December 15, 2014 - Transfers this Week, I Hope I Stay!

The Ko family.  Another awesome family, Brother Ko has literally perfect English and is the Young Men counselor, so he helped a lot with Ben getting baptized.  Super cool family.  THeir house is also really amazing.

The Lai family.  They are pretty awesome. Sister Lai often brings friends to our English class, and recently has been lending us a ton of English books to help teach the kids.  Brother and Sister Lai both went to BYU, so a lot of English in that family.  And they have the Magic Treehouse books.  That was a shock.

​Our ward Correlator, Yuen Hing Dai's family.

My companion, Elder Tse, though he's not normally so grey.  (I was messing around with the color filters on the camera).

This week has been pretty cool. This area has been growing a ton since I got here. My first week here there was only one investigator who dropped us after a week. This week on our progress record we had 10 investigators who are actively meeting us, and at church we had 4 people. It's been amazing and instructive to see how people find and come to accept the gospel. The natural man in me wants to say "Ha ha! Look at all this success that I have. I have more investigators than most other people in the mission!". But on my mission I've come to realize more and more the folly of the natural man view. Obviously I was involved in these people accepting the gospel, I mean if I'd just been lazy and slept all day long they wouldn't have been found. But when we go out finding and actually find people, it is because the Lord shows them to us, or shows us to them. And when they get baptized, or feel the spirit, or become converted, it is the Lord. Can I make someone's heart burn within them? Can I give people peace of conscience or remission of sins? Of course not, to really think that would be ridiculous and probably blasphemous.

We missionaries may have an important role, but we can't do those things for others any more than we can do them for ourselves. So I try to remember, that while we may have a lot of success right now, it's not me, it's God.

One cool experience this week. We had a new investigator that we met on the street on Tuesday and scheduled for Saturday who suddenly canceled the night before. We were a bit bummed. But when we went out finding, after about 3 hours of no success, who did we bump into but the guy, who is named 阿華, or A wa. Turns out he was available and we walked with him for 30 minutes all the way back to the chapel and taught him. Then he came to church on Sunday. So, when the Lord wants you to be converted, there's no way out.

Dad,

A brief report of some of our investigators, because I don't have time to say all 10. Mr. Lo is still loving church, and we had a good meeting with him this week. Honestly the thing that I'm worried about with him is smoking, I think he's a bit in denial that he can't quit without some serious effort, but he doesn't seem to like to bring it up.

A relatively new investigator, Rachel, is doing pretty well because she's been reading the Book of Mormon a ton. We started teaching her 2 weeks ago, and she's read up to 1 Nephi 15 ish.

Our investigator A Wing has been having some problems recently. She's doing okay but we were really hoping that we'd be able to help her get baptized this December (our mission has another goal like July, 65 in December) but she's just not being serious enough about keeping commitments yet. As Elder Klebingat said in General Conference, “Casualness in spiritual matters was never happiness”.

Brother Wong, whose wife was officially reactivated this week with a calling of Relief Society teacher, is struggling with reading. Basically without that I don't see him progressing too quickly, though he's been great about going to church each week and he likes it.

Transfers are this week, so I may be somewhere else next week. I really hope I can stay here for at least one more move. We have so many people who will probably get baptized next move, and beyond that I really love this ward and this area. I'm a bit nervous, because so far I've only had one companion for more than one move, and if that stays true then Elder Tse is about done with me.

Mom,

We have a couple who work in the mission office, like the Talls. They are called the Packs, super awesome people. You'd be surprised at the importance that the Talls probably played. If it's like this mission, it's not just financial stuff, it's moral. All the missionaries love going to the office to talk to the Packs. I'm sure the Talls were the same, We have a Bank of America card, I've learned a lot of useful life skills from that.

I will prepare myself to answer questions. Are we talking about what classes to take? Or housing? If housing I'll need you and Dad's advice.

Another cool thing this week, A Chun, who was a 14 year old kid that Elder Au and I found, was baptized yesterday in Kwun Tong. He shared an awesome testimony at a fireside. Great feeling.

All Kids,

I have little time. It's not that I don't love you, it's just that I find it hard to remember who's who.

I do miss playing Risk. You can write that one on the board of things to do when I get home, and get rid of some TV show or movie. Risk is better. David, it was a public computer. Joseph, sounds pretty intense. I tried some sprints again and it really wiped out my whole body. Becca and Abby, I'm pretty sure neither of you hate the other. Things are doing okay right now, I feel a bit down the last few days but I've found that to be normal, my mood will gradually swing up and down. Joseph, nothing good happens late at night anyway (says the guy who, on one of the few dates I went on, got back at 3:00 AM. Don't do that), Artemis is a great name.

I love you all!