LESS ACTIVES COMING BY THE HORDS

December  18, 2016

Family,

Awesome busy week last week.

We are seeing a lot of miracles. Some of them as a result of President Lam encouragement for more role plays and inviting investigators more often to be baptized. We now are more bold in inviting people to be baptized and it seems that everybody we invite accepts our invitation. 

Wong JM is incredible. Baptismal Service is on Saturday.

Jomar is progressing and looking for the 14th of next month.

Met a new guy Hendy this week. He has been looking at the church website and liked what he was reading so requested to know where a near chapel was. Got the address of the church, but everytime he came, it was locked up. Then last week, he met the Senior Missionaries on the street and explained he wants to learn more about the Savior and has never been baptized. The senior missionaries called us up and told us about him. We immediately called him up, met with him an hour later and he is now preparing to be baptized next month. He is a great guy.

Dadi asked us what she has to do to become a member of the church. She has a date for next month.

Have some other awesome people soon to be investigators.

Less Actives seem to be coming by the hords to Sacrament meeting all of a sudden. I don't know what is going on. The work is moving forward.

Went caroling with the ward and visited some LA's. It was a blast. They have a battery powered portable piano that I carried around from houses to accompany this singing.

Some things from President Lam said during interviews and meeings last week were 1. that the reason people 'don't have time' is because it is not high enough on their priority list for them to spend time doing it. You can make time for things. 2. It feels like as soon as we figure something out or get comfortable, the Lord changes things up so we can continue to learn and progress. I believe that is true and it has been the case for me during my service in Hong Kong and Macau. 3. Don't worry too much about family members that are going astray. Heavenly Father already has many opportunites lined up in their path for them to choose to return. It is a choice. He will not violate their agency.

One cool tender mercy is Jonas and Ghen getting married last week. One of the reasons this is so special is because I taught Jonas and Ghen 14 months ago about preparing to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood while they were both LA members. When I came back 2 months ago, they were both about to be reactivated. Now they are married and we taught Jonas last night in his preparation to be receive the Melchizedek Priesthood on Sunday. During the lesson, I thanked Jonas for his diligent effort in preparing to get married so he could receive the Priesthood and reminded him of our first lesson 14 months ago and the impact that lesson had on me. He said, I remember. 

Have a good week! I might email before Skype next week.

Elder Josh Stratford

Bro Jonas and Sis Ghen

District Pic

Brother Jonas and Bro Edward

The Great and Spacious Building.


At the Holbrooks for a Christmas bruch. He made some good omlettes.
Caroling. I got to caroling with a battery powered keyboard. I was the pianst. Some ward members and us visted some LA's.

Sis Mariela, Bro Jeff, Bro Jomar

Zhou JM


View from top of AIA building and the buffet.




Parisian

Parisian at night.

Parisian and Double D inside Studio City


Venetian and Parisian



Venetian



Casinos.



Coconut last week.

I LOVE THE SABBATH DAY

December 11, 2016

Family,

Good week. Had my first taste of Baloot (not sure on spelling), which is a half developed egg, from some Filipino members. Most missionaries hate it and the members made us try it. They think they are hilarious and video us as we try it. It was pretty funny though to watch the other missionaries eat it. I think it is delicious.

Helped make a pretty good looking Christmas tree for the Christmas party.  Well I actually failed and it looked so bad that I got kicked out from my job and other missionaries did it instead. I'll show you a pic of mine and the new one. Pretty different.

Anyway, time flies here in Macau. Things are picking up. We are really excited for the future.

Wong JM will have her Baptismal Interview this Saturday. I have learned a lot from her. Some of those being: She always takes very good care of her scriptures. She also asks great questions about the scriptures and really tries to understand the what and the why.  Helps me understand better what it means to search the scriptures.

Jacky is doing good as well. He always has awesome perspective about everything. 

Few Filipinos we met this last week, one a member's brother and another from Cantonese class, both have desire to be baptized. We are helping them prepare for the 8th and 14th of next month.

Taught a new sister from Indonesian last Sunday. The lesson was many languages. Think about this for a second. The lesson was taught in Mandarin because she lived in Taiwan for 9 years and her English is really poor. Also, we don't speak Indonesian. Her sister, who was helping us only spoke Indonesian and choppy English. So she was talking to the investigator in Indonesian and then to us in English to try to help and then us to her in English and her sister in Mandarin. It was kind of crazy, but a good lesson. She is great. Her name is Dadi.

Elder Lau is a stud. Learned a lot from him about humility. Everyday almost I learn how to be more humble from him. Great guy. Every companion I have been with here in Hong Kong or Macau has been a good guy.

I love the Sabbath day. It lifts my spirit every week to talk with all the awesome members and hear them sing hymns at the top of their lungs in Cantonese, which is not a language that is meant to be sung. I can't help but smile every week. It is an awesome kickstart to the week, every week. I have been trying to follow Elder Ashton's counsel from last Conference to prepare for the Sacrament and it is helping me recognize and feel the Holy Ghost so I can know how best to act to be a better disciple.

Have a good week.

Elder Josh Stratford

M1/3 Christmas Party

M2 member party.

failed job trying to eat some dessert a member gave us.

​Eating some Baloot (Filipino food, it is a more developed egg sometimes with feathers and bones) Pretty good.

The Filipino members thought they were so funny when they brought the Baloot for us to try. They had a group of about 10 and had all the missinaries there try it. They were laughing and taking videos. Typical Filipino things.

instant noodle isle at the grocery store.

oil isle.

Huge bag of chips

 Me and Elder Knight were bored while our companions were shopping for food

Me, Elder Lau, Chan, and Knight

weird spoon from last monday