Monday, April 13, 2015

April 13, 2015 - General Conference Weekend! (in Hong Kong)

Though your email has not yet arrived, I will show mercy on you, because of the many multitudes of my tender mercies, shedding themselves abroad upon my family.

General Conference Weekend! My concerns about General Conference are total opposites from what they were before my mission. Before my mission, I felt they were too long. Now my biggest concern is that I have not prepared myself enough or am not paying enough attention and might not be getting everything that I need to from them, hence I desire them to be longer. Now that I mention it, that attitude is an almost perfect reflection of my view towards my mission... I used to think it was long, and now I just wish I had more time to perfect it.

I felt a little disappointed, because we didn't have too many investigators there, but it really was a great conference, and I feel that I had some very specific answers. The most consistent and most needed answer was the very thoroughly voiced truth that sometimes it just takes patience and faith and persistence to see improvement. And I loved President Monson's talk in Priesthood Session. Though I'd heard those stories before, something this time made me realize the truth that though we may not have seen or know how to do a particular priesthood responsibility, if we've been consistently doing our best in our callings, we are prepared.

I can add my testimony to the many already born that these men and women are called of God and their message is true. Quick question, what advice do you guys have on applying conference effectively?

This week our investigators are doing okay, the only main problem being that they are not at church. A SIng is still doing great, and we taught him a short sweet lesson after conference. He only has 2 concerns: gaining a testimony before his impending baptismal date, and having enough time to teach all the lessons before said date. A Chung, who I feared was lost for a time, resurfaced without mention of why he had disappeared for 1 week, and we taught him on Thursday. Then we were again unable to contact him till now. ?

Kelvin is not doing great; he seems to be losing his desire to meet with us. Pray for him.

Last of all we had some really cool finding experiences this week. We found a cool guy from Nepal named Rabiphagami, who didn't speak English really well, but was really cool, and is very worried about how to help his son who spends too much time playing computer games. We were able to teach him and his wife again, and should be turning them over to the International Elders soon. We also taught an older guy named Paul. He is technically Catholic, but not very religious. He was willing to talk to us, but was sort of playing the sarcastic, cynical, jaded old man type, but as we talked about God and about whether or not He loves us, he broke into tears because he really feels that his life has some serious trials and he feels afraid and guilty. It was a very sweet experience, and afterwards he kept saying (albeit in a slightly cynical old man way) that he believes that we were sent from God. I know that the people around us, no matter how uninterested or hardened they may seem, need the gospel. In General Conference we heard a lot about healing and families that these people need. I pray that we'll all be ready to reach out when God requires us to.

Elder Morrell

David,

So, I'm about to go hike a mountain called 青山, which literally means bright green mountain( as if every mountain in Hong Kong wasn't bright green..) I feel like I used to like lounging a lot more but now I don't like wasting time. That was the worst part of General Conference is that there were some hours in between sessions that we had nothing to do. On the other hand, I've come to enjoy car rides because I never have time to sit and not do stuff. I've been trying to start my Chinese read through of the Book of Mormon, which is going to be tough. Right now I'm in 1 Nephi 15.

Rebecca,

Why on earth would you need a smart phone? I hated getting my phone, and I didn't have to spend nearly as much time with it as you probably will. While I admit there are a lot of useful things that phones can do (finding places, calculating, checking the safety of things, communication,) as a missionary the Phone is always my enemy. He sits there looking so sleek and cool and whispers, 'Don't talk to those two handsome men, look, Jenny just posted a new post, and Rachel texted a new text, and you're about to break 30,000,000 points on Candy Crush, you don't have time for the gospel." And thus he whispereth in their ears until he grasps them with his chains and leads them carefully down to hell.

Okay, you probably won't be led down to hell, but just promise you'll spend at least some time looking up scriptures, LDS.org, etc and don't play candy crush ever.

Abby,

That's so sad that your ears got pierced. It's a dangerous world out there. Hardly a women alive can survive without her ears being viciously pierced. Well, don't worry, it'll all be better in the end, and I'm sure in the resurrection your ears will be healed.

Just joking. Although I do still wonder why people do that voluntarily. It seems like the sort of thing done to slaves in the Old Testament or by Cannibalistic native tribes to their prisoners. Thank you for the itinerary. It is always appreciated. You should go to the Temple. I loved President Monson's talk about it.

Thanks Dad and Mom. Sorry, I'm almost out of time. I do want to ask why on earth you let one daughter's ears be mutilated and afflicted another with an iPhone in a single week. Seems pretty heartless.

College:

Could you send me info on the following classes:

ARTHC 201 world civ to 1500 and HIST 201 world civ to 1500 have what difference?

ENGL 201 masterpieces of world lit

IP and T Hist of learn in art tech sci

PHIL 210 science and civ

Tech 201 hist creativity and innov.

Ihum 240 itro hum. asia

arthc 203 survey of oriental art/archetecture

va stu 101 intor art drawing non major senior capstone?

va 114 drawing

va 115 2d design

Would those last two be too intensive for a non art major?

Also, my biggest concern is that the Calculus class will be tough because I will have forgotten all, and may not be able to catch back up in time. I'm willing to try it if Dad thinks it's possible, but if we do it that way (this may sound fanatical) I'd like Dad and Joseph to come up with a sort of review course for the material covered in Calc 1 so that I can spend like 2 hours a day in my one in between week catching up/reacquainting myself. I don't remember exactly what's in the calc 1 curriculum, so I’d be relying on you, but after all you have patriarchal and matriarchal authority to receive revelation for me, so I'm not too concerned.

Really love you all! Even Joseph, who I assume is sleeping.

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