Harvest Moon - Week 7

DA JIA HAO

Harvest Moon Festival - so fun to see all the families
celebrating the autumn harvest together!

This week was amazing! We really started having all of our prayers be answered which was such a good feeling, and I just felt so grateful this past week! We had 6 full lessons this which was is huge for us and for our new area, and everything just really started coming together this week!

This week I learned a lot about patience and listening, two skills I've been fortunate to have developed throughout my life, and they are huge out here in Hong Kong. Two of our lessons with our investigators this week were almost all patience, and listening to them, and then trusting the Spirit to help us discern their needs, and how best to go about addressing them. We had a lesson with Teng Hao ( the male prostitute/pornography guy) and for the first time he finally started to get a little serious with us, and I finally felt that his random questions weren't just to annoy us or ask hard questions, but they truly are his roundabout way of asking the questions of his soul, my companion and I finally saw past the facade he has put up of loving his work and joking around all the time, and finally could see how truly and deeply sad he is for his life, and how it has led him to do his line of work. It was honestly a very touching lesson, left me very grateful for a good family and life situation, and helped us understand him. We were able to bear testimony of a Savior who understands, and a God who wants to bless and help him. Though he still interrupted us a lot, I can tell he is starting to come around, though very verrryyyy slowly. He is going to be a long process, but he needs this Gospel just as much as every one else. Our other lesson that involved a lot of listening was with our buddy Summers, we've been trying to figure out why he won't follow up on commitments and still won't pray with us, when he finally just started discussing Karl Marx and we realized it's because he is a member of the Communist Party! So he is afraid to make any religious steps of any nature, it was an interesting discussion of political philosophy about the proletariat and all this random stuff (thank goodness for Poly Sci 202 last year) and I think we we're finally able to understand him, and helped use philosophy and our experiences to help him finally decide that he wants to pray, and to get to know God. He had an interesting idea that he would only pray if he knew and believed, and we had to try and convince him that a step to believing is prayer. Easier said than done, but in the end I could see the Spirit of our testimonies working on him until he finally said yuanyi (willing) and we were so hype! The philosophy discussion was a huge stretch for my Mandarin haha a lot of terms I didn't know at all, but Summers said my Mandarin has really gotten a lot better pretty quick, which is the best compliment to get from a mainlander! It's definitely still a long process, it is a hard language, but I can really feel myself being blessed to learn it fast which is great! Not too many big mistakes or anything recently, other than saying a swear word instead of this ladies name haha but got that resolved pretty quick. 

Shopping at the ladies bazaar

I went on exchanges again this week with our district leader which was lots of fun! It's always just good to see how other people do the work, and their aparment is waay cleaner than mine and has the BEST view! SO pretty! It's right on the harbor, I'll send some pics. We taught a great lesson about the Plan of Salvation. It's such an amazing plan, everytime I teach someone about the gospel I am always reminded about how lucky I am to have the knowledge that I have, and an amazing family, and it makes me want to share it with everyone! My companion and I have been more bold and excited, and I feel like we and the other elders in our apartment have all gotten to be really good friends, it really helps just having everyone be happy, make big sunday dinners together, and just have some good unity before we all go out and do the Lord's work! I think it blesses our efforts more as well, my companion and I have had lots of success this week, and I know a lot of it has to do with unity, and both reminding one another of our purpose here.

Love this river - it's so peaceful after a storm

Something that I have been working on this week is the contrast between knowing and doing, in really applying everything I say I'll do, and everything that I learn from studies, meetings, etc, and really just going out and doing. That's what makes a huge difference in here and in life, just doing what you say you will do, and living what you learn. I read in a talk by Boyd K. Packer about a missionary who was crushed in an earthquake in Ecuador, and had to go home for awhile to recuperate. He was determined, and returned to the field using two crutches to walk, and eventually had just one cane. One day the 














mission president took it from him and said you don't need this cane anymore, you're just holding yourself back, and from then on the missionary finished out his mission without any cane or crutch. President Packer then invited everyone to consider their own personal 'canes', anything that they are holding on to that they may be holding up, and to hang it up on the wall, to give it the Lord, and let Him deal with it. I really liked that idea, and have been searching for things that could be holding me back, weaknesses, past mistakes, distractions etc, and just giving them up to the Lord, so that I can focus on here, now, and look forward to the future here with a 'perfect brightness of hope.' I would invite everyone to search themselves for your own 'canes' and just hang them up. 

Fun goong goong that always greets us with "ay lay gum leng zai"
-your such a handsome boy-

Finally, I've been reading in Alma about the how those missionaries strive their hardest to help other's enter into the 'rest of the Lord.' I love that term 'rest,' the invitation to all the labor, and are heavy laden, and they can have true rest. What better promise is there than the rest of the Lord? Rest from all work, emotional, familial, financial, social, physical, and whatever other struggles of life that one can experience. The Lord gives rest. He descended below all and rose up, carrying all of us with him, giving us all the chance to rely on him, to enter into his rest, and partake of the 'waters of life.' He offers to all to be lifted. Be happy. Rest from your labors, "come, my brethren, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come buy and eat; yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price." (2 Nephi 9:50) Such a hopeful gospel! I love this work, and love sharing this with everyone!

Thank you all for your support and letters, I love hearing from everyone!

Love,

Elder Woolley