Miracles - week 70

Good Morning Everyone!!

This week was a week of miracles! The work is going so well in Kowloon, I feel really, really blessed.

This week we had our branch Christmas party and it was a huge success.  About half the people there were all investigator families, it was awesome! The best part was the surprise appearance of Santa Claus, played by our recent convert Guo Dx aka Boris. He supplied a pretty hilarious hoho merry christmas in his thick northern chinese accent influenced english, but the kids and investigators loved it!

Children's Nativity

Santa and the kids

Santa

Taishan investigator and his daughter

English class student

Elder Sy and I are working our butts off, especially since this is his last month :( This is the most busy my mission has ever been, Elder Sy and I are just running all over Kowloon preaching and teaching and taking care of all sorts of office stuff and trainings, it's a hard balance but somehow we are doing it! I have really seen the Lord blessing us a lot, and sending his prepared people our way, I am glad he is trusting us enough to send these great people for us to work with. They are just popping up out of nowhere! We started teaching a bunch of new people this week and I'm excited for all of them, many of them are families which is the best! I met one of my first investigators ever from Taishan, which is where my Grandparents are originally from in Guangdong. He was pretty hyped that my family is from there, and we'll be teaching his family, plus a few of his friends families this week. It's amazing! I'm not sure how we'll balance it all but I trust the Lord will help provide a way. The branch is also progressing, it's amazing to see how young in the church so many of the members are, and watching them grow in the gospel and in service in the branch. There was a young women baptized into the branch on Sunday and it was a great service! Her testimony was powerful, I was so impressed with her gratitude and conviction, you could feel that when she said I know and I believe that she truly knows, believes, and is grateful. I love this area and branch, it is the best!

Our investigator Chen Guo Wu is doing well, we are teaching him and preparing him for his baptism which will either be this Sunday or next Sunday, we are so excited for him! He is a good, humble man, I've talked about him a million times but he is just amazing, and I can't wait for him to be baptized and really begin his journey on the road of discipleship.

One of our other investigators is in the middle of having one of the biggest changes of anyone that I have ever seen! I talked about him a few weeks ago, he was the one who we talked to about peace etc.. Everytime we met with him he would normally talk about Trump or Oprah or other random things, but he had started to progress little by little after that lesson, and now all of a sudden he is really making big changes! He called us the other night and said he had a strong desire to just quit smoking and drinking and had a big desire to get to know God! I was pretty amazed, we had never shared anything about drinking etc with him before. He had finally humbled himself enough that his heart and mind were opened and he was really thirsting to learn and get to know his Father in heaven and his Savior Jesus Christ. We had a great lesson with him and have set a date for him to be baptized in January! He is on the right path and if he keeps going in this direction his is going to be great!

I have been reflecting a lot about the Savior, His birth, His life and ministry, and what he really means to me and my life. It is amazing, and almost difficult to fully grasp that the Savior of the world, the Son of God was born 2000 years ago in a manger, the most humble of circumstances. " “No room in the inn” was not a singular expression of rejection - just the first. Yet He invites you and me to host Him. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Monson). Throughout his life and in the world today the Savior faces constant rejection and ridicule, as well as the rejection of those times when we simply forget about him and let him not enter in our hearts. The first commandment is to love him with all our heart, might, mind, and strength. I am so grateful that the mission has really helped me understand what it means in the sacrament to always remember him, to let him enter into my heart and every aspect of my life, and to love him. And it's because I am privileged to be in His service! Elder Bednar listed 4 steps of how we can come to know the Lord so that he would never say to us "ye never knew me." 

1.Exercise faith in him. 

2.Follow him. 

3.Serve Him. 

4. Believe Him. 

I liked how he talked about the difference between believing in him, and believing him. Before my mission, I really believed in him, I believed that he is the living Savior, and that this is his church, and I believed in it all. But believing him is knowing on the personal, individual level, that he is your savior, my savior, and each individual persons Savior, on a grand and personal scale. That is something that the mission has blessed me with, and something I felt as I pondered about His birth and life. I have really seen the personal ministry of the Savior with me, and through me in the lives of others as I have gone about serving in his vineyard. It is true that we don't serve alone, that he labors with us in his vineyard. I love Him and love being His missionary, and I hope I can continue to come to know him for the rest of my life as a disciple of Christ.

I look forward to these next few weeks, we have lots of baptisms coming up in the branch and I can't wait to talk to my family! Love you all!

Elder Woolley

胡長老