Exchanges - Week 28

DA JIA! This last week really seemed to fly by! I'll summarize it as best I can!

Yang Kai and his friend

Our buddy Yang Kai brought a friend to church this last week! It is so refreshing to see someone so new to the gospel so eager to share it with his friends, it gets me really excited for him! He is really solid, and he even went out last week and bought the same suit as me which he wears sometimes to our lessons and also to church haha so funny. We have a really good time together in the lessons, and his testimony has really been growing!

Yang Kai!!

Our other buddy Jason is so amazing, I really feel like it is such a privilege to teach him, I'll be honest I never thought there were really people as prepared as him out there, maybe I just lacked the faith. But now I know! It's a big testimony strengthener that God prepares his children, and puts them in our path. If we are willing to share with everyone we will find them. We never know who missed out if we don't open our mouths. He is a constant reminder to me of that, which is good! We moved his baptismal date to March 6th! He will definitely be ready for it. It's crazy how fast he is progressing, even shared a Book of Mormon with his family when he went home to mainland for the New Year! So proud of him! 

Elder Grayam and Jason - just a few more weeks before he gets baptized!

I got to go on Zone Leader District Leader exchanges again this week with Elder SY! It was so fun to be with my trainer again, felt a little weird too, and we had a great time finding! We found really well together even though it's been months, and it was cool again to just apply the gospel to anyone's life on the street!

Elder Sy and Elder Woolley together again!

The New Year really has had an affect on our teaching pool, lots of people went home for a really long time, and came back and dropped us, or have been hard to reach again. It's hard to have that pattern, we call it the mainland monster, when investigators go there they get eaten by it haha, but it's pretty true sometimes! We lost some really good investigators, which was pretty heartbreaking. Our friend Lu Tao met us after he got back, he had great potential! But then he told us when he was on the break he didn't think about the gospel at all, and was pretty happy with his family, so he doesn't want to meet anymore, then left for class. It is pretty sad to hear someone give up learning the gospel when I know the blessings it brings! But I have faith that in him there is a seed that has been nurtured, and sometime in the future, whether it be in a few months or even in a few years, something will bring him back to a truth he once knew. It has helped us sort of sift out the investigators that wouldn't be progressing, and kept the strong ones! So we'll be working hard these next few weeks finding more people!

Moves calls are tomorrow! I'm a little nervous, I have moved to a new area every transfer so far and always had a new companion, it is a little tiring, so we will see the outcome of this transfer! I really love this area, and the potential is incredible! I have also loved being a district leader and serving the district and meeting so many baptismal candidates, it has been a huge testimony builder! But it brings to mind something from Preach My Gospel, which says something like that Savior was prepared and willing to atone for mankind. I think there is a powerful principle in those two aspect of serving. Being prepared, and being willing. We never know when we will be asked to do hard things, but we always have to be prepared to do what the Lord calls on us to do. We have to be prepared to bear testimony, and in the moment that we bear it, bear real testimony, to truly know and mean and feel exactly what we are sharing, and not just say 'I know God lives' without conviction. We have to be prepared to follow promptings, switch lesson topics, change plans, serve someone, or heed promptings. And, the most important one I've been learning, is willing. We have to be willing to do hard things. Even when I'm exhausted, discouraged, or it's hot and humid, or raining like crazy, or it seems there  couldn't possibly be any good from a situation, we have to be willing to try! Every time I have grudgingly, unwillingly done something, the outcome is always the same, it matches the expectations I put on it. But when I willingly go out and trust the Lord, giving myself to him and trying to not let myself get in the way, the days are much better. The Savior spent his entire life preparing, serving, teaching, and setting a perfect example so that when it was his time, when he knew he had to go and atone for all, though he didn't want to have to go through the immense pain, he willingly did it in ultimate humility, saying nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done to the Father. Sometimes I look at our day or at a problem or an investigator and I have no idea what to do, or I know its about to be really hard day, and I really don't want to do it, but I know that I'm not out here to do all the things that I want to do, but I came here called of God, to do His work. So I am working to try my best to be always prepared, and willing, when I am asked to do hard things.

Fortunately the mission isn't all hard things! I love it so much, I have a lot of hope for the future of the branch, I love my investigators so much, and I can see real progress and joy in them! I love being a missionary, preaching the gospel, and serving. 

Ping Pong finding

Thank you all for the emails, letters, support etc. I just got a package of letters from my ward from Christmas which was fun to read and see all the kids drawings! Love everyone back home and I'm praying for you!

Love,

Elder Woolley