Elder Ryan Woolley in Hong Kong!: Being watched over

Good afternoon everybody!!

I'll have to be short this week sorry!

My companion Elder Hui leaves this week, and my new companion Elder George just got in this Sunday! He is a good missionary, I have never served with him before, but he is a great guy, and I look forward to getting to know him and working together. We have already discussed how we want to find more ways to minister to the missionaries around the mission, which is great!

This last week was packed full of change outs because Elder Hui is leaving, and we we're really busy prepping the office for Elder George. We got a lot of stuff done and downsized, including our missions new language evaluation system! I'm most excited for the future of our area in Sham Shui Po, we have been simplifying and streamlining everything in the office and it is basically down to the best point where we can maximize proselyting and really magnify our roles! It's going to be great.

This week I feel especially blessed and watched over by Heavenly Father. The past two weeks we have been really busy and struggled to be on top of scheduling, but we had some help from above which really just picked up the slack. The other day we went to dinner in the mall, and sat and ate lunch with some random guy. After we talked for awhile he told us he was really interested in service opportunities and things he could do with us which was great! He has good potential. Then afterwords as we were leaving we ran into an LA who we hadn't seen in a long time and had a great visit with him. Later as we were going down the escalator this women yelled "Elders!" we were surprised to hear english, and turned around to this women who then asked us to teach her daughter. Neither of them are members, but she had attended the church before in America and wanted her daughter to learn. WOW. What blessed stop at the mall that was! Later on in the week a member from the Kwun Tong ward, someone who Elder Hui and I have both worked with in the past, came up to us and asked us to teach her co worker Steve who was on the way to the church which was ngaam ngaam ho and we taught him a great lesson! He asked really good questions and is striving to be a good husband and future father! At our Children's English class one of our great mothers brought her friend who wanted to learn more about our church, she was really into the idea of baptism. I was absolutely blown away by the tender mercies of the Lord this week. We have been praying so hard and putting all of our trust in the Lord and we were blessed so much! I know that when we are faithful and believe, the Lord will give us what we ask of him. It is as simple as that. Of course the timing isn't always as wonderful as it was this week, but the promise in the scriptures is true, that "Whatsoever thing ye shall ask in faith, believing that ye shall receive in the name of Christ, ye shall receive it" (Enos 1:15). I know that as we are faithful, we can do what He either asks of us, or will be prepared for whatever is put in our paths. He trusts the faithful and blesses those that trust Him with His trust and more opportunities to serve Him. Our area is just getting started again and has great potential!

Kids from the children's English class

We had a huge group of mainlanders come down this last week and it was so great! I love seeing all of them and their faith, love, and humility. They are such good members, so supportive of one another. I always feel the Spirit strongly when I see so many of them come to support one another and visit the temple. It's a blessing to have those moments of charity!

Mainlanders here to support new baptisms

I liked a parable I read this week in a talk by President Packer, about a man who found a perfect pearl. He was so happy about the pearl and wanted everyone to see it, so he went and got the finest, most beautiful box crafted for the pearl. He then put it on display. Soon he was sad as he saw people admiring the box and not the pearl! This parable can be applied to many things, but in this talk Packer emphasized the Holy Ghost as the pearl, a precious gift that we as every member of the church are blessed with, but that we can easily forget, or muffle as we crowd our lives with other things. Missionary work is the same way, it is easy to muffle or crowd away the pearl that is the Gift of the Holy Ghost by listening to other voices, doubts, worries, fears, selfish desires, or even our own good thoughts. But their is always better, and always best, and the Holy Ghost has the ability to always lead to the very best. I have been thinking a lot about the Holy Ghost and the power of the Holy Ghost in our every day lives, as our companion, and His role in teaching and converting. No one can be converted without the Spirit working upon them, and no one can convert anyone beyond their own conversion. I hope to consciously focus on the Holy Spirit as I work in this assignment, and throughout all that I do, whether it be training, teaching, serving, speaking etc, and through the Spirit, invite all to come unto Christ in all the we do. It is a wonderful gift that has influenced so much of my mission, and I hope I can allow it to influence and use our companionship even more to further the work!

Also the Temple trip was great, full of revelation as always, love it!