Hong Kong: THANKSGIVING IN NEW TERRITORIES

11/29/15

Family,

Mom - Thank you for your email. That was really nice. Thanksgiving was good. The mission let each zone have 3 hours to eat and talk. It was good. President Lam came and said hi for a few minutes. Sister Robinson (Kaylee's friend) and her comp did the Turkey. That was so nice of them. My apartment's job was fruit. Pretty easy. After we had eaten, we were furiously doing dishes to try and finish before 3 o'clock when Thanksgiving was supposed to end. I was manning the sink, others were drying dishes and others were cleaning up tables and leftovers. As we were doing this, at about 2:45, our zone leader came in to tell us to stop what we were doing so we could come out and watch a skit and listen to a piano piece that was planned. Sister Robinson was silently a little frustrated by that as she voiced her opinion to me. She wanted to be obedient and be done by 3. She figured that since we ran out of time, we shouldn't do the skit or piece. But the skit and piece happened and she followed what the Zone Leader had asked. I am very grateful for her example to me of being exactly obedient. I respect her more than about any other missionary in the field. She is a great missionary and Sister Training Leader.

I have not got the package, but it might have arrived. I haven't been down to the mission office in Kowloon to get it. I'll probably get it friday at zone training because the zone leaders and sister training leaders have MLC (mission leadership counsel) down there on Wed and should pick it up for me.

This week was pretty crazy. On Wed, one of our investigtors called us and yelled at me for a few minutes on the phone saying that he did not need Jesus or our church and to never visit him or his friends again. It was pretty sad. He and his wife with 2 of their friends were really nice and kind and loved to come to church every Sunday. They had baptismal dates for December. I don't know what made them switch so fast and dramatic. It was pretty weird.

Also we haven't been able to get ahold of Sam or Jason or Lydia, or the Sem Family for a while. Everybody just stopped answering their phones.

We did meet with Zheng this week, but nothing really knew happened. We thought about him a lot during weekly planning and have some ideas planned for this week that should help him, we hope.

We also started teaching a new sister named Jia JM. She is very nice and bright. We taught her about prayer and the nature of the Godhead in a short lesson before English class. She seems interested. She is a single mother and has a 4 year old son. After English class, a member always comes and does a quick 15 min gospel class. We sang a hymn and she really liked it. She kept studying the words of the hymn and was flipping through the hymnbook for quite a while. We sang Love at Home and I am a Child of God.

I am learning to better appreciate the peace the gospel brings. It is amazing. Elder Bednar tells us that peace is one of the greatest blessings of discipleship. I am starting to better understand what he means. It is a blessing to be apart of this gospel. And to be able to feel that peace and joy. I know that the Savior loves each of us and as we come unto Him we can feel of the peace that surpasses all understanding.

Elder Stratford