Elder Ryan Woolley in Hong Kong!: Back with Elder Sy

Hello everybody!

It has been a crazy week, but lots of fun! My time is short today, so I will have to be brief. Elder Sy became my full time companion this week which is awesome! It's so fun to see how much we have grown and learned since the last time we were companions, it's great to see us just applying all that we learned to do our best together now! We are working together great already, I'm excited to keep working together until he leaves! It's pretty funny having us two mandarin missionaries now in a cantonese ward, it can be a struggle sometimes, but we have learned a lot!

Our investigators are really starting to progress it is great! Our investigator, Shuie, has started to pray every night. I love the way she says it, she says I just talk with God, I tell Him everything that is going on, and I have really started to feel peace, like someone is actually listening! The amazing thing is that someone really is listening, and it is a loving Heavenly Father. It's been great to see the slow change in her, she has been able to sleep at night, and care better for her daughter.

We also went to dim sum with an investigator Luk jm, her daughter, and some of her friends. It was great. The friends were asking us all sorts of questions, and at the end we didn't even have to ask - they asked us to share a message! I felt like I was with my own mom talking to her friends about how the gospel has blessed us, what it means to me, and what it can mean to them and their families. They are all quite interested in learning more, I love teaching families!

This week we had an excellent Zone Training! In the last portion we were invited to think about our names, Woolley (伍), and what they mean to us. I reflected a lot on both sides of my family, the Woolley side, and the Ng side. I am very appreciative to the Woolley side of strong faith and proud pioneer ancestry. I also am so grateful for how much closer I feel have gotten to the Ng side of the family while here in Hong Kong, a side of the family that I knew, but didn't fully understand or appreciate until I came out here and served. I pondered on the sacrifice, hard work, and examples of both sides of the family. We watched some clips from 17 miracles and I was again so amazed by the faith and perseverance of the pioneers. Their stories are amazing, I love the quote from one of them who said that in the extremity he got to know God, and he would not have done it any other way. Amazing. I was inspired to be a better missionary, stand taller, be better, and raise the bar to represent my family and all they have done for me! I am so grateful for them!

I also found Grandpa Woolley's talk at BYU, which I read this morning, it was really good! I could totally hear his voice in the talk. As I read what he said, I really saw that his talk was about some of the principles that he has really built his life and family on- "to work, to respect those with more experience, to make the best of situations without complaining, to obey, to sacrifice, to wait for what I want most instead of compromising for what I want now, to respect agency, to face accountability, and to value humor." I have seen this in my dad as well, and the way that our family was raised. I will quote his encouragements from the end of the talk :

1. Build your life on a foundation of strong spiritual and academic principles.

2. Have faith in the experience of others and learn from their experiences and from your own experiences.

3. Seek all the information you can and assess its quality before you make a decision. Be cautious as you extrapolate or judge.

4. Trust in the future value of learning, both learning in breadth and in depth.

5. Remember those character traits of lasting value, including humility, civility, integrity, industry, rigor, and accountability.

Great advice, especially through a missionary lense.

After that, I pondered on the other name that we wear and represent, the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. His name is one that is even harder to live up to than the Woolley/伍 name, and I am ever so grateful for his example, and his sacrifice. The best thing is that he will ever call and qualify us in our weakness, and build us to become more and more worthy to bear his name. I have been thinking about a quote I heard from Elder Bednar about missions and missionaries, he said something like- the mission is good for every missionary that serves, but not every missionary that serves is good for the mission. It is a really true quote, I have thought a lot about how I need to continue to work hard to take it to the next level, from having let the mission be good for me, and to keep trying my best to be good for the mission. It's like in the Bible, when Jesus heals the sick man, and tells him to take up his bed and walk, and the man immediately trusts, rises, and walks. Sometimes we ask why don't miracles like this happen very much anymore? But I believe that Jesus lifts up anyone everyday who trust him, who is sincerely repenting and gaining testimony, and tells us all to take up our beds, and start walking. I really feel like on my mission, the Lord has picked me up a million times, let me really experience the Atonement, and told me to now pick up my bed, plant my feet firmly on His path, and walk! And once converted, once we have been lifted, we need to bring others to walk with us on the path!

A big focus of conference and in my own week last week was the plan of salvation. I thought a lot about families, taught some families, and again pondered on the priceless value of the Plan of Salvation. We are so blessed to know that these relationships we have formed and cultivated will last for the eternities. It is amazing to look at all the millions of people here in Hong Kong and everywhere who are all children of divinity, all with the same potential as myself to return to live with God and be like Him. The Plan gives a clarity of perspective that the world greatly needs. I am grateful to teach others about it!

Love and pray for you all!

Elder Woolley :-)