Hong Kong: OUR HEAVENLY FATHER KNOWS OUR QUESTIONS AND OUR NEEDS

April 19, 2016

Family,

Thank you for the letters and updates. I love to read them.

Mom - Thank you on the family updates. That is cool Steve Williams served in Yuen Long.

Dad - That's crazy Katie is getting her Patriarchal Blessing already. Language pass-offs are going fine. I have passed one off each week the last 3 weeks. One quick question: In your mission, or as a bishop, or in other aspects, How did/do you get people to keep commitments?

A lot of the people we teach have been in Mainland recently namely Fung and Chen JM (ones with baptismal dates) and Davey Wang.

We visited a lot of Less Actives this week.

Zou Jm is good. She is amazing and really has changed a lot since we first met her about 4 months ago. Let me remind you a little bit about her. She was first met by the sister missionaries who contacted her on the street and then we had a lesson together in the Long Ping McDonald's. After that we taught her twice and talked mostly about God and prayer, she had never heard of prayer before and had just heard the word God before, but knew nothing. Then she was back in Mainland for about 6 weeks, which is typical of the people we work with.

She got back and we invited a member to come teach with us. They got to be really good friends real fast, which was awesome. It turns out they live only 5 doors apart out in this huge Tsuen in Yuen Long. She eventually started to come to church because of her member friend. They talk a lot and spend time together without us around. Anyway, her prayers are amazing now. It is very powerful to hear her pray now and she is diligent about reading the scriptures even though she doesn't understand much about what is going on. Also she comes to church every week now. She loves church, she will even come on her own now, whether or not her member friend come. She still doesn't understand a lot of what is going on at church, but faithfully attends every week, which is amazing considering that the Yuen Long chapel is so inconvenient, about a 20 min walk from the closest MTR stop.

Another amazing thing is that at first, her husband strongly opposed her meeting with us and her going to church. She told us that he told her he didn't like her to meet with us, but she responded that she always had a good feeling when she met with us. Later, we helped her move and set up a dresser. This service softened the husbands heart, He is now under the attitude of, well I guess those two guys aren't that bad and does not oppose Zou JM going to church. Also, last week we offered to help their daughter work on her English and when the husband heard about this, he was impressed and told Zou JM, he wants to have us over for dinner soon.

As we were walking with her home from English class last Saturday she told us that she wants to come and visit our families in America. She told us that if we ever come back to Hong Kong, we need to stay with her because the hotels are so expensive, and told us she wants to take us to see her hometown in Mainland, cause apparently it is really beautiful. It was fun to hear talk about this and imagine. Especially considering that she knows 0 English. barely can say the alphabet.

She is still hesitant to be baptized soon because she like to drink alcohol. Nevertheless, it is amazing to look back and see all the miracles.

Few quick notes:

Recently I have had a few verses of the Saviors sermon on the mount going through my mind recently. 3 Nephi 13:31-34. I have had had a lot of questions recently about what I should do, what to prioritize, how to best use my time, both study and otherwise and the Savior answered my questions. Our Heavenly Father already knows our questions and our needs. We need to seek first the kingdom of heaven and then the amazing promise that all these other things shall be added unto us. I need to focus out more, especially in my prayers. It is easy to be selfish.

Then I was reading 'The Candle of the Lord' by President Packer (highly recommend) and these 2 paragraphs really stuck out to me.

"We are expected to use the light and knowledge we already posses to work our lives. We should not need a revelation to instruct us to be up and about our duty, for we have been told to do that already in the scriptures, nor should we expect revelation to replace the spiritual or temporal intelligence which we had already received - only to extend it.

Should we stand in need of revealed instruction to alter our course, it will be waiting along the way as we arrive at the point of need. The counsel to be 'anxiously engaged' is wise counsel indeed"

I love that counsel. I hope I can follow it better.

I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Josh Stratford