FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT AND GRATITUDE FOR CHRIST

12/27/15

Family,

Thank you, thank you for all the letters. Thank you for all the kind things you said. That was my Christmas gift I wasn't supposed to open till Christmas Day. Great present.  I love reading them. I love hearing about everything back at home, hearing your thoughts, and testimonies. I have been blessed with an amazing family. 

I apologize for the many recordings. I got a little carried away. 

This week was one of our slowest as far as teaching goes. We weren't able to teach any lessons this week, haven't been able to contact most of our investigators, but we were able to get to know the members better and visit them. We were able to visit Zhu JM (the reactivated member), Yu JM, Lok JM, Hamilton Family (he is a larry), Zhou Family. I don't why I just told you all of those, but whatever. One thing that I want to start doing as we visit members is share with them Doctrine and Covenants 58:6-7. We were able to do this with Zhou Family, the ward mission leader and his wife. We want to, along with this scripture, communicate our new commitment this year of obedience, our desire to share our testimonies and prepare the world for the Second Coming of Christ and then invite the members to do this with us. It is a powerful scripture and we hope we all can do a little bit better at sharing Christ's wonderful gospel this year.

One weird thing that happened this week happened while we were preparing to teach english class on Saturday.  Some guy walks in to the church building and comes up to us and explains that he just saw our building and was curious about it. He went on to explain that he wanted to learn more about our church and other religions. He explained that he is doing a personal project about other religions and specifically missionaries, monks and others who sacrifice a lot of time for their religion. He calls himself agnostic, like many here. We were able to answer some of his questions, bear testimony to him and help him to feel the spirit and power of our message. We invited Him to come to church, and he said he would come check it out. 

One tender mercy this week happened yesterday while at church. I didn't realize it till after, but my thoughts had turned a little pessemistic and negative. As we had the opportunity to sing, pray, and ponder while we attended 3 differnet wards, I became filled with the spirit and gratitude for Christ and the Sabbath Day and the opportunity it provides us to be renewed, refreshed, and restrengthen for the week. As we were heading home, I realized how much my thoughts had changed. They were full of hope and optimism about the future. I noticed I was more full of love toward others. My perspective had changed. It was amazing to see the stark change in my way of thinking.

I know the Sabbath Day is an amazing blessing and can be a delight for us each Sunday. 

Elder Stratford

 

Elder Darrington on the phone for 30 minutes with Qui JM

they package vanilla wafers seperately.

Elder Darrington and Elder Winwood. Christmas Eve.

Random car on the side of the road

text from Jonah. bummer.

Elder lai, now brother Lai, came back to visit with his family from Austrailia. He finished his mission last transfer.

pic before Elder George left.

Elder Winwood and Elder George. I gave them these hunting masks as a joke for christmas since they are always cold.

hat i gave away for the white elephant gift. it is a badmitton hat i think. super long.

Christmas party dinner at Yuen Long chapel. that's not all of it.

classic bike here in Hong Kong. People ride bikes with all sizes of wheels and most are a lot smaller than american bike wheels. This one was extreme.