Boss!!!

Big change this week, Elder Koochin is moving to causeway bay and it looks like I'm finishing here in Tung Chung. My new companion is awesome, his name is Elder Dale and he's from Yorkshire, England! He's one transfer behind Elder Buss, so he's been out in hk for about 9 months so he's got experience.. Just moved from macau. He's so ridiculously cool, super motivated and happy and hardworking, love that. Looks like it's going to be a good move. We like a lot of the same stuff too so it's going to be a blast. We've got some good people we're working with too like Frank and Isaac so I'm happy. Also, Elder Ballard came to HK this last week as well, super boss.

Home sounds pretty good, It's cool that Madie has gone through the temple now, it's a cool thought.

It's amazing all the cool things that are going on now, also, Elder peterson is in my district now, so I'm a happy boy. Boss companion. Best friend in the district, good stuff going on in the area, can't complain.

Hope home is doing good, tell Madie I'm proud of her for being awesome. I'm glad you're all doing alright, keep up the good work, I love you all and I'll hear from you soon.

Good week this week, got a new comp. this last week, he's from the U.K.!!! Elder Dale is a boss, we're going to tear it up this move. already had a lot of cool stuff happen this last week, lots of cool success and Elder Ballard came here and gave a talk to the missionaries and to the members too. Super amazing. Sorry my emails are getting shorter, I'm just not sure what to write anymore. I'll fill out your thing now.
Moves: Still in Tung chung, my new companion is Elder Dale, this boss lad from Yorkshire.
For pday: probably just going on a hike.
Best thing this week: Elder Dale and Elder Ballard
Wearing: Blue stripey tie
Investigators: Isaac, sister Tam and her son keneth, Frank, and now his friend tom.
Food: Nothing much new Had this cool chinese new year stuff called poon choi last monday. I'll send pics.
Weather: nice, getting warmer.
Advice: Keep up the good work, keep learning and growing and having fun.
Story: when we went to the second elder Ballard meeting (the one for the members, we brought Isaac and Frank and then frank brings his friend tom , which was a surprise for us. So we get there and tom seems pretty just cool guy, doesn't talk much, but then elder Ballard gets going on about the Restoration and Plan of Salvation stuff and tom just sits there taking in the bossness of it all. After he finished Elder Dale turns to him and asked what he thinks and tom said it was amazing, then turns to me and asks, "where can I get a Book of Mormon?" Boom. coolest thing I've ever seen.
Pictures: ok one is poon choi and the other is the wan chai chapel lobby after The Elder Ballard meeting with the members.
Anything else: might come home with a bit of a British accent.

Love, Elder Osborne

Chinese New Year

Had a good chinese new year, not as much food as last year, but that's ok. Went on a really cool hike in our area with the branch on saturday and did some good missionary work while having some new years fun. We also did a deep clean of our apartment on the 19th for the first day of chinese new year. The whole mission did on that day too. It's nice to have a whole day to clean, wasn't too hard either cause our apartment is spacey and we already keep it pretty clean. not much else besides that I think. Hung out with the branch members alot this week.

Can't believe Lou is driving. Tell Kevin I'm looking forward to aerating too. There's not a lot of lawns here so I guess I'll like aerating even more when I'm back. Tell jug he's awesome and that I miss him. It'll be cool to meet the freeman's, give them a shout out from me. I think I might study Japanese after I learn mandarin. Japanese is cool.

Glad you're doing well, don't worry I missed the sukiyaki too. My chinese new year went pretty good. not too much happened. I'll fill out the thing now.
For pday: nothing special really.
Next temple day: Don't know yet.
Next moves: This week.
Best thing this week: Hiking with the branch
Wearing: A tie Elder Williams gave me
Investigators: Still got Isaac and Frank
Food: We're going to eat some good chinese new year food tonight at a branch activity so that'll be good.
Weather: rained last night.
Advice: Beware of creepers at BYU I'll kill all of them!!!!!! Stay away from my sister!!!!
Story: nothing much to story.
Pictures: ok. here's some pics of the hike and eating food with the branch after, that's like all I took this week.
Anything else: Not really, things are good, keep studying hard, don't give up!

Not much else to say this week, hope you had a good chinese new year eating Japanese stuff. I love you all and I'll hear from you soon.

Love,
Elder Osborne

Happy Valentines

Tell Lori and Delene thanks for giving you flowers from me, those two are the best. haven't got cookies yet, it's probably at the mission office waiting for me right now, haven't stopped by yet. I'm glad everyone seems to be doing really great right now. Had a really good week here as well. the work is starting to pick up here. Actually found a really good investigator named Frank on valentines day. He's awesome, came to church too. Super prepared. Isaac is still good too, he's going to england for chinese new year this week but we'll see him next week. super good week overall.

I'm doing well, not much to tell ya this week so I'll just fill out the thing.
For pday: temple recommend interview and just having fun.
Best thing this week: probably finding Frank.
Wearing: purple tie.
Investigators: Isaac, Frank.
Food: nothing yet, wait till after chinese new year
Weather: it's been super foggy the last couple days. Nice temperature though.
Advice: nothing much this time.
Story: nothing too much, just working with some good people.
Pictures: ok, got some this week. The first is us and Isaac at the temple, and the other is one of my old investigators from Kwun Tong named Jax. Punk kid. Came to a YSA activity in kowloon. Also ran into Kobe there.
Anything else: what's america Cotton on like?

Life is good right now, the only thing really is now I want to try sukiyaki, but I guess there's always next time. I'm glad everyone seems to be happy, tell Jug he's awesome for me. It's good that he likes basketball. Don't let Lou wreck my truck. Can't believe she's already starting to drive.

Well, hope you have a good week this week! I love y'alls!

Love,
Elder Osborne

Sorry the blog is boring

Sorry I'm a little late for email, the computers were all booked at the library cause we came a bit late, hopefully you're still awake. Anyway, had a really good week this week. Taught Isaac twice, had a fun p-day. We went to Central to help Elder Peterson choose the material for his cheung hings suit, and we also went to this really cool store called cotton on. I think it's from australia, it's like asian hipster with a weird almost american feel if that makes sense. Cool place, bought some stuff on sale. Also had my last zone conference this last week, best one so far, it was all about "looking towards the mark" It's a talk President Hawks gave a while back, and it's changed my life and my mission. Look up Val D. Hawks on google or something and the talk should come up. Read it. It's awesome. President Hawks is the best mission President ever Especially for me.

Nothing too much for this week, the next three weeks will be filled with stuff though, chinese new year, Elder Ballard coming to town, moves is on the 26th, so we'll see if I'm leaving or not, probably not. I never move and I love Tung Chung, so that's ok.

You should see some of the missionaries here play ping pong, some are crazy good. Especially this Sister Wu from Taiwan, she's a professional ping pong player and she's owned all the best elders. Asians are awesome. We've got a lot of really cool people in the mission right now. There's one from Ireland that was a professional golfer, gave it up for the mission. Also have Sister Wu, and one of the asian elders is a professional badminton player. I'm the most boring guy here. oh well, I still have fun, and I get to fill out your thingy every week;)
For pday: shopping, hopefully for the last time, I wanna go hiking soon.
Next temple day: no idea
Next moves: feb. 26th
Best thing this week: teaching Isaac, we taught him the restoration and showed him the restoration video. his reaction was pretty much,"I didn't know you'd get dipped all the way to get baptized, that's awesome!' that doen't mean that he's definitely getting baptized, but it's off to a fun start.
Wearing: black tie.
Investigators:Isaac
Food: nothing much that's new.
Weather: pleasant sor far
Advice: have more fun, don't stress too much on the stuff you don't need to. have fun making new friends, love life, but also do your homework on time.
Story: nothing too new.
PIctures: nothing this week, sorry I'm making the blog boring.
Anything else: Not really, Radley looks cute, is he hyper or quiet?

That's about it this week, hope everyone is doing well on the homefront. Radley is cute, I'm not used to Elsie with long hair. Well, keep up the good work, I'll keep praying for you!

Love,
Elder Osborne

I Ate Hades

This week has been about the same as last week, doing good, good improvement too. Working hard. Tell Clay and Kysa congratulations for me, you'll have to send me some pics of my newest cousin, probably a big fat leng jai.

Yeah, I'm running out of stuff to tell you lately, normal stuff going on, got to go on exchanges with Elder Leung this week, he was in my first apartment with me and he's going home next week, so it was good to be with him a bit, Elder Leung is awesome. Elder williams was in the apartment that day too, so it was good to hang with him too. That was a good day.

This p-day we're not doing much, just some exploring the new territories outlet malls and stuff. So how did the super bowl turn out? Who won?

Why is this semester so much harder than last one? Is college gonna kill me? What in the world is a ward prayer committee? The moa looks nice as usual. Well don't get too stressed, have some fun, I dunno, stuff. I'll just fill out the thing now
For pday: Going exploring/shopping
Best thing this week: going on splits with Elder Leung, I love Elder Leung.
Wearing: blue stripey tie
Investigators: got a new guy named isaac, he started going to college when he was 12, and he's 19 now going for his masters and wants to get his doctorate. pretty cool.
Food: nothing too new
Weather: pleasant lately.
Advice: Don't stress out too much.
Story: Nothing too much story worthy
Pictures: ok here's me and Elder Leung and also me about to eat the spiciest noodle soup on the menu (taam jai) felt like i ate Hades, but other than that I was ok.
Anything else: not really, just keep up the good work with life, be happy. Have fun. Work hard.

That's about it this week, hear from you soon!

Love,
Elder Osborne

Cotton Candy!

Not much new to talk about here either, good week though. Showing a little improvement with the work so that's good. Elder Ballard is coming to HK at the end of february, so that'll be cool. I can't believe january is already over, that went way too fast!

Today for pday we are going to Stanley for shopping again. I'm not sure if I'm going to get a lot, but I'll see about getting a fan or something. They've got some cool ones here that you guys'll like. I just don't want to spend too much here and have nothing when I get back. That would be kinda sad. We'll see though. There's really not much else I need package-wise. Still got a ton of candy and popcorn.

Why are the buildings so small? I'm used to Hong Kong sized stuff. Are all the buildings back home that short? That'll take some getting used to. Yeah, I'll have to take some picture of the crazy buildings here to show you. Campus is nice though, I'm just used to the city too much right now.

I'll fill out the thingy now.
For pday: Going to Stanley!!!
Best thing this week: Random funny stuff. Also had our quarterly interviews with president, he's awesome to talk to.
Wearing: the gray tie that I wear almost every p-day
Investigators: Nothing new.
Food: Cotton candy. We eat lots of chinese stuff every day. Also peanut butter sandwiches.
Weather: nice
Next moves: end of february
Story: noneish I'll show you some pics though
PIctures: ok Our branch president randomly bought a cotton candy maker for the branch. He's an idea man
Anything else: Have fun living life in short buildings!

Yeah that's about it this week, hope this email finds you well. I love you all, keep up the good work!

Love,
Elder Osborne

Buddha and Baloot

This temple day was super good, had a great temple experience. Good to hear that home sounds like it's getting more normal, I think. Things are going well over here in HK, getting some good work done here. Really not much new to tell you about this week.

Any cool new things going on at home? Is Downton Abbey still good? Any cool new TV shows come out recently? Yeah, I have now idea on what to talk about today. Got the christmas card, I liked having me in it. 

Hope things keep going well for yawls, I'll send some pics and keep you updated.

Well I'll fill out the thing, keep up the good work at school and stuff. 

Got the christmas card?: Yes

For pday: not much, just temple

Best thing this week: temple

Food: ate this filipino stuff called baloot, basically when a chicken egg starts to develop but dies before it hatches, and they cook it and eat it. so yeah.

Wearing: a suit and a bright red tie.

Investigators: nothing new

Story: i'll just send pics

Weather: cold, but not unpleasant

Pictures: ok BIG BUDDHA!

Advice: keep up the good work, you're doing great.

Anything else: Thanks for the old pics of me, I liked it. Keep it up and keep me updated on people.

Love,

Elder Osborne

baloooooot! Ate it like it was nothing. Some elders can't even get it down without almost throwing up:)

Advice on Homesickness

This week was pretty good, it's crazy how many miracles and blessings come when you are doing your best with what you got. We're doing good. Home sounds good, Honey sounds homesick, I didn't expect that from her so much, but it's good, means that we grew up in a good home with a good mom. I've got mission blessings to help me not be homesick. Life just keeps moving on.

Yeah, I still can't cook for myself that well either. I'm not really sure what to tell you about homesickness, you know just about as much as me at this point. I never really got that homesick, and if it did hit me I knew I would see you guys again no matter what. That's a huge blessing of the gospel that I never realized until I moved out. It's a good lesson to learn.

By the way, I just sent some books and poopy pants and stuff your way, should take quite a while, air is too expensive and I got time. The tiger pants are for Alex, Madie can choose a pair if she wants to as well. The rest are mine, but feel free to wear them when you want;)

I'm not going to stay on the mission schedule when I get back, that's weird. I don't think I'm going to be a weird RM. Hopefully. I am going to be awesome though. I'll fill out your thing now.

For pday: Not much, just sent a package home.
Best thing this week: Just seeing miracles keep happening and getting some cool revelations on how to help our situation.
Food: Ate some super good spicy taam jai twice this week. It's this awesome spicy noodle soup stuff. Got up to a spice level that most natives wont even dare to eat. Actually hong kong people don't really like spice at all. I'm not really sure why the restaurants still have this level of spice. I'm glad they do though cause it's awesome.
Wearing: a grey floral tie.
Investigators: got some good potentials coming up, got fonged a lot this week, but it's ok.
Story: Nothing really specific that I can tell as a story this time. Sorry.
Weather: raining.
Pictures: I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry, I left my adapter at home on accident. I'm a terrible brother, ugh. I feel so dumb on this one. I promise I'll get you TONS of pics next week. Next week is temple day too, so I'll be emailing on tuesday instead of monday.
Advice: Do what you know to do, work hard, have purpose in all you do, that will fight the homesickness more than anything except for praying and studying scriptures
Anything else: Keep up the good work. Been on any dates lately? Any guys that you want to date around campus?

Hong Kong is doing well, I love it more and more every day. I'll miss being a missionary but the Lord put a limit on it, so I guess I'll just trust Him and adapt when the time comes. That's about it for this week, I love you all and I'll hear from you soon!

Love,
Elder Osborne

New Year

Home sounds different, Honey's moved out, huh? That's a weird thought. Still seems normal though. I'm doing good, not much too different, working hard and seeing miracles. 2014 went by so fast in in such a different way than I'm used to. Time is weird, I don't even want to think about it.

Just barely had a super happy p-day, went up to big buddha by our house. Lantau island is pretty cool, I'd send pictures but I forgot my SD card adapter, so I guess next week. We all had a ton of fun, just got to goof off a bit and relax. (In a good way.)

Matt hasn't emailed me yet, I think I'll email him in a bit. That's crazy fast. I don't know how I could ever do that so fast. Seems like everyone's getting married, I guess all my mission buddies and I will be hanging out a lot then. Any other noteworthy people getting married? I'd like to know maybe.

Well, I'm doing good, not much to report, having fun, working hard. Well, let me know how you're doing lately. I'll fill out the thing now.
For pday: Went to big buddha, this huge buddha statue on lantau island where I'm serving.
Best thing this week: Had some cool miracles I'll tell you about in the story section.
Food: nothing new I think.
Wearing: normal people clothes.
Investigators:
Story: So I was emailing last week when this chinese guy comes up to me in the library, speaks English to me and I end up just giving him a flyer. Calls us the next night, which never happens, no one calls us! So we end up going to meet him in this richer spot in our area, and we taught him! Turns out he is an economics professor in Vancouver visting his mother who has alzheimers. He's planning on staying at least a year here. Super prepared and cool.
Weather: nice, but cloudy, but it's usually cloudy here so it's ok.
Pictures: sorry, forgot my adapter.
Advice: just be yourself wherever you are, do the right thing, have fun.
Anything else: not much, seems like everyone's getting married now, what's going on with stuff?

Weeeeelllllllll, that's about it for this week, keep doing good, I love you all and I'll hear from you in a bit.

Love,
Elder Osborne

Shoutout to Nelson Leung!

Calling was awesome, it's good to hear everyone, Jug's voice went low, that was super weird. Things are about the same from the phone call. I feel like we went a tad long, but oh well, it was good. I hope that you're all having fun in sanfran, just relax and enjoy the weather and all the awesome asians. I'm going to look forward to checking out San Francisco, sounds like my kind of place.

Today I'm going to check out mong kok again a bit, we were going to big buddha, but the assistants cancelled going with us to pick up Elder Falk's suit at cheung hings so we'll just be picking up our custom white shirts and shopping a bit. Too much shopping lately, really looking forward to a hike p-day. The weather is beautiful today, it's too bad that we're not going. Still doing good though, had a really good Christmas time and I'm sure we'll have a great new year.
Hope you're having fun/ maybe watching the sweet hotel cable. I'll fill out the thingy now.

For pday: Picking up shirts/ shopping cause we nothing else to do.
Best thing this week: the phone call.
Next temple day: jan. 14th? i think...
Food: had lots of good stuff for christmas, sister chan and her family in our ward made some really good chicken stuff for us from a pinterest recipe, not chinese, but still super good food.
Wearing: a tie I got from hong kong with a cheap suit coat I got a mong kok to match my black finding pants.
Investigators: not much new, might end up teaching this one guy named simon that Elder Maddux might have taught before. He's like 71, but looks like he's 50 and is part chinese, japanese, and korean.
Story:
Weather: super nice today.
Advice: have fun on vacation:)
Pictures: ok, so the one with me and the guy is me and Nelson Leung. He's in our branch and loves my blog, put this pic up and give him a shoutout. He's a cool guy. The other is When we visited a super nice less active. this is her half middle eastern, half asian son, she married a middle eastern guy.
Anything else: nope, not really.
If you’re shopping, what are you shopping for?: Not much today, might get some MK jai stuff. Ask kobe if you don't know what mk jai is. 

Keep playing hard in sanfran and I'll keep working hard in hong kong. Eat some chinese food for me, maybe take some pictures of china town, I'd like to check it out. I love you all and I'll hear from you next week.

Love, 

Elder Osborne

Here's some pics of our apartment

kitchen and bedroom My bed is the one with the kissing bunnies