Elder Ryan Woolley in Hong Kong!: Learning Balance

HELLOOO,

This week was a good lesson to Elder George and I about the importance of balance and being good at scheduling and order. We had a lot of things in the office we wanted to get done, including transfer things and planning for Zone Conference, and weren't as on top of our scheduling, so the time in our week worked out a little bit odd and led to a harder week in terms of the work in Shum Shui Po. I'm glad that both of us recognized our need to balance things better right away, and we set some plans and worked more proactively at church and throughout Sunday, and this week is already better planned and scheduled out than last week! We are both still working at balance, which is extremely important, and is something that the gospel teaches and us and helps bring into our lives. I'm grateful that we are able to recognize our weaknesses and learn from one another. Elder George and I get along quite well, I had a great time planning for Zone Conference together this last week, we really felt the Spirit guiding us and prompting us. Sometimes we would feel the Spirit just thinking about our training, so we are working hard at it and know that it is what the Lord would have us teach the missionaries!

Our investigator, Steven, is making progress! We taught him a very good lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I enjoy teaching with Elder George, he is a good teacher. The lesson got out of hand at the end, unfortunately. Steven always goes on long tangents. But in the end we were able to give him a tentative baptismal date in October! It honestly feels good to be moving the work along again, and to have someone with a date who is on the path. He has a great desire to follow the Savior.

Our other investigators are coming along, but slowly. There are many with potential, we just have to meet with them, and help them feel the Spirit.

This week there was a whole branch here from Henan and it was so great to see all of them! The members are so powerful, they all saved up to come together as they do every year to go to the temple. They truly treasure their covenants with God. I played with a bunch of their kids, so cute! Afterwords, they had a big banquet which we attended briefly and they treated us like we were celebrities. It's amazing how much they value missionaries when their country will not allow us to enter. Many of them have sons and daughters serving abroad as well which is amazing. They recognize the servants of the Lord!

Henan Branch Activity

Cute kids from the branch

I was studying about charity this week and received some needed promptings from the Spirit to love the investigators, area, and ward more. To have more space in my thoughts, prayers, and heart for them. After I felt that, it was suddenly very clear to me that last week I needed to continue to work on my personal balance, as well as outward as I mentioned above. In my other areas, it was never hard for me to love the areas and everything in them and just put all I have into it, but sometimes in this assignment it can be easier to focus too much on other things. I am grateful for the prompting and as I took the sacrament on Sunday I prayed hard for the ward, our investigators, and the work in Shum Shui Po. I feel good about this upcoming week, and will continue to do my best to serve the area and the assignment with all that I can!

As I was preparing for Steven's lesson this week I read 2 Nephi 22:4, which says "declare his doings among the people," it was a great reminder to me, and something that I have thought a lot about before, which is to teach more about Christ's life, what he did, who he was, and to help our investigators feel it. I thought about the song we sing as kids, tell me the stories of Jesus:

1. Tell me the stories of Jesus I love to hear,
Things I would ask him to tell me if he were here.
Scenes by the wayside, tales of the sea,
Stories of Jesus, tell them to me.
2. Oh, let me hear how the children stood round his knee.
I shall imagine his blessings resting on me;
Words full of kindness, deeds full of grace,
All in the love-light of Jesus' face.
3. Tell me, in accents of wonder, how rolled the sea,
Tossing the boat in a tempest on Galilee!
And how the Master, ready and kind,
Chided the billows and hushed the wind.

We should teach simply, as children, just like how we were taught as kids in the church. I pondered on the totality of the Saviors life, everything that he did and continues to do today. It is incomprehensible to think of his role in everything, from something as grand as the Plan of Salvation, to the as small as knowing the very details of our personal lives. I am grateful to be able to teach and preach of Christ, to be able to apply his atoning sacrifice personally every day, and I am grateful for all the he has done.