So Much Food

My companion Elder Pope flies home tomorrow. It is very weird. He was a young missionary when I was. Very young. Now he is "dead." That makes me almost dead. That is weird. In missionary slang, we say I have killed Elder Pope, which is only fitting, because he "killed" my "father" (trainer). So now I guess I have to look out for Elder Wyatt, Elder Pope's "son."

But killing a missionary has a lot of advantages. Especially one as outgoing as Elder Pope. [I'm sure Noah didn't intend that pun, but I think it's funny!] Everyone in the branch wants to chang us out (chinglish for feed us). So we haven't had to pay for a meal in at least a week, and they are all super yummy Chinese food, and always so much of it! I love it. Today was the first time I paid for my lunch in a while, but it was also a very large meal, as we went to a Mexican buffet to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. So yummy. And now it's about as exotic as 叉燒飯 seemed when I first got here.

One of the people who bought us such delicious food was Sister 施. She is a recent convert of ours who went back to mainland right after baptism. She had been a member of another christian church for over twenty years, and struggled with the concept of authority. We were especially worried because in her home town there were only two other members, no branch, not even a small group. I remember Elder Pope saying, "I hope one day to find out what happens to her." Well, she went back and was unable to find one of the members, so she and the one elder she did find met several times to hold a two person sacrament meeting. When the Jehovah's Witness she met in Hong Kong calls her each weekend (very illegal), she listens politely,and then tells him he is very smart, but doesn't have authority. Even when her son found anti material online and told her about it it didn't shake her testimony. Now she lives in Guang Zhou where she attends the Guang Zhou second branch. She is still very powerful and brought her son and his girlfriend down to meet us and say goodbye to Elder Pope. I am so happy I could be a part of helping her.

I love you. 五月五號快樂! (happy cinco de mayo)
-Noah