NT IS BEING FLOODED WITH THE BOOK OF MORMON

August 8, 2016

Family,

Plans changed quite a bit today. We were on our regular p-day schedule and about to finish comp study and head to the library to do emails when the assistants called us. They said there were 2 summer missionaries (local young men aged members who go on permanent splits with the missionaries for 2 weeks straight) waiting for us. The assistants had forgot to tell us before hand. So we headed down to Kowloon and picked them up. They are pretty cool guys. Twins. both 16. Now there will be 6 people in our apartment. I' will go with 1 and Elder Huang will go with the other. It will be fun. We are excited. They have not heard of the white handbook before and haven't read PMG, but they do have fluent mandarin. David and Jackson.

It has been a good week with the Book of Mormon. About every comp in our district has had increasing numbers for Books of Mormon. This week our district gave out 117 Books of Mormon. The zone last month has given out 383. We smashed our goal of 280. The New Territories is being flooded with the Book of Mormon! Not only that, we are starting to flood our lives more with the Book of Mormon. Some of the miracles from that are much more impressive that the number of books we are giving out. Missionaries are changing. Their attitudes and outlook on their work is changing. Their preconceptions of what work is like in the New Territories is changing. There is more excitement and optimism about the work. It is a miracle. There really is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your life the minute you begin a serious study of the book. I love the Book of Mormon. More and more I feel of the power of the book in my life. What a blessing from a loving Heavenly Father.

It has been so cool to hear other missionaries share their testimonies of this Book of Mormon challenge. We were meeting with the bishop and a new trainee bore her testimony of the power of the book from this challenge. On another occasion, I was in the bathroom tending to a bloody nose when I heard another new trainee explaining to some members about how fired up they are  about the zone plan and action with the Book of Mormon.

Wang Le DX just got back from Thailand on Saturday. He is doing great. He is getting the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday and a calling as a ward missionary. He just loves to serve and is excited to help. Hopefully this week we can meet with his wife and set a date for baptism. They both came to the mandarin activity last night. 

Li Jm is doing good. We had a good lesson with her last week. She texts us what she reads in the Book of Mormon every day now. That was our commitment to try and help her remember to read.

Zhou JM just got back from Mainland last week. We met with her on Saturday. That lesson was the biggest tender mercy of the week. As we were talking she mentioned how she had actually been back to Hong Kong for a week, but hadn't called us or let us now. Her husband asked her a few days ago why she hadn't called us  and told us she was back or had us over. Unbelievable. This same husband who fiercely opposed her going to church a few months ago was now encouraging her to meet with us. Service changes hearts. She mentioned that she has been reading the Book of Mormon every day since she has been back and praying. She is in Mosiah now. I was shocked. We hope to help her continue to prepare for baptism on the 25 of Sept.

Nothing much for Deng DX.

Zheng DX is doing very well. He came to church for the second week in a row. We taught him last week and he basically bore his testimony for the entire lesson. It was awesome. We invited him to share his testimony yesterday and I almost got him to go up. We made a deal if I went up he had to, but he flaked after I bore my testimony. He said he would next month. I'm not going to forget.

Dai JM got reactivated this week! She is awesome. Even in the burning hot weather, she still makes the long bus ride out to church.

The YL 1 Bishop is fired up about missionary work all of a sudden.  I don't know what happened, but it is great. We met with him this last week and made a good plan of how we can work together. 

Unity is so important in this work. I read Jacob 5 and have been thinking about it a little bit and it is a lot about unity. The master of the vineyard always says, let us go. The master and the servant are always doing the work together. Sometimes it is easy forget about the help we have through Jesus Christ's atonement. He is pulling with us. The task ahead of all of us is not and never will be as great as the power behind us.

Also, as I thought about unity, the thought of rowing popped into my mind. I think dad you taught about this one time or another a while ago, but it is a wonderful analogy. All of the people rowing have to be in exact unity. It one tries to row too fast or too slow he will hit the other oars and it won't work. If one side rows harder than the other side, you will veer off course. Everyone has to be listening to the coxswain. He can see the destination. We can't. If we don't listen to him, we won't know when to row in unity and we won't know if we are veering off course. This is definitely true for wards and the missionaries in the ward. President Lam on wednesday during MLC said, if you are going faster than the ward, slow down, if the ward is going faster than you, catch up. We have to have unity for this to work. Luckily, I know of a book that can help with that.

Have a good week!

Elder Josh Stratford