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