Dear Friends and Family,
I hope you are all happy and healthy wherever you may be. I am doing well here. This past week we got to meet two new investigators. They are both deaf. Actually, we are meeting another new investigator today who is also deaf. Our recent convert is bringing all of her deaf friends to meet with missionaries. She is a great missionary already.
Anyway they are all really nice! The sign language in Hong Kong has some issues, though. It is the same for everyday regular words, but when you get into religious vocabulary or any type of specialized vocabulary, everybody uses a different sign. Deaf communities in Hong Kong make up a lot of their own words. SO sometimes we have some communication issues. But in the church, we use ASL (American Sign Lanuguage) vocabulary for religious words such as prophet, revelation, etc.
Anyway my sign language has gotten better. It's intersting signing in a language I'm still working toward fluency in. Before my mission, I just assumed everybody comes back and is fluent in their mission language. Not so for Cantonese. Everybody is at a different level. Chinese people always praise my Cantonese, but everday I can come home with about 100 new words that I heard which I have never heard before and did not understand. This language is a bottomless pit. I am so grateful to learn it though! Cantonese is like that girl in high school that you pursue. Then you think you've got her, but then she ignores you or slaps you in the face but you can't stop pursuing her. Everytime you get slapped down, it just fuels your fire. So that's where I'm at right now. I love Cantonese. It's like my girlfriend now.
Anyway the rest of the week was pretty normal. Finding people, getting rejected, same old. The coolest thing is that we're teaching deaf people. They're the best! I'm still happy.
One more thing. We have a goal to get 65 baptisms in the month of July. Recently we have been getting 19 or 20 a month, but in July our mission goal is 65. It's going to take miracles, so pray for us.
Love,
Elder Phillips
This guy is a little creepy.
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