Elder Ryan Woolley in Hong Kong!: Gong Hay Fat Choy

恭喜發財！

Happy Chinese New Year everybody! It is now the year of the Rooster (my mom's year). New Years week is always an interesting week, especially for mandarin missionaries. All of our investigators, potentials, members, basically everyone went back to mainland for the week! But we still managed to have a pretty good week!

Lunch with Sheldon Poon

Chinese New Year Dinner?!

We met a new referral, a members son, named You Wei. Fun fact he is also my old companion Elder Hui's cousin! He is a really impressive kid, he is only 13 but is really intelligent and mature. We had a great lesson with him, the questions he was asking really amazed me, I couldn't believe he is only 13! He asked about how to know if things are true, how to know if God is real, why are their so many religions etc etc. Real questions of the soul. He reminded me of young Joseph Smith, who at about that same age was asking those same questions. We are blessed that he took those questions to the scriptures and to God in prayer. We had a good lesson and he said a great prayer. I have good hopes for him! Every time we teach someone I always envision them gaining testimony and getting baptized, and with him I see it happening very quickly. I can't wait to see them again this week! He also agreed to play a violin/piano piece in church with us in the future!

Elder Hui's cousin - You Wei

We have an awesome old man investigator Li Jiu, I think I sent a pic of us with him last week. He is a great guy, every time we teach him Elder Stratford and I leave so happy, because he is just so humble and teachable. It's pretty funny, he speaks in all Chinese and then says "Elder" in english in a pretty funny voice haha but he is a pleasure to teach. He wants to learn, really respects the missionaries, has great faith, and is the most humble person I have ever met. We had a miracles with him this last week, we have been trying to help him quit smoking, a problem he has had for about 50-60 years, and he always talks about how he has trouble breathing unless he smokes. We had been working with it, teaching, testifying, promising blessings, and nothing seems to work, then all of a sudden, this last week he said, I quit smoking. I choose to be done now, it will be no problem. And then he quit that moment, just like that. He has been clean since then. I was totally shocked, of course we will have to see how it plays out, but he really did just quit right then and has been clean for a week. Amazing. He is really exercising his agency to act in faith. I am impressed by the power of choice, and how great the gift of agency is, as well as the enormous role it plays in our mortal lives.

I thought a lot about choice and faith this week. I really like Elder Anderson's talk, faith is not by chance, but by choice. I think in different times throughout my life and mission, in my own life, and in the lives of people we teach, I see lots of people just waiting for faith to come to them. Waiting for signs, blessings, clear answers, basically waiting for faith to chance upon them. I love how simply Anderson says it,

"faith in Jesus Christ is a gift from heaven that comes as we choose to believe and as we seek it and hold on to it." If we want more faith, more blessings, more answers, we have to choose to believe first, actively seek it, and then do everything we can to hold onto it, doubting our doubts, before we doubt our faith. It's a principle we learn all the time, but for some reason it stuck out to me a lot this week. Choosing actively to have more faith, trusting it really is all in his hands. Using agency to choose always to be more obedient, act righteously, and live the gospel of Jesus Christ, seeking and working harder, then holding onto the faith at all times. A simple formula for always increasing our faith in Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the Savior and all that he has done for me individually, and for billions of individuals throughout time. It is hard to comprehend really, but I am grateful, I know it's true, and know that the Atonement works.

I love getting to meet people from all sorts of different backgrounds and upbringings, from the impoverished to the wealthy, I love talking to them, getting to know them, and just knowing as I look at them that they are children of God, just like me, that there is a spirit in them just like me, and that we can help remind them of who they are, and where they have the potential to go and become. Missionary work is the greatest, I love the people and love being a missionary!!

Elder Woolley 胡長老