Hong Kong: TRAVEL PLANS

Family,

Thanks for the Dear Elder's, packages, thoughts, and inspiring stories and examples. Thanks to Grandma for the snacks too and the Gibby's for the nice letters.

Mom - I don't need any cough drops, they have some in the MTC store. The cough is never ending though. It's been about 2 and a half weeks now. Quick story about that. During one of our lessons with our investigators, I was coughing so bad, he had us leave, he was worried about getting sick. It's not that bad though, just a little annoying. Besides that I feel great. No more feeling lethargic or bad headaches. I twisted my ankle pretty bad playing basketball on Wed. which was a bummer. I jumped up to block this kid's shot and came down on the side of my right foot. I didn't think it was going to be too bad. One of the people in charge of the gym had me ice it for the rest of the gym time and I walked backed to the residence just fine. Thursday morning was horrible. It hurt really bad. I could barely walk on it, even with a brace Elder Anderson let me borrow. I was being half carried to breakfast by Elder Kirschner and Elder Woolley. Since then it hasn't been too bad. I just can't play basketball anymore, which is a real bummer, it hurts too much to play on. It is still pretty swollen today and I am still wearing the brace, but it should be better soon. The song is not going to happen. We don't have it good enough. We really never had time to practice it since being called as zone leaders and there isn't enough time to learn it now that we are released. We did perform it for our district when we had a little down time before the devotinoal since there isn't choir practice on fast sunday. It was fun to play it, even though it didn't sound too great. I also played the beebe piece How great thou art, while we were there. It was fun to play the piano a little. I think I am being more patient with myself. Only thing I maybe could use would be some sleeping pills for the plane ride. We have a 16 hr flight from Seattle to Hong Kong. And maybe some salt and vinegar chips, my roommates and I love them. and some baby powder. I guess people get chaffing really bad and athletes foot in the humidity and never wearing breathable shoes. Thanks so much.

Dad - the money on the credit card came from laminations just so you know and maybe a few other things from the MTC store. I laminated the covers of my preach my gospel and some other books so they don't fall apart as quick. Also thanks for sharing your inspiring commitment to live with Integrity. That is really amazing. I am so grateful for your example to me always.

Travel plans came this week which was really fun to get. My knees are getting really calloused from all the kneeling which is kind of weird. Skype went a lot better this week. The member was nice to us and spoke a little slower so we could kind of understand a little bit. Also Elder Woolley's mom sent him a paddle ball. So we tried it out at night. It actually is way fun. We are having a fierce competition every night to see who can get the highest score. The first night, it was at 13, which I held. Then Elder Woolley got 22 and we went back and forth till I ended up with the record of 82 for the night. Then Elder Kirschner came out of no where and got 132 or something like that the next day, but over the course of the night I got 292 and held the record for the night. Last night Kirschner took the record to 386 and I couldn't beat it. So he held the record for the night. I then got up to 477 I think this morning and had it for a while till my comp who was stuck in the low hundreds got 482 and was pumped and kind of rubbing it in my face. Which was great because I took it from him and got 651, which quieted him down. He only had the record for a few minutes. Nobody has beaten it yet. It keeps getting harder to beat because the ball keeps snapping of the string and we have to keep retying it.

I might write you a letter later today or tonight and send it off probably tomorrow because I might not get through everything in an hr I'd like to say. We do have more time to write now, since I can't do too many sports with my lame ankle.

One of the great blessings of being on this mission is learning better the language of the Spirit. We are often reminded that we will come home from the mission having learned 2 languages not just one. The language of Chinese and the language of the Spirit. One aspect of recognizing the promptings we receive from God that I love and have come to recognize more this week is this. We can recognize the spirit by paying attention to what presses on our minds the most. Especially with all that is going on in our lives the Holy Ghost will help us know what we should do through this. Joseph Smith talks about it in Doctrine and Covenants 128:1. He felt to talk on the baptism for the dead to the Church because as he said, "that subject seems to occupy my mind, and press itself upon my feelings the strongest." I know that as we pay attention to what is pressing on our minds the most, we can know what we should do for the Lord.

I also like what Alma 17 teaches us. in v 29, Ammon teaches us that we can make any situation into a teaching situation and a situation where we can lead people to believe more in Christ. v36 reminds us to be brave and bold in proclaiming the gospel and trust in the Lord to help us if we are doing his will. Also we learn that serving others softens hearts. Because of Ammon's faithful service and his ability to teach with power and authority, which came from fasting and praying often, he was able to convert King Lamoni and many others as a result.

Also in Priesthood and our District Meeting on Sunday there were some cool things I learned about Faith. Mom, I know you love this and helped point this out to me via your note in my scriptures. We learn that strong faith is developed by obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ and by righteousness. And then as we are obedient, we see the fruits of the experiment and that increases our faith, which gives us a stronger desire to improve and be obedient. This process leads us to becoming more fully like our Savior. I also love how all the of the Christlike attributes support each other and often when you are developing one attribute you are also developing another. In Alma 32:6, we learn that humility is crucial to be in preparation to hearing the word, As we are teachable and depend on the Lord, then our faith will increase as we find that the Lord really does strengthen us and help us. I also love in v 41-43 of Alma 32 the three attributes necessary to grow the seed. In each verse, it mentions faith, diligence and patience. They are all necessary and support each other. We need to always stay diligent in developing anything we want to develop and have the faith to believe that it will happen. If we don't have the patient to see the fruits, they will not come. Our life is not a quick 3:38 second clip where we change from a clumsly fighter, to the best in a short amount of time. (Rocky) (Our choir directors gave us this analogy). We have to be patient. If we are not, we might lose our faith, or lose the spirit as we become frustrated. As we are patient, our faith is strengthened and we have a greater desire to be diligent.

This week I have studied a lot about Diligence. I'll send you a letter about this I don't have time anymore online to write. I also will send a letter about some of the awesome things I learned from the Devotionals this week and some great things I've read from my mission prep class notes. It is kind of a weird rule. We can only email for 60 min, but I can write letters all I want, but only on P-day.

Thanks for all your prayers. I know this gospel is true. I know Jesus Christ Atonement is real. I know the Holy Ghost can guide and lead us to what we should do.

Love,

Elder Stratford

Got travel plans this week. I'll send you a pick of the plans. I'll be able to talk to you either in the morning in Salt Lake, or in Seattle after I land. Just sending out a quick email to let you know cause I believe we can call home for an hour. If you could send me a disposable phone with an hour or two on it. I don't know how it works. Let me know if you can figure it out. I'll check back later today and send out my big email. Thanks.