SHARING THE BOOK OF MORMON

JULY 25, 2016

Family,

Thanks for the emails and the updates. 

Wang Le was in mainland all week cause his Visa expired. He'll be back this week. We went and visited his wife and son and made dumplings with them. It was good. We shared the Family: A Proclamation to the World and For the Strength of Youth with them.

We met with Li JM after church yesterday and she started telling us about how she and her church friends went down to Kowloon Tong last week and did an endowment session, but she couldn't go. We said, "Well, we can help you with that." Long story short, she has a BD for Oct 18 (exactly 1 year from when her son got baptized).

Met a bunch of LA's this week. Also one of the old LA's that we home teach has come to church the last 3 weeks! Before that she hasn't come at all the entire time I have served here in Yuen Long (9.5 month) We took Zhu Jm. The crazy and awesome one. It was a blast. Zhu JM was asking us as we were heading to her house and says, I don't think I now anybody named Dai JM. We got there and sure enough, "hey! How are you doing! I didn't know you lived here!"...they made best buds. It is one of my favorite things here to see these old ladies meet friends they knew from a while ago. Can't help but smile.

Few cools stories with the Book of Mormon this week. 1.  Last monday night, we were finishing weekly planning and we had not given away a Book of Mormon away that day yet. I didn't want to go outside. I just wanted to stay inside and finish weekly planning. It was 9:15. Eventually I decided we better go out so we did. As we were exiting the elevator, a man we had met earlier in the day in the elevator was waiting to get on. I said hi and made my way for the door to head outside. Then the spirit whispers, "Why not give one to him?" In my head I says, "we'll I'm not sure. That's a good idea." I immediately turned around and made my way toward him as he was walking to get on the elevator and said, "I don't think I have given you one of these yet (pointing to the Book of Mormon in my hand), have I?" He says a little confused but smiling, "no". "Perfect!" I said, "I want to give this to you." "Ok. great thanks!"...Then we ended up going up the same elevator we went down to go back to the apartment. We get back and the other elders say, 'well that was fast.' We couldn't stop laughing. The Lord will provide a way.

2.  It is absolutely crazy how many people are willing to take Books of Mormon and switch numbers with us. I don't what is going on. We seem to run into all the nice people in Hong Kong when we are traveling to and from appointments. We were waiting at a crosswalk for the light to turn green and I waved my hand at this young man walking by. He walked right up to me, (this never never happens, you are lucky if you can make eye contact) and stop and says, "what's up?" About a minute later, he is walking off to work and turns out he already has a Book of Mormon at his house that he reads occasionally and would be happy to meet with us so we can help him understand. Crazy.

3. I had 2 contacts in a row, both young men on the light rail going to the church, that were both very willing to talk to me (usually they put their earphones in and don't lift their eyes from their phones). They were so nice and were happy and excited that I would give them a Book of Mormon free of charge.

4.  Last night we were heading back from a member's house to return to our apartment. Realizing that we still had not given away a Book of Mormon yet that day, we were talking to people passing by us as we were walking home. When we were about a stone's throw away from the apartment, we stopped and asked a lady carrying groceries back home if we could help her carry her groceries. She said no, but said yes to the Book of Mormon. Pretty cool, and very unusual.

We are so lucky to have a loving God who has given us so many tools to help us succeed, like the Book of Mormon.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Josh Stratford(施長老)

wang dx wife and son

donald is off to the Provo MTC tomorrow.