View from our study

 Flex-off night...every night

 Elder Nesbit

Missionaries from Olympus and Elder Siddoway

Me in front of the art

View from another room

August 28, 2017

Hello everyone! So, nothing new has really happened this week. Our schedule is basically the same every single day. The schedule is:

     1) Wake up at 6:24 (not 6:30 because if you wake up at 6:30 you will have to wait 30 minutes to shower.) But on days Tuesday-Saturday we exercise before breakfast so we just wake up and go exercise in the gym for an hour. 

     2) Then we go to breakfast. I am already sick of this food. It does something to your stomach haha.

     3) After breakfast we have study time for about two hours. My companion and I normally do language study, prepare for lessons, personal study, or just hang out with Elder Siddoway and his companion (Elder Siddoway's schedule is the exact same as my schedule so we end up doing everything together like exercising, eating every meal together, and going to devotionals together.)

     4) Next is lunch

     5) After lunch we go to language class for 3 hours.

     6) Then we go to dinner 

     7) After dinner we go to another 3 hours of language class

     8) After language we go back to the dorms around 9:30 to write in journals, get ready for bed, or just relax and watch the muscle flexing contest that goes on nearly every night on our floor. 

     9) Then we wake up and do it all again.

The language is pretty tough still. I can understand little bits and pieces of what my teacher is saying. But I have learned how to say the missionary purpose, pray, and maybe string together a few sentences in cantonese if i am lucky. 

On Saturday was the first BYU football game. Our language class is on the 6 floor of the newer building and it conveniently has a good view of the stadium. You can't even see the players playing the game but you might be able to see the score board. So probably like 20-30 missionaries came to our floor, pulled out their cameras and tried to zoom in on the score board to see the score. I am not the biggest football fan but it was funny watching all these huge football fans try to get a glimps of the score. 

This Sunday me and my companion were assigned to teach a lesson in the priesthood meeting. It went really well. My companion is really spiritual and we taught on recognizing the Holy Ghost and I learned so much from him. My companion is a really chill guy. He is from South Dakota and is really nice. We get along well. We are also about in the same spot with where our skills of cantonese are. 

After the Sunday devotional all the missionaries from Olympus High that are in the Provo MTC met up to take a picture and there are about 25 of us here! I thought that was so cool! There were a few people that didn't make it to the picture in time so there could have been like 30 people from Olympus here. It was so nice to see everyone. 

As for our lessons with our investigator. They are really challenging because we don't know that much cantonese. We learned from our teacher Do hin di (Brother Doorman) that it doesn't matter how much we know, because if we teach with the spirit guiding then we could only say 5 words and the spirit would touch the heart of the investigator. So we tried our best to each our investigator. Our lessons were difficult but they went really well. We taught about 5 lessons to the investigator. 

Please email me back and tell me how things are going for all you guys! I'd love to hear how things are going. Feel free to send pictures too! 

I will send pictures later today when I find Elder Siddoway because he has a few pictures that I want to send to all of you. 

ngoh haih gamjeh leihdeih! ngoh ngoi leihdeih!

Gu Jeunglough (Elder Gubler)

Hello everyone! The first week has been pretty rough. The day I arrived I was so nervous to leave my family and my friends. We got there and there was like no time to say goodbye. I got out of the car hugged my family and then they pushed me off to go to class.

The first class they took me to was my language class. My teacher only spoke cantonese to us and I had no idea what he was saying. And so far, I have never heard my teacher speak english to us and we have been together for about 5 hours each day. I am still not very good at the language. 

One the second day we had to teach an investigator all in cantonese. This took me by suprise because the only words i knew how to say was: fuhng yeusou geiduk ge mihng amuyn (in the name of Jesus Christ amen.) So we had to teach her and we basically prayed for the gift of tongues and then marched in there and tried to speak to her in cantonese. We read out of the books so we knew what we were saying but when she replied, my companion and i would just stare at each other blankly because we had no idea what she was saying. 

My companion is Elder Nesbit. He is honestly so chill. I love him. I couldn't have asked for a better companion. He knows how to have a good time but he also knows when its time to crack down and to work hard and study. Which is something that I like. 

The next few days we went to meetings about the people and purpose which taught us to love the people we teach and the purpose of going on a mission which was really cool. 

On Sunday we had to write talks because they randomly call on missionaries from all the chinese zones to speak during sacrement meeting. But luckily i didn't get called on to talk. Sunday felt really long and it was like church but for like 7 hours. We had none stop meetings which were spiritual but by the end of the day I was ready to go home. 

Sleeping is hard because my sleep schedule is so messed up. Before i left i would go to bed at around 2-3 in the morning and wake up at 10. But now its way different. so i got to get used to that. 

I love you all so much and i would love for you all to email me about anything that would help so much for my homesickness.  

Elder Gubler​

Aug. 16, 2017

Well, I am into the MTC. They took me to my room and I basically dropped off all my bags and went straight into the classroom where so far the teacher has spoken completely in cantonese and I haven't understood any of it. I am hoping that the language will come. I just want you to know that i will be thinking of you guys a lot. I love you all so much.

Elder Gubler

Aug. 15, 2017  Abram Gets Set Apart

Abram got set apart by President Wilmarth tonight.  It was a beautiful blessing with lots of words of encouragement, promises and blessings. We all took turns saying things to Abram that would give him the confidence and courage for this next step in his mission.  Next stop, Provo MTC for 9 weeks! We are so proud of Abram!  

April 2017:  Abram Opening his Mission Call

Abram invited friends and family over to hear him open his mission call to find out where he is going. The joy and excitement for him was overwhelming and wonderful! His mission President is Maurice Lam and his wife Elizabeth Lam, both born and raised in Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
Here are some interesting facts about Hong Kong: 

Hong Kong is made up of 235 islands and part of mainland China.  It is 63 square miles smaller than the Salt Lake Valley.  40% of it’s land mass has been set apart as parks and open space. In the remaining part of land it is home to nearly 8 million people, making it one of the most densely populated cities in the world.  Hong Kong was a British territory until 1997 when it was turned over to China.  It is governed differently than mainland China with pro-democracy and mainland China governmental ideas often clashing. The main religions are Buddhism, Toaism and Chinese Folk religion.   Approximately 12% of the population is christian of which 24,000 are mormons--only a quarter of which are estimated to be active members.  Cantonese Chinese is the most common language in Hong Kong followed by Mandarin Chinese and English.

March 30, 2017  Abram Gets His Call

Abram got his call during the Spring break when all of his friends were out of town.  He decided to open it up with just me, Dave and Abram in our bathroom and then open it up again in front of his friends a week later.  We were so quiet when he opened it up so as not to let on to Josh, Necie and Asher what we were doing.  (Little did we know that they were outside the bathroom door with their ears glued to it.)  Abram read his mission as the China Hong Kong Mission speaking Cantonese leaving August 16th.  CHINA? I thought he was joking.  It took only a minute for it to settle in Abram's mind and then he was psyched.  The rest of the family followed suit and the China Hong Kong is the absolute best place for him to go.