Date: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 8:57:16 PM
Subject: I guess it's not called the city of dreams

The City of Dreams is just a casino. It looked like an add for the city of Macao itself.

I really like being here in Macao as Mandarin/International. There are lots and lots of Mandarin speakers here, so we can teach the greater portion of the people. It's harder, because if the helpers don't have Sunday Holiday they can't come to church, but the employers here are a lot nicer. Most of the helpers live in apartments with other helpers, so at night they can meet with us, or during the day sometimes. There are still plenty of Indonesians who don't speak any English, but more of them here can speak it pretty well. Sister Maya asked us today if she could have the Book of Mormon in Russian, because of all the languages the Book of Mormon is in, she is best at Russian. I'm not sure what part of Indonesia she is from, but she says she spoke a dialect, and her Indonesian is pretty bad. She now she will have Indonesian, English, and Russian to compare and see if she can figure out the meaning. She learned Russian cause she wants to be a Russian rapper. She's pretty cool. Most signs here are in Chinese characters and Portuguese, so the other day in the church she said, "I can't speak any Portuguese though. Like this [pointing to a sign on a door] Cust-od-i-al clo-set. See? I can't."

Macao has everything. Mandarins, Philippians, Indonesians, cheaper-better food, Mexican food, a big apartment, we even found the relief society's sewing machine. Now I can make my shirts fit me! And do it quickly even!

My Cantonese is getting better and better. Four of the six Elders here are from Hong Kong, so they just speak Cantonese all day long. I think I can understand more Cantonese now than I could Mandarin when I first got here. And I can now pick out a few gospel words in Bahasa Indonesian as well. The gift of tongues is real.

Remember how I like to ride my bike, but I don't like any helmets cause they are all super dorky? Well there are tons and tons of people on scooters here, and I see at least one helmet that I approve of every time I go outside. Maybe I'll go into one of the Scooter shops one of these days and buy a helmet to send home for after my mission. I know you'd like that Mom.
One problem is the the church floods all the time. I don't really know why, but sometimes we have to go over there in the morning and clean it up. It's weird. Maybe like a broken pipe or something.

Did I mention last week that you can get Blueberry Muffin Toppers (the Malt-O-Meal original cereal) at USMart? you can. You can get anything you want.

I haven't tried any Portuguese food yet, but I'm hoping it's as good as Grandma's Portuguese Chicken. I miss it so. Maybe Grandma could send me the recipe! I just thought of that. Anyway I hear the Portuguese food here is pretty good too.

We met an old lady on the bus from Spain. She speaks English and Mandarin and has been a Catholic missionary for fifty years. She travels from Macao to Taiwan, to Philippines. She was very nice. I didn't start talking to her, cause I could tell she was a Catholic missionary, but Elder So was undaunted.

Sorry this is a weird email. I'm not very organized in my thinking right now. I love you! I miss you! It's been 11 months already.
-Noah


[This is Noah's friend Elizabeth, who is serving in Indonesia. She knows LOTS of gospel words in Indonesian.]