This week has been quite exhausting. Every single day we have had an average of 3 lessons and 2 new investigators which is REALLY good. I would enjoy it even more though if I didnt get sick :/ I got some type of cold or something that I am hoping is on its way out right now. But that hasnt slowed us down at all. We have sooo many great new investigators who seem like they are really prepared for the gospel. I am really excited to see what happens with all of them. We have at least 7 new investigators coming to Shirley's baptism on Sunday, so that will be awesome.
As I learn the language better and realize that I dont make as many mistake anymore, and even if I do, thats how I will learn, I have become more outgoing with the ward and people we meet. This has made them more outgoing as well. Yesterday a girl came up to me and told me my face was getting fatter. I guess this must be the "rice cheeks" that everyone was telling me I'd come home with. Then a recent converts 4 year old son decided that my name was Feihjai which means "Fat boy." Hahaha so first I was too skinny, now I am getting fat apparently. I guess it is a little bit of an improvement from what all of the other Chinese call me. They love trying to read and speak English. Often when we stop people to talk to them the conversation will go something like this (if they are school-aged and know a little bit of english), "Hello, how are you?" "I am 16" "Wow, How is your day" "My name is cucumber (or whatever random word they choose for their english name)." It is pretty entertaining to speak English to them.
Most people when they try to read me English name read, "Erder....... Beckham!!! Like the Football player!!!!!!". I just smile and say uhh.... close enough. They all are convinced I am realated to David Beckham. It doesnt help that the character for my last name "Bik" is the same character for David Beckhams last name, and it is not common at all for other people to have that character.
Oh, I ate some more weird food this last week. I tried one of those duck eggs that they let the duck fetus grow a little bit, then bury the egg and let it sit underground forever. It was pretty gross. I also ate a lot of chicken feet which were suprisingly good. Better than the cow stomach and petrified duck eggs.
There is a huge group of Thai people right now living in patron housing above our chapel. They dont speak English or Chinese and so communication is quite difficult since all I know how to say in Thai is: Yes, no, under, hello, bye, I dont understand, and I love you. Sometimes I can understand what they are saying jsut by their body language and some words that are a little similar to mandarin, so I can respond to them and answer some questions. But it isnt effective, and I am pretty sure they are under the impression that after we are done being missionaries in Hong Kong we will go be missionaries in Thailand.. I have no idea where they got that idea or why they think that, but according to them, they cant wait until I am in Thailand serving in their ward... haha.
I continue to just love it here. If I didnt already have a good plan for education back home, I think going to college here would be so cool (as long as I had LDS friends who came with me). There is never a boring day here. Something unpredictable or just really crazy always happens.
Mom would be proud because they eat something they call Choi here. It literally means vegetable, but it is basically any leafy plant related to Kale. So they eat baby kale, pak choi, kale, etc..... and I eat it every single day when I make fried rice or eat somewhere because it is in everything. Although I miss mom's juices and smoothies, I am at least still getting my kale in.
Well, today we have three lessons after P-day ends that we have to teach, Sunday is Shirley's baptism, and we have a huge pool of great investigators. So things have really progressed since I first got here and they only had 1 investigator in their pool (who left to Mainland China and we havent ever even heard from her).
I was talking to the APs the other day and I guess that technically we have the biggest mission in the world. Our mission includes the entire country of China. But we are not allowed to go into mainland China, so our actual proscelyting area is pretty small. But we still get so many people from mainland who come down for a few days just to get baptized, then go back up and join their local branch up there. I dont think anyone realizes how well the work really is doing in China. They always talk about "when China opens up", but even with not being allowed to proscelyte in Mainland China, things are on fire up there for not being able to solicit religion or even tell friends about it. Especially close to the border in Guangdung.
Maybe I am a little full of it, but I really feel like I am saving China one day and person at a time, and I am loving it.
Have a FANTASTIC week. Love you all!!
Love, Elder Jordan Roe Beckham... I mean Bingham
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