UNITY IS KEY

July  17, 2016

Family,

Good week this week.

Wang Le  got confirmed a member of the church on Sunday. He is doing good. The ward is doing a good job of taking care of him. They are having him help with an activity next month and organize translation for sunday school and priesthood so he can understand. He met with Elder Huang and Elder Woolley this week on exchanges and had a good lesson on the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

Jia JM is in mainland till beginning of sept. Zhou is in mainland till end of aug. taking care of her mom. Haven't been able to meet with Li JM.

I think it is pretty interesting how fast things can change. Elder Ashton is training a new missionary. Last week with the triship, we were so busy we missed or didn't finish personal study for a couple of days and didn't get to langauge study once. Now all of a sudden, our area is back to normal, more than half of our investigator pool is now gone, and about 4 or 5 other things make it so that all of a sudden we have lots of time. Complete change. We are excited to continue to use the tools we have been given, specifically the wards and the Book of Mormon.

President Lam had some good counsel when I met with him briefly on Wednesday. He said, "unity is more important than being right. if you go into a teaching situation and there is any contention, you will not have the spirit with you and without the spirit, you are just speaking words." I also heard counsel from some leader of the church at some point who said, 'it is much better to go with a less good plan and be unified on it, then to with a better plan not unified.' Unity is key.

Cool experience with the Book of Mormon this week. One of our actions from zone training was as a companionship to give away 1 Book of Mormon a day. This is an effort to better use the tools we have already been given and to call down the powers of heaven in our missionary work. We were at home friday night doing weekly planning and realized we had not given away a Book of Mormon that day. It was 9:10 and we had to be back in the apartment by 9:30. We decided to go out. We were talking to everyone with no success, we became more and more desperate. at about 9:27 I walked up to this dude with his shirt off and a bunch of tattoos all over his body. He showed immediate interest and 30 sec later, he was walking away with a Book of Mormon in his hand. We sprinted home and made it back on time. Lord will provide a way. 

Now were are trying to do a better job of getting these people's phone numbers and scheduling return appointments. It is great that everyone is getting BoM, but we need to make sure that we are able to follow up on all these people.

This invitation has had ripple effects on other aspects of my missionary work. I have been trying to use the Book of Mormon more to find answers to my investigators questions and concerns as well as my own. When a question comes up and I am not sure what is the best course of action, I am increasingly turning to the BoM for answers. The Book of Mormon is His word and is some of the help he has given us. I am trying to better use the tools I have already been given.

Also, I have started to dive more into the Book of Mormon more. I love this book. I have been trying to do a better job of abiding by the precepts of the Book of Mormon to get nearer to God. It has been wonderful. I'll share a few quick thoughts. 1 Nephi 3:3-4. There is a lot of returned missionaries here in Hong Kong that I'm sure have a lot of knowledge and ideas on how to better do the Lord's work in the Lord's way. We hope to take their knowledge back with us into our missionary work. We probably we try and visit them in the next few weeks. 

 President Benson said, "There is a power that will immediately flow into your lives the minute you begin a serious study of the book." This is true. Just in the last few days as I have been feasting on the word and diving in more, I feel the spirit more abundantly and my attitude is better. I have a much stronger desire to read the scriptures. I don't want to stop. I am very grateful to my Heavenly Father for His love in letting my life be blessed with the most correct book on earth and the book that will best help me get closer to God, The Book of Mormon.

Have a great week! 

Elder Stratford 施長老

sister leonard, sister shiffert, elder ashton and I

266 BoM

going good already. We gave away 11 books since tuesday. crazy. Our district gave away 43 since tuesday.

Elder Herzog and a LA Dai JM.

Josh,

Awesome story about getting your goal of a BOM a day at the last minute.  The Lord always provides a way.

I love you pushing the expectations of those in your zone by flooding the earth with the BOM.  There is a reason we call it the keystone of our religion.  I love that your zone is following your leadership and example of distributing the BOM.

I love it!

Dad