Hello!
Hong Kong is incredible! The food is amazing, the people are interesting, and it is nice and humid and warm.
So Last week we had 0 investigators. Before I came, the Elder had medical things so they were always out of commission. Now, we have... Idk how many, but a good amount.
Finding is a blast! We basically walk around and talk to everyone we see.
Cheuns are these groups of skyscrapers that people live in. In the middle of every cheun is a plaza thing where they have chinese chess boards, ping pong tables, basketball courts, etc... Those are the best areas to go finding.
Two days ago while finding, we were walking past these stone ping pong tables, and some old guy yelled out "Momuhngau". Which means Mormon church. So we turned around and he was laughing and so we started talking to him and then they invited us to play ping pong with them. We told them if we win then they have to let us teach them... Well neither of us won. I lost by two points... So I guess it wasnt meant to be.
Chinese people are very superstitious. Unfortunately, Momuhngau also means "Devils gate". So that adds to the thinking that we are a cult. Also, the Chinese book of mormon happens to have exactly 666 pages in it :/ Woops. Whoever made that translation should have added an extra blank page in there somewhere.
My ward is really cool. But kinda crazy. there are a bunch of crazy girls who are super loud and I can hardly understand what theyre saying when they all are talking at once. They are amazed that I know spanish for some reason. All they ever want me to do is speak spanish. Then they go, "Wooooow".
The young men LOVE basketball. so every Saturday and Tuesday night we have sports night. they bring their friends and we bring investigators and play basketball. I never considered myslef good at basketball until I got here haha :)
They also LOVE the NBA. So my Jazz jersey amazed all of them. In fact it amazed them so much that when Sunday came around, they all came to the investigator class we were in for sunday school, and kept asking about the few NBA games I have gone to. They just couldnt get over how cool that was. It was pretty difficult talking to them about it because of my Cantonese, but luckily the bishops son John has pretty good English because he has gone to the USA a lot.
Speaking of Sunday, I bore my testimony and introduced myslef to the ward. I didnt really know how to start so I said, "Josahn" which means good morning. I was pretty surprised when the entire congregation yelled back, "Josahn".
They all just stared up at me the rest of the time nodding their heads. So hopefully that means they understood me and I didnt mess anything up too bad. :)
there was a random white business man who showed up before sacrament. He looked online to find a chapel and found ours and was passing by the area and wanted to go to church. He took my comp and I's picture in front of our chapel and told us he was going to send it to oru parents. So mom may or may not get a picture of me from some random guy. According to the other missionaries, this is a very common occurance.
Monday and Tuesday were Mid-autumn festival. A holiday complete with dragons, parades, and mooncakes. Mooncakes are these lotus paste things with old raw duck egg inside of them. The missionaries here all dont like them, but I didnt mind them so much. This lady at church was trying to feed me one, so I finally ate it. She was laughing so hard because afterwards I smiled. I couldnt figure out why that made her laugh so hard. She kept pointing at my teeth and grabbing other ward members. Apparently they think my vampire fang teeth are hilarious.
A recent convert, Tomoko was in the elevator when I was going upstairs. She was just staring at me, then almost in a scared voice said, "Hou Gou". Which just means "Very tall". I thought it was pretty funny.
Whenever I get onto the double decker busses or MTR subway, I feel like a giant. I look all around me and I can see from one wall to the other. I am at least a foot taller than the next tallest person.
While finding in Wong Tai Sin, I saw this boy. I swear I knew him from somewhere. He looked like a Chinese version of someone I know. Not sure who though. Well anyways, he was walking so I approached him and then we asked if he had a second to sit down at a bench and listen to our message. He agreed so we taught him for about an hour. This experience is nothing short of a miracle, but at the same time is an extremely common occurance. Among all of the people blowing us off left and right, there are always a few people really willing to listen to us. I love it.
The members here are so awesome. A family with an inactive teenage son invited us over for dinner the other night. We showed up to this big cheun and went up to their apartment. Inside their humble abode, there was a little table FULL of food. We would eat, and they just kept bringing out more, and it was GOOD. There was fresh shrimp with the eyes and everything, squid, octopus, fish balls, these rice paste candy ball things, mooncakes, ice cream, mochi ice, chocolate fondue, a big hot pot full of stuff, dragonfruit stuff that looks like a bunch of little floating eyes, sushi, and a ton more. It was soooooooooooooo good. They are sooo incredibly humble and nice. It made me almost want to cry.
My favorite drink ever is Melon milk. It is this soy/melon milk stuff that is incredibly good. You can buy it in asian supermarkets in utah. I would suggest trying it.
Mainlanders are some of my favorite people. Many times while finding we will run into people that jjust by their looks we can tell are from mainland China. Some speak cantonese if they are from the south, others only speak mandarin. Luckily, elder jolley and I can kind of speak a little mandarin. Him more than I. But I remember the first night meeting a mainlander. She was amazed at what we were doing in Hong Kong and jsut kept syaing, "Thank you for your amazing spirits, they are just so warm feeling." That, as you know is the spirit.
I have already used my arabic a little bit here even though I am not in International. The international elders apparently say that is incredibly useful if I ever go international. Also, they have been teaching a few Spanish speakers from columbia. Pretty cool stuff.
People here are amazed that we know Cantonese. Because NO white people know cantonese according to them. They meet me and they say how long have you been learning cantonese. I tell them three months and they are shocked. they start freaking out like crazy saying its way too good for only three months. Even though I know its not that good. most of them say something along the lines of, " I have been studying English for 10 years and I cant speak it at all. But you have learned cantonese for 3 months and know it so well."
Well I am off to a buffet where you grab raw meat and your table is a giant round hot stove thing that you cook it on before eating it. So have a great week! hopefully I can send pictures, if not I will just send you my SD card sometime with pictures and videos on it. Love you all!
Love, Elder Bingham
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Saturday, September 10, 2011
First Letter From Hong Kong...He's definitely not in Utah anymore!
Leihdeih Hou!
Wow, I am not exactly sure what to say. I am in kind of a daze still. We got to Hong Kong yesterday and did some fun stuff like went up to Victoria Peak on a cable car thing and contacted lots of people. Today, We got our areas and trainers and I am currently serving with Elder Jolley in.... I forgotwhat it is called. But it includes a few different places like Mong Kok and Kowloon Tong which means I live in the temple! For the next 12 weeks I will be living on the second floor of the temple with the APs and right next to the mission president. Apparently it is the nicest apartment in the mission by far.
Hong Kong is the coolest city I have ever been to. I dont know how to explain it. It is basically a really tropical jungle with a bunch of skyscrapers everywhere. It is SUPER busy all of the time, and the people are really friendly for the most part. I just wish I could understand what they are saying. But luckily my trainer speaks perfect Cantonese. We go everywhere using public transportation. The MTR is a really fast subway system that runs under Hong Kong. It is really effecient and easy to use. We use our Octopus cards for everything like that. They are cool because they work for just about everything here, and it has some electronic chip in it so we dont even have to take it out of our wallets. You just slide your wallet over the readers.
I met some really cool people here already. One of them was a Vietnamese boat dweller. They were the refugees who came over from vietnam a long time ago and lived on boats next to each other. His parents died during it all because apparently it was super dangerous. So we taught him about the plan of salvation and how he can live with them again. I also met someone from Israel who only spoke Hebrew and a little bit of English. He was interesting. It is really cool how many different stories you hear here in Hong Kong.
So today I ate at a restaurant for the first time. I had some rice noodle soup thing with fish balls and octopus balls. They make those just by grinding up octopi and covering them with some potato flour stuff just like they do with fish balls. they were all pretty good. Some of the other things I could have put in my noodles were bamboo fungus, black fungus, and a bunch of other things in chinese that I dont know what they are.
The scariest part about this place so far is that most of the people expect me to know Cantonese because most of the missionaries here speak it fluently. So they know that Mormon missionaries can speak it. They will just start speaking really fast and I usually just look at them and say, "Ngoh sik gong siusiu gwongdungwah yanwaih ngoh ngaamngaam leihjo heung gong." Which means I speak a little bit of cantonese because I just got to hong kong. Then my trainer usually helps me out.
Elder Jolley is really nice and helpful. He is from Salt Lake and only has four transfers left here. I feel like it will be really easy to get along with him, but I really miss my MTC district already because we became really good friends. Most of the other elders in my MTC district are all going to areas where they will live with 2 or 3 others of us. In fact I think me and one other elder are the only ones not with someone we know.
Lets see... I am sure there is so much I can talk about, but I am still a little bit in shock and I think youd have to be here and experience it yourself.
I had a really good version of lemonade at lunch. It is called lemon water and was basically water with lemon slices in it, and a bunch of this sweet honey-like syrup in it.
The people here are always willing to talk to me if I explain that I just got here and want to practice my Cantonese. Hong Kong people love helping others if its something they know they can help out with.
It is really loud here. There are always cars honking, people yelling, music playing, etc... Luckily our apartment is quiet because it is inside the temple.
I am not really sure what to expect. I am a little intimidated by everything. But all of the older missionaries here seem to know exactly what theyre doing and how to get around and stuff so I know with time I will be fine.
It is SO weird to think about all of you back in quiet little Utah right now. I just looked out the window behind me and all I can see is a jungly hill with tons and tons of skyscrapers all over it.
I have been to lots of different places I feel like, but none of them are even close to Hong Kong. It feels kind of like New York City mixed with Puerto Rico. But a lot more Asian.
I got Dad's dearelder! I think they print it off somewhere in utah and just mail them here. It was really awesome to have gotten a letter already.
According to my trainer, it is a lot different than the MTC. There, everyone gets lots of random letters from a lot of random people all of the time. Once we get out here, he said people dont want to pay the extra 54 cents and wait a few weeks so not many people ever get letters unless they have a girlfriend or something.
We are going to go grocery shopping right after we finish emailing. It will be interesting to see all of the weird food and stuff there. I have already seen a lot of it, but according to my trainer, this is just the beginning. Then tonight we are going to go finding. So I will be walking around just talking to random people for a few hours.
I can tell my body is kind of in fight or flight mode because of how different everything is, but I cant wait until someday I am going to be like all of the older missionaries who seem really accustomed to all of this.
Hong Kong feels like a whole different world than Utah or anywhere in the United States. I am amazed that cities like this exist and I never really knew it. Well I did, but I never really understood it.
Well, I will try to send some pictures, but if it doesnt work, I will figure it out next week. Until then, have a great week! Love you all!!
- Bik Jeung Louh
Wow, I am not exactly sure what to say. I am in kind of a daze still. We got to Hong Kong yesterday and did some fun stuff like went up to Victoria Peak on a cable car thing and contacted lots of people. Today, We got our areas and trainers and I am currently serving with Elder Jolley in.... I forgotwhat it is called. But it includes a few different places like Mong Kok and Kowloon Tong which means I live in the temple! For the next 12 weeks I will be living on the second floor of the temple with the APs and right next to the mission president. Apparently it is the nicest apartment in the mission by far.
Hong Kong is the coolest city I have ever been to. I dont know how to explain it. It is basically a really tropical jungle with a bunch of skyscrapers everywhere. It is SUPER busy all of the time, and the people are really friendly for the most part. I just wish I could understand what they are saying. But luckily my trainer speaks perfect Cantonese. We go everywhere using public transportation. The MTR is a really fast subway system that runs under Hong Kong. It is really effecient and easy to use. We use our Octopus cards for everything like that. They are cool because they work for just about everything here, and it has some electronic chip in it so we dont even have to take it out of our wallets. You just slide your wallet over the readers.
I met some really cool people here already. One of them was a Vietnamese boat dweller. They were the refugees who came over from vietnam a long time ago and lived on boats next to each other. His parents died during it all because apparently it was super dangerous. So we taught him about the plan of salvation and how he can live with them again. I also met someone from Israel who only spoke Hebrew and a little bit of English. He was interesting. It is really cool how many different stories you hear here in Hong Kong.
So today I ate at a restaurant for the first time. I had some rice noodle soup thing with fish balls and octopus balls. They make those just by grinding up octopi and covering them with some potato flour stuff just like they do with fish balls. they were all pretty good. Some of the other things I could have put in my noodles were bamboo fungus, black fungus, and a bunch of other things in chinese that I dont know what they are.
The scariest part about this place so far is that most of the people expect me to know Cantonese because most of the missionaries here speak it fluently. So they know that Mormon missionaries can speak it. They will just start speaking really fast and I usually just look at them and say, "Ngoh sik gong siusiu gwongdungwah yanwaih ngoh ngaamngaam leihjo heung gong." Which means I speak a little bit of cantonese because I just got to hong kong. Then my trainer usually helps me out.
Elder Jolley is really nice and helpful. He is from Salt Lake and only has four transfers left here. I feel like it will be really easy to get along with him, but I really miss my MTC district already because we became really good friends. Most of the other elders in my MTC district are all going to areas where they will live with 2 or 3 others of us. In fact I think me and one other elder are the only ones not with someone we know.
Lets see... I am sure there is so much I can talk about, but I am still a little bit in shock and I think youd have to be here and experience it yourself.
I had a really good version of lemonade at lunch. It is called lemon water and was basically water with lemon slices in it, and a bunch of this sweet honey-like syrup in it.
The people here are always willing to talk to me if I explain that I just got here and want to practice my Cantonese. Hong Kong people love helping others if its something they know they can help out with.
It is really loud here. There are always cars honking, people yelling, music playing, etc... Luckily our apartment is quiet because it is inside the temple.
I am not really sure what to expect. I am a little intimidated by everything. But all of the older missionaries here seem to know exactly what theyre doing and how to get around and stuff so I know with time I will be fine.
It is SO weird to think about all of you back in quiet little Utah right now. I just looked out the window behind me and all I can see is a jungly hill with tons and tons of skyscrapers all over it.
I have been to lots of different places I feel like, but none of them are even close to Hong Kong. It feels kind of like New York City mixed with Puerto Rico. But a lot more Asian.
I got Dad's dearelder! I think they print it off somewhere in utah and just mail them here. It was really awesome to have gotten a letter already.
According to my trainer, it is a lot different than the MTC. There, everyone gets lots of random letters from a lot of random people all of the time. Once we get out here, he said people dont want to pay the extra 54 cents and wait a few weeks so not many people ever get letters unless they have a girlfriend or something.
We are going to go grocery shopping right after we finish emailing. It will be interesting to see all of the weird food and stuff there. I have already seen a lot of it, but according to my trainer, this is just the beginning. Then tonight we are going to go finding. So I will be walking around just talking to random people for a few hours.
I can tell my body is kind of in fight or flight mode because of how different everything is, but I cant wait until someday I am going to be like all of the older missionaries who seem really accustomed to all of this.
Hong Kong feels like a whole different world than Utah or anywhere in the United States. I am amazed that cities like this exist and I never really knew it. Well I did, but I never really understood it.
Well, I will try to send some pictures, but if it doesnt work, I will figure it out next week. Until then, have a great week! Love you all!!
- Bik Jeung Louh
Monday, August 22, 2011
Words From a Veteran to the New Guys...Hang in There!
I only have 3 weeks left here which is crazy.
I feel like I have been here forever and not long at all at the same time. But regardless, I feel ready and more excited than ever to go to Heung Gong. I have learned how to say hello and things like that in like 15 different languages since I have been here because I hear lots of different missionaries speaking.
Also, Cantonese is not that different than Mandarin. A lot of words are, but lots of words are also really similar. I know how to bear my testimony in Mandarin from hearing the Mandarin elders speak in it and being able to pick up some of the words and learn the others from context. But Cantonese is a lot harder.
I was reading my journal a few nights ago and it was weird to read the first few days I was here how my days were. They seem way easier and like I am used to it now. Also, I rarely feel homesick or sad at all. I still pray every Wednesday for the new missionaries coming in. Because I thought I was prepared and that it'd be a breeze. But then it really hit me that I am in this for the next two years. It wasnt until a few days later that I think I was fully not only okay with it, but excited about it. Then after about week 4, I stopped feeling like I wanted to be outside the MTC fence every Friday night when I was going to bed at 10 30. Haha :) it is crazy how different I feel now.
Today we wanted to switch things up a little when we went to the temple. So we decided to do initiatories. As one of the Cantonese Elders said, "I feel like I could be superman after coming out of that." Pretty cool stuff.
well thanks for everything!
Love ya!
Love, Jordan
I feel like I have been here forever and not long at all at the same time. But regardless, I feel ready and more excited than ever to go to Heung Gong. I have learned how to say hello and things like that in like 15 different languages since I have been here because I hear lots of different missionaries speaking.
Also, Cantonese is not that different than Mandarin. A lot of words are, but lots of words are also really similar. I know how to bear my testimony in Mandarin from hearing the Mandarin elders speak in it and being able to pick up some of the words and learn the others from context. But Cantonese is a lot harder.
I was reading my journal a few nights ago and it was weird to read the first few days I was here how my days were. They seem way easier and like I am used to it now. Also, I rarely feel homesick or sad at all. I still pray every Wednesday for the new missionaries coming in. Because I thought I was prepared and that it'd be a breeze. But then it really hit me that I am in this for the next two years. It wasnt until a few days later that I think I was fully not only okay with it, but excited about it. Then after about week 4, I stopped feeling like I wanted to be outside the MTC fence every Friday night when I was going to bed at 10 30. Haha :) it is crazy how different I feel now.
Today we wanted to switch things up a little when we went to the temple. So we decided to do initiatories. As one of the Cantonese Elders said, "I feel like I could be superman after coming out of that." Pretty cool stuff.
well thanks for everything!
Love ya!
Love, Jordan
No More You-Tube! Now it's General Conference Talks...in Cantonese!
I have started listening to General Conference talks in Cantonese because it is fun to try and see what I understand out of them. This one I understand most of. Here is the link to a video of it. https://lds.org/general-conference/watch/2011/04?lang=eng&vid=904425139001&cid=7&clang=yue
8 Weeks Down, 4 To Go!
Leih hou, ligo sinke haih feihseung keihgwai.
This last week has been pretty interesting. Well, as interesting as the MTC gets. I am sure and I hope that my weeks are more eventful when I get to Hong Kong. But I guess I´ll have to wait 4 weeks to find out.
I guess I´ll start off with kind of a depressing, but really not that depressing at all message (if that makes any sense). Most of the letters I got in this past week have been kind of sad. Most of them relate to unfortunate things that have happened or are happening to people, and none of these things really seem fair at all. I remember back in January and February wondering what I had done to deserve my anxiety, and I really did not think it was fair that I was experiencing that. In the end I was able to learn a lot from it and come out a better person, but not all sad stories have happy endings. Or at least not from what we can see.
I thought about that a lot this week. Why are certain people plagued by things like mental illness, not having self worth, and other things like that while others (like me) have been able to get out of those situations. You may say it is faith related or something else, but often things happen that really are just plain not fair.
After I first got to the MTC, one thing I tried figuring out through reading the scriptures and stuff is what happens to those people who have mental illnesses that cloud their judgement and make their lives miserable if they do something drastic. I know we cant judge people because only God has that right and ability. However, it really bothered me because my friend who this happened to was on my mind. I remembered something I had heard about the people involved with 9 11. For some reason, after the planes crashed into the towers, people were jumping out of windows from high up with no chance of survival. Nobody understood why they did this. The people did not think it was sure death for them if they stayed inside the buildings, so people didnt understand why they jumped out of the windows. After 9 11 happened, scientists discovered that the inside of the towers had become incredibly hot. So staying inside of the buildings was incredibly painful. So were these people who jumped out of the towers wrong to do so. (sorry for some reason this keyboard´s question mark doesnt work.) I read 1 Nephi that the Lord will have mercy upon his afflicted. I dont know if the context applies to the same thing I was looking for, but for some reason this scripture gave me comfort and since then I really havent worried about it. God is merciful. That is why he gave us the atonement and gives us so much.
Anyways, like I was saying, there is so much in life that just isnt fair. We can try to think of reasons why these things happen, but we wont always be able to come up with the answer. It is kind of the sad truth of life. But that is not what is important. Whats important is that this life is only a small point on our eternal timeline. God is all powerful. He could stop every unfair thing from happening. But He doesnt. Life doesnt have to be fair, because there is so much more that God is offering us than just this short mortal life.
So when unfair things happen, try not to sweat it. Just keep doing the best you can do, and whether you are rewarded in this life or not, you will be blessed for the good you do here in the life to come.
Sorry if that was a downer at all. It actually makes me really really happy. Because it makes me realize how real the life after this is, and the happiness I can have if I continue to do the right things.
Well moving on past that, we were talking in class this week about Hong Kong again, and some of the things our teacher did there. She told us about giant spiders that are all over. Supposedly their webs are really strong and dont break like normal spider webs. But the worst part is the spiders are HUGE. A kid in our class told about when he was there how a spider was on his friends shoulder so he screamed and ran to his friend and hit it off as hard as he could. He said the only thing he could compare it to is hitting a baseball. It was so big and just solid. Then they talked about the huge bees in the forest and all of the other freakishly big bugs and weird things there.
The new district came in a week ago. There is an elder from Australia, one from Salt Lake, and a sister from Idaho somewhere. They are all pretty nice, but it is kind of obvious they are still kind of in shock. They are all pretty quiet. The one from Salt Lake is going to Toronto Cantonese speaking, but the other two are going to Heung Gong. Right now I am kind of in the awkward limbo between being super excited to get out of here, but also worried because I really dont know as much of the language as I would like to.
Everyone, with school, work, sports, etc... starting up again, dont get too caught up in it all to let it distract you from what is most important, and from just having peaceful moments when you can think and not worry about anything. That doesnt mean all of those things arent important because they are, it is more about taking time from the least important things to do this, or finding time to do it when you dont have to be doing anything else.
Sorry I dont have time to write more responding to the dearelders. Hopefully I get time tonight to reply to all of your letters. But if not, know I love you all and really appreciate all the letters.
Love, Elder Bingham
Ngoi, Bik Jeung Louh
This last week has been pretty interesting. Well, as interesting as the MTC gets. I am sure and I hope that my weeks are more eventful when I get to Hong Kong. But I guess I´ll have to wait 4 weeks to find out.
I guess I´ll start off with kind of a depressing, but really not that depressing at all message (if that makes any sense). Most of the letters I got in this past week have been kind of sad. Most of them relate to unfortunate things that have happened or are happening to people, and none of these things really seem fair at all. I remember back in January and February wondering what I had done to deserve my anxiety, and I really did not think it was fair that I was experiencing that. In the end I was able to learn a lot from it and come out a better person, but not all sad stories have happy endings. Or at least not from what we can see.
I thought about that a lot this week. Why are certain people plagued by things like mental illness, not having self worth, and other things like that while others (like me) have been able to get out of those situations. You may say it is faith related or something else, but often things happen that really are just plain not fair.
After I first got to the MTC, one thing I tried figuring out through reading the scriptures and stuff is what happens to those people who have mental illnesses that cloud their judgement and make their lives miserable if they do something drastic. I know we cant judge people because only God has that right and ability. However, it really bothered me because my friend who this happened to was on my mind. I remembered something I had heard about the people involved with 9 11. For some reason, after the planes crashed into the towers, people were jumping out of windows from high up with no chance of survival. Nobody understood why they did this. The people did not think it was sure death for them if they stayed inside the buildings, so people didnt understand why they jumped out of the windows. After 9 11 happened, scientists discovered that the inside of the towers had become incredibly hot. So staying inside of the buildings was incredibly painful. So were these people who jumped out of the towers wrong to do so. (sorry for some reason this keyboard´s question mark doesnt work.) I read 1 Nephi that the Lord will have mercy upon his afflicted. I dont know if the context applies to the same thing I was looking for, but for some reason this scripture gave me comfort and since then I really havent worried about it. God is merciful. That is why he gave us the atonement and gives us so much.
Anyways, like I was saying, there is so much in life that just isnt fair. We can try to think of reasons why these things happen, but we wont always be able to come up with the answer. It is kind of the sad truth of life. But that is not what is important. Whats important is that this life is only a small point on our eternal timeline. God is all powerful. He could stop every unfair thing from happening. But He doesnt. Life doesnt have to be fair, because there is so much more that God is offering us than just this short mortal life.
So when unfair things happen, try not to sweat it. Just keep doing the best you can do, and whether you are rewarded in this life or not, you will be blessed for the good you do here in the life to come.
Sorry if that was a downer at all. It actually makes me really really happy. Because it makes me realize how real the life after this is, and the happiness I can have if I continue to do the right things.
Well moving on past that, we were talking in class this week about Hong Kong again, and some of the things our teacher did there. She told us about giant spiders that are all over. Supposedly their webs are really strong and dont break like normal spider webs. But the worst part is the spiders are HUGE. A kid in our class told about when he was there how a spider was on his friends shoulder so he screamed and ran to his friend and hit it off as hard as he could. He said the only thing he could compare it to is hitting a baseball. It was so big and just solid. Then they talked about the huge bees in the forest and all of the other freakishly big bugs and weird things there.
The new district came in a week ago. There is an elder from Australia, one from Salt Lake, and a sister from Idaho somewhere. They are all pretty nice, but it is kind of obvious they are still kind of in shock. They are all pretty quiet. The one from Salt Lake is going to Toronto Cantonese speaking, but the other two are going to Heung Gong. Right now I am kind of in the awkward limbo between being super excited to get out of here, but also worried because I really dont know as much of the language as I would like to.
Everyone, with school, work, sports, etc... starting up again, dont get too caught up in it all to let it distract you from what is most important, and from just having peaceful moments when you can think and not worry about anything. That doesnt mean all of those things arent important because they are, it is more about taking time from the least important things to do this, or finding time to do it when you dont have to be doing anything else.
Sorry I dont have time to write more responding to the dearelders. Hopefully I get time tonight to reply to all of your letters. But if not, know I love you all and really appreciate all the letters.
Love, Elder Bingham
Ngoi, Bik Jeung Louh
Elder Bingham on "The Outside World"
Leih hou ngohge gatihng tungmaih pongyauh!
Wow, well this has been quite the week. So a lot of the missionaries in our zone have been getting sick, and I thought I was going to be okay until two Fridays ago I started getting the usual cold symptoms. Then last Thursday I could tell it was only getting worse and it went down into my chest. I was up all night Thursday and Friday night. Then Saturday my branch president said I should probably go to the front desk and call the on call doctor. On top of it all, something about me being sick made my kidney stones hurt a lot. So anyways, I went and called the doctor and told him my symptoms and also that I have kidney stones which have been bothering me. He told me I should go to the instacare at the Utah Valley Hospital and then on Tuesday he wanted to meet with me regarding the kidney stones.
So some really boring guy drove us to the hospital and I saw the doctor. He just prescribed some antibiotics. Then we went over to some store that had a pharmacy in it. It was the weirdest thing ever. It was the first time I was anywhere except the MTC surrounded by missionaries while wearing my nametag. It was kind of a shock. While waiting for my prescription to be filled, there were lots of people talking to us. I realized we arent just normal people anymore and it is impossible to blend in with the crowd while wearing a white shirt, tie, and nametags.
Something else I noticed while in the "outside world" was that it's no wonder I had problems with anxiety. In fact, I am really suprised that everyone else is doesnt have the same anxiety problems I had. Everything out in the world is loud, bright, and obnoxious on purpose. There is so much going on at once. Everyone has their own problems they are thinking about and trying to work out. Then you throw in everything else: Advertisements, TV, Music, and everything in stores designed for the sole purpose of grabbing your attention and distracting you from everything else you are thinking about.
I realized for the first time in my life how chaotic the world really is. I also realized one of the reasons I have done well in the MTC and I have not only had a lower level of anxiety, but I have also been able to figure a lot of things out and think about things more clearly. It is because with everything going on in the world, it is rare to get a quiet moment where you dont have to worry about anything and when a billion things are not trying to grab your attention. There is a whole industry with the sole purpose of figuring out how to get your attention and influence what you think about. (The advertisement industry, and the entertainment industry if you want to include it.)
So my personal advice to you this week is to slow down, not think about all of the many things that are constantly trying to grab your attention, and just have time where you can either think about something you should focus on or just nothing at all.
Anyways, today as dad knows, I went to see the MTC doctor like he requested. I have been having kidney pain on and off ever since I got here. But this morning it was really bad. He wants me to get another CT scan so that they can just track what is going on. So tomorrow I get to go into the outside world once more and then on Wednesday I should find out the results. I will save my handwritten letter this week for when I get the results. But it's not like they're going to find out something we dont already know. All I can do is put my trust in God and keep on learning and working.
It was really, really weird sitting in the office today when the secretary called dad. I could hear his voice on the phone and although I am pretty much just down the street from you all, I feel like I am on a different planet where we have no contact with Earth at all.
When I was writing my farewell talk, I thought a lot about how I could make my topic come to life for people. Although I was very personal and a lot of people were surprised by that, I was kind of hoping I would be able to in a way give people the type of hope I talked about. I am glad to hear that I may have done just that with different people in the ward and some of my friends. Anxiety is worse than any kidney pain or any other type of pain I have ever felt, so my prayers go out to everyone who struggles with it.
Thanks for all the prayers and letters! I will keep you updated on everything. But you may just have to wait until next week to hear from me again because you will all be in NC.
Love, Bik Jeung Louh
Wow, well this has been quite the week. So a lot of the missionaries in our zone have been getting sick, and I thought I was going to be okay until two Fridays ago I started getting the usual cold symptoms. Then last Thursday I could tell it was only getting worse and it went down into my chest. I was up all night Thursday and Friday night. Then Saturday my branch president said I should probably go to the front desk and call the on call doctor. On top of it all, something about me being sick made my kidney stones hurt a lot. So anyways, I went and called the doctor and told him my symptoms and also that I have kidney stones which have been bothering me. He told me I should go to the instacare at the Utah Valley Hospital and then on Tuesday he wanted to meet with me regarding the kidney stones.
So some really boring guy drove us to the hospital and I saw the doctor. He just prescribed some antibiotics. Then we went over to some store that had a pharmacy in it. It was the weirdest thing ever. It was the first time I was anywhere except the MTC surrounded by missionaries while wearing my nametag. It was kind of a shock. While waiting for my prescription to be filled, there were lots of people talking to us. I realized we arent just normal people anymore and it is impossible to blend in with the crowd while wearing a white shirt, tie, and nametags.
Something else I noticed while in the "outside world" was that it's no wonder I had problems with anxiety. In fact, I am really suprised that everyone else is doesnt have the same anxiety problems I had. Everything out in the world is loud, bright, and obnoxious on purpose. There is so much going on at once. Everyone has their own problems they are thinking about and trying to work out. Then you throw in everything else: Advertisements, TV, Music, and everything in stores designed for the sole purpose of grabbing your attention and distracting you from everything else you are thinking about.
I realized for the first time in my life how chaotic the world really is. I also realized one of the reasons I have done well in the MTC and I have not only had a lower level of anxiety, but I have also been able to figure a lot of things out and think about things more clearly. It is because with everything going on in the world, it is rare to get a quiet moment where you dont have to worry about anything and when a billion things are not trying to grab your attention. There is a whole industry with the sole purpose of figuring out how to get your attention and influence what you think about. (The advertisement industry, and the entertainment industry if you want to include it.)
So my personal advice to you this week is to slow down, not think about all of the many things that are constantly trying to grab your attention, and just have time where you can either think about something you should focus on or just nothing at all.
Anyways, today as dad knows, I went to see the MTC doctor like he requested. I have been having kidney pain on and off ever since I got here. But this morning it was really bad. He wants me to get another CT scan so that they can just track what is going on. So tomorrow I get to go into the outside world once more and then on Wednesday I should find out the results. I will save my handwritten letter this week for when I get the results. But it's not like they're going to find out something we dont already know. All I can do is put my trust in God and keep on learning and working.
It was really, really weird sitting in the office today when the secretary called dad. I could hear his voice on the phone and although I am pretty much just down the street from you all, I feel like I am on a different planet where we have no contact with Earth at all.
When I was writing my farewell talk, I thought a lot about how I could make my topic come to life for people. Although I was very personal and a lot of people were surprised by that, I was kind of hoping I would be able to in a way give people the type of hope I talked about. I am glad to hear that I may have done just that with different people in the ward and some of my friends. Anxiety is worse than any kidney pain or any other type of pain I have ever felt, so my prayers go out to everyone who struggles with it.
Thanks for all the prayers and letters! I will keep you updated on everything. But you may just have to wait until next week to hear from me again because you will all be in NC.
Love, Bik Jeung Louh
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Leih Hou Ngohge Gatihng...Whatever THAT means!
Here, quite overdue, is the last letter which we received from Elder Bingham, or as he is now called, Elder Bik, since he has a new Chinese name. He is doing great, as you will see below...
Well week 4 is under way. that means I am 1/4 of the way done with the MTC!
It is great here but I still feel like the day I get in the shuttle going up
to the airport will be amazing.
A lot happened this week. As always, I dont have enough time to write it
all, so I will send you letters with pictures sometime this week.
My Cantonese just keeps getting better and better. I am able to memorize
more vocabulary every day and the grammar is simple. The hardest part of
Cantonese is actually not the tones for me but the fact that in order to
master the language, you pretty much have to learn three languages. There
are Cantonese words, then you have what are called classifiers. They are
basically a whole seperate set of words you have to use instead of the
normal cantonese word in lots of situations. For example, the word for
"that" is "Li-Go". "Go" is just a general classifier for "thing". But if you
were to say "That apple", you would have to say "Li-(classifier for apple)"
followed by the cantonese word for apple.
Before getting here, I heard a lot of people who said my Arabic, Egyptian,
English, and even Spanish would be useful once I get to Hong Kong because of
the amount of people that are from different areas of the world. I was not
expecting to use my languages here at the MTC though. So when I was
"contacted" by Italian elders I was a little suprised. I understood
everything they "taught" me, and they understood all of my responses in
Spanish. Then, we got an elder from Saudi Arabia in our Zone. He speaks
English and is going to an English-speaking mission in the United States,
but I have been able to speak to him all in Arabic (though oddly he speaks
formally using only Modern Standard Arabic, and so I can't use any Egyptian
while talking to him).
I am not the only person who knows multiple languages here though. Elder
Wu's companion (Elder Broderick) is pretty interesting. He is best friends
with an elder in my district. Apparently he went to China for a few months
then decided he wanted to learn Chinese. His best friend says he never saw
him again because he locked himself in his room and all he did was study and
teach himself. He now knows almost fluent Mandarin Chinese and can read
thousands of characters. When he got his mission call to Hong Kong, he
quickly started learning Cantonese. Before he even got to the MTC he pretty
much had the whole language down. So now he has two sided flash cards. One
has the Chinese character of a word and the other... The Japanese word for
it. He has taken it upon himself to also learn Japanese before he even gets
to hong kong. Only his companion and I know though because the rest of his
district already is jealous of the two of them for learning the language
faster than the rest of them. So he does not want to rub it in their face
that he is already on to his next language.
Hopefully my Gwong Dung Wa (cantonese) will be good by the time I leave.
Today we had a contest to who could last the whole day without using any
English at all. One of the teachers will give whoever wins an Incredibles
sticker. So far, I am the only person left. It was pretty easy until I saw
my friend who just got here last week. My companion had to translate. Then I
ran into Dennis at the MTC bookstore and my companion had to translate
again. Then it got really hard when I had to buy stamps. So luckily my
companion came to the rescue again and helped me out. The problem is when I
was asking for eight stamps, He thought I was asking for a pen because eight
and pen are the same word with a different tone. But it all worked out.
So probably the highlight of my week was finding out the meaning of my name.
My name is Bik Mihng Giht (with tones that the computer can't type). The
literal translation is "Emerald Green Light Hero". Or in other words, THE
GREEN LANTERN. Ironic since that is the last movie I saw before I came to
the MTC. I think the mission president must be a comic book fan or something
and got excited because The Green Lantern just came out.
Sunday morning I was in Priesthood Meeting and I don't know exactly what was
being taught, but I remember that for whatever reason, I kept thinking about
how amazing it is that I have the authority to give blessings and perform
other miracles because of the Melchizedek Priesthood. Later that day, I went
to the first floor of our residence with my companion. Elder Levan is a
missionary that was supposed to leave this week, but had an ACL replacement
surgery on one knee and something else done on his other so sometime this
week he is going back home for a couple of months and then resuming his
mission. His companion, Elder Beurs, is ironically going in on Wednesday to
get the same ACL replacement surgery done and he will go home and pause his
mission as well. While we were on the first floor I ran into our Ζone Leader
who said I had come just in time because Elder Beurs had a favor to ask of
me. Saturday I had seen Elder Beurs and told him if he needed anything that
he could just let me know. Apparently when our Zone Leader went to check on
him, Elder Beurs told him he wanted a blessing because he was nervous for
his surgery as well as he was getting pretty sick which made him more
nervous. The part I was not expecting was that he wanted me to give him his
blessing.
I do not remember what I said during the blessing. I just remember it lasted
a lot longer than I thought it would and that the entire time I would start
worrying about what to say and I would pause, let my mind go blank, then
words would just come out of my mouth.
It must have gone well because when I was done, the elders in the room as
well as Elder Beurs were teary eyed or crying and I was just standing there
astonished.
There have been many moments like that where I feel the spirit here so
strong that I feel like falling down because my body just becomes weak and I
dont want to stand anymore. I have always grown up and felt the spirit here
and there, but being a out on a mission and putting all my faith and
everything I possess in God's hands leaves me more vulnerable to experiences
that allow me to feel the spirit daily.
Well anyways, last night me and my companion woke up at one in the morning
and went to the front desk of the MTC to get a bag of ice to refill Elder
Levan's ice machine thing that circulates ice water around his leg.
I have found that serving others not only invites the spirit, but it also
seems like it just makes everything better.
One thing that our teacher talked to us about yesterday that I have always
agreed with was that we do not know what people are going through or why
people do the things they do. He showed a talk Elder Eyring gave to the MTC
a while ago. It talked about a young man who was about to be baptized then
that week he came into what was then Bishop Eyring's office and said that he
had messed up. He was out the night before and had crashed through a
building because he was on some substance against the word of wisdom. While
they were arresting him, he told the cops it was okay because he was going
to become LDS and be baptized so that what he did wouldnt matter. Bishop
Eyring said he could feel the anger and disgust filling him up. But then,
just for a second he saw the boy's face change to the face of a child. He
heard a voice say "Now you have seen him as I see him. He has gone through
more than you can imagine. The abuse and different things this young man has
gone through is beyond your comprehension." Bishop Eyring then started
crying and was filled with love for this boy.
As a missionary, I am going to need to try and feel that love for everyone.
even those who may seem unlovable. I have always been pretty good not
judging others (partly because I have my own faults so who am I to judge
them?) I am grateful for that gift now.
Well I think I have typed about all I can right now. So thanks for all your
letters, I will write back by letter. Thanks for everything!!
Well week 4 is under way. that means I am 1/4 of the way done with the MTC!
It is great here but I still feel like the day I get in the shuttle going up
to the airport will be amazing.
A lot happened this week. As always, I dont have enough time to write it
all, so I will send you letters with pictures sometime this week.
My Cantonese just keeps getting better and better. I am able to memorize
more vocabulary every day and the grammar is simple. The hardest part of
Cantonese is actually not the tones for me but the fact that in order to
master the language, you pretty much have to learn three languages. There
are Cantonese words, then you have what are called classifiers. They are
basically a whole seperate set of words you have to use instead of the
normal cantonese word in lots of situations. For example, the word for
"that" is "Li-Go". "Go" is just a general classifier for "thing". But if you
were to say "That apple", you would have to say "Li-(classifier for apple)"
followed by the cantonese word for apple.
Before getting here, I heard a lot of people who said my Arabic, Egyptian,
English, and even Spanish would be useful once I get to Hong Kong because of
the amount of people that are from different areas of the world. I was not
expecting to use my languages here at the MTC though. So when I was
"contacted" by Italian elders I was a little suprised. I understood
everything they "taught" me, and they understood all of my responses in
Spanish. Then, we got an elder from Saudi Arabia in our Zone. He speaks
English and is going to an English-speaking mission in the United States,
but I have been able to speak to him all in Arabic (though oddly he speaks
formally using only Modern Standard Arabic, and so I can't use any Egyptian
while talking to him).
I am not the only person who knows multiple languages here though. Elder
Wu's companion (Elder Broderick) is pretty interesting. He is best friends
with an elder in my district. Apparently he went to China for a few months
then decided he wanted to learn Chinese. His best friend says he never saw
him again because he locked himself in his room and all he did was study and
teach himself. He now knows almost fluent Mandarin Chinese and can read
thousands of characters. When he got his mission call to Hong Kong, he
quickly started learning Cantonese. Before he even got to the MTC he pretty
much had the whole language down. So now he has two sided flash cards. One
has the Chinese character of a word and the other... The Japanese word for
it. He has taken it upon himself to also learn Japanese before he even gets
to hong kong. Only his companion and I know though because the rest of his
district already is jealous of the two of them for learning the language
faster than the rest of them. So he does not want to rub it in their face
that he is already on to his next language.
Hopefully my Gwong Dung Wa (cantonese) will be good by the time I leave.
Today we had a contest to who could last the whole day without using any
English at all. One of the teachers will give whoever wins an Incredibles
sticker. So far, I am the only person left. It was pretty easy until I saw
my friend who just got here last week. My companion had to translate. Then I
ran into Dennis at the MTC bookstore and my companion had to translate
again. Then it got really hard when I had to buy stamps. So luckily my
companion came to the rescue again and helped me out. The problem is when I
was asking for eight stamps, He thought I was asking for a pen because eight
and pen are the same word with a different tone. But it all worked out.
So probably the highlight of my week was finding out the meaning of my name.
My name is Bik Mihng Giht (with tones that the computer can't type). The
literal translation is "Emerald Green Light Hero". Or in other words, THE
GREEN LANTERN. Ironic since that is the last movie I saw before I came to
the MTC. I think the mission president must be a comic book fan or something
and got excited because The Green Lantern just came out.
Sunday morning I was in Priesthood Meeting and I don't know exactly what was
being taught, but I remember that for whatever reason, I kept thinking about
how amazing it is that I have the authority to give blessings and perform
other miracles because of the Melchizedek Priesthood. Later that day, I went
to the first floor of our residence with my companion. Elder Levan is a
missionary that was supposed to leave this week, but had an ACL replacement
surgery on one knee and something else done on his other so sometime this
week he is going back home for a couple of months and then resuming his
mission. His companion, Elder Beurs, is ironically going in on Wednesday to
get the same ACL replacement surgery done and he will go home and pause his
mission as well. While we were on the first floor I ran into our Ζone Leader
who said I had come just in time because Elder Beurs had a favor to ask of
me. Saturday I had seen Elder Beurs and told him if he needed anything that
he could just let me know. Apparently when our Zone Leader went to check on
him, Elder Beurs told him he wanted a blessing because he was nervous for
his surgery as well as he was getting pretty sick which made him more
nervous. The part I was not expecting was that he wanted me to give him his
blessing.
I do not remember what I said during the blessing. I just remember it lasted
a lot longer than I thought it would and that the entire time I would start
worrying about what to say and I would pause, let my mind go blank, then
words would just come out of my mouth.
It must have gone well because when I was done, the elders in the room as
well as Elder Beurs were teary eyed or crying and I was just standing there
astonished.
There have been many moments like that where I feel the spirit here so
strong that I feel like falling down because my body just becomes weak and I
dont want to stand anymore. I have always grown up and felt the spirit here
and there, but being a out on a mission and putting all my faith and
everything I possess in God's hands leaves me more vulnerable to experiences
that allow me to feel the spirit daily.
Well anyways, last night me and my companion woke up at one in the morning
and went to the front desk of the MTC to get a bag of ice to refill Elder
Levan's ice machine thing that circulates ice water around his leg.
I have found that serving others not only invites the spirit, but it also
seems like it just makes everything better.
One thing that our teacher talked to us about yesterday that I have always
agreed with was that we do not know what people are going through or why
people do the things they do. He showed a talk Elder Eyring gave to the MTC
a while ago. It talked about a young man who was about to be baptized then
that week he came into what was then Bishop Eyring's office and said that he
had messed up. He was out the night before and had crashed through a
building because he was on some substance against the word of wisdom. While
they were arresting him, he told the cops it was okay because he was going
to become LDS and be baptized so that what he did wouldnt matter. Bishop
Eyring said he could feel the anger and disgust filling him up. But then,
just for a second he saw the boy's face change to the face of a child. He
heard a voice say "Now you have seen him as I see him. He has gone through
more than you can imagine. The abuse and different things this young man has
gone through is beyond your comprehension." Bishop Eyring then started
crying and was filled with love for this boy.
As a missionary, I am going to need to try and feel that love for everyone.
even those who may seem unlovable. I have always been pretty good not
judging others (partly because I have my own faults so who am I to judge
them?) I am grateful for that gift now.
Well I think I have typed about all I can right now. So thanks for all your
letters, I will write back by letter. Thanks for everything!!
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