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!

Temple day

Dear family,

Sorry about the wait, temple day is today so last monday wasn't pday. It looks like everyone is doing great! The tree houses are awesome! When I saw the pics I thought "Families. It's what it's all about." Yeah here in Hong Kong we really look to teach families, we've already found a couple and we might soon have more! One is way cool, they are called the Tam Family. They are from mainland but they are pretty much fluent in mandarin, cantonese, and english! The real crazy thing about them is that when we first met them, the wife was 9 months pregnant, but they all still went to this ward activity with us, even though it was her due date! They just had their baby about a week ago now. She's a beautiful baby girl and they named her Nina. Plus they are super interested in the gospel, it's amazing! So yeah, families are awesome!

 There's not much new that I know other than we watched the worldwide training video too. It was way good! Honestly, the more a ward and the missionaries work together, the the better the work goes. Our ward is great with that, but we can still always improve! I also bore my testimony this fast sunday. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. Brother jang kept teasing me that I would be AP after that. You'd love him and their family. His wife is relief society president just like mom brother jang is a goofball just like dad and the 3 kids are crazy like us kids:) They are the perfect family to teach investigators with:) If we get any good investigators in the ward you should totally invite them over! It's the best way to help people in the church. So yeah missionary work is the best!

I'll send some pics soon! Everything is going great! I love you all and hope to hear from you soon!

The waffle looking things are called Hong Kong waffles, they are amazing! You eat every bubble thing individually, it's got this good eggy stuff in it:)

Typhoon season

Leih ho!

Wow, Utah weather never ceases to do weird stuff, The weather here has about 3 settings for this season: Super hot and humid, light rain, and super heavy awesome rain. Also it's Typhoon season right now and we know there is a little one already in the Philippines.

Where i am it won't be as bad cause i'm in the new territories. I am prepared with a sweet umbrella just in case though:)

Tell Honey and Lou happy birthday for me one more time. I feel really bad about not having any time to email last week:( but I got plenty of pictures to send this time so maybe that'll make up for it a bit. Also tell jug that he is awesome.

The language is coming along, every week it gets better, but I still have got a lot to go, which is good, it keeps me humble. The work is progressing as well, our numbers are really good and I feel like even more big success is coming if we keep on working our butts off:)

Speaking of work, now you know how fun working for lori and delene is:) It can get stressful, but that was my favorite job I had before I left. Tell Lori and Delene that they're amazing and that I love them. I pass by a tiny flower shop almost every day and it reminds me a bit of them.

Remember, as hot as it gets in Utah, at least it's not humid like Hong Kong. The altoids mints you gave me get soft, even if I always keep the container closed! One plus is that I never need to iron my shirts:)

That's about it for this week, I love you and everything is well back home.

Love,

Elder Osborne

Food! The first pic is of bolo bao (pineapple bread) It's the best! It's the round yellowy bread stuff! Sweet stuff (literally)

This is the apartment.  One picture is of my bed, the other is our kitchen, our entire kitchen. We can't even fit 3 Elders in there!

My desk and a bunch of missionaries. The one smaller sister is going to temple square for her real mission in a few weeks! Her name is Sister Yeung (pronounced yerng). If I remember right the Elder on the far left is my awesome companion, Elder Staheli:)

This is a nice view from one of my p days.

I like turtles!

A MTR (subway) map of HK! My area is way close to the top!

A pic of some goofball missionaries on pday!

Pic of missionary planners

This is Elder Falk with my glasses. Elder Falk is awesome, He's also in that big olympus high school mission call youtube video.

This is me on a p day to a Buddhist monastery we call 10 thousand buddhas. 

This is me and one of our investigators, Leo. We're pretty much besties and we like to play the dot game in church together during meetings when the speakers are boring. Is that bad? Anyway he's really awesome and is progressing with the lessons and his commitments really well!

Some left over pics from the mtc I forgot to send