Sunday, July 23, 2017

Sweaty and Mango-stained

I am incredibly grateful for the Hong Kong temple. We got to attend the temple on Thursday, and the peace, beauty, love, understanding, wisdom, and light I experienced there was indescribable.
I'm thankful the gospel is true. If it were not, I would not be here. 
Last Friday at English class, the topic was travel! The question of the day was: "If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?" 
When the question came to me, my intended response of Australia or simply Hong Kong!, did not surface, and instead I blurted out "Kaysville, Utah." Now, to be perfectly honest, that is where I would want to go now. I wouldn't have time to plan for a travel buddy to meet me in Dubai or London, and itineraries would be quite disorganized if I left that day! Utah is the only place that would have immediate things to do and arms ready to extend in familiar hugs. *Please no one be alarmed or think I want to come home. I love Hong Kong*
The other 5 missionaries there gasped and we like "No! You have to choose somewhere else!" There humor, quick support, and cheerfulness was so immediate and sincere. I felt a wave of gratitude that I didn't have to choose somewhere else to go that day. That I could be content in being where I was, and that truly when it came down to it, there is literally no where else I would rather be. There are some places a plane, a train, and a boat just can't take you. Being at peace with your life and God's will for your life are such places. 
So this week I also learned that mangoes really stain! I was eating the last bits from a rind, when it slipped and perfectly stamped a mangoheart-shaped outline on the front of my borrowed dress. I washed it and was horrified to find the stain still there as I folded laundry. Sister Milan (who used to do her laundry by hand by her family's well in the Philippines for fun) helped me wash it. But it was a fruitless and fruit juice filled attempt. We got some bleach and carefully used a Q tip to avoid the blue stripes, until Sister Milan tipped the bleach and it spilled all over. With a speed I've never seen her use, she dumped the dress back in the bucket of water and we died laughing. You probably had to be there. We said goodbye to the dress. 
So I am staying another transfer in Pok Fu Lam! 
At first I was disappointed, but like I learned in English class, location doesn't decide joy. We don't need to wait until we get to a certain point (literal or figurative) until we can be happy.
Now I speak to everyone. Regardless of where you live, what you believe, or what you have experienced.
This is where you belong. God loves you. He sent you here to become better. Happiness is available through His Son. 

Things get better. HOPE is real.  Take it from a sweaty, imperfect, mango stained sister in China.

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