Date: Wednesday, May 26, 2010 9:53:32 PM
Subject: Abacabar

I don't really know how to spell that. It means hello in Indonesian.

On Tuesday Elder Ngai and I taught a nineteen year old from northern China. He was good and prepared to receive baptism. I confirmed him, which would be hard in English I think. But my Chinese has definitely improved a lot. After the meeting President Chan asked to speak with Elder Ngai. And so we found out that we will both be going international. That means we will be teaching in English, mostly to domestic helpers from Indonesia and the Philippines. It is pretty scary, and pretty hard for me to understand. President says the Mandarin's numbers aren't good enough to support five companionships in Hong Kong. So I guess I will go and do the things which the Lord has commanded. It's no use feeling upset that I have to leave the ward I've served in for seven months now. Most people's missions are full of changes like this. It just so happens mine is not, so this is a new feeling. It's kind of the way I felt the night before my first day of school. It's not so intense, but it's the same feeling of having no idea what to expect, and so assuming I will not enjoy it. That is a weakness of mine. I always assume I will not enjoy change. Often I do. Usually I do. I know in this case I will. People tell me that in international work I will have no time to cook, no time to play music, because all my time will be filled with teaching. I hear that you learn to teach better than you ever can in Chinese work, because you get to use your native tongue. The hard thing is keeping up you Chinese, but they also say that if you study diligently, you can learn just as much.

I think this call came because I prayed for it. I felt I was not doing my best to be diligent, and so I made a commitment to myself to work harder when I was senior companion. But that didn't seem like enough. I felt I needed to do more now, but didn't want to tell my senior companion or other missionaries I work with that we really need to be working harder. So I prayed that the Lord would give me a way to improve myself now. Two days later I got this call.

I really will love it. Everyone does. As a member of the Mandarin branch said, "don't worry, you will come back. And they will feed you a lot! You will come back very fat!" So there you go. All my worries are gone.

Elder Oaks came and talked to us about revelation. He asked us what we had learned about revelation. It was really good. He is so great.

Aunt Gabi asked if I had any favorite scriptures I had found during my mission. My favorite scripture is (I think) 2 Nephi... 4? 5? it's verse 27 and it says "And it came to pass that we did live after the manner of happiness." I testify that this church is the manner of happiness. I love you all!
-Noah