Hong Con: Week 10 - Vancouver BC, Uchtdorf Hobbit Adventure, Goodbyes

Well, I'm off. This week we got some exciting but not unexpected news. We were all reassigned for at least a transfer. I'm been sent to the Vancouver Canada mission. Right now I'm on the plane to Canada writing this letter. This all happened pretty fast between finding out we would be reassigned, being reassigned, getting our flight plans, and then packing and leaving. It's been wild. I still don't know if I'll be called to speak any Chinese or not, but I hope so. I don't want to lose all my hard work with Cantonese. I don't know how long I'll be there. My Cantonese teacher from Hong Kong thinks we could be there by February, but one of my branch presidents thinks that's pretty optimistic. So we'll see. I'm not complaining, British Columbia looks like an amazing mission, I could totally see myself spending a lot of time there. There's also a lot of Chinese speakers in Vancouver so hopefully I'll get called to one of the Mandarin branches at least. It's exciting and daunting to finally be heading out into the field. I've been in the MTC so long that I thought I might never leave. I'm excited for Canada but I'm also worried for Hong Kong. I hope we get to go there sooner rather than later.

The last week in the MTC was pretty fun. It was hard to say goodbye to more friends as they left and even harder to say goodbye to our Cantonese teachers. They were both super amazing friends and teachers. Brother Smith and Sister Yau really did a lot to help us be prepared for the field and to teach as best we can in Cantonese. I think everyone in the class will miss them. The bright spot of the work was getting to watch Conference. It was super great, especially Elder Uchtdorf's talk when he mentioned the Hobbit. Everyone in the auditorium was freaking out a bit. It was fun. I especially liked Elder Anderson's talk on joy, I can't wait for them to all come out on Gospel Library.

That's about it. I'm feeling a bit nervous right now, butterflies in my stomach. It feels surreal to be out in the world again. I'm hoping I can make my way through these first couple of weeks in the field well. Wish me luck!

UPDATE

I made it to Vancouver, we apparently messed up going through customs so we possibly might be here illegally but we'll see. We just told them we were missionaries and they kind of like asked "do we need to do anything for that?" Shrugged and let us in. Apparently we need some work forms or something. We got out a couple hours earlier than expected so we waited for a bit for our mission president to show up. Canada is pretty much the US but just a little bit north. It seriously feels like Davis County. Another fun thing, they thought we were learning mandarin in the MTC but that is 100% not true. So we have plans to go street contacting tonight in Mandarin so that will be fun. Honestly, this is all so surreal that I hardly know what's going on. It's pretty sweet, I'm pretty pumped.

-Elder Murray