Hong Kong: FOLLOW PROMTINGS

April 11, 2016

Family,

Fang and Chen are gone on Mainland this week. They are doing great still and progressing. Jia JM's son birthday was Sunday, and Wang DX didn't answer or come, and Chen DX almost came. Zou JM came to conference and loved it, we haven't been able to meet with her, but have her scheduled for Wed, Davey Wang is in Mainland, Liu DX got a new number. Nothing too new. We are also meeting with Jonah this week. Zheng didn't go to church. Usual. We did meet an amazingly prepared lady this week in the morning. We went to TSW where there are some primary schools (kindergarten, elementary) and found Kong XS waiting for her child to be done with school. She had some amazing questions that all were answered in the lesson of The Restoration. We taught her that, gave her a book of mormon and are excited to meet her this week.

One cool tender mercy this week happened on Tuesday. Actually last Saturday, the missionaries in the Yuen Long 1 ward met with the bishop. Our district leader was acting a little weird throughout the meeting. As my companion and I were talking about it, we both felt impressed to do something nice for him the following week. We had some leftover balloons from the Mandarin activity last week, so we decided to fill up about 20 balloons with things we appreciated about Elder Copley (our district leader). We woke up early on Tuesday so we could do exercise and then go over to their apartment while they were exercising. We filled up the balloons and left.

Fast forward to district meeting that day. After the trainings the district leader got up to say a few last words. He all of a sudden broke down crying and explained to us that this has been one of the hardest weeks of his mission. He said he woke up on Tuesday morning and really didn't want to get out of bed or do anything. He said, "I didn't want to do today." Even though he felt this way, he had the distinct impression to leave his room for exercise, so they left. They got back and saw the balloons. He was kind of frustrated at first cause he didn't want to deal with all of them, but eventually opened them up and the notes lifted his spirits. He then just expressed his thanks for what we did.

This experience was a testimony builder for me on the importance of following promptings. It really is a sweet experience to feel a prompting, act upon it, and later find out it was the fulfillment of someone's prayer or someones need.

My favorite talk from Conference was the first one. President Eyring's talk. President Nelson's talk I also really enjoyed. I'm excited to review those when I get access to them. I bought a new USB today that hopefully will work on these computers, so I can download the audio. We'll see.

At least four of the speakers, Elder Duncan, Elder Rasband, President Uchtdorf, and Elder Holland all talked about the Law of Restoration. I have been thinking about this a lot this transfer. I think Alma 41:12-15 expains it clearly. For lack of time, here is verse 14 and some of 15. "Therefore, my son, see that you are merciful unto your bretheren; deal justly, judge righteously, and do good continually; and if ye do all these things then shall ye receive your reward: yea, ye shall have mercy restored unto you again; ye shall have justice restored unto you again; ye shall have a righteous judgement restored unto you again; and ye shall have good rewareded unto you again. For that which ye do send out shall return unto you again..."

Isn't that amazing? That is so cool. That sure motivates me to be better. I liked how Elder Duncan talked about this in reference to grace.

The main thing that I felt impressed to change from Conference was to be more reverent. It has been occupying my mind lately, the past week or so and it finally hit me during Elder Hales talk.

I really like what the primary song teaches about reverence. "Reverence is more than just quietly sitting, it's thinking of father above. The feeling I get when I think of his blessings, i'm reverent, for reverence is love. When i'm reverent it shows in my words and my deeds, the pathway to follow is clear. and when I am reverent I know in my heart, heavenly father and jesus are near." I have been singing this song a lot since conference. I love that it says when were are more reverent, the path we should follow is made clear. That is pretty amazing.

I was thinking about this and then Elder Holland got up and very reverently started his talk. As I was thinking about reverence, I remebered some things from the MTC people had said. Brother Kenrich (emeritus 70) said, "reverence invites revelation and irreverence makes it impossible for the spirit to teach us what we need to know." The spirit speaks to us in a still small voice. It is easy to miss. Neal A Maxwell said, "In the economy of heaven, the Lord doesn't use a floodlight when a flashlight is sufficient."

Anyway, lot more to say but no time. Love you. Thank you for your letters and prayers. Have a great week.

Love,

Elder Josh Stratford

Family,

Fast forward to district meeting that day. After the trainings the district leader got up to say a few last words.