January 5, 2015 - Believing Before There is Proof

A very small orange and a normal sized orange.

A picture from the boat as we were riding to Sai Kung Island on Christmas Day

A mangrove forest on Sai Kung Island.

Tthe ghetto bow and arrow game.  I was the best at it

New Years was good, we had a BBQ at a member's house. Lots of seafood and Chinese stuff. Very good. When we got there two members were talking about relativity and Interstellar (yes, Joseph) and after about a minute or so I clued in and started understanding. They didn’t' think that I would, but I did. That made me happy. Also I learned the Chinese for special and general relativity which was one of the best gifts this holiday season.

Our investigators are doing well. We have been teaching two of Sister Lai's referrals who are really faithful. I think that they have a very good chance at getting baptized. We also had two new investigators at church, so things have been going pretty well. Brother Lo is still struggling to quit smoking, but I know that he'll get baptized. It just might take a while. Our other investigator Rachel is doing amazing, will probably be baptized on the 18th.

I had a really cool insight about Helaman 16. there are 3 types of people shown in this story. The ones who believed Samuel right off the bat, 1, the type who believed after the arrows couldn’t hit him, 2 and the type who refused to believe even after that 3. This story illustrates how miracles affect people. The 3rd group was actually harmed by the miracle, because they decided to rebel even with the great proof that they had been shown. Later, all the Nephites converted when the day and night and day were as one day, but some quickly fell away. I think that group 3 fell away quickly because of this experience in chapter 16 they chose to destroy their own faith. The second group is interesting. They were converted by it, in other word they repented because of the miracle and started to develop faith. But the first group actually benefitted from it. They had chosen to believe even before having it proved to them, so when the miracle came it did not damn them, it did not convert them, it strengthened them. Their faith was made firmer because they had chosen to believe when they didn’t' need to.

Dad,

This morning we helped our ward correlator move back into his house. They've been renovating and finally finished. Their new house is pretty nice, and honestly very westerny, in the sense that the kitchen and bathroom are big. The reason we had to help them, is because Brother Yuen loves reading and knowing things, and owns literally 2000 something books. I will try to get the picture to you some time, but it took 7 of us a full 3 hours to move them from one house to the other. Madness and very tempting. He has books on literally every subject.

I think that I probably sound a lot more enthusiastic towards finding than I actually am. You probably know that it's easier to say that you always enjoy it than to do it. But I do feel that more and more I enjoy it. I have been trying to focus more on the people as we find, which can be hard sometimes. I think that the hardest thing is this. It's not hard for me to choose to go out finding, I've decided enough times on my mission to choose to go out finding and work hard that it's a habit now. But when you don't get a chance to really say anything for an hour or more, it becomes hard to remember or feel what will help people have interest and what will help them. But if you get someone who stops and talks, you quickly remember.

Mom,

We just switched to 9 am church, and our schedule is now reversed, priesthood first. It was a bit light in numbers for priesthood, because no one is used to it. Doesn't really affect us at all, we get up at the same time every day anyway. I want to ask you and dad about what you learned about consecration on your missions, because I've been learning a lot about that recently.

The sisters in my group are almost done. There were no sisters in my MTC group at Provo, but some natives who went to the Philippines, and this is their last move. Is August 21st good for a return date?

I should mention that I ran into a friend of Grandpa Carmack who lives in our ward, Norris Cheung. He's super cool, somehow he remembered that John Carmack has grandchidren named Morrell. He was happy to the point of almost being emotional. I'm sure that Grandpa remembers him. He wants to invite us to dinner for New Years. Also, Grandpa's letter about Nephi was super cool. I want to read a lot more of the books he's written, because he writes quite well.

Becca,

What do you mean, I don't give you anything to work on? What are my letters about? My life! What are your letters about? YOUR LIFE!

School can be hard and sometimes boring but I really think that the chance to work and learn is something that I enjoy a lot. Even in high school, when I might not have loved it, I still didn't mind going to school too much because I liked all my classes.

Abby,

I'm really glad to hear that you read the 3 Nephi 1 thing. Thank you. Do you have any New Year's resolutions? If not I would encourage you to set an exercise goal. Ask Joseph what worked for him and do it. We are what we choose to be. I am writing to you and not the boys because I feel that usually when I've got no time I neglect you 2 girls more often.