DAJIA HAO (Here is last week's letter, IDK why it didn't send)
Hello everybody it's been another amazing week in Hong Kong!! This week has definitely been a struggle, but lots of lessons learned!
This has been a super hard week, my companion said it was the hardest week of his mission, but at the same time it went by super fast and I have high hopes for this week!
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| A great place to get baos for about 1 US dollar |
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| Ryan and Summers |
Last Pday I went to a bazaar and a jade trading market which was fun! I haggled prices with people but never bought anything it was so fun, the people always freak out once you start walking away, the bazaar was kinda a let down though, it was early so not quite open, and there were a lot of young triad owned prostitutes out which was pretty depressing, they live a hard and sad life Im sure, I wanted to give them fliers but didn't want to give off the wrong impression by approaching them haha. All of my pictures should be up on my blog! Sorry I cant really send any on the big letters theres no room!
On paper this was a super unsuccesful week, and at times, I definitely felt it. Everyday of the week we found all day, looking forward to Friday and Saturday which is when we had about 8 lessons lines up, because everyone works or goes to school all week everyone can only meet on the weekends. So we had lots and lots of finding, but for some reason this week, no one would talk to us, we would give the friendliest greetings and smiles, and no one would even look at us, it was super hard because that lasted the whole week, and then on Saturday, we were set to have 6 lesson which is a ton for Hong Kong, we were super excited. Unfortunately all of them cancelled, and one of our investigators with the most potential got anti'd (when they recieve anti mormon matierial that freaks them out) and blocked us. So it was definitely crushing. We did have 2 great lessons on Friday for which I am very greatful. Every lesson is a gift. Sunday things have seemed to start to turn around again, I had a great spiritual day, got rejuvenated for the week, have a lot of potentials again this week, so I'm definitely looking forward to some good things this week!
Our first lesson was with Tony, he's a mainlander who is the most open person i have ever met, it's amazing how open minded the people from mainland can be. With no religious background or normal persuasions that others have, they can be super open and seem to search for truth. We taught him about the plan of salvation, and the Atonement of Christ. It was very powerful, he told us about guilt he has felt in his life, as well as a few other emotional problems, I testified to him that through the atonement he need not feel those things anymore. As I testified to him I felt the Spirit reconfirm to me the power of the Atonement. It really is so special, Christ already bore our sins for us, we need not carry any single burden through life! I feel so bad for all the people that reject us, they don't realize what we offer is a way out of the hardships of life, of the burdens that they needlessly carry. It's sad, and inspires my copmanion and I to work through all the rejection. Tony really accepted the lesson we taught, I know he felt it's truth. After we concluded and walked back a little ways together he just kept talking about church stuff, I could see the little seed of desire in him starting to grow, and I feel so fortunate to have been able to meet him! When we found him it was totally inspired too, he had been in mainland for months, and was a previous investigator. We just ran into him on this street we felt that we should go to, where we were able to get his new contact info, it's amazing to see God direct us to those he needs, especially here in Hong Kong where theres so many people, the odds of seeing the person you want to see are so slim. Unfortunately he's moving out of our area this week, but fortunately hes still in HK so he can still be taught the gospel!
Our other lesson was with Summers, it went well, but he has a hard time doing our invitations to pray, he's not wuite comfortable with it, whcih is understandable, so were patiently nurtuting his belief and curiousity in the gospel, I know when he takes the leap of faith this new knowledge will bless him so much! He's definitley become one of our good friends, I love teaching investigators because it's a lot like talking to a good old friend, we talk about life and get to know them super well. Then we get serious and try our best to share the gospel with them, because we love them, and we know that the gospel can really improve and change lives! Unofrtunatley another one of our investigators also moved this week so Summer is our only solid investigator for now, but every week brings new opportunities!
My chinese is coming along rather well, sometimes it's hard to feel any progress, than other times Im just amazed that I can talk to people straight from mainland after having only been learning for 3 months, the Lord really does bless us here to learn and do his work. It's getting easier to spot mainlanders from Hong Kongers, they're also generally way nicer too! I've picked up a few Cantonese phrases but my mandarin stilll needs so much work that the other Chinese is just overwhelming haha it's a lot to deal with!
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| Ryan and his companion Elder Sy |
I was reading in Mosiah this week, where it talks about Alma the yonger being visited and chastised by the angel. Something that I really like about that story is that the angel says his purpose in visiting Alma is to show that the Lord answers the prayers of the faithful, because Alma the elder had been praying for his son with faith to the Lord, asking him to help his son know the truth. The angel's purpose was to answer that prayer. If we pray with real faith for righteous outcome, believeing that God will provide, we can expect Him to answer it. We can know that He will. We just have to have patience and hope. So that's what were trying to do this week!
As I said earlier this week was very difficult, just long hours of no talking to anyone all day, no one even smiling at us, it gets hard. I remember thinking, why don't they realize the importance of this? It's true! Nothing else matters because it's true! So everyone stop staring at the ground or your phones and listen up! I was a little frustrated for sure. Then I thought of who I represent. The Savior Jesus Christ. Theres a quote that says something like because we are representatives of the Savior, because I bear his name on my chest, I cannot expect to not bear at least a little bit of the suffering that the Savior has. And my hard week was no wear near what he went through. He spent his life amongst society that rejected him, spit upon him, and hated him, yet towards those people he never though one unclean or angry thought, he never said, why me? He never said, Im the Savior, the Son of God shouldn't everyone be worshipping me and hearing me out? In fact for those very people who wanted him dead and crucified him he suffered, he bled, and he bore there burdens. In the most ultimate of selfless actions as he hung bleeding from the cross he said "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." He pitied the men who rejected him, he plead with the Father to forgive them when they had done so much cruelty to him. Wow. What an amazing thing to do. As I thought of this my perspective changed. I no longer felt bad for myself from the days of rejection and silence, instead I felt bad for the people who rejected us, who refused to even give themselves an opportunity to hear, to open their minds, and to try to accept the gospel. It's interesting here I've met lots of athiests who call us close minded for believing in religion, as if I've never learned science in my life or heard all the arguments of the world against how a God could exist. Yet when I ask them if they've eve learned or considered anything about a God they say no, it's not possible, I would never even consider it. We always invite them to try something new, to open their minds, consider the possibility, the explanations of the world cannot explain away the personal witness that I have had the God is real, we are His children, He loves us, and that Jesus Christ is our Savior. It's just such a hopeful message! I wish everyone were open to the message. As I have had to rely more and more on Christ to help me overcome my own weaknesses I have come to be able to testify more powerfully of his life and his Atonement. My companion and I continue to pray in faith, we know God will bless us for our diligence in His own time. I have no doubt in my mind that He will.
I've also been doing this thing called the improvement card, our zone leaders asked us to do it, every day we write down something we want to improve on, and then focus on it and improve on it. Its good becasue it helps me not feel overwhelmed with things I need to be better at, helps me focus, and works pretty well! I'm trying to be better every day, as Abraham Lincoln said " I don't think much of a man who is no wiser today than he was yesterday" or something like that haha.
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