Rice Cheeks - Week 21

Da Jia! Xin Nian Kuia Le!

So weird that it is 2016! Time is just flying by so quickly! I had another great week here in Kowloon, the work here is just so busy, the time is really flying! These next few weeks may be a little slower, lots and lots of people are all going back to mainland to their lao jia (hometown) for the new year, so Mandarin work is going to trickle starting soon til like mid February which will be rough, but there is lots of promise still here!

I really like the feeling of a new year! It's a good excuse to invite people to start with renewed vigor on old commitments, or new commitments, and really seems to give people a little bit of hope. There is always so much hope in the idea of a new start, and people really seem to latch onto it for the new year. The great thing about the gospel and that the atonement is that everyday, every hour, even every minute we can have a fresh, new start!

Street food = rice cheeks

Anways my companion and I are doing great! We're both working hard, but we get along really well, he has been getting super distracted by the Star Wars trailers that play in the trains haha. We are trying to run 3 times a week to fight the rice cheeks. It's such a battle. I think I have gained about 4-5 lbs so far, and its all in the cheeks haha. We are teaching really well together, and his chinese is coming along, only a few instances, like one lesson he accidently kept saying normal or average instead of peaceful, so he was sincerely bearing testimony of/explaining the spirit but kept telling our buddy that it was just some average normal feeling haha. He works really hard though! I feel so blessed to have had no real big problems with the language, I really don't know how or why, all I know that I am blessed.

At the Hospital getting Chen Hong Tu

Yesterday we wheeled our investigator Chen Hong Tu from the hospital in Mong Kok through the trains to the Wan Chai chapel! It was his first time ever being allowed to leave the hospital in months, it was cool to see how much he appreciated church and everything, even though the whole process was around 5 hours and seemed to be pretty uncomfortable for him! Im not sure exactly what his surgery was, something in his neck that caused numbness and pain, so I assume it was some nerve and vertebrae problem. He is super great though and should be getting baptized in a few weeks if all goes well! 

Wheeling Chen Hong Tu to the MTR to get to church

Our other investigators are all doing well, we're trying to help them recognize the Spirit, and also feel the love! We taught an awesome family the other day, and I was devastated to learn that they are moving back to mainland in a month! Hopefully we can help them be baptized before they leave, I just want there family to have what my family does! We have a lot of great prepared people that are all just loving the gospel and really willingly keeping commitments which is miraculous!

We have been working with a less active named Sun Dx, and I have really been struggling with knowing how to help him. We have tried everything we can, and he is just to afraid to try, to commit himself, and to work for happiness. It is really heartbreaking. I feel such a deep sadness from this guy, and he talks about his dissatisfaction with everything all the time. And he always leaves the lessons so inspired by the Spirit, yet somehow we cannot help him help himself, he is just not proactive enough to try. It is hard. I chastised him kinda hard this last week, we gave him the invitation to read one verse and say one prayer everyday, and he was really wanting to do it because he is so sad and wants guidance, yet he just never does it no matter our reminders. So I kinda chastised him pretty hard for like 7 mins, then, in the midst of it I suddenly had a change of perspective. I suddenly realized that this is a struggling Son of God who needs our help, not my chastisement because I am annoyed, but a child of God with the same potential as every one of us, who need the hand of the Savior to be extended to him to help pull him out of the pit. And suddenly my chastisement turned into testimony, then almost into pleading for him. My heart felt so muhc more open as I fully felt what he is truly missing, and for that moment I think I almost felt what the Savior must feel for all of us. He is pleading for us to let him carry us, he begs us to let him bear, if we are but willing. I really hope that he felt the love of the Savior, and the strength that he can give him. It is really the only strength that will help him continue and progress in this life. 

It reminded me a lot of Helaman 5:12 and of the song Precious Savior, Hymn 103. When we build our testimonies, our families, our actions, our lives on the rock of the savior, all those winds and storms of life that beat upon us will have no power over us, will not move us or knock us into the stormy waters. Seeing people's lives out here has really let me see the true meaning of those storms and winds of life, I can almost feel them surging around in people's countenances, in their lives, as we share this message. And I have been privileged to see the Gospel, the hand of the Savior, reach out, and pull people to safety. It realy puts things into perspective, really makes me realize how insignificant and petty any 'problems' were from my life before the mission. The Savior can "curb the winds and calm the billows" of any storm in life, that while we may pass through the storm still upon the rock of the Savior. We may be wet or shaken up, but we will never be swept up or overwhelmed. This new year is a good excuse for a new start, as I said earlier. Hopefully we can all think of something to really make it a new start. To be better. Through the Atonement we truly can be a little better today than we were yesterday, and tomorrow, more than we were today. I love the gospel, and I know that the Savior truly does save us from life's storms.

Thank you all for the packages and letters from Christmas!! And I hope everyone had a Happy new Year!

Merry Christmas - Loving mom's Chocolates

Love,
Elder Woolley