Hong Kong: THE IMPORTANCE OF LISTENING

January 17, 2016

Family,

Mom - thats awesome there is so much snow. I figured I better right clearly on the address for the package, so i wrote really slow. It is pretty funny about handwriting actually. Elder Darrington is writing a few sisters and one of them wrote me a letter. So I responded. Later, she send me a paper with Elder Darringtons letter that had all the letters of the alphabet outlined so i could practice my handwriting, i guess it was really bad. With the Birthday package, Elder Darrington and Elder Winwood also threw in notes. They found out it was your birthday and wanted to throw one in. Elder Darrington loves to receive mail and Elder Winwood is trying to write a lot of people so he can have some mail, so they'd love it if you each could write a quick letter back. Don't have to though. They are kind of jokesters. I don't remember what they put in the letters, but they were laughing as they wrote the letters. They kept asking me what you and sadie were like and if i thought they would write them back.

Dad - that's a serious bummer about the ACL. that sounds horrible. Good news is you'll be really good at ping pong because you'll have no other sports to play, so we can play when I get back. Also, thank you for sending the talk on obedience. it was amazing. I'll have to reread it this week. I flew threw it real fast last p-day and there were a lot of good things in there i want to go back and review. Thanks for the sports updates. That's crazy Sydney and Jake are moving to Hong Kong. I'm sure they'll go to the English ward. They have one here, i think it is on the island, not sure. just kidding, i just remembered they have 4 different english wards. not sure where they are. not in my area. Good news is a lot of people here can speak english, except for the old people. Maybe they can teach me some cantonese. If they don't like cold weather, they came to the right place.

This week has been pretty interesting with our investigators. For the first time, Zheng didn't show up to a lesson. It was because the rain. People here are kind of scared of the rain. I guess it rains a lot and pretty bad monsoons in april - july. i just missed them last year, so I am looking forward to that. Anyway, we are planning on teaching him tonight.

Also, we are meeting with this lady who randomly came to church last sunday. We thought it was a former we called, but it wasn't. she moved to Hong Kong last saturday from mainland, and was passing the chapel and decided to come in and check it out. She is great. While I was on exchanges, Elder Darrington and Ashton met with her and invited her to be baptized. She said yes. Amazing. They invited her to pray that night and she said, do i have to wait till night?

We also have a new investigator Liu DX. He is an old man and we had a great lesson about some HTBT points and prayer. He changed a lot from the beginning of the lesson to the end of the lesson. I taught with Elder Cornilles. He is a great elder.

Haven't been able to meet with Chen or the others.

A turnover we had from some member in Tolo Harbor has stood us up 5 times this week. pretty weird. we confirm her the night before and hours before the lesson, yet she doesn't come or forgets. We then reschedule her and she is happy to meet. kind of weird.

Learned a lot this week on the importance of listening and how important that is. PMG Ch 10 is amazing. every time i review it. so much to learn, luckily we have a lifetime.

Thank you for your prayers.

Love,

Elder Josh Stratford