Elder Ryan Woolley in Hong Kong!: 中秋節快樂！(Happy Harvest Moon Festival)

Hello everybody!! I hope you all had a good week! I had a good and faith building week.

This week was also the Mid Autumn Festival which was fun as always! Lots of moon cakes from the members, and lots of dinners with families, so fun! I love how naturally family focused Chinese culture is, they have a different way of showing it, but it is a family orientated society. I loved seeing families out with lanterns, just like last year. I can't believe it's been a year since then! I think it's this time last year that I gained some weight from moon cakes too haha. I had a funny experience earlier this week at a member's house, we were eating lots of different kinds of mooncakes, and a member gave me a big piece of their favorite kind, which I assumed was mango, but after a big bite I quickly realized it was Durian haha. I gagged pretty hard at the shock and had to try my hardest to not make any noise. I was super full from dinner and I thought I might throw up from the moon cake it was a struggle haha. The rest of the meal and moon cakes were excellent though.

The week was a bit of an up and down week, we weren't able to meet with Steven because of the holidays which was kind of disappointing. I feel had I been more proactive we could've figured out something earlier in the week but well be seeing him soon this week! We got to go on exchanges with some Zone Leaders which is always really enjoyable, it's fun to work with them and learn from them, they are all great missionaries! I was with Elder Guinn, and he came in and served here in Shum Shui Po with me for the day.

Our Children's English is doing amazing. I love it so much! There are tons of kids coming every week and they all love it! We are trying to work now with the ward on the turnover from the class to the ward members and church. It's coming along, the kids all really enjoy church, and the parents really love the family feeling in the ward. We have some good investigators coming up right now, I'm excited to see them develop. There is nothing better than seeing testimonies develop in those that we teach.

We had an amazing lesson with a part member family in the ward! He has been pretty stubborn for ever, and we mostly have just been visiting the family and sharing simple messages for the past few months. Then last week we taught a sort of more up front lesson and just right for it and asked him lots of questions, it was kinda intense and afterwords I was a little worried that he wouldn't be very welcoming to us in the future. But this last week he was way more open with us! He was talking and sharing his thoughts and even was asking his wife to teach him how to pray. It was amazing. His family has so much faith and desire as well, I know he will continue to change according to them and their prayers.

I was assigned a training topic in a meeting this week about how our example affects those that we teach. I had been thinking about something I heard in an old talk by Maxwell called 'The Man of Christ'. It is a great talk that really helped me to ponder my own discipleship and what I can do to continue on the path of conversion. It is very easy to be casual or let things get rote, especially in the mission because we do and teach the same principles every day. There is a great quote where he says "You teach what you are," and it's very true. As I thought about the way I go about the work, the way I interact with others, and the way I teach, I had a few thoughts. One is I am grateful to see changes in myself in the mission due to dedicating myself more to the Savior and striving to know him. And the other is that I still have a long way to go! Fortunately we have our whole lives to try to become like him. But the power of example is very real. Often times people won't remember specific things that we say or the words we use, but they will remember who we were, and how they felt when they were around us. Ultimately as Christians and especially for us missionaries, we want people to feel a little tiny bit of what it would have been to be around Christ when they are around us. I have thought about what it would have been like to be with him, to walk with him, be taught by him, or be healed by him. It would have been life changing. I know that as I strive to be like him and seek/heed to the Spirit, I can also help others change as they feel the Spirit. What a privilege it is to represent him, and to try to be like Him.

I love the work!

Elder Woolley