First email from China!!!

Leih ho Family!

It looks like I got to hong kong safe and sound:) The mission president was supposed to send a picture of them with me to prove that I got here, but I guess not for me. Oh well, Hong Kong is amazing! The first couple nights in the mission home were really nice, we were put in patron housing cause there were so many of us. people from all over come to the Hong Kong temple, it really crazy. Apparently it's area is the biggest in the world, it includes all of indonesia, pakistan, india, china, and a lot of other places, which is crazy. We got to stay with a bunch of people that were sealing their families together, which was amazing:) My trainer is named elder staley, he's pretty good. Our apartment is pretty good for Hong Kong standards, but someone needs to teach missionaries how to clean stuff up a bit. We need to buy some cleaning supplies, but I don;t know where to go to find them:/ we need: dish rags, paper towels, wet wipes and bleach for the toilets, Shout for their poor shirts, a bathroom mat, that cleaner stuff that you need to scrub our shower, scrub brush, pinesol, and something to really clean our floor. also fly swatters. Our apartment really isn't that messy, it just needs some love. I should be getting help with that soon with the mission housing leader, so it's no big deal.

The language is a bit overwhelming right now, but i learned that I just need to be more patient with myself and it will come. The people here are great though, especially the active members, Our ward is the the best family ward in Hong Kong, I swear! They are also amazing at fellowshipping investigators. They are also amazing at feeding missionaries:) They really love feeding missionaries, even the less actives and investigators:) By the way the food here is amazing. even the vegetables taste great! I haven't really ate anything super weird yet, but I'll keep you posted. Our area is called sheung seui. I'm not quite sure how to spell it right, but oh well.

The trip there wasn't bad at all, I didn't even get any jet lag, so I felt great pretty much to whole time:)

 

Hong Kong is way greener than you would think, I'll send you pictures next week:) The weather here is pretty hot and humid, but I've already adapted to it, It's already rained a few times since I've been here, it's not near as cold as our rain because of the humidity, which is a bit weird. The parks here are especially pretty, cause they're in the middle of the city and they have a ton of tropical plants and stuff. The Ironic thing is is that Hong Kong people are afraid of rain! They try really hard to avoid it, which is impossible cause it rains really often. They think you'll get sick if you don' have an umbrella. It hasn't rained quite hard enough for us missionaries to need one quite yet.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention President and Sister Hawkes! They're awesome! Sister Hawkes is totally the mission mom, She's so nice and I love her! President Hawkes is also way good, he's very business-like with the work if you know what I mean. I love that about him and I'm gonna do my best for him and the people here. Finding people to talk to isn't that easy in Hong Kong, everyone is working all the time or busy, but most everyone is really polite about it. The biggest reason of why we get a lot of inactives is because of work on sundays. There is so many people here it's impossible to keep track of all the inactives:/ we do our best but people move around so often and sometimes to mainland we just can't keep records of them all. The active members that stay active though are some of the happiest people I've ever seen though:)They almost put Utah wards to shame, everyone is really good at their callings, and just awesome in general. I just wish that I could talk to them! I have so much more Cantonese to learn, It's like drinking from a fire hydrant. I can't understand hardly anything most of the time so far, but I just need to stay patient and work hard.

 

Honestly the language is the hardest thing so far, my area is great, my companion is great, everything is great but the language. I just really want to understand people, and talk to them! Argh! Oh well, that's enough whining for one email.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and raising me right, and everything else you've do for me! I love all of you and I'll hear from you soon!

 

Love, Elder Osborne

 

P.S. Tell the Carrs that Elder Maddux is famous in the mission. He is my trainers trainers trainer, so he's my great Grandpa:) he was apparently one of the best missionaries in the history of ever!