Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving
Date: Thursday, November 26, 2009 8:08:50 PM
I'm so sorry I didn't email you yesterday. Being a missionary here it sometimes gets hard to email, what with all the Thanksgiving feasts you have to go to. But we're doing it today so I hope you forgive me.

Well, yesterday was Thanksgiving. We started it earlier than usual because we had a mission-wide service activity. We got to go to the outer reaches of Hong Kong, where you can only just hear the roar of the city, and work all morning on a tiny Chinese farm. It was so cool! It made me want to grow food so badly. I want, right now, to do more gardening with you when I get back. It's stuff like that that I'm afraid will go away when I actually do get back. Right now I appreciate my family so so much. I wish I had spent more time with you, gardening, cooking, playing games, making things, but I just hung out with my friends all the time. I feel like I'm becoming an adult, because suddenly everything my parents ever said to me or did for me makes sense. Every once in a while I think, "My parents are so perfect. I'm going to raise my kids exactly the same way. Only they will appreciate it more than I did." And then I realize that my kids will probably be just as stupid as I am. And then I get freaked out that I'm thinking about my future kids.

After service we went to the mission Thanksgiving feast, prepared by the senior missionaries. It was pretty normal; turkey, mashed potatoes, package gravy, canned veggies, canned cranberries, Stovetop stuffing, corn on the cob, white rolls. But it tasted so American, and so good! I ate SO MUCH! The pumpkin pie was just unreal. Though I rather think it was an unspectacular specimen of the great American dessert, it was still a specimen.

Then we went home and showered, and then went straight to the rich American in our ward's house for another. This time the turkey was really really good. The salad was just iceburg lettuce with tomatoes, but it was the first green salad with ranch I've seen since I got here. The sweet potatoes were yummy, the corn was yummy, and the cornbread was extremely yummy. They didn't have any pumpkin pie, but they had a lot of ice cream. Ice cream here is not cheap. I thought I was going to throw up.

Their apartment was so nice, the nicest I've ever seen and probably ever will see Hong Kong. They are very rich. I can't imagine how much that place costs. But they've decorated it with things they've picked up from all over the world, like buddhas and such, so I felt almost like I was at Grandma’s house with ya'll. Except there were only 9 missionaries, a lawyer and his Taiwanese wife. They were very very nice. My companion loves music, so he and I sang two verses of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing", and then he told everyone that it was about being thankful and that we should all be thankful etc. I don't think that it's about being thankful. It's about praising God, which is close. But I supported him, and also talked about being grateful.

On the way to that area we ran into an American girl who said "Hello Elders" and then on the way back we ran into an American lady who gave us a bunch of pumpkin tarts. It seems there are a lot of rich, American Mormons living in the nicer parts of Hong Kong. I say rich because they have to be to live in those parts of Hong Kong.

Well, I only talked about one day. Sorry, but I'm out of time. I love you all. Read the scriptures everyday and be grateful. The pictures did come through. Thanks you.

-Noah

I didn't make many notes this week, so I don't really have much more to say
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