this Sunday too. It's really cool to see them both progress this far:) 

Tell Gramdma Cow I said happy birthday for me, I hope she's doing alright. Things here are doing good, we've got a good mission here:) I was thinking about Christmas and all I really want is maybe some money to buy investigators and friends Christmas presents. I just barely gave Nephew and one of our best fellowshippers Preach My Gospels to help them teach lessons with us and hopefully serve missions in the future. They really liked it. Ideas for my Christmas package could be more pictures, a little deodorant, some lemon heads if you have some, other than that just have fun and surprise me:) That's about it this week, not too much has happened besides a really good zone conference, but that's about it. I love you and I'll hear from you soon.

Love,

Elder Osborne

P.S. I found out why my Chinese name is Pohng, It's the transliteration for "Borne" like the Jason Borne movies. osborne, borne, close enough. Pretty cool though:)

Special Fries

Home sounds like it's doing awesome! Tell Jug congratulations for me! Honey sent me a pic of the wedding and of jug's game, looks awesome! I'm so glad things a going well back home. Hong Kong is doing good too, Nephew got confirmed yesterday, which went really well. I'm still working on being a good senior companion and good missionary in general, but things are progressing, so I'm happy:) so yeah, things here are pretty good. Today we are going a place called the Mega Box, it's like the third biggest mall in the world and is supposed to be pretty cool. Malls are everywhere here. That's about it for this week, sorry if it wasn't much. Next week should be better email-wise. Tell everyone that they're doing great and that I love you all. Tell Lou to be nice. I hope things keep going well for you back home. Also learn how to make curry from that chef guy. We eat curry here a lot. It's super good!

The best thing I ate this week was probably McDonalds. They have special fries here called shake shake fries. You put 'em in a bag, put some flavor powder in it and shake it. It's wayyy good:) Right now they have japanese curry flavor:)
The worst thing I ate this week was nothing
The best thing that happened this week was Nephew's Confirmation!
My companion is: from Orem, Utah. We get along really well actually. He did drama in high school, loves movies a lot and loves weird music. Chinese people think he looks like Mr. Bean. They say I look like Havoc from Xmen Origins, or the lead singer from Maroon 5
What I'm reading in the scriptures right now is Alma 18ish. Ammon is just about to convert King Lamoni.
My next temple day is nov. 19th.
We are doing shopping! for p-day. Also watch Stellas mormon.org video and you'll know what I mean. BTW it's in cantonese:)

 

 Love,

Elder Osborne

Multicultural In HK

 I had very good week this week, we had a lot of good stuff happen:) Home sounds almost as awesome as Hong Kong. Please send me pictures of the Indian wedding thing, it sounds interesting. Really interesting. I've got an Indian friend here in my area. His name is Ali, one day I just sat on a bench and talked with him a bit. He asked me if I liked Coke, I said yes and he got up, went to a little Chinese shop and got us two cream sodas. I didn't really get a chance to share the gospel with him but he's super nice and I see him every once in a while getting home from high school. He also might have added me on facebook. So that's my story with Indians in Hong Kong.

Also, we had dinner with a family in our ward last night, which was where I found out that Chinese people also believe that drinking vinegar is good for you. They said farmers came up with it too, so maybe the Osborne's have some Chinese in them somehow. This place never ceases to surprise me.
 Things here a really good, I'm still not entirely sure what I want for Christmas quite yet, but I think I'll hold off on getting a new suit till the end. Lemonheads sound good. Maybe a little deodorant stuff. I definitely want more pictures. Also I heard of this good phrase book that is made by the same people that made one of the dictionaries I got from the MTC. I heard it's green and looks just like the two dictionaries I have, which are red and purple. I remember seeing the red dictionary on amazon, so the green one should be there too. That's a Christmas idea.

That's about it this week, thanks so much for being awesome for me. I love you all so much and I hope things stay cool and multicultural in Utah.


Also have some more good news. This is Nephew, and he got baptized yesterday.

 

 

Me, Elder Van Orman, Peter, and Angus. These two studs are pretty much my best buds in sheung shui ward

   
Love,
Elder Osborne

Bronson a cowboy???

Tell Jared and the rest of the Wong family I wish them the best and I'll miss them. Also tell them to sell their house to some Chinese people, their lucky address should make it pretty easy. It's weird how much the ward is changing while I've been gone. Oh well. I'm glad everyone is still doing pretty good:) Things here in Hong Kong are also pretty good, the weather is amazing right now! We are doing some really good work right now, we'll see how it all goes. 

 I was at a member families house last night for dinner and I told them about our chickens and the farm stuff. They think I'm a cowboy now and they don't believe that chickens can lay blue eggs, just white and brown. The members here are awesome here, they are super good to us missionaries:) 

 So yeah, things seem to be pretty good overall, I hope everything is going well with you guys at home! I'm still not sure what I want for Christmas, I kinda want a new suit, but I've already got 2, it's just that Hong Kong suits are so skinny and awesome. It's like everything I want I already have, or I'm afraid I don't have room for it:/ oh well. no biggie, I'll keep thinking about it. I hope everything keeps on keeping on at home, keep up the good work!

 Love,

Elder Osborne

Questionnaire

Things here in HK are going really well! Being senior comp is still a bit weird and I'm still getting used to it. Elder Van Orman is a great comp though so I think we'll be very successful together. The weather is getting a lot nicer too. So yeah, things here are pretty good:) 

 Home sounds exiting, I'm really glad everyone is doing well, hopefully Dad gets less stressed when Gramps gets back. Also, Tell the Wetzels that I said hi and congratulations! Are Missionaries in our ward good? How does missionary work work in Utah? Is it all referrals? We go street finding mostly.

As for Christmas, I have no idea yet. I'll start thinking about it. I'm just not sure what I need:/ 

I'll come up with some ideas this week. I love you and I'll update you more next week.

Love, 

Elder Osborne

We decided to try and get a bit more information out of Bronson this week so we basically gave him a questionnaire. The results are as follows:

I'm going Sha Tin and Ikea for p-day.
I am healthy: yes
The weirdest thing I ate this week was: Probably Chinese Pumpkin. Tastes sweetish.
A new word I learned this week was: song, the closest translation is refreshing. It's like the feeling of a cool breeze on your face. That feeling. I also learned how to say "tickle" and ticklish.
What I want most for Christmas is: A book of Cantonese idioms in pinyin and not just characters. I love idioms.
The weather this week was: Quite nice.
My companion is: Elder Van Orman
Are you allowed to wear skinny ties? If so, would you? yes and yes, I already have a few.
My dream tie would be: probably a super shiny yellow tie:)
We proselyte on average, 5 hrs. a day. It jumps up and down a lot.
I got 5 email this week from: everyone in the fam but Jug. And also a email from Madie.
My favorite thing to eat on the streets is: Gok sai beng. Hong Kong waffles. They put melted peanut butter, condensed milk, powdered sugar, and sometimes chocolate:)
There are like 120 actives in my ward and like 230 inactives.

Fish Eyes!

Well, there's a lot of news this week to tell you guys. I am still in Sheung Shui, and I am now senior companion. I am step training an elder that has only been in Hong Kong 2 months. His name is Elder Van Orman. he's from Ogden. He's super nice but he's kinda like the really green elder from the best two years if you know what I mean. He's super good though, he's a bit nerdy like me and I think we'll do really well together. I'm just still getting used to being senior comp. I've never had any real leadership positions like this before, so we'll see. My last comp went zone leader in the new Kowloon West Zone(they split Kowloon into East and West) He was pretty exited about that. So that's the news so far. Also, I ate fish eye last night at the Lam families house last night. It was actually really good:) you'd like the lam family, the kids all love minecraft and they are all super fun:) The dad is our new ward corellator, he used to be the first councillor in the bishopric, so he's gonna be awesome! 

 

 Conference was really good this time, I got a lot out of it, It was hard to pick a favorite this time. I'm also glad Pres. Monson seems to be feeling happier and stuff. I like how there was a focus on less actives this time, cause we've got a lot of them that we are working on, trying to get them back to church and stuff.

I'm sure everything will be all right with senior stuff. The fish eye was just in the fish, they cook the whole thing, head and all, because chinese people like the face meat and the eye ball, which turns out to be actually really good! They also had these super spicy chinese peppers too, they grew them in the church garden, which is just a tiny square compared to home. It was good.

Home sounds pretty much the same this week, Honey is good, Jug is good. Lou is Lou. Try to get me Zach's email, he'll definitely email back once he's in the MTC. How did he do on his farewell talk? Looking back, mine was pretty terrible, but I tried so whatever. This p-day we're going to Kong Kok, a shopping place like the one went to in Mexico. Except super asian with lots of cheap fake Dr. Dres and stuff. So yeah, that's about it for this week, I love you and I'll hear from you soon.

 

Jug should like this stuff:) 

 

 

The native is elder kwan, one of elder Maddux's converts. Super awesome!!!

 

 

The other is elder Arrington, this pic describes him pretty well.

 

Love,

Elder Osborne

Changes

We haven't had moves calls yet, that's tomorrow, so we'll see what's happening. We haven't seen conference yet either, which is on this saturday and sunday. So far, that's all that's up with me. 

 Things sound like they're doing good back home.  Us guys are pretty useless, so we got the priesthood to make up for that. I dunno, that fact seems pretty obvious to me. Jug sounds like he's doing pretty boss with football stuff. Honey and Lou sound about the same, except for Honey working and driving. What's that like? feels weird to me.

 I forgot to bring my camera today, so I can't send any pictures. Sorry about that. Also sorry if this is a boring email this week, all the cool stuff is happening this week. Tell Shirley thanks for the letters she sends me, it's really nice.

Anyway, I love you and look forward to updating you on all the changes this week:)

Love,

Elder Osborne

Brides Pool

Stuff in Hong Kong is going really good! I'm not sure when we get to watch conference, but moves calls is coming this next week. Elder Arrington says I'm leaving, but I can't tell. Well see. Home sounds pretty normal this week, Fall is going to be one thing that I think I'll miss. However, This last pday was awesome! We went hiking to this super cool place called brides pool. It was right after the typhoon so water was everywhere. I didn't bring my camera for the good part so you'll have to trust me on this one. Anyway, Brides Pool is supposed to be this little pool with a little waterfall, but when we went it was a big pool with a huge waterfall! You'll see it eventually, Arrington brought his waterproof camera. It felt like we were in Jurassic Park!  This pday we are going to a beach, so we'll see how that goes:)

Cantonese is going pretty good, still have a boatload to learn, but it's a lot better than before:)

Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you, we totally fire-bombed the kitchen. Elder Arrington broke one day and we ransacked the whole place, spayed roach killer everywhere, and used a fumigation bomb. We haven't seen many cockroaches since.

It's weird to think that Matt is 20. It's weirder to think that I'm 19 now, I miss being a special 18 year old missionary.

 Yeah that's about it for this week, the work is going well and we are having fun at the same time. I hope things are going well at home. I love you all and hope to hear from ya'll soon!

Love,

Elder Osborne

Typhoon

Dear family,

 This week seems like not that much happened, mostly because we had a "typhoon" over the weekend. It was a super week where I was, but we still had to stay in our apartment. We would have had a lot of people invite us to dinner, but they all cancelled with the weather. Other than that, things are going really well here. Moves calls and conference is coming up soon, so that should be exciting.

 Home sounds crazy as ever. Tell Dad that he is a super old fart for me. That's about it for this week, I'll be sending some pictures today too.

Love,

Elder Osborne

 



 

Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

Things here are really good! The work is progressing and my and my comp are doing really good together:) Home sounds like something weird and crazy happens every week, did stuff like that happen like that when I was home? Hong Kong has crazy stuff happen too, it just happens everyday so I don't know what stuff to tell you about. Mission tour is coming soon, which means some church leaders in the mission department is coming and checking up on us, we'll see how that goes. Also the Mid-Autumn moon festival is coming up this week too. It's kind of like Chinese Thanksgiving, like getting together with family and stuff, except instead of turkey, they have moon cakes.

 Our investigators are doing great too, Leo is doing great, he comes to church every week now, so that's good:)  I'm so glad that I have the chance to serve such great people here. I hope things at home stay good. The weather is pretty normal here, it should start cooling off and get more mild soon. I love you all and hope that everything is doing well.

Love,

Elder
Osborne

Pet Fairies

 Home sounds crazy. I can't believe it's already been two years since Robbie left on his mission. Missions feel too fast. I hope Trevor gets better too. Being sick on a mission would be super hard. Things here are pretty normal feeling. Things are going pretty smoothly, we've got good investigators and a great ward that helps us a ton:) One cool thing is last night we ate dinner with the Jehng family and our investigator, Nephew. Yes, his name is really Nephew, and he's awesome. The Jehng family is also awesome. They remind me so much of you guys back home. The dad is goofy like Dad The mom is relief society pres. and is also like Mom and the kids are like Honey, Lou, and Jug. Especially the one like Lou. I also learned how to say pokemon in chinese there too. It literally translates into "pet fairies". Chinese translations can be weird like that sometimes.

I think moves calls are on october 8th. We all try to speculate who's going where, but we really can never tell. My comp feels like I'm leaving, but I feel like I'm staying, so we'll see. Yeah chinese translations are really funny. Soda is literally air water, computer is electric brain, to call some one on the phone is "hit give'. you also hit your tie to tie it. My language is awesome, it's fun and weird like me:)

Love,

Elder Osborne

Hong Kong is Awesome

Dear Family,

 Things are pretty good right now, nothin' much to complain about. This week is temple week so my pday is on wednesday here. That's cool that we have a filipino serving in our ward right now, I'm living with one in my apartment. His name is Elder Dy and he's awesome! Thanks so much for the package, it was awesome, all the stuff is way useful! especially the lemon heads:) 

 Speaking of having missionaries over for dinner, we were eating at an awesome member's house and while were were introducing ourselves, they said I look very "mormon". I don't really know what that means, everyone thinks my comp is mexican and apparently I look like a Mormon to chinese people. So yeah, dinner with members here is awesome fun! Things are really goood over here. I feel like I'm learning Cantonese faster now, which feels really good:) I feel really blessed to be here serving and learning. Hong Kong is an awesome place and I really feel like I belong here. I hope things keep going well for you guys back home, I love you all so much and I'll hear from y'all soon!

Love,

Elder Pohng:)

Birthday

Dear Family,

 We had a good week in Hong Kong. I had a good birthday, but I wish I was still 18. I'm not special anymore! oh well. Also this week was pretty different, on my birthday, some of us missionaries performed in a concert thing at a high school. It was pretty fun for my birthday. This boy band from america was the main event. They aren't famous, they're just touring asia as a service thing. Asians love it because they love foreigners. Us missionaries get it lot too. when we go out finding we sometimes talk to teenages girls who say " I'm not interested, but you are sooo handsome!". Asians, man. Also, they like to take pictures with us. Also funny. There have got to be thousands of people with pictures of missionaries who don't even know who we are. It's just a funny Hong Kong quirk.

Sounds like stuff back home is crazy. I got Jugs football pictures. What a boss. In HK, we'd call him a "lang zai" (handsome boy). He's awesome. 

 

Things are pretty good here in Hong Kong. Today, we're going to a Bruce Lee exhibit at a museum!! Bruce Lee is so boss! His trainer's grave is in my area, how cool is that!? This mission is legendary! I love you all and hope you're doing well.

Love, Elder Osborne

Stories

Dear Family,

 So school is back already? That happened fast.

 I can understand Mandarin pretty ok and hopefully by the end I'll also be able to speack quite a bit. Either that or I'll study it in college. Mandarin is super easy if you know cantonese. Hopefully school will be good for everyone this year.

The language is better, still not where I want it to be though. I'm working really hard on it, but feel like I should be progressing faster than I am right now. I can understand a lot better, but I still have trouble speaking. Not giving up by any means though. one of the characters in my full chinese name translates into "doesn't give up" I think it fits pretty well The other character means handsome. also fits well.

 Things are a lot better this week, Leo should be better. He was sick this week so he didn't come to church this week, but we'll meet this week and help him out. Keep praying for him.

My new companion and I are getting along really well. Elder Arrington is super cool, he's super good at soccer, and the ward loves him for it. I feel like we'll do some really good work together this move. We already are progressing really well on getting less actives back to church, which is really good as well.

 It's story time.

 Spiritual: We just barely found a less active who hasn't been to church in over 10 years! We just found his record in our apartment, called him, met with him once, and he came to church this week! You should have seen him, he's 65 and he's walking super fast to get back to church. Turns out he was so busy working that when the new church was built, he never learned where it was. He's retired now, so he's says he's coming back. I wish I were a better story teller. It was really cool. Bishop Choi was so happy to see him back.

 Funny: We find a lot of crazy people here. Cities attract crazy people, and so do missionaries. kind of a bad combination really. Anyway, me and my last comp were out finding in the Chinese boonies right by Mainland when we found this old guy. We said hello and he just kept saluting us. Then he comes up, takes our hands and slaps them, saying, "Ho yeh! Ho yeh!" which in Chinese means good stuff. Then he just walks away. There are a ton of other crazy stories that happen to other missionaries in HK, I just haven't been out long enough.

It feels weird almost not being 18 anymore. I still feel like I should be 18 for a while longer, but I guess not. Thanks so much for the package, hopefully I will get it soon:) also tell Grandma thanks for her package as well. I love you all so much and I hope everything at home is going great.

We're not doing much this pday. We have to help with efy stuff over here. I kinda just want to quietly turn 19 and not make too big of a deal about it. Thanks for the birthday wishes, it's awesome to have an awesome family that will send me stuff too.:) 

I love Winston Churchill quotes. My favorite right now is "it is not enough that we do our best, we must also do what is nessessary" I know that I can only do my best, but the Lord will help me do even better so I can do what is necessary. 

Love

Elder Osborne

New companion

Dear family,

This week was super weird, we had moves so I got a new companion, and all sorts of crazy stuff has been going on. My new comp's name is elder Arrington, he's from texas, I'll tell you more about him later.

Keep praying for Leo! He's been told a lot of anti stuff from one of his christian friends. There's been a lot of anti stuff going on lately. He got confirmed this week though, so that's good. Still need to answer some questions he has though.

Anyway, not much else is going on right now, there will be lots more next week.

I love you all and hope that everything is going well at home.

Love, Elder Osborne

First baptism

Leih ho everybody,

 

 This picture is of me and Leo. Leo is my first baptism! We found Leo through another set of Elders that first contacted him and got his number. At first he said he didn't have a lot of interest in religion, but look at him now! After the first couple lessons, he got a job that had him working on Sundays, which was a huge hurdle for him, but we had a super powerful lesson with him on commandments and keeping the Sabbath day holy with an amazing family in our ward. That week we called him to see if he was coming to church on Sunday and he said he was! He talked to his boss and found out it was totally ok to take Sundays off for church! I think this was his turning point. After that, everything went really smoothly for the next few weeks and now he's baptized! Later in his testimony, he talked about how he was looking for a job for along time, then right after he met us, he found a job, and because it was just a summer job and he finished it just barely, he got a huge bonus when he finished it! So cool! He's also a college student, studying graphic design. He's a bit of a nerd just like me and we both like a lot of the same stuff. I hope I can help him receive more blessings and help him stay active. Hong Kong is full of miracles, I'm so grateful be serving the Lord in this wonderful place!

Today for p-day, we don't have much going on. A 4:00, we will be involved in english EFY, teaching english to our wards youth and some of our younger investigators, so we got have as much time as we normally do. We've also been doing singing practice on monday for a concert thing we'll be opening for. I'll send a couple pics. One is of me and my roommates goofing off about it.

Tons of pictures

Dear Family,

 THAT is why I wanted to send pictures so bad last week, cause Hong Kong is AWESOME!!! So yeah, things are going great over here, another successful week gone by. It sounds like everything back home is also doing well. 

I don't really know what to write this week, it went by so fast! We are still doing really well, still working hard, and still playing hard. Moves calls are coming up soon and Elder Staheli is probably leaving the area cause he's been here so long, so I'll keep you updated on that. Elder Staheli is a great trainer, he's taught me exactly what I need to be an effective missionary. I had no idea how much goes in to keeping things running smoothly here, but he  is teaching me how to manage things. Sheung shui area is very special to both of us. there are so many amazing people here. I'm really grateful to be where I am now. Being a missionary is such an amazing experience. I hope this week I can redouble my efforts and give it my all! I love you all so much and hope you are all doing as great as I am!

Yeah I'm almost positive that I'm staying, President Hawks wants us to stay in our areas longer so we can get to know it and to better serve it. I'm just fine with that, cause Sheung Shui is the best!

Love, Elder Osborne:)

Most of these pics i'm sending today are of last weeks pday. We went down to the island and saw some cool stuff!

This is me and Elder Barker on Zone exchanges. We were in the MTC together. we were all by ourselves doing missionary work in HK for a whole day! 

This is Elder Woods. He's a mandarin elder from springville. He's awesome.

Another week in HK

Dear Family,

 

 Hong Kong sounds a lot more peaceful than back home, which is weird cause it's usually the other way around. Power down, water down, crazy stuff. I don't think we get many power outages here, everyone is always super ready for typhoons and stuff like that, but we'll see. This week for me was really good! we're having success and all sorts of good stuff! This p-day we went down to where all the super huge bank buildings are. So cool!

 

 It sounds like the siblings are also doing great, especially Honey with the sweet new job! I bet Lou will do great speaking in church. Patriotism is a fun subject, make sure you make funny faces at her while she's talking. I still do that over here to some of the young men, it's hilarious:) honestly, we've got one of the best wards ever, I wish you could meet them, you would love them. Jug would get along real well with the kids too, they all play minecraft just like us!

 

I'm still not sure what kind of present stuff you could send, some things the people like here are: food, America, red rock country like arches, and more food. so yeah, just something little, I don't know. The reason why I'd like honey is that everything here is either super asian, or processed foods. I'd like something from home that I can eat, so our honey sounds pretty good right now:) 

Argh! I don't think I can send any pics this week, the computer is being difficult:/ oh well.

 

I'm so glad everything is going great at home! Things here in Hong Kong are amazing! I'm so grateful to be here! I love you all and hope you have another fun week.

 

Love,

Elder Osborne

 

One Hundred Days

Dear Family,

 

It's weird to think that it's been over 100 days since I left for the mission, time here goes by way too fast! It rains a lot here, so I'm pretty happy weather-wise! It's good to know Utah is getting some rain too:) I can't really think of much that I want for my birthday, maybe some of our bee's honey and a bleach pen for clothes. somthing small. Also I would love some more family pictures, maybe some pictures of utah that I can give investigators and friends. People love little gifts here so I'd like to do something like that. Also maybe brownie and cookie recipes. I want to make some treats for our neighbors and my roommates soon.

 

Speaking of roommates, we got 2 more Elders in our apartment! They are mandarin speaking, one is Elder Dy from the Philipenes, the other is Elder Woods from springville Utah. They are awesome! Since we are so close to the border they are going to do huge things here in sheung shui.

 

That reminds me, we were out finding this last week way up by the border so it's got a more rural feel. That's where we found a saddle club! We got to see horses in Hong Kong, I thought Lou would like that. I never thought I'd see horses here besides at the horse racing arena.

 

I love you all and hope everything stays good!

 

Love,

Elder Osborne

These are from when we went to Ikea!